Now that they had earned the Emperor’s trust, their group was moved from the remote palace to one adjacent to the National Preceptor’s quarters.
But the following two days yielded no new clues.
In the blink of an eye, it was already the seventh day of the instance—the countdown ticking close to zero. The players who had stayed outside began to grow anxious, so they sent Swift Step to infiltrate.
Despite the heavy guard presence within the palace, it wasn’t completely airtight. With his ability, he managed to sneak in successfully.
At the time, Fu Changxun was quietly climbing a wall to spy on what the National Preceptor was up to next door.
Suddenly, Swift Step leapt out boldly in all-black stealth gear.
Startled, Fu Changxun toppled off the wall.
“Swift Step?!”
Dong Zi instinctively stepped in front of him. It took a moment of squinting before he recognized their black-clad teammate. “How did you get in? You weren’t supposed to move until we gave the signal!”
Swift Step had come ready to interrogate them, but that question threw him off completely.
He followed their line of thought reflexively. “I hid under a vegetable cart to get in. Then used my ability to track you.”
“No one spotted you, right?” Fu Changxun popped his head up with practiced ease. “Security’s been tight in the palace.”
Swift Step shook his head confidently. “Definitely not. I’m faster than the wind—they couldn’t see me if they tried.”
Just then, Xu Zhengyi emerged from the room, stretching lazily—only to jump at the sight of a black-robed figure standing in the courtyard.
“You?! What are you doing here?”
After Fu Changxun explained everything, Xu Zhengyi nodded in realization. “Ah, right… we totally forgot to reach out to you. Doctor, should we tell him about the National Preceptor?”
Fu Changxun nodded, and Xu Zhengyi promptly relayed everything about the existence of the National Preceptor in Hengchao.
Swift Step nodded. “So there’s another one? You guys ran into the real deal, huh?”
“Well… technically, the National Preceptor does have some real skills. We’re the ones faking it,” Fu Changxun said with a light laugh. “But we’ve got cheat codes.”
That cheat code—Xu Xiao—was currently sitting by the pond, spacing out.
Her mild depression hadn’t resurfaced since entering the instance. Being carried everywhere by her dad, called a lucky charm by the Doctor, and kept constantly engaged had made her genuinely happy. But now that things had calmed down, her symptoms were starting to creep back in.
Xu Zhengyi turned his head and looked at his daughter, his expression tinged with worry.
He was just about to approach her when he noticed someone beat him to it.
“Xiao Xiao, what are you looking at?”
Fu Changxun had gone over and sat beside her, speaking softly. “Wanna talk with gege for a bit?”
Xu Xiao: “Watching fish.”
“Do you like little fish?”
“I do.”
“Wanna raise one?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“These are game fish. We can’t take them out,” Xu Xiao said seriously. “I want real fish. Ones from real life.”
Fu Changxun let out a small laugh. “Alright. When we finish this game, gege will get you a few little fish.”
Xu Xiao brightened a bit. “Thanks, Doctor-gege.”
Xu Zhengyi also relaxed. He and Xu Xiao didn’t resemble each other much—she looked more like his late wife. That was part of how they managed to pass as unrelated in the instance.
But that had nothing to do with how much he adored her.
He had made mistakes—mistakes that led to her illness. He still missed his wife dearly, but he could no longer neglect his daughter.
“By the way,” Swift Step suddenly said, “I saw you two climbing a wall earlier—what were you doing?”
Dong Zi explained, “The National Preceptor lives next door. Ah-Xun was scouting.”
Swift Step’s voice instantly dropped an octave. “Damn, why didn’t you say so earlier? What if someone overheard?”
“It’s fine. The Preceptor’s not in.”
Having finished calming the girl down, Fu Changxun waved a hand. “I checked. The only one in his hall right now is the little medicine boy. We’ll go question him in a bit.”
The National Preceptor’s apprentice was currently in the courtyard grinding herbs. He’d unintentionally helped cover for Xu Xiao earlier, and Fu Changxun had already marked him as a potential weak point.
Fu Changxun tested his ability and found that the skill usage details had surfaced automatically:
[Cognitive Distortion: Usable three times per day, no more than five minutes per use. Only affects identity perception (single target). Can be upgraded using Points.]
[Ding-dong. Insufficient Points. Upgrade unavailable.]
Glancing at his nearly empty Points balance, Fu Changxun sighed. “Forget the upgrade.”
Fifteen minutes total—more than enough.
They planned to investigate next door, but obviously couldn’t just waltz through the front door.
Dong Zi stared at the wall for a moment before saying, “Ah-Xun, want me to give you a boost?”
Fu Changxun looked at Dong Zi’s nearly two-meter frame, then at the wall that was only slightly taller than him, and let out a heavy sigh. “Sure.”
***
The apprentice was busy pounding medicine.
He’d displeased the National Preceptor two days ago. Today, the Preceptor had gone to meet the Emperor and taken all the other disciples and apprentices with him—leaving only this boy behind. The Preceptor had ordered him to grind up all the herbs before nightfall or go without dinner.
So he was crying as he worked.
Through blurry eyes, he thought he saw one of the Preceptor’s disciples return and sit down beside him.
The little apprentice wiped his eyes, realizing it wasn’t a hallucination—someone really had come back. He assumed this “disciple” had been sent by the National Preceptor to supervise him, so he hastily sped up his grinding.
But the man beside him lingered for a moment, then suddenly picked up another mortar and began helping him pound the herbs.
Startled, the apprentice blurted, “Shixiong, you don’t need to help! The National Preceptor said I had to finish it myself.”
But Fu Changxun didn’t stop. “Master only said you had to finish it—he never said you couldn’t get help, did he? If you don’t tell and I don’t tell, who else is gonna know?”
He’d already used Cognitive Distortion. To the apprentice, he was now just another disciple of the National Preceptor.
The apprentice had never heard such twisted logic, and his already muddled mind faltered. “Oh… I guess that’s true…”
He didn’t protest again. In fact, he was relieved to have help—maybe he’d actually get to eat dinner tonight.
“By the way,” Fu Changxun said casually, “I’ve been around for a while now, but I forget—when exactly did Master come to the palace? And why does the Emperor favor him so much?”
The apprentice hesitated.
Noticing this, Fu Changxun subtly increased the trust level in the boy’s perception. The hesitation vanished, and the apprentice spoke freely: “Shixiong, you forgot? It was when Hengchao first stabilized. I was just born then, but the older disciples said the National Preceptor was introduced to the court by the former General!”
“You mean the National Preceptor used to know General Yun?” Fu Changxun asked, surprised.
He’d suspected the Preceptor had something to do with her death…
The apprentice nodded firmly. “Of course! Didn’t Master also lead you all in a ritual at the General’s Platform to cleanse the ill fortune? He’s clearly very grateful to General Yun for recommending him!”
The apprentice spoke innocently, but Fu Changxun felt a chill creeping through his heart.
The National Preceptor had been brought into court by Yun Qing, but Yun Qing was now dead, while he still thrived.
The Emperor might feel guilty about Yun Qing—but that was all it was. Guilt. In his conversation with Xu Xiao, there had been no remorse, no longing, no mention of remembering her.
In fact, when Xu Xiao said “a reincarnated soul isn’t the same person,” the Emperor had actually been… pleased.
The fragmented pieces of truth piling up painted a picture Fu Changxun didn’t want to face.
Five minutes were up.
Noticing the apprentice starting to shake off the distortion, Fu Changxun triggered his ability again and asked, “Do you know what happened between General Yun and the National Preceptor?”
The apprentice blinked, as if recalling something. “I remember an older disciple once said… Master claimed General Yun had the fate of an Empress. She was so happy, she recommended him to the Emperor. But later—”
He paused, piecing it together. “Later, Master and His Majesty spoke in private…”
“No, wait—it was behind General Yun’s back. And after that… she died.”
He stopped again.
But before Fu Changxun could say anything, the boy continued, “Master said she wasn’t actually destined to be Empress—she had a fate that would strengthen the nation. If she died, Hengchao would prosper.”
These were not words a simple apprentice should be saying. Fu Changxun was almost certain he’d just triggered a major plot point in the instance.
Sure enough, once the apprentice finished speaking, he looked confused, as if unsure of what he’d just said.
“All right, let’s drop it,” Fu Changxun said quickly, standing up. “Keep grinding. Here—take some pastries. If you don’t finish in time and they don’t let you eat, you can fill up with this.”
The boy’s attention immediately shifted to the food.
“Wow, thanks, shixiong!” he mumbled around a mouthful of pastry.
But when he looked up—there was no one there.
“Huh? Where’d he go?”
The apprentice stashed the pastries, looked around the yard, but found no sign of that disciple. Scratching his head in confusion, he simply assumed the man had gone back to find the Master.
Fu Changxun, meanwhile, had already returned to the courtyard with help from Swift Step and Dong Zi. He quickly filled them in on what he’d learned.
Xu Zhengyi frowned. “All that, just because of some vague ‘fate to bless the nation’? That’s why the Emperor had her killed? That doesn’t make sense.”
“He’s a paranoid ruler,” Swift Step said, understanding. “Afraid she’d hold too much power over the military.”
Xu Zhengyi still couldn’t accept it.
To him, family and loved ones mattered most. What was so great about being Emperor, anyway? But the Emperor clearly didn’t share that view.
“I remember the instance hint said… ‘The General was born under a cursed fate—scratch that, The General had a blessed fate,’” Fu Changxun muttered.
Suddenly, something clicked. He turned to Dong Zi, and the two spoke at once:
“‘Blessed fate’ doesn’t mean her life got better later—it means… her fate itself!”
Back when Heng Beishuo had finally stabilized the court and seized full power, he began to grow suspicious of Yun Qing. But with no evidence against her, he simply delayed his earlier promise to make her Empress, constantly offering new excuses.
Yun Qing, hopelessly in love, had believed him when he said, “Many officials oppose it. They think your fate might clash with mine.”
So she went out in search of mystics.
It wasn’t long before she found a “master”—and eagerly introduced him to the Emperor.
She never expected that what awaited her wouldn’t be a wedding, nor a glorious bridal procession…but the blade of the man she loved.
