Chapter 311

Back in his room, Su Bei opened his phone and saw a message from Wu Mingbai.

[Wu Mingbai: I’m done over here. Want to come out for a late-night snack?]

[Wu Mingbai: [pokes you]]

[Wu Mingbai: You know that your sudden silence right now will make me overthink things, right?]

[Wu Mingbai: Wow, our busy man really isn’t in his room, is he? [smile]]

[Wu Mingbai: Reply to me before midnight, or don’t blame me for coming to find you in your room.]

The messages stopped there. Su Bei couldn’t help but sigh. He had actually guessed before this operation that Wu Mingbai would want to chat with everyone after the ceremony was over.

It couldn’t be helped. That’s how it was with the protagonist group’s good relationship; they had no secrets from each other. For something as conversation-worthy as this, unless the king strictly forbade him from telling his classmates, Wu Mingbai would definitely not keep it from them.

In fact, even if the king had strictly forbidden it, this late-night snack was likely inevitable. Having just met a magical creature, Wu Mingbai would surely be full of energy. Even if it was just to vent his emotions, he would definitely seek everyone out.

But even though he had anticipated it, Su Bei had no good excuse to not attend. Before Wu Mingbai even sent the invitation, anything Su Bei said would have sounded like he had a guilty conscience.

Honestly, though, Su Bei wasn’t worried even if he was discovered. It wasn’t their first day knowing each other. Hadn’t he disappeared mid-way through things plenty of times before? Su Bei didn’t believe they would make a huge fuss or think he was up to some conspiracy just because he vanished.

And from the current situation, things were even better than he had imagined. Wu Mingbai was very considerate, not even coming to his room to check, thus eliminating the possibility of him being discovered.

Although one of the clauses in the contract he had just signed with the guardian deity was that it could not reveal his visit, who knew if the royal family had installed some kind of device in the secret chamber to detect visitors? Once something went wrong with the guardian deity, the king would inevitably review everything that had happened there that day, and it was highly likely he would find out someone had been there.

Therefore, he couldn’t show any flaws, lest he be treated as one of the ‘thousand’ in the phrase ‘better to mistakenly kill a thousand than let one escape’. Although, in essence, he was indeed the ‘one’ that ‘could not be let go’.

The thing that satisfied Su Bei the most about King of Abilities was that there were no characters in the protagonist group who held everyone back. Even the most naive and innocent Mo Xiaotian wouldn’t be a burden when he wasn’t on a mission for the Black Flash Organization.

Just like at this moment, them not coming to his room to find him was the greatest help they could offer. In a good mood, Su Bei sent a perfunctory reply:

[Su Bei: I fell asleep just now, didn’t see the message.]

It was as if Wu Mingbai had been staring at his phone, as a reply came back quickly.

[Wu Mingbai: …]

[Wu Mingbai: Could you be any more perfunctory?]

[Wu Mingbai: Our late-night snack isn’t over yet. Are you coming? If so, turn left out of the castle, there’s a commercial street. You’ll see us as soon as you turn in.]

Su Bei thought for a moment. There didn’t seem to be much need to go now. But from Wu Mingbai’s tone, it seemed they still had things to talk about.

[Su Bei: What are you guys doing?]

[Wu Mingbai: Xiaoyu and Zhou Renjie are leaving early tomorrow morning. We’re taking the chance to finish that bet today. Everyone except you and Feng Lan has to share a secret they discovered in the castle.]

Seeing this message, Su Bei’s eyebrow twitched, and he immediately decided to go. The secrets discovered by the protagonist group were bound to be useful; it would be a waste not to go. Although their late-night snack conversation might be drawn in the comic, what if it wasn’t? It was better to go in person to be safe.

Arriving at the colorful commercial street, Su Bei indeed spotted Jiang Tianming and the others sitting outside eating grilled skewers at a glance. He walked over and sat down in an empty seat, casually asking, “Whose turn is it?”

“Mingbai and Xiao You just finished. Mingbai’s discovery was that there’s a staircase behind the banquet hall that leads to the guardian deity. Xiao You’s discovery is that the butler, Weise, and the second princess seem to be having a secret affair.” As she mentioned the latter discovery, Zhao Xiaoyu winked teasingly. It was clear that gossip interested her more than the guardian deity.

To be honest, the latter was more interesting to Su Bei as well. He looked at Ling You in amazement. “How did you find that out?”

“By chance,” Ling You replied curtly, then, as if feeling her answer was too cold, she added, “I saw them holding hands yesterday.”

That was indeed solid proof. Su Bei wore a look of wonder. Ai Baozhu wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Although Weise is indeed quite handsome, it’s not to the point of getting involved with a butler.”

For her, a rabbit doesn’t eat the grass near its own burrow; a butler was the type of person who was absolutely off-limits.

Qi Huang, however, had a different idea. “A princess of the Afei Nation can also become queen. Being with the butler would allow her to understand the king’s thoughts to the greatest extent. If it were me, and Weise made the first move, I might do the same. But whether or not to actually marry him into the family is another matter entirely.”

Although she was usually the generous and cheerful type, it didn’t mean Qi Huang wouldn’t use open schemes. As long as both parties didn’t mind and there was profit to be made, they could cooperate temporarily for mutual benefit.

“That’s true,” Ai Baozhu nodded in agreement, suddenly feeling that it wasn’t a problem anymore. Although she had no desire to be the head of a family, after Qi Huang’s explanation, she could completely understand the second princess’s thoughts.

“Wait, are you all ignoring something?” Su Bei couldn’t help but ask. “How old is the second princess?”

“I think… thirteen?” At this, Wu Mingbai’s expression also turned grim. He hadn’t even thought of that just now. The second princess was still a minor! Was Weise a pedophile?

Although they were all rationally aware that the two were likely together more for mutual benefit, it was one thing for the young and naive second princess to be foolish, but for Weise to do something like this for his own gain was enough to make one furious.

“What do you plan to do?” A fierce anger ignited in Qi Huang’s eyes. She didn’t even know why she hadn’t been angry just now, treating it merely as an interesting piece of gossip.

If Su Bei knew of her confusion, he could probably give her the answer. Of course, it was because they were in a comic book world.

Such a plot would definitely be condemned to death if it appeared in reality or a novel, but it was quite common in comics. Su Bei often saw similar plotlines. Therefore, while he was surprised when he learned of it, he wasn’t overly shocked.

And as comic book characters, Jiang Tianming and the others would naturally be assimilated by the comic, subconsciously ignoring the unreasonableness of this plot. But this was, after all, a world that had already developed its own complete set of laws. As long as someone raised the issue, they could naturally break through the confusion.

“I’ll tell my father when we’re about to leave,” Wu Mingbai decided after a moment of thought. They had likely been together for some time, so there was no need to rush to stop it.

If he told the king now, and the second princess found out they were the ones who snitched, who knew what kind of trouble she would cause for them. But telling him when they were about to leave would be fine. Even if she found out, what could she do? It’s not like she could attack them across national borders.

As long as he was going to tell him, that was enough. Qi Huang nodded and naturally continued, “Then I’ll go next. I discovered that the king has no intention of letting the first prince succeed the throne.”

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone showed expressions of surprise. Wu Mingbai’s eyes widened slightly. “Why? How do you know?”

“On the first day, everyone came to welcome you. The king, queen, second princess, and the twin brothers were dressed rather plainly.” Ai Baozhu twirled a strand of pink hair around her finger. “The first prince and the two youngest ones were dressed very lavishly. The king and queen had no issue with this.”

The king and queen were likely taking a pro-people approach. Among the three candidates who intended to become king, the two smarter ones chose to follow the king’s footsteps, presenting a pro-people image regardless of their true feelings. But the first prince had no such awareness, and the king and queen didn’t bother to correct him, which was enough to show they had no plans for him.

Everyone present was smart and immediately understood what she was trying to say. But Mu Tieren didn’t understand one thing. “How could you tell who was dressed more lavishly? Their clothes looked the same to me.”

He recalled for a moment, then added with certainty, “The number of gems on their clothes seemed to be about the same.”

Touching upon a field she was familiar with, Ai Baozhu answered confidently, “The number of gems is similar because that’s the required standard for the formal attire of princes and princesses. Whether it’s lavish or not depends on the quality of the gems, of course. Can sapphires and tanzanite be the same?”

Although he wasn’t sure what tanzanite was, Mu Tieren understood her meaning and gave her a thumbs-up to show his admiration.

Everyone else shared some secrets they had discovered, but none of them were particularly useful. It wasn’t until Jiang Tianming was about to speak that Su Bei finally snapped out of his daze.

Jiang Tianming stated his discovery, “I found that the guardian deity doesn’t save people unconditionally. After every major disaster, the Afei Nation holds a celebration for it.”

Si Zhaohua asked, confused, “Isn’t that normal?”

“It’s not normal,” Jiang Tianming pointed out calmly. “After a major disaster, the first priorities should be rescue operations and post-disaster reconstruction, not some celebration. An occasional one to boost morale is understandable, but for it to happen every time is clearly a problem.”

After hearing his words, Li Shu showed an interested expression and said pointedly, “It’s not the country’s need, so it seems it’s the guardian deity’s need. It needs a celebration… to proclaim its own achievements?”

“That should be it.” Recalling the haggling that occurred during the secret chamber ceremony earlier, Wu Mingbai nodded affirmatively.

Guessing the truth from his attitude, Li Shu expressed his feigned disappointment. “I thought it was a real god. Could it be that gods really don’t exist?”

Jiang Tianming glanced at him. “If gods really existed, you’d be the one who’s scared, wouldn’t you?”

“…”

After a long silence, Li Shu covered his face in a mock-shy manner. “Oh, stop it! Little Tianming really understands me!”

Jiang Tianming’s calm expression instantly cracked, and he looked like he was about to vomit.

Su Bei couldn’t care less about their bickering. He yawned and looked at Lan Subing. “Your turn. You’re the last one.”

Please, give me some useful information. I don’t want to have wasted my time coming out this late at night.

“I’m a little unsure if my discovery is correct,” Lan Subing said preemptively. “When I was talking to the butler, I used [Word Spirit] to make him tell me one suspicious thing that happened recently. He said he suspected an outsider had entered the castle. This should count as a secret, right?”

It certainly did. And it was not only useful to them but also useful information for Su Bei. Lan Subing truly was the luckiest person; the information she got was always the hardest to obtain.

He had originally thought he could hide in the castle. After all, even if the guardian deity really lost its mind, with the defensive capabilities of the royal castle, there shouldn’t be any major problems.

But now it seemed that a castle that could be infiltrated by outsiders was obviously not reliable. He had to find a safer place.

Given that the guardian deity’s abilities were inseparable from the earth, nowhere on the ground would be safe. That meant he should look to the sky. He didn’t have the ability to fly, so he could only rely on items.

The ‘Destiny’ organization had plenty of flight-type items; he could casually redeem any of them. But the problem was, judging from the fact that Jiang Tianming and the others could discover Nightmare Beasts from the academy, the Afei Nation was likely already teeming with them. Flying in the sky would just make him a target.

Su Bei raised his head and observed for a while, finally locking onto a target. The castle was indeed not safe, but wasn’t the most dangerous place also the safest place?

What Su Bei didn’t expect was that as soon as he returned to his room, the ‘Manga Consciousness’ suddenly spoke: “King of Abilities has been updated. Please check for details.”

The comic has been updated? Thinking about the events of the past two days, Su Bei felt it was reasonable. This was the perfect time for an update, it wouldn’t affect anything. He opened his phone and started reading the comic.

The comic started from the airport, and Wu Mingbai’s bet naturally served as a lighthearted opening, making the audience laugh.

The author of King of Abilities had a very regular plot structure: lighthearted in the beginning, then a tense pace later on. Therefore, after the start of each event, Su Bei also knew when he could relax and when he should be vigilant.

There wouldn’t be any crisis in the first half of this event, which was this entire chapter, but the author should have buried a lot of foreshadowing in it, and that was what Su Bei was looking for.

After a rough skim, aside from the plots Su Bei already knew, Mo Xiaotian’s plot was a major point of interest.

The comic first drew the scene where Mu Tieren saw Mo Xiaotian’s back. In the panel, the enlarged figure of Mo Xiaotian momentarily overlapped with the original Mo Xiaotian in Mu Tieren’s eyes. He froze for a moment, and when he tried to chase after him, he couldn’t find him.

As a character in the comic, Mu Tieren suspected he might have seen wrong, but the readers of the comic certainly wouldn’t. Mo Xiaotian’s long-awaited appearance sent the bullet comments flying.

“Wow! It’s Mo Xiaotian! It’s really been a long time!”

“When we meet again, we are strangers (sobs).”

“Mu Tieren’s expression looks a bit heartbreaking. The only honest person here…”

“What is Mo Xiaotian doing in the Afei Nation?”

“Why do they run into the Black Flash Organization on a mission even in a foreign country? Is this the bond between the protagonist and the villain?”

“Fast forward to the Black Flash Organization making their move!”

Next was the conversation between Su Bei and Mo Xiaotian, which was surprisingly also drawn. Seeing the two of them still able to speak so calmly, the readers were greatly shocked.

Su Bei reviewed this experience again and felt that Mo Xiaotian had indeed improved a lot. Just looking at his performance, one couldn’t tell at all that there were people from the Black Flash Organization following him. If Su Bei hadn’t assumed at the time that as the Saint, the Black Flash Organization wouldn’t let him walk alone, he probably wouldn’t have noticed anyone following him.

Honestly, if no one had been following Mo Xiaotian, he could have doubled the intensity of his questioning. For example, asking about the Black Flash Organization’s upcoming plans, the leader’s movements, the organization’s new research targets… Mo Xiaotian might know about these things, and there was a certain possibility he could have gotten it out of him.

But someone was following him, so he could only ask about this mission, to avoid revealing his ‘wolfish ambitions’. And even the information related to this mission couldn’t be probed too deeply, lest the other party jump out and interrupt him, which would be too awkward.

Later, his words to Qi Huang, “I saw a cute little dog,” were also drawn in the comic. Heaven knows, when Su Bei said it, he was just trying to find a casual excuse, but the readers completely misunderstood!

“Hahahahaha Su Bei, you said that about Xiao Tian, does Xiao Tian know?”

“Ahhhhh Xiao Tian is a little puppy!”

“That’s right, our Mo Xiaotian is a cute dog (nods).”

“The S-vibe is overflowing from the screen, Bro Bei!”

“I’m shipping this!!!”

“They thought Su Bei was being perfunctory, but Su Bei was actually telling the truth!”

Su Bei: “…”

When would he ever learn to turn off the bullet comments in time?

The last part of the plot related to Mo Xiaotian was at the end of this chapter. After their bet-related late-night snack party ended, the plot shifted to Mo Xiaotian. He was on the phone with the leader, reporting that their preparations were complete, and now they were just waiting for the Afei Nation to start the celebration for the guardian deity.

They’re going to cause trouble at the celebration? Su Bei showed a thoughtful expression. He was thinking about what on earth these people were planning. Could causing trouble at the celebration threaten Godean Zhuo? That was obviously impossible.

From the conversation between Godean Zhuo and the king of the Afei Nation, it was clear that the celebration was indeed of great use to it, but it wasn’t urgent. It was like a big meal when one was a little hungry; it was best to have it, but you wouldn’t starve to death without it.

The information Lan Subing got was that someone had infiltrated the castle. Su Bei believed this person was definitely from the Black Flash Organization. The Black Flash Organization’s target this time was Godean Zhuo, and their infiltration of the castle meant that one of their methods was to directly target Godean Zhuo itself.

The celebration represented the reputation that the guardian deity needed to maintain its power and sanity. And at this time, they were targeting it directly, with the ultimate goal of making Godean Zhuo turn against humanity.

Combining the experience he had accumulated from reading numerous comics, Su Bei thought he had guessed what the Black Flash Organization was planning to do.

What Su Bei didn’t expect was that the plot where the twin brothers gave him trouble also appeared in the comic. In the first part, the readers were screaming about how cool he was, but as soon as he mentioned the deal, the readers immediately started to speculate.

“So cool, Su Bei!!! That kick on the door was seriously cool!”

“He’s like a school bully. Su Bei, you weren’t a school bully at your old school, were you?”

“Wait wait, what’s this deal?”

“Telling them to cover it up even if they discover something unusual tomorrow? Is this some kind of hint?”

“”

“Where did this contract come from?”

“Su Bei, you’re not collaborating with the Black Flash Organization again, are you?”

“Is it such a coincidence? Why do I feel like Su Bei planned for the twins to find trouble with him!”

As soon as he saw this scene appear in the comic, Su Bei knew the readers would definitely misunderstand. But seeing the bullet comments filled with conspiracy theories about him still gave Su Bei a headache.

Although a small part of their guesses was true, it was only a small part. ‘Collaborating with the Black Flash Organization’ and ‘arranging for the twins to confront him’ were complete fabrications, okay!

In the subsequent family recognition banquet plot, the author buried some foreshadowing related to the Black Flash Organization. Su Bei knew that these unusual things were the work of the Black Flash Organization, but the readers didn’t. They firmly believed that this was the ‘unusual situation’ mentioned in Su Bei’s earlier contract and were thus convinced that he was behind it.

In reality, the only flaw he had revealed was the slight noise he made when entering the secret chamber; the rest had nothing to do with him.

But he couldn’t explain it. He couldn’t use the Oracle account to clarify such a small matter for himself. What else could Su Bei do? He could only smile in response.

:)

After reading all the content related to himself in this chapter, he opened the forum as usual and scanned through it. One of the ‘hot’ posts was a conspiracy theory about him. The moment he saw it, Su Bei’s heart clenched. Not wanting to get angry for now, he clicked on another post related to himself.

<Su Bei, You’re Killing Me. No Conflict with Mo Xiaotian at All>

[AnyoneNo.0: Long before Mo Xiaotian’s betrayal, I had wondered what the scene would be like when he appeared before everyone again. I originally thought that no matter who he met, it would be a tense confrontation. Even if not a confrontation, there would at least be complicated feelings.

But he had to run into Su Bei. There was truly no conflict at all, so peaceful it was as if Mo Xiaotian had never betrayed them.

I’m really curious, is the reason Su Bei is so calm because he also has an organization and can empathize with Mo Xiaotian?]

[No.1: Hahahahaha, it’s really so harmonious.]

[No.2: Su Bei’s style is always different from the rest.]

[No.3: I thought Su Bei would be sarcastic, but there was none of that. Their interaction was even a bit warm, it’s like seeing a ghost.]

[No.4 replied to No.3: The vibe between them is purely that of friends reuniting after a long time, no betrayal, no conspiracy.]

[No.5 replied to No.4: But actually, Mo Xiaotian’s appearance here already means the Black Flash Organization is up to something. Both conspiracy and betrayal truly exist.]

[…]