Extra's Strategy: Cultivate Protagonists, Become Invincible-Chapter 137: The Scariest Conclusion

"Back then, we theorized that it’s impossible for a normal gathering of a few rogue cultivators to run such a huge operation so smoothly and leave without any traces. What if several powerhouse cultivators were in charge of the entire operation? Shouldn’t they all be demonic practitioners who don’t fear the Crimson Snow Sect at all?

"The Holy Land of laws is obviously a delicious piece of pie to outsiders. But we all know that powerful cultivators are restricted from entering that place due to the existence of the circle of laws. So, let’s revise our theory a bit and combine all the clues we’ve gathered so far."

In one breath, Han Xuhan finished explaining his reasoning, which seemed to suck up the temperature inside the boat by a couple of degrees. Rubbing off the goosebumps on his arms, he slowly reconstructed what had happened in Pine Town before its erasure.

"Firstly, the portal leading to the land of laws opens up, emitting hints of its existence that attracted cultivators from all over the region like insects toward a lamp in the dark.

"Secondly, the demonic cultivators come into the picture. And since their leader, a powerful expert, cannot get in, he used the people of the town nearby as cannon fodders and instructed his disciples to help him explore the world fragment.

"Thirdly, with the continuous disappearances of the denizens of the town, the news reached our sect, which is in charge of protecting this area from normal and supernatural threats. So the sect issued a mission for the outer court disciples, probably without realizing the level of threat this incident carried.

"Fourthly, we came here as investigators, something that they might have already predicted, and we fall into the trap they set for us by manipulating the town chief. We left with Shen Kai in tow, a demonic cultivator who led us to the woods and ambushed us, thinking that he could subdue us and use us as cannon fodders too. A cannon fodder cultivator is much more useful than a normal human, after all.

"Fifthly, Shen Kai failed, ran away, and informed his masters, who should have been hiding near Pine Town to watch over the process. A few hours later, many cultivators got kicked out by me, some of whom were likely to be demonic cultivators as well. They all inform their master about what is happening inside.

"Sixthly, finally tired of these scuffles and afraid of leaving their own traces, the powerful demonic experts wiped off the entire town, possibly because it contained important clues related to their operation that couldn’t be easily removed, or maybe there were bigger secrets involved here that we do not know yet.

"Now, except for the three of us, who were out of the reach of the erasure, all the mortals have been memory-wiped, and all traces of the town have evaporated into thin air."

Holding up the fingers he had raised to emphasize his points during the explanation, Han Xuhan took a breath and gazed at his two companions steadily.

Mu Ran looked intimidated, a natural response that he expected to see. Gauging their reactions was one of the reasons why he had been so verbal about his opinions.

And as he had planned, his analysis did bring out the one oddity among the three of them.

Xuanyuan Zhou did not look scared for a moment while he was speaking. Instead, she was frowning hard, seemingly deep in thought. Han Xuhan didn’t waste the chance to swoop in and strike. This was his only chance to get a whiff of Xuanyuan Zhou’s unspoken guess.

"My lady, you look like you’ve managed to figure something out...? Please feel free to share even if it is nothing but a guess or a hunch."

Tugged out of her thoughts, Xuanyuan Zhou silently met his eyes reproachfully for a moment before she cleared her throat.

"There is a certain legend that I’ve heard before, about extremely powerful cultivators with unfathomable abilities in a certain subdomain of cultivation."

Han Xuhan and Mu Ran attentively listened to her. Mu Ran was genuinely curious, not realizing the undercurrents flowing beneath their hushed discussion.

Han Xuhan, having manipulated the discussion in this direction, understood that unless Xuanyuan Zhou wanted to harm them, she was likely to tell the truth, albeit in a roundabout manner to ward off anyone’s suspicions. So his attention to her words was even more intense.

"The legend describes a strange power of illusions. A power that can enable one to create a substitute reality integrated with the real world, and give off the impression of being completely real. Once the illusion ends, all traces of it fade from the real world, including even memories it left on the people."

There was such a thing like that? Han Xuhan didn’t find it unrealistic, considering this was the world of cultivation. But it did seem a bit coincidental. How was Xuanyuan Zhou so familiar with such esoteric concepts of cultivation?

"You’re guessing that Pine Town might have been a similar illusion?" Mu Ran asked inquisitively.

"It’s just a guess, to be honest," Xuanyuan Zhou said rather uncomfortably.

"You just mentioned those townsfolk who became zombies after coming into contact with the fog, didn’t you? But you forgot that I was controlling an entire army of them.

"While I was inside the platform for the third test, I sensed my mental connections with half of them being cut off strangely. It was as if those zombies never existed, to begin with. This must have been the time when the erasure took place.

"The only way the disappearance of the zombies can be explained is by following the logic that they were illusory beings from the start, created by some powerful cultivators, and we all were fooled into thinking that they were real due to our low cultivation level!"

The new information offered by Xuanyuan Zhou changed Han Xuhan’s perspective of their current predicament again. He felt like a frog in a well, having just glimpsed the true vastness of the endless sea of stars.

What kind of nightmarish technique was capable of fooling so many people? It was practically the same as modding reality itself!

That degenerate author put such a phenomenon in the very first arc of the novel... Doesn’t he understand the rules of power-scaling?!

Meanwhile, Xuanyuan Zhou reached a big question after her analysis.

"There’s one thing that has been puzzling me. If Pine Town really was an illusion, how could the Crimson Snow Sect treated it as a part of their territory? The sect authorities could not have issued any tasks to you two without verifying everything.

"The demonic cultivators in your theories couldn’t have planted false information about a whole human settlement into the sect’s records, could they?"

"Indeed, that’s what I’ve been pondering since underling Xuhan proposed his theory," Mu Ran replied in a hurry, almost suspiciously quick, passing the ball back to Xuhan in a slippery manner.

With both Mu Ran and Xuanyuan Zhou staring at him attentively, Han Xuhan rubbed his temples and tried to mend his theory using the new piece of info.

"Guys, what if... there’s a mole in the sect? A demonic cultivator who pretends to be a righteous person in front of others, wields considerable power over the administrative branch, and works as a high-level spy for his demonic sect? Only such a person could have done this, right?"

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