Transform into a human

Yue Lai, feeling the surging emotions within his sea of ​​consciousness, sneered:

"Give me divine authority? Not to mention that I don't even have the rank of a star, and touching me would mean certain death, there are so many wolves and tigers outside, I don't have your ability to hide."

"It seems you've forgotten."

Yue Lai's gaze sharpened: "You know me?"

"Ancient one, you have indeed forgotten everything..."

"The ancient gods once made a pact in the sea of ​​stars, and you and I were both present at that meeting."

"Feel free to elaborate."

But the will of Neptune's Crown is not a fool like Evil Heart that can be easily fooled; it uses its authority to muddy the waters of time and space, concealing its own existence:

"For you now, memories are the most precious thing."

Please give me the truth.

Yue Lai pursed his lips. For more than two hundred years, he had been searching for his past, but it seemed as if there was a mysterious hand that would push away the people and things he had come into contact with whenever he got close to the truth, causing him to miss it.

It wasn't until the ritual of this black-and-white killing game began that the feeling of being blinded by fate finally faded a bit, and he finally found clues to the past.

"Isn't it good that you're hiding in real history? The historian who's been hiding you has reached the end of his skill. Freedom isn't the best option for you."

"No, old man, freedom is always the best choice."

Yue Lai fell silent. He didn't ask what the so-called "truth" was, but only asked how to do it.

"I sense the king's bloodline. You only need to make contact with him, and I will be able to establish a new connection through you. This time, I will return completely."

"I'll give it a try, and you'd better remember your promise."

"Rest assured, my king hates broken promises the most."

As the waves in his mind gradually subsided, Yue looked next door and saw Cavendish still fast asleep. The conversation had not caused any disturbance in reality.

"Even the Zhenhai Sword can't stop it... and this is only a portion of divine authority, it's truly terrifying."

……

On the other side, after Tang Xiao finished recounting the true history, the murmurs in the air gradually faded, and various unknown colors quietly faded away. Yue Hao ignored them—for an FBI agent, this was nothing out of the ordinary, after all, their job was to deal with these creepy things.

Tang Xiao's mouth changed back from the datura flower to its original shape. Just as the appearance of "no flower" on the face is a characteristic of a scoundrel who wears flowers, the appearance of "datura" on the lips is a sign of a swindler who wears flowers. Yue Hao was quite surprised by the principal's approach.

The principal, who was supposed to be a teacher and educator, turned out to be a fraud.

Feeling her memories fading, she said regretfully:

"That imperial advisor is truly remarkable; even after such a long time since the seal was placed, he can still influence my thoughts."

"By the way, Principal, how did you manage to remember that?"

"Within our Imperial system, I am the person primarily responsible for guarding this seal. It would be even more dangerous if I didn't know the truth."

The fact that the Imperial faction entrusted Tang Xiao with such an important task clearly indicates that his true strength is extraordinary.

He tapped the table lightly with his pen:

"So, how are you going to fulfill your promise to me?"

"Hey, I'm the one who found out about the Siren Queen's descendants!"

"One thing at a time. We agreed to cause trouble for the central government, but it's not quite 'trouble' yet."

Yue Hao's eyes darted around, and a mischievous idea began to surface:

"Hey, have you seen the news?"

Tang Xiao raised an eyebrow: "Winona has disappeared?"

Yue Hao looked exactly like a major villain at this moment, and she glanced sideways:

"A clockwork elf friend of mine has a Winona skin, made by the Skin Painter."

Tang Xiao was clearly no saint either, and he understood Yue Hao's hint almost instantly:

"It must be the work of Odysseus, right? He took a long leave of absence, and I don't know what he's been up to."

He hesitated for a moment, then said, "I trust the skills of the school teachers; even a spy or a peddler wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But your friend..."

"Don't worry, it's absolutely reliable!"

"The head of the police headquarters' branch in the university town is my protégé. You'll take action tonight; we'll launch a surprise attack."

"A major investigation!" Yue Hao excitedly pumped his fist. "It's a deal, once this is done, I won't owe you anything."

"It's not just that you don't owe me anything, I owe you all too." Tang Xiao said, leaning forward slightly. This gesture is usually used to imply intimacy, but Yue Hao reacted immediately.

"Hey! Just say what you want to say, don't use those scammer tricks, I know them all too well!"

Tang Xiao leaned back awkwardly: "Let's talk about something. If you're going to help me out, let's see it through to the end. Let your brother lend me a hand too."

"Bro?"

Yue Hao became increasingly wary. She wasn't surprised that Tang Xiao knew about her relationship with Yue Lai; it wasn't a secret to anyone with ulterior motives.

"What does this have to do with him? Although he's a suspect, I'm perfectly clean. What, does the Imperial faction want to revive that ancient system of collective punishment?"

"Not at all, not at all." Principal Tang quickly waved his hand. He subconsciously glanced at the drawer. Since the bureau chief had hinted at Yue Lai's role, he might as well go all the way and get the other party completely involved.

"I just wanted to ask him for a favor."

Yue Hao scoffed, "Who would believe your nonsense? He's still locked up in Prison Number Fourteen. What can he do to help you?"

"I believe that as the brother of a righteous detective, Mr. Yue Lai is definitely not the murderer of Superintendent Malfoy. As for how he can help me... isn't he an expert on relics? He can always take on commissions, right?"

"What do you want to entrust?"

Tang Xiao thought for a moment and then casually made up an excuse: "The Qilin Staff from the Dark Ages, this evil relic, was stolen from a museum last month. Could you help me find it?"

After thinking for a moment, Yue Hao realized that this request might not be a bad idea.

"And what about the compensation?"

"My approach is similar to Mr. Yue's, which makes things much easier... What are the details of the three-tiered ritual for deceiving people?"

Yue Hao was shocked; this reward was far too generous!

Tang Xiao revealed his true intentions: "Of course, we'll have to wait until Mr. Yue is released and our conflict with the Central faction is over. At that time, I will present the ritual and the friendship of the Imperial faction together."

The trick is to use a clever substitution technique!

What appears to be merely defining the transaction time actually binds "entrustment" and "conflict" together in a mysterious way. Although Yue Hao was already very careful, she still lacked experience in dealing with scammers of this caliber and inevitably fell for their tricks.

Of course, it's also because Tang Xiao's stakes are too high, making it worthwhile for Yue Hao to take some risks.

She patted her chest, which was as firm as a steel plate: "No need to ask him, I'll take this job for my brother!"

Become!

Tang Xiao finally showed a look of joy.

Hopefully, this extraordinary person will bring me some surprises.

……

……

"Achoo!"

Cavendish, adjusting to his role as a lackey, asked with concern, "Boss, what's wrong?"

Don't look at me like that!

"oh."

"You two, go to the cafeteria for lunch." A prison guard knocked on the bars.

"Huh, things are back to normal so quickly?" Cavendish was somewhat surprised. "Aren't you worried about things going wrong?"

Prison No. 14 had always served meals in groups, but after the riot, they started delivering meals to people's homes for two days.

The prison guard scoffed, "With two courtesans watching over us, what could possibly happen?"

"Another flower-adorning guest? The police station really doesn't seem to care about talent."

The Flower-Wearing Scholar can become a governor on a frontier planet, but in the Police Hub he can only be a branch manager. It just goes to show that he is indeed from the Central System.

The two deliberately kept their distance as they arrived at the restaurant on the second floor, where they could still smell the bloodstains left from the suppression of the riot the day before.

As soon as Yue Lai arrived at the restaurant, many eyes were focused on him, the "former deputy warden." Several prisoners were eager to make a move, but were deterred by the stern gazes of the police officers temporarily transferred from other places.

Yue Lai keenly noticed that one person's attention was not on him, but on Cavendish to the side.

It was that Chief Superintendent Bryce.

The chief superintendent gave Yue Lai a very strange feeling. When the players in the game of black and white meet, they will feel a connection. The skin-changer can graft cause and effect, so it is not surprising that the other party is focusing on the wrong person. However, he also felt that the feeling of "player" in Blythe was very elusive.

"Strange, is he really the mastermind behind this? What's interfering with this deadly scheme?"

There are many skilled people and extraordinary techniques involved in matters of fate and cause and effect. Even though the Black and White Killing Formation is the best among them, Yue Lai does not believe that his mere three techniques will be completely unaffected.

After getting his food, he chose a spot a little further away from Cavendish, where he enjoyed his pig feed while listening to the news, which was practically the only source of information for the prisoners.

"Welcome to Tianqin Morning News. Today's main topics include:"

"Professor Rancho Odysseus's team at the Federal National University has successfully carried out preliminary work for a regional programming experiment on the capital planet. All equipment is operating well and is expected to become the first human activity to change the physical properties of a region using tearstone technology."

"Battle singer Winona Loan has been missing on the planet Civic Hub for over 15 hours. Both the police and Winona's team have stated that the possibility of Loan's own actions being the cause of the incident cannot be ruled out, but the search is still ongoing."

"..."

Winona Loan's name struck Yue Lai like a lightning bolt, jolting the slumbering man awake. He realized he had forgotten something—

He completely forgot to have Mo change his appearance back after the Zhenhai Sword incident!

As for why he wouldn't allow Mo to change her skin... they had tried something similar more than two hundred years ago when they had just awakened. Due to copyright issues, Mo asked to become the beautiful owner of the bakery next door, and the generous female owner actually agreed. However, what happened afterward made her regret it for the rest of her life.

From the very first day Mo changed her appearance, all sorts of bad luck plagued her, including but not limited to: accidentally stepping into a deserted planet tens of light-years away, having her newly renovated bakery explode after a meteorite hit the steam pipes, and having a customer's tooth chipped by a piece of soft toast...

And the misfortunes would only worsen. At first, she couldn't figure out why, thinking that some enemy had cast a curse on her. It wasn't until she went through all the things she had done recently that she realized that Mo was the one who had cast the curse...

Afterwards, the people of Windmill Town conducted several more experiments and discovered that Mo really did have the ability to "bring misfortune to whoever she transforms into," and could ignore the status of the transformed person to a certain extent. This matter even alarmed the elders of Windmill Town; several old men tried to find the cause but failed, and in the end, the matter was left unresolved.

After that, Mo lost her former vitality and spent every day in depression, feeling like she was some kind of ominous curse. Yue Lai couldn't bear to see her so down, so he sealed away her memories of the skin-covering curse, but he had completely forgotten about it a few days ago!

To say that Winona's disappearance has nothing to do with Mo would be a hundred times unbelievable!

The most basic unit of fate's upheavals is "coincidence," and someone is stirring up the lake of fate, making Mo's special characteristics bring about the "disappearance of Winona." As for what happens after that... Yue Lai has no idea.

He didn't even know if the "players" in this lake of fate were related to the "Castille case" and the mastermind behind Ji Yungui's murder, but his intuition and reason told him that it should be some kind of third-party force.

"Given the opponent's skill in playing in the water, my Black and White Killing Strategy won't even work."

"Even now, I can recall this event only because the other party dispelled their 'state of ignorance' after achieving their goal; otherwise, I wouldn't have had the chance to 'awaken'."

"The person who seemed to be acting out of goodwill, secretly protecting me a few days ago... could it be the same person?"

There was one thing he hadn't forgotten: Li had inadvertently revealed his whereabouts when buying the train ticket. The mastermind behind it must have already made a move without their knowledge. The only reason he was safe and sound was because someone was protecting him in secret!

Who is it...?

Just as he was pondering this, a prisoner sat down opposite him with a tray of food.

"Warden Wen, what are you thinking about?"

Yue Lai snapped out of his deduction and narrowed his eyes—the other party had deliberately omitted the word "deputy," which was not something a prisoner would do.

As expected, the other party continued:

"I'm just using this person's body, so let's keep it short."

"The warden's predicament is none of our business. It's you who not only failed to handle things properly but also created such a huge mess!"

He's the mastermind! Or at least someone who knew Wen Qing was involved in the assassination.

The other party was very cautious, clearly testing the waters. Yue Lai responded:

"What do you mean by 'not getting things done'?" Yue Lai said in a low voice. "I never agreed to your so-called 'getting things done'."

"I only let two people in; the real work was done by your own people. It has nothing to do with me!"

The other party seemed to relax a bit:

"Yes, yes, but the warden probably doesn't want to deal with Ward 14 for the rest of his life, does he?"

That's a rather tactful way of putting it.

Yue Lai lowered his eyebrows and said, "What do you mean, Your Excellency?"

"I know you're from the Imperial faction, but no matter who asks you, you can't leak this information!" the other person said in a low, menacing voice. "Let me tell you, once it reaches the trial stage, the entire courtroom will be staffed by our people. Your life or death will be entirely in their hands!"

The other party practically had the words "Central Government faction" written all over their face!

That makes sense. If it were the Empire faction, there would be no need to threaten Wen Qing with her past disciplinary records and whistleblower letters. A simple "for the Empire" would have been much simpler.

After the warning, the man did not linger, probably fearing that he might leave something behind. His consciousness quickly left the prisoner, who then fell headfirst into the special porridge served that day.

Yue Lai seemed to be deep in thought.