Chapter 8 The Conspiracy

“I always feel like this setup is a conspiracy…” Long Aomin said, retreating while turning his head to speak to Tanlang.

“I told you not to look back.” Tanlang replied, “See… it’s closing again.”

At that moment, the three members of the Sabre squad were standing in a passage made of emerald-colored walls. The path they had come from was unremarkable, just a few monsters blocking the way. But the side they intended to go to was blocked by a huge “stone face.”

The face was orange-red, with a pair of glowing green eyes, a large nose, and a mouth full of protruding fangs… Overall, it looked like the face of a demon or a devil.

Five minutes ago, the three had arrived in front of this “face-door.” They explored it for a moment but found no clues on how to open it. Just as they were about to turn back, they heard a “whirring…” sound of bricks rolling.

The three turned around abruptly and caught a glimpse of the face’s mouth closing…

Then, after several attempts, they finally discovered the pattern of this door—when someone approached within a certain distance and turned their back to it, it would “open its mouth” and become passable.

So, Tanlang came up with the plan to “walk backward into the door together.”

However, doing so was undoubtedly dangerous… If there were any traps behind the door, they would likely fall for them by going in backward.

“I also feel uneasy…” Qisha added, “I’m not afraid of monsters or traps… I’m just afraid that Feng Bujue is standing behind the door waiting for us.”

“That’s impossible.” Tanlang shook his head.

“Are you so sure?” Long Aomin asked suspiciously.

“I already figured it out, this guy is buying time with us.” Tanlang replied, “He doesn’t plan to eliminate us quickly; he’s waiting for something…”

“Oh? What do you mean?” Qisha also turned to ask.

“Well…” Tanlang thought for a few seconds, organizing his words, and said, “Remember the communication he had with us through the monsters’ mouths earlier?”

“Ah, of course, I remember.” Qisha replied with a pained expression.

“Think about it carefully…” Tanlang’s expression was serious, “That was by no means a whim but a very clever psychological induction…” He paused for a few seconds, giving his two teammates some time to think, and then continued, “First of all, Feng Bujue, through this method, made us realize—‘we are always under his surveillance’; which then led to—‘he can ambush us at any time’…”

Long and Qisha both nodded, indicating that they were still following the strategist’s train of thought.

“Subsequently, he took advantage of the quarrel with Qisha… improvising and subtly revealing some information to us, and mocking us in passing.” Tanlang continued, “Although his words contained both truth and falsehood… I think you and I, at that moment, had already discerned… that those words were intended to anger us, create psychological pressure on us, and make us speed up our exploration in anxiety.”

“That’s right, isn’t it?” Long replied.

“No.” Tanlang shook his head.

Qisha and Long’s expressions immediately changed.

“A double trap…” Tanlang added, glancing at each of his teammates’ faces, “Understand?”

“You mean…” Qisha replied thoughtfully, “His real intention… is actually the opposite?”

“Exactly.” Tanlang nodded in response, “Let’s rethink it from the surface… Assuming Feng Bujue really wants us to speed up our actions, what’s his purpose in doing so? It’s nothing more than to make us consume more energy and life in a hurry, making us easier to kill.” He paused slightly, then changed the subject, “But what’s the actual situation? Since we entered the city, we haven’t encountered any particularly dangerous obstacles…”

Tanlang looked around and continued, “Since our actions are always under his surveillance, why doesn’t he do something? With his abilities, even without showing himself or engaging in direct conflict, he could use countless means to deal with us… But he only put linguistic pressure on us, isn’t that contradictory?”

“Hmm…” Hearing this, Long touched his chin and pondered, “According to you… does he not want to kill us?”

“He wants to, but not now.” Tanlang’s expression sank, and he replied, “From my observation… Feng Bujue and Tun Tian Guixiao have one thing in common, that is—no matter how they arrange things strategically, psychologically… they never regard their enemies as being on the same level as themselves. In simple terms… they are both extremely arrogant.” He snorted coldly, “Hmph… so they both have a habit of prioritizing ‘exploring the script’ over ‘defeating the enemy.’”

As Tanlang spoke, he gestured to his two teammates, signaling them to turn their heads away and then retreat.

Having talked this far, although Tanlang hadn’t explained everything, both Qisha and Long Aomin had already sensed his confidence, so they didn’t question the decision to “retreat into the door.”

The three strode backward and soon passed through the stone face’s mouth, from the emerald-colored passage to another dark brown space.

As a result… no traps were triggered. They turned around again, and the stone face’s mouth didn’t close.

“In terms of the current script, Feng Bujue is obviously playing this game again…” After a few seconds, Tanlang continued, “In fact, he doesn’t want to confront us so quickly. Regardless of what he said, what he’s actually doing is… avoiding direct contact with us and delaying time.” He paused, “To achieve this goal, he needs our cooperation, so… he played this ‘double trap’ trick.”

“In other words… he calculated from the beginning that we could see through the intention in his words.” Qisha said while thinking, “So he deliberately conveyed information in his words that was contrary to his true intention?”

“Precisely.” Tanlang replied, then sighed, and continued, “Ah… to be honest, this guy’s talent for psychological induction makes someone like me, who has formally studied psychology, feel ashamed…” He took the opportunity to show off a bit, and then said, “When he urged, angered, and pressured us, he knew that we would see through his intention and then do the opposite—taking steady steps and building up our defenses. And once we do that, we’ll fall right into his trap.”

“I’m almost dizzy from all your roundabout logic…” Long said, scratching his head, “Anyway… we still have to be fast, right?”

“Yes, the faster the better.” Tanlang said, “Don’t worry about any particularly dangerous situations; just treat it like playing a normal script.” His eyes changed slightly, and he murmured, “If I’m not mistaken… Feng Bujue is probably busy with something else now. As long as we speed up our pace, we’ll have a chance to disrupt his plans and rhythm, and even catch him off guard.”

…………

Above the black clouds, night had fallen.

A large-scale thunderstorm, a rare occurrence in a century, had settled over the city. The vast majority of civilians had chosen to stay at home and avoid going out.

However, the police, firefighters, paramedics, and military personnel still had to work as usual…

At this time, on a highway between Anxi Road and the city center, a car was traveling at a steady speed. There were two people in the car: a homeless man named Hill was in the driver’s seat, and a ten-year-old version of Feng Bujue was in the passenger seat.

Just as they were halfway there, a line of neat headlights appeared in the distance ahead… apparently heading in their direction.

“They’ve finally come…” Feng Bujue muttered upon seeing this, then looked up at Hill next to him and asked, “Do you remember all the lines I taught you?”

“Yes… I remember.” Hill replied nervously.

“Relax.” Feng Bujue said in a lazy tone, “Do as I say, and nothing will go wrong. The more nervous you are… the more suspicious you’ll seem.”

“Okay… I’ll try my best.” Hill said, taking a few deep breaths to adjust his facial expression.

About a minute later, they met the convoy. As they got closer, they could see that the vehicles were mostly military jeeps and police cars, with even a few armored vehicles among them.

Obviously, the black pillar of light that shot into the sky had attracted a considerable degree of attention from the local government. However, in this type of script adapted from a movie, the police or military often arrive relatively late… so it wasn’t until a few hours later that these forces had assembled and made their way to their current location.

Feng Bujue had naturally foreseen this situation. Before leaving the castle, he and Hill had already rehearsed their story, so that if they were stopped and questioned, they could fool their way through it.

Sure enough, before Jue-ge’s car could meet the convoy, a police car drove out of the line and blocked the opposite lane. Two police officers got out of the car and gestured for Jue-ge to stop.

Hill had already prepared himself. He slowly stopped the car, turned off the engine, and then rolled down his window, turning his head to look at the approaching officers.

“What’s going on, officers?” Before they could speak, Hill threw out a question.

“The name of this situation is ‘minding your own business.’” The questioning officer leaned down by the driver’s side window and replied, “Look at it yourself… does this look like something you should be asking about?” As he spoke, he gestured with his eyes at the armored vehicle passing behind him.

“I say… could it be related to that black pillar of light?” Hill put on a curious expression.

“What? Did you see anything, sir?” The officer’s expression immediately became serious.

“Uh… no, not really.” Hill shrugged and replied in a sincere tone, “My nephew and I were camping by the river this afternoon, fishing… and then we saw the pillar of light appear in the sky…” He lowered his voice, “To be honest… I thought the military was doing some kind of experiment… and I got so scared that I grabbed my nephew and ran, without even packing up our camping gear. But then… my nephew accidentally fell into the river. The kid can’t swim, and it took all my strength to pull him out… he almost drowned…”

“Alright, alright…” The officer, having listened to this long story, immediately showed an impatient expression and interrupted rudely, “First, show me your driver’s license.”

“Oh, sure.” Hill nodded and took out his license from his coat pocket.

The officer took the license and, using the light from his flashlight, compared Hill’s face with the photo on the license.

Since it was a real document and the holder was Hill himself, there was nothing wrong to be found…

“Why is your nephew dressed like that?” As the officer handed the license back to Hill, he glanced into the car and asked, looking at Feng Bujue.

“I told you… he fell into the river…” Hill replied fluently, his expression natural, “We couldn’t find any dry clothes to change into right away, and I happened to have the clothes he was going to wear to the party tonight in my car, so I had him change into those first.”

“Party?” The officer asked tentatively.

“A Halloween party, officer.” Feng Bujue also turned his head to speak, pouting his lips and putting on the expression of a ten-year-old child being petulant, “But I heard it was canceled, how annoying!”

Hill glanced back at Jue-ge, casting an admiring gaze at his superb acting skills, then turned back to the police officer and said, “We heard on the radio just now… that all the celebrations were canceled due to the thunderstorm. This kid is so disappointed, you know, that outfit was his mom…”

“Okay, that’s enough… sir.” The officer had already taken Hill for a chatterbox, and he preemptively interrupted before the latter could start rambling again, “Just get going… remember to leave this area as soon as possible, and stay indoors.”

“Uh… alright, officer.” Hill even leaned out of the car window to say goodbye to him, seemingly getting into the role.

Two seconds later, the officer had already walked a few meters away and spread his hands, shaking his head at his partner.

It seemed… Hill and Jue-ge’s performance had been a great success.

At this time, the mighty convoy had already driven past Jue-ge and his partner; only the police car that had stopped to question them hadn’t caught up.

A dozen seconds later, Hill restarted the car and drove past the police car; the two officers had also returned to their car and were preparing to turn around and catch up with the convoy.

Just when both sides thought the matter had come to an end, unexpectedly…

By sheer coincidence, the questioning officer caught a glimpse of the license plate of Jue-ge and his partner’s car (the state did not require a front license plate, only a rear one).

“Hey! Wait! That license plate number… isn’t that the car that was reported stolen this morning?”

“Damn! They’re running! Quick, chase them!”

In the next second, the two officers reported the situation to their colleagues over the radio and sounded their sirens, chasing after Jue-ge and his partner.