Chapter 1548: So-Called Lingering Regret (Part 2)

"It's you again."

After Emma gritted her teeth and "killed" the bearded burly man, cutting off his pain-filled wail, and dragged him away from the trapdoor, the little girl lying on the ground, her body entirely withered, suddenly opened her eyes, climbed up, and looked over with a dissatisfied expression.

"How many times has this been now that you've interrupted me prematurely?"

Looking at Emma standing before her with a pale face, gripping a thin sword and staring dead at her, the "little girl" couldn't help but tilt her head, narrowing her eyes as she questioned:

"Remember, from the very beginning, I specifically warned you not to interrupt me while I'm listening to the wails, or else you bear the consequences. Did you not hear, or do you not understand?"

Facing the questioning from the "little girl," Emma's breathing couldn't help but become rapid; she subconsciously retreated half a step, but she still gripped the sword hilt tightly, gritted her teeth, and retorted:

"Of course I understand! But your damn ugly farces, just like your trash Master, have absolutely no value in existing!"

"Heh."

Facing Emma's hate-filled cursing, the withered "little girl" curled her lips indifferently, then her whole person collapsed downward, and a wooden puppet only the size of a palm burrowed out from her pain-filled soul.

After moving its body slightly, the tiny puppet stepped on the little girl's back, tilted its head up to look at Emma across from it, and replied with eyes full of disdain:

"What would a human like you know? The 【City of Lingering Regret】 and 【Ghostly Bewilderment Marsh】 I created have been acknowledged by the world. Those souls harboring regret and remorse can only continue toward the 【Cliff of Terminus】 and return to the world after being purified here.

If I didn't process these souls and just let them pile up and remain here, the living beings born in the mortal world would inevitably decrease drastically. From this point of view, I am the great benefactor of you humans and even the entire mortal world!"

"..."

"What, run out of things to say already?"

Watching Emma biting her lip and glaring at her, the tiny 【Wailing Puppet】 couldn't help but put its hands behind its back, tilt its head up, and say unhurriedly:

"Remember this: don't try to use your narrow cognition to evaluate me. Although I indeed take pleasure in listening to wails, these are my deserved rewards.

Moreover, only thorough, heart-piercing wails can wear away those useless obsessions of you humans, grind away those so-called regrets and remorse, and purify your filthy and heavy souls.

Only after being processed by me can those 'impurities' in your souls be removed, so they won't follow the Cliff of Terminus back to the source and pollute the entire world...

Forget it, why am I telling you all this?"

Looking at the woman who was still staring at her with hatred, stubborn and unrepentant, even though she had already explained so patiently, the Wailing Puppet controlling the 【City of Lingering Regret】 couldn't help but shake its head with waning interest, then announced:

"You don't need to understand my greatness. As humans, you just need to obediently endure... Also, since you interrupted his wail, you'll repay it with your own!"

After stating its next target, the Wailing Puppet's neck bent ninety degrees downward, looked through the deck toward the cabin below, glanced around with slight selectivity, then raised its head again with interest and said:

"Speaking in terms of material, you're actually far superior to that big beard... his remorse was failing to save his own daughter, just one family member dead, but you directly caused the death of your entire clan.

Hmm... among your clansmen, those harboring hatred toward you are not few, and quite a few are lingering here with me. So who do you want to face first? Your father? Your mother? Or would you like to relive the time your whole clan was executed... hmm..."

Watching Emma, though filled with fear, still staring straight into its eyes with a strange sort of "spark," the 【Wailing Puppet】's wooden eyebrows couldn't help but furrow vividly, and it asked with some surprise:

"You seem a bit different from a few days ago?"

I've become a bit different?

Hearing this, Emma couldn't help but freeze slightly, then vaguely guessed what the Wailing Puppet was referring to, but she didn't open her mouth to explain. Instead, she gripped the thin sword in her hand, struggled to guard the conviction in her heart, gritted her teeth, and prepared to wait for the torture to arrive. However, strangely, after asking that question just now, the Wailing Puppet's movements stopped; it didn't rush to find the souls of Emma's parents to torture her, but stared into her eyes and fell into thought.

That strange "spark" in this woman's eyes, though extremely rare, wasn't something I've never encountered in my long life. It is courage born from choosing to face fear head-on, prepared to persist to the end no matter what, supported by a certain powerful "fulcrum."

This detestable thing would wrap tightly around the outside of her soul. Before that powerful "fulcrum" is destroyed, no matter what blows she suffers, she will not completely collapse, and sooner or later she will recover with the help of the "fulcrum."

And this kind of incomplete wail, although it can still fulfill the function of "filling the belly," is like plain boiled chicken breast in salt water — exceptionally unappetizing...

So the key still lies in her "fulcrum"!

Staring into Emma's eyes for a while, faintly seeming to have grasped something, the Wailing Puppet's mouth couldn't help but curl open slightly, revealing a wooden, stiff smile full of malice.

"You hope to leave here alive and accompany your daughter as she grows up, right?"

"?!"

Hearing the Wailing Puppet's words, Emma's heart couldn't help but tighten fiercely, and she immediately clenched the sword hilt and demanded:

"What do you mean?"

Please... favorite... (! )

"What I mean is, your 'fulcrum' may be intense, but it's unexpectedly plain... and foolish."

Its wooden neck twisted slightly, emitting a creaking, grating sound, and the Wailing Puppet looked at the tense-faced Emma before it, smiling as it asked:

"Do you know the Flesh-Doe?"

Bad!

Through Little Ellie's "Dream," hearing the name Flesh-Doe, Li Ang's heart couldn't help but tighten fiercely along with it, but alas, he, far away in the mortal world, was fundamentally unable to stop it, so he could only watch helplessly as the Wailing Puppet spoke:

"That doe has always been trying to cross the boundary between life and death, to obtain a true physical body independent of the soul, and that child you regard as hope — rather than saying she is your daughter, it's better to say she is a failed attempt of hers."

"You... what exactly are you saying?!"

"Are my words that hard to understand?"

Looking at Emma, whose eyes had suddenly widened, the Wailing Puppet tilted its wooden head and said, enunciating each word:

"Your daughter is the body that doe arranged for herself, and she is also the root cause of your clan's tragic fate!"

(End of Chapter)