Chapter 152: Confrontation
“I need living accommodations that aren’t too secluded. They could be near the commercial district, and hopefully are in one of the wealthier areas. I also need someone to buy all of my food and living supplies for me.”
Su Chen went straight to the point as soon as he entered the embassy.
“As you command,” the person replied respectfully. “Do you have any other requests for us?”
“Not right now. You should go take care of those tasks for now. Find me a temporary room if you can, and I will wait for you there…… Oh, right, if you could also help me buy some Origin Crystals, that would be great — the more the better. To make it easier, you can take some of these Origin Tools I have on me to use as trade fodder.” As Su Chen spoke, he pulled out a bunch of Origin Tools.
His hands were currently filled with these kinds of weapons, but in turn he lacked resources, especially Origin Crystals.
However, the diplomat was obviously stunned when he saw the Origin Tools that Su Chen had brought out. “Grade Four Origin Tools? Isn’t that a bit too high of a grade to sell? Are you completely out of lower quality ones? If we try to sell these tools that you’ve provided through the market, they will probably attract quite some attention. Also, you have so many of them……”
Su Chen replied, “These are the lowest quality ones I have.”
The diplomat had originally thought that he was dealing with a human caught in dire straits, but now, it seemed that this person was actually incredibly wealthy.
After showing Su Chen to one of the rooms inside the embassy, the diplomat took the Origin Tools and left in a hurry.
Just before he left, however, Su Chen suddenly called out, “Right, can you also help me and buy a few fish?”
“Fish?” The diplomat was stunned by the request.
“Yes. Make sure they’re alive and healthy,” Su Chen clarified with a faint smile.
The diplomat nodded his head, still in a daze.
Now that he was alone in the room, Su Chen pulled out the Origin Bone Scepter and began to make predictions about the current situation.
The Origin Bone Scepter was probably the most crucial trump card that Su Chen had. He had relied on it to avoid many accidents from occurring.
As long as any important individual was involved in what he wanted to predict, the cost would become exponentially higher. But if he was only made predictions about himself, then the cost would be lower. So, why not try to peer into the future and try to search for some simple answers to help him out of his current predicament?
For instance, Su Chen’s first question seemed wholly unrelated to his situation. He asked, “What am I going to have for breakfast tomorrow?”
A simple question, and the Origin Bone Scepter gave him an equally simple answer — a kind of food unique to the Harpies, Clear Porridge.
When he saw that it was Clear Porridge, Su Chen’s expression relaxed slightly.
The fact that it was Clear Porridge indicated that, most likely, no accidents were going to take place between now and tomorrow morning.
This was one of the tricks that Su Chen had come up with to bypass direct questions yet still receive useful answers.
It was harder to make predictions about big events, but predictions about himself were much easier to do.
This question about breakfast was a perfect example.
He had made a simple inquiry about his breakfast the next morning. Different circumstances would result in different breakfasts, so he was able to extrapolate from this simple insight into the future to guess at what might happen.
“When will the fish I am raising die?”” Su Chen asked.
An image appeared on the surface of the altar. It appeared that, on an afternoon three days from now, the fishes would finally go belly-up.
“Three days? It’s actually only three days?” Su Chen frowned.
The dead fish indicated that trouble would come knocking, and the fact that they had all died meant that his identity had been discovered. This was actually quite a simple question — Su Chen had decided in advance to only kill the fish when his identity was revealed.
The cost of making a simple prediction like this was exceptionally low.
However, this time period of three days still surprised Su Chen.
Kelesda had the ability to lock onto his position. Why would his pursuit have suddenly slowed down by this much?
Unfortunately, Su Chen’s method of questioning could only yield incredibly simple answers, and uncovering exact details would be much harder to do.
As such, Su Chen had no way of actually figuring out how Kelesda was tracking his position, and he similarly had no way of figuring out who the person scheming against him was.
There was definitely a problem connecting all this together!
Unfortunately, relying on peripheral questions made it nearly impossible to figure out the exact details of what was going to take place.
“It seems that I need to ask some more complicated questions,” Su Chen muttered.
The more details he wanted to know, the more complicated the answer would be.
Thankfully, Su Chen’s consciousness crystal meant that he wouldn’t forget about an answer after seeing it.
The real problem was that the more complex predictions were even more likely to yield inaccurate information, meaning that issues were more likely to arise.
For instance, Su Chen was entirely capable of raising these fish to determine his own safety. However, who was to say that the fish wouldn’t die on their own? If the fish were going to just die on their own, and that was the scene that Su Chen had seen in the Origin Bone Scepter, it was entirely possible that Su Chen would make a wrong decision.
By the same principle, not every location had Clear Porridge. What if Su Chen decided to head to a different town that didn’t have Clear Porridge in the morning?
In any case, answers obtained via these general living habits were easily distorted, even if they were true. Su Chen needed to be cognizant of this fact.
Regardless, this roundabout approach did allow him to clarify some things about the predictions and draw some basic conclusions.
Su Chen didn’t know about the conversation that had taken place in the Perpetual Daylight Palace and that the Zhu Clan was currently in mortal danger, but he could sense that something was definitely up.
“Something isn’t right. My opponent is stronger than I expected. It’s definitely not Kelesda or Serene Dream Lotus Crown, so it must be the majestic Eternal Night,” Su Chen muttered to himself.
Eternal Night was able to pinpoint Su Chen as his primary suspect, but Su Chen was just as able to determine the source of the greatest threat to him.
Even though he didn’t know what the exact threat might be, he could at least tell where it was coming from.
He had to admit that Eternal Night’s abilities were quite impressive if he was able to put so much pressure on Su Chen even as the Desolate Beast’s attack loomed.
“Three days later…… What’s going to happen three days later? Why are they waiting until then to attack?” Su Chen couldn’t figure it out.
Su Chen tried to make a prediction about what would happen three days later, but received no answer.
“So the situation will suddenly change three days from now? And even you can’t clearly see what’s going to happen?” Su Chen finally understood the flow of the situation.
But this only made Su Chen’s desire to do battle even stronger.
It had been a long time since he had last felt this exhilarated. How could he pass up an opportunity like this?
Su Chen mulled the situation over in his mind repeatedly as the consciousness crystal came whirring to life. Countless possibilities surfaced in his mind before being eliminated just as quickly as he considered them all carefully.
But no matter what kind of possibility he considered, the image from the Origin Bone Scepter remained unclear. In other words, Su Chen hadn’t yet managed to find the root of the problem.
“What am I missing?” Su Chen inspected the problem repeatedly in his mind.
If he were Eternal Night, how much would he have deduced about his own identity, and what plans would he have laid in place?
He put himself in Eternal Night’s position and continued hypothesizing bitterly. Gradually, an idea began to surface in his mind.
“Could it be?” Su Chen stood up in shock.
He hurriedly activated the Origin Bone Scepter. This time, he wasn’t didn’t ask about himself, but rather about another person.
“I want to know where Zhu Xianyao will be in two days time.”
The Origin Bone Scepter revealed an image of a massive flying boat. Zhu Xianyao was standing at the front of the boat, gazing off into the distance.
Even though it wasn’t immediately obvious where she was, the direction of the sun clearly indicated the direction that she was flying in. She was heading toward Sky City.
“Not good!” Su Chen trembled.
He hurriedly reached out to Patelocke. “Patelocke, can you get into contact with Zhu Xianyao?”
“That’ll be a bit troublesome. I’ve only set up direct communications with you,” Patelocke replied.
“Think of a way to contact her. Don’t let them get to Sky City!” Su Chen said hurriedly.
“She’s going to Sky City? Now?” Patelocke was stunned. “Is this a coincidence? Or is there some other reason?”
“I don’t know.” Su Chen shook his head as he explained, “I can’t confirm anything right now, but she definitely wouldn’t come here for no reason…… Eternal Night, you really have some guts!”
“If that’s the case, then it might already be too late to try and contact her,” Patelocke said bluntly.
Su Chen fell silent.
There were messenger stations set up at fixed distances between Sky City and Liaoye Country. This allowed news and information to be transmitted back and forth incredibly quickly. However, this system was not often used because of how expensive it was. Obviously, Su Chen wouldn’t be able to use this setup either.
In other words, Zhu Xianyao would already be on her way by the time Su Chen got into contact with her.
When he realized this, Su Chen’s expression sank.
“I must immediately leave and go save Zhu Xianyao.” Su Chen started making preparations to leave.
However, just as he was about to leave, he suddenly stopped. “What if they already have their eyes on me? Eternal Night will definitely know when I leave this place, and he might even attack Zhu Xianyao ahead of schedule because of it.”
Patelocke advised, “You must stay calm and composed. Your identity hasn’t been exposed yet. He’s probably just making some preliminary moves for now .”
When he heard this, Su Chen’s eyes lit up. “You mean…… Eternal Night is just testing the waters?”
“I will try to think of a way to contact Zhu Chenhuan and get him to save them, but you should prepare for the worst case scenario and also try to think of another way to remedy the situation.”
“Another way to remedy the situation, huh?” The consciousness crystal continued to churn out a number of possibilities.
Under normal circumstances, Su Chen would have had a hard time figuring out how to resolve the situation.
Thankfully, he was not under normal circumstances.
The threat of the Thousand Poisons Toad was becoming ever clearer. Even the most powerful city on the continent would be forced to scramble when dealing with a Desolate Beast.
This would give him an opportunity.
“Fine then! Eternal Night, let’s have ourselves a battle and see who’s more talented!” Su Chen declared coldly.
