Evil Emperor Zun

Chapter 2034 Diverting the Calamity Eastward: Zhen Xinghe

"It's confirmed! Qin Jia is alright!"

As soon as Uesugi Felicia and Elodie returned, Xuan Shuang excitedly led a group of guards to greet them.

Children tend to become incoherent when they get excited. Even Xuan Shuang, who is usually quite precocious, turned into a little duck, chattering away for a long time, leaving everyone confused. It was only thanks to the other guards who provided supplementary information that they were able to understand what was going on.

It turns out that the Cosmic Sea also has a social network similar to a "forum". It has chat rooms and bulletin boards, mainly for middle and lower-level strong players to share information.

For example, if a new secret realm is discovered and someone wants to explore it, but is unsure of their own ability, they can post an ad to find travel companions; buyers and sellers can also bypass intermediaries and trade various magical artifacts and weapons directly here.

For example, whenever there's a major event in the Universe Sea, it immediately becomes a topic of discussion, with all sorts of rumors, true and false, flying around. Many people will use information they've obtained from the forum to curry favor with their masters. When Baili Ji, Huangjisi, and others were severely injured and on the verge of death, the news was immediately flooded the forum, which is why they were able to quickly gather a group of enemies to surround and kill them.

The struggle for Pure Souls has become a hot topic recently, with related posts everywhere on the forums. Some are offering large sums of money to buy information, some are hiring thugs, and some are looking for teams to hunt together. From these eager discussions, there is no indication that Pure Souls have been captured by any faction or individual.

The guard who recommended this forum said that it's the forefront for ordinary people to obtain information; if you can't find it here, it basically hasn't happened. So—at least for now—pure souls are still safe.

Uesugi Felicia and Elodie also read a few posts. Seeing that the group was discussing how to capture a peaceful child with the attitude of fighting for something, their indifference to life made their hearts clench.

Uesugi Felicia gripped Elodie's wrist tightly, instinctively controlling her emotions and trying to glean useful information from between the lines, memorizing it. Elodie remained silent, instinctively analyzing the psychology of those people, her usually calm turbulent blue eyes now surging with turbulent emotions. They exchanged a knowing glance, like allies, and left first, heading towards the meeting place.

After they left, Xuan Shuang spent several more hours on the forum, finally figuring out how this little society operated. Then he beckoned the guards to gather around and explained his plan to them.

He demanded that they, as insiders, spread false information, saying that the Pure Soul had fallen into the hands of the Chunlan Saintess of the New God faction!
Chunlan and Biyao come from extremely powerful families, a fact the guards have been vehemently advocating and confirmed on the forums. By using her as a target, other factions seeking to purify their souls will undoubtedly turn their attacks on them. The more manpower each faction loses in this power struggle, the more enemies they effectively eliminate beforehand.

This plan should only be known to those present; his other companions wouldn't like it. He also didn't want his loving older brothers and sisters to see this side of him.

A child raised in the cesspool of power and lust will naturally have a mind that is not pure. The survival experience in the palace taught him that it is not enough to simply do his best; he must also find ways to make his competitors suffer.

No one was more suitable for this role than the saint. Coincidentally, she was someone who was obsessed with saving face, even at the cost of suffering. Faced with this kind of "praise to death" rumor, she wouldn't even bother to clarify; she would simply accept this glory that wasn't hers, making everyone believe that she had won the holy war. This facilitated the consolidation and spread of the rumor.

The true elite at the top of the pyramid have their own primary sources of information and typically don't participate in online discussions. In other words, this platform lacks definitive voices and convincing "absolute truth." Consequently, debates inevitably arise.

Furthermore, the anonymity of identity provides users with an opportunity to temporarily escape the limitations of real-world class, allowing them to speak freely, offer their opinions, and have their information received and noticed by a massive audience. This "sudden wealth" mentality in the virtual world makes many people eager to maintain this hard-won sense of existence and recognition. They care more about their image than their reality.

This is a disadvantage in acquiring information, but at the same time, it is also an advantage in muddying the waters.

A little kid was talking with such conviction about manipulating the course of an interstellar war that the guards were sure to have looked incredibly strange. Even more absurdly, the more he rambled on, the more they began to think it actually made sense?
Xuan Shuang said that in order for rumors to take root in people's hearts, it is necessary to create a series of twists and turns.

"We'll first use an account to spread rumors that Saintess Chunlan arrived in Tianjin early in order to pursue Baili Ji, and that she got the pure soul first."

"The public will be skeptical. And this is just the beginning."

"At this moment, another person slapped out the family crest and stepped forward as a member of the New God faction to deny it, saying, 'Bullshit! Our Holy Maiden is clearly with the main force of the family and is still floating on the spaceship!' Upon seeing this, the crowd exclaimed, 'Oh, the rumor has been debunked, the situation has reversed.'"

"Next, a mysterious third party stepped forward. He was ruthless and didn't say much; he immediately presented solid evidence, posting images of the Holy Maiden's activities in Tian Tan."

“The whistleblower and the debunker have conflicting positions. Now that there is evidence proving that the debunker lied, the public will assume that what the whistleblower said must be true.”

"Online public opinion is so binary, black and white. Many people don't have the ability to think things through separately. You may be disproving only the position of the saintess, but when they choose to believe the whistleblower, they will still believe the whole whistleblower's story."

"Furthermore, ordinary people enjoy seeing the powerful and wealthy get humiliated. This makes them more likely to take the bait we offer."

"At this point, the whistleblower has established initial credibility, and we can start making a profit. Let me tell you, we will release more evidence, but it will cost money."

"As for evidence for charging, we can make it a bit sensational. We can release the video of the Saintess and Qin Jia together in the Sun Realm."

"People are like this: if you give them something good for free, they'll always feel something's wrong, like you're trying to rip them off with a defective product. But if you repackage a defective product and sell it to them at a high price, they'll think it must be a good thing."

"Because if you make him accept that he was cheated out of his money and spent a lot of money on junk, it's the same as making him accept that he was stupid. In order to refuse to admit that he was stupid, he has to convince himself that he was not cheated and that he bought something good. So, making them spend money is the same as completely binding them to our chariot."

"Of course, there will definitely be people who question us. Some are truly intelligent and can see that our evidence is somewhat weak in some places. Others are unwilling to confront the New God faction and prefer that pure souls remain free so that it will be easier for them to hunt. These kinds of people will also try their best to find loopholes in our evidence."

"But it doesn't matter. Our evidence is solid. It's all real memories replicated using the recording stone. Even if someone uses supernatural powers to calculate cause and effect, they can't do anything to us. Besides, those who believe in us won't be happy to have their views refuted, so they'll argue with the other party. Their arguments will help us maintain our popularity and make this rumor more and more deeply ingrained in people's minds."

To win people over, you have to offer them benefits. Xuan Shuang's benefit to these guards was to let them make a fortune by selling intelligence. Since it was his idea, and he proposed a split of the profits, the guards naturally didn't object.

He entrusted the money allocated to him to them to purchase as many weapons as possible that had no usage requirements. He would then share these magical artifacts with his companions. This way, they wouldn't be so passive when facing enemies from higher planes in the future, and they would have a stronger force to protect Qin Jia. Earning money by scheming against the Holy Maiden, and then using that money to arm themselves, could be considered a successful internal cycle.

The whole plan, to put it simply, wasn't complicated, but it truly mastered the art of manipulating public opinion. This was something a child who had never even touched the internet had accomplished in just a few hours—a gamble they wouldn't have dared to take even in tens of thousands of years. The guards' heads were buzzing, a chill running down their spines.

"This child is destined for greatness." This is the thought that is running through everyone's mind at this moment.

……

The guards had truly learned what it meant for a newborn calf to be fearless.

As the plan progressed, the bait they cast caught a real big fish.

Soel, the saint's most faithful servant.

Soel regularly browses forums, and he noticed it as soon as the hype started.

He immediately realized how malicious the person who fabricated this rumor was towards the saintess.

Using real evidence, they tell a lie, while simultaneously placing the new god faction in an extremely difficult position to respond to.

They couldn't tell the outside world that their people had indeed arrived in Tiantan early on and had indeed dealt with the Pure Soul, but that the little girl was no longer in their hands.

Putting aside the question of whether outsiders will believe it, the sheer impact of such a statement is immense—how prestigious it is to be "the first to seize the target," and how humiliating it is to "let the duck fly away from the hand." The entire universe will laugh at them. And, for the sake of face, the family's higher-ups will likely not deny it either.

By accepting this empty title, she accepts becoming a target of public scorn in the holy war. The family's wrath will surely be unleashed upon the saintess.

This wasn't the first time the Holy Maiden had caused trouble for her family. She had previously provoked the Angela plane, angering Baili Ji, forcing her family to offer him substantial gifts to appease him and quell the trouble. As a result, the Holy Maiden was imprisoned for over a thousand years.

This time, she came to Tian Tan without her family's knowledge, acting on her own. If she could truly capture the Pure Soul, it would at least make up for her past mistakes, but instead, she has only brought trouble once again. In the face of the family's interests, no matter how favored she is, no one can protect her, and she will certainly face even harsher punishment.

Soel was deeply in love with Chunlan Biyao and only wanted to use all his strength to stop any storms that threatened her before they could even take shape. Therefore, he directly approached the whistleblower and asked how much money they wanted.

He was willing to settle the matter with money if the other party could admit to framing him, delete the posts, apologize, and minimize the impact before the family's higher-ups noticed.

The guards were stunned when they received the news. The joy of earning a little money, which they had just begun to cherish, was instantly drenched in a basin of ice water.

Soel was their former superior, a powerful figure of noble birth. Every word he uttered carried the weight of an unyielding will. Even after their separation, his lingering influence still held sway over them, making them inclined to accept his proposals.

Just as they were arguing about whether to accept money or not, whether to state a price directly or to be polite first, and how much to ask to maximize their profits without angering him, Xuan Shuang said, "Let me talk to him."

Soel came with sincerity. He only wanted to protect the saintess. However, Xuan Shuang deliberately set a trap, tricking him into saying all sorts of coercive and enticing things, giving this little instigator a lot of material, which she then carefully arranged and combined into the shape she wanted, and then scattered it all on the forum.

He then put on a dramatic act, yelling, "Oh my god! The New God faction has come to threaten us! The video might disappear at any time due to unforeseen circumstances, so if you still want to watch it, hurry up and buy it now!"

Soel's appearance, orchestrated by Xuan Shuang, was practically a gift from heaven. After all, unlike their role-playing, Soel was a real, named subordinate of the New God faction, and everyone recognized his forum account.

Now, those who were initially skeptical are now convinced it's true. The fact that the New God faction went out of their way to buy the information proves it's definitely real. Coupled with the threat that the video might disappear at any time, people inevitably develop a "buy now or it'll be gone" mentality, creating a kind of scarcity marketing effect.

So, what was originally just a "considerable" number of purchase requests exploded completely. The backend list was endless, with massive amounts of money pouring in from all directions. The guards' wallets had never been so full. Counting the ever-increasing balance in their accounts, they were all grinning from ear to ear.

……

Normally, Soel wouldn't be so easily led astray. But he was too eager to settle things for the saintess, and his concern clouded his judgment, inadvertently becoming a catalyst for public opinion to escalate. Seeing that this trend was beyond control, he was so frustrated that he wished he could atone with his death.

He wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone until he resolved the matter.

Therefore, when he was walking briskly through the Saintess Palace, and Chiffon, who was busy wiping the floor, hurriedly draped a rag over her shoulder and came to bow to him, he didn't even glance at her.

Qi Feng's expression immediately turned sour.

In the past, Soel was quite approachable. He didn't value family background or lineage that much, and even when facing servants of far lower status than himself, he would usually smile, nod, and offer a word of thanks. So Chiffon quite enjoyed hanging around him; being treated so kindly by a powerful figure from the middle plane gave him a sense of satisfaction, like "I'm someone of importance too."

However, today Soel completely ignored him. Although he could tell that Soel was troubled, Chiffon had no intention of sharing his master's worries. Instead, after Soel walked away, Chiffon spat at his back.

"Pah! You're taking your bad mood out on me, what a piece of trash!"