eurekapd Chapter 289 I am a little fish (44)
Chapter 289 I am a little fish (44)
The beggar's eyes lit up, and he grabbed the bronze parts inside and stuffed them into his mouth.
The hard parts were like biscuits in the beggar's mouth. His teeth made a rattling sound as they collided with the bronze, but the beggar ate them with relish, his mouth watering.
Even though she had anticipated this scene, Jingli was still so shocked that a chill ran down her spine.
The beggar sat on the ground, yet he was still as sturdy as a small mountain, and was estimated to be two meters tall when he stood up.
His hair was matted and his beard was so long that his face was obscured.
His clothes no longer fit properly, revealing a patch of dark, fat around his waist.
Did he fatten himself up on these mechanical wrecks?
Jingli found it unbelievable.
The next second, he saw something and hurriedly tugged at Meng Li's sleeve.
"His collar."
“Yes.” Meng Li nodded, clearly having noticed as well. “He is a member of the royal family.”
Although the beggar's collar was also tattered and dirty, its shape and texture were still discernible.
Unlike the round or square collars of ordinary residents that I had seen before, the beggar's collar was V-shaped and had two layers, similar to a shirt and a suit jacket, but made of different materials.
The collar was edged with something metallic, and beneath it, a strange totem could be vaguely seen through the dirt.
This totem had appeared on the palace, in the formation where the dancers were, on the body of the Imperial Preceptor, and on the robes of the puppet child.
It was precisely because Jingli had spent a long time with that child, and Mengli had fought with the Imperial Advisor, that they were able to confirm that the beggar came from the royal family.
Why would members of the royal family be here? Have they become beggars feeding on the remains of puppets?
Jingli felt a headache coming on.
He had previously thought this beggar was crucial, because he had deduced something from the words of the cultivator who had previously played the role of a beggar in the formation but eventually went mad.
He initially thought that since the beggar could eat the puppet, it meant that the beggar was able to control the puppet. If he encountered danger in the main formation, he would definitely be able to find protection from the beggar.
That's why Jingli reminded 6058 like that.
Chun Xiaopian just said that this place is very safe, which actually confirms Jingli's idea.
But the shock of witnessing it firsthand, the speculation about the beggar's past identity, and the uniqueness of the puppet's remains all made Jingli feel somewhat overwhelmed.
The previous information hadn't been sorted out yet, and new clues had emerged. It was a strange feeling that, while we seemed to understand everything about this place, something was still shrouded in mist.
"Did he eat the things on the floor of the rouge shop outside?"
Jingli tried to organize her thoughts by asking questions.
But Meng Li did not answer. She frowned, her thoughts probably stuck somewhere.
Jingli didn't bother her, and gently bounced the little Chunpian in her arms.
Chun Xiaopian shook her head helplessly and whispered, "I don't know what's happening outside. I'm inside."
Jingli simply followed Chun Xiaopian's lead and changed her approach: "Can you sense your location?"
Chun Xiaopian shook her head again: "I am here, here, all of here."
He's too young to speak clearly, but Jingli understood and sighed.
Another part of the Spring Fragment is in the center of the formation, so the other part of the Spring Fragment is omnipresent in this formation.
Finding the core of the formation through spring fragments is not an option.
Just then, 6058 finally responded.
[6058: Little Fish, don't worry, we're fine.]
[6058: Be careful inside the formation. Don't let the natives discover you. If you are discovered, you will not only be assimilated by the natives, but you will also be chased by the puppets.]
[6058: You're right, it's safe to be near the beggar, but his protection comes with conditions. You need to give him enough usable puppet parts, otherwise he'll break down and throw you out of the safe zone.]
Jingli breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that 6058 used the item card not because Lu Mingguang had lost his fighting ability, but simply to return to the beggar's shelter in the simplest way.
The fact that 6058 was also near the beggar meant that although they were both in the formation, they were not necessarily in the same spacetime slice. Even if they got their location from them, they and Meng Li would not be able to get there in time.
Jingli temporarily abandoned the idea of regrouping and instead asked, "Have you found the core of the formation?"
[6058: Not found, but Xiaoming said he already had a feeling about it, but this was only discovered after the indigenous people found it.]
[6058: To be on the safe side, you should hold your positions for now. Based on the previous pattern of the small cyclical formations, the formation's core won't only be discovered after it has been discovered.]
[6058: You must have noticed as well that this main formation has multiple layers. In that case, we cannot rule out the possibility that the formation's core requires the combined efforts of multiple parties to become visible.]
[6058: Let me know if you find anything, you idiot, be careful.]
He must have only gained a very brief moment of safety, for after saying this, there was no further response.
Jingli pondered what 6058 had said.
The formation has multiple layers, which is similar to his and Meng Li's previous speculation. However, they previously thought that the formation only had two sides, namely the inside and outside of the main hall.
However, based on the evidence from 6058, once the indigenous people discover the intruder's identity, they will enter a deeper level of the formation, at which point their perception of the formation's eye becomes more pronounced.
It's somewhat like an array that repels outsiders.
Based on Chun Xiaopian's statement that he was unaware of what was happening outside, Jingli mentally simulated the formation as a fruit.
At first, the empty Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode was located in a place similar to a fruit peel, outside of Chun Xiaopian's perception.
They are currently in the flesh of the fruit, which is very safe, but they are not close to the core.
6058 They were located in the core of the fruit, or more precisely, the outer layer of the core. Therefore, they could sense the core of the formation, but they could not pinpoint it, and they were hindered by the hard core.
From this perspective, those who remain in the "pulp" position have very little power to exert; the only difference is that they can obtain more information.
Therefore, their advantage lies in the fact that they can understand what exactly happened at the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode through information gathering.
Perhaps this way we can find the weakness of the "core" and thus get closer to the true core of the formation.
And, to figure out what the functions of the small array eyes they had collected before were.
Having thought all this through, Jingli looked up and saw that Meng Li was also looking at him.
Meng Li made a gesture, and Jing Li then carried Meng Li back to the small corner where they had changed clothes before.
Fearing discovery, Jingli cautiously used the upload note to tell Mengli that she had just contacted 6058 and that the other party had provided clues about the indigenous people.
Meng Li nodded and replied telepathically, "I should already know what happened here."
Jingli was startled, and her eyes lit up.
Meng Li didn't keep them in suspense: "After seeing the people here with my own eyes just now, I realized that we've missed a clue in both the legends and our speculations: how exactly did the war happen?"
Jingli had previously speculated that the war originated from internal strife within the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode, stemming from the question of whether humans and puppets could fully merge. This can actually be confirmed in the back alley street.
But Meng Li raised a question.
Questioning, but not completely denying.
"Whether it's legend or what we've seen, it all proves one thing: the earliest soul puppets were made from prisoners of war from the enemy. If the war started from an internal conflict over the soul puppets, where did the enemy come from?"
Jingli was taken aback; he had indeed overlooked this point.
Because the hatred of war and the longing for the soldiers in the afterimage of the formation are real, and the soldiers they miss have not returned to their homeland, this war must not be as simple as "internal strife".
"The people here dress differently from those outside, indicating that they rarely leave the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode. However, the puppetry techniques of the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode have long been known throughout the cultivation world. Later, the Imperial Preceptor personally opened the way to welcome cultivators from all over the world to the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode. However, all the cultivators who went there never returned."
Meng Li's voice was slow and gentle, like a line that pulled out all the previously overlooked and shrouded information and brought it together.
Jingli understood something: "There's something being hidden here."
Meng Li nodded: "What we collected were all rumors passed down outside of the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode. These reputable sects are masters at distorting the truth. Even if it's robbery, they can find a plausible reason."
In other words, the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode was not completely sealed off in earlier times.
Perhaps some outside cultivators accidentally stumbled in, or perhaps the mountain dwellers themselves went outside and brought their unique and powerful puppets to the entire cultivation world.
The mountain town thus gained fame, largely due to its difficult access and mysterious nature, earning it the name "Lingkui Immortal Abode".
For the sake of development, they might set up a trading point at the foot of the mountain to facilitate the sale of puppets.
However, this technology is only in the hands of a small number of people in the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode. Some unscrupulous and greedy cultivators want to take away the puppets and puppet-making technology under some pretext.
Thus began the first battle of leaving one's hometown.
It seems that the war did not reach the core area of the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode in the mountains, but in this war, the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode finally exposed its weaknesses. Puppets may be invincible, but puppeteers are not without weaknesses.
The Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode was greatly affected. Perhaps out of revenge, or perhaps out of a desire to become stronger, the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode began to try to refine puppets driven by divine souls. The pursuit of its own strength also became an obsession.
The enemy's prisoners were few in number, so the Grand Preceptor opened a way out by using an array to make the nine surrounding palaces a cyclical array, attracting cultivators from outside to come in and die, thus providing a continuous driving force for the puppets within the country.
Outsiders thought this was a sign of weakness from Lingkui Immortal Abode, but little did they know it was a sweet bait.
Lingku Immortal Abode is protecting itself, but it is also heading down a completely different path.
“This beggar’s identity is definitely not simple; he is not just a failed product of the fusion of a human and a puppet.” Meng Li turned her gaze to the beggar again. “He is the first puppeteer, the first failed product, and has close ties with the royal family and the Grand Preceptor, but the specifics of those ties are not important.”
Jingli almost instantly thought of the child in the formation from before.
As Meng Li said, the flower boats and sacrifices he had passed by before might not have been entirely based on an "obsession" of imagination.
It is not impossible that such a beautiful sacrifice would be held for the first great being, a combination of man and puppet.
However, there are too many uncontrollable factors.
Previously, the "human" parts within the puppets slowly awakened, and they rejected the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode with hatred.
The first puppet failed, and only then did the internal strife between humans and puppets begin.
Despite this, Lingkui Immortal Abode did not fall into a state of panic.
They have a natural affinity for puppets and don't mind separating them from their physical bodies, using their souls as fuel for the puppets.
The awakened puppets want to break free from their puppet bodies and return to their human forms.
This internal strife created a delicate siege.
As for the details of the internal strife, it is difficult for outsiders to reconstruct them through speculation, but the result was devastating.
The Imperial Advisor did not play the role of a driving force as legend has it.
He was indeed trying to balance the two sides, attempting to use his abilities to control the puppet that was no longer obedient.
But he was destined to fail.
Ultimately, most people in the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode became neither human nor puppet.
Because none of the cultivators who went to the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode returned, the power that the small array outside could obtain was decreasing, and the array began to backfire, with the main array devouring the souls within the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode.
The Grand Preceptor was powerless to reverse the situation. He sacrificed his own body and soul, using the Bell of Rebirth as the core of the formation to summon heavenly lightning. By turning the entire country into a puppet, he barely managed to protect the scattered lives within the country.
Thus, the Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode was destroyed.
This is not just one person's madness.
“The beggar is a ‘failed’ puppet. He still looks like a human being, but he needs to constantly consume things related to puppets to maintain something.”
Jingli followed this line of thought and pondered: "What's being maintained, is it his soul? If so, then his soul hasn't entered the Bell of Rebirth?"
Meng Li withdrew her gaze: "Perhaps, he is indeed an opportunity."
"So the question now is, is this beggar a 'real' beggar?"
There is a beggar next to them at the "kernel" location (6058), and there is also a beggar next to them at the "fruit" location (6058).
It's obvious that the phantom wouldn't be able to lead them to the core of the formation.
Meng Li remained silent for a moment, then let out a long breath.
"Let's go out and find him at the most authentic Spirit Puppet Immortal Abode."
She decisively took off her robes, but didn't remove the talismans meant to minimize her presence.
Jingli also took off her robes and returned them to Mengli, and very consciously used her spiritual power to protect the three of them.
Meng Li, along with Jing Li and Chun Xiaopian, walked up to the witch doctor.
The witch doctor raised his face, the burlap covering it, but Jingli still felt an uncomfortable gaze upon him.
"I want your body, name your price."
"Please don't make fun of me, sir. You don't seem to need any treatment."
The witch doctor's voice was unsettling, like fingernails scraping against a wall. Surprisingly, he was speaking a language familiar to Meng Li and the others.
Meng Li was not surprised at all. He transmitted his voice to Jing Li: "Take three of the previous array cores."
Jingli did as instructed, taking one hand and two legs.
Meng Li cast a spell to shrink them, then casually tore a piece of cloth from her possession to wrap them up and handed it to the witch doctor.
"You should know why we are here."
The witch doctor took it, weighed it in his hand, and seemed quite satisfied.
"There is no turning back now. Is this truly the way you intend, sir?"
Meng Li stood with her hands behind her back, her meaning quite clear.
Just then, a gust of wind blew by, lifting a bit of the burlap, and Jingli saw the witch doctor reveal an extremely terrifying smile.
Then, a strong wind suddenly arose, carrying a thick, nauseating smell of medicine and fish.
Darkness fell again.
·
(Ahhh, we're leaving this blessed land tomorrow! Finally!! We're leaving!!)