139: Chapter 139: Individual vs. Mode Choice

In the pavilion behind Hengchuan Peak, the night wind curled a few withered leaves, spinning them on the stone table.

Shen Xingzhou did not light a lamp; he only tapped his fingertips lightly against the tabletop, and a ghostly blue holographic panel spread out in the darkness.

It was the [Merger Negotiation Panel] just unlocked by the V2.0 System, and every piece of data listed on it felt like a piece of poisoned bait.

Peak Master Luo Qingyi sat opposite him, still holding that jade pot filled with who knows how many years of aged wine.

She didn't drink, just narrowed her eyes, her gaze drifting over the interlaced red and green entries.

"Merger Index: Extremely High. Debt Risk: Out of Control. Talent Structure: Collapsed."

Peak Master Luo Qingyi read these words aloud, her voice devoid of joy or anger, yet it sounded like she was reciting a death sentence.

She extended a slender finger and tapped on the red bar chart representing "Luopo Peak."

"Is this what you want to do?" She raised her eyes, looking at Shen Xingzhou. "Dismantle these rotten bones one by one to patch the holes in your Hengchuan Peak."

"It is not what I want to do; it is what the System calculated as the optimal solution," Shen Xingzhou answered calmly, trying to use a rational tone to cover up the scent of blood. "Resources do not appear out of thin air; they can only flow from low efficiency to high efficiency. This is common sense."

"Common sense?" Peak Master Luo Qingyi sneered. "The biggest common sense in the Immortal Realm is—a life for a life, pay your debts. If you touch someone else's cheese, they will take your life. Do you know what the 'Merger Index' written here implies?"

Her finger pressed down sharply, as if she wanted to pierce through that bar chart.

"It means that once you push this plan out, the Elders of at least three peaks in the entire sect will treat you as a thorn in their side. You will no longer be that 'lucky Demon Race Junior Nephew'; you will be the 'robber' who is smashing their rice bowls."

Shen Xingzhou fell silent. Of course he knew.

Peak Master Luo Qingyi withdrew her hand, playing with the jade pot, her tone suddenly softening, even carrying a hint of inducement.

"Xingzhou, you are a smart person. Smart people know how to leave themselves a way out."

She leaned forward, staring into Shen Xingzhou's eyes, and said word by word, "You have absolutely no need to roast yourself over a fire. This model, this algorithm, this logic of mergers—you can sell it."

"How?" Shen Xingzhou asked.

"Be a consultant," Peak Master Luo Qingyi said nonchalantly. "You write the plan, hand the model to Sect Leader Ning Chenzhou, or to any Elder who wants to seize power. Let them sign it, let them publish it, let them be the villain. You just be the 'strategist' behind the scenes."

"You can take a generous consulting fee, you can enjoy the dividends brought by the reform, and you can even gain a higher status for 'meritorious service in offering advice.' But all the infamy, all the assassinations, all the Karma, will be borne by the person who signs it."

Peak Master Luo Qingyi looked at him, her eyes revealing the clarity of someone who had been through it all. "The plan comes from you, but the signature is not yours. Even if something goes wrong, the lightning won't strike your head. What a perfect calculation?"

Shen Xingzhou looked at her, his eyes somewhat dazed.

This was indeed a perfect escape plan. As long as he took half a step back, changing from an 'executor' to a 'consultant,' he would go from the center of the storm to an observer on the edge. He could live safely, watching those big shots use his tools to slaughter each other.

Just then, the System interface flickered slightly before his eyes; it was the prompt automatically triggered by the [Fork in the Road Simulation].

[Host faces a major choice: Individual Survival vs. Model Purity]

The System is performing a holographic deduction...

The screen split into two.

On the left is "Route One: Behind-the-Scenes Consultant."

Survival rate estimate: 70%

You will stay away from the front line, avoiding becoming a target for direct conflict.

You will obtain generous resources, cultivate peacefully, and even have the hope of Core Formation or Nascent Soul.

Risk: Probability of the model being tampered with: High.

Deduction result: Without your monitoring, those in power will soon discover that the clauses in the SOP regarding "Disciple safety" are too wasteful of Spirit Stones. They will delete the "life-saving mechanism" and retain the "exploitation mechanism." Your reform will eventually turn into a more efficient "man-eating tool." Your name will be engraved on the merit roll, but it will also be reviled by the exploited Disciples.

On the right is "Route Two: Signatory Responsible Person."

Survival rate estimate: 30%

You will stand in the center of the stage, and all open and hidden arrows will be aimed at you.

You will highly likely die in the internal strife of the Elders, or die due to the exposure of your Demon Race identity.

Advantage: Probability of the model being distorted: Low.

Deduction result: As long as you hold the pen, as long as you are still in that position, you can hold firmly onto the "battle casualty rate" and "survival rate" without letting go. You can use your veto power to force them to execute those seemingly unreasonable life-saving clauses. This model will still maintain its original intention—to let the bottom-level Cultivators survive.

At the very bottom of the two routes, the System wrote in an almost cold, neutral tone:

"You can just be a smart bystander and preserve your own life; or you can be a madman who is factored into the calculation, being buried along with certain things."

Shen Xingzhou looked at those two numbers: 70% and 30%.

This was the most straightforward trade in the Immortal Realm. To live with double the probability, one only needed to sell a little bit of control. For a shrewd worker, this was simply a freebie question.

But he thought of the Material Department that kept its lights on all night on the eve of The Grand Exam.

He thought of the look in the eyes of the Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters when they looked at him, the way they entrusted their lives to him.

If I don't sign...

Shen Xingzhou recited silently in his heart, "If I don't sign, once this model reaches Sect Leader Ning Chenzhou or Law Enforcement Elder Lu Guhuai, will they care about that 12% battle casualty line?"

The System seemed to hear his inner thoughts; the interface flickered, bringing up several comparative records of historical data.

[Historical Archive Review]

Event A: Mountain Protection Formation Maintenance Plan.

High-level draft: Low cost, but 10% failure rate; once something happens, the outer servants suffer heavy casualties.

Your modification: Forcibly increased maintenance costs by 30%, reducing the failure rate to 0.01%.

Result: You used a System loophole to forcibly pass the approval, saving the lives of a hundred servants.

Event B: Resource Quota Allocation.

Traditional rules: Allocated by cultivation level; the strong always remain strong.

Your modification: Introduced "Contribution Points," tilting towards the bottom level, ensuring a minimum living standard.

Result: Angered the elite Disciples, but the departure rate of Outer Sect Disciples dropped by 40%.

On the screen, behind every modification record, was marked an eye-catching [Responsible Person: Shen Xingzhou].

"If I act as a consultant..." Shen Xingzhou's voice was very soft, yet exceptionally firm. "I make suggestions, they make decisions. When they see 'maintenance costs increased by 30%,' they will throw my suggestion directly into the wastebasket."

Peak Master Luo Qingyi looked at him, the jade pot in her hand frozen in mid-air.

"A consultant only provides the 'optimal solution,' not the 'conscientious solution.'" Shen Xingzhou raised his head, his eyes flashing with a light that was almost fanatical. "What I want is for the people of Hengchuan Peak to survive, for those Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters who are treated as expendable materials to survive. If I don't sign, no one else will calculate this account the way I do."

He reached out and lightly swiped on the red entry representing "30% survival rate."

"I choose this path."

Peak Master Luo Qingyi looked at him, her eyes complex to the extreme. There was pity, there was mockery, but more of it was a kind of... admiration that even she herself was unwilling to admit.

"Fool," she cursed softly, tilting her head back to take a gulp of wine, the spicy liquid flowing down the corner of her mouth. "To preserve that set of accounting rules, you don't hesitate to calculate yourself as a dead number."

She stood up, straightened her clothes, and looked down at Shen Xingzhou from above.

"Xingzhou, since you have chosen this path, I will give you one last reminder."

Peak Master Luo Qingyi's voice turned cold, like ice shards in the night wind.

"When you choose to be the one who signs, when you erase the attribute of 'individual' and completely merge into the 'model,' you are no longer a person."

She pointed at Shen Xingzhou's chest.

"In the eyes of those big shots, on that cold, icy report, the column you can write yourself into will never be 'person.'"

"You might think you are a 'savior,' a 'reformer.'" Peak Master Luo Qingyi sneered. "But in the eyes of those who truly hold power, you are nothing but a useful chess piece. If you win, you are 'meritorious asset'; if you lose, you are 'discarded expendable material.'"

"You need to think clearly—"

She turned and left, leaving only a sentence drifting in the night wind:

"In the column where they factor you in, what is written—is it 'asset,' or 'expendable material'?"

Shen Xingzhou sat alone in the pavilion, watching Peak Master Luo Qingyi's figure disappear into the darkness. He did not answer, just silently brought up the "Hostile Merger Proposal," and moved the cursor to the [Applicant Signature] column at the very bottom.

It was empty, waiting to be filled with blood.

On the bottom bar of the System interface, a line of faint blue small characters slowly emerged, carrying a sigh of fate:

"You have always been accustomed to treating others as resources, precisely calculating their input-output ratio. But this time, in order for this calculation logic to truly protect the people you want to protect, you must treat yourself as an asset that will incur losses, and write yourself in without hesitation."