“Oh?” Facing Feng Bujue, who was closing in step by step, it remained calm. “I would like to ask… just what kind of deity are you?”

“Don’t!” In that instant, before Brother Jue could speak, his five teammates shouted out the same word in unison.

However, it was too late…

“Ha!” Feng Bujue immediately came to a stop in front of the opponent and said, “Since you shamelessly asked, I will righteously answer you…”

“Sigh…” Xiao Tan sighed.

“Hoo…” Ruoyu exhaled.

“God.” An Yueqin rolled her eyes.

“Hmm—” Xiao Lingxu narrowed his eyes and pondered.

“[Bleep—]” Gui Xiao muttered something that was censored by the system, but if I had to guess, I think he said… mLgBd…

In short, for the next three minutes, Feng Bujue gave “it” a nonstop barrage of words without even pausing for breath.

Brother Jue's repertoire was constantly updated. From the opening poems of crosstalk performances, to excerpts from storytelling, to excerpts from the Peking opera “Shajiabang” (the section about the green pine on the top of Mount Tai), plus his own improvisations, and several widely circulated limericks from the main universe… Finally, he ended with a standard verse, announcing his great name (which, by the way, has the same pronunciation as his game name).

Throughout the process, “it”… or rather, the man it possessed, went through several changes in expression, and inevitably entered a state of utter pain after Brother Jue's speech had continued for a minute.

However, after hearing the three words “Feng Bujue,” “it's” expression changed significantly. Unsurprisingly, “it” had heard of Brother Jue's reputation.

“You say… you are Feng Bujue?” After Brother Jue finished speaking, “its” voice rang out again from the man's chest.

“Heh…” When Feng Bujue heard this response, he became even more confident. He smiled slightly and replied, “It seems you have heard of this great one’s reputation.”

“So what if I have?” the other party retorted. “Just because you say you are, does that make it so? I could say I am Queen Himiko (the queen of Yamatai during Japan's Yayoi period).”

“I say… this… uh… Boss…” At this time, Gui Xiao couldn't help but interject, “Logically speaking… just based on the performance he just gave, no one else could impersonate him…”

“Yeah.” An Yueqin also chimed in, “A player who can't do crosstalk isn't a good writer.”

By now, the fear of these guys had vanished completely. Even when facing “it” directly, they felt no pressure.

“Hmph…” “It” seemed to have an indifferent attitude. “Whether you are or aren't, as a ‘projection,’ you are now bound within Togashi's body. Even if you are Feng Bujue, what can you do to me?”

“That’s the question I should be asking you,” Feng Bujue replied calmly. “What can you do to me, sealed with most of your power?”

This sentence made the color on “its” face change again…

“Heh… what’s wrong?” Brother Jue smiled at “it” and said, “Do you think I wouldn’t see through such an obvious thing?” He spread his hands, striking a provocative pose, and arrogantly recited in front of the Boss, “If you had the ability to deal with us, you would have already done so… Why bother going to such lengths, even sacrificing your own two ‘kidneys’ to create the double deception of ‘Shota Tsukamoto’?”

“Tch—” It spat out when it heard this, “You know quite a bit…”

“Having reached this point, there’s no reason not to figure it out, right?” Feng Bujue continued. “To be honest, your scheme is quite clever… Dividing Tsukamoto's soul into two parts, distorting their memories, and making them oppose each other… Then, letting us ‘choose’ which one to believe.” He paused for half a second and added, “According to the usual thinking, everyone would assume that the two opposing Tsukamotos are one true and one false – even the two half-souls themselves think so; and once we make a choice, you will immediately control the one we didn't choose, using actions to tell us we ‘chose correctly.’”

At this point, Feng Bujue had walked to within a step of “it” and leaned down, bringing his face close to the doll on the man's chest. He stared at the doll's rigid face and said, “To put it bluntly… it doesn't matter which one we choose; whether we put your ‘liver,’ ‘spleen,’ and ‘lungs’ into the shrine and run away, or activate that formation to ‘eliminate’ you, both are acceptable outcomes for you. Because both methods… can break your seal.”

“Oh… I understand.” At this moment, Xiao Tan also followed Brother Jue's train of thought and suddenly realized, “All the previous things were smokescreens, simply to create the illusion that those two choices had an ‘opposing relationship’; but in reality, both are ways to break the seal… If we choose the yang one, it will symbolically chase us and then let us escape; and if we choose the yin one, it will pretend to be killed by us… In short, it’s just acting out a scene, making us think we chose correctly and successfully ‘cleared’ the script. Anyway, we won't know what happens here after we leave…”

“Hmm…” Ruoyu also murmured thoughtfully, “It seems ‘it’ is quite familiar with the characteristics of ‘travelers from another world,’ so it can set up this scheme and use us in reverse…”

“Hmph! So what?” Hearing this, “it” snorted coldly and said, “Didn't I just ask, what's the difference for you? Following my layout, you have already ‘cleared’ the script, haven't you? And I… have regained my freedom.” Its tone gradually rose, “Everyone gets what they need, what's wrong with that?”

“Hehe…” Gui Xiao chuckled twice. “We have no objections…” He said, pointing to Brother Jue, “If you want to reason, go talk to him.”

“Everyone gets what they need…” At this moment, Feng Bujue also raised his voice and continued, “… There’s nothing wrong with that. But I… like to get to the bottom of things (do hidden quests, decipher the worldview), so I want to ask you a few questions… If you clear up my doubts, I can still consider cooperating with you… and let you out.”

“Is that true?” it immediately asked.

Hearing these four words, Brother Jue's teammates silently mourned for this Boss in their hearts. They thought, “Another naive great demon is about to be tricked by Feng Bujue.”

“Hehe… of course.” Feng Bujue showed a meaningful smile and replied affirmatively.

“Alright…” it continued, “What do you want to ask?”

“First…” Brother Jue saw that the other party had taken the bait, so he went straight to the point and pointed at the man holding the doll in front of him, “Is this Watanabe?”

“Yes.” It answered quickly, seemingly anxious.

And at the moment “it” gave a definite answer, the system voice also came: [Hidden Quest Completed].

The players all heard the prompt and understood… the quest ended because the whereabouts of the last person in Class 2-A was now clear.

“Secondly, I want to ask how Watanabe and Shota Tsukamoto came here respectively.” Three seconds later, Feng Bujue asked again.

“It” was silent for a moment, thought about it, and then replied, “In the twenty years after being sealed here, I recovered some strength by devouring some vagrants and intruders, but this strength was not enough for me to break the seal. Until… six years ago, a special person came here.”

“Watanabe?” Brother Jue interjected.

“Yes.” It responded, “Six years ago, Watanabe owed a lot of money due to business failures and gambling, and fled back to his old home in the countryside – that is, this town; one night, several debt collectors chased him to this town, and Watanabe, in a panic, fled into this abandoned Chongjiu Elementary School…”

“So… what was ‘special’ about Watanabe?” Feng Bujue asked again.

“Watanabe… and the six of you involved in this projection are all different…” it replied, “Twenty-six years ago, I used them as tools for ‘harvesting,’ so a part of my power remained in their bodies.” At this point, its tone even carried a hint of pride, “My power will not easily disappear; on the contrary, it will grow along with the host body. I'm sure you can guess… what it meant for me when the adult Watanabe came here.”

“Then you used a similar method to today’s play to control him?” Feng Bujue asked.

“No need for such trouble.” It replied, “The will of ordinary people is far weaker than you travelers from another world… I can directly control him.”

Hearing this, the players all understood that it was because the six people present had all been controlled by “travelers from another world” that “it” had to go to so much trouble.

“After controlling Watanabe and devouring those debt collectors, the power I could infiltrate outside the seal increased again, but it was still not enough to break the seal.” Its narration continued, “However… I thought of a way; I could manipulate Watanabe to lure the six of you here… According to my calculations, as long as I gather four or five power hosts like Watanabe, it would be enough for me to break the seal.”

“But to do this, you had to let Watanabe leave the school grounds,” Feng Bujue asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” it replied. “It’s entirely possible with a host body that has established contact with me since childhood…”

“So, you manipulated Watanabe to find the whereabouts of the other six people one by one and wrote them letters?” Feng Bujue continued to ask.

“That’s what I originally intended to do…” But it gave a negative answer, “But an annoying Onmyoji appeared and disrupted my plans…”

Needless to say, the players already knew that person's name.

“Looking back… the old guy who sealed me back then must have left some mechanism here that I didn't know about; once my outward-seeping power reached a certain level, the mechanism would activate and send out this message,” it continued, “That's probably the reason… the day after I controlled Watanabe, Shota Tsukamoto came.” Its tone describing Tsukamoto even carried a bit of admiration, “This man… is young, but his Taoist skills are not shallow; even if he is not as powerful as his master, it would be impossible for me to control Watanabe to deal with him in a sealed state… I have no chance of winning.”

“I see…” Feng Bujue said, “Your three organs… were separated in that battle with Tsukamoto, right?”

“Watanabe is my only hope; I can't let Tsukamoto rescue him… or kill him,” it replied. “Even if I pay such a heavy price, I have to win… and I did win.”

“But after winning, it took you six years to catch your breath, right?” Feng Bujue said in a gloating tone.

“Hmph…” it snorted, the answer self-evident. “Reaccumulating power did take me a lot of time, but I can wait.” It paused for a few seconds and added, “The things that followed… there's nothing more to say, I manipulated Watanabe, spent months inquiring about information, and successfully lured the other six people here, who knew…”

“Who knew…” Feng Bujue took over the other party's words, “We, a bunch of travelers from another world, coincidentally appeared here and ruined your good deed.”

As the two people's Q\&A proceeded, the system voice rang again in the players' ears –

[Worldview Deciphered]

In the new version, the voice part of this prompt omitted the decipherer's ID and the amount of skill points obtained, and changed it to this short sentence.

Anyway, after the prompt sounds, players only need to open the game menu to see the decipherer ID and the name and overview of the worldview, it is unnecessary to say it…

“Alright, do you have anything else to ask?” After a while, it also asked.

“I… I want to confirm…” Feng Bujue continued, “With your current strength, killing us is more than enough, right?”

“Of course.” Its answer was very affirmative, “But you and I both know… that's meaningless.”

Indeed, for the players, “dying” here is just a failure to clear the script; but for “it,” it needs those six people possessed by the players to be alive in order to break its seal.

“Hmm…” Brother Jue nodded, “So… now, as long as I put these jade stones into the shrine, you can break the seal, right?”

“You can get four of you to go to the second floor to complete the ritual.” It responded.

“Speaking of… why didn't you let Watanabe help you collect these jade stones?” Feng Bujue asked again.

“This is not the real world, and the six of you are not physical entities.” It said, (with the doll's face) looking at Brother Jue's pocket, “Those jade stones… are just a symbol; if you had chosen to believe Tsukamoto in the Yang illusion before, he would have told you… you must each hold a jade stone and put them into the shrine respectively in order to open the exit door. But in reality… the jade stones are not important, but this ‘placement’ act symbolizes your willingness to inject the remaining power in your body into the seal.”

“Oh… okay, I understand.” Feng Bujue responded to this sentence, and bypassed it (Watanabe), and walked straight towards the shrine, while stretching his hand into his upper coat pocket.

In this instant, everyone… even the Boss believed that this guy was preparing to fulfill his promise and put those jade organs in.

However, they didn't realize… Brother Jue's hand in his pocket was now grabbing onto something else…