Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 108: “Peyton”

This was the first time Myss had encountered such a shameless opponent.

This guy hadn’t acted when they suffered the teleportation error, nor had he acted when they fought the Human Mushroom. Yet the moment Myss entered the tower, his body and spirit misplaced, starving to the point of seeing stars, this guy suddenly pulled something like this.

Despite his thoughts, he still stretched out a hand and shifted his body sideways, dragging “Myss” behind him as a shield. In any case, this wasn’t his real body. If he could use it as a shield, why not use it? Myss even deliberately straightened his own collar.

As the last remaining proper combat force, Father Kalen quickly put away his relaxed expression and directly stood at the front of the group. As for the half combat force, Kai, who had the Divine Blood Puppet, tactfully retreated two steps, his entire body radiating the aura of “I want to stay out of this.”

Among everyone, the one with the greatest reaction was undoubtedly Owen.

Facing the churning dust and approaching darkness, he even forgot to shrink back into the pocket watch. “You didn’t want to assassinate Kendrick before. Even if you changed your mind, did it have to be like this?”

“I can’t compete with you anyway. What do you mean by cutting off everyone’s retreat?”

Peyton didn’t even spare him a glance.

He slightly raised the corner of his mouth and flicked the whip upward. Along with crackling sounds of earth and stone breaking apart, shattered stone bricks fell together with a large mass of shadow.

A heavy, fishy astringency suddenly filled the air. Myss wrinkled his nose. This smell made him think of dead tree roots that had been soaked in swamp water for years. Within the shadow, a twisted white outline slowly appeared.

Only then did Owen remember to dodge. He clicked his tongue unwillingly and scrambled back into the pocket watch in a sorry state.

After seeing the shape of that shadow clearly, Kai was the first to let out a surprised sound.

That thing’s structure looked much like the Divine Blood Puppet currently protecting him. Only, this thing’s body had never been processed and was still in its initial primitive form.

It was one size larger than a normal human. Its body had no hair, nor any excess reproductive organs, making it impossible to tell its sex. Its skin was deathly pale and stiff, like a clay-fired ceramic puppet that hadn’t yet been glazed.

This thing’s body blocks had already scattered apart, covered in fine spiderweb cracks. Between the blocks, they were likewise connected by pitch-black bone, making it look exactly like a large black-and-white spider.

Only its eye sockets still retained the slightest trace of color.

Under the faint light, its pupils flickered with beautiful lapis-lazuli blue.

Salaar’s eyes?

Seeing that familiar color, Myss’s mind briefly went blank. Many scattered thoughts flashed through his head, but none of them managed to become concrete ideas. Only an icy torrent remained.

Young Salaar stuck close behind him and lightly poked his back at that moment. “That’s an artificial construct.”

Only then did Myss react. That pair of eyeballs on the puppet was far too clean. Not a single blood vessel could be seen on them. Looking more carefully, its irises didn’t have the fine folds human eyes should have either. Perhaps they were made of actual lapis lazuli.

“Truly an eyesore,” he muttered unhappily, his movements becoming even more guarded.

He had to think of some way.

Right now, he and Salaar lacked physical strength. Many of the abilities they had previously gained couldn’t be used. They could be called utterly powerless. On the other side were Peyton and this strange puppet. No matter how one looked at it, they stood no chance.

Even if Salaar drank the antidote and recovered into adult Salaar, their situation wouldn’t improve much.

Myss’s heart beat fiercely. It felt as if a ball of cotton was blocking his throat, and his hands and feet gradually chilled.

He was a genius. He was a genius… Sure he could think of a way…

At the same time, the ancient puppet’s limbs tapped the ground with clicking sounds. That head turned back and forth at angles completely impossible for a human, as if assessing their combat power.

The soft clicking of its turning neck was exactly like the second hand of a clock. Soon, it locked onto its target, the Divine Blood Puppet whose structure was extremely similar to its own, yet whose origins were unknown.

That thin figure abruptly flashed, leaping like a jumping spider toward Kai, who was watching the show. Kai immediately cursed and hurriedly commanded the Divine Blood Puppet to retreat.

But he was still one step too slow.

After more than three hundred years, that ancient puppet was still terrifyingly powerful. Its limb merely brushed lightly past, and the body blocks of the Divine Blood Puppet became dust and fragments.

Kai’s side had to divide attention to give commands, while that strange puppet moved on its own. The reaction speeds of the two couldn’t be compared. Even more excessive, its grasp of the Divine Blood Puppet’s joint weaknesses was simply more precise than the most experienced butcher.

Less than thirty seconds after that thing fell down, every body block of Kai’s puppet used for movement had been thoroughly destroyed by that dusty old thing.

Kai’s Divine Blood Puppet collapsed uselessly to the ground, its body twitching nonstop. The large lantern crashed onto the floor, casting the struggling puppet’s shadow in every direction.

After bringing down this “counterfeit” of unknown origin, the ancient puppet swiftly locked onto Father Kalen.

With another leap, a deathly pale wind blew toward Kalen, who was on guard against Peyton.

Father Kalen’s back was exposed. At the instant the puppet was about to pierce through his shoulder, the priest narrowly dodged, and his thick priest’s robe was slashed open with a long cut.

One strike failed, and the puppet nimbly crawled away again. It seemed unable to see Peyton, who was close at hand, only eerily moving its deformed limbs as it prepared for the next wave of attacks.

At the same time, Peyton seemed to have confirmed something and began moving as well.

This kid clearly didn’t have the good habit of first laying out causes and consequences before starting a battle. He opened with a heavy strike, smashing through the inner wall nearest to himself. Earlier, the bookshelf had collapsed, fully exposing the inner wall behind it.

Immediately, a pitch-black opening was revealed. An even stronger fishy astringency drifted out from the darkness. Myss could roughly guess that this was the central chimney running through the entire tower from top to bottom.

Immediately after, Peyton snapped his fingers with his free hand.

The entire tower rumbled and shook. The next moment, pale-blue light ignited from within the chimney.

The double-layer tower seemed like a body waking from a long dream. The lights embedded in the tower lit up one after another. Unknown machines on the walls released dry, hoarse noises and began operating with difficulty.

The darkness was driven away by faint firelight, but the shadows in the corners grew even heavier. Myss stood quietly amid the wills scattered all over the floor, the rising flames jumping in his eyes.

Before everyone could react, Peyton cracked the short whip.

A pale-blue translucent whip body extended from the end of his whip, transforming into a long whip made of magic. It wrapped around Kai’s Divine Blood Puppet, which was paralyzed on the ground, and flung it directly into the burning chimney.

Kai screamed in fright. Dragging Owen’s puffy body, he rushed toward the opening and jumped down.

A despairing roar came from the pocket watch, but in the end, Owen still didn’t dare show his head.

The ancient puppet wasn’t idle either. It once again pounced at Father Kalen and nearly knocked Tass away along the way.

Tass instinctively retreated to a certain corner, but he was inside Kai’s body, which was too large. His lower back slammed hard into the sharp corner of a cabinet, and the Dragon Fae immediately drew in a breath from the pain.

The priest crossed both arms, wanting to block the puppet diving toward him. The next second, the sound of breaking bones rang through the space. A thin layer of sweat emerged on Father Kalen’s forehead, and his arms, which had been broken by the impact, rapidly recovered.

Seeing this sight, the puppet’s lapis-lazuli eyes completely locked onto Kalen.

Father Kalen had just wanted to approach Myss and Salaar, but those cannonball-like flying body blocks smashed toward the priest’s head. To avoid implicating the two of them, the priest had no choice but to immediately move away, leading the puppet clinging to him toward the other end of this ring-shaped space.

Amid the chaos, only Myss and Salaar barely stabilized themselves.

Peyton stood before the burning opening, his back to the leaping firelight, the expression on his face ambiguous and unclear. From this angle, Myss could only see the obvious upward curve of his lips.

From Peyton’s sudden attack to this successful arrangement, how much time had passed? Had it even been two minutes?

The ancient puppet had tied down Father Kalen. Right now, the companions beside them were only Tass, who was stuck in Kai’s body and had lost all advantages, and Owen, who was hiding in the pocket watch and was utterly useless.

It was the first time Myss had seen such a silent and efficient opponent. Salaar himself could be considered efficient, but that kid talked so much it was annoying. He completely lacked this oppressive, suffocating sense of the unknown.

“If this is to assassinate Kendrick, isn’t this a bit too much of a production?” Myss said dryly.

Never mind making the entire group collapse into chaos, Peyton had even activated the whole two-story tower. Damn it, could this ascetic monk have a thing for grand, fiery spectacles?

Myss stretched out an arm and retreated half a step with Salaar behind him, trying to delay and gain time to think. “Couldn’t you have just taken advantage of us not paying attention and given us a fatal blow to the back of the head?”

“Because this is an interrogation, not an assassination.”

Amid the sounds of Kalen fighting the puppet, Peyton slightly spread his arms.

“I want to know who you are. Unfortunately, the two of you are so powerful that I couldn’t ensure I will obtain truthful answers. Therefore, I could only resort to this inferior method.”

“Who am I? I’m your younger brother by blood, Kendrick Karns.”

Salaar spoke from behind Myss. His movements didn’t look like he was hiding at all. He was so composed that it annoyed people, especially Myss.

“You’re not.” Peyton said, his tone absolute certainty.

That was a bit too definitive. Myss unhappily raised his nose. Discovering that this only allowed him to see the ceiling, he had no choice but to lower his face again and glare fiercely at Peyton.

Disgust aside, but Lord Archdemon’s peripheral vision secretly looked toward “his own” chest, considering the possibility of getting “Brave Salaar” and letting the Bedsheet Archdemon carry out an assassination.

Peyton looked back without the slightest fear, his gaze almost arrogant.

“I know my personality has changed somewhat.”

Salaar continued slowly. He grabbed the back of Myss’s clothes, his tone flawless. “I also said this is the influence of love… As an ascetic monk, it’s normal that you don’t understand.”

“All right, it’s all my fault!”

Owen shouted from inside the pocket watch. “You know it too, don’t you? I drugged him with ‘Return to Youth.’ Th-the drug might have a problem and made him lose his mind!”

“Can you people be normal? At least assassinate in a normal way!”

“As expected, this still isn’t enough. You truly haven’t said a single honest word.”

Peyton spoke softly. His appearance was already gentle. At this moment, his voice carried laughter, making him even seem somewhat tender. Unfortunately, as that mouth opened and closed, the words it spat out had nothing whatsoever to do with the word “tender.”

“I’ll have to cut off your limbs and interrogate you slowly.”

Myss only felt his hands and feet grow a little colder. His mind had never spun this quickly before.

“On what basis do you say he isn’t Kendrick?” he asked loudly, while his peripheral vision swept around even harder.

“Of course he can’t possibly be ‘Kendrick Karns.’ I’m more certain of this than anyone.”

Peyton finally stopped walking and took up this question. He slowly raised a hand and touched the eyepatch embroidered with the divine emblem of the Church of Cadence.

“Because…”

He yanked off the eyepatch, revealing the ugly scar behind it.

The adornment of scars and shadow, the high raised corners of his mouth, that gentle face now looked exactly like a circus clown.

“Kendrick Karns…”

Pale-blue flames ignited from his right hand, and the eyepatch that symbolized piety turned to ash. Throughout the entire process, Peyton didn’t chant a single incantation.

“…is me.”

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The author has something to say:

Here we go! [cat paw]

He should count as the strongest enemy they have encountered so far. (.

Myss: ??? So everything from the summoning onward is all your fault? [angry]

Rage value rising ↑↑↑

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