Chapter 122 A Promise Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold (Final) But shouldn't the so-called gods...?
"Miss, you're joking! This isn't funny!"
Tian Yinuo's anxious explanation froze when she saw Du Yu's expressionless face. She reached out helplessly, then withdrew her hand in a flustered manner, holding it behind her back as if trying to grasp something, but grasping nothing at all.
She looked up helplessly, her face blank.
How oblivious must someone be to not notice that a friend they've spent over a decade with has changed completely?
Despite the City of the Sun's vigorous promotion of assisted reproduction and crackdown on natural reproduction, the rumor that "natural reproduction is more likely to produce advanced superhumans" has always been popular.
Tian Yinuo's parents had such hopes when they had her, but when she awakened her superpower at the age of 7, not only was her special ability useless, but her superpower level was only C.
【A promise worth a thousand pieces of gold】 is a characteristic of the Word Spirit category under the 【Mind】 element. However, while other Word Spirit abilities are often used to help others, Tian Yinuo's ability can only be used on herself.
The more steadfast your attitude and unwavering your commitment to keeping your promises when making them to others, the more you can gradually enhance your mental strength in the process.
This is an even rarer growth-type trait than the Word Spirit type. In theory, this ability isn't particularly bad. However, the key point is that Tian Yinuo's ability upgrade direction only improves mental strength, while the useless ability trait doesn't improve at all.
After Tian Yinuo's superpowers awakened, her parents were greatly disappointed. They abandoned her to their creditors and fled into the lower city. It is said that she eventually entered the gray fog, but no one knows the specific details anymore.
In the City of the Sun, ordinary superhumans usually have three options. One is that if their own special abilities are very practical or powerful, they may be recruited into the company's security team, where the pay is very high. The next best option is to join the police department, which at least provides them with food.
The second type is those whose superpowers are useless, or who have too many alternatives. They often choose to join a Mist Hunter squad and gamble for wealth in the face of life and death.
As for the third type... no matter how useless the special ability is, as long as you are a superhuman, with mental power and brain domain, your spirit body is different from ordinary people. In some special laboratories, it is also a consumable with a high price.
Of course, you can also give up the conveniences of being a superhuman and live like an ordinary person—as long as you pay your superhuman tax on time every month, you can live however you want.
But Tian Yinuo had no choice at the time. Just as her parents' creditors were researching which laboratory had recently had a lot of mice dying and wanted to "buy" more, her original mother, who came to inspect the laboratory, became very interested in her special ability and bought her directly.
"Pretty sister, what can I do for you...?"
The creditor was so startled by the child's words that she nearly choked. The most esteemed woman in the entire City of the Sun Chaser didn't take offense at her rudeness. She bowed slightly and smiled gently at the child, who was trying to suppress her unease.
"You can call me Mrs. Lin. What's your name?"
"Well... that's my name."
Her parents wanted to gamble on their child's future wealth, but they underestimated the impact of the City of the Sun on natural reproduction. Not only did she lose her job, but she also incurred hefty fines and, even more despairingly, breach of contract penalties.
At this point, the two, who had finally managed to establish themselves in the central district, had no choice but to move to the lower district to escape their debts. Naturally, they wouldn't give this kid who had "ruined everything" a friendly look.
"Hey, idiot," these are the terms they use when they're in a good mood. When they're in a bad mood, they don't even need to use terms of address; they'll just start punching and kicking to vent their anger.
Seeing the little girl cowering in front of her, Lin Wenyu sighed. This lady from the upper district seemed to be quite familiar with things in the lower district. She gently wiped the dirt off Tian Yinuo's face. "In that case, I'll call you Yinuo. It suits your personality well."
“I have a daughter who is about your age. Would you like to be friends with her? Making her happy would be the biggest help you could give me.”
After the creditor left with the money, Tian Yinuo nervously took Lin Wenyu's hand. Neither of them could have imagined that what was once just a casual remark, a small request that wasn't really a promise, would play such a role more than a decade later.
"I...I don't know how to say it. I've always been clumsy, I can't help with anything...Have you seen her? Is she happy?"
[A promise is worth a thousand pieces of gold] Everyone underestimated this quality, including herself.
Along with Tian Yinuo's growing resolve and actions in keeping her promises, her ability to uphold them also grew. This power may not be directly equivalent to combat strength, but after more than a decade of nurturing, it yielded a miracle that astonished everyone—the ability to accommodate completely incompatible seeds and successfully protect them despite omnipresent surveillance…
A promise is a promise; once made, it's worth a fortune. Whatever the reason, one must keep one's word.
Seeing Tian Yinuo trying hard to restrain herself, but tears still rolling down her cheeks, she sighed. Selfishness for the benefit of others—only a fool would realize such a trait. At that moment, she suddenly subtly understood the original owner's meaning.
Cleverness backfired on her; she suffered greatly at the hands of fate and grew tired of being manipulated by clever people. So she decided to abandon weighing the pros and cons and hand over the fate of the world to a fool.
Failure is to be expected, but if you succeed by sheer luck, that would be the best mockery of the world.
"She left me a message, which didn't mention her feelings, but I think she was at least relaxed."
"easy?"
"Yes. Freedom is not the same as happiness. In fact, most suffering begins with it. But, the moment you have freedom and discard all constraints, you should at least feel relaxed."
"……That's good."
Tian Yinuo tried to wipe away the tears on her face, lowered her head, and suddenly covered her forehead with one hand, her eyebrows furrowing. "I think, I think I remembered something. Miss asked me to keep something safe before."
"Um."
Du Yu nodded, watching her furrow her brows in thought, without urging her.
Tian Yinuo became extremely anxious, her eyes still red, and she suddenly squatted down and hugged her head: "But, I can't remember where I put it, please remember..."
"No need to rush."
Du Yu squatted down next to her, patted Tian Yinuo's shoulder, and gently advised, "She trusts you, that's why she gave you the things. You can do it."
Tian Yinuo gasped for breath, then looked up blankly. Amidst the excruciating pain that nearly split her brain in two, she saw a pair of gentle eyes.
The shape, color, and gaze were all wrong, yet she saw the shadow of another familiar pair of eyes.
An inexplicable impulse surged into her mind, and Tian Yinuo subconsciously reached out to touch those eyes, but just as she was about to touch them, she pulled her hand back. She felt a furry touch in her palm and was startled. Something struggled out of her hand.
Covered in downy fur and interwoven with dark scales forming mysterious patterns, a moth, as if emerging from a cocoon, spread its wings in the air, gently brushed against her palm, and flew towards Du Yu.
Sensing a familiar yet strange presence, Du Yu reached out her hand. The moth affectionately nuzzled her fingers, its downy hairs seeping into her skin and flesh, the entire moth becoming part of her very being, leaving a moth mark on the back of her hand.
A feeling of abundance, like rain after a long drought, welled up in her heart. System notifications kept ringing in her ears. Du Yu's senses suddenly shifted. The young god, who was sleeping in the temple and coffin in the divine kingdom, still had her eyes closed. But she could sense that the moths that had been fluttering around her eye sockets day and night, trying to escape, had suddenly quieted down.
The moth mark on the back of my hand was fading slowly, and I had a strange premonition that when the mark disappeared completely, it would be the moment when the seed broke through its seed coat and started to grow again.
It was at this moment that Du Yu fully understood the meaning of this seed.
Element seeds can be physical entities, like the snail sealed in amber, or they can be abstract concepts that can only be obtained by meeting certain requirements or performing special rituals.
The threshold set by the original owner was not simple, but it wasn't difficult either.
【Destiny】is an extremely abstract concept. 【Lord of the Pure Sea】interprets it using the tendencies of 【Domain】, thus 【Destiny】is constrained by the domain and cannot be free.
This is the fate that the original owner wanted to rebel against.
Rebelling against the plot, rebelling against the predetermined fate, rebelling against a future where all emotions follow a fixed program.
Thus, the original owner of this body had this unusual seed of "destiny." For her, the meaning of destiny lay in never giving up in the face of adversity.
If, within the spacetime rift, Du Yu submits to the unspoken rule of the City of the Sun, where the strong prey on the weak, and dissects Tian Yinuo's body to search for that seed, that will be the moment she is furthest from that seed.
"This is……"
Tian Yinuo was staring blankly with her head down. Du Yu followed her gaze and found the gift the moth had left for her. After obtaining that seed, the original owner's memories became much clearer. After recalling for a moment, Du Yu said with certainty, "This is the gift she left for you."
"Gift?"
"Yes, she said that since you've cried for her so many times, she's giving you a seed—it should be a seed of the Comet Orchid."
Du Yu watched as Tian Yinuo nodded blankly, then solemnly clutched the seed to his chest. Just as he was about to say a few words of comfort, she suddenly looked up and asked, "Will I ever see her again?"
The faintest hope is the cruelest torture, but looking into those red, tear-filled eyes, Du Yu remained silent for a moment before nodding.
On the panel that only she can see:
[Current progress of spirit fragment repair: (1/∞)]
The elemental seed is born from a special quality, and naturally carries fragments of the owner's spirit—this is also the only trace left by the original body.
However, it takes a hundred years for a seed to grow into a towering tree that blocks out the sun.
How long will it take for a broken, unwilling obsession to give birth to a free soul?
Since its creation, the 【Dream Petri Dish】 has not been able to successfully repair a single spirit.
But Du Yu, seeing Tian Yinuo's eyes brighten again as she held flower seeds and searched for a flowerpot, did not regret the arrogant promise she had just made.
Repairing a spirit is indeed very difficult, so difficult it's like talking in your sleep.
But shouldn't gods be omnipotent?
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