Back at the villa, Ren Baqian began to daydream.

He had handed Shen Feng the task of digging up information regarding Qi Jiayu. Such a request would no doubt be a piece of cake for him (her)?

Ren Baqian fell deep into thought. His mental state earlier that day was extremely weird, as if he had been possessed by a demon. All he had been able to think about was murder.

Prior to that, the first person he had felt this compelled to kill was the Seventh Prince.

That killing intent was unsurmountable.

Up until then, he himself had not even slaughtered a chicken.

Yet, this time around, things were a little different.

The Seventh Prince was exactly like him. Ren Baqian felt as though he had been thrown into a death battle the moment he laid eyes on him—only one of them could survive. Ren Baqian could sense that the Seventh Prince felt the same.

He surmised that there was some sort of inexplicable connection between the two doppelgangers that was driving this need to eliminate the other.

This girl, however, looked like the empress. Shouldn't she be the one who felt murderous instead?

The idea that popped into his head was completely out of whack too. It felt as if someone had implanted it into his brain.

The killing intent had swiftly taken over his mind, flus.h.i.+ng everything else out of his consciousness.

It wasn't until he walked into the campus grounds that he managed to calm down.

Odd!

Just what was going on?

He would discuss the matter with the empress and see her reaction before making further deductions.

What could have caused this?

Could it be the metal chain? That thing was embedded within his consciousness, and seemed like the most probable candidate.

That shouldn't be the case, though!

He had only been able to sense it after much contact with it during cultivation practice. The metal chain was like a sheet of blank paper; a young, naive child that acted purely on its whims.

How could something like this affect him so much?

On the other hand, what else could it possibly be?

…

Yang Sen stared oddly at the article.

The article talked about an incident that happened at SH University in the afternoon. Anyone would have been dumbfounded by its content.

That Ren Baqian actually went to SH University to s.n.a.t.c.h someone's boyfriend?

This was such exciting news.

"Any progress?" Yang Sen lifted his head to ask.

Across the room stood an effeminate middle aged man. Yang Sen would have no trouble believing the report if it had been on this man instead.

"His target isn't the guy," the middle aged man replied. He spoke unhurriedly in his strange accent.

"His target is the girl named Qi Jiayu," he continued.

Yang Sen looked at him without saying a word. This wasn't surprising news.

He was much more interested in the motivations behind Ren Baqian's actions.

"Take a look at this information first!" The middle aged man waved a folder in his face.

Yang Sen looked at the photograph at the top of the folder in surprise.

"Doesn't she look familiar?" The middle aged man giggled in a charming manner.

Yang Sen had no idea why the word charming had sprung up in his head, but he immediately felt a wave of nausea wash over him.

He sternly responded, "Indeed, it's no wonder he went all the way to SH University."

"I doubt you'd be able to guess why he actually went to SH University." The middle aged man laughed.

"Really?" Yang Sen chuckled sarcastically. Anyone would be riled up if they saw someone who looked exactly the same as their significant other.

"Take a look at these as well," the middle aged man said as he took out a pile of printed photographs.

"This was from the restaurant's CCTV. Luckily there was a surveillance camera facing in his direction, otherwise we would have missed out on this important piece of information."

Yang Sen picked up the stack of photos and quickly flipped through them. His expression turned grave and his brows furrowed in thought.

"That look in his eyes, what does it reflect?" Yang Sen asked as he studied one of the later photos. Even he could see that there was something not quite right with Ren Baqian's facial expression. The expert standing before him had surely picked that out already.

"Killing intent! He wants to kill that girl!" The middle aged man made a mock pistol with his hand, pointed it at Yang Sen, and said, "Bang!"

"Why?" Yang Sen couldn't understand why.

"Love has no logic and neither does hate. Humans are an odd breed, but there is something different about this situation. It is truly strange that he wanted to kill someone who resembles that almighty lady so much. There must be a reason."

"What are you trying to say?"

"There are a myriad of possibilities. For instance, love me, love my dog. Similarly hate me, hate my dog. The two parties have unequal strength. As much as his strength has reached the apex of human achievement, that lady is playing in a whole different league altogether. Even though she's not at the level of the mythical celestial beings, her power is beyond the reach of mere humans…"

"What are the odds of this being the true reason?" Yang Sen asked seriously. This was a severe issue with potentially severe ramifications.

"Probably quite small. I have, after all, seen both of their behaviors. If they can hide from me, then Earth owes them each an Oscar. Judging from their characters, I don't see any reason why they would want to fake their behaviors either."

Yang Sen felt like smas.h.i.+ng the ashtray on his head.

"But of course the only person who will know for sure is him. I'm merely speculating. Maybe he needs to kill his wife as a means of furthering his training? Their techniques are surely different from ours, and probably much more powerful."

(common trope in chinese cultivation novels)

"For all we know they might have weird requirements like killing someone close to you or murdering your wife. Since he isn't able to kill his own wife, finding someone similar as a subst.i.tute might work… Maybe he didn't have such thoughts at first, but it popped up the instant he saw that girl. In this case, the spontaneous killing intent would no longer be much of a surprise. Of course, this is only a conjecture. We know too little about this. Only he knows the full story."

Yang Sen was deep in thought. None of these were impossible scenarios.

…

Ren Baqian was oblivious to the fact that these guys had terrible misunderstandings about his intentions. He would no doubt vomit blood on them if he found out.

He had just received Qi Jiayu's information before leaving for Dayao, and Shen Feng delivered it personally. Ren Baqian was in no hurry to read it and placed it on his desk.

He still felt that his reaction was strange, so he decided to put this matter aside to avoid any major issues before leaving.

This could wait until he came back from Dayao.

A short while after, he brought 80 mortar sh.e.l.ls and 400 grenades with him to Dayao.

Upon reappearing at the spot he disappeared from, Ren Baqian softly called out. Several guards immediately appeared to greet him, "Sir!"

"Grab these things, and chase them through the night," Ren Baqian said flatly.

They were no longer surprised to see the huge boxes beside Ren Baqian.

After tying the boxes to the horned cows, Ren Baqian proceeded to tie himself to one as well. His lack of sleep last night caught up to him, and he soon began to doze off.

He had spent a good portion of the night pondering over his odd reaction. It distinctly felt as if he was under the influence of something.

The lull of sleep quickly washed over him upon his return. He could barely keep his eyelids from closing.

To him, Dayao now felt more peaceful than Earth.

Back on Earth, he had to watch out for the country, and there was a group of people out there researching him.

There were less annoyances in Dayao, so he felt much freer.