Chapter 44: Humans Are All Liars!

Chapter 44: Humans Are All Deceivers!

"No one in their right mind would dislike the God of Wealth!"

Sheng Qingquan proclaimed.

The only explanation for his current feeling was that it couldn’t possibly be the God of Wealth.

Thinking of the jade seal's reaction earlier, Sheng Qingquan mused.

"Is this the jade seal’s way of rejecting an intruder?"

"Like an illegal immigrant, it bypassed the visa process, skipped the travel permit, and showed up here, masquerading as a local—no, a local deity."

"As the saying goes, 'All under heaven belongs to the king.' As the guardian of this land, the jade seal took offense. Or maybe it just picked up on the intruder’s ill intent, triggering this reaction?"

That made perfect sense!

So, the issue must be with that God of Wealth statue in the clothing store?

Following Sheng Qingquan’s gaze and train of thought, the staff quickly zeroed in on the target.

They initially planned to rush over and try to apprehend it.

Based on past experience, once Sheng Qingquan’s thoughts were out, and they realized the God of Wealth statue was the Nightmare, the Nightmare would know it was exposed too.

Acting fast might not ensure success, but hesitation would almost certainly let it slip away.

If the Nightmare got away this time, finding it again would be even tougher.

Next time, they wouldn’t have the male or female leads to help track it down.

But oddly, the Nightmare remained motionless, standing silently in the shrine.

It even kept up the God of Wealth facade, looking every bit like a genuine statue.

Was it trying to bluff its way out by pretending to be a real statue?

Or maybe it hadn’t caught Sheng Qingquan’s thoughts?

The latter seemed more plausible.

If it was the former, believing it could fool them, this Nightmare was either not too bright or assumed the staff wasn’t either.

In short, the Nightmare was trouble.

As for why the Nightmare couldn’t hear the thoughts, maybe this was another way the jade seal was rejecting it?

Not one of us, so not worthy of hearing thoughts?

More likely, it was the jade seal shielding its master, Sheng Qingquan.

Either way, since the Nightmare probably hadn’t caught Sheng Qingquan’s thoughts and remained unaware of its exposure, the staff kept searching as if nothing was amiss.

But their peripheral vision was locked onto the statue.

What chance did high-tech weapons stand against something as unscientific as the Nightmare?

Especially since many high-lethality area weapons cannot be used.

The Nightmare has no scruples, but the staff must consider the consequences more carefully.

After all, this is the city center!

Even though the area was temporarily cleared, time was too tight, and only nearby residents were evacuated. There are still many people in Yunteng City.

Fearing harm to ordinary citizens, even going all out might not be enough to catch it, especially now.

We can only stall, waiting for the authorities to clear the area and for Yunteng City to be emptied.

The fewer residents affected, the better.

The professionals held their ground, and Sheng Qingquan, an amateur, didn’t dare make a move.

The situation on Tianlan Star can wait; the longer they wait, the better it gets for them.

But for the Nightmare, it’s a different story.

Once caught in the spatial rift, the Nightmare was filled with regret.

He shouldn’t have been so curious. When he saw the great demons fighting from afar, he should’ve fled and avoided them. Instead of trying to sneak in and profit from their weakness, he should’ve run.

Now, he’d hidden well and hadn’t been discovered.

But he was too close, so when one of the great demons unleashed a forbidden spell, he couldn’t escape its range in time.

Despite running as fast as he could, the shockwave wrecked his protective gear. All his survival gear was destroyed.

It was a loss.

This wasn't the worst part, though.

The great demon who sacrificed his life was of the spatial type. The forbidden curse he cast was so powerful that it affected the nearby space, tearing a rift directly in it.

The rift was small, thin, no larger than a quill pen. But this crack appeared right beside him.

He didn't even have time to react before being sucked into the spatial rift.

Even within the rift, the Nightmare exhausted all means and drained every bit of magic from his body. By the time he was spat out by the rift, he was already gravely injured.

Had he been ejected just one second later, he might not have had the chance to escape at all.

After successfully escaping the spatial turbulence, Night didn't even have time to celebrate his survival. He soon discovered that his misfortune hadn't ended yet.

He didn't return to the Amba Continent, nor did he travel to a higher-level world.

Instead, he was thrown into a world without magic.

Realizing he was still alive, the barely breathing Night tried to absorb external magic to restore his strength and heal his wounds. However, he was devastated to find that after trying for a long time, he couldn't absorb a single particle of magic.

Not a single one.

It wasn't just sparse.

Compared to a world without magic, Night felt that even a low-magic world would be tolerable.

Realizing he was in a world devoid of magic, the already critically injured Night was severely shaken and fainted on the spot.

If it weren’t for the untreated wounds and the blood that flowed out, the power inherent in the blood would have influenced some people, allowing him to absorb a bit of strength from their dreams.

Night might not have even been able to wake up.

After waking up, Night found that things might not be as bad as they seemed.

Unlike Anbar Continent, Night was pleasantly surprised to discover that there were a terrifyingly large number of humans here.

As is well known, unlike other races, humans never restrain themselves during sleep. They dream, and many even love to dream.

After realizing the vastness of this world and its dense population,

Night immediately saw hope for recovery and a chance to return to Anbar Continent.

In a short time, he had planned everything.

Starting from a single point, he planned to first control the people of this city, putting them to sleep. After regaining some strength, he would then expand to the surrounding areas.

Once he controlled the entire world, what would these current problems amount to?

His wounds would heal quickly, and his strength would return to its peak. After breaking through space to return, the surge of abundant magic might even allow him to advance!

This wasn't bad luck.

This was an opportunity!

Just as Night was convinced of this and about to start his plan, he was discovered.

"Damn it!" Night muttered a curse, instinctively wanting to hide in the dream of the nearest person.

But as soon as his form shifted, the thin magic he had just gathered within him instantly vanished.

He couldn't use his innate abilities at all.

He could only hastily collect some blood and use the simplest transformation spell.

For magical creatures like Nightmares, their blood is naturally a potent material.

The blood that had flowed out earlier wasn't enough, so he had to cruelly reopen his wound that had just stopped bleeding to get enough blood. Thinking of this, Night's expression turned grim.

To be driven to such a state by a group of ordinary, magic-less people.

Fortunately, Night stood safely on the shrine, and it should be secure now.

Although he had just arrived in this world, the dream power he had harvested earlier wasn't wasted. Besides recovering some magic and successfully waking up, he had also gained some insight into this world from the dreams.

The people of this world have a very strong belief in the God of Wealth.

Even if it's just a wooden statue, no one would ever think to destroy it.

So, after they search around here and find nothing, they should go.

Then he would find a few people, trap them in sleep, and keep them dreaming. After recovering some initial strength, he could still start his previous plan.

Night had planned well, but who knew why these people kept circling around, with no intention of leaving.

Even the simplest golden piggy bank, they could hold and examine it repeatedly.

What, do these people think I would lower myself to turning into a lowly pig?

This is an insult! They are absolutely insulting me!

And that one staring at the stray dog. The statue of the God of Wealth stood motionless, but Night's fury was already blazing, the flames leaping higher and higher.

Even though these people are all bundled up tightly.

However, he has memorized the aura of these few individuals.

When the time comes, he'll deal with them first!

Night vowed silently.

However, as time passed bit by bit, the severely injured Night soon couldn't hold out any longer.

Especially since the transformation spell was time-limited, and he lacked the magic to sustain it or inflict a new wound to draw fresh blood.

With a thud, Night reverted to his original form and tumbled from the small shrine.

With a crash, Night's weight crushed and toppled the items on the shrine and the cash register.

"Abnormal creature detected!"

Besides searching through plants, Sheng Qingquan also tasked the mecha with finding the Nightmare.

The mecha's detection range is vast; Juan Yun Street is close to Baojing Community, but even thousands of kilometers away, it would still be within range.

This way, Sheng Qingquan could monitor the detection results from home.

Unfortunately, it's likely due to the clash between science and magic.

The mecha didn't detect the presence of the Nightmare at all.

Concerned about potential errors from a distance, Sheng Qingquan personally piloted the cloaked mecha to the scene.

Yet, nothing turned up.

So much so that Sheng Qingquan had to resort to the tedious method of checking one by one, and if it weren't for the jade seal's reaction, he'd still be baffled.

Though the mecha couldn't locate the Nightmare, Sheng Qingquan never retracted his earlier command.

To his surprise, there was a response this time.

Sheng Qingquan glanced at the Nightmare, now in its true form.

It was humanoid, with gray skin and broad membranous wings on its back.

It didn't look frightening; in fact, its slender frame and injuries made it seem almost harmless.

But no one dared to lower their guard.

"So, once the Nightmare drops its disguise, it becomes detectable?"

"Magic can do that?"

As this thought crossed Sheng Qingquan's mind, the Nightmare, realizing its exposure, sprang into action.

Injured and magic-depleted, the demon's body itself was a weapon!

First, grab a hostage and make a run for it.

The Nightmare had planned well, but the moment it moved, its intention to attack was realized. The staff reacted even faster.

A multitude of weapons were launched at the Nightmare.

Rays, corrosive projectiles, ion beams—these cutting-edge short-range weapons of Azure Sky all struck the Nightmare.

All of them aimed to take its life.

Sheng Qingquan also reflexively issued orders.

"Attack the target with full force without causing extensive damage to the surroundings or harming humans!"

"Eliminate the anomalous creature!"

"Understood."

The mechs swiftly sprang into action, joining the battle.

Sheng Qingquan didn’t remain idle either. He didn’t control the plants to join the battlefield, but he recalled the effect of the jade seal and the concept of fortune he discovered while resolving the previous apocalypse.

Sheng Qingquan summoned the jade seal.

He intensified the world’s rejection of the Nightmare while simultaneously drawing the Nightmare’s good fortune to himself.

Unlike last time when he couldn’t bestow good fortune on Yin Xing, and had to stamp the jade seal to resolve the issue,

Helping others gather fortune was difficult, but taking fortune from others was another matter.

Perhaps because the Nightmare wasn’t a native of Azure Sky, it turned out to be unexpectedly easy.

Sheng Qingquan easily diverted the Nightmare's fortune away.

Without its fortune,

the Nightmare, which had been relatively calm, suddenly changed its expression.

As a magical creature, the weapons from Tianlan Star were largely ineffective against it.

Even when hit, there wasn't even a scratch. Even if the attacks struck its existing wounds, the pain was minimal, at most causing the Nightmare to frown slightly.

It was uncomfortable, but not a significant issue.

Realizing this, the Nightmare didn't even bother to dodge, let alone flee.

But now,

with the previous attacks proving ineffective, the mecha switched to new weapons. The staff also had an idea: if high-tech weapons didn't work, perhaps they were too advanced?

Thinking of Western fantasy novels, where archers and swordsmen often appeared. Although their bows and swords were made of special materials and enchanted, they weren't ordinary weapons.

In this situation, they decided to try anything.

The staff switched to cold weapons. Since Sheng Qingquan had informed the guards when he arrived in the mecha, and everyone could hear each other's thoughts, no one approached the Nightmare.

They all used ranged weapons like crossbows.

Surprisingly, in terms of lethality, crossbows couldn't compare to ion beams, or even ordinary thermal weapons.

But it was precisely these cold weapons that proved effective.

The damage inflicted on the Nightmare was far more severe than the previous high-tech weapon attacks.

Even though the effect was still not as powerful as it would be on an ordinary person, it already had the effect of a small knife cutting into flesh.

As is well known, death by a thousand cuts is a form of execution in Chinese history. A small knife can indeed kill a person.

So, if this continued, the Nightmare would eventually die—an exceptionally painful death.

At this point, the Nightmare grew desperate.

He tried to escape, but the rain of arrows from all directions left him trapped.

"How dare you!" the Nightmare, in a moment of desperation, bluffed and scolded, "I am the earthly incarnation of the God of Wealth, how dare you treat me with such..."

"Disrespect," he muttered.

The Nightmare spoke in the awkward language he had learned from dreams, haltingly. Before he could even finish his sentence, he found the attacks intensifying.

Realizing that traditional weapons were effective, the staff quickly increased their efforts.

"Liar!" he shouted.

"You humans are all liars!"

"You promised devout worship to the God of Wealth, daily offerings, three incense sticks morning and night, and even dusting him off!"

What’s going on?!

The Nightmare recalled the fragments he had seen in dreams.

Someone prostrated before the God of Wealth, kowtowing repeatedly, promising a golden statue;

Someone clung to the God of Wealth's leg, begging for wealth, hoping to get rich quick;

Someone flattered the God of Wealth, saying he was the only man she welcomed into her home. She hoped the God of Wealth would bring the Golden Boy and Jade Girl, and that her home was especially welcoming to children who bring wealth and prosperity.

And the woman who said this in the dream, in the previous dream just minutes earlier, had clearly rejected a suitor. The reason was that although the suitor was rich and handsome, he was divorced with a child. She didn't want to raise someone else's child.

The God of Wealth had an extra child compared to the suitor!

Yet the attitudes were completely different.

She couldn't accept the suitor, but was desperately eager for the God of Wealth, almost dragging him into her home.

From this perspective, people's worship of the God of Wealth seemed genuine.

If dreams could be false, he had verified that in these houses, wherever there was a statue of the God of Wealth, the incense burners in front of the statues were never empty. There were always remains of incense sticks burned the night before.

And in front of the shrines, offerings were placed—fresh fruits and snacks. Some even had flowers and candles.

This couldn't all be fake, could it?

The Nightmare couldn't understand.

The Nightmare raged in impotence. Until the very end, before his consciousness completely faded, he heard someone cursing and saying, "Liar? Who's lying? We're beating up this blasphemous scoundrel who dares to impersonate the God of Wealth!"

"What kind of thing dares to pretend to be the God of Wealth!"