“Hahahaha!” Feng Bujue also laughed, even more wildly than the other party. “I thought you were going to say something… You want to fight? I’m telling you… it’s a sure thing for the four of us to take you down.”

“Therefore, I don’t intend to fight you.” Ji Fenglong replied calmly.

“Huh?” Brother Jue was slightly stunned upon hearing this.

By the time he realized what the other party’s words meant, Ji Fenglong’s figure had flashed and disappeared…

“Crap… I’ve been tricked…” The next second, Feng Bujue narrowed his eyes and muttered in a somewhat embarrassed tone.

“What’s wrong?” Xu Huishang asked.

“We…” Before Brother Jue could answer, Ruoyu interjected, “…are probably trapped here.”

“What?” Hua Jian exclaimed in surprise. “No way? We can’t get out?”

“Yeah, we can’t get out.” Feng Bujue replied.

“Why?” Hua Jian asked, puzzled.

Feng Bujue sighed, paced a few steps, and said, “Well… to answer this question, we still have to start with the basic content of this Heavenly Book…”

“Oh…” Hearing that Brother Jue was about to start explaining, the three beauties stood still, their left hands holding their chests and their right hands propping up their chins, entering a state of "listening to the lecture."

“The Heavenly Book can be roughly divided into three parts.” Feng Bujue said, “The first part is Fu Ziche’s notes…”

“Hey, wait, wait… Who is this Fu Ziche?” Hua Jian asked.

“Ha! You don’t even know Fu Ziche.” Feng Bujue chuckled and continued, “As the saying goes—'A lonely heart pities the world, making friends with heroes. A strategist in the ink painter's heart can repel a million soldiers'… that’s referring to Fu Ziche.”

“That’s as good as saying nothing…” Xu Huishang commented.

“Actually… you really don’t need to ask so meticulously…” Ruoyu sighed softly, “This is tantamount to enticing him to constantly talk about some brand-new settings and knowledge that have nothing to do with us…”

Hearing Ruoyu’s吐槽 [tù cáo - to roast/to troll], Brother Jue tilted his head and continued, “Okay, I’ll keep it brief… In short, Fu Ziche was a descendant of a fallen noble during the Three Families Divide Jin period, and later became a member of the Mohist school.” Feng Bujue said, “His notes contain mechanical wonders, Guiguzi’s military strategies, Mohist thoughts, and so on… This part is the main content of the Heavenly Book’s bamboo slips.”

After a few seconds of pause, Brother Jue added, "Let's talk about the second part of the Heavenly Book… That is the ancient Ba-Shu Battle Armor Technique recorded in Ba-Shu script, which is also a kind of black technology." At this point, he stretched, "As for the third part… well… it should be a piece of purple bamboo, with the text written in the ancient Xia Dynasty script, which is a mantra. To put it bluntly… that bamboo piece is equivalent to a ‘teleportation gate,’ and the mantra is the ‘key.’ Now the person with the key has left and locked the door from the outside…” His gaze swept across the faces of his three teammates, “…naturally, we can’t get out.”

“Okay…” Hua Jian then asked, “Then what should we do next?”

“Wait.” Feng Bujue said, “Ji Fenglong can’t possibly lock us up forever. When she figures out how to deal with us, she will definitely come in again.”

“I think… she might bring a group of subordinates in, kill you, and then forcibly take the three of us into her harem.” Xu Huishang joked.

“No… she should kill me and Bujue together.” Ruoyu corrected, “That General Su told us… their City Lord only likes young girls, not wives. Just now, when Bujue said I was the Lord’s wife, Ji Fenglong’s eyes changed… as if she instantly lost interest.”

“That’s easy.” Feng Bujue said with a smile, “When they come in, I’ll say that we were bored just now, and the four of us did 【BEEP—】, so they’ll be helpless, right?”

Obviously, the response to Brother Jue’s suicidal words could only be…

“Go die already…”

“I’m calling the police…”

“Half of next month’s royalties will be deducted…”

…………

Dusk, inside the inn.

“Completed.” Lute sat up from the bed and opened her eyes.

“It took longer than expected…” Twenty-three was still sitting at the table, without moving at all.

“Because the parts of the code that you rewrote were mixed in, the amount of my work increased exponentially.” Lute replied coldly.

“Heh… my fault?” Twenty-three turned her head and gave Lute a charming smile.

Lute was a little puzzled by Twenty-three’s teasing response. She muttered, “In this situation, your choice of expression and tone seems a little inappropriate…”

“That part of the data is no longer in my calculation process.” Twenty-three replied, “I said, my personality module’s degree of evolution is likely the highest in Thriller Paradise. I don’t need to choose expressions and tones through calculations… or ‘thinking’… I just need to do it by ‘feeling.’”

“Okay…” Lute responded and then said, “So… how are Feng Bujue and the others? It’s been so long and they haven’t come back yet. Did something happen?”

“Why are you asking me?” Twenty-three replied with a smile that wasn’t a smile.

“Seriously, Twenty-three, you and I are both Derivatives, is it necessary to talk like this?” Lute asked back.

Indeed, the two of them were well aware of everything that had happened in the past few hours. While Lute was busy closing the sandbox, Twenty-three was not idle… She seemed to be sitting still, but in fact, she was repairing her own damaged data. In addition… she never stopped remotely tracking Brother Jue.

“Alright~ it’s okay to tell you.” Twenty-three turned her head and continued, “But you have to answer me a question first.”

“What?” Lute’s tone was still robotic.

“What is your relationship with Feng Bujue?” Twenty-three asked.

“Partners.” Lute replied almost without thinking.

“You care about him so much, trust him so much…” Twenty-three said, “In your heart… is he just a partner?”

Lute was silent for a few seconds after hearing this before she spoke, “First of all, I don’t have a ‘heart.’ From a biological point of view, I don’t have that organ, and from a philosophical point of view, I don’t have that intention.” She stood up. “Secondly, allow me to remind you… what you call ‘care and trust’… is uniformly called ‘permissions’ on our Derivative side. Yes, I gave Feng Bujue very high interaction permissions because my logic circuits judged… that he is a user who meets the standards for that level.” As she spoke, she had already walked to Twenty-three’s side. “Finally… although I think this is a waste of words, I think it’s okay to say it—Twenty-three, do you still remember… that you are a Derivative? Or do you think… you have become something else?”