Chapter 162: Chapter 162: How Did He Have the Same Idea?
There were no gender restrictions for the bride.
But it was hard to say what would happen if one were chosen.
A huge battle would be inevitable.
Losing the fight didn’t necessarily mean death. If you could hold out until the wedding night was over, you might be able to drag your battered body out as you were expelled from the Secret Realm.
At least you’d get to keep your life.
Of course, a loss wasn’t guaranteed either.
If the disciples who entered were willing to cooperate and rescue the bride on the wedding night, it wasn’t impossible for them to kill Qin Yongkang by ganging up on him.
If Qin Yongkang died, you would get some rewards and be transported to the next sub-world.
After years of discussion, the Major Sects had come to a consensus: killing Qin Yongkang was not the optimal solution for this world. There had to be other ways.
However, the Moonlight Secret Realm had only opened a handful of times, and not many disciples had been assigned this "groom" scenario. Furthermore, the Major Sects were unwilling to share information, lest others swoop in and reap the rewards. As a result, the amount of available information was pitifully small.
The only thing known for certain was that being chosen as the bride was irreversible.
Besides, with so many disciples assigned to this realm, there had to be other solutions for those who weren’t the bride. Unfortunately, no one had figured out the method.
Three days. One town. The only lead they had was the mortals living there.
But the information they provided, over and over again, was limited.
It was all trivial.
Details about Qin Yongkang’s life and the history of the Qin Family were all just the mundane trifles of mortals. The Cultivators, accustomed to efficiency, had neither the time nor the patience to listen to such gossip.
Their primary mission was to find what was abnormal about the town.
Take the two previous brides who died wrongful deaths, for instance. The Major Sects felt their deaths weren’t simple; there had to be a lead there.
Of course, that wasn’t to say that no disciple had patience.
It was more likely that any important information they’d uncovered was being kept secret. The Yinxiao Sect had cleared this sub-world without killing Qin Yongkang, but it wasn’t certain they had obtained the Secret Realm Fragment.
Because if the fragment had been taken, this sub-world should have disappeared.
The sub-world hadn’t disappeared, which proved the fragment was still there.
The Yinxiao Sect’s method wasn’t necessarily the perfect one, either.
For the time being, Song Jiulai didn’t have this background information. She only had a gut feeling that the problem lay with either the groom or the bride. In any case, gathering more information couldn’t hurt.
’Besides, eavesdropping on gossip is actually pretty fun.’
’It’s like watching a TV show.’
For example, this Qin Yongkang was a total womanizer. Not only had his first two wives died under mysterious circumstances, but he supposedly had quite a few mistresses as well.
But after half a day of eating and drinking, she still hadn’t seen the groom or the bride.
Nor had she seen any member of the Qin Family come out to greet the guests.
So, Song Jiulai asked the old women with a cheerful smile, "What about the groom? Aren’t they coming out to welcome the guests?"
"The groom and bride won’t have their ceremony for another three days. They’re not coming out now. You don’t even know that?" The old woman who had been gossiping with her now gave her a suspicious look.
Cracking open a melon seed, Song Jiulai immediately replied, "Of course I don’t know, ma’am! I was on my way to visit relatives and just happened to be passing through. When I saw there was a wedding, the hosts invited me in for a celebratory drink."
After all, they had just been saying how rich and extravagant the Qin Family was—they’d invited the entire town and were holding a feast that would last for three days.
So it wasn’t unusual for an outsider like Song Jiulai to be invited.
’Besides, she’d been sitting on this stool ever since she arrived. If something didn’t add up, it was the Secret Realm’s doing. What did that have to do with her?’
Sure enough, a look of sudden understanding dawned on the old woman’s face, and the hint of suspicion in her eyes vanished.
Song Jiulai chuckled. "Or what, did you think I’d crashed the party?"
At that, the old woman gave an awkward laugh. "Well, it’s just that you don’t seem to know anything, see? So you really aren’t from around here."
But she was clearly holding something back now and wasn’t as talkative as before.
Still, Song Jiulai managed to learn some basic information.
Qin Yongkang was around forty years old. His parents had passed away long ago, leaving the entire Qin Family under his control.
Throughout the entire banquet, the only members of the household to be seen were the ordinary servant girls serving food, plus Qin Yongkang’s head maidservant, Little Cui.
She greeted the visiting townspeople with a beaming smile.
Except for the bride.
Song Jiulai made a circuit of the feast but couldn’t dig up any information about the bride. The answer to every inquiry was, "I don’t know."
It was as if Qin Yongkang had bought a bride from out of town; not even the locals knew who he was marrying.
Based on this information alone, Song Jiulai couldn’t figure out the objective of this scenario.
So she decided to tap into the power of the masses—by having her system ask the players.
She was even running a serialized thread on the Blue Star forums, using a gamer-like tone to ask others to analyze what role a player would likely take on in a situation like this.
Even the system was impressed. "You’ve always got a trick up your sleeve."
Song Jiulai clicked her tongue. "Otherwise, were you expecting me to crack this case with my own brilliant intellect?"
’If there’s a bug, why not exploit it?!’
However, the information from the players was all over the place.
Most players admitted it was too much for their brains. With so little information provided, it was hard to see what the problem with the wedding even was.
However, a few players did express the same idea.
When Zhen Weida heard the system’s question, he scratched his head. "If there’s no information about the bride, could it be that one of the players *is* the bride?"
The designer, Tang Qiuxiang, also subconsciously remarked, "What a coincidence. I just read a story about a wedding where an outsider was playing the role of the bride."
When the system relayed their comments, Song Jiulai was startled. "Does that mean in three days, they’re going to choose someone to be the bride?"
System: "It’s very possible. But it’s unlikely they’ll choose you, right?"
Song Jiulai: "Why?"
System: "With that face of yours, it’s highly unlikely you’ve got the potential to be chosen. Unless he has a special fetish, in which case, pretend I said nothing."
Song Jiulai: "..."
’My face-sculpting skills have really improved!’
’I’m way better looking than the players, aren’t I?!’
But if the players knew, they would definitely accuse her of showing favoritism.
She had meticulously sculpted her own face, but the puppets she made were so ugly it was clear she’d just slapped them together.
’If the disciples who enter this sub-world might be chosen as the bride, then what’s the objective?’
Song Jiulai decided to start with the Qin Family.
And so far, the only members of the Qin Family who had made an appearance were a few servant girls. Among them, the one who seemed to have any authority was the head maidservant, Little Cui.
Unfortunately, the Qin Family was a powerful clan in this sub-world. An outsider like Song Jiulai had no chance of getting close to Little Cui.
When the banquet ended, Little Cui ordered the servant girls and boys to clean up the mess. The other guests began to leave the Qin Mansion one after another, and Song Jiulai had to leave as well.
Song Jiulai lingered, walking at the very back. Clearly, she wasn’t the only one who had the idea of approaching Little Cui.
She was just about to use a timeless trick.
Suddenly, a male Cultivator up ahead tossed out a piece of emerald-green jade and feigned surprise. "Oh, my! Who dropped this?"
Little Cui, who was in the courtyard, immediately looked over.
Song Jiulai: "...Damn it, he had the same idea as me!"
Comments