Chapter 524

Chapter 524: Chapter 521: "Sky - Sky - Sky -Xiber’s movements were gentle, and she could easily be pushed away, but he didn’t let go, letting her pull him forward.

Her hand was as moist as his, seemingly a bit soft.

They walked along the pebble path, through the dense bloom, with every surrounding scene warm as spring.

During this time, Su Ming’an saw tribespeople running.

"Why are they running away?" he asked.

"They are not running away, they are going to see the sea," Xiber said.

"Ah—ah—ah—"

One cry after another rose, one after the other, as people sang in unison.

In the brilliant rainbow light,

amid the fresh jasmine fragrance,

and the wonderful singing,

Xiber dragged him up a hillside.

From there, the entirety of the Third Tribe could be seen, the rainbow light enveloping the houses, the men and women running and singing... and a vast sea.

Yes,

the sea.

Su Ming’an truly saw, on this barren yellow land... the azure flowing on the ground.

"Is this, the color reflected by the sky?" he said.

"It is said, the sea reflects the sky’s color," she stood by his side. "So, seeing this reflected color, does it mean I have seen the sea?"

"I really am very lucky, very lucky... to have waited for you to come." She looked at him.

At that moment, Su Ming’an noticed,

...that her eyes were also the color of the sea.

Her smile became increasingly radiant, her eyes completely devoid of the shadow characteristic of a heretic.

She bathed in the fiery rainbow light, her face filled with extraordinary satisfaction.

"Future, plants, build houses," she said. "I will bring happiness to the tribespeople in the future."

Su Ming’an turned his head to look at her.

"Sky—sky—sky— a sky as vast as the sea!" she exclaimed loudly, excessively ecstatic.

Su Ming’an reached out, touching her.

"But why... despite the beauty of the scene, do I feel so hot, so agonizing..." she said. "Why... does it burn so much?"

Su Ming’an’s hand passed through her.

His eyes flickered slightly as he watched her gradually fading form.

"Xiber?" he called, but Xiber’s figure had disappeared.

—"Big brother, look! This is my newly forged sword, even my master praised its beauty."

Just then, Mo Yan ran up to his side, waving the sword in his hand that glimmered like amber in the colorful rainbow light.

"Beautiful, and very long," Su Ming’an said.

"Right, isn’t it just like a fire poker?" Mo Yan said with a laugh.

"Right, right? But this kind of sword still couldn’t break big brother’s hand bones, you might consider using a qin board?"

"Moonlight..." Su Ming’an said.

"Debussy’s ’Moonlight’... sounds very nice," Mo Yan said. "After losing a loved one, big brother plays the song so beautifully. That’s why your mother loved the emotion in your songs so much, enough to break your hand bones with it...

...Big brother, what were you thinking when that piano steel plate came crashing down?"

Su Ming’an slightly raised his eyes.

"Children who haven’t been loved, their emotions are too apparent," Mo Yan said. "Big brother, you are such a child too."

"When you were painting flowers for Xiber, did you ever wonder, who would paint flowers for you?" Mo Yan said.

"Black and white," Su Ming’an said.

"Yes, black and white," Mo Yan said. "The future is in black and white."

"It’s not..."

"Big brother also knew you couldn’t succeed," Mo Yan said.

"Alas," Mo Yan said, "Well, after all, big brother is considered an ’anomaly’ in people’s eyes, and you are a ’monster’."

"Big brother, I know what you want to say. You want to say—barriers and boundaries always exist, right?" Mo Yan said. "If you want to change the framework itself, you must assimilate into part of the framework, thinking about collaborative operations rather than ’redefining,’ right?"

"I’m saying—The sky! The sky!" Mo Yan suddenly laughed: "—Big brother, look, how beautiful the sky is!"

"Then you go fly."

"Big brother, your words really don’t connect," Mo Yan said.

"Aren’t yours the same?" Su Ming’an said.

"Well, isn’t it because of you, big brother?" Mo Yan laughed.

"Big brother, have you taken a close look... what your sanity value is right now? Don’t you find it strange... why you’ve never been able to read various text barrage clearly?" Mo Yan said.

"When people dream, it’s hard to read specific texts clearly, right?" Mo Yan said. "Now... isn’t it the same? The jasmine wreath on your head... is beautiful, but in Qiongdi... are there really jasmines?"

Upon hearing this, Su Ming’an immediately raised his hand and fiercely stabbed his left hand with a knife.

Intense pain spread, the illusions before him quickly dissipated, and the jasmine wreath on his head also disappeared immediately.

He turned his head, looked inside the Third Tribe, and realized that the disaster period’s poisonous rain had already fallen long before.

It corroded people’s houses, with the corpses of the tribespeople lying on the ground, people fleeing in all directions, continuously howling.

The beautiful tribal scenery, the enthusiastic tribespeople’s illusions, were suddenly shattered, and he saw a mortal hell.

...He seemed to have been entwined with hallucinations for a long time.

The continuous dampness on his body turned out to be the blood from the poisonous rain eroding him.

The colorful rainbow light in the sky yesterday... was also an illusion.

It was not any auspicious rainbow light, it was the disaster poisonous rain, eroding him, making his body bloody.

Those tribespeople were not singing jubilantly to see the sea,

They were fleeing, howling, continuously, in the burning poisonous rain, howling desperately, running.

So, were he and the people from Yamada eating desserts amidst corpses and poisonous rain yesterday?

There were no women who brought fruits and desserts, those tribespeople had already fallen in the poisonous rain then.

He felt his pocket; there was also none of the candy Chang Sheng had given him then.

That faint burning sensation, it turned out to be the pain of poison rain eroding his body, veiled by illusions.

His rationality had disappeared since the day before yesterday.

All that was wonderful, brilliant,

was all illusions.

...He had forcibly seen all the ugliness and death as comforting beauty.

...Even the recent Mo Yan, was always his inner self debating.

He had gone mad.

"—Big brother, the process of deification is somewhat similar to going mad," Mo Yan said: "Stripping away sympathy, emotions, the capacity to consider alternatives...

Splitting the capacity to express, split thinking, faith, and philosophy, split enduring pain, emotional responses, basic logic reasoning, empathetic capacity...

Ignoring praise and criticism, embracing faith, rejecting the useless, exploiting all that can be exploited, forever associating with confusion, failure, and danger..."

"The power to bring change to the world... it’s definitely not something you can achieve. Right now, who knows how many people think you are hindering humanity’s unity," Mo Yan said.

"Even though I know your beliefs are strong, there’s nothing you can do, big brother, you are just a human after all," Mo Yan said. "...Everyone has forgotten you’re a human."

"Big brother." Mo Yan stared at him and said: "...What kind of god are you turning yourself into?"

Mo Yan slowly stepped back.

He watched as Mo Yan stepped into nothingness, watched as the long sword behind Mo Yan spread out like wings, a surge of colorful light billowing like a sea, like a colorful bird soaring high in the sky.

Dreamlike, magnificent, brilliant.

The sword on Mo Yan’s back shimmered like a glowing piece of amber under the rainbow, its colors as vivid as a pair of wings spread wide, ready to carry him to the heights of the sky—

"—Upon seeing the Lighthouse! Why not worship!" Mo Yan suddenly burst out laughing, his ringing voice soared above high into the sky and resonated incessantly between the vast heavens and earth.

"—Why not worship! Why not worship!!" he shouted with laughter, "—This is your God! Your mad God!!!"

"Bang!"

A gunshot sounded.

A bullet fiercely plunged into Su Ming’an’s right arm and exploded, causing intense pain that momentarily cleared his vision, and Mo Yan’s hallucination instantly disappeared.

At that moment, he clearly saw his real SAN value.

Xiber, holding a hunting rifle, walked to his side, the blurred scenes along with the agonizing pain disappeared.

Behind her, there was no rainbow light, no ocean, and no Mo Yan.

"Lucid now?" Xiber asked.

"How long have I been mad?" Su Ming’an said.

"A long time." Xiber said, "You were mad with me, and your companions too were mad; this madness is contagious."

"When did it specifically start?" he asked.

"... After encountering Yuan Shuangshuang." She said.

Su Ming’an scrolled through the system prompts.

The texts, which had always been fuzzy and hazy, finally started to become clear in front of his eyes.

Stretching his hand to scroll down the interface, he saw many new texts.

Xiber lowered her eyelids.

"What then. It turns out that the fruit I ate yesterday, the passionate tribe people I saw, were all hallucinations. And the ocean we just saw..." Xiber said, "is a sea of blood."

"So hot." Su Ming’an said.

As his body was slowly corroded and melted by the poison rain, breaking free from the hallucinations, he finally felt that real stabbing pain.

—Deity approaches from the void.

—And man, as soon as he tries to become a god, will bear the torture of curses, madness, and metamorphosis in the void.

After reaching the full Faith Value and a sudden drop in SAN value,

He began to bear the pain of the tribe members.

... the pain being eroded by poison rain.

... the pain of losing loved ones.

... the pain of curse outbreaks causing whole-body disintegration.

This pain had begun tormenting him the day before yesterday. It was a scorching, burning sensation, but because he was deceived by hallucinations, he had thought it was the rainbow light driving out disease, and the pain he perceived was unclear.

But once the hallucinations disappeared,

this pain began to amplify unrestrictedly in his body.

His bones began to soften, his skin and flesh flipped and rolled, and his palms began to melt.

His entire body’s bones twisted until he moaned and roared—

So painful.

So painful.

So painful.

So painful painful so bitter so painful so painful painful painful bitter so painful so very painful—

Xiber reached out her hand and grasped his tightly.

Her white hair twisted and fluttered as dark pools formed beneath her. They grabbed his hand, covering his body, absorbing the fresh blood and the curse from him.

She shared his curse and bore his pain.

Su Ming’an, with his eyes open, his vision gradually cleared.

Xiber, with her eyes closed, her features matured little by little.

Her head moved slightly, her mouth twitched a bit, she stood still, tentacles surrounding her, and she flashed a faint smile, deceptively beautiful on a face corrupted and flayed by acid rain.

"We are all destined to go mad, just earlier we were merely experiencing it for a while," she said, "Feels not too bad, at least, the scenes I saw were beautiful."

After Xiber shared his pain,

Su Ming’an heard a distinct whispering sound in his ear.

White tentacles slowly grew from behind Su Ming’an.

His pupils dilated to the edges, as if fierce flames were burning within.

Representing Bai Shen, white tentacles tangled with the black ones, holding a bizarre beauty, like a flower blossoming in mud.

The dense curtain of rain continued to erode his body, cruelly devouring their flesh, mingling skin and muscle together.

Underneath the growth of tentacles,

they resembled two deformed monsters huddling together in the rain.

In "Notre-Dame de Paris," Su Ming’an had seen a passage.

——Not everything in the world conforms to human notions of beauty; ugliness lies next to beauty, deformity close to grace, monstrosity lurks behind nobility, beauty and evil coexist, light and darkness share space.

Kindness and justice cannot conquer all, ignorant humans cannot see the beauty behind deformity and regard it as ugly, associating ugliness with evil.

However,

acceptance and confrontation are the most perfect antidotes.

"Ding-dong!"