Arknights: Studying medicine can't save Terra

Old Carp was filled with resentment and complained, "I wasn't injured by Qi Yan and Jiu Zhan, both of whom are at the level of giant beasts, but the little girl who controlled the sleeping beast punched me instead. Where can I go to seek justice?"

"Sleeping Beast?" Liang Xun frowned. "This kind of beast is distributed in arid sandy areas. Its appearance in Da Yan at this moment is very likely due to people from Rembito."

Has this involved people from overseas again? Things are getting increasingly complicated.

"I'm injured! I'm injured!" Old Carp said through gritted teeth.

"Hmm," Liang Xun continued, "Do you have any clue about the lightning in the sky?"

Old Carp: "..."

Seeing that Lao Li did not answer, Liang Xun began to ask and answer his own questions:

"That kind of thunder that filled half the sky, in Shang Shu, probably only Bai Tianshi could control it, but wasn't he injured by Qi Yan?"

Could he be fighting Qi Yan...? No, Bai Tianshi wouldn't act so impulsively.

As he spoke, Liang Xun glanced at the still-lingering thunder in the sky:

"Moreover, if it were a fight with Qi Yan, this lightning could not have lasted for so long. So the only possibility is that something went wrong in the conflict between Bai Tianshi and Nian Hexi."

Old Carp: "…………"

Liang Xun lowered his head and pondered for a moment before continuing:

“Nian and Xi are staying at the inn with Taihe. If the two sides really fought, he wouldn’t have waited so long to come and inform me.”

Therefore, the situation is very likely still under control... Indeed, as long as Qi Yan is not involved, the Yan Kingdom rarely loses control.

"The wine cup is lost."

"Well, the problem still lies with Qi Yan... What did you say?!"

Liang Xun subconsciously gave a perfunctory reply, then suddenly realized what he had said, and his voice unconsciously rose several octaves.

"I said the wine cup was taken away by the little girl who attacked me," Old Carp repeated.

"How could they actually snatch something from you?" Liang Xun's heart sank to the bottom.

"No, she's quite skilled, and her sneak attack caught me off guard for a while," Old Carp shrugged. "But once I recovered, subduing her wasn't too difficult."

Liang Xun narrowed his eyes slightly, a bad feeling creeping over him.

Old Carp smiled and continued, "But then I thought, if someone is willing to keep such a dangerous thing safe for me, why shouldn't I give it to them?"

His initial surprise and panic gradually disappeared after listening to Lao Li's words.

“You’re not the type to run away from things,” Liang Xun affirmed.

"You are so boring."

Seeing that he couldn't fool his old friend, Lao Li stopped beating around the bush and said bluntly, "In this game, both sides have given me enough clues. What I need to do next is to follow the clues and find the location in the clues."

That wine cup is dangerous, but because it involves Shang Shu, I dare not give it to Qi Yan, nor to Si Suitai. But I can give it to anyone else.”

Liang Xun frowned: "How can you be sure that the girl isn't one of them?"

"Why go to such lengths for Qi Yan's wine cup? After Qi Yan spoke up, how dare Si Suitai continue with these petty tricks?"

Old Carp smiled mysteriously: "Besides, think about how dangerous that wine cup was. Who was it protecting when it disappeared?"

"……you?"

Old Carp paused for a moment, then rolled her eyes in annoyance: "I'm not so lucky as to have someone care about me. The other person is protecting you!"

"Keep thinking along these lines. In the current situation, who would most like to protect you?"

"Why are you suddenly silent?"

"Old Carp, the wine cup must be returned to our hands."

"Oh, oh, oh, you're already feeling sorry for it?"

Liang Xun remained unmoved by Lao Li's sarcastic remarks.

He calmly said, "If you want to get rid of the trouble with the wine cup, please tell me your plan carefully, otherwise I will never agree to change hands."

Old Carp didn't rush to speak. He turned around and looked around, eventually finding a pavilion not far away.

He beckoned and led Liang Xun to sit down in the pavilion.

"Tell me, where does Shang Shu's crisis originate?" Old Carp asked.

"It comes from wine cups."

"No, it comes from the clash between the Si Sui Tai and the Ministry of Rites behind the wine cup, from the terrifying strength of the wine cup's owner, and from Qi Yan's entry into the game."

A rare, sharp glint flashed in Lao Li's eyes: "Liang Xun, you don't know how to conduct yourself under the residual power of these behemoths clashing, you don't know how to protect the woman who once repelled the natural disaster and sheltered Shang Shu, and you don't know whether Qi Yan's appearance is an enemy or a friend to that woman."

That's why you're so distressed and seeking so-called variables.

But in my opinion, what you're doing is tantamount to dancing on a knife's edge.

“I have no other choice,” Liang Xun said frankly.

“I know, so I’ve come up with a solution for you.”

"any solution?"

"Sure to join Qi Yan's cause, cling to his coattails, and wait for him to overturn the table."

Liang Xun fell silent, but not for long, before speaking again:

“I am an official of the Great Yan Dynasty. My responsibility is to protect Shang Shu. I do not want Shang Shu to become a second Longmen.”

"So what if it becomes the second Longmen?" Old Carp chuckled. "Don't be fooled by Wei Gong's constant complaints about Qi Yan. He's actually resentful that Qi Yan stole his tea, not that Qi Yan did anything to Longmen."

Qi Yan would never indiscriminately kill innocent people; otherwise, Rhodes Island would have been the first to arrive and stop him, without Yan Kingdom even needing to intervene.

"You can gamble, but I can't."

“This is not a gamble.”

Old Li's smile concealed a confident assurance: "I didn't make these judgments based on any rumors, but rather on deductions made based on the situation."

Qi Yan was invited into the game, and his only opponent from beginning to end was the beast agent in the wine cup. Moreover, Qi Yan had already begun to make his plans.

I told you to cling to Qi Yan's coattails not to choose between Yan Kingdom and Qi Yan, but to choose between the Sui Beast's agent and Qi Yan.

Do you think Qi Yan will lose?

Chapter 850 A Grand Strategy Across Time

Under the pavilion in the night, Lao Li and Liang Xun looked at each other in silence.

Blue lightning surged in the sky, and flashes of lightning occasionally illuminated the faces of both sides.

If Qi Yan were here, he would be surprised to find that Lao Li's expression at this moment was somewhat similar to that of the doctor when he got serious.

Liang Xun silently looked at his old friend.

He had a thousand excuses and reasons echoing in his mind, but in the end he didn't say a word, he just nodded silently.

Perhaps Lao Li was just an accomplice he had found, and had little to do with Shang Shu, but he still chose to believe him.

He knew the true nature hidden beneath Lao Li's usual carefree attitude, and he believed that Lao Li would never make a decision that would disappoint him.

"What are you planning to do next?" Liang Xun asked.

"Going up the mountain, what about you?"

"Even if no one comes to me, I still need to deal with the thunder and lightning in the sky."

"Is there overtime pay?"

"I mean me."

"You don't even get a salary."

"...How do you suggest I offend Qi Yan so that he might implicate the entire Shang Shu in his anger?"

Liang Xun selectively ignored Lao Li's nonsense and got up to walk towards the gate of the mansion.

Old Li muttered a few words behind him and then got up as well.

Gazing at the Shangshu Mountains, their outlines blurred by the lightning, he felt a sense of unease.

Going hiking in the middle of the night, won't you slip and fall into a ravine to feed the monkeys?

He dared not sleep, and although the removal of the wine cup from his hand meant that the danger had temporarily passed, it also meant that the situation needed to be closely monitored, otherwise more changes would occur.

As the two stepped out of the Liang residence's gate, preparing to go their separate ways, Old Li couldn't help but ask:

"Are there any giant monkeys in the mountains of Shangshu?"

"Don't worry about that. I've lived in Shangshu since I was a child and I've never seen one before," Liang Xun reassured him. "There are only some big insects in the mountains."

Old Carp: "..."

"Be careful," Liang Xun said insincerely, then turned to leave.

Old Carp suddenly stopped him and asked, "Among the seventeen peaks of the three mountains of Shangshu, is there a mountain called Zhejiang Peak?"

Upon hearing this name, Liang Xun frowned slightly.

He stopped and looked at Old Carp with a puzzled expression:

“There used to be one, but it has long been renamed Qujiang Peak. Now, apart from the locals of Shangshu, few people know this name.”

Old Carp's pupils contracted: "When did you change your name?"

"It should have been about thirty years."

All sorts of intelligence and clues exploded in Lao Li's mind in an instant.

He clearly remembered that the mountain he visited in his dream was Zhǒujiāngfēng, and the conversation he experienced in the dream was clearly a fragment of memory from the agent of the Year Beast in the wine cup.

The other party simply replaced his image with that of Old Carp.

In other words, the agent in the wine cup had been in complete control of this situation for at least thirty years.

Old Carp licked his dry lips and chuckled:

"Qi Yan, can you really break out of this predicament?"

"What are you talking about?" Liang Xun's eyes narrowed.

"Once the arrow is released, there's no turning back," Old Carp grinned. "Come on, let's have our locals recall what's so special about Qujiang Peak?"

Realizing that Lao Li had discovered some clue, Liang Xun immediately explained in detail:

Before it was renamed, Qujiang Peak, along with another peak, was known as "Twin Peaks Returning to the Sun." They were the two most majestic peaks among the Three Mountains and Eighteen Peaks, but that peak, named Xunri Peak...

It was destroyed in the natural disaster I mentioned earlier.

"That's right."

Old Carp turned around gracefully, seemingly having already decided on its target.

Liang Xun reminded him from behind:

"Since the terrain of Qujiangfeng Mountain is steep and you are going up the mountain in the dark, it would be best to spend some money to hire a porter to lead the way."

"Will you reimburse me?"

"...My treat."

"Look at how shabby you are now, you don't even have tea leaves that can attract Qi Yan, so forget it."

Old Carp continued forward, waving his hand without turning back, his figure gradually disappearing into the streets late at night.

At Xingyu Inn, Chen and Wuyou each huddled behind Qi Lin, the four of them silently watching the chaos unfold in a corner of the inn.

Taihe and Zuo Le invoked the banner of the current Grand Tutor to barely subdue Bai Tianshi and prevent him from leaving the stage.

But the other two deities were truly beyond their control.

With his frizzy hair, Nian chased Xi all over the place in the Thunder Octagonal Cage set up by Master Bai.

She splashed ink to create some things, but before they could even have a chance to play a role, they were kicked around like balls by the year and turned into ink by the lightning bolts that the daytime master had created.

"Nian! Don't force me!" Xi was clearly getting anxious, shouting frantically as she ran away.

"What can you do to me, my dear sister?"

With a smug look on his face, Nian held the shield he had created with his power. Taking advantage of Xi's shouting, he blocked her in front of her and was about to shove her onto the electric grid to experience electrotherapy.