Chapter 2846 - 2841: Sheltered by a Mother’s Love, Unaware
Chapter 2846: Chapter 2841: Sheltered by a Mother’s Love, Unaware
No wonder this is Shangjing, it’s even livelier than I imagined.
As for who could secretly arrange the matter of the Nightmare Notes, Fu Qian had already made a few guesses earlier.
For example, the ranking was likely not low, but at the same time it wasn’t the Red Moon.
But that’s exactly what makes this problem tricky: being interested in the Nightmare Notes is one thing, the hidden manipulator even dragged himself into it.
Bear in mind that back then he was basically a newcomer here, his social circle wasn’t big at all.
Aside from the Prism of Radiant Transformation buried as a backup in the warehouse, who else could have beaten the Red Moon to locking onto him?
From the perspective of Fang Xun, the bookstore owner, you could say the whole affair was nearly impossible to get a grip on; just like earlier, he walked straight into a dead end.
But don’t let your mind get rigid—if you try switching into the manipulator’s perspective at this point, you can actually discover a whole new world—
Was he really a newcomer here? Had the Superior Beings of the Bookstore World never interacted with him at an even earlier time?
All the tasks took place in history after all, and the "success studies forum" Fu Qian mentioned was clearly referring to his first visit to Ye Island, when he deeply participated in a certain Yasui Corp research project.
That was also when he first met Patch.
Although from his own standpoint at the time, he’d only gone over there for vacation after wrapping up the Gulad Family matters in Shangjing and having met the Red Moon.
But if you think back, you’ll realize the specific date of that research project was actually a bit earlier than the Shangjing upheavals back then.
...
As it turns out, thinking from the other side really is a good habit.
Because of the warehouse’s Authority, the Administrator is in fact a relatively transcendent existence in the Bookstore World.
Purely from a first-person perspective, you could say he’s genuinely jumping back and forth along the timeline.
In that situation, some strict before-and-after relationships don’t apply so cleanly anymore.
If you stand in Lord Pa Qi’s shoes, then during the annual Oath Taker recruitment, He first encountered a particularly special Scavenger—and even suffered a small loss.
But that experience also meant that, if He was inclined, He could try tracking the Scavenger’s traces in the Bookstore World.
Yes, in theory Patch and the Red Moon both had the chance to do the same thing—meet in a task, then search outside the task.
And with His mental state clearly better, He might very well have beaten the latter to it, and first found this common target.
It’s just that Lord Pa Qi wasn’t petty enough to seek revenge; He even went the other way and sent a gift to the door.
Of course, that’s the prettified version.
The reality doesn’t rule out that He simply didn’t dare to retaliate.
Don’t forget, even though the Red Moon hadn’t locked onto a concrete target yet, She’d been staring at Shangjing the whole time back then.
Maybe Lord Pa Qi has many methods and endless schemes, but don’t forget: when you’re playing tricks, the scariest thing is a hothead.
In the mental state the Red Moon was in then, there weren’t many who dared provoke Her.
Under those circumstances, to forcibly take revenge on some young man who looked suspiciously like the one She’d been seeking?
Even if you succeed, are you really not afraid of being hunted down to the end of time?
All in all, this is what they call sleeping peacefully beneath Mother’s protection without realizing it, huh?
Anyway, at that time Lord Pa Qi faced that situation and chose the approach most in line with His own style.
Knowing he might be the person the Red Moon was looking for, knowing the Nightmare Notes were anything but simple, even knowing the Red Moon’s state was off... and in the end, He chose to link these elements together through Brother Tyler.
"Right, you even said ’Fifty has arrived.’"
Just as Fu Qian was reinterpreting the Shangjing upheavals of those years on a higher level, Lord Pa Qi did not disappoint—He even remembered their first conversation in detail.
It was also this first conversation.
Exactly: earlier, when Fu Qian was looking at the sky while reminding that it was almost seven fifty, it indeed was a hint that the other party could come out.
After all, back in the task, when he made his move, it was at that same three-quarters past seven, and that was when he’d seen through the other’s tricks.
"Anyway, being remembered at a moment like this is quite an honor."
Patch naturally lacked any awareness of bringing trouble to others; reminiscing about the past, He almost looked gleeful.
"But what puzzles me is: you’re so sure the Archipelago has something to do with me? To the point you came straight from Shangjing to look for me?"
Although this invitation was very much to His taste, He wasn’t without questions.
"When did I ever say you were connected to the Archipelago?"
Unfortunately, what answered Him was Fu Qian’s puzzled gaze—it was even the first time he turned his head to look over.
"In my judgment, whether it’s the laboratory or the White Tower Codex, the odds of them being related to you aren’t that high."
Gesturing around with his chin, Fu Qian reminded Him not to be overly self-satisfied.
"Oh? Yet you still believed I would be here just now?"
Patch looked as if he’d been given yet another surprise.
"Exactly. Just like how I was clearly looking at nothing, but you were still curious what I was looking at."
Fu Qian pointed at the sky, brought up the misunderstanding from before, and stressed that it had been true.
"The Archipelago doesn’t need to be related to you, and I don’t need to be sure you’re in the Archipelago. I only know my movements are perfectly aboveboard, and you’re very likely paying attention to them—and then I’ll have a high chance of finding you in the Archipelago."
...
Superior Beings have always been creatures of killing several birds with one stone—that’s something that’s been emphasized again and again.
This time, the open, undisguised scientific expedition follows the same logic.
On one hand, unafraid of the Night Watchman’s scrutiny, he can even reinforce his persona.
On the other hand, this is equally for the Lord who noticed him before the Red Moon did, and even arranged for the Nightmare Notes to be delivered.
A "child of the Red Moon" suddenly acquires an artifact related to the Progenitor of the Blood Clan, and has recently been frequently manipulating His Clan—expecting no one to link this to the Nightmare Notes would be a bit too optimistic.
The party most likely to make the connection suddenly rises and heads for the Archipelago, seemingly to search for related clues.
Even if this line of thinking is wrong, some interested troublemaker connected to it will probably be curious as to why it’s wrong.
This trip to the Archipelago was already an invitation in itself.
"Very clever... calling it clever is even a bit shallow, it should be ’very wise’, hehe..."
Sure enough, Patch quickly figured it out, and even looked very satisfied.
"Where are they?"
Then, changing the subject, He gestured around again, clearly referring to Old Master Lu and the other man.
"Right here."
Fu Qian was very certain.
"Then why is it that under the Code I still can’t see them?"
Patch neither agreed nor disagreed, and asked that dead-end question.
"Because there’s a phrase called selective enforcement... if I haven’t guessed wrong, the White Tower Codex probably doesn’t extend its control into this Dream, does it?
"It’s just that once I entered this place, you temporarily copied a version of the Codex into it, so you can tweak it as you please."
Fu Qian shook his head.
"And what just happened was simple: the rule that nothing can exceed the White Tower is indeed still in effect, but the clause that you can’t conceal things from an Observer was temporarily deleted.
"Deliberately creating blind spots and luring people into going astray by themselves really is one of your favorite things to do."