Facing an Ancient God for a Year

Fu Qian’s parallel sentences weren’t actually that sharp, but for Su Gao at this moment, they were undoubtedly quite harmful.

After continuous soul interrogations, Su Gao had completely fallen into a state where she could say nothing at all.

Her mind, which was already a bit slow to catch up, now seemed to be almost short-circuited.

That’s about enough, bitter medicine is unpleasant to the taste, after all, we’re not some real demon.

Seeing her condition, Fu Qian stopped his Heartbreaker behavior.

At this moment, he could clearly feel Su Gao’s turbulent emotions, like the flame of will flickering in the wind, ready to die out at any moment.

And it wasn’t just that, Fu Qian looked up outside.

As Su Gao’s mental state became more and more unstable, something around her became more active, even the moon in the water shone brighter.

Indeed, something was paying attention to her, fraught with crisis indeed!

The area they were currently in was much larger, surrounded by a circle of protruding platforms.

Although she was nearly completely confused at this time, Su Gao still subconsciously followed him and stopped.

“Sometimes, in the pursuit of self-approval in its purest form, people tend to negate parts of themselves.”

The next moment, Su Gao, with a puzzled look in her eyes, was led by the hand by Fu Qian up onto the platform.

“Too bad that such behavior is essentially nothing more than self-abuse disguised as entertainment.”

“Denying oneself doesn’t lead to sublimation; rather, it’s acceptance that does.”

Under the moonlight, Su Gao looked as if she were glowing all over, showing no reaction to Fu Qian’s words.

Fu Qian didn’t mind, released her icy hand, and sat down by himself.

“Do you like sweet foods?”

“Hmm.”

In the face of this vastly different new question, Su Gao finally had some reaction.

“Cake?”

“…Very delicious.”

“Not surprising, so the few names I mentioned just now, did any of them jog your memory?”

“Very familiar, but I—”

“Don’t force it.”

Fu Qian turned his head away, looking up at the moon in the sky.

“What fairy tale do you like?”

“I…”

Su Gao’s voice was perplexed.

“I don’t remember anymore.”

“No matter, I know many, see if you’ve heard of any.”

Fu Qian spoke in an extremely relaxed tone.

“For instance, Snow White in search of her mother, Does the Mouth of Youthful Truth dream of an Armed Puppet.”

Both names were undoubtedly a bit morbid, but the effect was unexpectedly good.

“Snow White, looking for mother, Puppet, it seems like… I used to remember…”

Su Gao quickly reacted, clutching her head in pain.

“What about now? Where did they go? These memories in your head.”

“They—”

Su Gao managed only two words before freezing, finally realizing something was wrong with her.

“Be it delusions or illusions, at most they can only confuse your perception. But how do you explain the missing part of your soul?”

As Fu Qian spoke, her body trembled again.

“Zhuangzi dreams of a butterfly, the butterfly dreams of Zhuangzi, who can truly tell them apart. Are you so certain that you are in the midst of an illusion?”

Fu Qian drew the number 6 in the night sky with his hand, smiling cheerfully at her.

“Can a number even I am aware of truly guide you?”

…

Can’t it?

Su Gao looked down at the bloodstained dice, surrounded by an unprecedented confusion.

Logically, in such a situation, she should have confirmed with Hidden Thread again. However, the information received in this bizarre illusion seemed to be dissolving even that thought.

Indeed, could a number that seemed not so hidden, even blurted out casually, be trusted…?

The air was dead silent, Fu Qian didn’t speak again.

“You’re right, I remember now; this isn’t an illusion.”

After a long while, Su Gao slowly lifted her head, her voice sounding as if awakening from a profound dream.

“I truly was about to get lost, thank you, Mr. Fu.”

For some reason, Fu Qian felt like she was almost laughing.

“Violetta, Souffle… I remember everyone now.”

Are you sure?

Upon hearing this, Fu Qian was not pleased but rather alarmed.

He was never overly optimistic by nature.

The reason he chose to fight poison with poison just now was based on the intuition that the current situation required freeing Su Gao from her obsessions first, to have even a slight chance of helping her return to normal.

But to say that after his round of stimulation, this fragile mind could instantly recover perfectly was not something Fu Qian would idealize.

“Six is wrong; it leads to a mistaken path.”

“Oh, what’s the mistaken path?”

Fu Qian echoed noncommittally.

“Such a terrifying opponent, one cannot be the slightest bit careless!”

However, Su Gao didn’t heed his question and kept talking to herself.

“From start to finish, there was only one piece of misleading guidance I received, and it hit me even before I got in here, during the time I almost caught the target, he did it on purpose.”

She picked up the dice between two fingers.

“The misleading guidance was simple, directly related to its characteristic, and completely the opposite.”

“In fact, using Hidden Thread, the number that it locks onto should not appear. If it appears during a check, it indicates a problem.”

“Yet I was misled, and after that, all my judgments were reversed.”

Really?

The more Fu Qian listened, the more he felt something was off.

“The target is more cunning than imagined, he not only knows I carry an item that restrains him but is also quite familiar with the nature of Hidden Thread. So, he didn’t try to interfere deeply, turning me into a complete Puppet, because then I would surely notice.”

“Under extremely stealthy conditions, he applied psychological suggestions on me, altering my perception of Hidden Thread’s nature, and I didn’t realize it immediately.”

“Later, when I came here, he combined illusion with feigned attacks, making me concerned that I was suffering from mental interference, guiding me to use Hidden Thread for identification.”

“By that time, too much time had passed, and under the subtle influence, Hidden Thread was no longer able to trace back to that part of the mistaken perception, so the number thrown was normal.”

“But for me, who had been misled, because it wasn’t the number six, I naturally thought I had been tricked.”

“The strong obsession with self-doubt, combined with Hidden Thread, eventually caused me to split into different personalities and killed them one by one. That is the real trap.”

“The likes of Violetta were produced under such circumstances, and their names all come from the fairy tales my mother told me.”

One has to say, the imagination is rich, and the logic is plausible.

Facing the eloquent Su Gao, Fu Qian seemed to see her inner self-struggle in the spiritual world and was deeply moved.

“So, what should I call you?”

Clearly, this one was like the other five, yet another split personality, representing another perspective Su Gao had on her current dilemma.

The difference was that she hadn’t fallen into the lower levels of consciousness like Violetta and the others but had always coexisted on this level.

Moreover, considering his own series of Heartbreaker actions, which had caused the poor state of Su Gao just now, she had momentarily gained the upper hand.

“My name is naturally Su Gao, but if you want to distinguish, you can call me Mousse.”

I freaking knew it!

Fu Qian was not at all surprised at the name of this sixth person.

From the past experience, it was clear that Su Gao’s mother was undoubtedly a food lover, so it was quite normal for all fairy tale characters to be named after food.

“Wait a minute, there’s already five people below, plus you up here, and the one who just spoke with me, if all were split from… ”

Fu Qian was counting on his fingers.

“So, how many times has Hidden Thread already been used?”

“Nine times.”