Chapter 293: The Transaction with the Puppet Master

The Transaction with the Puppet Master

"You should know that the Sighing Sorrow Tide did not appear out of thin air. Deep within the Sighing Forest lies a pilgrimage site for followers of 【Decay】. Standing there is a massive tombstone that endlessly overflows with the blood of corruption, known as..."

The Final Tomb of Septic Blood.

Whenever the blood of corruption upon it traces the characters for 【Decay】 onto the tombstone, a new outbreak of the Sighing Sorrow Tide begins.

Every follower of 【Decay】 who has heard of it wishes to witness this great divine creation with their own eyes, but unfortunately, no one has ever known where it stands.

Yet, there are always fearless madmen willing to risk their lives, and so, over time, someone actually found its approximate location.

An organization called 'The People in the Coffin' first shared their deductions on the 【Decay】 channel. They exhausted every effort to collect countless pieces of intelligence regarding the range of the Sighing Sorrow Tide and attempted to use the overlapping method within the Sighing Forest to narrow down a general area.

At first, no one believed they could succeed because there was simply too little information about the Sighing Sorrow Tide, let alone marking its range.

So, when they shared this deduction, no one thought it was correct—until a madman blindly trusted the deduction, actually saw that tombstone of 【Decay】 within that range, and walked out alive. After that, all the followers of 【Decay】 were in an uproar.

And that person is the current Chosen of 【Decay】, the one who keeps us 【Prosperity】 followers from raising our heads on the Ladder of Audience: "Rotten Wood," Lin Xi.

But it was also after that point that the organization known as The People in the Coffin never appeared again.

Heh, I shouldn't need to explain the principle that an innocent man is guilty of a crime only because of his treasure.

And I just happened to be lucky enough to match with a member of The People in the Coffin before they disappeared. Under my... *cough cough*... friendly exchange, we swapped some information, which included the approximate location of that range!

I didn't kill that stinking bird; I just pointed him toward a path of 'suicide'."

!!!

So Brother Bird-Feather went deep into the Sighing Forest?

It seems Baldy really is collaborating with this person.

Hearing this, Cheng Shi understood. He looked at An Jing with some shock, frowned, and asked:

"So you intend to go to the Final Tomb of Septic Blood to search for traces of 【Him】?

How laughable. A 2400-point follower of 【Silence】, willing to abandon their oath just to get closer to Them?

I'm not wrong, am I, Puppet Master?"

An Jing was silent for a moment, then controlled Zuo Qiu to nod.

"Yes. This world should have belonged to Them, and we should be Their subordinates.

I heard that some players have already begun to audience with the gods. Since He has never summoned me, I will strive to see Him myself!"

"Heh, even if it's another Him?" Cheng Shi said with a mocking expression.

"Yes, even if it's another Him!" The Puppet Master and her three puppets turned their heads in unison to look at Cheng Shi, all of them revealing a strange fanaticism on their faces, completely different from the silent and quiet An Jing from before.

Sure enough, madness is often hidden beneath calmness.

"So, this so-called 'waste utilization' wasn't to preserve our combat strength at all, but to increase the combat strength for your own deep-dive plan, right?"

Cheng Shi frowned, then asked with some confusion:

"But why did you kill a historian who understands the history of the underworld? With his help, wouldn't it be easier for you to find what you want here?"

"I also wanted a win-win, but my transaction was rejected by him. So, to keep my path ahead smooth, I had to cut off his."

"Oh? Then I'm a bit curious. Baldy, what did she promise us?"

This "us" made Hong Lin laugh out loud. She looked at the Puppet Master and tilted her chin.

"Let her say it herself."

The Puppet Master's fanatical expression softened slightly. She controlled Zuo Qiu again and said:

"Divinity! The divinity of 【Prosperity】!

I am about to leave here and head deep into the Sighing Forest. To get myself closer to Him, I can choose to cast aside the 【Prosperity】 divinity sealed within me. If you want it, this transaction can be concluded. After all, the two dead people have nothing to do with you.

And all you have to do is let me go after the trial is over.

A guaranteed win-win deal, isn't it?"

Divinity?

And it's 【Prosperity】 divinity again?

Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow and looked at Hong Lin. Hong Lin nodded slightly, her expression unchanged.

Looking at it this way, divinity that could make even a 【Prosperity】 Chosen nod must be either high in quality or large in quantity.

A guaranteed win? No, this sounds like a business with zero cost and massive profit.

Just as the Puppet Master said, Cheng Shi was initially only wary that she had designs on him, but now she wasn't lying; she was single-mindedly wanting to leave the team for the depths of the Sighing Forest. Although this would change the number of participants in this trial from "5" to 2, it seemed there was no other way.

Fighting to the death with the Puppet Master here clearly didn't serve the interests of either party, so this transaction would likely be finalized.

However, as for the price... perhaps it could be negotiated further.

Cheng Shi's eyes darted, and he looked at the Puppet Master with a burning gaze, saying:

"I believe you a little, but there are some things you still need to explain to me."

"Explain what?"

"Why do you know so much about Baldy?"

Hearing this, Baldy also raised an eyebrow. Although her affairs were no secret among top-tier players, 2400 points still seemed a bit far from the position of the Chosen, so she also looked at the Puppet Master with interest.

The Puppet Master was silent for another moment, then controlled Zuo Qiu to speak:

"I possess a 【Memory】 item that can read the memories of others. Therefore, I absorbed part of Zuo Qiu's memories. Everything regarding Baldy is the result of that part of the memory.

Of course, so is the history regarding 【Prosperity】."

"Oh, I see. Then I have another question. Since you killed Zuo Qiu early on, that means Zuo Qiu's probing yesterday was all your doing. Since that's the case, how did you know me?

You were probing my identity with a familiar method, and I am no Chosen; I'm not worth this historian's careful investigation, and his memory likely wouldn't contain information about me.

As for Jiang Wumie, that's even more impossible, because before you controlled him, he had already died in my dream.

So, Puppet Master, give me an answer. If the answer is reasonable, I will consider proceeding with this transaction."

Just as the Puppet Master was about to speak, Cheng Shi suddenly reached out to stop her, pointing at Jiang Wumie:

"This time, don't have that historian speak. Have that Ranger puppet speak."

Cheng Shi had noticed that whenever the Puppet Master spoke voluntarily, she always seemed to use the Zuo Qiu puppet. This wasn't too strange, as she had used it for a long time, but Cheng Shi felt something was weird.

An Jing paused, stared at Cheng Shi for a while, and controlled the Ranger to speak:

"I know Zhen Yi."

?????

As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of Cheng Shi and Hong Lin both fell.

Damn, bad luck!

The unluckiest part was that this wasn't even a lie!

Although it was somewhat unexpected, it was also reasonable. After all, birds of a feather flock together; it's not surprising that a madman knows a madman.

But Cheng Shi was still angered into laughter.

Fine, fine, fine. His biggest flaw so far was that this crazy woman had read enough of his memories, but thinking that she was indeed a crazy woman and that others wouldn't really believe what she said, he had felt relatively at ease all along.

Actually, even if he wasn't at ease, there was nothing he could do; he had no means to deal with her.

But looking at it now, this person's big mouth might even surpass that of his good brother Hu Wei, who always broke his own cover!

Cheng Shi gritted his teeth in hatred. He stared at An Jing and asked:

"You believed her just because a crazy woman mentioned me to you, so you came to probe me?

What did she tell you?"

"Nothing much, just some anecdotes about the 【Gods】 she learned from you. She also said you were a very interesting person, so I wanted to see just how interesting this 'interesting' person in Zhen Yi's mouth really was."

Cheng Shi's face turned black: "And what did you see?"

The Puppet Master's puppets pursed their lips in unison. Then the Ranger was silent, and Zuo Qiu spoke:

"Didn't see much, just averagely interesting."

"?"

Damn, I'm even angrier now! ===== CHAPTER 294 =====