I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

Even if Lu Ban dies, Feng Yu might still be able to fix things for him.

Putting down his phone, Lu Ban went to the table and opened the book, which was both illusory and real, filled with an eerie atmosphere.

[Enter the Silent Land?]

【whether】

The handwritten characters appeared, and Lu Ban gently touched them with his finger: "Yes".

In an instant, countless words flew out of the book, wrapping around Lu Ban's arms and body like vines. He felt a powerful suction force pulling him from the book. After instinctively resisting for a moment, he chose to embrace it.

A sudden gust of wind swept through the tightly closed room, scattering countless pieces of paper. Lu Ban was sucked into the book.

The book's pages flipped wildly before finally closing, as if no one had ever opened it.

On the book's cover, the pained and distorted face transformed into Lu Ban's likeness, with several eerie and bloody characters slowly emerging above.

The Mouth of a Madman.

The flow of time in the Silent Land is different from that in the outside world.

[Heading to the ruined capital]

Lu Ban didn't see any of these things. He only felt dizzy and weightless, a feeling he had never experienced before, enveloping his entire body. Silhouettes of monsters, incomprehensible scenes, and frantic ramblings flashed through Lu Ban's mind. When he came to his senses, he was already sitting in a chair.

"……haven't seen you for a long time."

Lu Ban discovered that sitting opposite him was none other than Trist, whom he hadn't seen in a long time.

Drizzt still had his messy, jet-black hair like seaweed, lake-blue eyes, and a face with some Western features. He wore an autumn/winter overcoat, a deerstalker hat, and held a briar root carved pipe in his hand.

Upon seeing Lu Ban, Trist was taken aback, but then pretended nothing had happened and picked up the tea in front of him.

"I thought you should have appeared here in a more relaxed and easygoing manner."

Trist lowered his voice.

Lu Ban looked around. This was a teahouse with outdoor seating, and he was sitting by the window inside. In front of him was a small ceramic cup filled with hot tea. The tea seemed to be a blend of black tea and some other kind of tea, with a rich aroma that was invigorating just to smell.

The guests were dressed in suits, long gowns, and cheongsams, looking like they were from an early 20th-century metropolis. The lively conversations of men and women echoed in the teahouse. If you were observant, you might overhear some gossip from high society, deduce some unknown business secrets, or even discover the address of a lonely noblewoman.

No one around Lu Ban seemed suspicious of his sudden appearance, as if he had been sitting there all along.

While Lu Ban was thinking, another person appeared in the seat next to him.

She wore a dark gray hooded cloak, beneath which was heavy, sturdy armor. Even her slender hands were covered with steel gloves. The woman had short, slightly wavy, light golden hair and emerald green eyes. Without a doubt, this was Sia, a mage from the Kingdom of Night.

She noticed Trist first, then Lu Ban, and her wariness lessened.

"Let me introduce you. This is Drizzt, a detective and, like us, a Chosen One."

Lu Ban pointed to the detective wearing a deerstalker hat, and then to the girl in armor.

"This is Sia, a mage from the Land of Night."

After saying that, Lu Ban picked up his teacup and was about to drink the hot tea when he felt a shadow loom over him.

Chapter 216 Truth Agent (Physics)

The shadow quickly materialized into a physical form: a person wearing a tattered jacket and trousers, holding a black submachine gun, with a ferocious, distorted expression, as if hating everything in the world.

In an instant, all three people present felt threatened. Trist stood up slightly, Sia raised her right hand, and Lu Ban materialized the [Last Words] in his hand, adjusting the magazine of the Word Bullet to the one that was moving at high speed.

The man with the submachine gun grinned, seemingly saying something to the person inside through the glass, before pulling the trigger.

But before the first bullet was fired, he seemed to be hit by something, and his whole body crashed forward.

wow-

The transparent glass was smashed open by the person moving at high speed, and the submachine gun in his hand, the weapon that the gangsters jokingly called a typewriter, also lost its aim due to the sudden movement.

The next moment, the typewriter that had just fired two unfocused bullets suddenly disintegrated, turning from a precision industrial whole into scattered parts. Springs, bolts, and cartridge cases scattered in the sky, turning into raindrops.

thump--

The man knocked over the table in front of Lu Ban, overturned the teacup containing hot tea, and hit his head on the ground with a crisp sound.

A disturbance broke out in the teahouse.

The ladies, young masters, and big bosses all stood up. Several men in black suits and baseball caps filed in and protected the most distinguished among them.

"Was it an attack targeting them, or..."

Tristana took out her gloves, put them on, and bent down to check on the man's condition. It was clear that the man had been knocked unconscious by the impact.

Turning around, Trist was about to ask Lu Ban for his opinion when he noticed that Lu Ban was still holding a teacup—he had been about to drink tea when he was attacked.

"We can't waste it."

Lu Ban poured the steaming hot tea into his mouth; it was fermented and had a very mellow black tea flavor.

Meanwhile, amidst the scattered fragments of the table, the system's cold and indifferent words began to assemble.

[Ruined Capital]

[Year 23 (Gregorian Calendar): Inauspicious for all activities]

The glitz and glamour of high society is alluring, but its dark underbelly remains unknown. People eagerly await new works that can create a frenzy, as if only such excitement can alleviate the oppressive atmosphere.

This is the best of times, this is the worst of times.

Evil thrives in the cracks between fantasy and reality.

[Mission Difficulty: Alienation]

[Mission Requirements: Find the missing home]

[Mission Requirement: Witness the ending of the story]

[Task Requirements: Find the fragments of Du Danping's melody]

"It seems the mission has already begun."

Lu Ban thought to himself that, under normal circumstances, it was definitely not a coincidence that they were attacked here.

The teahouse was still in chaos when police sirens began to sound.

When the sheriff, dressed in a dark police uniform and sporting a small mustache, arrived with his officers, who were lined up casually with rifles in hand, he saw Drizzt standing next to the man who had fallen to the ground.

"Old Cui, it's you again?"

The sheriff seemed to know Drizzt well, his tone tinged with a hint of helplessness.

"Isn't this great? It saves you the trouble of finding eyewitnesses."

Drizzt took a puff of his pipe and answered calmly.

"I would like to ask the other gentlemen and ladies to leave this place with my subordinates for the time being. We will investigate and search for them one by one later."

The sheriff waved his hand, unusually dismissing the crowd.

"Many of the people sitting here have ties to the underworld. If we just take them to the police station, the gangs in the ruined city will probably besiege the police station."

Trist whispered in Lu Ban and Sia's ears.

"This is Chief Huo, my friend, Chief. These two are my assistants, Lu Ban and Xi Ya."

He then introduced both parties.

After the police led the crowd away, they turned the unconscious person over.

"I know this guy. He's a mercenary who lives in this neighborhood. Why would he attack you?"

Chief Inspector Huo glanced at the unconscious man.

"I'm curious too."

Trist spread his hands.

"Sia, do you have any methods to get him to tell the truth, like truth serum or something?"

Lu Ban asked the mage girl in a low voice.

"Unfortunately, magic is not such a convenient thing. Magic involving the mental realm is generally prohibited."

Xia answered, and before Lu Ban could lament again how inconvenient magic was, she walked forward and picked up the unconscious man.

It's hard to describe how this girl, who only reached Lu Ban's shoulder, managed to lift this man who was taller than Lu Ban, but she did it, as easily and unbelievably as stuffing an elephant into a refrigerator.

"However, you can't use magic to get him to tell the truth."

Xia grabbed a half-finished cup of tea from the table next to her and splashed it in the other person's face, then slapped him across the face.

A slap wearing a metal glove landed on the man's face, causing him to twitch before he slowly regained consciousness.

He looked somewhat bewildered at the girl in front of him, who was shorter than him but was holding him up, and muttered something to herself.

Why did you attack us?

"Sia asked seriously."

"...Everyone will die, everyone will die, everyone will return to His embrace, the real terror is yet to come, dedication, dedication, I must make a dedication, ah, the supreme and most supreme Him..."

The man had clearly gone mad, speaking incoherently and uttering incoherent sentences.

Speak like a human.

Sia raised her fist and punched him in the face. His face suddenly deformed, and several teeth were spat out of his mouth, with blood flowing from the corner of his mouth.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just wanted to, I wanted to spare you some suffering, to die while you still could, otherwise, otherwise..."

The man became distressed and spoke in a pleading voice, but his words were still illogical.

"Do you have any last words? Or do your family members need our help taking care of them? Sheriff, where do his family members live? Can you take us to see them later?"

Sia asked expressionlessly.

The man finally revealed an expression of extreme fear. His voice was hoarse and whimpering as he touched his chest.

"It's all true in the book, it's true, I know, I've told you, I've told you, please don't kill me, please don't kill me..."

Without saying a word, Xia punched the man again, knocking him unconscious. She then threw him aside and rummaged through his chest, quickly finding a book.

"So this is the culprit... hmm?"

Xia turned around and saw several people, including the sheriff, staring at her, some of them hesitant to speak.