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For some reason, the surrounding temperatures dropped quite a bit.
Ye Zichen stood by the stone pillar, explaining everything that piqued his suspicion with an air of assurance.
Gu Luolin just stared, eyes wide and hands over her mouth. She’d heard about the murderous fiend, too, and she’d even wondered who it was, but she never would have guessed it was Gou Monan.
No wonder she thought, from the moment she first laid eyes on him, that Gou Monan’s smile seemed awfully fake.
But he and Ye Zichen had seemed to get along so well. On the surface, they were friends, but in secret, Ye Zichen warned her to watch out for Gou Monan.
“Well spoken.” Gou Monan nodded and didn’t deny it. “That’s indeed how it was. But I still don’t quite understand how it is that Dahai made you suspect me.”
“I already said it: it was because of how dry his blood was.” Ye Zichen’s eyes narrowed into slits, and he laughed, “Yao Monarch, if that’s not enough of an explanation, I don’t know what else to say. Those are the two reasons I suspected you in the outer palace. As for after we made it into the inner palace…”
“There were things that made you suspect me there, too? Surely you’re not going to tell that it’s because I showed up inexplicably after saying I’d remain at the foot of the mountains, and that my words contradicted each other? Surely that’s not enough to make you suspect me!”
“Of course not. Your explanation for why you were here made perfect sense.” Ye Zichen shook his head, then pointed at the tunnel next to Gou Monan. “I suppose this wasn’t suspicious so much as just a bit too much of a coincidence. You could say that about our ‘chance encounter’ here too. After we met up and started going through the rooms, you opened all the doors. Then, suddenly, you wanted me to do it. You said it was because you were relatively unlucky.”
“But the true room was pre-set, not random. So long as we went in order, we’d find it eventually! That has nothing to do with luck, yet you used that far-fetched excuse to have me open the door for you.”
“I already suspected you, so the only explanation I could think of was that you already knew this was the real door, and that’s why you insisted I go in, not you.”
“But even in your dreams, you wouldn’t have guessed that Gu Luolin would open the door instead. Then, we found out it was the God-Smiting Bow. From that moment on, I knew that you’d wanted me to open the door and die. Your goal was actually my imperial celestial fate, right?”
Gou Monan fell silent for a while. Everything Ye Zichen had just said…
Was right!
Although he was pressed for time and hadn’t set up as carefully as he might have otherwise, he hadn’t thought he’d let so many hints slip.
As Gou Monan fell silent, Ye Zichen kept on grinning. “Even then, I only thought you were the murderous fiend. It was Yuchi Kong and Huangfu Youming who told me you were the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch. After hearing your title, all my scattered suspicions finally fell into place.”
“You entered the mountains after us, yet you got here faster than anyone else! That’s because you’ve been here before, and you remembered the way!”
“That’s also why, despite having multiple chances to kill me, you chose not to. You didn’t kill me because you knew we needed the Grand Dao of the Five Elements to open the secret passage, and that of everyone in the palace, only I am proficient in it! You had to leave me alive! And you even acted friendly and stuck by my side, all the while waiting. Once I was no longer useful, you planned to kill me. You might even have taken on my appearance!”
“Well, Yao Monarch? Am I right?”
Gu Luolin was long since so shocked, she couldn’t close her mouth. Just listening to Ye Zichen was already practically on par with watching a suspense flick.
She blinked as she struggled to absorb everything they were saying. Inwardly, she couldn’t help but mutter…
I really am too young! The world of adults is so scary!
“Right, I almost forgot!” Ye Zichen suddenly stopped and smacked his forehead. Then, he pointed to Gu Luolin and said, “I actually have Gu Luolin to thank for confirming my suspicions that you were the murderous fiend. Yao Monarch, you might not remember this, but when we first met, I introduced myself as Gu Zichen. Only one family has that surname, and all rulers know about the Gu Family. Knowing about the Gu Family means knowing about their power, yet you, an imperial king, had no reaction when I told you my surname was Gu. You didn’t seem the least bit surprised. Then, it’s obvious that you…. already know who I was. You knew I was Ye Zichen from the moment you first laid eyes on me!”
“But there’s still one thing I don’t quite understand. Yao Monarch, might I trouble you to explain it to me?”
“Go right ahead!” The monarch laughed.
“You presumably didn’t want to kill me until I opened the secret passage, so why did you leave the God-Smiting Bow inside that room? If you tried to kill me, that contradicts my earlier logic, but I don’t think I was wrong. That’s… That’s what I can’t quite understand,” said Ye Zichen.
“That’s simple. You wouldn’t have died.” The Yao Monarch pressed his lips into a maniacal grin. On Gou Monan’s honest, simple face, it looked utterly strange. “Even if the arrow had hit you, I could have saved you. As for why I’d do that, it’s because the arrowtip had a poison of my own creation. Had it hit, the poison would have entered your body. Then, once you were no longer useful, I could take control of the poison to have you die silently and painlessly. Think of it as my thanks for opening the secret passage.”
The Yao Monarch paused. “Since you brought it up, I have a question too….”
“Go right ahead!” said Ye Zichen.
“Although the poisoned arrow didn’t hit you, it did hit Gu Luolin. So why is it that now, when I try to activate the poison inside her, it has no effect at all?”
“Simple! The one you hit wasn’t her!”
After a brief, stunned pause, the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch glanced at the puppet lying within the barrier. He couldn’t help but laugh in enlightenment. “Thank you, Brother Ye, for clearing up my confusion.”
The Yao Monarch stretched his shoulders and twisted his neck. “Now then, surrender quietly, and I’ll give you a painless death. Or, if you prefer, fight back, and I’ll rip you to pieces. To tell the truth, I’d really rather not. Whatever else I might say, no other living thing has ever accompanied me for so long.”
“Yao Monarch.”
“Brother Ye, is there anything else you have to say?” The Yao Monarch’s eyes glinted with confident humor. Of course he was confident! Even if Ye Zichen and Gu Luolin joined forces against him, they couldn’t possibly win.
So long as he wanted, he could send these two pipsqueaks to the Yellow Springs in a flash.
He’d only held back because he really did want to hear where he’d slipped up, but he wouldn’t have guessed he’d slipped up in so many different places!
But then, it didn’t matter. They were already here. Even if he’d slipped up more, so what? The end result was still exactly what he wanted!