IWOL Chapter 63: Caught Off Guard

Cui Zuojing and Dong Zheng were in a mess.

After a night of arduous battles, the dolls were exhausted and drenched with urine.

They had planned on persisting until down and to dry themselves once the sun came out. Then, they could take turns to rest. But dawn did not come.

Instead, what came was an endless night of despair.

The health clinic was crowded with injured, exhausted dolls. They were soaked through, with an unpleasant stench emanating from their bodies. They were crowded so closely together in the health clinic that it was nearly disastrous for everyone’s noses.

The battle at the city wall was still ongoing. Because there were a lot of residents in town, the line of defense was still unyielding. However, if this continued, they wouldn’t be able to maintain it for long.

There was one more trickier thing.

Allen still hadn’t returned.

The night before, he’d left with some dolls to transport soapy water. But, until now, the soapy water still hadn’t arrived. There was no news from the whole team, whose whereabouts remained unknown.

Because of the absence of soapy water, two giant earthworms had drilled deeper underground and were able to successfully enter the town. Amidst the screams of birds, they turned everything upside down.

The silver lining was that, after destroying part of the town, the earthworms left, as if their purpose for this trip was merely to cause some damage. However, if it weren’t for Wang Que discovering it in advance and informing Cui Zuojing, who drew them out, the unsuspecting dolls would have had a hard time handling it.

Dong Zheng couldn’t contact Allen, and the uncertainty in his heart became increasingly more grave. There was no need to think carefully. Everyone could guess that something must have happened.

After all, this was a box where anything could happen.

In the Pure White Realm, they could use their mobile phones to contact each other. But, external electronic products were not allowed in the box. If they wanted to contact each other, they must rely on the communication methods provided by the box.

Cui Zuojing could sense that Dong Zheng was very anxious. In the entire team, he and Allen had the best relationship. This was the first friend Dong Zheng made in the Pure White Realm.

Cui Zuojing himself was also a bit worried. Although he had no emotions, it didn’t mean he wouldn’t care if his companion disappeared.

“I’ll look for him.” Cui Zuojing took the Tang sword. It wasn’t his style to sit and wait.

“Pay attention to safety.” Dong Zheng needed to discuss the next dispatch with General Bear. If he could get away, he would have also gone with Cui Zuojing.

“Focus on worrying about yourself.” Cui Zuojing smiled and poked him in the chest with the sword handle. After saying this, he put on a raincoat and left the command post.

The more simple evil talking beasts were almost wiped out, but the decayed rats were still coming in endless waves. There were also many giant caterpillars. These colorful and frightening caterpillars were highly poisonous. Once the bristles pricked the dolls, it would cause the dolls to rapidly fall into a coma.

The caterpillars had climbed all the way up the city wall. As a result, Dong Zheng went up with Cui Zuojing and personally killed a few of them. He was also able to obtain their weaknesses from the manual. He soon taught the dolls to mix essential balm with 300 to 400 times more water to chase them away, thus avoiding direct confrontations that would inevitably result in great casualties.

At present, the sand model and the illustrated manual were their biggest hidden trump cards and played a crucial role in helping them achieve victory.

More and more dolls were sinking into poor health. After confirming that the giant earthworms had left, Wang Que remained in the health clinic to help the nurses take care of the dolls. The smell in the room was thoroughly disgusting, but Wang Que had no complaints.

When the nurse commented that the dolls symptoms were more akin to poisoning, Wang Que observed for a while. Then, she borrowed a kitchen, set up a cauldron, and boiled the herbs she’d received from the box.

The box would never give them useless prop. Up until now, all props except for the herbs had been used. In that case, it wouldn’t hurt to try. Although they’d joined the campaign, the dolls were still the main force standing against invaders. Therefore, it was vital that their combat effectiveness be restored as soon as possible.

Once the boiled medicinal soup turned light green, Wang Que diluted it with hot water and distributed them to the sick dolls.

Three hours after he’d left, Cui Zuojing returned with Allen, who was injured and unconscious.

Allen was covered in blood, and Cui Zuojing was carrying him with difficulties. It wasn’t because Allen was too heavy but rather, it was due to their differences in height. Allen was 190 centimeters tall, while Cuo Zuojing was only 1.7 meters.

The moment he sensed Cui Zuojing’s return, Dong Zheng immediately walked out of the command post and saw the young man walking towards him in the rain. Shocked, he hurried forward to take the unconscious Allen from Cui Zuojing. After checking his breath and finding that he was breathing, Dong Zheng said, “What happened?”

Cui Zuojing straightened up and stretched his waist. “I found him in the rubble of the part of town that had collapsed. He was crushed under a prefabricated board. If it weren’t for my sharp eyes, I might have missed him altogether.”

Allen had a wound on his head, and the blood that streamed down had covered his face in a terrifying red. Dong Zheng was afraid that the urine would cause an infection and rushed him to a house nearby. The health clinic was packed with too many dolls soaked in urine and poisoned by caterpillars. As such, it wouldn’t be suitable for a wounded human.

Then, he took the “stitched-heart bear,” who’d been working non-stop the whole day, and put it next to Allen.

The little bear blinked, touching Allen’s muddy hands. It spit out a piece of cloth and a lot of cotton from its mouth, stitched it into a lung shape, and placed it on Allen’s chest.

The lung disappeared in front of Cui Zuojing’s eyes.

Ten seconds later, Allen’s face suddenly twisted, but he didn’t wake up. The little bear sewed a piece of cloth into the wound on his forehead, completely healing Allen’s injury.

“It’s really easy to use.” Cui Zuojing couldn’t help but sigh. He’d seen many medical items during his previous pilgrimage, but there were very few medical items like “Stitched-Heart Bear,” which was not only extremely effective but could be used repeatedly.

Dong Zheng said, “I hope the box will let us take it out. Even if there are restrictions on future use, it’s definitely a good item.”

Allen showed no signs of waking up for a while, so Dong Zheng used a damp cloth to wipe down his body and change his clothes. Cui Zuijing sat and watched, having no intentions of helping.

“Did you find any clues around? I don’t believe he was just smashed into this way by the prefabricated board.”

This could happen to anyone. However, Allen had the ability to increase his speed; he could have easily ran to a safe location.”

“There were traces of battle, and there were many doll corpses around. It seemed that the dolls who went with him were all dead, and that’s why no one came to report. Enemies have entered town.”

Dong Zheng silently looked out the window. Agatha’s castle was invisible in the rainy night.

“Since the murderer didn’t show up here, he probably went to the castle with intentions to harm Agatha.”

Dong Zheng’s tone was very certain, but Cui Zuojing wasn’t very worried. He looked at the group of black birds, held his chin, and quietly said, “With Victor there, there won’t be much trouble. Compared to that…you’d better worry about your mission first.”

“…..”

*******

Lin Hangzhi gradually awoke from the chaos. His stomach ached painfully. Groaning, he opened his eyes and slowly turned his head to look out the window.

The rain was still steadily falling and the sky was still dark.

“Awake?” Victor, who’d been lying on Lin Hangzhi’s pillow while he slept, noticed his movement. He lowered his upper body and stretched out his lazy cat waist. In a low voice, he said, “I induced you to vomit. I’ll use my ability to purify you. It shouldn’t be a big problem since Linhai had already used egg whites to detoxify most of the poison’s negative effects.”

Lin Hangzhi opened his mouth and successfully managed to croak out a sound, though it sounded terribly hoarse.

“I took a bite of the supper that was meant for Agatha. I didn’t even swallow it. That was it.”

“I know. Now the whole castle knows that someone tried to poison Agatha. The dolls will investigate strictly.”

“Where is Xiaohai?”

“He was taken in for investigation. Although the three of us knew with a 99% certainty that the person who’d tried to poison her was Pan Chuangen, we still can’t beat the grass to scare the snake. You may have ruined his plan this time, but he would definitely try again.”

Lin Hangzhi nodded and closed his eyes again. The memory of his near-death experience was enough to make him breathless.

What did it feel like to get hit on the head by a huge billboard?

He couldn’t remember. Death came so suddenly that he was completely caught off guard.

Victor became silent. The soft pads of his paws rested on Lin Hangzhi’s face, emitting a faint white light as he began to expel the poison. The dose was extremely small but it was lethal and very fast-acting. This was a poison he’d never seen before in modern medicine. But, in this Pure White Realm, anything could happen.

Fortunately, Lin Hangzhi was fine.

After a while, Dong Linhai opened the door and silently entered the room. He locked the door behind him, sat down on the side of the bed, and anxiously pressed his finger against Lin Hangzhi’s carotid artery.

Lin Hangzhi opened his eyes without warning and said with a smile, “I’m not dead. Don’t worry.”

Dong Linhai was somewhat startled. The boy breathed a sigh of relief and pretended to complain, “God, you scared me to death. At that time, when you were sent over, you vomited yellow water all over your body and was having a seizure. If it weren’t for Uncle, I would be burning incense for you right now.”

“It seemed that my luck wasn’t too bad after all. After being killed by a billboard, I was able to enter here and have Victor save me from being poisoned to death.”

Lin Hangzhi feels much more comfortable under Victor’s purification and was able to sit up. “Pan Chuangen knows that the entire castle is in an uproar. Instead of making do with small movements, he would probably try to deal with Agatha as soon as possible. Now that we’ve reached the critical juncture, my guess is that once we’ve dealt with Pan Chuangen, the troubles that engulfed the entire town will disappear.”

Dong Linhai nodded in agreement. “That Pan Chuangen must be very strong. There’s only a few of us so we can’t confront him head-on. I’m not sure what we can do. Brother Hangzhi, can you help me think of something?”

Four to five hours had passed since Lin Hangzhi’s poisoning.

In these four to five hours, the castle was a chaotic mess. All the kitchen dolls and all of Agatha’s personal maids were thoroughly investigated and interrogated. In this paradise that they’ve gathered together to protect, there was absolutely no room for traitors.

******

Agatha’s bedroom was very quiet. There was a small lump under the soft comforter on the princess bed. It slowly rose and fell with each breath, and a strand of golden hair spilled out from underneath.

Agatha was deeply afraid of the dark so she left the candlestick on her bedside burning. The flames flickered quietly, illuminating the surroundings and expelling her fears.

Suddenly, the flame jumped abruptly and went out without warning.

Everything became enveloped in a deep and heavy darkness.

The bedroom door slowly cracked open, and a slightly short and stout shadow was revealed in the elongated light.

Carrying a dark dagger in his hand.

—————————

Xixi: I started reading Silent Reading by and couldn’t manage to pull myself away long enough to work on this project. If you like crime and investigative novels with a good BL romance, I do recommend it. Now that I’m all done, though, it’s back to work. Hopefully, I can make up with multiple chapters to post tomorrow.