Chapter 27 The Cold Sun Dreamed Again of That Time in the Tree Garden...
I dreamt of that dark figure in the tree garden again.
The top of the sacred tree was covered with fluorescent blue flowers.
The single blue petals, clustered together, inexplicably give the illusion of overlapping petals. The wind rustles through the flowers, and you see tear marks on the stumps of giant trees, revealing golden wounds. Crystals fill in the dents, presenting a flowing amber color.
"Don't get distracted!" Xia turned around and shouted, "The attack is coming again!"
The sudden appearance of that figure threw everyone into disarray.
He possesses the sharp vision of an eagle and the agility of a ghost, his body lurking in the shadows.
You drew your flaming spear and tried your best to block. The flaming spear clashed with the man's weapon, and sparks even began to fly.
But he was too fast; he was unlike any villain character that could be released in the current version. You glanced up and saw it was still a scripted kill. You'd finally managed to whittle down the opponent's health, but the next second the shadowy figure revived on the spot as if nothing had happened.
...I feel so hopeless.
You brushed past the shadowy figure, weapon in hand. Pretending to stab him in the chest, you secretly circled behind him, then swiftly switched to [memory] mode, writing a message that flew straight at him—
He found out.
"Your Mightiness!"
"Little Gray!"
"Hey, get out of the way...!"
A tall, floating figure. Its physique rivals that of a well-trained adult male. It swiftly turned, its movements so fast you could barely see a blur, and with a single sweep of its hand, it deflected your skill. Sharp claws gripped your wrist, their sharp edges feeling cold against your skin.
You felt a slight pain in your forearm; it must be a scrape. You glanced at it quickly, and thankfully it was just a small cut, nothing serious.
Amidst the rising dust, he slammed you to the ground. A chill ran beneath you, and the person on top of you was icy cold, almost inhuman. Instinctively, you tried to break free, but found his strength to be extraordinary; you couldn't possibly win by brute force alone.
Gritting your teeth, you look up and see only a black mask covered in dust.
"The spark..."
What is he saying...? Damn it, how can he be so strong?!
"Hand over the flame...!"
His voice was deep, yet it had a strange echoing quality, as if a million voices were coming together.
You intended to kick him with your leg, but in a flash, you saw a familiar pattern.
The sun pattern on his chest... doesn't it look a bit like the golden mark on Bai Er's neck?
You have a deep impression of Bai E's sun mark. When you rub his face, when you go to the bath together, when he stands at the entrance of the bathhouse in the morning light waiting for you, smiling as he hands you breakfast... that mark shines with golden light like the real sun.
The neck is a very private area, yet he allowed you to touch it out of curiosity. The skin there is slightly rougher than other parts of the body, and it feels a bit like gritty when you slide over it.
He would always laugh and say it tickled, his fingertips hovering above the back of your hand, saying "Don't touch me anymore," but he didn't actually stop you.
How could such a warm mark appear on an enemy? Can the sun's radiance ever be cold?
In the moment of hesitation, the dark figure grew impatient.
When he first saw you, he made a noticeable hesitation, as if he hadn't expected you to be there. During the exchange, he showed great familiarity with the moves of Tian and the others, but was clearly unfamiliar with you. He relied entirely on his on-the-spot reactions to your attacks.
But now he seemed more serious. You know he's just too lazy to waste time with you.
"Mimi!"
In the critical moment, Mimi stood in front of you, activated the Time Stop Domain, and wanted to take the blow for you.
...You were jolted awake by her shout. Taking advantage of the moment when the time-stopping field held him back, you dodged downwards, avoiding the attack, and then raised your leg to deliver a powerful knee strike to his thigh before flipping over to stand up.
The shadowy figure took a breath and stood up as well.
He seemed to want to say something, "You..."
"Everyone, run!!!"
With her last ounce of strength, Tian opened the Gate to the Hundred Realms. Her power was already nearly exhausted, and now she was at her wit's end. Her legs began to tremble, her vision blurred, and her lips turned a frighteningly white.
The anxious voices of Tibao and Tining echoed in Tian's mind. Her head was spinning, and she was starting to have trouble hearing her friends' voices.
...Ouch, that hurts so much. I've worried everyone again.
"etc……!"
You anxiously try to run over, but a beam of red light shoots out from you, faster than you—
The red light silently entered Tian's body, then dispersed into several strands, tightly wrapping around the pillars of the Hundred Realms Gate, thus maintaining the gate in her place.
Tian's arm felt lighter.
She looked down in confusion and saw the red light clinging firmly to the door, emitting a powerful suction that pulled the dark figure inside.
"...Next time, you..."
Until the very last second before disappearing, the shadowy figure's gaze remained fixed on you, and the words it uttered were like a persistent curse.
You feel a chill run down your spine.
"Hehe." A few soft laughs seemed to come from the air.
"This is……?"
Tian felt much better.
Without the discomfort of overusing her strength, she can even run and jump now, and catch you as you run towards her, blinking her eyes reassuringly, "*We* are fine, don't worry, Little Gray! Is this your power? It's amazing!"
—Aha, well done!!!
"After that, in the simulated universe, you never hit that ugly doll again," you thought to yourself.
...But when you think of that sun mark, you hesitate.
Looking back, Xia Die looked at you with concern, and only smiled when she saw that Tian was alright.
At that moment, Xia's gaze swept back and forth between you and Tian. "Heh... interesting."
He smiled as he stared at the spot where the red light disappeared, sending chills down your spine and giving you a dreadful feeling that you might be targeted by the Black Tower and dragged into experiments.
—Let's go back first. Ultimately, it's good that no one was injured in this operation.
*
You didn't sleep very well.
Do you remember? A few days have passed since that battle at Tree Garden... I must have been dreaming.
"Partner, partner?"
Someone is calling your name in your ear.
"Partner... wake up! Teacher Xia was looking this way at that moment..."
...For some reason, I have a strange feeling of unease, like I fell asleep in Professor Ladio's class.
It should be alright, right? How could Doctor Truth possibly be in Onphalos? He couldn't possibly have crossed half the universe just because of that unhandled math homework, could he? Haha…
Onphalus is truly a wonderful place; there are no professors chasing after you to force you to hand in your assignments, and you don't have to attend classes—
"You slept quite comfortably? It seems my alchemy class is very soothing."
—We're doomed!
You open your eyes instantly.
"I wasn't sleeping!" you exclaimed, jumping up as if by muscle reflex. "I just blinked a little too long just now..."
"Then tell me what I just said."
"Uh... this is a divergent sequence, the answer should be..."
"...This is an alchemy class."
Once you are fully awake, what you see before you is Xia standing next to the alchemy equipment with a forced smile.
You turn around stiffly and see Bai E sitting next to you, covering her face.
"Hey partner, don't fall asleep in Ms. Xia's class next time. There aren't many people, so it'll be easy to get caught..." he whispered. "If you're really sleepy, you can sit behind me next time, and I'll cover for you—"
"Bai E, do you think you're so considerate?" At that moment, Xia didn't tolerate him at all and attacked everyone indiscriminately.
Actually, you didn't need to come to class.
When that summer returned to Ohm, he showed great interest in the red light that emanated from you that day, and invited you to attend classes for a few days—you strongly suspected that he wanted to use the lectures as an excuse to study you—and when you heard that he was going to reopen the classes and invited you again, Bai'er also came with great interest.
Besides that, there's also Kaze Sumire, who volunteered to be a teaching assistant.
There are only four people in a class, including the teacher and teaching assistant. It would be strange if you slept and weren't caught.
Speaking of Bai E, why isn't he sleepy at all...? Can morning exercise really keep you awake?
You look around and find everyone else is full of energy. Only you are as sleepy as a beast that has just finished eating dirt.
...a gathering place for good students.
March 7th, how mysterious, where did you go—without her, you have no one to sleep with anymore—
"Alright, alright," Feng Jin said, standing on the podium and smoothing things over while holding the documents. "Hui Bao is so tired today because he stayed up very late yesterday helping me treat patients. Teacher Xia, knowledge can be acquired not only through lectures but also through practice, right?"
“...Call me Anaxagoras.”
At that moment, Xia seemed to have no intention of pursuing the matter, and with someone smoothing things over, he simply moved on.
This is completely different from Dr. Truth. If you were caught sleeping in Latio's class, you'd be lucky not to be riddled with chalk. How to put it... does that mean Naksha seem to be more laissez-faire with her students?
Feng Jin winked at you, seemingly trying to comfort you.
Sit down obediently.
Considering that you have never taken classes in Onphalos before and know nothing about the knowledge system here, the teaching progress of that school has been pushed forward a lot.
According to him, he hadn't attended such a kindergarten class in a long time, which made him feel that his cerebral cortex was smoother than ever before.
...Well, he's really good at being sarcastic.
While he turned to go out to get alchemy equipment, you whispered to Bai E, "Was it like this when you took Teacher Xia's class before? It wasn't 8 a.m. again, was it? That's really unfortunate."
A hint of pain appeared on Bai E's face. "...Actually, I was assigned there. But the teacher just seems difficult to get along with; he's actually a very nice person. In class, he sometimes imitates the roars of earth beasts, which is quite interesting, haha."
...What are you babbling about? I can't reason with you academic geniuses. Who listens in class these days? Aren't we all just sitting there playing with our slates?
As you looked at him, you inappropriately recalled the sun mark on the man in black that day.
...Speaking of which, the aura emanating from that person seemed quite familiar...The moment my knee struck him, it didn't feel like I hit a muscle; it felt more like I hit a hard rock.
His body was as cold as his breath. Pressed to the ground, your body inevitably touched him, and for a moment you felt as if you were being coiled by a snake.
Why is he so at ease with everyone else, yet he completely loses his composure when facing you? In that instant when you were pinned to the ground, you didn't feel an evil, nauseating aura, but rather a strange sadness, as if he had waited a very, very long time to meet you, for this moment of face-to-face confrontation…
But he waited for a long time before that.
And so the sun's light dimmed.
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Author's Note: While writing this, I did some research in the game and discovered a small bug in miHoYo's text. The Throne should be at the top of the Tree Garden, including the Boundary Anchor and the official description, but the Throne interaction says "the Throne at the bottom of the Tree Garden"... I contacted miHoYo customer service, and they said they would contact me after verification. It's probably a typo; the text is contradictory. It will likely be fixed in the next version.
This myy is so silly ( )
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