Asura in Arknights

Moreover... it felt like there was a stone under his arms, which made Zhao Anping feel very uncomfortable.

Zhao Anping struggled to open his eyes and pulled the stone out from under his body.

But when he made eye contact with the so-called 'stone', Zhao Anping rolled his eyes and fainted quite decisively.

Chapter Eighty-Six: Revealing the Truth

"...She's fainted?"

Li Ang looked at the unconscious Zhao Anping speechlessly; he hadn't even had a chance to say anything yet.

But it's all good. Now that the unrelated people have passed out, we can talk about things that are inconvenient for him to hear.

"Let's throw him inside first. This should be Zhao Youcai's son."

Li Ang lifted Zhao Anping up from the ground and returned to Nian Hexi's side.

"Ah."

Xi nodded gently, and then drew a few more A-Yao.

"Send him in."

The few gnats lifted the unconscious Zhao Anping and carried him into the world of the painting.

"Well... now it's time to talk about you."

After resolving Zhao Anping's problem, the three of them focused all their attention on the still-alive man with the mustache.

"What are you going to do with him? Are you going to kill him too?" Nian asked.

"No, don't kill me..."

Upon hearing Nian's voice, the man with the mustache stammered, not daring to turn around to see what was behind him.

"Kill him? I plan to have a serious talk with him."

"However... it seems none of you have discovered his true identity..."

Seeing the bewildered looks on Nian and Xi's faces, Li Ang couldn't help but shake his head.

However, it was only by sheer coincidence that he realized the true identities of these people. Unlike him, Nian and Xi did not possess any special senses, so it was normal that they did not discover anything.

"Identity? Is there something special about this guy?"

Li Ang didn't answer, but looked at the trembling back of the man with the mustache and said, "Now that things have come to this, are you still going to keep pretending?"

"I don't understand what you're saying..." The mustachioed man's voice was still trembling, but there was an indescribable undertone to his tone.

"Don't understand? Then I'll just have to kill this clone of yours," Li Ang said nonchalantly. "But I'm a little curious, how many clones did you send to the Tianyue Mountains this time? Two? Three? Or is this the only one left in front of us?"

As Li Ang spoke, the man with the mustache suddenly stopped trembling, and everyone could feel that his aura had undergone a dramatic change.

The keyword "clone" also struck a heavy chord in Nian and Xi's hearts.

Coupled with the change in the mustache's demeanor, even if the two women were slow to realize, they now understood who this mustache-wearing man standing in front of them was.

"...Second Brother".

The word "year" was practically squeezed out from between his teeth.

At this moment, she finally realized why Li Ang had suddenly attacked and killed that strong man... that was probably also a clone of Yi.

The mustachioed man, the dead burly man, and another young man—in a short time, three clones had appeared around them, which made Nian even more uneasy.

"...I'm a little curious,"

The man with the mustache slowly turned around, the fear on his face completely gone. He was looking at Li Ang with great interest. "How did you find out? I shouldn't have given anything away."

This statement completely confirmed the identity of the man with the mustache, and Xi Qing couldn't help but take a step back.

"Is it really you???"

"Long time no see, New Year's Eve,"

The man with the mustache smiled and greeted the two of them, then his gaze fell on Li Ang, "...and Aya."

It seems that he also mistook Li Ang for the incarnation of the tenth-ranked Sui Beast, unlike Nian who recognized his identity.

However, it's understandable. After all, this second brother doesn't have a good relationship with the other beast incarnations, and what appears here is just an avatar. It's not surprising that he can't see through Li Ang's problems.

"Compared to before, you two haven't changed much... Nian, you're still as reckless as ever, and Xi, you still love staying in your paintings. If it weren't for this incident, you probably wouldn't have come out of there, would you?" the mustachioed man said with some emotion.

Ever since Li Ang revealed his identity, his aura has completely changed. He is trying to use language to completely control the situation here.

"As for you... I almost didn't recognize you anymore, so what flaw did I reveal? It's a pity about my clone... I don't have many usable pieces left now."

"It's just a gut feeling."

Li Ang didn't want to reveal too much information to him, so he gave a nonchalant reply.

"Intuition? Then I'll just take it as intuition."

The man with the mustache looked at Li Ang with a half-smile, without refuting his insincere lie.

"Yi! What exactly do you want to do here??"

Unable to bear the strange atmosphere between the two, Nian loudly interrupted their conversation, "If you don't explain things clearly, we will definitely not let you leave here alive this time!"

Although her tone was very fierce, it always gave people the feeling that she was all bark and no bite. Facing this most troublesome guy among all the beast incarnations, no matter how cooperative he was now, Nian couldn't muster much confidence at all.

"My goal? Of course, it's the same as yours. Hui did a good job this time, Sui is almost awake... How could I pretend I didn't see it? I'm not one of those people who can't get away at all."

"Also, you should still call me by the name of this body, since I am just an insignificant fragment of it now."

The man with the mustache spoke slowly and deliberately, completely disregarding Nian's threat, "Then let me reintroduce myself. My name is Wu Wenhan. I come from the Celestial Master's Mansion in Tianyue City, so I'm practically a local. Many years ago, I became an outlaw due to a minor accident... The one who was just killed was our boss."

Wu Wenhan pointed at the corpse on the ground and said with a smile, "If you ignore his identity and his tattered scholar's robes, he does give the impression of a mountain bandit's strategist, which is a very stereotypical image."

"Actually, I wanted to cooperate with you, after all, I don't want to see Sui come back to life either."

Of course, no one would be naive enough to believe Yi's words.

The most skillful lie is to tell only part of the truth. Yi certainly didn't want to see the Year Beast resurrected, but that was only part of the truth. He was definitely hiding something else.

For a moment, all three of them were somewhat undecided.

Seeing their silence, Yi said this.

"How about this, if neither of you can make up your minds, why don't you ask Miss Lin to come out and have a proper talk with me?"

Chapter 87 Cooperation

Yi's gaze passed over the three people and landed on the two scrolls placed in the cave behind.

As one of the earliest incarnations of the Sui Beast to develop self-awareness, Yi couldn't possibly be unaware of Xi's abilities.

But... how did this guy know about the existence of the Awakening of Insects?

How did you know?

Li Ang resisted the urge to ask the question. If he had said it, the pace of the conversation would have fallen into the other party's control.

'Jingzhe' is just a code name. Her real name is Lin Qingyan. Xuan Cheng accidentally let it slip. Compared to her real name, Jingzhe prefers her code name more, which is also related to her past experiences.

If Yi called her that name in front of her, coupled with his pretentious attitude, there was an 80% chance he would directly enrage Jingzhe. However, that might be his purpose, since someone who has lost their composure is easier to deal with.

How did he learn about the Awakening of Insects? Li Ang's mind raced.

According to Nian, Yi's true form is still imprisoned in the capital of Dayan. His only source of information from the outside world is his clone. Zhang Daoling's actions this time are well-prepared, and he couldn't possibly be unprepared for someone like Yi.

So... a clone?

"Is that Captain Zhou also one of your clones?"

Li Ang quickly identified all the suspicious individuals he had encountered recently, "and that Prefect Wu is also a bit suspicious,"

Upon hearing this, a look of surprise appeared on Yi's face, as if to say, 'You actually guessed it?'

He then shook his head slightly, "That's both right and wrong."

"Commander Zhou only has a pawn I placed on him, so he can't be considered my clone. As for that prefect... I didn't do anything to him."

Yi said with a sigh, "After all, I'm still a convict. If I commit another serious crime, my time before being released from prison will be really long."

Stop pretending!

At this moment, Xi, who had been silent since the beginning, suddenly burst out, "Does the Great Yan Dynasty really still have the ability to keep you locked up there?"

Although the Great Yan is still the strongest country in the world, after hundreds of years of isolation, its strength has not only not improved, but has actually declined considerably. It is at least no longer comparable to the time when it dared to wage war against the gods.

It's incredible that Yi has been imprisoned since that time. The capital of the Great Yan Dynasty has experienced turmoil more than once in history, but no matter how many times the person on the throne has changed, Yi has never escaped that cage... To be honest, only those idiots at Si Sui Tai would believe this.

"It seems you have a problem with me, Xi."

Yi gave a somewhat ambiguous smile, avoiding the topic Xi ​​had just brought up, "But it's okay, I don't mind such a small thing."

"So... shall we cooperate?" Yi shrugged. "I know you don't believe me, but I've been preparing for this day for a long time. I think you should also know that, at least in terms of preventing Sui's resurrection, our goals are the same."

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Ang and the other two fell silent.

After a moment, Li Ang finally spoke.

"...We need to discuss this."

“No problem,” Yi gave an OK sign. “You can discuss it for as long as you want before the rain stops.”

"But... could I go there to take shelter from the rain first?"

Yi pointed to the cave behind them, "I'm just an ordinary person now. If I stay in the rain for too long, my body won't be able to take it."

"..."

Li Ang did not answer, but silently took two steps to the side, clearing a path to the cave.

-------------------------------------

After letting Yi go, Li Ang and the other two did not go to the cave with him to take shelter from the rain. Instead, they set up a soundproofing spell on the spot and prepared to discuss whether or not to cooperate with Yi.

Of course, the safest way would be to go back to the world in the painting to discuss it, but... Yi himself is in the real world, so if they go back, it would be like putting meat into the wolf's mouth.

"So what are you two thinking? You actually want to cooperate with that kind of dangerous guy??"

Just as Li Ang finished setting up the soundproofing spell, he heard Xi angrily say from the side, "Brother is one thing, but Nian, have you forgotten how badly he tricked us back then?"

Xi had originally intended to stop Yi, but Li Ang suddenly took a step back to the side, and Nian didn't make any move. Xi was all alone and helpless, and could only watch helplessly as Yi walked past him.

“I don’t really care…” Nian scratched his head and said, “After all, this situation is different from before.”

"Our goal is to prevent Sui from being resurrected. If we can achieve this goal, I think it doesn't matter if we get tricked."

"After all, apart from that guy Hui, none of us have self-destructive tendencies, and no one would be thinking of committing suicide."

"I think you feel that as long as you cooperate with him, you don't have to use your brain at all, right? Aren't you worried about your brain atrophying?"

"You're not wrong to say that."

Nian answered shamelessly, leaving Xi speechless with anger.

“However… compared to those guys from Da Yan, I’m more willing to trust my second brother. After all, even if he doesn’t stand with us, he can’t possibly stand with those people,” Nian said lazily, arms crossed.

Upon hearing this, Xi raised an eyebrow slightly.

Although he didn't want to admit it, what Nian said did make some sense.

Although Yi had tricked them terribly, apart from being a bit disheveled, it seemed like nothing much had happened. But some people in Da Yan were different; they were always thinking about getting rid of these unstable factors.

"So... what about you, brother? What are your thoughts?" Xi took a deep breath and asked.

"Hmm? Me? Well... I'm actually more inclined to cooperate with him as well."

Seeing Xi's brows almost furrowed together, Li Ang slowly explained his reasoning, "Although I don't know what he's done in the past, I think... it's better to keep him under our surveillance."

"However, this would also expose our actions to his watchful eye... But I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages."

Even if he doesn't agree to cooperate with Yi, can't he use other methods to monitor them?

If a cooperation is reached openly, as a sign of sincerity, he should reveal some information that Li Ang and the others do not know.

As for the final betrayal... that's already out in the open, we'll just have to see who has the better methods then.

……

Leaning against the cave wall, Yi Gang wrung out the water from his shirt when he saw Li Ang and the other two walking back from the rain.

Yi stood up, dusted off his clothes, and said,

"So, have you made up your minds?"