Chapter Thirteen: Stirring of the Heart

No wonder the previous task required killing six puppets instead of all of them. So the seventh one had already escaped from that relic world and entered the main world.

Mo Jiang was surprised, mainly at the fact that the seventh puppet had actually managed to escape from the relic world. In the relic world, there was no sense of time; in fact, before anyone discovered it, that world could be defined as nonexistent. It was like the backdrop of certain novels, where only when the protagonist appeared did the plot begin to roll forward like the turning of a wheel. The only difference was that those who entered the "relic world" never enjoyed the protagonist's privileges; instead, their chances of being killed were extremely high, and their deaths were invariably miserable.

"The seventh puppet..." Mo Jiang repeated, but then he thought no more of it. Since the Gate had already defined it as an aberration and had locked onto it, all he needed to do was follow the Gate's prompts, catch up to this creature, and eliminate it.

Then he would gain the opportunity to open the Gate once more.

There were still many mystical objects in the "Castle of Blossoms," and Mo Jiang felt that there must be more than a few things there that could enhance his power.

As for the wish fruit, he had lost hope in it. The information Mo Qingqing had left behind mentioned this miraculous fruit.

The fruit was very peculiar.

Its origins were unknown; it was only known that the Gate could obtain it by following its own rules and trajectories. But if one's strength was insufficient, it was best not to use the wish fruit at all.

Because each use of the wish fruit would earn one mark from the rules of the main world. Once the marks stacked to five, something not quite pleasant would be drawn.

Moreover, the higher the grade of the wish fruit, the stranger the things attracted after five marks.

It was easy to imagine that when the Gate's true spirit was still present, giving Mo Jiang such a thing was certainly not with good intentions, and the Castle of Blossoms mission was undoubtedly forcing Mo Jiang to use more wish fruits.

Once he was marked five times by the main world, with the strength he had back then, Mo Jiang would certainly die.

Having been forcibly merged with Mo Qingqing, the Gate could not kill Mo Jiang directly and could only use such roundabout methods.

"But with my current strength, if I were marked five times, I'd still be dead... but perhaps after reaching Power Level Two, I could survive whatever comes from five first-level wish fruits," Mo Jiang mused. Being marked five times by the main world was not necessarily a bad thing—of course, this was based on the premise of having enough power. It was much like the tribulations in those cultivation novels; if one could survive the strange disasters, unexpected benefits awaited.

The most common of which was a doubling of one's own power.

Unable to become an Awakened, if Mo Jiang wanted to enhance his strength, he had to start with the "relic world," as well as rely on the stacking of five marks from the main world's rules.

He shifted his gaze, and the attribute panel appeared before his eyes.

This panel was not as unreliable as the "shop panel"; it seemed to be an inherent feature of the Gate and had not changed.

From top to bottom, the information was as usual: his strength was still level one; under skills, in addition to Basic Antique Appraisal, there was now the Decad of Puppet Drama, with a small parenthesis behind it, helpfully informing Mo Jiang that he was still a novice. It also told him how much work remained to become proficient—one could even call it experience points.

The exploration map section had gone blank; it appeared that in the main world, these two attributes would not take effect.

In the harvest section, the sharp-tongued and sarcastic remarks had disappeared, replaced by the names of several items: Level Three Wish Fruit, Level One Wish Fruit, Bone Armor, Bone Long-handled Axe, and Failed Puppet Prototype.

The task section was topped with "Eliminate the Aberration: The Seventh Puppet."

Once again, a small parenthesis followed, this time with an address: New Garden, Upper Mo City.

"In that place, of all places..." Mo Jiang frowned. Though called a city, Upper Mo City's prosperity far outstripped even the administrative center of Heman Province. New Garden was a renowned district, for its land was truly more valuable than gold—yet it was strictly residential, not commercial!

That the address was there troubled Mo Jiang. Of ten people living there, at least one would come from a family as prominent as the Mo family.

If not a major celebrity, then a person with a formidable background.

"Eight or nine chances out of ten, the seventh puppet has disguised itself as a celebrity," Mo Jiang speculated. The possibility was high; the third puppet in the Castle of Blossoms conformed perfectly to human standards of beauty. For the seventh puppet to escape the "relic world" and enter the main world, it was entirely possible it looked indistinguishable from a real person. If it was also attractive, and then discovered and packaged, becoming a star would not be difficult.

"First, I'll investigate which residents of New Garden, Upper Mo City, have debuted in recent years and quickly risen to first-tier celebrity status..."

With this plan in mind, Mo Jiang went to find Zhou Fangqing, who excelled in these matters.

“Ah Jiang, just in time. I was just about to find you. Everything you asked me to look up is right here.” As soon as he arrived, Zhou Fangqing handed him a neatly bound stack of documents.

Mo Jiang flipped through them absentmindedly.

Zhou Fangqing had found that the author of the witch novel was a young man who had only posted a few chapters online. He had written some other web novels, but none were well-known, and his subscription royalties were not even as high as the site’s minimum guarantee. As for when this young man died, even the website didn’t know.

In short, there were simply no leads.

Yet the appearance of the “relic world,” and the fact that he became a powerful ghost after death, made it impossible to believe it was all so simple.

However, the present facts were just that—utterly ordinary.

Letting out a soft sigh, Mo Jiang said, “Thank you for your help, Aunt Zhou.”

“Ah Jiang, why are you investigating this?”

Mo Jiang was about to brush her off, but suddenly something stirred in his heart. He said, “I had a dream, a dream of Qingqing. She and I were in a very strange world. Then I discovered that the true nature of that world was nothing more than a chapter of a novel.”

“You mean, all of this was something you dreamed?” Zhou Fangqing’s expression changed dramatically.

“That’s right.” The moment he saw her reaction, Mo Jiang knew he’d said the right thing.

“I’ll inform Madam about this,” Zhou Fangqing said abruptly, then hurried away.

Watching her leave, Mo Jiang put down the documents in his hand. “So there really are things my previous self didn’t know. The Awakened, the one Mo Qingqing knew, was probably not a coincidence. That person must have approached her deliberately.”

Thinking it over, Mo Jiang decided not to dwell on it. He found a set of solutions to advanced math problems, hoping they might help him solve the second set of questions in the Decad of Puppet Drama.