My wife is an immortal black snake.

Page 163

Unfortunately, he was too deeply infatuated.

The illusion of becoming Si Chen made him mistakenly believe that he could walk into that reality.

Chapter 103

...The Elegy did not kill Duke Nikolai. Her purpose in coming was merely to thwart Duke Nikolai's idea of ​​possessing her.

So she destroyed Duke Nikolai's new body time and time again—but should I say she truly deserves to be the best sacrifice, altar, and most promising potential ascendant, which appears only once every thousand years... no, ten thousand years?

As Duke Nikolai's internal organs completely turned into a red cup, Miss Elegy finally stopped wielding her scythe, allowing the breath of winter to halt at the feet of this humanoid red cup that no longer had the ability to move.

"Even if it becomes so engrossed that it is consumed by illusions... does its own potential and compatibility qualify it for ascension?"

Duke Nikolai himself was a unique... sacrifice.

If the Crimson Cup represents the Celestials, then the cup that Duke Nikolai has transformed into can be considered the strongest of the first tier among the immortals.

However, as the saying goes—he was too deeply engrossed. He couldn't even collect all the materials, and he didn't even know the correct way to ascend... But even so, this duke still managed to become an immortal through a mistaken ascension, relying on his unique physical affinity and potential. And now, he even has the qualifications to become a named being.

It's such a pity, such a pity—Miss Elegy shook her head. Now that this monster has lost all its senses, there's nothing more she needs to do.

"—Please wait here, you poor madman. I can't interfere too much with his actions in the material world, but at least I can make sure you get the final silence next."

As she spoke, she plunged the corner of the sickle into the body of the red cup, which was made of bone as its base, internal organs as its bottom, and blood and flesh as its liquid.

The red cup writhed, and the sweet and sour liquid it spewed out lacked saltiness.

The elegy left a trace of deathly stillness there. In this way, when Mr. Yang Hao truly destroyed this living city that was also half-ascended and this crimson cup, the pitiful existence known as Duke Nikolai would die completely.

After that, there's not much to say.

She left in the direction she had come from. Before leaving, she nodded in the direction her daughter was, conveying a message to the lovely living doll that she was safe, and then she was gone.

...... ......

[Event: Obsession]

Do you know what it means to be completely absorbed?

Come see me after everything is over.

When this event popped up in front of Yang Hao, he was stunned for a while before realizing that this was the first time Miss Elegy had truly asked him to prepare to go to Elegy's House for tea and a chat.

But what was going on? He shook his head in confusion, and after temporarily putting the matter aside, he noticed that the activity of the aliens in front of him was continuing to increase, but their bodies were also gradually becoming more fragile. Places that could not be damaged by normal military knife slashes before now seemed to be able to cause them great damage.

Just as Yang Hao was puzzled by this, he noticed that the noble private army that had infiltrated the living city was about to reach the city's control tower area. They fought their way through thorns and brambles, and although they suffered many casualties when facing powerful individuals such as flesh puppets, a force of about 12,000 men eventually reached the vicinity of the control tower.

They were awaiting instructions—whether to continue the advance or to launch a direct attack on the city's control tower.

Yang Hao frowned, surveying the situation on his front lines. Seeing that the living tree branches had stopped growing and spreading, he took out his communicator and spoke to Kosichev:

“Kosich, have them send half of their men to support our barricade front, and the other half to surround that control tower.”

"I see."

His wife gave him an affirmative reply through the communicator. After a moment, Yang Hao saw that half of the noble private soldiers who were about to surround the control tower had advanced towards the barricade line, and he immediately began the next step of his deployment.

While the enemy's physical strength has decreased significantly for the time being, they are now more energetic than ever. Yang Hao decided to adjust his current strategy, allowing Sonia and her team to rush into the control tower of the living city after receiving external support, and solve all the problems once and for all.

Of course, considering that deep-sea hunters lack the ability to inflict fatal damage on the immortals, he also needed to ensure Monica was always prepared. However, that meant he would have to find a safe place without protection to avoid causing them trouble.

With this in mind, Yang Hao had already made a plan.

He first summoned Hela, who had been resting at the second slope defense line—and who seemed to have nothing to do since the Sarkaz mercenaries arrived—back. Then he spoke to Monica:

“Monica, you may need to leave me now and go to the Living City to kill Duke Nicolai. Don’t look at me like that. I’ll go back to the Duke’s mansion as soon as Hela arrives, and you need to be prepared, okay?”

"...yes."

She nodded, and knowing that Hela would protect Yang Hao in their place, she chose to obey Yang Hao's orders.

... .....

7:40pm.

With the help of reinforcements, the soldiers on the barricades surrounded and annihilated the alien soldiers caught in the middle. Afterwards, Sonia led her exhausted juniors along the path cleared by the nobles' private soldiers to the foot of the city's control tower.

Back at the Duke's mansion, Yang Hao held Hela in his arms while exchanging information with Kosiché. After a while, confirming that the two sloping defense lines had received support and could even be used to wipe out the increasingly violent yet fragile aliens, Yang Hao ordered Sonia and the Templar Knights who had accompanied them to storm the control tower of the living city, aiming to eliminate all threatening targets on the upper levels of the tower today.

"...I feel that we may not need His Majesty the Emperor to annex her Saint-Germain Castle."

After giving the order, Yang Hao said to Koschche beside him with a relaxed expression. Although he wasn't quite sure what had happened before, judging from the incident that Miss Elegy had posted, she must have helped him solve something important, right?

Ugh!

Yang Hao, how did you fall so low? Who was that person who said you shouldn't live off a woman?!

You can't do that anymore—

"Perhaps. And more importantly, my dear, I think we might need to discuss the cleanup of Duke Nikolai's city—and the reconstruction of our city."

"That's true... but resources, money, and our casualties..."

...

Miss Elegy? Could you also help me with this problem?

He sighed.

The thought of what was to come gave him a headache.

Chapter 104

It was 8:40 PM. While Yang Hao and Kosiché were still worrying about the upcoming reconstruction work and other matters, news came from Sonia and Monica that there were things on site that required Yang Hao's personal attention.

He was puzzled by this, but after telling Kosiché, he took his guards, Theresa, and his beloved daughter and drove to the control tower of the living city to see what was going on.

"Something I absolutely have to deal with? Monica, what is it?"

“I don’t know how to describe it… In short, it looked like a… cup. A cup as tall as a person. Sonia and I tried to destroy the object, but it regenerated faster than we expected.”

"So what else is at the control tower of the living city?"

"A heart—but we were stopped by the cup when we tried to destroy it. We have to destroy the cup first before we can destroy the heart. And the heart seems to be constantly trying to affect the whole city... We've seen new creep and some insect-like creatures spreading. We can probably hold out for about four hours until our reinforcements, alcohol, and ignition supplies run out."

"I understand. I'm already on my way. Please make sure the site is safe."

"Yes."

After ending the call with Monica, Yang Hao took a deep breath, realizing that things were far from over.

A heart, and a strange cup? Hmm...

He touched Hela's hair. He turned to look at the scenery outside the car window—they had reached the outskirts of the Living City.

There, he could see a large number of alien remains that had been piled up and burned on the roadside. There were so many burned corpses that, from a distance, the entire sidewalk of the street was covered with bodies.

The pile of corpses, stacked a story or two high, would take a considerable amount of time to burn. Yang Hao could only hope that the smoke from the burning wouldn't affect the Duchy of Kosiché.

Furthermore, more than half of the city in the Duchy of Nikolai is unusable... Those areas deeply contaminated by flesh-and-blood fungus and flesh-and-blood trees can only be destroyed on the spot. Everything that can be dismantled must be taken away, and everything that can be burned must be burned to ashes. The cities further back that still appear to be steel structures could be considered for separate occupation, but whether those areas are actually worth occupying depends on actual observation or waiting for the officials' inspection reports...

...And then again, a strange heart, a strange cup...

Yang Hao frowned. He had no experience dealing with these kinds of strange situations, so he was still unsure what to do once he got there...

... ...

At 9 p.m. sharp, Yang Hao, accompanied by his guards, arrived at the base of the control tower of the living city. Under the protection of local soldiers, he entered the tower's staircase without hindrance. Upon learning that he would have to climb more than ten floors of stairs that looked no different from human intestines to reach the only temporary, functional elevator, his lips twitched, but he still bravely climbed to the top.

The ground felt sticky underfoot, and their noses caught a strange, fishy stench. Along the way, they saw many figures protruding from the walls. When they reached a corner about two floors from the elevator, Theresa suddenly stopped.

She frowned and stared at a head on the wall that was still twisting for a while, finally speaking to everyone who had stopped to wait for her:

"I've seen this before—it's that disgusting bastard who blocked my way, the half-male, half-female thief. But he was assimilated by the wall? Or are we actually walking inside the viscera of some creature?"

"Who knows? Keep going, little pony."

"Yes Yes Yes."

Theresa smacked her lips, then punched the man's head hard with the balancing ball at the end of her knight's sword. She quickly caught up with Yang Hao and the others, and finally arrived at the door of the control room of the Living City Control Tower ten minutes later.

There, the younger generation of Deepsea Hunters and a group of Templar Knights stood guard at the entrance. Upon seeing Yang Hao approach, they made way for him.

Yang Hao only took Theresa and Hela into the control room. Inside, he saw the enormous heart Monica had mentioned, as well as a cup as tall as a person, and Sonia and Monica standing helplessly on either side of the cup.

"So, this is what you were talking about?" Yang Hao asked the two curiously, pointing to the red cup that was as tall as a person. It was a grotesque and disgusting vessel with a bone base, translucent internal organs as the bottom, and a large amount of liquid made from dissolved flesh and blood inside.

"Yes, my lord."

"Ah."

It didn't look sturdy; its fragility was evident everywhere. It would occasionally emit a strange red light, the frequency of which matched the beating frequency of the enormous heart next door.

This was something that had to be destroyed—Yang Hao knew this very well. But what about Duke Nikolai?

"And what about Duke Nikolai?"

"We don't know, but we speculate... this thing might be Duke Nikolai."

Sonia pointed to the red cup and said seriously. She gestured for Yang Hao not to get too close to it, lest something unexpected happen.

But if Yang Hao wanted to deal with this thing, he had to get close to it. So after telling Hela to be on guard, he moved towards the red cup step by step.

One step, two steps, three steps.

He stopped about two meters away from the red cup, looked at the liquid in it, and then, in the next instant, he heard a strange voice echoing in his mind.

He glanced at Monica and Sonia; they seemed not to have heard the voice. In other words, was the voice directed at me?

Should he continue listening to gain more information, but at the risk of taking even greater risks, or should he stop here? Looking at the cup... Yang Hao had an idea.

【—The Blood of Pure Flavor—The Hidden Taste—Host and Guests—The Whispering Chamber—The Auspicious Time—The Unending Secret—】

The voice in his head kept repeating those strange words in a bizarre tone, neither human nor beast. The voice seemed to be in a trance, just like those madmen Yang Hao had seen before who were immersed in loan sharking schemes, deluded into believing that they could exchange a large amount of money for "returns" two years later, unaware that what they were seeing was basically an illusion.

But to say it's complete fascination doesn't quite fit... it's more like the correct conclusion reached by a madman after a profound enlightenment. It keeps repeating itself, as if by continuing to repeat itself, it can start all over again.

"...I have absolutely no idea what this thing is."

Yang Hao couldn't help but mutter to himself. As if in response to his muttering, the red cup's murmuring stopped, and in its place, the solution inside began to boil.

Sonia and Monica immediately pulled Yang Hao back, while Theresa raised her shield to block him—but Hela didn't move. She looked at the red cup with confusion, and finally slowly cut the bottom of the cup with her small scythe.

Her cut was slow but powerful. However, her cut only circled the bottom of the cup. Finally, she looked up at her father, who was surrounded by protective arms, and said:

"Dad... I can't help with this—he needs you to solve it..."

She felt a little wronged, and as she spoke, she began to complain about why her mother had left behind things that only her father could solve.

Upon hearing the word "Mom," all three women paused, then simultaneously turned to look at Mr. Yang Hao, who was sweating profusely. Mr. Yang Hao chuckled dryly and took two final steps forward.

"Then what should I do, Hela?"

"—The message left by my mother said that it and that big heart could be made into wood by my father."

"what?"

Wood is an essential material for Yang Hao, the puppeteer, to ascend to a higher level. If he gathers all the materials and successfully creates a truly living puppet, he will ascend to a higher realm.

but--

Can these two things really be made into timber?

Yang Hao was very skeptical, but Hela's subsequent explanation dispelled his doubts:

"—My mother used similar materials when she made me... but this red cup and that heart are made of much higher quality materials than I was made of, aren't they? If they were made of wood..."

"...I understand now. But how does Dad do it?"

So Hela was made from similar materials? Yang Hao bent down and pinched Hela's cheek, thinking that if possible... could he perfect Hela into a real living doll before making the first one?

But we can talk about that later. Right now, the most urgent thing is—how to turn these things into timber?

Is it operated like felling wood?

"--That's all that matters."

Hela pulled Yang Hao's wrist, pressing his palm against the wound Hela had inflicted on the red cup. With the contact of blood and his own skin, Yang Hao felt a burning pain, as if his palm were being scorched by flames, and...

He felt something strange... It wasn't the feeling from the [Puppet Stage], but a strange restlessness coming from deep within his body.

Yang Hao subconsciously clenched his fist—and with his movement, the red cup emitted a strange shriek. He could feel as if he were holding a piece of wood in his hand, and when he pulled the piece of wood out from the depths of the red cup, he saw the red cup crumble into ash and finally turn into a puddle of snowflakes.

Sometime during the day, a crimson piece of wood, slightly taller than Hela, appeared in his hand. Just holding that piece of wood brought him countless unbearable desires—a hunger, but something far more.

He paused for a moment, then he saw a new event:

Item: Wood (Desire)