Chapter 65 (Two-in-One) [VIP]

At the Scorpion Palace headquarters, all the elders were having a meeting. A group of people sat around a long, dark table; if you counted carefully, there were seven people in total.

Qiu Jiu was among them, his face pale and pale. He clutched his chest, exhaling a bloody breath.

"We have ten days left. Have you made up your minds yet?"

An elder stood up angrily, slamming his fist on the table and shouting, "What do you mean we've made up our minds? You've already led men to attack Yue Ling and Yin Chu Jiu! Our headquarters has been under attack by those Mo Ling people for the past few days. How many people have been killed or wounded?!"

"The casualties are to be expected!" Qiu Jiu interrupted the elder, his voice gloomy. "You haven't forgotten that this is just an illusion. If we fail to kill Yue Ling in ten days, allowing him to leave the illusion and regain all his memories, think about it. Given my previous attack on them and my attempt to kill him within the illusion, do you think he'll let us go?"

Won't.

Recalling the people Yue Ling killed, and the bloodshed that swept across the Illusionary Demon Continent in those years, they arrived at their answer.

Silence fell over the hall, and the elder, his face flushed and neck red, sat back down. Yes, if they didn't kill Yue Ling, once he left this illusion, they would face his endless revenge.

Just then, a junior officer rushed in through the door and reported to them in a panic: "Elders, the people of Mo Ling Palace have launched another attack, and another branch of our forces has been wiped out. At this rate, our forces will be destroyed in just a few days."

After the young general left, everyone present looked grim.

The elder who had previously opposed Qiu Jiu asked in a low voice, "Then what do you intend to do?"

The other elders chimed in, "Yes, tell us what your plan is."

"The only person in this world who can kill Yue Ling is Yin Chu Jiu, but you said before that Yin Chu Jiu is unwilling to kill Yue Ling, so how can we kill Yue Ling who is protected by the protagonist's halo?"

"Yin Chu Jiu is clearly on the side of that so-called protagonist. How can we, the supporting characters, possibly kill the protagonist!"

"It's not that I don't support your decision, but you need to give us hope!"

"So what?" All the elders offered their opinions, but Qiu Jiu interrupted them, causing them all to pause in surprise. "What do you mean by that?"

Qiu Jiu propped himself up on the table and stood up. Because of this action, the wound he had been injured by Yue Ling earlier reopened. He covered the wound and revealed a gloomy smile.

"So what if Yue Ling is the protagonist? So what if Yin Chu Jiu is the author? Have you forgotten that this period is crucial for Yue Ling to recover his memories? Because of our interference, he entered the illusion and lost his memories. Now that the illusion is about to disappear, in order to protect the creator of the illusion, the illusion will slowly restore his memories. You should all know that memories are the most dangerous thing. They are connected to our brains. If there is a problem with the brain, do you think Yue Ling will still have such strong abilities after leaving the illusion?"

The elders pondered for a long time, their breathing becoming heavy.

"Not only that, he also kept Yin Chu Jiu by his side. Last time when I attacked Yin Chu Jiu, I originally wanted to kill him and die together, but guess what interesting thing I discovered?"

Qiu Jiu's earlier words had shown the elders that he wasn't speaking without reason, but rather had a plan, so they weren't so insistent on opposing his opinion. Now, hearing him being so cryptic, the elders knew it must be related to Yue Ling, so they followed Qiu Jiu's lead and asked, "What did you discover?"

Qiu Jiu's voice was hoarse, with a hint of desperate madness, "I saw Yue Ling risk his life to save Yin Chu Jiu. He held that person tightly, preferring to die himself rather than let him die."

One of the elders almost couldn't breathe. "You mean?"

"There must be some relationship between him and Yin Chu Jiu that we don't know about!" Qiu Jiu said confidently. "If we can control Yin Chu Jiu, then even if Yin Chu Jiu herself is unwilling, we can still kill Yue Ling!"

Given how much Yue Ling values ​​Yin Chu Jiu, would he really kill her? If he can't, then his death is imminent.

After finishing his sentence, Qiu Jiu summarized, "There are two methods. One is to disrupt Yue Ling's memory recovery process and cripple him from the brain. The other is to target Yin Chu Jiu. Do you still think we shouldn't attack them with these two methods?"

should!

The elders remained silent, but Qiu Jiu smiled with satisfaction. "So we have two things to do right now. First, we need to irritate Yue Ling and disturb his memory recovery. Memories can only be recovered slowly. If we irritate him maliciously, it will cause his memory to become confused, which will lead to problems. Second, we need to find a way to control people. Any method will do."

After discussing it with Mo Ling, the young man loyal to Yue Ling brought Yin Chu Jiu the implementation plan the next day.

At that time, Yin Chu Jiu was having a meal with Yue Ling. To be honest, during the days they were wandering, they hadn't had a decent meal. So even though they weren't picky eaters, they still had to treat themselves to a meal after they came back.

However, for Yue Ling, it might be the reason mentioned above, but for Yin Chu Jiu, it's a different reason.

He wanted to retain as many memories as possible related to Yue Ling, even if it was just about eating together.

Mo Ling arrived. Yue Ling might not know what he meant, but Yin Chu Jiu did. However, even though Yue Ling didn't know what Mo Ling's purpose was, he still grabbed Yin Chu Jiu's hand immediately.

"What are you doing here?" he asked in a deep voice, his brows furrowed.

Although he forgave him at Yin Chu Jiu's request, he still wouldn't forget what Yin Chu Jiu had done before.

Feeling the warmth on his wrist, Yin Chu Jiu's Adam's apple bobbed as he suppressed the lump in his throat. He wiped his mouth, stood up, and said to Yue Ling, "Yue Ling, let me go. I have something to say to Mo Ling."

Mo Ling paused for a moment, then nodded.

Yue Ling held on tightly to Yin Chu Jiu and asked, "What do you have to say to him?"

Feeling distressed and wishing she could spend more time with him, Yin Chu Jiu pretended to be helpless and comforted him, saying, "It's nothing else, just our upcoming arrangements."

"What arrangements?" Yue Ling pressed for details.

Yin Chu Jiu gave Mo Ling a look, and Mo Ling nodded. He stepped forward and said as they had planned, "I've heard that Yin Chu Jiu has a strange ability to foresee the future. This time we're going to the Moon Forest to find the divine herb. I need to know the exact location and make specific arrangements for the people in the palace."

Yin Chu Jiu said that Yue Ling really wanted to regain his power, and if he used that as an excuse to get him out, he wouldn't interfere. After Mo Ling finished speaking, he looked at his master with some nervousness.

As expected, just as Yin Chu Jiu had said, Yue Ling, after careful consideration, gradually loosened his grip on Yin Chu Jiu's hand. However, he still didn't fall for it easily, and instead asked, "Is there anything we can't say here?"

"Is there anything in the plan that I don't know about?"

He looked at Mo Ling, his eyes, which exuded great pressure, filled with suspicion.

Worried that Mo Ling would give herself away, Yin Chu Jiu quickly added, "It's not that I can't tell you, but you can't overwork yourself during this period."

Yue Ling turned to Yin Chu Jiu, who continued, "Zi Zhuo said that there is still damage from the spatial rift remaining in your body. During this time, I will try to avoid tiring you out, which is why I didn't let Mo Ling bother you with this matter."

It's fair to say that Yin Chu Jiu's excuse sounded rather clumsy, and Mo Ling doubted it would even work. But in the next moment, Yin Chu Jiu proactively grabbed Yue Ling's hand, leaned down and kissed him on the lips, softening her voice, "Please don't make me worry, okay?" Yue Ling stared at Yin Chu Jiu, finally sighing and succumbing to her rare display of coquettishness, "Alright, go and come back quickly."

Just then, Zi Zhuo walked in, and Yin Chu Jiu even asked Zi Zhuo to help him change his dressing, so he and Mo Ling left the room openly.

In response, Yue Ling sighed, dragging his chin, a hint of helpless doting appearing on his usually gloomy and indifferent face.

He really likes Yin Chu Jiu.

Mo Ling, who happened to see this expression when he turned around, paused for a moment. He then looked back at Yin Chu Jiu, who was walking in front of him. If the master knew that what they were discussing was not some so-called plan to find the divine herb, but a plan to help him regain his memories, how would he react? Would he feel uncomfortable?

For the first time, a loyal subordinate who had always believed he had done nothing wrong had this thought.

Yin Chu Jiu didn't hear the voice behind him. He turned around and saw Mo Ling standing at the door of the house, looking somewhat silent.

"What's wrong?" Yin Chu Jiu asked.

Mo Ling snapped out of her daze, looked at him, and shook her head. "It's nothing, let's go."

It was the same place as last time, but unlike last time when Yin Chu Jiu was explaining her plan, this time Mo Ling presented her plan on how to restore Yue Ling's memories.

“Zi Zhuo has already begun to recover his memories. This is a record of his memory recovery progress.” Mo Ling handed a small booklet to Yin Chu Jiu. “You can take a look. We can determine the progress of the Lord’s memory recovery based on the reasons and progress of Zi Zhuo’s memory recovery, as well as how to trigger his memory recovery.”

Yin Chu Jiu took the booklet from Mo Ling and read it. It recorded Zi Zhuo's progress in regaining her memories, but it wasn't Zi Zhuo herself who told her; rather, it was Mo Ling's own observation.

The above text states that Zi Zhuo has recovered about 30% of his memories, starting from the day they entered the spatial rift, which is about four days ago. In other words, he has recovered 30% of his memories in four days.

Moreover, Zizhuo's memory recovery speed is normal. Although he is sometimes confused by some sudden memories in his mind, it does not affect his daily life.

Mo Ling: "Zi Zhuo is very smart. He knows that there is something wrong with all of this, and he also knows that what he is experiencing now is different from what he remembers. But he will not show it until he recovers all his memories and figures out what is going on."

This means that if Mo Ling hadn't known Zi Zhuo so well, he probably wouldn't have known that Zi Zhuo had begun to regain her memories.

“Once his memory is fully restored, he will probably come to me directly.”

“Then he…” Yin Chu Jiu let out a long breath, thinking of Yue Ling’s attitude towards him after he came back, and said with some difficulty, “Then why did his attitude towards me and Yue Ling not change at all?”

Thirty percent. By then, he had already met Yue Ling and become his subordinate, and he also knew that there was no such person as Yin Chu Jiu in the world.

"Perhaps he's not completely sure yet; he's waiting for the moment when all his memories return." Mo Ling truly lives up to his reputation as Yue Ling's right and left hands, alongside Zi Zhuo; the two of them will always be the ones who understand each other best.

Yin Chu Jiu understood. He didn't ask Zi Zhuo why her attitude hadn't changed, but instead followed Mo Ling's plan and asked, "So how do you plan to get Yue Ling to start recovering her memories?"

Mo Ling said, "This is my plan. I will give him a slight stimulus to see if I can trigger the point where he can recover his memories. If not, I will increase the intensity of the stimulus until it is triggered. Once the memory is triggered, the other disturbed memories will slowly return."

Yin Chu Jiu: "So how do you plan to provoke me?"

Mo Ling paused for a moment, then said, "Use his most profound and loathed memories to stimulate him."

Yin Chu Jiu fell silent.

"In my memory, the two most profound memories of the Lord are the time when he was locked in a cage and humiliated by Gong Yunxi when he was a child, and the time when he trusted someone but was pushed off a cliff."

Gong Yunxi...locked in a cage and humiliated... Yin Chu Jiu clenched her fists tightly, her face turning pale.

He knew this plot, in which Yue Ling ended up killing Gong Yunxi and escaping. Before he knew about this world, he tried his best to avoid contact with Gong Yunxi to avoid this plot, and in the end, he was the one who was arrested in place of Yue Ling.

He felt extremely humiliated after only being detained for half a day. If Yue Ling were detained and imprisoned as Mo Ling had suggested...

He couldn't imagine that scene. He had tried so hard to avoid these things, but he never expected that in the end he still couldn't avoid them.

There was also the cliff. Although it hadn't happened in this environment yet, Yin Chu Jiu clearly remembered the protagonist's feelings of betrayal in the novel. It was the first time he trusted those people and was accepted by someone. He cautiously approached them, going from being wary to trusting them. The people in that village said they didn't care about his strangeness, and there was a girl who cared for him very much, cleaning for him every day, combing his hair, and preparing his food. Later, the girl was almost bitten to death by a wild beast for him, which completely put Yue Ling at ease.

However, not long after he relaxed his guard, the girl tricked him into going to a cliff, where she asked him if he was willing to sacrifice everything for her. At the time, Yue Ling cared deeply for her and was naturally willing to give everything for her and for this simple village. But in the end, betrayal awaited him.

The girl pushed him off the cliff herself, and that wasn't all. In front of the stunned Yue Ling, she said with utter disdain, "You're a monster. How could I like you?"

“Those who are not of our kind will surely have different hearts.”

"Go to hell. All you have is this body that can barely make any contribution to us."

Then, Yue Ling's bright eyes went completely dark and never lit up again.

His heart pounded, and Yin Chu Jiu staggered back two steps, his lips deathly pale. He said with difficulty, "Are these the only two methods? Can't we try something else? If these two methods don't work, Yue Ling won't be able to take it."

However, Mo Ling pursed his lips and stared at Yin Chu Jiu with anger for the first time. "How could I not know that the Lord couldn't bear it? But this was all your doing, wasn't it? It was these two plot points that made the Lord lose all his emotions. Do you think I would have used these two methods if I could have thought of other ways?"

Mo Ling still harbored some resentment towards Yin Chu Jiu.

Yin Chu Jiu shut his mouth and stopped talking. Yes, it was all his fault.

Mo Ling seemed to realize that he had lost control of his emotions, so he stopped talking about that matter and continued, "I will set up an illusion array to restore the scene from back then, and then have some of my subordinates pretend to be those people to provoke the master."

Yin Chu Jiu could only nod in agreement.

“But…” Mo Ling suddenly frowned, looking like he had encountered a problem.

Yin Chu Jiu asked, "But what?"

“It’s not easy to find someone to impersonate that girl in white,” Mo Ling said. “I can’t find someone who would make the master trust her, or even like her.”

In the illusion, this story hasn't even begun yet. Let alone finding the village in the forest and accurately locating the girl, just getting the current master to like her would be no easy feat.

Therefore, this second method is a bit difficult.

But as Mo Ling spoke, he kept staring at Yin Chu Jiu, his dark, deep eyes leaving her with nowhere to retreat. Yin Chu Jiu's throat tightened, and she almost uttered each word from the back of her tongue.

"You mean, you want me to play that girl?"

Mo Ling remained silent for a long while, then nodded, "Yes."

Yin Chu Jiu almost lost his balance, his emotions finally spiraling out of control. "Do you know how much harm it would cause Yue Ling if I played that role? He likes me, but the person he likes betrays him and wants to kill him. How cruel that would be to him!"

Yin Chu Jiu was emotional, but Mo Ling remained unmoved. In order to help his master regain his memories and return safely to the real world, this young man coldly pointed out another truth.

"But haven't you already betrayed your lord? You clearly wanted to leave, clearly you couldn't be with him forever, you broke your promise, and breaking your promise is betrayal to him. So, how much difference does it make to the outcome if you pretend to be that girl?"

Mo Ling doesn't understand emotions; he's like a block of wood, a plate of iron, cold and wooden—that's how Yin Chu Jiu portrayed him.

Lacking emotions, he didn't understand the meaning of these two kinds of betrayal. He broke the contract because he had no choice and was helpless, but playing the girl in white was something he did willingly, which was another kind of betrayal.

But Mo Ling didn't understand, and no matter how much he explained it to him, he still didn't understand.

He gave a wry smile, unable to force a laugh even when he was trying to appear relaxed. He nodded weakly and said, "Okay, I can do as you say."

Perhaps Yin Chu Jiu's expression still touched Mo Ling. He paused and revealed the second reason why he couldn't find the other person: "If you play that girl, you might die." He didn't care about those subordinates, who were the energy of the illusion, but Yin Chu Jiu was a living person, and someone he was quite close to.

For some reason, he felt a little heavy-hearted and inexplicably sad.

"die……?"

"Um."

"If the Lord succeeds in regaining his memories, he may kill the person who betrayed him. If you don't escape in time, you may very well be killed by him."

"……It doesn't matter……"

Mo Ling spoke of death, but after digesting this information, Yin Chu Jiu felt no fear whatsoever. However, while Yin Chu Jiu wasn't afraid, Mo Ling became concerned.

"Don't worry, I'll save you as soon as possible. The Lord might not be able to control his power, so I still have a chance to keep you safe. Besides, if the Lord successfully triggers the memory recovery point in the first stage, then we won't need to implement the second method."

Mo Ling's dry explanation made him unaware that he was using a reassuring tone. In fact, in this illusion, it wasn't just Yue Ling and Zi Zhuo who had changed; he had changed as well.

However, in response to Mo Ling's words of comfort, Yin Chu Jiu only smiled and said, "Then I'll have to trouble you. I don't want to die right now."

Mo Ling breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't worry, I'll do my best to keep you from dying."

His tone made it sound like Yin Chu Jiu was afraid of death, but that wasn't actually the case.

Yin Chu Jiu didn't want to explain. He waved to Mo Ling, telling him to arrange the restoration of his memory as soon as possible, and then turned and walked towards the camp.

He cannot die now, because if he dies, the world of the novel will collapse, and Yue Ling will also die.

He didn't care what Yue Ling's purpose was in creating this illusion; all he knew was that he didn't want Yue Ling to die.

Mo Ling might have sensed something from Yin Chu Jiu, but he didn't say anything. He simply left the place after Yin Chu Jiu left.

After the two left, the bushes not far from them stirred, a figure appeared and disappeared, and finally the forest returned to calm.

Author's Note:

It's a few hundred to six thousand words short, but the plot doesn't allow it... I'll pretend there are two updates~ If nothing unexpected happens, I'll regain my memories tomorrow, and the love triangle will begin, with a little bit of angst.

Happy Labor Day!

Thank you to the little angel who watered my plants with nutrient solution!

What a cute little thing Zhiyouxi is, 19 bottles;

Thank you so much for your support, I will continue to work hard!