Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 95: A Flaw in the Seal

“Oh, a Divine Attendant of the Chaos Archdemon… What? Who???”

If not for her sheer rationality holding her back, Mag would have nearly flown out of the confinement room on the spot. She looked several times at the hanging portrait of Saint Salaar before she barely managed to steady herself.

“A Divine Attendant of the Chaos Archdemon,” Salaar repeated leisurely.

If not for the face sewn from cotton cloth, Myss absolutely wouldn’t have been able to control his expression. Many emotions surged up at once, and his face honestly chose the most obvious among them.

The Myss doll split his mouth open, smiling with great satisfaction.

He had thought Salaar would use his clever tongue to find an excuse and skip over this topic or make up some nonexistent god. Myss squeezed Salaar’s cotton body and hummed in satisfaction.

“…The Chaos Archdemon bears no malice toward the human world. The Night Scourge is merely His breathing.”

Facing the dumbfounded Lady Mag, Salaar calmly continued, “Salaar and his companions sealed His Divine Realm, forcing Him to hold His breath.”

“From the dimension of a god, He is actually quite young. We only wish to collect the power He has lost, so that He may grow up sooner and leave… In this way, the world will welcome eternal peace.”

A lie.

Myss withdrew the smile on his face.

Both of them knew that Myss’s freedom meant the destruction of the entire world.

Salaar had concealed the most crucial part. The moment Myss breathed again, an unprecedented Night Scourge would descend upon the world, and the magic of annihilation would devour everything.

That wasn’t even mentioning the physical destruction brought by Myss’s true body. In the worst case, the earth would be corroded and shattered, and the entire planet would become riddled with holes, or even cease to exist.

And as long as Myss survived, there would always come a moment when he breathed again.

Mag clearly didn’t buy it outright. She gave a dry chuckle. “I understand. So that’s why you two are interested in things like ‘Divine Blood.’”

A faint trace of wariness appeared in the way she looked at them, but she wasn’t insane to antagonize the pair right then and there.

“In any case, since you two are willing to clear away anomalies for the human world, our interests are aligned.”

“I hope the misunderstanding between us can be resolved soon, and that peace will arrive as early as possible.” The Salaar doll smiled.

Then the two sides exchanged a few polite pleasantries. Lady Mag left in a flurry, saying she needed to make a report. Salaar, using “wanting to find a quiet place to rest” as his reason, remained in the confinement room.

The moment Mag closed the door, the Myss doll grabbed the Salaar doll by the collar. “You realy are something, Great Hero. One moment you’re acting pitiful in front of me, and the next you’re spreading the ‘truth of the Night Scourge’?”

Myss hadn’t expected this guy to be able to show weakness to him while also stabbing him in the back right in front of him.

With just a few sentences, Salaar had informed Mag of the Chaos Archdemon’s condition. As for the part about peaceful coexistence, only a three-year-old child would believe that, and Mag was clearly not a three-year-old.

“She won’t spread the news on her own initiative.”

Salaar was being held by the collar by the Myss doll, but he didn’t panic at all.

“Mag knows nothing about Divine Attendants. Even Professor Gentry, an Archmage, didn’t act rashly. She’s a clever person, so it’s even less possible for her to expose us without considering the consequences.”

“She will only do everything she can to maintain a cooperative relationship with us, secretly observe our movements, and use us to remove troublesome Divine Realms for humanity… Obtaining more Abnormal Fruit, isn’t that what you want too?”

Myss silently studied Salaar.

“And I think, as a member of the Karns family, she will work even harder to investigate the body-swap ritual.”

“Her blood relative caused a great disaster, and she’s clearly quite proud of being a ‘descendant of Saint Salaar.’ She will believe she bears a tremendous responsibility for this… A top researcher from the United Library who understands the Karns family helping us investigate the body-swap ritual. That’s also in your interest.”

Salaar’s lapis-lazuli button eyes looked down at him, and his words almost carried a seductive allure.

“All right. I don’t hate fair competition.”

Myss finally let go of him. “This was a decent move.”

If Salaar lost his spirit, or worst yet, if he turned into a blind traitor because of love, Myss would instead feel disappointed. More than that, this move of Salaar’s had been executed openly and with integrity. Myss had to think of an even more beautiful response.

The Myss doll stood up and paced back and forth on the tabletop with little pattering footsteps.

Salaar took the chance to stand up and test the various limits of “dollification.”

He soon discovered that even without paper and ink, as long as they traced the words “Borrow” and “Return” in midair, they could change form.

Before the “Sea of Concepts” dissipated, its influence theoretically wouldn’t disappear. As long as the ability to turn into dolls was used in the right place, it might have unexpected effects.

The human-form Salaar sat before the desk, smiling as he watched the Myss doll walk back and forth. Myss was deep in thought and didn’t realize he had walked onto Salaar’s palm, only to be scooped up by Salaar in one grab.

“What are you doing?” Myss asked irritably. He raised his cotton head and patted Salaar’s finger.

Salaar didn’t answer. He only stretched out his finger and slowly, firmly kneaded the tiny Archdemon doll, from cheek to neck, then down to the empty waist and abdomen.

Myss let out a few exasperating squeaks and angrily slapped his palm. “Stop squeezing me. You’re messing up my train of thought.”

He suspected Salaar was taking revenge for Myss grabbing his collar earlier.

Salaar lowered his eyes. The soft cotton ball twisted in his palm. The feeling was warm and fluffy, as if it had been roasted beside a fire.

Looking at those garnet eyes that kept locking onto him, Salaar couldn’t help bending down and kissing the Myss doll on the top of his head.

Myss: “?”

The Myss doll froze in place and forgot to struggle for a moment.

“You said you remember every name I carved. Then no matter what I carve, you can remember it?” Salaar’s voice was as light as a whisper, his breath stirring Myss’s cotton-thread hair.

“Yeah, otherwise who knows what bad thing you’re secretly doing again.” Myss snorted and struggled harder. “Have you squeezed enough? Let go of me.”

Of course Salaar didn’t listen. He continued to lightly press the doll’s face with his fingertips, his gaze lingering on the scattered hair.

Myss could no longer endure it. He worked hard to stretch out a small hand and drew the word “Return” in the air.

Shadows shook, and tables and chairs scraped. In the next heartbeat, Myss, restored to his original form, fell sitting on Salaar, his upper body covered only by that navy-blue coat.

With his skin exposed to the slightly cool air, Myss instinctively shivered.

He happened to land in the gap between Salaar and the table, sitting face-to-face on Salaar’s lap. The coat had been pulled askew by his movements, exposing Myss’s right shoulder.

Naturally, the other parts were even less covered.

Salaar stretched out both arms and gathered the coat together with Myss’s waist, trapping him in that narrow space. He said nothing, merely looking at Myss again, with that damp, doll-like gaze.

Myss instinctively cupped Salaar’s face and rubbed it hard, as if trying to scrub away that fatigue. Then he withdrew his hands as if shocked by electricity. “What is it now?”

“A doll has no vitality when held.” Salaar pressed his forehead to Myss’s chest, feeling the strong heartbeat beneath Myss’s ribs.

“I thought the thing you hated most was my vitality.” Myss pointed it out cruelly. “You just passed my information to other people, hoping they would help kill me.”

“Yes.”

Salaar raised his eyes, and the arms encircling Myss applied a little force. His fingertips sank into Myss’s skin, leaving faint red marks.

He moved closer, and Myss still looked down at him. Both of their breaths grew slightly rapid, melting together.

“Don’t forget, I am a ‘Divine Attendant of the Chaos Archdemon.’ If they discover a way to deal with you first, I’ll only die together with you.”

“Die together? Do you think I’m stupid? You only need to casually find some pretty-sounding excuse, and humans will let you go.”

Myss made no attempt to hide the mockery in his tone. He threaded his ten fingers into Salaar’s black hair, ensuring that Salaar had to look up at him.

Salaar smiled.

Myss had never seen Salaar smile like this. Salaar always held something back, as if beneath his skin there wasn’t flesh and blood, but bottomless mist. Yet at this moment, his smile was unexpectedly pure.

“If that day truly comes, I absolutely won’t look for an excuse.”

Silence spread through the room. The watery light from the ceiling projected onto Myss’s skin, swaying gently like a cradle. Myss saw the same faint light in Salaar’s eyes, and his enemy looked almost sincere.

Salaar’s body heat wrapped too tightly around him, and Myss suddenly felt a little hot.

Dark magic flowed along his skin, gradually weaving into dim fabric. The navy-blue coat gently slid to the floor, and Myss once again wore the ranger outfit he had long been apart from.

Only after putting on clothes did Myss feel a little more at ease. The last trace of magic wound around his wrist and finished weaving the cuff.

Looking at those ink-line-like magic threads, Myss suddenly thought of Brief and Bedsheet Archdemon.

That picture book had accidentally connected to the Sea of Concepts. He wondered whether it could still connect after being taken away… Wait.

Every time before, they had entered and left Divine Realms through normal methods. And Salaar’s seal had sealed his lair, in other words, the entrance to his Divine Realm.

But now, that copy of ‘Brave Salaar’ proved that as long as one found the right method, even a Divine Realm could be torn open through a hidden gap.

A tempting thought pierced through his mind like lightning, and Myss’s fingertips tingled with excitement.

Could Salaar’s seemingly impregnable seal also have a flaw?

…Perhaps he could create a shortcut that skipped the tedious investigation and led directly to his own Divine Realm. As long as his spirit successfully returned to his true body, in the next moment he could take a deep breath and trigger a true Night Scourge.

Yes, he only needed an “ink hole” that allowed his consciousness to quietly touch the darkness beneath the seal.

Myss tightly closed his eyes. His heart had never beaten this fast.

Beneath his eyelids, his pupils dilated, as if trying to see clearly the residual divine power of the “Sea of Concepts” that still lingered on him.

Myss did everything he could to recall what those two ink holes looked like, and what it felt like to pass through them. It was like adjusting a precision machine. He had to adjust it with great delicacy and reproduce that subtle sensation.

The air became viscous and made faint popping sounds. As the “tuning” drew closer, Myss’s body grew hotter and hotter, and the magic inside him gradually boiled.

It was exactly like maintaining balance on an invisible steel wire. If he wanted to move forward, he had to maintain his current state. One extra breath, one slower heartbeat, and it wouldn’t work.

A little closer, a little closer… He was almost about to understand. He only needed a little more…

“Hiss!”

Myss opened his eyes. Sharp pain shattered his thoughts.

Salaar was biting his collarbone.

Salaar bit quite hard. Myss suspected this kid had drawn blood. Salaar’s body was as tense as stone, and his back was soaked through with cold sweat. His hands tightly gripped Myss’s waist, the muscles in his arms bulging.

“No.”

Salaar stared fixedly at him. There was no panic on his face, only urgency and tension, as if he were watching a storm about to take shape.

“No, Myss.” His breath carried the faint scent of blood, and his voice was a little hoarse.

“…It cannot end—not yet.”

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The author has something to say:

Don’t think Myss is harmless. Seriously, if you let your guard down for even a moment, he really will destroy the world. [cat paw] (…

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 94: Half-Truths and Half-Lies

“What kind of person was Mr. Tenney?” Salaar answered the question with a question.

“…An ordinary old man.”

Mag froze for a moment. She truly couldn’t think of a more precise description. The United Library had many young, promising geniuses who acted eccentrically. Compared to them, that old man was ordinary to the point of being ordinary.

“But I think he wouldn’t let those old researchers remain dolls for the rest of their lives.” She hesitantly added, and then her tone gradually became certain. “Since he deliberately left the Sea of Concepts to the library, and even considered security, he wouldn’t make ‘returning to normal’ too difficult.”

They had reached another topic of human psychology that Myss had no interest in. He went limp and gave a huge yawn, letting Salaar hold him tightly.

Salaar didn’t cut in. He only smiled and looked toward Mag.

Mag had already sunk into thought. “For entering and leaving the Sea of Concepts, ‘dollification’ must have a conversion ritual that is easy to operate.”

“As long as the library investigates a little, they’ll be able to connect the dolls to Mr. Tenney… Mr. Tenney wouldn’t set up some complicated metaphor. This ritual must be directly related to Mr. Tenney… My goodness, could it be…”

She suddenly climbed down the bookshelf on all fours and ran to a nearby worktable convenient for placing books. The stick figure used all her strength to drag over an application form, then hauled over a bottle of ink.

“Mr. Tenney was the United Library’s archivist. Borrowing books and calling up materials requires a checkout slip and a return slip.”

Mag spoke breathlessly. “Try it. Sign a ‘return’ on this and see what happens.”

“I’ll do it.”

After confirming that dolls wouldn’t be attacked by the monsters, the Dragon Fae volunteered. “I saw the gemstone decoration on the ink bottle cap. If it works, I’ll have the easiest time hiding.”

Salaar nodded.

Tass poked his cloth hand into the bottle mouth, dipped it in some ink, and laboriously scratched out the word “Return” on the paper.

The moment the last letter was finished, the small doll body was swallowed by a cloud of cotton-like white smoke. When the smoke dispersed again, only the slender Dragon Fae remained in place.

Tass flew up in emotion. “My wings are back, whoo!”

In the next instant, the nearby monsters all turned their heads together. Thousands upon thousands of deformed strange eyes looked toward Tass.

Tass landed without daring to move. “Uhhh… Goodbye, I’ll hide first.”

He shot into the black crystal on the ink bottle cap, pretending he had never existed.

However, the monsters had no intention of letting him go. Countless limbs began pressing in his direction, looking as if they were about to crush the ink bottle. Mag drew in a breath and dragged the application form beside the ink bottle.

“Write ‘Borrow,’ quickly!” Mag shouted anxiously. A claw that looked very much like an eagle’s talon was poised to come crashing down.

Tass fully displayed the speed advantage of a Dragon Fae. He flashed back to the application form like lightning and quickly wrote down “Borrow.” Another puff of white smoke burst out, and the Tass doll appeared in place.

The enormous claw stopped in midair and slowly withdrew.

“It seems you found the answer,” Salaar said peacefully.

“Thank you for your hint.” Stick Figure Mag bowed.

Seeing Salaar unconsciously put on an elder’s manner, Myss snickered softly. “…Actually, you didn’t know how to change back, did you?”

“That’s right. After all, I didn’t know Mr. Tenney.” Salaar replied quietly. “I only knew he had no ill intent, and that Lady Mag is, without a doubt, a top-tier scholar.”

Myss rubbed against Salaar’s shoulder for a while, pressing his head into the softest spot. “Oh, top-tier scholar.”

“Then remember to properly explain to this ‘top-tier scholar’ why your face is exactly the same as her younger brother’s.”

……

Two hours passed.

The group randomly chose a book and entered the Divine Realm, then returned to reality through that copy of ‘Brave Salaar’.

“It seems our ink holes aren’t very complete.”

Brief wiped the hard cover of the picture book. “They should be connected together, so you can zip straight across without going through the book content. Then you won’t have to walk so far through the restricted book area…”

“This book didn’t connect to the Divine Realm normally, so it’s natural for it to have some flaws.” Mag comforted him.

Stick Figure Mag found a small house in the picture book and lay down to sleep. Lady Mag’s consciousness returned to her physical body, and she was sitting properly in her office.

The Divine Blood cage that had covered the book had already been removed. The leftover Divine Blood residue was given by Mag to Brief, because he said he wanted to repair the two ink holes.

The priest stood quietly in the corner, staring into space. The Dragon Fae had returned to normal and was flying all over the room, trying to make up for the amount of exercise his wings had missed.

Only Salaar and Myss still maintained their tiny doll forms.

“Nominally, we’re in your confinement room. It’s inconvenient for us to appear in public.” Salaar explained it this way.

Myss’s reason was even simpler. He had to first turn back into human form, then use magic to weave new clothes.

Lord Archdemon didn’t place much stock in human etiquette, but he didn’t want to appear naked in front of everyone with only Salaar’s coat on his body.

Mag picked up the bread basket, padded it with some silk handkerchiefs, then placed the two dolls inside.

“I’ll take these two to see my confinement room first, so we can match the story.”

She nodded to the priest and the Dragon Fae who stayed behind. “You two can rest here for now. I’ll be back soon.”

Under the fragrant bread cloth, the Myss doll spread his limbs and grew drowsy. He was exhausted. Salaar looked so flat that he was almost just one layer of cloth. Myss had no idea why this cheap cousin was in such a hurry.

Salaar, however, had no unexpected reaction. He quietly leaned against Myss, one cloth arm lying across Myss’s chest.

Lady Mag’s confinement room wasn’t far from her office.

Although it was called a confinement room, it wasn’t especially dark.

Inside, there was a narrow bed, a desk, a simple bathroom partition, and bookshelves covering three walls. The lighting in the room was sufficient, there was a bottle of fake flowers made of silk on the desk, and the ceiling even had a false window that projected underwater schools of fish.

Blue faint light mixed with warm orange lamplight, giving the whole room a peaceful, quiet atmosphere. If not for the portrait of Saint Salaar hanging on the only remaining wall, Myss would have liked this place quite a bit.

Mag carefully shut the door of the confinement room. The sounds from outside instantly vanished, as if only this small room remained between heaven and earth.

“The authority over this room belongs entirely to me. There’s no surveillance, and the soundproofing is also the finest.”

“Now, I think I can understand why that Professor Gentry wrote an introduction letter for you. You’re absolutely not my useless younger brother, and I don’t want to allow my family to make enemies of you… But I think you probably don’t want to make your identity public either.”

Mag solemnly placed the bread basket on the desk.

“If there is anything you need to tell me privately, now is the best time. Anything within my ability, I’ll gladly do for you.”

Speaking with a clever person really saved effort. Mag was indirectly probing his true identity. After the trip through the Sea of Concepts, pretending to be Kendrick Karns no longer made much sense.

The Salaar doll sat up and worked hard to straighten his shirt collar. “Kendrick Karns used that Divine Blood slave as a living sacrifice and mistakenly summoned us.”

“That failed ritual caused us to lose most of our power, and we could only investigate the human world and serve our God in this state.”

Mag’s expression turned solemn.

…Legendary Divine Attendants?

With her rank, she had only heard scattered mentions a few times, and she had no related materials in hand. At this stage, research into “gods” was all over the place. She had only touched the edges of “Divine Realms,” and knew some people were conducting related experiments.

As for true “gods,” apart from existing in the mouths of religious believers, no one had truly seen Them. These God’s Divine Attendants were, at most, magic geniuses, with nothing especially unusual about them.

However, from a scholar’s perspective, since Divine Realms existed, it wasn’t impossible for real gods to exist somewhere in the world.

Then true Divine Attendants…

“I understand. I’m willing to help you investigate that failed ritual and make up for my younger brother’s mistake.”

Mag hurriedly said, “In addition, I’ll remain in contact with you at all times and provide as much assistance as I can. As for the Karns family’s kill order…”

“We don’t wish to make our identities public. We’ll resolve the kill order ourselves.”

The Salaar doll gave a very lifelike sigh. “Rest assured, we won’t take our grievances out on the Karns family.”

Only then did Mag let out a breath of relief.

Compared to the disappearance of her unlucky younger brother, she was clearly more worried about whether Salaar and Myss would move against the Karns family.

Seeing that Salaar had no intention of continuing, she immediately took over the conversation. “I’ll inform the family according to your explanation and say that based on my observations, ‘Kendrick Karns’ has turned over a new leaf because of love. Aside from that, do you have any other needs?”

“What exactly did that Ken-whatever do? His reputation seems absolutely abysmal.”

At last, they had reached the free-request segment! Myss couldn’t wait to poke his head out.

He hadn’t the slightest interest in the tedious details of cleaning up and handling the aftermath, but he did have an interest in hearing scandals about Salaar’s current vessel, and quite a large one.

Mag’s expression dimmed for an instant.

“This isn’t something an older sister should say aloud. But with Kendrick Karns gone, I actually feel much more at ease…”

Kendrick Karns was the youngest child of their generation. He had lost both parents early, and he was born unable to use magic, so their grandfather had been fairly fond of this unlucky little guy.

Even though Kendrick had been disagreeable and perverse as a child, the Karns family endured it. After all, who could blame him, given his wretched luck? Even if Kendrick became a useless dandy, the Karns family could afford to keep him.

If he broke valuable things, the Karns family would at most scold him a little. If he injured servants, the Karns family would pay ample compensation and find more people to watch the boy, until…

“For a period of time, he firmly believed that the birth of his older brother, Peyton, who was three years older than him, had caused their mother’s health to weaken and affected his own constitution.”

Mag’s voice carried a few degrees of coldness. “At an important dinner, he tried to kill Peyton and make Peyton pay the so-called ‘price,’ causing Peyton to lose sight in one eye… At that time, that boy wasn’t even an adult.”

“That incident was more or less the trigger for Grandfather sending him off to the border.”

Peyton? Had this person been mentioned before?

Myss tried hard to recall. He remembered that the ones who wanted to kill Kendrick were the turnip twins, the mud knight, and the useless garbage who hired Tass. Among them, there didn’t seem to be a human named Peyton.

Mag understood his confusion. “Peyton is a very kind child. He’s now a devout monk of the Church of Candance. He’s indeed at home during this period. I’m willing to guarantee with my honor that he will absolutely not act against you.”

So that was how it was.

In one second, Myss threw the name “Peyton” out of his mind.

Mag suddenly realized something. “Could it be that you two still intend to personally go to the Karns family to discuss the kill order?”

“I can handle it on your behalf, truly! At least I’m confident I can persuade my eldest brother and eldest sister…”

Halfway through her words, Mag swallowed them herself.

Everyone in the Karns family who had a brain knew that she and Kendrick had never had much contact, and that she had previously greatly disliked this wicked cousin. How could Kendrick simply turn over a new leaf and have her rush to speak for him?

But these were Divine Attendants indirectly acknowledged by Professor Gentry!

If some brainless person, especially her other useless cousin, Owen, offended these two to death, who knew what kind of trouble that would cause?

Mag swallowed and still couldn’t help asking, “If possible, could you, could you tell me which god you two serve as Divine Attendants?”

Please let it be a god that sounded very upright. Preferably a god from a fairly popular religion. That way, she could still judge the conduct style of the Divine Attendants based on the religious style.

Before Myss had time to spout nonsense, he saw Salaar split his mouth in a grin.

“I’m a Divine Attendant of the Chaos Archdemon.”

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The author has something to say:

Mag, who considers herself a descendant of Saint Salaar: ?

A literal challenge.jpg

But this is only Saint Salaar gently appeasing the Chaos Archdemon. [OK]

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 93: The True Entrance

The moment Salaar realized the research had been cut off across eras, he did indeed feel a flash of pain.

It felt as if his heart was shackled with a lead weight, dragging it towards a bottomless void. Yet, this pain only lasted a few heartbeats. Salaar was far too accustomed to despair. It couldn’t hold him captive for long.

The human world still existed. There were still people like this digging up the truth. By chance, he was still alive too. Everything was far from over.

Back then, everyone in the Celestial Canopy never intended to be enshrined in the memories of posterity. They only did it for the continued existence of humanity. Even if all their names were buried in darkness…

“I can recite every single name. How is that erased? When you carved their gravestones, I watched with my own two eyes.”

The Myss doll rubbed his face hard and said this in that perfectly natural Myss-like tone.

Salaar froze.

His heart began to fall again. This time, the pain was sharper and seemed to stretch on endlessly. Then he discovered, to his astonishment, that he actually liked this pain a little, like touching a blazing fire in the depths of winter.

Then Salaar was even more shocked to discover that he could detect a subtle emotion in Myss’s tone. It was a nearly imperceptible unease and anxiety, a trepidation born only for him.

Salaar suddenly wanted to laugh.

Myss had keenly sensed that instant of weakness in him, while he had also sniffed out the unease that even Myss himself hadn’t noticed. As enemies of more than three hundred years, they were truly skilled at finding each other’s weak points.

The vast being he had watched over for more than three hundred years had shown him one small crack.

…And so, Salaar told Myss about the subtle connection between “Divine Blood” and “Abnormal Fruit.” Not only that, he also showed the Chaos Archdemon a corner of the Celestial Canopy, as well as his own vulnerability.

What sweet bait. Such a dangerous gambit made Salaar’s hair stand on end.

But he didn’t hesitate.

Because Hero Salaar needed to lure the Archdemon’s heart and build another wall to hinder the apocalypse. And selfish Salaar needed to obtain Myss’s love, even if it was an unknowing love, simply because he wanted it.

When Myss gnawed hard at his face, the Salaar doll stretched out his short little hands and loosely enclosed Myss’s body.

Rather than an embrace, that gesture looked more like hunting.

……

After regrouping with the others, Mag was sensible enough to remain quiet and didn’t rush to investigate the Stargazers Society.

“Let’s find a path back to the outside first.” She waved her stick-figured little hand.

“There definitely won’t be any problem returning the way we came!” Brief cheerfully waved his little sword. “These concepts come from different books. I can open the path back and take you all home!”

“Wooo wooo—” Bedsheet Archdemon expressed agreement.

“I want to try another exit. Please tell me what to do,” Salaar suddenly said.

Why did Salaar sound completely recovered?

Myss turned his head in confusion and once again saw that pitiful, waterlogged-looking Salaar doll… Fine. Maybe Salaar was only habitually calm.

The Dragon Fae standing across from them wrinkled his cloth face into an expression of unbearable disgust, as if someone had stuffed a saucer of lemon vinegar beneath his nose.

Brief, however, didn’t understand all the twists and turns involved. He readily patted his chest. “Just pick anything here, grab it with both hands, and close your eyes. Then you’ll be able to find the path to that book.”

“Why can’t everyone return the way we came?” Mag asked cautiously.

That children’s picture book being able to connect here was entirely an accident. If they left from some other exit, they would only appear in the restricted book area, where “heroes and monsters gathered.”

Ever since seeing the masked man, Father Kalen had sunk into his own world. Even if the whole group jumped into a cesspit one by one, she suspected the priest would follow them in. As for the Dragon Fae, he had always looked like someone who was a spectator for the drama, so he wouldn’t question Salaar at all.

As the only normal person present, Lady Mag believed she had a duty to raise doubts.

“Because there’s still one small question I need to verify,” Salaar said. “Why did we turn into cloth dolls? Aren’t you curious?”

“As long as we enter that abnormal restricted book area, I think we’ll be able to find the reason.”

Mag hesitated for two seconds. Between “being a normal person” and “satisfying her curiosity,” she ultimately chose the latter.

Two minutes later, the group was dragged by the wailing Bedsheet Archdemon toward the deep-sea area of the Sea of Concepts.

They quickly found a strange black serpentine-like fish drifting through the waters. Its body was covered in long bone spines. For humans, it would be troublesome, but for the little dolls, hugging it was just right. The priest relied on his innate healing divine power and forced both hands onto it.

The fish lazily glanced at them and continued swimming leisurely.

The moment his hands touched that snake, Myss felt something strange.

His hands were clearly gripping cold bone spines, but the feeling was like holding a book. As long as he was willing to close the pages, he would be able to see the title on the cover.

He instinctively made the motion of “closing the book” in his mind.

In the next instant, heaven and earth spun.

He seemed to have been stuffed into a long, thin tube, then spat out from the other end with a pop. Myss flew out, dizzy and disoriented. Something soft hugged him, preventing him from falling too embarrassingly.

Myss instinctively sniffed and smelled Salaar’s scent. Salaar had bundled him into his arms, and the two dolls squeezed into one heavy cotton ball, landing safely on the ground and rolling to the side of a “wall.”

Myss shook his head and raised his button eyes.

“Wow.” Myss sighed with genuine awe.

At the moment, he and Salaar were leaning beneath the foot of an enormous bookshelf. The vast space surrounding them was filled with these gigantic shelves, crafted from deep walnut-colored wood, standing like rows of towering walls. All the books were chained to the shelves, and the gray-white chains swayed softly, making tiny sounds like sleep-talking.

Although they were deep underground, the entire area was brightly lit. Only, as far as the eye could see, there were no humans, only terrifying monsters tangled together all over the floor.

From distorted human bodies to deep-sea aberrations, there were all kinds of strange beings. They tangled and twisted around one another, spraying frightening magical radiance. The air was filled with a choking fishy stench, along with the bitter smell unique to old books.

If any one monster were pulled out on its own, its visual impact would undoubtedly be staggering. However, the way they were tangled together only made Myss think of an overcooked mixed stew.

After confirming the environment, Myss briefly checked on the other companions.

The moment Father Kalen appeared, a two-headed giant wolf lunged at him with its jaws open. The priest immediately activated his hidden ring and vanished into the air on the spot.

Tass was quick and slipped into the gap between two old books. The entire movement was so smooth that Myss almost didn’t notice him at first glance.

The three stick figures weren’t so particular. They openly stuck themselves to the side of the bookshelf. Monsters wandered past and ignored them, as if they were merely irrelevant doodles on the wood.

A huge bird claw stepped down right beside Myss and Salaar. The two dolls immediately huddled even tighter. The owner of that claw lowered its head and swept its murky single eye over them, then just as readily ignored the two.

“These concept monsters are only squeezing and tangling together. They aren’t attacking each other.”

Myss bit Salaar. He had spied here for quite a while and hadn’t seen a single monster torn apart, ripped to pieces… or anything else like that.

“Fine, the stick figures can be counted as ‘conceptual kin,’ but they only attack the priest, who retains human form, and has no interest at all in dolls like us. In other words…”

“Only people who turn into dolls can walk safely through the restricted book area, then enter the Sea of Concepts from here.”

The Salaar doll sighed. “I guessed as much. Mr. Tenney left such an important legacy to the United Library. It’s impossible that he wouldn’t set up defenses at all and let people of unknown origin sneak in.”

“The restricted book area is the true entrance to the Divine Realm. From now on, these monsters will be the best guards for the Sea of Concepts.”

That’s the feeling, Myss thought with satisfaction. Only Salaar could keep up with my genius train of thought.

Mag stared blankly up at those writhing, tangled, everlasting monsters. “So the standard for ‘turning into a doll’ wasn’t simply age?”

“I think those elderly researchers must have spent a lot of time researching Divine Blood.”

Salaar spoke slowly.

“Divine Blood is extremely contaminating. Once someone has come into contact with it, their physical body will be contaminated to some extent. This kind of mark can’t be shaken off. It can perfectly screen out the United Library’s specialized researchers.”

The Myss doll rubbed his chin, mimicking as if he’s in deep thought. “I understand. We were dragged in because we’re ‘Children of Divine Blood.’ As for Tass… Tass was probably contaminated. Anyway, Dragon Faes are a peculiar breed.”

Tass: “…”

Could he at least pretend to care a little?

Then again, he really was easily affected by the Divine Realm. It had been the same at the Red Amber, so it wasn’t strange that the United Library affected him too… Huh?

When the incident occurred, they had clearly only just entered the United Library. No matter how easily influenced he was, he shouldn’t have changed faster than the “Children of Divine Blood” who came with Divine Blood built in.

Unless he had already been contaminated by Divine Blood before entering the United Library.

But he’d never come into contact with Divine Blood in his entire life. If one had to talk about the changes that had appeared on him… it seemed that when they left the “Rabbit Hole,” his scales had become a little duller.

But other than staying inside the pocket watch and being carried around by Myss, he hadn’t done anything special.

…Forget it. Nothing major had happened anyway.

Tass gave the Myss doll a deep look and continued listening with great interest.

“I can understand your transformations, since you were contaminated by Divine Blood. But what about that book? How do you explain that copy of ‘Brave Salaar’?” Mag kept pursuing the matter.

“That book was once contaminated by low-quality Divine Blood. This story involves a bit of personal privacy.” Salaar made it up on the spot.

Myss nodded vigorously, nearly flinging the braid behind his head onto his face.

Of course Myss knew the real reason. That book had been a gift from the Fallen Child, a previous possessor of an Abnormal Fruit. The poor wretch involuntarily built a Divine Realm, Scin-something-or-other.

That girl had more or less retained a little of the Abnormal Fruit’s power. All things considered, that copy of ‘Brave Salaar’ was equivalent to having been marinated in Divine Blood, and in a bizarre twist of fate, it had connected to the Sea of Concepts.

Naturally, this matter wasn’t suitable to tell Mag.

Mag was clearly skeptical of their story. Unfortunately, she had no way of forcing these two “great and mighty” figures to speak. In the end, she could only sullenly scratch her face. “All right. When I report this to the United Library, I will handle this case… with discretion.”

“The final question. How do those people who turned into dolls recover their original forms?”

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 92: Celestial Canopy

Hm?!

Salaar wanted to tell him something serious that had nothing to do with the contract? That Salaar?

Myss wanted to press his ear right up against Salaar’s face. Halfway closer, however, he hesitated. Without the restriction of the contract, what if Salaar lied to him?

Seeing the Myss doll’s head swaying back and forth, Salaar shook his head helplessly. He moved his tiny body with all his might, squeezing the very last bit of strength out of the doll body.

Around them, artifacts and text related to Divine Blood that were drifting in the air began to blur. In this Sea of Concepts, the light rearranged itself and turned into a definite image.

Myss was familiar with this feeling. This was exactly the perspective he had when flipping through memories. Only this time, Salaar was using this special Divine Realm to project his own memories.

Without question, this was far more real than a verbal explanation.

Normally, Salaar would never open his memories to Myss. Having caught such rare information, Myss was instantly drawn in. He wished he could stretch his semicircular button eyes perfectly round so he could see every detail clearly.

In the memory, Salaar was still a boy.

Myss wasn’t good at judging human ages. He only knew that Salaar was a little older than the children who took part in the Summoning Ritual… Probably eleven? Twelve? He couldn’t tell.

All he could see were a pair of chubby childlike hands, nothing like the long and powerful hands in his impression. In short, that little lump of flesh was holding a quill pen, scribbling away on a piece of parchment… writing some equations that made Myss want to fall asleep just by looking at them.

Farther away, there stood a huge, smoothly polished gray-black slate. On it, white stone had been used to draw dizzying cross-section diagrams, and countless pieces of parchment full of text and pictures were stuck to it.

In front of the slate stood a middle-aged woman. She had the exact same lapis-lazuli eyes as Salaar, but her hair was black. That black hair was streaked with countless white strands, making her look somewhat older than her actual age.

She placed a square tin box onto the table. With a click, the tin box opened like a flower, revealing the contents supported on a shockproof rack: a round-bottom flask filled with pitch-black liquid.

The pitch-black liquid inside the flask was somewhere between liquid and smoke, almost identical to the Divine Blood Myss had seen.

“Serpentia improved the extraction method. We have obtained the highest concentration of ‘Magic Source’ so far.”

The woman spoke slowly. “Josephine and Renn discovered that its magic quality is higher than any substance currently known.”

…So in Salaar’s impression, “Divine Blood” had always been called “Magic Source.”

Myss had already felt that the name “Divine Blood” was rather strange. Leaving aside how absurd it was to abbreviate “Chaos Archdemon” to simply “God,” the name “Divine Blood” made it sound as if he had made some sort of offering to humans.

“Yes, Madam.” Little Salaar’s voice was clear, without the slightest hint of childishness.

“We can now confirm that for more than ten thousand years, the ‘Magic Source’ brought by the Night Scourge has remained in the world. This high-concentration power promoted the birth of civilization to a certain extent, and also enabled us to use magic.”

The woman looked at Salaar as she spoke.

“However, it’s completely unsuited to sustaining civilization. Our world is very much like tadpoles in a puddle after a storm. Once the sun dries the puddle, the human world will reach its end.”

“I agree, Madam,” little Salaar echoed seriously.

The woman nodded. “If we can transform it into an energy source humans can use, perhaps there will be another solution to the Night Scourge. Next, Serpentia will try to render it harmless.”

Little Salaar’s reaction was frighteningly quick. “You mean extracting the Magic Source directly from the Night Scourge, and developing civilization underground?”

“That is Serpentia’s idea. Many people are researching in that direction. This success has given them hope… What do you think, Salaar?”

The woman’s tone was almost earnest. “You should have looked at its written data just now. What are your thoughts?”

The quill pen in front of little Salaar moved slightly, as if he were nibbling the tip.

“I believe we should look at this matter from a ‘higher’ angle.”

Salaar thought for a full five minutes before speaking again.

“The Night Scourge appears more and more frequently and lasts longer and longer. Yet according to the data, collecting ‘Magic Source’ has become increasingly difficult. Turning underground may not be a wise choice.”

“Related research can continue, but the long-standing plan cannot stop either. The underground plan shouldn’t receive too many resources… One-sixth of Serpentia’s resources, no more.”

The long-standing plan?

Myss couldn’t help narrowing his eyes. He suspected this so-called plan referred to taking an army and running right under the nose of the “source of the Night Scourge,” which was to say, him, to cause him trouble.

The woman stared fixedly at little Salaar. For that instant, her gaze was almost pitying.

But after a few heartbeats, that trace of compassion disappeared completely. She picked up the bottle of pitch-black “Magic Source” and gently placed it on Salaar’s desk.

“All right. Then give me some new guesses about this new data. Don’t consider too much. Pure guesses are enough,” she encouraged.

Her tone wasn’t like coaxing a child, but more like a conversation between equals.

Little Salaar stared at the bottle with a focus so familiar. He looked exactly like the hero Salaar in the seal, looking up at the impenetrable darkness.

“I thought of… endosperm and egg yolk.”

He rubbed the cold bottle body, the way a child might wipe his most beloved toy.

“If, and only if, the source of the Night Scourge possesses life, I think It should be very young, perhaps not even truly born yet.”

“A substance containing magic at such high concentration is like endosperm and egg yolk, ensuring that It can grow smoothly. As It matures, the Night Scourge becomes more active, while Magic Source is consumed, dwindling away.”

“And we… We’re only mold clinging to the surface of a seed, dust mites lodging on an eggshell. The moment It is born, the world will welcome the apocalypse in the truest sense.”

Little Salaar spoke in the tone of telling a story. His narration contained no hesitation, as if he had polished it in his heart countless times.

“…Of course, this is only my baseless guess,” he said at last.

“That truly sounds hopeless. You still like the hypothesis that ‘the source of the Night Scourge is a living thing’ that much.”

The woman forced a smile. “It seems that aside from research, everyone should take some time to pray that the source of the Night Scourge had better be a meteorite, or something else.”

Little Salaar didn’t respond to those words.

He merely put down that pen and repeatedly stroked the flask filled with Magic Source. Unfortunately, his body temperature was quickly absorbed by the cold liquid in the bottle, leaving no trace behind.

“If the source of the Night Scourge truly is a living thing, Serpentia’s ‘underground plan’ can add one extended research branch.”

He murmured softly, as if speaking to that little bottle. “It can nurture a godlike existence. Perhaps through it, we can also create a ‘God’ of our own.”

“If Magic Source can truly be rendered harmless, you can completely use it, like back then, to create—”

“Salaar, those are all hypotheses!” the woman suddenly raised her voice, interrupting him.

“Yes, Madam. I shouldn’t consider real-world plans based on vague and unfounded hypotheses.”

Little Salaar lowered his gaze, holding the round-bottom flask in both hands.

The woman reached out with both hands to take it. She didn’t respond to Salaar’s self-reflection.

She only gently took away the round-bottom flask. From beginning to end, her fingertips didn’t touch Salaar once, even though they were so close.

…The memory dispersed, and Myss returned once more to the faintly glowing Sea of Concepts.

“Do you have anything you want to ask?” the Salaar doll said softly.

“Oh, yes.” Myss tugged seriously at the coat. “Was that woman your mom?”

Salaar: “…”

Salaar: “First, no, she wasn’t. Second, don’t tell me you watched all that and only wanted to ask this.”

Even though Mr. Hero only had a soft cloth face, Myss still saw the complicated expression of “what you care about is truly peculiar” on his face.

Myss gave another serious “oh,” and it took him a long time to squeeze out his second sentence. “Magic Source… Divine Blood… anyway, that thing. You suspected it was my, uh, egg yolk?”

He had never thought of it from this angle. After all, “refined magic” and “delicious egg yolk” felt like they were worlds apart.

Perhaps the Divine Blood humans had excavated was too crude, or perhaps too much had been consumed over the past hundred years, but Myss didn’t feel that they were especially enticing. Since coming to the human world, the only thing that could attract him was… wait.

Myss immediately understood. “Mr. Tenney used Divine Blood to create a Divine Realm similar to one created by an Abnormal Fruit.”

“So you suspect someone inherited your research and perfected the Abnormal Fruit on the basis of Divine Blood.”

No wonder he liked the Abnormal Fruit so much. No wonder the Abnormal Fruit could make him stronger.

Those powers were originally his, but that bastard V.O.R had stolen them. Damn him!

…Speaking of which, V.O.R had used some method to refine Divine Blood into Abnormal Fruit, but hadn’t made it harmless.

He, or they, used Abnormal Fruit to create gods, but their selection standards were incredibly crude, and the results were all kinds of bizarre, aberrant gods.

Add to that the fact that the original research materials from Salaar and the others had been “erased.” Myss reasonably suspected that V.O.R was deeply involved in this matter. Of course, he had no direct evidence, at least for now.

So these things indeed had no direct connection to the body-swap incident, and Salaar had no obligation to tell him.

From Salaar’s perspective, it would be best if Myss knew nothing. After all, knowing that Abnormal Fruit was especially nourishing for Myss would only make Myss eat even more joyfully and recover even faster.

Myss eyed Salaar suspiciously. “Why show me all this?”

Salaar lowered his button eyes, his whole person looking dim and weary. “Do you want to hear the truth or the polite version?”

“…What kind of idiotic question is that? Who in their right mind would want to hear the polite version?”

“Then I’ll say the polite version.”

Salaar’s words were unusually soft. “I only wanted to tell you that whether it is the person who made Abnormal Fruit or the one who made the knowledge black hole, none of them are as extraordinary as you imagine.”

“We had already researched those conjectures before. They feared the materials we left behind, and that was why they buried them. Compared to the Night Scourge, they are nothing.”

Indeed. How could those people be worthy of comparison to him?

He would definitely dig them out, devour all the power they had stolen, and then… Well, then deal with Salaar.

With just a few sentences from his mortal enemy, Myss felt the pleasure of eating a huge mouthful of cream raspberries. That sweetness made his palms heat and the soles of his feet float.

…No, wrong. He couldn’t be intoxicated. Salaar had said this was the polite version.

“Tell me the truth,” Myss demanded loudly.

Salaar silently gazed at him.

The Sea of Concepts had no water, but the Salaar doll gave off a heavy, rain-soaked feeling. His coat was being worn by Myss, and he had only a white shirt on his upper body, making him look almost pitiful.

“I’m a little tired,” he murmured, his voice also becoming muffled.

“Awoo~” At the same time, Bedsheet Archdemon, who had been isolated outside the memory, called twice. Myss subconsciously turned his head to look.

The instant Myss’s gaze moved away, that damp quality around Salaar vanished on the spot.

His expression didn’t waver at all. His gaze toward Myss was as focused as ever, even carrying some indescribable heat. But as soon as Myss’s gaze came back, Mr. Hero swiftly drooped his shoulders and once again became weak and exhausted.

The Salaar doll continued in a low voice. “…I only wanted to tell you these things. If I were to find a successor, then with your personality that refuses to admit defeat, I think you would fairly tell—”

“I don’t play fair competition.”

Myss moved closer. “Unless you can find someone else capable of annoying me for three hundred years. Can you?”

Seeing this abnormal Salaar, the sweetness from just now instantly dispersed. Myss only felt that every part of his body was uncomfortable.

Salaar gave a complicated smile.

“I know you care about your companions. If things really… really don’t work, I can wait for you to recover.”

Myss spoke stiffly, his gaze sweeping Salaar up and down, as if Salaar were about to melt into the Sea of Concepts in the next second.

“If it’s the Salaar I know, he’ll definitely demand justice for his companions. Of course, stopping the Night Scourge still comes first. That much hasn’t changed.”

“You’re right,” Salaar said softly.

Myss had never imagined Salaar losing his fighting spirit, nor did he want to imagine it. Right now, he wished he could stuff several handfuls of cotton into the Salaar doll on the spot so this guy wouldn’t look so soft and powerless.

He thought hard, then harder, then reached out both hands toward Salaar’s face. His movements carried a rare trace of hesitation, almost enough to be called careful.

This time, he didn’t squeeze Salaar’s head out of shape. Instead, he held that soft cloth head and bumped it with his own face several times.

After bumping him, seeing that Salaar still looked soaked and drooping, he gnawed over that cotton face from top to bottom.

He had to use Salaar’s fear of “falling in love with him” to suppress Salaar’s current dejection.

…Only, for one second, he thought that even if it wasn’t fear, that would be fine. Even if it made Salaar happy, that would be fine too.

He only wanted the Salaar in front of him to return to the one he knew, full of life and always finding ways to provoke him.

“We’re going back once you’re ready.”

After gnawing Salaar’s face, Myss felt a little awkward. “These discoveries of yours, I permit you to tell the priest part of them… If you keep staring blankly here, I’ll change my mind.”

“All right, Myss.” Salaar looked a little more spirited.

And when Myss turned around to poke at Bedsheet Archdemon, Salaar also turned his head and looked toward the Divine Blood materials flying through the Sea of Concepts.

“Goodbye, everyone,” he said. “I’m still here. We haven’t failed yet.”

“…As long as even one person remains, the ‘Celestial Canopy’ won’t disappear.”

---

The author has something to say:

The great hero is starting to put real effort into baiting the cat. [heart] [cat paw]

The love used as bait is becoming more and more abundant: [heart] [heart] [heart] [heart] [heart]

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 91: The Vanished Prayer

Kalen kicked off from the lawn and shot toward that figure like a meteor.

In that brief instant, the masked person lowered his head toward everyone and gave a slight bow. The next second, he vanished in place, leaving only a rapidly dissipating hole behind.

Kalen reached for the unclosed rift, but space healed around his fingertips, leaving no trace at all.

The suspected leader of the Stargazers Society had left.

The Sea of Concepts remained as it had been before, unchanged by the departure of that speck of dust. The bottomless black hole hung amid the faint light, like a despairing pupil.

Kalen floated before that strange black hole. He remained in the place where the masked person had just been, and the vast darkness occupied most of his vision. That sense of emptiness made his heart panic.

…Was that remark a coincidence?

Or was Hermit connected to the Stargazers Society?

Kalen couldn’t move his gaze away from that darkness.

No, impossible. The Stargazers Society appeared more than twenty years ago. At that time, both Hermit and he had still been children.

Besides, before Hermit disappeared, Kalen had always stayed with him. Hermit simply had no opportunity to come into contact with the Stargazers Society.

Taking ten thousand steps back, even if that masked person really was connected to Hermit, Hermit could have openly told him the truth instead of pretending to believe in the Lord of Shadows.

They had been together for so long. His older brother understood him better than anyone else in the world.

But to say it was a coincidence, Kalen truly couldn’t convince himself. He only felt that he had stepped into an especially sticky web, and no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t see the exit.

His brother had once told him that when he encountered an unsolvable problem, he could go to the United Library to search for the notebook from the Order of Shadows. But so far, the notebook he was looking for only existed in fairy tales, as well as the Order of Shadows…

“Kalen!”

Tass’s shout arrived a step late.

The dolls and stick figures linked into a chain and caught up to Kalen while riding Bedsheet Archdemon.

“Why did you suddenly rush over? That guy is dangerous!” The Dragon Fae waved his short little hands sternly. “Or did you discover something? Tell us.”

Kalen silently stared at the black hole and didn’t speak for a while.

“He already ran. Staring won’t help.”

Myss said impatiently, “Didn’t you want to find that whatever-it-was notebook of the Order of Shadows? Since this is the United Library’s Sea of Concepts, that notebook should be in here somewhere.”

“Since we’re here, we might as well look at everything before leaving. In any case, Salaar and I are going to look at the Divine Blood records. Do as you like.”

The Stargazers Society had little to do with Salaar, and Myss wasn’t interested in it.

Compared to those things, he was more interested in the Divine Realm itself. Also, Salaar’s condition… didn’t look good. Myss didn’t know if it was his imagination, but he felt that the Salaar doll was a little deflated, not as round as when they had first come in.

“Oh right, there’s this good thing too. This place stores all the information in the United Library!” Tass’s eyes lit up.

Mag, a native of the United Library: “…”

This wasn’t appropriate. She knew that. But she also knew she stood no chance at stopping this motley group of people with their mysterious, unknown origins. In the end, she decided to pretend she didn’t understand what they were saying.

Kalen’s spirits improved a little. “How do we search?”

Salaar patted the head that Myss had squeezed out of shape and glanced at Brief, who had concept threads connected to him. “Since this is a sea of concepts, I think that as long as we provide knowledge, related things should automatically form associations.”

His tone was still fairly calm, only a little dry.

“No, that’s not enough.” Myss pointed it out without giving him any face. “We count as outside ‘knowledge’ too, but only Brief and Bedsheet Archdemon have fine threads appearing on them.”

After speaking, he pulled out one strand of cotton-thread hair and formed the word “Salaar.” Sure enough, the Sea of Concepts didn’t react at all.

“If I’m not wrong, we need to add a bit of the Divine Blood’s power. Otherwise, if we bring in a pile of things, we’ll be strangled to death by those broken threads.”

Salaar’s condition really is in bad shape, Myss thought. He understood Salaar. The usual Salaar would never miss such details and make Myss supplement them for him.

Salaar pondered for a few seconds. He worked hard to manipulate the power of Divine Blood and wrote the word “Divine Blood” in the air.

Sure enough, the instant the golden word was completed, a concept thread appeared, its end vanishing into the light.

Myss’s guess had been verified. This was clearly another piece of powerful evidence that “Myss was more of a genius than Salaar,” yet for some reason, Myss couldn’t feel happy.

He moved to Salaar’s side and once again squeezed the head Salaar had just patted round into a funnel.

Seeing that faint thread of association, stick figure Mag froze for a moment.

[Mr. Tenney, do you know “Furnace Leaf Grass”? I’m not quite sure which books mention it.]

[Ah, Miss Magnolia. You need The Diary of an Eccentric Ranger, Twelve Solutions to Wolfsbane, Bandy Bond’s Herbal Insights, and The Atlas of Rare Plants.]

[Thank you, Mr. Tenney! Without you, I don’t know how long I would have had to search.]

[Haha, being able to help young people like you is my honor. But my memory is getting worse and worse. You had better confirm it again…]

She still remembered Mr. Tenney’s somewhat dim expression. She had once thought that he was lamenting the merciless passage of time.

Perhaps, amid the vast sea of books, Mr. Tenney had touched this enormous black hole of information. But he had neither the time nor the status to verify such a hidden and terrifying fact.

So he used the most direct method to expose that knowledge black hole buried in the pages to everyone. There was no earth-shattering new theory; only a “display” so crude it was almost simple.

Now, as long as the United Library’s people diluted Divine Blood and used it to write words, they could find all knowledge related to a certain concept here. They could possess this extravagant Sea of Concepts for five whole years.

…Was the motivation behind all this really the madness of a non-believer, or perhaps, a mere delusion of the impending apocalypse?

…What exactly was the Stargazers Society, which had tacitly allowed all this, thinking?

Mag also moved to Salaar’s side. She stretched out a line-drawn finger and poked Salaar.

“If it is convenient, please add ‘Stargazers Society,’” she said.

“And the ‘Order of Shadows’,’” Father Kalen added urgently.

Salaar nodded and understandingly wrote the phrases “Stargazers Society” and “Order of Shadows.”

A thread of association almost immediately grew from “Stargazers Society,” while “Order of Shadows” hung lonely in the air, producing no connection with anything.

This time, not only Father Kalen, even Salaar frowned. The Order of Shadows had an official kingdom religious certificate. No matter what, religious books should have some record of it.

“Perhaps the Order of Shadows changed names and used an old name before,” Salaar said. “Did your older brother tell you anything else, something… something that wouldn’t easily change?”

“May His Veil shroud you, unseen and unharmed,” Father Kalen murmured.

The name of a religion might differ in spelling or naming, but prayers wouldn’t easily change. This was the prayer Hermit had taught him word by word. It had danced across his tongue countless times.

Salaar mustered his strength and shakily wrote down that long sentence.

Finally, a faint thread of association appeared in the middle of the sentence. It stretched out, rapidly lengthening, and then…

Its end vanished into that terrifying black hole.

For a time, everyone present fell silent.

The good news was that the “Order of Shadows,” whatever it had once been called, had indeed existed. It wasn’t Hermit’s deception or Kalen’s delusion.

The bad news was that together with the knowledge that had been deliberately erased, it had disappeared into that enormous black hole.

Kalen looked up at that darkness where the thread of association vanished, and his right hand gently pressed against his chest.

Not only did he not show a frightened expression, he looked as if he had breathed a sigh of relief.

His brother hadn’t deceived him. That notebook from the Night Scourge era very likely existed. But everything related to the Order of Shadows had been swallowed by an even denser shadow.

“So this is what you wanted to tell me,” Kalen murmured. “When I encountered an incomprehensible problem, I was to come here to seek an answer. You weren’t asking me to find a solution, but to choose.”

“Facing this path ahead hidden by shadow, to choose whether I still want to continue forward…”

“But we only know that the records were erased because this ‘Divine Realm’ appeared.”

Tass couldn’t help cutting in. “Even if we arrived a little late, or if you had come here before this Divine Realm appeared, you still would have known nothing.”

“No. My brother always knew the most precise ‘timing.’”

Father Kalen’s tone was exceptionally firm. “The Lord of Shadows gave me the power to foresee misfortune. Perhaps Hermit obtained an even stronger power.”

“No matter what is hidden beneath that shadow, I will continue forward. I won’t give up searching for Hermit, and I won’t give up searching for that missing notebook.”

“Haa, suit yourselves. In any case, all I want is V.O.R’s head,” Tass muttered softly.

Seeing that Father Kalen’s emotions were still fairly steady, Salaar turned his head and scratched Bedsheet Archdemon, who was chasing after the fluttering corner of his own sheet. “Excuse me, can you take us to the end of this thread?”

He pointed at the thread connected to “Divine Blood.”

Bedsheet Archdemon: “Awoo~”

“That’s his call when he’s in a good mood, so it should be no problem,” Brief translated.

Only then did Salaar turn to Mag. “We’ll go over there first. As for the materials on the ‘Stargazers Society’…”

“No rush. Since there’s an association, I can investigate it later.” Mag hurriedly waved her hands. “Go ahead. Please go.”

……

Myss soon reached the concept cluster related to “Divine Blood.”

Myss could tell that Salaar wasn’t in high spirits.

He merely skimmed through those reports and inventions related to Divine Blood, as if he was already intimately familiar with the subject. Myss rarely saw Salaar this lacking in vitality, and looking at him filled Myss with inexplicable irritation.

“Hey, Salaar.”

Myss swayed in front of Salaar and squeezed his face hard. “What attitude is this? What, are you preparing to give up everything and admit defeat to me?”

Salaar turned his head to look at him. The two lapis-lazuli eyes were dim and unreadable. “I’m only thinking about some things.”

“You’re not allowed to think with that expression.” Myss announced, “Looking like this, you’re no fun even as a cushion.”

Salaar couldn’t help sighing. “I was only thinking about those erased companions of mine, and the research that was interrupted…”

“Erased?”

Myss vigorously rubbed his head. “Algernon Fernando, Church, Kelly Whalen… I can recite every single name. How is that erased? When you carved their gravestones, I watched with my own two eyes.”

Salaar: “…”

“And what do you mean, ‘interrupted research’?”

Myss mimicked Salaar’s tone in a strange voice. “Aren’t you alive? Damn it, you never stopped researching me. Did you think I didn’t notice?”

Salaar: “…………”

“…Even without you, didn’t humans still dig out that black hole? I had just started thinking that the human world wasn’t so useless. I really don’t understand what you’re getting tangled up over.”

Myss snorted. “Or do you think the guy who made that black hole is stronger than me?”

Could this guy really think that? As he spoke, Myss grew a little angry.

The knowledge black hole was indeed rather worth seeing. But compared to that little matter, whether it was Salaar becoming deflated or Salaar turning toward a new opponent, both concerned him even more.

Myss anxiously glared at Salaar, preparing to squeeze that eyesore of a head even flatter.

Salaar stared fixedly at him for a long time.

“Myss.” He patted his own completely mangled face, as if having finally steeled his resolve.

“There are some things ‘unrelated to the contract’ that I want to tell you.”

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 90: A Mortal’s Experiment

That figure floated before the enormous black hole.

He wore a loose black cloak, his head hidden beneath a hood, and his build seemed male. A flock of pigeons flew past him, but he didn’t move at all, like a corpse specimen suspended in turbid liquid.

Kalen immediately landed on the nearest grass sphere, gaining a fairly solid foothold. He bent down and placed the dolls and stick people on the grass, then narrowed his eyes at that figure.

“That cloak looks a little familiar.” Tass rubbed his chin with his cloth hand. “Where have I seen it before…”

The person seemed to sense everyone’s gaze and slowly turned around.

His hands were covered in black gloves, without a single inch of skin showing at the wrists.

His face was covered by a tightly fitted mask. There were no holes in the mask. It had been painted pitch-black, with a twisted moon shape drawn in silver lines. The black mask paired with the black hood made the moon emblem seem to float out of thin air in the shadows.

“…Fuck, it’s the leader of the Stargazers Society!”

Tass failed to hold back and cursed. “No, wait, not necessarily. Anyway, that’s the mask of the Stargazers Society’s leader!”

Myss stared so hard that he felt as if his button-eyes would pop out of their socket. He had never longed so badly for his magic to return. The leader of the Stargazers Society was right under his nose, yet he couldn’t discern a thing about him.

“We can’t let him run.” Seeing the head of that damned organization, a rare spark of anger ignited in Kalen’s voice. “Whether or not he’s the real leader, we’ll capture him first, then…”

“Wait. There’s something beside him.” The Salaar doll interrupted.

Myss shook his head and also noticed the thing beside the leader. Rather than a “thing,” it was more like a corpse—a grotesquely deformed corpse.

That corpse floated crookedly in the light. It was too thin and too twisted, easily blending into the disordered environment. Just now, it had mostly been hidden by the masked man’s wide black cloak, and Myss had completely fail to notice.

The corpse wore a United Library scholar’s robe and was withered nearly to a skeleton. Its limbs were curled and deformed, its whole body covered in pitch-black poisonous sores, and its hair was as dry as wild grass. Judging by the corpse’s state, it even looked a little like Salaar in the seal when he had been near death from old age.

Myss was naturally familiar with this “symptom.” His magic had an extremely powerful annihilating property. For some unknown reason, Salaar had endured it, but over the years, Myss’s magic had still corroded Salaar’s physical body.

This corpse was in the human world and shouldn’t have been able to come into contact with his power. If this so-called Divine Blood really was a product of his magic, then…

“Divine Blood Corrosion,” Mag said in a low voice, confirming Myss’s guess.

“With corrosion this severe, that guy is most likely the experimenter who stole the Divine Blood.”

The masked man stretched out both hands and carried the deformed corpse in his arms. His movements were unusually cautious and full of respect.

Once he moved, the corpse was completely exposed before everyone’s eyes. On that library scholar’s robe, a white pewter brooch flashed with flowing light.

“Impossible… This is impossible. How could it be Mr. Tenney?”

Mag’s stick figure took two steps back and nearly fell.

Tass focused fully on this grand scene. “What’s going on, Lady Mag? Who is Mr. Tenney?”

“The United Library’s archivist. He devoted his entire life to the United Library. He was born here!”

For the first time since entering the book, Mag looked utterly distraught Even when she had realized there was something wrong with Salaar, she hadn’t been this shocked.

“Mr. Tenney is already in his seventies. He… doesn’t have much talent and was only responsible for paper records. He…”

Mag’s throat was choked by some sour emotion. She couldn’t help looking at the three dolls beside her. Dust rose in her mind, and a memory sealed away for a long time quietly surfaced.

More than twenty years ago.

“Papa, Mama, where are you?”

Back then, Mag wasn’t yet ten. She shouted loudly with a sobbing tone.

At that time, her parents had discovered her astonishing research talent. They had specially brought her to the United Library to ask acquaintances here for advice about magic education and similar matters.

The United Library didn’t permit servants to enter. Without a familiar maid to watch over her, and with Mag liking to run around, she soon lost her way among countless bookshelves.

“What’s wrong, little lady?”

A gentle voice asked her.

That afternoon, Mag met Mr. Tenney for the first time.

He wasn’t tall, and there was nothing special about his appearance. He belonged to the sort of person who you could easily lose in a crowd. Fortunately, his appearance wasn’t the harsh and cold kind. He was rather gentle-looking, at least not enough to frighten a lost little girl.

Little Mag blinked her slightly red eyes and examined this thin little old man. She didn’t really remember Mr. Tenney’s face, but she remembered the white hair at his temples.

Mr. Tenney quickly contacted Mag’s parents.

Her parents still had some matters to discuss, so they simply entrusted her to Mr. Tenney’s care for a little while longer. Mr. Tenney had enough seniority, and his workplace was an open area with people coming and going, so her parents felt fairly reassured.

Thus, a few minutes later, Mr. Tenney brought Mag to his station. It was beside a bright enchanted window. Brilliant “sunlight” passed through the window lattice and spilled across the desk, illuminating the parchment and ink bottle on it.

From time to time, researchers came over with books or application forms to have Mr. Tenney register them. Mag sat by the desk, eating the sweet biscuits provided by the United Library while studying the researchers coming and going.

“Everyone’s brooch is different.” She quickly found the pattern.

“What keen observation skills. You’re a promising talent.”

Mr. Tenney praised her with a chuckle. “Those are all issued by the United Library. Every one is unique, even more recognizable than a nameplate.”

“Actually, the gemstone pairings and brooch styles all have meaning too. After working here for a long time, you only need to glance at a brooch to know which department a person belongs to and what level they are.”

“Grandpa Tenney, why doesn’t your brooch have any gemstones?” Mag asked again.

“Because I’m too ordinary, child. I’m only an archivist.” Mr. Tenney still smiled cheerfully. “I’m not as clever as you. I’m not capable of conducting groundbreaking research.”

His tone was mild. There was no resentment or dissatisfaction in it, only the calmness of something long accepted.

Mag spoke frankly. “Then how did you get into the United Library?”

“There are three reasons.”

Old Tenney gave her a playful, mysterious wink. “First, I was an abandoned baby picked up by the employees here, and I grew up here. Second, although I’m not smart, I’m exceptionally meticulous, and my memory is reasonably good… so they let me work here.”

“What’s the third reason?” Mag asked.

Mr. Tenney pulled open a drawer and took out an adorable doll. The doll was made of the most ordinary rough cloth. It had a pair of lapis-lazuli button eyes, and its hair was yarn dyed gold.

“Third, because I’m especially good at making dolls.”

Mr. Tenney announced, “Come, little girl of the Karns family. This is a Saint Salaar doll. Does it look like him?”

Mag reached out both hands and was just about to take the doll when she heard her parents calling from not far away.

In the end, she never touched that doll. She happily said goodbye to Mr. Tenney and ran toward her parents. Before leaving, she had turned back slightly to look. Old Tenney smiled as he watched her go, just as he watched those talented people hurry away with application materials and documents.

Several years after that, Mag entered the United Library. When she saw Mr. Tenney again, she would habitually smile and nod at the old man. Other than that, they had no deeper relationship.

For the researchers rushing around, Mr. Tenney was almost part of the United Library itself. To put it more coldly, Old Tenney was no different from a magic artifact with body warmth.

Because this old man couldn’t understand the complex theories they discussed, his words couldn’t be called witty, and what he did was only the most rudimentary tasks.

This wasn’t some deliberate isolation. They simply respected him, and at the same time ignored him, because everyone knew there was an invisible gulf between them.

On the old man’s chest, there was only a simple white pewter brooch. No one was willing to spend time understanding his views, sorrows, joys, or hobbies. Everyone had more important, more extraordinary things to do.

Mag was the same.

She was one of the heirs of a great noble family, the young prodigy Magnolia Karns. Before her lay countless profound topics.

Everyone who stepped into the United Library could see that extraordinary Saint Salaar. She also longed to become like her heroic ancestor, forging a sword with knowledge and becoming a hero of the new era.

And now, in this absurd moment more than twenty years later, she suddenly remembered.

So that was it. Mr. Tenney was very good at making cute little dolls.

They had known he was missing. People found several letters on his desk and thought he had gone out to visit old friends, so they never investigated deeply. Who would suspect an old man who had lived in the United Library for more than seventy years and regarded it as “home”?

Why? Mag couldn’t understand.

Mr. Tenney was gentle and kind, had a very good reputation, and had never shown any signs of resentment toward society. Why would such a person steal Divine Blood in his later years and even become connected to the Stargazers Society?

She looked at the endless sea of faint light, at concepts and knowledge sedimented over a hundred years, at the enormous legendary figures… and at a withered, tiny corpse.

Mag stared blankly at that corpse, as if it could give her Mr. Tenney’s answer in his place.

“I have no intention of clashing with you. I only wish to take away the remains of a mortal.”

The masked man finally spoke.

His voice had been processed by a magic device. It sounded like the voices of men, women, old, and young all speaking at once.

“…You must have encountered ‘Redding’ earlier. I apologize for him. He merely didn’t want you to discover me.”

The masked man’s voice could be called courteous. “Since someone from the United Library is present, it seems I have no need to give hints in secret.”

“What are you talking about?” Mag couldn’t help speaking, her voice still stained with shock that hadn’t yet faded.

“I surmise that your research into Divine Blood had completely reached a bottleneck.”

The one who answered her wasn’t the masked man, but Salaar.

For the first time, Myss heard Salaar use this kind of tone. At this moment, the Great Hero sounded like another old man.

“The United Library wouldn’t allow living people to come into contact with extremely dangerous Divine Blood. But Divine Blood was created from the beginning to ‘combine with living bodies’… If things continued that way, the research would inevitably stagnate.”

Mag abruptly turned her head.

“I think Mr. Tenney must have discovered this point from the Night Scourge records.”

Salaar continued, “So he decided to use his own body to conduct a Divine Blood experiment.”

Myss blinked.

If the old man had used his own body to perform a Divine Blood experiment, then the effect of Divine Blood was very similar to the Abnormal Fruit.

They bestowed the possessor nearly godlike power, manifesting their deepest wish, and from there nurtured a Divine Realm.

He didn’t know whether the effect of Divine Blood was insufficient, or whether a mortal couldn’t withstand the weight of a Divine Realm. The old man named Tenney hadn’t attained a divine body. He was like a stillborn child that failed to form, perishing within the newly born Divine Kingdom.

No wonder this place had seemed so much like a Divine Kingdom, yet he had never found the existence of its master.

Could it be that V.O.R had always targeted geniuses because mortals simply couldn’t become gods?

Wait. Before that, why would the effect of Divine Blood be so similar to the Abnormal Fruit…?

“Yes, Tenney used himself for the experiment. He recorded all changes after consuming the Divine Blood and used all of that power to construct this space.”

The masked man spoke calmly, interrupting the thoughts bubbling like boiling water in Myss’s mind.

“Whether it’s the record of changes after he consumed Divine Blood, or this sea of concepts, both will ultimately belong to the United Library.”

“The power of that Divine Blood can allow this space to last about five years. Now that Lady Mag knows the method to enter the ‘sea of concepts,’ it’s only a matter of time before the United Library controls this place.”

“I came here first to take away his body, and second to take away the information we ought to know. Whether you believe it or not, the Stargazers Society has no hostility toward the human world.”

“Liar!” Brief jumped on the grass. “That Redding nearly destroyed our world! You’re all bad people!”

The tiny stick figure was almost swallowed by the grass, and his voice wasn’t very loud. But the masked man seemed to see and hear him. He was silent for a long time, then slightly tightened his arms around the corpse.

“I don’t deny it.”

His tone carried a chilling, unnerving calmness.

“When humans fight bloody battles, they don’t care how many patches of grass they flatten. To protect ‘our’ world, we’re willing to pay any price. Before the apocalypse, we don’t have the spare energy to care about a mere fairy tale.”

“…After all, we’re only a group of the most foolish and most hopeless people.”

In that instant, Father Kalen stopped breathing.

[Kalen, remember this.]

The voice of young Hermit still echoed in his ears.

[The most foolish and hopeless act in this world is ‘stargazing’.]

---

The author has something to say:

[dog head] [dog head] [dog head]

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 89: Black Hole

Myss gripped the edge of the pitch-black ink hole with both hands and craned his head to look inside.

The ink hole was literally a hole filled with ink. It was pitch-black within, and he couldn’t see anything. The others also formed a circle around it, trying hard to study the hole.

Only Brief and Bedsheet Archdemon were squeezed together, fully focused on treating their injuries. The golden elf spring water in Brief’s hand shone brightly.

Myss watched them from the corner of his eye for a while and couldn’t help speaking up. “Hey, you only used two treasures before. What about the third? The notebook that records all of the Chaos Archdemon’s weaknesses?”

“It’s here.” Brief honestly patted his chest. “I merged it into my heart, so I can remember everything related to Bedsheet Archdemon and will absolutely never forget!”

Bedsheet Archdemon proudly spun in a circle. “Awoo awah~”

Myss was speechless. He had no idea what this guy was so proud of.

Speaking of which, the protagonist merging a treasure into his body was a fairly common plot device. But the more Myss thought about it, the more he felt that this setting somehow felt a little…off.

“If you merged it into your body, how are other people supposed to read it?” he asked.

Brief froze, clearly having never considered this question. He looked at Myss in confusion. “Bedsheet Archdemon is destined to be my enemy. Other people don’t need to know those things.”

Myss blinked his button eyes.

That was it! That was the part that was off.

His Salaar firmly believed that the human world could continue fighting the Chaos Archdemon through its own power. So Salaar used his life to drag Myss into the seal, buying time for the world.

Salaar’s self-definition had never been “the hero destined to defeat the Archdemon,” but “a torchbearer on the path to ending the Night Scrouge.”

Therefore, Salaar especially hated legends that erased the existence of the army. From the beginning, he had been prepared to die in the seal together with his army.

Myss stared fixedly at the little bottle in Brief’s hand.

[Brave Salaar had three extraordinary treasures.]

[He had a bottle of elf spring water kept in a crystal bottle, which could heal all wounds and illnesses, great and small.]

…This treasure probably referred to the healing magic Salaar himself was skilled at.

[He had a magical map drawn in golden ink, which could instantly reach every corner of the world.]

…Salaar himself didn’t have this ability, but if one counted the companions erased by history, this wording made sense. Under Salaar’s command, his companions could spread across every corner of the world and report information back to him.

[He had an infinite notebook that would never run out, recording all of the Chaos Archdemon’s weaknesses.]

…Salaar understood the Night Scrouge exceptionally well and was also closely connected to Divine Blood. Someone like him, knowing that the trip into the seal would have no return, would absolutely leave his research results for future generations, so that they could continue studying ways to end the Night Scrouge.

Moreover, those research results might not necessarily be Salaar’s alone. They could have been the legacy left behind by everyone.

Continuing along this line of thought, if that legacy truly existed, it would definitely have been included in the United Library’s collection.

But if the United Library had collected such a legacy, why would the “Salaar” in the human world be remembered as someone who “singled-handedly sealed the Chaos Archdemon”?

And in Salaar’s era, “Divine Blood” obviously wasn’t called Divine Blood. That was why Salaar had been so shocked the first time he saw the actual sample of Divine Blood. Logically speaking, this kind of important research result would definitely have been left behind by the people of that era.

The more Myss thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.

However, as he stood before the gaping ink hole, a voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Redding emerged from inside this just now. In other words, there must be an exit connected to the outside on the other side.”

Mag analyzed the situation matter-of-factly. “Maybe once we get there, we’ll be able to see the essence of this ‘Divine Realm.’”

“I’ll go down first. If I succeed, I can catch you all from below.” The priest volunteered.

The Salaar doll nodded and tugged at Myss, who had been lost in thought the whole way. “What are you thinking about?”

“You,” Myss replied candidly.

The Salaar doll: “…”

The Salaar doll gave a dry cough. “Let’s first look at the Stargazers Society’s Divine Blood experiment. We can talk about the rest after we go back.”

“I should go down first. Bedsheet can fly, so he can advance and retreat easily. We’re the best fit for scouting.”

Brief waved his small palm and rushed in front of everyone. He had finished healing himself and had returned to his lively, energetic state.

“You protected my world, so I want to help you too!”

After a brief discussion, everyone unanimously agreed.

Brief familiarly hopped onto Bedsheet Archdemon’s back. Bedsheet Archdemon let out a couple of happy yowls and plunged headfirst into the ink hole.

A dozen seconds later, he charged back out with Brief. Brief’s beady eyes had widened into two round circles. He gestured anxiously for a long time before successfully making a sound.

“Inside, inside…”

He took a long moment to organize his words. “There’s no danger inside, but it’s extremely chaotic! A lot of strange things are flying everywhere. They’re all connected by strange threads, and there’s a super huge me in the center!”

Myss: “?”

What was that? A super huge Salaar? He wanted to see just how huge it was.

“Let’s go.” Salaar took a deep breath.

The priest nodded. With his left hand, he tucked away the three dolls—Myss, Salaar, and Tass—while his right hand held the three doodles—Brief, Bedsheet Archdemon, and Mag. Then he leapt into the ink hole.

Passing through the ink hole felt exactly the same as when they had been dragged in by Bedsheet Archdemon. Myss felt as if he had been forced through a blowpipe against the wind, followed by the sensation of weightless falling.

The moment they passed through the opening, Bedsheet Archdemon let out a howl and actively flew behind the priest’s collar, grabbing onto the back of the priest’s clothes.

Their fall immediately slowed. Everyone seemed to be riding a slowly descending Kalen-shaped hot-air balloon, taking in everything in the new space.

Myss had thought Brief’s description was just incoherent nonsense. But after seeing the scene before him, he didn’t know how to describe it either.

If the concepts of all things in the world gathered into an ocean, the sight would be that embodiment.

Bright and gentle light gathered into a sea. In the soft wind floated all things that had ever existed in the world, and all things that existed now.

A silver dish holding cake drifted slowly. A small silver spoon and fork circled around it. Beside it, schools of fish flashing with silver light swam past, leaving behind a gentle halo.

Colorful tablecloths danced like ghosts, as if they were some brand-new kind of jellyfish. Emerald-green lawns condensed into balls of various sizes, with all kinds of trees growing on them. Birds perched on the branches, but they didn’t produce melodious chirping. Instead, countless onomatopoeic characters spewed from their throats.

All things floated within this halo in a manner that could only be called absurd.

There were clusters of fierce beasts and wandering human silhouettes. Those “people” were clearly standing together, yet some faces were clear while others were blurry. Their only common trait was that they all seemed to be pieced together from different images, with transparent spiderweb-like threads stuck to them.

If highlights had not slid through those threads, they would have almost blended into the background glow, making them extremely difficult to notice.

And beneath all this light, there lurked a black abyss like the deep sea.

Within the darkness, ominous shadows flashed from time to time. They passed in an instant, impossible to see clearly.

However, compared to the two “protagonist” of this space, all of this could only be considered barely better than nothing as a backdrop.

Within this strange, soft-lit space floated an enormous “Salaar.”

His appearance wasn’t very different from the Salaar Myss had seen before. But on closer inspection, this whale-like human figure was actually made from countless smaller Salals of various appearances. There was even a very thin thread connected to Brief’s body, linking him to that “Salaar.”

Opposite that “Salaar” floated an even larger “Chaos Archdemon,” whose outline was exceptionally blurry. It bore no resemblance to Myss whatsoever and instead looked more like the religious image inside the United Library.

Like “Salaar,” the Archdemon was also pieced together from countless depictions of the Chaos Archdemon in various forms. Among them was even a seductive female human image, and Myss, most reluctantly, recognized.

In this way, the two enormous images stood against the backdrop of all things in the world, treading upon hidden darkness as they assumed the posture of battle. Only their movements were frozen in midair, as if that religious mural had become reality.

“It’s ‘concepts.’ My heavens, these are all pieces of information recorded in books!”

Mag’s voice was hoarse. “Divine Blood has activated all of the United Library’s knowledge. This is an ocean of materialized concepts!”

“I see… so that’s it. Those fine threads are the associations between concepts…”

“Here, Salaar and the Chaos Archdemon have the most descriptions. So they make up the largest proportion, and their images are the clearest and most concrete…”

Myss had no desire to ask why the United Library contained information regarding Sweet Trap; he had far more pressing matters to address.

“What is that?” he asked seriously, stretching out his cloth arm and pointing between the two giants.

Between “Saint Salaar” and the “Chaos Archdemon,” there was an ominous black void.

It was even darker than the ink hole, and its shape was a perfect sphere, precisely suspended between the two enormous images. The scene around it was somewhat distorted, and it had also devoured portions of “Saint Salaar” and the “Chaos Archdemon’s” limbs. Countless spider threads were swallowed into it and vanished without a trace.

It blocked every possible point of contact between the two giants. Its existence was so deliberate as to be almost ostentatious.

To make an inappropriate comparison, from afar, Myss only felt that the giant images of him and Salaar were squeezed together hatching a pitch-black egg.

“This is impossible.” Mag bit her doodle finger. “It’s almost like…”

“A large number of records were deliberately and systematically erased.” Salaar spoke softly. “If one only looked at scattered words in different books, perhaps it wouldn’t be this obvious.”

In truth, this wasn’t merely a matter of it “not being obvious.” An ordinary person’s life was only a little over thirty thousand days. No matter how learned a person was, they couldn’t read every book in the United Library in their lifetime.

“But this world has activated knowledge, materialized concepts, and made the associations between pieces of information visible at a glance. Therefore, the gaps within them have also become glaringly obvious.”

The Salaar doll added softly.

Myss rubbed his nonexistent ears. He was certain that there was now some kind of emotion in Salaar’s voice, something like the feeling of dust finally settling.

Before entering this place, that question about “where did the research results of Salaar and the others go?” once again surged into Myss’s mind. At this moment, he knew the answer.

They had been erased, lost, unknown to later generations.

The only things left behind were the legend of Saint Salaar and scattered, unsystematic Night Scourge relics.

Salaar’s desperate struggle, his three-hundred-plus years of persistence inside the seal, hadn’t carried the slightest meaning. The spark of resistance they had left for later generations had been trampled into ash by an unseen foot, turning into hollow darkness.

The Salaar doll stared at that glaring black hole. In those lapis-lazuli button eyes, Myss couldn’t find the slightest trace of light.

Brief and Bedsheet Archdemon seemed to sense the heavy atmosphere. They quietly squeezed together and secretly looked at everyone’s expressions.

“The records of Saint Salaar and the Chaos Archdemon were erased by someone? Why?”

Tass looked at everything before him in shock. “Shouldn’t those be extremely important records?”

“I’m curious too.” Kalen said in a low voice, “We’re very lucky. There may be someone here who knows the truth.”

He turned his body so that everyone perched on him could see more clearly.

Between the two giant images, at the edge of the strange black hole…

A human figure quietly floated in midair utterly devoid of the fine threads of “concept association” that was bound to all the things in the realm.

…Aside from them, there was someone else here.

---

The author has something to say:

Myss: United Library, collecting every kind of book will only harm you. [angry]

Now it really has become a stain that can’t be erased. ×

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 88: An Army of Four

There was everything in Brave Salaar, except an army.

Kalen guarded the path leading deeper into the story, like an especially steadfast mountain. Salaar’s cousin and the Dragon Fae had no magic, so they could only fret anxiously at the priest’s feet, completely unable to help.

As for Brief and his Bedsheet Archdemon… Myss nearly threw those two little nuisances out of his mind.

So where exactly was this army supposed to come from?

If not for Redding’s foot suddenly coming down at him, Myss would have wanted to fling question marks all over the sky.

That twisted foot descended from above. Myss directed Fork to barely dodge it, his cotton-thread hair whipped around by the wind. The two little dolls each rode a silver snake, dodging through the stomping feet that were raining down on them.

“Go do what you want to do, Great Genius!”

The Salaar doll shouted at Myss from afar. He guided Knife backward, clearly charging toward Brief and Bedsheet Archdemon.

Redding’s attack followed almost instantly. One of his hands twisted strangely and smashed down after Salaar.

Before the strike could land, Myss led Fork towards it and knocked it askew. Fork reeled from the impact, looking slightly dazed. Its two eyes drifted unevenly—one up, one down, as if asleep—and Myss had to forcibly slap them back into place.

He moved like a crimson bolt of lightning, weaving through those many twisted limbs. Myss was not merely fleeing. Along the way, he guided two of Redding’s monstrous hands into colliding and tangling together, tying them into a dead knot with lightning speed.

Amateur.

Beneath the strange-hand bowknot, Lord Archdemon looked at Redding with contempt.

This guy’s attack methods were nothing more than child’s play—tricks he himself had long since discarded. The moment Redding’s body shifted, Myss knew where he intended to strike. The use of blind spots, the judgment of landing points; it was as if he had transformed into Salaar that was trapped inside the seal, moving with a grace and agility that resembled a dance.

But, also like Salaar inside the seal, the gap in strength between them was an uncrossable chasm.

Without magic, he couldn’t see this thing’s so-called core. Myss could only hinder Redding’s movements. The dents Fork knocked into him became shallower and shallower, while Redding’s recovery speed was despairingly fast.

What is Salaar doing? Didn’t he say he had a plan? Why hasn’t he made his move yet?

I’ve already stalled for so long… Huh?

Back then, was Salaar fighting him with this kind of feeling?

He was waiting for Salaar. Back then, who had Salaar been waiting for?

Myss froze in midair for an instant. In that moment of distraction, Redding’s palm struck Fork’s tail. Fork let out a scream, and it looked as if it and Myss were about to fall together.

“Careful!”

Salaar rushed over and bit Myss’s hair, dragging him away.

“Why are you here?” Myss frowned.

Shouldn’t Salaar be leading his army from the heavens into battle? Myss quickly glanced around. There wasn’t a single extra person present. Where was Salaar’s army?

Salaar spat out his cotton-thread hair. “I already said what needed to be said, so of course I came over.”

“After all, we are the army under ‘Brave Salaar.’ How can it be called an army if you’re the only one?”

Don’t tell me two people actually count as an army? Myss nearly choked on the sarcasm caught in his throat.

However, Salaar had just said they were “Brave Salaar’s” army. In other words…

Myss peeked over again. He abruptly discovered that Brief and Bedsheet Archdemon were no longer where they had been!

“Right! Upward!” Tass shouted, one hand curled in front of his button eye like a telescope.

The Salaar doll revealed a brilliant smile and grabbed Myss, flying to the right. Redding’s attack barely grazed the tops of their heads, and a gray-white thread slowly drifted down.

Myss immediately caught on. Could it be…

Salaar: “I do know where the Divine Blood Puppet’s core is.”

“Also, I’m not the only one familiar with rapid assaults. I only needed to tell Tass the target.”

“Tass has no magic,” Myss said.

“That doesn’t matter. This isn’t the story of a Dragon Fae assassin, nor is it your story or mine.”

The two tiny dolls broke through the wind, flying amid the pure-white waves.

“…This is their story. Here, they still possess ‘magic’.”

Myss froze for a moment, then whipped his head around.

“Awooo, awoooawah!”

Bedsheet Archdemon cried out as he flew into the sky. He could turn in midair, and his movements were far more agile than the two snakes bouncing around.

Brief was sprawled across Bedsheet Archdemon’s back. His right hand gripped his tiny sword, while his left hand held a round little bottle and a doodle paper scroll.

The two of them seemed to be fighting together for the first time, and their movements were somewhat clumsy.

Redding’s whip-like limb swept over, tearing Brief’s red cloak. The lines at his shoulder turned blood-red. They became twisted and incomplete, like ripped stitching.

Brief didn’t make a sound. He forcefully poured the little bottle over his shoulder. A few drops of golden liquid splashed out, and the scarlet lines wriggled back into their original form, turning ink-black again.

“Woo?”

“I’m fine.” Brief patted Bedsheet Archdemon and tightened his grip on the sword hilt in his right hand. In those ink-dot beady eyes, there was actually a hint of determination.

“Now!” Tass shouted.

Redding realized something was wrong. Most of his limbs attacked toward Bedsheet Archdemon. In the next instant, Brief vanished from Bedsheet Archdemon’s back without a trace.

So that was it. Myss’s button eyes flickered slightly.

…Brave Salaar had three extraordinary treasures.

He had a bottle of elf spring water kept in a crystal bottle, which could heal all wounds and illnesses, great and small.

He had a magical map drawn in golden ink, which could instantly reach every corner of the world.

These things were probably only useful to Brief himself. He simply had never had occasion to use them before. Now, there was only one problem left. That little sword drawn in ink was too fragile. It couldn’t even pierce burlap and cotton.

Unless…

Brief flashed behind Redding, raising that crudely drawn little sword high and stabbing toward a certain gap in Redding’s spine.

At the same instant, the entire Salaar doll threw himself into Myss’s arms. He gave up dodging and defense, entrusting his life to his enemy. The soft cloth hand pointed, and the doodle little sword shone with golden light.

It wasn’t as grand as anything Myss had seen, but it was bright enough.

In that brief instant, through that ridiculous simple doodle, Myss vaguely saw that mad guardian inside the seal.

The little sword stabbed deeply into Redding’s skin. That tiny puncture didn’t heal; instead, it triggered a chain reaction, causing spiderweb-like cracks to burst open across the skin.

Redding rolled on the spot, flinging Brief away.

Bedsheet Archdemon immediately rushed forward, spreading his soft bedsheet body and neatly catching Brief.

“This definitely isn’t a magic artifact effect. You can manipulate Divine Blood… You aren’t Kendrick Karns. Who—or what are you?”

Redding’s inverted face turned toward Brief. His voice was full of shock and rage, but his face still had no expression, which annoyed Myss.

“He is my enemy. My enemy!”

Myss loudly announced, ordering Fork to crash across Redding’s face. He seized the chance to punch him twice with his short little hands.

Now this was interesting. This was how things should be. Salaar should be stronger, stronger still. Only then would he be qualified to a thorn in Myss’s side for three hundred years.

“Damn it, has the Chaos Archdemon’s seal loosened? Are you His follower?”

Redding completely ignored Myss, only staring at Salaar, his tone growing more anxious.

Myss: “?”

How was this guy fabricating rumors about him out of thin air? Since when had he ever had followers?

No, wait. Why did Salaar being able to control Divine Blood make him get mistaken for Myss’s follower?

The Salaar doll remained silent, knowing only to play dead in Myss’s arms, while also supporting the fiercely battling Brief.

Brief didn’t let this golden opportunity slip.

He followed Tass’s commands and strictly adhered to the combat strategy from earlier, seizing the opportunity to stab Redding several more times. Every strike landed in the same place, and that patch of skin peeled open like a porcelain doll that had shattered from a fall.

Bedsheet Archdemon howled and yowled, happily swaying his body, looking quite excited.

With his vital point injured, Redding was unable to collect his thoughts. He seemed to have found something more important than the Divine Blood experiment. His eyes only stared at Myss and Salaar.

“Playing dumb is useless. ‘Divine Blood’ is a relic of the Night Scourge! It’s the power of the apocalypse!”

Redding’s voice was incomparably hoarse. “You ominous—pff!”

Myss rushed forward angrily, and Fork’s tail whipped across Redding’s mouth.

What relic of the Night Scourge? What power of the apocalypse? In the end, wasn’t it just his own divine power that had leaked out?

Rounding up, that was his property, his money. They were all spending his wealth without permission. Rather than letting the Stargazers Society use it, it might as well be given to Salaar. At least Salaar would hand over his wages.

“You’re using a Divine Blood Puppet yourself, and you still call him ominous?” Myss hissed. “Brief!”

Brief once again flashed behind Redding, persistently stabbing at that one weak point. The cracks grew larger, and the hollow was now the size of an eyeball.

Myss seized the opening and circled around Redding’s head. Fork shot straight into that broken hole. The two dolls fell from midair, only to be caught by Knife, which came immediately after.

The instant Fork drilled in, Redding’s body froze in place like a jammed machine. On his reversed face, his eyeballs turned in different directions, and clicking sounds came from his mouth.

“I see… Divine Blood… Divine Blood Puppet… you are…”

The Salaar doll directed Knife to circle to the front, and his cotton left hand pressed against the top of Redding’s upside-down head.

The end of Redding’s sentence vanished within that light touch. In the next instant, the black matter connecting the many body blocks dissipated like mist. The body blocks fell with crackling sounds and shattered into dust.

“Mental magic?” Myss was far too familiar with it.

“We couldn’t let him leak what happened here,” Salaar paused, then asked, “Aren’t you curious what he wanted to say?”

“Isn’t it just that you researched my power? I’ll figure it out myself.” Myss said indifferently. “Besides, no matter what you are in the human world, to me, you are simply ‘Salaar’.”

Salaar stopped talking and lightly bumped Myss’s face with his own again.

The gesture was so comical that Myss didn’t know whether to dodge or not. Since he was in a good mood right now, he let this guy rub against him.

“Done!” Tass shouted cheerfully.

Kalen also let out a breath and slightly relaxed his shoulders.

Amid the dust, Brief swayed as he stood up, shaking the powder off his red cloak. There were many more blood-red lines on his body, but Brief’s entire body had turned wavy, and he no longer even had the strength to pour the medicine.

Bedsheet Archdemon hurriedly landed, anxiously circling Brief while thin whimpers came from beneath the bedsheet.

“Don’t worry, Bedsheet. We won. We really won.”

Brief struggled forward two steps and hugged the soft Bedsheet Archdemon. His voice was as soft as a prayer.

“Whoo mi mi,” Bedsheet Archdemon called quietly.

“I’m fine. Everyone in the story is fine.” Brief wiped his eyes. “Thank you, thank you all! With only the two of us, we never could have beaten that monster!”

“Whooo!” Bedsheet Archdemon finally recovered some energy.

Myss couldn’t help sweeping a glance toward his Salaar. He suddenly discovered that Salaar’s doll body was trembling slightly. Clearly, “controlling Divine Blood” also came with a considerable price for him.

This was unfair, Myss thought. As the source of the Divine Blood, he hadn’t even figured out how to control this power… Once they got out of here, he really would have to interrogate Salaar.

Thinking this, he couldn’t resist stretching out his sinful hands and once again squeezed Salaar’s soft head into an hourglass shape.

Salaar stood in place as if used to it and sighed with his deformed head.

Amid the relaxed atmosphere, there was only one person who couldn’t be happy.

…Compared to Myss, Cousin Mag was clearly more concerned about Redding’s unfinished sentence.

“So far, no one has ever been able to control Divine Blood. For normal people, even skin contact is fatal.”

Magnolia spoke with certainty. “You absolutely cannot be Kendrick. Who are you?”

“In any case, not a Stargazer.” Salaar shrugged. “Madam, the Stargazers Society’s secret is right ahead. Don’t you think getting hung up on this right now is inappropriate?”

“I think the Stargazers Society’s Divine Blood experiment is definitely a little more important than me being a fake Kendrick. What, could it be that you and Mr. Kendrick have such a good relationship that you feel I deceived your feelings?”

“Don’t insult me. Who in their right mind would have a good relationship with that trash?”

Mag responded reflexively. “If not for Professor Gentry… Professor Gentry…”

She suddenly fell silent.

In Professor Gentry’s letter of introduction to the United Library, he had written Kendrick Karns name clearly. The United Library had specially verified it, and that letter had indeed been written by the professor himself.

In other words, either this impostor had extraordinary abilities and could deceive even a Kingdom Archmage, or Professor Gentry actually knew the truth and was willing to help these people deceive the United Library… deceive an institution directly under the Aufon royal family.

No matter which situation it was, she couldn’t afford to provoke these people.

In this battle, she had seen far too many things she shouldn’t have seen. The other side not immediately hitting her with mental magic was already courteous enough.

If she lost these precious records… Mag shivered and refused to think further.

“…Professor Gentry’s reputation carries a lot of weight.” Lady Mag stiffly continued, “What you said makes sense. The urgent priority is to understand the Divine Blood experiment and resolve the abnormality in the United Library.”

After saying this, she jumped off the priest’s shoe and rushed toward the ink hole as if her backside were on fire. Tass chuckled and jumped down right after her.

Only then did the priest move. When he stepped over the ashes of the Divine Blood Puppet, his heart abruptly twitched for no reason.

What was going on?

…Forget it. Perhaps his nerves had been too tense earlier.

Kalen shook his head and tossed away the thought.

---

The author has something to say:

Lady Magnolia, stop struggling. Just accept your role as an inside agent for your fake cousin already! (???

Also, Salaar really isn’t the Chaos Archdemon follower. He’s the Chaos Archdemon’s family. [dog head]

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 87: Divine Blood Puppet

Hearing this unexpected statement, Redding froze for two seconds.

Then he burst out laughing. “Very clever, but unfortunately, only petty cleverness. You’re not a Stargazer, sir. I know very well that you are not.”

Salaar’s button eyes stared fixedly at him. “So the ‘we’ you mentioned really does mean the Stargazers.”

“Not only that, you’ve also heard about us. Let me think… You learned it from Mr. Kai, didn’t you?”

Huh? It was one thing if Redding really was a stargazer, but how did that artifact merchant get involved too?

Myss looked at Salaar in confusion, pausing his great project of thinking.

Redding’s smile instantly stiffened, then quickly faded. “Who exactly are you?”

“Someone with a brain.” The Salaar doll jumped down from Fork and staggered forward.

“Before this, Kendrick Karns had always been at the border. Even Lady Magnolia doesn’t know my situation clearly. Yet you can state with certainty that I am ‘not a Stargazer.’”

“The only people who can confirm identity like that, apart from high-level investigators, are Stargazers themselves. But if you were a high-level investigator, with Lady Magnolia’s identity and status, she wouldn’t know nothing about it.”

“…Lastly, among the people who have previously contacted us and were suspected Stargazers, there’s only Mr. Kai.”

Salaar patted his soft cloth hands. Unfortunately, they made no sound. “And you forgot to deny it immediately. It seems both of you come from the Stargazer Society.”

Salaar didn’t mention the suspicions surrounding Professor Gentry. Myss raised his nonexistent eyebrows.

When it concerned the mystery of the body swap or Salaar, his brain always worked smoothly. Professor Gentry had a good relationship with them and also held considerable influence in the Aufon Kingdom. If Salaar exposed this matter, neither side would have any path of retreat.

…But why was Salaar walking forward again? He was almost swaying to the priest’s feet.

“You’re too young and don’t have much seniority. I imagine you can’t access the United Library’s Divine Blood, so you can’t be the experimenter.”

Salaar continued, his tiny body inching forward as he spoke. “Therefore, you probably came as a witness to confirm the result of the ‘Divine Blood experiment.’”

Redding was silent for a long time, then suddenly laughed again. “Good heavens. I thought it was impossible for me to be baited into revealing anything…”

“Kalen, go!” Salaar suddenly shouted, his tone exactly like when he gave orders in the army.

The priest obeyed subconsciously. He pushed off with both feet, but this time, there was no sound of paper tearing. In Myss’s garnet button eyes, a thin layer of golden light was clearly reflected.

During the conversation, Salaar had actually silently added protective magic to the soles of the priest’s feet!

But the dolls clearly couldn’t use magic. Myss abruptly raised his head and looked at Salaar.

At the same instant, relying on his sturdy body, the priest crashed straight toward Redding.

Redding was completely unprepared. He instinctively crossed his arms in front of his face, attempting to protect his vitals. However, his figure was thin, and he was directly sent flying by the priest’s impact.

The two “giants” rushed past the simplistic sketches of mountains and dawn, tumbling into the nearly blank title page.

The line [Dedicated to our hero Saint Salaar, and to every child who longs for courage] was knocked crooked by the two of them, letters scattering all over the ground.

Salaar ignored Mag’s scream of “What is going on?” He returned to Fork and hugged the still-stunned Myss tightly. Knife understood and charged forward, shooting toward the title page like an arrow.

“A story without a title page is still a story!”

Salaar shouted at the deathly pale Brief. “We’ll keep the battlefield on the title page. Decide for yourself what you want to do!”

“How can you use magic? I can’t use even a little!”

Myss poked Salaar’s cotton back hard. “Hey, Salaar, ever since you saw the Divine Blood, you’ve been acting weird. Don’t tell me…”

“Everyone, assist Kalen!” Salaar jumped off the snake and ran away.

Myss: “…”

This kid was definitely hiding a huge secret!

He sat alone on Fork and patted Fork’s head. “Go. First we kill the enemy, then we interrogate him properly.”

As they made their way forward, every illustration had been like an independent stage set. They were covered by some unseen spotlight and blended together.

Now, Kalen stood at the boundary between the title page and the first page of the story. His back was straight, and he firmly guarded the path that led into the story, like an immovable stone statue.

Redding, meanwhile, was blocking the way slightly farther into the title page. In the vast blank “title-page stage,” that pitch-black ink hole was especially conspicuous.

However, judging by its size, it was still some distance from them. Redding stood right in the middle, his expression incomparably troubled.

A little strange. At this moment, Redding’s aura was actually somewhat similar to Kalen’s.

“That opening belongs to us. Unrelated personnel are strictly forbidden from entering.”

Redding steadied himself and spoke slowly.

“I said before, we don’t have any ill will toward you.”

“The Stargazer Society knows what you have been doing along this journey and who you have been investigating. We have no intention of interfering with your plans… But now, all of you insist on interfering with our experiment.”

“Is that so? What a coincidence. This time, we came precisely to investigate Divine Blood.”

Salaar avoided Myss’s scorching gaze, which was as hot as a branding iron. His eyes only looked at Redding. “I happen to have a rather strong thirst for knowledge. Since the Divine Blood experiment has been shoved right in front of me, of course I have to take a look.”

“Even if this matter has nothing to do with V.O.R?” Redding hissed. “…Even if we are willing to exchange information about V.O.R for your departure from this place?”

Kalen stood completely still, as if he had heard nothing.

“If we leave, you’ll immediately destroy this book to make sure we can’t return,” Salaar said calmly. “So there is nothing for us to discuss.”

Brief jumped down from Knife’s back. He gripped his little sword tightly and stared blankly at the Salaar doll.

Bedsheet Archdemon ran to Myss’s side. As he wailed, he used his body to nudge Myss’s foot toward the ink hole, afraid they hadn’t noticed it.

Redding laughed in exasperation. “You’re insane. This is only a children’s picture book! Even if it has been affected by Divine Blood, it’s still only a picture book!”

“Yes. For this picture book, we’re not much different from gods. One thought, one breath, and we could reduce it to ash.”

Salaar said, “I simply can’t bring myself to abandon such a pitiable world. I just can’t.”

At this point, he finally turned his cotton head and looked at Myss.

“This is my book, bastard.” Myss retorted without a shred of politeness, baring his (nonexistent) fangs. “You actually dare destroy my things” You deserve to die.”

Stick-figure Mag looked from side to side. In the end, she dashed to the priest’s feet and sat down on the tip of his shoe, finding herself an excellent observation spot.

Tass followed her closely and sat on the priest’s other shoe. Only, the Tass doll’s expression was unusually serious, more like he was observing the battlefield terrain.

Redding let out a long sigh. “So this is your answer.”

“The Stargazer Society goes to such lengths to stop the apocalypse, yet the two of you turn against us—all for the sake of a picture book… The world truly is mad.”

Before Redding’s sigh had faded, his body twisted first.

His wrists, elbows, knees, ankles… even his neck. Every joint capable of movement twisted, cracked, and separated out of thin air.

Redding’s body split into a dozen pieces and rearranged itself. His head remained in place, but the body blocks that formed his limbs broke apart. Between the body blocks, long and slender black bone connected them, forming new abnormal limbs that didn’t belong to any human.

Redding suddenly became two or three times larger than Kalen. He moved his new bead-like body, resembling a phantom spider with a human face.

Following his movements, spiderweb-like black threads crisscrossed and danced. Redding wove between heaven and earth, and layer after layer of black spiderwebs appeared around them like cracks in this snow-white world. The sound of paper warping rang endlessly, and countless folds appeared in the pure white space.

Within the deformed space, the spiderwebs rapidly closed in. An unquestionable killing intent rushed toward them.

“I gave you a chance.”

Redding was expressionless, his head turning a full one hundred eighty degrees, upside down.

“That is a Divine Blood Puppet, the alchemical lifeform closest to humans!”

Mag clutched tightly at Kalen’s shoe tip and shouted at the top of her lungs. “That thing doesn’t have brain and can’t use magic. They are remotely controlled by a living person!”

Brief hurriedly picked up the thread. “How do we deal with it?”

“I don’t know, damn it!”

Mag didn’t ignore the other stick figures. “That is wartime technology from the Night Scourge era. It won’t stop operating unless the core is shut down!”

Kalen wanted to charge forward and fight Redding in close combat.

But the moment he moved, Redding propped up his body and made as if to rush toward the inside of the story. Kalen turned his hand back and tried to grab Redding’s legs, only for the puppet to evade him effortlessly. The Divine Blood puppet’s physical capabilities were astonishing. Its speed was actually no way inferior to Father Kalen’s.

While protecting the ink hole, Redding extended those twisted limbs, attempting to crush the swaying Salaar doll underfoot. Unfortunately for him, things didn’t go as he wished. Myss clamped tightly onto Fork, relentlessly harried Redding with a barrage of thrusts, making it impossible for him to aim.

But Redding was far too enormous, and they were too small. The moment Fork pierced one of Redding’s body blocks, black smoke surged from the hole, and the wound quickly vanished.

Myss angrily clenched his cloth fists. At the same time, a certain strange sense of déjà vu rose in him—himself, weak and insignificant, pitted against a colossal, nearly invincible opponent.

Now, he was facing the former “himself” from “Salaar’s” perspective. Only, one battlefield had been buried deep in darkness, while this battlefield floated in pure white.

Myss took a deep breath. “Salaar, come here!”

Salaar gave a whistle, and the riderless Knife obediently rushed over. The Salaar doll jumped onto Knife’s back, and in the next moment, snake and doll slid to Myss’s side together.

“I think you know where his core is, right? Just now, you were staring so hard you almost burned holes through him.”

Myss spoke extremely quickly. “He moves too fast. It’ll be hard to aim. Next, I’ll guide his movements, and you shout the direction you want.”

Salaar’s button eyes flashed. “You…”

“I was tormented by you for three hundred years. I know how a ‘big guy’ attacks and defends.”

Myss pressed his soft cloth hand against Salaar’s forehead. “Do what you should do. I already said, this is my book! If anyone’s going to destroy it, it’s going to be me!”

Salaar was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly moved closer and lightly bumped Myss’s face with his own.

Myss: “?”

Myss: “Are you trying to pick a fight with me right now?”

“It’s meant to be a passionate kiss, though pity, it didn’t quite land,” Salaar said. “Thanks to you, I thought of a brilliant idea.”

“I almost forgot. This time around, ‘Brave Salaar’ has an army of his own…”

---

The author has something to say:

Salaar doll: Wants to give an excited yet dignified light kiss.

Myss doll: ? Why is my mortal enemy bumping his face against mine? Is he picking a fight?

The downside of chibi bodies! [dog head]

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 86: No Other Choice?

Father Kalen remained crouched for quite a while. Just as Myss was about to reasonably suspect that his legs had gone numb, the priest took a small tulip-like bell from his pocket.

It was the summoning magic device Redding had given him before leaving.

The priest fiddled with the bell hesitantly for a while, then shook it with a clear ding-a-ling. The bright ringing echoed through the simple-doodle world. This time, no sound of paper tearing appeared again.

After half a minute of ringing, no one appeared.

The priest smiled apologetically. “I just wanted to try…”

“Oh my!” Brief suddenly cried out.

He pointed at a blank space not far away. Several lines had appeared there out of nowhere, forming a plump little robed figure. The little figure wore a black pearl brooch like an ink dot, and its short hair looked somewhat like Mag’s.

“Wonderful, wonderful. The space is actually still connected.”

Stick-figure Mag spoke quickly. “These are lines I drew with Divine Blood. It really worked!”

Myss glanced at that excited clump of ink lines and pointed upward. “Then can you draw us a ladder?”

“There isn’t that much Divine Blood. Restoring contact is already the limit.”

Mag smiled bitterly. “This ‘me’ can’t do anything except speak.”

Her actual body was still outside the book. This simple-doodle image was more or less a strangely shaped communication magic device.

“With an expert like Giant Lady here, I feel much better!”

Brief said politely, then explained the previous situation as well.

He didn’t even hide the matter of the priest preparing to jump and almost tearing apart the picture-book world. Of course, he didn’t say it in an accusatory tone. He earnestly described every detail, striving not to miss any clue.

Brief firmly believed Mag was an extraordinary researcher and had no reservations or defenses against her at all.

“You chased in specially to help them, didn’t you? I’ll work together with you so everyone can go home.”

Brief said sincerely.

Myss could now see that this little thing was actually not much like Salaar.

Bedsheet Archdemon was utterly dim-witted, and Brief was equally guileless.

“Brave Salaar” was, after all, a fairy-tale character. He was more like a combination of the “poetic imagery sang by bards” and the “hero in children’s hearts,” with a level of wariness comparable to a human child.

Faced with these words, however, Mag listened intently.

After hearing everything, she thought for a long while, then glanced at Salaar. “You helped Professor Gentry before, and the situation is special, so I won’t hide it from you either.”

“In my view, this is a little like an unformed ‘Divine Realm.’”

After saying this, she deliberately paused for two seconds to let them digest this staggering revelation.

Myss: “…”

They had already set foot in three Divine Realms. If they counted the sealed lair of the Chaos Archdemon, then they had seen a full four.

“Still, is this really a Divine Realm?”

Myss couldn’t help muttering. “If these guys who ran out are creations of the Divine Realm, then this Divine Realm is a little too exaggerated. The Prisoner of Dreams only sent some rabbits outside the Divine Realm, and that nearly drained it dry.”

The priest was still crouched in place. “Exactly. If every book contains a little world, the magic consumption must be absolutely staggering.”

“Putting those details aside, the effects caused by ‘Divine Blood’ and ‘Abnormal Fruit’ seem rather similar. That’s the key point.”

Salaar finally ended his suspicious silence. “Let’s return to the essence. Someone in the United Library was contaminated by an external power, gained near-godlike power, and constructed a unique Divine Realm.”

“There’s no point just guessing here. Let’s head toward the title page first.”

Mag: “?”

Leaving aside these strangers of unknown origin, since when did Kendrick understand these things?

The existence of Divine Realms and their origin were known outside only to the Kingdom Archmages and their genius students.

Mag herself knew about it because of the United Library’s own special nature. Even so, not many people within the United Library knew the truth.

In Mag’s own impression, this cousin of hers was only obsessed with heretical theories and unofficial histories, single-mindedly wanting to obtain a Magibase through living sacrifice. Kendrick couldn’t possibly have come into contact with knowledge at this level. Earlier, the fact that he was connected to Professor Gentry had already shocked her enough.

“Kendrick, did Professor Gentry teach you this?” Mag’s words grew serious.

“To be precise, Father told me,” Salaar shrugged his cotton shoulders and readily told the truth… Well, part of the truth.

In any case, even Mag didn’t know what the Order of Shadows was, so there was no way to pursue that line of conversation any further.

“I hope so.”

As expected, Mag gave a dry laugh. “If you’ve gotten involved with the Stargazers Society, then I can only join the ranks of those trying to eliminate you.”

……

For the following stretch of time, everyone rode the two snakes and crossed page after page of the story. The giant priest walked at the very back. Never in his life had his steps been so light.

They crossed sunny days colored warmly and stepped over night skies scattered with enormous five-pointed stars. The passersby came and went, looking at them curiously, but their reactions weren’t especially intense. Like background characters in a fairy tale, they were happy to accept all bizarre occurrences.

“Once we cross that mountain, we’ll see the foreword! Before the foreword is the title page, and the ink hole is over there!” Brief announced excitedly.

Myss raised his eyes and looked at that mountain. These two pages were the beginning of the story, depicting the scene of the rising sun.

If he remembered correctly, in an ordinary room, “Brave Salaar” had been born crying loudly in his swaddling clothes.

He wondered what his Salaar had looked like when he was born.

Was Salaar also born under the sunlight and gently wrapped in swaddling clothes? …Or had that guy been born in the frigid darkness of the Night Scourge. It certainly would explain why he latched on to Myss so tenaciously, refusing to let go.

Myss stared at the Salaar doll swaying back and forth in front of him, his thoughts flying wildly.

Salaar’s reaction when he saw the Divine Blood had been a little strange, and the Divine Blood was a creation of the Night Scourge era. Perhaps this thing was related to Salaar. Otherwise, Myss couldn’t explain that strange sense of familiarity.

Flap!

The Salaar doll turned around and threw himself onto the Myss doll, using his soft body as a shield. Fork, which they were riding, made an emergency stop. “What is that?!”

Something stood up from among the mountains filled with light, literally stood up. He looked about the same size as Father Kalen, with short walnut-brown hair and freckles scattered on either side of his long nose.

“Found you.”

Redding smiled brightly, revealing snow-white teeth.

Knife retreated warily. Mag, riding on Knife, looked shocked, and even her ink-dot eyes widened by several degrees. “You are… Redding? Why are you here?”

“Oh, dear Lady Mag, that’s my line. You shouldn’t have appeared here.”

Redding sighed. “For Lady Mag’s sake, I’ll give everyone a chance. Leave this place. Go back. Find a way to return the same way you came.”

“Then hand this picture book over to me and stay obediently until the abnormality disappears… How about it? Not hard to do, is it? So far, we do not have any ill will toward you.”

“Redding, what’s going on? Who is ‘we’?”

Seeing that there was a problem with her subordinate, Stick-figure Mag’s hair practically exploded. A tiny anger symbol burst out on her forehead. “I’ll give you a chance too, a chance to confess on your own. Explain clearly, right now!”

“It’s precisely because I don’t want to explain that I advised you to turn back. Right now, I’m speaking nicely purely out of politeness.”

“If you are unwilling, then I can only start from this page and slowly destroy this book.”

Redding carelessly strode across the mountain range. His steps were neither light nor heavy, each one just enough to produce the sound of paper rubbing.

For a moment, the scene was utterly silent, and even Myss didn’t make a sound.

No one present had magic. And in this fragile world, Father Kalen couldn’t unleash the strength he was so proud of.

Redding had no such qualms. In order to stop them from advancing, he could simply destroy this book. The fact that this guy was still willing to communicate with them could indeed be considered “polite.”

Sweat broke out on Brief’s forehead. One hand gripped the still-dizzy Bedsheet Archdemon, while the other reached for his sword hilt. His red cape swayed lightly, like a beating heart.

Father Kalen stepped directly past them and blocked the very front. He put away his gentle expression and looked at Redding with a grim expression.

The small bell Redding had given him was crushed out of shape in his palm. How pitiful. He could block every attack from the other party, but he couldn’t control where that other party’s foot came down.

Rip.

Seeing that everyone didn’t retreat, Redding exerted a little force with his right foot. Along with the sound of paper tearing under pressure, the world trembled.

“A story can still be a story, even if it’s missing its beginning.”

Redding said thoughtfully, “Then let’s start from this page. ‘On a clear and beautiful morning, Brave Salaar was born in…’”

Rip!

Brief looked as if he was about to rush forward, but Mag beside him grabbed him hard. He was so anxious, his body trembled. “Let me go, Madam!”

Brief’s face flushed bright red, and Bedsheet Archdemon, who was beside him, finally came back to himself, howling in panic.

Bedsheet Archdemon was extremely fast, and Mag didn’t manage to stop him. He skillfully circled around Father Kalen’s legs and charged straight to Redding’s feet, using his body to slam into the back of Redding’s knee.

Bedsheet Archdemon didn’t possess Myss’s power of annihilation, but his strength couldn’t be underestimated. However, Redding seemed to feel nothing and still stood perfectly upright.

No matter how one looked at it, other than retreating, they had no other choice. Either they retreated in humiliation, or they retreated in a miserable state.

Myss didn’t want to retreat. He hated this feeling of having to be controlled by someone else. Salaar was one thing, but where had this wild human named Redding popped out from?

What did a Divine Realm count for? What did another god’s rules matter? Since other gods could project their power beyond the confines of their own realm, why couldn’t he? …His true body wasn’t dead yet!

Myss closed his eyes and felt this tottering world with all his strength.

Come. Let him watch a Divine Realm be destroyed by external force. Let him see how the boundary collapsed, how the power dispersed. Let him personally feel—

“Wait.”

Salaar suddenly spoke.

“I think there may be some misunderstanding between us.” The tiny doll took two steps forward, its mouth opening into a semicircle.

“We’re also Stargazers, just like you.”

“If I’m not mistaken, you came to check the results of the ‘Divine Blood experiment,’ didn’t you?”

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The author has something to say:

Myss: There is no such word as retreat in my dictionary! [cat paw]

Salaar: There is no such word as retreat in my dictionary! [thumbs up]

And so, the two stubborn mules glared face-to-face, butting heads for more than three hundred years. [dog head]

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