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墨書 Inktalez
The pain from the medicine made my heart feel chaotic. I casually asked, "What's the problem?"
My junior brother looked up nervously at Dong Ya, as if worried that A Li would hear him. He turned his head and lowered his voice, saying, "I suspect that A Li is actually disguised by the Illusionist. Senior Brother, don't rush to deny it; let me finish. My suspicion isn't baseless; it's grounded in reason."
At that moment, my mind was completely elsewhere. When my junior brother first raised concerns about A Li, I thought he was just talking nonsense and making a big deal out of nothing. Why couldn't we discuss this on the surface? Why drag me down here and end up in this state? I was fuming inside, thinking to myself, let's see what tricks you can pull.
Unaware of my thoughts, my junior brother earnestly analyzed, "First of all, we all fell from the car and landed on that Bloodsucking Tree, yet A Li was the only one who fell directly into this cave. Isn't that suspicious? What could she have done during the time she was separated from us? Could she have been switched out? Second, A Li is no longer the A Li we used to know; she is now Li San, known as 'Gui Mian Qian Gu.' What kind of storms has she not weathered? Just because she entered a shabby cave, she suddenly loses her memory? I think she's just playing us! Now, let's take a step back—everything has a first time. Even if she was overwhelmed and fooled by Old Qiao during her first visit to a thief's den, getting too excited or nervous to remember, what about the second time? Didn't A Li come out of the den twice? Did she forget again because she was too excited or nervous? Who would believe that?"
"Thirdly, Senior Brother, did you notice that when I took out the Bronze Square Box, A Li seemed indifferent? She just glanced at it briefly without any shock or curiosity. If it were our master, I wouldn't say anything; he never shows interest in anything. But we know what kind of person A Li is—she's always fascinated by these oddities. Every time she visits our shop, her eyes light up and she can't move her feet! Moreover, we analyzed that this box is key to confirming the Illusionist's identity. Yet A Li merely glanced at it without even asking a question—doesn't that reek of guilt? And fourthly, ever since we entered this cursed cave, all our actions have been dictated by A Li. Wherever she leads us, we follow her path, and now we're trapped here! Senior Brother, during your unconsciousness, I tried to find another way out but A Li wouldn't let me go; she insisted we huddle together and wait there. Every step I took, she followed me like a shadow! Damn it! I almost wanted to tie her to my belt! At that moment, I realized she must have noticed the Bronze Box on me and was trying to seize an opportunity to get it. But little did she know that I was clever enough to hide it in my underwear—no matter how bold she is as a thief, she wouldn't dare reach into a man's pants!"
I was completely taken aback by how rationally my junior brother articulated his thoughts. Although there were many logical flaws in his reasoning, he expressed himself clearly enough for me to take him seriously. I replayed his words in my mind and found myself somewhat convinced.
I said, "Your analysis does make some sense; however, there's still one crucial question we haven't clarified. If we get this wrong, then all your previous points are meaningless—the matter of the Illusionary Technique is merely a hypothesis. We currently have no evidence to prove whether we are in an illusion or not."
My junior brother pondered for a moment before his expression darkened as he said grimly, "Proving it isn't difficult. In the Illusionary Realm, a person's soul can be immortal. Why don't we try an experiment?" He made a gesture as if slitting his throat.
I couldn't help but laugh at his suggestion and retorted, "What if we die? Do you think we're cats with nine lives?"
He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Then what should we do? How about you punch me once and see if it hurts?"
I rolled my eyes at him and pointed at my swollen ankle with my chin: "It's not about whether it hurts or not. Even if we're in an illusion, our sensations are still real and can even accumulate with each cycle of the illusion. The last time I was pinched multiple times—it got worse each time..." Suddenly, an idea struck me. "By the way, did you smell Xian Cao on A Li or anywhere else?"
The junior brother was taken aback. "What grass?" I replied, "Xian Cao, it smells a bit foul, but not in the usual way—more like... the smell of stinky tofu!"
He pondered for a moment and then shook his head. To be honest, I hadn't smelled it either. However, the last time we were in the illusion, whenever the Illusionist appeared, there was always the scent of Xian Cao accompanying him. If A Li didn’t have that smell on him, it clearly meant he wasn’t the Illusionist. Moreover, we hadn’t detected that smell anywhere else here, which suggested that the hypothesis about the illusion was invalid.
I shared my thoughts with my junior brother, who responded, "Relying solely on smell to make a judgment is too arbitrary! What if someone has a cold or nasal inflammation without knowing? Or what if the Illusionist covers up his special foul odor with another scent, like perfume? Women find it much easier to use and it doesn’t raise suspicion... By the way, Senior Brother, now that I think about it, A Li seems to have a faint scent of perfume!" He sniffed his nose and exclaimed, "Damn it, that’s exactly the smell!"
Just then, a bell rang out suddenly, and the stones at my junior brother's feet were blown away by the Nine-Tailed Whip. A Li jumped down from Dong Ya in a fury and shouted, "You little Dui Er! You dare talk bad about me behind my back! Just wait until I knock your teeth out!"
With that, Jin Ling's voice boomed again as another whip struck out. Luckily, my junior brother reacted quickly and rolled away just in time; otherwise, he would have been in serious trouble. "What the hell! Who's talking bad about you? I'm just stating facts—do you understand what facts are? Are you feeling guilty at all?"
A Li continued to strike fiercely while retorting, "Nonsense! I’m stopping you because I’m worried you’ll cause trouble! After two trips through the thief's cave, I was anxious enough as it was—who had time to remember the way back? It’s not like I dug that cave myself; who would have thought there would be complications? Even if I had marked it at that time, it wouldn’t have helped!"
My junior brother was quite clever and had already swung Ze Zhang in his hand to deftly block A Li’s whip. His palm gripped tightly on the ram's head but didn’t trigger any mechanism. "Then what do you have to say about that Bronze box? If you weren’t feeling guilty about something, why didn’t you even take a look at it?"
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