Qing Chen didn’t know what the past Fight for the Shadows missions were, but it seemed odd to have all the candidates travel to City 18.
According to the information he collected, the entire Qing family bloodline was scattered in nine cities. The branches of the family fought hard with each other and would rarely gather.
Only once every four years, at the family assembly, would everyone go to City 10, the political center of the federation.
However, no matter the reason behind it, this piece of information was very important to Qing Chen.
He must rely on himself for the next round of the Fight.
This group chat could bring him some valuable information that he was missing.
At present, it seems that Li Si, the time traveler in the group chat, should also be somewhat related to the Qing family. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so interested in the Fight for the Shadow.
Li Si asked in the chat, “How come the candidates gathering will have something to do with the Li family?”
Chuang Wang said: “Don’t you guys know? The old man of the Li family is dying. The Half Mountain Manor in District 1 where he lives has been under martial law three times in the past two months, and there is currently a medical team stationed in the manor. From all indications, the Li family will be ushering in a period of chaos.”
The Roaming King continued, “When the power of a consortium this size is being transferred, various problems will always arise. The Qing family has the Fight for the Shadow to qualify the candidates, and the Li family naturally also has a selection process… Right now, the most promising person to take over the Li family should be the Li family’s main branch. Despite so, I believe that the rest of the Li family will not just sit back and wait.”
“But why do the Qing family shadow candidates have to do with this?” Li Si was still puzzled.
“The shadows of the Qing family are most known for their various shady tactics,” King Chuang explained, “Do you think that this kind of shadiness is just going to the street to slap people with bricks? Of course not. The shadiness means spy infiltration and secret alliances. It can be said that all affairs between the families were under the Shadow’s control. Therefore, I suspect that the second round of the Fight may be related to the power transfer of the Li family. Perhaps it would be for them to choose someone from the Li family to support? If so, after the next leader of the Li family comes to power, the next generation of the Qing family’s shadow could also maintain a close relationship with the Li family. Haha, that’s just my guesses. Take it however you want.”
Qing Chen pondered. Roaming King’s guess seemed quite plausible.
He took the phone from Nan Gengchen and sent a message to the chat.
A Little Duckling: “I heard that in the first round of the Fight for the Shadow, all the candidates must successfully obtain a forbidden object, right?”
Roaming King replied quickly, “Our brother duckling is quite well informed. Yes, that’s right. Previously, Qing Huai entered Forbidden Land 002, in an attempt to obtain Forbidden Item ACE-003 – Snake of Deceit.”
Qing Chen typed slowly and sent: “In other words, every shadow candidate right now must also have a Forbidden Item on them. This means that if we loot them, we’ll have a good chance of obtaining a Forbidden Item. How about this, let’s join forces. As we all know, every Forbidden Item has extremely powerful abilities and can be a foundation to success in the Inner World.”
Nan Gengchen knew that Qing Chen was also a Shadow candidate. When he saw the message Qing Chen sent, he was shocked and impressed at the same time.
Brother Chen wasn’t going after the Forbidden Item at all! He was clearly trying to arouse other’s desire to fight the other shadow candidates, and in turn, help eliminate his opponents!
This was why Brother Chen suddenly intervened in the chat!
The last time he messaged in the chat, he dug a hole for the Devil Post Stamp owner.
This time, he was setting the other Shadow candidates up.
Qing Chen was either digging holes for other people or was on his way to dig holes for other people. Nan Gengchen was in awe. Maybe only people like Qing Chen were more suitable to survive in a harsh environment.
The chat suddenly became quiet, and everyone seemed to be thinking carefully about the Forbidden Items.
Just when Qing Chen was thinking about how to influence the conversation next, Roaming King suddenly messaged: “So, regarding Brother Duckling’s proposal, it’s not impossible. At least, I can provide two pieces of information: At least three of the Shadow candidates going to City 18 had no roots in the city.”
“Moreover, when the candidates are busy fighting each other, we time walkers can naturally watch until the timing’s right. Friendly reminder, it is said that a certain shadow candidate has two forbidden items.”
These two insights from Roaming King undoubtedly aroused everyone’s excitement in the chat.
Forbidden Items.
There were a little over 300 known Forbidden Items in total, and most of them were missing. The Shadow candidates could rely on the Qing family’s powerful intelligence network to recover some lost Forbidden Items, but other time travelers didn’t have access to such resources.
Therefore, looting would be a shortcut.
The Fight for the Shadow was a path of struggle, yet the time travelers had a similar competitive relationship with each other.
After all, it was just another fight with more people involved, and the cruelty wasn’t any better than the Fight for the Shadow.
At this point, many people have experienced the weirdness of Forbidden Items firsthand. The functional Forbidden Items like the Devil Post Stamp would be a great example. Although they couldn’t offer powerful combat capabilities, they were equally mysterious in their utility.
Such items had an irresistible attraction for time travelers who had just come into contact with this world full of many mysteries.
Qing Chen messaged, “But I think it’s better to be on the safe side and work together.”
However, Lu Ya sent: “There is no need to join forces. We should rely on our own abilities.”
Qing Chen was fine with the current result, as long as someone was interested, he had succeeded. As for whether to join forces or not, he couldn’t see himself teaming up with these strangers yet.
He just wanted to some enemies for the other shadow candidates.
When he looked up, he found Li Tongyun and Nan Gengchen looking at him blankly.
“Brother Qing Chen, you are so vicious,” the little girl said.
Qing Chen picked up on the wording. Li Tongyun said he was “vicious”.
If she didn’t know that he was a Shadow candidate, she would most likely think that he was greedy for the Forbidden Items. Only those who knew his identity would know that he was trying to use that as a disguise for something even larger!
Qing Chen looked at Li Tongyun thoughtfully, but saw the little girl suddenly covering her mouth, “Ah, I slipped.”
“When did you find out about my identity? What clues did you use?” Qing Chen asked curiously.
Li Tongyun said obediently, “There is no need to use any additional clues. So many things have happened. Even people on the Internet are speculating whether there is a boss behind Liu Dezhu. I was just thinking, if there must be someone behind all these, then… It must be you. Only you, Brother Qing Chen have such ability. Therefore, I have determined your identity a long time ago. You’re so powerful!”
Qing Chen was stunned. Many people were looking for clues to find out his true identity. Yet, Li Tongyun determined his identity with unconditional trust and admiration.
Qing Chen turned to Nan Gengchen and said, “Nan, now that you two have exposed your identities to each other, you will be partners in the Inner World from now on. Try to help each other as much as possible. If there is anything you find hard to decide, you can ask little Tongyun…”
Nan Gengchen listened in silence. The more he listened, the more he felt there was something odd in those words…
Qing Chen looked at Li Tongyun, “Is the head of the Li Family in really bad condition?”
“Yeah,” Li Tongyun nodded, “I went to see him three days ago. He was in good spirits at that time, but I heard from the servants at Half Mountain Manor that he had fallen into a coma before. The medical team had great difficulty helping him gain consciousness. These days, people have been coming in and out of the Half Mountain Manor, and members of the Li family in the federal army were also summoned one by one. Grandpa Li must be arranging for things after his death. The servants said that he hasn’t passed yet simply because he knows he still has things unfinished.”
“Who’s the most likely person to be the next head of the family?” Qing Chen asked.
“At the internal meetings, I could only sit in the corner and wasn’t able to see the details of everyone’s reactions,” Li Tongyun said. “So far, it seems that the most domineering side is still the main branch. They make it seem like everything is under their control, but I don’t think it’s that simple. A biting dog doesn’t bark. My butler said that City 18 will soon experience some big changes. Many people will die.”
Qing Chen nodded. In the Inner World, the heads of consortiums were no different from emperors. How many kingdoms in history could peacefully hand power from one generation to the next?
Therefore, the butler was right, many people will die in City 18 soon.
Many people in the world thought that the Qing family’s Fight for the Shadow was a very cruel and stupid process.
After all, the Fight for the Shadow that happens every decade or so always sacrifices several outstanding members of the younger generation within the family. To some, this looked like the Qing family was stabbing itself in the guts.
However, after a better understanding of these consortiums, Qing Chen suddenly realized that the Fight for the Shadow was actually a very smart system because it used a very long time frame to complete the transition of power before the most extreme situation broke out.
When it was time for the previous head of the family to step down, the Shadow was already in control, and no one could compete with him.
Moreover, the Fight for the Shadow system also selects the most ruthless, smartest, and strongest successor for the family.
Even if the candidate was kind at first, it would be difficult to remain kind after going through this process.
This system was cruel to candidates but beneficial to the family.
For a behemoth like the consortium to remain standing in the Federation for so long, it didn’t need kindness but ferocity and wisdom.
Qing Chen looked at the time on his arm.
Countdown 46:00:00.
It was 2 o’clock in the morning, which meant that time, they only had two days.
“Tongyun, go back to sleep, you have to go to school tomorrow,” Qing Chen said and sent Li Tongyun upstairs.
Before entering the apartment, the little girl looked at him eagerly, “When grandma and grandpa go back to Zheng City, can I stay with you for a few days with my mother?”
“Sure,” Qing Chen smiled fondly, “You should go to bed now.”
At this moment, everyone needed to take a good rest and recharge. The next time they travel to the Inner World, they will be facing a stormy City 18.
…
Thank you for your support! – Summit
