Chapter 511 - HE: Eternal Slumber (Part 2)

Chapter 511: Chapter 508: HE: Eternal Slumber (Part 2)Atop Fengchang’s head, he wore a Sacrificial Crown adorned with fluttering red ribbons.

Years ago, when there still existed the old custom of magma sacrifice, those who were to be sacrificed would wear such crowns and perform rituals at the edge of the magma.

Xiber had worn it once.

Afterwards, the custom of magma sacrifice was completely abolished.

But today, Fengchang donned that crown once again.

He appeared in her vision like a scorching thorn.

——And it was at this moment that he raised his head.

He walked upon the pitch-black Energy, with the crimson ribbons dancing behind his head.

"Fall into slumber with me," said Xiber, "Brother... Curses are born of Faith, and we can no longer let it continue."

Fengchang looked at her, whose body was covered in strange Blood Runes like a monster, and shook his head.

"Even if it’s a painful existence, it’s better than eternal sleep. You have no right to decide how people live. Jiu Shen is an Evil God, and I shall not heed the words of any heretical Believer," Fengchang said, "Don’t... deceive me."

"What I say is always the truth," said Xiber, "——It is your Faith that deprives the truth of its veracity."

"Let Su Ming’an go," Fengchang commanded at the sight of the young man beside her, "He’s a non-believer; you shouldn’t involve him."

Xiber listened, but it seemed like she’d heard some heavenly joke. She stretched out her hand, her tendrils sustaining Su Ming’an’s body at her own height.

"This is an adventurer who has signed a contract with me, an Eternal contract witnessed by Jiu Shen," she said, "——I absolutely, definitely will not let go."

——"You’re dragging an innocent into this!"

Fengchang extended his hand, and the dark gleam of Black Blade flashed across the air. Numerous tendrils lunged at him, all cleaved by his crescent moon-like blade.

He leaped into the air, bringing his blade down towards Xiber.

Xiber sighed.

"...Why must you strike at me?" she said.

At that very instant, an especially thick tendril pierced through Fengchang’s chest.

"Tch."

Blood burst forth, and he didn’t even have time to swing down his blade.

The second-ranked "Annihilator" was after all, only within the realm of humanity.

He was unable to resist the might of a Deity.

Fengchang coughed up blood, as tendrils forcibly held him suspended in the air, impaling his body, with blood exploding outwards.

His gaze rapidly faltered.

But at that moment, a "bang" suddenly rang near Xiber’s ears.

She turned around, nearly frantically, to see Su Ming’an, already transformed into a monster, with his left leg suddenly blown to pieces.

Agonizing pain restored clarity to Su Ming’an’s eyes. This time, he had placed the Explosive in his left leg, and had set the timer to go off half an hour earlier.

The intense pain helped him regain brief lucidity. Even though his blades were taken by Xiber, he had placed Migael-frozen Explosives in various parts of his body in advance, and now, they were all counting down.

He reached out his hand towards Fengchang, impaled by tendrils.

"Immortality," he said.

A red light flashed, and the gushing blood from Fengchang’s wounds was forcibly stopped. Driven by the "Immortal Skill," his Life Points were kept at the last ten seconds.

Fengchang severed the tendrils, and as Xiber was caught off guard, he erupted with tremendous destructive power, soaring towards her like an arrow—

Xiber didn’t move again.

She just quietly watched Su Ming’an, motionlessly looking at him, her eyes filled with a solitude so profound it could sink the night.

The Black Blade aimed at her head, bringing immense destructive force, yet she only gripped tighter the colorful candy in her hand.

"... You don’t accept this ending either, Su Ming’an?" she asked, "Even you don’t accept it?"

She closed her eyes.

If enduring suffering was destined, then she had to admit that even someone like her was indeed unique.

However, the harder she tried, the more she clung to love and hope, the more this helplessness instilled thoughts of destruction and Death into her.

In the end, she was still utterly alone.

"Whoosh!" The Black Blade fell.

This blade did not behead her.

A strong force tugged on her red robe, pulling her back as Fengchang cut through the lower tendrils connected to her, forcibly dragging her out of the mire composed of tendrils.

He struggled fiercely to pull, with the piercing wound on his chest a ghastly sight; his breathing was also extremely labored, and beads of blood kept falling from his injured hand. "Immortal Skill" could only forcibly sustain his life, but could not restore his health.

"...Don’t, save me anymore," Xiber said. "We are monsters, aren’t we? Don’t... save a monster anymore."

Fengchang pulled her out of the mire.

He dragged her, step by step, his hand clasping hers, pulling the arm across the back of his neck.

"..." Xiber’s eyes widened.

They were blood-related.

A pitch-black energy spread from her arm, infusing into his body.

The power of Jiu Shen, the power of the Curse, uncontrollably spilled from her, flooding into his body, and as this power drained away, the tentacles that spread across Qiongdi began to retract—

Bright red lines started to fade from her body; she frantically summoned tentacles to pierce Fengchang’s chest again, only to be met with bursts of "Immortal" red light.

"—I told you to let go!" she screamed like a madwoman.

"Swoosh!"

"—Let go! Didn’t you hear me!"

"Swoosh!"

"—Feng Qiqi! You damn Dark Demon King! Let go of me!"

"Swoosh!" Blood splattered.

The tentacles, one by one, pierced through Fengchang’s body, blooming into pitch-black flowers within him.

She stabbed wildly, her forearm, her palm, her lower abdomen, her chest, her thighs...

His body was riddled with holes, yet his large hand steadfastly gripped her arm, never letting go. Annihilation swirled around him, sweeping away all the tentacles nearby.

He forcefully clamped onto Xiber’s arm, preventing her from fleeing.

He wasn’t saving her.

He was using the last moments of his life to snatch the power from her, to stop her.

"... I knew it." Xiber ceased struggling. "I knew... someone like you would never have an epiphany."

She looked at Fengchang, whose expression remained unchanged, and beneath his bloodstained Sacrificial Crown, she saw eyes identical to hers.

In those eyes, there was no affection, no sympathy, no hint of familial love.

Even at such a time, he still detested the power of Jiu Shen. He was still, after all, opposed to her.

"Xiber," Fengchang suddenly spoke, "Promise me."

"From now on, you are..."

Ten seconds had passed.

His words were unfinished when suddenly his grasp weakened and released.

Once the ten seconds were over, no form of life could withstand the onslaught of death; his vitality seemed to be sucked away in an instant, the light in his eyes quickly fading.

His body, perforated with wounds, fell, like a bird crashing down. His pupils, reflecting the entire expanse of Qiongdi, slowly dissipated, and the Sacrificial Crown atop his head rolled to the ground, its ribbons as red as blood.

A brightly colored candy, covered in fresh blood, sunk deep into the muddy earth, was silently devoured.

The Son of Bai Shen was dead.

The one seen as Qiongdi’s future, the renowned and formidable Son of Bai Shen, could die such a violent death.

Xiber stood up, stared at the body of her brother who had failed to stop her, and suddenly realized... that even this man could die before her.

The corpse was ugly, the wounds filthy; he lay in the mud, covered in gaping holes and dirtied all over.

"... Ha-ha, you too, you can die as well," she said.

Looking at her brother’s corpse, she began to laugh, a somewhat unnerving laugh.

Her voice remained calm, but grew increasingly weak.

Then,

She couldn’t control the hysterical, discordant sobbing that broke out.

"Ah—"

"Ah-ah—"

As if to exorcize all discomfort and anger with her screaming, she experienced a contradictory sense of surrealism.

She felt the world was thoroughly corrupt; humans didn’t seem human, gods didn’t seem divine, as if living itself was a mistake, the so-called faith ruthlessly destroying the closest of kinships.

Why, why did he throw himself upon her blade? Why would he rather die than rest in peace amidst beauty?

...What had she actually done? Whom had she saved? Who could she really save?

"——Feng Qiqi! Get up! Get up for me!"

"——Get lost! Go roll in the muck and sleep! Don’t lie there on the ground! Are you that enthralled by that damn faith!"

Blood dripped down from the nape of her neck, drop by drop. It was his warm blood, now hotter than magma, torturing her.

She screamed as she walked and shouted. Her voice gradually shifted from anger to a piercing, mournful shriek.

...Wouldn’t it be nice to just sleep peacefully?

...Why does everyone, even him, have to cross this dark river and come before her eyes?

...She had given it her all up to now; was this beautiful end so unacceptable to them?

She wailed, shouting and screaming like a madwoman.

She looked up, but could no longer see the wilderness and the sky. The sky was darker than night, and the wind more scorching than fire.

Su Ming’an sat beside her, his right leg just severed by an explosive, momentarily regaining some rationality.

The white-haired, mature woman sat upon the tendrils, her hoarse crying as sharp as if she was bleeding from the inside.

She turned back to him, her voice choking up.

After Fengchang died, no one could stop Xiber’s actions.

Finally, the black tendrils spread throughout Qiongdi.

The world fell into true silence.

All things in heaven and earth were frozen in time, and people were trapped in a blissful sleep.

Curse and pain would no longer exist, and for the first time, this realm fell into such tranquility.

And Xiber, whose body was gradually decaying, reached out and touched Su Ming’an’s hand.

Su Ming’an’s legs had been severed by explosives, leaving only a bloody right hand, so she grasped that hand, tightly, very tightly.

She futilely clutched the hand, devoid of any desire, as if merely seeking some comfort.

Her hand, stretched over bluish-purple skin, was that of an old lady.

Having sacrificed all her Health Points to expand the tendrils, she had aged.

Her somewhat murky, pale eyes looked ahead, seeing him still youthful, seeing the fleeting clarity in his eyes.

He looked back at her, with a coldness and pity in his gaze that she had never seen before.

Suddenly, she wanted to scream, she wanted to weep bitterly, she wanted to roar out everything, but in the end, she just moved her lips.

"This is," she said, "the best ending within my power."

She said this, as if to declare that she was right.

Yet, her side remained empty.

Her hand began to melt away bit by bit, along with the decaying dead skin and the wrinkles that covered her face, disintegrating, rotting.

She aged like a withered bone, skin split and flesh burst.

"You are faithless, I will not kill you." She canceled his Metamorphosis state, released him from the tendrils that imprisoned him: "...Survive."

...In this realm, in this silent world, survive.

...Alone, in pain, walking over all the bodies, survive.

...Survive, don’t lower your head.

...Until the darkness fades, until the Black Wall falls, until all faith completely disappears...

...Until he can embrace his own light and freedom.

The entire world was silent.

When she completely ran out of strength, let go, and willingly fell into the black mire,

Her eyes no longer held the wilderness, the wildness, or the wind.

She saw Su Ming’an bowing his head slightly on the tentacle, those eyes shrouded in a thin mist, was a stretch of silent Eternal Night.

She didn’t know whether he was satisfied with this outcome.

But to be the sole victor, that must have made him happy, right?

She thought so, but suddenly saw a blinding brilliance begin to rewind before her eyes.

She saw a white cube take shape at his chest, crack open, and watched his body suddenly torn to shreds by flames and explosions—

In that moment, she suddenly, deeply wished to see the Cursed Fire Flower she had given him blooming by the azure sea.

...He shouldn’t have killed himself.

...Why did he kill himself?

...Surely, this was the best outcome within her power.

In a desert destined to be barren, clearly, flowers would never bloom.

Her vision darkened, her breathing gradually grew faint, and her consciousness, at this moment, finally disappeared completely.

All things in the world submerged into a peaceful slumber, the world silent.

Faintly, a ray of sunlight pierced the canopy of the sky, spreading towards the mountains and rivers—

Revival of All Things.

Sunlight poured into this realm of Qiongdi,

but no one was left to welcome its warmth and brightness.

No more would there be the kind and gentle smile of an old lady. Nor would there be a young teacher, carrying a basket of sweet potatoes on his back, braiding children’s hair.

No more would there be a girl in a red robe, standing under the night sky, saying,

...I want to keep you all alive.

...I want you all to see eternal light and freedom.

No one would push open that door and promise to show her the ocean.

All laughter, tears, rage, and sorrow seemed to sublime in this brilliant sunlight.

Body after body lay in the darkness, smiling peacefully.

...As if sinking together into a beautiful, happy dream.

"Ding Dong!"

"For her, this place was like a room that belonged solely to her."

"Again and again, she tried to clean it, tidy it, mend the gossamer, wipe away the dust, hoping to make the room better."

"But she soon realized that she could never sweep away all the dust. Thus, she grew accustomed to falling asleep in this dirty room, never to wake up again."

"Even the most flavorless story deserves an ending, though it remains unknown."

"Now, her story is finally complete."

"Sleep well."

"Sleep well."

"Farewell to the song of Laersas (Bai Shen)—"

"Innocent, faithless one, please cross this land."

"—to embrace the light and freedom that are uniquely yours."

"We are monsters, aren’t we."

"...Don’t save monsters anymore."]