The doctor suffers from amnesia, but not complete amnesia.

Despite her doubts, Ace faithfully carried out Qiao Yelan's orders.

"Let me guess, it's the Grand Tutor?"

"...Everyone knows that after I committed a grave mistake, I was captured by the Grand Tutor of the Great Yan Dynasty and brought back to the capital, after which I disappeared without a trace. Why do you think I am here to deliver a message on his behalf?"

"Because he and I are both people who are best at extracting surplus value—the moment you appeared in front of me, you had already given me the answer."

Qiao Yelan examined the black wine cup.

“If you are no longer of value, or if your harm to the Great Yan exceeds your usefulness to the Great Yan, then there is no way you could appear before me alive—you have come, so you and the Grand Tutor must be on the same side, or at least, you have reached some kind of tacit understanding.”

A silent stillness enveloped the area, and for the first time, the expression on "Carp's" face flickered.

"You really can hide anything from me—that's right, it's the Grand Tutor, and not just the Grand Tutor, but also—"

"And the Emperor—but what I find strange is how you know about this. Logically speaking, even if the Grand Tutor knew, he wouldn't tell you. And as an old man who is loyal to the Great Yan, he wouldn't be monitoring the palace at all."

"You taught me not to let my pieces know they are pieces."

Qiao Yelan remained noncommittal, his attention still fixed on the wine cup.

"The Grand Tutor asked me to pass on a message to you—is there any possibility that Duke Wei will change his mind?"

“Tell him that I will pay him a visit when I go to the capital. If he is confident in the secrecy of his residence, he can ask me this question in person.”

At this point, the man raised his head and looked across at the other side.

"You should have your own ideas—otherwise, there's no need to possess me to say them."

"Yes, I think I've completed what you call the [Spirit of the Artifact] technology—this wine cup is one of the finished products."

At this point, "Li's" voice became a little more excited.

"You said that once I've accomplished this, I can make a condition for you."

Qiao Yelan nodded.

"Go ahead."

"Help me revive [Jie]"

"It can't be done."

“I can do it—I can already sever my own consciousness! The fact that this wine cup can come to you and function properly already proves my ability, doesn't it? I will cooperate completely with you—”

The man gently shook his head.

“Severing consciousness does not mean that you can create two of yourself. Your consciousness can only be awake in one place. No matter how you cut it, even if you cut it into small pieces to make meat sauce, when you wake up, you can still control that piece of meat sauce—but only one piece.”

“You are still the whole you. The soul of a behemoth is so magical. Whether it is you, the black serpent of Ursus, or any other behemoth, none of you can control two or more bodies at the same time—because you are a whole [one].

But the other party still wouldn't give up.

"But you clearly helped Sui separate from us back then! Sui split off voluntarily, and I can split off voluntarily too. As long as you help to catalyze and nurture us, it's definitely possible!"

Do you really know what happened back then?

Qiao Yelan countered with a question.

"Carp" was stunned.

“You don’t know either, and that’s not your fault. It’s just that none of you have ever truly understood the truth—because we all realized that after using such methods, we couldn’t handle the possible consequences. Even now, I haven’t found a way to deal with it.”

The man tapped his temple.

"What methods did you use?"

He asked in a trembling voice.

"Hmm, where should I begin...? From your experience, you should already know how resilient and indelible the souls of giant beasts are—so why is it that the Great Yan killed so many giant beasts, yet only a few of their souls survived to cause trouble for the Great Yan?"

This question stumped the other party.

From his experiments on himself, he found that the soul of the behemoth could maintain a certain level of activity whether it was cut or sealed. In fact, even in this state, one could hardly feel the soul's disappearance or decay.

The black serpent of Ursus also proved this point; no matter how much her body was destroyed or restrained, it could not cause any harm to her soul.

“A thousand years ago, it wasn’t that we couldn’t kill the giant beasts with our own hands—it’s just that we couldn’t deal with the problems that followed.”

"The body of the behemoth is indeed incredibly useful, but its soul is also a source of endless poison—once its soul, carrying its resentment, merges into a piece of land, or temporarily escapes to wait for its return to seek revenge, then even if we can kill the behemoth, we will not be able to acquire more usable land for the people of Great Yan."

Qiao Yelan pointed to the other person's brow.

"So, I found Sui—a behemoth who longed to become stronger, stronger than any other behemoth. I told him that humans already had the means to kill the physical bodies of behemoths, and that he would have the opportunity to surpass all other behemoths."

And "Carp" had already guessed what it was.

"So, the alliance between Da Yan and Sui is actually... Da Yan destroys the giant beast's physical body, and then Sui devours the giant beast's soul?"

The man nodded.

"The destruction of that year..."

"Sui had gone mad by then. If he had had a long enough time to digest the soul of a giant beast, he might have succeeded. But we were too fast. By the time Sui realized the problem, we had already killed too many giant beasts."

No wonder the later giant beasts were only severely injured and driven away—because Sui was no longer able to "eat".

"Finally, Sui came up with a solution—the immortality of giant beasts is because their souls wear down too slowly, so there must be an intelligent species with the shortest lifespan, and their souls must wear down the fastest, right?"

"...Humans?"

"You're right—therefore he chose to abandon his physical body, and together with the consciousness wrapped in his soul, he divided it into twelve parts, which are you. All the [phases of life] are human forms, and most importantly, he also regarded his feelings for humanity as a part that needed to be erased, and handed them over to you."

The carp finally understood the whole process of their birth.

As a short-lived species, humans inevitably suffer the greatest loss of their souls. Sui believes this loss stems from human emotions and social interactions—therefore, he argues that transforming giant beasts into humans and integrating them into human society would rapidly erode their consciousness.

So why is Sui so confident that they will be the first to be erased, rather than Sui's own consciousness?

"You're probably wondering why Sui is so confident. The answer is simple—because Sui's original physical body still exists."

"This is impossible!"

"Carp" stared wide-eyed.

“You can’t possibly still have his physical body! After all, the Great Yan has always been wary of Sui’s return, so if you could destroy his physical body, why wouldn’t you do it?”

"You see, the question has come full circle—after killing Sui's physical body, what will happen to his soul, and to the souls of you who haven't yet been consumed?"

"meeting......"

This will once again become the problem that plagued Da Yan from the very beginning.

Sui was originally a method that the Great Yan Dynasty came up with to wear down the souls of giant beasts. If Sui were killed now, not to mention what would happen to them, Sui's soul alone would become a new big problem.

He lowered his head, looking dejectedly at the black wine cup in front of him.

He devoured Jie, a sin that was originally irreparable, because it meant that Sui's return was suddenly pushed forward by a huge step.

The Grand Tutor who arrested him and brought him back to the capital forgave him so easily, and even allowed him to continue doing what he wanted to do—because they also knew the truth of the matter!

If, in the end, we still have to kill Sui, then rather than risk facing a situation where Sui and the souls of other giant beasts wreak havoc together, it would be better to just face a Sui that has returned after devouring other souls!

"So...it really won't work...?"

"Your relationship with Jie has gone too far—it has surpassed the affection that should exist between brothers and sisters. In addition, you were originally separated, so after you became one, you can no longer be separated."

Qiao Yelan ruthlessly extinguished the other person's hopes.

"You should have realized it by now—you can now use all of Jie's powers, even her words, because you have become a complete whole."

The man clutched his head in remorse, tears streaming down his face.

"I told you, if you want to live forever, the first thing you have to get rid of is emotion."

A cold light flashed in Qiao Yelan's eyes.

"Like you... Yes, that's why you've been able to live on... Giving up emotions, giving up communication, viewing everyone as pawns—how did you manage to do that?"

"You are clearly... a human being."

no answer.

"Make your request. This is the payment for exchanging the [Spirit Weapon] technology with you."

Qiao Yelan repeated it.

"My request is..."

He murmured to himself.

"My request... please help me take care of my other brothers and sisters, okay?"

"I will not stand against the Si Suitai, much less openly confront the Great Yan government."

"I will stop the resurgence of the year—I will postpone it as long as possible. In the meantime, you must find a solution so that my brothers and sisters can live on in their current form and under their current names."

he said firmly.

"how do you want to do it?"

"The [Spirit] technology has given me inspiration. If we participate in human society in a human form, we will eventually lose ourselves and become part of the universe. So as long as I become a tool to be used, I can naturally slow down this process to the greatest extent."

"Li" stared at Qiao Yelan.

"I want to play a game of chess with you—I'll be the chess piece, and you'll play."

"Where is the opponent?"