Wang Mu looked at the woman in military uniform on the Heavenly Platform, startled.
Xiao Li?
Wang Mu was very familiar with the woman's features. Every line of her brow and angle of her face exuded a faint but commanding presence.
The black and red military uniform could not hide her exquisite and graceful figure. The central Heart Protector reflected a pale golden afterglow, radiating a trace of noble aura.
The first impression she gave was that of a heroine among generals.
No... that's not Xiao Li...
Wang Mu narrowed his eyes.
In the Ancient River Battlefield, a place mirroring reality but without my presence, the only one who could have beco the Great General was Xiao Li.
She was the only one with such status and position.
But... there was another person who was also possible.
That was Xiao Li's body double, Xiao Ying.
Xiao Ying was a very important character in the ga, appearing after the protagonist joined Great Wilderness City.
Originally, the protagonist had specifically found and trained a body double for Xiao Li to prevent her assassination.
There was no helping it. Particularly in the later stages of the Love Saint Route, after the victory in the Ancient River campaign, the other Vassal Kings in the Central Plains witnessed Xiao Li's strength. They then contemplated colluding with Jianghu forces to hire top experts to assassinate her.
In the latter part of the ga, Xiao Li would face many assassination attempts by hostile forces. These included top-notch enemies from the Jianghu villain factions, led by Piao Miaoxu.
So top experts would infiltrate Great Wilderness City on suicide missions to assassinate the martial arts-inept Xiao Li.
It was very easy to disrupt the player's peace of mind.
Such incidents, once triggered, left no choice and led directly to a ga over.
Once the Watchers were fully trained, the frequency of assassination attempts would decrease, and the probability of such events occurring would greatly diminish.
But at the sa ti, that probability would always exist.
It would never disappear, just beco extrely rare.
To clear the ga in a single playthrough, one naturally had to eliminate all such low-probability events.
So, after years of scouting for talent in Great Wilderness City, Wang Mu finally found soone with a ninety percent resemblance to Xiao Li: Xiao Ying.
This person was originally a refugee displaced by war involving the Central Plains Court. She had wandered for a long ti before eventually escaping to Great Wilderness City.
Of course, for her background check, the ga system had a built-in detection feature. This allowed the protagonist to see the origins of recruited talents, revealing she was an orphan, without father or mother.
Later, Wang Mu recruited her. She was ticulously nurtured under the Watchers, and after Wang Mu conferred with Xiao Li, Xiao Ying was secretly taught so of Xiao Li's daily habits over several years, allowing her to acquire a subtle noble air.
Achieving an eighty to ninety percent similarity, enough for her to pass as Xiao Li's sister when they stood together, was considered a complete success.
Her role was to take a fatal blow for Xiao Li at critical monts or to act as her double when her identity was crucial.
After all, those in high positions must always prepare for their own safety.
As for Xiao Ying herself, her na, which ant 'shadow,' hinted at her true role: she was rely Xiao Li's shadow, not the female lead.
In the ga, she didn't even have additional unique events. Her only significant event was that if an assassination occurred later, she would be the one to die.
She was purely a tool character.
But that didn't an Xiao Ying lacked her own personality and characteristics in the ga.
Her story began as a vagabond outside Great Wilderness City. In her first event, the protagonist encountered her as a begging orphan, their interaction starting with a piece of stale stead bread.
Wang Mu rembered it quite clearly.
After several years of governance, Great Wilderness City was temporarily without food concerns. So peddlers could even be seen on the streets selling stead buns and other wheat-based foods.
During a patrol one day, he happened to encounter a young thief stealing from a peddler. After a chase, he ca across a group of refugees. Among them was Xiao Ying, crouched in a corner, self-absorbedly gnawing on a blackened, hardened stead bun. She seed devoid of taste and sll, her eyes filled with a cold and disdainful disregard for the world.
As she gnawed, the stead bun dropped from her hand, clattering to the ground before the protagonist.
The patrolling soldiers with him were about to drive these refugees away.
At that mont, the recruitnt process was very straightforward: simply taking out a fragrant, freshly stead bun and offering it to Xiao Ying was enough.
Afterward, she could be taken back to the Watchers' reserve camp. Once cleaned up, her tender face, which bore so resemblance to Xiao Li's, was discovered.
A treasure found!
The rest was akin to a character developnt mini-ga, slowly nurturing her into a Dead Soldier Puppet bearing an eighty to ninety percent resemblance to Xiao Li.
Unlike Xiao Li, Xiao Ying possessed exceptional Martial Arts Talent. She learned quickly, achieving about a seventy percent likeness to Xiao Li when playing her role.
Due to Xiao Ying's special identity, neither the Watchers nor the later Dawn Army had any records of her.
Only two people knew of her: one was Xiao Li, and the other was the protagonist.
Wang Mu instantly judged that the Great General before him in the Ancient River Battlefield was not Xiao Li, but Xiao Ying.
If Xiao Li truly achieved Ascension with the entire nation, how could she project her phantom onto this Ancient River Battlefield?
But this Xiao Ying...
I rember, in the ga...
Didn't she already perish?
Wang Mu thought.
Yes, in the ga, Xiao Ying had already died.
She perished in an assassination by an Innate Master sent by Piao Miaoxu, who mistook her for Xiao Li. As a result, I even had Xiao Li feign death for several months to deceive the villains.
This Ancient River Battlefield...
It seems to be filled with those who are lost... or rather, those who have died...
Wang Mu narrowed his eyes. Ying Changkong, the first person he had seen upon waking, was a Watcher concealed within the Li Army. In the subsequent Great Battle of Ancient River, Ying Changkong had died while infiltrating deep into enemy lines for reconnaissance, after being discovered.
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