3.0 Brotherly love

"Master, the circumstances of the trial level worlds are different. All of these worlds, complete or incomplete, have 7 different endings for 7 different protagonists. All of which could be achieved together or individually in irregular numbers. Like in the completed world we are about to enter there are 3 protagonists who have achieved non probability, as only 3 of them have become higher existences, from the 7 protagonists."

Shu XinYi thought for a little then said "Ah, so in the trial level not only do I have to disrupt the world but also make sure that all three protagonists "fall from grace" or atleast I become better than them? That is challenging but not very difficult, so what's the actual problem?"

"Master, This is only the first trial and I assume there should be 6 more trials for us to enter the last world level. Disrupting the completed trial worlds is not the problem, the problem is finding completed worlds in these trial levels. From the more than 2000 worlds in this trial stage only 250 of them are completed. In the future trial stages, the completed worlds will only decrease."

"Snow, right now we have a completed world right? Once we are at a trial stage with no completed worlds, then we will think about the problems and solutions. Give me some time to adjust and enter the world when I say."

Shu XinYi sat down to meditate since he could feel his spiritual cognition fluctuate. It felt like there was some energy within him that wasn't vitalized. He entered his mindspace to see the red ball of light, glow a darker shade of red as he guided energy to that ball of light. His soul felt a little lightened as if a burden that Shu XinYi was unaware of had been removed.

Shu XinYi was in this state for a good amount of time then he finally allowed Snow to enter the world. This time while entering he was neither sleeping nor faint, instead he was standing in the middle of a crowded art gallery awake and healthy. The art gallery was really popular since there were many people visiting. The pieces of art displayed were 9 paintings on different sizes of canvases and 5 sculptures. Shu XinYi especially liked the wood carving of a beautiful Qilin, even the scales on the winged body of the beast were carved meticulously.

Shu XinYi admired art a lot. Although these works still had a lot of room for improvement, he wanted to pat the artist. While Shu XinYi was admiring the art pieces someone came to him saying "Young master Lan, Why are you still standing here, all the honorary guests have arrived. Even Young master Jin is here. You should present yourself and your art now."

My art? Ah, well. Shu XinYi tried to look for a written speech in his pocket, he was fiddling around when he heard a scream. "Aaahh, S-someone is dead."

Shu XinYi turned his attention to the noise and a massive crowd was gathered in a small area, so he couldn't see. It hadn't even been 30 seconds since he entered the world and someone had already died. "What is it who died? Tell me the story quickly."

"Master, first handle the situation here, once his body is taken then I will explain the situation to you. Just know that the one who was murdered is the head of the Yama group. This event is the start from where the 7 protagonists come together. I will transfer some of the basic information about Lan Xiao, the person you took over, for now."

Shu XinYi understood the situation and moved to handle it as today's host. "Everyone calm down and move away from the body. XinAn go guard the exists and call for an ambulance. Everyone else please settle down and walk out of the gallery one by one."

Everyone rushed towards the exit. Although this meant that the killer would escape too but he couldn't risk the safety of everyone, if they stayed here. Shu XinYi finally got a good look at the body of a middle aged man, who was very clearly poisoned. Shu XinYi didn't even had to get close to know what kind of poison it was. This kind of poison worked really fast, in a minute after consuming the body spasms and the organs all bloat, blocking the nerves.

So that would mean that he was already poisoned when Shu XinYi entered the world and the killer was nearby. Shu XinYi made sure that everyone got out safely and the ambulance arrived as soon as the main hall had cleared. XinAn had also called the police. In 20 minutes the whole gallery was sealed.

Shu XinYi and his representatives were all questioned about what had happened. They asked for the camera recordings and Shu XinYi complied with all their requests calmly.

After about an hour the main officer finally said to him "The victim is Bai Jiao. The current head of the Yama group. This case will need a thorough investigation. Mr.Lan we will need your co-operation in the future."

"Sure officer, Are you the one who will be investigating this or will a detective be assigned?"

"Ofcourse this is a high profile case, so a first class detective should be assigned by our department. He will meet with you soon enough. You can Leave for now but we will have to seal this gallery including everything in it."

Shu XinYi was about to leave when his assistant, XinAn, came to him and whispered in his ear "Young master, Artifact no. 13 is nowhere to be found in the vicinity."

Shu XinYi listened to him and decisively told the officer "Officer an artifact that I displayed today has also been stolen, My assistant just noticed. It might be important the case."

The office made a contemplating pose then said "Hmm. Mr.Lan do you have a picture of what this artifact looks like?"

Shu XinYi nodded and showed him a picture of a stone sculpture of a fairly beautiful man in an ancient attire. This was a full body sculpture and it was very life like. Shu XinYi found it difficult to comprehend that anyone could even steal this human size sculpture, without being noticed. The officer recognized the person who was sculpted instantly, It was Song XingChen, the one who he always sees on the billboards nowadays. He took note of everything and let go of Lan Xiao.

Shu XinYi finally had time to look at the worlds setting, now that he was going home in his car.

"Master, This world is a bit complicated to explain so pay attention. There are 3 major families that work in this setting. Bai family, who owns the Yama group, whose head just got murdered. Lan family, Your family. The head of the Lan family, your mother, is the CEO of the Yong Yu entertainment group. Xue family, One of the protagonists family. Xue family is an underground Yakuza family. Which runs business all over the country from drugs to human trafficking."

"Woah three big bosses? Explain more."

"One of the 3 protagonists of this world is Lan cheng, your twin brother. He is your twin but he became more and more competitive and insecure around you, much like Elena but unlike Elena he is actually good at what he does. When this murder happened Lan Cheng used this opportunity well and put the blame on you which not only got you arrested but also ruined your career."

"What?, how can he just blame me? Without any evidence and all?"

"Master, he not only has the resources to fake the evidence but he also has help from the second protagonist Xue An. She is the daughter of Xue Fan, the family head. She did it all for herself, to not only divert the blame of the murder from her father's head but also because she wanted to marry in a rich family. Lan Cheng was forced to love her but he also had other priorities, so he did it. The third protagonist is Bai Jiao's step son, Bai Meng. For him it was pretty simple, once his step father died he became the heir of the family.. No need to complicate things, you'll understand more as you go on."

Shu XinYi didn't ask for more information and just processed the information he got. 3 protagonists from 3 different families all of whom he had to tackle with. Shu XinYi took a mental note of all these points. He has to pull a stance where all 3 of them don't become the protagonist.

The first thing he should focus on is making sure that he is not arrested for the murder. So he should find the actual murderer.

"Snow, who is the real killer?"

"I don't know master. It is not specified in the information of this world. It only says that "the murderer is still at large, his motives unknown like his identity but for the 3 of them it was an opportunity for a new start" Something like this."

Shu XinYi expected as much. If the real murderer was not arrested, then he should've become one of the protagonists but it seemed that he was not arrested but faced a worse fate so he didn't become a higher existence.

"Tell me about the 7 protagonists of this story. One of them should be the murderer. The catch is that he or she has faced a bad fate. So it should be easy to identify."

Snow was silent for a while then said "Apart from the 3 that became the protagonist, the other 4... all faced a bad fate. Like you who went jail for a false blame. A detective who is investigating this case was demoted and his career was ruined when he couldn't solve the case and even falsely accused someone. A person from the Xue family who was ruthlessly evicted from the family once Xue An came to power. That person is Xue An's sibling, Xue yao. The last is Song XingChen. A famous celebrity as of now but since he has signed with your company and he got to know that your brother falsely accused you, he tried to raise his voice for you so well your brother made him a cripple in no time."

Seems like his brother should be his biggest rival in these worlds. Shu XinYi first wanted to find the real murderer, then depending on the situation, he would handle the matter. So for now it is necessary that the investigation goes on properly and he doesn't allow his brother to interfare. The detective is someone Shu XinYi was looking forward to meet. He reached home and rested for the night.

Shu XinYi woke up early in the morning, His home was modern house away from the city and he had a large studio for working within the house. Shu XinYi did a tour of the house, Lan Xiao was a very dedicated man. Shu XinYi wouldn't give up his dream to become a world class artist. Lan Xiao didn't want to take funds from his father and wanted to be independent so for the past few years he had been selling his art as a street artist.

Only a month ago did he gathered enough money to do a gallery show and he put his life's work into it. His work really was beautiful. Shu XinYi respected him as an artist so he didn't want to change his art style and try to become a better version of Lan Xiao instead of using the art style of "Shu XinYi". He didn't go out for the whole day and experimented with different materials.

The first thing he did was sculpting. Lan Xiao, sculpted with clay, stone and wax. So Shu XinYi first made himself familiar with these materials. It was his first time doing sculpting. Although his learning ability was the best snow had ever seen, It would still take atleast a week to become a proper sculpture artist. Shu XinYi didn't focus on painting and canvases for the day.

He had a lot of knowledge about painting but he still had to put effort, blending his style with Lan Xiao's. For the whole day Shu XinYi made little models and animal sculptures with the same art style as Lan Xiao. Creating geometric figures to abstractly modeled body parts. Shu XinYi tried a lot during the day.

Lan Xiao liked Journaling, so his notes helped Shu XinYi a lot to understand Lan Xiao, and his art. He became so indulged in the modeling and carving that he forgot to have lunch or dinner. He only realised that the sun had set when XinAn came to call him.

"Young master Lan. Lady Lan and young master Cheng are here to visit you."

Shu XinYi finally came back to reality. He really liked being in his creative space but Shu XinYi made mental note to allot time for being creative, otherwise he would really be lost. "Ah.. See if the dinner's been prepared."

XinAn raised his eyebrows a little, it was a little action meaning nothing but Shu XinYi could tell that XinAn was not loyal to Lan Xiao. XinAn's gaze was like "you dare talk to me like that, you will regret soon enough" Shu XinYi thought he should be careful about him.

"Yes master."

"Good, Go on now. Welcome them in. I will be there in a few minutes."

Shu XinYi went to clean himself up and then he went down to greet his mother and his brother. Shu XinYi didn't get time to properly look at himself in the mirror but when he saw Lan Cheng he was a bit satisfied with his appearance. Lan Cheng looked like an elegant young man. He had firm peach blossom eyes and jet black hair.

"Xiao'er, Are you doing okay? I heard about the accident today. You shouldn't involve yourself in anything alright." Mrs.Lan worryingly said.

"You don't have to worry mom."

"How can your mother not worry, Cheng'er and I will stay with you for a few days. I can not stay calm if I leave you alone at this time." Mrs.Lan said.

Lan Cheng rolled his eyes, he didn't try to hide his irritation with the matter. It seemed like there was bad blood between them. "Snow why is it that my twin brother hates me?"

"4 years ago, you got into an accident and broke your leg. It happened while both of you were playing and Lan Cheng accidentally pushed you into a deep ditch. Your parents blamed Lan Cheng from then on for your problems and favored you a lot. It took 3 years for your leg to fully heal but in those 3 years Lan Cheng had already decided to rebel against you."

"Ah, It was not fair of my parents to blame him. What feelings does Lan Xiao have for him?"

"Lan Xiao never blamed his brother but to his brother it always came of as a farce."

Shu XinYi understood the matter. "Sure mom. Whatever makes you feel better. XinAn arrange for them to move in here. bro Cheng, You can chose whichever room you like."

Lan Cheng only rolled his eyes.

"Cheng'er is this how you respond to your brother."

"Don't worry mother, it is our brotherly love. We can understand each other without words. So you don't have to worry."

Lan Cheng finally spoke up "Then, I want your room."

Lan Cheng was although elegant looking, his bearing was very childish. Shu XinYi had no hate for this twin brother of his. It was actually like having a little brother who was really moody, even though Lan Cheng was born first.

"Sure, Cheng ge. You can have my room. Mother I'll arrange the guest room for you. You can go change for now. I will set the table."

Lan Cheng didn't think that his brother would actually agree. He had only said it to mock Xiao but he actually agreed without any hesitation. Shu XinYi took some of his necessary stuff out of his room and shifted to the guest room. Then he went down to set the table.

"Do you know the one who was murdered was Bai Jiao?"

Shu XinYi looked back to see Lan Cheng leaning against the wall. Shu XinYi smiled lightly at him saying "Aren't you well informed.."

"Couldn't the blame easily shift to you if the news about your debt to him is revealed?"

"You really are well informed. Is it worry that you feel or are you warning me?" Shu XinYi said.