Damn it, the final boss is my father?
Gu Fangchen twitched at the corner of his mouth. He thought he might be a descendant of the Dao Lord of Constancy, but being the direct offspring of the Dao Lord of Constancy seemed... unlikely.
Though he could recite every line of the story accessible to players in Mirror in the Dust, even he couldn't be certain about this.
After all, the original Gu Fangchen had died before the game's main plot even began.
There was only one obscure piece of lore left behind about the Dao Lord of Constancy, with no corroborating text.
So Gu Fangchen could only say, it was a possibility.
But there was far more evidence contradicting it than supporting it.
Most importantly..
If he was the Dao Lord of Constancy's descendant, why would Emperor Yong'an hand him over to Gu Yuye, allowing that man to raise him into uselessness, and finally let him die?
The Dao Lord of Constancy was one of the three Divine Path cultivators of the First Grade known to players.
The other two were the Confucian Sage who founded half of the Great Wei Empire, and the previous Sword Saint who transcended in meditation atop Heaven Gate Mountain.
These three, together with the player themselves after reaching full completion, were the only four who could be considered living beings of the Eternal Realm.
The Eternal Realm, as the name implied, was eternal and indestructible, enduring as the heavens and earth themselves.
At that level, one was almost undying and unkillable. Any living being in the Eternal Realm could utterly crush all other cultivators.
The Great Wei had managed to stand unshaken for over thirteen centuries precisely because it had the Confucian Sage as its visible spiritual pillar.
But later, in the Yaoshan Academy side quest, if the player followed the route of "Descent of All Demons," that Sage would be killed in an unbelievable, roundabout way.
Only then would Great Wei truly fall into chaos, held together solely by Xu Fu.
It proved that even the Eternal Realm was not invincible, that mortal will could still overcome the heavens.
Normally, though, those of the Divine Path, First Grade, were considered unbeatable, because at that realm, they could interfere with the flow of time itself.
The "Sixth Division Star Lord" had managed to split his own karmic threads and cast them into reincarnation, barely a crude imitation of temporal manipulation.
At best, he could "anchor the past" and "grasp the present."
But for a Divine Path cultivator of the First Grade, such interference was as simple as a passing thought. Their true bodies no longer existed within the present moment, having ascended into a higher dimension.
Emperor Yong'an was merely one incarnation of the Dao Lord of Constancy, yet in this timeline, he was the Dao Lord of Constancy.
To say he didn't know this would be impossible.
Gu Fangchen had two possible guesses.
First, that it was intentional.
The Dao Lord of Constancy's Dao was immutability, the unchanging. Therefore, he would want to destroy whatever had caused him to change.
So perhaps he secretly swapped his own child with Gu Yuye's infant, in order to kill his own offspring.
But if so, then Emperor Yong'an's attitude toward him now seemed strangely ambiguous.
Alternatively, there was another possibility, that it had something to do with the "Debate of the Dao," the event that caused Constancy to change.
In that debate, who had spoken with the Dao Lord of Constancy? What had been said that made him choose, willingly or not, to embrace change?
Perhaps the reason for Emperor Yong'an's actions lay hidden there.
For now, Gu Fangchen couldn't determine which guess was true; he simply didn't have enough information.
Still, the speculation gave him a little clarity.
At the very least, he realized one thing..
He absolutely could not pretend before Emperor Yong'an that he was some ancient monster reborn through possession.
If he really was the Dao Lord's descendant, claiming to be "reborn" would be the same as signing his own death warrant.
That trick worked only when the original body had no connection to the big players of this world.
But now? Who could accept the idea that their own offspring had been taken over by someone else?
If Emperor Yong'an wanted to kill him, that was his own choice, but if someone else dared meddle in that, it would be suicide.
So the best strategy was to stand with Emperor Yong'an, continue playing the part of the original Gu Fangchen, and avoid doing anything suspicious.
At the same time, he could probe for what the emperor truly wanted.
Gu Fangchen thought for a moment, then said, "Your Majesty called me here, was it just to take a look at me?"
Emperor Yong'an chuckled. "Can I not?"
Gu Fangchen: "..."
Was that really something you say so casually, Your Majesty?
"Well, if Your Majesty wishes to look, then by all means."
He grinned boldly. "But, Your Majesty, Gu Yuye is still waiting to kill me. If you look too long, he might die of anxiety first."
Emperor Yong'an's attitude toward Gu Fangchen was unclear, but his stance on Gu Yuye couldn't have been clearer.
So it was best to divert attention from himself and bring the focus back to Gu Yuye.
A common enemy often united people far better than a common interest.
Emperor Yong'an said mildly, "He doesn't seem anxious. Still has time to chat at the White Horse Temple."
So they were already in talks, that meant he'd met with Princess Prajna.
Gu Fangchen's mind turned quickly. "Princess Prajna came seeking the holy relic, but because the sixth-generation saintess reincarnated, that relic has merged with Gu Lianqian's body."
"If Gu Yuye uses that as leverage, the Tara Sect will most likely fall under his control."
He made no effort to hide that he knew classified information, he wanted to see how Emperor Yong'an would respond.
Through the curtain, Emperor Yong'an's eyes seemed to pierce through the layers of shadow and rest directly upon him.
"Haven't you already sent the Candle-Cutters to kill the Tara Sect's people?"
So even that wasn't hidden from him.
Of course not, they were colleagues within the same Demonic Sect, of equal rank. Emperor Yong'an already knew that the "Puppeteer of Decay" persona wasn't a secret.
He also knew exactly where the Puppeteer was at this moment, unlike his subordinates who had incomplete information.
There was no chance the Puppeteer was here pretending to be Gu Fangchen.
Gu Fangchen cleared his throat. "That was just a delaying tactic. It only buys a little time."
"You have a permanent solution, then?"
"No..."
He grinned slyly. "But I do have a way to make the Tara Sect and Gu Yuye turn against each other."
"Oh?"
Emperor Yong'an asked, "And what method would that be?"
Gu Fangchen narrowed his eyes, glanced at his skill "Angler," and smiled brightly.
"Stealing the Sky and Swapping the Sun."
His buff Not Actually Purchased still had four days of effect left.
And within those four days, he would forge a fake Lotus Concealed in the Womb to replace the real one.
First, he needed a counterfeit.
But even a counterfeit Lotus Concealed in the Womb wasn't something an ordinary craftsman could make, only the "Toothsmith" had that kind of skill.
Gu Fangchen knew where the Toothsmith was, but he couldn't reach him.
So, he had to lure Gu Yuye into acting first. Inside Huangtian City, opportunities for the Demonic Sect to move were rare.
Gu Yuye would definitely activate one of his hidden agents and place a spatial measurement mark on Gu Fangchen.
Gu Fangchen would then use that mark to enter the Dao of Measure's teleportation network, the "Between the Weft and Warp" - and travel to the Toothsmith's side.
Of course, the hardest part was that Lotus Concealed in the Womb had already merged with Gu Lianqian. No one had seen it, and there was no template to copy.
But...
Gu Fangchen had seen it himself.