by N. Heller
And now, she had a shred of decisive evidence on hand that could back up her conjecture.
When Lin Sanjiu thought about this, she looked around for Jujube. After confirming that he wasn't paying attention to her, she lowered her head and began to study the card in her hand. The card of Gizo had turned into two cards. She couldn't wait any longer to find out why.
[An Unidentified Man's Dead Body]
It is the body of an old man. The cause of death is the massive hole in his c.h.e.s.t. His appearance is, to put it in words, one-of-a-kind (Refer to the figure). If his nose had grown any longer, perhaps he could have joined a freak show. But anyway, Lin Sanjiu isn't the murderer.
The description seemed insignificant and somewhat trite, similar to the elder brother's legs. What made Lin Sanjiu even sadder was that it made no mention of the old man once being a "god."
But the other card was different.
[Salvation of God's Native Product]
An item native to the Salvation of God. It existed inside the body of the old man even after he died, only revealing itself as the "second item" after Lin Sanjiu turned it into a card. As you can see, this card has no pattern. Please don't get me wrong; the card is not loafing around on the job. It's just that it's impossible to draw out the item. The reason being that this item existed as "bloating" inside the old man's body when he was still alive
The airlike local product seems to have a special effect on the user. Devour this "bloating" once you have reached Divine Power Level 20 or have power equivalent to it. Then, you will know how wonderful this item is. It can grant the user control over the sand, allowing the user to alter the physical properties of the sand to his or her own preference.
As for more specific information, well, bite the bullet and devour it. However, please do not swallow it if you did not reach the criteria as mentioned above. It would be a waste.
'I guess Jujube has no idea that the thing he has been searching for is right in front of him.
'But why didn't Sanduria take this ability along with her?'
She did not have the time to think of an answer to that question, as Jujube gestured her to get onto his shoulder; they soon got moving.
While they were moving to their next destination, Lin Sanjiu asked furtively, "...Oh yeah, do you know what kind of ability Gizo had?"
"Some pesky stuff. Nothing worth mentioning," Jujube pouted sulkily. After a few seconds, Jujube began to talk again. "The ability to control sand was pretty useless, but he also had an ability that could refract starlight. That one was pretty good, but of course, it's only good for a false god such as him. It's not usable for a True God like me."
Lin Sanjiu had no idea what he could possibly gain from refracting starlight, but still, it sounded more convincing than Jejebu's broken sacred sound.
After getting an answer, Lin Sanjiu pressed on. "Then how about Sanduria?"
"That bitch—" Jujube's face instantly turned grim. "Originally, she was much weaker than me. Her Divine Power level was lower than mine, and the only thing she had was that "flattering skill". It's not a great ability, but it's acceptable. But now… now I'm not so sure."
If she allowed him to continue on this topic, he might begin to lash his anger out on her again. This was because ever since their alliance, they had come across only a few Lesser Gods. And naturally, Lin Sanjiu could defeat none of them. It was just that Jujube wouldn't analyze whose fault it was when he was angry.
As such, Lin Sanjiu quickly changed the topic. "Oh yeah, what's up there? I've seen gods come down from there before."
Jujube shifted his eyes to his shoulder but said nothing.
"If you guys came from there, why don't you return and hunt some Lesser Gods up there? Don't you think it's a much better option than wasting your time down here? Also, can Sanduria bring her posthuman warrior back to the white mist? Why do you never bring me up?" Lin Sanjiu shot every question she could think of at Jujube. But the latter was extremely reticent about his origin. Usually, he would ignore her.
Lin Sanjiu had tried all kinds of ways to gain more intel from him, but Jujube never fell for her tricks.
Suddenly, the ground shook. Neither Jujube nor Lin Sanjiu could respond in time before two legs cladded in red cloth, then a midriff, and finally, a c.h.e.s.t came down from the white mist above. Very soon, a Titan appeared in front of them, blocking their way. The god was way larger than Jujube; she needed to squat down before Lin Sanjiu could see her face.
"Its Sanduria!"
Lin Sanjiu gasped in horror when she saw the head—almost the same size as hers—sitting on top of the Titan's shoulder. She turned around to look for Sanduria's warrior, but she couldn't find any sign of him around. But that wasn't important now because compared to Sanduria, Jujube looked just like a two-year-old toddler. His countenance was grim, and he turned to run when he realized the dominance over the situation did not belong to him.
Lin Sanjiu grasped his shoulder for dear life. She almost got blown away by the wind. However, Sanduria wasn't going to let them escape. She stretched her leg and was once again in front of them, yelling, "Stop!"
Jujube pressed his two feet firmly on the ground and slid for a long distance before finally coming to a stop. He was just an inch away from falling into Sanduria's embrace, but Lin Sanjiu wasn't so lucky. Due to the inertia, she rolled down Jujube's back, and if it weren't for her quick response of grasping onto his skin, she might have fallen to the ground already.
"I heard that you are looking for me?" From Sanduria's standard human-sized head came a rumbling voice that went very well with her size. "Good, because I was looking for you as well."
"What do you want to do? To slay the one and only True God?"
'Oh, for God's sake. He still clings to a thing like that at a moment like this?' Lin Sanjiu chided Jujube inwardly as she climbed back up to his shoulder.
Sanduria harrumphed, huffing a puff of hot air through her nose. "I will let you live for another day. I have something good to tell you..."
Sanduria suddenly stopped talking and stared at Jujube's shoulder. Jujube followed her gaze and saw Lin Sanjiu, who was getting up from his shoulder. He turned his head back to see that Sanduria had pressed her head closer. She measured Lin Sanjiu from head to toe, then toe to head again before sighing dejectedly.
"So you're not the one I'm looking for," Sanduria muttered under her breath. She then turned back to Jujube. "Your posthuman warrior sucks. How about I give you mine?"
As she said this, she pulled out something from her waist and put it on her palm for Jejebu to see. Piqued by her curiosity, Lin Sanjiu stole a glance, and to her surprise, she saw a posthuman sitting on top of Sanduria's palm.
It was difficult for Lin Sanjiu to see the posthuman's appearance from her distance. She knew that he was a man with a mesomorphic build. His skin was tanned, and he was not an Asian. She couldn't find anybody in her mind that matched his physical appearance.
Jujube was skeptical about Sanduria's sudden act of kindness. He took a step back and asked warily, "What do you mean? Are you plotting against me?"
"Do I even need to plot if I want to take your life?" Sanduria scoffed. Then, she brought the tanned-skin posthuman closer to Jujube. "There is a new Titan here, and I need allies. So I'm willing to hand him to you in order to help you…"
Lin Sanjiu was even more skeptical than Jujube. What would Jujube do to her if he took up Sanduria's offer? She couldn't be sure. While Jujube was still talking to Sanduria, Lin Sanjiu rummaged through her card slot to see which Special Item she had never used before in front of him to protect herself should anything go sideways.
Normally she would call forth the d.e.s.i.r.ed card in her mind. It had been a long time since she had opened her card inventory like this. But if she did not open her card inventory now, she might have never realized that the [eBay] card was flickering. It seemed like it had been in this state for a long time. She held it in her hand, closed her eyes, and entered [eBay].
Then, a message popped up.
"Meatball Peach, Peppy Lil's Sesame has arrived in Salvation of God. Please select one of the following options: 1. Contact the seller, 2. Purchase directly.
Chapter 559 - Alert! Dragon Ahead!
'Peppy Lil's Sesame has arrived in Salvation of God?'
The tanned-skin man was the only posthuman she had come across after so many months. Could it be that he was Peppy Lil's Sesame?
The sudden arrival of Peppy Lil's Sesame threw Lin Sanjiu's mind into chaos. She couldn't stop herself from thinking about the possibility of the tanned-skin posthuman being Peppy Lil's Sesame and why he was here. She swore that she had never met Peppy Lil's Sesame in her entire life, much less have any connection with him. She could not understand why he would go to the extent of personally coming to this world to corner her.
Sitting on Sanduria's palm, the man seemed to have not noticed her yet. Seizing the chance, Lin Sanjiu lowered herself and inched towards Jujube's back, taking cover behind his large tr.a.p.ezius muscle.
"You lack capable warriors, and you're so small. What gives you the confidence to call yourself the one and only True God?" sneered Sanduria coldly.
After seeing that Jujube still maintained a distance and refused to take the posthuman in her palm, she then placed the male posthuman on her shoulder and said, "Not long before, I was still a Lesser God, weaker than even you. But you see where am I now? A full-fledged Titan that nobody dares to mess with. Now I'm presenting you with the chance to stand on the same ground as me. If you refuse to open your eyes and pick up the offer, I will kill you and absorb you to make myself stronger."
After that, Sanduria did not say anything, staring fixedly at Jujube. Her head and neck looked like a basketball on top of Mountain Fuji. Looking at her at such a close distance, the visual impact was much stronger. Lin Sanjiu was getting more nervous, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from her.
Although Lin Sanjiu couldn't see Jujube's expression, she could sense the stiff skin and muscles beneath her feet.
Sanduria had bribed and threatened Jujube; she had even attempted a reverse psychology method. It seemed that Jujube would have to take up the offer and receive the posthuman regardless of what he thought.
Slowly, Lin Sanjiu squatted down, clenched Jujube's neckline, and inched down his body. Her movements were light, so nobody noticed her. Very soon, she had reached around his waist, and all she would need to do was take a small leap of faith, and she would be able to reach the ground right away. Right now, they were standing in a vast green plain, surrounded by a swath of yellowing weeds. Whenever there was a gust of wind, the plants would bow down, revealing a few cracked walls and an abandoned train track that spread out from beneath Jujube's feet.
Looking at the remnants of the human civilization, Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment before deciding to move a little further down, as she did not want to suffer any injuries if she accidentally fell on any of the broken walls. Just when she was about to loosen her grip, Sanduria's laughter wafted into her ears, "Haha! That's the right thing to do!"
'Jujube has accepted her offer!'
She raised her head to see that the tanned-skin man had jumped from Sanduria to Jujube's shoulder. He swept his eyes across Jujube's back and met gazes with Lin Sanjiu.
Lin Sanjiu had never met this man before in her life, but she felt that she knew him as a strange feeling of familiarity stirred in her heart.
Lin Sanjiu was shocked, but at the same time, very pleased. Nevertheless, once the name "Puppeteer" swam unbridled into her mind, everything she felt a second earlier vanished. In this half a minute, everything she went through, every oddity she felt, and every doubt that had been troubling her for half a year finally made sense.
In the next second, she loosened her fingers and dropped to the ground.
The second he saw Lin Sanjiu's appearance, the tanned-skin man immediately jumped down from Jujube's shoulder.
"Eh?" Feeling something amiss, Jujube moved two steps back. Concurrently, the other Titan stood up as well. The ground trembled along with the two gods' movements, almost throwing Lin Sanjiu, who had just landed, across the ground.
Thud. The tanned-skin man also landed on the ground, but Lin Sanjiu had already run far away. She wondered why Puppeteer's puppet would become Sanduria's warrior and what kind of role Sanduria was playing in this conflict. However, to sort out the confusion, she had to first avoid Sanduria.
"Where were you going!" Jujube yelled.
Lin Sanjiu had no time to look back. The ground shook again, and she was almost flung into the sky. Then, Sanduria's husky voice came rolling from the sky, "Stop! Let them be."
Piqued by her curiosity, Lin Sanjiu stole a glance behind her. There, she saw a towering body clad in red clothes, standing tall like the Mountain Alps with the grassy plain below her feet and the white mist rolling above her head. But she couldn't see Jujube. Perhaps Sanduria had blocked him? She didn't know.
At the same time, the tanned-skin man was gaining fast on her. After she had sprinted a few miles away from the two gods, she looked to her left and right and saw a few sporadic, dilapidated houses next to a piece of bosk. Assaulted by the wind and baked under the sun all year round, the abandoned houses were in no good condition, and they certainly weren't the ideal place to confront the man; however, she did not have other choices. She immediately picked up her speed and darted there.
Glancing around, Lin Sanjiu set her eyes on a collapsed building. She turned to check on her pursuer. After making sure that he did not see her, she swerved and hid behind a corner. Then, she poked her head out and peered into the distance.
There was nothing left on the grassy plain. Sanduria and Jujube were gone.
'Perhaps they have returned to the white mist above,' Lin Sanjiu thought to herself inwardly.
Lin Sanjiu let out a breath and stood as quiet as she could behind the corner. As she waited for the puppet, she summoned her [Tornado Whip]. After that, she allowed her sight to travel about.
Suddenly, she stopped. Then, she turned back a little bit.
Not far away from this ghost town was a land of thinly scattered bosk, mainly made up of small and unhealthy trees. In the gap between the trees, she could see the desert in the distance, and on one particular tree in the front, there was a greyish-yellow thing tied to its branch.
Lin Sanjiu stared, open-mouthed, at the little piece of greyish-yellow thing and the desert. Her heart began to pick up its pace as she soon realized what that thing was. It seemed to be a towel.
'Oh, dear. Why is my luck always this bad!'
She chided inwardly; then, she caught a very soft rustle coming from behind her. Her body reacted faster than her brain as she twisted around and pounced forward. She had hardly turned around when a light popping sound came, stirring up a burst of vortex that hit her back.
Lin Sanjiu quickly looked over her shoulder to see that the tanned-skin male puppet was taking his time walking out from a corner. She allowed her gaze to travel a little bit further, and she realized that her previous hiding spot was nowhere to be seen, though it wasn't entirely accurate to say that it was gone. It was a scene too bizarre to be seen. The colors of the grass and bricks on that spot were all mashed up, leaving behind a mess of color with an undefined shape. Aside from that particular spot, everything else was normal.
A puppet made from a dead living human would retain his previous ability. Puppeteer had been abusing this fact to his own advantage, and Lin Sanjiu knew it very well. But what surprised Lin Sanjiu the most was that such a powerful posthuman had also fallen victim to Puppeteer's ability. If she were a tad slower, her legs now would have also been a part of the color lump over there.
The tanned-skin man was expressionless. He continued to walk closer to her.
"Where is your master?" Lin Sanjiu sneered. Without waiting for her opponent to reply, she lashed out a tornado at him using her [Tornado Whip]. She knew it wouldn't do much to him; all she needed was the spe
ed boost from the gust and also a cover for her to use [A Twinkle In The Sky].
However, before she could get near the tanned-skin puppet, a sense of chillness ran down her spine as her second sight kicked in, causing her skin to break out into goosebumps. She came to an abrupt stop and somersaulted back. The sound of the wind had disappeared.
A large lump of color was swirling in the air. It had engulfed everything, including the tornado she sent forth just now. With a wave of his hand, the lump of color stopped swirling and then splashed on the ground, breaking into bits and pieces.
Lin Sanjiu sighed as sweat trickled down her back.
It was not difficult to deal with the puppet. In fact, she had more than one way to settle him. It was just that she somehow recalled that there was some connection between the puppet and his master. And due to that connection, Puppeteer would instantly get the location of where his puppet was destroyed. In doing so, Puppeteer would know where she was, and she certainly did not want that to happen.
The ideal way now was to send the puppet away. However, she could not get close to him due to the puppet's ability that could turn anything near him into a color lump,
As Lin Sanjiu racked her brain for an idea, she subconsciously looked at the woodland. Then, something in her mind clicked.
"What do you want?" she yelled at the puppet. "Can you speak?"
Of course, a puppet could not speak. There wasn't any emotion on his square face, and he had never turned his eyeballs. After intercepting her attack, he spread his legs and strode towards Lin Sanjiu again.
Lin Sanjiu did not fall back and sent another tornado ahead.
Invariably, the tornado was turned into another color lump. The tanned-skin puppet threw the color lump away with a wave of his hand. And then, without stopping, he stretched his arm forward, trying to catch Lin Sanjiu. Ordinary people would have fret and become worried when they saw somebody come so close to them, but that wasn't the case for the puppet. The puppet had no soul, so it had no fear.