Chapter 173: Follow the Clues to the Source

Within this Future Lie:

"The others cannot enact Judgment on the lies she told previously."

This single sentence was enough to pull Qiu Yinong back from the brink of death.

I had absolutely no chance to salvage the situation.

I had missed my opportunity.

However, I could not help but recall what had just happened. After Chen Ran proposed the contents of the Future Lie, I was just about to analyze it sentence by sentence when Long Hui urged me to hurry up.

Because of that, I failed to notice the hidden flaw in the Future Lie.

Why did Long Hui do that?

There were two possibilities:

After all, Qiu Yinong was the target the three Three-Star Players were fighting over in this Instance. They could not possibly let her die.

Two: He was helping me.

Judging from the situation, as long as Long Hui protected me, I could converse with him, avoid his skill, and force Diwu Zeyi and Dorje to fight each other. Was that why he was helping me?

I needed to analyze them one by one.

The first possibility seemed reasonable, but if he really was covering for Qiu Yinong, it made Chen Ran look incredibly stupid.

The logic here was simple. As long as the players present were not interfered with, any of them should have been able to hear the flaw in the Future Lie.

Chen Ran could not possibly throw out a Future Lie that would allow others to deduce that Qiu Yinong had lied. He was currently a public enemy. If Qiu Yinong died, no one would converse with him to avoid Long Hui's skill, and his situation would become a hundred times more difficult than it was now.

Of course, the three Three-Star Players could not kill Qiu Yinong, but I certainly could.

Moreover, I had not yet spoken my Future Lie at the time. Who could restrain me?

As long as that sentence existed, Qiu Yinong would definitely die, and Chen Ran was not that stupid.

The first possibility could be ruled out!

The second possibility: Long Hui urging me earlier was actually him helping me.

If he had not interfered with me, I would have definitely deduced from the sentence "The others cannot enact Judgment on the lies she told previously."...

The hidden flaw within it.

I would have deduced that Qiu Yinong had lied.

And subsequently enacted Judgment on her.

Since Long Hui was helping me, it meant that if I enacted Judgment on Qiu Yinong, my Judgment would definitely fail, and I would be tricked into telling a lie.

A failed Judgment...

That meant Qiu Yinong had already accomplished her Avoidance of Lying in advance.

Among the skills of the six people present, only the Wheel of Time could achieve the Avoidance of Lying.

In other words...

The current timeline had been created by Qiu Yinong's Wheel of Time!!

Holy crap!

I fell for it?!!

Calm down!

Calm down!

Calm down!

Qiu Yinong's skill was very special and had a predetermined nature. In layman's terms, since she could use the Wheel of Time once, she could definitely use it a second time.

Simply because of the Time Loop.

As long as she paid a little attention, she would not change the direction of events within the Time Loop.

Which loop was this?

After Chen Ran used Eternal Kingdom, Qiu Yinong became a liar.

This was information that all five of them knew clearly. I was the only one in the dark.

Therefore, the first thing those five had to do was help Qiu Yinong achieve the Avoidance of Lying.

But they could not explicitly say it out loud, terrified that I would notice something amiss in their conversation.

If I were a Three-Star Player, I would definitely pass the buck to Chen Ran. After all, he was the one who caused this mess, and Qiu Yinong was his teammate, so naturally, he should be the one to clean it up.

If I were Chen Ran...

What should I do to openly state a solution without letting Li Zhitong notice anything wrong?

A Future Lie!

That was exactly the case. Chen Ran had been talking about the Future Lie proposal all along, so his solution could only be hidden within the Future Lie.

First: Propose "Future Lie 1".

Second: Gain everyone's approval. Qiu Yinong says, "I lied." These words were both the activation phrase for her skill and the lie she presented to us.

Finally: After the Three-Star Players and I used our skills, Qiu Yinong would immediately use the Wheel of Time to execute a Time Reset.

The new timeline:

First: Propose "Future Lie 2".

Second: Qiu provides the lie.

Finally: All five people, including Qiu Yinong, use their skills to execute another Time Reset.

The third timeline: This was the current timeline, where Chen Ran proposed "Future Lie 3", which was also the final version.

Simply put.

The normal timeline plus the two timelines created by the Wheel of Time made a total of three timelines. Chen Ran had proposed three Future Lies.

The first timeline: Chen Ran wanted to use "Future Lie 1" to make Qiu Yinong immune to Judgment.

The second timeline: Chen Ran wanted to use "Future Lie 2" to help Qiu Yinong achieve the Avoidance of Lying regarding her identity as a liar.

The third timeline: Chen Ran wanted to use "Future Lie 3" to trick me into telling a lie.

Of course, it was also possible that there were more than three timelines, but there definitely had to be three timelines with these three outcomes.

After all, helping Qiu Yinong shed her identity as a liar and tricking me into telling a lie were both extremely important tasks to him.

No matter how many timelines were created, the final result would always point toward these two objectives.

"Future Lie 1": Buying insurance in advance to put Qiu Yinong in a state where the other four could not enact Judgment on her. This way, even if someone noticed the flaws in "Future Lie 2 or 3", Qiu Yinong would not die.

This was now the third timeline, which corresponded to "Future Lie 3":

Within it...

The sentence "The others cannot enact Judgment on the lies she told previously." could not have appeared in "Future Lie 1".

Simply because, if this sentence had been in "Future Lie 1", I might have discovered the flaw, and Qiu Yinong would have undoubtedly died.

Chen Ran could not afford to take that gamble.

Therefore, "The others cannot enact Judgment on the lies she told previously" was replaced with something like "Cannot enact Judgment on her next lie."

At the same time, "Future Lie 1" still needed to make Qiu Yinong immune to Judgment.

In that case...

In the condition "The other five cannot touch their respective Liar-Slayers, unless someone tells a lie after this minute"...

The part saying "unless someone tells a lie after this minute" could not have appeared either.

Only in this way, even if I deduced that Qiu Yinong had lied, I would be restrained by the Future Lie preventing me from touching the Liar-Slayer, making it impossible to enact Judgment on her. Furthermore, this could be disguised under the pretense of preventing the liar from taking Qiu Yinong down with them.

There was a problem here...

If the phrase "unless someone tells a lie after this minute" was missing, it meant that no matter who was tricked into telling a lie, the only person capable of enacting Judgment on the liar would be Qiu Yinong.

How could I possibly agree to such a condition?

There must have been a supplementary agreement.

For example, if someone told a lie, Qiu Yinong would be forced to enact Judgment on the liar.

(From an omniscient perspective, the "Future Lie 1" proposed by Chen Ran did not have this supplementary agreement. Hint: Turned Upside Down.)

So...

Deleting and replacing those two sentences from "Future Lie 3" would result in "Future Lie 1".

"Future Lie 2":

It must have included "The others cannot enact Judgment on the lies she told previously."

The reason was simple. Qiu Yinong could directly lay her cards on the table, reveal her identity as a liar, and inform me of the existence of "Future Lie 1".

In the second timeline, I could enact Judgment on her. But with Chen Ran present, the moment he broke the Wheel of Time, the timeline would return to normal, and I would be in violation of...

"Future Lie 1".

Therefore, even if she showed her hand, I still wouldn't dare enact Judgment on her. Thus...

When she used her skill for the second time and the third timeline appeared, she had already accomplished the Avoidance of Lying and was no longer a liar.

At this point, Chen Ran had to perfectly complete the Future Lie to tell the three Three-Star Players: Qiu Yinong was already in an absolutely safe state, and what followed would be a showdown between him and Li Zhitong.

This was the reason why "Future Lie 3" was so comprehensive and covered all bases.

Simply put, as soon as the three Three-Star Players heard the perfected Future Lie, they would know that Chen Ran had already cleared Qiu Yinong of any suspicion.

That was why, when Chen Ran proposed "Future Lie 3", Long Hui was terrified that I would fail to figure out the underlying logic and get utterly screwed over by Chen Ran. Thus...

He had spoken up to rush me.