Thriller Night Talk

Chapter 169: More surprises

Translator-Rhapsodite

Editor-PerpetualMreow, Proofreader-adjective

Wei Fuyuan and Jiang Nan’an both showed strong interest in Bei Quan’s proposal to “try a different approach”.

“Tell us, tell us!” Jiang Nan’an’s mischievous spirit was burning brightly.

“What do we do next?”

“It’s simple,” Bei Quan replied.

“No matter who created the ‘Tianyuan City’, all we have to do is disrupt their arrangement.”

Then, Bei Quan pointed out the loophole he had discovered earlier.

“Do you remember Master Tianyuan’s reaction to when we entered the main hall?”

Wei Fuyuan furrowed his brows and carefully recalled, “Didn’t he say something like ‘welcome’?”

“At that time, he said ‘Welcome to you all’,” Bei Quan reminded.

“However, it seems that he originally intended to say ‘you’, and the ‘all’ was added later.”

Jiang Nan’an blinked, “What does that mean?”

Bei Quan laughed and said, “This means that Master Tianyuan, or rather, the creator of Tianyuan City, had no idea that the three of us would enter together.”

Then, Bei Quan carefully explained his analysis to Wei Fuyuan and Jiang Nan’an.

Regardless of who the true creator of “Tianyuan City”was, it’s clear that they can’t control the entire world at all times.

True power, like Bei Quan’s master’s: who is the current Lord of Zhu Ling Secret Realm:? powerful spiritual consciousness that could cover the entire realm. Anyone entering or leaving the realm would be sensed, so it would be impossible to not know whether it was one person or three people who had entered.

When Ah Song was able to leave the Zhu Ling Secret Realm with the Lost God Banner and his own Life Lamp, it was after a long period of careful planning and taking advantage of the limitations of his master’s spiritual consciousness during the ceremony.

However, the situation in Tianyuan City was very different from the Zhu Ling Secret Realm.

When they had just entered the secret realm, a mechanical golden retriever with four spider legs had come out to greet them.

That golden retriever referred to them as “you”, as if they were only seen as one entity.

Afterward, Jiang Nan’an asked the mechanical golden retriever for Master Tianyuan’s name. The retriever asked him to rephrase the question, and it was only after Jiang Nan’an used a more straightforward expression that the retriever provided an answer.

Even someone like Bei Quan, who wasn’t very familiar with computers or online gaming, could easily see the issue.

The mechanical dog seemed like an NPC in a beginner’s guide game, responding to everything as if it were a pre-programmed artificial intelligence.

It couldn’t distinguish whether the visitors were one person or three people, and could only answer questions based on the keywords provided by the questioner.

And Master Tianyuan’s reaction in the main hall was equally interesting. He didn’t have enough control over the “divine consciousness” of the entire realm, so when they first entered the hall, Tianyuan, as usual, used the singular pronoun. But then he realized that there were actually three people, and only at that crucial moment did he substitute the word “all.”

This proved two things.

Firstly, Grandmaster Tianyuan was not a pre-programmed character like the mechanical golden retriever. He would promptly respond to what happened in Tianyuan City.

Secondly, it was highly likely that the consciousness of the creator, at least a part of it, must exist within the realm of Tianyuan City in order to interact with the consciousness of others and perform “hypnosis”.

“Now it seems that the creator probably appears in the form of the Grandmaster Tianyuan? to preach statements and hypnotize the believers who enter his realm, making them believe they are cultivating immortality.”

Bei Quan smiled, “So now, what we need to do is to break free from the influence of Grandmaster Tianyuan.”

———————-

September 7th, Tuesday, 7:25 in the morning.

It had been exactly one week since they made plans with Bei Quan.

Although the cases of the “Two Pole Gate” and “Tianyuan City” were not yet solved, the [Thriller Night Talk] last Thursday, still aired as usual.

This week, they were lucky to encounter a relatively simple case.

Bei Quan and the others only took four days to successfully find the Hui Gui possessing an accountant.

Fortunately, the case didn’t take too long, so during the day, Bei Quan, Wei Fuyuan, and Jiang Nan’an could busy themselves with investigating the new case, and at night, they could deal with the “Two Pole Gate”, but…

As a college student, Wei Fuyuan was supposed to start school in September.

But since he was in his senior year and currently doing an internship, clever Wei Fuyuan chose to intern at “Sāntúchuān” Broadcasting, solving the problem perfectly.

They had recently woken up from their dreams and were in a very pleasant mood.

After nearly two weeks of investigating the “Two Pole Gate” case, they finally made progress.

Knowing that Grandmaster Tianyuan Daoist’s method involved hypnosis, Bei Quan naturally had more ways to deal with it.

In his dreams, he couldn’t summon the Qingguang Vientiane Brush, but he could prepare the talismans he needed in advance and find a way to “carry” them into the secret realm.

As for the method of carrying, it was a bit funny.

Bei Quan wrote the talismans on the bodies of his two assistants.

Wei Fuyuan and Jiang Nan’an felt like human canvases, taking off their shirts every night and extending their arms for Bei Quan to write the incantations on them.

Bei Quan explained that these are used to gather and focus the spiritual energy, with a calming and wise effect.

Of course, it wasn’t like the more money printed, the better it would be. If it was just the three of them, there was no need for them to write up four arms worth of them.

These talismans were also prepared for the other disciples in Tianyuan City.

In the following week, every night that the three of them entered Tianyuan City, Bei Quan would “take” the pre-written incantations from Wei Fuyuan and Jiang Nan’an’s arms, hold them in his palm, and then discreetly transfer them onto others.

Of course, the simple calming talismans could not completely remove the seals that Grandmaster Tianyuan had placed on those people’s minds, but they could prevent the ones who have been marked with the talismans from being easily influenced by his teachings.

Gradually, the disciples found that their master’s teachings became obscure, difficult to understand, and boring. The enlightening feeling they had experienced a few days ago was completely gone.

Although Grandmaster Tianyuan’s voice remained deep and resonant, reciting scriptures with rhythm and melody, it had lost all its appeal to the audience.

At first, everyone could still bear to listen patiently.

But soon, people couldn’t help but become distracted, daydreaming, and even dozing off in their dreams.

Finally, after listening to the “sacred scriptures” for over half an hour, someone couldn’t bear it anymore and raised their hand to ask a question.

Grandmaster Tianyuan, sitting on the throne, was too engrossed in his lecture to immediately notice the commotion below and continued explaining the meaning of “the great Dao is formless, giving birth to heaven and earth; the great Dao is emotionless, governing the sun and moon.”

“Grand Master!”

The man who raised his hand spoke up.

Wei Fuyuan recognized him.

This was the young man who sat in front of him on the first day, and who was around the same age as himself.

And there was also a slightly younger girl beside him. Judging from their ages and appearances, they should be siblings.

“Grand Master! Grand Master!”

The young man called out twice in a row.

Grand Master Tianyuan stopped.

“……”

He remained silent for a good three seconds before speaking in a deep voice.

“What do you want?”

The young man stood up and respectfully replied, “I have a question to ask the Grand Master.”

Grand Master Tianyuan clearly did not expect this.

This time, he remained silent for even longer.

“Speak.”

Finally, Grand Master Tianyuan coldly uttered a single word, and from his tone, it was clear that he was displeased.

The young man stood upright.

His tone remained very respectful, but the question he posed was quite sharp, “I would like to ask Grand Master, what does ‘Preserve non-being, guard being. Accomplishing in an instant. Return on the wind, blend and unify. One hundred days of spiritual practice’ mean?”

This was a sentence mentioned by Grandmaster Tianyuan earlier, from the “The Supreme Jade Emperor Wonderful Scripture of the Seal of the Heart,” which served as the foundation for the practice of destiny cultivation.

Although Bei Quan practiced the art of talismans and seals, he naturally also understood such foundational scriptures.

And since Grandmaster Tianyuan assumed the role of a master giving a sermon, it was only natural for him to impart knowledge and answer the disciples’ questions effortlessly.

However, the old man on the throne was silent.

After a while, he suddenly shouted, “How dare you!”

Then Grandmaster Tianyuan slammed the table and stood up, “Rebellious disciple, how dare you disturb my sermon!”

After saying that, the old man flicked his sleeve and sent all the disciples below the high platform flying away.

Bei Quan and the others woke up from the dream immediately.

They were expelled from Tianyuan City by the Grandmaster.

After that day, Bei Quan and the others never saw the young man who asked the question, nor his sister.

Bei Quan speculated that those two individuals had been blacklisted by the creator of the dream, prohibiting them from causing any more trouble.

However, even though they got rid of one troublemaker, it didn’t make Tianyuan Grand Master’s sermons go any smoother.

Every night, more and more people expressed doubt about his preaching.

Under the effect of the calming talisman, Grandmaster Tianyuan’s hypnosis no longer affected people’s minds. And when they could think rationally, anyone could sense that something fishy was going on.

As a result, Grandmaster Tianyuan ‘s preaching was frequently interrupted, and he had to expel more and more people.

More importantly, the old man couldn’t disconnect these people’s internet connections in reality, even though he could expel his disobedient disciples from Tianyuan City.

Three days ago, a new post appeared on the anonymous forum’s discussion board.

The poster criticized the “Two Pole Gate” as a scam.

In the first post, not only did they publicly expose the “Tianyuan City” after the “Two Pole Gate,” but they also detailed their own experiences in great detail. In the end, they angrily denounced that all the enlightenment and cultivation were fake, and Grandmaster Tianyuan was just an ignorant fraud who didn’t understand anything…

This post was like a huge stone thrown into a lake, instantly stirring up thousands of waves.

The entire discussion forum had blown up.