Chapter 553 - 551: Defective Heart of the Magic Puppet

Originally, Hilia had planned to gain this blacksmith’s favor by turning in the quest, then take the chance to ask whether he knew what was going on with that God in Dusk Town who was making everyone spontaneously worship.

Now it seemed she wouldn’t be able to get anything out of him.

"Forget it, it’s too late now. Better hurry back to Dawn City for a night’s sleep; the rest can wait until tomorrow."

Dusk Town wasn’t far from Dawn City. Hilia wandered around Dusk Town for a bit and, seeing no sudden incidents, had no choice but to mount her Flying Broom and fly toward Dawn City.

Before long, Hilia settled down in Dawn City, checked into an inn, and took out the most valuable trophy from the haul—the Heart of the Death Attribute Puppet.

This Heart of the Magic Puppet was entirely black, even darker and deeper than a Dark or Shadow attribute Heart of the Magic Puppet.

Holding it in her hand, Hilia felt as if her very soul was about to be sucked in. Rose’s spectral figure appeared beside her, shaking his head as he said, "Good thing the performance of this Heart of the Magic Puppet isn’t that high. Otherwise, just that little observation stunt of yours would’ve already gotten your soul sucked out."

Hilia jumped in fright and quickly shifted her attention away, no longer daring to focus on the Heart of the Death Attribute Puppet.

So that feeling of her soul about to be sucked out wasn’t a false alarm; it could really happen.

Thank goodness, seriously.

The girl patted her chest, deeply relieved.

But very soon she reacted.

If this Heart of the Magic Puppet really still had the effect of absorbing souls, Lord Rose would have warned her long ago.

So this was actually Rose toying with her...

Once Hilia figured out the whole sequence of events, she quietly shot Rose a glare, then pretended she hadn’t done anything and watched with curiosity as Rose studied the Heart of the Magic Puppet.

The pitch‑black Heart of the Magic Puppet was picked up by Rose, hovering and spinning above his palm.

Hilia watched curiously. After waiting for a long while and still not seeing Rose make any moves, she couldn’t help but ask, "Lord Rose, what exactly is this super rare Heart of the Magic Puppet good for?"

Rose smiled faintly. "This Heart of the Magic Puppet is a defective version and can’t be used yet. It’s a rare dual‑attribute Heart of the Magic Puppet; its other attribute has been cut off. We need to find it and fuse them before it can be used."

"Dual‑attribute? Didn’t they say a Heart of the Magic Puppet can only have a single attribute?"

"Who said that? What I said before was that you can’t possess two Hearts of the Magic Puppet at the same time. I never said a single Heart of the Magic Puppet can’t have multiple attributes."

"Huh?"

"It’s like how there are single‑attribute Mages and also multi‑attribute faction Mages." Rose gave a slight smile.

"I see, got it." Hilia nodded, then asked, "So how do we find its missing part?"

Rose didn’t speak; he just looked at her.

Hilia looked down at herself, then couldn’t help wrapping her arms around her chest to cover it. "Lord Rose, can you just say it straight?"

Rose knocked her on the head in exasperation. "The Heart of the Death Attribute Puppet’s complete attributes are Life and Death. What attribute do you think it’s missing?"

"Missing Life... no way?"

Hilia instantly made the connection, widened her eyes, and summoned her Magic Puppet.

Rose shook his head. "No need to summon the Magic Puppet. If you let this Heart of the Death Attribute Puppet fuse with the Heart of the Magic Puppet in your body, you’d lose control over that Heart of the Magic Puppet. Life‑attribute Magic is pretty handy. Let’s leave it as is for now."

"Alright." Hilia quietly let out a breath of relief and said earnestly, "But Lord Rose, you specially came all this way. If you can’t take away a complete Heart of the Magic Puppet, you’d feel unreconciled, right? The Life‑attribute Heart of the Magic Puppet I’m using now was also taken down by you, Lord Rose. If you want it, I won’t complain."

Rose shook his head with a laugh. "It’s not like your Life attribute Heart of the Magic Puppet is going to grow legs and run away. If they fused, that’s when I’d have to worry about it growing legs and running off."

"Uh..."

Hilia didn’t really understand this.

Rose reached out and tapped twice on the Dark‑attribute Heart of the Magic Puppet, then began engraving complex runes.

Hilia felt her Magic Power once again being rapidly drained. Fortunately, she had pretty much recovered on the way here, otherwise she’d definitely be squeezed dry by Rose again.

The intricate rune engraving didn’t take long. Soon, Rose stopped, and after the runes completely sank into the Heart of the Death Attribute Puppet, he tossed it to Hilia. "Alright, put it away."

"Okay."

Hilia nodded and put away the Heart of the Magic Puppet.

She rolled onto the bed, lay on her back, stretched lazily, and let out a soft hum.

"Phew~ That wrapped up fast this time; I can actually sleep in for once."

As she spoke, she looked over at Rose.

Rose didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. "If you want to sleep, just sleep. You don’t need my permission."

"Okay!"

Hilia happily closed her eyes, then opened them again after a while. "Lord Rose, once we’re done with things here, where are we going next?"

Rose gave a faint smile. "No rush to head back yet. Let’s first see what impact the anomaly in Dusk Town ends up causing."

"Alright."

...

The next day.

On Dawn City’s bulletin boards and on the Star Spirit Network, Bois announced that they had successfully destroyed a heterodox base that had been entrenched in Dusk Town for many years, and had captured numerous Tier‑4 cultists and a large number of low‑tier cultists.

As soon as this statement came out, it immediately caused an uproar throughout the city.

The Dusk Sect had been entrenched near Dusk Town for many years and had never been rooted out until now.

Recently, Dusk Town had experienced an anomaly, which had everyone so on edge they feared Dawn City would end up like Dragon Island.

Upon hearing Bois’s announcement, people’s first reaction was disbelief, followed by shock.

As City Lord, even if Bois were to release false information, he’d at least prepare careful wording to avoid giving people something to nitpick and make an example of.

But now, with such a high‑profile and exaggerated battle report, its authenticity actually seemed higher.

When the public saw the name Flora from the Huijin Divine Hall on the list of participants, they all showed looks of sudden realization.

"I knew it. There’s no way the City Lord and the bishop of the Dawn Divine Hall could pull this off by themselves."

"Hahahaha, exactly. You still have to transfer a bishop from the Holy Court to oversee the operation if you want it to go smoothly."

"That said, did they really pull it off? Why does it feel fake? Dusk Town’s been plagued by pollution for so long. How could it suddenly be resolved?"

"Maybe they only dealt with the Dusk Sect cultists?"

"No, even that pollution and death aura got taken care of! I just came from over there and can confirm that the death aura and pollution around Dusk Town have become extremely thin!"

"That amazing? As expected of a bishop from the Huijin Divine Hall."

"..."

In a mercenary tavern, Hilia sipped fruit juice while listening to everyone’s conversations around her.

"Looks like no one really believes Dawn City could resolve the anomaly in Dusk Town on its own."

Thinking of how the anomaly had actually been resolved by Rose, who was a God, the girl secretly shook her head.

Alright, to be fair, even if the Holy Master personally came, he probably still couldn’t match what Lord Rose pulled off~!