Chapter 884: Why Was I Happy When I Saw Him Earlier?
Seventy percent of a person is made up of water, right? If only humans could evaporate like water, turn into vapor and float up to the sky, then descend as droplets, and reform into human form. That would be wonderful.
...Although Bohemia didn't say a word, in the flickering light of the fire, her reddened face clearly revealed such thoughts. She hugged her knees tightly by the bonfire, as if trying to shrink her body, fade her presence, and then evaporate unnoticed. As for activities like making fire, piling stones, and setting up the tent, it was all done painstakingly by Lin Sanjiu alone.
"Aren't you overreacting?" Lin Sanjiu sat down and wiped her sweat. "What's so terrifying? It's been a while already."
Bohemia gave her a disdainful look.
"Why are you glaring at me? Didn't I warn you to leave earlier?"
Bohemia pouted, looking like she wanted to cry but was holding back her grievances, afraid to speak out. Seeing this, Lin Sanjiu sighed, "Don't worry, I won't let him kill you."
Unexpectedly, this sentence stirred up a hornet's nest.
"You can't even protect yourself, so how can you guarantee anything? Puppeteer... uh, Sir... will he listen to you?"
Before Lin Sanjiu could explain, a cool laughter sounded from above her head. The hairs on the back of her neck immediately stood on end. She was about to jump up when suddenly a small object shot out unexpectedly from the debris of bricks and wood on the ground. Caught off guard, it hit Lin Sanjiu square in the back.
She crashed to the ground and felt an intense itching sensation in her chest, as if her lungs were about to cough out together. In that moment, she heard Puppeteer's voice, which sounded noticeably more cheerful, "You're right, she indeed can't even protect herself."
Bohemia made a "gulping" sound in her throat and dared not speak.
"The... the affliction?" Amidst coughing, Lin Sanjiu struggled to squeeze out a hoarse voice. She was both shocked and angry, but still found it hard to believe that Puppeteer would truly break their promise and kill her. "What kind of affliction?"
There was no need for Puppeteer to answer. She quickly realized the answer herself: an incurable disease.
"Achoo!"
Accompanied by another loud sneeze, a few specks of spittle splattered into the bonfire. Lin Sanjiu, with half-closed eyelids, hurriedly fumbled and grabbed a roll of tissue, tearing off a piece to forcefully bury her nose in it. Due to frequent wiping, her skin was already hot and sore on her nose. Tears welled up in her eyes, blurring her vision, but she still managed to see Bohemia moving away in the distance.
Puppeteer seemed to be much happier.
"Killing you can never compare to tormenting you," he said softly. "You don't have to leave. I happen to have many new methods I want to try."
The pain of a severe cold was even more uncomfortable than physical injuries. The drowsiness that felt like boiling the brain into a thick porridge, along with the uncontrollable annoyance of tears and mucus flowing out, made Lin Sanjiu almost want to scratch someone's face.
When she opened her mouth, she could hear the gurgling sound of liquid in her nasal cavity and throat. "You, you are just too immature..."
Bohemia crawled back a little, rustling and moving.
"Why... why are you here—achoo!" Lin Sanjiu forcefully sniffed up her mucus, wiped away her tears, feeling like she now looked like a drug addict. "You, what were your puppets doing at that hospital..."
In just a few seconds, her throat felt like it had been stung by hornets, swollen and throbbing painfully. Each word she spoke brought irritating pain, but she persisted tirelessly, relentlessly asking in different ways four or five times. Finally, she heard Puppeteer's impatient and vaguely pleased response.
"...I came out from that medical station this afternoon."
The ruined church fell silent for a moment.
Lin Sanjiu felt that there was a missing "escape" in that sentence, but she certainly wouldn't seek confirmation. After thinking for a moment, she asked cautiously while sniffing her nose, "Were you originally... receiving treatment at that medical station?"
As soon as she finished asking, something small hit her back hard. She quickly turned her head and indeed saw another affliction disappearing behind her. After she evaded those afflictions earlier, she hadn't paid attention to where they had gone. Now she knew—they were all prepared as a backup plan for her.
"Stop acting like a child!" she shouted, her throat feeling like it was being twisted with a knife, and tears and mucus streaming down her face. Stripping away the tone, she seemed to be pleading with Puppeteer.
In response, the third affliction struck her neck. Bohemia had great foresight. After she retreated, the surrounding area was cleared for the afflictions.
"Yes," even though Puppeteer's voice was gentle due to his pleasure, the heavy and gloomy feeling was still lingering like dark clouds before a storm. "The members of the Twelve Organizations sent me to that medical station yesterday."
Burdened with a triple dose of a severe cold, Lin Sanjiu's mind was foggy and unclear. She sat dumbfounded for a while before suddenly lifting her head.
"They could have killed me when they had the chance, but instead, they controlled me while I was injured. That was a big mistake they made," Puppeteer chuckled heavily, a sharp and murderous scent instantly cutting through the dim night. "...To think they wanted to turn me into their dog through surgery. Of course, I had to repay them once I woke up. I just cleared the second level when I realized that something invisible had entered the medical station."
Lin Sanjiu wanted to speak, but her nose was completely blocked. It was so uncomfortable that she felt a bit nauseous when she opened her mouth. In the midst of her struggle against the severe cold, nobody expected Bohemia to speak up: "Um, Lord Puppeteer... How did you pass through those pocket dimensions?"
She trembled with fear, her voice trembling, and her intent to ease the situation through conversation was clearly visible. Fortunately, this question didn't anger Puppeteer. "There are many people in the medical station. When would it be my turn to personally take the stage?"
Bohemia looked as if she was about to burst into tears.
"W-Wait," Lin Sanjiu finally managed to speak. "The person the Twelve Organizations rescued from the mountains a week ago and sent to the medical station... It was you?"
"Rescue?" Puppeteer sneered coldly. "They ambushed me when I was vulnerable."
So, the root cause of him being bedridden was the battle in the Data Flow Control Library. Lin Sanjiu's mind was unclear, and her thoughts came out through her mouth, "Strange, where did Yu Yuan go?"
The church fell silent for a moment. This time, Lin Sanjiu was prepared and rolled on the ground to dodge the fourth affliction.
"Don't bother asking me about your shady friends," Puppeteer said in a low voice, having already guessed the identity behind that name. "Your so-called sewer-like friendship really makes me nauseous."
"Don't always say such things," Lin Sanjiu felt as if her body had been filled with cement. She flopped onto the ground and asked stubbornly, "What happened afterward?"
"What 'after'?" Puppeteer responded. "Didn't you shamelessly show up uninvited with your puppet?"
"I came with your puppet... What was he doing in the medical station?"
"Think about something your brain can digest."
"Were you just recovering from your injuries for the past few months? I didn't know you also had a Heaven Underworld visa."
This was a case of grasping at straws for conversation.
However, Lin Sanjiu didn't expect that her question would be met with a long silence. The flickering flames danced in the darkness, and scattered orange lights faintly floated in the church, faintly illuminating the enormous web-like hammock suspended high above. The two glanced at each other and simultaneously looked up, but they were caught off guard by Puppeteer's sudden voice, "If you look up any further, I'll gouge out your eyes."
Bohemia seemed as if she wished she could curl up right there.
"No," Puppeteer spoke in a low voice after a few seconds. "I don't have a Heaven Underworld visa..."
"Then you're lucky—"
"My visa leads to another world."
Lin Sanjiu was taken aback.
"Did you not use it and get randomly transported here?" she tried to understand.
"Do you have no brains?" Puppeteer immediately grew impatient. "If it were you, would you leave a Twelve Realms visa unused and instead get randomly transported? Well, your words are indeed possible, especially since you have a stone on your neck."
Lin Sanjiu couldn't remember why she had felt happy when she discovered that Puppeteer was also here.
"What's going on then?" she could only ask reluctantly.
"Can't you understand human language? I used a visa from another world, but I was transported here instead."
Before the words "How is that possible?" could even leave her tongue, Lin Sanjiu suddenly trembled and jumped up from her spot. She quickly glanced at Bohemia and found the latter staring at her as well. "The orange! That orange... teleportation!"
"So, you've finally gone mad," Puppeteer said flatly.
"I haven't," under the influence of her severe cold, Lin Sanjiu's head was almost splitting, and her explanation was muddled, "We were in the orange before... no, I came out from a man's eyes... you tell me!"
She pushed Bohemia, who almost had her hair standing on end. Bohemia licked her lips several times and finally stammered through the story of the orange grove, and Lin Sanjiu added the information she had heard from Yu Yuan and the pocket dimension in the secret room.
"It seems that there might be a problem with the fourteen-month teleportation mechanism now."
Lin Sanjiu frowned, feeling as if her sluggish and heavy brain was dragging her thoughts like a burden. "And... Ah-choo! And the pocket dimensions are strange too. They have gained self-awareness and the ability to act..."
Puppeteer unusually refrained from mocking her.
"The Great Deluge?" he murmured, "Does it have any connection to the Great Deluge in the Bible?"
Unfortunately, nobody present could answer that question.
"Well, you have that subordinate who can verify the authenticity of information, what's his name? Hu-something?" Lin Sanjiu pretended to casually mention, "Can you lend him to me so that I can gather some information..."
1
Even though she couldn't see it, she had the illusion that her skin had been cut by a glance from Puppeteer.
When he spoke again, it surprised her.
"Someone is here," Puppeteer said coldly.