Not a Single Word of Deception

Lin Shao pushed the door open and the first thing he saw was an extremely beautiful young girl.

She wore white clothes and sat on the floor amidst the sunlight, looking like an ethereal immortal.

Her long black hair fell naturally, her features were exquisite, and there was a faint golden light circling her irises, adding a touch of fantasy to her look.

With a graceful curve to her neck and a moving figure, she was a true beauty in the making.

In a few years when she fully blossomed, she would surely be the most dazzling pearl in the capital.

Fortunately, Lin Shao had Mu Li at home, whose beauty did not lose to this girl, so he had built up a resistance to beauty over time.

He would not end up speechless or unable to walk just because he encountered someone of this world-class level.

He naturally approached the long table and sat on the floor.

Seeing the three bamboo slips neatly placed on the table, he smiled.

“You have a keen eye for quality, young lady, and are willing to spend money to buy the Immortal Venerable’s poetry collection. I am very grateful.”

“The value of the Immortal Venerable’s poetry is known to the whole world. Even if I did not buy it, someone else naturally would have.”

Di Yao carefully sized up Lin Shao. Seeing his clear features, polite behavior, and natural, generous manner of speaking, her first impression was quite favorable.

“I will not waste too much of your time, Young Master. The reason I invited you here today is to ask about a certain matter.”

‘Sister, you are being so direct that it makes it hard for me to do a sales pitch,’ Lin Shao muttered in his heart.

On the surface, he smiled. “Please, feel free to ask.”

Di Yao asked softly, “Has the Young Master ever heard of the [System]?”

Sy… If his acting skills weren’t so good, Lin Shao might have had a change of expression on the spot.

Even though he tried his best to suppress it, the corners of his eyes couldn’t help but twitch twice.

It wasn’t exactly like being struck by lightning with a blank mind.

Since experiencing the auction of the three poems for over a hundred million silver taels and hearing that practitioners attained enlightenment from [Bring in the Wine]—especially after confirming that the Yuanshi Immortal Venerable was a transmigrator senior—it felt like he could accept whatever happened next.

What was wrong with mentioning a system? Perhaps the Immortal Venerable had a habit of keeping a diary and mentioned it a few times.

As a result, the diary was later discovered, allowing some of the world to learn of the System’s existence.

‘Who among decent people keeps a diary!’

After a few silent complaints, Lin Shao regained his composure.

He kept his original intention firmly in mind, which was to squeeze a bit more profit from this big fat sheep.

Just now, because the girl went straight to the point, it was a bit troublesome to make a pitch. He didn’t expect her question to actually be about the System.

He was familiar with the System, even more familiar than those poems.

Since it was hard to make money selling poems, he might as well change his strategy and use the System to make some money instead.

Thinking of this, Lin Shao nodded to Di Yao. “I know of it.”

Di Yao did not expect Lin Shao to answer so decisively. She was stunned for a moment, but quickly reacted with joy that was plain to see.

Her body unconsciously leaned forward as she followed up. “How much do you know?”

Lin Shao maintained a smile. “How much can you give?”

At first glance, this sentence seemed like a non-sequitur, but Di Yao quickly realized that Lin Shao was asking what she could offer.

There were no pies falling from the sky; information had to be exchanged for sufficient value. As an Empress, she naturally understood this principle.

However, Lin Shao’s way of asking surprised her.

[How much can you give?] This sentence always felt like it had another layer of meaning: as long as you give enough, I can answer everything you want to know.

It was a very arrogant way of asking!

Di Yao’s interest was piqued. For the first time in many years since becoming the Empress, she was this interested.

She widened her eyes, and the faint golden light in her irises became clear.

It was a ring surrounding the pupil, composed of countless tiny incantations connected end to end.

This was an ocular technique taught only to her by her Master, refined from endless majesty and capable of seeing through all things in the world: the Emperor’s Pupil.

As the Emperor’s Pupil unfolded, the scene before her eyes changed abruptly.

Mists of white, yellow, and red rose from everything she saw, blending and overlapping with the physical forms.

These colorful gases were the essence of objects. Di Yao could judge the state of an object through the distribution and flow speed of these gases.

For instance, the object beneath her was mainly composed of almost static white mist.

Stasis represented dead matter, and white symbolized form. Combined with the shape, it was easy to judge it as a table.

Looking deeper, the white mist was distributed in layers, and each layer was wavy. This was a characteristic of Spiritual Fir wood, and the layers were tight, meaning it had been in use for less than a year.

This was only one part of it. There were many more details reflecting other conditions of the object.

When used on people, Di Yao could see a person’s true gender, age, strength, cultivation techniques, previous injuries, and so on through the mist.

She turned her gaze toward Lin Shao and then froze.

Lin Shao did not know that Di Yao was currently using an ocular technique.

From his perspective, after this girl heard his line [How much can you give?], her eyes widened, and the faint golden ring in the center of her eyes tightened, turning into a clear golden halo.

‘Is this a characteristic of her family?’ Lin Shao thought.

The Great Thousand World was full of wonders. There were humans, ghosts, immortals, and demons.

It wasn’t strange if a certain family member’s trait was a golden ring in their eyes that contracted when they were serious.

This instinctive contraction of the faint golden light was like a cat’s pupils shrinking when seeing light or a rabbit’s ears standing up when hearing a sound.

The girl reminded Lin Shao of those alert small animals, which was quite cute.

He unconsciously revealed a smile.

Di Yao could not understand the image she was seeing.

Among everything that existed in the form of mist under the Emperor’s Pupil, Lin Shao showed no change at all.

He remained exactly as he looked under normal circumstances.

Her ocular technique was not working!

Since mastering the Emperor’s Pupil, even when facing her Second Senior Sister whose strength was a level higher than hers, it could at least show some effect.

An instance where it didn’t work at all, being completely ineffective, had only occurred with her Master.

‘Could this person be on par with Master?’

Just as Di Yao refused to believe it and was prepared to increase her efforts, she saw Lin Shao suddenly smile.

The timing of this smile was particularly special.

Just as she was mobilizing her true qi to enhance the effect of the Emperor’s Pupil, this smile seemed to send her a signal.

[Do not try, it is useless.]

‘Has he already seen through my actions entirely!’

Di Yao’s palms were sweating slightly. She closed her eyes, letting the Emperor’s Pupil dissipate.

She spoke. “I do not know if the information you provide is true or false.”

This was a stalling tactic. She did not expect Lin Shao to prove himself; she just wanted to catch her breath while he explained.

She wanted to adjust her emotions and regain control of the conversation.

Hearing Di Yao say this, Lin Shao maintained his smile and spoke in a very calm tone.

“The System concerns a major secret of the Yuanshi Immortal Venerable.”

Di Yao snapped her eyes open, and her state of mind, which she had managed to stabilize with great difficulty, instantly became turbulent again.

Seeing Di Yao’s excited appearance, Lin Shao felt a bit proud.

He believed he had grasped the girl’s greatest weakness: when talking about topics related to the Yuanshi Immortal Venerable, she would become blind and no longer as calm as usual.

A typical fanatic fan. It was an excellent angle to strike from.

Having used one sentence to catch Di Yao’s attention, Lin Shao knew he needed to say something more to raise his status in the girl’s heart.

Only then would she believe every word he said and obediently hand the money over to him.

“Haha, actually, the Yuanshi Immortal Venerable and I can be considered to have quite a history.”

He spoke as casually as if they were chatting about family matters.

“Or rather, the biggest difference between him and me is that he had a System, while I do not.”

The amount of information in this sentence was too massive, and Di Yao’s breathing became rapid in an instant.