"How could you possibly know about the Forgetfulness Gu inside Old Master Gu?"
Wen Yaoxin didn't hide anything, her gaze toward Zhong Yi filled with curiosity.
She gave a brief explanation.
Wen Yaoxin's grandfather, Wen Qingyun, was an old friend of Gu Yun's mother.
The Forgetfulness Gu inside Gu Yun was Wen Qingyun's handiwork.
Not long ago, the head of the Wen family sensed that the Forgetfulness Gu was in poor condition and deduced that Gu Yun was seriously ill. He then took the initiative to send Wen Yaoxin to help the offspring of an old family friend.
This also explained a question that had been puzzling Zhong Yi: why Gu Yun hadn't summoned a gu-sorcery doctor to treat Lin Xi.
"Forgetfulness Gu? What does it do?"
Zhong Yi raised an eyebrow and continued asking.
"Just as its name suggests, it can make a person forget certain memories from the past."
Wen Yaoxin answered truthfully.
"Only forgetting memories..."
Zhong Yi frowned. This was much simpler than the kinds of gu worms he had imagined.
This did explain why some of his earlier memories were fragmented and missing.
But it still didn't explain why Gu Yun seemed to be playing the role of someone else all along.
"Is it possible for a person's body to host the soul of another?"
"You jest, Immortal Master... Such gu worms only exist in legends."
Wen Yaoxin shook her head, denying Zhong Yi's idea.
"However..."
"If someone's flesh or hair is used as a medium, guided by sorcery... it can indeed acquire a trace of that person's aura."
Wen Yaoxin thought for a moment and added.
"That's it!"
Zhong Yi nodded excitedly.
With that, everything fell into place.
All he had to do now was restore Old Master Gu's memory, go into his earlier recollections, and plant the seed that would lead to "Going to the Moon Realm." Then the mission would be complete.
"Can the Forgetfulness Gu inside Old Master Gu be removed?"
"Absolutely not."
Wen Yaoxin shook her head without hesitation.
"This soul-binding gu has been with him for too many years. It has already merged into his flesh and blood."
"Well... thank you anyway, Dr. Wen."
Zhong Yi wasn't surprised by the answer. He smiled at Wen Yaoxin and turned back to enter the dream-constructing formation.
"I've found the answer!"
...
...
"Conclusion!"
"When Gu Yun was a child, Wen Qingyun placed a Forgetfulness Gu in him, causing him to lose all memories from before the age of six... and some of Xiao Feng's memories were also mixed in!"
[Conclusion Correct (4/4)]
[You have met the conditions. Would you like to start the next main storyline task?]
"Oh? That means... there are more than just four pieces of evidence?"
Zhong Yi's interest was piqued.
This was the first time he had encountered this kind of deduction gameplay, and he hadn't tired of it yet.
At that moment, his mind was full of the relationship between Gu Yun and Lin Xi. Naturally, he wasn't willing to give up.
"I refuse! Let me continue deducing!"
[You have successfully completed 4 deductions. Would you like a clue hint?]
"Yes!"
Zhong Yi thought for a moment. There wasn't much time left in this main task, so he decided to check the system's hint.
The next moment, his figure was transported to the oldest memory world.
It was the home of Gu Yun, when he was about seven or eight years old.
"Sure enough... All the problems have to do with his mother!"
Zhong Yi sighed.
Gu Yun's mother had only appeared in two scenes so far: on the day Gu Yun married Lin Xi and in the present moment.
"Hmm? This is an earth-dragon skull? What's strange about that?"
Zhong Yi looked puzzledly at the system's hint.
In the courtyard, a massive earth-dragon skull was glowing.
He walked over and examined it. The light came from three circular holes below the tip of the nose horn.
"What... What's the issue here?"
Zhong Yi scratched the back of his head, completely clueless.
[Would you like the next clue hint?]
"Yes."
This time, the light came from inside the room.
Following the light, Gu Yun—or rather, Zhong Yi now inhabiting this memory—walked into Gu Yun's bedroom.
The source of the glowing hint was Gu Yun's bed.
A bunk bed, with two tiers.
Zhong Yi's eyes flew wide open.
A sudden moment of clarity hit him like an epiphany, making every hair on his body stand on end!
The confusion and sense of unreality that had lingered for so long finally found their source!
"So that's it... That's how it is!"
Zhong Yi clapped his hands excitedly, the corners of his mouth trembling slightly as he smiled.
"So, the truth is..."
Just then, the deduction task ended.
[Main Storyline Task Updated:]
[Follow Qin Li'en into the sealed memory world]
Suddenly, Qin Li'en's voice echoed through the dream world:
"Junior Brother Zhong, hurry!"
"I've found a way to enter that memory world!"
...
...
"Will this method... really work?"
Zhong Yi pinched his nose, pointing suspiciously at the squirrel corpse in Qin Li'en's hand.
The two of them had found it on their way here—accidentally crushed under an earth-dragon that had lost control. The corpse was giving off a pungent, rotting smell.
"Do you remember? The smell inside that memory space..."
Qin Li'en reminded him.
"I remember."
Zhong Yi nodded.
That barren memory space. Besides the dark fragments that seemed almost ready to swallow them whole, there was only a stench of decay.
"Hmm... It does smell a bit similar?"
Zhong Yi sniffed the air, vaguely catching on to Qin Li'en's idea.
"You mean using the scent to trigger Gu Yun's recall of that memory?"
"Exactly! While we use sorcery in the dream to break the seal, Dr. Wen on the outside uses the smell as a guide. With a combined effort from both sides, we have a three-in-ten chance of cracking the seal!"
Qin Li'en nodded emphatically.
This was her idea, formulated right after she learned from Wen Yaoxin the reason for Gu Yun's memory loss.
"If it's to fulfill Grandpa Gu's wish... I'm willing to try!"
Wen Yaoxin agreed to Qin Li'en's plan.
She slowly opened her hand. In her palm was a small, greenish gu worm.
"This gu worm can temporarily enhance Grandpa Gu's five senses. Rest assured and proceed!"
"Alright!"
Zhong Yi and Qin Li'en re-entered the dream-constructing formation, calmed their minds, and let their consciousness slowly sink.
In the brief darkness,
a line of text slowly emerged:
[Third Act:]
[They let that light shine on the other lighthouses, and on me.]
Staring at those words, Zhong Yi still didn't have a very clear understanding.
But faintly, he could feel that the lighthouses were far more than what he had seen before...
There must have been something particularly extraordinary that happened.
There had to be!
With that thought, Zhong Yi clenched his fists, both excited and expectant.
He had a hunch,
That from the moment this sealed memory was unlocked,
"Going to the Moon Realm" would definitely be another masterpiece!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ver to a world of cultivation and returned invincible. Modern medicine is child's play compared to elixirs; technological might crumbles before true cultivation. My name is Qin Ning, Earth's sole cultivator!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
