The old man you see with your phone is highly suspicious.

The door creaked open, and a young girl knelt timidly on the ground. Xue Lude didn't bother to correct their bizarre etiquette.

The room was spotless, but when Xue Dinglu walked in, he was horrified to see the "Old Green" King opposite him, and his pupils constricted.

Not only Xue Dinglu, but also the old mage Green beside him was stunned, because the person opposite him looked exactly like him! Except for being much older, they were completely cut from the same mold!

Chapter 152: I Became a Substitute?

"Oh no, it's Green on the other side, so who am I?" Old Green suddenly froze, looking at the person opposite him who looked much older, and was completely dumbfounded.

It wasn't just him; Xue's Law also began to doubt the world.

Was he under a cognitive manipulation illusion? Although they weren't exactly the same—the old Green on the other side looked like he was in his seventies or eighties, while the old Green inside Xue's body looked only in his fifties or sixties—it was clear that they shared the same name and appearance, and Xue would never believe they weren't related.

In old Green's memory, he had no offspring; his wife was in poor health, so they had not had children for many years.

Furthermore, given that this hellish world was accessed through an emergency communication device from a fairy tale world, Xue Daolu couldn't help but have a terrifying thought.

"Rabbi, brew a pot of fragrant tea to serve our guests," King Green said, seemingly noticing the unusual expression on Xue's face.

“Yes, Father,” the girl said.

Xue Dinglu was taken aback. The voice sounded familiar. He turned his head and saw the girl who had been kneeling on the ground raise her head and stand up. Her face was exactly the same as that of the princess of the Silver Kingdom.

Not only Xue's Law, but Old Green was also stunned by this completely illogical event.

A hell of twisted human bodies, bizarre creatures with their own language, humans barely clinging to life, and the Silver Princess who should have been born in a fairy tale world but is now imprisoned in a detention center reciting a political theory text, along with Old Grimm, all appear in this strange world...

Xue Lude now has only two ideas: either he has been under an illusion, or his perception has been altered since he came to this world.

Or perhaps this hellish planet and the fairytale world have some kind of correspondence, like a "world in the sky" or a "mirror world."

He leaned more towards the latter, because although Xue Luding's true form was only legendary, many of his blessings and treasures had anti-magic properties, and deep within his consciousness was the sealed divine authority consciousness.

If it's an illusion, both the birdman and the cursed blood should react.

However, neither Birdman A nor Cursed Blood has been triggered yet.

Old Green looked even more worried. His soul kept hovering in front of the king, and he came to a horrifying conclusion.

"This guy, even his soul is exactly the same as mine, except that our experiences and memories are completely different. He's like, just like..."

"Like a clone of yourself?" Xue asked.

“Yes, it’s strange, why is this happening… It’s not just me, the princess of Silver City is here too, Xiao Xue, there’s a big problem here, I feel like we’ve touched some terrible taboo…” Old Green’s expression was very complicated, as could be seen from the tuft of beard that had been plucked from his hand.

"Don't panic, this is a big problem. There's no use panicking. Besides, we're both veteran mages. What haven't we seen?" Xue Dinglu comforted Old Green.

Old Green: "..."

He felt even more panicked.

"Guests, the tea is ready." The girl brought out three bowls of tea. Looking at her face, Xue Luding and Old Green found it hard to imagine that this Silver Princess would have such skills.

Upon closer inspection, it wasn't tea leaves, but rather the taste of tea brewed from some kind of dried shiitake mushroom.

"You must be the 'magician' recorded in ancient times, right?" The king took a sip of mushroom tea and looked at Xue Dinglu.

Xue Luding also took a sip. It tasted like some kind of boiled mushroom. One sip and his mouth was full of mushrooms. Xue Luding was not surprised that the king opposite him said that. As the nominal supreme leader, he must be the person here who knows the most about the stories of ancient civilizations and magicians.

He even shares the same face as the principal of the magic academy in the fairy tale world. Xue Luding thinks it wouldn't be surprising if he revealed himself to be a fourth-tier magician at any moment.

“I guess so. I’m a tourist from out of town who accidentally wandered into this place, and your people immediately mistook me for some kind of master,” Xue Dinglu replied.

"Lord of Light, he is the chief god in our local mythology."

Seeing that King Green seemed to know some ancient stories, Xue Dinglu said directly, "Then I'd like to ask even more, how much of your ancient records have you preserved? And where did those strange creatures outside come from?"

Xue made no attempt to conceal his purpose, and this direct approach clearly made King Green uncomfortable. In the end, he could only lend Xue a book that seemed to contain myths and legends.

Looking at this book, Xue felt as if he were reading an ancient myth or legend of a primitive tribe. In it, the Lord of Light led the people to establish a city-state, but the people betrayed the Lord of Light and killed him, imprisoning him in the sky forever.

Therefore, the ancestors who betrayed the gods were also cursed, becoming "monstrous shapes" who were forever tormented, which are the strange heads that Xue Dinglu saw when he first entered, integrated with the fungal carpet.

Then, a drop of blood from the wounded Lord of Light merged into the earth, giving birth to new people, who are now the more than one thousand people in this tribe.

I skimmed through this myth and found it to be utterly absurd, filled with the ridiculous and whimsical feel of primitive worship. However, some information could still be gleaned from certain parts of the myth.

In other words, those strange shapes outside are "early people," the creators of these reinforced concrete, cement roads, circuit boards, and other products. They seem to be the original inhabitants of this planet, which is less than the size of Australia, but for some reason they have all turned into strange shapes.

Then a new wave of immigrants took over the area, struggling to survive while fighting against those grotesque creatures. This continued for who knows how many years, until now, and it seems they can't hold on any longer.

Xue continued to subtly hint at some ancient stories, while King Green began to stammer. He seemed to know some of them, but seemed to feel that this information was not something an outsider should know, so he was very wary.

Unable to obtain much information from this place, Xue Dinglu asked, "Old King, as a magician, I know many medical spells. Let me heal your body. All you need to do is extend your arm."

Xue Dinglu laughed, and a small orb of holy light appeared in his hand.

"Hmm." This time the old man didn't refuse; he simply extended his hand.

Xue Luding took the opportunity to collect some body samples with the cursed blood. Then, the girl next to him, who had the same face as the Silver City princess and was named "Rabi", also received a holy light from Xue Luding and had her DNA sample collected by Xue Luding through the cursed blood.

As a mage, Xue Lude was entertained by what was called "King," but was actually more like "Village Chief." The rabbi led him to a house that looked like a converted abandoned shipping container, which served as Xue Lude's residence.

This place is just a modified container house. Inside, there are some simple pieces of furniture pieced together from wood. It's extremely shabby, cold in winter and warm in summer, and the container itself seems to be leaking air.

Before leaving, the "princess" asked, "As a distinguished monk, does the guest need a 'bride' to serve him?"

“No need, but have those two people I met earlier come see me. I have some questions for them,” Xue Dinglu said directly.

After the girl left, Xue looked at the scene outside the container. It seemed that there were not many people walking on the streets in the entire tribe. This group of people lived on this hellish planet by cultivating mushrooms. Apart from the tribe, there were all kinds of strange and distorted human heads.

In the village, even though many people passing by were wearing colorful plastic straps, they seemed to worship all the technological creations of their ancestors as divine objects. As a result, some rather unsettling sights could be seen, such as grinding circuit boards into spears or using plastic straps as decorations for spearheads.

In Xue Dinglu's hand, three pieces of blood were spinning continuously. These were the "grotesque blood" from those twisted human heads, the old village chief's blood, and the princess's blood.

Xue's Law and Old Green both have many speculations and ideas, and now they urgently need to exchange information.

As he analyzed with the cursed blood, he said, "Old Green, I analyzed the freak's DNA and compared it with the DNA of this old village chief and that princess. I found that they are essentially the same species, with no changes in the DNA of their cell nuclei."

"In other words, the Things and these humans are essentially the same species, but their forms of expression are vastly different. I still can't understand why those Things exhibit such inhumanity." Xue Luding's cursed blood continued to analyze the DNA.

“There are still more questions.” Old Green sighed. “I’m very curious why they have regressed to the appearance of a primitive society. I previously suggested that these people migrated here, but looking at the strange world outside, this village is like an isolated island. Where did they migrate from?”

Old Green paused, then continued, "And most importantly, the connection between these people and my world. I don't believe it's a coincidence that the village chief has the same face as me, and that the village chief's daughter has the face of the Silver Princess."

Xue also felt that this hellish star must be related to the fairy tale world, but there was too little information available at the moment.

Then, the father and daughter whom Xue had met in the wilderness arrived. Xue, still pretending to be a charlatan, touched them and obtained their DNA samples. After they left, Xue frowned.

"What's wrong? Is their race something wrong?" Old Green said.

"No, I seem to have discovered some different information. The previous body samples were too few to see it." Xue Dinglu immediately displayed the cellular structure of the group of people. The strange shape and the basic cellular structure of these five people were consistent.

In other words, the Thing and the people on this hellish planet are essentially the same species, and they haven't even broken free from reproductive isolation.

However, one thing is strange: the telomeres of the oddly shaped creature are very active and are constantly growing, while the telomeres of the princess and the father and daughter are like those of normal carbon-based organisms, aging over time.

From a biological perspective, telomeres are key nodes that affect the lifespan of carbon-based organisms.

"You only mentioned the princess and the father and daughter, but what about the 'village chief' who looks just like me?" Old Green seemed to have discovered a blind spot.

“His telomeres are infinitely long, like a freak.” Xue Dinglu pulled up the old village chief’s information. “That’s what puzzles me the most.”

Chapter 153 A Fairy Tale World Connected to Hell

Old Green was taken aback. His knowledge of DNA, genes, and the like was limited to the few times he had seen Ultraman in recent days and the content of Xue's Law in his clinical medicine course.

He could understand, but not delve into the details. Even with just a basic grasp of the meaning, he exclaimed in horror, "So, does that mean the guy with the same face as me is actually exactly the same as those freaks outside?"

“From a species perspective, they are all exactly the same, but from the combined analysis of telomeres and DNA, that old village chief is a humanoid ‘freak’,” Xue Dinglu said, looking at the village chief’s small villa.

This information left old Grimm speechless. As the headmaster of a magic academy in a fairy tale world, he had seen all sorts of situations, but he had never seen anything like this before.

This world was too strange for them: distorted human heads, humans that corresponded to those in fairy tales, and "Chief Green," who seemed to have long since become a monster but still maintained his human appearance.

Xue Lu looked at the city-state and continued, "Then let me tell you something even stranger: those freaks still have their own language, and they keep talking."

"And these primitive people, who could not understand the language of the monsters, regarded it as a polluted language, and tried to resist the unkillable monsters with their ridiculous spears."

“But according to my analysis, the morph’s words were ‘I feel great’ and ‘I’ve come to save you,’” Xue Dinglu continued. “And what I saw with my own eyes was that after the morph pulled a human’s head off and inserted it into its own body, the head immediately came back to life and assimilated with the morph.”

Xue Law showed Old Green all the information he knew.

Old Green stared blankly at Xue's law and said, "What are you trying to say?"

“I’m wondering, is it possible that the Things really wanted to ‘save these people’?” Xue Law made a guess that Old Green could never have imagined, “It’s just that the Things’ method of saving them is ‘assimilation’.”

“And there’s another point of suspicion: that ‘Village Chief Green’ who has the same face as you seems to know more information, but he has always kept his secrets. Unless I directly and violently obtain his information, and he is a humanoid monster with reason,” Xue Dinglu continued.

"Then what is their purpose?" Old Green did not completely agree with Xue's conjecture. He raised his own questions, as there were too many doubts about both the freak and the old village chief.

"I don't know, so I'm going to find a monster to do an experiment on." Xue Dinglu stood up. With his skills, he could open portals at will in this world, no longer needing to walk out under the noses of these people.

Soon, he crossed the portal and arrived outside the village, the very place where Xue Daolu had just arrived in this world.

This place has once again become a hellish place filled with bizarre creatures. Underfoot is a fungal carpet that feels like flesh and blood, and in the distance, a grotesque creature carrying a lantern with a human head seems to be searching for something.

Upon discovering Xue's Law, these freaks became extremely excited. They rushed towards Xue's Law with all their might, chanting frantically, "I've come to save you!"

"I'm here to help you!"

As Xue Luding looked at the group of frenzied monsters, a ball of holy light appeared in his hand, and he began to chant rapidly.

"Holy Light!"

A beam of light, like the sun, rose into the sky, instantly pushing aside the entire fungal carpet on the ground. The grotesque creatures that had merged with the fungal carpet screamed because they couldn't get through, but those with basic biological shapes still charged forward, howling.

It seems that removing the heads of other humans and attaching them to their own bodies is the most important thing to them.

Xue Luding produced a decapitation blade, and the next moment, the monster that had rushed up, which was probably at the second level of strength, was dismembered. Xue Luding threw its two heads into the fungal carpet, while Xue Luding controlled the headless body.

Then, as cruelly as slaughtering livestock, they quickly removed everything except a whole spine that looked like a sheep scorpion. The bloody scene made Old Green frown.

Even after detaching from its body, the grotesque spine resembling a scorpion seemed to be struggling, displaying unparalleled vitality. Because of the Holy Light, the creep couldn't get through, and the other grotesques could only rage helplessly outside the Holy Light.

"What are you going to do with this thing that you've peeled off?" Old Green looked at the grotesque spine that was struggling in Xue Luding's hand, writhing like a twisted demonic sword. This horrific scene was something that Xue Luding, a child, was not capable of doing.

No, Old Green looked at the other monstrosities and realized something. Although those monstrosities that could move were very twisted, their heads, when not used as tools or weapons, were all connected to their spines.

In other words, this spine-like structure is not only their weapon, but also a core organ that allows multiple heads to connect together.

Then, Old Green thought of an even more terrifying possibility. He looked at Xue Luding and asked in horror, "You don't mean to put this spine on your body!"

"Hmm? You guessed it?" Xue Dinglu said, the cursed blood enveloping the scorpion. This treasure from the Great Sage is still his most frequently used treasure.