Chapter 114 Yin Peach Blossom (44) [Don't set such a flag...]
Xie Tan was used to being indifferent, just like he had been for over a decade. But he didn't think much of it. People often find it hard to see themselves clearly. They often use the reactions of others to depict their own image and believe that is who they are. It's like looking in a funhouse mirror. You can't see yourself, but you can see your distorted reflection.
The feedback he received from the outside world was always intense, so for a long time he believed that his existence must be grotesque, an eyesore that would irritate everyone's nerves just by standing there. In other words, he had a very high profile.
It wasn't until he arrived in another world and could see himself in a comic book, in a smoother mirror, that he realized he truly was "blank."
His face is striking and beautiful enough, but his overall demeanor makes up for it, as if it can dissolve all splendor, thinning into the dampness after rain or the smoke after snow.
It turns out that he always looked at the world and at what was in front of him with such indifferent eyes, which is why the emotion he felt when he looked at Lu Jinzhao and the gentleness he showed when he looked at Xiao Liu were so clear and obvious.
It was practically announcing to everyone that these two people were special.
In the comic, the boy who traveled to the past almost never looked at the Black Goat, anyone except Xiao Liu, or this world. When he made the final decision that this place was not good enough for her, the word "almost" was removed.
This trajectory of fate is now of no use to him.
So they went to the afterglow of the sun and finally told the story of the fake tortoise.
When Xiao Liu hesitated and said he thought of someone, the boy didn't even look up and casually asked, "Who?" When Xiao Liu talked about his close yet distant older brother, his reaction remained indifferent... as if he already knew who it was.
He didn't care; as depicted earlier in the comic, this timeline was no longer of any use to him.
【Ohhhhhh, the cult leader! It's the cult leader!】
[My goodness, the cult leader is also a member of the Black Goat clan, and he's even Mommy's brother!]
[With consecutive serial numbers, is that observation five?]
[That's very possible. The Aztec solar calendar had 18 months, each with a name and corresponding rites. May was the month of the Smoke Mirror, and the patriarch was the most suitable "incarnation of the god" to be associated with the Smoke Mirror.]
I understand the cult leader's gloating in the Sleeping Chapter, and I also believe Xiao Ai's inner thoughts. If it were convenient, the cult leader would definitely want to blow up the mountain himself.
[But the brother and sister didn't seem to know each other very well; they only met on their escape route, which cracked me up.]
[I find this a bit heartbreaking. The brother and sister should have been the closest of people, but they both became sacrifices. Only when they were about to die were they driven together by the desire to live.]
No wonder Ah Tan said, "What follows is the story of the fake turtle." What he saw after leaving the house were the memories of other timeline cult leaders.
[Ah Tan knew he would fall for it all along. Seeing his repeated futile attempts to save others only adds to the pain.]
[But thankfully they met. From the brother's perspective, the girl is so smart and calm, and her smile is so cute. Why not win her over? It doesn't matter if it's sooner or later. I support this brother and sister duo in conquering the Black Goat!]
[Haha, this riddle about a fake turtle—I can vouch for it; the black goat really teaches these disgusting things.]
[One is the most compatible, the other the least compatible... Considering that their mother is dead in the future and the cult leader is in a state of madness, I feel that the fate of the two siblings will take a delicate turn in the future.]
[Could it be that the brother also turned to the dark side because of his sister's death? Is he forming a cult to avenge her?]
In the comic, when they arrived at the fortune teller's mansion, there was a close-up of the old witch's death, a huge overhead view, which Xie Tan felt was like the perspective of a hole blocked in the roof.
On the Sun Calendar Stone, the sun god Tonatiu is at the center, surrounded by four fallen suns. On the small Sun Calendar Stone here, the Tiger Sun is stained red with blood, making it unusually conspicuous.
Bone fragments were scattered around her body. Several of them were outlined with sun symbols by blood. Unlike the animal bone fragments of the witch, the divination tools made of human bones had hidden engravings. When they were stained with blood, new symbols appeared on the sun symbols, which were the 20 sun symbols on the solar calendar stone.
In this top-down view, the scattered bone fragments resemble a small solar calendar slab surrounding the center, like stars surrounding the moon.
Unfortunately, this is the sun, its intense light almost destructive, not allowing other stars to share the same sky.
The boy only glanced coldly at the wizard's corpse before his attention was drawn to Xiao Liu's distress. He seemed to finally take the "fake turtle" seriously, and then said gently, almost with pity, "...Don't cross this boundary, or it will become the sharpest blade that hurts you the most."
It was like a prophecy.
Does Ah Tan know something?
[Definitely. Putting aside Ah Tan's terrifying mind, Ah Tan is originally from the future.]
An ominous premonition has returned.
[But I felt the brother and sister were very in sync when they were on the run, so they must have a good relationship?]
[Holy crap, look what happens next! I just praised Ah Tan for his flawless strategy, and then this unexpected thing happens... No way...]
If the divination tools actually correspond one-to-one with the auspicious symbols, there should be 20, but I counted, and there are 19 in this picture.
Could one have been taken?
[That's very possible. The cult leader probably learned his skills from his mother-in-law. Cutting out her mouth was likely to prevent her from saying anything.]
[Then the mother-in-law left clues using divination tools?]
There was another small footprint, indicating that there was another minor involved, perhaps one of the people chasing the cult leader? Or maybe that person took him away.
One is missing? Thanks to the forum, he really hadn't noticed.
If that's the case, these bone fragments... were probably not knocked over on the ground, but rather contained important information.
Xie Tan noted this down and continued reading. The comic then shifted to the Black Goat Operation's members, including Su He, who had been on missions outside.
The perceptive boy sensed something was wrong with his family and used a mirror to report the sudden apocalypse to them, trying to gauge their current situation. However, he was immediately given a new mission: to capture the escaped sacrifice.
The one who left with the witch doctor... the one who awakened the gods and the end of the world.
His heart skipped a beat. He had originally intended to pretend that he hadn't completed his mission and couldn't make it back in time, but he was told that the head of the family had something to tell him.
One theory is that the boy made a move on the sacrificial offering he was responsible for guarding, and the head of the family knew that he had received a divination opportunity from the witch doctor, which allowed him to predict the right or wrong of a matter. If the boy did not believe it, he could verify it himself.
Secondly, ask him...
“A family that considers itself a ‘sheep’ raising a wolf sounds like digging its own grave, but if they both associate with darkness, how can a wolf and a sheep be considered natural enemies? I believe you.”
Su He knew that the family appreciated his talent and ability, but they were also dissatisfied with his arrogance... No, it wasn't because of his arrogance, but because he didn't have a strong sense of belonging to the Black Goat, and his abilities might not be fully usable by the family.
So they wanted to break his pride, so they sent him to monitor the sacrifices. This was a warning from those old fogies, to show him what happens to those whom the Black Goat abandons.
Surprisingly, it seemed that among that group of abandoned people, he found a connection that reminded him of his family.
He was a guy who didn't fit in with the Black Goat... so he was more vibrant than anything in the family.
Su He took out a dictionary from her bosom, opened it, and found a red wishing ribbon tucked inside the pages. It was the kind usually tied to ancient trees, in the hope that her wishes would reach the heavens.
During one of the escorts, Xiao Liu mentioned that she had told the Smoke Mirror her wish. Su He was annoyed by her the whole way and mocked her, saying that she should just buy a red ribbon and tie it to a tree, which might be more effective than the broken mirror.
He had never seen the Smoke Mirror, nor was he interested in it, so he had never sneaked in. But he was smart enough to guess from the clan's movements and attitudes that "god" was just a gimmick used by the old folks to rule the dark world, so he had no reverence for it.
But this little troublemaker seemed completely oblivious to his sarcasm. Instead, her eyes lit up as she pressed him for details about what a wishing ribbon was. In the end, Su He had to explain it to her and was even begged to have one.
He regretted mocking the cheerful little fool; he should have pretended not to hear anything.
He brought her one.
But during the last escort mission, the little troublemaker deliberately caused trouble by returning the dictionary he was carrying. When he opened it during the mission, he discovered that there was this wishing ribbon inside.
His first reaction was, "She's returning this too? Why is she being so complicated?"
My second thought was, could she have actually written a wish on the wishing ribbon and asked him to hang it on a tree? Why didn't she just say so directly?
No, even if I tell him directly, he won't help.
But thinking about her nagging nature, Su He had no sense of respect for privacy at all. He opened the wishing ribbon and thought, "I might as well just grant her wish directly and save myself the trouble of tormenting her."
After all, she didn't know many words, and she had to ask him for pinyin. If any deity saw such an illiterate person on a tree branch, they would probably think she had no good intentions and ignore her.
But what was written was not a wish; it was a precise and bizarre incantation that even he couldn't understand or decipher.
At that moment, he felt a sudden, inexplicable shock.
Su He put away the mirror, her face terribly gloomy.
He used that rare divination opportunity, which he won through his talent from the wise old witch. It was a red piece of paper that looked like a marriage certificate, with only the words "yes" and "no".
As the head of the family had predicted, the entire piece of paper melted from the word "yes," turning into a handful of blood that flowed from his hand.
Those old fogies are no match for him; the patriarch's approach... that's what you call a real wake-up call.
Several images flashed through his mind; his little actions had been discovered.
He immediately rushed to the bay based on clues from his clansmen.
[Hahaha, Wolf Dad has absolutely no respect for human dignity!]
[Actually, that was my initial reaction too. Make a wish upon the smoke mirror? What an amazing thought process.]
[Later I found out everyone had no other choice QAQ]
[This headband! It's definitely a gift from Mommy!]
[Mommy deliberately sent Wolf Daddy away; a storm is brewing, she must have sensed something.]
[Wow, so in this storyline, Sixth Sister did consider running away, and Wolf Dad was even prepared to let her escape??]
[Heavens, it's reasonable to suspect that in other timelines, Sixth Sister was able to carry out her escape plan because Wolf Father deliberately turned a blind eye.]
[Let me indulge in a conspiracy theory: Could it be that the leader noticed Wolf Father was going easy on Sixth Sister, which is why he's cooperating with Sixth Sister in every storyline...?]
But the cult leader didn't harm Sixth Sister! Sixth Sister has always had Ah Tan by her side.
[Could it be that the head of the family and the mother-in-law teamed up to deceive the child?! Is it a trap?]
Next comes the story of Xiao Liu venturing alone into the sea of fire, and through the comics, Xie Tan finally sees what the girl is saying.
She meant, "I'll tell you once I've chosen a name!"
She said it with a smile.
Don't make such a prediction!
[The flag has been planted]
[Mommy, come back quick! Your kitten is going to break!!!]
In the comic, from the moment they head to the art harbor, the view is kept low, with little sky visible, which serves both to create a sense of oppression and to intentionally conceal the view.
Now, finally, a panoramic view has been provided.
The sky, almost filling the entire screen, was a deep black expanse, with a pitch-black sun hanging high, outlined by a dark golden border, like a giant eye in the sky, utterly terrifying.
Beneath the black sun, the town's flames blazed, merging with the night, blurring the lines between heaven and earth.
The boy's blurry figure stood before the flames, slender and ethereal, occupying a small portion of the image yet possessing the strongest presence.
It was as if he were the earthly incarnation chosen by the sun in the sky, emerging from the flames and taking on a form.
The figure raised its eyes, and the flames, like a beast baring its fangs, swallowed the terrified black goats.
[Ahhh, Ah Tan is so handsome!!!]
So cool!!!
[This must be using the power of the Smoke Mirror to influence the past. As expected, only the Smoke Mirror can ignore time, just like the monster's esophagus that was connected to the Smoke Mirror before!]
Wow, this scene makes me think that Ah Tan is the real Teshpudla.
The eye of observation is the authority bestowed by God; how could it not be!
【Of course! Smoke Mirror even lured our little Atan to go find Him. That thieving god is so wicked! Calling Lu Lu qaq】
In the comic, the boy is also drawn back to the girl's side, witnessing both a act of protection and a betrayal.
So he could no longer stand by and watch; this time, only the shattered sun on the horizon could mercilessly witness everything.
When he suddenly pushed Xiao Liu away, Xiao Liu tried to grab him, but just like he had failed to grab her time and time again, she also lost her grip.
She opened her eyes wide, and the sky and the sea surged within them.
The boy, who was suddenly thrown into the air and over the sea, only paused for a moment, then instinctively clenched his fist again.
[Oh, we ran into each other...]
He seemed to smile slightly, then relaxed completely, letting himself fall.
【Aaaaaaah, I can't allow this! How could it develop like this?!】
Why is the cult leader always more terrifying than a ghost whenever he appears? This charred appearance is terrifying! I'd rather see those white bones dancing in the background, okay?
[This isn't a wishing ribbon, it's a talisman! Waaaaah! If I had a wish, it would definitely say, "May Little Wolf be safe and sound!"]
[Ah-Tan hasn't heard Mommy's words yet! Don't separate us, I'm going to throw a tantrum!]
I was stunned. The cult leader just killed everyone like that, what's with all the brotherhood and sisterhood? He just wanted to survive!
[The cult leader has been completely driven mad by the black goat. Now I know the authority of that riddle. No wonder it is the most suitable sacrifice for the smoke mirror.]
[No wonder Atan said that! Mommy still has expectations for the leader, right? I can't take it anymore. The way Mommy looked at Atan for her... that's really a knife that hurts her.]
【Ah Tan——】
I'm crying my eyes out. Ah Tan's first reaction was, "Thank goodness we ran into them this time... Damn it, can't you be a little nicer to us big cats and little cats?"
So the head of the family wasn't lying after all.
[Wait! So the patriarch was referring to this harm, right? He foretold future events to lure Wolf Daddy here. Holy crap, what a cunning scheme!]
[No, it refers to things from the past... only the head of the family at the time of the message was from the future!!! It really is you, White Octopus, with your Eye of Observation!]
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