Chapter 79 Arrival at the Blood Moon Graveyard~ "Take me with you..."
"Take me with you, I might die if I stay." Tou Dian, with her almond-shaped eyes, had red-rimmed eyes and tears welling up in the corners, looking pitiful.
“Really, no, we have very important things to do.” Sang Zhitao refused without hesitation.
"Sister..." Tears slowly slid down Tou Dian's cheeks, making her delicate face appear even more fragile and pitiful.
His performance left Sang Zhitao speechless for a moment.
However, she and her companions would absolutely not take such a stranger with them. She looked directly at the boy, her voice cold: "No."
After Tou Dian pleaded repeatedly, he only received Sang Zhi Tao's constant rejections. His once pitiful expression was now filled with despair, and he broke down in tears.
"Why would you die if you stayed?" A hint of pity flashed in Tou Lan's eyes, and after thinking for a moment, she still asked.
Tou Dian wiped away her tears, slumped to the ground, and sobbed as she recounted her story: "I am a member of the Mirror Clan..."
"You're a member of the Mirror Clan?!" Tou Lan interrupted him in surprise.
Tou Dian glanced at him blankly, then seemed to realize something, took a few steps back, and nodded with wary and fearful eyes: "Mm."
"Then why are you here?" Tou Lan narrowed her eyes, a hint of doubt flashing in them. "The Mirror Clan has been wiped out, and most of the survivors live in Garbage City. Even the worst Star Moon District is still a second-class district. How could you be here?!"
The pain in Tou Dian's eyes seemed to tear him apart. He took a long time to say, "My mother was a member of the Mirror Clan. After the Mirror Clan suffered an accident, she... she also suffered an accident."
"Later, my father married my stepmother..."
Hearing his voice getting softer and softer, Tou Lu asked curiously, "Did your stepmother abuse you?"
Tou Dian shook his head repeatedly: "No, no, my stepmother is very good to me and treats me like her own son."
"Then...why did you die?" Touko continued to ask.
“Five years ago, my stepmother and father passed away unexpectedly. My uncle took me home, and my aunt and uncle treated me fairly well,” Tou Dian continued.
"So you're lucky, aren't you? Your mother died young, but your stepmother treated you well. After your stepmother passed away, your uncle and aunt were also very kind to you. So why did you say you would die if you stayed?" Toulu interrupted him again.
"Tou Lv, don't interrupt him," Tou Lan said directly.
After hearing this, Tou Lu suddenly realized what was happening, quickly nodded in agreement, and said no more.
A look of confusion and pain flashed in Tou Dian's eyes. He clutched his hair and said with some despair, "Three years ago, my uncle and aunt also passed away. I then went to live with my aunt, but less than a year later, my aunt's whole family also passed away unexpectedly. After that, I went to live with several relatives, but something bad happened in each of them..."
"Even if I go to the orphanage, something will happen there!"
Indigo's voice was filled with despair as he roared at the crowd, "I don't want to kill my family anymore! I don't!"
"Aren't you afraid of harming us by coming with us?" Sang Zhitao asked curiously.
Tou Dian paused, and after a long while, she managed to squeeze out a sentence from her hoarse voice: "I didn't want to, but... when I saw you all on a blind date yesterday, I just wanted to... I just wanted to..."
"Try again?" Touhui suddenly replied.
Tou Dian's body stiffened, and he didn't speak, but he had already silently acknowledged Tou Hui's words.
"I need to test your bloodline." Tou Lan looked at him with a serious expression.
Tou Dian looked at Tou Lan helplessly and nodded.
The method of bloodline verification in the Jing tribe is not difficult. The person who performs the bloodline test mixes their own blood with the blood of the person being tested, and the tester can then obtain information from the feedback as to whether the other person is a member of the tribe.
The entire bloodline test was quick, taking no more than three minutes. Tou Lan opened her eyes, her gaze filled with tears and excitement.
Seeing this expression, Sang Zhitao guessed that Tou Dian was indeed a member of the Mirror Clan, and immediately breathed a sigh of relief. After all, the Mirror Clan could not betray the royal family, and she was not worried that Tou Dian's joining would lead to betrayal.
"...You are your aunt's child." Tou Lan excitedly grabbed Tou Dian's hand, her eyes filled with tears.
Tou Dian stared at him without making a sound, her mouth opening and closing repeatedly, but she couldn't utter a single word.
“These are my younger sisters, Jinglan and Jingqian,” Toulan quickly introduced her two younger sisters.
“These are my companions: Captain Blue Star, Translucent Gray, Translucent Yellow, Translucent Blue, Translucent Purple, and Translucent Green.” He then pointed to his companions and introduced each of them to Translucent Indigo.
Tou Dian had already realized what was happening. His approach to Tou Lan was tinged with panic and embarrassment. He nodded shyly to everyone, hesitating to speak.
Sang Zhitao asked curiously, "Although there are strange powers in this world, there is no such thing as a curse that kills people. Why do accidents happen to you every time you come into contact with your relatives and friends? Could it be a man-made disaster?"
Upon hearing this, Tou Lan's expression immediately turned serious, and she looked at Tou Dian with concern, asking, "Yes, I've never believed in so-called curses. Do you think there might be something wrong with this?"
Tou Dian thought for a moment, then shook his head.
Seeing this, everyone looked at each other, not knowing what to do for a moment.
Tou Dian pursed her lips and hesitated for a while before stammering, "Maybe...maybe I should stay."
He said that, but the despair emanating from him was impossible to hide.
Everyone knew that if Tou Dian were to be left alive, he would truly commit suicide.
However, this involved team issues, so they could only turn their attention to Sang Zhitao.
Sang Zhitao then looked at Tou Lan: "He is your relative, it's up to you to decide."
After thinking for a long time, Tou Lan said, "Take it with you."
Tou Dian shook his head repeatedly: "No, no, I want to stay."
"It's getting late, let's take him and set off." Sang Zhitao, impatient with his arguing, gave Tou Hui a wink.
Tou Hui nodded knowingly and then knocked Tou Dian unconscious.
The yellow-haired robot replied, "It's all set, let's go."
They followed the yellow light and quickly slipped into an alley. After turning left and right for a long time, they finally arrived outside a pile of ruins.
"Blood Moon Graveyard?" Sang Zhitao looked at a huge, collapsed stone tablet in front of the ruins, on which a few words could be faintly seen.
"Is this the Blood Moon Graveyard?!" Turquoise asked, walking forward in confusion.
Only after he saw those words did he frown and say, "That's not right. I remember Blood Moon Graveyard is near Starry District."
He took out a map from his pocket, carefully examined it, and then said, "Look, after the great war three hundred years ago, that main battlefield became a memorial graveyard, known as the Blood Moon Graveyard. Later, the Starry District and the Imperial Palace were built outside the graveyard as a memorial, so that the Gemstones would not forget the war to seize the country a hundred years ago."
Sang Zhitao was taken aback. Her original book didn't mention any war to seize a kingdom. After thinking for a moment, she asked, "What caused the war to seize a kingdom?"
"Three hundred years ago..." A thought flashed through Sang Zhitao's mind, and she subconsciously asked, "Did the pollution disease appear three hundred years ago?"
Tou Lan paused for a moment, then nodded: "Pretty much. According to records, the first case was discovered about 280 years ago."
“Two hundred and eighty years, three hundred years…” Sang Zhitao narrowed her eyes and took out the perfect-grade gem from her bosom.
"What's wrong?" Tou Lan looked at her in confusion.
"What does this gem look like to you?" Sang Zhitao placed the gem into Tou Lan's hand.
Tou Lan took the gem and examined it for a while before hesitatingly saying, "It looks like... a finger bone."
He immediately realized what Sang Zhitao was trying to say, and felt a chill run through his body. After a long while, he licked his dry lips and squeezed out a few words through his teeth: "No...it can't be."
Sang Zhitao put the gemstone back into her pocket, looked up at the bewildered Tou Zi and the other juniors, then at the pale-faced Tou Hui and Tou Huang, and then at Tou Lan, before finally saying after a long while, "I've been thinking about a question."
Where did the Gem Man's body go after he died?
This question struck the hearts of everyone present like a heavy hammer blow.
“According to regulations, the body of every deceased Gem Man must be sent to the incinerator for incineration and then buried in the cemetery.” Touhui continued with a grim expression, “Garbage City has no incinerator, and the people of Garbage City cannot afford the cost of incineration, so every Gem Man is buried by himself.”
“That shouldn’t be possible. All the gemstones we consume come from gemstone mines, where so many workers are constantly digging. It shouldn’t be possible to fake them…” Touhuang said, biting her lip.
"Why don't we go and see for ourselves?" Sang Zhitao stood in front of the Blood Moon Graveyard, gazing into the distance, her voice carried by the wind to everyone's ears.
Without further hesitation, she stepped directly into the cemetery.
The others followed her inside.
They walked like this until nightfall, and nothing happened.
"Let's travel through the night." Sang Zhitao looked up at the starry sky. "It's too vast here; it's not suitable to stay for long."
No one said anything more, and they nodded silently in agreement.
And so, in the darkness, the group groped their way forward.
Then, Tou Hui's words suddenly reached everyone's ears: "Where are you planning to go?"
Sang Zhitao knew that Touhui was asking her, so she said directly, "The mine."
"On our way, we will pass a mine, where the answer may be found."
Touhui didn't respond, but Sang Zhitao knew he had taken it to heart.
The others remained silent; they too wanted to know the truth about this matter.
They were more interested in knowing whether what they ate every day came from the mines—gems and food—or…the corpses of other gem people.
"We're entering the starry sky area ahead. Should we go straight through, or take a detour?" Tou Lan asked, looking at the map.
“Let’s go around.” Sang Zhitao looked at the towering walls of the Starry Sky Zone. “Let’s go from the foot of the walls.”
The group nodded silently, then turned around and walked towards the foot of the wall.
The gray walls of the Starry Sky Zone and the white walls of the adjacent Moon-Gazing Zone face each other, with a gap of about ten meters in between.
"I heard it's a city wall built seven years ago. Apparently, the nobles of the two districts were at odds, so the royal family intervened to cut off their communication," Tou Dian said, leaning forward and sharing the gossip he knew.
“This road is about twenty kilometers long. Let’s just travel through the night.” Sang Zhitao frowned as she looked at the guards on the city wall.
Tou Lan nodded in agreement, and the group began preparing their gear for the nighttime journey.
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