Yang Jian quickly noticed that Ye Zichen was staring, frozen, at his new friend request. His friends gathered around, but when they saw it, they were stunned too.
“What’s this supposed to mean?”
“Why is he sending you a friend request?”
“He’s friending you? Doesn’t he have any shame?”
Given Pu Jingwan, the Great Sage, and Yang Jian’s response, it was clear all three of them knew the man in question.
“I don’t know either.” Ye Zichen stared at the screen in a daze and shook his head. The verification message was actually rather simple…
“I am Gu Li!”
Four simple words were enough to prove everything.
Gu Li!
After he reunited with An Lu, their rivalry, which they’d shared since their time in the Modern Realm, had finally mellowed somewhat.
But Gu Li’s crimes couldn’t be washed away so easily; certainly not just after what had happened in Nine-tailed Fox territory.
Ye Zichen had spared his life purely because he didn’t want to destroy An Lu’s pure heart. It had nothing to do with Gu Li himself.
And now Gu Li wanted to add him on social media?
As all four of them wondered why Gu Li would send such a request, yet another friend request popped up on Ye Zichen’s screen.
“Big Brother Ye, it’s me, An Lu.”
Although he knew An Lu and Gu Li were together, now that the message came from An Lu, Ye Zichen accepted it without hesitation.
After opening the private chat, he saw that the other party was typing.
“You’ve really got a terrible impression of me, don’t you?”
When he saw the message’s contents, Ye Zichen knew it was from Gu Li.
“Do you have business?”
He wasn’t An Lu, so Ye Zichen naturally felt no need to be friendly. They were just words on a screen, but Ye Zichen trusted that Gu Li could sense the distance they represented.
“I can’t come looking for you just because? You’re my cousin!”
When he saw that, Ye Zichen’s hands froze inexplicably. It wasn’t actually strange for Gu Li to say that, nor was he wrong; Ye Rong was indeed from the Gu Family, and Ye Zichen and Gu Li really were cousins.
But when he thought of everything Gu Li had done, thinking of them as cousins felt rather gross.
“Hah…”
Ye Zichen sent him a cold smile. Before long, he got another response.
“It’s possible that there have been some rather… large misunderstandings between us.”
“That’s not important right now. If you have something to say, say it. If not, don’t use An Lu’s account; it’s nauseating. Gu Li, it’s true that my impression of you has changed after what happened in fox territory, but do you really think I can just let everything you’ve done go?” Ye Zichen’s expression darkened as he sent this message.
“Big Brother Ye.”
Although Gu Li was using An Lu’s account, she was in fact right beside him.
She naturally saw Ye Zichen’s refusal too. She really liked Ye Zichen; he was the one who’d saved her when she was danger, and afterward, even though he clearly detested demons, and even though he knew full well she was a demon, he’d always treated her as if she were his own little sister.
But she loved Gu Li, too. She loved him to her very bones.
She really wanted the two of them to become friends, but reality was cruel. From Ye Zichen’s words, she could sense that her hopes of achieving that dream were fleeting.
“Don’t worry about it; this is my problem.” Gu Li smiled amiably at her and tousled her hair. “I really did cross the line; it’s not surprising that this cousin of mine would act like this.”
He took a deep breath, but he was still smiling. Were Ye Zichen there to see his expression, he would discover that he was far less vicious than before; it was as if he’d been purified.
His lone arm swiped the screen, and he laughed. “Fine then, let’s just skip the pleasantries. I naturally contacted you because I had something to discuss with you.”
“Let’s hear it!” said Ye Zichen.
“The Divine Mausoleum has descended. You ought to have sensed it too, right?” Gu Li lightly tapped the screen and typed out a message. “The fragments are all in our hands. Don’t you think we ought to cooperate?”
The Divine Mausoleum?
Ye Zichen suddenly recalled the videos the heavenly soldiers had sent in the Red Packet Server. Could that be….?
“Is it down in the Lower Realms?”
“You do know. As expected.” Gu Li chuckled. “That’s right: it’s in the Lower Three Realms. It will descend completely within half a month. When the time comes, we’ll need to use our keys to unlock it. It’s just that between the two of us, we’ve yet to collect all the fragments. There’s still one piece in Taibai Jinxing’s hands, and one piece on the top floor of your Yao-Sealing Pagoda.”
“How do you know that?”
“It’s only natural that I’d know about that. Anyway, you have two months to increase your cultivation, become a ruler, unlock the last floor of the pagoda, and get the key fragment. We should open the mausoleum as soon as possible. The era is nearing its end. You ought to understand that every second is precious,” said Gu Li.”
‘But why should I work with you?”
“You don’t have to agree right this second. When the day comes, I’m confident you’ll decide to join forces.” With a chuckle, Gu Li finished their conversation. “Hurry up and become a ruler as soon as possible. We don’t have much time left.”
“Will Big Brother Ye really go with you?” After locking the phone, An Lu couldn’t help but chime in.
Gu Li laughed and nodded, his fingers brushing through her hair. “He will. When the day comes, he’ll naturally chose to work with me. Our relationship might be poor, but he has no better options.”
“This guy’s really vile.” Pu Jingwan rolled her eyes.
Of them, she’d interacted with Gu Li the least, but when you loved someone, their grudges were your grudges. Ye Zichen loathed Gu Li, so she naturally loathed him too.
“When it comes to Gu Li, I think we’d be wise to only belief half of what he says,” said Yang Jian. “Back in the Lower Three Realms, he was always causing trouble. Who knows how many members of the Heavenly Court, Underworld, Immortal Region, and Endless Beast Region died because of him? I ascended early. If I’d been there to twist his head clean off, none of that would have happened, now would it have?”
“He’s done about every misdeed imaginable up here, too,” snorted Pu Jingwan.
“Is that thing in the video really the Divine Mausoleum?” asked the Great Sage.
Ye Zichen nodded slightly. Although Gu Li’s character wasn’t worth complimenting, he wouldn’t fire shots at random like this.
Besides, he had the Outsider Gu Li standing beside him. It was inevitable that he’d be privy to secrets unknown to Ye Zichen.
Of the two remaining key fragments, Taibai Jinxing’s was actually already in Ye Zichen’s hands. Gu Li had received a fake, so he just assumed that Taibai Jinxing still had the real one.
As for the final key fragment, it really was in the top layer of the Yao-Sealing Pagoda.
But what concerned him was that Gu Li used the word “cooperate” and that he seemed completely certain Ye Zichen would agree. Where exactly did all that confidence come from?
