Chapter 22: Event Logic Analysis Method
Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Event Logic Analysis Method
Zhu Ge stopped in his tracks.
But his muscles were sore from practicing his Martial Arts Technique earlier today, and he still had momentum.
As a result, his face flew forward and crashed right into the bleeding face.
Then, he actually shattered the bloody face on impact!
"What was that...?"
Zhu Ge touched his own face but felt nothing amiss, as if he had just run into a swarm of gnats.
But hitting gnats would at least sting a little; he felt nothing at all.
And now, the bloody face was gone, and the singing had stopped along with it.
"Wait..."
Zhu Ge frowned, immediately sat down cross-legged, and closed his eyes.
’Transcend!’
Following the soul-separation technique he had practiced before, he effortlessly detached his egg-shaped soul from his physical body once more.
The Kunpeng Egg hovered above his physical body. He first checked his soul and found no problems, and the same was true for his body.
Then, Zhu Ge looked at the surrounding forest.
’This is wrong. How is there nothing here...?’
Zhu Ge scanned the area. There wasn’t a single soul in the entire forest, proving there were no living things nearby.
This was perfectly normal.
Two gods were emanating their auras on Jianshan Mountain, and they might have even fought.
Normal beasts and insects have a keen instinct for danger. It was natural for them to have all fled after sensing the auras of two gods.
’But what I just saw and heard was definitely not a hallucination.’
So why was it that what now appeared before his soul’s eyes was completely devoid of anything unusual?
’It’s getting weirder and weirder...’
In his soul form, Zhu Ge glanced at the crescent moon in the sky.
A faint burning sensation emanated from the surface of his soul under the moonlight.
Apparently, moonlight was harmful to souls.
If it were sunlight, it would probably make a soul burst into flames.
Fortunately, he had cultivated the Great Sun Glaze Body inside a coffin, or his soul would likely have suffered considerable damage.
He hadn’t had a chance to properly experience these sensations before, so he took this opportunity to do so.
This also made him decide not to let his soul leave his body unless it was absolutely necessary.
If even moonlight could damage his soul, it would be disastrous if some other inexplicable thing appeared and dealt a devastating blow to it.
Zhu Ge glanced again in the direction the Big Cricket had left.
He could no longer sense the Big Cricket’s aura, so he chose to return his soul to his body and then started walking back up the mountain.
He was utterly exhausted today.
Both his body and mind were drained.
He only had twenty-three years of life left, and on top of that, he was in poor condition.
So after going to Yu the Scholar’s home and confirming that he was sleeping safely, Zhu Ge dragged his weary body back to his own house.
His parents were still standing at the door, greeting him like robots.
He responded with equally mechanical words, then fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning, he woke with a splitting headache, his eyes bloodshot, and followed his parents to start the day’s work.
Once in the fields, however, he only pretended to work. He didn’t put any strength into it, simply swinging his hoe idly while his mind replayed the events of the previous day.
’That nursery rhyme... it changed again...’
Under the sun, the straw-hat-wearing Zhu Ge recalled yesterday’s strange occurrence.
Hua Xiaomei had appeared again, but he had only seen a black shadow and her bleeding face.
It wasn’t like before, when she had appeared in her complete, physical form.
’Weird!’
’Everything about this is just so weird!’
’Hua Xiaomei became the Wedding God, and her shrine is a bridal chamber.’
’But why did Hua Xiaomei become the Wedding God? And not some other god? And why is she marrying me?’
’Could it be... that Hua Xiaomei really was engaged to me?’
Which of the two memories was wrong?
After all, his memories actually came from the original owner of this body, a person also named "Zhu Ge."
What if the original owner’s memories were wrong to begin with?
What if Hua Xiaomei hadn’t died, or what if she really was engaged to the original "Zhu Ge" before her death?
Zhu Ge mulled it over, but a throbbing pain persisted in his head.
In short, there were just too many strange things about the Wedding God!
But no matter how weird it was, all he had to do was destroy that bridal chamber when the time came.
The bigger questions still revolved around the other god.
After all, Zhu Ge had no clue what the other god’s shrine was or where it was located.
Yesterday’s song was also strange.
The original song was full of blood and horror.
But yesterday’s song was much more normal; it was about mushrooms.
Jianshan Village had plenty of mushrooms to begin with, like thelephora, boletus, termite mushrooms, milk-caps, and so on.
The people in this region loved eating mushrooms. The villagers, including the original "Zhu Ge," had even gone beyond the boundary to forage for them.
Of course, mushrooms were indeed delicious.
But Zhu Ge was still very curious as to why the lyrics of the song had changed yesterday.
After thinking for a long time, however, Zhu Ge decided to first consider matters unrelated to Hua Xiaomei.
’Yesterday, the Big Cricket revealed at least three suspicious things...’
Thinking of yesterday’s encounter with the Big Cricket, Zhu Ge couldn’t help but narrow his eyes.
’First, its motive!’
The Big Cricket talked a lot, making it seem like it was repaying a debt of gratitude or something.
’But judging from Yu the Scholar’s reaction and the Big Cricket’s own reaction, its purpose can’t possibly be that simple!’
Zhu Ge didn’t believe a single word of its story about being saved by the "Master" all those years ago.
If the Master had such a contingency plan, how could Yu the Scholar not know about it?
’Therefore, the Big Cricket’s motives are impure!’
’But, regardless of its motive, the Big Cricket did at least reveal a lot of information.’
’To the east is a tiger, the Mountain Monarch.’
’To the south is the Big Cricket, and to the north is, by default, Jianshan Village. The four areas are divided up like this.’
’Only the west... the Big Cricket didn’t say who was originally there. It only mentioned that the aura of a First Realm being had appeared, but it didn’t know what it was.’
If that was the case, then the being that appeared in the west was very likely the other god of Jianshan Village.
’But what’s to the west?’
Zhu Ge frowned in thought, but he kept feeling like he was missing some crucial piece of information.
’And just as I thought at the beginning, is the other entity really a god?’
Zhu Ge had always found it strange, but the facts seemed to prove that both entities were gods.
The effect of their divine influence was to make living beings retain their spiritual souls but lose their corporeal souls.
Besides Yu the Scholar, whom Zhu Ge couldn’t see into, everyone else in the village had lost their corporeal souls.
Clearly, each god had "eaten" some.
Those "eaten" by the Wedding God were all festive and joyous, and they all believed Zhu Ge and Hua Liusha were already engaged and married.
Those "eaten" by the other god moved mechanically and numbly, following only their instincts, and their memories held that Hua Liusha had died long ago.
Based on their manifestations, both entities fit the description of a god.
But Zhu Ge always felt that something was off. The whole situation gave off a sense of disharmony.
’In that case, I’ll break it down using logical event analysis...’
Zhu Ge placed his hoe on the field soil and drew three circles.
Cause, process, and effect!
Any event boiled down to these three core components: it starts with a cause, goes through a process, and produces a certain effect.
This was a method Zhu Ge had developed himself in his past life, one he used to analyze many things.
From major political struggles to minor office conflicts, this analytical framework could almost always get to the bottom of things.
He originally thought his goal was to destroy the two shrines.
But now, with this feeling that everything was wrong, he felt he should re-examine the entire situation.
’I’ll analyze the whole affair. Let’s see just where the problem lies...’