Chapter 178: The Truth: Five Thousand Years of Waiting [VIP]

Click!

The door opened.

From behind the door came a bird-like singing voice.

"This is my road, it is rough and full of hardships.

This is my life, a trickle of water flowing through the mountains, winding forward

As long as the cycle of prosperity and decline continues, I will still be alive..."

(This singing voice...)

Xiao Yun narrowed his eyes.

The sound of singing coming from a room that was supposedly on the ninth floor of the Divine Tower was already a strange thing, but what made Xiao Yun feel even more incredible than the sound of singing coming from the room was——

(I’ve heard this voice before, in…in a dream…I’ve heard this singing in a dream…)

(Yes, that’s right… I’ve heard this song countless times in my dreams, and I’ve also heard this voice… I, I…)

He couldn't help but walk into the room.

The world behind the door was tranquil and elegant, like the gardens of the gods described in ancient texts. The carpet-like grass was strewn with colorful wildflowers, lush fruit trees bore fragrant fruits, and streams flowed like shimmering ribbons through the valley. And when he turned a corner following the sound of the song—

Xiao Yun saw the person singing.

The boy, wearing a simple white shirt and black trousers, sat on the grass against a tree trunk, holding a musical instrument in his arms. His vibrant brown curly hair sparkled, and he looked as innocent and pure as a bird.

(He is...)

"you--"

"It's me! I'm Lucien!"

Lucien was ecstatic when he saw Xiao Yun. He put down his instrument, quickly stood up, threw himself into Xiao Yun's arms, and hugged him tightly.

"I finally waited for you! I finally met you!"

“You, you…”

Xiao Yun stared at Lucien with wide eyes.

He had felt Lucien countless times before, and he was certain that the boy before him was the real Lucien, but—

"Lucien is already in his teens, and you look no more than fifteen."

Xiao Yun asked the natural question.

"That's nothing strange."

Lucien explained enthusiastically, "The ninth floor of the divine tower is not the real world. When a living being enters the ninth floor of the divine tower, their outer form is shed, revealing the true form of their soul. So, although my body is over ten years old, the me you see is only fifteen."

"In fact, the moment you entered the ninth floor, your appearance had already changed, but you just hadn't noticed yet."

Lucien added.

"…My appearance has changed? What have I become?"

Xiao Yun asked in surprise.

"I see you with your hair and eyes, all a beautiful, pure gold, like fragments of the sun, like the first light at the birth of the universe."

Lucien emotionally described Xiao Yun in his eyes.

"Then... by the way, why are you here? Why are you waiting for me here?"

Xiao Yun came back to his senses and asked curiously.

"Yaris asked me to wait for you here."

Lucien choked back tears as he answered, his big blue eyes filled with tears: "Jaris... He has been trapped here all this time, tortured by terrible things all this time..."

"What?"

"Yaris... Yaris is so pitiful... I, I, I can't do anything. I can only watch him suffer and use my singing to comfort him as much as possible... He asked me to wait for you here. He said you would definitely come... You would never abandon him, you would save him... He always believed this, and I always believed this too..."

At this point, Lucien burst into tears, his voice drowned by sobs.

"Lucien, please don't cry. Where is he? Where is Jarris?"

“I, I…”

"You must take me to see Yaris immediately, so that I can take him away as you and he expect!"

Xiao Yun sternly interrupted Lucien's crying.

"—Yes! Take him away!"

Lucien came back to his senses and wiped his eyes excitedly. He took Xiao Yun through the lush fruit forest with a gurgling stream and came to a heavy door.

“Every time they come here, the door opens, but I can’t pass through it. I can’t see the world behind it… I can only stand on this side of the door… and feel the pain behind it…”

"The pain behind the door..."

Xiao Yun couldn't help but clench his fists.

He could probably guess what the world behind the door was like, but he didn't want to make any comment about it.

"The world behind the door is terrifying..."

Lucien choked up and said, "Before you open the door, I must tell you everything I know about Jarris. These are what Jarris instructed me to do. He said that you must know as much truth as possible before you can open this door..."

"Go ahead."

Xiao Yun gritted his teeth, suppressing his anxiety and sadness.

"Um."

Lucien nodded and began to tell his story haltingly.

"My brother has always known about you, and I knew about you a long time ago too... When I was eleven, my father passed away unexpectedly, and my mother left with him... My brother came to pick me up at the Little Love Temple. He held me tenderly and asked in a sweet voice if I wanted to live with him... When he held me in his arms, I saw you for the first time..."

"you mean--"

"When he held me tightly in his arms, I saw a blond boy who looked almost identical to me because of my bloodline. I saw him holding hands with his brother, playing and singing together. They were always glued to each other, inseparable... I'm very happy that my brother likes me, because I like him too..."

.

"But soon I wasn't myself anymore. I realized that when my brother looked at me with those gentle eyes, he was looking at me. I tried my best to become the younger brother that would satisfy him... But... no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't become the brother that my brother remembered... He was incomparably excellent, and every aspect of him made me feel disappointed. Whenever my brother looked at me with those disappointed eyes,..."

"When my brother was sixteen, he returned home on his first day feeling exhausted and running a fever... He held my hand and had a dream, a terrifying, terrifying dream..."

Lucien's voice was filled with trembling and fear, and it sounded like crying.

Xiao Yun hugged him lovingly and said gently: "If it is a very painful thing, then -"

"No! I must tell you what I dreamed about!"

Lucien closed his eyes and spoke incoherently.

"I dreamed of a desolate desert, filled with pillars of white salt and invisible radiation. My brother, his dragon, and his dragon were all severely injured... They were surrounded by terrifying gods with dazzling light on their bodies, and they could die at any moment... Those terrifying gods shouted at them to give up resistance, return with them, and accept their punishment."

"My brother and he were unwilling to compromise. They hugged each other tightly, and their blood—his brother's blood was black, his blood was golden—mixed and flowed together. They agreed to face the final moment together, but my brother, my brother..."

"My brother suddenly pulled out a strange black blade and pierced his body from behind. After he collapsed and turned into a golden ball of light, he stabbed himself with the black blade... After being stabbed, my brother's body became as beautiful and shimmering as the starry sky at night. A crack appeared at his heart, leading to endless darkness and the unknown."

"What happened next? What happened next?!"

Xiao Yun asked nervously, his brain and heart aching badly.

"Later... later..."

Lucien bit his lip.

"My brother held up the ball of light and tried to stuff it into the crack. Seeing him use the crack in his heart to send the ball escaping, the gods rushed over to tear it apart and rob it... As the gods scrambled for it, the golden ball of light was ripped into pieces, leaving it pitted and broken... They even tore off my brother's limbs... They tried again... but my brother closed the crack first, sending the broken ball away... The gods were furious. They captured my brother and imprisoned him, powerless, in the world beyond the door..."

Lucien choked up and said, "All things are mortal, not even the gods can escape death... But Yaris is born with the ability to produce the substance that makes the gods immortal... In order to continuously obtain this substance, they forced Yaris's soul and body to separate... The soul is constantly reincarnated in the world, tortured by the various love, hatred and pain of this world. The body connected to the soul can produce more stably and persistently... produce..."

"you mean……"

"Yes, for over five thousand years, my brother's true form has been locked behind that door on the ninth floor, plundered and tortured at the will of the gods... His soul has been constantly placed into fragile and beautiful bodies meticulously crafted by the gods, enduring the suffering of this world, to further stimulate his true form..."

"No wonder, no wonder he...all these years, he..."

Xiao Yun shed tears.

"After I discovered my brother's secret thanks to my bloodline tracing ability, I told him I loved him and that I was willing to do anything for him... and then..."

Lucien tried hard to suppress his emotions, but tears wet his eyes again.

"After that... I'm not sure what happened exactly... I loved Yaris, and I obeyed him in everything. He said he would hide you in my body to deceive the gods, so I immediately gave my body to you... I believed in every decision Yaris made, and believed that he had decided that you were the one he had waited for five thousand years... My only fear was that after five thousand years, you would have long forgotten your past with me... I begged my brother to leave some of my memories in this body. That way, even if you forget your past with Yaris, you will continue to love Yaris under the influence of my memories."

"Lucien, you—"

"sorry……"

Lucien lowered his head. "I know cheating is wrong, but other than that, I have no other way to help my brother... I'm an incompetent waste. Not only am I unable to help my brother, but I'm always a burden to him. Even after reaching the ninth floor, I can only watch him being used as medicine by the gods and endure endless exploitation. I... I want to end his suffering..."

"If you're unhappy because of the deception, please don't blame Yaris, blame me! Everything was my own decision. Yaris has always loved you and has been waiting for you... for a long, long time... Please! No matter what you see behind the door! Even if it's something very scary, don't stop loving him!"

Lucien cried out in grief: "I can't enter the room, but I can hear his voice. He is in pain... He is in pain all the time..."

"I swear, no matter what happens to him, I will continue to love him..."

Xiao Yun said softly, raised his head, and said through gritted teeth: "I want to open this door immediately and end the nightmare that has tormented him for five thousand years."

Lucien nodded with a sob and burst into tears.

Xiao Yun reached out and gently stroked his messy brown curly hair: "Don't cry, I will take you home and take Yaris home too."

"Don't worry about me, I'm not that weak."

Lucien smiled and said, "During the time when I was captured by the Dragon Emperor, I was very strong."

"Of course, I know you're a strong person. You're great, very great."

Xiao Yun opened his arms and hugged Lucien: "Let's go, let's enter the world behind the door together."

"Um."

Lucien stood up and walked to the door with Xiao Yun.

Xiao Yun stretched out his hand, but before his fingers touched the door, they were pierced by the fierce white light and black smoke came out of his fingertips.

"this……"

Seeing this scene, Lucien's eyes were wet with tears again: "Jaris...Jaris...he, he..."

"It's okay, it's just a minor cut."

Xiao Yun said seriously and asked Lucien to stand aside to avoid being affected by the next round of defense of the door.

Lucien stepped back timidly, looking at Xiao Yun with his big eyes filled with horror.

Xiao Yun took a breath.

(LA, do you know how to open that door?)

[I……]

(…Is that the ball of light that Yaris desperately sent out you?)

[No, the light ball is not me, the light ball is...]

A golden bird flew out of Xiao Yun's body and turned into a golden light curtain that only Xiao Yun could see, attached to the surface of the gate.

Xiao Yun stretched out his hand again, and his fingertips lightly touched the golden light curtain. A huge amount of information and images immediately flooded into his brain.

…

"... Commander, the defensive barrier's energy is running out! Are we...really going to activate Ragnarok?"

"Is there even a first option?! If the gods won't let us live, we'll raise the banner of rebellion against them with our lives!"

"But--"

"If you're scared, then—"

"No, I'm not afraid! I'm just afraid that our struggle is meaningless!"

"Resistance cannot be meaningless! If our research and our resistance are meaningless, why would the gods gather their forces to strangle us?"

"so--"

"Yes! Our lives are about to end, but our struggle will live forever!"

…

A dazzling white light flashed by, and the sounds and figures turned to dust, just like the stars twinkling in the empty world at the beginning of the universe.

The mysterious star baby that had entered Xiao Yun's vision many times and brought him inexplicable fear and anxiety appeared again.

He, with dark light shining all over his body, quietly floated in the empty universe, his eyes closed, a form flowing in his body, and his incomplete limbs tightly holding the ball of light in his arms.

The night passed and dawn came, and the dark baby and the ball of light in His arms also turned into a translucent baby and a dark ball of light.

“This…this…”

Faintly, Xiao Yun heard something whispering in the distance.

(The old era has ended, the new era has begun, and the true end is coming...)

(“Time”… “End”… “End”…)

(Don't be afraid to wake up, don't forget who you really are, now - open your eyes! Open your eyes!)

(——Open your eyes!)

"ah--"

Before he knew it, Xiao Yun let out a scream of pain.

The mysterious baby disappeared with a scream, and two boys hugging each other tightly gradually emerged in the golden light curtain. They looked about eleven or thirteen years old, pure as newborns, and looked at the dozens of glowing humanoids that suddenly appeared with great horror.

(…Could these glowing humanoid figures be the gods that rule over Planet Ella?)

Xiao Yun thought anxiously.

He saw glowing humanoid figures that looked like gods extending their slender torsos between hands and tentacles towards the boys who were hugging each other, trying to separate them.

However, no matter how hard they tried, the teenagers held each other firmly and refused to be separated - every time they were about to be separated, they would struggle to hold on to each other.

[——Take these two things back and study them carefully.]

The largest glowing humanoid figure, suspected to be the leader of the gods, gave the order.

As soon as he finished speaking, a dark starry sky and twinkling stars appeared before Xiao Yun's eyes. His body seemed to fall into the corridor of a dream and was in a place completely different from the dark universe - to be precise, his body was floating in the dark background, and the scenery unfolding below was a silver city shining with colorful light, the real kingdom of God, the city of light.

The beautiful City of Light is filled with tall, bright buildings, but there is no breath of living people in this city, or rather—

…

(ah!)

After the violent feeling of falling, Xiao Yun was sure that he had entered a dream, and a voice that was both familiar and unfamiliar came to his ears.

“Wake up! Wake up!”

Along with the violent sound came a violent shaking.

“This…this…”

Xiao Yun tried to open his eyes, and was immediately stunned.

Yaris!

The person who pushed him was actually a boy who looked almost exactly like Yaris!

The boy was about fourteen or fifteen years old, with fair skin and an elf-like slenderness. His beautiful cheeks exuded a dazzling charm. His silky and shiny bangs covered his eyebrows evenly. The pupils and irises of his eyes were a rare pure black, flashing a light that was sometimes clear and sometimes enchanting. His black hair, emitting the coolness of the night, hung over his shoulders.

He was wearing a simple sleeveless, knee-length robe that revealed his delicate, slender arms and calves, and he naturally climbed onto the bed and pushed himself.

"here--"

Xiao Yun felt a sudden sense of worry in his heart.

"Are you feeling unwell?"

The young man reached out and touched his forehead. The soft and cold touch made Xiao Yun feel a strong sense of familiarity.

(What should I do? He, he... could it be...?)

Xiao Yun moved his body and saw the silver mirror placed beside the bed. The person who appeared in the mirror was a young man with golden hair and golden eyes. He was wearing the same white sleeveless, below-the-knee robe as Yaris. His facial features were almost identical to Lucien's, but the pupils and irises of his eyes were the same pure gold as the mysterious star baby.

(So ​​I am... I am actually...)

"What's the matter with you, Xiao?"

The young man who looked very much like Yaris looked at Xiao Yun in confusion. He frowned slightly, then hugged him affectionately, rubbing Xiao Yun's neck. "I know you don't like it here, and I don't like it here either, but we can't leave... Shan forbids us to leave... He said that the world outside is ignorant, primitive, and dangerous, and the creatures outside will hurt us..."

"Really? The world outside—"

"Of course I can't believe in Him."

The young man raised his head and kissed Xiao Yun's shoulder with his translucent jelly-like lips.

[He won't let us leave, because we are precious experimental subjects that He created at the expense of tens of billions of lives outside. If we escape His independent dimension, all His previous hard work will be in vain...]

The influx of inner thoughts instantly calmed Xiao Yun's heart, and he breathed in the cool breath naturally emanating from the young man with intoxication.

What should we do? How can we escape?

[I don't know, but I think we'll find a way...because a free soul can't be imprisoned~]

Yes, a free soul can never be locked up. Even if we become the wind or the clouds, we will still fly. One day, we will catch up with the stars.

Xiao Yun repeated in a low voice, hugging Yaris tightly with both hands, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Xiao, why are you crying suddenly? Did the wound on your back split open?"

Yaris spoke worriedly, tearing off Xiao Yun's clothes and carefully examining his back with his fingers. He naggingly warned, "Shan has always wanted to understand what we are, what led to our birth, and whether we can be considered Ya's children... But after all, we are precious living creatures that they have spent millions of years to obtain. As long as we cooperate with Him, He will never harm us..."

"But He wants to separate us! He also wants to put His tentacles inside you. I won't let Him do this to you!"

Xiao Yun blurted out, anger surging uncontrollably.

"So we need to get out of here as soon as possible."

Yaris said softly, "The world is becoming more and more dangerous, and I am increasingly aware that our bodies are incomplete and lack the most crucial part..."

"The most crucial part... the most crucial part..."

Xiao Yun muttered to himself, and suddenly his soul was gripped by a huge fear.

He stared at Yaris in a trance: "I, I...what on earth do you want to tell me! You——"

"sorry……"

With these words, everything in the room vanished. The entire space began to collapse, and a fierce, dazzling white light gushed out. The door that imprisoned Yaris opened.

Xiao Yun walked into the huge room filled with dazzling white light and looked sadly at the nine light pillars that were faintly visible in the white light.

The largest beam of light was filled with light green liquid, and in the center of the light green liquid was suspended a starry universe, or rather a dark nebula flowing with light.

All the light pillars were part of a huge machine that filled the room. The mysterious machine worked continuously to extract something as shiny as star fragments from the dark nebula suspended in the center of the pale green liquid, and transferred it to the other eight light pillars in turn for extraction and purification.

Huh~Huh~

The mechanical extraction never stops, and the suffering of the dark nebula immersed in the pale green liquid never ends.

The silent space was filled with painful groans, which were the most desperate pain from the depths of the soul...

…

In an instant, Xiao Yun understood.

The cadres understood.

Why is Yaris always so pale, weak, slender, and transparent, like a living ghost? She possesses unparalleled beauty, yet she is always anxious and in pain...

Why did Yaris seal his own memory and do his best to disguise himself as Lucien...

Why did Yaris have a fever for a whole month after entering the ninth floor of the God Tower for the first time, and why did his appearance always remain that of a sixteen-year-old...

Why did Yaris, who was on the ninth floor, appear in his dream world with a colorless pale consciousness, and even his black hair turned white...

Why do all the black-haired high priests of all generations look exactly the same...

Why did the gods regard Yaris as a forbidden delicacy, forbidding him from leaving the Western Continent and forbidding him from entering the ruins of the Eternal Empire's capital deep in the Death Desert...

Why did Yaris say that he had no right to choose and could only stay where he was and wait to be chosen...

Why did Yaris say to the huge cylinder in the underground part of the Eternal Building, "Where everything begins, is also where everything ends"...

Why does almost everyone, including Luke, think that Yaris is made of something like death...

Why did Lucien, who was hidden on the ninth floor by Jarris, appear in the form of a young boy, and why did he immediately change into a blond with golden eyes after entering the ninth floor...

Why is the "Tower Master" closely connected to Yaris a dark dragon that has lost its eyes, limbs, horns, mane, and wings...

Why did Earl Kang say that he felt sorry for Yaris? He was filled with pity and guilt towards Yaris...

…

Because... because...

"I'm sorry for making you wait for so many years..."

Xiao Yun spoke softly, caressing the dark nebula immersed in the pale green liquid through the beam of light. A vast amount of information related to Planet Ella slowly resurfaced...