Chapter 282 The True Face of the Little Bowl 2
For some reason, Asahi stared at me without moving.
Based on what we just discussed, is she doubting that the person who will marry Zhu Shi and give birth to Xiao Wan is me?
So it's not entirely impossible. If Asahi hadn't traveled to this era, maybe I really would have ended up with Shushi... No, if it weren't for Asahi, I wouldn't have been able to connect with the supernatural world, and I wouldn't have been able to meet Shushi, the demon hunter.
However, considering that Ma Zao might not have romantic feelings for me, and given that Mr. Zhu is always trying to bring me and Zhu Shi together, the possibility of me marrying Zhu Shi in the future cannot be said to be completely out of the question.
Although Zhu Shi explicitly stated that she had no romantic feelings for me—or rather, for anyone—she also said that she would be extremely happy to marry me. And I, after all, am a man, and I naturally felt some attraction to a woman as beautiful and ethereal as Zhu Shi. Furthermore, I don't believe marriage is the result of love, and even if Zhu Shi lacked the capacity for romantic love, I wouldn't see it as a flaw.
To get back to the point, I'm not really seriously considering marrying Zhu Shi; I'm just raising it as a possibility and assessing its feasibility. Going too far into the details would make me seem presumptuous and like I'm treating Zhu Shi as a backup option after failing to win over Ma Zao. That would be disrespectful to Zhu Shi, and I don't want to have such a frivolous view of my friend.
Moreover, considering Xiaowan as Zhu Shi's daughter born in the future is based on too many unstable hypothetical premises.
Admittedly, like Asaho, I don't want the future Little Bowl to suddenly disappear because of our activities, but this concern is also based on the assumption of complex instability. Calling it "worrying about nothing" might be too simplistic, but it's something like that. It's just that Asaho seems to be taking it a bit too seriously.
She would glance at me every now and then, then fall into deep thought, occasionally revealing a conflicted expression.
...Could she be considering whether to match me up with Zhu Shi?
That concludes our discussion of the small bowl. We're not here to study it, but to investigate Moonshadow Mountain. We're currently shrouded in an unknown white mist, and who knows what dangers await us? Therefore, I'll have her prepare herself first, and then we'll continue deeper into the fog.
As she walked, Ma Zao glanced at the sky, as if she had finally pulled herself out of her thoughts and noticed something.
"...Has the rain stopped?"
Just as she said, the torrential rain that had been pouring down had stopped at some point. However, it was more accurate to say that it "disappeared" than "stopped." I can't quite remember when the rain stopped; it seems that it ceased falling as soon as we were observing and writing down the photos.
And it wasn't until she said it that I noticed something else. The mountain terrain we were traversing wasn't muddy. Although it was somewhat damp, it was the inherent dampness of mountain forest soil. The fallen leaves on the ground even looked dry. Mazao bent down to pick up a dry twig from the ground, examined it briefly, and then discarded it. Even though Mount Tsukikage had been saturated by torrential rain tonight, it felt as if we had unknowingly wandered into land outside of Mount Tsukikage.
"Is this mist another dimension?" I asked.
“...It’s somewhat like another dimension, but when we entered and exited the mist earlier, we didn’t feel like we were traveling through different dimensions.” Mazao tried to analyze, “We should still be inside Mount Tsukikage now. I think it’s probably because part of Mount Tsukikage has been transformed into another dimension by this mist.”
"So, this fog acts like a barrier?" I asked.
“Maybe,” she said cautiously.
I also noticed other changes, so I removed all the fireballs that were floating in the air around me.
Logically, since it's nighttime, the surroundings should return to darkness after all the fireballs were dispelled. However, the reality is that even with all the light sources gone, the surroundings remain as bright as day.
To be precise, it seemed like daytime, like a misty morning. Although the sky was obscured by the thin fog, we could still tell it was daytime. Soft light streamed down from above, illuminating the white mist. The sounds of insects and birds, typical of early morning, drifted from all directions.
We've only been in the mountains for less than an hour, and there should still be at least eight hours until sunrise. How could it be daytime so quickly? Several possibilities flashed through my mind. Perhaps it's an illusion caused by the white mist, or it's a unique weather phenomenon in the fog... or perhaps time itself has been skipped?
"The legend of the ancient moon god..." Asaho whispered.
"Do you think this is the strange phenomenon mentioned in that legend?" I asked.
“It’s easy to make associations,” she said. “It is said that the villagers of Guyue Village were afraid of the nights on Yueyin Mountain, so the Guyue God made the daytime on the mountain last forever.”
When I first heard this legend, I wondered if the Ancient Moon God—Silver Moon—had used illusion magic to hypnotize the villagers of Ancient Moon Village. Compared to actually making daylight last forever, brainwashing the villagers with illusion magic was obviously more "economical and practical".
However, for Silver Moon, who can turn fantasy into reality, even distorting the time of this land to make the daytime last forever doesn't seem like an insurmountable feat. It's precisely because I'm currently advancing step by step towards the realm of Great Impermanence that I can conclude from my past experiences fighting Silver Moon—in the hands of a monster like Silver Moon, it's merely a matter of distorting time and space; it's really no more difficult than distorting the will of a group of mortals.
If she truly sees reality as a dream, then time and space are also nothing more than illusions. And as long as it's an illusion, it's entirely her domain.
I tried to raise my hand to catch the sunlight streaming down from above. I could tell that, though filtered through a thin white mist, it was genuine sunlight. As a superhuman who controls fire, I consider myself quite sensitive to the light and heat emitted by celestial bodies like the sun. Even the silver moon couldn't affect me—especially not my current ability to judge the authenticity of sunlight.
It's truly daytime outside now.
"Zhuang Cheng, ahead," Ma Zao reminded him.
At the same time, I also saw an unfamiliar figure appear in front of the trees in the distance ahead.
A closer look revealed that the figure wasn't standing, but rather slumped weakly against the tree trunk. It wasn't a living person, but a corpse. Upon closer inspection, the body had been dead for some time; the face was rotting, infested with maggots and flies. It was impossible to determine whether it was male or female, but the impression was more likely male. The person was wearing a dark green windbreaker and trousers, and an empty backpack lay beside them.
This isn't the first time I've seen a dead body; in fact, I've killed people more than once myself. However, those I've killed usually died quite cleanly and swiftly, death and cremation occurring simultaneously and instantly. In a sense, this convenience is what allows me to kill without hesitation. But I've rarely seen a corpse decompose like this after death. The stench of death is overwhelming.
I've encountered murder scenes before while investigating strange occurrences, but finding a rotting corpse like this in the wild is really not something I'm used to. I first suppressed my reflexive nausea, and then used my thermal imaging to scan the corpse for details.
Judging from the condition of the remains, the deceased had not suffered any serious external injuries before death. Perhaps they were lost in the mountains... lost in this fog, unable to leave, and died of hunger and thirst after running out of ammunition and food.
I recalled something the owner of the Moonlit Mountain Inn had mentioned to a regular customer. Every now and then, reckless tourists would wander into the restricted areas of this mountain, never to return. Not long ago, a young tourist risked entering one of the restricted areas and ended up in Hujia Village.
Is this rotting corpse the same one that was "the tourist not long ago"?
Regarding the tourist, the innkeeper and the regular customer offered two different accounts. The first was that the tourist was rescued from the mountain by the "white-haired boy," and the second was that the tourist was found dead in the mountain. After the second account was presented, both the innkeeper and the regular customer immediately forgot the first, as if history had been subtly altered.
Even if we accept the second version of events, the tourist's body should have already been discovered and recovered by the local government. How could it still be lying in the mountains?
So, this body doesn't belong to the tourist?
Perhaps this is the more common-sense speculation, but since the matter might involve Silver Moon, it can't be viewed that way. "Tampering with established facts" is also Silver Moon's forte. Perhaps the reality we live in now is no longer based on the second version, but has unknowingly become the third, fourth, or even fifth version of history. Now, that nameless tourist may not only be dead, but his body may not even have been discovered, dying silently and unnoticed in Moonshadow Mountain.
Being able to alter reality so freely, if Silvermoon had refused to see me, I might never have found her in my entire life.
However, now that I've arrived here with Asaha, I'm determined to find her. Perhaps I'm even more convinced of this than Asaha herself.
Despite Yin Yue's manipulation of so many mysterious and complex things, she ultimately could not escape my grasp.
(End of this chapter)
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