Naming Technique of the Night

Chapter 463: 312, Too Late (Seeking Monthly Tickets)_3

Qing Chen thought to himself, so that’s the story.

The old man continued with a sigh, “Hearing about your reaction after you ate the dragon fish, I started to yearn for the vast world outside again. If I were a knight, I suppose I could have visited many places in my lifetime. The biggest regret of my life is that I couldn’t take a look at the real Dragon Lake. Your master’s master told me that it shimmers like a sapphire embedded in the earth. Nor could I take a nap under the giant tree’s roots in Taboo Land No. 002; I couldn’t listen to the golden shadows tell ancient stories in Taboo Land No. 001. Isn’t it strange that at the last moment of life, it’s not the joys we’ve experienced but the regrets we’ve never fulfilled that we think of?”

“As the Master of the Li Family, you could visit any place now if you wished,” Qing Chen said.

The old man shook his head, “It’s too late.”

For some reason, Qing Chen suddenly felt a wave of sadness, understanding what the old man meant by it being too late.

The old man smiled and said, “This time I’ll share a secret with you for free. The rules of Taboo Land No. 010 have three parts: first, you cannot argue back, if someone curses you, you must accept it; second, you must take a life every day; third, on the first midnight after entering, you must reveal a secret that only you know to the Taboo Land.”

...

The old man said, “The last rule was formed by a deceased cultivator from the Hu’s Information Agency, who spent their lives uncovering other people’s secrets and couldn’t let go of their own even in death. Sometimes, we say the rules of the Taboo Lands are actually curses the Transcendents bring to the human world. Eventually, these endless taboo lands will swallow the world and bring the curse upon everyone.”

“The dragon fish was caught by a knight back then in Taboo Land No. 010, right?” Qing Chen asked, “You telling me this doesn’t come from good intentions; this clearly shows you hope I’ll help Li Ke catch the last dragon fish.”

“Just helping Li Ke?” the old man said with a smile, “In the future, you will have many disciples, won’t you gain the rule of ‘one man, nine lives’?”

Qing Chen exclaimed, “You really hope I clear out Taboo Land No. 010, don’t you?”

At that moment, Qing Chen suddenly remembered his conversation with Li Dongze the day before, he asked, “Old man, do you think, in this world, is human nature fundamentally good or evil?”

The old man calmly said, “Fundamentally evil, but inclined towards good.”

Curious, Qing Chen asked, “Then do you think there are more good people or bad people in this world?”

The old man looked at him and chuckled, “What good and bad people? Everyone has evil thoughts within them; it’s just that some hide it deep, others shallow. When the Heartless Bronze Bell was first hung in the Bao Pu Building, it rang incessantly all day long. I was totally bewildered at the time.”

“Ah?” Qing Chen was puzzled, “Is it that exaggerated?”

“Of course, who in this world has no evil within? Those servants and doctors serving me, who doesn’t slander me behind my back? If I took it to heart, this hillside manor would have turned into a human Purgatory long ago, the garden full of buried bones.”

“Why then is the Heartless Bronze Bell in the Bao Pu Building silent now?” Qing Chen was curious.

“Because I asked it to stop causing trouble. It now only judges good and evil when B-Class or higher experts are near,” the old man said, “So, the servants working inside don’t trigger it. In the past twenty years, the Heartless Bronze Bell has only rung seven times. Don’t think too much about it; who doesn’t have evil within? To be without evil isn’t human. It’s enough to be inclined towards good.”

Qing Chen always felt that the old man was concealing some wisdom in his words.

…

…

At this very moment, in an apartment in Sector Five of City Eighteen.

Two men in black quietly moved across the carpet, their combat boots making no sound at all.

They were searching for something in the house while a middle-aged man kneeled beside them, his body naked and bloody.

One of the men in black looked at the middle-aged man and said, “I don’t quite understand, your father and his colleagues were in charge of building a residential complex next to the hillside manor. It was supposed to be an eight-month project, yet it dragged on for a year and a half, with half a year spent just on laying the foundation… Is the foundation that important that it required so much time?”

The middle-aged man kept his eyes tightly shut and said nothing.

The other man picked up a photo frame from the house and said calmly, “You also have two daughters; after the divorce, they must be living with their mother, right? After the complex was finished, your father and several of his colleagues disappeared, changed their names and identities. Do you think the Li Family is benevolent for not killing them? They’re just ants being used; you don’t have to keep such secrets for your master, do you?”

The man in black grinned, “There’s no need to be so nervous; I just want to know, what secret is hidden inside that residential complex? Look how long and at what cost it took us to find you; we can’t just leave empty-handed.”

The middle-aged man still didn’t speak.

“Okay,” one of the men squatted in front of the middle-aged man and said in a relaxed tone, “If you don’t speak, then we’ll just have to ask your two daughters and see if they know something. If they don’t, then we’ll sell their hearts to City Ten, their kidneys to City Seventeen, their corneas to City One… ”

Unable to bear the thought of his daughters suffering, the middle-aged man finally spoke quietly, “There is a secret passage hidden there! Don’t disturb my family; there’s a tunnel under Room 101 in Building 2 that leads to the manor.”

The two men in black exchanged smiles, one of them raising his hand to pull the trigger, and the subsonic bullet penetrated the middle-aged man’s forehead, leaving a bloody hole.

One of them said, “We need to move quickly now. These craftsmen’s deaths won’t be overlooked for long, the Li Family will soon know that someone has discovered the secret tunnel to the inner part of the hillside manor.”

…

A 5000-word chapter, today 10,000 words have been updated, still owe Huan Yu one update, owing this boss three updates.

Don’t worry; I keep track of all the bosses’ accounts… I will repay each one…

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