Lake Eridu
It feels like being in the boundless deep ocean. Everything around is quiet, slow, unknown and terrifying.
Shi Youchen felt as if his entire body were being poured into cement. His organs, meridians, and even his thoughts all became sluggish, but his breathing remained incredibly smooth. Everything besides his body seemed to be dispersing into the distant night sky, cheering for freedom.
He finally opened his eyes, and what he saw was not the ocean, but a dark blue starry sky. Beneath the starry sky was a shadowless plain, a fierce evening breeze, and the rustling of grass passing by his ears.
He woke up, leaning against a giant tree. Just a few centimeters from his hand lay a lake, its surface thick with vapor, obscuring much of the reflected moonlight. A chill rippled through the trunk of the tree he leaned against, and Shi Youchen instinctively tried to rise, but his hands gave way to the ground, and he nearly plunged headfirst into the water.
"!" He was grabbed from behind, "What are you doing?!" The man's voice revealed extreme anxiety, as if he was frightened by his behavior.
Shi Youchen took a deep breath, feeling the cool air filling his lungs. He then climbed up from the ground and brushed off the dirt on his clothes, only to find that much of it had already solidified. He could only sigh softly and looked up at the person in front of him: "Apsu."
He knew that unlike himself, the other party could not understand what he said at all without the help of headphones, and the meaning of their words was destined to be incomprehensible to each other. However, after so many days in District 5 and so many interactions, he had certainly learned a few words, including the name Apsu.
Apsu was startled by his sudden words and took two steps back unconsciously. Then he seemed to react and pretended to be calm and said, "Don't try to scare me. I know you don't speak our language at all." After he said this, he seemed unsure. He looked Shi Youchen up and down several times, and finally confirmed that the other party was paralyzed and weak all over because of the drug. It was obvious that he even had difficulty standing.
"I know you're wondering why I brought you here. I'm not afraid to tell you. We won't be meeting again anyway." Apsu glanced at the lake with a worried look in his eyes, then turned back to stare into Shi Youchen's eyes. "If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for coming to our district at this time and just running into this divine summons."
Shi Youchen's mind was clouded by the effects of the drugs, but he subconsciously felt like he'd heard about divine messengers somewhere before. Apsu continued, "I thank you for rescuing me from Ahha Village, but the oracle cannot be disobeyed. Since you've been chosen, accepting the guidance and entering Baal is your destiny. Even if I hadn't brought you here, someone else would have." He spoke rapidly, without pausing between sentences, as if he'd practiced reciting them many times.
"Since you saved me, I'll explain it more clearly." Apsu ignored Shi Youchen's frown and said with his neck stiff, "The Samba tribe receives divine orders from heaven. Every once in a while, an oracle will be sent down, recruiting divine messengers from all over the region to travel to the Bar Plains. You're from another region, so the guidance you should have received in your dreams was different from others."
"When I woke up in the village of Aha that day, I received an oracle on your behalf, asking me to bring you to the shore of Lake Eridu within two days." Having said this, Apsu's eyes drifted towards the distant part of the lake, as if he was waiting for something.
After struggling to recall the key words, Shi Youchen finally remembered them. He blurted out in District 5 dialect, "Xiao Wei?" Apsu was startled by the name and stared into Shi Youchen's eyes in astonishment. "Are you asking me where the girl next to you is?"
Shi Youchen nodded heavily, and then he heard, "I didn't expect you to care about her so much. Could you have developed feelings for her?" As Apsu spoke, he searched carefully in those dark eyes, but ultimately couldn't find even the slightest hint of ambiguity. So he waved his hand and gave up. "Forget it. Whether you have feelings for her or not, you won't see her again after tonight. Don't worry, I just lured her away. Otherwise, she'd be so inseparable from you that it would be hard for me to take action."
Seeing the man across from him clearly relieved, Apsu said with a hint of amusement, "I didn't expect that someone as high and mighty as you would care about the life and death of a 'waiter'. I thought you were just like those outsiders before, treating them as mere playthings."
"Although people like her who were sold to the higher-ups have little human rights here, if she could hear you care about her like this, she would surely be touched."
A child who was a little over sixteen years old, who would even be a minor in District 8, could actually say such indifferent words with a tone of contempt that he was used to seeing. Shi Youchen once again felt the huge difference between the civilization and education in District 5 and other places.
Suddenly a breeze blew over the lake, the fog dispersed, and a long shadow came from a distance.
Apsu took a few excited steps forward, almost stepping into the lake, craning his neck to look, his whole body trembling with excitement.
Shi Youchen's eyes were still powerless to keep open. In his limited vision, he vaguely saw the long shadow reaching the shore, and two people walked down from the lake, or rather, one person led the other out, but the other end of the chain was tied to the slender neck of the person behind.
"Tiya!" Apsu's eyes suddenly turned red. He clenched his fists when he saw the restraints on the girl behind him, but he didn't dare to step forward to grab the shackles that were so close. He just lowered his head, tried hard to suppress his anger, and said respectfully, "Sir."
The man who was being addressed didn't even look at him, but took the girl's hand and walked two steps forward to Shi Youchen.
"Look up," a shrill voice said. Shi Youchen didn't move his head, but he lifted his eyes wearily and saw the person who had spoken. He was a man with extremely sharp features, and his age was hard to tell. His thin, straight lips and the prominent hooked nose above them alone made a deep impression.
"Well, not bad." The man's eyes were very agile. He scanned Shi Youchen's body sharply, then tossed the chain in his hand to Apsu beside him with satisfaction, "You can go now."
Shi Youchen then understood that what Apsu had said before about the oracle passed down from generation to generation and the summoned messenger of God were all nice excuses he made up.
It was clear that I was being used as a pawn in exchange.
Apsu hurriedly took the other end of the chain, holding it in his hands in disbelief for a long time, then followed it until it touched the cold wrist. Finally, as if waking from a dream, he took the girl's hand with red eyes, clasped their fingers together, and murmured with a choked voice: "Tiya, I will take you home."
But the girl didn't react at all from beginning to end. She just stared at the empty field in front of her, her eyes vague and lonely.
When Apsu was holding Tiya's hand and passing by Shi Youchen, a soft "I'm sorry" was carried into his ears by the evening breeze. Then Shi Youchen heard the man beside him laugh "hehe", and the short syllables were full of ridicule, sarcasm, contempt and disdain.
"She's just a woman. You can find another one if you lose her. Is it worth it for you to take such a big risk to get her back?" Unexpectedly, the man asked as he watched the young man and woman gradually leave.
Apsu held Tiya's hand tightly but still didn't dare to look back. He used up all his courage and said in a voice only he could hear: "You don't understand." But somehow, the man seemed to hear it very clearly. His jaw tightened instantly and his eyes fixed.
"Get out of the way!" Shi Youchen's exclamation was scattered in the wind. Apsu naturally failed to react. He just subconsciously turned around and looked towards the source of the voice. He felt a surge of heat in his right arm, and then he saw Tiya suddenly moving away from him.
... "Eh?" Apsu turned his head blankly and looked behind him, and saw Shi Youchen nimbly getting up from the ground and running towards him, "You...what's wrong..." Before he finished speaking, he suddenly felt dizzy, followed by a heart-wrenching pain.
Shi Youchen ran towards the stunned Tiya, grabbed the part of her left arm where her fingers were still clasped together, and pushed her behind the giant tree. He immediately squatted down and half-lifted Apsu, who had fallen to the ground. He changed his previous weak demeanor and brought him to the tree at the end facing away from the lake.
Seeing his next move, Apsu suddenly screamed loudly. "Shut up!" Shi Youchen raised his hand to cover the boy's mouth, threatening him with a look of silence. He then continued to grasp the boy's right elbow with one hand and the severed forearm and right hand with the other, piecing together the bones and flesh along the smooth surface.
But Apsu was shaking violently with fear and pain, and blood continued to flow, staining Shi Youchen's hands and shirt. The warm, slippery blood and the pungent smell of blood made it impossible for Shi Youchen to accurately connect the two limbs.
At this moment, the sound of water breaking through the lake surface was heard. Shi Youchen didn't care about Apsu's reaction. He exerted all his strength and forcibly put the broken limbs together. Then, the energy in his body surged towards Apsu's right hand...
At this time, Apsu's face was already covered with various turbid liquids. In his blurred and narrow vision, he saw new flesh and blood growing on his severed right forearm.
"Shi..." Apsu had just uttered a hoarse syllable when he was blocked by Shi Youchen's glare, so he had to shrink his neck, grit his teeth and cry silently.
In his haste, Shi Youchen channeled his energy too quickly, and naturally failed to carefully examine Apsu's injuries and physical condition. He knew the situation was urgent. So, upon feeling the skin and flesh begin to stick together, he immediately pulled a needle from his inside jacket pocket, opened it, and injected it into his own upper arm. Then, he grasped Apsu's left hand and pressed it against his right elbow. He signaled with his eyes to the stunned Tiya, then stood up and walked out of the shelter of the giant tree.
"You're quite courageous." The man emerged from the lake drenched, his hair, which reached mid-neck, clinging to his face like damp seaweed. "How dare you push me into the water!" he said sinisterly, and a pair of wings suddenly sprouted from his back.
Shi Youchen held his breath for a moment. He was sure that he was not seeing things. It was indeed a pair of wings. When they were spread out, one could see that they were completely black, with faint white marks on the tips of the feathers.
However, before he could take a closer look, the black wings moved, and countless blood flowers burst out all over Shi Youchen's body. The stinging pain of cutting spread and covered his entire body. Even his brain center had no time to react which nerve to paralyze first.
The man flapped his wings and moved forward, saying sinisterly: "Since you don't have to have all four limbs intact, I'll just chop off your hands first." Shi Youchen didn't even listen to what he said. The moment he was attacked, he leaned forward and rushed forward, and in the blink of an eye he was under the man's eyes.
The sudden shortening of the distance seemed to have successfully hindered the man's judgment. He dodged the oncoming punch sideways, but did not use the wind blade-like ability again.
Shi Youchen was now incredibly calm. His relentless physical training and combat training had paid off, buying him considerable time. In the close quarters, he realized that the man's seemingly formidable form was actually solely due to the wind blade attacks created by his wings. Once his opponent got close, he would hesitate to use his abilities for fear of his own.
The man barely managed to block Shi Youchen's attack with his arms, but he couldn't dodge the next sweeping kick aimed at his lower body, and he fell to the ground in pain. Shi Youchen, seeing this, unleashed the inward-curving spikes on his ring, striking at the man's artery. In that instant, the man's survival instinct forced him to swing his right wing with all his might, bang, sweeping away Shi Youchen's advance and sending him flying a considerable distance.
He staggered to his feet, wiped the mud off his face, and said angrily: "I changed my mind. I will cut you a thousand times and make you bleed to death!" Shi Youchen was suddenly blown away and had no time to get up and approach, so he immediately used his arms to block in front of his body to protect several fatal parts.
The whistling wind blade swept over, and the sound of breaking through the air gradually rose. Under the rapid flapping of the black wings, the wind pressure came towards Shi Youchen's front, and the "hissing" sound of flesh being cut seemed so faint under it.
It only lasted for a dozen seconds or so, and Shi Youchen's arms were covered in blood and flesh, and he was no longer able to resist. As his hands were falling, the last wind blade just cut his left earlobe. Blood flowed down his neck and dripped into his chest, merging with Apsu's blood that had already dried on his shirt.
The man seemed exhausted. His wings fluttered twice before retracting, and the powerful wind blades ceased. Panting heavily, he trudged over to the kneeling Shi Youchen, grabbed the back of his hair, and lifted his head. "Aren't you a good fighter? Huh?" Blood from his forehead trickled down to Shi Youchen's upper eyelid, so he closed his left eye to prevent the blood from flowing in.
The man seemed distracted by the blink, squinting his eyes as he studied the delicate, bloodstained face. "Tsk, not bad looking," he said, tightening his grip again, causing Shi Youchen's head to tilt back even further.
The man who was still observing this beautiful face suddenly felt a chill on the left side of his neck, and the strength in his hand also loosened. He was about to reach out to touch it when he felt weak all over, swaying from side to side, and obviously unable to stand steadily.
In contrast to him, Shi Youchen, who had just collapsed on the ground, stood up and looked down at the staggering man. He frowned, raised his arms, and gently brushed away some dirt stuck on the outside of his forearms.
The man then suddenly realized that there were no scars on his hands, and they had already healed.
"You...you..." He realized he'd been tricked. This wasn't just any ordinary person; it was clearly a superpower! The man regained consciousness, mustering his last bit of strength and turning to run toward the lake. His limbs, paralyzed and exhausted, swung around like a circus clown.
Shi Youchen smoothed his tangled hair and leisurely followed the man. The spikes on his ring had long been coated with a powerful potion from the association's base. His previous weakness after waking up was a feign to deceive Apsu; in reality, he had been looking for an opportunity to inject himself with the antidote.
"Phew, luckily Apsu wasn't smart enough to search me." He thought so and followed the staggering man closely.
"You...don't come over here!" The man turned sideways and found someone following him. He was terrified as if he were seeing a ghost. He shouted incoherently. At the end of his life, he actually saw clearly the mole on his eyebrow that was revealed after the man lifted up his hair to wipe the blood around his eyes.
Shi Youchen had just wiped the blood from his left eyelid when he saw the man who had escaped to the lakeside with a spear-like object stuck in the middle of his chest. He fell backward facing him and "splashed" into the lake.
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