Chapter 112: Shattered Clues and Shifting Perceptions

This made Wang Weizhong even more interested in the secret realm mentioned by the Chen brothers.

Suppressing the urge to question them immediately, he instead ordered his subordinates, "Open all the jade boxes."

"Yes!"

The guards responded at once.

Moving in an orderly and efficient manner, they stepped forward and opened each jade box one by one.

Inside were pairs of severed hands, each different in appearance, yet all exquisitely beautiful.

Watching the guards act with such discipline, Xiao Shou became even more certain about the plan he had formed the previous night.

The City Lord of White Silver City seemed like someone he could cooperate with at least for now.

But as more boxes were opened and more victims’ hands were revealed, something in him shifted.

The psychological barrier he had toward killing for the first time disappeared.

He even felt that Xiang Yu had died too easily.

A dignified core disciple of the Heavenly Void Sect had turned out to be such a person and yet the sect had not noticed anything.

The protagonist had even helped him rise to the position of sect master, allowing him to enjoy glory and power.

Thinking back, a line from a movie came to his mind.

The difference between a strategist and a criminal is only a single step.

Once crossed, it is nearly impossible to return.

It truly made sense.

No wonder someone as clever as Xiang Yu still met his end in the immortal realm.

No matter how perfectly he hid it, he could not escape the judgment of heaven.

But what about the protagonist’s actions?

The story had been written from her perspective, filled with her emotions, her love and hatred, gradually drawing readers into sympathizing with her.

But were her actions truly right?

What about the innocent people who died because of her?

Those who perished in disasters tied to her fate?

And yet, heaven itself protected her.

In its eyes, she had done nothing wrong.

Xiao Shou did not yet know that in the future, she would even bring harm to his own people.

But just thinking about how she was favored by heaven, and how even someone like Xiang Yu could live in glory for so long simply because she favored him, filled him with a sense of frustration.

He had not expected that if things were truly as he thought, then how could Xiang Yu have ended up dying at his hands today?

From another perspective, the man who obtained the protagonist’s first time would gain or lose a great amount of fortune depending on her love or hatred.

But whether someone outside of her could actually withstand such gains or losses of fortune was another matter entirely.

No one except Yu Lin knew that powerful fortune required an equally great amount of merit to support it.

Without merit, that fortune was like a castle in the air, something that could collapse at any moment.

That was why, in the previous life described in the story, Yu Lin had gone to great lengths to push Xiao Ran into committing grave sins, wearing down her merit before finally killing her at the Nascent Soul stage.

Because that part of the story had only been briefly mentioned at the beginning, Xiao Shou did not know this rule.

So he also did not realize that Xiang Yu’s death was precisely because he had gained the protagonist’s affection from being her first.

That affection granted him a large amount of fortune.

But his own merit was far from sufficient to support it.

In the end, it led him straight to Xiao Shou, where he met his death.

"It is too cruel. Destroy these hands. The culprit has already been reduced to nothing and erased from this world."

The severed hands seemed to silently tell the stories of their suffering.

Unable to bear looking at them any longer, Xiao Shou waved his hand and summoned a Tier , 4 flying wooden crane puppet.

He then leaped onto it and rode away.

Watching the flying crane, Wang Weizhong felt a surge of shock.

It seemed this senior was indeed a Nascent Soul cultivator.

But why would such a person come to a remote and barren place like White Silver City?

If not for his father, the former city lord who repeatedly instructed him never to abandon the city until a suitable successor was found, he would have long since left in search of opportunities.

This place was simply too desolate.

Yet now, a Nascent Soul cultivator had come in person.

It was most likely because of the secret realm mentioned by the Chen brothers.

If even a Nascent Soul cultivator was interested, then that secret realm was likely not limited to Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Golden Core and even Nascent Soul cultivators might benefit from it.

Realizing this, Wang Weizhong felt his heart burn with excitement.

He had already resigned himself to eventually dying here due to lack of resources.

But now, an opportunity had appeared right before him.

No matter the cost, he could not miss it. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Meanwhile, after leaving the bamboo forest, Xiao Shou returned to White Silver City.

He wrote down his plan to cooperate with the city lord, organizing the advantages, disadvantages, costs, and benefits into a clear outline.

Only after finishing did he feel prepared to discuss cooperation.

Not long after, the Chen brothers and Wang Weizhong returned.

Seeing Chen Yufei still unconscious and being carried back by the city guards, Xiao Shou asked with concern, "How is Yufei? Why has she not woken up yet?"

"Replying to Senior Xiao, Yufei is fine. That scene just now was not suitable for her to see, so I did not wake her. I plan to let her sleep until she wakes naturally," Chen Zhiyi said respectfully.

Xiao Shou whose focused entirely on Yufei did not notice the change in Chen Zhiyi’s attitude. Seeing that she was unharmed, he immediately relaxed.

"It is good that she is fine."

"Senior seems very concerned about that little girl," Wang Weizhong remarked from the side.