Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 240: Chapter 44: Intimidating Xie Yingjie

"Besides me... as for him," said Well, "his situation hasn’t changed for nearly seven hundred years. In truth, he’s had little to talk about, and hasn’t done too many different things...

"But his body now carries the upper echelon of the day-to-day assignment sequence, or relies on something from previous assignment sequences... After all, both aren’t necessarily anything special—his body is very low in performance compared to you who can just erect a tower at will and follow him," said Well.

"If you confront him now, you may very quickly expose your greatest secret. But actually, you really have no hostile intentions towards him, that much is a rather unpleasant feeling," Well continued.

But this was the first time he had encountered him.

Cheng Mo knew better than anyone that self-identification in a white fog was nothing but a mirage, forever a drawback on his side.

What he was looking at was, in fact, a map of Lantern City. This wasn’t an unfamiliar map of white fog.

Xie Yingjie was currently examining a p3 model map on a huge electronic table during the influx of white fog.

It looked just like an office of some Xie Yingjie company.

This room appeared to be some kind of special setup space, including areas for dining, entertainment and rest, and office spaces.

But Xie Yingjie was the only person on the entire twelfth floor.

At first glance, the twelfth floor of the building looked no different from Lantern City Science Department’s headquarters, with not even a single experimental chamber.

White fog exited the elevator.

"I’m not trying to curry favor with Cheng Mo, I came just asking for protection, so relax, it’s my own person," said Erleipu.

"Please mind your language and don’t overstep the conversational bounds in this fortress of the Mechanism City. If you provoke him, I will kill you," said Cheng Mo as they approached the twelfth floor.

Did he really alter himself so much during this journey, becoming a ruler in the twenty-seventh permanent presidential election, Xie Yingjie?

Or was he still just a tool to be used, an old leather bag?

"I don’t know how much of the real stuff is at the bottom, this replica of Cheng Mo," White fog thought, looking at Cheng Mo inside the elevator.

White fog followed Cheng Mo, entering the same elevator once again, heading towards the twelfth floor.

...

...

He maintained an unusually respectful distance from him.

Although he knew that the master of Jiaxie was Xie Yingjie, who presided over this twelfth floor intelligence pouch, he could not part with Jiaxie.

"I’ll meet you later. You should go busy yourself for now. This arrangement is not very wrong, we’re in the vicinity, and you’re bringing White fog up here. I will give you some plans for implantation related to the upcoming period later, don’t let anyone disturb me during this time," said Xie Yingjie with a change of expression.

"This is not a very good encounter. I just met an old friend, an old person in the Lantern City Science Tower, where I came," said White fog.

"Explain here, ’Lantern City,’" said Xie Yingjie.

They were his ancestors.

Xie Yingjie was right... but he did not know this person, although he knew this person was Chu Qing, currently acting as Jiaxie’s head.

Just ahead was the twelfth floor, but they only knew the question, and even Jiaxie’s current masters did not know who this person was, decades later.

Very few people knew his name, Xie Yingjie had seldom left the twelfth floor of Jiaxie’s science tower, having been an intelligence pouch since the seventh generation.

"Just now White fog came to visit us, he said he was coming here with a purpose, to meet our honored ancestor Xie Yingjie. He said a strange sentence, and it must be about this visit," said Ma Li, pointing out the significance.

Xie Yingjie was not interested in these chicken feather garlic skin matters, such as the strongest bottom level warrior or his protector disappearing in the Fifth Level, or some other related incidents. They were not worth mentioning in the beginning.

"Another outsider," said Xie Yingjie, "The protectors, including the Zhong Xie, have disappeared twice in just a few short days. I can’t believe you’re saying that White fog and Qingyu Valley are just normal supervision objects for our Order group, but I’m going to have a look and see."

Xie Yingjie continued without giving Shepherd Ma Li any room to speak, "Qin Jiaqin, who is currently the head of the family, will not be the very least welcome child, but I have not yet heard that he is inquiring about something," said Xie Yingjie.

"What exactly are you coming to check?" he asked.

"It must be something else that developed, given his obvious distress. Our analysis department believes Chu Qing, the current family head, is very concerned about something these days, and it’s not unlikely Qin and him have already departed from this separate incidence," said Shepherd Ma Li.

"Something definitely happened at the bottom," said Xie Yingjie.

Xie Yingjie suddenly interjected, cutting off the conversation abruptly.

Of course, the precursor was Xie Yingjie.

"Elder, do you remember what you said about the possibility of reclaiming the Lantern City? My predecessor..." said the living knowledge repository of the "eternal youth," who seemed like someone who would never age while looking at Xie Yingjie’s place on the twelfth floor.

This project had already reached the clinical trial stage at this time.

But it was something of a closed loop system that, oddly enough, didn’t seem like a certain kind of recognition transfer, comparing "pain," "tiredness," and "suffering" to a sort of closed loop. This feeling of closure could be maintained, but not pondered, and yet it promised to make them even happier. The bottom-level Common People would no longer feel pressurized and coerced into feeling deprived, as their working hours would double, leisure time and salaries would be halved, and yet their emotions could be freely manipulated, possibly once this system became reality.

Their original discussion revolved around the topic: "the closed emotional system."

At this moment, in the scientific tower of the twelfth level, Shepherd Ma Li was earnestly asking Xie Yingjie a difficult question.

"I, myself, just had a not very good encounter with an old person, Xie Yingjie. I met an old friend in the Lantern City Science Tower," said White fog.

This statement made him freeze entirely.

The mere utterance of these three words, "Lantern City," seemed to have sent Erleipu into a freeze.

Do you still remember the vast Lake Ming shores, old Mr. Xie? It’s as if at this moment, White fog, looking just like someone from your past, was saying "Lantern City."

It wasn’t that he considered it important, whether he was still a valet serving important people of Jiaxie, as that Xie Yingjie or not. White fog had to ensure his safety at the earliest opportunity, which would be a meeting with Xie Yingjie.

"Lantern City."

"Where did you come to know this name?"

This being in front of him was only a test official in a series of operations, having matured into something "Cheng Mo"-like, further embodying Cheng Mo’s identity.

This "Cheng Mo" was not necessarily the White fog seeing Cheng Mo that was kept in "eggshell" isolation in Mechanism City’s mysterious market, but a high level implant, tailor-made according to Xie Yingjie’s ambitious intentions, remaining in a sealed state of existence, along with an entire academic home and others.

"I want to see Xie Yingjie, let me change a word," said White fog.

"Despite your loud words and arrogant demeanor, I recognize that you have the power of a seasoned warrior. If that is true, then I admit that I don’t yet know the full extent of your abilities, but you should be aware that the scope of my intellect and rhetoric is not limited by our current understanding,"

Time was pressing down on him; despite this, aside from the tasks at hand within the Tower, his attention was still on the rich crimson hue that waited for him.

Although he couldn’t conclusively prove who the person behind the white mist was, he could infer that the political power of the Tower’s external forces must be backing them.

The second incident involved overhearing Xie Yingjie arranging a back-alley deal with external Tower forces. The first incident was searching for help within the Tower to gain leverage—that’s why he wanted to see Xie Yingjie.

"...Zhong Xu is dead?"

Xie Yingjie’s expression remained nonchalantly unchanged.

A frozen, round, severed human head rolled onto Xie Yingjie’s office desk.

"This clock head is Zhong Xu’s, the guardian who died. That hundred-year-old monster has survived, and it’s nothing like that one who’s with you. I will take out some sincerity for clarification, of course," said the mist, with a grin suggesting a deep and profound thought.

Is he Erleipu, who has witnessed the events of Sixth Well? Is he the observer behind the Eyes of Thunder? What could he possibly know if he left something behind... within Mechanism City?

Nobody could be more frightening than Qin Chu, with his mastery of Fourth Well knowledge, not even Xie Yingjie or the highly skilled Teachers.

The white mist had effectively quelled the situation with Xie Yingjie through the intel gathered by their eyes.

"Don’t you want to retrieve from Mechanism City something you lost? It’s strange; wouldn’t you need my analytical combat partner and the data he can provide? How convenient it would be if you just told me about your incident and my encounter with the Fourth Well,"

Determined, White Mist thought to himself.

"If you’re Chu Qing, which should be obvious to you, since you can come and go from Lantern City, and I obviously know you’re Xie Yingjie," he continued, opening a storage bag.

"I don’t recognize you for who you are on the surface, and that’s fascinating enough for me," said Xie Yingjie, continuing the conversation.

Xie Yingjie shrugged his shoulders; he knew that his opponent was analyzing him, even though this person seemed to know that there was a secret in his appearance, something that had, thus far, failed to intimidate.

"Let’s get on with the real business then. You don’t need to read between the lines. There’s no second intent. Clean visual perception, steel armor, no reaction to counterattacks, still circulating fifth flows, still having gluttonous feasting on the body," said White Mist, frowning.

White Mist continued, "Are you going to tell me your incident first, or should I prove my usefulness to you? How can this person say I am of no use? Who are those two pieces of trash you’re cursing? Who are they?"

"It’s more like the Eye of the Observer and the Eye of the Plain Sky combined. You really don’t need to be concerned about its actual utility. It seems to fit the hidden characteristics of the item’s description. Just a brief introduction, and you can visualize its pure intellectual nature ranked at the forty-second Tier. It can compare to Erleipu’s Eyes. At very least, your particular index hasn’t reached as far as describing a higher tier list as simply as you do, but it is the Sixth Level index list."

White Mist, who seemed rather pleased with himself, went on to say, "I’m very likely to encounter something soon,"

Xie Yingjie’s presence seemed to intrigue White Mist even more, who hadn’t even touched on his relationship with Lantern City during their conversation.

"Not only have we gone through the entire index list and found a response to all abilities, but people are becoming increasingly aware of the existence of these awakening indexes. It feels like some phony chaos being created just when we had a complete index list falling into our hands from the Sixth Level; we obtained the earliest index list of the natural abilities,"

The description was too vague.

Despite being Xie Yingjie, Chu Qing’s response to Erleipu’s Eyes, the forty-second index—White Mist affirmed the incident directly.

This young man didn’t show any signs of being intimidated by his formidable presence; in fact, he appeared quite audacious.

Xie Yingjie simply smiled.

"All I have is a tiresome person living inside my head; my psychic powers and Eyes have nothing to do with each other. Since you’re so eager to tell me your incident, go ahead. This holds no significance at all; you couldn’t possibly deduce anything detailed. There’s a method for analyzing this, which leads to the essence of life for a companion,"

"How come you don’t know what Erleipu’s eyes are really capable of? Haven’t I added a strong subconscious sensation to guess your intentions?"

"Maybe you simply don’t know how to recognize Erleipu’s eyes, fearing you would uncover something. Prior to this, you’ve already amassed a large volume of empirical data. And yet, you can’t analyze me. To you, I am fundamentally human, as my DNA doesn’t contain any uniquely sequenced waves. But you still can’t determine the true usage of Erleipu’s eyes."

White Mist spoke calmly:

This is a chess game where the genuine discussion between the two parties hasn’t arrived yet, and you’re already contemplating ways to undermine the other’s position of power.

White Mist wasn’t flustered, understanding such a situation, unless he’s already been invited to crack a case before the world. He knew he might also encounter this type of self-inflicted intimidation.

There’s no harm if the eyes cannot deliver information at this moment to Xie Yingjie, but

Erleipu’s eyes hold many secrets and can cause significant energy fluctuations, though they don’t always provide useful information. But sometimes, they can bring extremely critical intel.

How much does Xie Yingjie really know? What kind of anomaly is he facing right now?

"Your reaction seems to lack a part of normal emotional response, as if you’re missing some emotional context. But looking at you, one might think that no matter what I say, you should respond with surprise. It’s almost like you lack that segment of emotion altogether, though my words should evoke it. It’s peculiar how clear these pure feelings appear to be coming from someone who should be experiencing profound surprise. And you have none,"

Is Xie Yingjie not perplexed because he does not possess the entire sequence, including Forty-Two and up to One Ten, which are the most crucial part?

Not only can I see through my own genetic sequences, but I can even see through the life-affirming energy distribution of others.

Xie Yingjie indeed had a retort.

"You are the first person I’ve met with these eyes... Unless my signal reading was a mistake. But no, Erleipu’s eyes are quite unique; they’ve been ranked Forty-Two for over seventy years," Xie Yingjie replied.

"Is it just One to Ten sequences, then? Among the ten, it must be just one. There were only twenty sequences that ever appeared from the start, and they never changed, while all the others did appear over seventy years, but how can that be the divine bestowed sequences from Sixth Level? What sort of divine bestowed sequence could Erleipu’s eyes actually be?"

"It seems like this is an exceptionally reckless matter. And even though it doesn’t seem dangerous at a glance, I’m very much looking forward to delving into your brain and uncovering your secrets. For a moment, you’ve presented me with data that is so compelling, it’s as if you possess all the energy and attack capability of your companion in entirety, which is interesting. But you as a Spirit Hazard still stand at Level Twenty, and if I tried to kill you using a physical approach instead of an assault on the spirit level, it would make you hazardously dangerous. This implies that I have assessed your Spirit Hazard threat at Level Twenty,"

Being very dangerous is one thing; if they say they want to kill you, it might as well be Level Seven," White Mist said while looking at Xie Yingjie through his eyes, appearing quite composed.

Because it is a kind of ability unrelated to genetic sequences, and he can’t even look through himself, let alone the Sky Eyes and the Observer’s Eyes, which are considered equivalent.

Xie Yingjie was somehow capable of looking through his own sequences... This was the original idea behind the eyes, White Mist revealed. freēwēbnovel.com

"You’re originally from the body that possessed these unique gifts. I know that now. If you went past the Lantern City, you wouldn’t be able to come back, and that’s for certain. I’ve just thought that you were nothing more than a Level Seven hazardous individual, blatantly obvious, yet you’re imagining that you’re more intriguing than I had thought," White Mist said.

Xie Yingjie is quite a charming person indeed, although one would think he’s just a front man at a banquet, nothing more than that.

But in reality, Xie Yingjie and Tao, the tutor, are two exceptional individuals, who have neither friends nor lovers. They don’t even seem to care about the sort of skills they’ve learned, which was evident from what I’d seen in the Lantern City archives.

"Please, sit down"

For the first time, he felt like someone could see right through him.

Does Xie Yingjie possess such a capability below the eyes? What can he really do when faced with such a person?

White Mist had thought about it: if there was indeed someone in this world cleverer than himself and who possessed the same eyes... Even if it were only pretend, it was a fascinating thought.

But it’s not just a matter of danger. Both Zhong Xu and Xie Yingjie are dangers themselves.

White Mist suddenly felt a certain uneasiness, as if confronting a mighty adversary.

The greatest secret of mine, the odd precaution.