Chapter 90: A Chance of Survival in Despair
At first, it was a faint flash of lightning, leaping, straight, and constantly bending like a glowing tree branch. The light tree grew and stretched, dazzling like a star, its light almost swallowing everything, but at a certain critical point, it suddenly retreated. The ever-converging light was like a hole that swallowed everything, forming a star-like horizon centered on the debris.
Then the void vanished, and color gradually returned to the world.
Vander convulsed for a long time before climbing to his feet. The excruciating pain continued to linger, his body in a state not much different from a tattered plastic bag. He momentarily worried about going blind. Once a beholder went blind, it was practically dead, practically the equivalent of a vegetative state. With this thought, he wiped the blood from his eyes and quickly opened them.
What caught the eye was pure white steel, a slender structure with curves, like an alien dragon.
“I’m going to die!!”
Finder jumped up in panic, nearly blinded by shock. He peered again, realizing that beneath the keel were charred components. The Immortal's single eye had been destroyed, its armor shattered, and it lay in the scorched earth, a mechanical corpse. The killer stood not far away, breathing slowly. The rock blade in his hand had shattered, leaving only the bare hilt.
"That's fucking terrible." It heard Chu Hengkong's voice, "This thing is in Particle 2... It's considered a good hand."
"A good hand?" Vander said sleepwalkingly. "This isn't even a good hand. It's the strongest. Universally recognized as the strongest. It can chop up enemies of the same level like leeks. I've never seen a record of a true weapon being defeated by a peer. This is a fucking first. I didn't expect it to die so beautifully."
"I thought it was going to explode."
"I guess they sent back important materials. The Empire is very stingy. I have to make a note of this." Vander shuddered. "Oh my God. May the original spirit bless you. It's dead. We won! We defeated the strongest!!"
It leaped and leaped, screaming excitedly. The townspeople had just arrived. Qi Su, gazing at the wreckage of the real machine, momentarily thought she was dreaming. She wept, tears falling and shattering into a phantom mist. Chu Hengkong remained motionless, only laughing softly.
"How many relics can be made from this material?"
"Who knows? No one has ever tried to refine a real weapon. It must be the highest level. It has to be the highest level." Vander was still immersed in ecstasy. "Brother, do you know what this means? You are a well-deserved legend!!"
"That's great." Chu Hengkong said softly, "It's become famous."
A torrent of blood gushed out from the man's back, like crimson wings. He no longer had the strength to stand, and he slid down, collapsing in the blood-red dust.
A smile lingered in Fander's eyes, his ecstasy still fading. "...Dude?" He ran to the killer, beginning to panic. Qi Su rushed over and sloppily stripped off his coat. The man's back was no longer recognizable as human. Where his spine should have been was a bloody scar. Blood gushed out like a spurt, and white bone fragments pierced the broken flesh.
"Usually, the mind and energy are concentrated in the spine to complete a cycle. Why did it disperse in yours at the end..."
——"My spine was contaminated by foreigners a few days ago."
Casual conversation flashed through his mind, the once-overlooked information now so vivid. Chu Hengkong couldn't train all his bones, so he clumsily tried to train each one individually. He'd addressed the imbalance, but the crucial spine remained untrained, still his vital point. Such fragile bones simply couldn't endure the intensity of battle, especially after he'd used the Qi of a Thousand Autumns...
He couldn't even withstand the Qi method of strengthening bones, let alone the violent Qi of Qianqiu!
"No. No, no!" Finder tried to cover his wound, but blood gushed out from the gaps between the tentacles, taking away his life. "Qi Su, heal! Use your magic!"
“I’m already doing it!”
"Heal," "treat," "recover"—these secret characters sank into Chu Hengkong's wound like luminous drops of water, but the effect was minimal. Qi Su's strength had long been exhausted. She wasn't a priestess specialized in healing, and now even her staff was nearly shattered, leaving her powerless to recover.
Fander suddenly jumped up and pushed Qi Su's hand away: "Summoning array! Send the people from Huilong City, quickly!!"
The True Machine was dead. The foreign contamination had vanished. Qisu realized this, leaving behind a hasty healing circle and running back to the beach. Finder was still trying, trying to seal the wound with mucus, but it was ineffective. The life that had been so powerful as to defeat the True Machine was weakening, becoming even more fragile than an ordinary human.
It was too late. Fander looked around frantically, trying to find anything that could help. He saw a gray priest's robe and Bernfar standing not far away, holding the Requiem Book, his expression neither sad nor happy.
"Bernfa, save him! Please!!"
The priest shook his head and put his hands behind his back.
"On the first day I arrived here, you asked me why I came here. At that time, I told you the truth. This place is a wasteland where the souls of the dead linger, and my responsibility is to let the dead rest in peace. This is the duty given to us by God."
"Every life in this world must accept its own fate," the monk said calmly. "Your arrival and his has lifted the fog, causing time to begin to flow. From that moment on, the arrival of the True Machine is inevitable. You still have the choice of life or death, but the moment he decided to become the enemy of the True Machine, his death was already determined."
"I do not act for the living, but only for the dead." He walked up to Chu Hengkong and looked down at the dying man. "Brave warrior, do you have any last wishes that I should fulfill?"
"Pah." The monk's words were interrupted by a spat. The man in the pool of blood raised his eyes, looking up but with disdain.
"I don't need a funeral...!"
"Then goodbye, if that's your last wish." Bernfa simply turned around. "May you rest in peace."
He walked away, his tall figure dissolving into gray mist, vanishing as if he had never existed. Far away in Yingshi Town, the small church also dissipated into mist, its location becoming a desolate, deadly place. Finder felt his last hope vanish with it. He was momentarily at a loss as to what to do, then heard a faint sound beside him.
"Thanks, it's none of your business..." The killer chuckled, "Next time you travel, remember to choose a safe place..."
This guy's brain is seriously broken. What do you mean it's none of its business? Chu Hengkong had nothing to do with all this. It was it that summoned the killer from his hometown, it was it that put the killer in danger. If it hadn't been for that summoning, the killer would never have had anything to do with real machines in his life.
This wasteland has enough dead souls already; it cannot bring another one with its own hands.
It couldn't explain what drove its actions, guilt, responsibility, or both, or perhaps it just didn't want to watch its friends die, didn't want to see such a meaningless ending after victory.
The killer's skin was icy cold, and he couldn't even breathe. Finder searched his memory, trying to find a breakthrough from what he knew. His gaze lingered on the killer's left arm. His limbs merged with his own tentacles. He saw the thing closest to him.
It came to mind.
"Don't be afraid, Chu Hengkong." Fander mustered up his courage, "I'm here... to save you!"
·
A desolate wind blew up the sand, and the phantoms in the sea sank and rose again. Qi Su stumbled across the beach and came to the formation he had drawn that morning.
This small formation had miraculously survived the previous battle. The formation and its materials were still there, surrounded by a circle of gigantic flowing beads. The killer had left all his resources here, perhaps to allow for a quicker retreat, or perhaps because he anticipated it would be difficult for him to come in person.
Qi Su inserted her staff into the magic circle. The centipede shell, representing dust, the giant's armor, representing shadow, and the remains of her own body, representing light, lit up one after another. The beads shattered, and the current surged out to form a vortex. The divine power of the whirling dragon was poured into it, opening a passage to the outside.
Tension coiled around her like a snake. The Immortal Machine was dead, but the erosion of the Empire of Truth might not have completely disappeared. Even with the guidance of the Dragon's divine power, she couldn't say for sure where the passage led.
Behind the vortex could be an uninhabited wilderness, another desperate place, or even the headquarters of the Empire of Truth. Qi Su had no way to confirm it, so she put all her effort into activating the formation.
So she cried out, her voice emanating from the other side of the vortex, where she didn't know if anyone existed.
"This is Yingshi Town in the Netherworld Kingdom. Here lives a man named Chu Hengkong! He saved us all, and now he's about to die!"
There was silence on the other side of the tide, and Qi Su burst into tears.
"If you are also the people of the Dragon God, if you know this name, please come and save him!"
Then, a sound emerged from the water, responding with worry, anxiety, and pride. A golden figure rushed out first, and the man behind it replied helplessly.
"Of course, we know him."
"He is our pride."
·
Chu Hengkong felt like he was sinking into the ocean, strings of bubbles rising as he went. Those bubbles were colorful, like soap bubbles in the sun, floating towards the bright sea surface, the light sometimes round and harmonious like the sun, sometimes bright and dazzling like a dragon.
He recalled a casual chat he had once had with Ji Huaisu, when they had sat on an island in the sky, gazing out at the ocean and watching the illusion transform into various forms. Ji Huaisu had said that many people drawn to the illusion would drown, and while people assumed they would die in agony, the experience was actually a magical and blissful one.
You'll see countless bubbles, each one holding a fantasy, a dazzling array of colors, like being in the world's most beautiful amusement park. If you delve deeper, you'll melt into the illusion, transforming into new bubbles and merging into the ocean. But if you close your eyes to these beautiful things, you'll drift away from the bubbles and sink into the abyss, severing your life in the extreme cold.
He said that everyone above and below was doomed, and that falling into the sea was hopeless. Ji Huaisu replied, "That's not true. You have to constantly observe and contemplate, accepting but rejecting every idle thought, to transcend the bubbles and rise." He suddenly realized, "I understand! The ocean hates those who are picky. If you're irritable enough, it'll spit you out!"
That conversation ended with Ji Huaisu's roundhouse kick. At the time, he felt that the Ocean of Illusion was probably in the same mood as himself. With such a bad temper, who would want to serve you? But now, he felt that his partner's wise words were truly valuable. When you really fall into such a situation, any words of experience are priceless.
"Hold on..." "...Memories!" "...Bones! Your...experiences...!"
The light on the sea flickered, and the indistinct words turned to gray stones, sinking with him. The cold grew increasingly biting, and he thought that if there was an abyss in this world, it must be behind him. It was a vast expanse of icy blackness, silent, indifferent, and chilling, like the bottom of the world.
He didn't want to die so tragically, so he opened his eyes wide, trying to see the colorful bubbles. As he stared, the bubbles shattered, transforming into clear images: him being mauled in the stomach by a bear in the mountains, bitten by a crocodile in the sewer, shot by a sniper on a high-rise rooftop, slashed by Du Muyan in the club, burned by Kanin, pelted with rocks, and struck by the force field of a real weapon...
Why the hell are all these memories of getting beaten up? Aren't they said that bubbles can reveal beautiful fantasies? If even the memories before death are all these crap, how miserable must his life be!
Chu Hengkong grew angrier and angrier as he watched. Everywhere he looked was a dazzling display of beatings, injuries, and near-death experiences, as if the ocean had compiled the darkest moments of his life and released them in one grand display. This rage forced him to reach out, disrupting the memories before him. As he reached out, he touched something, hard as cast iron. It was a pure white steel cable, dangling from the surface of the sea, cold and painful to the touch.
He grabbed the cable, wrapped his tentacles around it, gritted his teeth, and climbed up inch by inch. Then, all those illusions transformed into the aftermath of his injury: muscles strengthened after healing, bones toughened after recovery, computing circuits iterating faster; stronger skills, improved agility, optimized and upgraded movement patterns...
Something strange seemed to have slipped in, but it didn't matter. He simply ignored the fantasies of a manufacturing workshop, a production line, or some other seemingly inexplicable bug, and climbed up the cable with unwavering determination. As he broke through the surface of the sea, he took a deep breath, ready to greet the scorching sun!
“……?”
But there was no sunlight on the sea, and all I could see was a dazzling starry sky. Beneath the starry sky, a fishing rod stood still, the white steel cable its fishing line.
Chu Hengkong blinked and realized that he was the fish that was caught.
The fisherman was sitting on the sea. His face could not be seen clearly, only a hairy hand holding the fishing rod could be seen.
The fisherman blinked, seeming confused as well. His voice was gentle and honest.
You've swum too far, little one. This is not your home.
He let go, sending Chu Hengkong back into the sea. As he entered the water, the world spun 180 degrees. The sea surface became the seabed, and the seabed became the sky. He left the surface as he entered the ocean, and this time, he saw real sunlight!
“!”
Chu Hengkong rolled over and sat up, gasping frantically, like a drowned fish returning to the ocean. He could hear nothing but his own heartbeat. It took an unknown amount of time for consciousness to return. He mechanically shifted his eyes, taking in the candlelight, the jade carvings, the crisscrossing magic circles on the ground, and a familiar face. Where was this...
The 33rd floor of the headquarters building is the Huilong Temple.
"Akong! Akong!"
He saw the golden hair and Ji Huaisu patting his face anxiously. Chu Hengkong nodded randomly, grabbed her hand, and stared at her blankly for a while.
"That's great," he said. "You don't have a lot of hair on your hands."
Her partner's cheeks turned a lovely pink. She gritted her teeth and grabbed Chu Hengkong's head, shaking it violently. "You bastard!!" "Ah. It hurts. It hurts." "You idiot!!" "It hurts. It hurts."
"Anyway, he seems to be normal~"
"No, I think he's become stupid."
Ji Qiufeng and Youyou were whispering to each other. Chu Hengkong raised his hands in surrender. Miraculously, he didn't feel much pain this time. Perhaps the technology at Huilong City had improved. He shook his head and saw Fander twisting his tentacles back and forth, a look of timidity.
"Hey... man..." Vander hesitated, "There's good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear?"
"I'm still alive." Chu Hengkong smiled foolishly, "This is only good news for me now."
"Oh, that's great!" Vander was relieved. "The good news is that your transformation was successful. You are now Sephiroth 2 Rigid Bone."
"Fuck."
Chu Hengkong then realized the true form of the magic circle on the ground. He was lying in a sealed state. No wonder he woke up in the temple instead of the hospital ward this time. He moved his body in surprise and asked, "Can this be bad news?"
"Ah, that, I think so too. It's actually not so good news." Vander nodded vigorously. "That is to say, buddy, you know that your injury was quite serious before. Your entire spine was ruptured. So in order to save your life and hold on until help arrives, I helped you with some temporary treatment with the materials on hand..."
"Of course, Fan De didn't expect you to have this skill." Chu Hengkong touched his back and felt a hard new spine. "What did you use?"
Fan De said nothing, only handed him a mirror and smiled sincerely. Chu Hengkong suddenly felt something was wrong. He used the mirror to look behind him and found that there was a pure white steel exoskeleton engraved on his back.
Chu Hengkong's face darkened at a visible speed. He took a deep, deep breath, breathing as hard as he could before releasing the Qi of a Thousand Autumns.
"Van...de...?"
Finder gave an innocent and slightly shy smile.
Ji Huaisu grabbed Fander with one hand. The helpless Eye Demon kept screaming, "I'm going to be beaten to death." Her expression was as if she was reciting a death sentence.
"Congratulations, Akong," she sighed deeply, "Your spine is now an immortal machine."
(End of this chapter)
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