Act 3 · Castles in the Air · Daydreaming

Foreword:

[A single moment can determine a person's entire life and destiny.]

[ --John Wolfgang von Goethe]

[Part ① - Mu Yuan]

Two hours later.

Jason and Bu Liuxing ran back and forth between the hall and the kitchen, finishing the preparation of the monster's flesh and delivering more than thirty sets of pots and pans.

When the head steward of the Bock outpost caught the scent of spices and hot oil, his golden beastly eyes widened, and he immediately ordered people to bring new furniture from the inner rooms.

The dishes were served one after another on a large round table. The innkeeper grabbed the iron basin and drank the piping hot, thick meat soup in one gulp. Immediately afterwards, his face turned flushed and sweat poured down his neck and forehead.

She used her rough, broad hands to hold the stewed meat chunks in the iron basin, stuffed them into her mouth, and chewed them, bones and all.

She would finish each dish as soon as it was served, her eating efficiency was astonishing, and she would leave hardly any bones behind.

The two henchmen who had been guarding the gate awoke from their unconsciousness. Smelling the sweet aroma of the dog meat feast, their eyes gleamed with longing. Their fingers twitched, and they knelt motionless on the ground as the head steward carried a round table and red chairs on his back.

They thought that if they could eat a bite of the calamity beast's flesh, they would surely become stronger!

The innkeeper let out a strange "ooh-hee-hee-hee" laugh as she ate the dog meat; I'd never seen her so happy or joyful before.

Even when he was talking about romance and nature with the Xiao Bai behind him who had been skinned and bled to death, the shopkeeper never showed such a happy expression.

That must be incredibly nutritious and delicious meat!

Thinking about these things--

The henchmen knelt even lower and prostrated themselves even deeper, not bothering to bandage the wound on their foreheads, where the dents left by A Xing's heavy punches could be seen.

They remained silent, as if afraid of disturbing the shopkeeper or spoiling his good mood. It was as if they were worshipping a deity, performing a ritual.

It was as if by praying a few more times, letting one's forehead kiss the rough, solid floor tiles of the hall, and squeezing some blood from the wound, one could persuade the shopkeeper to grant mercy and allow the gods feasting on the altar to scatter some offerings down—so that they too could taste, to taste what that ferocious, domineering two-headed hound really tasted like.

After delivering the dishes, Bu Liuxing and Jason stood motionless in a sheltered spot in the hall.

They had sent out the basic information about the Bock outpost and received only one reply.

The reply contained the following:

[Well done] and [Survive]

The messages were sent back as two separate messages.

When Bu Liuxing saw these two messages, he could picture Ming Ge's anxious yet excited expression.

--I think Ming Ge doesn't like to talk nonsense. These two seemingly pointless sentences are Ming Ge's way of worrying about me, being unable to help me, and only afraid of causing me trouble. In the end, he racked his brains and typed out six words on his phone screen.

In this environment, Ming Ge didn't know who I was meeting or where I was going. The more I talked, the more confused I became.

--The first message indicates that this information is helpful to Ming Ge, and they have already begun to take action.

--The second message indicates that Ming Ge can't be of much help in the short term, and he has to rely on himself.

Before A Xing could finish thinking it over, Jason tensed up and grabbed A Xing's arm.

Fierce curses emanated from the large round table in the hall.

The head steward let out a satisfied burp, and with his long tongue, he finished the last bowl of dog meat, leaving not a drop of broth in the iron pot.

After she had eaten and drunk her fill, she saw two henchmen kneeling pitifully on the ground, and she immediately flew into a rage.

"You two bastards! What are you looking at?!"

She raised her hand, grabbed one of the henchmen by the collar, and pulled him in front of her; the sheer strength she possessed was enough to tear even the supple Kellaf apart with his bare hands.

"Do you think you can steal my food? You have some nerve!"

She grew angrier as she spoke, and her hunger intensified.

The henchmen under his command were timid and dared not utter a sound, only whimpering, raising their hands in defense, but then abandoning their defenses in the blink of an eye, not even daring to raise their hands.

The head steward gripped the henchman's neck firmly with one hand, and with the other hand, he suddenly arched his back, his rough Five Fingers like steel shovels, and scraped a layer of flesh off the poor wretch's thigh.

Just as cries were about to burst from the henchmen's mouths, the head steward's eyes turned fierce, and the veins on his arms and shoulders bulged, silencing the cries.

--This was followed by a deathly silence.

Bu Liuxing's eyes were practically spitting fire. In his eyes, the head manager of the Boke Hotel was a bully who preyed on the weak and feared the strong—he could be fried in oil a hundred times over and still not be satisfied.

The large, calloused fingers, stained with thick, foul-smelling blood and sauce stains from the table, were fed to the shopkeeper along with bits of meat.

She pouted, using her nimble long tongue to suck the deliciousness from under her fingernails. She was tasting the fear and pain of others, feeling gratified and proud of this new dish she had made herself—a feeling of supreme joy.

What's remarkable is that she wasn't a completely insane person. When she brought a cup of butter tea to her wounded henchmen suffering unbearable pain, she simply uttered a single word, "Get out," and then never unleashed any more cruelty.

At this very moment.

The head steward finished his meal and turned around to give the two uninvited guests a good look.

"I'm very satisfied! Bu Liuxing! You can leave now."

Having said that, she pulled a document from her fur-lined coat and tossed it to Bu Liuxing; this written pass was very much like the style of a train station.

A Xing took the letter and saw that the cover had the Skull and Bones Society's Blood Butterfly logo, the letter's title was "[Mu Yuan]", and the brief introduction below seemed to be about a museum or research institution, using euphemistic and elegant language, which was very mysterious.

The head steward's expression was flippant, the scars on his face twitching. "Go to Mu Yuan and find Koman. Have him show you around, let him teach you about our Skull and Bones Society, about our great cause and glorious path—and finally, think about what you can give us? What do you want from us?—Go. Go now."

Jason: "And what about me?"

A Xing: "And what about him?"

The head manager was getting impatient. "Keep this cook here. I really like his cooking."

"No, that won't work," Jason was about to say.

The head manager immediately interrupted, his eyes widening and his expression turning fierce. "No? Who do you think you are? You dare to defy me?!"

Bu Liuxing hoisted his companion onto his shoulder, just as he had done when they entered, and tucked Jason's waist and abdomen close to his head. Without a word, he stormed out the door, shouting, "Let's go!"

The head manager glared angrily. "How dare you!"

Bu Liuxing curled his lip, turned around and glared fiercely at the head manager, "This is a gift for the Big Leader Skull and Bones Society! You, a mere watchdog, dare to compete with the Big Leader for food? Or what?"

A Xing flicked the shotgun with one hand, and Wild Wolf ACE ejected the spent cartridge, resetting the gun to fire, as if to say—not long ago, these two bullets took the life of the Disaster Beast.

"Or are you going to fight me here? So eager to retire, so eager to find me a new job? Shall we rename this place Meteor Pass? That sounds nice, don't you think? If you die, will the Big Leader blame me? Maybe the Big Leader would love for me to guard this checkpoint, after all, I eat less, I'm more eco-friendly than you."

"Hiss!" The head manager gritted her teeth, but dared not retaliate. She could only turn her anger into a smile, secretly crushing the wood of the round table, determined to remember this wretched boy and, when the opportunity arose, to taste his flesh.

"Thank you, shopkeeper! One pass is enough!" Bu Liuxing said, then headed out the door.

When guards came to stop them, the shopkeeper immediately shouted.

"Let them go!"

[Part ② - Even Xu Xian couldn't do anything about it]

"Ha! Kid! You've got a sharp tongue!" Jason, perched on Meteor's shoulder, danced around excitedly, shouting, "That was so satisfying! If a movie starred you, it would definitely be a blockbuster! I could eat popcorn and soda until I was stuffed and still not get tired of it!"

"Mr. Jason, can you behave yourself? Look down at yourself." Meteor walked on the cliffside walkway. A strong wind blew from the ravine, stirring the iron chains and causing the steel beams under his feet to rise and fall, making it extremely dangerous.

Fifty centimeters to the right is a cliff over a thousand meters high, below which flows a deadly river of lava.

Jason snapped out of his daze, glanced outside, and immediately began to struggle desperately to get off A Xing's shoulder.

Seeing this view from A Xing's 1.9-meter-tall shoulders was far too thrilling for Jason's heart. He eventually turned into a koala, clinging to A Xing's waist and not moving an inch.

A Xing cupped Jason's face in his hands. "Mr. Jason, nobody's following us. Use your brilliant brain and think about why this is?"

Jason forced his lips to purse and open his eyes under Bu Liuxing's squeezing and pinching, then stood firm on his feet and landed back on the unstable iron plank walkway.

He carefully observed his surroundings and then began to get down to business.

"We've already left the area of the Boke outpost. I estimate there are still more than twenty people staying in that large hotel."

As Jason Megan spoke, he took out A Xing 'A Xing phone, glanced at it, and memorized the unlock password. He then proceeded to compose a text message.

He muttered to himself that he needed to strengthen his memory.

"This conclusion is based on the number of tableware in the kitchen on the first floor. The head steward has an astonishing appetite; she uses thirty to forty sets of cooking utensils for one meal. Judging from the food reserves and the number of tableware, the entire defense force of Bork Pass is more than eighty people, between eighty and eighty-eight."

His fingers danced rapidly across the phone screen, like a keyboard artist.

"The head steward wanted us to visit the Mu Yuan, but no one came along. This means that the road behind the Bork Pass is a relatively private area of Skull and Bones Society —the guard dogs are not allowed to enter the house unless summoned by their master."

Bu Liuxing gently patted Mr. Jason on the shoulder. "Amazing! You're really amazing!"

Jason shook his head. "It's just a survival skill, nothing special."

He then continued speaking and taking notes.

"There are no surveillance cameras along the way, and vehicles cannot travel on the boardwalk. Even the most basic cargo tricycles cannot pass through. Either there are other entrances and exits inside, or there are calamity beasts similar to the Wool Sheep that can transport supplies for the Skull and Bones Society and Bones Society."

"There should be another entrance/exit, right?" Meteor said logically, "I have two girlfriends Wool Sheep. I asked them before if there were any non-human life forms like Wool Sheep who worked at the station, and they both said they didn't know. Wool Sheep can understand human speech because she gained knowledge of the astral plane. Such beings are very rare underground."

Jason was stunned for a moment. "Are you serious?"

Meteor: "Yes."

Jason: "No. I'm asking if you really have two Wool Sheep companions?"

Meteor: "What else?"

Jason froze, unable to react for a moment.

He originally thought that A Xing said this to intimidate the head manager and to use a surprise tactic, at least in terms of the Madness Index, to make the enemy feel the overwhelming pressure.

I didn't expect that Meteor didn't act at all; everything he expressed was emotion, without a single bit of acting skill.

"Let's get back to this," Meteor pointed to the obsidian bridge at the far end of the valley. "The Skull and Bones Society uses this bridge to enter and exit Zero Platform, but it's impossible for everything to use this bridge, right? I think there are other routes."

"That makes sense." Jason was still deeply immersed in the love between Wool Sheep and the human, unable to extricate himself. He was worried, analyzing the situation rationally while his gaze towards the shooting star seemed off.

Jason said, "After all, last time, the Skull and Bones Society got their hands on the monsters and transported them to Mimir Hot Spring by truck. There must be another secret passage used for transporting goods by truck."

Meteor: "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Out of curiosity." Jason cut to the chase, saying whatever came to mind, "Wool Sheep are very exotic creatures, and I'm extremely curious about how you got involved with them."

"Oh, it's not as complicated as you think." Meteor recalled what happened in Golden Township: "When I was heartbroken, I called Miss Wool Sheep from Golden Township. She charged by the hour and was willing to listen to me vent my emotions, which touched me deeply."

Jason followed the shooting star downwards.

The meteor spoke as it walked.

"Then we got along really well, because we're both pretty simple-minded. Mr. Jason, do you know anything about Wool Sheep?"

"It's precisely because I understand them that I find it incredible. These creatures have a relatively low level of intelligence and can't speak complex sentences. They imitate human language, but their reasoning and logic are completely different."

"That's right. You're right. My two girlfriends are named Meimei and Lili. So many Wool Sheep use simple reduplicated words as their names. They can't remember too many things, just like me, just like me. But when they memorize advertising slogans for money and food, their speech becomes fluent immediately."

Have you had any close contact with them?

"I wanted to sleep with the big dragonfly, and after the call I would meet her in person immediately. So I carefully boarded a train and ran to Golden Township to go home with them. They were like telecom scammers, trying to pin me down on the bed, ready to cut me into eight pieces and eat me."

"Dragonflies are gluttons; they can eat up to 60% of their body weight in one meal. To sustain the energy they expend on flying, they are constantly scrambling for food."

"But they couldn't beat me. I ran away, completely distraught. I was heartbroken. First, I was deceived by an alien widow, and then I was almost devoured alive by those two sisters. I didn't dare tell Ming Ge about it. I just kept eating Mapo Tofu and cried from the spiciness several times. I thought if Ming Ge knew, he would probably scold me again, tie me up, and never let me run around again."

"I don't know what to say, it's a miracle you survived."

"Actually, Meimei contacted me later. She told me that I must be careful next time and not take off my clothes directly, otherwise they will not be able to control their hunting instincts and will eat the protein on my body as if it were honey or egg liquid, as if it were something sweet."

"You almost got eaten by monsters, and you're actually planning to communicate with them? What are you thinking? Are you preparing to act out the White Snake?"

"Because I'm a man, I'm a sexy tough guy! Jason, I can't let them cry. I promised them on the phone that I would be their boyfriend, and I can't go back on my word, Mr. Jason. I'll play cards and chat with them. As long as we don't meet in person, it's a really good thing. They're simple, and so am I. What wonderful soulmates!"

"Didn't the station ask about this? This is a murder case."

"I didn't want to see them get hurt, and I didn't tell anyone. Actually, the relationship between Wool Sheep and the station is quite delicate. Passengers treat them like pets, or simply as tools."

"You also mentioned that you previously had an astral being and a widow."

"Let's not talk about this anymore. Please forgive me and don't reopen my wounds. It's like when I asked you, 'Your waiter...'"

"Stop talking! Stop talking!"

"I hoped to fall in love with a girl from an ancient race. In the surface world, I encountered many con artists; they were like hunters. I gave them money, poured out my feelings, and tried to make them happy, thinking I'd get something in return. Finally, my mom exposed their true nature—I kept breaking up, falling in love, and breaking up again. In the end, I thought the girls from the ancient race in the underworld wouldn't be interested in material things, but I never expected..."

"I didn't expect they were after your manhood?"

"Yes, Mr. Jason, do you think I can find true love?"

"You're dreaming!"

Why do you say that?

"Because in movies, that's how you have to say something to discourage the protagonist; the brave protagonist can definitely do it."

"Thank you, Jason. Isn't this a blessing?"

The two brothers walked the entire boardwalk--

--The topic abruptly ended.

A passageway appears on the left, leading directly into the interior of the rift valley.

In the bright and spacious entryway, a well-dressed VIP was waiting for his guests.

The man resembled the lobby manager of the Council of Five Kings —a meticulous, tall, and slender man around forty years old, wearing a navy blue overcoat, a burgundy vest, a black tie, and spotless leather shoes.

Wearing Black Gloves, he was writing and drawing notes at the registration desk in the entrance hall, recording the goods entering the Mu Yuan.

"Bu Liuxing and Jason Megan —it is a great honor to have Koman two grace Sullivan with your presence as the stewards of the Mu Yuan."

His voice was deep and powerful, like that of an opera announcer.

His hair was champagne gold, with slight curls hanging down beside his ears.

Just like the head manager--

When Mr. Koman greeted us with a smile, his four canine teeth were sharp and pointed, and his eyes were golden, linear beast-like pupils.

Before Bu Liuxing could reply, Jason didn't have a chance to say anything either.

Mr. Koman had seized absolute control; he chattered on and on, pulling the two guests into the entryway.

Goethe said, "What determines a person's life, including their entire destiny, may very well be a fleeting moment." I love this quote and repeat it to myself every day.

His movements were fluid and natural, like those of a dancer, and his shouts were melodious and passionate.

"Both of you must remove your shoes and socks, take off your outer garments, lay down your weapons, and come to my great garden for a good look. This will be a crucial moment that will determine your fate. It may only take a few hours, but it could affect your entire lives. If you want to join the Skull and Bones Society, you must accept its ideals. It is great! Glorious! Magnificent! All-powerful!"

Meteor tried to protect his stick and gun, but under Mr. Koman's influence, he spun around like a top three or four times, stripping off his shoes and socks, and losing his weapon.

It was an extremely skillful technique that, by manipulating Meteor and Jason's bodies, disarmed Meteor in just a few back-and-forth movements.

Koman asked softly again, "Mr. Bu Liuxing, seeing your disappointed and dejected expression, I can't help but ask one more question: Do you really want to bring guns, these dangerous and deadly weapons, to my Mu Yuan?"

Bu Liuxing felt guilty.

--Although he was caught completely off guard, Mr. Koman did indeed disarm him completely within seconds, leaving no bullets behind.

Despite this.

A Xing remained stubborn. "I... I want to try. Is that okay?"

Mr. Koman's face showed a hint of anger as he gently shook the Summoning Bell at the registration desk.

"Jingle--"

Right now, at this very moment--

--This elegant forty-year-old man was no longer elegant; his expression became terrifying.

Countless serpentine creatures darted out of the brightly lit passageway.

Those creatures are very complex.

They crawled on the ground at an incredible speed, as if emerging from a hidden tunnel, flowing like a river behind Mr. Koman.

They suddenly stand upright, like cobras displaying their horned heads and flicking their tongues in intimidation. They expose their white belly scales, stand upright on their two hind legs, and the bright red scales on their two forelimbs rustle and make a jumbled, fine sound when they shake.

More than twenty bright yellow snake eyes stared intently at Bu Liuxing.

These four-legged monsters, resembling Earth Dragon and lizards, are about the thickness of a normal human waist and stand almost three meters tall.

Koman did the same, following the little ones behind her, sticking out her long, red tongue at Bu Liuxing.

"I'm not trying anymore, I'm not trying anymore, I'll do as you say! The gun is right here!"

A Xing immediately took back what he had said earlier. He looked up and stared at all the snake heads that were covering the ceiling light.

The snakes didn't speak, and neither did Mr. Koman.

--But it seems like everything has already been said.

That poised, hands-on-hips, head-held-high, noble posture seemed to say—

[--What's wrong with you, little bro?]