Evil Emperor Zun

Chapter 2014 Unshirkable Responsibility
"...That's what happened."

Ye Yunyan ultimately chose to speak to Chen Shiyu.

If Shi Yu's eye technique could truly uncover the details of the Gnawing Clan, she didn't want to give up so easily. As a precaution, she also recounted her previous experiences in their entirety.

In her view, if the "Dark Ten Feathers" were caught off guard without any knowledge of what was happening, then the fact that they are now prepared and can find a way to deal with it is itself a change for the future.

Furthermore, Shi Yu would bear the greatest risk in this matter, and Ye Yunyan felt she had no right to make the decision for him. She hoped that he would fully understand the pros and cons before deciding whether to participate. As long as it was his true wish, she would respect it.

"Hmm... Shiyu, if you're unwilling, you must tell me honestly." Seeing him frowning and deep in thought, Ye Yunyan finally couldn't help but say a few more words, "Don't worry about me, I don't want you to feel pressured in any way."

"Why do you say that?" Chen Shiyu was clearly taken aback; it seemed he had indeed rarely faced the option of rejection.

Although the "Ten Dark Feathers" were a product of negative energy corruption, Ye Yunyan could sense that some of the things he said were a true reflection of his inner thoughts.

When he smiles, it doesn't necessarily mean he's truly happy. His willingness to grant requests doesn't always come from his own volition.

A relationship based solely on one-sided exploitation and demanding will not last. Precisely because she needs him, she should not exploit him to the point of exhaustion.

"Alright, I'm really fine." Perhaps thinking she was worried about her health, Chen Shiyu paused for a moment before reassuring her with his usual sunny smile. "I have a plan for the Devouring Clan, and I'll need your cooperation then."

"Sit here for a while, I'll go wash my face first, and then I'll come with you."

……

He splashed handfuls of cool water on his face, as if washing away the filth that had clung to him. Chen Shiyu let out a deep breath, gazing at his reflection in the mirror. It felt both familiar and strange, as if his soul was readjusting to this body.

He didn't remember what he did when he was corrupted, but judging from Ye Yunyan's lingering fear, it probably wasn't a pleasant memory. If this was a warning from the Devouring Clan, an attempt to scare him away, then he wouldn't mind letting them know that messing with the wrong person would backfire.

He went over the plan he had just drafted in his mind again, and after confirming that there were no oversights, he casually brushed his wet bangs aside in front of the mirror, and prepared to go out to meet Ye Yunyan.

Suddenly, as if struck by lightning, Chen Shiyu froze in his tracks.

The person in the mirror...didn't they move just now?
As he fiddled with his bangs, he didn't recall the person in the mirror repeating his actions. It was as if the natural connection between the mirror image and the real person had been abruptly severed by some force.

Chen Shiyu frowned and walked back to the mirror, placing his hands on the sink and staring at his reflection, which was in the same position, as if confronting an unseen enemy.

In that instant, he saw himself in the mirror, his eyes turning completely black.

"Quickly...escape..."

That face, exactly like his own, seemed to be contorted in immense pain. A voice, forced from a tightly constricted throat, burst forth in a mournful, blood-curdling cry.

"Don't do anything unnecessary...run away..."

He struggled to raise his hands, stiffly moving his forearms until he finally placed his palms against the mirror. Again and again, he silently struck the barrier separating reality from illusion. It seemed he was using the last of his strength to break through the mirror and escape.

But in the end, his hands slipped down along with his slumped body, leaving two deep, long bloody streaks on the mirror.

The mirror showed an unusual change, and Chen Shiyu couldn't immediately confirm whether the same "black eyes" phenomenon had also occurred on him. So his instinctive reaction was to raise his hands and check if there was any blood in his palms.

With that lowered gaze, his eyes temporarily left the mirror.

When he looked up again, he met a pair of slightly bewildered blue eyes. He seemed unsure whether to look down at his palms again or continue gazing at the mirror, which no longer showed any abnormalities—a true reflection of himself.

In the blink of an eye, the mirror was completely restored to its original state, and even the two conspicuous bloodstains were gone.

What's going on? Is he still being affected by the residual corrosive influence and hallucinating? Or did the Devouring Clan find out he had just decided to investigate further, and this is yet another warning from them?
Staring at the mirror for a long time, Chen Shiyu's eyes were icy cold, but a faint smile appeared on his lips.

That's right, the one who should be most afraid right now... isn't yourself.

If the Gnawing Clan truly possessed the ability to severely injure him, they would have already acted. Since all they seem to have is this charade, it means they currently lack any further means to restrain him. And his trump card has already been proven by their reaction to demonstrate the depth of their fear. So, with absolute control in his hands, why should he worry about the dying struggles of a bunch of lowly beasts?
Let's find out what secrets they've been painstakingly hiding!

……

Chen Shiyu, who cultivates fire magic, is able to use a special eye technique.

It's a capability similar to thermal imaging, allowing you to accurately pinpoint the source of danger even in absolute darkness by detecting changes in heat. It also allows you to see things invisible and imperceptible to ordinary people. For example, is the person standing in front of you and speaking a living, breathing human being, or a manipulated, monstrous corpse?

This ability is incredibly useful for breaking illusions. Normally, once someone is trapped in an illusion, their five senses are clouded, making it impossible to distinguish reality from illusion, and they eventually become unknowingly immersed in it. However, once Chen Shiyu activates his pupil technique and detects the absence of thermal imaging, he can determine that the scene and people in front of him are all fake, thus identifying the only image of the enemy. The experience of Mo Liangcheng and Luo Dixing, who were almost swallowed by illusions in the Nightmare Domain, is impossible for Chen Shiyu.

Not everyone who cultivates fire-based techniques possesses the same skills. Chen Shiyu's success stems from his mastery of ultimate fire—equivalent to 100% of the highest fire elemental power—which gives him complete confidence to transform himself into a flaming sword and incinerate all evil and illusions!
However, he still needs to do some preparatory work before he can officially use his pupil technique.

Outside the cage where the Gnawing Clan was imprisoned, a chair stood some distance away. Chen Shiyu sat with his back to them, holding a notebook in his hands. In front of him was a large full-length mirror, in which the Gnawing Clan's every move was clearly reflected.

Some curses are indeed best avoided through direct contact; establishing a connection with something unclean means becoming contaminated. Simply put, it means that when you can see it, it can also see you. Your future self on that timeline will likely have fallen victim to this curse in this way.

Since that's the case, let's use a mirror to see—and this is only the first line of defense. "From now on, I will sit here and record the movements of the Devouring Clan through the reflection in the mirror." Chen Shiyu declared as he wrote without stopping.

Hour after hour passed, and the notebook was filled with dense text. These records were detailed and fragmented, even specifying which row of which gnawing beast moved its front paw and when, each entry taking up an entire section. Shui Wunian also glanced at it, and could only conclude that while there was a lot of information, not a single piece could be considered valuable intelligence. Could this be some kind of mysterious strategy to "lower the enemy's guard"?
Shui Wunian and the audience were unaware of Chen Shiyu's plans, nor were the Gnawing Clan. Perhaps only Ye Yunyan, who had been informed of the plan by him, could be said to have some understanding. However, the doubts in her heart were no less than those of those who knew nothing at all.

Another hour passed, and Chen Shiyu finally put down his pen and winked at Ye Yunyan.

As instructed, Ye Yunyan pushed forward a square ice wall, its height and width matching the mirror, perfectly positioned between him and the mirror. Then, she draped a layer of silk cloth over the ice wall, its surface embroidered with intricate and complex patterns of laws, completely covering it, the corners of the cloth hanging to the ground. After doing all this, she quickly retreated to her original position and waited.

That piece of silk was a concealment-type magical artifact, with the secret runes of law on it having the effect of obscuring heavenly secrets. Items covered by it could be isolated from external divine sense scanning, causal calculations, and naturally, even prying eyes.

At that moment, Chen Shiyu sat upright, concentrating his mind, his eyes shimmering with light, and invisible energy surged from the depths of his eyes like ocean waves. A moment later, what reappeared were a pair of sharp, golden-orange pupils.

He used his pupil technique, but he couldn't see anything because of the barrier of laws.

This didn't prevent Ye Yunyan from receiving the signal for the next move. This time, the prop was a rather odd little box, resembling an old-fashioned camera with a protruding telephoto lens for framing and a small red button for the shutter. She aimed the lens at Chen Shiyu, making sure his figure was fully captured, and then pressed the button.

With a crisp snapping sound, Chen Shiyu's body briefly became ethereal. It was as if the light and shadow that composed him had been disturbed, causing a fragmented phantom image to emerge. A few breaths later, a shell still sat upright in the chair, but another version of him stepped outwards, "walking" out of the original body.

Once the two figures completely separated, Chen Shiyu, who had stepped outside, instantly solidified into a real person. He stared at the "himself" left on the chair for a while, as if only now could he finally exhale the breath that had been hanging in his throat. His gaze, rising and falling like the receding tide, washed away everything, silently smoothing out his golden-orange eyes—which had always seemed to be in a state of constant hunting—into a deep, dark blue.

It turns out that the one standing here is his original form. The one sitting in the original place is a clone they created using magical artifacts.

In terms of conventional abilities, a clone is essentially an avatar created by a cultivator. However, there are still some differences between the two.

The naturally formed clones are connected to the original soul. Their experiences and memories outside, including cultivation insights, are ultimately fed back to the original soul intact. Correspondingly, any negative effects, such as mental pollution, suffered by the clones are also brought back. In the worst-case scenario, if the soul's origin is destroyed by an enemy using special means, both the original soul and the clones may be annihilated!

Using clones can precisely circumvent this risk. Their most distinctive feature is their "independence." As a mirror image rewritten according to the genome, they have no connection to the original after the separation. The two are not a shared soul, and their memories are not synchronized. Although the timeliness of information transmission may be somewhat lacking, the advantage is that any attack on the clone cannot affect the original. Therefore, buyers often entrust clones with tasks that have extremely high risk factors, or tasks they are unwilling to do but have to. Afterwards, they can simply "photograph" them again using the same method to retrieve and destroy the clones after use.

Assigning tasks to clones requires a process similar to writing the first characters of a calligraphy model; you first "set an example" for them. It's like standing in front of a track with a set start and finish line, taking a few steps to show them what you need to do and how to do it. Once they've learned, they'll automatically run the rest of the race for you.

The meticulous recording of the Gnawing Clan's useless movements was a demonstration to the replicants, showing them that when they took over the work, they should record the events with the same level of detail, leaving no detail overlooked.

Furthermore, for the sake of proving his point, Chen Shiyu will have to sit in front of the mirror for a period of time while keeping his pupil technique activated. This represents the risk of triggering the curse. At this point, another defensive measure should be used, namely the Law Silk Cloth.

“First, use an ice wall the same height as the mirror to support the silk cloth and block the mirror. My vision will be blocked by the power of the law and will not be able to penetrate the silk cloth. This ensures that even if I see through the mirror, I will not be able to see the secret of the Devouring Clan directly.”

"As time goes by, the ice wall will slowly melt until it turns into a puddle of water. The silk cloth that was laid on it will fall to the ground. At that time, the clone sitting in the same spot with his pupil technique activated can officially begin recording based on the reflection in the mirror."

“I will set time acceleration in this area. This will derail the flow of the two timelines, as if a piece of space has been cut off and sent into the future. Then, as long as we estimate the time to retrieve the notebook, it will be equivalent to seeing the ‘notebook of the future’ in advance.”

"Most importantly, whatever happens in that 'local future' won't interfere with 'this spacetime'. Even if a curse is triggered there, its consequences will only affect the clones. The clones are completely independent of the originals and will never turn against them. As for me in 'this spacetime', I haven't done anything that could trigger the curse; at most, I just looked at a notebook... This is my spacetime combat plan. If it goes well, we'll be able to 'checkmate' soon."

Chen Shiyu's initial explanation still echoed in Ye Yunyan's mind. Even though everything was progressing steadily, she still felt waves of disbelief.

This is just too far-fetched. It's like someone publicly announcing they'll put a gold coin in their piggy bank every day, then traveling to the future and bringing back a whole jar full of coins. Is it really possible for something like this, like something out of a fairy tale, to actually happen?
Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible, but Chen Shiyu said he had considered it carefully. If, under the catalysis of the Devouring Clan or some unknown factor, events that happen to his future self could have a reverse effect on his present self, it would mean that the operation of spacetime had indeed undergone some changes beyond their comprehension. It was precisely because he suffered from this bug that he began to think about how to utilize it.

He doesn't deny that it's a gamble, but at least he didn't lose anything if he lost, and that's enough.

"Alright, now all we need to do is wait. Let's leave here first," Chen Shiyu called out to Ye Yunyan. He couldn't guarantee that the boundaries of the time acceleration field wouldn't suddenly expand and affect them all. For safety's sake, it was best to go further away for the time being.

During the waiting period before the notebook was retrieved, Chen Shiyu said he was going to the martial arts arena to do some simple training. Ye Yunyan planned to take a few ancient books with him. While he practiced, she would sit beside him and read, and if they discovered any new clues, they could discuss them together.

Throughout the entire plan, from its formulation to its execution, Chen Shiyu maintained a confident demeanor. However, the repeated battles of wits and courage had taken a considerable toll on his mental and physical well-being. Now, having finally done what he could, the weariness lingering in his body and spirit was finally evident on his face as they walked towards the training ground. This was also noticed by Ye Yunyan, who was closely observing him.

"Shiyu, are you really alright?" She looked him over and asked seriously. "I mean, this isn't your obligation, you have the right to refuse..."

From a young age, she was told that she was a pure soul created through the immense sacrifices of generations, born with the grace and hopes of all. This became her deepest source of pressure. Although her elders were planning for the long term of the realm, before she grew up enough to meet the expectations of the people, a large portion of the population on this land truly became unhappy because of her.

As a young girl in the prime of her life, she devoted all her time to cultivation, even fearing that she wasn't working hard enough. Besides the threat of the demon strategists returning, another key reason was that she felt a deep sense of indebtedness to others and always wanted to do more for them.

The players she encountered in Tian Tan were not from her own world, and strictly speaking, she owed no one anything. However, she was still driven by a deep-rooted sense of responsibility and did not want to cause any more trouble for anyone because of her.

Seeing that she was still thinking about this matter, Chen Shiyu was slightly taken aback, and then a faint smile appeared on her lips.

"I told you, you always put too much pressure on yourself." He put one hand in his pocket, his voice soft and gentle. "Many things aren't as complicated as you think."

“If you don’t want to do something, you can simply not do it. I dare say that most people don’t want to work.” This statement immediately drew nods of agreement from the audience. “But if you don’t work, you can’t support yourself. People are clearly aware of this fact. Therefore, they still make decisions they don’t like based on their own will.”

“Indeed, I don’t want to do these things, but no one can do them for me. Consider it my way of saving myself. If the Devourers really do destroy everything, I naturally won’t be able to escape unscathed in the apocalypse. So you don’t need to worry that I’m just too proud to refuse you. My feeling of ‘having no choice’ is just like your willingness to shoulder the burden of the plane. It’s all our own will.”

Ye Yunyan understood after he said that.

Because she understood, she felt for the first time that unique and thrilling resonance of their souls.

They didn't want to be heroes; they just felt it was their duty to hold up the sky when it was about to collapse, since no one else could do it but themselves.