Qiao Xueying was stunned. “How could that be possible?” However, her face soon lit up in delight. “Isn’t that even better?” she replied. “You just have to speak the truth, and the villagers will all be cleared of suspicion!”

“How dumb do you have to be to actually say those words aloud?” Zu An looked at Qiao Xueying with scorn in his eyes. “Don’t you know the implications of speaking the truth? That’s basically affirming the fact that heaven has decreed the emperor’s death! There’s no way the emperor would let us off if we made such a report!”

“What do we do then?” exclaimed Qiao Xueying. “We can’t tell the truth, and the villagers here are innocent as well. We can’t possibly force one of them to be the scapegoat and confess, can we?”

“It won’t be easy to pull that off even if we wanted to do so,” replied Zu An, rather downcast. “The Qin Dynasty has extremely strict laws. Such grave disrespect to the emperor warrants the eradication of nine generations of the clan! Who would possibly admit to such a grievous crime, especially since they’re being wronged?”

“Doesn’t that mean that it’s impossible for us to find the murderer within a single day?” Qiao Xueying felt her heart sinking rapidly.

Zu An turned his gaze toward the villagers, his voice taking on a frosty edge. “There’s a way out of this.”

“What way?” asked Qiao Xueying.

“If no one wishes to admit to it, we just have to kill all of the villagers living in the vicinity of the meteor. The culprit has to be one of these villagers anyway, and the emperor doesn’t care too much about the lives of his people. With that, we can successfully close this case without a hitch,” replied Zu An deeply.

This was how the ‘Antares Occupying the Heart’ incident in the 36th Year of Qin Shihuang’s rule unfolded in history. No one in the village admitted to inscribing the words, so the officials eventually had all of the villagers killed. They would rather exterminate everyone than let the murderer run free.

Zu An was glad that he knew about this piece of history, which gave him a way out of this impossible choice and would allow him to clear the Heaven Seal much more easily than the earlier two trials.

However, Qiao Xueying immediately objected. “That won’t do! It’s too cruel. I won’t agree to it!”

Zu An frowned. “I’m sure you know that everything you see here is just an illusion produced by the Heaven Seal. They aren’t real people at all. What’s so cruel about this?”

Qiao Xueying shook her head vehemently and said, “In our earlier interactions with them, they did not seem at all different from normal human beings. Even if it’s just an illusion, I can’t bring myself to take the lives of so many innocent people for my own selfish goals. You can say that I’m naive and foolish, but this crosses a line that my conscience will not allow.”

Zu An scoffed in response, “But you sure were decisive when you chose to take my life, huh?”

Qiao Xueying felt her face immediately grow warm. “That’s different! You were bound to be an enemy, and you’re very hateful to boot. You can’t possibly expect me to show mercy to you.”

Zu An touched his own face and remarked, “Such a handsome face, and you actually found me hateful? It seems your eyes are nothing but ornaments for your face.”

Qiao Xueying glared at him in silence.

At that moment, Lord Wang rushed over and whispered to Zu An, “Lord Censor, we’ve interrogated all of the villagers, but none of them admit to knowing how to write. I think we should just…”

He drew his thumb across his neck, gesturing that they should kill off the villagers. “This way, the culprit won’t be able to escape justice, and we’ll be able to remain accountable to His Majesty.”

Before Zu An could reply, Qiao Xueying jumped in. “That won’t do!”

Lord Wang’s face darkened. “Young miss, if you have such strong objections to how I do things, why don’t you offer another solution? If we don’t kill these people, we’ll be the ones to face death! Lord Censor, we have to be decisive in times like these!”

Qiao Xueying tugged Zu An’s sleeves, seeking his support.

Zu An sighed deeply and said, “Lord Wang, interrogate them once more. If there are still no clues, we’ll figure out another solution.”

“I understand, Lord Censor,” replied Lord Wang with a nod.

Just as he was about to leave, a soldier suddenly rushed forward and reported, “Bad news, my lord! The village chief died in the middle of his interrogation, and his son is causing a ruckus right now. He turns out to be a fairly powerful cultivator, and he has already injured quite a few of our brothers!”

Lord Wang huffed in anger. “Preposterous! How dare he mess around at a time like this? Anyone who tries to obstruct public order ought to pay with his life. Kill him!”

“Yes, my Lord!” 

The soldier was just about to leave the area when Zu An suddenly stopped him. “Wait a moment! How did the village chief die?”

“Lord Censor, the village chief was already in poor health, and the earlier shock only worsened his condition. Our brothers may have tortured him slightly during the interrogation, but we made sure not to go too far! All the other villagers were able to bear it. The village chief is the only one who suddenly dropped dead!” The soldier’s reply was hurried, and he constantly mopped away the cold sweat from his forehead.

Zu An nodded in response. If the village chief was already in poor condition, it wasn’t too surprising that he would die during interrogation. It was the standard practice in this era to torture the suspects in order to extract confessions, so the soldiers couldn’t really be blamed for this.

“For the time being, capture his son and lock him up. I’ll deal with him later on.”

“Yes, my Lord!”

The soldier quickly left to carry out Zu An’s order, and soon, Chen Wei found himself surrounded by a platoon of soldiers. No matter how violently he struggled, it was hard for him to deal with so many enemies at once. Soon, his hands were bound in chains, and he was locked up in a room.

“Are you really intending to kill them?” asked Qiao Xueying anxiously.

Zu An turned to look into her eyes for a moment before asking, “Do you really intend to save them?”

Qiao Xueying nodded right away.

He pondered for a moment before saying, “If you promise to call me ‘big brother’ from now onward, I’ll consider helping you.”

“I…” Qiao Xueying’s face reddened. She had only called him this back then because she thought that she was already on the verge of death, and was not about to die while remaining ignorant. There was no way she could bring herself to call him ‘big brother’ under normal circumstances.

Zu An sighed deeply and remarked, “It looks like you’re all talk. You spoke as if you really wanted to save all of these people, but in the end, you can’t even give up your pride and call me ‘big brother’ for their sake.”

Qiao Xueying huffed angrily. “You’re taking advantage of me!”

Zu An shrugged. “Have I ever claimed to be a saint before? Why would I bother helping a bunch of people unrelated to me if there’s nothing in it for me? Not to mention these people tried to backstab me earlier on.”

Qiao Xueying gritted her teeth. “Will you really save them if I call you big brother?”

“Just to be sure, I’m expecting you to continue calling me that in the future,” corrected Zu An. “Also, I’ll only be trying my best. There’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to save them.”

“If you can’t even guarantee success, why should I continue calling you big brother? That’s ridiculous!” Qiao Xueying protested.

“Well, you can stop calling me big brother if I fail to save them, but you should at least call me that at the start, no?” asked Zu An with a smile.

“All right then. I hope that you can hold up your end of the bargain…” Qiao Xueying pursed her lips as her face blushed bright red. It took her a while before she finally murmured softly, “B-big brother.”

Zu An leaned a little closer as he asked, “What did you say? You were so soft that I couldn't hear you clearly.”

Qiao Xueying glared at him angrily. “Don’t go too far!” 

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for 33 Rage points!

“What can I do? Your voice was too soft.” 

Zu An was a little disappointed by how few Rage points Qiao Xueying was contributing now. She used to be like a barrel of gunpowder, exploding with Rage points at the slightest jab. Recently, though, it seemed like her gunpowder had started to run low, and her contribution of Rage points was getting pathetic.

“You’ll be dead meat if you dare to lie to me!” Left with no choice, Qiao Xueying said once more, her face entirely red, “Big brother!”

Zu An burst into laughter. “Yes, my good little sis. How obedient!”

With that, he began making his way toward where Chen Wei was imprisoned.

Meanwhile, Qiao Xueying remained rooted to the spot. She subconsciously touched her own cheeks and realized that they were burning hot. I must be going mad!

Meanwhile, Zu An stopped outside Chen Wei’s temporary cell and fell into deep contemplation. It should go without saying that he wasn’t choosing to save the villagers just because Qiao Xueying called him big brother. He was someone who had come from the modern world after all. His own values did not allow him to selfishly let so many innocent people die.

His logical mind told him that these villagers were just illusions created by the Heaven Seal, but his senses were telling him a different story. All of it felt far too real to him, and he couldn’t differentiate the villagers from anyone else he had met before. He wasn’t willing to take this gamble, and he didn’t want this to be a trauma that scarred him for the rest of his life.

All along, ever since he first laid eyes on the words on the meteor, he had been racking his brain to figure a way out of this quandary. Even if Qiao Xueying hadn’t called him ‘big brother’, he would have still tried his best to save them.

If Qiao Xueying knows about this, she would probably provide an explosion of Rage points, right?

However, Zu An still decided against telling her all this. Compared to several thousand Rage points, he thought that it was much more worth it to have that lass call him ‘big brother’ in the future. The knowledge that she used to be an enemy who had attempted to kill him once before made the entire thing even more so exhilarating. 

He quickly composed himself before pushing the door open and entering the room. Within, Chen Wei was firmly tied to a pillar.

“Scumbag official, I knew that you looked suspicious from the very start! This must be your scheme!” Chen Wei’s eyes immediately reddened upon seeing Zu An, and he struggled to free himself from his rope to pounce on him, to no avail.

You have successfully trolled Chen Wei for 444 Rage points!

“Hold still!” One of the guards swung his pole down on Chen Wei to silence him before offering Zu An a fawing glance. “Don’t you dare disrespect Lord Censor!”

Zu An nodded in response before saying, “I have questions to ask him. Wait outside.”

“Yes, of course!” 

The guards quickly made their way out of the room.

By then, Qiao Xueying had finally caught up with him, and she closed the door behind her, keeping a wary watch outside to prevent anyone from approaching.

Only then did Zu An finally start speaking. “I know that you’ve been framed.”

“You scumbag, it was you all along!” Chen Wei’s eyes burned with hatred. Just thinking about his father’s death and the suffering the other villagers were going through made his anger flare.

You have successfully trolled Chen Wei for 999 Rage points!

“There’s no need to get so agitated. I’m here to save you,” replied Zu An.

“Save me?” Chen Wei sneered. “Should I thank you for that, then?”

“Chen Wei, my… my big brother is really here to save you!” said Qiao Xueying, trying to persuade him.

Hearing those words, Chen Wei glared sharply at Zu An before finally falling silent.

“I know that you’ve been framed because I ran over to the meteor the moment it landed. The words were already inscribed on its surface,” said Zu An.

Chen Wei convulsed in horror upon hearing those words. “Doomed. Our entire village is doomed!”

Zu An was surprised to hear those words from the other party. “What makes you say that?”

The horrified Chen Wei stared blankly into space as he murmured, “I thought that we might be able to survive this ordeal if we found the culprit who inscribed those words, but if those words are really a decree from heaven… There’s no way the emperor would stand for something like this! He’ll surely push the blame to us so as to put down any unease caused by this matter!”

Qiao Xueying couldn’t help but glance at Zu An. Those words were surprisingly similar to what she’d heard from him earlier.

Zu An also hadn’t expected this brawny man to be so sharp-witted as to figure out the implications right away. “It seems like you’re a rather smart man. I do know a way to get you out of this, but I’m not sure if you’ll have the guts to carry it out.”