When Gu Yueyan looked at him, Ren Suo actually felt a bit guilty toward this girl who was at least six years younger than him.
It was like, just like...
Like being caught cheating in bed by his wife’s best friend?
The image that came to mind seemed quite amusing... No, no. Ren Suo cleared the silly thoughts from his brain and stared intensely at Gu Yueyan.
After three seconds, Gu Yueyan snorted, her lips curling up, her eyes squinting as if she would pull out a Human Skin Magic Book the next second and curse Ren Suo.
Gu Yueyan nonchalantly sat next to Ren Suo and signaled for Lin Xianyu to sit beside Qiao Muyi.
Although Ren Suo had chosen a four-seater by the window on the third floor, the combination of three girls and one man still attracted many strange stares—occasionally, someone would suddenly realize, take out their phone, and snap a photo of Ren Suo’s group.
It wasn’t clear if they recognized Ren Suo as that pervert—the one a female student had confronted by shouting, "You’re the one who said, ’I want to sleep with you!’"
"You don’t mind, right?" Gu Yueyan asked.
Qiao Muyi spread her hands, still smiling warmly at Ren Suo. Ren Suo was familiar with them and felt awkward refusing—especially since Lin Xianyu had already plunged her chopsticks into the seafood pot, her eyes shining as she looked at Ren Suo.
"Sure, let’s eat together... What were we talking about just now?"
Ren Suo hadn’t heard what they were discussing earlier, but suspecting it was nothing pleasant, he quickly changed the subject.
"That video about ’Opening the Spirit Treasury’ by Ren Naiser," Qiao Muyi said. "What did you think after watching it?"
"What did I think?" Ren Suo replied. "Apart from the Handsome Monkey King being cool, I only know that six countries’ Spirit Treasuries were opened."
Gu Yueyan snorted coldly. "Uneducated... You only saw the Handsome Monkey King. Didn’t you ever think whether opening the other five Spirit Treasuries might also generate legendary creatures like the Handsome Monkey King?"
Ren Suo admitted, "...I hadn’t thought of that." And he wondered how the Pangolin and the Nine-Tailed Fox were doing now.
Gu Yueyan then said, "Moreover, the Nine-Tailed Fox’s entrance line was, ’The Fairy Palace cordially invites you.’ It seems the Nine-Tailed Fox is related to the Fairy Palace Assassins in ’Killer’s Blood Feast,’ or rather, the mysterious force of the Fairy Palace is the reason for opening the Spirit Treasury."
Qiao Muyi looked at Gu Yueyan somewhat surprised, then nodded. "It’s impressive you caught these key points from such a short video..."
Gu Yueyan glanced at Ren Suo. "Aren’t you interested in who’s pulling the strings behind the Fairy Palace?"
Ren Suo said, "...Not interested." Sorry, the mastermind behind the Fairy Palace is just an ordinary mechanic.
Qiao Muyi rested her head on her hand, slowly chewed the shrimp in her mouth, then stretched out her little tongue to lick the reddish-brown soy sauce dripping from her lips, and smiled. "Also, you might already know this: a Jedi Priest appeared in the Port of New York after the Federal Spiritual Repository was opened, aiming to meet the monkey who opened the treasury."
At that time, there were thousands of people at the Port of New York. Zhao Zili spoke using ’Sacred Word’ and ’Holy Sound.’ The information simply couldn’t be contained and spread worldwide almost instantly.
"Initially, he healed nearly three thousand citizens of the Federation. However, when he realized the Federation was attacking the monkey, he stopped the healing. He claimed to have been commissioned by the Fairy Palace. Unexpectedly, the Federation treated an Immortal Palace Envoy in such a manner, so the Jedi Priest ceased his healing actions."
Gu Yueyan nodded thoughtfully. "So it seems the existence of the Fairy Palace is pretty much confirmed..."
The discussion between Qiao Muyi and Gu Yueyan suddenly heated up, leaving Ren Suo to take the opportunity to quickly fill his stomach together with Lin Xianyu.
After the meal, Gu Yueyan and Lin Xianyu picked up their meal trays and prepared to leave first.
The meal had been smooth sailing, which was surprising for Ren Suo. He always felt like Gu Yueyan was here to stir up trouble.
Gu Yueyan squinted her eyes at him, and after a long while, said two words: "Scumbag, cultured scum!"
After they were far away, Qiao Muyi chuckled. "Your students here are so interesting."
"Heh." Ren Suo glanced at her. "What about the AB system you mentioned? You seem to have..."
"I don’t have my ’B’ share today. This meal’s on you," Qiao Muyi said unabashedly.
"Ah, I have to go back now too... Wait, I need to make a phone call."
Qiao Muyi took out her phone, pressed a few buttons, and shook her head. "My phone’s dead. I need to go back and charge it... Ren Suo, lend me your phone. I need to make a call."
Ren Suo had no objections. Qiao Muyi took his phone outside the cafeteria and, after a moment, came back. "Done. I deleted the call log because it was a confidential call—goodbye."
Muyi left in a flurry, and Ren Suo was taken aback. He realized he hadn’t asked Muyi what she came for. Was it just to snag a meal from him?
But Ren Suo was used to being mooched off for meals and didn’t mind, so he slipped back to his dorm to continue gaming.
On his way, Ren Suo checked his phone and indeed found no call logs—mysterious indeed.
However, various apps had pushed a multitude of strange articles:
"Rediscover ’Journey to the West’," "Cheer for the Great Sage Equalling Heaven Today," "Decoding the Demon King of Sydney," "Catwoman Spotted on the Streets of Tokyo," "The Top Five Inheritances of the Fairy Palace: Great Sage Equalling Heaven, Pure Source Wonderful Tao True Lord, etc...."
The Great Sage Equalling Heaven, the Handsome Monkey King, was certainly popular in the West. However, in Mysterious Country, the topic was as heated as the New Year festivities. Ren Suo glanced briefly and saw that Moments, microblogs, and even school group chats were all discussing it. Topics ranged from "What other inheritances does the Fairy Palace have?" to "How can one receive the inheritance of the Great Sage Equalling Heaven?" covering all sorts of subjects.
On the Giligili video website, the top-viewed video was unquestionably "Opening the Spirit Treasury," and the second was the 1986 edition of "Journey to the West." What’s this? A Renaissance?
When Ren Suo got home, his phone received two more messages.
"Please log into the intranet."
"Please log into the intranet."
Ren Suo paused slightly, knowing that messages related to Researchers would not detail information via SMS but would remind him to log onto the intranet for the latest news.
Could it be the Special Case Group had questions for him?
Upon opening his laptop to log into the intranet, Ren Suo received two system messages, one of which indeed pertained to the Special Case Group:
"Dear Researcher Suo, your ’Ren Naiser Special Task Force’ was renamed the ’Ren Naiser · Fairy Palace · Special Case Group’ on June 26. Please check the specifics yourself."
"Dear Researcher Suo, your paper as the lead author, ’The True Purpose Behind Ren Naiser’s Video Uploads,’ has now become a bounty discussion thread. Go take a look soon!"
The first message, though unexpected, made sense. The Fairy Palace and Ren Naiser were almost inextricably linked, as the Fairy Palace first appeared to the public in a video uploaded by Ren Naiser. Furthermore, every figure from the Fairy Palace had almost always appeared in videos uploaded by Ren Naiser.
Merging the two into one investigation was almost natural; it was simply wasteful to have two separate Special Case Groups for the same issue.
However, the fact that the Special Case Group was garnering national attention meant that it would definitely receive more investigative resources. He just didn’t know how far they could dig.
But Ren Suo was quite at ease. He had absolutely, positively no connection with Ren Naiser or the Fairy Palace, other than sharing the ’Ren’ character in his name.
The second message, however, was somewhat marvelous. He had just submitted that paper yesterday, and it had quickly garnered attention?
The paper wasn’t long. Ren Suo primarily expounded on three points:
① Ren Naiser uploaded the videos to subtly reveal unknown information to humanity, such as Outer Realm Deities, the path of Seeking the Path, and the Spirit Treasury;
② Ren Naiser harbored good feelings towards humanity and believed this method would give humanity a slight lead;
③ Ren Naiser was extremely powerful and nearly Omniscient, making the revealed information Trustworthy;
Conclusion: Ren Naiser is a genuinely strong person, so no one should bully him.
Unsurprisingly, except for the first point, the rest were purely Ren Suo’s personal additions, thus triggering numerous rebuttals in the discussion thread.
However, the idea that "Ren Naiser uploaded videos to disclose information" was widely accepted—there was no helping it; Ren Naiser’s videos had too much information.
And this perspective was undoubtedly more credible than "Ren Naiser is a Spirit."
After reading most of the highly upvoted comments, Ren Suo breathed a sigh of relief.
He wasn’t trying to whitewash "Ren Naiser." If "Ren Naiser’s" True Form was discovered, whether Ren Suo whitewashed him would be meaningless.
His intention was merely to have the upper echelons of Mysterious Country recognize the viewpoint that "Ren Naiser’s videos disclose Trustworthy, significant intelligence."
Because Ren Suo knew this to be true.
This way, Mysterious Country would quickly dig out important intelligence and Cultivation information from Ren Naiser’s uploaded videos.
This way, perhaps those not as lucky as Ren Suo could seize their own opportunities from it and avoid predetermined disasters.
Of course, most importantly—
Ren Suo would be able to leisurely spend his days researching his own intelligence!
"Minor World, so much fun!"