Chapter 699: Chapter 697: The Moment of Feasting (14)_1 Chapter 699: Chapter 697: The Moment of Feasting (14)_1 The performance remained a performance, but this time Fu Qian chose a new narrative direction, completely changing from the previous style.

And facing his such resolute posture, Dr. Cynthia just stared expressionlessly, not in a rush to express any opinions.

“An interesting question,”
Amid such a gaze, Fu Qian suddenly snorted after half a minute, his words laden with disdain.

“In my normal state, I really wouldn’t ask myself that.”

“…Patch?”

After stopping for several seconds, his tone finally became somewhat hesitant.

“Mere idle thoughts.”

Seemingly convincing himself, Fu Qian even shook his head.

In the time that followed, he chose protracted silence.

Even so, it was still possible to see the smile on his face gradually fade away.

Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say it shifted.

Because Dr. Cynthia clearly seemed much more satisfied.

She appeared to enjoy the changes in Fu Qian before and after.

And just when Fu Qian furrowed his brows tightly and clenched his fists, she lifted the black curtain, covering the Soul Guidance once again.

Fu Qian was startled, as if waking from a dream.

But after looking up at Dr. Cynthia, he took a deep breath the next moment, dispelling the bewildered confusion from his face.

“Indeed, it’s an interesting transcendent item, for me, it counts as a rare experience.”

“Oh, how is it rare?”

Dr. Cynthia, rather than agreeing or disagreeing, took a pen and paper and began to record with utmost seriousness.

…

This action seemed to exert a certain psychological pressure.

Fu Qian hesitated slightly, then began to organize his phrasing.

“To converse and examine oneself from a special perspective, of course, occasionally there would be some noise.”

“Understandable, so what kind of noise was it?”

Dr. Cynthia continued to inquire while recording.

“…Patch.”

Fu Qian hesitated for a moment and finally let out a name.

“He called me Patch.”

“‘He’ called you, or you called yourself?”

The smile on Dr. Cynthia’s face grew stronger.

…

“Just a jumble of delirious mutterings, is there any need to differentiate?”

After pondering for a moment, Fu Qian hummed and tapped his own head.

“Are you suggesting that’s my innermost true recognition?”

“You’re attempting to use this kind of boring speculation to make me doubt myself? You’re still a bit too naive.”

“I am a test subject, never inclined towards any pointless notions.”

Facing Fu Qian’s accusation, Dr. Cynthia’s smile did not diminish.

“For me, I just need you to answer questions truthfully,”
“So I’ll ask again, does that name from earlier feel at all familiar to you?”

“I hope you think it over seriously before answering me, and not such self-comfort coming from fear.”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“You don’t understand? Patch should understand, so think again,”
Dr. Cynthia fingered the pen in her hand.

…

Fu Qian finally fell silent.

After a long while, he raised his head and made a familiar request.

“I want to go down there again to confirm some things,” he said.

“I’m glad you’re starting to recognize your True Self.”

Dr. Cynthia showed no guilt for having deceived someone completely, smiling as she added a note to her records.

“But you’ll have to wait a moment, this time you will be tested with two other people… or should I say three? Before you confirm your true name…”

She continued with her demonic ramblings, satisfied to see Fu Qian’s expression grow even darker.

However, just as she was about to summon two guards to take Fu Qian away, Dr. Cynthia’s brow furrowed in the next moment.

“You…”

Her expression quickly froze, and she looked Fu Qian up and down with disbelief.

“You’re playing me!” she accused.

The next moment, her tone became filled with gritted teeth.

“I don’t understand what you mean,” he said.

The law of the consistent smile once again took effect as the corners of Fu Qian’s mouth lifted slightly.

“You didn’t hear Patch’s voice at all!” Dr. Cynthia accused furiously.

Indeed!

In the face of Dr. Cynthia’s emotional roller coaster, Fu Qian nodded contentedly to himself.

Considering his immunity to Soul Guidance, of course, he hadn’t heard the name Patch.

The performance just now was merely a test.

And it proved to be very fruitful.

Now, Fu Qian had a bold guess about how she had confirmed his lies.

Taking into account the entire process, the cognition he had displayed went through several fluctuations.

He first emphatically denied being influenced in his cognition, then under the influence of Soul Guidance, he began to doubt himself, and finally, after reluctantly stabilizing his cognition, he once again doubted under the subtle guidance of Dr. Cynthia.

And what was miraculous was that the result turned out to be the same as before.

When he doubted himself due to Soul Guidance, Dr. Cynthia clearly did not realize she was being fooled.

However, afterwards, when he became unsettled again due to her words, she suddenly saw through his deceit without any warning.

In both instances, Fu Qian didn’t think he had revealed any flaws.

Excluding this aspect, Fu Qian, who was adept at divergent thinking, came upon a peculiar commonality–the two times Dr. Cynthia noticed were when “she” wanted to influence him.

The first time, she tried to make him believe that Patch was merely a figment of his cognition, and the second time, it was the exact opposite; she wanted to convince him that Patch was his True Self.

While seemingly contradictory, the essence was the same: she was trying to use her words to change his cognition.

And when he went along with it, pretending to be convinced, his disguise was quickly discovered by her.

On the other hand, when he pretended to be misled by Soul Guidance, she didn’t notice at all.

The difference really lay in “her”–Dr. Cynthia. If she was fooled by her own attempts to influence him, she would realize it immediately.

It sounded quite mystical, but Fu Qian could think of a scenario that would make this possible.

In past missions, he had encountered certain entities known as oaths.

In those incidents, under the influence of special beings, some conceptual things became actualized around “Them,” such as sin, corruption, and so on.

So, could it be that the Dimming Pony below was similar to the Goddess of Sin and Punishment, the Angel’s Mirror?

Did it make deception, or rather, the distortion of others’ cognition, actualized?

And once this setting was accepted, Dr. Cynthia’s reactions became quite understandable.

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With the deliberate guidance she exerted on him, if he truly believed, she would receive some sort of actualized feedback.

Conversely, no matter how flawless his performance was, as long as she didn’t receive feedback, she could confirm that he was only pretending to be deceived.

This was the method of discernment she said she would never tell him!

In addition, there was one more piece of evidence supporting this conclusion–the cycle that only lasted for a short, fixed period every year.

Almost all the oaths he had encountered before shared this characteristic.