Chapter 131
Chapter 131: Gathering in Huihun Town
In the Polar Ice Wastes of the Savage Realm.
The howling wind. The swirling snow.
Inside the Arashin-Kai's temporary base, the Joker slowly opened his eyes.
"How did it go?"
The Nightmare hugged Dusk and leaned forward impatiently.
Those eyes—brimming with expectation.
"No Words Needed should be good and dead, right?"
"Not for nothing that I burned through such a massive amount of energy to get you that trump card."
After all, he had deployed his domain, making all 100,000 living creatures across the entire Polar Ice Wastes share the same dream at once.
All of it—just to let the Joker's Stand obtain the Savage Warform.
This investment had to see a return.
The Joker blinked.
"Mm~ dead and gone, he is~"
A smile spread across the Nightmare's face.
"But~"
The Joker tilted his head, shut one eye, and stuck out his tongue.
"Dead and gone is me~, heh~"
"......"
Thud.
Dusk slipped from the Nightmare's hands, his head knocking against the floor, and he burst into loud wailing.
And the Nightmare.
Visibly flushed red.
From the neck up to the crown of his head, from the crown of his head all the way down to the soles of his feet.
"You! Absolute! Imbecile!"
He bit out each word, voice squeezed through clenched teeth.
"We poured so many resources into this! And you couldn't even take out a complete greenhorn!"
"You can't finish off a nobody fresh out of the gate?!"
"Do you even deserve to breathe?!"
For the next 3 minutes, the Nightmare unleashed a torrent of vile abuse.
From intelligence to character, from birth to death—a comprehensive, zero-blind-spot takedown.
The Joker spread his hands with a helpless expression.
"Nothing to be done, nothing to be done~"
"That monster—he's genuinely not something I can handle right now."
He scratched his chin, his tone turning uncharacteristically serious for a moment.
"I'd bet everything that even the Heavenly Blade Dragon King back in his day—the one everyone talked up to the heavens."
"At that age, he absolutely would not have been a match for him."
"Couldn't even carry his shoes."
The Joker narrowed his eyes, recalling the final image transmitted back before his Stand died.
"And what's most deadly about that guy—he can stop time."
"Not in the true sense of controlling the time sequence."
"Troublesome. Troublesome beyond all measure."
"Hmph. Don't try to give yourself a way out."
The Nightmare's fury had curdled into cold laughter. He closed in step by step, looming over the madman from above.
"Who would believe half a punctuation mark that comes out of your mouth?"
"You, who takes pleasure in making fools of everyone—have you ever told a single true word in your life?"
But the Joker suddenly smiled.
He tilted his head back and met the Nightmare's gaze, which was full of killing intent.
"Believe it or not~"
"Either way, the fact is—the plan to intercept No Words Needed has completely fallen apart~"
He stood up without a care, brushed the dust from his tailcoat, and his tone turned playful.
"Stop flying into a rage. Our most pressing priority right now."
"Is taking over the mess at Soul-Return Town."
"After all…"
"We're all just dogs working for the Evil God. You don't want to see the master get angry, do you?"
"Ahem, ahem…"
Before he had even finished speaking.
The Nightmare's hand was already around his throat.
"You dare speak of the Evil God so carelessly?"
"Are you looking to die, Joker?!"
"Cough… heh heh……"
The Joker laughed with great difficulty, face going red.
"What's the matter with it……"
"To Them, we're nothing but tools anyway."
"Just venting a little behind Their back… so what?"
"Besides…"
He pointed at himself.
"Aren't I doing this out of concern for Their plan?"
"Would you say I'm right, dear Nightmare?"
The Nightmare stared at him for 3 full seconds.
Then.
With a cold snort, he threw him to the ground.
"Don't let it happen again."
"Otherwise, I really will kill you."
The Joker picked himself up off the floor, rubbed his neck, and kept that grinning expression all the same.
"I know, I know~"
"So—how are the preparations for the Soul-Return Town business coming along?"
The Nightmare reached into his chest and produced 2 gold-colored talisman papers, which he tossed over.
"Take these."
The Joker caught them and glanced down.
"These are… Teleportation Talismans?"
"That's right."
The Nightmare scooped Dusk up from the floor and, while coaxing him, explained.
"These are talisman papers made by Dusk before he turned foolish."
"Unlike those black talisman papers that can only transport spiritual forms."
"These are the genuine article—capable of physically teleporting a person onto Eerie Island."
"The destination is Soul-Return Town."
The Joker flipped through the talisman papers in his hands, clicking his tongue in admiration.
"2 of them?"
"Why give me 2?"
"You're not thinking of having me bring this little fool along, are you?"
He pointed at Dusk in the Nightmare's arms.
The Nightmare gave a cold laugh.
With one kick, he sent Dusk sliding over.
"Bring him with you."
"Perform the ritual with him there."
Dusk rolled twice on the ground, then...
Kept crying.
"Mm-hm~"
The Joker caught the rolling Dusk, picked him up, and looked him over.
"Fine, fine—since the travel expenses and the sacrifice have both arrived…"
He turned his head and looked at the Nightmare.
"Now you should finally tell me the specifics of the scheme you've laid out in Soul-Return Town, right?"
The Nightmare gave a slight smile.
"You'll understand once you get there."
"Oh~ so mysterious~"
The Joker nodded.
Then...
He handed the 2 talisman papers back to the Nightmare.
"?"
The Nightmare's brow furrowed, his gaze turning wary.
"What? You want to defy orders? You don't want to go?"
‘What scheme is this madman cooking up now?’
But the Joker was shaking his head.
"No, no, no! Of course not! I still have a working-man's sense of duty!"
As he spoke, he freed up his right hand and reached it inside his tailcoat.
Then—under the Nightmare's dumbfounded stare—the Joker produced a stack of talisman papers.
A stack.
In the truest sense of the word—a stack as thick as a deck of playing cards.
Gleaming golden, and at a rough count, no fewer than 20 to 30 sheets!
"What I mean to say is~"
The Joker tilted his head. "I actually have quite a few of these things myself~"
"Your 2 rare pieces—keep them for your own protection~"
"......"
The Nightmare was completely stunned.
He stared wide-eyed at that thick stack of golden talisman papers.
"You… how do you have so many?!"
"And they're all gold ones?!"
The Joker scratched his chin and recalled.
"You know how a couple of years back the Arashin-Kai was running tight on funds and short on operating expenses~"
"Dusk hadn't turned foolish yet back then, so he pulled a big crate of these things from the secret vault for me."
"Told me to go sell them to the locals, with a 70-30 profit split agreed upon."
"But then…"
He spread his hands and shrugged.
"Not one of those fellows was willing to buy once they heard it was a trip to Eerie Island."
"After all—the island's reputation, you know it."
"Go there and it's hard to come back."
"So…"
He shook the stack of talisman papers in his hand.
"A whole warehouse—all ended up with me."
The Nightmare's lips began to twitch.
"So… who did you end up selling them to?"
His voice was trembling.
"You didn't… sell them to those human bases, did you?"
The Joker waved both hands frantically.
"How could that possibly happen?!"
"Sure, I'm a madman—but I'm not stupid enough to arm the enemy, alright!"
"When I couldn't sell them, I just wrote them off as scrap paper."
"Sold them at a discount to that not-very-bright Sub-Dragon Clan living on the Polar Ice Wastes."
"Besides, they don't listen to the Dragon God, and they're at daggers drawn with the humans."
"At most they'd use these things to study spatial fluctuations—they'd absolutely never actually use them."
The Nightmare let out a breath.
"Hmph. That's more like it."
"At least you haven't gone completely mad."
The Joker clapped him on the shoulder.
"Relax, relax~ those lizards are incredibly dumb."
"Think about it—unless some Sub-Dragon with a screw loose."
"Had nothing better to do and treated these things like treasures, carrying them around at all times."
"And then, on top of that, had the misfortune of eight lifetimes' worth of bad luck!"
"And just happened to run into a human pioneering team of terrifying strength."
"And then got killed on the spot, dropped their loot, and got their corpse looted by a human~"
"Only if all those absurd conditions were met simultaneously."
"Could these talisman papers possibly fall into human hands?~"
"You tell me—how could that possibly happen! Ha ha ha!"
The Nightmare laughed too.
"Ha ha ha, right, how could something so stupid poss…"
His laughter froze.
The Joker's laughter froze too.
The 2 looked at each other.
"Right now, the most elite unit in the Huaxia military…"
"Isn't it just out there sweeping the Polar Ice Wastes?!"
"They're forcing their way into the Dragon God ruins!"
"And besides… the one leading them is the War God!"
The Joker's expression looked worse than if he were crying.
"Those Sub-Dragons… they wouldn't actually…"
The Nightmare drew a deep breath.
Then...
He exploded.
"Joker! You absolute ****ing ****!"
......
At the same time.
Huaxia's Second Base—Think Tank Research Center.
The lights blazed.
Shen Lian was leading a group of researchers, gathered around an experiment table.
On the table lay a gold-colored talisman paper—stained with blood.
The door was pushed open.
Wan Changzheng strode in.
"Results?"
Shen Lian turned around and saluted.
"Commander."
She pushed up her glasses and her words came rapid-fire.
"The talisman paper's function has been largely analyzed."
"Based on our deductions, this is a single-use item carrying spatial attributes."
"And…"
She pulled up a holographic projection—on it, a map of Eerie Island.
"The anchor point it is locked to—is right on Eerie Island!"
"However, due to a slight deviation in the spatial coordinates, we cannot determine the absolute landing point."
She circled 3 areas on the map with a laser pointer.
"The range should fall within one of these 3 locations: Rainy Night Valley, Soul-Return Town, and Seattle Mercy Hospital."
Wan Changzheng nodded.
"That works out well."
He walked to stand before the projection and looked at that map.
"The sea surrounding Eerie Island is sealed off by an S-Grade sea monster—conventional vessels can't get through at all."
"With this, we can bypass the naval blockade and directly deploy our elite forces onto the island…"
"Wait!"
He spun around sharply.
"Hold on!"
Shen Lian started. "Commander?"
Wan Changzheng's pupils contracted slightly.
"Eagle Nation and Sakura Nation…"
"Could the S-Grade item they received have been… this very thing?!"
Shen Lian was silent for 2 seconds.
Then she nodded.
"Yes, Commander."
"According to our intelligence analysis, what Eagle Nation and Sakura Nation received should be precisely this talisman paper."
"These were found on the bodies of a few Sub-Dragons that Commander Lin casually killed on the Polar Ice Wastes."
"Theirs should be the same."
"If we're not mistaken…"
She paused.
"Eagle Nation and Sakura Nation don't only have newcomers on Eerie Island."
"There are also those leading them…"
"At minimum—a Tiger-Grade squad."
Wan Changzheng fell silent.
After a long moment, he exhaled slowly.
"I'll go notify Commander Lin shortly."
"Tell him to kill a few more Sub-Dragons."
"This thing…"
"I want as many as there are."
Shen Lian's lips curved slightly upward.
"Yes, Commander."
Bunny-Bunny