Qi Yuan looked at the old man.
Hidden information immediately surfaced before his eyes.
[Chen Kangbao, age sixty-seven. Former implement master. Frail body, weak strength.]
This pale-faced old man was named Chen Kangbao, and he turned out to be an implement master.
Qi Yuan was quite surprised. "You're an implement master? Can you craft dharma implements?"
Implement masters generally held prestigious status. Even if one lost his mind, he would not be thrown into a madhouse; rather, his family would enshrine him at home like a living Buddha.
Could it be that Chen Kangbao, just like him, had been framed and sent to the madhouse?
After all, looking at him from every angle, Chen Kangbao was merely a bit erratic in speech; he was not actually ill.
If he counted as sick, what would that make someone like Ziyuan Daxue?
"Immortal Lord... this humble old man's memory fails whenever he gets hungry." Chen Kangbao hunched his back, truly treating Qi Yuan like an immortal.
"I'm not an immortal," Qi Yuan denied.
Right now, he was merely at the humble Purple Mansion Realm, not even a Yin God.
How could he qualify as an immortal?
A smile spread across the pale-faced old man's face. "This humble old man understands! An immortal descending to the mortal realm loses all magical power and must conceal his identity!
"Young Master, this old slave..."
Looking at Qi Yuan, Chen Kangbao changed how he addressed him, as if genuinely committed to keeping Qi Yuan's identity hidden.
However, the veins on his neck suddenly bulged, as though he were struggling to say something of immense importance.
"No rush. Take your time," Qi Yuan said.
"This old slave... is hungry!" the pale-faced old man ground out through gritted teeth. As soon as the words left his mouth, Qi Yuan clearly noticed his expression contort slightly, with faint black lines flickering within his blood vessels.
"You truly live up to your name. To be honest, I'm a bit hungry too. Come on, let's hit the kitchen for a midnight snack."
Qi Yuan stretched lazily.
Having entered this game, he was currently nothing more than an ordinary mortal.
In fact, his physical constitution was far weaker than usual.
Against a burly man, he might still triumph using his combat techniques.
Yet against those who wielded supernatural power, like weapon wielders or guiling, these scrawny arms and legs probably would not hold up.
"Let's go, Young Master! I know where the kitchen is!" Chen Kangbao slipped into his role remarkably fast. Sneaking ahead to lead the way, he guided Qi Yuan through the darkness toward the kitchen.
Night at the madhouse was exceptionally pitch-black, illuminated by only a few large red lanterns hung along the path.
The entire asylum was dead silent, rendering it particularly eerie.
Chen Kangbao made it worse. His face was naturally stark white, as though caked in powder; walking past the red lanterns, that face of his could have frightened Sadako to tears.
Along the way, Qi Yuan did spot a few genuinely mad residents.
One was sleeping hung upside down from a tree, while another was fishing in the dead of night—clearly not people of sound mind.
Before long, Chen Kangbao and Qi Yuan arrived outside the kitchen.
Qi Yuan paused. "Sneaking in like this... wouldn't that make us thieves?"
"Young Master, the food in the madhouse was meant for us to eat anyway! We're just eating it early!" Chen Kangbao said, drool seeping from the corners of his mouth.
It seemed he was truly starved.
"You make a fair point," Qi Yuan agreed with a nod.
There was a lock on the kitchen door, but picking a lock posed no challenge whatsoever to Qi Yuan.
The two slipped inside. Instantly, Chen Kangbao fell upon the food like a reincarnated hungry ghost, frantically stuffing himself with assorted steamed buns and cold cooked rice.
Qi Yuan sipped a bit of porridge and ate a couple of steamed buns, quickly feeling satisfied.
Chen Kangbao, meanwhile, continued gorging himself like a taotie.
About fifteen minutes later, Qi Yuan looked at Chen Kangbao and said calmly, "Had your fill?"
By now, Chen Kangbao's belly was round and taut, so swollen that an onlooker might have thought him heavily pregnant.
"Following Young Master guarantees food! Hehe... about sixty percent full." Chen Kangbao let out a hearty belch, then quickly said, "Young Master, now that we've both eaten our fill, it's time to... get down to serious business!"
Chen Kangbao adopted an utterly solemn expression, though his ghastly white face only made him look like a creepy clown.
"We do need to get down to business. I have to play my role as the matrilocal son-in-law properly, not to mention... the kitchen knife and Divine Descent."
The son-in-law and the kitchen knife were straightforward enough, but as for playing Divine Descent, Qi Yuan did not have the slightest clue.
The pressing matter at hand, well... was returning to Ji'an Prefecture.
Yet now, having been framed for "violating" Widow Liu, he had been thrown into this madhouse.
There was definitely a conspiracy behind this.
What was the conspiracy?
Qi Yuan pondered it for a moment before getting a headache. Looking over at Chen Kangbao, he asked casually, "Old man, are you smart or not?"
Hearing this, Chen Kangbao hurriedly rubbed his belly. "When I'm full, I'm very smart!"
"Let me test you. What is ninety-seven times ninety-seven?"
"9,409!" Chen Kangbao blurted out without a shred of hesitation.
Qi Yuan's eyes lit up. "A talent! Old man, that IQ of yours is legit!
"If I posed this question back on Blue Star, even those clear-eyed university students wouldn't be able to calculate it right away.
"Give Chancellor Zhuge ten thousand college students, and the Northern Expeditions would have succeeded!
"You're sharper than a college student. I have great use for that brain of yours. Any interest in being my strategist?"
Chen Kangbao drooled slightly. "As long as there's food, I'm in!"
"Deal!" Qi Yuan let out a breath of relief.
When playing a game, one needed teammates.
With Chen Kangbao calculating so quickly, he could serve as the designated brain of the team, leaving Qi Yuan to simply kill enemies and level up.
Chen Kangbao glanced at Qi Yuan, then leaned in and asked in a low whisper, "Young Master, is your bird dressed to the left or to the right?"
"What bird?" Qi Yuan froze for a second.
Then he noticed Chen Kangbao staring intently at his crotch.
He understood what the old man meant.
"You know..." Chen Kangbao waggled his eyebrows. "Young Master, I am your strategist, and you are my lord. Out of respect for the superior, my bird cannot hang on the same side as yours!"
"...You don't need to observe that kind of taboo." Qi Yuan was left speechless.
Still, reflecting that true talents always had their eccentricities, Qi Yuan let it slide.
"From now on, stop making crude jokes about what's below the belt. It's too vulgar," Qi Yuan added.
"Understood, this old slave obeys!" Chen Kangbao hunched his back, then straightened with solemn purpose. "Since Young Master thinks so highly of me, this old slave must help relieve your worries.
"Presently, Young Master and I are trapped in the madhouse. We need to kill the director to get out!
"That fellow has done every wicked deed under the sun—he's rotten to the core!"
At the mention of the director, Chen Kangbao gritted his teeth in hatred, though a trace of dread lingered in his eyes.
Evidently, the director's reputation within the madhouse was terrible.
"Oh, go on." Qi Yuan could not be bothered to strain his brain.
As a qualified lord, all he had to do was make executive decisions.
After all, his eyes, ears, nose, and other senses were more than enough to help him judge correctly.
"I have formulated a detailed plan!" Chen Kangbao said earnestly.
Hearing this, Qi Yuan's eyes brightened.
"A talent is indeed a talent. You possess the same fine qualities as me—formulating a plan before taking action." Qi Yuan praised him, adding, "Let's hear the plan."
Basking in the compliment, Chen Kangbao puffed up with pride.
"Before making a plan, we must know our enemy.
"Although Director Zhou Xiao is petty in every way, he keeps an exotic beast hound in his courtyard. It's immensely ferocious and once swallowed a burly man whole." Chen Kangbao wore a deeply wary expression as he brought it up.
Exotic beasts—Qi Yuan remembered such creatures from the memories of the son-in-law Qi Yuan.
They were ordinary beasts that had mutated into terrifying monsters upon being tainted by guiling corruption.
Most were bloodthirsty and devoured meat.
Simply put, no matter how refined Qi Yuan's combat skills were, he would likely be no match for such an exotic beast in his current state.
The disparity in strength and speed was simply too vast, not to mention the involvement of supernatural power.
"If I ran into that dog right now, the odds would probably be thirty-seventy: thirty percent chance I die, seventy percent chance it gets full," Qi Yuan remarked truthfully.
With these scrawny arms and legs, it was out of the question.
How could a frail pup defeat a giant hound?
Chen Kangbao looked at Qi Yuan and asked, "Can Young Master restore your magical power?"
"I can, but it takes time," Qi Yuan answered honestly.
Although he could not cultivate, he could level up.
"In that case, the plan is divided into three steps.
"Step one: this old slave will secretly lure the big dog away with a bone, while Young Master slips into the director's room, beats him to death, and takes the exotic beast token."
The exotic beast token was the plaque used to control the beast.
"Step two: through the director, we track down the mastermind behind the scenes, then unleash the dog to kill them!
"Step three: we flee back to Jining Prefecture, seek the protection of the Shen family, and clear our names!"
Chen Kangbao laid it out with total earnestness.
Clearly, he had designed this plan meticulously, even employing an ingenious stratagem like "luring the tiger away from the mountain."
Qi Yuan listened, thoroughly impressed.
"Miao, miao, miao—brilliant!" Qi Yuan praised.
Chen Kangbao blinked in confusion.
*Meow, meow, meow?*
*Could the true form of the Lord Deity be a cat?*
Having made another profound discovery, he noted it down secretly while pretending not to notice.
"The plan is solid, but there's still plenty of room for improvement. If you add specific timing and backup contingencies, it would be even better." Seeing that Chen Kangbao was malleable material, Qi Yuan shared his personal insights on making plans, hoping to help him improve.
"Young Master is entirely correct. This old slave failed to consider everything." Chen Kangbao bowed his head, his face full of reverent awe.
In reality, he was secretly overjoyed.
Everything the Lord Deity had pointed out, he already knew; he had simply omitted it on purpose.
If a minister did not act a little foolish, how could he highlight his lord's brilliant wisdom?
"Now that the plan is set, I need to raise my strength first."
Suddenly, Qi Yuan raised his hand.
*Smack!*
A crisp slap echoed.
A cold, mechanical voice sounded at that moment:
"You have slain a mosquito. Experience slightly increased."
Chen Kangbao blinked at Qi Yuan in utter bafflement, but quickly offered flattery: "Young Master is truly a heavenly god descended to earth! To kill a mosquito with a single slap!"
"Ahem, it's nothing special."
"Also, don't be surprised by that voice."
"Coming to this world without awakening a system left me lacking a sense of security, so I'm pretending to be my own system."
"Come on, let's head over to the pond. There are plenty of mosquitoes there, so I can level up quickly."
Qi Yuan rattled off his explanations.
After swatting that mosquito, had there been an experience bar above his head, he would have seen it tick up by a sliver.
Though Chen Kangbao did not understand, he was wholeheartedly supportive and hurried after Qi Yuan.
The two made their way to the edge of the pond.
The pond was situated in the back courtyard of the madhouse. At this moment, an angler was indeed fishing there.
Washerwomen also frequently came here to wash vegetables and laundry.
Aside from that, very few people visited.
Apart from the angler, the only other things that occasionally turned up in the pond were corpses.
In a secluded county town and a closed-off madhouse, a couple of casual deaths meant absolutely nothing.
In fact, this madhouse was even nicknamed the "Mini-Yamen."
Certain families seeking to seize an estate without heirs would go so far as to dump widows and orphans into the madhouse.
The next time they appeared, it might well be floating in the pond.
The angler had already hooked several corpses this year alone.
*Smack!*
Arriving by the pond, Qi Yuan stood amid the reeds, paying no heed to the mud. Holding a lantern in one hand, he swatted mosquitoes with the other.
The light of the lantern drew swarms of insects toward him.
The cold, mechanical voice echoed incessantly:
"You have slain a mosquito. Experience bar slightly increased."
"You have swatted a moth. Experience bar slightly increased."
At this moment, Qi Yuan transformed into a mosquito-slaying god of war, relentlessly exterminating the pests.
As for Chen Kangbao, he stood to the side, seemingly catching mosquitoes with great diligence.
Meanwhile, atop the perimeter wall, two figures stood watching Chen Kangbao from afar.
"Elder Chen... sigh, it seems he truly has gone mad." The scholar in Confucian robes spoke, his eyes laden with deep helplessness.
An aura of high authority radiated from him, indicating someone who held a lofty station or noble status.
Beside him, a trace of reluctance flashed through the eyes of the youth in black. "Doesn't this mean we cannot ask him to step in? Will Weilong Xuanyuan remain broken forever? The guiling of Yeshan Lake..."
Weilong Xuanyuan was a dharma implement of tremendous power.
However, it had been damaged, retaining less than thirty percent of its original might.
Currently, guiling were running rampant in Yeshan Lake, leaving the various factions of Jiangzhou completely helpless.
If a mighty implement like Weilong Xuanyuan could not be repaired, the guiling plague might spill into Jining Prefecture, leading to... catastrophic casualties.
The youth's expression turned grim at the thought. But upon overhearing something, his face darkened even further. "That fellow has immense audacity, daring to make Elder Chen refer to himself as an old slave!"
"He is merely a madman who doesn't even know what he's doing. Why bother finding fault with him? As long as Elder Chen is happy, that is enough," the Confucian scholar said.
"Master, shouldn't we take Elder Chen back with us?" the black-robed youth suggested.
After all, allowing Elder Chen to live in a madhouse felt like a disgrace.
"This was once Elder Chen's hometown. In his old age, remaining here... is not a bad resting place," the Confucian scholar sighed. "Besides, many eyes are fixed on me. If someone follows me and discovers that Elder Chen is still alive, he won't know peace for the rest of his life. Why put him through that?"
As the Confucian scholar spoke, his gaze turned bleak. Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he let out a long sigh.
"Three hundred thousand soldiers hid deep within the peaks,
Their loyal, crimson hearts defied the frozen night.
Do bones in lonely valleys harbor any grief?
No everlasting glory sings their noble plight!"
Having recited the poem, the Confucian scholar departed with the black-robed youth.
Though Elder Chen had lost his mind, no one in this madhouse could truly harm him.
Once he left with them, even though Elder Chen had performed great services for the state, he would inevitably be turned into a pawn in someone's hands.
That was something the scholar refused to see.
Thus, he could only depart in secret.
Down by the pond, Qi Yuan cast a thoughtful glance toward the distant wall.
*Sure enough, my strength is far too weak. If someone were peeping on me bathing right now, I probably wouldn't even notice.*
After swatting so many mosquitoes, Qi Yuan's strength had grown slightly.
His level had finally reached Level 1.
He was no longer the frail son-in-law Qi Yuan who lacked the strength to truss a chicken; he now possessed a modest measure of power.
"Young Master, this old slave caught quite a few mosquitoes!"
Chen Kangbao came running over, cupping his hands together, from within which came the distinct buzzing of trapped mosquitoes.
Several large, swollen mosquito bites were visible on his aged hands.
"Not bad." Qi Yuan reached out, pinched a fingernail cross into the swelling on Chen Kangbao's bites, and then crushed all the mosquitoes trapped in the old man's hands.
"You have slain a swarm of mosquitoes. Experience bar slightly increased."
[You have reached Level 2. Physical attributes increased.]
Qi Yuan's own voice echoed alongside the game's prompt, and a look of delight appeared in his eyes.
"Now I finally have some real strength."
Although he had only advanced two levels, the improvement was substantial—at least compared to before.
With his current state, he felt he could probably execute a sliding tackle and gut a leopard.
"Young Master, should we carry out step one of the plan? I'll lure the director's dog away, and you kill the director!" Chen Kangbao suggested excitedly, eager to jump into action.
Just then, a mocking voice drifted over:
"Two lunatics plotting to murder me right here. How amusing."
In the distance, an old man leading a black-and-white hound strolled slowly toward them.
The massive hound had patched black-and-white fur and stood as tall as an adolescent youth. Its eyes gleamed with bloodthirsty malice as it glared menacingly at Qi Yuan and Chen Kangbao.
It licked its broad tongue, instantly releasing a foul, rancid stench.
This dog... was quite something else!
Chapter 485