Chapter 840: Red King’s Scheme, Pitiful Birdman
[Red King Deduction in Progress—]
[Deduction Successful! You are in the second round of candidate selection, obtaining 80 correct deduction rewards! Since you are not the first to deduce correctly, you cannot get the doubled Ash Stone reward!]
[Current Successful Deductions: 3/8]
[Current Ash Stones: 430]
I wasn’t the first one to guess correctly?
As the Red King, Jin Shiyin naturally couldn’t guess himself.
Therefore, the first successful guesser was likely Jin Shiyin’s ally.
As for why Jin Shiyin was the Red King, it all started with Jin Shiyin’s A-class Spirit Artifact, the Memory Storage Cup.
When this spirit artifact attacks a target, the more damage the target receives, the more important things they will forget.
Xia Feng didn’t pay much attention to the Memory Storage Cup when he first obtained it, thinking it was just a very good support spirit artifact that could randomly cause enemies to forget instant thoughts during battle. It could even be used to make Uphiel forget why he was crippled and captured after being severely injured, forgetting people and events for several hours.
With this spirit artifact alone, Jin Shiyin couldn’t possibly pull the wool over everyone’s eyes, nor could he send his spirit artifact thousands of miles away to clear his name.
However, it was different with the help of Uphiel’s Spirit Artifact Dao Fruit!
Spirit Artifact Dao Fruit: Relic Transformation!
This could turn a borrowed spirit artifact into a ‘Spirit Artifact Relic.’ A Spirit Artifact Relic could be used by anyone and could be split into two, with its effects also split in half, reducing its power by half.
Uphiel transformed Jin Shiyin’s spirit artifact into a Relic Transformation, split it in two, and hid it at the bottom of the Unsinkable Sea Area, thereby creating an alibi for Jin Shiyin.
Afterward, Jin Shiyin forcibly injured Uphiel and stripped his memory, achieving the goal of framing Uphiel without Uphiel even realizing it.
From this point of view, Uphiel was not Jin Shiyin’s ally. He was likely tricked by Jin Shiyin through some means; he was just a pitiful victim.
In the second round, Xia Feng did not know about the Relic Transformation. He only judged that Uphiel’s Dao Fruit would have an ability similar to ‘copying spirit artifacts,’ but he wasn’t entirely sure, so his decision at the time was still somewhat risky.
Luckily, the risk paid off.
Later, as he fought with Uphiel, he gradually understood more details, solidifying his suspicions.
Logically speaking, Jin Shiyin’s combat power was at most on par with Uphiel’s. It was impossible for him to use the Memory Storage Cup to make Uphiel lose his memory.
But Jin Shiyin had an ally!
And it was a top-tier expert whose combat power rivaled Huang Zhaoyue’s: Jin Yangtian.
Although Jin Yangtian and Jin Shiyin had no dialogue on the surface, appearing unacquainted, Xia Feng overheard their conversation when Jin Yangtian sneak attacked him and ‘killed’ him with a Calamity Mist Card.
The two had formed an alliance even before entering the Sumeru Realm.
The meaning of their conversation at the time was somewhat vague, but Xia Feng now recalled with hindsight that their alliance agreement was likely: Jin Shiyin would help Jin Yangtian obtain the Blazing Sun Divine Domain, and Jin Yangtian would help Jin Shiyin obtain the Sumeru Throne.
With Jin Yangtian’s help, Uphiel, that birdman, was naturally no match.
Xia Feng remembered that no wonder Uphiel looked so disheveled and covered in blood when they met in the Unsinkable Sea Area to obtain the initial airdrop treasure chest. He was even slower than Venerable One Spirit Master, who had the worst movement speed.
The birdman had actually arrived much earlier.
But he encountered the pursuit of Jin Yangtian and Jin Shiyin, so he fled and left the Unsinkable Sea Area. After Jin and Jin jointly beat him until he lost his memory, he returned to the Unsinkable Sea Area as if in a loop to search for the initial airdrop. Coincidentally, he met Xia Feng.
Thus, Uphiel, who possessed the Spirit Artifact Book, became a highly suspected target. As for Xia Feng, Jin and Jin probably didn’t expect the Spade Person to appear, considering him an unexpected bonus that wouldn’t affect their plan to solidify Uphiel as the Red King.
The benefits of doing this were naturally to allow Jin Shiyin to hide his Red King identity for longer, obtain more hidden identity rewards, and make everyone else guess incorrectly, with Jin Yangtian being the only one to guess correctly.
A successful guess in the second round plus a first successful guess would earn 160 Ash Stones, definitely a substantial unexpected gain, which Jin Yangtian had now obtained entirely.
However, Jin Yangtian’s ambition was not the Sumeru Throne, so he would likely give it all to Jin Shiyin. Their combined Ash Stones would be enough to help him ascend to the top quickly.
Logically speaking, with everyone missing several key pieces of information, their plan was quite perfect. But unfortunately, Xia Feng had coincidentally copied the Memory Storage Cup, knowing its specific operating rules and effects. Moreover, he was a seasoned player in ‘copying spirit artifacts,’ ‘borrowing spirit artifacts,’ and ‘plundering spirit artifacts,’ so he could guess the effects of Uphiel’s Spirit Artifact Dao Fruit based on intuition.
He even learned about the secret alliance between Jin and Jin, obtaining almost all the key information. If he couldn’t guess that Jin Shiyin was secretly behind it now, he’d have to slap himself every night when he woke up startled.
[As the Black King, you have an extra settlement mission—You have successfully completed 3 rounds of identity concealment, obtaining Ash Stones: 20!]
[Current Ash Stones: 450]
[Settlement Complete—]
Looking at the nearly five hundred assets in his account, Xia Feng breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t easy. His current assets were definitely ahead of the first place.
Of course, it was time to spend money lavishly again!
[Mall Open. Private exchange begins. You have one minute to exchange for item cards. The mall will close after one minute.]
[In rounds 1-3, you can sell your currently held item cards to the store for recycling.]
[After recycling, you will no longer be able to use that type of card.]
Recycling is only available in the first three rounds. If you miss this opportunity, it’s gone forever.
Xia Feng glanced at his item cards. Unfortunately, all his Level 1 cards were used up. Level 2 and Level 3 cards were all useful, leaving almost nothing to recycle.
Except for two Level 0 cards.
After pondering for a moment, he decided to sell only the Level 0 cards.
[Active Showcase Card*1, Recording Card*1—Sold Successfully]
[You have obtained 12 Ash Stones.]
[Current Holdings: 462]
The profit wasn’t much, but it was still a gain.
After all, he didn’t need allies to open the Ash Land now, so the Active Showcase Card was as good as useless. The Recording Card was also completely useless.
The Recording Card was generally used by players without special identities to prove their innocence. He was a player with an identity and many secrets, so even if he recorded it, it likely couldn’t be publicly disclosed to prove innocence.
[Third Round Exchange—Mall prices increased by 150%.]
[You have a Level 2 ‘Mall Price Increase Card.’ Do you want to adjust the mall price increase for this round?]
The price of ‘Outside Realm Descent’ was 300. A 1.5x increase would be 450, which would almost bankrupt him.
Although suppressing the price increase would also benefit other players, there was no other way now. This item couldn’t control the price of a single product; it could only control all of them.
Either everything increases, or nothing does.
What a rip-off!
