Absolute Choice

Shi Xiaobai considered his words for a moment before he said, “Before answering your questions, This King must first make it clear. From This King’s standpoint, This King is a real existence and a trial-taker from the human world. As for you, you are only an existence created by the assessment program. Furthermore, you are modeled after a great three-thousand-year-old historical figure in human history. You have to accept this premise or whatever explanation This King gives will sound like a lie to you. This King will guarantee that everything he says next is the truth. How about it? Are you able to accept this premise?”

Dawn fell into silence when she heard this. Her eyes flickered for a moment before she said with a sigh, “The premise you are talking about is completely opposite from my understanding. From my standpoint, I am a trial-taker from the human world, and you are a plot character that is refreshed every month in the seventh level of the Nine Revolutions Transcendental Tower. From a rational point of view, I am unable to accept that premise. However, I have to answer the questions in my heart. So, go ahead. Even if I’ll be deceived by your lies once again, I will listen to your response.”

A smile suffused across Shi Xiaobai’s lips as he said, “Very well. This King will tell you the boring answer behind the riddle. In fact, the Lucifer’s Sword that This King took out was not an imitation but the real Lucifer’s Sword. The great figure from three thousand years ago has already died. This Lucifer’s Sword was left in the human world and This King managed to luckily be its new master. When This King signed a pact with Lucifer’s Sword, there was a brief scene that flashed in his mind. In the scene, there was a blond girl wearing a long dark-blue dress and silver armor. She used a dark blue hair band to coil her hair up. She had bangs that split in the middle rolling down the two sides of her white face. She raised Lucifer’s Sword and slashed out her sword against countless demonic beings. That strike shocked This King and it left a deep impression in This King’s mind. It made This King who had never encountered sword techniques to have the intention of learning swords. And coincidentally, Lucifer’s Sword had given birth to a sword spirit in its three thousand years of solitude. This King managed to hear the names of some sword techniques and the holy sword’s name…”

Shi Xiaobai came to a slight pause when he said that.

Dawn’s eyebrows knitted together. What was up with the answer that sounded like the narration of a story? What did it have to do with her questions? It seemed like he was giving an irrelevant answer?

She could not help but urge him, “Continue?”

Shi Xiaobai nodded and continued, “From the little sword spirit, names of different sword techniques were known. This King remembers them clearly—Three Thousand Li Sword, Hundred-eighty Li Sword, Three Thousand Waters Sword, Wind Fire Thunder Divine Sword, Nine Heavens Thunderclap Sword, Great Sword of Light, Demon Slaying Holy Sword… Very coincidentally, these were the sword techniques you had previously used.”

“With this said, there is a need to thank Speechless, who is known to you as the Celestial King. It’s all thanks to him going through the trouble of announcing every attack you used. Only then did This King know that every sword technique you used was identical to the sword technique that the little sword spirit subconsciously mentioned.”

“This King had a thought back then that this was too much a coincidence. Anything strange must have something amiss about it. Back then, This King had a suspicion. The suspicion instantly made This King realize the existence of Lucifer’s Sword.”

“Therefore, This King was able to see the actual form of the nonexistent sword in your hand. This King was given a shock because the Lucifer’s Sword in your hand, as well as the sword techniques the little sword spirit knew, seemed to imply that you, or the three-thousand-year-old figure you were moulded after, was the master of Lucifer’s Sword.”

“Therefore, This King thought of the scene that appeared when This King signed a pact with Lucifer’s Sword. The woman in the scene was similar to you. She had blond hair that looked as resplendent as dawn. This King immediately had an unbelievable guess ‘Could the woman in that scene be the master of Lucifer’s Sword and could she be that great figure from three thousand years ago?’”

“That guess seemed very ridiculous, because according to what This King knew, that great figure was a man. That was the understanding that both history and humans had. Furthermore, the woman in the scene and you, the imitation of that great person, looked completely different other than that resplendent blond hair. It was impossible that the two of you were the same person.”

“However, things like guesses are usually irremediable once they are generated. This King could not help but ponder over the illogical guess before coming to a strange guess. This King thought that if the great person from three thousand years ago was a woman in disguise, and had lived her life after changing her appearance, she would not be discovered by anyone. Then, everything could be logically explained. He and she can then be reconciled as being the same person.”

“Forgive This King for not being able to repress his desire to verify it. Although the guess was very ridiculous, This King still grabbed every chance to prove its veracity. And just perfectly, you were in front of me. Therefore, This King created a series of lies so as to verify whether you are a girl disguising as a male! That was the goal for This King’s lies.”

When Shi Xiaobai said up to that point, he said apologetically, “Sorry, This King’s goal was very simple. The approach to accomplishing the goal was a bit complicated. If it created confusion in you, This King can only say ‘sorry’. Just as you are suppressing your killing intent to get This King to answer your questions, This King had similarly done a willful act in order to answer his doubts.”

“Willful?”

A smile suffused across Dawn’s lips. “You can be willful, but I cannot forgive. You wasted a great deal of time to explain your goal, but you did not directly answer my questions. I believe them. I believe that you said so many lies in order to verify a doubt you had on a whim. Then, can you be more serious and answer my questions?”

When Shi Xiaobai heard that, he shook his head helplessly and said, “Aren’t the answers you want to know already obvious? But since you aren’t irked about This King being long-winded, This King will answer them one by one.”

“Why does This King know of the ideal woman in your mind? Actually, This King did not know. However, This King used an assumption. This King assumed that his guess was correct, Since the appearance of the blond woman in This King’s mind was your future appearance, it meant that you would dress up in that manner in the future. Then, that blond woman’s appearance should be your ideal look.”

“As one’s ideal look isn’t easily changed, This King only changed the way he said it. If you didn’t strictly distinguish the ideal look from your ideal woman, you would subconsciously believe that This King had guessed your thoughts. That step was actually a bet because This King was only making an assumption as his premise, but fortunately, This King was right on his bet.”

“How does This King know the name of Lucifer’s Sword? Although the sword spirit said that she did not know anything about her previous master, she was unable to withstand This King’s repeated questioning. She eventually muttered the name of the sword to This King, so this was information that This King already knew. It was just used in a reasonable fashion.”

“Why does This King have a copy of Lucifer’s Sword in his hand? There is probably no need to answer that.”

“Why was This King able to so confidently reveal that you are a girl in disguise? On that point, it was just a matter of following on. This King had used two pieces of information to make you have the illusion that ‘this lie seems real, but the flaw had already been exposed’. You believed that there was a flaw because you felt that if there was an existence of a flaw, then the lie This King said had to be fake.”

“When one hears this, it might seem like you would refuse to believe This King’s lies, but that’s not how logic works. And it’s because you deeply believe the existence of the flaw that you reduced your doubts of the other lies. If This King suddenly told you that the flaw you knew was not a flaw, and explained the biggest doubt, the other doubts you subconsciously had would fall like a pile of dominoes.”

“This King was not able to ascertain that you were a female disguised as a male, but since This King used an assumption, whatever This King did was firmly under the assumption’s premise. Hence, This King was able to very confidently say the fact that you were a female disguised as a male. It was because it was the biggest flaw that it became the best evidence. It was also the final tactic!”

“That is the truth to the lie. Are you satisfied?”

Shi Xiaobai blinked his eyes like a playful child.