Chapter 332 - 329: Lies and Truth

Chapter 332: Chapter 329: Lies and Truth

Mo Ling’s tears dripped down, splashing onto the metal floor.

The water cup in his hand fell instantly. He squatted on the ground, breathing heavily.

He seemed to feel someone pinching his cheeks.

But when he suddenly looked up, he saw nothing but the empty metal floor.

The cup rolled farther and farther away, until it hit the wall.

"CLINK."

That heart-wrenching feeling appeared again. In that moment, he understood the Nest Builder—or rather, he *was* the Nest Builder, the "beggar" who had nothing from beginning to end.

’A sham built on lies?’

Mo Ling looked outside the Block. The fake Fire Thief Studio had vanished completely, leaving only a puddle of black liquid that was constantly evaporating. Black fragments floated into the air and scattered with the wind.

’As soon as someone knows the truth, everything will be shattered. Everything built on lies will turn to dust. That’s the price of that relic.’

Mo Ling now roughly understood how the fabulously wealthy Master Guo had become the island’s beggar. Although the memory didn’t explicitly state it, it was easy enough to guess:

’He told his wife the truth, so all the lies shattered. Others discovered what he had done, and Mr. Guo naturally became a so-called "relic criminal" and was imprisoned.’

In the end, he still told his wife his "secret," even though the price was the collapse of his false life.

Thinking of this, Mo Ling sighed again.

Wiping the tears from his eyes, Mo Ling stood up.

His heart felt heavy, but he didn’t feel it affected anything.

’This is someone else’s life.’

Mo Ling was very clear on that.

He looked at the black objects inside the Block, which were shedding black fragments, and said with determination, "I will help you figure out what exactly happened on this island."

The objects, of course, did not respond. They just continued to shed fragments, remaining quietly within the Block.

Outside the Block, Li Luo and Jin Lou were both watching the gradually vanishing fake building.

"Your ability is really something, Fire Thief."

"It’s not my ability, it’s its," Li Luo explained, pointing at the Block.

"The Block has an identity, too? What’s its identity then?" Jin Lou’s way of thinking hadn’t shifted yet; it was still processing things according to the rules of Hell Island.

"I don’t know. It never told me."

"Oh." Jin Lou nodded blankly. "Then let’s go. We’ll head back the way we came, to the safe house. It’s getting late, we need to hurry."

"Okay."

Jin Lou took Li Luo and plunged into a small alley.

But its movements were noticeably more cautious. As it went, it warned Li Luo, "If you see any glows or sparks or anything like that, you have to tell me. We need to get as far away as possible."

"What identity is that?" Li Luo guessed at once. It had to be the external manifestation of some identity’s ability.

"The Lamp Repairer, and the Arsonist. This should be the time they come out. But as long as you avoid those two in time, there’s no danger. Neither of them likes to attack proactively."

However, as Jin Lou ran, it suddenly stopped.

On the street in the distance, a wall of black fire had appeared, stretching far into the horizon.

"This is bad. We were too slow. The Arsonist’s fire has already started to burn," Jin Lou’s voice trembled.

"What should we do?"

"We’ll have to take the long way around. Get to the edge of the fire wall. Hopefully we don’t run into the Arsonist," Jin Lou said helplessly.

After speaking, it led Li Luo and ran toward the end of one side of the black fire wall.

Fortunately, the direction they chose seemed to be correct. They didn’t have to run far before they saw the edge of the fire wall, and there was no Arsonist there.

"Hurry, get past it."

"Okay."

The two of them skirted the scorching fire wall and continued to duck into the alleys.

Away from the fire wall, the temperature finally dropped. Li Luo wiped the sweat from her forehead, still shaken, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Judging from that searing wall of fire, the Arsonist was a difficult identity to deal with. It was a good thing they hadn’t faced it head-on.

However, just as they had escaped one crisis, the sound of CLANKING and TINKING came from the alley ahead.

Hearing this sound, Jin Lou quickly turned and led Li Luo in another direction.

"It’s the Lamp Repairer. If we run into him, whatever you do, don’t look at his light. That light will pull you into a sleep from which you’ll never wake."

Li Luo froze for a moment. ’Isn’t that the white light from the island?’

But she immediately remembered that Jin Lou knew nothing about Paradise Island, so she swallowed the question on the tip of her tongue.

"Even we robots can’t block that kind of light. But if the situation gets critical, you can try closing your eyes and not looking."

"Okay." Li Luo nodded in agreement.

The two quickly moved away from where the sound was coming from, taking a detour. But the clanking sound seemed to be following them, growing louder and louder, as if the Lamp Repairer was in the very next alley, tailing them.

"What’s going on? Is he following us?" Li Luo asked worriedly.

"No. He just happened to appear over here. As far as I know, he never actively gives chase. We’ve never been able to figure out his movement pattern. It’s like he can appear anywhere."

Jin Lou’s explanation only made Li Luo more nervous.

’Anywhere?’

She listened carefully to the clanking. It really did seem erratic—one moment it was in front of them, the next it was behind. Sometimes it was far in the distance, and other times it was as if it had suddenly appeared in the adjacent alley. It was horrifying.

Not only that, but the clanking also grew more and more frequent, surrounding them, forcing the two to quicken their pace.

Jin Lou even stopped bothering with turns and started taking straight paths.

At the same time, Mo Ling spread his field of vision and saw what the Lamp Repairer looked like.

Like a child covered with a black bedsheet, the Lamp Repairer held a small black hammer, constantly tapping at the walls. After knocking a crack open, the Lamp Repairer would take a black stone from under the sheet and stuff it into the crack.

But that wasn’t the most important part.

Mo Ling finally understood why the clanking was coming from all directions.

Because there wasn’t just one Lamp Repairer!

As far as his vision could see, there were Lamp Repairers everywhere. Small figures covered in black bedsheets would suddenly appear, stuff a stone in, and then instantly vanish.

However, Mo Ling didn’t see the familiar white light. These Lamp Repairers were just pitch-black masses, and the tools they used were pure black as well.

’Could it be under the bedsheet?’

At this thought, Mo Ling swallowed, cautiously extending his vision under one of the Lamp Repairer’s bedsheets.

If anything seemed wrong, he would pull it back immediately.

But when he saw what was under the sheet, Mo Ling froze.

It was not what he had imagined.

The Lamp Repairer... wasn’t human...