"Hahaha, what a sorry sight, Tiancheng—"
Amid nets closing in from every direction like ropes, the Piper looked down at his battered subordinate without the slightest sympathy or pity, gloating, "It was just an ordinary diplomatic mission, yet you came back in such a miserable state.
With luck this bad, perhaps that's a talent in itself."
"This subordinate was incompetent."
Tiancheng, skeletal in appearance and still bearing traces of metal and flesh repairs all over his body, lowered his head in shame.
"No, no, it was merely an accident. But isn't the world wonderful precisely because of accidents?"
Amid countless intertwined threads, the Piper casually controlled the ever more intricate, endlessly shifting web. Excitement glittered in his eyes. "Betrayal, loyalty, spies, counterspies... It's becoming more and more interesting. How marvelous. Never had I encountered such a scene, even in dreams.
Could this also be a correction of phenomena? Even though the script has already become utterly unrecognizable—"
"There's no need for shame, Tiancheng. You have allowed me to witness such a splendid development in my stead. Hahaha, hahaha, who would have thought that Present Realm people could play such a vicious hand as well?
But upon consideration, it seems only natural. A contest between traitors and traitors truly is dazzling!"
"..."
Tiancheng stood there blankly, hesitating to speak, yet unable to say anything.
He still could not understand what that gaunt and uncanny figure was plotting, nor what he wanted to say.
Was he merely teasing him on purpose, or had he thrown out another riddle?
At that moment, amid the Piper's laughter, those complicated threads tangled together, winding around one another to form intricate knots.
Strings of knots gathered together, gradually taking on a familiar outline.
Those were... ropes?
Yet it was impossible to see where the ropes led,