Chapter 874: Hidden Agendas

Jiang Xiaohua?

Hearing this name, Chen Ling and Sun Bumian had subtle expressions, only Jian Changsheng was stunned,

He scratched his head:

"Tell a joke? What joke are you going to tell?"

Jiang Xiaohua: ...

Because of the helmet, the three couldn't see his expression, but from the way his body shuddered, Jiang Xiaohua seemed to have silently shattered into pieces.

Seeing this, Chen Ling gave Sun Bumian and Jian Changsheng a look and turned to walk out of the tent.

After the three left the tent, taking advantage of Jiang Xiaohua’s absence, Chen Ling thought and said:

"What do you think?"

"No, what joke is he going to tell? I’ve been waiting for ages!"

"...I shouldn't have called you out." Chen Ling rolled his eyes silently. "His name is Jiang Xiaohua, not 'tell a joke'."

Jian Changsheng suddenly realized.

"This person is a bit strange." Sun Bumian squeezed his prayer beads and said slowly, "The Imperial Dao Ancient Treasury hasn't been opened for so many years, yet he was inside before we arrived... This means either he came in with those candidates, or he has been in this treasury for hundreds of years."

"I’m more inclined to the latter." Chen Ling glanced at the tent. "He has no breathing, like a corpse, and didn't make a sound even when we buried him in the dirt..."

"Sounds like a mummy buried in an imperial tomb."

"Yes."

"Is he an old thing?" Jian Changsheng opened his mouth in surprise. "Do old things these days love acting young so much?"

"Just a guess." Chen Ling paused. "I’m just reminding you, don't let your guard down completely just because he helped us hide our auras... His behavior is too weird, be careful he has a bigger scheme."

"But at the current stage, we do need him to help us hide our auras."

"So, use him, guard against him, and if he makes any unusual moves... kill him."

"Why does it feel like we’re the villains?"

"Don't forget, we are the Twilight Society... If he isn't an old antique from the Imperial Dao Ancient Treasury but from the Nine Realms, we have to be even more careful. If he discovers our Twilight Society identity, he might turn on us or even plot against us in secret."

"Also true..."

"But Red Heart, why did you insist on killing that young man?" Sun Bumian hesitated for a long time before finally asking the question he had wanted to ask.

Chen Ling knew who he was asking about and recounted everything that happened in the era archive.

"Era archive..."

"So you knew all along that Ying Fu would eventually become the new [Emperor] of this era?"

"That’s right."

Jian Changsheng frowned and asked suspiciously, "That’s not right... If you kill this Ying Fu now, he won't have the era archive in the future, so he won't hunt you down in the archive, and you won't go to kill him... Wouldn't that mess everything up?"

"It won't mess up, because everything is unchangeable. I simply can't kill Ying Fu... or rather, this world won't allow me to kill him. Once I try to change the future, it will automatically correct itself." Chen Ling said calmly,

"Didn't you see? I was about to slit his throat just now, but the Emperor’s remnant arrived just in time... If I continue to hunt him down, things like this will still happen."

As soon as this was said, Jian Changsheng and Sun Bumian were stunned.

"You know you can't kill him, so why go to such great lengths?"

"Ying Fu won't die, that’s destined, but other things aren't." Chen Ling narrowed his eyes slightly,

"The future cannot be changed, which means no matter what I do, he will eventually become my enemy... Since that’s the case, even if I can't truly kill him, I must make him pay a price. For example, leave him with some incurable trauma, or leave him with a heavy psychological shadow...

The weakening caused to him now, whether physical or psychological, will become my advantage in the future.

And..."

"And what?"

"And he hunted me down last time, making me look very pathetic." Chen Ling said flatly. "I must repay this grudge."

Sun Bumian couldn't help but click his tongue after hearing this.

"This Emperor is really unlucky to be against you..."

"What did I say." Jian Changsheng counted on his fingers again, "Insidious, cunning, cold-blooded, cruel, crazy, likes to lie, likes to..."

Chen Ling glared at him fiercely, and Jian Changsheng obediently shut his mouth.

Chen Ling was about to say something else when his peripheral vision caught the military tent not far away, and his expression stiffened slightly.

Jian Changsheng and the other looked over, only to see that at some point, Jiang Xiaohua had silently poked half his head out from behind the curtain, wearing the helmet, looking at the three cautiously...

"Am... am I being isolated?"

The air suddenly fell into silence.

I don't know how long it had been before Chen Ling came back to his senses and showed a warm, sunny smile:

"How could that be... Jian Wubing was a bit offensive to you just now, we came out to lecture him and tell him to have some manners."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." Jian Changsheng nodded frantically.

"...Jian Wubing?"

Jiang Xiaohua looked straight at Jian Changsheng, seemingly a bit puzzled... but nodded anyway.

The three quickly took the opportunity to exchange glances:

—How much of what we just said did he hear?

—I don't know!

—If he heard about the Twilight Society, that would be bad. Will he strike first?

—Sure enough, this person still needs to be guarded against...

—We still need to use him for now, and control him when the time is right.

—Good.

Jiang Xiaohua was completely unaware of their hidden agendas and asked blankly again:

"Then where are we going now? Can we go out?"

"Go out? Do you mean leaving the Imperial Dao Ancient Treasury? Are you from the outside?" Chen Ling seized the opportunity and threw out three questions in a row.

Jiang Xiaohua nodded after a slow moment, answering all three questions.

"Where are you from?"

"Wuji Realm."

Sure enough...

The vigilance in the hearts of the three grew heavier.

"We probably shouldn't go out for now." Chen Ling answered after thinking for a moment. "The gate to leave the Imperial Dao Ancient Treasury is in the first layer, which is probably occupied by the armies of a dozen or even dozens of emperors now..."

Jiang Xiaohua’s expression was clearly disappointed. He looked around with the helmet on, seemingly starting to find a suitable place to bury himself.

"Then we can only wait, wait for them to leave?" Jian Changsheng was a bit unhappy.

"Wanting to kill us, this matter naturally won't just end like this... Not to mention Ying Fu, there seem to be many good things in the imperial palace on this second layer." Chen Ling used his Imperial destiny to sense the layout of this layer,

"And because they all went on imperial expeditions to the first layer, these imperial palaces are basically unguarded..."