Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 577 This is the "old friend" you were talking about?!

"You'll find out soon enough," Tian Bufan said mysteriously. "By the way, from now until I call you, don't say a word... Of course, you might not even have a chance to speak."

Before Tian Bufan could finish speaking, he began to move the "puppet" around.

Although it's a cannon fodder-level puppet, it has to be said that the driving experience is good, and it doesn't feel like driving an old tank.

Since Tian Bufan told him not to speak, Lin Yi shut his mouth and began to observe his surroundings.

The puppet continued to advance through the forest of corpses, but after a short while, it turned onto a gloomy and dark path.

The trees along this road are thick and lush, with branches reaching for the sky. Their canopies are connected to each other, almost blocking out the entire sky, making the already dim sky unable to let in even a ray of light.

"Where is this...?" As soon as Lin Yi saw that Tian Bufan had deviated from the Forest of Corpses, he became extremely alert. Could this be the depths of that dense forest?
The puppet was an emotionless robot, moving forward on dry leaves and soft soil, its movements creating a "rustling" sound in the secluded forest.

This is somewhere deep within the green forest, where an eerie atmosphere, like viscous liquid, tightly envelops everything. Mist, like a living thing, swirls and flows through the woods, sometimes gathering into strange shapes, and sometimes drifting away in wisps...

The ancient trees around them grew taller and more twisted, their branches intertwined like tentacles reaching out from the darkness, baring their teeth and claws in all directions.

Lin Yi was certain that trees like these no longer belonged to the human world, at least not to a campus like S City University.

He soon discovered that the ancient trees deep in the dense forest had rough, cracked bark, and some areas of the trees had faint traces of what appeared to be secret patterns, as if they had been imprinted with a mysterious aura after enduring the erosion of endless years and the torment of mysterious forces.

There were no animals in the dense forest. As the forest monster walked across the soil piled with fallen leaves, it could not detect even the slightest trace of life.

Throughout the dense forest, only the occasional, inexplicable wind blew by, sending chills down Lin Yi's spine.

Suddenly, Lin Yi understood why he had felt something was amiss ever since they stepped into this place!
Not only were there no signs of any living creatures here, but there weren't even any signs of nocturnal creatures or pseudo-human sculptures!

Here's a joke—there's an area in S City University where there are no nocturnal creatures or fake human sculptures.

"etc!"

Thinking of this, Lin Yi was suddenly struck by a strong sense of contrast, as if he had been struck by lightning!
"What does it mean to have an area devoid of nocturnal creatures and pseudo-human sculptures?!"

Generally speaking, this phenomenon may not be entirely nonexistent, but if we apply the "fog-seeker effect," then we can deduce that there must be a terrifying being of extremely high status in this place!

No ant dares to trespass on the lion's territory!
Just then, he saw an abandoned lamppost emerging from the bushes not far away.

The lampshade of the lamppost was broken, and the light bulb inside had been removed. There were also scarlet paint stains on the lamppost itself!
"...Black...Outpost-095..."

Abandoned lampposts with red painted serial numbers!

It's still the number from the former Black Moon Outpost, the predecessor of the Art Building!

"Is Young Master Tian going to the Art Building?!" This thought popped into Lin Yi's mind. But isn't the road to the Art Building the same one that Lao Mo took?

Is there another way?

But the puppet that Tian Bufan was talking about was cannon fodder!

"What the hell is going on?"

Just as he was still puzzled, a slight tremor suddenly came through the soft sand beneath the puppet's feet...

Lin Yi felt the tremor, and Tian Bufan, who was also a puppet "driver," naturally felt it as well.

So Tian Bufan stopped the puppet in his tracks and stood silently in place.

Lin Yi still had some questions, but soon, the mist deep in the forest was slowly stirred by the swirling breeze.

A faint "clang clang clang..." sound accompanied by occasional gusts of wind and waves slapping against the puppet's body.

Gradually, the "clang clang clang..." sound became clearer and clearer. Lin Yi finally heard it clearly. The sound was like the sound of sharp swords rubbing against metal. It seemed that there was a huge creature covered with swords moving in the depths of the dense forest!

The wind that hits you is the vibration created by the air it compresses as it moves!
The wind grew stronger and stronger, as if it concealed endless blades, or like a tornado, rushing towards us.

"I'm here to negotiate!" Tian Bufan shouted loudly towards the direction of the approaching storm.

No one responded.

Except for the wind.

The wind scattered the puppets.

"call--"

A strong wind swept in, and before Lin Yi could react, he felt as if he were falling into the clouds. Even though he wasn't looking with his eyes, he saw a large expanse of "clouds" that could completely obscure his vision!
He felt dizzy, as if he had lost his sense of direction, and everything around him was becoming blurry...

He tried to perceive it, but what he perceived was exactly the same as what he "saw"—a hazy, foggy scene!
The next moment, an excruciating tearing sensation invaded his will through the puppet. He felt like a fish tightly entangled in a fishing net, with each mesh of flesh being clamped by a pair of pincers. When the wind came, countless pincers exerted their force together, pulling him in all directions until he was torn into countless pieces!
"call--"

Lin Yi felt his consciousness being completely torn apart, and then beginning to reassemble under his will.

After he reassembled it, the world before him had transformed into a desk...

He was thrown backward as if he had been knocked away, and crashed heavily into the back of the chair behind him.

"call!"

After leaning back, Lin Yi suddenly sat up straight, and when he looked again, he found that he was back in the classroom!

"I……?!"

"What I just did...?!"

"What just happened..."

Those things, though real, felt incredibly dreamlike to him at that moment.

It's like a fleeting dream, hard to tell what's real and what's not.

He was a little confused.

But the next moment, a heart-stopping fluctuation suddenly appeared.

Immediately afterwards, an unprecedented tearing sensation surged directly within his soul, as if magma had suddenly erupted from a crack in the earth, enveloping his entire being.

This seems to be the pain caused when the puppet was blown away by that wind, which, tracing the path of "will leap," descended upon him!
It was a delayed, intense pain that surged and roared like a tidal wave, permeating every inch of his consciousness.

Lin Yi's face turned deathly pale in an instant, large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, and his body trembled uncontrollably. He almost couldn't recover from the sudden, intense pain.

He nearly suffocated, and it took him a long time to recover before he began to gasp for breath.

"Damn... it feels like being slashed by the force of cause and effect along the river of time, like in a novel."

Lin Yi couldn't help but sigh. Perhaps this was what those so-called special calamities were like...

"But then again..."

When his will was channeled into the puppet, it had already switched to a "splitter" once. However, the gust of wind chased after him and struck him twice, knocking him back into his main body!
Without Tian Bufan's call, it was like having no coordinates; it seemed difficult for him to leap his will across.

He glanced down at his watch.

10: 16.

The figure of the homeroom teacher, 040, had already left the podium.

Xu Shunkang and the others in the classroom had already left; they must have all gone to the cafeteria.

The cafeteria opens at 10:40, so theoretically, leaving the classroom at that time is about right.

However, he hesitated. The cafeteria was open until 13:20 PM, and he could go a little later because of Tian Bufan's matter.

But... why hasn't Young Master Tian summoned me yet?

Tian Bufan prepared so many puppets, are they just going to be cannon fodder once?

He glanced at Wei Liang.

Wei Liang had already changed to a different book, but he didn't urge him to go to the cafeteria.

"Liangzi, shall we sit a little longer before going to the cafeteria?"

Wei Liang buried himself in his book and completely ignored him.

"Ryoko...?"

"Oh, I know, you go ahead and do your thing. Call me when you're leaving, don't disturb my enjoyment of art." Wei Liang waved his hand impatiently, his gaze never leaving the book.

Lin Yi roughly understood; Wei Liang wasn't in a hurry.

Wei Liang wasn't in a hurry, mostly because he knew what Tian Bufan was doing.

After all, he was the blessed Wei Liang Tianzun that Tian Bufan spoke of.

Just then, he heard Tian Bufan calling him again.

"Old Lin..."

Lin Yi's eyes lit up, and he immediately began to sense it.

This time, when he activated his senses, new inspiration emerged.

Just like last time, he saw the twisted and collapsing spatial lines that could not be described by the laws of physics, and this time, he also clearly saw a blurry point of light within them.

"Is that Young Master Tian's 'coordinates'?"

He quickly controlled his will to penetrate through, and soon, a thin mist began to appear around him again. Beneath the mist was a blurry realm like a cotton ball.

Within the realm, there was none other than Tian Bufan.

He plunged down, and his consciousness entered Tian Bufan's body.

……

In the green forest belt.

Lin Yi's voice echoed in Tian Bufan's mind: "I'm back, Young Master Tian."

Tian Bufan's eyes lit up: "Okay."

"What is that thing? It reminds me a bit of a 'giant snake'..." Lin Yi couldn't help but guess.

The "Great Serpent" is the "Shadow of the Root," also known as the "Shadow of Jormungandr."

If he hadn't known clearly that the location of the "giant serpent" required traversing the Forest of Corpses, situated between the layers of the campus and the art building, he would have truly matched that thing with the "giant serpent."

Tian Bufan said, "How do you know it isn't? That's what you call the 'giant snake'."

"But... I remember it was clearly..." Lin Yi asked in confusion.

“It’s in the crack between the layers, right? That’s where we just went,” Tian Bufan said calmly. “It was already late when you finished making the puppet, but from the time we went in until we were killed by it, only 2 minutes had passed for Kuai Kuai here.”

Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat: "Has the time scale been stretched out?"

“That’s right, the timeline is distorted deep within the layers,” Tian Bufan said. “So…”

"Wait, no!" Lin Yi suddenly realized something. "That 'giant serpent'! Is that the 'old friend' you mentioned?!"

"When did we ever have friends like this?!"

"And what's with all this 'old friend' stuff where they dump gold coins on us the moment we meet?!"

Tian Bufan said calmly, "It has a bad temper, let it vent. Okay, if you're ready, let's go in."

"Should we continue delivering?" Lin Yi couldn't help but ask.

"Send a few waves first," Tian Bufan said. "Let it vent... then it'll talk to us properly."

Lin Yi suddenly thought of something and couldn't help but ask, "When we made the deal with Night Watchman-02, was it similar? Did they use puppets? Or did they send out several waves of puppets first?"

Tian Bufan said, "I don't know."

He kept his mouth shut and didn't let Lin Yi get any information out of him.

"Then why are we going to find it?" Lin Yi asked.

Tian Bufan's will permeated into Puppet No. 2: "Of course, it's for negotiating terms."

"Is it related to our mission?" Lin Yi asked tentatively.

Tian Bufan smiled mysteriously: "It's not a big deal, but it's absolutely necessary."

"If you want to know, come with me."

Lin Yi naturally followed into Puppet No. 2 without hesitation.

Tian Bufan then once again piloted the puppet to travel through time, heading towards the location of the "giant snake".

……

After a while.

"I'm here to discuss a matter..."

“Bang—”

……

The puppet was blown away once again, and then Lin Yi's consciousness appeared in the misty fog.

This time, however, he discovered a distorted and broken spatial layer within the fog, and immediately captured the coordinates of Tian Bufan beneath the fog, seeing that realm.

He then quickly returned to his original position.

Then, it returned to Tian Bufan's body.

"Haha, this time I wasn't slapped back into the teaching building!" he exclaimed excitedly.

Tian Bufan nodded slightly: "This is your 'adaptability' characteristic. Alright, now we need more puppets..."

"Making puppets takes a lot of time. Will we not have enough time?" Lin Yi asked hesitantly.

Tian Bufan said, "Those two puppets were just for you to practice with. Next, we'll go deep into the Corpse Forest and create puppets directly at the edge of the layer rift. Time distortion is greater there, but it won't have much impact on Corruptors of our level. Plus, you have the watch and the 'Ouroboros Ring,' so that should be enough."

"Shall I put on the Ouroboros Ring now?"

"You don't need to wear it at all, but it will put it on by itself when you need it, after all, it is also... never mind, let's not talk about this."

Lin Yi: "Huh...?"

(End of this chapter)