After enduring countless instances of Garlo’s shamelessness, Sha Yi had grown accustomed to it. She glanced at the rather smug man with disdain and scoffed, “Liar!”
“You know me best.” Garlo patted his chest, completely unfazed. On the contrary, he even gave her a rather ingratiating wink. “But you can’t call this lying—it’s more like avoiding the main issue. If I hadn’t deceived her, would I have been able to escape and tell you all this? Clearly, what I did was right!”
At first, she had been annoyed with Garlo, but upon further reflection, she realized that since Kasan had managed to maintain a balance with Yeli, she couldn’t be easily fooled either.
If Kapa had acted first and sought approval later, and her reasons hadn’t convinced Kasan, then Kasan could easily have teamed up with Yeli to deal with the situation afterward. After all, making excuses would be simple—just any reason would do. Even if Yeli wanted to pick a fight, there’d be little he could do.
Moreover, as long as the incident didn’t happen too long ago, recapturing Garlo wouldn’t be too difficult.
But clearly, that wasn’t the case now. Kasan must have tacitly approved Kapa’s decision to release Garlo. What’s more, it was highly likely that Kapa and Kasan had long been planning a new objective, and Garlo’s situation had conveniently become their opportunity.
The only unsettling part was that the single condition Garlo mentioned didn’t seem threatening enough. Therefore, she didn’t believe Kasan and Kapa would be so easily fooled.
She suspected there must be other conditions or demands involved.
With that in mind, Sha Yi ignored his verbal advantage and cut straight to the point: “So they just let you go after you agreed to this one condition? No other terms of exchange?”
Hearing this, Garlo’s cheerful expression instantly cooled—not in anger, but with the look of someone whose bluff had been called.
Sha Yi didn’t press him, patiently waiting instead. She knew Garlo’s temperament well by now.
Besides, this wasn’t about negotiating terms between them—they needed to unite, so she wasn’t worried at all.
Sure enough, after a moment, the sulky, scowling man spoke again: “There is one more condition…”
“Spit it out.”
“Eliminate Yeli and Yelai—by any means necessary, using anyone’s hands. As long as those two disappear forever, everything we’ve agreed upon will stand.”
“Including whatever’s between you and Kapa?” Sha Yi raised an eyebrow, unable to resist teasing.
“That’s non-negotiable! Why do you care? I never actually betrayed you!” Garlo grumbled, clearly displeased. “And look at how you’ve treated me—it’s downright unfair!”
Hearing Garlo’s complaints yet again, Sha Yi felt a headache coming on and quickly gestured for him to stop. “Alright, is that everything? If you’re done, then let’s wrap it up. No more tangents—we need to conserve our energy and stay vigilant against Yeli and his people. You should also get moving with your own plans…”
“I haven’t even told you my plans yet, and you’re already shooing me away?” Garlo cut her off, pointing at himself with a wounded expression. “Aren’t you even going to ask what I’ve been up to these past few days?”
Seeing Garlo on the verge of another dramatic episode, Sha Yi hurriedly said, “We trust you to handle things. If what you’ve done these days affects the bigger picture, just give us a quick update. Otherwise, it can wait. And if there’s anything urgent, say it now.”
“You’re still brushing me off!” Garlo’s face darkened, his earlier grievance replaced with outright displeasure.
And just like that, another extreme of his personality emerged.
“It’s the truth,” Xi Yi interjected calmly, surprisingly unbothered by Garlo’s antics this time. “No one can predict what Yeli will decide this afternoon. His unpredictability is as erratic as your mood swings. At a critical moment like this, we can’t afford infighting.”
Sha Yi nodded emphatically in agreement.
Garlo fell silent but didn’t press the issue further, as if he fully grasped the gravity of the situation. He returned to the main topic: “Their temporary camp is some distance from ours, so I think they’ll assign people to closely monitor our movements—both to track our actions and to look for weaknesses to exploit. Most importantly, they’ll likely focus on that man we brought back earlier. He’s Yeli’s identical twin brother. Yeli won’t just abandon him.”
“But Yeli said this afternoon that if we don’t cooperate, he won’t care about Yelai’s life.” Sha Yi glanced at Garlo, testing the waters. “Given Yeli’s nature, I think that’s entirely possible.”
Garlo snorted coldly. “If it were anyone else, Yeli would absolutely abandon them. But not Yelai—I’m certain of it!”
“Reason?”
“When I was captured, Yeli was constantly waiting and searching for Yelai. If not for Yelai, Kapa might not have gotten the chance to release me. Despite his cold, tough act, you might not realize what identical twins mean in Kasan’s culture.”
“Twins have special significance?” Sha Yi was surprised. “Brotherly power?”
“Twins? That’s an interesting term—fits the situation. But…” Garlo shook his head. “This is probably thanks to Kasan. I’ve always doubted the validity of her words, but I can’t confirm whether they’re entirely true. All I know is that her prophecy about Yeli and Yelai was that they share life and death—one determines the other, bound together.”
Bound together… That’s ridiculous!
She’d never heard of twins sharing life and death. Sure, there might be a few rare cases in the world, and she believed in things like psychic connections—but using twin prophecies here was just absurd. Especially since this was the ancient era, where civilization wasn’t highly advanced. As for Kasan’s words, she wasn’t buying it.
Too far-fetched.
Perhaps anticipating her skepticism, Garlo didn’t seem surprised. Instead, he looked at her seriously. “Believe it or not, at least Yeli and his people do. And according to Kapa, Yeli didn’t fully believe it at first either, but something happened between them that seemed to prove Kasan’s words. I don’t know if it was deliberately orchestrated, but in the end, they all believed it. Because of that, Yeli and Yelai’s bond grew even stronger—though apparently, they were already close to begin with.”
“Such twin phenomena are rare, if not unheard of, in this world. Survival is hard enough as it is—even normal children have extremely low survival rates. So twins like Yeli and Yelai are truly astonishing, especially since no one’s seen anything like them before.”
Sha Yi nodded in agreement with the first part of Garlo’s words but frowned at the latter. “From what we’ve observed and what you’ve gathered, Yeli, Yelai, and Kasan are locked in a stalemate. But if Kasan wants to eliminate them, wouldn’t it make more sense to drive a wedge between the brothers? Why strengthen their bond? That doesn’t benefit her.”
“I don’t quite get it either,” Xi Yi chimed in, puzzled. “When you were captured, did you learn anything from Kapa about Yeli and Yelai’s origins?”
“That larger group was formed by merging several smaller ones. Yeli and Yelai’s original group was relatively larger. They were treated like treasures since childhood, and in this merged group, they used their twin status to claim the highest positions. But now, hardly anyone knows their full background. According to Kapa, those in their group who didn’t cooperate mysteriously died, and those who submitted to the brothers were older and mostly lost during migrations.”
“So right now, aside from Kasan, no one really knows Yeli and Yelai’s full story?”
“Pretty much. Kapa also said no one dares challenge the brothers anymore—whatever they say, everyone obeys. As for her and Kasan, they were originally the ‘shamans’ of their group, which was sizable, so Yeli and Yelai couldn’t touch them.”
“Now that you mention it, I think I understand something.” After a long silence, Sha Yi spoke slowly. “Kasan’s goal wasn’t to strengthen their bond.”
“Then what was it?”
“We’ve all seen Yeli’s nature. As for Yelai, even though you weren’t fully present, you noticed it too—he’s cold-blooded and ruthless but utterly devoted and tight-lipped. Between the two brothers, Yelai likely obeys Yeli unconditionally, even if it means dying for his orders.”
“Now that you say it…” Garlo rubbed his forehead, nearly jumping up. “When I nearly beat him to death, he didn’t make a sound—no pleas, no bargaining. If he had even a fraction of Yeli’s ambition, he would’ve negotiated with me instead of nearly dying without a word!”
“Exactly. Back in the underground oil pit, though he didn’t want to die, once the fire was lit, he showed no fear. Instead, he focused more on scheming than before!” Sha Yi sighed. “So between them, mere provocation won’t work. Kasan is clever.”
“What are you thinking?” Xi Yi, who had been quietly listening, murmured. “Is Kasan using the ‘shared life and death’ prophecy to tighten their bond, only to create friction between them?”
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