Love, Gun, Cupid

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Dark Side of the Holy Land, Part 1 (4→3)

"You always want to be a good person and have principles, which always puts you in a difficult position." Lin Jiade chuckled. "Never mind, let's leave it at that for now."

They went home first. Lin Jiade opened the "door" and saw Hehuan chatting with Teacher Yang. He immediately asked for Teacher Yang's personal belongings, but she threw a pillow at him.

"Lin Jiade, you can't say this in public!"

Teacher Yang then handed Lin Jiade the pajamas she had worn when she entered the hospital, shyly but without hesitation. Lin Jiade knew that this was because of trust and love; Teacher Yang regarded him as her hero.

"Don't worry, everything will be alright." He looked first at Teacher Yang, then at Hehuan. "I keep my word!"

Teacher Yang nodded happily. He Huan forced a smile, closed the door, cut the pajamas into several pieces with scissors, and sealed each piece with plastic wrap.

"What is this?" the ice cave asked.

"One of them is yours. Can you sense the presence of evil forces on it?"

"can."

"Take this and remember the taste."

The ice cave protested, "I'm not your dog!"

"Of course not, I'm going to borrow a dog."

The dog Lin Jiade was referring to was Di Tao. He disliked the practice of turning people into dogs, but he needed a good dog.

At this moment, he had a moral bottom line and knocked on the door of the Kapok Tree. The doorbell opened, and she said, "Lord Kapok Tree instructed that both Di Tao and I will obey your orders."

"And what about her?"

"Lady Kapok has found a clue about Lady Hehuan's family. This clue may be able to clear Lady Hehuan's name, so she led the other sisters to follow the clue and are no longer in Fuxing City."

Xuanling kept her head down as she spoke, appearing very humble. Lin Jiade observed that this was not her true intention; it was just that whenever she tried to reveal her true nature, the surface of the latex suit covering her would tremble, forcing Xuanling to become humble.

The bellflower was also the kapok tree in his memory. Seeing her end up like this, Lin Jiade couldn't help but find it a little funny. He reached out and touched her ears and tail, and found that the touch was so real.

"This part was created through magic, not a prop. Please don't touch the area above the base of my tail; that area is very sensitive."

Xuanling tried to dodge, but the latex suit held her in place. Waves of pleasure washed over her as Lin Jiade caressed her, making her eyes glaze over, her face flush, and her body stagger and almost fall over.

At this moment, Lin Jiade felt his trouser leg tighten. He looked down and saw Di Tao gently biting his trousers with her mouth. Then she looked up and showed a flattering smile, rubbing her body against Lin Jiade's leg and wagging her tail incessantly.

Lin Jiade bent down and touched Di Tao's ears and tail. Di Tao chirped happily, snuggled into Lin Jiade's arms and wiggled around, sticking out its tongue to lick his cheeks. Then it rolled on the ground, curled up its limbs, and exposed its belly to Lin Jiade so that he could stroke it.

Lin Jiade needed to use Di Tao, so he didn't mind making her happy. His hands slid over Di Tao's body, and Di Tao showed an expression of enjoyment as her breathing gradually became heavier.

“My lord, you’d better stop.” The sound of a bell came from behind. “If you keep touching her, Di Tao might go into heat. At that time, she will only want to release her pent-up desires and won’t have any other thoughts. It will delay your business.”

Lin Jiade stopped: "I didn't mean that in the first place. It's just that you all have the face of a kapok tree. One is a cat and the other is a dog. It looks quite interesting."

"This is the fate of losers; losers become like us."

Xuanling hesitated for a moment and said, "If one day you and Lady Mumian were to get together, could you end this situation for us? We would risk our lives for you, be your warrior, your nanny, your secretary, and even... your lover, as long as you don't turn into an animal."

"Aren't you afraid I'll tell Kapok what I just said?"

“When I saw Kapok turn back into a woman, I felt… I still had hope. Becoming a demi-human is painful enough, but if I saw another sister brainwashed into being a puppy every day, the pain would be doubled.”

"If Di Tao wins, and I and Mu Mian fall into your hands, how will you treat us? Tell the truth."

Xuanling didn't want to speak, but the continuous pain from the latex suit forced her to say it: "Let Kapok fulfill the task of a birthing machine, and you, as a shared memory of the sisters and a tool to humiliate Kapok, will become our plaything."

Lin Jiade's gaze turned cold: "So, your treatment is just right. However, I will suggest to Mu Mian that you be treated with more dignity, as I personally do not like this kind of revenge."

Xuanling breathed a sigh of relief. She could bear the humiliation inflicted by the kapok tree, but if Lin Jiade were also interested in revenge, her life would be even more miserable.

Thinking of this, she looked sadly at Di Tao, whose mind had been destroyed. Di Tao had suffered even more humiliation, but Di Tao herself could no longer feel it. On the contrary, Di Tao was happy every day.

So, who was more unfortunate, her or Di Tao?

Xuanling calmed her breathing, went downstairs to get her car, and before leaving, she saw Bingdong standing hesitantly at the door, and saw Lin Jiade handing a piece of cloth to Ditao, letting her fully smell the scent on it... no, the residual energy on it.

After being wrapped in the latex suit, her and Momo's sword skills disappeared, and in their place, the special abilities that originally belonged to cats and dogs were transferred to them.

So Xuanling walked silently. When she passed the sink, she saw her current appearance, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

Meanwhile, in another city of resurgence, the black cat takes human form and walks with Ragnar.

From ancient times to the present, the guardians of the Holy Land have protected the city of Fuxing in "non-existent time," protecting the Holy Land from the onslaught of monsters and preventing the monsters from transitioning from illusion to reality and gaining the ability to interfere with reality.

However, they were merely protectors, not attackers or explorers. Thus, in those places where the light did not reach, demons and monsters lurked, revealing their scarlet eyes when the black cat and Ragnar arrived.

A path extends down from the top of the monster's lair, where a Gothic church stands at the bottom. Inside, worshippers in white coats hold their breath as they watch their creations sealed in crystal coffins.

“Humans are really interesting,” the black cat said. “They blindly believe in gods that don’t exist, and they can fill in the gaps in their own minds, creating a sense of self-indulgence that further reinforces the image of these gods in their minds. In your empire, you seem to call these kinds of organizations cults?”

Ragnar laughed: "You've got one thing wrong. Although they are a cult, they believe in a true God."

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Dark Side of the Holy Land (Part 2)

"A true god?" the black cat asked.

The black cat, or rather Iphigenia, seems to have known the white dragon Ragnar for a long time, but in fact, they only made contact on September 9th of last year.

On that day, Iphigenia partnered with her temporary contractor as usual. She disguised herself as a woman who had been robbed and lured an ordinary young man (Ling Jiade) into an alley, intending to kill him and sacrifice him to the Holy Land.

Yes, the Holy Land is actually governed by two wills: one creates monsters from the darkness, while the other tries its best to suppress the monsters in a time that does not exist.

The two sides have been fighting for a long time, and then they have drawn humanity into the conflict, resulting in the formation of two organizations: the "Greeks" and the "Guardians of the Holy Land".

The two wills of the Holy Land possess equal power, but one focuses on quantity and the other on quality. Thus, the Greeks remain behind the scenes, assisting the god they serve in creating monsters. Meanwhile, the guardians of the Holy Land take center stage, capable of destroying all monsters with a mere gesture.

The black cat knew nothing of this, but her hunt was interrupted by the cuckoo. After abandoning the cannon fodder and fleeing back to the Holy Land, she was intercepted by a mysterious middle-aged gentleman who easily subdued her, told her the secret of the Holy Land, and took her back to her birthing room.

“I’ve read a story about a black cat written by one of your former partners. The content was absurd, but I sensed the author’s urgent desire to clarify his origins.”

You were born from a pregnant woman's womb, but not through seduction and usurpation. Instead, a cult called the Greeks captured women of childbearing age, impregnated them, and infused the pregnant woman with the power of the Holy Land, allowing you to devour the infant and gain physical form.

As is well known, no matter how many monsters the Greeks created, only by breaking through the defenses of the guardians of the Holy Land and entering the other side of the Holy Land could the monsters transform from illusion to reality and come to the real city of Revival.

The ancient Greeks cultivated a greater number of monsters to increase mathematical expectations and gamble on the possibility of monsters breaking through the Holy Land Guardian's breakthrough.

Their successes were few and far between, because even if the monsters broke through the Holy Land Guardians' obstruction and gained the ability to enter and exit between Fuxing City and the Fuxing City in non-existent time, those monsters had no mind. When they rushed into the real Fuxing City, they would only kill a few passersby indiscriminately before being dealt with by the superhumans in the real world.

The Greeks' goal was never to carry out terrorist attacks—at least these cultists themselves didn't think so. So, after repeated failures, they changed their secrecy policy, which was the same as that of their old rivals, the guardians of the holy sites, and began to make contact with the outside world.

At this time, an ambitious alien race made contact with them, formed an alliance with them, and after learning about their history, proposed a new idea: to give the monster a physical body and a mind from the beginning, allocate more energy to it, and let other monsters protect it.

Upon arriving in the real-world city of Fuxing, the monster, due to the pre-implanted teachings, will hide itself, disguising itself as human and gradually growing stronger day by day. When it reaches a certain limit, its monstrous consciousness will awaken.

"Are you talking about...me?" the black cat asked.

“That’s right. The Greeks successfully sent you to the City of Revival and then observed you... until you began to awaken as a monster. Only then could they finally breathe a sigh of relief and freely create your brothers and sisters.”

"My...brothers and sisters?"

"Yes, your brothers and sisters, they've completed a higher level of achievement than you. Would you like to meet them?"

The black cat, already carried to the underground chapel, had no room for rebuttal. Ragnar carried it to the petri dish and said, "The woman sleeping in the jar is your mother, Clytemnestra, who gave birth to you, your sister Electra, and your brother Orestes."

Yes, you have a name. On the day you were born, your father, Agamemnon, a bishop among the Greeks, named you Iphigenia.

Iphigenia lingered in the underground church for several days, partly to evade her pursuers, and partly to understand the world she lived in, to dispel illusions and embrace reality. From the moment she was taken to the Greek headquarters, she was destined to become a Greek cadre, and she had no complaints about it.

“You spent a lot of resources creating me, observing me, and then recalling me to explain the truth. I think you must have something to gain from me,” she said.

Thus, she was given a mission: to carry out a deterrent operation in the real-world city of Fuxing—to demonstrate the ability to kill, but without actually killing, thereby diverting the attention of the supernatural forces in Fuxing City without attracting the attention of Brilliant City, and limiting the case to a level of confrontation with local supernatural beings.

Iphigenia completed her mission well. In the city of Fuxing, the only two people who might pose a threat to her are Korobochka and Dujuan. One is still being suppressed by Gladiolus, whose mind is entirely focused on managing her family. The other is attempting to unravel the secrets of the Moon Goddess through Lin Jiade.

After several temporary contractors were replaced, Iphigenia was captured by Lin Jiade and his allies in the first month of this year.

Who Lin Jiade is is not important, but since he is connected to both Korobochka and Dujuan, he must be dealt with first to break the bond of this alliance. Who knew that those cowardly guardians of the Holy Land would actually appear in the real world.

The black cat, unwilling to accept its fate, returned to the dark side of the Holy Land and encountered Ragnar. It knew nothing about the Greek organization, Ragnar Sigurdsson, or the secrets of the Holy Land.

Now, as Ragnar reveals yet another secret to it, it is very interested. Human society is too tight-lipped about extraordinary knowledge, and the Greek organization is always in a hurry, with everyone squeezing out their own time. Ragnar is its only channel for acquiring knowledge.

"True God? God?" it asked.

Ragnar said, “From the Empire’s perspective, there are two kinds of gods: true gods, represented by the celestial observers, and evil gods, represented by extraterrestrial life forms other than the celestial observers.”

Organizations that believe in an evil god are defined as cults, and cults typically commit numerous evil deeds, being anti-social and anti-human. If viewed in this light, the Greek organization would undoubtedly be a cult. However, because they believed in a true God, they are not considered a cult.

"Which celestial observer did they worship? The one who fell in the Holy Land?"

"This is the most interesting thing: not a single celestial observer in the Holy Land has actually perished. This is a conclusion I reached after ten years of investigation."

Those celestial observers are still alive—note, this is a plural number, but some of them remained here to maintain the Holy Land's operation, creating the two monsters: the Greeks and the Holy Land's guardians.

Meanwhile, in the real-world city of Fuxing, Bingdong shed her everyday clothes, changed into a clean and freshly washed magical girl outfit, put on light makeup, and went downstairs with Lin Jiade, where they happened to run into Du Juan, who was returning home.

She brushed past Du Juan, turned around, and sensed a familiar yet awe-inspiring aura emanating from her.

Since I've finished paying off the extra debt faster, I'll start an LPL playoffs poll for an extra chapter. Because I don't understand esports, I'll start a prediction contest for the upper bracket based on suggestions from group members. On August 12th, SN vs LNG, vote for the team you think will win; if that team wins, an extra chapter will be added.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: An Alternative Truth

"What's wrong?" Lin Jiade asked.

Ice Cave shook his head: "No, it's nothing... Ah, there's one more thing."

"what happened?"

"When we get back, could we visit your home?"

"There's nothing wrong with it, but why?"

Ice Cave smiled and said, "When I was a boy, we weren't very close, but now that you know so many of my secrets and my life, and we're neighbors, I think I should get to know you too, so it will be easier to repay your kindness in the future."

Thank you so much. Without your help, I don't know how chaotic my life would be right now. So… I just wanted you to know how deeply grateful I am to you.

Lin Jiade shrugged: "It seems you're just like me, the type who feels uncomfortable when you owe someone a favor. If you want to repay the favor, then do so. I won't say anything more, so as not to put pressure on you or me. No one understands repaying favors better than me."

They got into the car, and Momo was placed in the front seat, while the dog-eared girl sat in the passenger seat looking quite human.

Xuanling explained, "This is Mianren's first and most prized work, so she trains Ditao every day to teach her what to do and when."

Lin Jiade's eyes dimmed. He had imagined the kapok tree to be so beautiful, but reality told him that beneath its cold exterior lay a morbid soul.

Seeing that he was in a bad mood, Ice Cave quickly changed the subject: "I'm a little curious, how many girlfriends do you have?"

"Two, Jasmine—a petite red-haired girl, and Gladiolus—a tall, mature blonde woman."

"So Teacher Yang isn't yours..."

"At least I didn't mean that."