Tarnished Past

---Message from Author---

I am working on another reverend insanity fan-fic, well multiple, kind of going through a lot of ideas to find which one I like best, maybe you can give me one, get in the comments!

Musician goes to the world of gu,

Blood extreme physique,

Dream interpreter,

Agent 721516,

Experiment: 001 (currently has over 20,000 words!)

Why am I doing this? I'm thinking of dropping this one.

---End of Message from Author---

---Beginning of chapter 8---

In the vision, Tide pulled out another piece of paper with the title called important notes.

"Now for some important notes:

First this relates to the possible redacted info, if it was redacted the best hint I can give you is this: Remember how you jumped between the basement door and Jake? News flash, you're not primarily a survivor. Also maybe try law path to get rid of the formation in our brain.

Second, that fish means well, he's just got a few screws loose.

Third, the other venerables are already aware of something afoot, well they are beyond our understanding, but thankfully they know very little. And they don't see us as serious existence. Paradise Earth made a lot of things hidden, but he could only do so much.

fourth I stayed as a rank 6 gu immortal, thanks to a certain thief inheritance, but I made a recipe for a Gu that will help fix that little problem"

At that moment blood started to go out of his eyelids, and he then activated a Gu that looks like an eye and put it on his forehead, and continued to read,

"Rank 8 gu recipe:"

~ "Gu name: Unnoticeable heart gu."

~ "Ingredients: rank-9 killer move Divine Concealment, rank-7 Reputation Restriction gu, rank-6 humility gu, and..."

This time his tongue started to swell, he then pulled out a Gu that looks like a mouth and placed it on his neck.

~ "And lastly our heart.

~ "Directions: Drain all your blood, every last drop. Restrict yourself with Reputation Restriction gu. swallow Humility gu. and lastly, endure the pain."

~ "Pretty simple right?"

~ "Note: Humility gu is owned by a mortal named 'Qian Qiang' she lives in the western desert, in a village at the border between western desert, northern plains, and central continent. It will be impossible to find the Gu on her, but if you make her prideful, it will automatically go to the next closest person and then check if they're humble, in which case you will need to trap it, using Reputation Restriction gu."

~ "Note: You will think the refinement failed because you won't notice the gu, but trust me, it's there."

~ "Note: You'll know the recipe was a success if you receive vision number 102"

Blood started to come out of every orifice on his body, and within seconds his body shriveled so much, it looked no different from a shriveled corpse.

Suddenly glowing chains started to wrap around him, as he pulled out a Gu and swallowed it.

{End of Vision}

Tide meditated for a while to distract himself from the pain of getting a vision, while also sorting through this new piece of information. [Humility gu is a legendary gu from the legends of ren zu]

Opening his eyes to see clouds around, he took in a breath of fresh air, [Reputation Restriction gu is in Lang Ya blessed land. Lang Ya is.. a variant human, he wants harry-men to reign supreme, and be the owner of not just humans, but all other variant humans. Making it very hard to use the Paradise Earth card to get that gu. We could trade it using other immortal gu, but Lang Ya has no need for the gu that this fish has. Perhaps we could do a 'temporary trade' using other gu as collateral, and that is likely to succeed, but the fish will likely ask why I need Reputation Restriction Gu.]

For the next hour, Tide would refine gu and make a plan on how to get Reputation Restriction gu without anyone asking too many questions, how to get Humility gu using Reputation Restriction gu and Fixed Immortal Travel gu, but he doesn't have Fixed Immortal Travel gu, and even if he had it, he would still need an image of the places he wants to go.

[It would seem I have some death luck, my brain has been recently damaged, and I understood some of the words in the vision. In other words, I fulfilled 3 of 4 different reasons why I would get that vision. I was about to ask Hong Yu what those markings on my brain were, that would mean he likely knows what those markings were, and it would be a problem if I told him]

Tide activated a book gu, and started to read the legends of Ren Zu again.

After finishing up, he opened all of his Categorization gu.

There were three groups of thoughts, High luck, Medium luck, and Little luck.

Going through them again and again till it was the next day, he came to a conclusion, [My ultimate truth is most definitely not that of a survivor, that's more of what I accomplished, not my character.]

He looked to see a Message gu on his lap, It was about how Hong Yu was helping Blue Blue Dragon Whale with his fire problem.

{Empty Space sea}

A Space path sea that contains the most dangerous things in this aperture, that if ever got out, could easily kill your average rank-7 gu immortal.

Was being used as a testing ground for a small inconspicuous flame, by all means, it just looked like a black flame, perhaps on earth people would look at the black flame and say that's impressive, how'd you make it black? and most places in this world, it simply looked like any other unique flame that a fire path gu master would make.

"It burns everything!" - Hong Yu was grinding his teeth, as a will he no longer had attainment, but he does have an immense amount of experience with water path methods, that should instantly destroy any flame they come across, and he was running out of methods.

"You're only rank-6, don't be too hard on yourself." - Blue Dragon Whale by his side, didn't have much hope in Hong Yu actually having a method to get rid of these flames, after all they were much closer to human path, then to fire path.

"HAHAHAHA, there has not been a flame out there that I can not extinguish and this flame shall be no different!"

Blue Dragon Whale shook his head, "Well while you do that, I'm going to pay a visit to Tide, where was he again?"

"Peaceful Thoughts Cloud!" - Hong Yu was a bit confused as to why Blue Dragon Whale couldn't just use a rank-8 method to find Tide, but decided to leave it be, after all, he had more important things to do.

{Peaceful Thoughts Cloud}

When Tide was continuing to plot, he had figured since Hong Yu had to act like he was completely loyal, in the end, the safest and best method would be to just order him to get Reputation Restriction gu. That's when a very pleasant ocean smell hit his nose.

He opened his eyes to see a big man with a big smile, he had thousands of teeth, that looked kind of like hair.

Tide raised an eyebrow ~ "You have a human form?"

"One doesn't need to be a transformation path immortal to change their form." - Blue Dragon Whale sat down next to Tide - "So?... you came here as a mortal from another world, you have incredible luck path attainment, And you're a very secretive person?"

Tide didn't ask how he knew because the obvious conclusion was that Hong Yu must have told him, so he simply nodded.

"Forgive me for saying this but secretive is just another word for schemer, and using luck path as an excuse for knowledge is something even a child can come up with!" - He paused to look at Tide, but when he noticed no reaction, he continued - "Humor me a bit, I have this theory. You have knowledge of this world that no one could possibly know. So I think for some reason or another, Paradise Earth left a will inside you and told you to keep it a secret from that traitorous fish!"

At first, Tide was worried that he had been caught, but someone finding out that Tide could have visions was in the end much more preposterous than Paradise Earth leaving behind a will, and it's not technically wrong. After all, Paradise Earth did leave behind a will.

With a small smile creeping up on Tide's face, he said - "You're a lot smarter than that fish! Yes, Paradise Earth did leave behind a will inside my head."

Blue Dragon Whale showed a proud expression for having figured out the secret, "If I may, could I talk with Paradise Earth's will?"

"Sadly no." ~ Tide frowned ~ "You see wills are non-replenishable." - He ended it there, after all, he had to be very careful not to say any lies. If that fish can see lies, then this rank-8 whale can most definitely tell when Tide is lying.

Dragon Whale nodded his head, "Well if you need anything, feel free to ask."

"Anything!?" - Tide's ears quickly perked up to that.

"Anything!"

Tide for a short moment had a devilish smile, but just as quickly as it came, it also left.

"As you should know my mini-apertures are constantly finding better ways to push my membrane, but alas, they can only do so much. If only I had someone who could help out with finding methods to push my membrane?"

Dragon Whale's eyes enlarged ~ "ME! I can do it!"

Tide was laughing to himself at how these two would lose all reason when it came to their master. They were like pet dogs, kind of cute in a way.

As Tide was imagining them as pets, suddenly he felt the aurora of an immortal gu! And what he saw next was mesmerizing.

It had the shape of chains that would be used to bind a person against the wall, with clear signs of rust and decay, In one of the hand locks was a severed hand, signifying that the only escape is a heavy sacrifice to oneself.

"Enslavement path gu, will take something that's stubborn and immediately make it docile, I reckon it will work well on your membrane that is stubbornly resisting your plan for expansion" ~ Blue Dragon Whale showed a toothy grin as if remembering the last thing he had used it on.

"That would work quite well, however, I'm looking for something that can remove restrictions rather than make them docile" ~ [Something to get rid of this formation on my brain]

Blue Dragon Whale narrowed his eyes, [Did Paradise Earth talk to him?] ~ "Hmm. . . Aha, while it is weaker by one whole rank, I believe it is exactly what you're looking for!"

Its color was that of blue steel, perfectly burned to ensure a crisp shine, and its shape was that of a 7-link chain, with a constantly moving pattern of clouds swirling all around it.

"It's called Bind Law gu. It has the effect of adding a new Law to any existing law, it won't bind to things that have no laws bound to them, like the old Feathermen from the Immemorial Antiquity Era." ~ Then paused for a moment remembering something. ~

"I had tried to use it on the Black Flames, giving them the law 'Black Flames Don't cause harm to whales', but sadly the results were almost nothing, likely due to the rank difference. And I do not have nearly enough law path attainment to make a killer move with it. But! For your membrane, it should be no problem."

~ "While it doesn't remove bindings per se, I reckon it will do the trick."

Just as he was about to give a new law to Tide's membrane Tide stopped him.

Causing Dragon Whale to raise an eye.

"I Want the law to be on the brain, not the membrane."

Blue Dragon Whale thought about it, and it made sense, would probably be more effective than putting it on the membrane, only problem was, the brain had self-imposed restrictions put in place for a reason, like forgetting events that were too traumatic. ~ "Are you sure about this? You might go insane."

"Positive!", [This way I'll get rid of those formations the future me talked about.]

Dragon Whale sighed ~ "Alright then, brace yourself!"

Chains started to appear on Tide's brain, crawling around his brain like a group of large centipedes coming together to encapsulate their prey. Eventually, they formed a chain link net around it, and then... disappeared.

All of this happened within a fraction of a second.

Tide's mind went blank, it was as if the floodgates had opened up.

His head started to feel like it was splitting open, but not in a headache way. More like pieces of his mind were... unlocking.

And That's when a realization suddenly hit him, "Wait, that wasn't what happened! I wasn't the first to go down the stairs! Nathan was!"

{A near-death experience #ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕝 𝕞𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕪#}

As they walked down the stairs, the first thing they noticed was that many of the stairs were broken.

The second thing they noticed was an airy light, the type of light a medieval lamp would make.

As they walked down the stairs a creaking sound was made.

"Hello!" - A sound came from the bottom of the stairs, it sounded deep, but not like a human.

Jake hesitated for a moment to keep going down, but Bill gave him a pat on the shoulder, indicating that he was in good company.

Chewing on some bubblegum, Tide prepped his makeshift thunderflash grenade.

The army they were in could afford gilly suits because all you needed was some glue and good old child labor. But if you wanted a thunderflash grenade, you would have to do it yourself.

The lineup was Nathan, Tide, Jake, and Bill. Nathan was chosen for the front because he is the best at close combat.

As they walked down the stairs Nathan noticed many red paintings on the walls. All of strange beasts he's never seen before, [Lightning-wolf? long-arm monkey? Hydra plant?] - He put his arm extended behind his back palm facing behind him and went closer to the paintings to give them a sniff.

Silently under his breath, he said, "blood!".

Everyone narrowed their eyes, they now knew that they were dealing with an eccentric, the type of person who will likely take them with him to the afterlife if things got out of hand.

When at the bottom of the stairs they noticed a long 12-seat table, with stuffed animals on the left and right seats. Dimly lit candles across the table, clean plates with a napkin on top folded in the shape of a crown.

The last chair at the end was too dark to make out a face, but you could tell that someone was sitting there.

"Um... guys I don't feel so good about this" - Jake said with clear fear in his voice.

The others were also disturbed but didn't let it get to them.

"Where are the blueprints for the bomb?", Nathan raised his gun pointing dead-center at the person's head.

Suddenly the light in the room started to flicker and bend, and then it all went straight to the person. Four rings of fire surrounded her. "Now, now... Don't be so hasty!"

A chill went down everyone's spines. They didn't dare to make any rash moves in the presence of this... thing.

"Let's play a little game. Well, more of a test."

"What sort of a test?" ~ Tide stepped forward, holding ThunderFlash bomb in hand.

"The kind that will show your true colors, while also giving you much experience" ~ Before any more questions could be asked space started to warp around them.

---Test Garden---

Participant list: Nathan, Tide, Jake, Bill.

Character stats: [Nathan]

Age: 27, height: 5,9 ft, weight: 70kg

Personality: [Introvert], [Paranoid/Calculative] >

Strength: Expert at finding weaknesses.

Weakness: Inavertadibly will waste time preparing too many plan b's, c's, d's, e's, f's, g's...

Skills: [Close combat: Expert], [Pistol: Expert], [Fire-arms: Moderate] >

Hobbies: [Baking], [Sewing], [Cleaning], [Reading] >

-

Character stats: [Tide]

Age: 35, height: 6,1 ft, weight: 85kg

Personality: [Extrovert], [Kind] >

Strength: Hunger for truth.

Weakness: Sacrificial.

Skills: [Observation: Expert], [Vision: Expert], [Reaction: Expert] >

Hobbies: [Bomb-making], [Crafting], [Lip-reading] >

-

Character stats: [Jake]

Age: 16, height: 5,8 ft, weight: 65kg

Personality: [Extrovert], [Free-spirited] >

Strength: Talented!

Weakness: Manipulatable.

Skills: [Close combat: Moderate], [Running: Moderate], [Sling: expert], [Reaction: Moderate] >

Hobbies: [Exercise], [Training], [Fighting] >

-

Character stats: [Bill]

Age: 42, height: 6 ft, weight: 90kg

Personality: [Introvert], [Manipulative], [Controlling] >

Strength: Can easily tell when someone is lying.

Weakness: Unadaptable.

Skills: [Close combat: Moderate], [Fire-arms: Moderate], [Composure: Expert], [Leadership: Expert] >

Hobbies: [None] >

----------

In a strange forest, 4 people were standing watching their surroundings.

Jake was the first to speak, "Um... Bill, please tell me you know what's going on?"

"Haven't a clue... Tide?", Bill was using Tide's professional observation skills.

"My first assumption was that this is a dream, but I threw that away just as quickly as I got it. My second assumption is that the basement had some sort of hallucinogenic gas. But I also threw that away because I woke up standing. Not lying down or sitting, just standing. And If I was waking up from the effects of a hallucinogenic then I would most definitely feel groggy." - Tide paused to look at Nathan, "What do you think?"

Nathan crouched down to pick up a stick after inspecting it, he grabbed it by both ends and snapped it. And put his hand to ear, listening to its sound bounce off the trees. "While I suppose the possibility for a hallucinogenic without any side effects is low. Even if such a thing existed, there's no way they would have it. No, what they did was far more outlandish than using hallucinogens. Now hear me out, and this going to sound insane, but I think we made contact with a witch."

Bill shook his head, "You've been reading far too many books. When we get back I'll help you throw them away."

Tide is picking up rocks to use with Jake's sling, "You mean if we get back."

"What?", Bill is not too pleased with Tide's smart-ass talk.

"What I mean is, we don't have a clue as to where we are!"

Bill was about to rebut Tide for breaking moral, when suddenly above their heads appeared character panels.

Everyone looked up, to see their character panels.

---

"I've been thinking of adding meditation" ~ Nathan

"Kind?" ~ Tide didn't agree with that statement.

"Do those count as hobbies?" ~ Jake had always thought hobbies meant fooling around.

"Shit!" ~ Bill didn't like how he was so easily exposed for his sadistic nature.

Everyone looked to Bill, then paid special attention to his panel.

Both Tide and Nathan nodded their heads, "Sounds about right."

Jake walks backward away from Bill toward Tide.

Frowning now, Bill tries to lighten the mood, "Great! Now the new guy knows about my bad personality."

Jake looks to Tide seeing no reaction out of him, then looks to Nathan also seeing no reaction from him.

Jake is about to speak when another panel shows up.

[Test 01. Hard working]

Details: Run!

[Begin Now!]

Before anyone could ask any questions, there was a loud sound coming from the west.

Tide was the first to start running in the opposite direction.

Nathan was half a second behind.

Jake was about to speak, but he just started running.

Bill followed his example.

The ground started to wobble like they were running on a mattress or trampoline before it turned into mud.

"I'm not dying here today!", Bill's thirst for survival at that moment was the strongest.

As his survival instinct kicked in, the mud under his feet started to get harder till it returned to a solid.

He quickly took over the others in distance, he did look back questioning whether or not he should help them, but that thought was short-lived when he saw wolves with sparks of lighting moving around their fur.

The others noticed his reaction and looked behind them as well.

Only to have the same reaction of widening their eyes. Their survival instinct also kicked in, making the mud around them solidify.

When the leader of the pack saw the people running on the mud, he order some wolves to run on first.

And as he expected the mud pulled them in.

He then ordered the other wolves to pull them out.

Bill was the first to make it to the end, but there was a mountain blocking his path. So he decided to try to look for another path rather than climb.

Jake was second to the end, instead of looking for another path, he started to climb.

That's when he heard the screams of monkeys ~ "Why do those monkeys have such long arms?"

Tide and Nathan running up to the wall saw Jake, then looked at the monkeys, and both immediately developed a deep frown.

Tide looked around and quickly spotted a cliff entrance 40 meters on the far left, roughly 16 meters above the ground. and yelled to Jake to get off the wall.

Jake was roughly 5 meters off the ground when he heard that. So he slid down and started to run with them to under the cave entrance.

Bill wasn't far off from the group. He was currently distracted by a weird-looking worm, for whatever reason he felt like it was valuable, so he snatched it as quickly as he could and ran back to the rest of the group.

The lightning wolf leader didn't like that his prey was getting away and reduced his eyes to a slit and activate a gu.

Within seconds a red mist was covering him and his howl pack.

Then the wolves around him started to absorb the mist. The color in their eyes became blood red.

With a deep threatening bellow from the leader, the other wolves charged, locking their eyes on the 4 humans.

The moment their paws touched the mud, it instantly became solid. Making it easy to gain speed on their prey.

Seeing them gaining on the humans, and infringing upon their territory, the monkeys threw rocks. While their physical structure wasn't designed for throwing, like how a human will use his whole body, from the toes of his feet to the tips of his fingers.

But It didn't matter how much faster you could throw when your arms were physically capable of throwing up to 10 times that of what a human could handle.

When some of them were about to throw rocks at the humans. A blinding light suddenly hit them.

---

While humans can't match the raw power of beasts, they do possess a deadly intelligence, an intelligence that has kept their species alive for thousands of years.

The humans they were hunting were seasoned survivors, and these monkeys were clearly unaware of the devastating power of a thunderflash bomb.

"That was a close one," Bill murmured as he scaled the rocks, his movements deliberate and measured. He was the last to join the group, his position furthest from the others.

While Tide had seen him pick something up from the distance, he didn't care to ask what it was.

Off in the distance, the screams of monkeys grew louder and louder as they closed in, many were blinded by the Thunderflash bomb but due to their sheer body count, many of them didn't have direct vision of the bomb.

Jake was the first to reach the cliff cave entrance and helped to pull up Nathan, then Tide.

As the group looked at Bill, who was still 10 meters away from the safety of the cliff entrance. They knew Bill was leaving them behind earlier, but what would be the point of a grudge? Survival was everyone's top priority. Killing him would do them no good.

"Form a rope!", Tide was the first to start going down.

Nathan was a paranoid fellow, but he knew that Bill was still more useful alive than dead.

Jake was young, and often guided more by emotions than logic, but he wasn't dumb. If the other two with more experience than him were doing it, then he should as well.

They quickly formed an arm link to help Bill, who was getting far too old for these types of physical activities.

{A near-death experience #paused#}

Tide opened his eyes for a moment, to him this was an absolute absurdity, but he couldn't blame it on paranoia gu, because he had already cleared them.

While Blue Dragon Whale didn't see what was happening, he did have a rough understanding.

That's why when he saw Tide open his eyes after they had been closed for a while, he didn't immediately ask what happened.

Tide had two choices to deny what he saw because it was absurd or accept it as real.

Certainly, no one would blame him if he chose to deny it, but he felt a fire burn in his heart, a hunger for truth so strong the air around him started to feel heavy.

Tide didn't know what was happening, but Dragon Whale knew what was happening as clearly as day, [He's becoming a master in law path!?]

Tide closed his eyes and went back into the memory.

{A near-death experience #continued#}

They all made it to the cave entrance.

The moment they stepped inside a loud ding sound was heard, and another panel appeared in front of them.

---

Character stats: [Snake weed] * 9

Age: 200, height: 25f, weight: 40kg

Personality: [Violent] >

Strength: Can attach to other Snake weeds, allowing for it to revive even if its head is destroyed

Weakness: One Snake weed will be the host, and if it dies, they all die.

Skills: [Parallel thinking: Expert] >

Hobbies: [None] >

Title: [Boss of the forest] >

---

"Does that mean we have to kill it?" ~ Bill had heard of these types of games, although he has never personally touched one.

"Depends on the game." ~ Nathan aimed with his rifle at the 'plant'.

"If I had to guess the host is likely the one second to left, you can tell because his connection to the other ones, looks more like it was etched in, as opposed to linked in." ~ Tide wrapped some cloth around cotton to make a smoke bomb.

"What should I do?" ~ Jake was mentally exhausted, and just wanted this nightmare to be over with.

"Jake you will distract it. Nathan will find a weakness in its defense. Tide will delay those beasts behind us. And I will provide cover fire so Jake doesn't get caught. Move out!"

Jake ran to the far right pouring lead into it.

Tide lit his smoke bomb so Nathan could go in undetected, bill watched carefully for any movement from it.

However, for such a large snake this thing was fast, very fast. Within seconds it was on top of Jake.

"What!" ~ Those were Jake's last words before he was swallowed.

Bill felt his pocket with the worm in it get hot, then poof flames came out of it. ~ "Shit!"

Nathan was behind it and right before he fired his shot, one of the snake heads shined bright, firing a beam that hit him in the chest, putting a howl through it.

"What's happening back there!?" ~ Tide was setting up traps to delay the beasts outside from getting in.

"AHHH!" ~ Bill was screaming from being burned alive, then the snake shot him in the head with a light beam as well.

Tide looked back and his eyes widened! ~ "NO!!!" ~ He ran back to them as quickly as he could.

The snake shot another beam, but Tide dodged it, as tears went down his face, he picked up Bill's bag and threw it at the snake.

The snakes rolled their eyes and shot the bag with a beam.

But that was not the end, due to the smoke, Tide had made it right under the snakes. he jumped with a gun in hand, and shoved it into the leader's mouth ~ "Go to hell!"

(Ding)

Winners:

Nathan: deceased

Tide: alive

Jake: deceased

Bill: deceased

Losers:

Snake weed: deceased

---

[Evaluating reward...]

Hardworking: check

Smart: check

(Ding)

---

[Reward evaluated!]

Getting a skill from one of the deceased!

...

Skill [Parallel thinking: Expert] gained!

Will take another test.

"What kind of a reward it that! Give them back!" ~ Tide pointed his gun at the panel, but then his vision went black.

To ensure all tests are fair and valid from a base point, memories will be modified, and the skill will only be useable after the next test is complete.

---

{Mission: Break free from the lies...}

Task: Break free from the lies.

Time limit: Indefinite.

Pre-Requisites: [Memory modification], [Suppression of user attributes in hopes to remove user's greatest weakness]

Suppressing user attributes...

Bonus: If you pass the test, your best attribute will gain an immense boost!

---

(tick)(tick)(tick)

"RUN! There's a bomb!" - Tide ran up the stairs as quickly as he could.

(Ding!)

Tide closed the door to the basement in hopes it would help absorb some of the impact.

He noticed Jake was very close by.

Jake didn't have a lot of experience, and his reaction to 'run', wasn't as fast as the others.

So Tide jumps between the basement door and Jake.

(Boom!)

Jake was mostly fine, with only a few bruises here and there, but Tide was in poor shape. one of his bones was sticking out, with a piece of shrapnel stuck in his leg.

Right before losing consciencessness, Tide saw Bill and Nathan run up to him, both working together to pull him up.

{A near-death experience End}

Tide opened his eyes in shock, [They're all dead! Nathan, Jake, and Bill... Are all dead?]

This time his heart felt like it was being squeezed by a hand, while also being cut with a knife at the same time.

As tears started to fall down his eyes, one could see a small drop of blood running down his left eye.

"IT CAN'T BE! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! IT HAS TO BE A LIE!" ~ While Tide was trying to deny his memory.

Dragon Whale felt a tinge of pain in his chest, [I may not know what's happening to you Tide, but I can tell those are the tears of a man who's lost what's most important to him.]

Suddenly Dragon Whale saw a panel over Tide's head, "What the?!"

-

Character stats: [Tide]

Age: 45, height: 6,1 ft, weight: 92kg

Personality: [Extrovert], [Kind(s̶u̶p̶r̶e̶s̶s̶e̶d̶)] >

Strength: [Extreme hunger for truth(s̶u̶p̶r̶e̶s̶s̶e̶d̶)]

Weakness: Sacrificial.

Skills: [Observation: Expert], [Vision: Expert], [Reaction: Master(s̶u̶p̶r̶e̶s̶s̶e̶d̶)], [Close combat: Master(s̶u̶p̶r̶e̶s̶s̶e̶d̶)], [Parallel thinking: Master(s̶u̶p̶r̶e̶s̶s̶e̶d̶)] >

Hobbies: 0-0-0-0>

-

Then the panel glitched and suddenly changed:

Character stats: [Tide]

Age: 45, height: 6,1 ft, weight: 92kg

Personality: [Extrovert], [Kind(suppressed by hunger for truth)] >

Strength: [Extreme hunger for truth(active)]

Weakness: None.

Skills: [Observation: Expert], [Vision: Expert], [Reaction: Master], [Close combat: Master], [Parallel thinking: Master] >

New Titles: [Truth Finder], [Truth Seeker], [Truth Revealer], [Truth Discoverer] >

Change: Due to [Kind] being suppressed by [Extreme hunger for truth] it will be changed to [Goodness]

Truth Finder: "Gives a base of human path master"

Truth Seeker: "Gives a base of space path master"

Truth Revealer: "Gives a base of formation path master"

Truth Discoverer: "Gives a base of earth path master"

---

Tide then opened his eyes ~ "Blue Dragon Whale!"

"Yes!" ~ Dragon Whale was surprised by the sudden change in demeanor that Tide displayed.

"I would first like to apologize for deceiving you." ~ "However sadly I have my reasons why I can't tell you the truth, so I ask for your patience." ~ Tide then cupped his hands together to show his sincerity.

Blue Dragon Whale could feel the immense sincerity that Tide displayed, and decided to accept it. ~ "Well I suppose we all have our secrets"

"Thank you for your understanding, I do however have a question. Why did you come to visit me?" ~ [I must know the reason why my future self couldn't get rid of these bindings.]

"Quite simple, really, I wanted to talk with Paradise Earth, when I first heard of the knowledge that you received from Paradise Earth I thought to myself that he must have left a message, but then when I heard about your incredible luck. I knew that Paradise Earth must have left behind a will!

[So I was freed from those formations because my future self gave me visions that allowed me to claim I have luck, inadvertently causing Blue Dragon Whale to visit me, question whether or not Paradise Earth had left behind a will, making him want to help me, and even using an immortal gu, that conveniently has the ability to add laws on to pre-existing laws.]

Tide took the lotus position and activated every scheming gu he had.

[It's all a bit too convenient. It would be easier to assume my future self had planned for this to happen, but if that were the case wouldn't it have been more important to tell me about the existence of Bind Law gu, instead of Unnoticeable heart gu? Wait, no! Unnoticeable heart gu would have allowed me to make it above rank 6 and since even he didn't know the truth, to him Bind Law gu was a lot less valuable. He had probably never even thought Bind Law gu was something valuable.]

Tide stretched ~ [This all leads to one very important question who or what changed my memories!?]

"That glass-like screen above your head." ~ Dragon Whale interrupted his thinking ~ "It reminds me of Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable!"

When Tide heard that, everything suddenly fell into place. [A will inside his head suspiciously hiding something, probably the formation. Ten years of living a lie, my memories weren't just tampered with, I actually lived ten years. Suspiciously brought to another world, one would need more than heaven path to grab someone in the middle of space] ~ What did this all signify?

Three people: One, an expert at making formations. Another one is an expert at using time, and the last one is an expert at space manipulation.

[Paradise Earth made me live a lie so I would be ready for this world, Red Lotus helped him to make me ready faster, and Thieving Heaven... why would Thieving Heaven be in on this? Wait! He had a doa guardian! But shouldn't he be dead?]

"Well played good sir! Well played! You have solved the riddle! Personally, I love games and my favorite type? Making heroes! The type of game where you guide the character's decisions. give him a little nudge here and a little nudge there. Eventually, you end up with someone perfect." ~ Sha Xiao appeared inside Tide's head, "At first Paradise Earth was disgusted with my plan, but a little push here and little 'Fang Yuan will destroy the world' there. Was all the convincing he needed. Oh, but it was so worth it! I mean look at you, stats that anyone would wish for!"

"If you wanted a hero, then why the suppression of my memories and attributes?" ~ Tide was strangely calm, almost as if the story he was hearing wasn't about him.

"Hmm, simple really. A person who couldn't solve this little problem stood no chance of becoming a hero!" ~ Sha Xiao was fiddling with something that looked like a pen.

"When did it begin?"

"Go back to before the training camp, way back to when you were in that little village, the day your parents died"

"Well I was at home eating a potato, I remember because it was the first time I ever had a potato, it was delicious!"

"Then what happened?"

"Well I went outside to play, and then our village was attacked by a mafia group, our house got lit a flame and then the trucks from a nearby military base came, I had asked for them to help get my parents out of the house... wait... that doesn't sound right."

"Tide, there was no nearby military base. At the ripe age of 10, you died... And your soul was brought here."

Tide's face darkened ~ "But that would mean... Felix never existed..."

"Of course, did you really think someone would teach you a complete stranger, morality, survival, and how to scheme all out of the kindness of their heart actually existed?" ~ Sha Xiao smiled with a big grin, [This is the last part of the test, either he will break or he will fight] ~ However what happened next was completely out of Sha Xiao's expectations.

Tide stood up, a single tear rolled down his face, and cupped his hands to Sha Xiao, "Thank you, Teacher!" ~ He wasn't sad about the lie, no the tear that rolled down his face, was a tear of thankfulness.

"Hahahahaha, well done Tide! Well done! You went above and beyond! How did you figure it out?"

Tide waved his hand dismissively, "Let's not waste time on that, I have a very important question. How do you explain the book 'Reverend Insanity'?"

Sha Xiao slowly went to the sitting position, when a chair suddenly appeared under him. "All luck I must say. After running in the chaos for who knows how long. I woke up and saw I was back on earth, planes in the sky, and the sound of the morning train. It was around 2015-ish. And life was horrible! Granted the world of gu was horrible, but that was when I was weak. After being on earth for a while I realized I had it going 'good' in the gu world, I was top of the food chain! I searched for a way to get back for so long and I was this close to giving up! But Imagine by luck when a book called Gu Daoist Master showed up! At first, I thought it odd. Gu, Dao, Master, but that's when it clicked! I found the man as quickly as I could. Of course, he quickly denied everything, saying things like 'You're crazy' or 'get out of my house', but I was persistent! And eventually, he caved.

He said, 'Fine use this door! Mess up the story, I've already made enough dough to be satisfied'

Sadly when I came back I didn't have all my powerful abilities, and there was another venerable in town, called Paradise Earth, apparently, time moves weirdly or this Gu Zhen Re person was a hidden venerable. To make things short, me and Paradise Earth got together made a plan and asked the will in the river of time for some help and here you are!"

Tide was about to ask another question, but Sha Xiao raised his hand ~ "This has been fun, but before we go, Paradise Earth would like to speak with you."

Another figure silently appeared from inside Tide's brain ~ "I would like to apologize for what I... We put you through, but it was the only way!"

This posed even more questions for Tide, but before he could speak Sha Xiao raised his hand again ~ "Sadly just like poor story writing, we have to go. Why? Cause wills can only last so long, but before I vanish, hear these parting words! 'A sailor went to ccc, to see what he could ccc, but all he could ccc, was the treasure at the deep blue ccc'."

As he slowly faded away, Paradise Earth rolled his eyes and slowly faded with him.

"Poor story writing indeed!" ~ Tide had a deep laugh.

"Um, don't mind me interrupting, but what was that?" ~ Blue Dragon Whale was there to witness the whole thing.

"That last part was a children's song." ~ Tide couldn't be bothered at the moment to explain everything, so he just gave a Gu that had everything, the visions, his fake history, and his time here.

Tide recognized that keeping it all a secret would no longer pose any benefit while telling the truth would also no longer pose any threat.

"I came here as fast as I could when I heard about Paradise Earth showing up!" ~ Hong Yu was informed by Tide about this the moment Paradise Earth showed himself.

Tide also handed him a copy, ~ "Does that song ring any bells for you?"

Hong Yu closed his eyes deeply, but quickly opened them, "Wait a minute, this can't all be true!"

"Oh is your image of Paradise Earth tarnished because he made a child live a lie? If that's so don't feel too upset, I've already forgiven, I believe this is what they call grooming?" ~ Tide turned to Blue Dragon Whale. ~ "When can I talk with Shen Shang."

"Should be possible by tomorrow"

[That's not what you originally said, well I suppose now that you know how heavily Paradise Earth has invested in me you're going all in] ~ "Good! Hong Yu, that song?"

Hong Yu with a depressed expression said, "Follow me."