At dusk, a bit of fine snow began to fall from the sky.
The originally bustling streets of Oblivion River Town became deserted. At this moment, only three cultivators wearing straw raincoats and face scarves were still walking on the streets.
The leader, a handsome young man, calmly scanned ahead with his deep purple eyes above the scarf, revealing a hint of coldness.
Beside him, holding his hand, was a girl with amber eyes. When she saw the snowflakes falling from the sky, she reached out and caught one, taking a closer look.
"Brother, look, it's snowing."
"Well, it's already early winter; we've been on the road for almost two months."
Ye Anping looked at his sister's serene eyes, reached out to straighten her slightly crooked hat, then turned to the other side.
Both siblings were used to extreme cold, so a little snow was nothing to fear.
Feng Yu Die, however, wasn't feeling too comfortable; she couldn't even speak clearly. "Yo- Yo- Yo... Young Master Ye, let's, let's find an inn to rest, okay? How come the weather changed as soon as we crossed the border? Why is it so cold in the Southern Region ?"
"Winter in Southern Region is mainly a physical perception..."
?
Ye Anping answered while turning to her, and he was a little surprised to see her trembling.
Was she really so afraid of the cold?
He sighed before taking out a cloak from his storage bag. He swung it open and draped it over her back. "Here, tie it yourself."
Feng Yu Die quickly tied the two red ropes on the collar of her cloak and blinked, smiling sweetly as she said, "Thank you, Young Master Ye~"
Ye Anping was momentarily puzzled. What is she doing? Is she afraid that I will take her spirit stones?
Then, he rolled his eyes and corrected her. "Give thanks like a man would. No blinking and smiling, just say 'Thank you' without any expression."
"Oh!" Feng Yu Die immediately changed expression. "Many thanks!"
"You..."
Ye Anping shook his head slightly, raised his bamboo hat, and looked up at the sky. Seeing that it was almost night and it was foggy, he thought it would be a good idea to get some rest in this town.
Coincidentally, there was an inn in front of them, so he led the two girls there.
The " Oblivion River Inn " plate above the inn's door was now yellow and cracked. It looked like an old inn that had been in business for decades. The waiter and shopkeeper must be quite astute. Therefore, Ye Anping decided to test something, and the group of three crossed the threshold.
"Waiter, we'd like to stay here overnight."
The waiter quickly approached and bowed respectfully. After taking a look at their demeanor, his gaze lingered on Feng Yu Die's face for a while before he awkwardly scratched his head and bowed down. "Apologies, sir. We only have one room available. Would you like this young lady to take the room while I prepare two beds downstairs for you two gentlemen?"
Feng Yu Die wearing men's clothing these past few months turned out to be effective. These waiters were quite observant when it came to recognizing disguises, but they didn't notice anything out of place.
"It's okay. We can sleep together."
?
The waiter was taken aback. Two men and one woman sleeping together?
Seeing his expression, Ye Anping paused and explained, "I meant you should bring us two quilts later. My brother and I will sleep on the floor."
"Oh... I understand, I understand! Please come in..."
In the private room on the second floor, Ye Anping took off his straw raincoat and bamboo hat and called the waiter to bring a pot of hot tea for his sister and Feng Yu Die while he went to the window to look into the distance and sort out their plan one last time.
In the Moon Shadow Sword Sect incident, if he wanted all three young ladies to survive in the end, what he needed to do was raise their mutual goodwill.
In other words, the current state of hostility between each other needed to change into a level of trust where each sister was willing to entrust their back to the other two.
In the game, this event had three value bars:
--- Goodwill between Yun Yiyi and Yun Jiujiu
--- Goodwill between Yun Yiyi and Yun Xi
--- Goodwill between Yun Xi and Yun Jiujiu
The initial values were all "-50", and players needed to increase these three values through different event options.
The game's strategy groups had tried all the combinations of options and found that no matter how they chose, at most two bars could reach "+50", which meant that at least one person would die.
But theoretically, if all three bars went to "+50", all three characters could survive at the end.
And this was his goal.
The matter of "improving goodwill between people" might seem difficult to approach, but in fact, there were only two ways to achieve this:
--- Enjoying good things together and fighting against common enemies.
With these two points in mind, everything becomes clear.
What he had to do was create a situation where all three are facing danger at the same time and have to rely on each other to get out of it. After that, shift the blame to others, take the reward, and run away.
However, to set up a game, one must first enter the game.
With this in mind, Ye Anping turned his head and looked at his sister. He decided to send her into the game first, before Feng Yu Die. Of the three, he was the most worried about her and wanted to smooth the way for her.
In other words, he planned to send his sister to Yun Xi and use her identity as "Yun Tianchong's illegitimate daughter" along with her Leaf Shadow Sword technique to deceive Yun Xi and gain her trust.
Yun Xi had the kindest personality among the three sisters, and Lianxue would not be in danger following her.
However...
The question is, where is Yun Xi now?
Due to the deviation from the game's timeline, he was unsure of Yun Xi's location. If she wasn't in the Moon Shadow Sword Sect, he would have to wait on the sidelines, but for how long?
"It would be great if Brother Liang was here. With his wide network, it shouldn't be a problem to find someone... Heh---"
Ye Anping shook his head and decided to go to the black market himself to find an information dealer. The whereabouts of the young masters from major sects were usually monitored by them in case of emergencies.
But, just at this moment, he saw two cultivators with straw hats and numerous injuries hobbling on crutches toward the inn's entrance.
"Oh, heavens! We're finally here!! I'm exhausted... Waiter!! Waiter! Where is everyone?!"
"Young Miss, why are we so unlucky? When we went to the Dragon House , we encountered an invasion of demonic cultivators, and when we went to the West Island , there was civil unrest, and immediately after crossing the border, we were targeted by robbers..."
"I actually think you're a jinx." The woman glanced at him coldly. "In the Dragon House incident, out of the twelve disciples I brought with me, you're the only one still alive... tsk..."
"Eh? Young Miss, don't say that..."
The woman waved her hand angrily. "I will never take you with me again. By the way, do you still have the ashes of our brothers and sisters? I want to bury them in the sect disciples' graveyard when we get back."
"Of course..." The man touched his storage bag and murmured. "One, two, three, four... ten... Huh? Why is one missing... Wait a minute, let me count again. One, two, three, four... ten. Young Miss! We're missing one?!"
The woman took a deep breath and kicked him fifteen feet away, cursing heartily. "Zhang Yihe!!! Screw you, you bastard!!"
"Ah... umm... Miss, most likely when I killed the bandits just now, I accidentally took out the urn from the storage bag and dropped it somewhere. I'll go back and find it."
"Hiss-huh..." the woman took a deep breath and asked, "...Whose ashes were lost?"
"Qiu... Brother Qiu's."
"Then, why are you still standing there? Go back and look for it!!! Don't come back if you can't find it!! You jinx!!"
"Yes... yes!"
Ye Anping watched the scene on the second floor with bated breath and couldn't believe it. Seeing the disciple named Zhang Yihe running away, he closed the window and turned to look at Feng Yu Die, who was drinking tea and rubbing her hands to warm them. "Feng Yu, you have to do something tonight."
?
Feng Yu Die paused. "What happened with 'Die' (butterfly)?"
"There's no 'butterfly'. You are a man now, you need a new name."
Feng Yu Die glanced at Pei Lianxue and raised her eyebrows. "Oh... What do you want me to do? Does it have something to do with the people who lost the ashes outside?"
"Yun Xi just happens to be here. Go to the mountains tonight and catch a demonic beast, at least level four."
Feng Yu Die pondered for a while. "Oh, I see! Let the demonic beast attack them, and then Sister Pei will make a brilliant appearance and save the day, right?"
"I'm glad you understand."
"But, isn't this too rough? What if it's too abrupt, and they see through it?"
"No, they've been unlucky all along, so this will be just another bad thing. Rather, my sister coming to the rescue will give Yun Xi the feeling that she's finally turned her luck around."
"Oh~"
Pei Lianxue, on the other hand, tried to keep up with her brother's train of thought but couldn't quite catch up. She pouted and pretended to understand, nodding her head. "Oh! Okay!! I see!"
Seeing her like this, Ye Anping came over helplessly and pinched her face. "Do you really understand?"
"I do!"
"Really?"
Pei Lianxue hesitated, remembering what he taught her before -- to ask if she didn't understand. So, she lowered and shook her head slightly. "Not really..."