Journey to the West: The Mountain Shaker

Chapter 41 The Puppet's Discomfort

"The battle in the wilderness is about to begin. Please prepare." The spirit's voice rang out again.

"Four against five? Are we going to surrender?" someone asked.

According to the rules, the winner can play the next round for free, while the loser loses all of their points. If they surrender before the match, they only lose half of their points, saving 25 spirit stones, which is quite a lot for the disciples of Aolai.

"Screw you, I don't surrender!" The man who kicked Cai Fei cursed and walked towards the edge of the platform.

"Let's go! Let's try to hold on until our Disciplinary Committee can stand up!" The girl stepped forward.

"Let's split up and fight them one-on-one!" another person said.

The group dispersed and stood in front of the catapults at the edge of the platform, waiting for the game to begin.

"The battle begins!" the spirit of the artifact announced.

The catapults launched his teammates one by one, but Cai Fei could only watch from the high platform—no, he couldn't even see them, he could only listen to the show.

"1:0, Red is in the lead."

The spirit announced the battle results. To Cai Fei's surprise, his teammates were all very strong. The first few kills came from the red team. It wasn't until after the score was 5-0 that anyone on his team was killed.

"5:1, Red is in the lead."

As the spirit of the artifact announced, a white light appeared, and a mangled corpse appeared on the platform, covered in blood, with a large hole in its chest, clearly the fatal spot.

This was the first time Cai Fei had ever seen a puppet come back to life. Despite his dizziness, he struggled to lift his head and look at the corpse.

The wounds on the corpse healed rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye. In about ten seconds, the large hole in the chest was filled, and the corpse suddenly stood up.

"Damn it, they've only fought a few times and they're already banding together..." The man muttered under his breath as he turned and walked toward the catapult. With a "bang," it flew out in a long arc and disappeared into the distant jungle.

Body replication!

Consciousness transplantation!

Witnessing the corpse come back to life, a phrase with a huge exclamation mark flashed through Cai Fei's mind.

Although his mind was still foggy, Cai Fei knew that this world had probably fulfilled what his original world had longed for.

More people died and returned, and like the first one, they redeemed their equipment and immediately set off. Two of them called out in his direction, "Hey kid, are you done yet?"

There was no response, so no one paid any more attention to him.

The battle was intense, with the score fluctuating back and forth, but the white side quickly began to take the lead.

"Are you fucking dead?" someone spat at him.

"We were so sure we'd win this game, but then we ran into you, you loser." That was a girl's voice.

"Still lying here like a corpse, I'll kick you to death!" A man kicked him.

……

As they began to fall behind, Cai Fei's teammates, who had returned from the deadlock, became increasingly rude to her, especially the woman.

He was verbally abused, kicked and punched by men, and one even picked him up with one hand, dragged him and threw him onto a catapult, activated the rune array, and launched him into the air.

"It's so annoying to look at, screw you!"

With a shout of abuse, Cai Fei was thrown high into the air, dazed and confused, tracing a beautiful arc.

With a "thud," he crashed onto a rock, suffering severe internal bleeding. He struggled for a while before finally passing away.

My soul instantly returned to the high platform, hanging there in mid-air, unable to float, but my vision became clear, the dizziness disappeared, and the experience was unexpectedly refreshing.

Two or three seconds later, the corpse was teleported to the high platform. After more than ten seconds, the wound healed, and a force pushed him back into his body.

Then the dizziness returned...

"here we go again……"

Cai Fei sighed, crawled to the corner, and continued to lie there. He was still dizzy, and his teammates who had returned from the dead were still cursing him, but no one was kicking or hitting him anymore.

The score continued to widen, and the red team had no chance of turning the tide.

Finally, the spirit announced: "The match is over, White wins. Teleportation is about to begin. Please lie down and relax. Countdown begins—10, 9, 8…"

Another flash of white light appeared.

The next second, Cai Fei's consciousness returned to his body.

Then he discovered in despair that what awaited him here was still extreme discomfort!

It's like a lump of dough that was originally in a round bottle. You take it out and try to put it into a square bottle, but it just doesn't feel right no matter how you try to fit it in. Then you take it out and try to put it back into the round bottle, but it doesn't feel right there either!

The saying "a square peg in a round hole" perfectly describes Cai Fei's current situation.

A moment later, the Illusionary Abode opened on its own, ejecting the dazed Cai Fei.

It was during a break in the trials, and the courtyard was packed with people. Cai Fei staggered and fell to the ground after being thrown out, which immediately attracted a lot of people to gather around and watch the excitement.

Cai Fei tried hard to stand up and walk to the side, but he fell down as he tried to get up. He staggered for a while and finally lay down. Knowing that he had already embarrassed himself in front of the whole academy, he simply lay there and waited to recover.

The students in Class 11 all recognized Cai Fei, and the boys and girls couldn't help but burst into laughter. Feng Xiangguo and a few other scoundrels even kicked dust and gravel from the yard at his face, making fun of him.

The little bit of prestige he had painstakingly earned through fighting has vanished just like that...

It's unclear how much time passed before the onlookers gradually dispersed.

"Poor thing... I always have to save you, and you even said you'd protect me..."

Someone walked up to Cai Fei, used a cleansing spell to remove the filth from his body, then tied him up with a rope and half-lifted, half-dragged him toward the steward's office.

It's Yu Qianqian.

The rope around her armpits tightened around Cai Fei's chest, making her feel suffocated, but Cai Fei, who was dizzy, did not want to struggle and let her drag her along.

He dragged his feet all the way to the steward's room at the gate of the courtyard, leaving a long trail of mud behind him...

..................................................................

Puppet maladaptation, also known as "possessed puppet maladaptation disorder," occurs in about 1% of cases. It manifests as prolonged dizziness, vomiting, convulsions, and even spasms after being possessed by a puppet.

Inside the steward's office, Steward Bao gave Cai Fei's diagnosis after just one glance.

Cai Fei's symptoms were moderate; he did not have convulsions or spasms. If he had spasms, he would have been unable to stand up for the rest of the day.

"...As the saying goes, everyone is different. Every other dimension has its own characteristics. The scale, quantity, dimension, quality... all these factors that affect the body and soul are different. The illusion array space is relatively friendly, with only extremely minor differences from our world. Most people are immune to this difference, but there are a few extremely sensitive people who react strongly to it."

"Another possibility is that your soul itself is quite special, that the bond between your three souls and seven spirits isn't strong enough, or that your three souls are too strong to easily deform..."

Manager Bao had been in charge of the "Illusion Academy" for many years and had done extensive research on "Puppet Disorder." He explained a lot to Cai Fei and finally suggested, "This disease has many possibilities, and only targeted treatment will be effective. You can relax your mind and let me examine your sea of ​​consciousness so that we can treat the symptoms accordingly."

"Uh..." Cai Fei hesitated for a moment.

"Divine Insight Technique." Manager Bao directly announced the spell's name, smiling slightly. "Have you heard of it? It's a wood-type spell that doesn't harm the divine sense at all, and it only takes a breath. Look, your classmate is here too; I guarantee you'll be completely unharmed."

"No."

There was a remnant of his original life force lying in his sea of ​​consciousness, so Cai Fei certainly couldn't let him go in to investigate. He hesitated only because he was thinking of a reason to refuse: "My private life is rather chaotic, hehe, I'm embarrassed to let people see it."

Personal life in chaos?

Yu Qianqian glanced at Cai Fei and said to Steward Bao, "He's very rich. He even uses a second-tier talisman to treat a minor injury. Let him spend spirit stones to stay in the adaptation area."

I'm very rich...

Cai Fei was speechless—it was a last resort to establish authority, but he didn't expect it to leave such an impression on Yu Qianqian.

Manager Bao felt it was a pity and tried to persuade Cai Fei a few more times, but Cai Fei refused to agree no matter what, so he had to give up and instead introduced the adaptation area.

Although only 1% of the patients are suffering from maladaptive disorder, considering the total number of monks, this 1% is not a small number.

To help these people adapt to the puppets as quickly as possible, an adaptation zone has been specially set up inside the illusion array. This is a separate small space without monsters, which simply simulates some grass, trees, and sand. People with dysphoria can stay inside until they adapt.

The only problem is the high price—it costs 10 spirit stones for just 15 minutes, and with Cai Fei's symptoms, it would cost at least several thousand to cure him!

However, a problem that money can solve is not a problem—a famous saying from his past life popped into Cai Fei's mind.

Unfortunately, his biggest problem right now is that he doesn't have any money!