Chapter 48

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

After detaching from Shi Cangyuan’s world, Bai Lianhua had a few good days of rest in the system space.

When he finally chased away his depression status effect, and got himself revitalised, he chooses to reenter the mission worlds. He can’t help but pray that this time the antagonist wouldn’t be someone hard to deal with.

Bai Lianhua tries to recall in his mind which antagonist might be easy to deal with in his former mission worlds… Then, he gives up in exasperation. It’s all the same. No antagonist would give him an easy time.

Sigh. He’ll see.

This time the system is still friendly enough to have him materialise where nobody is.

After looking around, Bai Lianhua is sure this is another ancient world.

He tidies his clothes a little bit——Of course, with the little surprise he had the last time around, with an unspoken expectation of tacit agreement, he works through his waist and the sleeve opening… Then, he really does discover a small purse.

It might not be a lot of money, but at least he’s not penniless.

Bai Lianhua gives the system an expression of praise… Good. The damned system finally has a moral conscience. Keep up the good work and make this a regular thing in every world, k?

System “…”

No, seriously, I know host you want to praise me, but thanks to your little white lotus kind of feeling, it’s almost like you’re flirting with a wink, you know.

——This system really doesn’t deserve your seductive wink. Not even antagonists can enjoy something like this, please don’t beat me.

While Bai Lianhua who has no idea what the system is having delusions about, walks onto the streets in a good mood.

…

By afternoon, when Bai Lianhua has rented a room in a tavern, he’s figured out most of what his surroundings are.

He’s currently in one of the prosperous little hamlets surrounding the capital city. Normally, the system wouldn’t project him too far away from the antagonist. Therefore it is a reasonable guess that the antagonist is also in the capital city.

That’s to be expected. In ancient worlds, only capital cities are fitting for the antagonists to mess about.

Though the question on Bai Lianhua’s mind is that the world looks normal. It seems there’s nothing bad going on?

He can’t see any potential risks that could stir up the world in the near future. Everyone has a smile on in both the main streets and the small alleyways. It looks to be a golden age.

The next morning, Bai Lianhua decided he can’t just blunder about blindly after some thought, so he decides to make his way to the eateries and sit there the whole day.

All sorts of characters pass through here, and they often enjoy making small talk or boast their knowledge. It’s usually the place with the most information passing through in ancient times.

Sigh. This is what’s inconvenient about ancient worlds. If it’s spacefaring worlds he can just log onto the celestial Internets and look up whatever he wants instead of waiting here for the information to find him, to wait for useful information essentially like trying to luck out.

Bai Lianhua feels a bit conflicted. In all honesty, he’d rather not hear about how the antagonist is messing with the world, but if he really isn’t messing with the world, he can’t find him.

What a contradictory situation.

Yet, perhaps Bai Lianhua really has luck on his side. After several days when he finishes summarising all the trivial information he’s collected, Bai Lianhua really discovers some clues.

The dynasty in this world might really look like they’re in their prime, but in fact there’s quite the amount of stuff to worry about… The one on the throne is weak, the court officers and military officers have essentially split the court in two, the factions all have their power struggles with webs of alliances, and there’s barbarians lying in wait just beyond the borders.

Perhaps the people of this world have enjoyed a golden for too long that nobody is doing anything about it.

People don’t care about the information pertinent to their lives, but instead, what the people enjoy talking about the most, is instead which brother of which concubine of the emperor has made a fool of himself in what way and such. There’s essentially new topics along such lines popping up every day.

Having been through many worlds, Bai Lianhua, who’s already experienced similar situations, as he’s been examining this world with a critical eye since his return, can sense that this is definitely a sign that the future will make a u-turn from the prominence of its prosperity fading.

He’s a bit nervous about the potential role the antagonist might play in this.

The fifth day Bai Lianhua is standing by in the eateries, he’s got some fresh new gossip from the table next to his.

The core of the gossip concerns the State Oracle. When the ancient Chinese is rephrased in a more modern-friendly way, it’s essentially that the State Oracle is out-of-this-world, as beautiful in state and form as an immortal, though he’s quite emotionally blank… Yet they’re not just any mortal. They don’t even appear in public most of the time, so it makes sense they’re cold and highfalutin.

While the ones chatting don’t dare utter his name directly, and are being really vague about it, but Bai Lianhua is more energetic the more he hears.

State Oracle? Emotionless? Not appearing in public?

These keywords quickly cause the cogs to turn in his head.

Especially the identity of ‘State Oracle,’ if he’s right, perhaps this is the world of the antagonist Yang Chongyin?

Though given the situation just before he’d left, Yang Chongyin shouldn’t be someone like so, but… Alright, fine, he knew that all his missions only ended in failure.

To prove his guess, Bai Lianhua spent a bit of effort and finally got the name of this State Oracle, and it is Yang Chongyin, as expected.

Then this must be that world with light xuanhuan elements.

Due to his excellent talents and a pair of natural-born ethereal eyes, Yang Chongyin has been forcibly taken away from his parents when it was discovered that he could see ghosts and his talents were confirmed. He was forced to be a disciple of a sect.

This sect is rather extraordinary. While it might look detached from the physical world, it is actually closely associated with the imperial court, because each and every State Oracle were picked from it.

Yet even in this sect, Yang Chongyin is the most special one… Since the moment he was forced inside it, he’s been chosen implicitly as the successor of the State Oracle.

This is not a good thing, though, at least, not for Yang Chongyin.

From then on, he could not have any excessive emotions, because it would affect his ability to perform divine arts and divination.

Nobody will get close to him, nor will anyone care for him. Everyone will treat him with respect in a distance. He even had to endure all sorts of strict treatments since a young age for so-called ‘training,’ so that he would have no emotional fluctuations.

He had once sneaked out to find his own parents, only to discover they’ve had new children. The family was happy, and it was supposed to be his family.

They were made to forget the existence of this child completely through divine intervention… Not only his parents, but his other relatives and acquaintances. His name, Yang Chongyin has been wiped from all their memories.

Yang Chongyin has become someone that has no origin.

Other than his sect, he had nowhere to go.

The sect’s master only said to him in an indifferent manner, that this is to remove his ties to the mortal world.

All the people he had the slightest attachment to in the sect would all try to distance themselves as much as possible after they were taken away to have a ‘talk,’ and avoid spending any further time with him as they have been warned not to interfere with their senior disciple’s studies and affect the sect’s business.

They might be on good enough terms to greet each other the last time, and the next time they met the other person would switch directions just to avoid him.

Even the little animals he’d fed and familiarised in the sect might come snuggling up to his hand the last time and the next time it would no longer approach him, even darting away.

Yang Chongyin knows that it is because it has endured divine intervention.

He might have a high position in the sect, and is treated with all due respect and dignity, but he’s been eliminated from any form of contact by any living creature.

Yang Chongyin had once listened in on a talk between the sect’s master and elder.

When speaking of him, the elder asked why they did not just kill his parents and his close associates so that he wouldn’t have escaped, sounding about as indifferent as one would have discussed slaughtering chickens and lamb for dinner.

While the master replied with a smile that that would only have resulted in his intense mental repulsion. They had to do this instead, while troublesome, but if he himself can only feel their cold-bloodedness, then he would grow emotionless over time.

“That’s how generations of State Oracles were trained.”

“Don’t worry, in the end, he will be tamed and accept all these as the Heaven’s tribulations he deserved… As he is the chosen talent designated by It to handle a whole nation’s fortunes, true.”

The elder then chuckles and remarks how this mustn’t be heard by the existing State Oracle of that time.

The master says, “it’s alright. This is something only us masters and elders can talk about. Oh, and the emperor as well.”

“We don’t have to be that careful either. The State Oracle might look as powerful as can be, but their personality has long been tamed and they’ve long since become inept… No matter how strong their divinations are they won’t waste their time on such trivialities.”

From the start to finish, all these words have as if been etched with red hot iron onto Yang Chongyin’s heart. He cannot accept that this is the fate he has to face. He confronted them directly, saying he really regrets having shown his talents back then, and he would have rather died. They instead punish him in solitary confinement. He was alone for a whole three years.

Yang Chongyin, however, is not someone that is easily tamed. All these methods used to train his emotionlessness fails to flatten out his spikes. Instead, he learned to hide his spikes deep in himself.

His sect is rather helpless to find that all the methods that trained State Oracles after State Oracles were always rather ineffective on Yang Chongyin… Instead, he would figure out the principle behind them and act against their interests.

If continued, Yang Chongyin would never succumb. They weren’t willing to let his talents go, however, so they decided they would force it. They used divine arts to remove Yang Chongyin’s emotions and modified his memories. They’ve forced a consciousness they hoped Yang Chongyin would have, one that placed the national fortune of the imperial court above all else, onto him.

So, Yang Chongyin appeared to have quieted down into what’s finally a fitting State Oracle successor.

Yet, in the original world’s timeline, when Yang Chongyin actually succeeded as State Oracle, instead of protecting the national fortune, he actively hampered it.

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