novelraw Chapter 355: The Adjudicator and the Mask-Crafting Expert
Chapter 355: The Adjudicator and the Mask-Crafting Expert
[Do you want to burn the letter as stated in the letter’s contents?]
The letter also mentioned a mask master who could forge masks. A single High-Quality blacksmith Shell was enough to attract Lin Xun, not to mention the follow-up plot also involved Belatu.
He decisively clicked ‘Yes.’
[You tear up the Unknown Letter. The paper ignites without fire and turns to ash.]
[You act according to the letter’s instructions, understanding that a signal has been secretly sent. The anonymous sender will soon rush over…]
[…]
Lin Xun stayed in the hatching hall, waiting for the sender to come to him.
During this time, he summoned the already bound Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon, then switched to the Shell of the Ascended Hatchery Lord.
The sender’s origins were unknown. The best method was to disguise himself as someone here to trade, and draw out information from the other party about Belatu, and the mask master’s location.
If that did not work, then he would consider force or killing. After all, killing an enemy did not necessarily yield the relevant information.He waited for over two hours.
“Why still not here?”
From the letter’s content, Lin Xun inferred the sender’s location was likely in the Sacred Nest Center.
If it were near Stink Bug City, it would have arrived long ago.
He remembered Flanda saying that Stink Bug City was near the Sacred Nest Center, not far from the Divine Kingdom’s central region…
“Tsk, could it be that the Ascended in the Sacred Nest Center have also all become Extreme Evil monsters?”
Lin Xun’s heart sank. If the Sacred Nest Center had also fully fallen into Extreme Evil, then the sender would not be able to come here, and the follow-up intelligence and clues would be cut off.
[…]
[The hall’s main door is suddenly pushed open. A line of tall, burly Ascended enters, more than ten of them. They wear pale masks and hold sharp long spears. Their eyes are cold and ruthless. One glance tells you they are elite warriors.]
[You have discovered Ascended Sacred Nest Enforcers!]
[The leading Sacred Nest Adjudicator is not as brawny as the enforcers. It is gaunt. With one hand it holds a thick tome, and with the other it drags a half-dead Ascended. It strides to you.]
[The Sacred Nest Adjudicator’s gaze is icy. It throws down the Ascended, flips open the tome in its hand, and loudly declares: The manager of the Stink Bug City Flying Dragon Hatchery Pool secretly embezzled fungal plant feed and privately manufactured a Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon to exchange for benefits…]
[The Sacred Nest Adjudicator lifts its foot and kicks the Ascended sprawled on the ground. It stares at you and loudly demands: Is the person before us the one who colluded with you and exchanged letters?]
You instinctively shook your head. The Ascended on the ground secretly lifted its head to glance at you. It clearly froze, its gaze complicated.
[The Sacred Nest Adjudicator sneers coldly. It raises its hand and points at you, loudly pronouncing judgment: You are deemed a heretical demon who has rebelled against the Desire Wet Nurse. The charge is established. Conviction and death sentence are pronounced!]
[As its words fall, more than ten Sacred Nest Enforcers surround you. The sharp spear tips point at you…]
Lin Xun let out a sigh. The sender had indeed come.
But their private trade was not only discovered, it also drew power from within the Sacred Nest.
His plan died before it even began.
If words would not work, then only force would.
[You possess the Shell of the Ascended Prototype Purgatory Angel!]
[Clang after clang rings out. The sharp spear tips stab into your armor, but cannot deal you any damage at all.]
[You give a cruel grin, extend your tongue to lick the corner of your mouth. Under the shocked stares, you launch a fierce attack!]
[Your bone wings tremble. In a flash you are in front of a Sacred Nest Enforcer. You swing one claw quickly and tear its head apart without effort.]
[A spear tip thrusts in from the side, yet before it can even reach you, it stops. Because the owner of that spear has its skull pierced through by several bone wings and dies in an instant.]
[The Sacred Nest Adjudicator screams in terror: Stop, stop! This is the Desire Wet Nurse’s Purgatory Angel, an angel warrior not yet deployed to the frontline battlefield!]
[But it realized far too late…]
[Countless bone spikes burst from the ground. In the blink of an eye, more than ten Sacred Nest Enforcers become corpses full of holes. Blood sprays like a waterfall.]
[The dense bone spikes, under your control, avoid only the Sacred Nest Adjudicator and the Ascended lying on the ground with wide eyes.]
[The hall that was noisy moments ago is now dead silent.]
[You stroll to the Sacred Nest Adjudicator, extend a blood-covered claw, clamp down on the top of its skull, and lift it up entirely…]
[As your palm exerts force, the Sacred Nest Adjudicator’s face twists. Its expression is pained, yet it dares not resist or struggle.]
[Do you want to force it to reveal intelligence about the Sacred Nest, or kill it directly?]
Lin Xun twitched the corner of his mouth.
“This angel Shell is strong, sure, but its action pattern is kind of deranged…”
[The Sacred Nest Adjudicator knows it has angered you, this humanoid weapon. As an angel warrior under the Desire Wet Nurse, your status and position far surpass its own. Under your interrogation, it hurriedly spills everything it knows…]
[It turns out the Sacred Nest Center is, like Stink Bug City, experiencing the Desire Wet Nurse’s divine grace, White-Fleece Snow Season.]
[However, the Sacred Nest’s depth is enormous. The heavy snow has only spread across the surface layer and has not yet had time to penetrate deep underground.]
[Therefore, apart from the Ascended in the Sacred Nest’s outer layer undergoing Ascension promotion, the inner layer of the Sacred Nest continues to operate as usual.]
[The direct offspring and angel warriors withdrawn by the Desire Wet Nurse from the war frontline are also within the inner layer of the Sacred Nest, awaiting the washing of divine grace.]
[After undergoing the washing, they will return to the battlefield and wipe out the demons in one fell swoop…]
[As the Sacred Nest Adjudicator says this, it suddenly realizes something, and its gaze toward you is full of horror.]
[It begins struggling violently and shouts: You, you are not the Desire Wet Nurse’s angel warrior. Who are you?!]
[Crack. Your palm suddenly exerts force. The Sacred Nest Adjudicator’s head bursts like a watermelon being crushed, splitting apart and spilling sticky fluid.]
[You toss down the corpse and turn to the Ascended lying on the ground, its whole body trembling.]
[Against such a weak insect, you cannot even be bothered to strike. The bone wings behind you suddenly stab out, viciously piercing into its limbs, lifting it up and bringing it to your face. Four eyes meet.]
[The Ascended Mask-Crafting Expert endures the agony. Before you can speak, it hurriedly says: You are pretending to be the Hatchery Lord here because you want to make a trade with me, right?]
[If you kill me, don’t even think about learning where the mask master is living in seclusion!]
[But as long as you spare my life, I will tell you everything I know.]
[After saying this, it glares at you, forcing a fearless look, yet a trace of fear in its eyes still does not escape you.]
“Mask-Crafting Expert? Sounds like the mask master’s disciple…”
Lin Xun mentally filled in a whole chain of plot developments.
[You give a light smile, claiming you are an angel warrior who secretly fled back from the frontline battlefield. If the Adjudicator discovered you and reported you to the Desire Wet Nurse, it would be a dead end, so you had no choice but to kill the Adjudicator.]
[And it dared to trade a Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon in secret. Compared to your deserter status, it was not much better.]
[Since both sides have deeds that cannot see the light, why not cooperate properly once?]
[You will give it the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon it wants, and it must truthfully tell you some information.]
[The Mask-Crafting Expert shakes its head and replies without hesitation: It does not want the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon!]
[Originally, it might have been able to keep its life, but the moment it accepts the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon, after you obtain what you want to know, you will definitely kill it without hesitation.]
[It will give you information. It does not need the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon. It only needs you to swear an oath to the god you believe in, an oath to spare its life!]
“Eh… this guy isn’t simple.”
Lin Xun did not care. Oathbreaking to him was as routine as eating and drinking.
As an undercover, if promises and oaths could restrain him, he would have died several times over already.
He still remembered that back then, a Grand Scholar made him swear a similar mercy oath to Omniscient True Knowledge. In the end, he still sent that person to ascend.
This Mask-Crafting Expert did not ask him to swear to the Desire Wet Nurse, but said to swear to the god you believe in, which meant the expert already knew he was a demon of the Primordial Firefly’s side.
“Knowing I’m a heretical demon, and still daring to make me swear…”
[Before the Mask-Crafting Expert, you swear an oath to the Primordial Firefly, promising that after it reveals the information it knows, you will not harm it.]
[Seeing you swear to the Primordial Firefly, the Mask-Crafting Expert reveals a look of as expected.]
[It lets out a long breath and asks what you want to know. As a craftsman forging masks in the Sacred Nest Center, it can come into contact with many big shots, so it knows many secret matters.]
[What intelligence do you want to ask the Mask-Crafting Expert first?]
[1. About the exact direction of the Sacred Nest Center.]
[2. About the hidden location of the mask master.]
[3. About information on Belatu.]
Lin Xun immediately pressed the third option.
[The Mask-Crafting Expert does not think further and immediately tells you…]
[The news about Belatu has long been spreading in the Sacred Nest Center. It is not a secret.]
[The Desire Wet Nurse is merciful and generous. Even toward offspring who betrayed her, she cannot bear to be overly harsh, and intends to use divine power to begin a new cycle of life and resurrect Belatu.]
[Of course, this is the message the foolish masses know.]
[In truth, what cycle of life is there? It is nothing more than a product made from a pile of feed. Even if it looks exactly the same, after revival it will no longer be the same person.]
[In essence, the Belatu revived by beginning a cycle of life is no different from the Divine Kingdom Flying Dragon you obtained.]
[Only true wise ones can distinguish this information.]
[The news it has is not only this. Although it does not know which hatchery Belatu will be revived from, it knows that the revived Belatu will suffer severe punishment from the Desire Wet Nurse.]
[Do you know the Desire Wet Nurse’s most beloved daughter, Flanda?]
[Before you can answer, it continues: As the most favored daughter, Flanda was granted a form similar to the Desire Wet Nurse, that is, the lowest maggot-person form.]
[Although many Ascended cannot understand and believe returning to the maggot-person form is the greatest humiliation, in the Desire Wet Nurse’s eyes, and in the eyes of the offspring, this is love and praise bestowed upon Flanda… strange, isn’t it.]
[And as for the rebel Belatu, as punishment it will be remodeled into the ultimate Ascended form.]
[It is said to be an Ascended more perfect than the angel form…]
[The Mask-Crafting Expert indicates that this is all it knows about Belatu.]
“An Ascended more perfect than the angel…”
Lin Xun frowned.
The Mask-Crafting Expert was likely not lying, but it was a pity that it did not know where the Desire Wet Nurse’s clone laboratory was.
But that was normal. The Desire Wet Nurse’s laboratory was extremely secretive. Likely only the Desire Wet Nurse and some loyal direct offspring knew its exact location.
[You then ask where the Sacred Nest Center’s exact location is.]
[The Mask-Crafting Expert does not hesitate and immediately tells you the direction.]
[You have learned the exact location of the Sacred Nest Center!]
Without you prompting, after telling you the Sacred Nest Center’s location, it then speaks of information about the mask master.
[The mask master is the teacher who taught it its forging skill. The teacher’s forging skill is one of the top in the Divine Kingdom.]
[After retiring, its teacher no longer forges masks. No one knows where the teacher is hiding, and no one can persuade the teacher to take action.]
[But exceptions always exist, and it is that exception.]
[As it speaks, the Mask-Crafting Expert takes out a small piece of pale carapace and hands it to you, continuing: As long as you take this carapace fragment and reach the teacher’s hidden location, you can make the teacher forge a mask for you.]
[This carapace hides the teacher’s greatest secret. In order to conceal the secret, the teacher will agree to any condition you ask.]
[You have obtained Shattered Small Carapace Fragment (Junk)]
[Shattered Small Carapace Fragment (Junk): The pale carapace is only thumb-sized, an irregular fragment. Nothing about it looks special.]
[You pinch the carapace and examine it carefully, finding no abnormalities… suddenly, you smell a very familiar scent on it. It is the scent of Milk-Sap Matsutake.]
[A thought flashes through your mind. You scrape the surface of the carapace with your sharp claws. Sure enough, you scrape off a layer of white outer skin, revealing the black color beneath.]
[The Mask-Crafting Expert smiles broadly and cannot help clapping, praising: Truly smart. This is the teacher’s greatest secret.]
[If it had not confirmed your identity as a demon believer, it would not have told you this secret.]
[It did not report the teacher’s secret to anyone else, and it certainly will not reveal your identity.]
[Telling you this secret, plus the binding of the oath, means that you, who originally planned to kill it, should now abandon the idea, right?]
“So the mask master is a believer of the Primordial Firefly!”
Lin Xun never expected to run into another ally.
[The Mask-Crafting Expert is already certain you will not kill it, and prepares to tell you the mask master’s hidden location…]
[Your watcher Battle Angel – Valkyrie has died!!]
Lin Xun’s heart jolted.
Valkyrie was guarding the sleeping Flanda together with Kim.
Although Valkyrie was a fragile archer and her Shell quality was only Epic+, her level had always stayed synchronized with his. She was also equipped with high-grade weapons and armor, and had high-speed mobility through flight and evasion.
Now Valkyrie had suddenly died, which meant that something extremely dangerous had happened at the mining pit. It was absolutely not something that ordinary monsters could cause.
Flanda had no ability to resist right now. With only Kim alone, it was likely…
A grim outcome.