"Are you all in cahoots?"
"Who are you to Gongxi Chou?"
The first question was asked by Ji Moqiu, and the second by the man in black. The third man, who was holding his sword guard, paused for a few moments and turned to look at the man in black. Ji Moqiu never dreamed that he would hear his younger brother's name from someone who had trespassed on his old clan's territory. Because of this, although he hadn't completely let his guard down, he wasn't as tense and murderous as before.
Ji Moqiu wasn't entirely naive. Now that neither Uncle Lin nor Brother Fang were by his side, and no one was there to protect him from strangers, he had to learn to rely on himself: "First, tell me who you are, and then I'll answer your question."
The man in black slightly raised his chin.
With a hint of arrogance, he said, "Why should I be the one to speak first?"
Ji Moqiu calmly delivered a fatal blow: "Naturally, it's because you trespassed on other people's territory and even ambushed and plotted against our master. I haven't dealt with you two yet because I don't want to bother with two petty thieves. If you really want to be impolite, even if you fight two against one, you won't get the slightest advantage. If you don't believe me, feel free to try."
He remembered his teacher telling him some lying tips: if you have to lie to protect yourself, you can't show any fear when you lie. Even if you're only three parts confident, you have to put on a very strong front! If you're assertive, the other person will feel intimidated!
Therefore, even though he was not confident in dealing with the two, he still had to put on the most arrogant and fearless posture, constantly recalling his younger brother's usual way of speaking and behaving, and imitating him.
It was precisely this posture that caused a momentary change in the black-clad man's expression. The face beneath the black veil twisted uncontrollably, looking as if he'd eaten excrement. It was because Ji Moqiu's appearance reminded him of some very unpleasant memories of his youth.
"What do you mean by trespassing on your territory?"
"Hehe, do you know where you are?"
"Stop talking nonsense and answer my question first, or I will settle accounts with you for all the old grudges and new hatreds, with interest." It was clear that he would take action if the other party refused to cooperate.
The man in black exuded an overly resolute aura.
Now it's Ji Moqiu's turn to question his existence.
In this era of survival of the fittest and the strong being respected, it's not uncommon for people to plunder and seize the assets of others through sheer power. Although this was once the territory of the Gongxi clan, the clan has migrated for many years, and it's understandable that some people might have come and taken it for themselves. If that's the case, then I've become an uninvited guest?
His guilty conscience was clearly written all over his face.
However, he still wanted to struggle.
"Um... the clan's territory has a new owner?"
The man in black, alert to those around him, asked, "Who are you talking to?"
Ji Moqiu's question wasn't directed at them.
Could there be accomplices in the shadows?
Is his accomplice Gong Xichou that bastard?
Tsk, I never expected that ten years would pass in the blink of an eye, and Gong Xichou is still alive on the battlefield? Could it be his son?
Before the man in black could reach a conclusion, a strange female voice appeared out of nowhere: "Before you, this was unclaimed territory; after you, you are the only known heir."
Ji Moqiu felt confident and pointed at the man in black and his accomplices.
"If that's the case, what's the deal with these two?"
Those two, um, are they... tourists?
The fact that they were tourists was completely unexpected for the three people present. One of the tourists, a man in black, pointed to himself and then looked at his companion: "Dragon, how did we become tourists?"
The man in black could not accept it, and Ji Moqiu could not accept it either: "When did our clan's territory become a tourist attraction that outsiders can freely set foot on?"
Did you notify the host family when developing the tourism project?
The female voice changed her phrasing: "A student pursuing further studies abroad?"
The three of them could only understand "further studies" and "student".
Are international students also a type of student?
Ji Moqiu's gaze fell on the two men in black, suppressing his emotions: "What are you doing traveling to other people's land for sightseeing and learning?"
It sounds like he's seriously ill!
The man in black disagreed: "Who said they came here for sightseeing and learning?"
The female voice corrected: "They're here to take the civil service exam and try to get a job."
The man in black nodded without hesitation: "Yes, we're here to take the civil service exam... no! What civil service exam?! You sneaky woman, get out here right now! Don't think you can hide and we won't find you. Trying to play tricks on me, you're asking for trouble!"
I almost got caught up in it myself.
The female voice seemed to have discovered something interesting.
In a somber tone: "Oh, so it was an impersonation. That's cheating! These young people these days are really something else."
The man in black, whose temper was already quite strong, was further provoked.
Danger narrowed his amorous peach blossom eyes.
"You're playing tricks! I'll tear you apart alive!"
The backend data doesn't lie. You humans have a saying—"If you don't want others to know, don't do it in the first place." Don't you have any idea whether you cheated on the assessment or took it repeatedly?
The man in black wanted to retort.
My arm was suddenly grabbed and pulled back.
The man in black turned to his accomplice: "What's going on?"
While his accomplice secretly searched for the whereabouts of the woman's voice, he bowed to Ji Moqiu and said, "My name is Yu Hai, courtesy name Guilong. Whether this righteous man believes it or not, we two truly have no ill intentions and have never intended to trespass on noble territory."
They did not respond to the accusations made by the woman in the voice.
Ji Moqiu didn't believe it: "The person next to you also launched a sneak attack?"
The accomplice denied it: "It wasn't a sneak attack, just normal precautions. To be honest, we recently went through a chaotic battle and suffered a minor loss. Out of caution, we only took action to test the righteous man."
With just a few words, he twisted his previous actions into an explanation of self-preservation.
Ji Moqiu wasn't particularly good with words, and since the other party had already said that, it would seem rude of him to press the issue further: "So, you've stumbled upon this place by mistake? From where did you come in?"
The only road connecting the tribe's territory to the outside world should be the one he came by.
Yu Hai glanced at the man in black and pointed.
Ji Moqiu looked up and followed the gaze.
This was not the way he had come from. At the end of his line of sight was a mountain peak shrouded in mist, with a faint outline of darkness visible.
"Are you sure you came from there?"
The man in black said, "Yes, we've answered everything we could. Believe it or not, it's up to you. Now, can you answer my question from earlier? What is your relationship with Gong Xichou?"
"He is my younger brother."
Man in black: "..."
His first reaction was disbelief, followed by annoyance: "You young lad, you're really despicable. You never tell the truth. Are you just messing with us? How old is Gong Xichou? How old are you? Can he be your brother?"
“I really am his brother.”
Ji Moqiu felt wronged; he hadn't lied this time.
The man in black maintained his arms-crossed stance, staring intently at Ji Moqiu, seemingly trying to glean some clue. Ji Moqiu instinctively straightened his chest, meeting the man's gaze frankly. After a while, the man in black suddenly removed his mask, revealing a young, handsome, yet mature and dashing face. His captivating eyes were the finishing touch, adding a touch of irresistible charm.
"If that's the case, did he mention me to you?"
What is your name?
With an arrogant tone: "Zhai Le, Zhai Xiaofang."
Ji Moqiu shook his head seriously: "No."
Zhai Le clenched the black cloth in his hand into a ball, his thick, dark eyebrows furrowing in frustration: "Gong Xichou never mentioned me?"
In the heat of the moment, he didn't even call out "I am here."
Ji Moqiu shook his head again, denying that he had ever heard of this person. Seeing Zhai Xiaofang's complicated expression, he assumed that Zhai Le, like Xu Quan, was a loyal fan of his younger brother, and awkwardly comforted him: "That's just A-Nian's personality. You're not the only one he doesn't remember. As long as someone is weaker than him, especially someone he lost to, he won't hold a grudge. However, you're still young, and age is an advantage. Work hard, and if you defeat him in a duel in the future, he'll remember you for life."
It was unforgettable!
Zhai Le's expression turned even uglier.
My heart is filled with countless greetings.
Ji Moqiu was unaware of this and even gave an example: "For instance, Mr. Shen."
Zhai Le was familiar with this surname: "Shen Jun? The Shen Jun you're talking about is surnamed Shen, given name Tang, courtesy name Youli?"
"Exactly."
Upon hearing Shen Jun's name, Ji Moqiu noticed a visibly improved attitude from Zhai Le. The latter's subtle hostility vanished, and he became quite familiar with Zhai Jun, saying, "So you know Brother Shen too? How have you been all these years, Brother Shen? You should have said so earlier, otherwise this misunderstanding would have been avoided."
Ji Moqiu became wary: "Stop, don't come any closer! Shen Jun's surname is indeed Shen, her given name is Tang, and her courtesy name is Youli, but she is not 'Brother Shen'. You can even get her gender wrong, and you still want to trick me into talking?"
Zhai Le: "???"
He scratched his head, awkwardly trying to cover it up: "Ahem, I'm just used to calling you 'Brother Chen,' and I can't change it just like that... Chen, Chen... Anyway, it refers to her."
The more he spoke, the weaker his voice became.
Yu Hai knew why.
Five years have passed since Zhai Le accidentally learned Shen Tang's true gender, not "in an instant" as Zhai Le claimed. It's unclear how deeply that person left an impression on Zhai Le, that he hasn't been able to truly accept this reality for five years.
Haha, Zhai Le said he really found it hard to adapt.
It wasn't that he couldn't accept that his childhood friend was a woman; what he couldn't accept was that this person was Brother Shen! How wild Brother Shen was back then! Suddenly telling himself that she was a woman? Occasionally, when he thought back on it, he even suspected that the "Shen Tang gender mystery" was a fabrication and rumor spread by the Gods.
Having ruled for many years, Zhai Le had developed the assertiveness characteristic of those in power. He disliked being questioned repeatedly and also disliked having to explain himself repeatedly. He scoffed, "Believe it or not."
"This is not the place to talk. Please come with me." Seeing that the two men's reactions did not seem fake, Ji Moqiu softened his tone.
Only by sitting down can we have time to sort out our respective intelligence.
The three of them looked at each other.
They looked at each other, silent as chickens.
Ji Moqiu's reaction was the strongest: "You said, you said... you came here by accident from the Sacred Land of Mountains and Seas?"
No wonder he found those mountain mists familiar.
He had entered the Sacred Land of Mountains and Seas using a quota from the Qi Kingdom, and the strange mountain mists he had seen were exactly the same as these. However, wasn't the Sacred Land of Mountains and Seas supposed to be in another world? He had entered through the entrance of his clan's territory, so what was going on?
Zhai Le was also dumbfounded: "Isn't this the Sacred Land of Mountains and Seas?"
Ji Moqiu was in a state of confusion, vaguely feeling as if he had come across some great secret. He said absentmindedly, "...No, it's the former territory of the Gongxi clan. Although it has been abandoned for more than a hundred years, clansmen had been living in seclusion here before that."
Zhai Le: "..."
He was so scared that he started swearing.
He jumped up abruptly, saying urgently, "Leaving the Sacred Land of Mountains and Seas, it would only take a few days at most, and the affairs of the court would have already been arranged. Now that we've come to this strange place, it will take at least a month or two to return to Qu Kingdom... A country cannot be without a ruler for a day, won't the court be in chaos?"
Oh no, I've really messed up this time.
Just as he was getting anxious, Ji Moqiu looked up and said, "Wuming, I know you've been listening. You know this place quite well. Do you have any way to help them return to the Sacred Land of Mountains and Seas?"
A female voice chuckled softly: "Mountain and Sea Sacred Land? Is that the name given to this place by outsiders? It's quite a fitting name, half mountain, half sea… When the time comes, they will naturally return to where they came from. If you're still worried, just go back the way you came."
Ji Moqiu: "Won't those mountain mists stop them?"
They illegally cross the border; it's a bug, you can't stop them.
Ji Moqiu looked at Zhai Le and the other person: "Smuggling?"
Zhai Le blinked: "Brother Ba?"
Yu Hai remained silent.
The female voice showed no mercy: "Imagine your world is a giant sphere, and the so-called Sacred Land of Mountains and Seas is a lost piece of land carved out from this sphere; the two are like mother and child. Because of this connection, one can come here from anywhere on the sphere. According to the rules, each person only has one chance in their lifetime to enter here in this way."
[You two have come more than once.]
[Especially you, Yu Guilong.]
[I checked the data, and you've come twelve times.]
So, it's a huge bug.
What a cunning child!
[He acts with impunity because he can alter his ID card, making him even more cunning than that kid surnamed Tan from before.]
[Because you did not abide by the rules of both areas, the 'wall' between the two regions was misjudged, and you were mistakenly identified as descendants of long-term residents of the remnant state. This is the main reason you accidentally entered. The responsibility lies with you for illegally climbing over the wall.]
If you exploit too many bugs, new bugs will naturally appear.
I just didn't expect that the two of them would get stuck through the wall.
In the past, we could report and correct errors, but now we can only let things languish.
As long as it can run, it doesn't matter how it runs.
Although they struggled to understand, the three of them still managed to grasp some of it, albeit at different paces. Yu Hai hadn't expected his biggest secret to be exposed so quickly, but he remained calm and focused on the key point, asking, "As long as we don't have to use a VPN?"
The implication was that he was fearless and had nothing to fear.
How can a violation be called a violation if it is not caught and punished?
If the other party knows you're cheating, what can you do to them?
Female voice: [At least, don't get close to the wall.]
Getting too close can easily lead to bigger mistakes.
Zhai Le and Ji Moqiu care about completely different things.
The former: "Why are there walls?"
The latter: "Are the Gongxi clan descendants of the remnants of the Ming dynasty?"
The female voice didn't answer, but instead emitted strange hissing noises. Just when Ji Moqiu thought she would give another dismissive answer like "Data corrupted, unable to query," she actually provided an answer.
[After checking, it turns out you all have the same answer.]
The apocalypse has arrived; the land has sunk and the sea has risen.
The world is no longer suitable for human habitation.
The surviving people all sought refuge in Taoyuan.
These mountains you see are remnants of a grand array left behind by sages who sacrificed their lives to build the Great Wall, a testament to their ancestral sacrifices. Its primary purpose was to block and purify the evil influences of the outside world. Only after being purified and cleansed by this array did it take its current form. Modern humans no longer need it. A new generation of humanity will forge a new history; the stories of the previous generation will mostly lie buried in the deep sea with their ancestral lands. The Gongxi tribe were the last to leave Peach Blossom Spring.
The stage of this world has long since changed hands.
Perhaps one day—
In the future, someone may discover traces of a past civilization in the deep sea.
(**)
There's only one day left in 2023! Please vote for me!
P.S.: Today's chapter was typed using Alice's new keyboard. Perhaps because I didn't make many fingering mistakes, I adapted quite quickly, and my left wrist didn't hurt as much as before (it's just that when touch typing, it's easy to select the wrong number keys, sigh, I still need to get used to it).
P.S.: There was a major bug. Zhai Le should have known Tang Mei's gender during the Gods' Gathering annual meeting scene, but while reviewing this part of the story today, I skimmed through it and missed it, resulting in the bug. It has been corrected.
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