HI Chapter 168

Before long, Lin Zhen and Yu Feizhou arrived. They stepped in from the snowy outside, bringing with them a chill from the cold.

Zhong Bufan also explained the method of confirming factions to the two of them. The nine people sat in a circle, each secretly recording their received tasks and limited instance items using information-recording items.

Song Cheng’an originally intended to sit between Yu Zhengqing and Lin Qiao, but Yan Wei proactively took a seat between the two from Yue Mang.

Compared to Song Cheng’an, Yan Wei was not only unfamiliar with these two from Yue Mang but also had past resentments with Yue Mang, so Zhong Bufan naturally didn’t object.

After Yan Wei switched seats, he was sandwiched between the two from Yue Mang, sitting between Yu Zhengqing and Lin Qiao, wrote down his own task information, and simultaneously obtained Lin Qiao’s task information.

With Zhong Bufan responsible for coordination, Yan Wei was happy to be lazy. Under Zhong Bufan’s coordination, everyone collected the task information of the person sitting to their right and opened them simultaneously to check. Yan Wei opened the task information in his hand, and Yu Zhengqing also opened the task information Yan Wei handed to him.

Suddenly, the side hall fell into silence, with only Lin Zhen idly picking cotton from a cushion.

Yu Feizhou was looking at Yu Zhengqing’s task information. Just as he was about to speak and voice his judgment, Yu Zhengqing suddenly said, “My task direction is completely different from Yan Wei’s.”

Everyone paused, and Song Cheng’an immediately frowned. Yu Zhengqing was checking Yan Wei’s task information; if what he said was true, then there must be someone in a different faction between Yu Zhengqing and Yan Wei. Moreover, Song Cheng’an had roughly compared notes with Yu Zhengqing, and it seemed mostly fine. If they were different, the likelihood that Yan Wei was from an opposing faction was extremely high.

Yan Wei didn’t move, just smiled faintly, his amber eyes brimming with pure amusement.

The others all claimed they received information from the same faction, but Yu Zhengqing firmly insisted that Yan Wei’s was different.

Yan Mingguang gave Yu Zhengqing a cold look, and Yu Feizhou earnestly said, “Do we need to double-check? Yan Wei and I have also slightly compared notes before.”

“I’ve looked carefully,” Yu Zhengqing said coldly, “Although we have personal grievances, faction matters concern the success or failure of the entire instance. The enmity between organizations and individuals cannot compare to the struggle of this top-tier instance. I wouldn’t lie about such a thing.”

Everyone stood up, and Lin Zhen had already taken out his long bow, chuckling, “Whether you’re settling personal scores or not, if you say Yan Wei is a mole infiltrating our faction, then I’ll kill you. Two for the price of one, losing me but taking out you, a troublemaker, isn’t a loss.”

Yu Zhengqing’s face turned pale with anger, “If you don’t believe me, you can check my task information against what Yan Wei gave me!”

“No need to check.”

Yan Wei suddenly spoke, “What I gave you wasn’t my task information.”

Everyone paused.

“When Lin Qiao handed her task information to me just now,” he seemed to speak deliberately slowly, “I directly handed it to you. I opened my own information.”

—Yu Zhengqing and Lin Qiao’s didn’t match!

In the next moment, Lin Zhen reacted swiftly, pulling the bowstring and sending an arrow feather towards Lin Qiao’s shoulder blade.

But Lin Qiao seemed to have been prepared. As soon as Lin Zhen’s arrow was loosed, Lin Qiao completely disappeared from within the Guanyin Hall!

Yu Feizhou sighed, “Looks like she was prepared.”

Yu Zhengqing stared at where Lin Qiao had disappeared, and after a while, he finally managed to say, “She was actually from the opposing faction!?”

Lin Zhen laughed, clapping his hands, “Yeah, old man, three from Yue Mang are in another faction, and you’re in ours. Wow, turns out, it’s not that the top players of Yue Mang are at odds; it’s that those three have been secretly at odds with you for a long time.”

“You—”

Zhong Bufan had been watching Yan Wei all along. His previously casual demeanor had become much more serious, and his gaze now carried a hint of admiration, “You actually knew the purpose of my arrangement too?”

Lin Zhen: “? What arrangement?”

Everyone present was clever; who didn’t understand? This method, checking one by one, separating familiar people, indeed seemed to verify factions and prevent too much information leakage. But if everyone in the room really had similar task directions as claimed, then this method wouldn’t be of much use, ultimately just confirming that everyone was the same.

And if someone was in a different faction, if that person disguised themselves well, they could still blend in, only this method prevented the mole from knowing too much of their information.

But Zhong Bufan hadn’t intended to strictly follow the rules from the start.

This method seemed to only prevent players from obtaining more information, but in reality, it also eliminated the vigilance of any potential moles among them—no matter who it was, the mole was sitting next to someone unfamiliar.

Thus, the information the mole handed to that person would be fabricated based on some task content the mole had heard, thinking to pass off as genuine.

Lin Qiao was from the opposing faction, but she had entered the instance with Yu Zhengqing and knew some of his task content. To fabricate, she would certainly use the task content of someone she was familiar with—namely, Yu Zhengqing. After all, the fabricated content would only be seen by Yan Wei, who could at most judge the task direction, unable to detect anything amiss, because the task indeed existed.

The one who could discover her fabrication was actually Yu Zhengqing, because she used Yu Zhengqing’s task content. But since Yan Wei was the one checking her, she relaxed her guard, casually fabricating some information to hand to Yan Wei, thinking she could pass this hurdle.

Yan Wei turned and handed it to Yu Zhengqing, and when Yu Zhengqing saw the task information fabricated to mimic his own, wouldn’t it be immediately obvious there was a problem?

That’s how Lin Qiao was exposed.

Zhong Bufan had actually been doing the same thing; after receiving Yu Feizhou’s information, he secretly handed Yu Feizhou’s to Lin Zhen, keeping his own information. Only Lin Zhen and Yu Feizhou seemed fine, but an issue arose between Yu Zhengqing and Lin Qiao.

Zhong Bufan thought about Yan Wei’s proactive request to switch seats, moving between Yu Zhengqing and Lin Qiao…

He was startled—could it be that Yan Wei had already detected something off about Lin Qiao?

“That’s it!” Zhong Bufan slapped his forehead, “Old Song, you and Yu Zhengqing both came from out-of-town Taoist temples, with the general purpose of bringing ritual implements to the Guanyin Grand Temple as temporary replacements for the stolen items. Taoist temples… Lin Qiao is a female player, she would have the same task, unless the instance ignores gender differences.”

This was also possible, and because everyone had just started the instance, no one paid too much attention to the origins of their identities, leading to overlooking that something was amiss with Lin Qiao mingling among Song Cheng’an and Yu Zhengqing.

Not only was Lin Qiao from the opposing faction, but she was also very likely one of the players tasked with stealing ritual implements from the Guanyin Hall, hence she knew the objectives and routes of Yu Zhengqing and Song Cheng’an.

Zhong Bufan was inwardly amazed. This Yan Wei had aimed for Lin Qiao from the start, wanting to test her with this method, and sure enough, it revealed Lin Qiao’s issue. Now that Lin Qiao had fled, they could confirm that everyone’s factions were correct, and they hadn’t leaked too much information to the opposing faction, truly killing two birds with one stone.

He had proposed this method after studying V’s instance at least five times, precisely grasping the details and psychological plays, hence daring to replicate V’s method. How did Yan Wei also know to do this? Could it be that what Yan Wei hadn’t said was actually identical to the method he proposed?

Thinking of this newcomer who had obtained V’s scattered Legendary Item in the nineteenth-floor instance, Zhong Bufan’s eyes lit up, “Yan Wei, have you also been studying V’s methods and style all along? Great minds think alike! Though I studied this aiming to surpass V one day, if you’ve also studied it, I can teach you.”

He raised his hand to pat Yan Wei’s shoulder, but Yan Wei looked disdainfully at his fingers still stained with incense ash, frowned, and took a step back.

Zhong Bufan: “…”

Yan Wei merely said, “This method isn’t always useful, and V’s style isn’t invincible either; it still depends on the situation.”

Yu Zhengqing had just been somewhat helped by Yan Wei, but he couldn’t swallow his pride, and hearing Yan Wei speak so boldly, he murmured, “There are few in the Tower World I admire, and V is one of them. Not just because of his strength, but also his ambition and kindness that surpass all players. You’re just a newcomer in the upper floors, who by chance entered the top floor, and figured out Lin Qiao, don’t get too cocky, you’re still far from V.”

Yan Wei: “…”

Song Cheng’an: “…”

Lin Zhen grew impatient, “Alright, we’ve found the mole, aren’t we supposed to look at the items?”

He didn’t care, reaching into his sleeve and throwing a sharp, cold blade in front of everyone. He said, “This is the item I’ve had since entering the instance, the Soul-Slicing Blade.”

Yan Wei also took out his, “Mine is the Millennial Agarwood.”

Song Cheng’an pointed to the Tai Chi Compass in his hand, “This is it, I’m holding it just to confuse any enemies in the shadows, making them think this compass isn’t important.”

Yan Mingguang’s expression was indifferent, revealing nothing. He slowly took out an item and placed it on the ground, his voice deep, “This is my instance-limited item.”

Yu Feizhou and the others also took out their items.

The group immediately noticed something was off.

“…Yan Mingguang also has a Soul-Slicing Blade? Zhong Bufan also has Millennial Agarwood? So now we have two Millennial Agarwoods, two Soul-Slicing Blades, one Tai Chi Compass, one Willow Branch, one Coffin-Sealing Talisman, with two items being duplicates…” Yan Wei muttered to himself, “So that’s it. To deal with the female ghost, we’ll inevitably use these items. There must be some item list or method for dealing with malevolent spirits that will tell us—which items are needed? How to use those items? And among the needed items…”

Yan Mingguang concluded, “There will be duplicate items to confuse the opposing faction players trying to steal them.”

With players being in opposing factions, their objectives are generally conflicting. To win, there are two methods: the first is for their faction to complete tasks faster, the second is to prevent the opposing faction from completing any. Being top-floor players, naturally, they can’t be too naive; everyone will use both methods, completing their own while hindering the others.

The method to hinder others is to steal items, causing the opposing faction to lack items, spending more time or even being unable to complete tasks.

And duplicate items are the smokescreen, their room for maneuver.

Similarly, the opposing faction must also have duplicate items. If they intend to steal items from the opposing faction, they must find a way to steal the unique ones—otherwise, stealing duplicates, the opponent still has one left, what’s the use?

Lin Zhen scratched his head, “I’m pretty good at stealing stuff. But these items… how do we use them?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Yan Wei heard the Tower’s prompt in his mind.

[Congratulations to the player for being the first to discover and prove the existence of two factions within the instance. As the player who opened the faction mode, you are awarded 8% of the main story progress, and your faction also receives 5% of the main story progress. Your current main story progress is 13%. Please continue to work hard and complete your tasks.]

[Faction mode has been fully activated. Please accurately identify your corresponding faction and continue to complete tasks.]

[The next phase of the task has begun. For you, the current tasks are three: one, find the list of items your faction needs to collect; two, find out the origin of the female ghost; three, use the items to suppress the female ghost causing the sea around Guanyin Town to turn black. Players can distribute tasks within the faction or complete them together. Note: There are two factions, your tasks conflict with players from the opposing faction, please plan your time appropriately.]