"What exactly are you and Root plotting?"

That was the question the statue asked.

Before the words had even faded, the expressions of the four teammates behind Brother Jue changed drastically.

Feng Bujue, however, hesitated for only a second... and then calmly raised the hand that wasn't being bitten, pressed it to his shoulder, and replied, "Nothing at all."

As soon as he said this, the magical sigil on his shoulder emitted a faint light, then dissipated.

Silence descended upon the stone chamber; for a moment, the only sound was the breathing of the players.

Five seconds later, the statue silently released its hold. Brother Jue took the opportunity to pull his arm back and retrieved the item from the statue's mouth.

"Phew... I managed to bluff my way through that." Feng Bujue rubbed his arm, a look of relief on his face as he muttered.

At that moment, the item description menu in his hand was unlocked by the system (although he had been holding it, he couldn't view the item description earlier):

[Name: Never-Before-Used Old Poké Ball]

[Type: Other]

[Quality: Fine]

[Effect: Can capture and store a Phantasmal Beast from the Crystal Labyrinth]

[Usage Condition: Choose Ifrit as your faith]

[Can Be Brought Out of This Scenario: No]

[Note: I hate Pikachu! From the bottom of my heart!]

"Aha! Another item to reduce the difficulty of clearing the level." After reading the description, Feng Bujue looked up and said, "I told you exploring would be beneficial, right?"

But... no one paid him any attention...

At that moment, the other four players, including Little Ma, were all giving Brother Jue a blatant, suspicious... sideways glance.

"What's wrong?" Feng Bujue feigned innocence and asked, "Is something the matter?"

"You... and Root... exactly... what... are you plotting?" Honghu stared at Brother Jue, enunciating each word.

Feng Bujue replied with an innocent expression, "Didn't I say nothing at all?"

"Yeah... and you used up the sigil that Leissend gave you when you said that..." Jibu added.

"That just proves..." Uncle Waste added, "that you and Root are indeed plotting something."

"Although I don't know what's going on, everyone is standing here giving you a sideways glance, so I came over to join in the fun. You guys continue..." Tianma Xingkong chimed in.

"Okay... okay..." Feng Bujue said, "Root and I did discuss some things." He spread his hands, as if it were no big deal. "But as for the specifics... I'm afraid I can't say."

"You're not a simple guy..." Honghu adjusted his glasses. "We thought you had died together with Root back then." He sneered. "To think... in that situation, neither of you died, and you even became collaborators?"

"So what?" Feng Bujue retorted. "There are no eternal enemies in this world, only eternal interests." He shrugged, smiling. "Is it strange to make deals with a Boss?"

Feng Bujue consciously used the word "Boss" and made his tone light and natural. Because... as far as the other players were concerned, this was still just a game; no matter what happened in the Peak Battle, they would still think... that what they were encountering was just a group of rare, highly intelligent NPCs and some rather unique scenario settings.

"Uh... if you put it that way, I can understand." Uncle Waste replied after thinking for a few seconds. As a man who had captured a Boss-level monster and turned it into a little helper in his লগin space, he was naturally unfazed by anything.

"Ah... anyway, I'm just a spectator watching the matches in the商城, and I don't have any deep hatred for that Boss, so I don't care." Jibu spread his hands, his words filled with a hint of sadness...

"Hey, hey... what's going on?" Honghu said unhappily. "Am I the only one making a fuss? This guy has connections with the final Boss of the 'Great Event', it's normal for me to be amazed, right?"

"Hmm... it doesn't seem like a big deal, and I, who couldn't figure out the situation, suddenly breathed a sigh of relief." Tianma Xingkong added another cute nonsense sentence, desperately trying to show his presence.

"If there's nothing else, let's keep moving forward." Feng Bujue put the Poké Ball into his backpack, picked up his slingshot again (when the statue bit his hand, he had placed the slingshot on the ground with his other hand), and said, "Hey, you, go push the door, hurry up."

The others grumbled for a few more sentences, then headed towards the portal to the next level.

At that moment, what his teammates didn't know was... that Feng Bujue, who was outwardly calm and eloquent, was actually filled with doubts in his heart.

In fact... when the statue asked that question, Feng Bujue was the most shocked of the five. Although he didn't show it, his brain had been constantly thinking about one question since then—why would the Mouth of Truth ask about him and Root?

"This is indeed the main universe of Thriller Paradise, but how would a statue hidden in the underground temple of Mount Teem, which might not even have self-awareness, ask me about something like that?" Feng Bujue thought to himself. "The matter between me and Root has obviously nothing to do with this scenario, so this question definitely wasn't arranged by the system. Then... could it be that the statue's setting is 'to probe the unspeakable secrets in the other party's mind and ask questions'?" He quickly rejected this conjecture. "No, this setting would obviously cause a lot of problems. It might be possible in a solo scenario, but doing this in a team scenario, the questions asked could directly reveal the players' privacy."

After dismissing several possibilities, Feng Bujue thought of a more reliable answer: "Hmph... it seems that there's a 'very powerful' guy playing tricks... who could it be?" He thought to himself, "Someone who has the ability to control the original data composition of this statue from outside the scenario, and has the motivation to ask me that question..." A list of suspects was about to emerge. "The first to be excluded is Woody; he wouldn't bother doing something like this. As for 'Zero'… the possibility is higher; perhaps he has already heard some rumors, hence this move. There are also the other two leaders of the Source Organization, who also have the motivation. In addition... I can't rule out that Root herself wanted to test me. Finally... although the possibility is extremely small, maybe I've been targeted by 'Department Nine'; with their technical capabilities, they should also be able to do what just happened."

Just as Brother Jue was pondering, Honghu had passed through the moving door of this level and completed a preliminary survey of the level below.

"Come down, it's safe."

As Honghu's shout rang out, the others also entered the third floor of this Temple of Faith (from top to bottom) one after another...