Chapter 186 (End of Main Text)
Shu Changyan single-handedly left them all behind.
Zhao looked up and saw that the once vibrant life around him had been sucked away by countless Pandora on the ground and was withering away rapidly.
Wei Shengqianheng stood suspended in the center of the vortex, coldly watching the dying world, as if admiring his final work.
He had become one with Pandora, like a giant statue hanging above Pines' head.
Zhao leaned against a twisted wall, coughing violently, black blood seeping from between his fingers.
Xiao Jiang moved closer to Zhao, looked at his miserable appearance, and frowned: "Are you going to die?"
Zhao weakly raised her eyelids: "You'll be here soon too."
At this rate, soon not only Pines, but the entire planet's inhabitants will become victims of Manra disease, their lives turning into Pandora, fuel for microorganisms.
Xiao Jiang cursed under his breath, "What bad luck."
He didn't refute, but raised his hand, which still had some strength left, and couldn't find any trace of Shu Ningmiao. He also didn't know where Shu Changyan had gone.
They did encounter Weston, who was using Pandora as a defensive barrier. He was kneeling on the ground, healing himself, and standing in front of Arcia's wheelchair with his back straight.
Behind him, Arcia was as pale as a sheet, her eyes closed, her eyelashes trembling, and she murmured softly, as if praying to someone.
Weston lowered his hand from his injured area, slowly scanning the crowd, his gaze and heart growing colder: "Have you found her?"
He didn't specify anyone's name, but everyone knew who she was.
"No."
Zhao gave a bitter laugh, completely giving up resistance, feeling that his pursuit all along was laughable.
In the sky, drones kept approaching the vortex of Pandora overhead, but they all crashed before they could get really close. Before leaving the United Building, Zhao re-signed the edict, approving the reinstatement of the Stone Weapon, but no one dared to use it anymore.
This place has become a living hell filled with despair. Even the disciplined army has completely collapsed. They are human too, and they will feel fear and break down when faced with being extracted from above.
But at that moment, everyone on the ground noticed that Wei Sheng Qian Heng had moved.
He slowly raised his arm, and the countless Pandora beams that were originally connected to his body began to shift and split into countless segments.
These fragmented Pandora, like miniature tornadoes, swept the surrounding dust and ruins into the sky, enveloping them and forming terrifying vortexes radiating destructive power that fiercely attacked the ground.
He started to get impatient.
Those watching the changes below all thought the same thing.
Zhao clicked his tongue, hesitated, and stopped. He forced himself to stand up straight, raised his cane with the hand he still had strength in, and shouted, "Block!"
The cane touched the air, and ripples spread out from it. An invisible, arc-shaped barrier suddenly unfolded, blocking the swirling Pandora from plunging to the ground in front of the defenseless crowd.
The energy dissipated and exploded in mid-air, like blue sparks blooming in the sky, but mixed in with it were large rubble that could completely crush a person.
At the same time, Xiao Jiang drew his sword, and a gust of wind split into countless streams, cleaving through the large metal ruins that had fallen from the sky.
Although the fragments were not fatal, their falling force was still terrifying. One piece flew towards Arcia, who was sitting in a wheelchair, but Weston managed to block it in time.
Xiao Jiang turned her head: "Hey, are you alright?"
She didn't think this person was the type who was good at fighting, and he usually looked gloomy. She wondered if he would cause any trouble.
“It’s nothing.” Weston covered the blood. “I won’t die before that guy comes back.”
Even so, witnessing her fall filled everyone with an ominous premonition.
Zhao said, "That's a nice thing to say. It's a good thing someone isn't here."
Before Zhao finished speaking, the tiny, lifeless creature in the sky seemed to be enraged by this insignificant resistance.
He slowly opened his arms, and Pandora in the sky trembled violently.
People covered by these blue lights seemed to age faster, their skin quickly wrinkling and turning gray.
"Back off!" Zhao's pupils contracted sharply as he hissed.
“It’s no use…” Arcia opened her eyes at some point, her voice weak but clear: “This is the power of the string.”
He groaned and knelt on one knee, blood gushing from his mouth and nose. Xiao Jiang wanted to swing his knife forward, but Zhao held him back tightly.
At the critical moment, a figure appeared without warning between Wei Sheng Qian Heng and the desperate crowd below.
Her appearance was so abrupt, as if she had been standing there from the very beginning.
Shu Ningmiao was soaked to the bone, her face was deathly pale from overexertion, and her clothes were stained with blood.
Shu Changyan stood beside her without saying a word. He drew the executioner's sword from behind his back and threw the heavy sword into her hand. She caught the hilt without hesitation, the tip of the sword hanging on the ground.
High above, Wei Sheng Qian Heng seemed to have sensed something beforehand. He plunged his fingers into his chest and pulled out an identical heavy sword from the blue crystal.
What's meant to happen will happen eventually.
Wei Shengqianheng looked at her.
But now, she is no longer confused.
Shu Ningmiao rode the Pandora flying through the air and soared into the sky, while Wei Shengqianheng swooped down, his speed so fast that he left only a blue afterimage in the air.
Two identical executioner's swords clashed violently in mid-air.
The deafening impact reverberated throughout the sky.
The massive shockwave spread out in a ring from the point where the two swords clashed, instantly clearing out a section of the surrounding Pandora's Cycle!
Shu Ningmiao and Wei Shengqianheng stared at each other across their fiercely clashing swords.
The skin on her hand was cracked from the impact, and blood flowed down the hilt of the sword, but her hand holding the sword remained as steady as a rock.
Wei Shengqianheng's tone was filled with utterly incomprehensible anger: "What are you still persisting for! Shu Ningmiao, return to Pandora, this planet is beyond saving!"
Shu Ningmiao closed her eyes, her voice still weak and hoarse from her injuries: "I want to see the future of this planet, and I also want to see my future."
"This future simply does not exist."
"Who cares about you? I told you long ago, I would definitely kill you." Her lips curled up, forcing a smile: "The dead should obediently go back to the ground! You will live in the past forever and become a tombstone for the dead."
The moment she finished speaking, she opened her eyes!
All the weariness and pain in those eyes were replaced by an extreme clarity. Deep within the pupils, it seemed as if countless invisible lines, unseen by ordinary people, pierced through time and connected all things were reflected.
Her goal has never been merely to achieve great things from small beginnings.
Wei Shengqianheng's already inhuman face froze for a moment: "What do you want to do?"
"I will use cause and effect," Shu Ningmiao said in a terrifyingly calm voice, "to sever time."
She intends to use this sword of cause and effect to eradicate all cause and effect, completely severing the vicious cycle connecting the past, present, and future, and granting the planet a new destiny.
She exerted a little force, leaned forward, and pressed the same sword against his neck.
Wei Shengqianheng seemed to sense an unprecedented threat. He decisively let go and retreated. His figure began to flash rapidly in the sky. Each appearance lasted only for a moment, leaving a pale blue afterimage.
He repeatedly paused and jumped through time, trying to avoid the impending, yet unpredictable, attack.
Relying on the string flow, he can keep dodging and remain invincible.
But all she needed to do was catch a glimpse of him appearing.
Shu Ningmiao's movements were not fast, and even showed a hint of fatigue and sluggishness.
There was no earth-shattering momentum, no dazzling spectacle.
She gripped the sword hilt tightly with both hands again and calmly swung the sword once.
It transcends the concept of speed and ignores the barrier of time.
"To see me is to die."
There was no light, no sound.
Where it swept across, it utterly destroyed everything, leaving nothing behind.
Time lost its meaning at this moment.
Wei Shengqianheng stared at her blankly, like a pencil mark erased by an eraser.
The vortex in the sky suddenly became chaotic, and the figures he left in the string flow solidified, shattered, and dissipated one after another.
For the first time, an expression of disbelief was clearly reflected in those pupils, which were dominated by inorganic blue.
He looked down at his almost transparent chest, where there were no wounds or bloodstains.
But he could sense it...
Something more fundamental, even his very existence, is crumbling away little by little, silently.
Shu Ningmiao's figure gradually became clearer from the turbulent waters. She lowered her hand and simply gazed at him quietly.
She has done everything she could.
At this moment, Wei Shengqianheng's human characteristics had almost disappeared, and she couldn't tell whether his current emotion was anger or relief.
He is a very contradictory person.
They wanted to destroy the world, yet they also wanted to give her chances again and again to see what she could do.
His power was rapidly declining, and his connection with the string was becoming extremely weak. The once vast and boundless energy was now like sand slipping through his fingers, difficult to grasp.
Wei Sheng Qian Heng stopped struggling and did not try to use all his strength to activate the final time rewind and reset everything to a distant starting point.
Perhaps, he really... is already very tired.
Silence spread between them, as if they had returned to the beginning. He suddenly spoke, his voice no longer carrying that all-controlling indifference, but instead revealing an almost ethereal calm, as if he were simply stating a fact:
"I still won."
If she weren't exhausted, Shu Ningmiao would have loved to kick him off the stage: "What did you win this time?"
"Just live like this." Wei Shengqianheng closed his eyes: "...living in this world forever in pain."
Indeed, "survival" is a heavy chain, and being alive is the absolute pain.
His time had finally come to an end.
The human soul that once resided within him glanced once more at the world he had once deeply loved, yet which he was determined to destroy, as if in a final burst of energy.
The next moment, his completely crystallized body began to shatter from his fingertips, turning into the finest blue specks of light that scattered in the air and returned to the surrounding Pandora without a trace.
These Pandoras danced lightly in the sky, and blue specks of light fell like a drizzle.
People on the ground unconsciously stretched out their hands, letting the food fall into their palms.
The blue light touched their skin and instantly merged into their bodies. The black blood of the Manla patients was gradually purified, and the life force that had been drained was slowly returning. Then, all the blue light disappeared silently.
The Pandora within her body dissipated like the receding tide.
Everything will start anew.
They will have a brand new future.
The wound on her chest still ached, and she was extremely exhausted, but a sense of unprecedented ease rose from the depths of her heart.
But this feeling of relief lasted only a brief moment.
Immediately afterwards, everything went black before my eyes, and weakness swept over me.
She was enveloped in a feeling of weightlessness as she fell downwards, but the expected impact did not occur.
A soft thud was heard, and she landed in an unusually firm embrace.
The impact caused Shu Changyan to stagger, but he managed to counteract most of the force of the fall by using his waist, abdomen, and legs.
He carried her and landed steadily on the ground, slightly bending one knee to cushion the impact, and carefully adjusted his position to make her more comfortable.
Shu Changyan lowered his head and kissed her forehead. She cupped his blood-stained face in one hand, and he coughed lightly, his eyes and brows full of tenderness.
She raised her head, her gaze passing over Shu Changyan's shoulder, and looked at the crowd that had unknowingly gathered around her—Weston, Arcia, Xiao Jiang, Zhao, and many other unfamiliar faces who had survived the ordeal.
All eyes were focused on her, filled with complex emotions: concern, exhaustion, confusion, and a sliver of uncertain hope.
She stood up with the help of Shu Changyan, and her strength gradually returned to her body.
Shu Changyan asked her in a low voice, "Can you still walk?"
She nodded, her gaze still fixed on the distance.
As she tilted her head slightly, the sunlight fell precisely on her eyelashes, casting a delicate golden halo. The faint smile on her lips, seemingly one of relief, shone with a breathtaking brilliance amidst the ruins.
She was completely oblivious to how many pairs of eyes were following her with complex emotions, holding their breath.
Wei Shengqianheng seemed to have truly disappeared, but an invisible fear still loomed over the crowd, making them afraid to even breathe, and their whispers stuck in their throats.
On the ruined streets, the survivors began to gather spontaneously and silently, one after another, forming a long, slow-moving stream of people, like a silent river.
She turned around in the crowd; she was one of them.
No one spoke; they simply tilted their heads back, squinting their eyes stinging from the bright light, and gazed at the long-lost, vast, and clear sky that had appeared after the clouds had dispersed.
Shu Ningmiao raised her hand, and golden sunlight shone through her fingers, revealing a small patch of blue sky and rising sun between them.
-END-
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Author's note: This concludes the main text!
The following are some random thoughts.
I started drafting the outline and character designs last January. I never imagined the serialization period would be so long and this story would have so many words. This is the longest story I've ever written (although it's not actually that long).
What began with Shu Ningmiao also ended with her. As the protagonist, Miao seems to need no further explanation. The original intention was for her to understand the world through her own eyes, to see more people and more things, to realize the fragility of life, to witness the cruelty of the world, and to forge a path with her own will when she realized that there was no way out in reality.
Shu Changyan's chapter is "Jade is made from jade," which literally means to cherish her like jade.
His character is characterized by unwavering resolve and unchanging nature, like a stubborn rock, no matter what he experiences.
Shi Yu is probably a stereotypical Japanese prince and fiancée. I looked at his original character design and he was a sexually apathetic and fun-loving person. Although I don't know what the point of setting up this character design on JJ is, hahaha.
Non-Chinese names are very simple: Erice is "average," and Weston is "Wisdom."
Actually, Erici doesn't mean ordinary people, and I don't think Erici can represent everyone. Giving her this name symbolizes the mistakes that everyone makes, and there's nothing wrong with making mistakes.
The character of Weston was written together with Arcia. Originally, they were twins, two sides of the same coin, but this concept was later abandoned.
Weston's black hair was dyed because blonde hair made his face look too young, but I forgot whether this was written into the main text.
Yuan and Achini were also difficult parts to write. In short, Achini is not Yuan, but a mirror that reflects Yuan.
The last part can be used to summarize what Showa Mikichiko said: "Do not be a nameless corpse, do not be a scheming official, do not be a responsible official, do not be a knowledgeable ruler."
Xiao Jiang was probably the character whose story was cut the most. When I first wrote her character, I enthusiastically told her story to every friend, but these background stories were never included in the main text. I still really like her; she's free as the wind, has honey-colored skin, scars on her back from years of carrying a knife, plum-like eyes, and a wheat-scented scent.
The three Crimson Palace Stones represent the three envoys and their final fates. The 01 Crimson Palace Stone shattered unexpectedly, symbolizing 01's Zhao (Zhao's original ending was to die by his brother's sword, but some changes were made). The 02 Crimson Palace Stone was absorbed by Miao, symbolizing the friend, 02 envoy Xiao Jiang. The 03 Crimson Palace Stone reshaped Miao's body, symbolizing his brother who sacrificed everything.
Old Pinhín was based on Latin but with some modifications, while Pingyi was modeled after Romanization.
Manra was inspired by the Melanesian supernatural concept of Mana, while the string design is based on superstring theory. The designs of Intori, Achini, and others are based on some Indian mythological settings, but in reality, they are all my own inventions.
The very desire of human beings to survive is an overdraft on life, as is the story of Pandora.
My inability to calmly accept feedback has always been a problem for me. I feel ashamed whenever I occasionally see recommendations from others on social media. I can't help but get nervous whenever I realize that someone likes the stories I write.
I really wanted to write something that wouldn't disappoint everyone, but the more I cared, the more afraid I became to put pen to paper, and my writing even became worse than before. Towards the end, each chapter took seven or eight hours or longer to complete. I often stayed up all night writing until morning and still hadn't finished. I revised and patched it up repeatedly, finally finishing it only now. Next, I'll try my best to fix the bugs from the beginning, complete the author's notes, and also dedicate some time to studying, striving to improve in my next book.
I really want to apologize to everyone who has been following the updates.
I will be writing thirteen more bonus chapters, all of which are free and require no additional subscription, so I've marked them as completed. I glanced at the outline, and it's basically unrelated to the main story. There are also some "what if" scenarios, which will be much easier to read than the main story. Feel free to comment if you have any other requests.
Finally, thank you all for reading this far. I specially recharged my account on Jinjiang Literature City to send out red envelopes to everyone, and they're all in the comments!
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