“Hahahahahahaha!” Feng Bujue also laughed, laughing even more wildly than the other party. “I thought you were going to say something… you want to fight? Let me tell you… the four of us taking you down is a sure thing.”

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

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

By the time he realized what the other person’s words meant, Ji Fenglong had already flashed away and disappeared without a trace…

“Crap… I’ve been tricked…” The next second, Feng Bujue narrowed his eyes and said with a somewhat awkward tone.

“What’s wrong?” Xu Huishang asked.

“We…” Brother Jue hadn’t answered yet when Ruoyu interjected, “…are probably trapped here.”

“What?” Huajian exclaimed in surprise. “No way? Can’t we get out?”

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

“Why?” Huajian 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, holding their left hands horizontally in front of their chests and resting their chins on their right hands, entering a "listening to a lecture" state.

“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?” Huajian asked.

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

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

“Actually… you really don’t need to ask in such detail…” Ruoyu sighed softly, “This is tantamount to enticing him to constantly spew out some brand-new settings and knowledge that have nothing to do with us…”

Hearing Ruoyu’s吐槽 *tucao* (roast), Brother Jue tilted his head and continued, “Okay, then I’ll make it shorter… In short, Fu Ziche was a descendant of a certain fallen noble during the Three Families Dividing Jin period, and later became a member of the Mo Sect.” Feng Bujue said, “His notes contain mechanical and ingenious techniques, Guiguzi’s military strategies, Mohist ideology, and so on… This part is the main content of the Heavenly Book bamboo slips.”

After a few seconds of pause, Brother Jue continued, “Let’s talk about the second part of the Heavenly Book… that’s the ancient Ba-Shu war armor technique recorded in Ba-Shu writing, which is also a kind of black technology thing.” Speaking of this, he stretched, “As for the third part… um… it should be a piece of purple bamboo, with text written in the ancient Xia Dynasty script, which is a set of incantations. To put it bluntly… that bamboo slip is equivalent to a ‘teleportation gate,’ and the incantation is the ‘key.’ Now the person with the key has left, and has closed the door from the outside…” He swept his gaze across the faces of his three teammates, “…naturally, we can’t get out.”

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

“Wait.” Feng Bujue said, “Ji Fenglong can’t possibly lock us up for life. 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 include the three of us in her harem.” Xu Huishang said half-jokingly.

“No… she should kill me and Bujue together.” Ruoyu corrected, “That General Su told us… their City Lord only likes young girls and doesn’t like married women. Just now, when Bujue said I was the Lord’s wife, Ji Fenglong’s eyes changed when she looked at me… it seemed like she instantly lost all interest.”

“That’s easy.” Feng Bujue was happy when he heard this. “When they come in, I’ll say that we were bored just now and the four of us did [BEEP—] together, so they won’t have a choice, right?”

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

“Go die quickly…”

“I’m calling the police…”

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

…………

Dusk, in the tavern.

“Completed.” Lutter 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, my workload increased exponentially.” Lutter replied coldly.

“Heh… blame me?” Twenty-Three turned her head and gave Lutter a charming smile.

Lutter was a little confused 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 evolution level is very likely the highest in the entire Thriller Paradise. I don’t need to choose expressions and tones through calculations… or ‘thinking’… I just need to do it based on ‘feeling’.”

“Okay…” Lutter responded and then said, “Then… how are Feng Bujue and the others? They haven’t returned for so long. Did something happen to them?”

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

“Seriously, Twenty-Three, you and I are both Derivants. Is it necessary to talk like this?” Lutter retorted.

Indeed, the two of them knew everything that had happened in the previous few hours. While Lutter was busy closing the sandbox, Twenty-Three wasn’t idle either… She seemed to be sitting still, but in reality, she was repairing her damaged data. In addition… she never stopped remotely tracking Brother Jue.

“Alright~ It won’t hurt to tell you.” Twenty-Three turned her head and continued, “But you have to answer me one question first.”

“What?” Lutter still had a robot-like tone.

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

“Partner.” Lutter 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?”

Lutter was silent for a few seconds after hearing this before she finally 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’… among us Derivants, is collectively called ‘permissions.’ Yes, I gave Feng Bujue very high interaction permissions, because my logic circuits judge… that he is a user who meets the standards of 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 Derivant? Or do you think… that you have become something else?”