Chapter 435 - 227: Crowned King

Chapter 435: Chapter 227: Crowned King

"Strange cases." In a flash, Feng Bei grasped his plan. "You want to do the same thing he’s doing? Find Mystics to preemptively avoid the Ghostly Realms where large numbers of Human Souls might gather?"

"Exactly."

Zheng Xiu chuckled. In reality, besides his hobby of "collecting" them, this plan would kill two birds with one stone. The [Prisoner] Path required clearing a Ghostly Realm to advance. While the Cannibal Painting wasn’t a Ghostly Realm in the truest sense, the [Prisoner] Path had still been promoted after the experience in the World in the Painting.

One, it would thwart Zhu’s plans. Two, it would advance his Path.

This was also why, after the Great Emperor suggested he become the second Night Lord, Zheng Xiu had mulled it over for a few days before deciding to go with the flow and take on the thankless task.

This "hot potato" might have been too much for anyone else, but for him, it was just right—a meal he could actually sink his teeth into.

When Feng Bei heard Zheng Xiu’s plan, she understood the dangers involved—especially since it meant standing against Zhu, who had lived for a thousand years. But Zheng Xiu was right. Zhu didn’t know what they had experienced in the painting, nor that the two of them now had some insight into his origins and goals. This was a chance to get a step ahead of Zhu and seize the initiative.

"But... is this really the right thing to do?" Feng Bei closed her eyes, hiding the sorrow she couldn’t bear to show. She now understood that all the strange cases in the Common World seemed to be happening because she had survived twenty years ago.

If "Zheng Shan" hadn’t saved her back then, none of this would be happening.

From a certain point of view, what Zhu was doing wasn’t wrong.

From now on, more innocent people would die.

"Sigh."

Zheng Xiu had known this girl was kind-hearted ever since he’d met her as Little Feng Bei. If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t have felt compelled to warn a few strangers to flee Baili Village after everything that had happened there.

"You’ve fallen into a mental trap." Zheng Xiu squeezed Feng Bei’s hand and took out a clean sheet of paper. He drew a simple picture on it: a horse-drawn carriage and two paths. On one path were five people, and on the other, there was one.

"Let me ask you this," he said. "Imagine you’re driving this carriage, but the horse goes mad and bolts. There are two paths ahead. Both the group of five and the single person are tied up and can’t move. Do you choose to run over the five people, or the one person?"

Feng Bei froze, her slender eyebrows furrowing in thought.

After a moment of consideration, she realized she couldn’t make a choice.

Zheng Xiu didn’t let Feng Bei agonize over it for too long. It was the kind of question that had a different answer for every person.

Right in front of her, he tore the simple drawing in half, ripping through the blank space between the carriage and the six people.

Feng Bei watched him, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"The point isn’t the choice he gives you. It’s the choice *you* make."

Zheng Xiu smiled. "This whole experience with Zhu has left you with only two options in your mind: you live, or the Common World has peace. But the truth is, I can create more options. I can lift the carriage right off the ground. You could smash the carriage and horse to bits."

"So-called ’choices’ are meaningless in the face of absolute power. I’ve told you before, none of this is your fault."

’It’s the fault of the times.’

Feng Bei’s eyes brightened. She nodded emphatically, her heart touched. "I understand now."

Feng Bei let out a breath, her resolve hardening as the tension in her brow dissipated. She began counting on her fingers. ’There’s me, the Monk, Yin Qingqing, Sun Erming, and... the Orange Cat?’ In any case, Zheng Xiu had already found several Mystics, and any one of them could be Zhu’s next target. But if Zheng Xiu gathered them all around him and formed an impenetrable circle, Zhu would have no way to make a move.

It was a viable plan.

"Oh, right. The Great Scholar, Ximen Bei." Zheng Xiu suddenly recalled another suspected Mystic in the city. When he had used his [Evil Child] Incarnation to plagiarize Ximen Bei’s trashy romance novel, his [Scholarship] Attribute had shot up like a rocket—it was fucking insane how fast it grew.

Back then, he had suspected Ximen Bei was a hidden master of a Path. Now, it seemed he wasn’t just a master—he might even be a natural-born [Scholar].

’I’ll have to find time to pay him a visit.’

Anyone who could write a bizarre, cuckoldry-filled masterpiece like *Lanxin Ruomeng* in this day and age was surely no ordinary person.

It was just that with so many other things going on lately, the matter had slipped Zheng Xiu’s mind.

With his course of action decided, Zheng Xiu had another thought. He picked up the little wooden fish from the corner of his desk and headed outside.

After searching for a while, he found it. The sun was brilliant, and the Orange Cat was lounging lazily in the courtyard, sunbathing.

Zheng Xiu tiptoed over to the Orange Cat.

The Orange Cat didn’t stir, but its ears perked up.

Zheng Xiu chuckled mischievously. He dangled the little wooden fish by its red string, swinging it back and forth in front of the Orange Cat.

At first, the Orange Cat ignored him, seemingly cursing him out under its breath. But Zheng Xiu didn’t give up; he kept at it. After a bit more teasing, the cat finally reacted. It opened its eyes and swiped a paw at the wooden fish.

"Whoops, you can’t have it!"

Zheng Xiu was quick on the uptake, snatching the wooden fish away. The Orange Cat’s eyes went wide. It stuck its sexy cat butt high in the air and let out a low whirring sound from its throat.

’No matter how strange you are, you’re still just a cat. And you have to follow the rules. Isn’t the number one rule for cats getting teased?’

And so, Zheng Xiu began to play with glee.

This went on for half a month.

Wooden fish, wooden horses, wooden dogs—Zheng Xiu carved a whole collection of little trinkets during this time, dangling them all in the Orange Cat’s face.

He even had the Second Lady knit an assortment of colorful yarn balls, made especially for teasing the cat.

Over that half-month, many people in the Zheng Mansion were treated to the amusing sight of their master teasing the Orange Cat with all sorts of little trinkets, making it leap and pounce all over the place.

And just as Zheng Xiu was seen by others as neglecting his duties, lost in his obsession with teasing the cat...

...a series of unsettling events were quietly unfolding in the city—events that became more terrifying the more one thought about them.

Scarface Liu, once a common Prison Guard, had first been promoted to Prison Director. Then, in the blink of an eye, he skipped several ranks to become the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue—the very position left vacant by Shi Wentong, who had died tragically many years before.