Mystery: Survival from the Secret Doll

Chapter 272 271 Many Preparations Before Taking the Stage
at the same time.

In the distant reaches of the universe, countless light-years away, amidst a myriad of stars.

This is a peaceful, tranquil place, seemingly excluded from all living beings.

It was a dark, lightless world, as if time and space had fallen into a deathly silence. The stars were just tiny, luminous points of light.

Because there is no air, there is no sound; because there is no life, it appears desolate and barren.

This is a star system consisting of two stars, seven planets, and numerous small celestial bodies.

In the boundless universe, spanning billions of light-years, there will always exist various celestial systems, because the universe itself is a real and vast world formed by countless random numbers that cannot be easily defined.

But here, it's not just about things that are naturally formed.

This is an absurd and bizarre star system composed of rotting insect corpses, broken spaceships, fragments of various celestial bodies, a giant, scarlet planet that seems to be dripping with blood, a vibrant blue planet that seems to be filled with countless liquids, and countless other strange and bizarre things. It is a star system that is powered by two stars.

There are strong traces here left by the interference of a great being.

Tang, dressed in casual clothes, was surrounded by a grayish-white mist that seemed to come from nowhere. He adjusted the monocle in his right eye socket and looked at several planets in the distance.

In those jet-black eyes, so dark that one could not see the bottom of the ocean, the reflections of those azure planets were mirrored along with the monocle.

Beside him lay the corpses of monsters, their bodies pieced together, heads with countless grotesque tentacles twisted and grotesquely joined to their enormous bellies.

The remains remained unchanged even when exposed to a vacuum environment filled with radiation and devoid of air.

The monster, which should have died, was still writhing in this environment, even though its head had been twisted off and its body parts were grafted together at bizarre angles and in a strange way, as if it had not truly died.

"A race that worships a fallen mother goddess is really hard to kill."

Tang glanced at the rather ugly monster, casually waved his hand, and sent it into the system warehouse, preparing to break it down into materials to be used in certain rituals.

The universe is boundless, and countless powerful Outer Gods have been drawn to the solar system by the source matter. However, in this universe, there are also many races that believe in these Outer Gods, have received their blessings, and have obtained extraordinary characteristics.

For the Sequence 1 Angel King, who secretly bypassed the barrier by passing through that "black hole" that connects Earth to a node deep in the universe, reaching such a place was like a fish entering water or a monkey being locked in a peach orchard—unrestrained and free.

After all, the struggle between faith and race has never ended. Killing and annihilating the race that believes in the Great Mother of Faith will only be seen as a sacrifice resulting from the "reasonable" struggle of the race that believes in the Super Star Ruler in order to compete for resources and territory.

As long as he doesn't directly encounter those angels who believe in other gods, even if they are just images from historical gaps, Tang, with his rank as the King of Angels of Sequence 1, can teach the races of other star systems what a terrifying upright ape is.

The monster that was just sent to the system warehouse and was about to be turned into materials was one of the spoils of war in this situation.

His millennia-long "wandering" in the universe allowed him to accumulate considerable knowledge about Outer Gods and the races that worshipped them.

These are all experiences.

After finishing up, Tang once again pinched the monocle in his right eye socket, which also originated from the historical pore image.

This is not due to the uniqueness of the thief's method, but rather it is a clever way of borrowing the mystical symbolism inherent in uniqueness.

For extraordinary individuals who manipulate history and time, using this method to borrow things at this level is also common practice.

Reflected by his monocle, Tang reached out his hand, plunging into the mists of history, as if trying to pull something away.

But what seemed to be something of terrifying weight in the mists of history was his arm, which tensed and trembled. Tang struggled with that terrifying thing for a moment, but finally reluctantly withdrew his hand that had tried to drag it.

"Potion digestion rate: 67.3%... Attempt failed. It is still not possible to do so by relying solely on the authority of the two angel kings, even with the addition of some power from the 0th sequence of the 'Supreme One's' blessing."

After making another attempt and confirming that the current progress of the body's potion digestion was still insufficient to meet the minimum requirements of the plan, Tang tilted his head and looked at the void beside him.

Beside them, a tall man appeared, dressed in a strange suit of clothing that gleamed with a cold metallic sheen and covered his entire body like armor.

The gleaming black helmet on the head of the armor disappeared, revealing a handsome man with strong facial features, short, blood-red, and iron-black eyes.

"How's your Conqueror's Potion digesting?"

Brooks, the Bishop of the Mystic Wars who once belonged to the theater of eternal life, has been promoted to the Conqueror, the first rank of the Red Priest path, over the course of a thousand years.

For the conquerors, conquering the stars and seas of the vast universe is also a way of digesting the magic potion.

"Digestion is complete."

"Mm." Tang nodded, then said, "Let's go back to Rune later. Our Lord of Mysteries needs some combat skills."

"You know, I just like hanging people up as puppets. I haven't considered close combat or anything like that for years..."

"There must be more to it than this, right?" Brooks was clearly well aware of his master puppeteer's interests, even if it was just a historical pore image.

"Oh right, right... King George III in Backlund plans to use the Witch Cult to help him become the Black Emperor. Go and take care of those witches in the Witch Cult, replace them, negotiate a cooperation with King George III, and get the next Conqueror's Potion from Augustus..."

"Working with George III for the birth of the Black Emperor and the Dreamer?" Brooks asked.

"My current plan is like this, after all, we have to take into account the problem of that old Adam... Isn't this a predetermined outcome, with George III's scheme bound to fail?"

Tang shrugged indifferently, "However, given the current situation, I still prefer to deal with intelligent people."

Brooks paused for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, I understand."

The conqueror set his gaze on the several vibrant planets not far away.

“Your plan treats this place as… Even if the Superstar Overlord agrees to this, we still need to be wary of him.” After all, the credibility of an Ancient being is almost zero.

"That's a real schemer." Tang adjusted his monocle in his right eye socket. "Although I'd like to say things like 'use suspicion when you don't need it, and don't doubt when you do,' even if the Super Star Overlord goes back on his word and stabs me in the back..."

So what? It's not like he won't turn out to be a traitor and stab the Super Star Overlord in the back.

For collaborators who are not one's own puppet, the choice is either to turn them into one's underlings or to keep them as puppets. Trust is impossible. Even now, the ancient Great Old One, the Superstar Overlord, who is considered relatively trustworthy, is no exception.

Of course, Don had the same attitude towards Adam. Given the chance, he would definitely hang Adam up as a secret puppet.

"After all, this plan involves many high-ranking individuals, and the authority involved must encompass at least multiple fields such as deception, knowledge, history, error, observation, and destiny... Judging from the current progress, it will probably only be realized after the plan on Earth is completed, the Lord of Mysteries is born, and I reach a level above the Supreme Being..."

After all, the highest level is the level of the past.

At that time, the innate authority brought by time travel will be able to play its maximum role.

"If the time frame is too long and the scope is too broad, there will be many variables."

"Variables are an inevitable part of destiny and fate. Hmm, but indeed, I always feel that we should think of a way to eliminate the cycle of fate first, otherwise the power pointing in this direction will also point in the cycle of fate..."

Tang pondered for a moment, then seemed to remember something and said, "Oh right, when you go back, take that hot pot with you and try to get a share of that three-in-one position. First, gather up the necessary prerequisites for the Red Priest to become a god."

"After all, in my plan, the Hermit, the Red Priest, and the Fool are all to become gods at the same time."

At this point, Tang looked at the star system that was composed of countless bizarre things grafted together, twisted, and filled with errors and fallacies.

"As for this place, it will be the most stable anchor point given to the Lord of Mysteries at the time of his birth."

"The stars are about to return to their places, and the end of the world is coming. At that time, the greatest magic of this era, a legendary magic that has spanned a thousand years, will also take the stage."

-

St. Peter's Hospital, Tingen.

After collecting the spirits of the three corpses, and having their bodies, which had become living corpses, transformed back into their original forms through the mystical purification produced by the Sunwell ore, Tang used a coin to perform a divination.

"Yes, the problem has been resolved, and there's no chance of it suddenly coming back to life."

The investigator from the University of Michigan stepped forward to examine the body, and suddenly, for a moment, the investigator's expression became very strange.

"Did they undergo a process of resurrection or purification before being burned to death by the Sunwell ore?"

"No."

Dunn thought for a moment, then said with certainty.

The corpse sensed something was wrong and asked, "Is there a problem?"

The investigator from the University of Michigan pointed to one of the corpses and said in a slightly hoarse voice, "Before this person became a corpse and was purified by the light of the Sunwell, he had already undergone a certain degree of purification from the sun."

Is this a corpse that has been purified?
But after this purification, the corpse still turned into a living corpse?
Klein, dressed in a hospital gown, peeked out from behind Dunn. He saw the corpse, now purified beyond recognition, and barely identified it as the original patient from St. Peter's Hospital who had died from the worsening of his illness.

"It might be some kind of sealed artifact from the Solar Path, or perhaps an Extraordinary being from the Solar Path." Tang glanced at the charred corpse, which was burned black and unrecognizable.

"Perhaps the purification wasn't thorough. There are quite a few extraordinary individuals with the solar pathway in St. Petersburg. Maybe they just happened to run into each other, were purified, and left traces?"

After all, the puppet itself is not afraid of purification. Although it is a corpse, the puppet's spirit threads are manipulated, so it cannot be treated like a normal living corpse or undead.

The night watchman and the University of Michigan investigators quickly conducted a more detailed examination of the scene. After finding nothing wrong, they decided to go home.

Klein and Don walked in the corridor late at night, where there was no one except the night shift doctors and nurses.

After the two got on the elevator, Tang instructed them, "Although the notebook has been retrieved, you still need to be careful. Since these three people are secret puppets, there is a possibility that others are also secret puppets."

Dunn, Klein, and others all deeply agreed with this.

"Isn't there any way to tell whether it's a puppet or a living person?" Klein asked, somewhat puzzled.

“Yes.” Tang answered readily. “In the realm of ritual magic, there’s something that involves observing the fate of others. Hmm, let me think… if the target is a mendicant monk, who possesses the extraordinary ability to observe the fortunes of others… then ritual magic involving this aspect can be used to determine whether someone is a marionette by examining their fate.”

After all, the fate of the Mystic was already sealed the moment he was transformed into a Mystic.

"Unfortunately, this kind of ritual magic cannot be popularized on a large scale. While large-scale screening in a short period of time is not a problem for the current permanent population of Tingen City, those at the high level of the Diviner path have plenty of time and preparation to avoid such checks."

"Mendicant monks?"

Klein was more curious about this.

"It sounds like a potion name."

But this is not among the low-to-mid-sequence potion names of the twenty-two Divine Paths, but rather the high-sequence potion name of a particular path.

"This is the name of a Sequence 8 potion from a certain route, but not in the conventional sense."

Tang didn't say much and quickly changed the subject.

The two quickly arrived at Klein's hospital room, where he smiled and said, "You should be able to get a good night's sleep tonight, if nothing unexpected happens."

(End of this chapter)