Capital City, Imperial Palace, the rear of Zichen Hall.
Wearing the court robes of the crown prince, Li Zhai walked alone through the dark subterranean tunnel.
This was once the place where the Realm Emperor and Xiao Suo conspired. Now, remodeled by the priests, it served as the dungeon holding the Realm Emperor himself.
Li Zhai's body had just recovered. With the help of the current "Realm Emperor," he had fused with the superior element, the Hundred Refinements Bell, and he felt better than ever before.
Yet as he came alone to see his royal father, his emotions were entirely conflicted.
Finally, he reached the place where the Realm Emperor was imprisoned.
It was a simple, square cage.
The Realm Emperor, now so old he was little more than skin and bones, sat slumped against the wooden bars.
This cage had also been modified by the priests to sustain life.
Li Zhai stepped up to the cage, his line of sight exactly level with the seated Realm Emperor.
The Realm Emperor lifted his drooping eyelids, staring at Li Zhai with cloudy gray eyes.
"Child, you have come to see me."
Li Zhai thought he could maintain his composure, but the moment the Realm Emperor spoke, his restraint shattered.
His lips trembled. "I just found out, none of us are your children!"
The corners of the Realm Emperor's mouth twitched into a faint smile. "You did not know, but the priests all did. Besides, if you had not become imperial princes and princesses, you would have died in some unknown corner of the Wizard World long ago."
Li Zhai slapped his palm against the bars, but they did not budge.
"You raised us like Gu insects, fattening us up only to feed your ambition!"
The Realm Emperor slowly closed his eyes. "Yes, and who would have thought that what I raised in the end would turn out to be so useless."
Li Zhai swayed, finally seeing his royal father's true face.
Perhaps because he had believed the Realm Emperor was his father for as long as he could remember, growing up under his care, he had always maintained a deep, filial affection for the man—even fully aware of the dark struggles within the palace.
Yet now, even that final shred of affection was shattered.
He stepped backward. The lantern in his hand swayed, and in the flickering firelight, the Realm Emperor's silhouette looked like a monster draped in human skin.
"I came here to tell you—Li Fu and Li Yan are both dead. As for Li Yuan, once he reaches the Nine Heavens Sea, he will die in battle. So whoever you still hope to rely on, it is useless. I... I will be the next Realm Emperor."
Li Zhai's gaze grew firm once again.
"I no longer need your acknowledgment, Father!"
Having nothing left to say to the Realm Emperor, he turned and walked away from the cage.
Behind him, the Realm Emperor's low, hoarse voice sounded out, "Heheheh... and you—will you be able to resist the temptation?"
Li Zhai lowered his head and frowned. In the end, he did not look back, striding straight outward.
The subterranean tunnel was dim and long.
The rough walls around him were briefly illuminated before quickly fading back into darkness.
Suddenly, Li Zhai stopped in his tracks.
Just ahead and to the side, he faintly spotted an object that was definitely not a wall.
He raised his lantern, wanting to see it more clearly.
Suddenly, a face appeared on the right side of the lantern!
The orange-red glow and grayish-black shadows formed what looked like a mask of a face.
"Who is playing tricks!" Startled at first, Li Zhai quickly grew extremely furious.
He knew the white-robed priests were busy right now, and none of them would have the twisted humor to come out and scare him.
Did the black-robed Xiao Suo or the Realm Emperor have other accomplices?
Li Zhai immediately manifested the superior element he had just fused with, the Hundred Refinements Bell.
Yet when that face turned toward him, Li Zhai suddenly recognized him.
It was a face so ordinary one would forget it instantly. Yet because it was so ordinary, Li Zhai suddenly realized who he was.
"Xiao... Xiao—"
The newcomer raised an index finger to his lips, the silver patterns on the edge of his sleeve highly distinct.
"Shh—"
His voice was extremely pleasant to the ear, making Li Zhai even more certain of the man's identity.
The black-robed priest, Xiao Suo!
But hadn't he already been killed by several white-robed priests?
Surrounded by multiple priests, they had invoked Wizard Lord Lei Ting to directly destroy his physical body and divine soul. Li Zhai had even seen Xiao Suo's extracted Wizard Embryo Fragment.
Unfortunately, it was the fragment of a black-robed priest and needed to be processed. Even if it were processed, it would never be given to Li Zhai to let him become a priest—
Li Zhai could not move, but many thoughts had already flashed through his mind.
"You do not have the talent to become a priest." The seemingly intact Xiao Suo spoke in a very soft voice, at the volume of sharing a secret, "So, do you want to play a game with me?"
"What?" Li Zhai had opened his mouth intending to cry for help, but he spoke words he had not expected.
"Rebirth through a borrowed body."
Li Zhai's eyes widened.
Xiao Suo smiled.
The Shadow World.
Li Ban woke up.
Right now, his body in the Wizard World was temporarily being watched over by Shi Ming.
Shi Ming assumed Li Ban had been injured in the battle against the black-robed priest, so he set his anger aside and told Li Ban to rest and recover.
Li Ban let the Silver Kingfisher out to keep watch. With dragon qi protecting his body, he could lie back in peace and sleep all the way to the Unreturning Place.
After Li Ban woke up, he stepped outside and saw Nana.
She looked a bit more anxious than she had the past two days.
"Did something happen?" Li Ban asked. He had been occupied dealing with the black-robed priest and had not checked in on the Shadow World for quite some time.
"Priest Ban?" Nana stood up in pleasant surprise, then reined in her excitement. "Priest Huangzhi has come by frequently to check on you recently. We kept telling him you were still resting, so he went to discuss the 'Trojan' bullets with Priest Zhong Ye. But Priest Zhong Ye said it would be best to consult with you before making any decisions."
Li Ban nodded. These matters directly involved him, so it was normal for Priest Zhong Ye to want his input.
——
"Alright, I will go see Priest Zhong Ye now. By the way, how are things with the reader?"
Nana's eyes widened, and she spoke with complete confidence. "I loaded the newest algorithm, and its reading capabilities have leveled up again. Would you like to test it out now?"
Li Ban really wanted to test it out, but considering that Priest Zhong Ye and the others had already been waiting for him for several days, he decided to see the two priests first. He went to Priest Zhong Ye's room and saw Ah She massaging his limbs.
Priest Zhong Ye's body was deteriorating by the day, and because he had been immobile for so long, his muscles had somewhat atrophied.
"Ah She, please step out for a moment." Li Ban walked over and sat down near Priest Zhong Ye.
"Right away, Priest Ban."
In the past, Ah She might have looked to Priest Zhong Ye for instruction, but now, she simply pulled the blanket up for him and left the room.
This fluid response also showed that Li Ban's authority here was no less than Zhong Ye's.
Once Ah She closed the door, Zhong Ye waited for Li Ban to speak.
Li Ban raised his hand and placed a small box on the armrest of Zhong Ye's wheelchair.
Zhong Ye looked down and slowly opened the rustic little wooden box.
Seeing what was inside, his eyes abruptly widened.
"This is—"
"A Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit." Li Ban smiled. This was one of the five Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruits Li Fu had traded him. "Massage only treats the symptoms, not the root cause. Only by absorbing genuine spiritual rhinoceros can your body truly recover."
"No. This is too important. Having this in the Trash Realm is equivalent to gaining several extra years of life." Zhong Ye shook his head, though his eyes remained fixed on the Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit.
He could not help it. In a world devoid of spiritual rhinoceros, a Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit was as precious as life itself.
To Priest Zhong Ye, this was likely part of a stash Li Ban had brought from his previous world. Use one, and there would be one less.
It was also the most vital source of emergency energy for the rest of Li Ban's life.
But as for him, Zhong Ye... even if he nourished his body with this Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit and lived another five or six years, what difference would it make?
In the end, wouldn't he still return to the earth as a handful of yellow soil?
Li Ban, on the other hand, still had decades or even centuries of life ahead of him. If he was lucky, he might even have the chance to leave the Trash Realm.
Despite the immense reluctance and sorrow in his mind, Priest Zhong Ye summoned tremendous willpower to close the box and set it on the nearby table.
"This item can only realize its highest value if it remains in your hands."
Li Ban smiled, leaving the little box sitting quietly on the table.
"Value is not calculated like that."
Without giving Zhong Ye a chance to argue, Li Ban brought up the "Trojan" bullets.
"—If we only use these bullets ourselves, they will not have much effect, and it will be too conspicuous. We would easily be targeted. My thought is to let them covertly flow into the market. As long as the channels are reliable, it does not matter even if they flow into Trash City."
Li Ban was not afraid of their own machines being hit by friendly fire from the "Trojan" bullets.
With him around, he could retract the effects of the Virus element, or use the "Tamper Command" to fix the malfunctioning machines.
Li Ban could actually have used the "Tamper Command" to manipulate the reader too.
But he had not dared to risk it.
After all, the reader needed to be in intimate contact with the memory cards.
If anything went wrong, his lead would be severed.
Priest Zhong Ye felt the same way.
If their own team used the "Trojan" bullets, they would very likely trigger a targeted investigation from Trash City.
"We just have to be careful with the sales, or it will be easy for someone to trace them back to us."
"Let Luca, Ah She, and the others handle those details. We can also bring Priest Huangzhi's team into it. They already know about it anyway; if we want them to keep quiet, we have to tie our interests together."
Having finished discussing the "Trojan" bullets, Li Ban brought up the most important matter: the "rift expedition."
"I am ready to enter the rift and explore. Guarding this Trash Realm that has been drained of spiritual rhinoceros will hardly bring us a future. Although entering the rift is a risk, since I have a Realm-Breaking Stone, I think it is a risk worth taking. But I will need you to help guard the rift, Priest Zhong Ye, which might require you to use some spiritual rhinoceros."
"I have no problem doing that, of course. It is just—" Priest Zhong Ye hesitated, ultimately swallowing his words of dissuasion.
If Li Ban could find suitable resources in the world on the other side of the rift, it would not only benefit the priests, but it could also be of great help to the Alliance members.
"Just... you must be careful, Priest Ban."
Li Ban earnestly took Priest Zhong Ye's warning to heart.
A day later, news arrived from Priest Huangzhi.
A rift had appeared.
Li Ban and Zhong Ye set out immediately, meeting up with Priest Huangzhi at the base's entrance.
This was not the first time a rift had appeared near the base.
But the last time it happened, Li Ban had been busy in the Wizard World and had no time to come over, so he could only miss it.