Execution, Chen Yi

【Jinhai has come to see you again.】

【He sits high above the clouds, looking down at you with contempt.】

【“Chen Yi, how does it feel to be a prisoner?”】

【The corner of your mouth curls upward.】

【“Great!”】

【“Heh. All you can do is run your mouth. You’re not nearly as spirited as you were back at the Ji family estate.”】

【“Jinhai the Old Ghoul, are you really that idle, Deputy Director? You do nothing but come here every day to check on me.”】

【“How could someone like you possibly understand My Lord’s schemes?”】

【You had actually learned of Jinhai’s plan long ago through “Eavesdropping on Inner Thoughts.”】

【“You deliberately arrested me while leaving Ji Wuqing alone. Wasn’t it all to cast a long line and catch a big fish?

By putting me on display here every day, you’re trying to lure Ji Wuqing into rescuing me.

But how could Wuqing possibly break me out of an execution ground by herself?

She’ll definitely contact the experts of the Tinder Society, perhaps even mobilize the organization’s true strength.

When that happens, you’ll be able to wipe out a large portion of the Tinder Society’s elite in one stroke!”】

【Jinhai nodded expressionlessly.】

【“You have some brains, I’ll give you that. But this is an open scheme. I believe Ji Wuqing can see through it as well, yet she’ll definitely come to save you.

After all, you once saved her, and the people of the Tinder Society place the greatest importance on so-called loyalty. She won’t stand by and watch you die.

Just wait. The day of your execution will be the day these rebels are captured!”】

【You gave Jinhai a mocking laugh.】

【“You’re underestimating Ji Wuqing’s sense of the bigger picture. She’s someone who can sacrifice her own life for the safety of her family. How much more readily would she sacrifice me, an outsider?”】

【Jinhai pointed at you from afar. A mass of interpersonal threads appeared, and he pulled out the one representing Ji Wuqing.】

【On your side, the relationship recorded on that thread was: Close Friend—Ji Wuqing.】

【“To her, you may not necessarily be an ‘outsider.’”】

【Upon hearing this, you raised your voice and shouted toward the surroundings.】

【“Ji Wuqing! Tinder Society! Don’t come to save me! My death won’t matter! No… I mean, it doesn’t matter if I die! I can’t die anyway!!”】

【You weren’t lying.】

【Ever since you acquired “Simulated Clone,” the version of you that entered the simulation was essentially immortal. As long as your true body remained alive, so would you.】

【Jinhai watched you with amusement. He could have made you shut up, but he didn’t.】

【“Idiot. Keep shouting. The more you try to look out for her, the more determined she’ll be to come save you.”】

【You stopped shouting.】

【“Chen Yi, do you think I captured you merely to lure out more rebels from the Tinder Society?”】

【“Go on, then.”】

【“Over the past few years, I’ve seriously investigated your origins. Firelight Star, Fortune Star, and also… the Human Realm, right?”】

【You weren’t surprised that an Immortal King could uncover your background—especially not one who possessed a portion of the universe’s authority.】

【“At first, I thought that as a strange individual who had ascended from the human race, you were the same as ‘them.’ Later, I realized that wasn’t the case, because you don’t understand divine markings.”】

【“‘Them’? People who understand divine markings? Oh, you mean the Ancient Desolate Remnants?”】

【“What I want you to understand is that even if you hadn’t become entangled with Ji Wuqing and the Tinder Society, you would still have been doomed. In fact, you deserve to die even more than Ji Wuqing.”】

【“You mean that, apart from the Ancient Desolate Remnants, any other ascender from the Human Realm who enters your sights will inevitably be eliminated?”】

【“With the Thunder Pool in place, none of you should have been able to ascend in the first place. Who could have known that you would exploit a loophole left by the Ancient Desolate Remnants? Oh, no—in my understanding, you aren’t the only one who slipped through that loophole.”】

【“Who else have you found?”】

【“Want to know? I’ll come chat with you again another day.”】

【Jinhai left.】

【He had deliberately revealed a few pieces of information that interested you, afraid that you might commit suicide before your execution.】

【Although he had prepared many measures to prevent that, he was still worried that the human race might possess some unique trait he didn’t understand.】

【That was fine. It suited you perfectly, since it allowed you to obtain more intelligence.】

【From Jinhai’s words, you came to understand something.】

【From the moment you stepped into the True Realm, you had been walking step by step toward a dangerous cage.】

【As long as you entered the sights of forces such as the Sacred Dragon Society, the Peace Bureau, the Heavenly River Guard, or the Ares Immortal Kingdom, your origins would eventually be uncovered.】

【Once they discovered that you were an ascender from the human race—but not one of the Ancient Desolate Remnants—they would definitely eliminate you.】

【Unless you were willing to hide away for the rest of your life on third-tier or second-tier stars, where the influence of high-level alien forces was relatively weak. Even then, you would merely be reducing the risk of discovery.】

【But that was impossible.】

【You had come to the True Realm to increase your strength. If you didn’t want to grow stronger, you might as well have stayed in the Void Realm.】

【So your current predicament wasn’t because you had once helped A-Dou, nor because you had rescued Ji Wuqing.】

【The identity of a human ascender was already a massive land mine. It was even more dangerous than being the leader of the Tinder Society, like Ji Wuqing.】

【After seeing that Li Wentian, Great Demon, Shen Yang, and the others had met with disaster one after another in the Heavenly River Daily, you understood.】

【They—and the dozens of people who would ascend from the Human Realm over the following decades—would eventually expose your existence after being captured or killed.】

【They might not betray you, but Jinhai’s Law of Interpersonal Indexing could directly reveal their connections to you.】

【As for why you and the Ancient Desolate Remnants were treated differently…】

【The answer was easy to guess.】

【The Ancient Desolate Remnants had certainly pledged unconditional allegiance, and they were extremely loyal dogs.】

【“So next time, I’ll have to disguise my identity properly, avoid revealing my strength unless absolutely necessary, prepare adequate logistical support, and leave myself a way out.”】

【The day of your execution drew closer and closer.】

【When you thought about it, being brought down by an Immortal King wasn’t an unjust way to die.】

【When the day of execution finally arrived, the number of guards at the execution ground had tripled, reaching a full six thousand!】

【Was that a lot less than the army of five hundred thousand that had surrounded the Ji family?】

【There was nothing to be done about that.】

【The execution ground had been set up in the city, at the main marketplace. There simply wasn’t room for that many people.】

【Jinhai’s scheme might have been an open one, but putting the execution ground out in the wilderness would have made his intentions far too obvious.】

【The number of people wasn’t important. The ones Jinhai had transferred here were all officers of the Peace Army, along with the upper echelons of various local forces. Their cultivation started at the Core Formation realm!】

【Not to mention that cultivators of this kind lived for a long time, and their private treasuries were filled with plenty of valuable treasures.】

【And above all, Jinhai himself, an Immortal King, was stationed here.】

【Their combat strength was more than sufficient.】

【“Don’t come. None of you come. Let me die already. Once I’m dead, I’ll get my rewards from the simulation…”】

【You muttered to yourself.】

【“The hour of noon has arrived! Execute him!”】

【As the execution flag flew from the presiding official’s hand, the executioner’s blade came crashing down.】

【“Good. Wuqing, if you want to accomplish great things, you have to be ruthless about certain matters. Keep the bigger picture in mind. Don’t worry about me!”】

【Just as you felt the cold glint of the blade, a flying sword arrived in time.】

【Clang!!】

【The swordlight blazed brighter than the midday sun, and sword qi surged outward, sweeping across the entire city!】

【“Who is it? Wuqing? No, this sword isn’t hers, and these techniques don’t resemble anything she would use. Though they do seem a little like…”】