Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“The Thirty-Six Stratagems?” Lea looked at Gu Mengmeng in confusion.

Gu Mengmeng nodded her head and explained, “Do you remember? You told me before that only the leader can learn half the content in the snow fox tribe’s esoterica while the witch doctor will learn the other half.”

Lea nodded, implying that he remembered.

Gu Mengmeng continued, “The deduction skills you learned are not from our world, I guessed the Beast Deity must have taught them to the previous messenger and told her to teach them to the witch doctor. Then, they were passed down from generations to generations. But, the part which the leader memorized would most possibly be the product from my era.”

Lea glanced at Gu Mengmeng and then looked at the unfamiliar characters on the stone tablet, asking, “Are The Thirty-Six Stratagems one of them?”

Gu Mengmeng nodded and said, “I suspect Cole had memorized The Thirty-Six Stratagems.”

Lea questioned, “Did the Beast Deity tell you that?”

Gu Mengmeng said, “No, it’s just my guess.”

Lea did not probe further as he just looked at Gu Mengmeng quietly.

Gu Mengmeng walked to the second stone tablet and touched the words carved on it, reading them out, “The thirty-fourth stratagem, the trick of injuring oneself to gain the enemy’s confidence. Pretending to be injured has two possible applications. In the first, the enemy is lulled into relaxing his guard since he no longer considers you to be an immediate threat. The second is a way of ingratiating yourself to your enemy by pretending the injury was caused by a mutual enemy.”

The five males in the room all looked blank and even Lea could not fully understand what Gu Mengmeng was saying.

Gu Mengmeng chuckled and continued, “This is one of the stratagems in The Thirty-Six Stratagems. In the past, I studied it before but I did not memorize it. However, after I inherited Snake’s abilities, everything I had seen before became very clear without any rhyme or reason, it feels something like….an extraordinary retentive memory.”

Upon hearing Gu Mengmeng mention Snake, Elvis and Lea tensed up, being extremely afraid that she would trap herself in that negative calmness again. Thus, Lea pulled Gu Mengmeng’s hand and asked her seriously, “So, what does this mean? Does this concern Cole?”

Gu Mengmeng answered, “Do you recall how Cole injured himself seriously and created a false impression of him saving Chixuan just to gain my trust after luring me into Sauder?”

Lea nodded, implying that he remembered.

Gu Mengmeng added, “His injury was so serious it almost robbed him of his life. It was not an exaggeration to say that his internal organs were visible right in front of me. If you did not ask Dylan to contact me previously, I might have believed that he was a good person, even though I was a little doubtful towards him. Now that I think about it, it’s really a trick of injuring oneself to gain the enemy’s confidence.”

Lea pondered over it and said, “If the person did not injure himself, he must have been attacked by someone?”

Gu Mengmeng nodded and said, “That’s right.”

Lea frowned and asked, “Then, did Burke use the trick of injuring himself when he came to seek refuge from us with serious injuries?”

Gu Mengmeng shook her head and said, “Those injuries were not done by Burke on purpose, they were most likely left behind when the stray beasts were attacking the tribe.”

Lea remained silent for a while before he slowly opened his mouth and said, “Mengmeng, from the start, I never felt that this Burke is that simple.”

Gu Mengmeng laughed and said, “Cole will never take great pains to send a useless person over, he should have plans for later.”

Lea said, “That’s what I think so too. Cole is a stray beast now so how could he have the heart to banish stray beasts away for an unfamiliar tiny tribe? Ha, that doesn’t seem like his way of doing things. If they said he brought the stray beasts together to attack Burke’s tribe, I might believe it even more.”

Gu Mengmeng smiled as she slowly walked over to another line of words. She grazed past the carvings with her finger and read out loud at the same time, “The tenth stratagem, covering the dagger with a smile. Charm and ingratiate yourself with your enemy. When you have gained his trust, move against him in secret.”