Chapter 5: The Truth

The words from the fragment bring back memories of Yan Jin Chang’s past just before his explosion. After confirming he’s trapped, the two cunning, treacherous individuals refer to him as the protagonist and set up a formation specifically designed to drain his luck.

Yan Jin Chang feels resentment bubbling up inside him, his hand accidentally brushes against the floating light screen. He discovers that the map pattern on the screen disappears, replaced by a pale blue image filled with many small icons.

Frowning, he examines this strange object and reaches out to swipe across it. With just that one swipe, the images on it change again, revealing a bunch of text!

The arrangement of the words is strange, he reads them vertically from right to left, he finds that he recognizes each character but cannot read a single sentence smoothly.

It is only when he changes his reading method to horizontal from left to right that he finally understands the text.

Yan Jin Chang: “Divine Level Puppet Master?”

Curiously, he looks down further and quickly realizes that this is like a story. The content of the story is quite long, roughly telling the story of a person who continuously cultivates and grows. Coincidentally, the protagonist of this story is also named Yan Jin Chang!

Unlike his previous life, this protagonist, who shares the same name, obtains inheritances and treasures through various trials and experiences.

He then eventually reaches the peak of one Realm, and then due to chance, enters a new place, starting new adventures and journeys.

During this journey, the protagonist encounters many people, witnesses numerous events. He learns a lot of knowledge, strives to become stronger, and grows diligently.

Later ultimately breaks through to become a Deity, even refining Divine Level Puppets. Moreover, the protagonist himself becomes a world-renowned Divine Level Puppet Master.

Yan Jin Chang finds this story extremely novel because in his past life, he was taken back to the sect by Xiao Ming Ran at a young age.

He directly left this small village and went to Xuan Yao Sect, where he settled down. Xiao Ming Ran told him that he has been poisoned and needed to stay in the sect. Given that, he could leave the sect only a handful of times.

Moreover, every time he left the sect, Xiao Ming Ran gave him a small bottle of medicine and instructed him to take it daily.

A few times, due to unforeseen circumstances, he lost the bottle he carried or ran out of it and could not take the medicine on time, resulting in him falling ill.

When he fell ill, he went into a frenzy, losing his rationality, slashing and killing indiscriminately. And each time, he needed the pills refined by Xiao Ming Ran to suppress it.

In his previous life, Yan Jin Chang could not leave the sect for long periods, most of the time, he could only make puppets within the sect.

Xiao Ming Ran provided him with many materials to create puppets. Since Yan Jin Chang was also interested in this area, he passed the time that way.

The experiences of the protagonist in this story are what Yan Jin Chang fantasized and hoped for in his previous life, yet he could never fulfill it due to his illness.

“Does the protagonist in this story have anything to do with me?” 

Yan Jin Chang looks at the story presented before him, murmuring softly: “Is that why those two individuals call me the protagonist?”

“If it is as I think, then what is this world?”

[Ding! Arrived at the vicinity of the “Divine Level Puppet Master” protagonist… Yan Jin Chang, please… save the target, gain… trust points. When trust points reach 10, you can… obtain a special item…as reward.]

Just as his thoughts race, the black fragment in front of him emits broken sounds again. At the same time, Yan Jin Chang sees a person suddenly rush out from the alley below!

That person turns to look around and quickly notices the group of people engaged in a brawl. The person hesitates for a moment, then looks down at their wrist, where a black bracelet is worn.

On the bracelet, a white light screen appears, which is somewhat similar to the one emerging from the black fragment in front of Yan Jin Chang! He suddenly stands up, picking up a piece of tile, and fixates intensely on the person below.

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Chapter 6: The System

At this moment, the person wearing brown cloth turns his head slightly, and Yan Jin Chang can see the side of his face—an unfamiliar face. 

Yan Hin Chang freezes for a moment, his hand, which is already gripping the tile, retracts again. He crouches down to continue watching below.

The attention of the person in brown cloth is clearly focused on the group of people engaged in the brawl and the black bracelet on his wrist. Completely unaware of the small child standing on the roof watching behind him.

It seems the person is comparing something, glancing back and forth between the bracelet and the brawlers several times. Finally, as if he has made a decision, he picks up a stick from the ground and charges into the crowd!

Soon, the person in brown cloth runs out from the brawl, holding a child wrapped in white cloth! That child is noone other than Da Lu, who Yan Jin Chang forcibly wrapped in the white cloth!

Yan Jin Chang is filled with many questions and sees that the person is swiftly heading into the alley with Da Lu, so he quickly follows! At this moment, he has not yet started cultivating, so with many injuries on his body, his speed is slow.

However, he is very familiar with the village, and since he is moving on the rooftops. Even though his speed is somewhat low, he still manages to keep up with the person.

The guy clearly isn’t from the village and is unfamiliar with the roads. After running into the alley, he turns here and there, losing his way, and has to stop and check the bracelet.

Da Lu, who he is holding, is either knocked out during the brawl or rendered unconscious by him. At this moment, the kid lowers his head, showing no reaction to being kidnapped.

Yan Jin Chang does not get too close, carefully crouching on the roof to observe.

The man thinks no one is around and starts muttering complaints to himself.

“This item you gave me is so useless! It can only make me invisible for ten seconds. In those ten seconds, people can’t see me, but they can still hit me! I got punched a few times! It hurts like hell!”

“Is this the protagonist? His face is all swollen, so ugly.”

As Yan Jin Chang squats on the rooftop, countless questions flood his mind.

“An unfamiliar face, an unfamiliar voice—who is this person? Why is he capturing Da Lu? What is that black bracelet the person has, which is similar to the black fragment he found? It can also project a white mist?”

“The key question is, why does this person appear at such a coincidental time? Just after the black fragment displays those messages, this person rushes in urgently.”

“What?!” The man suddenly exclaims.

“Is this not the protagonist I’m holding? Did I grab the wrong person?”

At that moment, Da Lu, who the man is holding, slowly regains consciousness. As he becomes aware, the pain on his body and face hits him like a wave.

Until now, Da Lu has always been the one leading the group of children to bully Yan Jin Chang. No one has ever dared to bully him, let alone hit him.

He only realizes the pain when the fists land on him. Experiencing this for the first time, Da Lu cannot bear the pain and begins to cry loudly.

The man holding Da Lu originally forcefully snatched him away. Now, upon hearing Da Lu’s loud cries, he panics and quickly reaches out to cover his mouth but accidentally touches Da Lu’s swollen face.

This makes Da Lu feel more pain, causing him to struggle and turn his face away, crying even harder.

The man, with a hand full of snot and tears, complains disdainfully: “Shut up! You unlucky brat! How could I grab the wrong person!”

“Da Lu!” A worried voice comes from nearby, it’s Da Lu’s mother.

Upon realizing her son is missing, she anxiously searches around. She happens to hear Da Lu’s cries and rushes over, only to see a strange man in brown cloth holding her son with one hand while trying to cover his mouth with the other!

“Da Lu!” 

The mother is enraged and rushes up, shouting: “Return my son!”

At this moment, Da Lu’s father also arrives, seeing his wife struggling with a strange man for their son. He angrily rushes over, swinging his fists and landing several punches on the man in brown cloth!

Standing on the rooftop, Yan Jin Chang watches, dumbfounded. The man in brown cloth is being scratched and beaten by Da Lu’s parents.

Since they are in a dead-end alley, the person wants to escape but cannot. He shouts in frustration: “System, save me!”