CHAPTER 152: THE SECRET OF THE WORLD

In the second week of their market survey in Celestia, the Adonis couple stayed home today. Seeing Louis return with a cold expression, the two exchanged glances, as if already guessing the outcome of today’s "purchase."

Mrs. Adonis spoke softly: "You couldn’t buy the castle, Louis?"

Louis sat down opposite them and said quietly: "That’s right, someone bought it before I could."

Mr. Adonis frowned: "It’s not like this world is lacking castles. Is that place really that beautiful?"

Mrs. Adonis pinched his thigh. Mr. Adonis immediately blinked at her, looking utterly innocent.

Louis was already far too used to how his parents interacted. Mr. Adonis was strict, known for his cold and decisive demeanor outside, but beside Mrs. Adonis he was always a fool. And doting...

Doting? Who did his father dote on? Louis felt the sudden thought popping into his head was a little ridiculous.

He shook his head: "You wouldn’t understand. I just felt that it was very special..."

By now, Mrs. Adonis had already searched online for the castle her son was so attached to. Mr. Adonis leaned closer to her, also looking at the phone.

The image of Blue Moon Castle quickly appeared on the screen, and both of them paused for a moment.

They stared at the screen, then instinctively looked at each other.

In that instant, it was as if they could read each other’s thoughts, and they finally understood Louis’s feelings.

Mr. Adonis couldn’t help saying: "The other party isn’t willing to resell, even for a higher price?"

Louis shook his head: "I couldn’t get in touch with them."

Mrs. Adonis stared at the phone screen, her fingertip lightly brushing over the faint blue glow in the image. She suddenly murmured: "Look, they really do look like..."

Look like what? Mrs. Adonis herself didn’t know what exactly the color resembled. She only felt something strange about it. In the end, she looked at Mr. Adonis’s eyes and reluctantly said: "They look like your eye color."

Mr. Adonis frowned at that: "My eye color is much lighter. Have you stopped loving me?"

Mrs. Adonis pushed his face away in mock annoyance. The atmosphere among the three suddenly grew a little quiet.

Then, all three of them abruptly raised their heads, looked toward the space beside Louis, and simultaneously froze.

Mrs. Adonis rubbed her forehead: "Is there something in Celestia’s food and water? Why do I keep feeling like I have a long-lost son out there somewhere?"

Mr. Adonis frowned when he heard that, suppressing the strange feeling in his chest. He gently patted his wife’s back. "I think you’ve just been overworked lately, that’s all." Then he looked toward Louis and added, "You shouldn’t dwell on it either. Work at the company is tiring enough. We can always build another castle."

Louis nodded, showing that he understood. Only they themselves knew what that heavy silence in their hearts truly meant. Clearly, Mrs. Adonis wasn’t the only one feeling something strange.

Blue Moon Castle now belonged entirely to Joshua. He looked over at Nine, a spark of excitement in his eyes. "Nine, from now on, let’s live here."

Nine nodded, flicking his bangs aside with one hand. "For the sake of our relationship, I can temporarily act as your butler."

Joshua couldn’t help but cover his mouth and giggle. "The garage is still a bit empty. It should have enough room for your cars."

It really felt like their lives were beginning to turn brighter.

Nine gazed at Joshua and wrapped around him, tossing teasing comments nonstop. Until Joshua finally laughed, Nine simply stared at him, dazed, never getting tired of teasing him again and again.

On their first night in the castle, Joshua chose his old room. It truly resembled it down to every single detail; even the interior decoration was identical to the castle he received on that very first day in his previous life.

It was unbelievable—so unbelievable that faint, impossible hopes rose quietly in Joshua’s heart.

Either way, he slept better that night than he ever had before.

In the thick darkness, the moon outside was hidden behind heavy clouds.

A ribbon of light—like it was woven from countless tiny stars—slipped in through the gap in Joshua’s window.

It wound around his sleeping form, almost as if softly brushing through his hair, before drifting back out into the night.

The dark night hid far too many things humans could never fully comprehend.

In an unnoticed corner of the city, the sound of metal striking the ground echoed restlessly. People would simply assume it was stray cats fighting, or some drunkard collapsing in an alley.

Right now, a man was lying in a pile of trash beside a massive dumpster. His eyes were bloodshot, darting wildly, streaked with red lines that spread into an eerie black.

Suddenly, he clutched his throat and thrashed as if suffering some unimaginable pain. His body began to shrivel, his fingernails stretched out unnaturally long, followed by loose, rotting skin and a putrid stench that seemed impossible to dissipate.

At the same time, his body suddenly stiffened, arching upward—

"Rip!"

A shriveled hand burst through his abdomen, followed by another. Working together, they tore the man’s decayed, dried-out body in half, slicing from his neck all the way down to his groin.

However, what met the eye wasn’t flesh, blood, or organs at all, but a pitch-black mass, like a dark swamp with churning waves. Those two hands had crawled out from that place, and then the entire body of the corpse slowly pulled itself out. Its movements were stiff at first, but it quickly adapted to everything around it.

It didn’t stop there. More hands soon groped their way out. Before long, three zombies had begun wandering about, and more of their companions were still emerging from that "gate."

They loved this place—the smell of flesh, the scent of peace—and they were more than ready to tear it all apart!

But before they could do anything, all of them exploded like bombs!

Their bodies burst apart, quickly dissolving into sticky, pitch-black liquid, yet not a single sound came out.

A gentle white light, mixed with faint gold, wrapped around the gate, devouring it rapidly until it disappeared completely, leaving behind only the dissatisfied echoes of something from another world—echoes that would never again disturb the peace of this land.

Nine floated above, looking down with cool indifference. This world could lose yet another person without anyone understanding why.

Even though he had closed the gate, Nine’s mood remained heavy. Lately, these gates had been appearing more and more frequently. Luckily, Joshua was becoming famous fast enough.

Fame points—a name that sounded almost rustic—were, in truth, a condensed form of faith and energy.

Nine’s existence followed a simple rule: he used that energy, blended with the world’s own, to mend holes that should never appear in this peaceful world.

Nine had always known there was a core source of energy somewhere. If he could deal with it, he could permanently shut down any chance these zombies had to invade this world. But even after thousands of years of searching, he still hadn’t found it.

He had lived through countless eras, entrusted himself to countless people—some succeeded, some failed. His entire existence revolved around this mission, even though he didn’t quite understand why he was so loyal to it.

But ever since discovering the abnormality between himself and Henry, and the strange origin of Joshua’s world, Nine felt as though he had begun to grasp something. He just needed more time to confirm it...