Chapter 516 - Five Hundred and Thirteen: ’In Your Name.

Chapter 516: Chapter Five Hundred and Thirteen: ’In Your Name."Oh," Su Ming’an remained calm despite hearing the cloaked man’s words.

He reached out and resolutely swung his sword—

"Swoosh!"

The cloaked man was knocked back a few steps, and immediately two cursed beasts flanked him for protection.

"You..." The cloaked man was somewhat surprised; he hadn’t expected Su Ming’an to be unaffected by his words.

Su Ming’an took another step forward, his left hand grasping the charged spatial fluctuations.

He didn’t care about what prophecies the cloaked man had spoken of. As for Xiber’s matter, he would discuss it with her personally. Since she wouldn’t tell the truth even at a favorability of 70, it only showed she had some secrets to hide.

Everyone has secrets, especially someone as complex as Xiber. He had issues to discuss with her and didn’t need some bizarre stranger coming between them.

"Are you Su Rin?" Su Ming’an said, "Sounds a lot like you."

Unexpectedly, his words seemed to infuriate the other party.

The previously calm cloaked man suddenly stretched out his hand, and a blue cursed beast immediately lunged at Su Ming’an.

Simultaneously, Su Ming’an heard a system notification.

"Ding-dong!"

Wait.

Seeing this number, Su Ming’an almost broke the sword he had swung.

...95 points of initial favorability?

The last time he saw such outrageous favorability was back in the Holy Initiation. For the charm magnet Qin Wang, leaders from all factions maintained maximum favorability.

...But why would this cloaked man also have as much as 95 points of initial favorability?

It suddenly occurred to him that this time, they hadn’t entered the instance in their original bodies, but had taken on roles. He had checked at the start using the System Mirror and saw that he was a young man with black hair and black eyes.

However, this assigned character’s settings weren’t too important. Up until now, there hadn’t been any tasks related to his character identity, and he had almost forgotten about it.

"Do you recognize me?" Su Ming’an became curious about his own identity.

However, the other party ignored him, and the beast continued to pounce on him.

He stepped back, his sword tip aiming at the red circle on the beast, and stabbed—

"Little Black, let’s go."

Seeing this, the cloaked man called his Black Beast and showed signs of leaving immediately.

Su Ming’an was about to strike with his sword but narrowly avoided being hit by a large black paw.

Such beasts were pretty average for him, as his strength had always been above most beings in the instance, except for world-class bosses like Holy Initiation, Su Rin, Fengchang, and other NPCs, whom he could ease through like cutting vegetables.

But being hit by such a beast would curse him, an aspect that still required caution.

He wanted to use spatial displacement to ambush, but the two beasts immediately surrounded the cloaked man, acting like a meat shield.

"..." He was somewhat speechless, not expecting this person to be so afraid of battle, fleeing so quickly that he couldn’t catch up.

He speculated this person might be an NPC related to Su Rin, probably a relative or subordinate of Fengchang, given his reaction to Su Rin’s name. However, he couldn’t figure out why the name displayed was a question mark.

...Indeed, he hadn’t seen Su Rin for a long time and wondered where this deity had gone.

His Shadow State’s chasing ability was limited, and after the cloaked man completely disappeared, he heard another system notification.

"Ding-dong!"

[（Hidden Clue · In Your Name）: "My greatest desire, my perfection, you whom I call with all my heart...")

"You finally appeared before me on that day."]

Su Ming’an was slightly startled.

Shadow had been wandering around aimlessly but finally found something useful.

He immediately focused and shifted his perspective to the direction where Shadow was—

The sky was overcast.

Shadow, posing as Boss Rabbit, had become adept at patrolling the area.

His patrol progress had already reached 50%, and it wouldn’t be long before he could completely finish the task.

During this time, he encountered many bizarre events, such as Edward wanting to be a dog, Bonnie begging for hugs, Miu Wen wanting to sacrifice herself to the boss rabbit... Countless quirky Player behaviors fully exposed him to the diversity of humanity.

If it hadn’t been for his cleverness, sending this group of people packing in annoyance, his identity would have been exposed long ago.

At that moment, he approached a wooden hut at the edge of Qiongdi.

"... Isn’t this the place where the original body first woke up?" Shadow recognized the small hut.

Driven by curiosity, he pushed open the door of the hut, wanting to see what it looked like inside.

He knocked on the floor and discovered a basement below, after feeling around for a while, he used his clever little brain to open the basement door.

He walked down the stone steps and found a girl lying in the basement.

"Why is there someone locked up down here?" he examined the girl.

The girl’s purple hair was extraordinarily distinctive in Qiongdi, reminiscent of swaying flower stalks and lavender.

Her violet-leaning eyes were very clear, but at that moment, they appeared lifeless, as if her soul had been stripped away.

He squatted down and patted the girl’s face.

"Wake up, wake up, hey, who are you, why would you sleep in such a place..."

As he patted, he realized the girl’s eyes were open, not seeming asleep, but rather as if she had lost her mind.

...Her gaze, it somewhat resembled that of a Guide who had lost their adventurer.

Shadow continued slapping her face, "Who’s Guide are you, why are you lying here?"

He dusted the ashes off his hands, his expression somewhat disgusted:

"How long have you been lying here, you’re all covered in dust..."

He found it strange that beneath the hut where the original body first woke up, there was a girl who had lost her adventurer locked up.

He flipped through the girl’s clothes, looked at her arm, and suddenly noticed something.

"... I see," he said.

He stood up, suddenly hearing slow footsteps.

He turned around and saw a slender figure in bright red, standing at the basement’s stone steps.

"Who are you? How did you find this place?" Xiber, who had appeared suddenly, asked.

"I am... the real brother of your adventurer. My name is Su Mingying," Shadow shamelessly said, "Well, I just saw this hut and came in to take a look, and I didn’t expect to uncover a big secret."

"Su Ming’an certainly doesn’t have a fat rabbit brother," Xiber said.

Shadow’s current appearance was still that of a cute white rabbit, completely different from Su Ming’an’s appearance.

Shadow’s plan to claim kinship fell through, but he still smiled shamelessly.

"Su Ming’an also doesn’t have a deceitful Guide," he said without changing his tone.

"I am his Guide," Xiber said.

"Lying through your teeth like that, little girl, you might just end up in the Hell of Tongue-Ripping," Shadow said.

"..." Xiber fell silent.

"You really know how to play, little girl," Shadow shrugged, "Let me guess... probably before the original body woke up, you had already taken the rightful Guide’s place, and played weak at the start, tricking the foolish original body into signing an irrevocable contract, causing this purple-haired Guide to lose her mind... Ah, my foolish original body, finding out now is already too late... you can only continue with this little liar..."

"Are you so sure it was me who usurped the nest?" Xiber asked.

"Just moving my clever little brain," Shadow held up two fingers, "The original body woke up later than everyone else, at 12:15 AM. I think, fifteen minutes, that should have been enough time for you to deceive an innocent Guide into hiding in your basement, right?

Secondly, you look exactly like a cunning little liar; the boy who cried wolf never ends well, you’ve lied too much, and now I won’t believe a thing you say."

As he spoke, he nodded repeatedly, seemingly quite impressed with his deduction.

He had discovered,

on this purple-haired girl’s delicate, fair arm,

... embroidered a black raven, spreading its wings as if to fly.

It was clearly meant to be a match of the First Adventurer with the First Guide—a brilliant start.

And yet, it had been forcibly turned into a heretical start by this little liar before him, setting them against the world.

Shadow felt he was extremely clever, having analyzed the situation so clearly in one glance.

When Su Ming’an received the news, he rushed over quickly.

Even though it was nearly dusk, Su Ming’an had no intention of waiting till the next day to handle it, he first used Blood Seal Teleportation, teleporting to a dark spot at the edge of the farm, and then sprinted all the way here.

The Blood Seal Teleportation Skill could only teleport to places with a dark aura; he had left a blood seal at the farm altar before, allowing direct teleportation to the farm, but it still took time to reach the hut.

During this time, Shadow was in charge of delivering messages.

"My brother asked me to ask you, what is your real authority?" Shadow continued to climb the relationship ladder, even calling him brother directly: "Hey, isn’t your real authority prophecy? Lying again? You really are, even ten thousand tongues wouldn’t suffice to cut..."

Xiber’s eyebrows twitched.

"No comment," she said.

"You won’t even say this, is the favorability not enough? It shouldn’t be, are my original self’s methods of gaining favorability so slack..." Shadow muttered to himself.

Xiber extended her hand, several tendrils growing behind her, ready to kill this foul-mouthed white rabbit.

This rabbit... really reached the pinnacle of foulness.

Her appearance began to slowly change, each use of the power bestowed upon her by Jiu Shen required the sacrifice of life force as a price.

But she was still young enough, with plenty of opportunities ahead.

She still had... endless opportunities.

"...Xiber."

But just then, a calm call came from behind her.

She paused, turning stiffly.

She saw a familiar figure descending the stone steps.

Su Ming’an looked very calm.

"I’ll only ask once," he said, "are you my Guide? I mean, from the very beginning."

Xiber looked at him, seeing the seriousness in the depths of his eyes.

"Yes," she said, "from the very beginning, I have been your Guide."

"Good, I believe you," Su Ming’an said.

Shadow shook his head repeatedly beside them, seemingly mourning its uselessness: "My foolish original self..."

"Continue your patrol," Su Ming’an dismissed Shadow directly.

He realized Shadow wasn’t very smart; his deductions were all over the place. Xiber was definitely his Guide, after all, there were system prompts.

He looked down at the purple-haired girl.

He hadn’t expected the first Guide to be such a young girl, even younger than Xiber.

On the girl’s arms sat a pitch-black crow, indicating she was indeed the owner of the Crow Authority, possessing a strength level close to Fengchang’s.

This was the last Authority; he now knew its whereabouts.

"Is she the first Guide?" he asked.

"It seems so," Xiber said.

"What is her name?" he asked.

"I don’t know."

"Why is she here?" he asked.

"I took advantage of her inattention and killed her adventurer; she went mad and I threw her into the basement," Xiber said, "That fat rabbit wasn’t wrong, I am a bad person, deceiving adventurers, friends, and relatives, and killing people at will; it’s not news to you that I am a bad person."

Su Ming’an watched her.

He had long known.

Since that apocalyptic HE, he knew what kind of person she was.

...She was not a bad person.

...She was someone who always liked to play the villain.

Unhiding, unexplaining, unreturning. Stubbornly like a bull, once she set a goal, she wouldn’t let go, even if misunderstood by the whole world, even if burdened with all the world’s evil, she would keep going.

Scarred all over, an enemy to the whole world.

No turning back, moving forward.

...Until she saw the spring blossoming she understood.

"Alright," Su Ming’an said, "tell the truth now."

"It is the truth," Xiber stubbornly replied.

Su Ming’an glanced at Xiber.

"Her adventurer died because of a curse, not because of you, right?" he said.

Xiber’s eyes flickered slightly.

"I can feel it, this girl has an extremely intense curse aura. She is a source of curse emission," Su Ming’an said, "Anyone who forms a contract with her must be overwhelmed."

"She is the most dangerous Guide, like a harmful radiation to both others and herself," he said, "I guess, anyone staying close to her would soon succumb to the curse and die. You met her, already insane, on the first day of the war and took her back to the purification chamber, hiding her in the basement so that the curse on her wouldn’t affect others... Am I wrong?"

Xiber sighed.

She found that her adventurer was terrifyingly perceptive.

"...Why do you always push people away?" Su Ming’an said, "Why not try trusting others? Xiber, not everyone in this world needs to be doubted; you don’t need to lie intentionally to become a villain. You are clearly kind and gentle, and the only Awakener in this world. You consider every step for a better future; why not reach out to your fellow travelers?"

Xiber remained silent.

"Xiber," he continued:

"Lies, when told enough, become truth."

"I can see your hidden love and persistence."

"Even though we each live our own destined lives... you are not alone."

"Stop being stubborn, try to trust others, depend on others."

Xiber lifted her eyes.

In her shining blue eyes, he saw a reflection of his gaze, strikingly similar to hers.

In that moment, their gazes locked as if caught by the wind, and he could clearly see the light and warmth in her eyes.

Those eyes, unblinking and staring at him, were like two patches of desolate fire.

She revealed a somewhat pale smile.

"The adventurer and the guide are a match, Su Ming’an,"

"...Are you talking to yourself?"

Su Ming’an was slightly stunned.

He saw her lower her head, shading her eyes.

In her eyes, the sea-blue laughter compressed and shattered, revealing stardust-like twinkles.

"My Authority is not ’Prophecy,’ but..."

She closed her mouth at that point.

When she spoke again, she asked him:

"...Can you tell a story?"

"Very good at it," he said.

"Can you play an instrument?"

"Somewhat," he replied.

"Then can you, while playing an instrument, sing along with me?"

"That’s a bit challenging, but I also know a bit of the leaf flute; maybe I can accompany you," he said.

He didn’t know why Xiber suddenly asked these questions.

He just vaguely felt that the questions she asked sounded somewhat familiar.

"Yes, you have pitch-black hair, and pitch-black eyes. You also have a wisdom that is not inferior to mine," she said:

"You care about the feelings of your companions, you have the courage to face everything independently, never fleeing..."

"You respect others, possess independent thinking, and have your own judgment..."

Listening to her,

Su Ming’an suddenly remembered where he had seen these words from Xiber before.