Chapter 167 The Fifth Day After God's Departure (4) Their hands touched at the same time...
In a new fog, Xie Tan saw the girl's family.
The Jiang family's economic situation was good, not top-tier, but they were well-known and respected in Diqiu, a scholarly family, occupying a middle-of-the-road position.
But her family was clearly not satisfied with this, harboring dangerous ambitions and starting to think about evil and crooked ways.
Unfortunately, they glanced at the girl; she had no talent whatsoever and was completely out of touch with that world, so they couldn't offer her a helping hand.
The atmosphere created by elders can influence a child's behavior. The girl, like her family, was awkward. Her brother and sister didn't understand anything, but that didn't stop them from bullying her and showing off their parents' love for them.
Was that love? Perhaps. If her siblings were placed alongside her, her parents would definitely choose the former.
But she also knew that if she had to choose between the power of her family and her siblings, her parents would definitely choose the former.
Animals that are not fully evolved do not need love; they only need to maintain their mating function to create another offspring.
The girl was quiet and seemed not to feel anything. She simply went back to her grandmother's bedroom and chatted with the only person in the family who truly cared about her.
She talked about the handsome young monster she met on the mountain that day.
She said that she went down the mountain smoothly today, even more smoothly than when there was no fog, and she didn't encounter a single ghost or monster, as if something was guiding her to leave.
She whispered, "Maybe that mirror is alive."
Grandma stroked her head and listened gently.
She talked a lot more; she's been reading a lot of books lately.
Finally, she said goodbye to her grandmother and told her to get some rest.
As soon as she stepped out of the room, the smile on her face faded considerably.
She also knew one thing.
Her older brother and younger sister were both "more talented" than her.
Then Xie Tan saw another fog, earlier than when he met the girl. She had indeed gotten lost on her first trip up the mountain. Her family hadn't found her, or perhaps they hadn't even come looking for her.
As she had said, with no other choice, she climbed to the top of the mountain. Even as a "Muggle," she encountered ghosts twice and collapsed from exhaustion after running so much.
Fortunately, the spider wasn't there that time; it had gone down the mountain to forage for food.
Then she saw the mirror.
She understood that all the strange things in the mountains were reflections of the mirror, and this was the legendary treasure.
The fog changed again, and the girl changed her clothes once more. This time, she was with two children, one older than her and one younger.
With a calm gaze, she pointed to the weathered stone and timidly told them where the treasure was.
My brother was eaten by a spider.
She dragged her sister away and found their parents. As she expected, they were furious upon hearing about her brother's accident, but were immediately drawn away by the presence of the treasure.
She knew that her parents could use this to make deals with that family.
The family carrying lanterns bearing the mark of the black goat came to her door, and her family members stood respectfully to the side, winking at her and implying that she must not let them down.
The mustachioed man, respectfully addressed as "Head of the Family," knelt down and asked kindly, "Good child, don't be sad. Can you tell me what happened? I will give your dead brother justice."
The mist merged together, forming a vast expanse that encompassed all directions of Xietan's view before returning to the summit of Siji Mountain.
It's as if he's looking at the outside world through a mirror.
He watched as a group of people walked up the winding path to the top of the mountain.
Young Su Huang, holding the girl's hand, stood at the very front.
He heard the black goats behind him whispering as they investigated the mountain, tracing back to the earliest appearance of the mirror from the hunters in the mountains.
Xie Tan calculated that it had been exactly 52 years since then.
This time span, after a brief moment of stunned silence, made him think, "I knew it."
At this moment, Su Huang attacked the spider, his brow furrowing briefly.
It was stronger than he had anticipated. Could it be... the influence of the mirror? Had he received a boost in power?
A glint flashed in his eyes as he effortlessly eliminated the spider monster in front of outsiders.
Su Huang and Xie Tan in the mirror looked at each other.
Xie Tan paused, then quickly realized it was just an illusion. Su Huang's gaze seemed to be there, yet not there, as if he had noticed him but couldn't quite make out what he was seeing.
Sure enough, Su Huang lowered his head and asked casually, "Child, did you sense anything from this mirror?"
The girl's unease was perfectly timed: "No... Is there anything in the mirror? Uncle Su, my brother..."
Of course, she couldn't feel anything, and even if she could, she couldn't say it.
The truly talented one is someone else.
"Poor child, your brother was eaten by that spider. I've avenged him, he can rest in peace now." Su Huang gently stroked her head again and asked, "How did you get down the mountain last time?"
The girl froze.
She's still too young; no matter how clever she is, there will be flaws.
She realized her mistake; she couldn't lie, she should selectively tell the truth.
"I...I don't know either. I just ran down the mountain like crazy and found my mom and dad very, very quickly. I didn't see any more scary monsters, and I didn't get lost again," she said, still confused.
Su Huang's eyes flashed; this mirror might actually be alive.
An unconscious treasure and an incarnation of a god are completely different things.
He suppressed his greed even more deeply, becoming much more respectful, and stepped into the shadow cast by the mirror, within arm's reach.
His hand reached out restrainedly towards the mirror: "May I ask... what instructions do you have, sir in the mirror?"
Xie Tan watched Su Huang quietly from behind a mirror that was invisible and inaudible.
Since he couldn't hear it anyway, Xie Tan blurted out, "I want you dead."
His hands also reached outwards.
Their hands touched the mirror at the same time.
Su Huang suddenly widened his eyes, and Xie Tan was also startled, but before they met Su Huang's gaze, the black mist swallowed him up, and the scene instantly dissipated.
Xie Tan fell back into the dark space, but felt as if the entire mountain was shaking.
He smelled a familiar, terrifying odor, but it was stronger than he could remember—the embodiment of the apocalypse.
His pheromones intertwined and merged with the omnipresent fog, thus, with the help of the fog, they seemed to fill the entire boundless space.
This can no longer be described as pheromone out of control, but he did not feel any strong abnormality, not even fever, only a slight burning sensation on the back of his neck.
The black mist held him tightly. Xie Tan came to his senses and fell into the embrace woven by the black mist. The heat seemed to turn into a lazy tenderness, and he no longer felt uncomfortable.
But the black fog was very worried, as if it was annoyed that it had played a not-so-good program for him, afraid that he would be unhappy. So the scene in the fog kept changing, like a hand switching the channel back and forth, finding this one unsatisfactory and that one unsatisfactory.
Xie Tan perked up when Xiao Liu appeared, and the black mist, sensing his "preference," stopped.
Xie Tan saw countless world lines, each with Xiao Liu facing various tragedies, displaying the same bewildered and sad expression. These lines converged at the point where she became the eye of observation, and continued to spread outwards, yet they still failed to resolve her confusion.
She saw more, felt more confused, and became more heartbroken.
Xie Tan heard her heartfelt words, heard the same heartfelt words from countless world lines, as if he had returned to the Guanyin statue, where the little girl was praying.
She hoped that every turning point in her destiny would lead her to the best possible path, and that everything would have a good ending, like a rebirth.
She hopes...
Xie Tan's phone fell out and was caught by the black mist.
He took it and found that the comic had been updated.
Hmm? Did Number 7 fall asleep again?
It's also possible that this is inside the smoke mirror, and the power of the system cat comes from the comic book world, so it's not easy for it to appear here.
Since we can't get out, let's find out what's going on outside.
In the comic, on February 21st, the black goats indeed returned to their sheepfold, Four Seasons Mountain, from all directions.
After the last member of the Black Goat tribe stepped in, the dark, impenetrable clouds finally opened, and with an eerie whistle, the rain began to fall.
The fire was lit.
A boy walks through a wildfire.
The ever-changing scenes from his perspective are even clearer in the comics, along with those that he couldn't fully notice due to his limited energy.
Xie Tan indifferently brushed past all the stories of the past and future, including the wailing and tragic deaths of the black goats, without even receiving a glance from him.
But now, at this very moment, only raging flames remain, and even the fire cannot hold him back.
He walked like that for a very, very long time.
As he passed a seemingly ordinary fire, a close-up shot was given of his legs. His steady strides paused for a moment, then continued forward without any apparent abnormality.
Even after his legs stepped out of the camera's view, the fire continued to burn. In the next frame, a patch of pure white reflection suddenly appeared, its surface illuminated by the staggered flames, revealing layers of snake-scale-like patterns.
His cloudy, yellowish-brown eyes opened, his pupils frantically searching the direction Xie Tan had gone.
In those eyes was the excitement of having fooled the enemy, and a malicious anticipation.
The boy, oblivious to everything, continued walking.
Until he seemed to sense something, he stopped his meaningless wandering, as if withdrawing his consciousness from the cosmic scale.
He took out the last remaining strand of hair and gave it to the wind and fire.
He watched quietly for a while until the incantation wrapped in the flying fire disappeared into the distance, and he continued on his journey.
He turned his gaze away and stared at the damp, cold scene burning in the mist before him, a stark contrast to the raging fire.
He realized something during his conversation with the girl, so he walked into the fog, came to her side, and looked towards the mountaintop as well.
The girl secretly observed his gaze, and he... seemed to have really seen something.
"Let's go."
They walked towards the top of the mountain.
[Just kidding, he's really back for Chinese New Year (just kidding)]
The Black Goat's family has many altars, used for sacrifices in the past; now they can be used again.
[It's not that slow; the whole mountain is a furnace, you'll be instantly killed the moment you show your face.]
[I treated everyone to roast whole lamb when I got back. That's so generous of me.]
【Ah ...
[My God, this fire is terrifying, just like what my mother experienced.]
[You, the Pool God, are indeed unharmed; you must have come to digest your food after a meal.]
[Ah Tan's perspective is spectacular!]
Is Ah Tan supervising the construction? He's enjoying listening to the black goat's pitiful screams.
[Actually, I'm too lazy to bother with it, hahaha]
Waiting for the main course to cook, I want to eat takoyaki!
【！！！】
[Holy crap! What the hell was that?!]
[Isn't that the head of the family? What's he doing here?!]
Has it melted already?
[Wait a minute, shouldn't they lock Squidward up? Releasing him like that? Won't something go wrong?]
【No way! Did A-Tan not notice? Why isn't she reacting at all?】
[This indicates that nothing went wrong; Atan didn't react at all.]
I'm saying, you, Tan Shen, won't mess things up, will you...?
[Impossible! Ah Tan paused for a moment; he should have noticed!]
[Did Ah-Tan use the last talisman in Mommy's hair? Where did he use it?]
[That scared me to death! That's the kind of thing you'd use on Squidward, right? Ah-Tan was just afraid of alerting the enemy.]
[Startling the enemy...hiss, Squidward really does seem to have snake scales. Second Sun, Feathered Serpent?]
[I've wanted to say this for a while now, his smooth tentacles look more like snakes than octopuses!]
[That can't be right, he's the one the ritual is supposed to train, he should have been locked up in the mountains long ago, the first sun, the smoke mirror position!]
[Hmm? Why did Ah Tan walk into this fog alone? Is there something special about it?]
[Ah Tan is looking at the mountaintop. What's on the mountaintop?]
[Is Lulu there? Didn't Lulu meet Mommy at the mountaintop last time?]
I have a bad feeling about this...
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