The nine-colored compass originally pointed towards the direction of Wuji Sect’s back mountain.
However, because Yino had used it once before, the sensor’s positioning had been reset. Now when Chen Jianxin sprinkled deer antler powder on it again, the nine-colored compass would naturally reposition to the coordinates of the nine-colored divine deer. Yino had of course anticipated this.
So when he handed the deer antler powder to Jinyue, he specifically reminded her of the favor.
Yino believed that Jinyue would resolve this trouble for him.
If the nine-colored deer hidden inside Yino’s body was exposed, then the Snow Village case would naturally be solved. Although this would cause considerable trouble for Yino, correspondingly Chen Jianxin would have no reason to go investigate at the Mountain Temple again. This clearly did not align with Jinyue’s behavior logic in the game storyline.
And in fact, Yino had indeed correctly gambled on Jinyue’s reaction!
They were both villains, and although they had plenty of internal strife along the way, they essentially both had a set of plans against Chen Jianxin. Theoretically, even if Yino didn’t act, Jinyue would eventually make a move.
“You all must have been seeing things just now?”
“How could this pointer possibly be pointing at Yino!”
At the front of the crowd, Jinyue withdrew her illusion and spoke in a tone of feigned confusion.
Under her illusion, the many disciples looked at the nine-colored compass, following the direction of the pointer to look at Yino again.
But just then, Jinyue hurriedly gave Yino a look.
Yino was also sensible, taking the initiative to move a step to the side. Only then did everyone realize that the pointer was not actually pointing at Yino, but that Yino had just happened to be standing in the direction of the pointer.
“Oh, so it was a misunderstanding!”
“I was wondering earlier, how could the nine-colored compass possibly point at Young Master? Could he be the nine-colored deer in human form?”
“Are you stupid? Even if it really pointed at Young Master, it would definitely mean the nine-colored deer is Young Master ‘s contracted beast!”
“Although yours is also far-fetched, at least it’s more reasonable than my speculation…”
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Everyone discussed animatedly, but only laughed awkwardly. No one really took the recent misunderstanding to heart.
But Chen Jianxin stood in the center of the crowd, fiddling back and forth with the nine-colored compass, always feeling vaguely that something was off.
He felt like his memory might be wrong. Chen Jianxin had just seen with his own eyes the pointer aiming at Yino, no matter how he moved the pointer left or right it had precisely locked onto Yino…
-Could I have been seeing things again?-
Chen Jianxin held his forehead. The more he tried to recall, the more confused he became.
For the past few days, he had been experiencing intermittent headaches, and at night when sleeping he would dream of certain memories that were both strange yet familiar.
“Junior Chen, are you alright?”
At some point, Jinyue had actively approached with a gentle tone.
Chen Jianxin’s forehead was covered in large beads of sweat from the headache. He raised his head with difficulty to look, but for a moment he hallucinated the purple-haired girl before him as a nine-tailed fox in blazing red robes.
“Ah! F-Fox–”
Chen Jianxin was startled and cried out, but before he could react, the scene before his eyes was once again covered by a string of red incantation marks.
Jinyue outwardly pretended to be concerned, but secretly increased the dosage. She narrowed her bewitching eyes and stepped forward to pat Chen Jianxin’s shoulder.
“Junior Chen must have developed psychological trauma from being attacked by cultists last night. Why don’t you rest well for a bit?”
“S-Sorry… I have indeed been under a lot of pressure these past two days…”
As a dose of sedative was injected into the depths of his consciousness, Chen Jianxin’s emotions also calmed. He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, somewhat exhausted.
Jinyue looked at him and also sighed in relief, feeling helpless.
These days, first there was Yanran’s unauthorized Snow Village extermination plan, then Yino’s various unorthodox maneuvers, and even Yuyan who shouldn’t have appeared here had also intervened… If not for so many variables disrupting Jinyue’s plan, she wouldn’t need to use illusions on Chen Jianxin so many times now to smooth things over.
This world was like a directed straight line.
If prophecy was considered an endpoint, then different variables would lead the straight line to different endpoints…
And what Jinyue needed to do was to correct the variables, to make this line deviate from the prophecy.
Chen Jianxin had an innate holy sword physique, with naturally higher resistance to illusions than ordinary people. Now, let alone him feeling mentally confused, even Jinyue herself was feeling a bit overwhelmed. After all, one lie requires thousands of lies to cover up.
The same goes for illusions – as the holes in Chen Jianxin’s memories grew more, his mental state became stronger, making it even more difficult to continue applying illusions.
Thinking carefully… Over so many years, of all the victims Jinyue had used illusions on, Yino truly had the best physical constitution. Not only did the illusions progress smoothly, but even now there wasn’t the slightest adverse reaction!
-Indeed, Yino was a special existence unlike others-
Thinking of this, Jinyue also withdrew her gaze from the exhausted Chen Jianxin’s face, turning instead to look at the black-haired youth in the distance who was helping to divert Yunjin’s attention.
“There’s no little deer at all, you’re teasing me again!”
Yunjin looked at the pitch-black tunnel corridor, feeling bored as she puffed up her cheeks.
Yino looked back, confirming with his peripheral vision that Jinyue’s illusion had ended. Only then did he release his left arm that was around Yunjin’s shoulders, shrugging helplessly:
“There really was a little deer just now, it just suddenly disappeared. Maybe it’ll appear again in a couple of days?”
“Yino… are you treating me like a child…!?”
Yunjin pouted, crossing her arms over her chest and tilting her chin up, making a tsundere expression at Yino.
After spending time together, Yunjin was no longer as reserved as when they first met. Occasionally she would even call him by name and joke around with him.
This was already a level of favorability that Yino had never experienced in the game in his previous life.
-Indeed… The female characters in this world also had feelings. The lack of favorability changes in the game story was purely because the developers didn’t bother to do romance routes-
“Since the nine-colored compass has already given us a clue, we should hurry and go out in this direction to take a look!”
Jinyue stood in front of the crowd, carrying a nine-colored compass and smiling. Her every action exuded attraction. Seeing that the clue was plain, the many Wuji Sect disciples smiled and nodded in accord.
At the back of the crowd, Chen Jianxin had also rested for a while. Now that he had regained clarity, he naturally thought of the main task again.
The crowd followed Jinyue’s footsteps, returning along the tunnel to the entrance of the Divine Deer Shrine.
However, soon the sharp-eyed Chen Jianxin curiously spoke up:
“Senior Sister, let me have the compass for a moment.”
He said seriously.
Jinyue said nothing, dutifully playing her role as a minor character, and actively handed over the compass to this protagonist leader of the new student team.
“This… isn’t the direction of the pointer the direction we came from?”
“Brother Chen, what do you mean?”
“If I remember correctly, the southeast direction of Northern Luo Snow Village is the direction of our Wuji Sect that we came from by celestial ship! And now, the pointer is pointing in that direction!”
The more Chen Jianxin studied the compass, the more he felt something was off.
Past memories resurfaced in his mind, and Chen Jianxin suddenly thought of the back mountain incident that his Senior Brother had told him about a week ago!
“Could it be that the nine-colored divine deer is in our Wuji Sect?”
Jinyue leaned in, pointing a finger at her lips, also pretending to be curious as she reminded him.
“It’s hard to say. This compass can only locate a certain fan-shaped range. Maybe the vertical coordinate is pointing towards Wuji Sect, but the horizontal coordinate is in another location?”
“Then, let’s hurry over to take a look. I know there’s a station nearby that can help us temporarily arrange a celestial ship back to Wuji Sect!”
Jinyue said happily.
In Yino’s eyes, every line of dialogue between Jinyue and Chen Jianxin now was identical to the game.
The only difference was that this time, missing from the discussing crowd was Yunjin, who should have been the novice guide most familiar with Snow Village and the nine-colored deer. Instead, Jinyue had become the novice guide helping them lead the way.
In a sense, this really gave a sense of deja vu to the fate line.
And just as Yino was pondering the plot development, the purple-haired girl at the front of the crowd also turned back, facing the setting sun and waving at Yino with a smile:
“Young Master, Sister Yunjin! Do you want to come back with us to search for the nine-colored deer?”
As her words fell, the many Wuji Sect disciples including Chen Jianxin all turned to look back.
Everyone had expectant looks, but only in the depths of Chen Jianxin’s cold eyes was there suspicion and vigilance.
“I, I also want to–”
Thinking of searching for the whereabouts of the nine-colored deer, Yunjin was about to instinctively agree.
But before she could finish half her sentence, Yino unexpectedly said in a deep voice:
“No need. We still want to stay in Northern Luo Snow Village for two more days.”
“Eh?! W-Why…”
Yunjin blinked, turning back in surprise.
But Yino remained silent. As she gave Yunjin a cold gaze,
For a moment, Yunjin didn’t know what to do.
Jinyue stared at Yino’s face for a while. Although neither of them spoke, it seemed that just these few seconds of eye contact had already made them understand each other’s resolve. As early as their encounter at the Divine Deer Shrine, Jinyue had already offered warmth to a cold reception.
Although she didn’t understand why Yino wanted to give up this opportunity to show off and slap faces, since Yino was resolute in playing dead, Jinyue wouldn’t continue to force him with illusions. Yino had already demonstrated sufficient resolve. For Jinyue, using illusions to hypnotize him was no longer cost-effective.
Rather than gambling on Yino as an uncertain factor, Jinyue now wanted to resolve the trouble of Chen Jianxin as soon as possible.
She actually really didn’t care about Chen Jianxin’s life or death.
It was only because the Organization’s prophecy and mission was for Chen Jianxin to die, that no matter what, Jinyue had to help protect Chen Jianxin from Gu Wanglan’s demonic clutches! Studying Yino was a hobby, while secretly protecting Chen Jianxin was work. On these two points, Jinyue could still distinguish priorities.
“Alright then, we’ll meet again if fate allows, Young Master.”
Jinyue smiled faintly, using Western Region etiquette to pinch her skirt and curtsy to Yino. Then without further persuasion, she turned to lead the many Wuji Sect disciples down the mountain. Before leaving, Chen Jianxin still glared at Yino with suspicious eyes.
He firmly believed Yino was a mole. He also saw that Yunjin wanted to leave with everyone, but now Chen Jianxin was already disillusioned with Yunjin. He wouldn’t care about Yunjin’s life and death anymore.
“Hmph…”
“Since you’re so protective of that man, now that we’re leaving, you can stay alone with Yino on Northern Luo Snow Mountain.”
“In this remote wilderness, a man and woman alone, when night falls and he no longer hides his true face towards you, then you’ll understand why I suspected him of being a mole before!”
Chen Jianxin thought these harsh words contemptuously, leaving without looking back as he followed the crowd.