Chapter 89 Patience and Deterrence (3)
The blazing fire gradually dispelled the dampness of the ground. Shu Ningmiao sat down in front of the fire, which shone even brighter in the wind, illuminating the face of the person opposite her for a moment.
Her guess was confirmed, but the person in front of her was completely different from what she remembered.
This woman, whom Rennagi and others called "Sister Liang" and who was respected by everyone, had never actually fought directly with her.
Even a brief glance feels like an eternity.
All she remembered were those tired eyes.
In Lin Chuiyun's memory, Shu Ningmiao saw Liang Siyan as an elegant woman who did not lack grace.
The woman sitting in front of the fire, though still wearing the cloak, looked completely different.
Those hands, warmed by the fire, resembled two pieces of charred charcoal, with mottled, dark purple skin clinging to the bones, revealing clearly visible blood vessels and tissues, like diseased tree bark.
It wasn't just her hands that were burned; when Liang Siyan looked up, Shu Ningmiao could see that most of her face was disfigured.
One of her eyes was tightly closed, glued together by the charred, swirling pus and blood on her face; it was already necrotic.
The woman looked like she had just escaped from a fire; most of her body was covered in horrific burns.
"Were you the one who just grabbed me?"
Shu Ningmiao placed one hand on the small knife in her sleeve and slowly scanned the surrounding environment to confirm that there was no one else lying in ambush.
"Is there anyone else here besides me?"
Liang Siyan stared straight ahead, her gaze steady and serious as she looked at the bonfire in front of her.
Shu Ningmiao had only guessed that Liang Siyan's superpower was controlling fog, but she didn't expect that she could also turn her body into fog and merge into the fog she controlled.
No wonder Liang Siyan was able to snatch her away silently in mid-air, yet she never heard the sound of human breathing or heartbeat.
"Since you have this ability, why didn't you use it when you wanted to kill me before?" Shu Ningmiao poked the fire with a branch, knocking out a small pile of ash.
A half-smile appeared on Liang Siyan's terrifying face, but she was honest: "It's no use, I can't beat you in close combat anyway."
The wind in the park subsided for a moment, and the abandoned facilities were bathed in a hazy halo of moonlight, like a moment of peace after a storm.
The damp clothes on their bodies quickly evaporated and dried by the fire.
Shu Ningmiao sized up the woman, her brows furrowing slightly: "Liang Siyan is your alias, isn't it?"
"You're very smart." Despite her disfigured and grotesque appearance, Liang Siyan's expression remained relatively calm.
Should I call you Liang Yu?
When she couldn't find out Liang Siyan's name, she should have realized it was a pseudonym.
If it weren't for Yelüqi's dying words, she would never have imagined that Prometheus's former leader would be an ordinary teacher of Cornunus.
"No, just call me Liang Siyan."
The woman's voice was cold as she stared at the flickering firelight without blinking: "After my child left, I felt that staying in Pine was a terrible betrayal of her, so I resigned from my job at Cornunos and followed some clues from members of Prometheus to come to the new land."
"At that time, Prometheus was already a disorganized mess under the oppression of the Pinheid government, but only with the help of this organization could I gather strength to oppose Pandora."
Liang Siyan did not complain or resent. Her voice was slightly hoarse and nasal, as if she were talking about something that had nothing to do with her: "I did everything I could, protested, publicized, and used all sorts of means to demand change from Pinheis. I spent nine years on it and got no response."
"Why are you telling me this?" Shu Ningmiao poked at the fire listlessly, staring at the sparks that kept jumping out in front of her. "In this situation, you don't still want to persuade me to join Prometheus, do you?"
“Being honest is only part of being sincere.” Liang Siyan’s voice was hoarse with weariness: “I heard everything you just said to him. Since you are still curious about investigating the truth of Pandora, I would like to ask for your help.”
"You were here from the beginning?" Shu Ningmiao paused upon hearing this, then tentatively asked, "Did you hear what Teacher Yelü said at the end? He..."
Before she could finish speaking, Liang Siyan abruptly interrupted her with a frown: "Don't mention him."
Shu Ningmiao glanced at her expression and wisely shut her mouth.
Liang Siyan took a deep breath, her brows furrowed like a knot, her face contorted with a ferocious expression that was quite frightening: "...He's a coward."
"The kind of person he is will only hide in his shell and continue playing his childish game of playing the hero."
The woman, who had just been speaking calmly, spoke with an almost cold and sarcastic tone: "Ayan is gone, he's sick, he clearly knows everything, yet he was still weakly manipulated by Pigne as a puppet. Even if that bald man dismembers him, he won't be able to research anything of value. In the end, he'll just be a pile of academic garbage when he dies."
"..." Shu Ningmiao and she looked at each other in silence.
She has never been good at handling emotional disputes and has no desire to get involved in other people's family conflicts.
Listening to her teacher's ex-wife's complaints was embarrassing enough, but she never expected the conflict between the two to have escalated to this extent.
Seeing Shu Ningmiao trying her best to look away and pretending not to hear anything, Liang Siyan's anger subsided considerably.
She stopped talking: "I have given up on the name Liang Yu."
Along with the identity, profession, and reputation behind this name.
She was neither Cornunos's literature teacher, nor Yelü Yan's mother, nor Yelü Qi's wife.
“He has nothing to do with me.” Liang Siyan’s voice was momentarily somber, but then she regained her composure: “I’m here to cooperate with you.”
"Wait." Shu Ningmiao raised the branch in her hand and shook it gently; a flame still lingered at the tip. "Why do you want to cooperate with me?"
Before Liang Siyan could answer, she continued, "Let me guess."
The girl's face was reflected in the dim firelight, and the shadows of her features made her appear particularly cold and distant.
"Because you and Achini had a falling out."
"Hmm—" Shu Ningmiao glanced at Liang Siyan's grotesquely torn skin: "You were almost killed by him."
With such severe burns, if Liang Siyan hadn't possessed the supernatural ability to transform her body into mist, she probably wouldn't have survived to come find her.
Although she had just rolled around in the mud and was covered in dust and filth, Shu Ningmiao's expression remained unchanged, and her gaze was sharp.
"Why turn against him now?"
Her gaze pierced the woman like a knife: "You, who voluntarily relinquished the leadership to him, do you regret it now that he burned down Pandora's Wells and killed too many people?"
Shu Ningmiao had been keeping an eye on the news on the street; every day there were new cases of spontaneous combustion at the Pandora Spring in Pine.
This is not just a matter of Pandora's loss—each spring has hundreds or thousands of employees, including mining workers, maintenance personnel, and data exploration scholars.
Liang Siyan's body stiffened for a moment. She slowly raised her hand to touch her burned skin, and after a long while, she spoke again: "You're right, I regret it."
She raised her withered hands and helplessly covered her face: "I didn't want it to be like this at first, but for nine years, all my efforts have failed to change Pigne. The children who followed me did not question me, but I began to question myself."
She couldn't help but wonder if it really was her fault.
If her incompetence makes everyone lose hope, then Achini might be a better choice.
“I thought I was doing the right thing, changing the world, but in reality, anger and hatred were raging like a waterfall, and I was completely unaware of it.” Liang Siyan looked up at her sadly: “In the raging waves, I not only lost myself, but also hurt the world.”
Shu Ningmiao's eyes showed no disdain, and she asked in a surprisingly calm tone, "Can this matter be changed by one person?"
Why do you think Achini would do a better job than you?
"..."
Speaking of which, after learning that Liang Siyan was the former leader of Prometheus, she also asked Rennagi the same question.
Rennagi's answer at the time was also full of confusion, and she didn't quite believe her own answer: "Because he is stronger."
She recalled Rennagi's answer and clicked her tongue softly.
Liang Siyan wasn't angry at Shu Ningmiao's frank suspicion; instead, her expression became strange: "He... is not quite the same."
After saying this, Liang Siyan abruptly stopped speaking in the face of Shu Ningmiao's suspicious gaze.
Shu Ningmiao tossed aside the branch, looking utterly bored, and listlessly dragged out her words, though her eyes remained sharp and cold: "What's different?"
“He’s not human.” Liang Siyan’s voice was hoarse and dry.
"..." Shu Ningmiao remained silent for a long time before standing up decisively: "Are you playing me?"
The woman sat motionless, her face solemn, her gaze fixed on her, as if she had made a great decision because of those words: "He is actually Pandora."
"Listen to me." Seeing that Shu Ningmiao was about to turn and leave, Liang Siyan stood up after her, raising her voice slightly.
“I’m not lying to you! This is the only information I can exchange with you. I will tell you everything you want to know, as long as you are willing to help me kill him.”
"But," Shu Ningmiao said, putting her hands behind her back and leaning closer to her, her expression fierce, "what good does this do me?"
She certainly wanted to kill Archini, and also wanted to know information and weaknesses about Archini and Prometheus.
But when negotiating, she won't show what she wants on her face.
“Achini has been plotting against you all along.”
Liang Siyan's usually calm voice quickened a bit: "Do you really think you can stay out of this?"
Shu Ningmiao coldly withdrew her gaze: "Didn't you want to kill me before? Perhaps I should take advantage of your weakness and take revenge on you first."
Liang Siyan stared at her intently, then suddenly stepped forward, grabbed her hand, and pressed it against her chest: "Fine, whatever you want."
The woman's chest was also uneven, and Shu Ningmiao could feel the burn marks under her clothes, so she quickly withdrew her hand.
Liang Siyan immediately caught up with her and called out, "If we can't stop him, everyone will die."
"Stop what... what does he want to do?"
It was only then that Shu Ningmiao realized that, because of Pigne's deliberate concealment, she was completely unaware of Achini's purpose in doing this.
They kidnapped several students with superpowers, burned down Pandora's Spring to cause panic, and almost killed one of their own people.
He looked every bit the stubborn terrorist, showing no sign of wanting to communicate with the authorities.
The kidnapping of the students was probably not intended to threaten anyone.
Shu Ningmiao pictured Eric's face in her mind.
It was indeed because of her.
Su Ni is very likely the one who kidnapped Erici, and the others are just a smokescreen. With so many people at String Light Academy, she can guess why Achini chose to use Su Ni. The more someone like Su Ni is, the easier they are to manipulate. If given clear benefits, he will do anything.
There must be a special reason why Xianliu made Eric the protagonist. Shu Ningmiao has never underestimated Eric's role. The protagonist is, in a sense, the "center of the world".
If she doesn't go, perhaps Erigee can kill Achini herself?
Seeing that Shu Ningmiao's attitude had softened, Liang Siyan breathed a sigh of relief, followed by incredulous surprise: "You still don't know what Achini did?"
Why would Pigne give him so much publicity?
Shu Ningmiao found it strange.
"He notified the Pinheid authorities seven days ago, and in those seven days, there have been new cases of spontaneous combustion at Pandora's Well every day."
Liang Siyan opened her terminal and showed her a photo of flames burning above the Pinheid Union Building. The raging flames formed threatening words: "He intends to use all of Pinheid's Pandora as fuel to burn this world back to its origin."
Shu Ningmiao let out a soft "uh," not to blame Pi Nie, but after hearing it, she also felt that what he said was so outrageous that it sounded like a joke.
Liang Siyan replied with a serious expression, "It's true."
Shu Ningmiao had no choice but to adopt the same serious expression as her: "So what is he going to do? Run off and secretly set fire to every single Pandora's Well, and then wait for them to burn themselves together?"
Pinhea's disaster response department wasn't just sitting idly by; how could they possibly let Pandora burn to this extent?
“No, I just said that.” Liang Siyan’s eyes were complicated. “He’s not human, he’s Pandora. Pandora can sense each other. In other words, he can control Pandora out of thin air.”
Shu Ningmiao was still able to calmly reply: "You mean, Pandora has become a spirit and is planning to burn us to death, is that right?"
“I know this is hard to believe,” Liang Siyan said carefully. “But it’s not what you think. The amount of Pandora in his body is abnormal, far beyond what ordinary humans can compare to. Just like how most robots’ bodies are made of metal, and our bodies are made of flesh and blood, his body—it seems to be mostly made of Pandora.”
“Two years ago, I and a few companions found him in New World. He was covered in blood, and his skin was covered with cuts and cracks, from which Pandora was constantly oozing out.”
“I realized that he might be extraordinary.”
The woman pressed her temples, as if facing something extremely painful: "He said his name was Achini, and he knew nothing else, like a newborn baby with no memory."
“We took him in for a while to recover from his injuries. Strangely, the wounds on his body did not disappear after they healed, but instead turned into eerie black patterns.”
Liang Siyan frowned: "Later, he joined Prometheus. He told me that he could help me and help us, and that he was born for this planet."
"He injured his brain." Shu Ningmiao was speechless.
“I didn’t believe it at first either.” Liang Siyan sighed: “If it weren’t for all the things that happened later… he really is very powerful—a kind of power that surpasses that of humans. You should have witnessed it. In this world, probably only the Executor can rival him.”
“Because Pine’s attitude really changed under his actions, I handed Prometheus over to him with a fluke mentality… You could say I was running away.”
She admitted frankly, "It's all my fault."
Shu Ningmiao was concerned about something else: "Based on this alone, you believe he is Pandora?"
"It's hard to explain in a short time. Let me give you the simplest example. You know how superpowered gadgets are made, right?"
“Suppress the Pandora within your body and put it into an object,” Shu Ningmiao said, then realized something: “Only people with extremely high levels of Pandora in their bodies can create superpowered items.”
Therefore, very few people are capable of creating superpowered items. Exploring the methods of creation is difficult enough, not to mention that most superpowered individuals rarely have enough Pandora's box to create such items.
"He can create superpowered items without limit."
As if afraid she wouldn't believe it, Liang Siyan continued, "Actually, when we picked him up, the medical examination machine at the underground clinic couldn't display anything because his Pandora's box was over the threshold, so I was already a little suspicious. But at the time, I had my own selfish reasons... I hoped he could become a powerful weapon for us to deal with Pinheis."
"You can verify it yourself."
Liang Siyan bit her lip: "Haven't you noticed the changes in your brother recently? He's not cured. Achini gave him his blood, and the excessive Pandora gave him a temporary effect similar to a dying bout of lucidity."
Shu Ningmiao hadn't paid any attention to Su Ni's appearance from beginning to end. Upon hearing this, she frowned and said, "Is Achini really Pandora incarnate?"
“No.” Liang Siyan seemed a little curious as to why she thought that way: “I think he was artificially created. Perhaps someone used babies for experiments, injecting them with Pandora, causing some kind of mutation…”
Although the woman said this, her tone carried a hint of uncertainty.
Leaving aside whether Pinheis, with the world's most advanced technology, has this ability, if Achini was indeed a man-made Pandora, what was the purpose of the person who created him?
"So," Shu Ningmiao said, half-believing, "seven days have passed, how come he hasn't ignited the entire Pine yet?"
“Because it’s not time yet.” Liang Siyan’s expression tightened. “He had Su Ni take Eric away. I guess he plans to use that child’s abilities for something. We don’t have much time left.”
"Why us?" Shu Ningmiao pointed to herself with a puzzled look on her face. "How could you think I could kill him?"
“He has a special kind of obsession with you, and I think this obsession stems from your special abilities. I won’t ask what you can do, and I can provide you with all the help you need.”
Liang Siyan reached out her hand to her: "My intuition tells me that if anyone could kill him, it would only be you."
“This time, I hope to use my intuition in the right place.”
Shu Ningmiao didn't move. Liang Siyan looked at her intently, then turned her head away: "Just like you said, as long as you can kill Achini, you can take revenge on me however you want."
“I confess that my initial guidance of Prometheus was an act of revenge.”
Liang Siyan placed her hand on her chest, took out the life symbol pendant, and her intact eye was filled with pain and exhaustion: "I don't want any child to leave like my child, but in the process, I caused so many innocent people to lose their lives. I should have atone for this long ago."
"Birds of a feather flock together," these two said, both fond of talking about atonement. Shu Ningmiao wasn't interested in her life, so she neither refused nor directly agreed: "Do you know where Achini is?"
“He must still be in the new land, but he has been missing for a long time, and only Su Ni knows where he is now.”
Liang Siyan breathed a sigh of relief and gestured for her to take her hand: "I still have a teleportation device. I can take you to the base in the new land first, and then have people search for his whereabouts."
She held a gold leaf in her palm: "Believe me, I didn't mean to hurt anyone."
Shu Ningmiao lowered her head and placed her fingertips in the woman's palm: "It's okay. If you lie to me, I'll kill you first, and then kill Achini."
Liang Siyan couldn't help but curve the corners of her lips into a slight smile, making her previously indistinct expression a little more vivid.
The leaf suddenly burst into flames, which quickly engulfed the two people at the center.
The brief feeling of being suspended in mid-air quickly disappeared.
Shu Ningmiao let go of the flames and stepped out. A pungent stench hit her face, like thick mud that clogged her lungs from her nasal cavity.
Where is this?
The sound of rushing water drowned out the words she squeezed out from between her fingers, so Shu Ningmiao had no choice but to raise her voice and repeat herself.
Where am I?!
Liang Siyan walked ahead of her and turned on the terminal's light: "This is the abandoned sewer in Xindi, our original base."
The woman's voice echoed in the sewer, muffled and indistinct. Shu Ningmiao's features scrunched up: "We're already in a new place... is it really necessary to specifically look for a place like this?"
“The new land isn’t safe either. Pinheis occasionally sends troops to inspect it, and there’s also a self-defense force. The residents don’t care what we’re doing, but if anyone asks, they’ll betray us without hesitation.” Liang Siyan said matter-of-factly, “The smell will go away once we get to the front.”
After passing through the dark tunnel, Liang Siyan stopped in front of the pipe covered with wire mesh, lifted the mesh covering the broken branches and leaves, and gestured for her to crawl inside.
After climbing through the pipes, we found ourselves in a room the size of a factory. It was brightly lit, and the smell had indeed become much fainter.
Liang Siyan jumped down from the pipe and landed next to her.
"The electricity here was generated by Rennagi using the water flow from the sewers," the woman said with a smile, like a teacher leading students in a science competition. "Pretty impressive, isn't it?"
Shu Ningmiao patted the dry leaves off her clothes before looking up and surveying her surroundings.
The environment inside wasn't great either; there were only a few lights, and it resembled a temporary warehouse with many boxes piled up haphazardly. Judging from the damaged packaging, they seemed to be various brands of canned fast food.
There were more people inside than Shu Ningmiao had imagined. When they heard the noise, everyone looked nervously in her direction, but Liang Siyan told them to leave.
"Does Achini know this place?"
“Of course he knows,” Liang Siyan said calmly.
Shu Ningmiao sat down, supporting herself on the box, blocking the others' probing gazes: "You were burned like this by Achini, aren't you afraid he'll come back and kill you?"
“That’s why I said he’s not normal…” Liang Siyan looked at her and slowly said, “He won’t come. He doesn’t care whether I want to kill him or not, nor does he care what we do. His world only consists of what he wants to do.”
“It was precisely because I realized this,” Liang Siyan said, clutching her burned arm, that I began to feel fear.
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The author's note: "An army without the support of the people, a patient without kin; betrayed by all and abandoned by all, it is difficult to save." ← This title is actually by Achini.
Happy Qixi Festival everyone! I posted a picture of the brother and sister's meal on Weibo.
Next up is my turn, for this stack of vinegar-wrapped dumplings.
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