Chapter 098: Blue Moonlight (Twenty-Seven)
It was already night when Chen Yunli arrived at the South China Sea. The bright moon was hanging high in the sky, slowly rising and falling with the sound of the tide, just as hazy and dreamy as he remembered.
Several fishing boats of various sizes were moored near the shore, with lights hanging on the decks. The faint yellow light drifted in the wind, reflecting on the dark blue waves, which rolled and turned, showing a lively and interesting feeling rarely seen in other places.
Chen Yunli recalled the distant sea where Luo Qifang had taken him. His body turned into light and walked on the waves. Soon he flew five or six hundred miles away. There were only vast waves in front and behind him. The sky was so close that he could touch it. He vaguely felt a sense of oppression.
At this moment, he heard the sound of water coming from under his feet, echoing between the sky and the sea, ethereal and long, and suddenly far and near.
Suddenly a wind blew, dispersing the thin clouds that obscured the moonlight. The moonlight suddenly became brighter, dazzling Chen Yunli's eyes.
He closed his eyes, and the next moment, a huge wave of sound leaped up from his body, resounding throughout the universe, as if the entire world was left with only this one sound.
Then a shadow jumped out from behind him, stretching out his arms with a moist breeze and a slight coolness. One arm wrapped around Chen Yunli's waist, and the other arm went over his chest, pressing him firmly against his chest.
"Um?--"
Chen Yunli let out a low cry of surprise, with a hint of surprise but not much calmness, as if he had expected it, and allowed the owner of the arm to hug him.
Soon, a furry head rubbed against his shoulder, and its tall nose and eyelashes first brushed against the side of his neck, rubbing it like a small animal.
The long black hair was blown onto Chen Yunli's body by the sea breeze, scattered, and the ends of the hair curled up like seaweed, soft and moist, and a few strands even got into Chen Yunli's fingertips.
He smoothed his hand over it, raised his palm to rub the head on his shoulder, and said with a smile: "Have you broken the seal?"
“Crash!——”
Before he finished speaking, he heard a continuous and subtle sound of water. Chen Yunli looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the sea area with a radius of dozens of meters with himself as the center was stirring up circles of fine ripples. Through the sea water, he could vaguely see black scales reflecting the moonlight - it was a dragon's tail that had shrunk countless times, but was still of astonishing length.
The tip of the tail pops out of the sea and then falls back lightly, honestly reflecting the owner's joyful mood.
"You still remember me, don't you?" Chen Wenjian had rubbed enough and reluctantly looked up. His blue eyes stared straight into Chen Yunli's, deep and clear, like the sea under the moonlight. "So when we met again last time, you threatened me with your own life and wouldn't let me keep you?"
...as sharp as ever.
Chen Yunli laughed, holding his face and asked him: "I have a few questions. Now that you have answered them, there is no need to ask this further."
Chen Wenjian raised his upper body slightly, and the long tail below his waist and abdomen shrank by half again, and finally only about two meters long. It wrapped around Chen Yunli's calves and placed the tip of the tail on his lower back, turning a simple hug into a slightly charming confinement.
He seemed to gain some sense of security from this action, and he leaned back against Chen Yunli's shoulder, saying lazily, "Okay, ask ahead."
"In my memory, this is my past—at least, before the time we met. But since I have memories of the 'future', this means that this place isn't the real past either, but just another fantasy."
As Chen Yunli spoke, he curiously touched the dragon's tail that was wrapped around his waist. The scales were delicate and smooth, the tendons underneath were strong, and the tip of the tail was covered with dark blue hair that did not get wet when touched by water. It felt like brocade.
What a novel touch, let me touch it again.
Chen Wenjian glanced at his hand, silently suppressed the urge to explode, and murmured "hmm".
Chen Yunli rubbed the dragon's tail intermittently, and didn't react much after his guess was confirmed.
In fact, he had guessed this would be the conclusion since the night he met Chen Wenjian again. No matter how special Chen Wenjian's identity in the system was, under the control of the rules, it was unlikely that his memory would override the normal timeline. Since he remembered himself, it meant that the node of the second stage mission was not the real past.
After understanding this, Chen Yunli became more confident in the answer to the next question.
"In reality, I should have died. My identity is Luo Qifang's deceased lover. He wants to resurrect me. This place and the previous illusion are part of his resurrection method."
Chen Yunli moved his hand from the dragon's tail to Chen Wenjian's face, and pinched his earlobe with his fingertips without using any force.
"Luo Qifang is very thoughtful. There are areas in both of these illusions where he needs to guide me. It's impossible for him to delegate such an important step, especially the last illusion. If anything goes wrong while you and I are searching for Chen Yunli's identity, I won't be able to enter the second stage of resurrection. So..."
Chen Yunli lowered her eyes and met his gaze. "Why did I meet Chen Wenjian there instead of Luo Qifang?"
"That was an accident." Chen Wenjian rubbed his hand with his chin, the corners of his lips raised, and a bit of evil and violent spirit leaked out of his smile, which made Chen Yunli think of the siren who sang late at night to lure people into the abyss.
He said, "I'm sealed, you know that, right?"
Chen Yunli nodded: "Luo Qifang told me that you are a demon that has existed since the beginning of the world, but you have been suppressed and sealed by the Heavenly Dao, sleeping in the Black Sea."
"Yes, but it's not that I can't break the seal and regain my freedom, but I don't want to. Because this world, this world, and the so-called prosperous human race today are too boring to me. They are not as interesting as the few dreams I occasionally have during my long sleep."
"How many... dreams?" Chen Yunli's mind shifted slightly, and he pressed on, "What kind of dreams?"
"It's just fleeting glimpses, I can't remember most of it." Chen Wenjian shook his head, his chuckle a little hoarse. "I seem to... always be running into someone, chasing them, or being chased by them. Together we've seen the cracked earth, the lava gushing from the ground, and from above we've gazed upon the ruins of the human world... Oh, these fragments flickered in my dreams in a chaotic and disorganized manner. So at first, when a wisp of my consciousness strayed into that illusory world with you, I thought it was just a new dream."
The cracked earth and the lava gushing out from the ground...
From a high place, I see the world reduced to ruins...
Chen Yunli suddenly felt that these two descriptions had a strong sense of déjà vu, as if they were scenes that took place in the first two mission worlds.
Is it a coincidence? Or does he have some memories of that time?
Chen Yunli didn't think much about it and continued to listen to him.
"To my surprise, my consciousness lost the memories and power of my original body in that illusion. It was as if I had truly become an ordinary person, living an ordinary life, waiting for an encounter—with you. After escaping the illusion, I realized that the identity I had taken on was actually prepared by the illusion's owner for himself. He loved Chen Yunli, so I was obsessed with chasing that faceless person in history. He needed Chen Yunli to know his own identity, so I selflessly helped you gather information, organize clues, and piece together the full picture of their story."
"That's right..." Chen Yunli looked at him, hesitant to speak, "Then your attitude towards me... is also due to his influence?"
"Oh, no." Chen Wenjian looked up at him. His original form was obviously larger than the entire South China Sea, but now he looked like the weaker party. "Before you appeared, I liked Chen Yunli's mood as the master of the illusion. After you appeared, I liked that colorful little butterfly in human form, Jian Ling."
"But the flashy little butterfly Jian Ling is Chen Yunli..."
"So I like Chen Yunli." Chen Wenjian said without hesitation.
The confession came unexpectedly. Even though Chen Yunli already had experience in the previous two worlds, he couldn't help but feel a little hot in his ears under his affectionate gaze.
"Yeah." He rubbed his ears and smiled at Chen Wenjian again, "I like you, too."
"I know, I can feel it." Chen Wenjian put his ear close to Chen Yunli's mouth, "Your heart is trembling for me."
Chen Yunli put his arm around his shoulders. "However, the person I'm supposed to love is Luo Qifang. And if I want to end this illusion, I must die before Luo Qifang, making him regret and repent, and making him want to resurrect me. Only then can his resurrection method be completed and allow me to return to the present world."
"Just as it's recorded in the ancient books." Chen Wenjian lowered his dense eyelashes, his tone heavy and a little bitter: "Sharing the same heart but living apart, sorrow will last the rest of your life. Is that right?"
"Yes." Chen Yunli fiddled with his eyelashes and teased him, "No matter what the truth is, the history books all record that we were in love all our lives, and he also believed so."
"Oh." Chen Wenjian buried his face in his arms, "So what? The world has changed, and new stories will replace the old legends. Anyway, you are mine."
Some people say they don't care, but jealousy has already permeated them.
Chen Yunli patted his dragon tail, which was getting tighter and tighter: "I know you don't mind it anymore, loosen up a bit, are you going to strangle me to death?"
Chen Wenjian reluctantly loosened his grip a little and said casually, "As for the records of later generations, the period after you separated is almost completely blank. In that case, you should not get involved with him. We still have twenty years. I will accompany you to travel the world, okay?"
Are they trying to make the lack of historical records prove that these experiences didn't exist?
Chen Yunli found it funny, but when he thought about it, the system didn't force him to act out a love-filled push-and-pull drama with Luo Qifang. The history book in the first illusion even deliberately left so much blank space, as if encouraging him to take Chen Wenjian to exploit this loophole.
The opportunity was right in front of him, and there was no need for him to push it away. Being with Chen Wenjian was more comfortable than hanging around Luo Qifang and hurting each other's feelings.
"Okay, I'll listen to you." Chen Yunli said with a smile, "I'll travel for the first ten years, and live in seclusion for the next ten years. Wait until I die..."
Chen Wenjian immediately answered: "I'll wait for you to wake up in the outside world."
Chen Yunli nodded, and before he could say anything else, Chen Wenjian suddenly reached out and wiped across his storage magic tool, throwing all the things Luo Qifang gave him, including the bow he had used for a long time, onto the shore - he didn't even want them to fall into the South China Sea, he was disgusted with them.
"I can give you better of these things. They have the scent left by that human, and I don't like it." Chen Wenjian said seriously.
Chen Yunli was helpless: "The clothes I'm wearing were also bought by him... Uh... Why are you looking at me like that?"
Before he finished speaking, Chen Wenjian's eyes became subtle and strange, and a smile appeared on his eyebrows, gentle and ambiguous.
Chen Yunli hissed, "Don't let your imagination run wild. I didn't mean that!"
"But I do." Chen Wenjian interrupted him, retracted his tail and pressed it against him, his lips brushing the corner of his eye, "Do you want to... hug me?"
"I'm not...shit."
Two figures embraced each other and fell into the waves, shattering the moonlight.
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