Ning Zheng was lost in thought until Su Yuniang called out to him: "What are you daydreaming about? It's time to eat."
Ning Zheng had no appetite, so he quickly finished his meal and left the house, taking a walk through the village beneath the lingering sunset glow that was about to disappear completely.
He organized his thoughts and logic.
In theory, the ninth Bottleneck Ancestor of the Demon Cultivators could not be the bookshop owner Li Youzhu.
There are three reasons.
"I know who I am," Li Youzhu's obsession is with Jiao Wuyu. Only by deeply loving her did he open the Three Flowers.
If this had been a massive lie from the start, a farce he directed and acted himself, and he didn't love Jiao Wuyu, then it would be impossible for him to fully awaken.
The Bottle Ancestor is the ninth Ancestor.
The Red-clothed Sister is the tenth Ancestor.
That one Puppet Master was even the master of the Red-clothed Sister.
Even the Red-clothed Sister has become a Great Cultivator who died in the tomb, and the previous generation's Bottle Ancestor lived for thousands of years, even died for thousands of years.
How could someone who died thousands of years ago have an obsession with Jiao Wuyu before they died?
If it really was Li Youzhu, what was he after?
Having worked so hard to set everything in motion, after awakening and opening the Three Flowers, he gets resurrected only to give the hope of life to Jiao Wuyu?
This is all about making a wedding dress for someone else from beginning to end.
Ning Zheng felt he was caught in an extremely absurd paradox.
For any normal person, even when faced with these three irrefutable pieces of evidence, it's impossible to suspect that it was Li Youzhu.
Qi Fortune Value doesn't lie!
The Bottleneck Ancestor, whom he'd never met, chose sincerely to help him, so who else could his true identity be? The Qi Fortune Value is the ironclad evidence!
Ning Zheng took a deep breath, "So, the deductive conclusion: the bookshop owner Li Youzhu is the Demon Cultivator Bottle Ancestor, and everything is part of Li Youzhu's scheme... then what is the reasoning process, what is the process?"
First, have the result, then reverse engineer the process, but this still isn't simple! It's like knowing who the murderer is but being unable to find the method of murder in a locked room, nor uncover the fabricated alibi.
Ning Zheng continuously pondered, feeling surrounded by a fog, when suddenly an astonishing notion dawned on him: perhaps he had fallen into a logical fallacy.
——He had only considered the possibility of a living person committing the crime, not the possibility of a dead person committing it!
This world also needs to account for the rules of the Embers.
[I can never forget that day on the water, the sparkling waves, how stunning her appearance was.]
This sentence might not be referring to the young scholar's first encounter, meeting her by the courtyard well that day.
But rather a certain day in Li Youzhu's life thousands of years ago, when he was still a genuine young scholar, and by chance, encountered a Jiao in the water, and they had an interaction.
After that day, the weak young boy fell for the extremely noble Jiao maiden.
He knew his status was utterly unworthy.
This obsession persisted until his death, becoming Embers, becoming the Bottle Ancestor in the tomb, still holding onto it.
Thus, the contradiction in timing is resolved.
Combining it with the escape behavior of the other family.
Ning Zheng seemed to have guessed some truth. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ noᴠelfire.net
Li Youzhu was brought by his family as the old patriarch of the family's tomb during their escape with the ancestral tomb, heard of the Jiao's fall.
He seemed to know who it was.
After his death, he still retained the love from his life in the tomb, so he proactively suggested attacking the Jiao Family Stronghold with the other old patriarchs, rushing there... wanting to save the Jiao! This wasn't just a coincidental arrival at the Jiao Family Stronghold!
The other old patriarchs just thought that this Puppet Master particularly liked the Dragon Puppet, so he was interested in this Jiao.
But unbeknownst to them, his lifelong love for dragons was actually just for that one Jiao.
The reason for attacking of this Demon Cultivator aligns with what the Red-clothed Sister said before!
"After that, he was clearly a dead man, believing himself to be still alive, disguising himself as a villager to deceive the innocent Jiao in the well while pursuing love."
Ning Zheng sighed in his heart, a strange expression on his face.
That Jiao was just a head, barely hanging on, unable to see him as a ghost.
After all, ghosts, especially high-level ones, are hard to distinguish from reality.
"The head of the Jiao trapped in the Ancestral Temple believed itself to have successfully disguised as a little girl about to be sacrificed, catching the genius who could help with her escape."
"Unaware that her counterpart was a Demon Cultivator thinking himself still alive, disguised as a little boy, deliberately waiting for her to take the bait."
"The little girl, the little boy, grew up together, at the time, who was really baiting whom... remains unknown."
Ning Zheng realized this point, finding it too absurd.
A deceased committing the crime! Already dead, yet maintaining the obsession from life, going to save people, going to fall in love?
This is no longer about the twilight romance of rekindled old age, it's posthumous romance... loved but couldn't attain in life, posthumously thinking oneself alive, seeing the misfortune of a counterpart, seizing the chance to pursue?
Afterward, those villagers surely were no match for them.
He married Jiao Wuyu and had children.
"After getting married, Li Youzhu's lifelong obsession reached perfection, achieving enlightenment, allowing him to begin to half-awaken," Ning Zheng whispered.
This should be the time when enlightenment occurred.
This is not Ning Zheng's guess.
This is... inevitable!
Because ghosts exist relying on pre-death obsessions, his certain obsession must reach perfection before entering half-awakening.
Therefore, it must be after marrying and having children that he entered half-awakening.
Without doubt, Li Youzhu loved Jiao Wuyu.
Yet, he also carried the mission of infiltrating the enemy ranks, internally dismantling the Jiao Family Stronghold.
This was to ensure the continuation of his demon cultivator family amidst their escape.
After becoming the patriarch couple of the Jiao Family Stronghold with Jiao Wuyu, he secretly facilitated coordination inside and outside, allowing demon cultivators to quickly breach the stronghold and take over.
"Thus, looking at it this way, Jiao Wuyu's later escape from peril was also secretly aided by him, calculated,"
"Because since half-awakening, Li Youzhu must have begun to realize he might be already dead, long been a dead man...and Jiao Wuyu, unable to reclaim her body, was also about to die."
Ning Zheng continually clarified the logic.
"Thus, he didn't want Jiao Wuyu to die, discovering his half-awakening was a way to break the situation, he started planning to fully awaken himself, become the next Ghost Disaster king during the Red Sun...then transfer his life to her, fully revive her."
"He began planning for the next Red Sun."
Every clue matched, the logical analysis up to here had become very clear.
In fact, there were quite a few doubts before.
When Jiao Wuyu mentioned: among demon cultivators, both the Bottle Ancestor and her husband Li Youzhu were in half-awakened state,
But half-awakening is extremely rare.
How could two appear in the same place?
The probability is exceptionally low.
If they're the same person, then it makes sense.
"And Jiao Wuyu deceived Li Youzhu for her own revival,"
"Yet didn't know, the half-awakened Li Youzhu was specially planning this Red Sun, willingly stepping into her deception."
How to ensure a calculation succeeds?
There's only one way.
That is, the deceived willingly falls into calculation, willingly loves you.
Ultimately, that simple Jiao through various events, became somewhat smarter, learned to strategize, yet still couldn't outplay her husband.
Li Youzhu was even always helping her grow.
Everything was Li Youzhu's layout over the century, enabling her revival, his love was also profound, his life's obsession, thus when Jiao Wuyu died, he opened the Three Flowers.
"Despite various calculations, countless lies, among them his love remains the deepest..." Ning Zheng strolled at night, unconsciously arriving at Youzhu Bookstore.
Surroundings were quiet, entirely black.
Ning Zheng sighed quietly, glanced again at his Qi Fortune Value.
Li Youzhu would not harm him.
This is his absolute confidence in Qi Fortune Value.
Not that the three Great Ancestors only have 200, 150 Qi Fortune Value; they might have several thousand points, but when applied to another for protection, only a few hundred.
Li Youzhu can only be 150 points.
Even though he's the mastermind, now at his lowest combat power, all puppets dead, fake death escape, combat power even less than Adoptive Father Ancestor Qi.
Ning Zheng always had Qi Fortune Value as backup.
He walked this path, taking nine risks for one survival, conforming as mortal, defying as immortal, battling all impossibilities.
He disliked being a riddler, secretly scheming; if there's a problem, he would ask directly.
He saw some misunderstandings in novels he read before, continuing for most of the plot; Ning Zheng always mused, wondered why so many problems stayed unsolved, liking to be riddlers.
"Uncle Youzhu." Ning Zheng addressed the dark Youzhu Bookstore, as if someone sat in shadows, "I know you're not dead."
"I have one small question, seeking an answer."
A hand suddenly placed on Ning Zheng's shoulder from behind.
"Are you looking for me?"
Familiar deep voice rose from the gloom.
A pressure swept over him, just like feeling the crisis when first bringing Ning Jiaojiao to this bookstore.
"You shouldn't have come," murmured the shadow behind.