Those few volunteers summoned by High Priestess Elisa in her red robes were no formidable figures; their score values were generally only around fifty, yet even so, dispatching them all in one go was far from an easy feat, and Dany, the unreliable girl usually mocked by the capital’s citizens, had actually taken them down in an instant!
Now the girl was strutting about with her head held high, hands on hips, walking up to Ye Chui and the others.
Ye Chui snapped out of his surprise, but his face showed a wary expression: “Joker Girl!”
Blood-red tentacles, terrifying plants that could absorb others’ magical attacks and return them in full, and black long serpents, these were all techniques Ye Chui had witnessed during his battle with the Joker Girl Liya; could the Dany before him actually be that Joker Girl Liya?
“Exactly, I am the Joker Girl; from now on, you can just call me the Joker Girl!” Dany said. Noticing the others’ shocked gazes, she hurriedly added, “But I’m not Liya, oh; I am Dany.”
“Your power…” Ressa hesitated.
“I summoned Liya and signed a heroic spirit contract with her, so I can borrow her power.” Dany explained.
“You summoned that Joker Girl?” Jacob rushed to Dany’s side, his face showing some worry; he looked her up and down. “How could you secretly do something so dangerous… What if that Joker Girl wanted to harm you?”
“Don’t worry; I only summoned her because I was very confident, and if I had told you all in advance, you definitely would have refused me.” Dany said. Seeing Ye Chui still wearing a guarded expression, she added, “I know you’re worried that I’ve been controlled by the Joker Girl now; rest assured, I am still Dany. In the contract I signed with the Joker Girl, rules have already been set: she lends me her power, and all I need to give is my deeds, so that she can continue to be summoned by people after me; she cannot control my consciousness.”
Debbie was also a summoner; she was the first to understand what Dany had done, her expression one of utter astonishment: “It can be done like this?”
“The Joker Girl has always been borrowing my name to act, even transforming into my appearance, so after becoming a heroic spirit, she has the closest emotional link to me, making it easier to summon her, and I can lend her my deeds; as for the contract between us, she won’t have any influence over me.” Dany continued to explain.
Doubt still lingered in Ye Chui’s eyes; he used the iPad magic guidebook’s browser function, scanning Dany’s face with a QR code to enter her conscious world, wanting to probe who she truly was now. In Dany’s conscious world, Ye Chui saw a long list of articles on the home page—
“See if Ye Chui still dares to look down on me!”
“I’m not someone who only drags everyone down!”
“I must make Mr Ye Chui acknowledge me!”
“Come praise me, come praise me…”
…
—It seemed Dany cared deeply about Ye Chui’s recognition; from these articles, one could deeply feel her anticipation for her own strength to be acknowledged by Ye Chui, just like a child yearning for familial approval…
Ye Chui then entered these articles one by one, probing their contents, and finally confirmed that the girl before him was indeed Dany; the contract she had signed with the Joker Girl posed no issues. During Dany’s battles, the Joker Girl essentially acted as a possessing heroic spirit, directly descending onto Dany’s body.
After confirming this, Ye Chui, Debbie, Green, Ressa, and the others all showed expressions of disbelief.
In fact, after leaving Joker Town, Debbie had once tried to summon the Joker Girl but ultimately failed; Dany’s talent was leagues below Debbie’s, yet what Debbie could not achieve, Dany had done.
Ye Chui could not help but walk up to Dany, smiling as he said to her: “Welcome back to the team.”
Dany’s previously smug and flamboyant expression suddenly twitched, her eyes seeming to moisten as well; these past few days, she had been waiting for, hoping for, precisely these words from Ye Chui!
After successfully signing the contract with the Joker Girl, she had not returned to the castle, precisely to quickly master her newly gained power, so that at the critical moment, she could show Ye Chui her abilities; she absolutely was not someone who only dragged everyone down!
Now she had finally achieved her wish!
An indescribable surge of emotion welled up in Dany’s heart, tears on the verge of sliding from the corners of her eyes.
But at that moment, High Priestess Elisa’s impatient voice rang out: “Have you caused enough of a scene? This is the grand cathedral, not a place for you to perform a melodrama!”
Ever since Dany’s appearance, Ye Chui and his group had successfully become the focus of everyone’s attention; now they were even putting on a sentimental play, which left Elisa somewhat displeased in her heart, and also somewhat worried. She had not expected that at the last moment, Ye Chui’s side would gain such a powerful new member; Dany’s power was undoubtedly extraordinary…
A comic-relief girl could even get a cheat?!
She then rallied her spirits, summoning several believers and magi to attempt activating the magic formation in the cathedral for teleportation. Of course, before the teleportation, members of the privy council such as the grand scholar and the interior minister first inspected the magic formation, confirming it flawless before activating it.
Ye Chui, Debbie, Ressa, Green, Guni, Dany, Shilaisi, the seven of them stood beside the thirteenth prince Jacob; the other guards also stood beside their respective sworn princes. In the powerful teleportation magic formation, a layer of deep green light spread from beneath their feet, enveloping their bodies. In the cathedral hall, there were eleven groups of people, eight per group; they were about to be teleported to the Crown Battlefield secret realm, to engage in life-and-death combat.
And at this very moment, in a room inside the cathedral, accompanying the activation of the magic formation outside, another magic formation here was also activated.
Standing in this magic formation were eight people, the one at the forefront being none other than the ninth prince who had faked his death, and beside him stood several believers clad in black church robes—believers were not permitted to join the Crown War, but clearly High Priestess Elisa paid no heed to such a rule; she also knew of the ninth prince’s feigned death and had quietly arranged for him to enter the secret realm as well.
Among the believers beside the ninth prince, there was one petite believer shrouded entirely in a black robe, her hood shifting to reveal a delicate little face; it was Posley!
The zodiac king heir was also preparing to enter the Crown Battlefield!
Soon, whether it was the ninth prince’s group here or the other princes and guards in the outer cathedral, all vanished in that dense deep green light, awaiting them was the Crown Battlefield secret realm’s harsh survival environment, and the terrifying threats from other princes.
…
After a bout of dizziness and disorientation, as if heaven and earth had flipped, Ye Chui found himself standing in a somewhat sweltering place; the surroundings were somewhat dim, and underfoot was a kind of half-foot-long weed, its blades very slender, covered in serrated barbs like saw teeth.
In his field of vision, he could also see tall, blackish-grey, somewhat barren trees; they were not withered but naturally so, with slender, sparse black leaves scattered across those branches, appearing exceedingly strange.
“Screech—” A black monstrous bird seemed startled by them, swiftly flying from the branch towards elsewhere.
Ye Chui hurriedly looked to his side, relieved to find his companions all nearby, and walked over to them: “Is everyone unharmed? It seems we have safely entered the secret realm.”
“Yes, we’re fine, just a bit dizzy in the head.” Debbie said, rubbing her forehead; when she looked up, she let out a cry of surprise. “This place resembles the Sword Burial Grounds and the Garden of the Goddess of Fortune back then!”
Ye Chui had heard from Prince Geller that the Crown Battlefield was originally a fragment of a divine domain; in essence, it was no different from places like the Sword Burial Grounds. The sky was a uniform grey haze, emitting a faint glow, with occasional streaks of lightning flashing through; there was no distinction between day and night, the sky forever in this dim state, yet that weak light was enough for certain plants and animals to survive here.
Ye Chui had already summoned his magic guidebook, preparing to open the map to survey the surroundings, but just then he suddenly heard Dany cry out in surprise; he hurriedly turned to look, seeing Dany staring in astonishment at her palm, in which was a piece of dry, rotten bread. Dany gently squeezed it, and the bread turned to dust and ash, blowing away.
“Bread!?” Seeing this, Ye Chui and Debbie’s bodies jolted; Dany’s bread was one she had just gotten from Green; she had skipped breakfast and had been thinking of quickly eating something to fill her stomach once in the secret realm, but… how could bread taken from Green’s magic guidebook turn out like this?
Could it be… they had once again experienced a long temporal displacement? So that the food in the storage space had all spoiled?
One must know that in storage space, food could be preserved for a very long time, measured in years; to turn food in storage space into this state… if it was a temporal displacement, how much time would that require!?
Fortunately, facts proved it was not so.
Green continued to take out a new piece of bread from his magic guidebook; when it first emerged, it looked freshly baked, but in Green’s hand, the bread rapidly began to spoil and harden, shrivelling and turning brittle, crumbling to ash with a pinch.
Green took out other things as well: food, blankets, medicines, cookware, even clothes; these items were perfectly fine when inside the magic guidebook, but upon exposure to this world, they swiftly decayed as if having endured countless years, becoming useless.
“Stop taking them out…” Seeing Green still preparing to retrieve more from the magic guidebook, Ye Chui hurriedly stopped him. “It seems this is a rule of this world: items from the magic guidebook are corroded by time the instant they are taken out.”
“No way? There’s actually such a rule!” Debbie’s little face immediately soured; she glanced at her own clothes. “But the clothes we’re wearing are fine… Why didn’t Little Seven tell us about this? Or is it some trick by the church?”
“The church cannot interfere with the rules inside the Crown Battlefield; Prince Geller would not lie to us, he probably did not know of this rule himself!” Ye Chui said with furrowed brows, suddenly finding it rather intriguing. “I suspect every prince has a space magus by their side, with magic guidebooks carrying vast amounts of survival items and weapons for here, but this world’s rule renders all those things useless, forcing everyone to start from zero here!”
“Then all the supplies we prepared in advance are wasted?” Green said in some shock.
“Once we leave here, the items should not be affected.” Ye Chui shook his head, a slight smile tugging at his lips. “So this is to make us survive in the wild? Interesting; looks like I need to summon…”
At that moment, Ye Chui’s magic guidebook suddenly emitted a soft chime, a notification alert!
Ye Chui hurriedly looked at the screen, his expression lighting up with joy.
Notification: New game [Crown Battlefield] discovered; unlock?
Game!
Ye Chui now understood that the game function only activated upon entering divine domain fragments or secret realms like this; his magic guidebook would automatically explore the events Ye Chui experienced and convert them into “games,” and now that Ye Chui and the others had been teleported to the secret realm for the crown-contending Crown Battlefield, it had immediately unlocked a new game upon their arrival.
Unlocking the new game required one thousand points.
Ye Chui did not hesitate for a moment and immediately unlocked it.
An game icon then appeared on the iPad screen—a picture of a crown crossed with a greatsword.
Ye Chui tapped to open the game, and the familiar opening introduction appeared before him.
“Welcome to the [Crown Battlefield] game.
The crown contention war has begun; in this secret realm, dangers abound, native races, vicious alien beasts, countless terrifying enemies lurk around you; you will face threats from other princes, and also unknown horrors, but first and foremost, what you must do is survive here…
The game has thus begun!
Game clearance objectives: 1, Survive to the end! 2, Help the thirteenth prince obtain the throne. 3, Uncover the hidden truth of the Crown Battlefield.
Special reward 1: Kill a prince or accept a prince’s surrender for a 5000 point reward.
Special reward 2: Survive one day in the secret realm for a 100 point reward.
Game clearance rewards: Based on game process rating, award 25000~35000 points, and three random draws.
Hope you enjoy the game!”
Then, below this interface, Ye Chui saw the familiar VIP icon again, constantly flashing; with curiosity, Ye Chui gently tapped this VIP icon, and a dialogue box appeared on the screen.
