Soul Trigger

Chapter 670 The Fanatic

"This is... an alien?"

A voice of surprise and uncertainty came from the side.

"It's amazing that you could think of aliens. This must be some kind of soul weapon or something like an evil spirit."

Aquil blushed and retorted, "Such a huge crop circle, what else could it be but aliens?"

So, are those so-called UFO sightings and crop circles actually caused by awakened beings?

Ji Li didn't have time to care what his younger sister was thinking. Instead, he called out Fei Lin's name in his heart. Of course, there was no response. Da Lei was fast asleep.

He finally understood why Felin was so certain that he was definitely not a "pioneer".

Ji Li knew what his eyes looked like; they might be disdainful of the world, arrogant, or proud, but without a doubt, they were filled with desire.

Whether it was his desire for power or his indulgence in lust, he never concealed his desires.

But the people in this wheat field are different.

His gaze was cold, not even indifferent, but rather devoid of any desire.

He was neither sad nor happy, neither calm nor peaceful, as if nothing in the world meant anything to him.

That's right, this is definitely not him, at least it can no longer be called him.

Is this the price of ascension? But in the scenes of communicating with the founder of the World Tree high in the sky, he wasn't like this yet; this undoubtedly happened afterward.

What exactly did I become after I came into this world a hundred years ago?
Compared to the growing doubts, what rose more deeply within Ji Li was an unnamed fire.

He felt a provocation, a provocation against his very existence, which enraged him.

A spiritual place...

"Hey, hey! I've called you several times, what are you standing there for?"

A head of red hair appeared before him, and Ji Li, snapping out of her daze, saw Ai Guier looking at him with suspicion:
"what happened?"

"Is there some kind of magic in this photo? I've never seen you interested in aliens before. Come and take a look at this."

The anger in Ji Li's eyes was quickly concealed. He casually placed the photo frame aside and, as he walked over with Ai Kui, he took the photo out of the frame and stuffed it into his pocket.

Although Aiquier sensed some intense fluctuations in Ji Li's spiritual energy, the inexperienced Aiquier did not realize what it meant and simply took it as a normal phenomenon after a great battle.

She led Ji Li and squatted down in front of the half-mud, half-mechanical dog creation:
"Look, these are the things we just encountered."

Ji Li also squatted down beside her:
The Leap Wolf... is a copy of the 12th generation Balanced model.

He sensed something and took out the mud ball from his pocket, bringing it closer to the unfinished product.

As a tiny fragment of the mud pellet uncontrollably separated and burrowed into its body, the thing quickly came to life, and the crudely made imitation head's nerve cells glowed white—

Calling it a head nerve light source is a bit of an exaggeration. If the original Jumping Wolf was an absolutely precise industrial product based on World Tree technology, then this thing can at most be considered to be at the level of a Rolex.

However, perhaps because it was a "development machine", it couldn't move anywhere except its head, and could only roar at Ji Li and Ai Guier.

The latter laughed after some teasing:

"This is a major discovery! Ms. Laurent will probably give us a bonus, right?"

"Indeed, a fine trophy."

Ji Li and Ai Guier found a huge warehouse in a hole that had been damaged by external force, where some completed jumping wolves were still left.

Clearly, those jumping wolves came from here, and Ji Li's silt activated them.

The warehouse, the size of a stadium, was divided into neatly arranged cubicles by gears and machinery. Although most of the jumping wolves had been eliminated by the two, the scattered survivors were interspersed among them, as if one could see the spectacular scene of all the cubicles being filled.

Aquile watched in amazement:
"My God...who would have thought there was such a huge space underground in the old campus?! Speaking of which, shouldn't we finish them off?"

"Just don't let them be activated by the silt. After that, let Angelica and the others come and see how to handle it. Don't forget our purpose."

"Yes, the Holy Land of Odin!"

Aquil slapped his fist: "The remaining spiritual energy in the Dead Apostle corpses can actually activate these machines, and this place corresponds to the location the nursery rhyme points to... Could it be that Odin is actually a Dead Apostle too?!"

The conclusion is actually correct, since I am now a true Dead Apostle, but that's not the point at all...

"You should say that at Green Manor, and see if they beat you up or not."

If you dare to tell a believer in Evangelical Christianity that the one nailed to the cross is actually Satan, see if they'll throw their Gospels at you like bricks.

"What else could it be?" Aquile scoffed.

"This shows that the nursery rhyme was not referring to Odin's holy site, but to this place."

Aiqui was slightly taken aback; the athlete's mind calmed down.

"The sludge spirit comes from the Dead Apostles, and the Dead Apostles come from the mastermind, so this place is actually the mastermind's laboratory... its old lair?"

Then...aren't we in great danger right now?
“Angelica should be on her way already, don’t worry.” Ji Li patted Aigui’s shoulder:

"It's no use in just thinking about it yourself; there's something ready-made here."

It has been basically confirmed that this is the clay puppeteer's laboratory.

Although the tombstone does not mention the clay sculptor's passion for handicrafts, the laboratory and the characteristics of the mud spirit are very obvious.

However, the Knights and Aquile were unaware of the existence of the Clay Figure Master, and this might be a good opportunity to tell the Knights.

Ji Li wandered among the experimental tables, where there were blueprints for the jumping wolf, a large number of clock-like mechanical parts, and the remains of some failed products.

They were all covered in dust, which meant that no one had been here for a long time, and perhaps even the gravedigger who had been in town for many years had never been to this place.

These traces indicate that these machines are indeed replicas driven by spiritual energy.

The gear mechanism forms the skeleton, the flowing silt spirit material forms the muscles, and the artificial spirit core within it serves as the power source, constructing an exoskeleton after the silt spirit material has hardened.

The clay figurine maker clearly put in a lot of effort, but the place has been abandoned...

Ji Li found a small room deep inside the laboratory, where there were more picture frames.

There were crop circles, windmills, and a former town, but what caught Ji Li's attention even more was a metal altar and the radiant light shooting into the sky above the crop circles.

The former is the original version of the altar in Green Manor. Without those messy materials, it presents the appearance of the World Tree's metal spine, which looks quite sophisticated, like alien technology.

The latter's radiance descended from the sky, enveloping several figures within it.

You can vaguely see the figures of Jason's great-grandfather and grandmother among them.

The brother and sister appeared to be struck by a more concentrated part of the glow, or perhaps the glow was emitted from their brains and gathered high in the sky with others.

I can't tell if they're receiving or sending money.

Within the radiance that enveloped the sky, a vague, indistinct shadow appeared, resembling some kind of large aircraft, or perhaps... a base.
Ji Li didn't find the information familiar, but there was no doubt that this information confirmed the connection between the clay puppeteers and the pioneers.

Even from the angle of the shot, Ji Li saw a hint of...admiration?
"Pulitzer, look what I found!"

Aquil appeared before Ji Li holding a poorly presented, bound book:
"Experiment Log!"

Ji Li reached out to take it, but Aiquier pulled him closer, and the two of them put their heads together to examine it:
[On September 12th, the restoration of one of God's great creations failed for the 79th time. I shouldn't have just watched that descent, missing that opportunity to speak with Him personally. I am ashamed of my fear, but it's too late for regrets now.]

[September 23rd, the people of the Keton Federation are all talk and no action. Their technology is less than one ten-thousandth of that of the Great Ones. These idiots can't even understand what a sphere is! How did they even get to the moon?]

[October 29th, as expected, the technology of this era is simply insufficient to restore divine creations; only spiritual methods can be used… Fortunately, I am well-versed in this art; it's time to start anew…]

[February 17th, a great achievement! I succeeded... I created my first prototype! Although it can't do anything and can only last for less than a minute, it far surpasses any clay figure I've ever created...] [July 23rd, damn it, why can't I create intelligent life like that? Why are they just tools and not spiritual beings?! Even if I can't create human life, can't I start with what I'm good at?! Why why why why why why!!!]
-
"Created humans?! Did this guy... go mad in the end?"

Aquile was somewhat stunned:
"The Greatest One refers to Odin? And he is also a follower of Odin?"

"They don't seem like believers, but rather like fanatical scientific worship of some behavior or substance of Odin."

"Pulitzer, are you talking to me about science?"

Aiquier turned to look at Ji Li and almost burst out laughing.

Combined with those photographs, these diaries reveal an enormous amount of information.

The pioneers came to this town for unknown reasons, met Jason's great-grandfather, and bestowed something upon him, and even created something.

This scene was witnessed by a clay figure maker active in Saint-Germain-des-Prés at the time. He must have seen the advanced technology possessed by the pioneers and even obtained some of their products, which led to a kind of fanatical worship.

This reveals two pieces of information.

One is that it confirms one of Ji Li's conjectures: the pioneers did indeed bring the technology of the Murphy Megastructure to this world.

In other words, somewhere in this world, there exists a prosthetic body that I can directly use?

The second question is: what exactly did the clay puppeteer see?
A leaping wolf? An AI-powered electronic life form?

Although electronic life is prohibited in the Murphy Complex, it's a remote location far from the central government's reach, and given that it's set in a future story after Ji Li's ascension, with further technological advancements, creating electronic life is quite reasonable...

As for why Ji Li believed it to be electronic life, it's because only life possesses emotions, which would allow the clay puppeteer to utter words like "spiritual essence."

This suggests that the clay puppeteer must have seen that the jumping wolf "created" by the pioneers possessed spiritual qualities, thus confirming that the pioneers created life.

This behavior of the creator inspired his fanatical worship, after all, the clay puppeteer himself was skilled at creating clones.

It's understandable that he would display intense fervor and worship when a true creator appears before him.

"But doesn't that mean... Odin is a real god?!"

Ji Li shook his head:

"He may just be a very powerful awakened being who made the owner of the diary believe him to be a 'god'."

The two continued scrolling down and finally found information directly related to Odin's Holy Land:
[December 17th, everything has settled. I merely created a pile of useless junk. The true answer lies in the space He left behind… No, it's a sacred site. I must make a pilgrimage… The mortals of the Grimm family simply cannot understand what that means. I will definitely open the sacred site to glimpse supreme knowledge. Great World Tree, please bless me!]

The diary was mostly blank at the end, but on the last page, the two found the nursery rhyme:

Red leaves covered the pebble base

The truth is buried deep within the tree roots, in a forbidden zone.

Oak-sealed lip with vines locking the eyes,

The mysterious remains of Red Maple Town will forever remain in eternal slumber.

"Space, the World Tree, the Grimm family... This is a major discovery... He really is the mastermind! But how come he hasn't found the Holy Land after all these years?"

Ji Li added, "Not only that, but this nursery rhyme also seems to have been written by him."

Aquil was slightly taken aback:
"Doesn't that mean... the trail has gone cold?"

Yes, the clue the gravedigger gave before he died was a nursery rhyme. Although the nursery rhyme did point to this laboratory, they did discover the existence and motives of the mastermind and learned more secrets.

But the most important Odin site remains missing.

"Do not."

Ji Li picked up her diary:
"The Green family must know something."

He took down the framed photograph from the wall; it was the picture of Jason's great-grandfather bathed in light.

“It is reasonable for the Green family to develop a fanatical worship of a creator and thus have faith, but it is simply impossible to leave nothing to their descendants, not even a single piece of information.”

The two exchanged a glance:
"Is Old Green hiding something?"

"Or perhaps, he simply doesn't know."

A female voice came from behind the two of them. Angelica, with a solemn expression, strode into the laboratory, her eyes flashing with extreme astonishment as she scanned the room.

"Ms. Laurent!"

But Angelica looked serious:
"You two, get out of here immediately."

Aquil's joyful expression froze for a moment:
"Forehead?"

"This is an order. Leave here immediately."

"The fourteenth on the Dead Apostle's high-risk list is the 'Clay Puppet Master.' This is its laboratory. It's extremely dangerous. Leave immediately!"

……

"My grandfather?"

Jansen seemed extremely surprised by the new information brought back by Ji Li and his companion:

“That’s impossible! Grandpa has witnessed the power Odin bestowed upon me. He even nearly died. He has already told us all the secrets!”

Are you really sure?

Inside the base's mansion, Ji Li looked directly into Jansen's eyes:
"Are you really sure he told you everything? Then how do you explain these photos?"

Jason stared at the clues brought back by the Knights, especially the photograph of the ground bathed in radiance, and was speechless for a moment:

“That was indeed my great-grandfather, but… Grandpa probably just didn’t know these things; they were lost, just like he never intended to tell me!”

Angelica, standing next to him, frowned, then relaxed.

Angelica never believed that Jansen had received Odin's power.

She assumed that Jason had become an Awakened One, and she had pointed this out to him before, but his reaction was quite strong. Out of respect for his faith, she let the boy go his own way.

She stood up and said:

"Don't worry, Jason, we won't do anything to your grandfather. We just need to find Odin's Sanctuary."

In a sense, Old Grimm is also in danger now. Only by finding Odin's Holy Land can we lure out the Puppet Master and completely resolve the enormous danger lurking in Red Maple Town.

Jason's eyes flickered, and after being persuaded by everyone, he finally relented:
“I know, I understand… I’m just worried.”

He glanced at Pulitzer, his expression complex.

"Grandpa is still in the city because of the sailing competition and won't be back until the day after tomorrow. Let's go see him together then."

The group exchanged glances and all nodded.

"The day after tomorrow."

“I have already informed the Red Hunter ‘Shepherd Dog’ of this matter, and he has begun to take what is happening here seriously. We need to be prepared for the puppeteers… Lord Bordeaux?”

"I know, of course I'll cooperate. After all, I'm part of the reinforcements, aren't I?"

"As for the machinery, let Andrew stay there. He should rest and recuperate for the next couple of days, and try to remain dormant. I also have some preparations to make..."

Angelica's gaze drifted towards Ji Li almost imperceptibly.

(End of this chapter)