Night had fallen, and evil spirits invaded. It appeared silently beside Ye Chui and Green. The body that had been lying on the ground stood upright, revealing wicked claws and fangs. The red glow in its eyes grew ever more brilliant, like a beast hunting in the darkness. It approached the two step by step, waiting for the moment to launch a fatal strike.
“I am not a lolicon!” Green suddenly shouted angrily in his sleep.
“You might as well admit it…” Ye Chui murmured in response, still asleep.
“…” The evil spirit froze for a moment, clearly not expecting Green to talk in his sleep, and Ye Chui to retort likewise while dreaming. The room fell quiet again for a while. Ye Chui and Green continued sleeping peacefully, undisturbed.
The evil spirit seemed to belong to some unimaginable existence, emitting no aura at all. It continued drifting towards Ye Chui, finally reaching him. Beneath its red eyes, a huge mouth filled with sharp teeth split open. It bent down to bite Ye Chui.
But in that instant, a white light suddenly appeared. Ye Chui’s [Security Guard] activated automatically. The armoured swordsman’s figure emerged in a flash, swinging his sword at the evil spirit.
The evil spirit reacted like a startled rat. It seemed to sense something utterly terrifying from Jarvis. Its body turned into a black shadow and vanished in an instant.
Jarvis stood poised for a moment. The puppet eyes beneath his armour appeared somewhat puzzled. He turned to look in a certain direction outside the hall, as if something there was summoning him. He suddenly realised something was wrong. He had been passively activated, with magic flowing. No matter what, Ye Chui should have been awakened, yet why was he still deeply asleep?
Jarvis hurriedly checked on Ye Chui and found nothing unusual, only deep slumber. He felt slightly relieved, and his body gradually faded away.
…
At that moment, Ye Chui was dreaming.
In fact, when the evil spirit prepared to bare its fangs and Jarvis activated passively, he had already awakened. But the instant he became conscious, a powerful mental force pulled him back into the dream.
It was an incredibly realistic dream.
Ye Chui knew he was in a dream.
This feeling was just like experiencing [Time Echo]!
However, [Time Echo] only existed in the relics of the gods or fragments of divine realms. Yet now, on the Castro continent, he was undergoing this strange state, only within a dream.
The dream began with him standing in a void of blankness. He looked around curiously. Suddenly, a black dot appeared in his vision. The dot grew larger. It was two figures supporting each other.
Or rather, they should not be called people. One had a ferocious, towering body filled with a unique puppet sensation. It was a puppet!
The other was shrouded in mysterious aura, wrapped entirely in a black robe.
They seemed to be fleeing pursuit. As they passed by Ye Chui, he saw terrible wounds covering the puppet’s body. Some puppet components were exposed, revealing profound magic arrays inside. Ye Chui vaguely remembered seeing something like this. In the Sword Burial Ground, when the demon tried to invade his mental world, Jarvis appeared and fought the red demon turtle. When gravely injured, the exposed body structure was just like this. But Jarvis back then could self-heal, whereas this puppet seemed unable to repair itself.
The puppet and the black-robed figure stopped not far from Ye Chui. With their forms as the centre, the void world gradually loaded like a game scene, slowly revealing brown boulders, green forests, moss-covered ground, and in the distance, a vast azure sea.
The void transformed into a forest full of primitive charm.
This was an island of the Tidal Empire!
The puppet was placed on a rock. The heart area emitted red light that flickered constantly, like a heartbeat, growing dimmer. It gave the sense that life was about to fade. The puppet looked at the black-robed figure, who stood worriedly beside it. They seemed to be speaking, but sadly, Ye Chui could not hear their voices.
At that moment, the green forest began to change. Leaves withered, moss faded. Ye Chui turned and saw the familiar demon approaching slowly.
The red demon turtle!
Ye Chui knew this was an illusion, yet he instinctively felt a chill of annihilation.
In a daze, he understood what was happening: that puppet was the God of Puppets!
This was the scene of the gods’ fall. The God of Puppets was about to be killed by the demon, and the black-robed figure… Ye Chui saw the black-robed figure suddenly draw two short blades from his waist and charge swiftly at the red demon turtle.
The wind blew off his hood, revealing a terrifying face.
The black-robed figure’s face was a blank slate, empty and featureless!
The Faceless God?
Celty had mentioned her two old friends, the God of Puppets and the Faceless God. Back then, the three of them had done many things for the God of Gods, forming a terrifying trio.
Among the gods, the God of Puppets, the Goddess of Wealth, and the Goddess of Fate were upper gods. The Faceless God was a middle god. Celty guessed he had died during the gods’ fall. After all, the Faceless God was an assassin by origin, with lower divine rank and weaker strength. He could not possibly match the red demon that severed Longbao’s head in one strike.
Soon, the Faceless God’s body was sent flying by the red demon, crashing into a towering tree.
The red demon continued towards the puppet.
The gravely wounded Faceless God charged again. Covered in injuries, he stubbornly tried to protect the God of Puppets.
The red demon kept advancing.
The Faceless God climbed from the ground once more and lunged at the demon.
This time, he was punched into the earth by the demon’s fist.
The demon was about to reach Jarvis. Its red eyes gleamed with bloodlust.
Yet the Faceless One crawled out from underground a fourth time. Now covered in blood, clothes torn, at the end of his strength. Strange runes appeared on his peculiar white skin, emitting holy white light.
Sensing the terrifying aura, the demon turned in fear. It let out a silent roar. Ye Chui felt terror from it.
In that moment, the demon tried to flee, but the Faceless God rushed forward with incredible speed and tightly embraced its waist from behind.
Dazzling white light burst forth.
The Faceless God ignited all his divine power, turning himself into a terrifying bomb to perish together with the demon!
A silent explosion.
Space twisted into a black hole. The puppet’s body and the demon’s ashes were sucked in. Ye Chui could only see the red light on the puppet’s chest flickering, flickering…
A faint shadow appeared before the black hole, as if using its last strength to close it.
The black hole was the Puppet Graveyard?
The faint shadow was the Faceless God. His body shattered, only a wisp of remnant soul left, so weak that a breeze could scatter it. He sat powerlessly on the ground. Though his featureless face had no expression, it seemed to convey endless exhaustion. Ye Chui faintly heard a resolute murmur, as if guarding for countless years.
“Old friend, I will protect you forever…”
…
Ye Chui woke from the dream gasping heavily, body soaked in sweat. He found it was already morning. He hurriedly got out of bed, changed into clean clothes, and stepped out of the hall. He saw Green practising morning exercises with his brick in the courtyard. Ye Chui rubbed his numb head and took out his magic book.
As expected, a new video appeared in the player list: Chapter Four: Puppet Graveyard!
The video showed exactly what Ye Chui had dreamed last night. After playback, a summoning card for a ferocious puppet appeared, but it could not be summoned. The progress stopped halfway, just like before. It seemed Ye Chui needed to absorb an important item to complete the summoning. He recalled the dream scenes.
Back then, the gravely wounded and dying God of Puppets, Jarvis, had been taken by the Faceless God to hide on the island. Then they perished together with the demon. Celty said the God of Puppets’ body was an immortal creation, extremely powerful. The Faceless God’s final will guarded the black hole from the explosion. The ancestral gods and witches of the Tidal Empire could connect to the Puppet Graveyard’s power, perhaps because of the Faceless God…
He just did not know why Jarvis appeared in his pad. Longbao and the elf baby were from the gods’ era, but their memories were incomplete. Celty did not know much either. This sister had been wandering outside the divine realm during the gods’ fall. On her way back after sensing the crisis, she was chased by demons and buried for thousands of years. Jarvis should know more, but Ye Chui could not communicate directly with him. He could only summon him passively.
Thinking of this, Ye Chui went straight to Green, who was training.
“President?” Green wiped sweat from his forehead and looked curiously at Ye Chui.
“Hit me.” Ye Chui said to Green.
“President!?” Green was stunned.
“Hit me.” Ye Chui pointed at his head and continued.
Green: “…”
Just then, Debbie, Leisha, and the others yawned as they came out of their rooms. They saw Ye Chui telling Green to hit him. Debbie immediately lost her composure: “Ye Chui, have you awakened some strange fetish?”
Ye Chui nearly fell over. He quickly explained the reason, recounting the dream from last night to everyone. Then he said he hoped to provoke Jarvis by having Green attack him, to ask for clarification.
Hearing the explanation, Debbie, Green, and the others showed understanding. Ye Chui turned to Green: “So go ahead and attack me…”
Clang!
The brick landed directly on the back of Ye Chui’s head.
“I hadn’t said start yet…” Ye Chui swayed and collapsed to the ground.
“President!?”
“Ye Chui!?”
A beautiful day began.
