A strange, mocking laughter echoed.
The puppeteer suddenly realized something and turned back in shock, only to see that all the puppets within a two-hundred-meter radius had their conscious connections severed, collapsing to the ground.
"I've finally lured you out."
He turned his head and saw that Xu Xiaoyou, who had previously been controlled by the silk threads, had already broken free. She shouted: "Tang Xin!"
The latter reacted instantly, chanting softly. The starry sky resonated, and the stars overlapped!
The entire sky above the church began to shine brilliantly as the blessing of the stars fell from the heavens onto everyone.
Multiple runic star rings locked onto Xu Xiaoyou's body, emitting brilliant, radiant colors. Layer upon layer of halos surged beneath her like a deep galaxy.
The effect of 【Stars Overlap】 began to take effect.
The puppeteer's face twisted into a snarl. Seeing the girl rushing toward him, he suddenly waved his hand. "Don't let that madwoman get near me!"
Behind the two, countless silk threads from the puppet mother simultaneously stabbed toward Xu Xiaoyou's back, but they only pierced through the girl's body, dissipating into nothingness in an instant.
"Untargetable?" The puppeteer froze, murmuring in a daze. "No, it's a priority judgment..."
In the next instant, Xu Xiaoyou swept past the puppeteer. Under the fivefold buffs, even a grade 3 puppeteer had no chance of withstanding her strike.
With a single slash, she slit his throat. The puppet mother's massive body vanished amidst a mournful cry, taking most of the puppets with it.
Xu Xiaoyou did not stop. Her expression remained neutral as she dashed toward Lin Sheng's direction once more!
She reached Lin Sheng in an instant. The latter reacted quickly, revealing his true form; his black robes fluttered wildly, and over a dozen eyes opened on the plaster head covering his face.
Everyone was horrified. They looked at Yorick, who had just had his throat slit by Xu Xiaoyou, and then at 'Lin Sheng,' unable to understand what was happening.
"Is there another puppeteer?" This thought flashed through everyone's minds.
"When did you notice me?" 'Lin Sheng' said in a deep voice.
"Does it matter?" Xu Xiaoyou's gaze was calm.
The opponent's combat skill was far superior to Yorick's. He swung a decapitating blade, clashing with Xu Xiaoyou multiple times without falling into a disadvantage. After Xu Xiaoyou activated Destiny Moment through the hundred-faced die, he also shook off all negative effects and entered a berserk state.
Then, he activated Boiling Blood Frenzy, intending to forcibly kill the girl in front of him and tear open a path to escape!
To his surprise, the girl had no intention of a prolonged fight. An imperceptible smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
"Tang Xin, transfer the buffs!"
'Lin Sheng' felt a surge of dread. He spun around and saw Lin Xing, now freed from puppet control, standing behind him. Multiple buffs flared on his body, and his eyes were blood-red.
"What did you do to my brother?"
"Where is he now!" the youth roared, losing his sanity like a maddened beast.
The man's throat bobbed. The daggers he thrust out shattered the man's weapon and pierced his throat repeatedly. The thick, literal killing intent in the youth's eyes made him shudder.
Even after suffering such a fatal injury, the man continued to put up a final resistance. His eyes were bloodshot as he clutched his perforated throat; blood flowed out incessantly.
Like a vengeful ghost, he gritted his teeth, his throat making a wheezing sound. Blood flowed back into his lungs as he met Xu Xiaoyou's indifferent, cold gaze—a gaze that looked at a corpse.
He gave a cold laugh as a golden bell descended from the sky with majestic force, enveloping his body. His skin gradually became transparent, as if he were fading into a phantom state.
"He has a forbidden object for escaping!" Chen San shouted a warning.
"Give my brother back to me!!"
Lin Xing roared like a madman and charged forward. His snake-fang daggers repeatedly struck the golden bell, but they could only leave shallow marks. Finally, he was repelled a hundred meters away by a long, ancient toll of the bell.
"Save your energy. Even if it's a counterfeit Donghuang Bell, it's not something a guy like you can break," the man sneered.
Seeing that the man was about to escape, Xu Xiaoyou's eyes flickered. As if sensing something, she reached out toward Yorick's direction.
Powerful spiritual energy resonated and rippled in the void!
A hundred-section whip made of bone appeared in the girl's hand, creating a sonic boom in the air!
The moment she gripped the bone whip, countless memories that did not belong to her flooded into her mind.
She saw a withered city beneath a blood-red sky.
She saw people with numb, despondent expressions under the falling stars.
She saw countless lives living in fear, craving death and liberation.
She heard the echoes of infinite despair and pain in this world of urban legends.
She witnessed the entire world falling apart. A crimson chasm cut through the continental plates, black seawater flooded the cities, and cyclones and hurricanes raged, destroying everything.
A phantom shadow named the 'Mindflayer' loomed over the azure sky.
She shook her head, not daring to dwell on it. She suddenly swung the long whip, lashing it toward the man.
The whip caused the void to resonate, and the air exploded repeatedly. A force capable of tearing through space traveled from her wrist to the tip of the whip.
The man's smile vanished, replaced by terror. That strange whip actually pierced through the Donghuang Bell and wrapped around his neck, forcing his phantom body to solidify. The overwhelming aura raging on the whip stripped him of any will to resist, and he fell to his knees.
Xu Xiaoyou yanked the whip, and the man's entire body was pulled out of the Donghuang Bell, kneeling before her in a pathetic state.
After completing this, her spiritual energy was rapidly drained and exhausted. The scenes she had just witnessed replayed before her eyes like a film rolling in an old projector.
Before losing consciousness, she heard Tang Xin's worried voice and finally fell into a soft cluster of white spider lilies...
...................
By the time Xu Xiaoyou woke up again, the group was already on their way back.
Outside the car window, it was dusk. The wilderness flew past, and scattered snowflakes drifted into the car, landing on her face.
The icy chill cleared her consciousness slightly. Just as she sat up from the girl's lap, a sharp pain shot through her head, as if an awl had been driven in and twisted, making her furrow her brows in agony.
Those images flashed through her mind again, though this time only vague fragments remained.
She vaguely remembered seeing a giant phantom shadow in the azure sky before passing out.
Tang Xin's eyes lit up when she saw her wake up. She gently pulled Xu Xiaoyou's head into her embrace to reduce the pain caused by the bumps in the road.
"Your vital signs once made me plan to hand you over to the rat doctors in Life Daybreak once we returned to the city. They are the best at handling cases like yours."
"I remember they are..."
Xu Xiaoyou still had a headache, but the faint fragrance on the girl was quite comfortable.
The dusk outside the window was beautiful. The wind in the wilderness was like an aimless traveler, making one's heart feel relaxed and free.
It made one want to sing out loud.
Chen San seemed to be in a very good mood. "Your condition wasn't much better then. Your body was convulsing violently, your heart almost stopped, and well... your pulse was no different from a dead person's. With a bit of makeup, you could have been buried. You should be glad the person next to you knows some medical first aid."
Chen San tactfully avoided the topic of the hundred-section whip. Anyone could see that the whip was not simple. Judging by its final performance, it seemed to possess the ability to ignore or cut through space, with power enough to break that golden bell.
Xu Xiaoyou looked at Tang Ge, who blinked and looked back at her with a calm smile. "It's great that Yuzu is okay."
"Don't worry, he didn't escape. The people from Universal Heavy Industries have already taken him away. Although the process was a bit convoluted, the commission was completed."
"I never expected that puppeteer named Yorick had an older brother, Yorif. According to Universal Heavy Industries' records, that brother should have died in an orphanage over twenty years ago. Who would have thought he'd been lurking around his younger brother like a ghost all these years, handling difficult matters for him?"
"Like his brother's shadow, he also possessed the ability to control puppets, though he wasn't as powerful and couldn't control hundreds of puppets simultaneously through a mimicry puppet mother."
"Compared to puppetry, he was more expert in disguise, able to appear at various major family events in Chichutian by changing his appearance."
At the mention of the shadow, Lin Xing, who had been sitting by the window in silence, let out a heavy breath.
"From the moment we set out, his brother Yorif had been right by our side. I really didn't expect Lin Sheng to be..." Chen San's gaze was complex. He glanced at Lin Xing through the rearview mirror and sighed. "When did you notice something was wrong with him?"
Xu Xiaoyou rubbed her forehead. "From when we were in the Fars Mountain Range and I asked him if he had seen anyone strange. His answer was flawed."
"If his brother could be controlled just by passing by on the road, why would he, the older brother, be spared?"
"But at that time, it was just a suspicion. I guessed that both brothers might be controlled by puppets."
"Later, various clues in the village and near the church made me suspect he was the puppeteer himself. Finally, I concluded he was Yorick's twin brother."
Unless Yorick possessed the ability for targeted spacetime travel, judging by the timeline, it was impossible for him to be looking for an opportunity to approach the shadow brothers in the city while simultaneously setting up a trap hundreds of kilometers away.
She naturally had multiple opportunities to deal with the brother, Yorif, but that would have caused the other to flee. To catch both brothers in one net, she had to be as patient as a wolf, waiting for the final moment.
The opponent didn't dare to act rashly against them from start to finish, likely because they were wary of Tang Xin's group support ability—those group buffs were enough to turn the tide of battle.
And indeed, 【Stars Overlap】 plus the Destiny Moment she had previously recorded in the hundred-faced die allowed them to complete the intended comeback at the final moment.
As for that giant phantom shadow and the ability the hundred-section whip showed at the end, her mind was currently a mess, and she was physically and mentally exhausted. She would think about it after returning to the city.
Thinking this, Xu Xiaoyou comfortably rested her head on the girl's slender and soft lap and closed her eyes to sleep.
Rate on N.U.
