Facing an Ancient God for a Year

Chapter 2743: Chapter 2738: Except for "Fu Qian

"I don’t know."

"Never heard of it."

Worthy of being a live honesty exchange; under normal circumstances it’s hard to imagine South’s Tyler and North’s Jiangen admitting in front of each other, this bluntly, that their knowledge is lacking.

Of course, the term "Jade Soul Master" is indeed a bit obscure; you could say the question setter picked something a little off the beaten path.

But as the one setting the question, Fu Qian still had zero complaints about this outcome, and chose to believe in his volunteers.

Who says you can’t get results just because you don’t know the answer?

"You admitted it pretty fast this time. You really never heard of it?"

Reality proved that putting faith in the young once again paid off.

Facing Jiang En, who’d admitted his ignorance one beat slower than him, Tyler still seemed to feel he’d admitted too quickly, and actually followed up with a challenge.

"Are you implying I actually know, and I’m just pretending not to?"

Jiang En immediately caught what his nemesis meant and gave a string of cold laughs.

"I’m making it explicit. And you’ve already supplied one piece of false intel earlier."

Tyler’s logical thinking was still online; he even directly deduced the other party’s motive.

"If you’ll call a fake one real, then I have every reason to believe you’ll call a real one fake, just to cover for yourself."

...

"Sounds pretty reasonable."

They really were young; once their tempers flared, they flared fast.

With Tyler’s rapid-fire output, the atmosphere could be called efficiently heated.

Jiang En, under attack, lasted only two seconds before he couldn’t resist joining the fray.

"Since it’s so reasonable, shouldn’t you hurry up and try again? Maybe you’ll get a result different from that previous name."

The latter half was of course dripping with mockery, but like Tyler said, all’s fair in war.

Using that tone on purpose might be precisely to provoke a rebellious reaction and make the other side refuse to test.

"So in your eyes I’ve always been an idiot? Heh... a couple of casual jabs and I’d dive in headfirst?"

Yet reality proved Brother Tyler was on a third layer here; facing his nemesis’s suggestion, he actually gave a weird little chuckle too.

"Didn’t you say you’re cursed by this name? Shouldn’t you be the one in a hurry to figure out whether the title ’Jade Soul Master’ is accurate or not right now?"

Exactly—this is what having a rival does for you. Brother Tyler at this point should no longer be the type to drag a corpse home from outside a bar.

Fu Qian, sitting back and watching the clouds roll by, could be said to have half his interest invested in guessing which of the two would end up going to test.

And it had to be said, Brother Tyler’s performance was downright impressive, fully showcasing his personal growth.

On one hand he suspected the other of using "lure in order to capture"; on the other hand he suspected the other of faking that same tactic—and he even found a breakpoint in this unsolvable pattern.

He claims he has nothing to do with the Abandonment King and is even cursed by Him?

Then right now it seems you should be more eager to confirm whether that’s true, right?

Very sharp logic, even if still a bit rough overall.

But considering the two had clearly fallen into a flow state, wholly focused on winning their duel...

To the point that neither of them had even cared to ask who exactly kept feeding them answers—this line of thinking was bizarrely reasonable.

"Makes sense..."

And Brother Tyler’s dazzling performance seemed to have even suppressed his opponent.

After a brief hesitation, Jiang En actually had no choice but to agree with this line of thought.

"Why not do it? I’ve never heard it before, but this title really does look more likely to be the truth...

"So it looks like the target I picked for testing is comparatively more likely to be right?"

At the same time, he refused to be outdone and instantly found a winning angle.

...

Your attempt has already failed, while mine looks more likely to succeed.

Never mind why we picked what we picked at the start—whichever way you look at it, my eye is better.

With both sides locked in a contest, they were naturally hypersensitive to certain things. Before Jiang En had finished speaking, Tyler’s Momentum faltered, and he stared as his opponent’s figure vanished.

Of course, that was just Fu Qian putting on a little show.

He hadn’t said a word, but at just the right time he cut in, replaying Tyler’s earlier experience and first crushing the fragile link between Jiang En and him.

A control group has to be an actual control; aligning basic conditions is the most basic requirement.

And this time, the control group’s result finally seemed to be different—

Less than ten seconds after erasing that connection, within the rolling red mist an unusual silhouette again surged out.

...

So "Fu Qian" doesn’t work, but Jade Soul Master does?

For Fu Qian, he didn’t even have to make much effort to tell that was still Jiang En.

So much so that while casually directing the Crimson Angel to crawl over, he also arrived at a startling conclusion.

Jiang En was clearly the type even less willing to give up than Tyler.

So there’s every reason to believe that, for this call, he really did use the name "Jade Soul Master."

As for feinting and not taking the risk at all, and instead using the Abandonment King to call in again, then pretending he’d been right all along?

Honestly, in his normal state, it’s not impossible Jiang En would really pull that.

But aside from his current special Spirit state, the reason Tyler’s words just now were persuasive was precisely because it was an open scheme—Jiang En really is cursed, and really does need verification.

Matters of pride are important, but not more important than his own safety.

In short, Fu Qian could basically confirm, even without the volunteer speaking, that they’d gotten a somewhat sinister result.

Even Jade Soul Master works, but Fu Qian’s actual body doesn’t?

Theoretically, this honorific’s connection to the Abandonment King should require Fu Qian as an intermediary, right?

Extend that further to the Abandoned Prison and it’s another step removed.

Yet the Abandoned Prison responded so crisply... Is Ranking really that big an influence? Or are there other factors at play?

"Looks like I really did win."

While Fu Qian was over here sighing, Jiang En—having regained his ability to communicate—announced this at the first possible moment.

"Jade Soul Master... I’m really curious whether the Night Watchman knows this title."

The very next second, though, he casually pivoted to business, acting like he didn’t care about this contest of egos at all.

"It’s actually real—how is that possible!"

There was no way Tyler would take it lying down; he immediately echoed Jiang En’s earlier exclamation.

"I’ve absolutely never heard this name, and no matter how you listen to it, it doesn’t sound like a true name... We must’ve been tricked."

Talk about love-hate. Faced with this test result, he’d rather suspect the informer from earlier had ulterior motives than suspect his nemesis had faked the summoning.

"You’re not wrong. Sorry, I remembered wrong again. His real name should be Ramon."

With the situation deadlocked, Fu Qian naturally had to step up, immediately picking up the thread and tossing out another name.