Forge a path to success

"Thank you for your cooperation, all done successfully!"

Snap, snap snap snap, the lights in the small room went out one by one and came back on a second later. Ji Huaisu took off her glasses and wig, and spoke in her original tone: "Damn, reading this script is exhausting! Is a basic personality survey really this complicated?"

"I should have said earlier that filling out the questionnaire would have been better."

“Refuse to do boring, monotonous work.” Ji Huaisu chuckled strangely. “Speaking of which, haven’t you noticed that you’ve been unusually talkative today? Did you find yourself revealing information that you shouldn’t have?”

It would be strange if no one noticed him saying so much in one go. The last time this happened was when he was arguing with Van der, but Van der isn't here this time...

Chu Hengkong looked around and fixed his gaze on the harmless eye demon doll that had been tormented in every way.

"...You used Van Der's power to create the relics?"

"Thump thump~" Ji Huaisu held up the Eye Demon doll, "Made by Lord Huilong himself, the Talkative Doll! Anyone who stays next to this doll will find themselves talking more than usual!"

"Talking so much nonsense that it could be made into an heirloom is a talent in itself..." Chu Hengkong sighed, "And what was that expression on your face? What was the meaning of that terrifying smile? Miss Ji, what are you trying to do?"

Ji Huaisu put down the doll and approached step by step.

"The investigation is over, but the doll's power remains!" She suddenly raised her voice, "Tell me! What kind of girl do you like!"

I grass!

Chu Hengkong almost cursed. He instantly realized the malicious intent behind the relic and understood the perilous nature of his situation. But the talkative doll's power was surprisingly strong, and the words had already escaped his lips by the time he realized it!

"I'm attracted to men who need me to take care of them... cough! cough cough!"

Chu Hengkong coughed violently to suppress his nonsense, while Ji Huaisu, who was listening in, was shocked: "You've got it backwards! You, a useless piece of trash who can't even take care of yourself, want to take care of others?!"

"After all, it feels good to be needed, it helps me find... cough! Let's change the subject!"

Oh no, this is really awful. A torrent of nonsense kept bubbling up inside him; even his muscle control was useless at this point. Sitting here any longer was worse than playing another round against the Immortal Machine. Across from him, Miss Ji was incredibly excited, her ponytail swaying like a bobbing tail. She locked her arms around his shoulders and began the next deadly question: "Okay, let's move on to the next one! What kind of girl do you like in terms of appearance?"

Are you ever going to shut up?!

While cursing inwardly, the nonsense already slipped out: "A girl with a good figure, tall stature, and pretty face, right?"

"Damn, how tacky!" Ji Huaisu exclaimed.

"Ideally, she should be a little older than me. Actually, someone like Ji Huaisu would be quite ideal..."

"Haha, you have good taste! I didn't expect you to like someone like me..."

*Crack. Crack.* The air seemed to freeze, both sides' expressions stiffening. Then, 0.5 seconds later, Miss Ji's face turned red at a visible speed, the attacker quickly falling into the same situation as the defender. This abnormal behavior horrified Chu Hengkong: "We were just talking about appearances, why are you blushing?!"

Miss Huaisu's voice grew softer and softer: "Ah Kong, you... are you serious... ah..."

"What do you mean by being serious? Aren't I being interrogated?! I'm the one being tortured! Why are you starting to stammer?! Be normal!"

Ji Huaisu nodded vigorously, buried her face in her hands and took a deep breath. When she raised her head, her confusion had doubled, and her eyes looked like mosquito coils.

"Yes, yes, is that an implication that I should rely on you more in the future?!"

The symptoms have worsened!!

He absolutely couldn't speak at this moment; even without using his spine to calculate, he could intuitively reach this conclusion. Miss Ji's condition was worsening; her body temperature was rising, clearly indicating she was going into an abnormal state. At this critical moment, the assassin had a flash of inspiration. He activated his self-control at full power, using his steely spine to break free from the influence. He grabbed the Eye Demon doll and threw it out the window!

"—The relic has gone berserk!"

Ji Huaisu suddenly realized, "Ah, yes, yes, that's right, the relic went berserk!!"

"My personality is perfectly normal, isn't it!"

"From every perspective, he is an antisocial and abnormal person, which means he is exactly the same as the original Akong, no doubt about it!"

"Okay, then let's retreat." "Let's go, let's go to work!"

Chu Hengkong grabbed his partner's arm and pulled the flustered Miss Ji to work. After the two detectives left, the empty interview room finally returned to peace.

·

Three minutes later, a trembling, furry tentacle reached out onto the windowsill.

A dirty, bewitching doll rolled in through the window. Its internal zipper was pulled open, revealing the life-sized bewitching figure with vacant eyes.

"What sins did I commit to deserve watching these two idiots interact? Please, let me die."

Relics that can be irresistibly alluring simply by their existence are not so easy to create. Lady Huilong, busy with countless affairs, was too lazy to dedicate time to such useless things, so she only spent a few minutes making a doll costume to conceal her presence. She then placed Vande inside, and thus, a free device for concealment was born.

Ji Qiufeng pushed open the door and walked in, his face beaming: "In conclusion, this test was still very meaningful."

"I told you it would be fine. You have to trust my skills; the master himself taught me this professional skill!" Van Der proudly raised his eyes. "Although I skipped half of the classes, which meant my theoretical knowledge wasn't quite sufficient,... the practical results were still very satisfactory!"

Concepts, or rather, perceptions, are the biggest difference between heretics and other racial forces, and the source of the endless war in the turbulent world.

The Demonic Imagination has no order, acting solely based on its own fantastical existence; the Cataclysm is a mobile calamity, assimilating everything it touches; the Fallen dissolve all beings into the Children of the Moon; the Funeral Procession follows only the will of time; the Ultimate Machine is an enemy of all things. The heretics' concepts are fixed; their logic is closed-loop, unopen, uncommunicative, uncompromising, and intolerant of any other way of life. Before the heretics, other life forms have only two choices: become a heretic or die.

Therefore, as long as one is comprehensible and willing to communicate, even the most abnormal thinking is not considered heretical. Chu Hengkong himself meets this standard, and this remained unchanged even after the bone transplant. However…

"Vander, what hint did you just give?"

"All you do is talk more," the Eye Demon said, enunciating each word clearly.

Ji Qiufeng was slightly puzzled: "But my lie detector test results show that Heng Kong didn't tell a single lie."

“You surely know that transplanting a bone is no small matter; its form of existence will definitely be affected…” Van der said. “You see, the ultimate machine has no concept of lies. Truth does not lie.”

Ji Qiufeng immediately understood.

It seems I'll have to remind Hengkong to watch his mouth... but it would be more interesting if I didn't...

With a sense of schadenfreude, the city lord left the small room with the Eye Demon. This concludes the personality survey questionnaire.

Chapter 95 First Severe Torture, Then Interrogation

Nine o'clock in the morning, in the city lord's office.

The curtains were drawn, making the room pitch black. A single candle stood on the desk, its dim light illuminating three faces with shifting emotions. Ji Qiufeng rested his chin on his hands, remaining silent for a long time. Youyou, meanwhile, held a small knife coiled around its tail, gesturing with a sinister smile in the air.

The tip of the knife was pointed directly at a terrified eyeball. Van der was bound to the armrest of a chair with two ropes, screaming pitifully and helplessly, "What do you want! Let me go! I'm calling the police if you keep this up!"

Ji Qiufeng's face darkened: "You can call the police, but all the police in this city are my men..."

"Someone is openly threatening us! How can you act like a city lord?" Vande protested vehemently.

"Keep yelling, no one will come to save you even if you yell until your throat is hoarse!" Youyou hissed.

"And then it got even worse! Now this is actually a threat, oh what's going on, dragon!" Vande slumped in his chair, pitifully raising his tentacles. "Both of you big shots come from prestigious families, why are you picking on a little devil like me... I have no grudge against you, please let me go..."

"Tch, spineless coward."

"They're mollusks, they don't have bones!"

Having grown tired of playing, Youyou tossed the knife aside. Ji Qiufeng pulled out a paper fan and laughed, "The term 'reputable sect' is well used. Your fearlessness stems precisely from these four words. Youyou is a Gu Long, and I am a martial arts practitioner. You know we never kill indiscriminately, so you may say it but feel at ease, don't you?"

These words immediately revealed what the Eye Demon was thinking, and Vande chuckled awkwardly, "You have eyes... no, I mean, you are incredibly perceptive..."

Ji Qiufeng tapped the table with his paper fan: "You know the importance of one's background. Even if it doesn't represent one's character, it can at least serve as a direct guarantee. In the myriad islands of the Submerged Realm, there are many powerful individuals who come from humble backgrounds, but those with insight and ability mostly come from the training of major powers. Now, here's the problem: you claim to be from the 'Twilight Library,' but we've never heard of that place before..."

The city lord opened his fan, a half-smile playing on his lips: "Tell me, how can we trust you like this?"

Upon hearing this, Van der became truly agitated, thrashing about on the armrest of his chair: "That's because you're ignorant! Our library has a rich history and a long-standing tradition; it was established long before the Candlelight Era! My teachers are all industry leaders and academic elites; I've read more books than both of you combined. How could this be faked?!"

Ji Qiufeng waved his fan, signaling him to calm down. Youyou sneered, "Then I'd like to ask you, which Dust Isle is the Twilight Library on? If it truly has a history, how could we have heard of it?"

"Our library is an independent island, we don't need to do business with small fry," Vande said arrogantly. "I don't know the exact coordinates, our confidentiality is always top-notch."

"Oh~~~" Youyou drawled, "So, who are some of the famous people in your library?"

“There are so many! Just among those I know are ‘Foam’ Takley, the inventor of 17 practical techniques including Mental Invisibility; ‘Ice Melting’ Furatali, the master of Octopus Karate; and the erudite ‘Light Gall’ Cicitata, whose hidden weapons were once sold all the way to Shura Island…”

Fan De perked up and immediately began reciting a string of dishes fluently. Ji Qiufeng listened and took notes, then leisurely waited until the long list ended before coldly saying, "Never heard of any of them."

"How could this be!" Vande cried out in anguish. "Lord Ji! You must seek justice for me!"

“I’ve never heard of these people either… but judging from your appearance, you don’t seem to be faking it.” Ji Qiufeng said with difficulty, “What should we do? According to the city’s laws, suspicious persons of unknown origin must be expelled from the city and exiled three thousand miles away…”

"No, no, no! I can prove my innocence!" Van Der racked his brains and suddenly came up with a plan. "That's it! Knowledge! I, Van Der, am well-read and know far more than ordinary people. This is genuine knowledge that can't be faked. Ask me any questions you like, and if I can answer them, that will prove my identity!"

“That’s a good idea,” Ji Qiufeng nodded. “Tell me about your understanding of the Dustless Land.”

“…Huh?” Vande was dumbfounded. “Where?”

"The headquarters of magic scholars. Although it's not a path to advancement, it's still quite well-known." Ji Qiufeng glanced sideways. "Sounds like you don't know it?"

Vande was truly panicked this time. It had complete confidence in its knowledge reserves, but this damned force... it had never seen anything like it in books before! Speaking of which, those old relic in the library were the kind of guys who wouldn't let go of historical documents... Could it be that they haven't gotten any new books in a long time?

“You’ve touched on a blind spot in my knowledge.” Van der began to break out in a cold sweat. “Could you ask me something else…”

"So, is this the Land of Delight?"

“I know that!” Vande breathed a sigh of relief. “Paradise is the territory of the 7-point powerhouse ‘Joyful Child,’ an independent dust island famous for its artificial life and game rules…”

Ji Qiufeng listened patiently to the end, then asked, "The Divine Tree City-State?"

"The territory of the Divine Tree and the Forest People, is this even a question of common sense?" Vande's confidence returned, and he began to pontificate, "Let's not even mention 'Senluo,' which we are in. The former Netherworld Divine Kingdom can be considered half of it. The city-state of 'Jingsha' in the western part of the Senluo Secret Realm should be the one you are most familiar with. That place has a strong artistic atmosphere, and its pollen paintings are unique..."

Vande rambled on and on, displaying his vast knowledge like a brainpowered bodybuilder. The two judges asked questions intermittently and nodded frequently, seemingly quite impressed. After an hour and 32 minutes of scrutiny, Vande finally received a "temporarily harmless" reprieve. As he walked out the door, the Eye Demon sighed deeply, looking shrunken: talking so much had dried out his tentacles, and he desperately needed water.

The candle on the table was half-burned, and the melted wax dripped into the copper dish. Ji Qiufeng drew back the curtains, and bright sunlight streamed into the room. The wax in the dish changed color and shone brightly upon contact with the sunlight, turning into a warm, amber-like orange-yellow.

Youyou glanced at it: "He's not lying."

The fourth-grade relic, the "false candle," is made from the remains of a person who has committed a grave sin. Its wax can distinguish between good and evil, and between truth and falsehood. Those with malicious intentions who stand under the candlelight will have their flame absorbed and turned into wax.

Ji Qiufeng blew out the candles and put away the precious relic. After an hour of questioning, he had already made up his mind.

"I have never heard of the Eye Demon race, but the library may indeed have one."

"You really believed it?" Youyou was still sensitive. "Just because it didn't lie doesn't mean it's true. A slightly larger space, self-replicating relics, and a few skilled illusionists, anyone can create a 'hidden force' that the little guy can believe in out of thin air. Many demons have used this method."

"But he remained ignorant of all in-depth questions related to heretics, and he didn't even touch the hooks that I deliberately threw out, which seemed to be unrelated to heretics." Ji Qiufeng pointed out the key point, "According to Heng Kong, it only remembered the knowledge about the Empire after seeing the Immortal Machine with its own eyes. Such a precise seal is something that neither you nor I can do."

Fate's intervention is a subjective matter; the more one knows, the more likely one is to encounter misfortune. Therefore, many scholars who study esoteric knowledge hide themselves in absolutely sealed spaces, sealing themselves away. The scholars themselves do not "know" the knowledge, and no one can prove the research that took place within the sealed chamber. In this way, the truth becomes an unopenable box. Unless the one who placed the seal actively opens and deciphers it, no one in the outside world can prove that this person knows the secret, and the current of fate has no way to interfere with its destiny.

Whether the library exists or not, those behind Van Der have protected it very well. Youyou understood this, and she pondered, "You think that library is a secret chamber used for sealing... then what's the method?"

"It knows everything about ancient times, but it knows almost nothing about more recent powers, especially those that emerged after the 'Great War'." Ji Qiufeng pushed the notebook to her. "It's like carving a rift in the river of time... hiding behind a high wall in the name of history."

"You think they're hidden in the mists of history? That's absurd! That's the realm of the dead!"

“History is not an unattainable concept; it can be shattered and also utilized.” Ji Qiufeng poured tea for the two of them. “Besides, we’ve encountered similar situations before.”

Youyou's eyes flickered, and like him, she thought of the blonde girl. She sighed deeply and flicked her tail: "Sigh! Your girl is no easy task either."

"what ever."

"Go to hell, you old geezer." Youyou rolled her eyes and went to snatch his tea.

·

After leaving the office, Vande felt much relieved, knowing that surviving meant he had passed the test.

These powerful figures with impressive backgrounds are always suspicious and paranoid, wishing they could skin and gut every enigmatic individual. But putting himself in their shoes, Vande could understand their thinking; the clutches of outsiders were truly terrifying and had to be guarded against. The Truth Empire's direct annihilation of enemies posed a tangible threat, while the First Abyss's infiltration and replacement of its inhabitants was equally terrifying. No one wanted to wipe out their entire family by sheltering a passerby; Dragon City was already grateful to have allowed it to stay.

"The curator never said that traveling is this difficult these days..." Eye Demon sighed.

Bright lights illuminated the white marble floor, and uniformed elites hurried to and fro. Every morning, the headquarters building was bustling with activity; as the elites communicated and coordinated their work, they wouldn't forget to glance down at the floor and observe this strange newcomer. Vande stood tall and fearless, a specially made small access pass hanging around its neck, indicating that this eye was an assistant officer personally appointed by the detective.

In the few days since arriving in Huilong City, Vande had truly seen his eye. He defined Huilong City by his own standards: a city of geniuses, radiating a madness from top to bottom. This eccentricity was evident in the nonsensical three-dimensional structure of the building, and fully displayed in the core personnel within, whose genius and idiocy were roughly evenly matched. Thus, every day you'd see the chief detective thinking with his spine, the captain wielding a shield like a hammer, and the apothecary concocting pills in the kitchen. People were completely oblivious to these oddities, as calmly as they walked past a fruit stand selling melon-shaped compressed manure.

You can easily understand it by looking at their expressions; if you want to live well in this place, you can't use your brain. Fortunately, Vande didn't have a brain, so it happily integrated into the city and considered itself to have the city's average level of mental resistance, remaining as still as a mountain unless it rains shit.

It proudly displayed its credentials, which allowed it to enter the elevator and go straight to the 33rd-floor temple (it needed the cleaning lady's help to swipe the card, as the card reader was too high for it to reach). As it squeezed through the temple doors, Vande cheered, "Lord Vande, I'm back!"

No one answered it; the temple was filled with ominous dull thuds and even more ominous low breathing. Vande looked closely and saw a metal frame in the center of the temple, with a familiar-looking man suspended by chains in an X-shape, his back exposed. A blonde woman stood to the side, holding a whip-like blunt weapon, her breathing rapid, her face flushed with excitement.

Van der slowly shrank back outside the door: "Sorry to disturb you two, please take your time..."

Ji Huaisu's gaze snapped over: "You come here too!"

Van der dashed to the door, his eyes wide with terror: "No!! You two can do whatever you want, but don't drag me into this!!!"

Chapter 96 Newcomer Factory Pressure Test

Three minutes later, Vande, who had scrambled and crawled, was hoisted up by a small rope and placed at the doorway as a teru teru bozu (a traditional Japanese doll symbolizing good weather). Ji Huaisu, who had finally caught him, wiped his hands with a tissue and said with utter disgust, "This thing is making a huge fuss over nothing."

"It's always been like this," Chu Hengkong commented.

"Let me go! Help!" Her eyes throbbed violently. "Are you guys the type who like having someone watching?! What did I do wrong to deserve this kind of treatment?!"

Ji Huaisu silently covered his face, wanting nothing more than to toss the thing out of the building. Just then, Jie An pushed a small cart full of swords, spears, and clubs into the temple. He glanced at the new ornament and whistled, "My new colleague has quite the imagination! Never seen a real-world test before?"

"...What kind of practical test?"