"Why do you two treat me like a monster?" Yang Zhidu spread his hands. "I'm currently on your Taichu Sect's territory, unarmed and without any outside help. Even if I wanted to do something, I'd be powerless."
"Your eloquence alone is enough to defeat thousands of soldiers." Shen Qingmang said.
"Oh my, Teacher Shen speaks so highly of me." Yang Zhidu said with a smile.
"Not pretending anymore?" Shen Qingmang raised his eyebrows.
"Now that your little lover is here, of course we have to do something more exciting."
Yang Zhidu, or should we call him Li Shutong, drank the tea in the cup happily and wiped the water stains from the corners of his mouth.
"What do you want to do?" Shen Qingmang frowned.
"It seems the kid knows more than I thought." Li Shutong stood up and walked over to Gu Suihan. "How dare you claim to be the one who overturned the chessboard? Did your good master tell you that you are just a plaything?"
Gu Suihan remained unmoved. "If I were just a plaything, I wouldn't be standing on the same chessboard with you right now."
Shen Qingmang chuckled, and Li Shutong turned his head to look at her: "How much did you tell him?"
"Let's be honest, almost." Shen Qingmang blinked. "You can tell him the whole truth and see if he'll accept it. Oh, and you should know that your beloved An Yanxiang is now imprisoned on Wuwei Peak, right? Those who imprison others will always be imprisoned. Is this also a trick you arranged?"
"Qingmang, how many surprises do you have that I don't know about?" Li Shutong said, "But how long can you be so proud? Do you think you can escape this predicament?"
"What about you? What's your ultimate goal?" Shen Qingmang stood up and faced her. "Do you really care about the direction of the original plot? Then why haven't you ever bothered with Hao Xin and Si Rong? Aren't they the hero and heroine of the original novel? No matter how much effort you put into a cannon fodder like me, it wouldn't be as convenient as directly controlling the hero and heroine, right?"
"Why are you still belittling yourself at this point, Teacher Shen? You're right. If you were just a cannon fodder supporting actress, I wouldn't have put so much effort into you. Why don't you guess what your true position in my heart is?"
Li Shutong smiled, her eyes almost full of affection, and her voice was gentle. Shen Qingmang's skin crawled with goosebumps, while Gu Suihan frowned, struggling to understand the meaning of their conversation.
The hall fell silent for a moment.
After a while, Shen Qingmang said, "You mean, I'm the heroine now, so you're willing to put more effort into me? Then shouldn't I be grateful for your kindness? But Li Shutong, what can you change about me? I'm not a puppet controlled by you."
"Isn't it?" Li Shutong put his hand on her shoulder. "When I showed my affection, you trusted me. When I withdrew, you were hurt. Now that I'm here again, you're busy. Isn't your every move under my control?"
"While you were hiding in my spiritual palace, who was Yang Zhidu, the one who was still active as usual? Was he your puppet?"
"She...she is me, a part of me. You don't really think I've been trapped in the Spirit Palace by you for ten years, do you? If I were, I would have gone crazy long ago."
"You've succeeded in reducing my guilt towards you by five points."
"So how many points are left now?"
"Not a single point left. Li Shutong, have you teased me enough? Do you dare to compete openly?"
"You want to defeat me within the rules I created? That's too presumptuous of you." Li Shutong sneered.
Shen Qingmang gripped her wrist. "If you were above the rules, you wouldn't have to split yourself in two. After decades of painstaking effort, wouldn't you be able to change the course of the story with just a flick of your finger? The fact that you've gone through so many twists and turns just proves you can't do it."
"You're right. I'm certainly not up to the task, but it will be over soon. I've been trapped here for so long, it's time for something to come to an end. Qingmang, I'm here today to answer your questions. Feel free to ask any questions you have, I'll be happy to answer them."
"Master, be careful of her traps." Gu Sui Han reminded.
"That's fine. I also want to find out the truth." Shen Qingmang said, "So, the first question is, how did you come to this world?"
"Such a crucial question right up front." Li Shutong's smile faltered. "Isn't it all thanks to your good boyfriend? You know the original plot of this story: Qiong Ju's soul was shattered, Hao Xin and Si Rong grew up overnight, learned from their mistakes, and after a tragic love story, they joined forces to save the sect. And Gu Suihan, from beginning to end, was just a depressed supporting character, whose biggest role was to highlight Hao Xin's brilliance."
Gu Suihan chuckled. "I'm a foil for Hao Xin? That's a bit too much."
"You should thank me for giving you a 'Heart of Heaven and Earth' plug-in, allowing you to stir up trouble. When I was setting it up, I only wrote that this physique was very powerful. I didn't expect that after the world in the book became a world of its own, it would be expanded to the point where it could reverse the world. It's you who messed up everything." Li Shutong said at the end, gritting his teeth.
"So you were involved because Sui Han changed the direction of the plot?" Shen Qingmang asked.
"Yes. He reversed the world in the book. I shouldn't have been affected, but the rules were so powerful that even I, the creator of this world, was affected. I went from being a chess player to a chess piece. Everything was reversed and reset. In such a hurry, all I could do was to randomly drag a reader into it with me. It was you, who happened to be thinking about this novel before you died."
"So if you want to leave here, you have to restore the plot?"
Li Shutong smiled again after hearing this question. "I'll answer your question later."
"Why is there anything wrong with admitting this? Okay, then let me change the question." Shen Qingmang said, "What exactly is the reason for the spiritual energy depletion? Is it what I think?"
This time, Li Shutong was straightforward. "No reason."
Shen Qingmang suspected he had misheard. "What?"
"If you must give a reason, then understand it as the laws of nature," Li Shutong said calmly. "You're a liberal arts student, so you should know that our climate has undergone many dramatic changes throughout history. The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River once had a subtropical climate, and our ancestors saw elephants in the Central Plains."
"You're talking nonsense..." Shen Qingmang's palms were sweating, and he didn't dare to think too much about it.
"Teacher Shen is so smart, he must have understood it immediately. In fact, the depletion of spiritual energy is not due to too many people or too few people. It is a natural phenomenon that you just happened to encounter. And it will last for a long time. No matter how hard you try, you can't reverse it."
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