Chapter 172 Holding the Tai'a Axe Upside Down (9)
It's him again! It's Wei Sheng Qian Heng again!
Shu Ningmiao's fingers suddenly clenched, her expression revealing a chilling, bone-deep anger.
She never believed he hadn't done anything, but what could he possibly gain from using You An?
From the moment Gab was destroyed, what was his ultimate goal?
You An caught sight of her gaze.
The cold gaze jolted him awake.
Even though the chill wasn't directed at him, it still brought him back to reality in an instant.
The mental anguish was far more unbearable than the physical pain. When he saw his horrifying face in the mirror countless times, the immense suffering was far more unbearable than being burned.
He opened his mouth, gripped her wrist tightly, and said with difficulty, "I'm about to die."
He gained the present only after he completely lost his future.
“No matter what I become in the future,” You An cried out hoarsely, “that will not be me.”
He had anticipated Wei Shengqianheng's purpose earlier than anyone else, yet he still couldn't refuse his deal.
As he moved, black liquid gradually flowed from his eyes and lips, his skin cracked with black fissures, and his facial features gradually became distorted and blurred.
"You promised me... Shu Ningmiao." You An loosened her grip, trembling as she hugged herself tightly, her murmur swallowed by the flames: "You promised me, you must kill me!!!"
Shu Ningmiao felt suffocated by the heatwave, steam covered her eyelids, and forced her to face the mess on the ground.
"I promise you."
He smiled at her, a silly smile.
At the end of life, the past can never be relived.
You An's body was suddenly shattered in the sea of fire, disintegrating into pieces of black, charcoal-like fragments that scattered freely into the distance. The firelight illuminated her face, turning half the sky a purplish-red.
At the center of these incinerated fragments, a blood-red mass once bound them together.
Shu Ningmiao reached out to touch the small, floating mass of crimson blood. The familiar sensation stirred within her fingertips, as if it could melt into her body at any moment.
This is... her blood.
She lunged forward, trying to grab it.
Even though her fingers were already clenched, she still couldn't actually touch that bright red mass. Countless black viscous fluid seeped out from behind the blood, enveloping the crimson mass. Her hand went in, and the sticky, foul-smelling substance instantly coated her knuckles.
A strange, sweet fragrance filled my nostrils.
It felt as if her fingertips had pierced a writhing piece of rotten flesh, and her blood became the new heart of that flesh, pounding wildly the moment it was enveloped in black slime.
Having confronted Wei Shengqianheng countless times, she couldn't possibly be wrong; this was his Pandora.
When did he get her blood? Was it in Gaber? At that time, she was too badly injured to care about anything else.
Now—a new life is being born amidst the chrysalis of Pandora.
The surrounding flesh and blood, which had already disintegrated and carbonized, slowly and irrationally gathered towards the center due to the black viscous liquid, forming a shape resembling a human.
The burned red hair grew wildly again, and black fragments clung together to form skin, creating dense black lines, which finally gave rise to a pair of completely blank, bewildered eyes.
Those eyes gazed at her, murmuring softly, "...Mother."
The billowing black liquid enveloped the burning mountain of garbage, engulfing the two of them.
A fishy taste rose from the bottom of her stomach to her throat, and her mind instantly cleared.
Wei Shengqianheng's goal was... to create Achini.
Shu Ning had a brilliant idea: Achini was not a real "person" at all, but a myth passed down orally, a fictional god who presided over sacrifices.
Why is his name Achini?
For Wei Shengqianheng, human flesh and blood are no different from soil. He can mold a body from any material; the physical body is merely a vessel for Pandora.
Her blood, the Pandora of a thousand lives, the flesh and blood of Yu'an, mixed together to form a new monster, Achini.
This monster does not exist in the present, nor in the future.
Achini can only exist in the past.
Like the executioner's sword drawn from the past to the present, within the same timeline, since things from the past can be brought to the present, and things from the present can be projected into the past, it turns out that Achini is such a paradoxical existence.
It appears out of thin air because it never existed.
Achini was born a year later.
Therefore, Wei Sheng Qian Heng must have been killed by the past Achini. Her past death led to the birth of Achini, which completes the closure.
So even if she doesn't die this time, he still has to go to great lengths to create Achini. The past Achini already exists, and if it doesn't come into being in the future, the entire timeline will collapse.
Achini was born because of her.
This was his greatest revenge against her, whom he couldn't control.
In the deathly silence, Shu Ningmiao gazed into those familiar eyes, slowly raised her hand, and made no attempt to hide her intention to strangle it.
She had promised You An that she would kill him.
The newborn monster was completely docile, its red hair hanging down, its wet eyes looking at her, showing no intention of resisting the murderous intent.
However, her hand passed through its body.
The monster's body was just an illusion, vanishing in an instant before her eyes—the timeline had been out of sync.
Achini returned to the new land a year earlier, restarting the nightmare of Prometheus and the new land. Time is a continuous cycle, and everyone is trapped in it, just like him, unable to escape.
Her hand fell to the ground, hanging stiffly at her side.
The black slime around her fell like a curtain of rain, and she suspected that Wei Shengqianheng's mocking gaze was hidden behind this curtain of rain.
Black slime fell onto the garbage mountain, bubbling and sputtering, and a chilling stench of decay permeated the air.
The slime continued to corrode downwards, and she knelt motionless on the ground until she sank in.
Someone grabbed her arm and tugged at it, trying to pull her out.
Shu Ningmiao turned to look at him, her eyes icy cold, which startled him.
The freckled man with brown hair and brown eyes let go of her hand after she glanced at him, took a few steps back, and said while still holding the basin in one hand, "It really is you! What are you doing in Xindi again?"
She thought she would never see him again, but he seemed to be everywhere.
No, he was standing nearby just now, one of the people who helped put out the fire, but she didn't even notice.
Allen was quite wary of her: "What are you planning to do now? You know this person who was just burned to death, right? Was he in cahoots with you?"
Shu Ningmiao replied to him, "Do you know him? If you don't, why did you come to save him?"
“This… someone suddenly starts burning up in the street and I can’t even look at them?” Allen frowned, tossed the broken basin in his hand to the others, put his hands on his hips and stared at her: “This time I won’t let you do whatever you want anymore, don’t cause any more trouble here.”
He stared at the black slime spreading across the garbage mountain, his brow furrowed with worry. He was extremely concerned about the black substance that had just suddenly exploded, whether it was Manla disease or the strange spontaneous combustion: "Damn it... there are so many strange things happening lately."
Shu Ningmiao remained silent, gazing at him thoughtfully, her eyes following his every move until a chill ran down his spine.
“Come with me.” She staggered down the mountain of slimy garbage, seemingly oblivious to the filth on her body, and turned to him, ordering, “Let’s go.”
Alan didn't want to be led by the nose by her at all, so he pretended to be indifferent and took a roundabout route. But when she scolded him, he immediately tensed up and obediently followed behind her.
Shu Ningmiao was much faster than him, almost like a super-evolved human. She walked in front, and he ran behind to barely keep up, following her to an orphanage with its gates tightly closed.
She glanced at it twice, then without any hesitation, she climbed over the wall next to her with one hand.
After observing for a moment, Allen gritted his teeth and followed her movements, climbing into the yard. He thought that no matter how heartless this woman was, she wouldn't harm a child.
Unexpectedly, as soon as they jumped into the yard, it was as if they had triggered some device. The tightly closed door seemed to sense the people outside and pushed open a crack. A pink-brown-haired girl in a school uniform walked out. Her expression when she saw them was as if she had seen a ghost.
Allen immediately raised his hands: "I'm a good person."
The girl ignored him completely: "Shu Ningmiao!"
Alan didn't know who she was calling, so he took several steps back and waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "No, no, I didn't mean to break into someone's house."
She seemed not to hear, her eyes welling up with tears, but thankfully the tears didn't actually fall. She rushed straight to Shu Ningmiao and poured out everything that had happened recently: "Do you know where You An went? Neither he nor that Intori man named Jitane have returned. The signal in the new land is blocked. We can't send anything out, and we can't get any news."
"He is dead, and Lucico is dead too."
Shu Ningmiao finally exhaled the breath she had been holding in with those words, and raised her hand to press down on her shoulder.
Allen raised his voice: "What?! Lucico is dead?!"
Nobody paid him any attention.
Erice just stared at her in horror, gripping her hand tightly until her nails dug into her flesh.
She couldn't believe it. It was as if she had heard something incomprehensible. She was afraid of You An, afraid of what You An had done, and even more afraid that he would go to his death again.
But things always raced in the direction she feared, never heeding her pleas.
Shu Ningmiao stood in front of her, looking disheveled, with an expression in her eyes that she couldn't understand.
After a while, Shu Ningmiao turned her head and looked at the stunned young man beside her: "This is a member of the Self-Defense Forces."
"...People from the Self-Defense Forces?"
Erice instinctively took a step back, then belatedly realized that a wary glint had appeared in his eyes.
She didn't know what would happen if the Self-Defense Forces found out she was one of Prometheus's people, but she could only trust that Shu Ningmiao wouldn't harm her.
“Ah, yes, I’m from the Shinchi Self-Defense Force. She’s a very suspicious person, you know? I came here with her.” Although Alan was confused, he still agreed. It wasn’t anything shameful: “Don’t be afraid.”
He then looked at Shu Ningmiao: "What exactly do you want to do?"
Both of them looked at her.
Shu Ningmiao stated bluntly: "I need your cooperation."
“Cooperation…what?” Erice repeated blankly.
“You, Prometheus, cooperate with the Self-Defense Forces.”
Shu Ningmiao repeated herself, unbuttoning her coat, which was stained with black silt, revealing herself to be standing alone and cold between them, wearing only a thin shirt.
She changed her mind.
“Pine has completely blocked the signal, and the new land has been completely abandoned. You are just waiting to die here. You won’t gain any power through petty tricks.” Her voice was calm, only slightly hoarse: “I want you to break down the barriers between the capital and the new land together and unite the two divided places of Pine into one.”
Eric raised his hand and pointed incredulously at himself: "Me?"
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Author's Note: In the previous playthrough: In order to obtain Miao's superpowers, Wei Shengqianheng used Miao's blood and the body of You An, who died in Gab, to create an Archini. He placed Archini in the timeline of a year ago and then had Archini kill Miao, taking Miao's place.
This first playthrough: Archini, as a monster, has indeed existed in this timeline. Although Wei Sheng Qian Heng cannot kill Miao, he must create Archini again to complete the closure.
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