Dual Cultivation God Returns - Chapter 907: A game

Chapter 907: A game

“Wu Long, I am thinking of going to the library of the Feilin City. Who knows, there might be some hidden nugget of Medicine Dao knowledge there…”, Gong Liwei hesitated to say ‘that you haven’t seen’, but Wu Long smiled.

“You don’t have to ask, Liwei, of course you can go. Besides, there are probably many things in there I have never seen or heard about. The world is too vast to know everything there is to know, there is nothing unusual in finding knowledge I never heard about, which could be useful to you”, he said with a gentle gaze.

He knew Gong Liwei was a bit anxious, since the other Dao Sisters were leaders of their palaces rightfully, as they held enormous talent or proficiency that put their skills and power above others.

If Wu Long was able to recruit that great talent that even the Medicine God’s Pavilion would want to smother, the palace of the Wood-attribute cultivators that Wu Long intended to give under her leadership would at the very least outmatch her in terms of cultivation talent, so she had to put in effort into proficiency in skill.

After all, seeing Wu Long, who rose to such heights despite his lack of talent, she knew it wasn’t impossible, not to mention, that person was now fully supporting her.

But Wu Long wasn’t worried, rather, this bit of anxiety was healthy as it manifested not in self-deprecation, depression, or fear, but in thirst for knowledge and improvement.

Nie Xiwang accompanied Gong Liwei to the library, as the two found more and more common ground to talk about.

As long as the beauties were within the city, Fen Baihu, whose presence now leaked into it through Wu Long being here, was able to ensure their safety, and he was also within range to arrive near them in moments.

—

There was an enormous palace with a sprawling territory, many gardens, courtyards, large pavilions and smaller buildings, right in the middle of the city’s entertainment and red light districts.

The East-facing part going deep into the entertainment district was filled with tea houses, restaurants with many private-discussion rooms and gambling parlors.

The West-facing part going into the red light district was housing parlors which offered company of beautiful women to pour alcohol, engage in conversation, and sing, as well as more blatant brothel pavilions.

The signs over the entrances proudly pronounced: ‘Welcome to the Palace of Secrets’

The East-facing part operated at all times, although the atmosphere was a bit less refined and noble in the nighttime.

But it did not differ that much from any pavilion with tea houses and restaurants in daytime, during which a man wearing a bamboo hat entered it.

The man was greeted like any other customer, and after a quick conversation, led to a small private room in one of the tea houses, to which a woman arrived a bit later to pour tea.

And as soon as the door closed behind her, formations activated all around, sealing this place from the outside.

The man removed the bamboo hat, revealing an ordinary-looking face which would blend into any crowd.

‘This is…’, the woman pouring the tea slightly widened her eyes, as aided by the Formations in the room, she could see that this was not actually a man, but an illusory construct operated by talismans.

“You can try and trace the source and see if you can find me”, the man spoke with a light smile.

“This is not how this works, dear customer”, the woman pouring the tea spoke a bit perplexed, as this was an unusual situation.

“Yes, ‘coming to learn the secrets of others has to come at a price of your own secret’, I know the rules”, the illusory man nodded, “But, do you know that it is not the full original rule?”

“What do you…?”, the woman widened her eyes.

“It is said, that the founder of the Palace of Secrets and its first Palace Master was a very playful person, who liked to play a game she invented and called ‘A Game of Secrets’ as a young maiden who only started on the journey of cultivation”, the illusory man spoke calmly.

The woman who finished pouring tea wanted to interrupt, but the start of the story made her intrigued. There was some kind of strange confidence and assurance in the voice of the illusory man, as if he wasn’t making up a far-fetched tale which it clearly was, but telling a long-forgotten one which he somehow came to learn.

“At the time, she lived in a small town no one knows the name of anymore, in a small Mortal Kingdom which is long lost. All the town women played the game to learn the latest gossip. However, there was a rule. The person who came to learn a secret had to leave their own equivalent secret in return”, the illusory man continued.

The woman listened with an intrigued gaze, a light smile of amusement appearing on her lips as she leaned a bit forward.

Meanwhile, the illusory man spoke further, “However, some people were too shameless, wishing to learn secrets of others without paying the price of their own secret, which started gradually lessening the pool of people who shared secrets, so the Master of Secrets came up with a new rule. One could come to learn the latest gossip in disguise, and thus the secret they exchanged for learning another secret would not be linked to them”

The woman’s eyes were now glinting. The illusory man seemingly had a certain charm despite the completely ordinary looks. It was the confidence, manner of speech, subtle mannerisms, and the look in his eyes.

The story also captivated her, to the point she started inwardly playing with the possibility this could be all true. Of course, just for the sake of amusement.

The illusory man chuckled, “There was, however, a catch”

“Of course there was”, the woman chuckled as well.

“Mm”, the illusory man nodded, “the Master of Secrets could guess who the person was. After all it was a small town, and as the one at the center of gossips she was the most well-informed person in it. So it was up to the one coming to learn the secret to disguise their identity as well as they could, the Master of Secrets would do everything to uncover it. It became a game of skill in disguise and being able to fool the Master of Secrets”

“And if she couldn’t guess?”

“Then the person won the game fair, and could keep their identity secret. Thus, the full original rule of the Palace of Secrets when it was established, was ‘coming to learn the secrets of others has to come at a price of your own secret if you cannot keep it’. This was later amended by the 3rd Palace Master of your Palace of Secrets into the rule you know now, but did not last long, it was briefly reverted back to the original rule by the 4th, and then reverted again into the current version by the 5th and current Palace Master”

The woman’s eyes widened as she heard the last part, ‘How did he…’

It was well known that the first Palace Master and Founder of the Palace of Secrets was a woman, and that she no longer was ruling the Palace. But the number of the Palace Masters who came after, the timing and the fact of succession, and the details of their rule, was always kept a close internal secret, and there was a Soul Prohibition on every member of the Palace to prevent leaking that information.

This man not only accurately knew the number of the Palace Masters, but also implied, correctly, that the rule of both the 3rd and 4th Palace Masters was short.

“Now, shall we play? I challenge you to a Game of Secrets”, as soon as the illusory man said the last words, something within the main Formation of the room activated, and three pillars of glowing characters rose to the side of the table, saying “1st attempt”, 2nd and 3rd.

“T-This is…”, the woman widened her eyes.

“As you can see, you have three attempts to see through my disguise”, the illusory man chuckled, pointing to the three pillars.

“…”, The woman turned her round, disbelieving eyes to the illusory man, and gulped, as she knew this came from within their own Formation and was no longer just part of a silly story.

She also realized that her cultivation technique given by the Palace of Secrets and which gave her access and ability to interact with the Formation, which was how she understood the man was illusory in the first place, now was linked automatically.

This meant, she was to try and use the Formation to see through the illusory man’s disguise. And it was the Formation which enforced the rule.

She sighed, closing her eyes and taking a moment to calm down, and then opened them with a sharp focus.

She operated the formation, and started tracing the Spiritual Qi that controlled the talismans which made up the illusory man.

However, her eyes widened as she traced it to a vast, intricate network of connections, like a ball of entangled knitting wool with hundreds of threads going out in all directions, but with connecting parts between the threads within the ball, all of them pulsating with Spiritual Qi, disguising what exact connection each of them had.

After trying her best to find the right one, she went through a series of such entanglements to arrive at a simple talisman placed on a tree.

The moment she did, the first pillar with “1st attempt” written on it cracked and shattered into glowing pieces.

She turned in its direction, slightly startled by the shattering noise it made, and then turned to the calmly smiling illusory man with narrowed eyes, her demeanor no longer so amicable.

However, staring him down did not bring anything, so she did her best to calm down and make another attempt. But the 2nd and 3rd attempts only brought her to an old abandoned house, and a stone in the garden just outside this building.

As the third pillar shattered, the Formation processed the result of this interaction as it would normally react to the woman confirming the client’s identity, further shocking her as this indeed skipped the identity verification step.

“I-Impossible…”, she muttered slightly meekly, as now the formation went into transaction mode, where it would assist her in providing the information requested by the client, as long as the specified prince was paid.

“You see, even if they changed the rules, these incredibly powerful Formations which have ancient knowledge taken as their basis, were made by the first Symbol God, under request of your first Palace Master, and are a true marvel, a masterpiece. Seeing as none of the subsequent holders of the Symbol God title never reached that level of skill, even if they changed the rule, they couldn’t really change the Formations your Palace of Secrets uses”, the illusory man shrugged, explaining why the original rule was still embedded in the Formations.

This was the main reason Wu Long could not leave this to Old Yen, as even he, at his current level at least, could not fool this formation if he came in person, let alone Old Yen.

He had to resort to sending an illusion, cooperating with Liang Yuhan and Lian Zhiqiu who came here with Fen Baihu’s help to make this happen.

“I…”, the woman’s lips trembled as she showed fear.

“Don’t worry, the Formation will record only the successful resolution of verification. The Game of Secrets is just one valid way of passing the identity verification phase. It will not show on the record of this transaction. This was made so the clerks who are only operating the formation, and thus are not at fault, would not be punished for losing the Game of Secrets by overzealous Branch Leaders. So as long as you don’t tell anyone, no one will know”, Wu Long explained in a soothing tone, understanding her worry.

“I-is that true?”

“Yes”, Wu Long nodded sincerely, as it wasn’t his intention to get someone in trouble when he came here, “Now, let’s get to the transaction…”

As he spoke that, the woman thought for a few moments, and sighed, shaking her head since this was out of her hands anyway. It was far better to not tell anyone, rather than open her mouth about it and be disposed of for accidentally learning a great secret.

She then put a business smile, and spoke in an amicable voice of a clerk, “Yes of course, esteemed customer. How can I help you?”

Lol, yeah I know, that’s basically vpn of talismans ^^

But I liked the idea so I used it lol ^^

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