novelraw Chapter 357-1: The Only Way to Save the World (1)
Chapter 357-1: The Only Way to Save the World (1)
[You press down harder beneath your foot, only to see the Mask Master clench its teeth and stop speaking.]
[You grin cruelly, clamp a hand around the Mask-Crafting Expert’s head, ignoring its terrified struggle, as you are about to exert force…]
[The Mask Master finally breaks down, wailing as it tells you it still knows a secret, a heaven-shaking secret. If it says it, you must spare them.]
[Fear appears on its face as it recalls and tells you…]
[Many days ago, it received a forging commission from Sacred Nest Center. The client was the Wet Nurse’s collateral offspring, Asad.]
[This collateral offspring Asad had a pretty good relationship with it, barely counting as an old friend.]
[It hurriedly set aside its research and went to Sacred Nest Center.]
[From Asad, it learned that the Wet Nurse had recently been nurturing a new descendant and was about to give birth.]
[Asad asked it to make a mask at the highest standard, as a gift for a new younger brother or sister.]
[Of course, it could not make a mask combat armor of transcendent standard. In the past, the masks it made for offspring were all half-finished raw embryos. The later sequence of steps to advance to transcendent was not its responsibility, and it could not do it either.][To make a raw embryo mask that could advance to transcendent, many materials were needed, and they were extremely precious. Asad said not to worry about materials, telling it to go back first and prepare some auxiliary materials. The main materials for the mask could be picked up from the Sacred Nest in two days.]
[It followed instructions and returned to the mine tunnel to prepare the auxiliary materials. In the blink of an eye, two days passed. It went to Sacred Nest Center again, going to Asad’s sleeping palace to pick up the materials.]
[But it was stopped outside the palace gates and was told an extremely unexpected piece of news…]
[A maid told it that Asad had already been gloriously killed on the frontline battlefield.]
[Its first reaction was that it was impossible. Asad had been at the Sacred Nest two days ago. How could it have died on the battlefield?]
[Moreover, the Wet Nurse had already fully withdrawn troops from the battlefield. All offspring and angels had returned to the Sacred Nest. How could Asad have rushed to the battlefield and died?]
[It knew there must be a plot, but at this moment it was barred outside. Even if Asad was inside the palace, it could not contact it.]
[After weighing pros and cons, it decided to seek the truth. Even if Asad really was dead, it could not be fobbed off with such a ridiculous excuse as dying on the battlefield.]
[It stayed at Sacred Nest Center. When night grew quiet, it used the new combat armor and infiltrated Asad’s sleeping palace…]
[There, it saw a scene it would never forget for its entire life…]
[At the deepest part of the bedchamber was a jet-black plant, like an enormous fungal plant.]
[From within the branches and leaves of the bizarre fungal plant, a head protruded and gave it a strange laugh. It would remember that head’s appearance until death.]
[It turned out that this bizarre thing was its old friend Asad.]
[It was terrified, fleeing the sleeping palace in panic, getting far away from Sacred Nest Center, and returning to the mine tunnel…]
[After returning to the mine tunnel, it could not sit still, shrouded by immense fear.]
[Why did they lie that Asad died in battle, and who could turn Asad into such a state… It truly could not think of any other answer. Only one person could do this, the benevolent and broad-minded Wet Nurse!]
[But that was not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing was that now it did not remember who the forging commission client was. It did not remember that it had an old friend named Asad in the Sacred Nest. In fact, no one remembered that among the Wet Nurse’s offspring there was a collateral offspring named Asad.]
[Its disciple also knew about it going to Sacred Nest Center to accept Asad’s commission. But afterward, when asked, the disciple said it only knew there was a commission and did not know who the client was.]
[If it had not become suspicious because some auxiliary materials for making a transcendent mask raw embryo had appeared in the warehouse, and if it did not have the habit of writing a diary, it would have completely forgotten its old friend Asad.]
[At this point, the Mask Master trembled all over. It proactively took out a diary and handed it to you with both hands…]
[You open the diary and read carefully. The contents indeed match what it said.]
[You ask where Asad’s sleeping palace is located within the Sacred Nest. It tries hard to recall, but can only shake its head and say it no longer remembers…]
Lin Xun frowned, vaguely feeling that things were not so simple.
Sacred Nest Center had not yet been washed by the White-Fleece Snow Season. How could a collateral offspring named Asad fall into extreme evil for no reason?
If the Wet Nurse did it deliberately, gathering all offspring and angels in one place and uniformly injecting Extreme Evil factors, how could it let the Mask Master discover it…
Or rather, even if it discovered it, an ant like the Mask Master was not worth mentioning in the Wet Nurse’s eyes. Would there be any need to have a maid lie and alter everyone’s memories?
[Suddenly, the mine tunnel shakes violently. A rumbling boom comes from overhead…]
[You and Kim exchange a look, understanding that the disturbance came from the mining pit above.]
[Anxious, you are about to leave the stone chamber and return to the pit to see whether Flanda has encountered danger.]
[The noise overhead subsides and the ground stops shaking. Before long, a young girl steps into the stone chamber, with your two shikigami, Nine-Tailed Fox and Nurarihyon, following behind her.]
[Flanda says apologetically, Oath bearer, please do not worry. I have already completed the factor fusion. The commotion just now was from me breaking out of the cocoon. Thank you very much for you and Kim guarding by my side the whole time…]
Lin Xun was overjoyed.
This allied big shot had finally finished closed-door cultivation. He just did not know whether Flanda had advanced to godhood.
[Flanda seems to know what you are thinking. She shook her head regretfully and explains to you that after fusing the Firefly factor, she hovered at the boundary between transcendent and godhood, yet remained unable to take the final step, not knowing what she lacked.]
[She knew that dragging it out longer would not let her advance to godhood, so she chose to break out of the cocoon earlier to help you fight the Wet Nurse…]
[Flanda looks toward the two terrified Ascended in the corner. They clearly recognize Flanda’s identity.]
[Flanda continued, she heard everything the Mask Master said to you just now. She can confirm the Mask Master did not lie, but what he described is somewhat illogical.]
[The web of consciousness is a tool the Primordial Firefly uses to guide all things. After controlling most of the web of consciousness, the Wet Nurse indeed can control all Ascended that belong to It, and even altering memories is easy for the Wet Nurse.]
[You and Flanda, as existences stripped away from the web of consciousness, are unaffected. Therefore, she still remembers that older brother named Asad.]
[But to alter the memories of all Ascended is a somewhat troublesome thing. With the Wet Nurse’s temperament, It would choose a faster method, such as directly erasing the Mask Master.]
[Moreover, the Wet Nurse is currently devoting full effort to nurturing offspring, consuming immense energy. Therefore, this matter should not be the Wet Nurse’s doing…]
[As Flanda says this, its expression grows somewhat grave. You can clearly see the worry in its eyes.]
“If it’s not the Wet Nurse, then who could it be…”