Chapter 215
The flaw of the oath gem, compared to a contract, lies in its nature: it can only bind oneself to a promise, but it cannot compel others to act in a certain way.
Yu Xunge gently patted Tu Lan's head, generously offering her praise: "I used to underestimate you. You're really clever."
"Yes, I admit it. My wisdom is my trump card. Just like you, I also like to keep a card up my sleeve." After delivering this profound statement, Tu Lan couldn't help but giggle. But soon her expression changed, "Does that mean we won't be able to get the dragon scales?"
Yu Xunge tapped the crystal coffin lightly: "Right now, I might want him to come back to life even more than he does."
How could she kill him if he didn’t come back?
Although she and Tu Lan had been pretending the whole time, this transaction was laced with calculation, hinting at years of planning. If he didn’t die, she wouldn’t find peace.
Moreover, if a similar divine gift could truly devour and evolve, it was highly likely that Mi Yasi was plotting against her divine gift. She couldn’t allow such a being to live.
Tu Lan asked, "So what do we do now?"
Yu Xunge led Tu Lan outside: "Have you ever watched 'Tian Long Ba Bu'?"
"No, what's it about?"
"It's a martial arts story. In it, there's a chess game called the Zhenlong Chess Game, set up by an unparalleled genius who spent years crafting it to find an exceptionally clever disciple. He said that whoever solves this chess game can become his disciple. Everyone tried to solve it, but no one succeeded for many years."
"Why? Is it that difficult?"
"That's how it’s set up. The game puts the player in a dilemma, making it impossible to attack or defend. Those who tried either couldn't bear to sacrifice their pieces out of kindness or were too greedy to give up their advantages. Only one protagonist, who didn’t understand chess, made random moves, sacrificing a large number of his pieces, and accidentally solved the dilemma, gaining a golden opportunity."
"So?"
"So, we bypass the traps, give up the seemingly most attractive treasure, and jump straight to the conclusion."
By sidestepping Mi Yasi's chessboard and simplifying the steps, this transaction boiled down to "she won't make a move against the Liang family and will help Liang Pozhou deliver Mi Yasi's remains" in exchange for the dragon ancestor's reverse scale.
In gaming terms, it was like an S-level quest instantly downgraded to a B-level quest, with the quest chain cut down by half.
Tu Lan lamented, "Are you really not going to evolve your divine gift?"
Yu Xunge shook her head: "Let nature take its course. If Liang Pozhou's resurrection would destroy Mi Yasi's body, then so be it. If not..."
**Chapter 279: Don’t Hate Yourself**
She admitted that Liang Pozhou was right; her caution and rationality were sometimes just another form of cowardice. But the gap in strength was there—Mi Yasi had lived for who knows how many years, was a member of the sea demon royal family, and had been plotting for years. She currently lacked the ability to confront him head-on.
Moreover, those materials were too strange. Although they sounded precious and high-end, she had seen them all at the auction house. They were expensive, but all could be bought with gold coins...
It wasn’t that they had to be as rare as dragon blood moon sand, but to evolve an S-level gift, were these really the materials used, even ones that Hufflepuff had never heard of?
To put it another way, she had already secured two SS-level divine gifts and one A-level gift during the special period of the Zelan invasion, thanks to her Thief God gift. She had already pushed the Thief God gift to its limits.
It was great that the Thief God gift could upgrade, but if the cost was her own sacrifice, she would rather miss this opportunity.
Regarding divine gifts, Yu Xunge didn’t explain in detail to Tu Lan, only saying that their current strength wasn’t enough.
Tu Lan wasn’t angry; instead, she patted Yu Xunge’s ear and comforted her: "You decide what to do."
For a moment, Yu Xunge felt a bit disappointed. She realized she hoped Tu Lan would scold her awake. Liang Pozhou's words had left a mark in her heart.
Once, Liang Yuchuan had said she was like a warrior, unbreakable by anything. But after her rebirth, she found that she was merely unbreakable; she was, as Liang Pozhou said, bound by shackles...
Those shackles had many pleasant names: caution, rationality, restraint.
While they protected her, they also caused her to lose certain things.
Tu Lan sensed her emotions, dropped her disguise, and flew in front of Yu Xunge, looking into her eyes as she said, "The Holy Grail told me that even the calmest heart will eventually be ignited by something, it’s just a matter of when. Don’t hate yourself; you’re doing great. You just haven’t been ignited yet."
Yu Xunge paused, unsure how to respond to Tu Lan. After a long moment, she suppressed the warmth and lump in her throat, forcing a bright smile: "If there ever is a day when I get ignited, it will definitely be because of you."
It was a joke, a hasty remark from someone cold-hearted, unsure how to respond to warmth.
But Tu Lan replied very seriously, "Okay, I’ll work hard."
Yu Xunge patted Tu Lan’s head firmly, saying nothing more, and didn’t waste time in indecision.
Mi Yasi's remains were also in the deep sea. Following the coordinates given by Liang Pozhou, she headed straight for the destination. On the way, she sent a private message to her grandmother, Shen Yushi, asking for two time-stopping preservation boxes—she had learned about their function during her last visit to B City.
Soon, two large boxes arrived, each containing two servings of noodles.
**[Yu Xunge]: Thank you, Grandma.**
**[Shen Yushi]: Hmm, send some dragon dung over too.**
**[Yu Xunge]: Sure.**
Yu Xunge didn’t delay; her game backpack was already stacked with over ten boxes. She directly sent five boxes over.
After sending the dragon dung, she and Tu Lan took a moment to eat the noodles in their bubble before continuing on.
Mi Yasi's remains were not far from the sunken ship.
After spending enough time together, many habits became contagious. Tu Lan began to overthink as well, saying, "Why doesn’t the future you come back to give you some hints?"
Yu Xunge replied, "Either everything goes smoothly and there’s no need, or I’m dead."
Tu Lan: "…Then remember to come pick me up at Dragon Island a year from now."
Yu Xunge: "Sure, but if you turn into a dragon egg, will the Holy Grail be mad?"
Tu Lan: "No, the Holy Grail said I’m the cutest when I’m a dragon egg. After I hatch, it’s not the same. She really likes me as a dragon egg."
Yu Xunge: "…" The Holy Grail sure knows how to put it delicately; look how happy it made the child.
From a distance, they spotted the corpse of a giant whale. According to the coordinates on the map, this was the location Liang Pozhou had mentioned.
The giant whale's body was intact, as if it had just recently fallen.
At the sight of the whale's corpse, Yu Xunge's **Malice Detector** began to vibrate wildly.
She didn’t approach too closely; she neither cut open the whale from afar to search for the remains nor thought of entering the whale's mouth to find Mi Yasi. Upon seeing the whale, she directly took out **The Big World, The Small Me** and aimed it at the whale.
One minute later, the giant whale shrank to the size of a car. Yu Xunge moved a bit closer and further reduced its size. She didn’t want to shrink it all at once, but being in the deep sea made her worry about losing it.
She approached step by step, shrinking it step by step, with Tu Lan keeping a close watch the whole time. Finally, when the whale's body was reduced to the size of a bun, Yu Xunge quickly moved in, covered it with a preservation box, sealed the lid, and inserted the bottom to secure it, all without ever touching it.
She employed the top-notch techniques she had used back home to catch cockroaches.
Ah, the self-loathing from earlier felt like a dream.
To be honest, this method of operation was her comfort zone...
Why should one step out of their comfort zone? Isn’t it nice to be comfortable?!
After securing the preservation box, Yu Xunge searched the area, digging a deep pit at the coordinates. Then she swam up close to the surface, confirming there were no other special objects before returning to the sunken ship where Liang Pozhou was.
She didn’t wake Liang Pozhou, nor did she step into the cabin. Instead, she stood outside, leaning against the door frame, took out **The Big World, The Small Me**, aimed it at Liang Pozhou's crystal coffin, shrank the coffin, and used a shadow shift to quickly cover it with another preservation box.
With the two old treasures in tow, she and Tu Lan headed home, using the teleportation array to arrive in Zelan.
Tu Lan asked, "Where are we going? To Dragon Island?"
After reluctantly downing a bottle of **Golden Killer**, Yu Xunge shook her head. Now that Tu Lan was with her, if she brought every little thing back to Dragon Island for the big dragon to solve, what would Tu Lan's elders think? It was better to handle the dragon scale matter herself.
After changing her outfit to disguise herself as a goblin, she had Tu Lan disguise herself as something resembling a little bear cookie and crawl into her pocket. After rolling three gold coins, she didn’t rush to trade with Liang Pozhou. Instead, she first visited the auction house to buy a type of dandelion that could temporarily block information transmission.
Then she found Hufflepuff and bought a master-level memory stone from her. This type of stone allowed the user to propose a concept and erase a person's memories related to that concept.
She wanted to erase Liang Pozhou's memories of her after he got to know her, but considering Mi Yasi's existence, she thought it would be safer to completely wipe out any memories related to the Thief God. Otherwise, just clearing the answers without erasing the reasoning clues would be no different from letting Liang Pozhou play the reasoning game all over again.
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