Yan Wei remained noncommittal.
He abandoned the method of seeking stability over victory, instead taking a risk to make the Man in Black Robe stronger and more fearless. Perhaps in Xu Miaomiao’s eyes, this choice of his was indeed quite insane. But he himself didn’t feel it was crazy at all.
On the contrary, he was extremely calm at this moment.
He looked at the puppet that the Man in Black Robe had attached to, which had been nailed down once again by the combined efforts of Yan Mingguang and Lin Zhen, pondering the clues and possible conjectures of the entire instance up to this point.
In the next moment, another Malevolent Automaton revealed the smile of the Man in Black Robe.
The situation took a sudden turn for the worse. The players, who had previously thought of capturing Yan Wei for points, now had to abandon that idea and form a circle on the Stargazing Platform, fending off the surging Malevolent Automatons. Despite Yu Feizhou’s earlier intentions towards Yan Wei, under Yan Wei’s signal, Yan Mingguang and the others still lent a hand to Yu Feizhou and his group while dealing with the enemies.
After all, in the current situation, the outcome of the ranking competition was already determined, and surviving to leave had become the more important matter.
The Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei still stood at the forefront. As Yan Mingguang turned and swung his Long Whip, the Malevolent Automaton attached by the Man in Black Robe suddenly pounced towards the Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei, its sharp fingertips aiming straight for the Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei’s heart. But those fingertips suddenly stopped just as they were about to pierce the chest of the Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei, unable to advance any further.
In that brief moment, Yan Mingguang had already turned around, and in an instant, his Long Whip shattered the body of this Malevolent Automaton.
The Man in Black Robe’s voice immediately came from another Malevolent Automaton: “Why can’t I kill you?”
The Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei smiled and said, “Guess.”
In front of the projection of the Arena Instance.
All the players who had watched this Arena Instance from start to finish knew that unless some organization was completely wiped out now, the ranking outcome of the Arena Instance was already determined. But they almost all stayed at the scene, watching even more attentively than before.
The leader of the Morning Star, looking at Xue Wan who was still fighting alone with the Malevolent Automatons in another part of the castle, sighed and said, “The Blackbird is really crazy this time. We didn’t lose unjustly. It’s just that this method of breaking the situation is too extreme…”
Another player, clearly unhappy about Yan Wei snatching their first place, sneered, “It’s unknown whether he’s playing with fire, ending up with nothing but losing his life.”
“Although it sounds a bit like boosting others’ morale, I think…” this person shook his head, “someone who can do such a thing probably isn’t playing with fire. It’s just that this method is too extreme. He seems to be in a hurry, probably wanting the benefits of this instance. I’ve only heard of such crazy tactics from the Blackbird’s missing member. If it weren’t for the high-level members saying that person likely died on the top floor, I would have almost thought Yan Wei was that person’s personally trained disciple.”
“Why does the Blackbird always resort to such life-threatening tactics, all of them extreme lunatics. Their leader who should be dead is like that, Lin Qing is like that, his brother Lin Zhen is like that, and now this newcomer Yan Wei is like that too.”
“It’s a pity our leader and Lin Qing have already entered the instance, otherwise they could really come and see if this person could be the disciple trained by the Blackbird’s missing member.”
“Impossible, right? The timeline doesn’t match up. The Blackbird’s missing member disappeared long ago.”
“…”
Under the pressure of the Malevolent Automatons, the players on the Stargazing Platform had shrunk their circle again and again.
Xu Miaomiao, not skilled in combat, simply dodged behind Lin Zhen and Yu Feizhou after a few exchanges. She stood with the True Self Yan Wei at the innermost, frowning, seemingly deep in thought.
“Are you thinking of a way to break the situation?” Yan Wei asked her, “What, don’t trust me?”
Xu Miaomiao just said, “I only trust myself. I’m just cooperating with you, not relying on you.”
“The little sister has quite a mind of her own.”
Yan Wei ignored her after that.
Xu Miaomiao might have her own thoughts, but he also had his own ideas.
This Puppet Castle, built by the Man in Black Robe who was skilled in Puppetry, contained his most exquisite techniques and collected his proud puppets. The castle was surrounded by a maze, with man-eating crows lingering above. Only guests who safely reached the castle before midnight could enter alive.
The Man in Black Robe—perhaps her name was Ace—liked to play with human nature, hide among puppets, and turn arriving guests into puppets.
She wasn’t a normal “person.” She was obsessed with destruction and games.
So she set the rules of the game, which were also the rules of this Arena Instance. While acting as the referee, to achieve the fairness she spoke of, she was also a participant in the game, possessing the points to capture puppets. Yan Wei had obtained the highest points this way.
But now, because they had broken the game’s rules, the Man in Black Robe felt fairness had been violated and ended the game early, indiscriminately attacking all players present.
From start to finish, the players had always thought the three indispensable elements—”the Man in Black Robe, the coin, the Meat Grinder”—were all essential. But the coin wasn’t necessary, the Meat Grinder couldn’t kill the Man in Black Robe, these were just her smokescreens. She had initially stayed on the Stargazing Platform, easily obtaining every point, then pretended to be the Man in Black Robe’s mother, “guiding” Yan Wei and the others to throw her into the Meat Grinder, allowing her to escape her decaying body.
Now she just wanted to kill all the players, turning them into her collection. But Yan Wei needed to secure the Blackbird’s first place and end all this, exchanging the puppet to break the situation and leave.
Yan Mingguang had previously mentioned that the puppet to be exchanged at the end of the instance was his own Benevolent Automaton, and the exchange wasn’t to be done with the Man in Black Robe, but through a transaction with the Tower after the instance ended. From the very beginning, the intertwined truths and lies within the castle, leading to the current situation where the Man in Black Robe could never be killed, the method to end all this was obvious.
Either kill all the Malevolent Automatons, or kill the soul of this indestructible Man in Black Robe.
Killing all the Malevolent Automatons wasn’t necessarily feasible. Not to mention whether the accumulated Malevolent Automatons over the past few days would drag them to death, even if they really killed the Malevolent Automatons, the Man in Black Robe might not die. Her words were never entirely trustworthy. What if this was another smokescreen? What if after the Malevolent Automatons died, the Man in Black Robe continued to attach to the Benevolent Automatons? What could they do then? They couldn’t kill themselves, could they?
That left only one method—kill the Man in Black Robe.
But the Man in Black Robe couldn’t be killed.
No, there must be some method—
A sudden loud noise from the front interrupted Yan Wei’s thoughts. He looked up to see Lin Zhen, who had been at the front, suddenly wrapped by Yan Mingguang’s Long Whip and flung towards him.
Yan Mingguang’s voice was calm and steady, “He’s severely injured, almost caught by the puppet. I’ll throw him in first.”
Lin Zhen was thrown in by Yan Mingguang, and Yu Feizhou hurried over. The area previously guarded by Lin Zhen and Yu Feizhou now had a gap, and five or six puppets instantly rushed in.
Xu Miaomiao, who had been deep in thought, saw the puppets charging in and had no choice but to pick up her staff again to block them.
She shouted angrily, “Are you guys reliable or not!?”
The Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei turned around, holding up the Moon Wheel to assist Xu Miaomiao, and shouted, “Thanks!”
Xu Miaomiao: “…”
The True Self Yan Wei helped Lin Zhen, who was beside him, to lean against the edge of the Meat Grinder, and checked Lin Zhen’s injuries.
Lin Zhen’s face was completely pale, having seemingly vomited a large amount of blood, with blood foam at the corners of his mouth. There were no visible wounds on his body, but he seemed to have suffered some severe injury, leaning weakly.
Yan Wei frowned, “What happened to you? How did you suddenly get so badly injured?”
Although he had been thinking, he had also been using his Perception to monitor the surroundings. Lin Zhen hadn’t been approached by any Malevolent Automatons the entire time. This injury came too suddenly, and the next moment Yan Mingguang had thrown him in.
Lin Zhen took a deep breath, seemingly recovering a bit, and weakly cursed, “…Why does it always have to be me who messes up.”
Two Yu Feizhous crouched beside him and Yan Wei, picked up their daggers, and said in unison, “I’ll help you transfer it first.”
He raised the dagger but suddenly paused.
Yan Wei also noticed something was wrong.
—Lin Zhen had no wounds. How could Yu Feizhou transfer them?
The situation around them became even worse at this moment. With several people suddenly out of action, even with Xu Miaomiao and the Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei barely holding on, the gap had been opened, and in an instant, half of the Stargazing Platform was filled with puppets.
The Man in Black Robe, amidst the Malevolent Automatons, let out a hoarse laugh that echoed under the glass dome of the Stargazing Platform.
“I can’t figure it out!” Xu Miaomiao said, “Yan Wei, if you can’t figure it out, I’ll kill you first!”
The Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei said, “Trust me.”
In front of the Meat Grinder at the center, Lin Zhen slowly raised his hand, grabbed the wrist of one of the Yu Feizhous beside him, and pulled away his dagger. He even laughed softly, “…Don’t try. You can’t transfer this injury. You won’t find the wound. The wound isn’t on me. It’s my brother who got injured in the instance.”
Yan Wei and Yu Feizhou were both stunned. Yan Mingguang paused for a moment, glanced at Lin Zhen without surprise, then turned back to continue fighting the Malevolent Automatons.
In his panic, Yan Wei noticed this tiny pause from Yan Mingguang—had Yan Mingguang already anticipated this moment, hence reacting so quickly when Lin Zhen had a problem?
In front of him, Lin Zhen continued, “My brother transferred the injury to me. Actually, our skills aren’t exactly the same. I can borrow his abilities, he can…”
Borrow Lin Zhen’s life.
Even though Yan Wei knew Lin Qing might have been a friend he had fought alongside since his first time ascending the Tower, he couldn’t help but feel anger at this moment.
They had entered the instance earlier than Lin Qing. Couldn’t Lin Qing have thought they were also in a life-and-death situation now? With the Man in Black Robe and the Malevolent Automatons right beside them, one wrong move, and if Yan Mingguang hadn’t reacted so quickly, Lin Zhen might have been torn apart by the Malevolent Automatons in his sudden, severe injury.
Lin Qing was already a player on the 80th floor. Couldn’t he have known?
Even if Lin Qing might be in a more critical situation, treating Lin Zhen as just a spare life still made Yan Wei furious.
Lin Zhen, however, didn’t mind. He just glanced at the stunned Yu Feizhou, reached up, and wiped the blood foam from his mouth, softly saying, “What are you staring at? I thought you knew… After all… My brother asked you to take care of me to ensure my safety, so he could use me when needed, in case I died before he could use me.”
“So, have you figured out how to deal with this ghost thing yet?”
This question was directed at Yan Wei.
Yan Wei shook his head, “I vaguely have an idea. I almost caught it just now.”
Lin Zhen took a pill from Yu Feizhou, trying to get up, “Then hurry up and think. Yu Feizhou and I will go hold them off for a while.”
Yu Feizhou immediately pressed him down, “Stay here with Yan Wei. I’ll go.”
“Don’t…” Lin Zhen coughed, hurriedly saying, “Don’t do that. What if the little pet wants to come out later? I’ll still be lying here. Wouldn’t that be too embarrassing? Tsk, then my contribution in this instance would just be…cough…breaking the glass and catching a stupid crow?”
Yan Wei’s expression suddenly froze, a flash of insight in his eyes. He blinked in surprise, muttering to himself in a barely audible voice, “…Catching a crow?”
Yu Feizhou’s gaze was completely on Lin Zhen. He frowned deeply, “But you’re really not in a condition to fight now.”
Around them, the Malevolent Automatons pressed closer. Several weaker players couldn’t hold on any longer and were instantly caught by the puppets, their hearts torn out. The Benevolent Automatons corresponding to their True Selves also turned into Malevolent Automatons at that moment.
The Malevolent Automatons grew in number and approached closer. The Man in Black Robe’s wild, tearing laughter grew louder.
But Yan Wei slowly looked up at the glass dome above.
The Virtuous and Malevolent Puppets, the large and small castles, truths and lies.
Everything here had a corresponding opposite.
Inside the maze stood a castle; inside the castle hid a small maze; within the small maze lay a tiny castle. The castle was a coin; inside the coin was a terrain with a crow pattern; within the terrain, the players held coins; on the coins were crows; each player had corresponding Virtuous and Malevolent Puppets. Between truths and lies, there also hid the reality and illusion of the Dream Realm…
All these corresponded one by one, opposites intertwined, appearing in pairs.
Except for…
Yan Wei slowly stood up, looking beyond the glass dome.
The night sky was adorned with stars and the moon, flocks of crows hovered above the castle and the maze, occasionally flying over the only area covered by large panes of glass. The moonlight cast scattered shadows as the crows flew by, and amidst the chaotic sounds of battle and the Man in Black Robe’s laughter, faintly intertwined were the crows’ cries, eerie and chilling.
Following Yan Wei’s gaze, Yan Mingguang and the Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei simultaneously looked beyond the dome…
Yan Wei slowly spoke, in unison with Yan Mingguang and the Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei, “Crows.”
Everything corresponded one by one, opposites intertwined, appearing in pairs.
Except for the crows.
There were no crows in the small maze inside the castle. Or rather, no crows appeared inside the castle at all.
At this moment, without Yan Wei saying anything, Yan Mingguang stepped forward, picked up the long bow Lin Zhen had placed beside him, and said, “Borrowing this.”
Lin Zhen, while resting, still managed to add, “…You guys understand again.”
In the next moment, Yan Mingguang drew the bowstring to its full extent, and ten long arrows appeared on the bow. As he released the string, the arrows shot towards all directions of the dome, instantly shattering it!
The Man in Black Robe’s wild laughter abruptly stopped.
As the glass shattered, the True Self Yan Wei and the Benevolent Automaton Yan Wei both raised the Moon Wheel. The Moon Wheel emitted a soft, silvery light, creating isolated spaces around the injured players or those with bloodstains, blocking the scent of blood emanating from them.
With the large pieces of glass falling, the crows lingering above the dome suddenly changed direction, flapping their wings and swiftly flying into the Stargazing Platform!
Flocks of crows poured in like a black torrent through the broken glass dome, crashing against the barriers Yan Wei had erected. The black tide bypassed all the players, heading towards one direction.
—The direction where the Man in Black Robe’s Malevolent Automaton was.
Her hoarse, grim voice let out a heart-wrenching scream, “How did you know! How—AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
It was the same kind of scream from the first night of the instance, when the players who died in the Jungle Maze were devoured by crows.
The torrent of crows poured down, the black tide accompanied by intertwined, eerie cries, mingling with the tearing screams, torturing the eardrums.
In just moments, the flesh of that Malevolent Automaton was torn apart, leaving a pool of blood on the ground.
But this time, no other Malevolent Automaton spoke with the Man in Black Robe’s voice. Instead, it was replaced by the Tower’s notification.
[Congratulations to the player for solving the final mystery of the Puppet Castle, ending the tragic root of the Puppet Castle. Rewards are as follows:…]
Just as the situation had taken a turn for the worse, it now took another sudden turn, and the instance ended amidst the tide of black crows. Everyone was stunned, even Xu Miaomiao was dumbfounded.
Lin Zhen, helped up by Yu Feizhou, pale-faced, still managed to joke, “Little pet’s little sister, we’re quite reliable, huh.”
“Being devoured by crows is the true death… How did you figure that out?”
Before them, the black crows devoured the Man in Black Robe completely. The Malevolent Automatons, now without control, stood dumbly, allowing the crows to consume them. Some crows crashed against the barriers created by the Moon Wheel. Yan Wei’s face turned pale, and he said in a deep voice, “Why is the Stargazing Platform the only place entirely made of glass? This game is fair.”
The game started when the players entered the Jungle Maze. The crows were also enforcers of the game, fair to all participants. They would devour players, so naturally, they would also devour the Man in Black Robe.
But breaking the glass, if the crows didn’t attack the Man in Black Robe, it would only worsen the situation for the players already battling the Malevolent Automatons. To break the glass, they needed absolute certainty.
The crows were undoubtedly the key to breaking the situation.
To break the intertwined truths and lies, the Virtuous and Malevolent Puppets, the nested layers inside and out, the only way was to find the one thing that didn’t have an opposite. In this instance, among all the imagery, only the crows didn’t appear in pairs. They only lingered outside the castle, unreachable by the Man in Black Robe within.
Why completely isolate the crows outside?
If the crows would devour injured players, letting them in would only increase chaos and bloodshed.
Back in the small maze, when Lin Zhen had caught that single crow, the woman had been immediately speechless, not because of Yan Wei’s foresight, but because of the sudden appearance of the crow. The game was fair. The players feared the crows, and so did the Man in Black Robe. She could enter the Meat Grinder at will, couldn’t be killed, feared nothing, yet only feared the crows. There could only be one reason.
The crows were her bane.
The answer had been told to them from the very beginning of the instance.
—”He was born of unknown origin.”
—”His mother gave birth to him in the wilderness, and due to excessive blood loss, she fainted in the Jungle Maze. Her blood soaked the earth, the surrounding vegetation withered, and she was devoured by flocks of crows. But he cried on the grass for three full days, the crows cried for him, and the jungle withered for him.”
Born of unknown origin, the Man in Black Robe had no mother. This story was just a fragmented image, symbolizing the Man in Black Robe who called herself “Ace’s mother.”
“Devoured by flocks of crows” was the method to break the situation.
Before them, a seemingly bottomless black Stairway extended down from the starry night, passing through the shattered glass dome, reaching the players.
All the players hurriedly stepped onto the Stairway.
Watching the figures disappear one by one up the black Stairway, Yan Wei turned to Yan Mingguang.
He said, “Once I step up, everything will be different.”
“I’ll wait for you in the Tower World.”
Yan Wei had thought about his memories for so long, yet now he suddenly felt reluctant to move forward. He said, “When I ascended the Tower before, was it similar to now?”
“Exactly the same.”
“What was my goal back then?”
“You’ll know once you step up.”
“But I want to hear it from you. My current goal is just to ascend the Tower. Thinking back to my past, I don’t seem to have had many goals. Did my previous goal fail?”
Under the moonlight and the shadow of the crows, Yan Mingguang paused.
“You wanted to destroy the order of the Tower, to make all this cease to exist.”
Yet, Lou remained intact, maintaining the operation of everything.
Yan Wei shrugged, “Seems like I failed.”
There was no one around them anymore. Under the thick scent of blood and the moonlight, black crows circled and bumped against Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang, creating a heavy, oppressive atmosphere as if weighing down on one’s heart.
Yan Wei walked up to Yan Mingguang, tilting his chin slightly.
Just as his lips brushed against Yan Mingguang’s chin, the man seemed to stiffen for a moment before losing control and pulling him into a tight embrace.
This kiss was fierce and urgent.
Yan Wei only felt the warmth of the man before he was let go, as Yan Mingguang stepped back and said, “Go up.”
Yan Wei instinctively raised his hand, his fingertips lightly touching his slightly moistened lips, his ears suddenly turning bright red.
Blushing, he laughed, “Alright, I’ll go up, to see in my memories whether Teacher Yan was such a hypocrite in bed back then.”
He turned around and, under Yan Mingguang’s gaze, stepped onto the endless black staircase without hesitation.
