Chapter 98 The Grand Finale (18) The Banquet Begins

When that arm suddenly struck, Du Yu's nerves were on edge; she could have dodged it.

If all else fails, abandoning this body and unleashing the remaining spiritual energy is a good option, aside from causing headaches for a few days.

Just as Du Yu was about to unleash this spiritual energy to eliminate any future trouble, a golden light suddenly flashed before her eyes. Du Yu hesitated for a moment, not dodging the attack from the arm, but only slightly shifting her position. The soft and cold hand grasped her shoulder.

"Huh?"

Even the sneak attacker, [MiMiYin], seemed surprised that it would go so smoothly. However, being distracted during battle is not a good habit. Suddenly, the colored notes in [MiMiYin]'s pupils shone brightly, like two supernovae about to be ignited. The dazzling light instantly filled the entire space, and there was nothing in her vision except light.

Amidst the sudden burst of cheerful symphony, a familiar sense of disorientation, a feeling of spatial displacement, arises.

The light, condensed to its extreme, seemed to possess weight and even aggression. Before being taken away from this space, Du Yu caught a glimpse of the light wave, which spread rapidly like an explosion, slamming heavily onto the protective shield composed of thousands of [Divine Revelation Pearls], which at most could only withstand the energy of 10 A-level ability users. The shield shook like the last withered leaf on a branch in a raging winter wind, being torn apart by the strong wind, but something seemed to be supporting it, preventing it from falling.

The protective shield was once so thin it was almost nonexistent, but when the intense light subsided, the shield remained in place, miraculously surviving the impact of that powerful force that surpassed the [Darkness] level.

A flash of inspiration crossed Du Yu's mind, but before she could grasp it, the increasingly rousing symphony faded into the distance, and countless indistinct voices came from the void, rapidly approaching like a tide and sweeping over her senses.

The blurry scene before Du Yu's eyes gradually became clear. Countless intricate patterns, lifelike statues, and exquisitely designed buildings flashed before Du Yu's eyes one by one, and then quickly disappeared like flowing water. In the end, only a "heart-shaped" gate, sixteen meters high and sixteen meters wide, with countless flower fairies carved on its edges, stood before Du Yu.

The door is wide at the top and narrows at the bottom, with an inverted "human" shaped indentation in the middle, resembling a heart with its tip hidden in the ground, or two ears pieced together, with a gap in the middle that is faintly visible—

The sensation of touching solid ground beneath his toes vanished instantly, and all that remained before Du Yu was this large door. On either side of the door was a distorted and chaotic space, and nothing else existed. The avatar of the Lord of the Pure Sea, the Mimi Yin, the panicked mortals, and her followers had all disappeared.

"Squeak—"

A deep voice came from behind the heavy, exquisite door. The crack in the door widened slightly, and some colorful light poured out, which seemed particularly attractive in the chaotic and dim space, like a traveler who had been wandering alone in the chaotic darkness for a long time finally obtaining a ticket to a banquet.

Trust those you employ, and don't employ those you don't trust. His purple eyes reflected the warm, iridescent light. Du Yu squinted, thinking of that golden light. He exerted a little force with his palm, pushed open the heavy door, and went inside.

"boom--"

A terrifying heatwave swept over her, forcing Du Yu to abruptly close her eyes and take a few steps back. Before she could even observe the suddenly changed environment around her, a strange sense of weakness made its presence felt first.

Du Yu looked down at "her own" hands in surprise. The knuckles were large, and there was brownish-black grime that could not be washed out under the fingernails. The fingertips and palms were covered with rough calluses. These were the hands of a middle-aged woman, a pair of... ordinary people's hands.

Before Du Yu could figure out what was going on, a strong force came from his neck. "Jiu San, what are you doing here? The manager is going to get angry if he sees you here again."

"Come here, I'm only telling you this because we're good friends. I've recently found a great opportunity to make a fortune..."

Du Yu watched as "himself" was pulled over. After the person whispered a few words in his ear, surprise appeared in his eyes. Then, the two discussed a few words, suppressed their joy, and walked out of the factory. They resigned under the pretext of doing so and went to the Florence Wharf, which Du Yu was familiar with.

This feeling of being detached yet drawn in was already familiar to Du Yu. She knew that this was not the memory of a miner, but a dream world that evolved from reality.

Unlike what they had experienced before, when the two miners, suppressing their joy, resigned and headed to the mine, the originally stable space suddenly distorted, and Du Yu's perspective changed again, as if actors were sitting in an editing room watching different versions of a film, with two screens on the left and right playing two similar but different versions of the story.

Yu was familiar with the story on one of the "screens," and even without experiencing it firsthand, she pieced together the entire narrative from various perspectives—

Lured by the high salary promised by the Gentlemen's Club, they came to the mine, their spirits gradually weakening and unable to escape, awaiting a slow death. Until the day the mine was turned upside down, they were unable to escape and died together at the hands of the Fallen.

The story on the other "screen" is a "version" that Du Yu has never seen before—

Without any offers from the gentlemen's club, the two continued to work at the factory. However, both were getting on in years and their physical strength was declining. The factory also had strong radiation, and a few months later, a group of middle-aged employees were dismissed by the boss for "problematic work attitude," including the two of them.

After being fired, the female miner who had hooked her arms around Du Yu's neck soon died of alcoholism in a cheap hourly room. The miner possessed by Du Yu was named Li Jiusan, and she was slightly luckier than her friend.

After being laid off from the factory, she was "lucky" enough to find a low-paying job as a bar cleaner, which was just enough to make ends meet. Even though she had to work sixteen hours a day, she no longer had to worry about the "unemployment tax".

In the City of the Sun, those who do not work are often seen as scum, adding to the burden on society. If unemployed people do not find a job within a specified period, they must pay a certain amount of "unemployment tax" to make up for the contribution they have not made to society during this period.

Even though the council usually ignores all proposals from the Lower City, tax collection is one thing they absolutely cannot abandon. In the Lower City, even the hunter guilds, which are essentially "gangs," have to pay an "unemployment tax" every quarter to compensate for the losses caused to the city by the Mist Hunters' lack of productive activity.

If too many hunters under a certain hunter guild die or are injured in a certain quarter, they will be charged a "waste of human resources tax".

Moreover, this "unemployment tax" is only manageable for the first few months if you grit your teeth and pay it. After that, the tax increases every quarter, and if it drags on for a few years, the amount can double, almost driving people to their deaths.

Li Jiusan was lucky to find a job before the "unemployment tax" had accumulated too much; however, bars in the downtown area always seem to come and go.

Li Jiusan only worked there for a few months before the bar where she worked was burned to the ground in a gang fight, and the owner's head was hung on the only remaining wall of the bar.

Li Jiusan thus lost a month's salary that he hadn't had time to receive, as well as his entire right leg.

For a poor worker in the lower city, losing his right leg was not terrible. What was terrible was waking up to find himself in a regular hospital, receiving a full range of treatments while unconscious. That was the longest number Li Jiusan had ever seen in his life.

Is this my destiny?

When she failed to skip out on her bill and was tied to a hospital lab table, this absurd thought became the last trace she left in her life.

"destiny?"

Du Yu, who had been observing silently, seemed to have grasped something. His brows furrowed. On the two "screens," Li Jiusan, lying in a pool of blood, and Li Jiusan, discarded as medical waste, both turned their heads at the same time, as if looking in a mirror. The two similar but different faces silently stared at each other from afar.

The next instant, the two faces belonging to "Li Jiusan" vanished, and countless images appeared afterward. Similar to Li Jiusan, these images were all distorted at a certain point, splitting into two branches.

There are old hunters who risked their lives in their youth and decided to make one last killing in the lower city before retiring; there are young people who come full of hope and anticipation because they need money for medical treatment; there are members of the Gentlemen's Guild who have always been neglected in the organization but suddenly receive a top-secret mission; there are cultists whose faith is actually shallow but who suddenly receive a divine revelation one day...

In that instant, Du Yu met countless people of all kinds, and then parted ways with them in the next second—Du Yu stood still, while they walked their own paths in a certain direction, heading towards a future that was sometimes dark or hopeless, and sometimes bright.

Du Yu was caught up in it all. For a moment, she even saw her own face, but the face was so blurry that the image was shattered beyond recognition. She only managed a brief glance back. If it weren't for a strange premonition that made Du Yu look up, that fragmented image would have flowed into the crowd without her noticing.

This is... the torrent of fate.

This is the torrent of fate that arises from the upheavals of all those whose lives have taken a different path because of the Holy Grail event!

[Decadent Music]...

The purpose of [Mimi Yin] is not to seize the Holy Grail at all; everyone has been deceived by Him! What He wants to contain is not [the soul]!

A flash of inspiration cleaved through the chaotic darkness, and Du Yu understood everything in a split second. At the same time, he also learned why the incarnation of the Lord of the Pure Sea, "Gu Xi," was behaving strangely.

A self-imprisoned being on either side of the scales of fate, the source and end of the river of impure souls, the guardian of natural disasters, and the lord of the realm.

The star of calamity winks silently, the deluded path of desire leads to the final feast of revelry, and the pink heart sinks into decadent music.

【Fate】, 【Mind】, 【Calamity】... These three elements all belong to the 【Group Domain】 tendency. 【Mimi Yin】 and 【Pure Sea Lord】 are gods under the same 【Group Domain】 tendency.

As a latecomer, [MiMiYin] cannot avoid the ever-watchful [Lord of the Pure Sea] if it wants to compete for elements under the [Group Domain] trend. Judging from the three prayers that refer to divine names, divine authority, and divine kingdoms, [Lord of the Pure Sea] has more of these three elements than [MiMiYin].

So, on the surface, in order to accommodate the second element, the Mind, [MiMiYin] had to go to great lengths to seize the Holy Grail and hold a ceremony, and in doing so, she even fell into the trap of [Lord of the Pure Sea] and suffered a serious injury.

But in reality, how could anyone who becomes a god be an ordinary person? [MiMiYin] didn't even try to compete for the relatively easy [Mind]. Instead, arrogantly, or rather insanely, she set her sights on [Destiny], the core element controlled by [Lord of the Pure Sea]!

Not only did He want to steal power from the Lord of the Pure Sea, He also staked everything on a single game, wanting to be on equal footing with the Lord of the Pure Sea!

A complete madman!

The decadent music has fooled everyone!

In an instant, Du Yu understood everything and finally realized all the points he didn't understand about the dock incident: why did the members of the Joyful Band receive different tasks? It was because the god they worshipped was a madman who dared to bet even himself on the gambling table, let alone his believers.

The members of the Pleasure Band who just died at the dock, including the Seventh String, the divine messenger, were all sacrifices destined to be made by [MiMi Yin] to increase the success rate and significance of the ritual when she was planning this conspiracy!

Du Yu's heart suddenly skipped a beat. She remembered Hu Tiankui's strange behavior before his death. If that was the case with the "Decadent Sound," what about the Gentlemen's Club? These powerful superhumans from the Pleasure Orchestra were destined to be sacrificed. They prepared this earth-shattering drama, pushing this ritual step by step towards its inevitable end. What role did the members of the Gentlemen's Club, who died afterward, play?

The various forces that have been entangled in the mine for a long time—the tycoons, the evil gods, and the fallen—are all too powerful. The Gentlemen's Association, which was clearly involved in the whole process and even played a key role in pushing things forward, is often overlooked.

Why would Quark and Lange entrust such a highly confidential plan to a hunter guild in the lower city?

Why did Bian Shaoyan, the male protagonist of the novel and an important figure in the City of Chasing the Sun, insist on personally going to the Lower City, and then die so easily there?

...I met Cat Beard and his group by chance during my first attempt at wandering the spirit world, but You Shi, a follower of the [Lord of the Pure Sea], also appeared in that dream, and she was also involved in the mine incident.

[Lost in Mind and Power]... Du Yu had just transmigrated and didn't know much about the nine superior elements, but now, recalling the contents of that dream, she could conclude that it was [Mind]! [Lost in Mind and Power] was a deity who had mastered the [Mind] element!

"Creak—"

A familiar voice rang in her ears, and Du Yu looked up abruptly. She saw that she had returned to the heart-shaped gate, which was sixteen meters high and sixteen meters wide. It was as if she had just been lost in thought for a moment. The gate slowly opened inward with a tooth-grinding sound, and in an instant, colorful lights shone brightly, and soft and soothing music poured out like flowing water.

As the colored light gradually faded, Du Yu finally saw everything behind the door.

A lustrous red carpet, embroidered with elfin flowers along its edges, stretched from behind the door all the way to the deepest part of the hall, beneath a high platform.

On either side of the red carpet were fountains spouting candy and gold, and countless emerald round tables stretched out, adorned with delicate and beautiful flower clusters. Waiters dressed in white evening gowns and barefoot flitted like white butterflies around the emerald tables, serving one delicious dish after another.

At the end of the red carpet were white marble steps. Climbing the steps and crossing the 106th step, there was a simple and ancient-looking round platform, like one used for sacrificial rites. A familiar figure stood on the platform, his back to Du Yu, his arms raised and lowered gracefully, as if conducting an unseen orchestra, pressing the rest note to the music.

"You've finally arrived, my most precious guest."

"Welcome to the final feast of the carnival."

The heavenly music gradually stopped, and the soft, magnetic voice of [Mi Mi Yin], whose gender was indistinguishable, floated out. As soon as He spoke, the "guests" sitting around the jade round table all turned their heads to look in the direction of the door.

Du Yu looked at the familiar and unfamiliar faces, composed himself, and said in a steady voice, "[Mi Mi Yin], is this your way of treating guests?"

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Author's Note: Things are finally mostly sorted out. I'm still writing, but I'll post a chapter first. Happy Lunar New Year's Eve everyone! Thank you all for your company over the past year, and for still reading my story after such a long hiatus. Thank you so much! (bows)