Shen Gun was frozen with fear.

After a moment, he heard a familiar laugh. Then the interior light came on, and the person in the driver’s seat pulled down the scarf around his neck, revealing a familiar face.

Shen Gun’s eyes widened. “Little Lian Lian?”

Jiang Lian lowered the gun. “With a gun to your forehead, you were helpless. Seems like you’re still yourself, not transformed into something else.”

He gestured toward the back of the car. “I vaguely sensed you wanted to burn the box, but I always felt you lacked a strong motive. Now it seems that motive has appeared?”

Shen Gun didn’t respond, just sighed and silently leaned back against the seat—the road was too quiet, without even a passing car. He couldn’t even pretend to be distracted by something else.

Jiang Lian continued, “You know very well that without the box, Meiying wouldn’t survive. In the middle of the night, without even leaving a note, secretly taking the box and leaving—now that I’ve caught you red-handed, don’t you owe a reasonable explanation?”

Shen Gun remained silent.

Jiang Lian smiled and also leaned back against his seat. “Not talking? Then we’ll just wait it out. I’m young with good stamina. Let’s see who can outlast whom.”

Shen Gun hung his head and let out another long sigh. Jiang Lian tried to cross his legs to demonstrate his confidence, but unfortunately, the driver’s seat didn’t provide enough space, so he had to give up.

After what seemed like a long time, Shen Gun finally spoke: “Little Lian Lian, have you smelled any… strange odor?”

Jiang Lian took a couple of deep sniffs. Nothing, though he did catch a faint whiff of perfume again.

Shen Gun unzipped his outer coat completely, then rolled up his wool sweater. After the sweater came the thermal underwear. Beneath the thermal underwear was a thick layer of bandages, as if he had been injured and needed wrapping, but ordinary bandaging would never be layered so thickly.

As it turned out, it wasn’t bandaging at all. Shen Gun had simply made a thick pad with the bandages and placed it on his stomach.

He glanced at Jiang Lian, steeled himself, and removed the pad.

In that instant, Jiang Lian thought he must be seeing things. He sharply inhaled, quickly averting his gaze, then felt his heart pounding uncontrollably.

Was that even a stomach anymore? He felt he had seen a rotting swamp of flesh and blood. Even though he immediately turned away, the image wouldn’t leave him, as if it had been burned onto his retina.

Shen Gun silently covered the pad again. “When I smell it up close, I always think I can detect a fishy, foul odor. But it seems that covering it with so many layers of clothing wasn’t in vain.”

Jiang Lian’s voice trembled slightly. “How long has it been like this?”

“Since the night before last. At that time, my blood couldn’t open the box, and little Luobo and the others were about to arrive. I was worried, but I still followed your advice and went to the bathhouse.”

“While bathing, I saw the scar on my chest and abdomen. Of course, this scar was darker in color than other areas. I don’t know why, but as I looked at it, the scar seemed like a blood vessel or blood sac. Then suddenly, a thought occurred to me: could the blood here be different from the blood elsewhere in my body?”

“So I secretly went back to the room and brought out the box to test my theory.”

Jiang Lian vaguely remembered—he recalled Kuang Meiying asking about it, and Shen Gun answering that he had forgotten something while bathing and returned to retrieve it.

“I just made a small puncture on that scar, but blood kept flowing out. Then I managed to open the box.”

It opened! Jiang Lian felt as tense as if he had been there himself. “Was there something inside?”

He remembered that when trapped in the Mountain Intestines, Shen Gun had mentioned there was something in the box that made him uncomfortable and was quite dangerous.

Shen Gun nodded. “There was a letter inside, addressed to me.”

“Where’s the letter?”

As soon as Jiang Lian spoke, he realized his misunderstanding. How could there be a letter from that era? Even if there were, modern humans wouldn’t understand those “characters.” This so-called letter must not be the kind of written correspondence he imagined.

Indeed.

“It wasn’t exactly a letter. More precisely, it was like some kind of message. After opening the box, I received and understood it—I can’t produce the physical letter for you.”

Fair enough. This was probably some secret method of the God Race, a message transmission based on some biological sensing. Jiang Lian didn’t want to delve too deeply. He was more concerned about something else: “What did the message say?”

After asking this, his heart began racing wildly. The air in the car was too stagnant. He lowered the window a crack, and the cold, biting wind from outside rushed in through the narrow gap, causing the window glass to vibrate with a humming sound.

“It revealed the truth about everything.”

A small tremor ran through Jiang Lian’s body, either from the cold or from the impact of these words. “So now you know who you are?”

Shen Gun nodded, then, after a pause, added, “I suppose I do.”

“Who are you? Peng Zu or Kuang Zu?”

Shen Gun shook his head. “Neither. I’m just Shen Gun. That person who looked exactly like me does have a connection with me. He existed even before Peng Zu. You could say everything originated from him. Let’s call him… Peng Yi.”

Shen Gun composed himself, first unscrewing a bottle of mineral water and taking a few sips to moisten his throat before slowly beginning his explanation.

All along, everyone’s guesses had been more or less correct: Heaven was cut off from Earth, the gods spanned generations, Chi You and the Yellow Emperor disagreed. After a spectacular battle, Chi You was beheaded by the Yellow Emperor, and Chi You’s followers retreated to the southern regions, which were then considered malaria-infested plague lands.

However, though defeated, their spirit wasn’t dead. Everyone’s self-reproduction ability was heading toward extinction, but the Qilin Crystal was a medicine. The problem was that this medicine had perished before them—what if they could find a way to replicate the Qilin Crystal? Even if its effectiveness was only half or even one-tenth of the original?

They activated a long-dormant chess piece within the Yellow Emperor’s faction, closely monitoring every move from the Yellow Emperor’s side. Soon, they learned about the imminent “Dragon Bone Box Burning.”

Shen Gun let out a long sigh. “The Yellow Emperor’s faction knew that after generations of reproduction, they would become like humans. Even the most outstanding among them would have incompetent descendants. Their previous superiority would cease to exist. Everyone would be like ants, busy their whole lives fighting and building. Whether you rise or he hibernates, it’s all like the waves of the sea, without fixed patterns, entirely dependent on fate.”

“Under these circumstances, preserving treasured artifacts became a dangerous matter. First, when society’s development level was still limited to knives, spears, and wooden clubs, imagine if someone possessed guns and cannons. The consequences are predictable. What would this world become if that person used these for personal gain and trampled on others? Second, the extinction of the God Race happened gradually. What if those who died later changed their minds? Or what if someday the artifacts were found? Finding them would mean power, supernatural abilities, and superiority over others. Everyone wanted to find them for themselves; no one wanted others to find them.”

“Inequality” was an age-old issue—no arrangement would satisfy everyone unless no one had anything, just like the tale of using two peaches to kill three warriors. With no peaches, there would be no contention. For absolute fairness and security, these treasured artifacts had to disappear.

Chi You’s faction knew there would be a large-scale inventory and boxing event. After much planning, they devised a scheme to steal a box.

“The inventory and boxing of treasured artifacts was kept secret from outsiders, but the internal execution wasn’t particularly strict. The swapping of items or borrowing of personnel happened occasionally. This enabled that chess piece to successfully gather all the desired items in one box without arousing any suspicion. Only when that box went missing did the Yellow Emperor’s faction realize there was a major traitor in their midst.”

When there’s a traitor, they must be eliminated. But after a thorough investigation, all signs pointed to a person named Peng Yi, who coincidentally was responsible for the stolen box.

Jiang Lian’s mind worked quickly. “A frame-up?”

Shen Gun made a sound of agreement. “That chess piece was extremely meticulous. He knew in advance that once the box was missing, there would certainly be an investigation. So he prepared a scapegoat beforehand, arranging it perfectly. This Peng Yi was essentially in a position where he couldn’t defend himself—a hopeless situation.”

“Naturally, Peng Yi wasn’t willing to die unjustly. He swore an oath, begging the Yellow Emperor to give him a chance. If given the opportunity, he would recover the box and personally expose the person who had framed him.”

Jiang Lian blurted out, “Did the Yellow Emperor agree?”

It was a real shame Qianzi wasn’t here; she loved listening to stories.

Jiang Lian glanced at his phone, strongly wanting to livestream for her or put the call on speakerphone, but unfortunately, the signal was poor. Before mobile carriers fully conquered the vast, unpopulated areas, such regrets would continue to repeat.

Shen Gun answered, “The Yellow Emperor truly had foresight. And as it happens, this Peng Yi was among the younger generation of the God Race—as we’ve discussed before, he would be among the last batch of the God Race to become extinct.”

“Peng Yi, snatched from the jaws of death, was overwhelmed with gratitude, willing to sacrifice anything in return. After some planning, they carried out four actions. First, they continued with the box-burning event. Second, they sent people to search for the missing box, maintaining the appearance of an investigation. Third, they announced that some dragon bones and phoenix plumes had been kept in reserve for future box-burning. Fourth, in public, they subjected Peng Yi to the punishment of disembowelment for being a ‘spy’ and ‘traitor.'”

“I had always wondered why Gun, who wasn’t particularly evil and had diligently tried to control the floods, not slacking or cheating but simply failing, deserved to be killed. Now I understand. When the Heavenly Emperor killed Gun, and Gun was reborn as Yu, such a killing only consumed one opportunity for self-reproduction. But punishment by disembowelment was different—it was for heinous crimes, a complete annihilation with no chance of rebirth.”

Jiang Lian pondered for a moment. “This was a fake execution, right?”

“Of course it was fake, but to make the act convincing, they used real force. That elongated ‘S’-shaped mark was the knife wound from the disembowelment back then. This act was performed for that chess piece to see, betting that he would believe his scheme had succeeded, lower his guard, and feel free to steal the dragon bones and phoenix plumes again.”

Jiang Lian felt his scalp tingling as if electrified. “And you had set an ambush, so when he came to steal again, he would be exposed?”

A string of events suddenly had explanations. Jiang Lian’s breathing became heavier. “So the several dreams you once had were indeed from Peng Yi’s perspective—Peng Yi counting boxes, seeing himself place the mountain gallbladder, discovering the box was stolen and giving chase, seeing the phoenix shadow, the fallen dragon, and the God Race people chanting dirges, also feeling himself being disemboweled. And after luring that chess piece to steal the phoenix plume, secretly following him to the cave where he met with his accomplice, hearing these two whispering?”

That’s right, Shen Gun tacitly acknowledged.

There were so many twists in between. No wonder Jiang Lian had always found it difficult to define “Shen Gun’s” stance and the role he played, even once considering him a traitor…

Wait, Jiang Lian suddenly recalled the mountain mirage he had accidentally witnessed when going out to relieve himself one night while camping in the mountains: the person meeting with the bull-headed figure must have been that chess piece. The bull-headed figure using an alien arm to encircle the chess piece’s neck was merely pulling him into the shadows to prevent others from seeing, not a kidnapping.

But…

“How did you end up with a face identical to that chess piece? Your ancestors had the surname Peng, and Peng Yi was your distant ancestor. Shouldn’t you look like Peng Yi?”

Shen Gun raised his hand to gesture for patience. “Little Lian Lian, have some patience. I haven’t finished yet.”

Alright, putting that section aside for now. Jiang Lian was eager to know what followed. “So what happened afterward? After discovering that chess pieces were conspiring in the cave, did you capture both of them red-handed?”

Shen Gun shook his head.

That made sense. They probably didn’t capture them. If they had, the phoenix plume would have been recovered rather than lost. Jiang Lian couldn’t understand. “Why didn’t you capture them?”

Shen Gun answered, “As I said before, actions require a global perspective. That person was just a chess piece; he couldn’t possibly know what kind of scheme the opponent was planning. And based solely on the missing items, the Yellow Emperor’s faction couldn’t guess thoroughly either. Killing one chess piece wouldn’t recover the box. But if that chess piece could be turned into our person and sent back, the significance and effect would be entirely different.”

Jiang Lian exhaled a long breath. “That must have been difficult. And could you trust him?”

Some things, once done, can be repeated. If he could betray Chi You today, he could betray you tomorrow. From a certain perspective, once a person betrays, they are never worthy of trust again.

Shen Gun also lamented, “Of course it was difficult. That’s why the person who was ultimately sent back wasn’t that chess piece.”

Jiang Lian had a sudden realization. “Peng Yi?”

It could only be him. This matter was so secretive that few would know about it. And as the saying goes, “A warrior dies for the one who knows him.” Peng Yi was about to die unjustly when the Yellow Emperor offered him a lifeline. If not assigned, he would likely have volunteered. Moreover, he had sworn to “recover the box.”

“Did Peng Yi… disguise himself?”

It seemed too dangerous when he thought about it. Being an undercover agent wasn’t a game, and what if he encountered an acquaintance and exposed himself…

Shen Gun gave him a look. After talking for so long, the old Shen Gun had somewhat returned. Honestly, Jiang Lian wasn’t accustomed to seeing Shen Gun with a mournful face, sighing constantly.

“Little Lian Lian, you underestimate the God Race too much. Their level of technological development, we still can’t match even now. Disguise… if it were merely a disguise, how could I, as a Peng descendant, look identical to that treacherous chess piece?”

Indeed. Jiang Lian guessed again. “Biological engineering? Genetic modification?”

Shen Gun reminded him, “Something like that. Do you remember I once mentioned that the box contained Nüwa’s clay dolls?”

He remembered. Shen Gun had once speculated that the clay dolls might be the God Race’s “robots.”

After death, humans turn to ash and dust; ash and dust are molded into humans again. Between humans and the earth, there indeed exists a subtle connection—plants grow vigorously from the soil; the earth accumulates forces that humans still struggle to understand. But perhaps the God Race had already grasped this understanding.

“I don’t know how to explain it. In today’s terms, all of that chess piece’s cognition was ‘downloaded’ into the clay doll, and Peng Yi was similarly transformed by the clay into the appearance of that chess piece. Because both had the same ‘material,’ they could interface, so he ‘read’ that chess piece’s cognition.”

Fortunately, the explanation wasn’t too convoluted. Jiang Lian understood about eighty to ninety percent: this way, when Peng Yi went undercover, he wouldn’t be exposed due to not recognizing that person’s childhood friends, first love, and so on.

He asked further, “Then what happened?”

Then, Peng Yi changed scenes. With a stranger’s face, he made his debut on Chi You’s side.