How to Bring Common Sense to Xianxia World

After the two finished teasing and playing with each other, Wei Chen’s mind finally relaxed.

"Thank you..."

The unexpected thanks confused Mo Xingyao. She did not know why Wei Chen suddenly thanked her. But listening to his tone, it sounded sincere.

"Why are you thanking me? I didn’t do anything in particular." Mo Xingyao said as she looked to the side, avoiding Wei Chen’s eyes.

Wei Chen only smiled. After adjusting his mood, he began to tell everything to Mo Xingyao. Of course, he framed all of his experiences as merely his duty in the Underworld Palace, and described the Ancient Hidden Sect as not the kind of real Underworld. He also did not tell her about his previous life or his reincarnation. Those were things he would rather take to his grave.

Mo Xingyao listened patiently to Wei Chen. This display of patience and understanding even surprised him, as he had thought she might rudely interrupt or try to assert herself. But she simply listened. If there was anything she did not understand, she waited for Wei Chen to finish his sentence before slowly asking, raising her hand or signaling him with her eyes that she wanted clarification.

After about an hour of explanation, describing his duties and the problem, Mo Xingyao finally nodded in understanding.

"So... in conclusion, the duty of the Underworld Palace you are in is to regulate the flow of the souls of the deceased into reincarnation. Hunting for death cheaters and anomalous or evil souls is also part of the job. Am I correct?" she said.

She continued, "And the problem that made your face wrinkle so much is because an anomalous soul from the future, called a regressor, has appeared. And you don’t know how to proceed because he knows a lot about the future and its secrets?"

"That’s the sum of it." Wei Chen nodded, then added, "I know how this kind of bastard thinks. They will most likely use their knowledge of the future to take advantage of their current life. The problem is, I don’t know who, what, where, when, why, or how."

"Isn’t that basically everything?" Mo Xingyao retorted.

She fell silent for a moment, thinking, then said, "You said that it’s Lian Cheng who is the regressor, right? From what I saw, Lian Cheng first tried to get close to me."

"Huh?" Wei Chen looked at her. "He did?"

"Mm." She nodded. "He seems to be very skilled at forging artifacts. Most likely, his goal is to get resources from me, but he seems reluctant to commit to joining us. Or rather, he doesn’t want to serve anyone."

Wei Chen smiled. "That is a typical mindset for someone with knowledge from the future. If I were him, I would try to capitalize on it too.

"For example, if I knew there was a secret mine somewhere, I would try to claim it. If I knew certain goods were going to rise in value, I would speculate on them. If I knew someone was going to rise, I would do them favors while they were still crawling on the ground before reaching the top. That is common sense for how regressors think."

He paused and shrugged. "I just don’t know their target. After all, I don’t know the future, and I was just a vagabond who liked adventure."

Mo Xingyao sneered. "Are you trying to humblebrag? The young master of a branch of the Underworld Palace."

Her sneer faded, replaced by a solemn expression as she propped her chin and looked upward, deep in thought.

"Then that is very strange," she muttered.

"Huh? Strange? What’s strange?" Wei Chen asked, confused.

Mo Xingyao explained, "I remember a report from one of my moles in the Heavenly Sword Sect. This Lian Cheng used some secret passage in a forgotten ruin to teleport into the Flaming Lotus Secret Realm.

"Over there, he was greeted by a group of Heavenly Sword Sect disciples who operated a mining camp for fire crystals. In the end, he bought some of the fire crystals from that camp. He seemed to be surprised by the fact that..."

"Wait..." Wei Chen interrupted, catching onto something. "You said that guy was surprised? Surprised to see a mining camp there?"

"Mm." Mo Xingyao nodded, her expression tinged with confusion. "That’s right. He was surprised. That’s why I think it’s strange."

"Because... if he truly came from the future, why was he surprised?" she concluded.

Wei Chen fell silent. The reason he knew Lian Cheng was a regressor was because there were two identical souls in this world. The first was Lian Cheng, who had already died and was now working in the Underworld to accumulate power before reincarnating. The other was this troublesome regressor.

At first, he thought this Lian Cheng had come from the future under rules similar to time travel in Terminator, where there was only one timeline, and any change in the past would alter the future.

But... what if time travel in this world worked like in the Avengers? It created a new branch of timeline, and whatever was done in this new branch would not change the original timeline.

Now the real question was, what had changed that made the regressor surprised? What variable caused his predicted future to diverge?

Wait... he remembered now. Wasn’t the Flaming Lotus Secret Realm the first place he had done the broadcast? The one about the dangers of the realm, to reduce the death rate of cultivators. And after that, it led to a secret realm gold rush.

Did that mean... in the regressor’s original timeline, there was no him?

So... the variable was him.

Thinking it through, Wei Chen finally understood. If that was the case, then this regressor might not be as troublesome as he first thought. Wei Chen had already made many waves since arriving here. Countless butterfly effects had occurred.

That man might still rely on outdated information from his original timeline to form his plans, but that would not last long. Someone capable of climbing the ranks and becoming a regressor must be a Heaven’s Chosen.

He needed to hurry. That guy would not remain oblivious for long.

"Do you happen to know where that guy is right now?" Wei Chen asked.

Mo Xingyao thought for a moment, then turned toward Yin Lan. She whispered something into Yin Lan’s ear, telling her to fetch something.

Yin Lan nodded, then vanished.

After about three minutes, Yin Lan returned. In her hand was a stack of papers. She handed them to Mo Xingyao.

Mo Xingyao took the stack and flipped through it, quickly checking each page. After a few minutes, she said, "Ah, found it." She pulled out one page and began reading its contents.

"From the latest report from one of my scouts, he had brief contact with a courier from the Sword Resting Inn."

"Sword Resting Inn?" Wei Chen repeated.

"Yes, it is an inn under the management of the Heavenly Sword Sect," Mo Xingyao replied.

"You always keep an eye on him, huh?" Wei Chen said without thinking much.

"I always keep an eye on anyone interesting or anyone causing a commotion. Otherwise, I would not know that he is trying to get on my radar. The moment I heard that someone had goods that were impossible to find in the flea market within my territory, I naturally did my best to investigate him," Mo Xingyao explained.

Wei Chen looked at her with a teasing smile. "Relax, I was just saying. I am not some overly jealous buffoon who would try to control your every move."

"Hmph. I know you would not be jealous about me. You would only be jealous about Sister Dream Butterfly. I know I am not as beautiful as her, not as gentle as her, and not as good at cooking as her. Also..." Mo Xingyao suddenly began a salty rant out of nowhere.

"Whoa, slow down. I was just saying. Who said I would not get jealous? I am just..." Wei Chen tried to continue his explanation, but Mo Xingyao glared at him before snorting dismissively.

Wei Chen could not help but feel a headache coming on. Women... why suddenly? What happened?

He did not know how to continue after her sudden rant, so he paused. The pause gave him time to think. He recalled the typical moves that regressors or Heaven’s Chosen would make in this kind of situation.

"Does this Sword Resting Inn offer services like an information broker or something along those lines?" he asked after giving it some thought.

Mo Xingyao, who had just finished her rant, shifted her attention back to him. What was wrong with her? Why had she suddenly reacted like that? She knew Wei Chen had only been teasing her as usual.

She calmed herself, taking a breath before answering.

"Of course. In fact, all inns under the management of a sect have such services. It depends on whether they are open to the public or restricted for internal use. In the case of the Sword Resting Inn, it is the latter," Mo Xingyao clarified.

"Was there someone, perhaps an unknown mysterious expert, who went into that inn recently? Especially a day or two before that courier contacted him?" Wei Chen asked.

"There was. An unknown person contacted the Sword Resting Inn and had a discussion there for quite some time," Mo Xingyao said.

Bingo!

Wei Chen celebrated inwardly.