403: Chapter 406 One of Our Own!

"What? Played for a fool?"

Pu Shirong was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, nearly jumping up.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

In this small patch of land that was Liuyun Immortal City, who didn't know the prestige of his Pu Family? It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them the local tyrants here.

And he, Pu Shirong, as the eldest son of the Pu Family's direct line, had been raised in luxury since childhood, surrounded by people like stars around the moon. Wherever he went, wasn't he preceded and followed by crowds, flattered and fawned upon?

Who had the audacity to play the Young Master of the Pu Family for a fool? Did they have a death wish!

"Steward Zhuge, you really know how to joke."

Although Pu Shirong said this, there was a quite sarcastic and mocking tone in his words.

Clearly, he didn't believe Zhuge Mingyuan's words at all.

However, Zhuge Mingyuan's next words made him freeze instantly, as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head.

"Then let me ask you, Young Master Pu." Zhuge Mingyuan slowly withdrew his gaze from the distance, his eyes falling directly on Pu Shirong, his voice low.

"Do you still remember what exactly that person who told you Fairy Nianyao's whereabouts at the entrance of Lanyue Pavilion looked like?"

"Of course I remember! That person, he..."

Pu Shirong opened his mouth to answer without thinking, but the words suddenly got stuck in his throat.

Right... what did that person look like?

Was it a man or a woman? Tall or short, fat or thin? What were their facial features like? How were they dressed?

At this moment, he couldn't remember a single thing!

But they had clearly just met and spoken!

Yet no matter how hard he tried to recall now, the image of that person in his mind seemed to dissipate like weathering stone, leaving only a vague, blurry feeling.

But the specific details, no matter how he thought about it, seemed to be separated by a thick fog, impossible to grasp!

"I... I..."

Pu Shirong opened his mouth, his face gradually turning pale, and fine beads of cold sweat began to seep from his forehead.

He wasn't an ignorant Mortal; he immediately realized this was by no means an ordinary occurrence.

This feeling of having clearly experienced something, yet having the memory silently and tracelessly erased, gave him a sudden chill of inexplicable dread and fear.

Zhuge Mingyuan looked at his despondent appearance and sighed slightly in his heart.

However, deep in his eyes, a trace of shock and suspicion flashed that even he himself hadn't noticed.

Because not only did Pu Shirong not remember, but even for a Cultivator like himself, who was proficient in the Heavenly Secret Arts, his impression of that person was fading at an alarming rate!

Just before chasing after them, he had carefully observed the person and could clearly recall their appearance, even some details of their movements and expressions.

But now, those memories were gradually fading, leaving only a rough silhouette, and even this silhouette was continuing to dim!

Others might not understand this bizarre phenomenon, but as a Cultivator of the Tianji Zhuge Family, how could he not know its nature?

This was clearly interference and isolation at the level of Karma!

The other party must have used some extremely sophisticated Karma secret technique to directly sever the karmic connections between themselves and everything around them!

Precisely because this fragment of Karma had been formatted, the corresponding memory naturally became like water without a source, losing its Foundation for existence.

Thus, the memory began to dissipate rapidly, and was even being "rationalized" into oblivion by everyone.

This was by no means a common illusion or mental interference, but a profound method that pointed directly to the Origin of Karma!

What shocked Zhuge Mingyuan even more was that this method, this subtle control and application of the power of Karma, looked more and more like the style of his Zhuge Family.

Although he was only a member of a Branch lineage of the Tianji Zhuge Family and was limited by his talent, never having obtained the core true inheritance of the Heavenly Mandate Compilation and Fortune Diagram Record...

But at the very least, he was a man of the world, and in his youth, he had been fortunate enough to witness the Elders of the Main lineage perform similar methods.

It was exactly the same as this phenomenon of "Karma vanishing, memory collapsing"!

But this was only a guess after all; Zhuge Mingyuan wasn't certain, nor could he grasp the person's true background.

Firstly, his own cultivation was shallow; with his meager attainment in the Heavenly Secret Art, he couldn't calculate any results at all.

Secondly, he didn't dare to calculate!

What if that person really was some great lord from his own Main lineage?

Perhaps they were carrying some secret Family order, secretly executing an important mission in Liuyun Immortal City, or carrying out some unknown arrangement?

If he were to rashly calculate and disturb the other party's arrangements, or pry into secrets he shouldn't know, that would be a major taboo.

The consequences of that were spine-chilling to even think about.

Thinking of this, Zhuge Mingyuan quickly suppressed all his inquisitive thoughts and decided to act as if he had discovered nothing and knew nothing.

He even took the initiative to speak, drawing Pu Shirong's attention away from this matter.

"Young Master Pu!" Zhuge Mingyuan's expression returned to calm, his tone becoming a bit more solemn.

"I believe the priority now is to handle the official business of our trip. Why waste too much effort on minor romantic affairs?"

"Ah, right, right, right! Official business, official business is more important!"

Reminded by him, Pu Shirong seemed to wake up instantly. He slapped his forehead, a look of realization appearing on his face.

Strange to say, his previous anger from being played for a fool also faded rapidly, just like those blurry memories.

Instead, he focused his attention on the "official business" Zhuge Mingyuan mentioned.

Pu Shirong didn't even notice this subtle change in his mindset; everything happened perfectly naturally.

Zhuge Mingyuan took in Pu Shirong's reaction, and his guess about that person's identity became even more certain.

This method of subtly and silently changing another person's memory could only be done with his Family's core Legacy!

That person was indeed one of their own!

Seeing that Pu Shirong was no longer fixated on the matter at Lanyue Pavilion, Zhuge Mingyuan also spoke directly about the official business.

"Young Master Pu, regarding the clues about the upper volume of the Myriad Treasures Mara Dharma Image of the Miluo Heavens that your Family commissioned me to investigate, I had already captured a trace of karmic connection a few days ago through the Heavenly Secret Art, right in the surrounding area of Liuyun Immortal City. However, just a moment ago, that Karmic thread suddenly snapped."

"What do you mean by snapped?" Pu Shirong's brow immediately furrowed. This Divine Ability was a major matter for the Family, and he didn't dare to be careless.

Zhuge Mingyuan pondered for a moment before saying.

"The sudden interruption of a Karmic thread usually means one of two possibilities."

"One is that the person holding the Cultivation Technique has met their Life and Death end, and their entire Karma has naturally dissipated."

"The second is that the other party used some extremely sophisticated secret treasure or Formation to shroud the heavenly secrets, completely isolating the calculation."

"But based on my estimation, the first possibility is the most likely. That Karma snapped far too abruptly."

"Dead?"

Hearing Zhuge Mingyuan's prediction, Pu Shirong's heart skipped a beat.

Wasn't it said that the person who snatched the upper volume back then wasn't weak? They seemed to be a Loose Cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Perfection stage, quite difficult to deal with. How could they have died so suddenly?"