Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 641 The Legendary "Code"

"You're overthinking things," Tian Bufan said, speechless. "You'll understand once we summon the 'Principal' back."

"Oh, right!" Lin Yi suddenly said, "My memory is still a bit incomplete. According to the plan that 'I' and Liangzi made back then, what were we supposed to do with the principal's return based on what he brought back?"

"What will he bring back, and what reference will he give us?"

Upon hearing this, Tian Bufan narrowed his eyes: "You mean the 'principal'... He'll find the answer he's looking for."

"That answer might have a devastating impact on the beliefs he has held since ancient times... If the 'he' who returns is still 'him,' then we can obtain something... Those things only exist in the depths of the Black Sea, belonging to some unique 'specimens' from there."

“That ‘specimen’ allows us to understand some things about the situation over there, and then…”

Lin Yi suddenly exclaimed, "Wait, wait! We've learned about the situation over there? Does that mean we're going to go out to sea too?"

Tian Bufan remained silent, only smiling meaningfully: "What do you think?"

"Damn it, you've already thrown the answer right in my face!" Lin Yi said. "And what 'I' said about all-in, and what about releasing 'Demonic Power,' and what you and that corpse in the well said about all-in, are they all the same thing... Is our side quest to gather a ship full of legendary characters to go to sea?"

Oh my god, Luffy! Oh my god, the Seven Warlords of the Sea!

“Not entirely…” Tian Bufan shook his head slightly, but remained silent. “First, we’ll summon the ‘Principal’ back… then we’ll leave here according to plan.”

"When the 'principal' comes back, whatever we want to do, we can have him as our driver and let us drive around the campus like crazy."

Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat. Was this the true value of the Lord of the Forbidden Zone and the Ancient Emperor?!
Tian Bufan narrowed his eyes, his expression somewhat serious: "My only worry is that the 'principal' might be turned against us..."

"Could he... really be turned?" Lin Yi swallowed hard.

"Logically speaking, he is the brightest and most magnificent light in all mankind... But similarly, if even he succumbs to the 'truth' he saw in the black sea, then... everything becomes extremely difficult."

Difficult to handle? Then... cough cough... Lin Yi subconsciously recalled some familiar codes, but he knew they didn't have the leverage to overturn the table.

By overturning the table, they essentially helped the Gray Fog invaders turn against humanity.

He's already ruined his life with his carefree talk; he can't afford to ruin humanity too.

He would never commit adultery.

"Well... let's get down to business first." Lin Yi hesitated for a moment, but decided to get straight to the point. "How can we summon the principal back?"

After all, only by summoning back the principal can "Lin Yi's Notebook" be upgraded to "The Principal's Notebook" through the principal's intervention.

"Don't rush," Tian Bufan said. "Let's do some side jobs first."

"Huh?" Lin Yi was taken aback. "We still take on freelance work? Is the economic climate so bad that even official organizations are encouraging people to take on freelance work?"

Tian Bufan said, "Official jobs are split 50/50, and private jobs require an extra 10% subsidy... This is all tacitly agreed upon. However, haven't you realized that we are not actually government employees?"

"Damn, are we really a shady team? The official organization is fake?" Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat, but when he thought back to when the "principal" came to negotiate, there really wasn't a trace of anything official around.

Tian Bufan said, "We do not belong to any faction in the world."

Lin Yi was startled upon hearing this and blurted out, "Could it be that we really are members of that 'Time Council'?"

"The 'Time Council'?" Tian Bufan said, half-laughing and half-crying. "Haven't you heard that when you're traveling, you give yourself your own identity?"

"The 'Time Council' was fabricated by Fusheng Weiliang Tianzun to endorse himself, which is why no one has ever actually seen it."

"It is precisely because no one has actually seen it that, conversely, there is no way to expose the lies and fabrications of Fusheng Weiliang Tianzun. These fabrications are passed down by word of mouth among the world's elite, becoming more and more mysterious and miraculous with each passing tale..."

"Fu Sheng Wei Liang Tianzun is incredibly cunning. Not only does he not expose them, but he also fans the flames. Thus, in the shadows of global history, the legend of a supreme court of judgment—the 'Council of Time'—is circulating almost everywhere."

"Uh... so, in the end, the 'Time Council' only consisted of Liangzi alone?" Lin Yi wiped away a bead of sweat, thinking to himself that Liangzi had been tinkering with strange and ingenious tricks for a long time...

If you think about it more broadly, what kind of weird tricks or ingenious techniques could possibly be more impressive than the "Time Council"?
Damn it...

"Then what exactly are we?" Lin Yi asked, puzzled.

Tian Bufan thought for a moment and said, "I'd say he's... his accomplice, or rather, his partner."

"Your companions from the Time Council aren't members of the Time Council?" Lin Yi was somewhat surprised.

"Batman's partner isn't Batman either, is he?"

"So we're Robins?"

“No, this time, we are Batman,” Tian Bufan said.

Lin Yi was somewhat pleased: "So this time Liangzi is Robin?"

“No.” Tian Bufan shook his head again. “We are Batman, and Fusheng Weiliang Tianzun is Superman.”

"..." Lin Yi was speechless for a moment. He thought Tian Bufan was using "Batman" as an example, but he didn't expect Tian Bufan to use "Justice League". "Then our fighting power is just a roadside dog?"

"Is Liangzi that fierce?"

"If you're not fierce, how can you intimidate others and leave a lasting mark on history?"

Lin Yi's heart trembled slightly as he suddenly realized that his understanding of Wei Liang seemed to have become seriously flawed.

Is this something he originally knew from his altered memories?

He was increasingly curious about their true purpose in coming here, but unfortunately, he needed to find the principal first.

However, objectively speaking, everything is proceeding in an orderly manner, and it seems that it will be about the right time before the principal returns, and he will soon know the truth.

While he was talking to Tian Bufan, Mao Feiyang had already walked to the desk and taken a scroll from the neatly stacked sheepskin scrolls and bamboo slips on the desk.

He didn't rush to open it, but held it in his hand and played with it carefully, as if he were caressing an ancient zither or a jade flute.

Lin Yi looked at Mao Feiyang and asked curiously, "What are those things?"

The parchment scrolls and bamboo slips on the desk looked very old and varied in style, as if they came from many different eras.

Tian Bufan chuckled and said, "Isn't that what you've always wanted to know?"

Lin Yi was slightly taken aback and couldn't help but think. What is it that I've always wanted? How come I don't know?
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him, like a thunderbolt piercing the darkness, and he exclaimed in surprise, "You mean... this is the so-called 'Code of Laws'?"

Tian Bufan smiled and said, "That's right, this is the code. A part of it has been translated by some research organizations in the world and is now kept in the archives of the highest authority of various major powers."

"There's another part that remains untranslated, right here with you." "This is the true, hidden secret of world history, unknown to most, a legend among legends, a documentary myth. Its status is comparable to the so-called 'historical text.'"

The true history of the world on the mystical side!
Such important and valuable documents and classics are now being placed in front of them in a very ordinary way!

Thinking of this, Lin Yi's breathing became slightly heavy.

But then he thought about it again and couldn't help but wonder, "Such an important thing is here, and you're not even a little curious?"

Tian Bufan laughed and said, "I told you long ago that even things recorded in the legal code may not be the truth."

"Then what is the truth?" Lin Yi asked.

“The truth, you’ve really stumped me,” Tian Bufan said with a wry smile. “The ancients said seeing is believing, but in reality, seeing isn’t always believing. Even the events we experience aren’t necessarily all true.”

"Just like Jiang Wei, if Liu Shan hadn't kept the secret letter he left before his rebellion, then in the eyes of later generations, the truth would have been nothing more than Jiang Wei betraying his master. But only they knew that the truth was not so."

"Then what is the truth about the legal code?" Lin Yi asked. "Is it possible that everything known and translated in the world is fake?"
“If that’s indeed the case, then what would happen?” Tian Bufan asked. “If Jiang Wei’s letter hadn’t been discovered, wouldn’t the so-called ‘truth’ be a misrepresentation?”

"Most of what is recorded in this code is correct, but a small part is quite different from the truth."

Lin Yi pondered for a moment and asked, "Then... what exactly does your so-called secret letter from Jiang Wei refer to in the legal code?"

Tian Bufan narrowed his eyes but did not answer, because Mao Feiyang spoke first.

"It's the part about 'Master Difa'..." Mao Feiyang slowly put down the sheepskin scroll.

“Difa…” Tian Bufan sighed, “She was the first to notice the anomaly, but at that time, she didn’t have a good way to prevent the tragedy from happening.”

Lin Yi pressed further, "What kind of tragedy was it? How come I know nothing about it?"

"That part of your memory just hasn't been revived yet."

"Huh? Wait a minute... 'that part of my memory'...?!" Lin Yi's mouth dropped open. "Why do I have memories of things that happened in ancient times? Did I travel back in time through the boundary of dreams?"

Mao Feiyang pursed his lips.

Tian Bufan interrupted, "More or less... but we didn't experience much of it firsthand at that time."

“Fusheng Weiliang Tianzun is the one who has taken on all the suffering.”

"Darkness and bloodshed, the fall of the holy sun, the final judgment, the banishment of time..."

"Ugh……"

Tian Bufan let out a long sigh.

"The whole incident is a huge paradoxical cycle..."

"If we succeed in the end, then no one will remember any of this. Everyone will be protected by Utopia and will not remember, no, they won't even know what happened, except for Fusheng Weiliang Tianzun."

“What does ‘success’ mean? How can one be considered successful?” Lin Yi asked.

Tian Bufan remained silent, only staring intently at the various legal codes on Genxu's desk.

Mao Feiyang remained silent, simply touching them gently, as if he were reading Braille.

"Hey, hey, hey, none of you are saying anything, it's making me feel really uneasy..." Lin Yi said with a wry smile.

Tian Bufan said, "Success means solving a problem once and for all... You'll find out soon, just like when you regained your memories. You'll find out soon."

"Soon, do you mean... when the principal returns?" Lin Yi asked.

"Yes," Tian Bufan replied affirmatively, "or perhaps, we'll find out even earlier."

"I don't understand." Lin Yi shook his head slightly.

That's because you haven't met the person who will give you three moles yet.

Lin Yi pursed his lips: "I don't believe in fate."

“This is not destiny,” Tian Bufan said. “It’s just part of the plan.”

“Okay…” Lin Yi shrugged, “So what are you talking about as ‘side jobs’?”

"Release 'her'," Tian Bufan said.

"'He,' 'she'... 'it'?" Lin Yi asked hesitantly.

"'She'—Difa, the 'Difa Master' among the 'First Apostles'."

"'Difa'...that's what we call her, so we're...very close to her?"

“We know each other very well.” Tian Bufan nodded. “There are also some other people, like the one in the well.”

"That person still can't tell me his title?" Lin Yi pursed his lips.

“The Butcher.” To Lin Yi’s surprise, Tian Bufan actually said it this time.

"He's the 'Butcher'?!" Lin Yi exclaimed in surprise. In the flashback, he seemed to have heard the "Divine Craftsman" rambling on, and at that time, the "Divine Craftsman" seemed to have mentioned the title "Butcher".

“That’s right,” Tian Bufan said. “It’s him.”

Lin Yi asked, "Are we, him, and Master Di all in cahoots?"

"correct."

"How did the butcher's body end up there? The code is wrong. Wasn't he killed by the sorcerer and thrown into the well?" Lin Yi remembered that Night Watchman-02 had told him that when the sorcerer turned evil, he killed many of the original apostles, including the butcher in the well.

Tian Bufan said, "It was indeed Difa who did it, but there are some secrets involved. For example, the butcher had gone mad back then, and Difa had to kill him to cool him down on the verge of death so that he could recover."

"Killing a companion is actually more painful than killing a companion who has turned evil. If the butcher has truly fallen into depravity, killing him will not bring any psychological burden."

"However, at their level, the 'original apostles,' ordinary death no longer holds any meaning."

"Therefore, it's more accurate to say that it was sealed rather than killed."

(End of this chapter)