Tang paused, silently taking a step back under Owen's death stare.
"Ah, about that, I just remembered I have something to do. Talk to you later~"
Owen almost laughed in exasperation, "Tsk, look at you, you know what you did at a time like this."
He reached out and grabbed the back of his younger brother's neck, the very fate of his own flesh and blood about to flee, and lifted him up. "Now, tell me, bit by bit, what exactly happened?"
"And those two earthquakes, were they your doing? Come on, let's talk about it in detail."
Tang: "...?"
Wasn't this guy always a bit slow on the uptake? Why was he so sharp at this moment?
But was this expression of emotion still an influence of the Dark Side of the Universe? Had this power amplified Owen's emotions in this regard?
But he was a demigod, a demigod!
Was it appropriate to lift him like this? Was it appropriate?! Huh?!
'Host, it's because you're not tall enough~'
"...You talk too much."
Looking at his own brother, Tang finally mumbled, "Well, it's a long story."
"Then make it short."
"It can't be explained in a sentence or two..."
"Then describe specifically what you did."
Tang finally gave up resisting, "Can you put me down first, please?"
'Host, why not just make him a marionette? Aren't you short on marionettes?'
Tang glanced at his own System and replied gloomily, "I think you're stirring things up."
Being stupid was one thing, but having a bad heart was incurable.
Hmm, what would happen if I directly stuffed it into the System warehouse during the next sun's ascent?
Something to look forward to.
System: '??'
'Host~ I didn't say anything~'
A little bit of System death to liven things up.
Hibernate, shut down.
Owen put him down, and Tang selectively and roughly explained everything, but hid most of the content related to his own secrets, exaggerated the role of the Never-Ending Theater here, and emphasized the rubber eraser angel.
Owen's facial expressions were quite精彩.
"The Night Church's '0' level sealed artifact, that's extremely dangerous. It has a certain connection to the Hornacis Mountains. If He catches you and erases you, you'll be teleported to a small town."
Taking this opportunity, Tang also revealed some of the Night Church's secrets to Owen.
After all, it seemed neither he nor Owen were considered good for anything in the eyes of the Night Church. And Owen, who followed the Death pathway and was a direct descendant of Death, Salinger, was even more likely to be a thorn in the Night Church's side.
If Owen was erased, he would probably have to find a way to enter the main peak of the Hornacis Mountains in advance, well, provided he was still alive and hadn't been hung up as a marionette by the chopping board fish.
"However, after advancing to Sequence Four Trickmaster, I can exchange positions with a marionette equipped with the 'Bionic Module' at any time. As long as that small town hasn't 'god-hidden' along with Euclid's space, allowing a part of the spirit thread to ascend dimensions, thereby penetrating the blockade of concealment, as long as the connection of the spirit thread is maintained, then even if I go, the danger won't be too great."
Owen looked at Tang, who seemed to be in thought, raised his hand, and directly patted him on the back.
"Alright, be careful next time."
Seeing Tang frown again, looking like 'are you nuts?', Owen smiled helplessly.
He knew Tang was stubborn about certain things. Like this time, even if he had immediately escaped, no one would have blamed him, but he still took the risk.
Owen was very clear that the Never-Ending Theater, a Sequence Two sealed artifact, couldn't possibly be at the disposal of a Sequence Five Beyonder. Angel-level sealed artifacts inevitably carried great risks with each use.
Since the other party didn't intend to say, he wouldn't press further.
"I think your brain really needs to be thrown into the underworld for a wash. The one who was lectured was you, and now the one acting like 'I can't do anything with you' is also you."
Problematic.
Tang muttered, but Owen changed the subject, "I plan to collect the auxiliary materials for Sequence Four."
"You've completed digestion?" Tang was a little surprised hearing this. "How long has it been since you advanced? You've completed the digestion of the Watcher potion so quickly?"
"Better safe than sorry. Besides, that armor should be able to serve as the potion needed for advancement." Owen shrugged.
In fact, when his father gave the Undying's extraordinary characteristics to Owen before, that was also the intention.
"That's not a big problem." Tang said casually.
Not to mention asking his father to crush the magical items, he had the System and the Never-Ending Theater. Crushing a Sequence Four extraordinary characteristic wasn't a problem.
"As for the advancement ritual..."
Rituals were performed to counteract the madness and loss of control inherent in the potion itself. Just like the Sequence Four advancement ritual for the Seer pathway, what he needed to counteract was the Trickmaster's schizophrenia, to make every spirit worm acknowledge that he was the main body, and all the marionettes were just puppets in his hands, not masters.
One careless move, if the ritual effect wasn't enough to offset the loss of control resulting from this level of transformation, then he would instantly turn into countless spirit worms, schizophrenic, devouring his body, turning into a monster.
And the advancement of the Undying needed to counteract two points.
One was 'death' itself. The biggest characteristic of the Undying was that they would constantly die and be reborn again.
This was also one of the few Sequences that possessed the extraordinary power of 'resurrection from death' at the Saint level.
But this also made the Undying's potion have great hidden dangers. A living person drinking it would be immediately assimilated by the Undying's power. A dead person... ah, what potion did a dead person need to drink?
To counteract this influence, during the advancement process, Beyonders of the Death pathway needed to maintain the boundary between life and death, neither being a living being nor truly dead.
It was probably the so-called living death.
And the second point was the need to counteract the disappearance of memories.
The Undying had a long lifespan, and memory was something that would accumulate over time. Forgetting again and again and remembering again and again, this schizophrenia would cause the Beyonder who drank the potion to forget all memories in an instant. If they didn't remember before the potion completely transformed their body, then it would also lead to loss of control.
These two points were what this Sequence of the Undying needed to overcome. Therefore, the Undying's advancement ritual was 'at the critical point of life and death, when memory faded to the extreme but was remembered in an instant, taking the potion under the huge contrast produced by the mutual impact of the two extreme states.'
Under normal circumstances, these two completely opposite extreme states were difficult to achieve, but there was a spirit world creature called a 'banshee' in the spirit world. This creature could create an effect similar to 'feigned death'. As long as it was caught, then only the problem of memory needed to be overcome.
But for most Sequence Five Beyonders of the Death pathway advancing to Sequence Four, both were equally difficult.
The former was because the spirit world was vast, banshees were rare, dangerous, and difficult to detect. Once they encountered a threat of death, they would immediately leave the spot; the latter was because without the help of high-Sequence Beyonders similar to the Audience pathway, it was very difficult to immediately recover memories after forgetting everything. This was quite difficult. Once they couldn't recall, it was equivalent to the ritual failing, and the most tragic outcome was becoming a half-dead, empty-headed monster.
"So I need to find a banshee," Owen said, "or something with similar extraordinary abilities."
Using the Theater Core's miracle might work. This shouldn't exceed the Theater Core's Sequence, and it could respond with a miracle.
Or just go directly to his father. He should also have a way.
Tang pondered the Sequence Four advancement ritual, thought for a while, and felt he could handle it.
Regarding memory, the Manipulator's extraordinary characteristics in the Sun Scepter could be used for manipulation, so it shouldn't be a big problem.
"I'll keep an eye out for you... oh, right, I plan to take that witch away."
Tang slightly changed the subject.
That witch had killed many people. Even if they deserved it, once the witch, who was close to losing control, completely went mad here, death would be her only outcome.
"It's good to take her away." Owen said, "The environment here isn't suitable for her."
"So considerate of people~" Tang teased.
Owen's mouth twitched again, suppressing the urge to hit someone, glanced at his younger brother, and then walked out.
The chat ended. When Owen walked into the group of officers, Tang dispelled the illusion and re-entered Euclid's space.
There were no demigods here. The high-levels of the Night Church and the Storm Church were probably still dealing with the impact brought by the vessel of the Dark Side of the Universe and couldn't spare any manpower. As long as that rubber eraser didn't pass by, here, as a demigod who had already advanced to the Seer pathway and possessed Euclid's space, Tang could be said to be in his element.
Returning to the hotel he had rented before, looking at the clean and tidy bed, Tang first went to the bathroom for a good wash, then rolled around on the comfortable bed, and finally began to carefully count his gains from this trip.
'New task updated.'
'Main Mission One: Advance to Sequence Three, Ancient Scholar.'
'Main Mission Two: Retrieve the Sequence One extraordinary characteristics and Uniqueness of the 'Hermit' and 'Perfectionist' pathways.'
'Task status updated.'
'Main Mission One: Advance to Sequence Four, Trickmaster.'
'Task Status: Completed.'
'Task: [The Roleplaying of the Marionette Master]'
'Task Status: Completed.'
'Task: The Gaze from the Abyss.'
'Task Status: Completed.'
With the completion of the three tasks one by one, and the end of the main mission and the roleplaying task, Tang gained a large number of knowledge fragments, appraisal chances, and artisan chances.
Advancing to Trickmaster also increased the System warehouse's capacity, directly from Sequence Six, ten slots, Sequence Five, twenty slots, to Sequence Four, forty slots.
Obviously, upon entering the demigod level, the System warehouse's capacity would also increase accordingly.
Similarly, after advancing to demigod, a new forging template also appeared in the 'Artisan' module.
''Bionic Marionette' Module Forging'
'By consuming spirit worms, or the extraordinary characteristics of the Seer pathway, or the extraordinary characteristics of the Omniscient pathway, you can independently forge new 'Bionic Marionette' modules! But please note, marionettes are about quality, not quantity. Too many marionettes might fight sometimes, you know?'
"This is quite interesting."
After the forging module was opened, as long as he could afford the consumption of spirit worms, according to this, could he completely scatter marionettes to every corner of this world?
Thinking about it, ah, this is my marionette, ah, that is also my marionette.
This one and that one, one in the east and one in the west, the enemy's friend is my marionette, the enemy's enemy is also my marionette... hmm, this is quite Trickmaster-like.
Tang looked at the last reward.
'Task: The Gaze from the Abyss.'
'The Dark Side of the Universe, which had been struggling to escape from a certain state, has been lying dormant for a long time. This time, it has finally found a perfect way...'
'When the abyss's shadow appears in the eyes that gaze into the abyss, when the sun is no more, when plants wither, when spirituality is extinguished, when all things fall into the land of depravity, that hand, symbolizing the most filth and depravity, will personally push open the door to the abyss!'
This was the task issued by the System when Tang fought the vessel of the Dark Side of the Universe.
Similar to the previous task 'The Never-Ending Theater', both were extremely dangerous, involving top-level powers above Sequence Two.
Like that task, after completing this task, the System opened a new module.
A module called 'Repair Culture Dish'.
'Are you still worried that your marionettes are not high enough level? Are you troubled that you have nowhere to put your extraordinary characteristics? Have you used your marionettes for a long time and developed deep feelings, but had to give up because their level was too low? Are you also worried about some of the smells of your marionettes? It doesn't matter! This module fully provides after-sales service for your marionettes!'
'Our aim is, no cavities!'
'Dear, you can spend a certain amount of knowledge fragments to maintain, repair, or upgrade your marionettes~'
What the hell was no cavities.
Tang's eyes also twitched for a while as he roughly browsed this new module, his heart slightly moved.
"The essence of marionettes is dead people. Even if you forcibly inject potions, they will only combine with the marionette itself to form诡谲 humanoid sealed artifacts."
"That is to say, from the moment a Beyonder is made into a marionette, the marionette's Sequence level is already fixed. Even if my level increases, the marionette's level itself will not increase. I can only enhance my own strength by replacing marionettes."
This module, if it was useful, seemed somewhat useful, but if it was useless, it was really useless.
"First of all, since I have the corresponding extraordinary characteristics, why not directly make them into magical items, but instead upgrade the level of the marionettes? Secondly, if I want better marionettes, I can just replace them directly, why go through such a big detour?"
Compared to the Bionic Marionette module, which provided a fundamental improvement for the Marionette Master, this module seemed somewhat鸡肋, and only had some use in cleaning and repairing marionettes?
Speaking of cleaning marionettes...
"System, can pollution and the like be cleaned up together?"
Tang suddenly asked.
'Yes, host.'
The System quickly flipped through the user guide and replied to the host's question.
That is to say, after he pulled the marionette over to bear the pollution, he could wash it and use it again?
Speaking of which, shouldn't the Worm of Time also be considered a type of pollution? If he stuffed a marionette parasitized by the Worm of Time into it, could it be washed away?
Tang suddenly thought of this.
(End of this chapter)