Chapter 402: You're Too Nervous (3/10, Autumn Subscription)

What?!

Jing Yan and Lin Ling almost stood up at the same time. Without any pause, Lin Ling immediately ran toward that person.

"Lead the way!"

Jing Yan picked up the confused Xiao Xuedou and followed behind.

……

Fang Yue woke up.

He had been unconscious for a day and a night, and finally woke.

Last night's memories all seemed to have grown somewhat blurred.

It wasn't until he saw Lord Han placed on a chair, his lonely head, that he was jolted awake with a start.

"Lord, Lord Han?! You, you're not dead?!"

In last night's memories, Lord Han had already had his head cut off, dying a wretched death at Chen Lao's hands.

But the moment he opened his eyes, what the hell kind of situation was this??

Lord Han had been chopped down to just a head, and he could still be alive?!

Lord Han, forever the GOAT!!

His head still ached a little.

But compared to last night, it had eased up a lot.

Fang Yue, overjoyed and delighted, covered his aching head and hurriedly sat up.

"Xiao Ye?! You're awake?! Last night I didn't die, I just played dead to fool Chen Lao."

Lord Han immediately sensed Fang Yue's movement, but his head was turned sideways toward Fang Yue.

Beside him, the person in charge of professionally 'holding up the head,' Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu, was drooling, her eyes vacant, maintaining an offline state.

"Wu Wu! Wu Wu!"

Lord Han called out to her twice, then gloomily tilted his head left and right like a tumbler doll, rolled it ninety degrees, and with an upside-down view finally saw Fang Yue in full.

"Xiao Ye, that's wonderful! You're finally awake! Are you alright?"

To be honest, Lord Han's words of concern should have warmed Fang Yue's heart.

But looking at Lord Han's strange head stuck upside-down in the rosewood rocking chair, that touched feeling vanished without a trace.

"Lord Han, I'm fine, but you…"

"Just lost my body, it's nothing serious."

Lord Han shook his head slightly and gave a soft laugh, which made Fang Yue's heart ache.

He hurriedly got up, nervously helping Lord Han straighten his head. His emotions were complicated, but in the end, joy overwhelmed everything else.

Lord Han was fine — that was truly wonderful!

From the start of the game, Lord Han had always taken great care of him. Seeing Lord Han die at Chen Lao's hands last night, the fury in Fang Yue's heart was no less than anyone else's.

Now seeing Lord Han, although without a body and reduced to just a head, still alive after all, he immediately relaxed, and stared at Lord Han's head with a silly grin for quite a while.

"So long as you're fine! So long as Lord Han is fine!"

He repeated the two lines with difficulty, and only after a good while managed to calm his emotions, finally having the leisure to take in his surroundings.

Then, Fang Yue realized he was in his own home — his home in Gu Yue Cun.

This surprised Fang Yue greatly.

Shocked — my house actually survived the Wu Yu tribe's attack?

Lord Han also looked at Fang Yue excitedly. If he had hands and feet at this moment, Lord Han would absolutely have felt Fang Yue all over first thing, to check on Fang Yue's physical condition.

"Right, Lord Han, where are the others? Have all the strange Wu Yu tribe members retreated?"

Hearing Fang Yue's words, Lord Han began to tell Fang Yue one by one everything that had happened after he had passed out.

"The Wu Yu tribe really was driven back by us!"

"We're going to Qingsi County?"

"That's great, I just happened to be preparing to make a trip to Qingsi County myself."

After understanding the situation, faced with Lord Han's inquiry, Fang Yue naturally agreed ten thousand times over to go to Qingsi County.

"Oh right, right, Lord Han, after Chen Lao died, did he drop… did he leave behind any stones?"

Once his mind was clear, Fang Yue immediately thought of this important matter.

Upon hearing this, Lord Han made a retching motion, and with a 'wah' spat out a palm-sized golden little round stone, with fine, dense markings on it.

"This is a Gold Stone. After Chen Lao died, I specifically had people search that area, and finally found it."

Lord Han's expression was somewhat complicated.

Because even for him, a Gold Stone had tremendous use.

This was something that had truly condensed the essence of a Rain-grade strange being — the energy it contained was far beyond what a Silver Stone could compare to.

If his body were still here, it could greatly nourish and alleviate the Yuhan zhi shi.

But now… this was just a stone — in his current state, even with a Gold Stone, recovery would be very difficult.

Fang Yue was overjoyed on the spot, but after some hesitation, pushed it toward Lord Han.

"Lord Han, this thing…"

Lord Han smiled slightly: "It's useless to me."

"How could that be! This is…"

"In my current state, even a Gold Stone can't save me. So you keep it yourself."

Seeing that Lord Han didn't seem to be lying, Fang Yue then accepted the Gold Stone.

"Name: Gold Stone."

"Description: Residue left behind after a strange anomaly's death. Has a wide range of uses."

Fang Yue: …

Crude! So crude!

Big bro, this is something left behind after a Rain-class strange anomaly died. Don't be so perfunctory about it.

Although he was somewhat dissatisfied with the system's description, Fang Yue was still very much looking forward to what the Gold Stone could do.

Fang Yue figured, the parchment paper, after swallowing a 【Silver Stone】, could unleash the might of a Rain-class strike. So if it swallowed an even stronger Gold Stone, wouldn't that be heaven-defying!

He just didn't know why, after that strike using the parchment paper, his brain would hurt so much.

Even now, with the pain eased, Fang Yue still felt as if a part of his brain had become incomplete somehow, a very strange sensation.

"Parchment paper! Parchment paper, come out!"

He shouted twice in his heart, but the parchment paper showed no response.

Fang Yue was stunned for a moment, then took out the Gold Stone to tempt her.

"Little sheepy, did you enjoy eating the 【Silver Stone】 before? Now we've got an even tastier 【Gold Stone】 on hand. Come on out and eat something good."

Fang Yue felt like a creepy old uncle inviting an innocent little girl to eat a lollipop — as sinister as sinister could be.

【……Gold……Stone……!!】

The gluttonous parchment paper had, in the end, taken the bait.

Only from its text, there leaked a feeling of utter exhaustion.

"You finally agreed to come out. Tell me quick — why did I get a splitting headache after using your Rain-class strike, and pass out for a whole day and night before waking? And that attack of yours — can you use it continuously as long as there's a 【Silver Stone】?"

Fang Yue fired off his questions like a machine gun.

He figured, if the parchment paper's ability could be used at will, then he could start endlessly hunting strange anomalies.

Find a powerful strange anomaly, unleash a burst, harvest 【Silver Stones】 and 【Gold Stones】, and form a virtuous cycle.

Fang Yue felt as if he could already see a broad avenue of hope stretching out before him.

But the parchment paper's next words made him freeze on the spot.

【If…… you don't value your life…… I don't mind eating a few more……】

Fang Yue's heart gave a sudden lurch.

"What do you mean? Does that attack have some kind of side effect?"

【Yes. A Rain-class strike is the power of Ancient Words. It fuses your soul and mine into one, then borrows my power to act upon the outside world.】

【So every time you use it, our souls bind together more firmly, becoming indistinguishable from each other.】

【In other words, after using the power of Ancient Words a few more times, you'll be assimilated by me, become a part of me, become nourishment for the parchment paper, and ultimately…… become a strange artifact!】

Fang Yue:???

Holy crap! You never told me there was something like this!

The parchment paper seemed extremely weary, but still forced itself to keep producing text.

【Don't underestimate me. No matter what, I'm a strange artifact — how could there be no price to pay for using me at will?】

Feeling the text the parchment paper was producing in his mind, Fang Yue's heart turned cold.

"Then what's my situation now? What was that drilling pain in my brain earlier?"

【Undergoing transformation…… probably?】

For some unknown reason, when this line of text surfaced in Fang Yue's mind from the parchment paper,

what appeared in Fang Yue's mind was the image of a young girl tilting her head.

【You used my Ancient Words power, your soul fused with mine — you have me within you, I have you within me. But my level is above yours, so part of your brain should have been turned into a strange artifact. If you have the means, you could check your brain — part of the cerebral cortex tissue should have turned into parchment paper.】

Part of my brain…… turned into parchment paper?

Fang Yue gaped wide, the whole person plunging as if into an ice cellar.

"I, am I going to die?"

【That's only a tiny bit of transformation. At most it'll affect your memory or give you early-onset dementia — it's nothing! Also, you're just unlucky. If what had transformed were your limbs, or say your nose hair or scalp hair, turning into parchment paper wouldn't matter at all. You're just too tense.】

(End of this chapter)