Chapter 26: Location Card

Chapter 26: The Position Card

Zhao Changhe had no idea how to respond to that.

He felt that given Luo Qi’s hatred for the Emperor, even if First Seat Tang safely brought this "prince" to the capital to be the crown prince, the one to overthrow the world in the end would very likely be this very crown prince.

Indeed, from Zhao Changhe himself to everyone else, absolutely no one had ever cared about what she herself thought.

"As for the Luo family..." Luo Qi offered a mocking smile. "Luo Zhenwu is older than me, but not by much, just a matter of two or three months. At that time, there were no longer any of the Emperor’s men left at the manor, so Master Luo developed wicked ideas. Later, when the Emperor sent people to inquire, he used all sorts of ambiguous wording to obfuscate, leading them to believe the prince was Luo Zhenwu."

Zhao Changhe said, "He certainly has the nerve. Did he actually expect his son to sit in that seat one day? A mere local tycoon entangling himself in the struggle for the throne—how many lives does he have to lose?"

"It wasn't necessarily that he had that kind of nerve; he merely hoped to ride that wind to give his son a glorious future. The Emperor believed Luo Zhenwu was his own flesh and blood, so he naturally showed him some favor, even sending imperial experts over to protect him. It's just a pity that Luo Zhenwu was too incompetent to be salvaged; otherwise, his achievements would hardly have stopped there."

"That is true."

"However, the misunderstanding caused up to this point is rather interesting. Whether it was Luo Zhenwu or not, everyone in the world subconsciously assumed that the child the Emperor left at the Luo Family Manor was a son. No one ever imagined it was a princess."

Zhao Changhe said, "Speaking of which, Master Luo should actually have killed you."

"You think he didn't want to? He was just a coward, he didn't dare. To truly kill a princess, the daughter of the number one person in the world—even if he harbored the thought, he truly lacked the courage. Instead, he hurriedly dressed me up as a man. It became a situation where he was riding a tiger and couldn't get off, not even knowing himself how he would wrap things up in the future."

"...A piece of trash."

Luo Qi burst out laughing. "If he weren't trash, I wouldn't be here today."

Zhao Changhe nodded. "And then?"

"He settled my mother and me in the outer sect. Before my mother passed away, he didn't know the Emperor's mind and feared the Emperor might misunderstand something, so he didn't dare to come and show attentiveness. Those days were quite hard for my mother and me. Changhe... in this world, the person who would leave the only bowl of rice for me—I originally thought there was only my mother, and never imagined there would also be a Zhao Changhe. All my hesitation and inner conflict regarding you stemmed from this."

Zhao Changhe: "..."

Luo Qi sighed. "After Mother passed away, Master Luo had fewer qualms. He began to provide me with good food and drink, treating me to a private courtyard... By the way, back then, didn't you ever think that this wasn't something an ordinary outer sect disciple was qualified to have?"

Zhao Changhe: "Everyone says I'm an idiot anyway."

Faced with a completely self-abandoning Zhao Changhe, Luo Qi didn't even bother to mock him anymore, saying, "Actually, this could be considered leaving himself a way out. If one day I acknowledged my ancestors and returned to the clan, I would more or less remember a few fractions of his care and upbringing from childhood. He really calculated well."

Zhao Changhe shook his head. "This kind of person thinks too much, yet is timid and fearful, full of schemes but lacking decisiveness. It's hard for him to accomplish great things."

"So he is trash," Luo Qi said leisurely. "But I had to guard against this trash. My mother passed down to me the Four Symbols White Tiger Divine Art, and I dared not let anyone know. What I displayed to the outside world was always the martial arts of the Luo family's outer sect, and I even took pride in breaking through the first layer of heaven... That way, no one would suspect that I actually possessed the White Tiger Divine Art, had already reached the fourth tier of the Xuan Pass at the beginning of the year, and am now close to the fifth."

Zhao Changhe: "Fuck, you fucking..."

Luo Qi smiled, saying softly, "I told you, I’ve been lying to you from beginning to end."

Zhao Changhe turned his head away petulantly. Is lying to people such a big deal? I can lie too.

I saw it last night; you really are a white tiger. Would I tell you?

"Before Mother left, she kept reminding me never to trust anyone, never to speak my true thoughts to anyone, and that anyone who gets in your way should be killed... I followed her teachings... But... I met you." Luo Qi said softly, "Changhe, I harbored murderous intent toward you many times, which was my fault... But in this world, the special person is actually you..."

Zhao Changhe said irritably, "I'm special... I am special. Yet after all this talking, you still haven't said why you wanted to kill me before. I feel like we've strayed far off topic."

Luo Qi said leisurely, "Off topic? Without these preparatory stories, how could we hit the theme?"

"Then can we hit it now?"

"The Emperor values his offspring quite a bit. When he left, he left a token for my mother, meaning to keep it as a sign of recognition. I dared not let Master Luo know about the existence of this token either... Fortunately, he didn't dare to search me."

Zhao Changhe froze, his expression changing slightly.

The appearance of this token was something he might have seen before.

Luo Qi was saying, "You asked me why I wanted to kill you so early on—because Luo Zhenwu didn't have the token on him. After First Seat Tang inspected him, she would know Luo Zhenwu wasn't the real deal. She would definitely turn back to search the other corpses of the Luo Family Manor. Finding none, what would that mean?"

Zhao Changhe's heart stirred. "It means she would know that out of the two of us who survived, only one is the real deal."

"Yes... But in her heart, she always thought it was a prince. If she found me, it would be very difficult to hide my female form from her, so who would the real deal be in her heart?"

Zhao Changhe's eyes widened.

Luo Qi pointed it out leisurely, "It's you."

"Holy shit... My age isn't right!"

"It's completely normal for someone to look mature for their age. Didn't Luo Zhenwu look about the same age as you? As long as you don't say anything, who would know your real age? Only an idiot like you would actively tell Yue Hongling that you're two months older than her."

Zhao Changhe: "..."

"Of course, that could have been a lie to her; these things aren't important." Luo Qi said indifferently, "What is truly important is that even if they know you might not be, they might force you to be, because as long as a prince is alive, the situation hasn't gone completely to hell. For the sake of this, they wouldn't even need you to produce a token; they might even forge one for you."

"..." Zhao Changhe now had nothing left in his stomach but ellipses. He felt like his college education had been in vain; he couldn't find any words to describe his current state of mind.

It felt very bizarre, but thinking carefully, this logic was actually self-consistent. There truly was a certain probability that things would unfold this way.

"So you yourself never thought that you might have taken my identity, and the probability was quite high." Luo Qi smiled. "Although I don't like this identity at all, I hate the feeling of being robbed of it even more. If it were you, wouldn't you want to finish this person off?"

Zhao Changhe sighed. "Perhaps I really would... This reason for wanting to kill me is quite interesting. Though it's a bit of a stretch of the imagination, it's at least better than fighting over treasures. Speaking of which, the Four Symbols Sect and the Blood God Sect were truly interesting this time. They went to exterminate the family, and as it turned out, the only outer sect disciple they missed killing happened to be the real deal. If the Vermilion Bird Venerable found out, I wonder if she would vomit blood."

Luo Qi smiled. "What the Four Symbols Sect wanted to kill was only the prince. In fact, if I were female, she might not necessarily want to kill me. From another perspective, I am instead a pure-blooded inheritor of the Four Symbols Sect, and I have nothing but hatred for the Emperor, having no desire at all to acknowledge him as my father."

Zhao Changhe thought about it and nodded. "Yes, in fact, the person who wants to join the Four Symbols Sect the most is you, and the most suitable person is also you."

Luo Qi said, "You said my reason for killing you is better than fighting over things, but it's actually the same as fighting over things. It's nothing more than whether the treasure being fought over is an object or an identity... Since the treasure is mine now, then..."

She paused, suddenly smiled, and fished a jade pendant from her bosom, tossing it over. "From today onward, this prince... is you. Whether you want to use this identity is for you to decide."

Zhao Changhe stiffened. "Hey!"

Luo Qi waved her hand. "The identities of the Four Symbols Sect and the imperial family conflict. I must choose one. Now that I have chosen the Four Symbols Sect, this token has become a burden to me. If it were discovered by the Four Symbols Sect, it would cause complications. So I couldn't keep it anyway. If you don't want it, then just throw it away."

Zhao Changhe looked blankly at the round, dragon-carved jade pendant in his hand. It was indeed exactly the same as the pattern on that position card.

He had never thought that this thing would end up belonging to him...

Speaking of which... since the eyes behind the figure on the card belonged to him, shouldn't the other things on the card also rightfully belong to him?

So it was only today that the card could be considered truly unveiled.

Zhao Changhe felt none of the joy of solving a riddle that he had felt before. Instead, he suddenly felt a bit of panic. What was with this feeling of a predestined fate... Could it be that these were things that had already happened, and he was merely being made to experience them all over again?

Or was there truly an unseen, massive hand manipulating all of this?

But as things had unfolded up to this point, the choices at every step had been determined completely by his own thinking. Could that be a lie too?

Zhao Changhe remained silent for a long time, making up his mind.

He had to accept the jade pendant; this might be a key clue to unlocking the mystery of his transmigration. But no matter the circumstances, he would refrain from using it, to see just how far this "fate" could proceed.

Yet just as he was thinking this, a soft light faintly emanated from the jade pendant, highly similar to the Azure Dragon Seal's legacy to Luo Qi. It seemed a strange power was slowly cleansing his meridians.

Zhao Changhe was dumbfounded, and Luo Qi’s eyes widened too.

After a good while, Luo Qi suddenly laughed loudly, with tears in her laughter. "So that's how it is, so that's how it is! Hidden within this jade pendant is the legacy of that Xia Longyuan, except it was meant for a boy!"