Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
At two in the morning, it was truly a hardship for the servants of the Song Family, as An Xiaotian remained kneeling before Yang Meng's lifeless body, motionless. Raindrops fell onto his armor, pooling into small puddles that shimmered under the spotlight.
A maid approached and exchanged glances with her colleague, who was still holding an umbrella over An Xiaotian, before taking over the duty herself. They instinctively began to take turns silently serving An Xiaotian, knowing that any attempt to comfort him during this time would be futile. Instead, they patiently accompanied him in his grief, doing their best to manage the aftermath of his breakdown.
In Villa No. 5, Xu Yicheng had not yet fallen asleep. Under the warm glow of the yellow chandelier, he stood by the window, watching the flickering flashlight beams of the servants coming and going in the light rain to hold umbrellas for An Xiaotian.
Yang Meng's death left Xu Yicheng feeling inexplicably uneasy; he often turned his head, expecting to see Yang Meng standing right behind him. They had shared many lively conversations before her untimely departure. He had promised her that he would sign her laptop. Yet now, her sudden absence was unbearable for everyone, especially for An Xiaotian.
The computer screen saver suddenly activated with a sound in the stillness of the night, causing Xu Yicheng to jump slightly. Gathering his courage, he turned around but found nothing unusual in the quiet room; only the clock on the cabinet seemed restless.
Xu Yicheng directed his gaze back to the computer screen, where a cute puppy was running in the sunlight displayed on it. He really didn’t want to disturb such a beautiful scene, but the strange sounds coming from the computer piqued his curiosity.
"Who is it..." Xu Yicheng realized that this was an alarm indicating some sort of code had been forcibly entered into his computer's hard drive. He canceled the screensaver and found himself staring at a string of symbols in a black box.
"Morse code." Xu Yicheng recognized it immediately and began to translate these symbols slowly based on what he had studied before—
“It’s dawn; go comfort An Xiaotian.”
Xu Yicheng frowned and continued scrolling down.
“I regret that this has happened. Before the incident, I sent a warning to An Xiaotian, but what was meant to happen will always happen. Learn to accept it; war continues—Liang Muqi.”
“Liang…” Xu Yicheng froze and typed into the box, “Where are you?”
However, after waiting for a long time, it felt as if the person on the other end had vanished into thin air; only a blinking cursor remained in the black box. Xu Yicheng leaned back in his chair, trying to piece together everything that had happened over these past few days—Liang Muqi had discovered danger and warned An Xiaotian, yet An Xiaotian hadn’t managed to save Yang Meng in time.
How did he know?
The more he thought about it, the more confused Xu Yicheng became. He took a deep breath and finally lay back down on his bed, retrieving the communication stone he used to contact Aibo. Perhaps Aibo could tell him what was happening beyond human perception. But just as he picked up the stone, Xu Yicheng realized it was already late at night; would calling Aibo disturb his rest?
With that thought, Xu Yicheng relaxed his grip on the stone and lay flat on his bed in a starfish position, turning off the light and falling asleep. Still, he really wanted to know how his partner—Abyss Titan Aibo—was faring with the Spirit Corps lately.
In City S's National Ecological Reserve…
“This place has good ecology.”
Under Miao Chengmin's arrangement, all Spirit Corps siblings entered a sheltered basin formed by giant rocks and entered a state of soul dormancy. However, since Chaos Crystals had entered their bodies, Miao Chengmin no longer needed to rest at the same time as them. Apart from Aibo fiddling with some fruits while sitting on the ground, thick leaves obscured his view; now he leaned against a tree trunk looking up at the crescent moon above the forest. Occasionally, an owl hooted from within the woods, adding a melancholic hue to the tranquil night sky as if it were specially prepared for them adrift on Earth.
Having returned to Earth nearly a year ago, Miao Chengmin himself couldn't quite grasp what feelings he held for this planet now. It was clearly where he had been born and raised; yet returning felt like being a homeless vagabond. If it weren't for carrying out a mission or encountering his former lover Ming Juan here, he couldn't find any reason for his existence—merely a soul from a four-dimensional spacetime world trapped within a decaying three-dimensional body. The more Miao Chengmin thought about it, the more he felt like something out of place.
Aibo noticed Miao Chengmin's continuous sighs from atop the tree and looked up with bright azure eyes searching for him in the shadows of branches as if asking something.
"It's nothing," Miao Chengmin said, feeling somewhat relaxed as he sat on the tree trunk, watching a few unknown bats flit through the forest. He casually fabricated a reason, "It's been a while since I've seen someone who has passed away, especially An Xiaotian's girlfriend. It makes me a bit anxious."
"Someone who has passed away?" Aibo turned to look at their campsite. "But we see that every day."
"Oh no, it's different," Miao Chengmin replied softly. "To me, you and my siblings are all human."
Aibo didn't respond. Miao Chengmin noticed a small animal approaching him; upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a fox. Aibo seemed to be communicating with the fox in some way, but Miao Chengmin knew he could understand the language of all living beings, so he wasn't too surprised. As the fox rubbed against Aibo's thigh, Miao Chengmin decided not to disturb them and squinted his eyes, waiting for dawn to arrive.
"This is a young fox that's just grown up," Aibo said, as if speaking to himself.
"So?" Miao Chengmin gestured for him to continue.
Aibo picked up the fish skewers he had roasted during the day and placed them in front of the little fox. The fox let out a soft whine, gazing into Aibo's gentle eyes before unceremoniously biting into the grilled fish and dragging it aside to tear into it.
"Miao, in hundreds of thousands of years of life, Aibo has never felt this way..." Aibo hugged his legs, resting his stone arms on his stone knees, producing a crisp sound as they rubbed together. "Aibo doesn't know what this feeling is. It started from the moment you mentioned that the human captain's lover had died."
"Well... it doesn't matter; we're not poets," Miao Chengmin said. He wanted Aibo to elaborate but found that his own eloquence seemed to fail him. He and Aibo gazed at the bright moon—one sitting in the tree and the other leaning beneath the leaves.
"Let's put it this way, Aibo; see if my sentiments resonate with yours," Miao Chengmin said with a self-deprecating laugh. "I've lost everything in my life in this three-dimensional world—the right to approach those I love as a human; and you? You've lost all your kin who were by your side... Just as an example, don't take it too personally. An Xiaotian lost her lover due to war; Nars's parasite Liu Xuan lost his last family member because of Nars... I don't know about others. But we are all souls deeply wounded by fate, yet we must stand strong against the storms."
"And that's precisely why we can stand together," Aibo added to Miao Chengmin's reflections. "Aibo never dared to imagine representing the glory of the Stone Giant on the human front lines. Perhaps because we've lost so much, we can always find familiar shadows in each other's lives."
Miao Chengmin opened his eyes and looked down at Aibo beneath the tree—a mix of emotions surged within him. After wandering with Aibo for so long, this was the first time he heard such poignant words from him.
The grilled fish was nearly reduced to bones after being devoured by the little fox. Feeling somewhat full, it cautiously nestled beside Aibo, yawned, and curled up comfortably, displaying its absolute trust in him.
"Are we continuing our journey tomorrow?" Aibo gently stroked the little fox's brown fur with his stone fingertips and asked Miao Chengmin.
"Ah... whatever," Miao Chengmin sighed. "After all, the forests of this entire planet are our home; it doesn't matter where we go."
As soon as he finished speaking, Miao Chengmin felt a flicker in his consciousness eye. The soul from the Divine Realm could sense a signal from four-dimensional spacetime in this three-dimensional world. His consciousness eye vibrated like a phone buzzing in his eye socket; soon, what lay before him was no longer the dark night and shadowy forest but a gradually assembling pure white illusory platform with an indigo sky...
"Aibo, you should head back first," Miao Chengmin said uncertainly as he stood up—whether on Earth's branches or within this connecting illusion was unclear—as he addressed a shadow approaching from the blank space.
"Chengmin?" The voice boomed as a figure stepped clearly into Miao Chengmin's view. "You'd better not move because your actions now must remain consistent between the three-dimensional world and four-dimensional spacetime."
"Oh! Uh..." Miao Chengmin quickly withdrew his foot. If he stepped down now, he'd probably end up eating dirt.
"How long has it been since we last met? Since you left the Divine Realm... well okay, just one day." The figure approaching Miao Chengmin was none other than the prosecutor from the Divine Realm's Transmigration Hall whom he hadn't seen for over a year in Earth time.
"You were once the most favored Vanguard member by King. And now you truly live up to expectations," the prosecutor emerged from the smoke created by the rising illusion and transformed into a familiar human form with a smile.
"Ha, I'm doing fine. I'm just diligently fulfilling the mission assigned by King," Miao Chengmin shrugged and extended his hand in greeting. "It's been a while since we last met. You must have come looking for me for some reason."
"Well... indeed," the prosecutor admitted generously, "King is looking for you."
Comment 0 Comment Count