Chapter 256: White Orchid Rain Festival (Thirty-Eight)
The moment the fire climbed up Jiusheng's arm, the pain finally made her wake up for a moment from inside a hood.
Although the evil god didn't understand the reason why Jiusheng did this, when he saw the other party disregarding his own safety, he couldn't control his heavy body and fell towards the direction of the fire.
The incident happened rather suddenly, and most of the believers below did not quite understand what was happening on the altar at the moment when the Dragon Lord was about to be executed.
Only the black lotus in the Gambler's Guild President's body reacted quickly, emitting wisps of black gas that flew towards the altar.
But this time, the black gas did not fall smoothly on the evil god and Jiusheng, but seemed to be blocked by some barrier.
At the same time, the system prompt sounded.
Without the obstruction of black air, Nan Huan woke up the moment he saw the reflection in the Dragon Lord's eyes and the flames climbing up his arms.
Bei Xi also reacted quickly after finally seeing Nan Huan injured by a face that looked exactly like her own.
Although her body was restricted by the evil god's dragon-shaped wooden sculpture, her abilities did not disappear, and the control panel returned to its original appearance because she woke up.
She didn't have time to think about it, and quickly found the fire-fighting props and put out the fire on the altar.
Fortunately, the action was quick and Nan Huan did not suffer much injury. After using the medicine, he recovered almost instantly.
As the two woke up, the triggering condition of the strange clock prop was activated, and the system prompt sounded. Nan Huan noticed that the believers of the evil god under the altar seemed to be frozen in an instant, as if the entire space had stopped.
The originally lively space was suddenly silent, and the scene became a little weird.
The two finally saw the black gas that wanted to get closer, but for some reason, it was blocked outside the altar.
【Yesterday and yesterday, how many yesterdays there are.】
Following the system's reminder, Nan Huan finally remembered the so-called "strange clock" prop.
It was the quest reward after the "Wandering Travel Group" dungeon was completed. Nan Huan still remembered the description of the system at that time, saying that it had an alternative way of calculating time, but the prerequisite was that it needed to be activated.
Regarding the startup method, the system only gave a prompt of "How many yesterdays there were".
Later, Nan Huan also took out the clock to study it, but from a physical point of view, it was just a clock, nothing special. Nan Huan knew that it could not be started by just fiddling with it a few times.
Although Nan Huan also waited in other copies for the item to be triggered, it just stayed quietly in the control panel gathering dust, so much so that Nan Huan even suspected that the system was giving her an item that she would never use just to get rid of her.
However, she didn't expect that this prop was activated at this critical moment, blocking the black air for them, so that she and Bei Xi could wake up quickly.
Nan Huan looked at the invisible barrier in the air, and found the Miaojiang president and the gambler president among the believers. He saw that the two were fixed in place like the others, but there was obvious shock on their faces.
[Yesterday is like a calendar unfolding before your eyes, even though you may have experienced a different yesterday.
But for the strange clock, only the fixed time of yesterday will not change. 】
As the system prompted, the rusty brass alarm clock in the control panel suddenly jumped into the air. The dial, which originally had unclear scales, suddenly showed many golden numbers, which were superimposed one after another, so fast that Nan Huan could not see it clearly with the naked eye.
Those golden numbers with different lights quickly swept over her and Beixi's bodies. Then Nan Huan found that her and Beixi's faces gradually returned to their original appearance. As the numbers continued to change, their states were also changing. The infancy, babbling period, teenage period, and adult period all changed in their bodies one by one.
Nan Huan's eyes couldn't keep up with the changes at all because the speed was too fast. She looked at Bei Xi in front of her and had the illusion that she was quickly browsing Bei Xi's life.
Logically speaking, such a fast time would not take too much time for more than 20 years, but from some moment on, Nan Huan realized that after those figures she was very familiar with, there would be some figures that she could not see clearly, and the speed was even faster than before. She could not even see Bei Xi's appearance or the other party's form clearly.
In fact, it was not just Beixi in Nan Huan's eyes who was in this condition. She could feel the changes in her body, and there were also parts that were not familiar to Beixi.
However, it seemed that someone did not want the two to explore this part for too long, so he directly interrupted the change of numbers.
[How to use: In this calendar of the past, the strange clock can fix the exact time point and help you confirm what happened on the only yesterday.
Tip 1: You only have one chance, please choose carefully.
Tip 2: Once the strange clock is triggered, the owner can only make a choice within five minutes. After five minutes, if no exact time is chosen, the trigger will be passively terminated and the item will be considered used. 】
Following the system's prompt sound, the strange clock stopped rotating its numbers and slowly fell from mid-air into Nan Huan's hands, returning to its previous plain-looking brass alarm clock.
There was just an extra blank box on Nanhuan's control panel, as if waiting for him to fill in an exact time, and behind the blank box was a five-minute countdown.
Nan Huan told Bei Xi the hint he had heard, and then grasped a key point, "It does not limit whether it is this copy or other copies, and it does not even limit whether it is in the game or outside the game..."
Nanhuan was a little strange. Normally, the system would limit the range of props to a certain range. Of course, the smaller the range, the more disadvantageous it was for the players, but the limited range was enough to remind the players of the key points of the props themselves.
Just like the props in the game store, they all have conditions and methods of use, and some even have strict usage environments.
But the strange clock is like an open-book exam with no range, and all time scales are optional, with only broad limits such as five minutes and once.
"Beyond that, the system is intentionally obfuscated about how it is used."
Bei Xi understood what Nan Huan meant, but she also noticed another problem. She held the fire-fighting tool in her hand, a metal faucet, and showed it to Nan Huan. "The powerful fire-fighting faucet has a usage time limit of 3 minutes. It can put out a fire within a 10-meter range in one fell swoop, and the effect only takes 10 seconds."
The used faucet was a big iron lump, which Bei Xi threw in his hand to play with. "This is an accurate description of the usage and effect of the props. The instructions for all the props in the mall are composed of these contents, but the system only vaguely said that after selecting a time, it will take you to confirm the only yesterday. What happened?"
Having said that, the two of them simultaneously focused their attention on "The Only Yesterday". These words looked like hints given by the system within a limited scope.
"The system said before that it was because we wandered in the same time period twice in a copy that the strange clock was triggered..."
Nan Huan connected those few words to another matter.
"Choose, choose the day of the Rain Festival a hundred years ago and see what happened on that day. The system should also be hinting at us to choose a time point within this period of time."
Before Nan Huan finished her words, Bei Xi understood what she meant and even guessed the time in her mind.
The system said that in this enchanted world, the things that happened to them were the opposite, and the scene they saw in Yizhihua's pawn ticket was exactly in this time period. But they didn't know whether it was because of the system or the sudden appearance of the evil god in the pawn ticket. In short, they missed the key scenes.
And putting this aside, Nan Huan's gaze fell on the face of the Dragon Lord, which was exactly the same as Bei Xi's.
She didn't think that this setting was a reminder from the system to the two of them. After all, before the strange clock was triggered, although she felt something was wrong because of Bei Xi's face, she was finally blocked by the black air.
So if it wasn't a deliberate setting, the Jiusheng played by Nan Huan was the same Jiusheng she had seen in the pawn ticket, and what about the Dragon Lord? Was it the same?
It used to be difficult to confirm this, but now it seems to be a little easier.
The countdown had only been going on for a minute, and Nan Huan had already filled in the target time in the blank.
The rain festival a hundred years ago.
As the last word fell, the clock in Nan Huan's hand returned to silence, as if it was wound up again. The golden numbers on it flashed, and time went backwards until it fell to the day Nan Huan designated.
A huge golden light enveloped Nan Huan and Bei Xi. In an instant, they were absorbed into the numbers and disappeared on the altar.
On the other side, the evil god had lost contact with the black lotus, and more than half of the blue flames in the room were extinguished, as if she had suffered some serious damage, or as if her original power had become unstable due to the departure of the black lotus.
"How is this possible? We are almost successful."
She murmured to herself, unable to believe that the torches had already been lit, but she miscalculated at the last moment. And judging from the situation, it was not that the system suddenly had trouble.
As if hearing some noise inside the house, someone pushed open the door and walked in.
The room was completely dark, with only tiny dots of blue flames illuminating the existence inside the room and the person who had just entered.
"Don't worry, I just got some news. Their real bodies are still in the High Priest's Mansion..." Her voice was very pleasant, and unlike the blue flame, she did not sound impatient. "Don't worry, we will definitely make it to the end this time. Even if we can't take their lives for the time being, it's not so easy for them to get out of this copy. I will give you everything you want..."
As she spoke, she fed the ball of black gas in her hand into the blue flame.
After a while, the blue flame in the room returned to its previous brightness, and the butler who had been waiting outside the yard received an order.
I don’t know if it’s because of inertia, or if the strange clock just gives a better experience when used, but Nan Huan didn’t feel dizzy this time, she just saw black and light in front of her eyes, and she and Bei Xi were no longer on the altar.
To be precise, the two were no longer in the enchanted land, but had entered the day of sacrifice a hundred years ago as retrieved by the strange clock.
Nanhuan has had the experience of watching movies up close several times, and it seems to be quite good.
However, neither of them expected that after entering here, what appeared before their eyes was not the altar, but the Dragon God Temple.
The moment they reacted, they both looked towards the center at the same time.
However, the dragon statue in the center still maintained its original appearance and was not split in half by the sword. Some residents were even sweeping the floor for the purpose of offering sacrifices.
"Isn't it the same one?"
On the last day a hundred years ago, the Dragon God still looked the same. Why did the Dragon God Temple look like that a hundred years later? Nan Huan was puzzled. "Could it be that the residents of Bailan City later re-carved it for the sake of prayer?"
After all, they had seen Old Man Zhang, so it was not surprising that city people had such skills.
Bei Xi shook his head and said with certainty, "It must be the same one."
"How do you know?" Nan Huan knew that Bei Xi had a strong observation ability, so he frowned and looked at it for a long time, "Could it be that the number of scales is the same? Or is there something written on the wood?"
Bei Xi was stunned by her question and raised his eyebrows, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Neither. Although the things that happened in the evil god's enchantment were opposite, the wooden statues really exist. I have been there before, so I can feel that these two wooden statues are the same."
"And if it was carved by the people of Bailan City, why would they hide it underground? You also saw those people who were worshipping in the Dragon God Temple just now. They were not believers of the Dragon God, but believers of the evil god. They were worshipping the evil god in front of the wooden statue of the Dragon God. I am trapped in the wooden statue and my identity is also the evil god. This means that how did the Dragon God change from this appearance to the one in the Dragon God Temple now? All this happened today..."
Nan Huan always felt that there seemed to be some deep meaning behind Bei Xi's words, but when she tried to explore it, the other party rubbed his head and avoided her scrutinizing gaze.
This time the scene did not make the two wait too long. Soon someone came to lift up the dragon-shaped wooden statue and moved it towards the altar.
However, during this process, Nanhuan never saw Jiusheng.
When they appeared in the Dragon God Temple before, the other party always sat devoutly under the wooden statue, but today he never appeared. It was not until some noise was heard in the front that Nan Huan saw Jiusheng sitting on the altar.
She was dressed in white and her face did not show much joy. She had been looking at the other party with compassion since the moment the dragon-shaped wooden statue appeared.
That look seemed to contain a lot of emotions, including brief regret, annoyance, relief that they had finally reached this moment, the reluctance to part with each other, and a helpless sigh. In addition, for some unknown reason, Jiusheng had become extremely thin.
This Jiusheng, whether compared with the Jiusheng he just played or the Jiusheng he had seen in the pawn ticket of Yizhiwa, was much thinner. She seemed to be in poor health and her face was paler than paper.
After looking at the wooden statue that was properly placed right in front of him for such a while, even turning around was very difficult for him.
"The day of the Rain Festival has finally arrived. It feels like a long time has passed since the last one. The harvest of crops doesn't seem to be that good recently..."
Different from the fake enchantment in the evil god, everything that happened here was real. The two squeezed in the crowd and listened to everyone's complaints.
"Not only is the harvest bad, my business has also been bad recently. Whenever things were bad before, I would go to the Dragon God Temple to pray, and it always worked, but recently I don't know what happened and it suddenly stopped working..."
"Oh, our family is the most unlucky. It's not easy for our son to get married. I went to the Dragon God Temple to pray for peace and safety, but problems still occurred..."
…
Unlike the various prayers from different people that Nan Huan had heard in the Dragon God Temple before, all he could hear now were complaints.
These voices easily reminded Nan Huan of the red thread that disappeared due to Jiu Sheng’s injury. She wondered if the failure of these wishes to come true had anything to do with this.
After all, she didn't see the red lines this time. She didn't know if it was because this was the real past, or because there were no more voices of prayer around, or because they had dissipated and could not be seen.
The ceremony began, and the process was basically the same as what Nan Huan had experienced in the enchanted world. Of course, except that the dragon clan had to be used as a sacrifice, the sacrifice was just a white orchid that Jiusheng was holding in his arms.
The tender green branches are sprouting, with pure white flowers hanging on them, but the bare branches make the flowers look shaky and in mortal danger.
When it was time to recite the sacrificial words, Jiusheng sat on the altar with his back to the crowd, and recited in that ancient language. His voice was not loud, but it was low and long, which permeated the hearts of everyone, including Nanhuan. They all felt that their souls had been cleansed, as if they had entered into some kind of perfect state.
But as time went on, this sound brought anxiety to those around me because something seemed to be wrong with the process.
"Why hasn't it rained yet? Normally the Dragon God would have descended at this time, but why is there no reaction at all this time?"
"That's right, why hasn't it rained yet? Has the Dragon God abandoned us?"
"No wonder none of my recent wishes have come true. I think this may have been a scam from the beginning. You should not have forgotten how she got the title of Saint, right?"
"I said she was born with an ominous sign. If the strange phenomenon hadn't suddenly appeared, we would have executed her long ago?"
Because the Dragon God has not appeared yet, there has been no rain, and because prayers have not been going well recently, some people in the crowd have started to have other ideas.
"Do any of you remember that when the Dragon God first appeared, he didn't come to help us at all."
As soon as these words were spoken, the surroundings suddenly became quiet for a few seconds.
Bei Xi and Nan Huan also frowned, recalling the scene they had seen in the Yizhihua pawn ticket.
At that time, Jiusheng had been tied to the altar and the fire was getting bigger. He was rescued only because the Dragon God appeared at the last moment. At that time, the Dragon God wanted to attack humans, but was stopped by Jiusheng.
But in the eyes of others, they only remembered that the Dragon God wanted to kill them.
At the same time, the saint on the altar vomited blood like an oil lamp that had run out of energy.
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