Gu Fangchen hadn't realized he was "playing quite the game" until now.
What kind of ridiculous situation was this?
Then it hit him, this must have been Ning Caiyong's doing. He could only laugh and sigh helplessly.
Although the original Gu Fangchen had been notorious for his lecherous habits, often frequenting brothels and entertainment houses, Ning Caiyong had always kept him on a tight leash.
When he said he was going to "listen to songs," that was literally all he did, listen to songs.
But Ning Caiyong's strictness had been entirely for his son's sake.
Because Gu Fangchen's body was riddled with poison and extremely frail, he was practically incapable of doing anything even if he had the desire.
Worse still, if his blood and qi surged too strongly, the poison in his system could erupt, causing him to vomit three pints of blood on the spot.
The twisted, dark nature of the original Gu Fangchen's temperament was partly born of that humiliation, constantly mocked behind his back for such impotence.
Of course, the original wasn't any good person either. More often than not, he vented that anger on innocent people, doing things that were nothing short of beastly.
The fallout from that mess was now something Gu Fangchen himself had to clean up.
Still, back to the point, he wasn't particularly afraid that Xu Fu would kill him over this.
After all, he currently held the whereabouts of the Sixth Division Star Lord. They'd already come to a tentative agreement, and no matter what happened, Xu Fu would never destroy her only lead.
That didn't mean, however, that she wouldn't be furious.
Even immortals in human form were still human.
And at the end of the day, Xu Fu was a woman, she might disregard worldly conventions, but that didn't mean she was entirely untouched by them.
Her favorability didn't need to be high, but it absolutely couldn't drop below the red line.
Otherwise, she had countless subtle ways to make his life miserable.
She might not take his life outright, but the way she could sabotage him at key moments would be worse than death.
Especially since in this "game," many events and skills were influenced by probability. If she threw a probability-down debuff on him, he'd be stuck crying under his blanket.
When it came to practitioners of causality, without exception, every one of them was a cunning schemer.
Xu Fu was already an outlier among outliers.
Her temperament, in the eyes of many, was wildly unpredictable. The same event, handled by the same person, could draw completely opposite reactions from her depending on the time or circumstance.
As though there were no pattern to her reasoning.
But in truth, her motives were simple, brutally simple.
She judged everything by one criterion: whether one's actions brought Great Wei closer to her vision of "Peace under Heaven."
If yes, then pass.
If not, then came the second judgment: whether it pushed Great Wei further away from peace.
If yes, then death.
If not, then the rest depended entirely on Xu Fu's personal will.
Those who thought the Grand Preceptor's temper was strange simply made one mistake, they treated her too much like a normal person.
Every disciple of the Celestial Fate Dao, without exception, was mad.
Xu Fu only seemed sane because her madness happened to align perfectly with the natural order of Great Wei's current development.
But others hadn't seen what Gu Fangchen had seen, the worst possible ending, "The Descent of Ten Thousand Demons," where the Grand Preceptor Xu Fu revealed her true self.
To reach that ending, the player had to join the Demon Sect or the Southern Barbarians, merge their powers, destroy Great Wei, and slaughter ninety percent of its strongest cultivators, plunging the world into chaos and turning it into a living hell.
Even in that ending, Gu Yuye's true body simply vanished, likely fleeing overseas, the very embodiment of a survivor.
And in that same ending, while the imperial court hesitated over what to do, Xu Fu beheaded the Emperor herself.
Using the Imperial Seal and the Emperor's severed head as the formation's core, she forged an ultra-tier grand array, the Heaven and Earth Crucible, that enveloped the entire Great Wei and bolstered its cultivators' power.
She then seated herself at the very center of the Crucible, calculating the fates of the realm.
By sheer will, she held the collapsing nation together for thirty full years amid internal decay and external invasion.
That was equivalent to ordinary players collapsing after five years even when following the "true ending" route.
Xu Fu had single-handedly sustained it for thirty.
A literal high-difficulty solo run.
When Gu Fangchen had played through that part, he had been completely dumbfounded, the only words that came to mind were: utterly incredible.
Of course, that didn't mean Xu Fu was bound by some predestined "Heavenly Fate."
The Celestial Fate Dao taught that one's destiny must be chosen and pursued voluntarily. Only the ideal that a disciple truly acknowledged and sought of their own will could become their "Fate."
That ideal simply stood far above all personal interest, rendering any selfish desire insignificant.
And in this kind of situation, so steeped in personal desire, keeping her reason above emotion was crucial.
Put simply, to handle the Grand Preceptor, one had to override her lower judgments with a higher one.
Gu Fangchen's eyes flickered, and he decided to lean into it. He openly sized up the delicate beauty before him and chuckled.
"Grand Preceptor, I'm just a vulgar man, and this is my one small indulgence."
"Gold is good, but beauty is better."
"There may be countless beauties under heaven, but none can compare to you. Honestly, if I hadn't seen your face with my own eyes, I would never have risked myself for this so-called Peace under Heaven."
That wasn't even a lie. Had he not witnessed Xu Fu in her "high-tier playthrough," he might really have defected to the Demon Sect in this current run.
But now? Forget it.
"I have long admired the Grand Preceptor," he said with a sigh, adopting a shamelessly aggrieved tone, "but you're far beyond my reach. I can only... secretly indulge my longing."
"Our dynasty does not preach the annihilation of human desire, Grand Preceptor, you wouldn't forbid even that, would you?"
Xu Fu was silent. Her instincts told her this was sophistry, but none of his words were wrong.
A man who demanded tens of thousands in gold as a reward, his vulgarity was beyond dispute.
She had doubted him before, but after this display, she could almost confirm it.
Seven parts truth, three parts falsehood, but overall, he was being honest.
He truly loved gold, and beautiful women.
A thoroughly base and worldly man.
Yet... this was the first time anyone had ever told her they "admired" her.
Few under heaven could even speak to her as an equal, much less say something like that.
With her mastery over fate and causality, none could hide their hearts from her, so who would dare say such words?
The man's courage was enormous.
But she knew the moment she heard it, it was false.
Complete nonsense. Utterly absurd.
Xu Fu stared at him for a moment before speaking coldly.
"Release me."
She could have forbidden him outright, of course. But his existence was too unusual, and his greed for gold and beauty could also serve as reins to control him.
Perhaps she could use that to direct him toward her vision of Peace under Heaven.
Gu Fangchen loosened his grip on her slender wrist, exhaling in relief.
So the Grand Preceptor's judgment mechanism still held.
Xu Fu pushed against his chest to rise, turned her back to him, and said lightly,
"The ten thousand taels of gold have been delivered. If you cannot provide the whereabouts of the Sixth Division Star Lord, then you may as well hand over that tiger's hide of yours."
Gu Fangchen lifted the blanket and looked at the small maid standing before him, hands clasped behind her back, carrying herself with a poise entirely different from before.
But what truly puzzled him was, how had this coincidence even happened?
The last thing Xu Fu should ever experience was something unforeseen.
Had she possessed him while he slept? Surely she hadn't fallen asleep herself.
Even if she'd been in a hurry, she wouldn't have flung herself into his arms by accident.
Unless... she couldn't calculate it.
Gu Fangchen's eyes glinted faintly.
If that were true, perhaps he could find a way to use it someday.