Chapter 757: The Story Back Then

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

The Capital, Liuhai Lane.

It was summer. The walnut trees stood and provided shelter with a canopy of leaves. s.h.i.+ Xuejin sat under a walnut tree with a book in his hand.

He read very slowly. He flipped the page after a very long time. People would think that he was s.p.a.cing out instead of reading.

“Can that route really be walked on?” Nie Ting, who was beside him, casually asked.

“There’s no answer. You will only know if you walk down that path,” replied s.h.i.+ Xuejin calmly.

“What if there is no answer?” Nie Ting looked at him.

“Nothing in this world definitely has an answer.” s.h.i.+ Xuejin laughed.

This was a lonely path. He treated this world as a ma.s.sive problem. He would slowly find parameters and work out a possible answer to the problem.

It might be wrong. It might be correct. But these were not important.

“If the sages of the past did not embark on different paths, how would we have the cultivation knowledge of today?” s.h.i.+ Xuejin was not paying attention.

“I’m going to the Changbai Mountains next week. Keep a close lookout here,” said Nie Ting. “The Puppet Masters are very strange. The information we have obtained from the Golden Foundation may not be complete. Or… even the Golden Foundation doesn’t have the full picture.”

Even s.h.i.+ Xuejin was uncertain. “I thought that they went to India to control the Pract.i.tioners there in secret. But it seems like they didn’t do it. It’s as if… they look down on such Pract.i.tioners.”

“What is the goal of the Puppet Masters?” Nie Ting seemed to be asking s.h.i.+ Xuejin, but he also seemed to be asking himself.

According to the Golden Foundation records, these powerful Puppet Masters lived for their king in the exiled land. They pledged their undying loyalty to the king. They had come from the exiled land and announced that they were about to welcome the return of their king. This was Nie Ting’s understanding. The Puppet Masters were the vanguard of the king, and their king would return to Earth from the exiled land.

Since the king was the king of the exiled land, he should be in the exiled land. But how did the Puppet Masters break through the barrier? Furthermore, ever since they had come to Earth, they did not seem to be in a rush to destroy the barrier. It was as if they were trying to draw their former subordinates back.

There was a thick folder on the stone table in front of Nie Ting. The Golden Foundation had given the Heavenly Network the folder. The other large organizations possessed this folder as well. The folder contained the information regarding the exiled land that they had gathered.

But the information was not completely accurate. Some pieces of information were pending confirmation, while other pieces of information were clues based on current information.

Some of the clues included ancient myths and unofficial folk history, but these were not very reliable. Even Li Xianyi had said that this information was just for reference.

Back then, some things had probably disappeared from the world. Nie Ting somehow knew why. That king was like a demon in myths that could swallow people’s fears and grow stronger. Even the name of the demon had become taboo as time pa.s.sed.

The king had been transformed into a demon. He ruled over the exiled land. According to myths from the exiled land, even the Four Lords of Heaven feared him. Everyone who knew the truth treated the king as an imaginary enemy.

But why did the Puppet Masters not destroy the barrier? On a stormy night 17 years ago, they had been surrounded and attacked by the Golden Foundation. They had fought their way out.

For the past 17 years, the Golden Foundation had been tracing their whereabouts, but they seemed to have vanished from the face of the Earth. However, they had reappeared and mysteriously advanced in cla.s.s.

The Golden Foundation had been on alert for 17 years, but the Puppet Masters did not seem to be planning anything and vanished. Even the Golden Foundation thought that they had made a mistake…

“But why?” Nie Ting thought calmly.

He looked at the records of what had happened during that stormy night 17 years ago. They had encountered four Puppet Masters. Two were killed, while two survived. Li Xianyi’s foundation was also destroyed that very night.

Nie Ting suddenly saw a piece of information and furrowed his eyebrows. According to the piece of information, the Puppet Masters seemed very weak, as if they were suffering from a serious illness. During the fight, one of the Puppet Masters was carrying a giant box.

In the end, the Puppet Masters split ways and escaped. The Puppet Master carrying the box was chased to Luo City and killed there. The box disappeared. The Puppet Master was one of the two who had been killed.

Nie Ting wanted to know what was in the box and why the Puppet Master was so weak. The Puppet Master was probably a Cla.s.s A, but for some reason, he had weakened!

All along, the Golden Foundation had suspected that the box contained a mythical object that could destroy the barrier. Thus, they worked very hard to find the box. Li Xianyi had also been in Luo City for 17 years.

The barrier was still standing 17 years later because the Puppet Master had lost the mystical object that could destroy the barrier.

After Cloud Yi’s ident.i.ty had been exposed, the Heavenly Network started to look for clues. The Heavenly Network discovered that Cloud Yi had visited Luo City eight times in the past few years. It was as if she was looking for something!

Nie Ting started to look at the records of everyone who had been there. Their oral accounts had been typed out. Suddenly, Nie Ting saw something very strange. “That night, I felt as if I heard the cry of a baby in the rain.”

Nie Ting suddenly turned and looked at s.h.i.+ Xuejin. s.h.i.+ Xuejin was baffled. He touched his face. “Why are you looking at me?”

“We have always thought that the Puppet Master was here to break the barrier since their king is still in the exiled land. But have you ever thought that the cry of the baby was not the result of a hallucination? Could it actually have been there? The box didn’t contain a mythical object to destroy the barrier. It contained a baby!” Nie Ting was shocked by his own answer. “Could that baby be their king? Or a descendant of the King?”

s.h.i.+ Xuejin was dumbfounded. “But no one else said that they heard the cry of a baby.”

“Maybe that baby had been sleeping and occasionally cried, but only one person heard it,” said Nie Ting.

“But if it really was a baby, where is the baby? Does it look like a human?” s.h.i.+ Xuejin laughed. “According to you, this demon king should have started destroying the entire world.”

Nie Ting shook his head. He looked at the walnut trees above him. Sunlight streamed in through the canopy of leaves. “We can only leave this question open… wait. How old is Lu Shu? When was he sent to the orphanage?”