Chapter 174 The Fifth Day After the God's Departure (11) "I want to be with..."
Just as Xie Tan was about to express his wish, the mist that had gathered around Xie Yi suddenly dissipated. As if sensing something, she gave the panicked Xie Tan a reassuring look and slowly vanished.
Xie Tan was at a loss. What happened? Had it been discovered that her mother's eyes were the complete form of a human?
Just when the mirror was about to shatter... or perhaps Jiang Linji sensed something and came to stop him?
now.
No, the mirror is the very essence of this day, the source of the sun god's power, it absolutely cannot be broken!
"Mom? Number 7! I..."
Crack.
The crisp sound was so abrupt that even though Xie Tan's mind was in chaos again, he realized something was wrong.
In the black fog, all sights vanished, the fog dissipated and fled, like animals sensing impending doom, or various creatures restless before the end of the world.
He actually saw cracks in the endless darkness!
Just like the world-line network that Lu Jinchao had once seen, a crack appeared, instantly spreading out into countless cracks, filling Xie Tan's field of vision, and extending to an even more distant place beyond his sight.
"Wait—no!"
Xie Tan lunged forward in a disheveled state, trying to press down on the most grotesque crack. Just a second before his fingertips touched it, the mirror shattered. Someone was faster than him, smashing through the mirror and grabbing him tightly.
The gap in the mirrored space brought in dim daylight and the familiar scent of the person who broke the mirror.
It's his pheromones.
“…Today.” Xie Tan was stunned.
哢哒.
The sound of the pointer getting stuck.
Everything paused. The black mist stopped swirling, the flames froze, and the shattered fragments of the mirror hung around them, still in their broken, splattered state, reflecting tiny glimmers of light.
They were like people trapped in a dark galaxy.
"Ah Tan".
Hearing the soft call in his ear, Xie Tan suddenly came to his senses and was about to pull Lu Jinzhao up to check on his condition.
Confused, Xie Tan realized that Lu Jinzhao's ability to pause time meant that the clock hands had been absorbed by the Eye of Observation, which had been sacrificed to him!
Lu Jinzhao clung to him tightly, burying her face in his neck, refusing to look up.
Xie Tan: "Why are you here! This is your true form, don't you know that? Didn't you promise me you wouldn't get hurt? What are you doing now! Lu Jinzhao! Why did you break the mirror! You..."
Was it for me? Xie Tan was speechless for a moment.
“Ah Tan, the only constant in this world is impermanence. Everything is destined to perish at the moment of its birth. Do you acknowledge that?” Lu Jinzhao’s voice was extremely calm. “You have my eyes, so you know that. So, the same is true for God.”
He said, "God will also die; this is impermanence, it's just a matter of time, and I have chosen when it was meant to come."
Xie Tan trembled.
Lu Jinzhao: "This is a predetermined fate, just like the trajectory you set for my birth. Although I don't remember, I must have foreseen my own destruction a long time ago."
Xie Tan stubbornly said, "I don't believe... that being broken is your destiny!"
He never imagined that one day he would be afraid of the word "death".
Xie Tan: "Because of me, right? The mirror broke and that's why my eyes fell out, and so did yours, it was because of me..."
Lu Jinchao interrupted: "Haven't you read your human myths? Although I am not the Smoke Mirror in the myths, my existence is a reflection of His. It's just that He lost a leg, while I would lose my eyes."
In Aztec mythology, Smoke Mirror is also known as the "Lame God" because he lost a leg; there are two versions of the story.
The most widespread version is that after the destruction of the four Sun Ages, when the gods created the fifth Sun Age, Smoke Mirror joined forces with Quetzalcoatl to fight against the powerful evil god, the Lord of the Earth, who took advantage of the situation, and lost a leg in the process.
Another version is that during the First Sun Age, when Smoke Mirror was knocked down into the sea by Quetzalcoatl with a club (some say he was dragged into the sea), he lost a leg in the war of the gods.
Xie Tan calmed down as well: "If that's the case, let go. Why won't you let me see you?"
This time, Lu Jinzhao was silent.
When he spoke again, Xie Tan heard his trembling voice.
“Ah Tan, I’m sorry, I tried so hard… really. I sat there, trying to recall the countless scenes I’d seen, over and over again, especially the ones we’d seen together, the ones I’d told you about… but I felt no joy at all. Without you, it felt like going back to the old days, everything was so boring and tasteless.”
Lu Jinzhao said, "I have finally discovered something. Although the beginning and the end are interdependent, destruction is the easier one. Not to mention the human heart, all things fall down without needing to ride the wind. Just like the so-called good and evil, when forced by circumstances and hatred, there is still emotion and cause. But simply doing evil is the most unrestrained and easiest thing in the world."
"Rebuilding from ruins is harder than the end of the world; surviving is harder than dying; being human is harder than being a god; keeping a promise is harder than breaking it; wanting to be with you forever is harder than saying goodbye forever."
A mist stirred, enveloping their embrace. Lu Jinzhao finally loosened his hold slightly and met Xie Tan's eyes.
He was no different from usual; his smile was always the brightest.
“Ah Tan, do you remember? You owe me a wish. You said you'd do anything if you could.” Lu Jinzhao said, “I’m going to make a wish now.”
Xie Tan covered his mouth, tears welling up in his eyes, but Lu Jinzhao had expected this. He grabbed Xie Tan's hand tightly, kissed it, and pressed it against his cheek, complaining in a spoiled tone, "Omniscience and omnipotence are so boring. No matter how strong you are, it's still just the same thing. This god is so meaningless! If I could, I just want to be with A-Tan. Just being ordinary would be good, no, very good, ideal... If not, it would be good if A-Tan could keep going. A-Tan has made so many friends, hasn't she?"
"Jin...!" Xie Tan wanted to hug him again and keep him, but found that he was also stopped, speechless, unable to do anything, and could only watch him helplessly.
"Ah Tan also has a wish, right? That's the reason Ah Tan came into this world, I heard it. Or you might as well think about it some more, after all, it's a rare opportunity, think of the best wish, and remember to make it before the ceremony ends tomorrow. If your wish comes true, you can stay or go back to your original world, whatever makes you happy—can we consider this a wish exchange?"
Lu Jinchao kissed Xie Tan's tear-streaked eyes, kissing his way down her face, and said somewhat bewilderedly, "Don't cry. Strange, why aren't the tears stopping?"
He kissed those lips one last time, and a tear fell, mingling with Xie Tan's tears and flowing into their pressed lips. It wasn't salty; it was a bitter kiss.
Xie Tan, however, heard a sweet remark.
Not just one sentence, but thousands upon thousands of sentences, countless voices speaking simultaneously in his ears, overlapping each other, like the sound of the sky collapsing and the earth splitting.
The chorus of voices all said the same thing: "I love you."
Lu Jinzhao let go of her hand.
哢哒.
The pointer started spinning again.
Xie Tan fell out of the mirror, and countless fragments fell with him, like a meteor shower.
Rain is fire.
Four Seasons Mountain caught fire again.
The black sea of fire startled Xie Tan awake. He looked around blankly, but Lu Jinzhao was nowhere to be seen.
Although they broke free from the confinement of the smoke mirror, and the fifth-day cycle after the ritual ended was broken, there was still some time before midnight, which is the next day.
Lu Jinzhao deliberately timed it at this point, preventing him from immediately moving on to the next day, the day of God's return.
The trick originally intended to trap Lu Jinzhao has now trapped him instead.
Xie Tan suddenly pounded the ground, bracing himself against the cold snow, about to call out to his mother to fulfill his wish, but then stopped.
How should he make a wish?
Today you are right. This is a rare opportunity, a once-in-a-lifetime chance. He should make his best wish. But what should he do?
All the information flashed through his mind, and he suddenly remembered Lu Jinzhao's last words: "the ceremony tomorrow."
The ceremony tomorrow?
He looked around at the fire. Yes, the ceremony was over. Why was the sun fire burning again? Was it just because the complete black sun was about to descend?
The last inauspicious day is today, and the ritual is to refine the Eye of Observation into a complete form, returning its power to the First Sun God to mend the broken sun.
That's why the sun... shattered before tomorrow.
Tomorrow's ceremony is yet another new ceremony, the New Fire Ceremony!
In the comic, it is mentioned that the mountain hunter said that the smoke goggles first appeared 52 years ago, and the forum has been discussing this ever since.
In the solar calendar stone, the sacred calendar is a divination calendar for selecting auspicious days and determining destiny. It consists of 20 day symbols and 13 numbers, which correspond one-to-one and complete a cycle every 260 days.
The Aztecs operated on two cyclical systems: a 365-day solar calendar and a 260-day sacred calendar. These systems would coincide every 52 years, forming a complete calendar cycle, which they considered a "century."
The last night of each century signifies the approaching end of time, and God may destroy the world at that moment, plunging the entire world into fear.
People will extinguish all their fires, abandon all activities, and wait in fear.
The priests would climb to the mountaintop to observe the Pleiades star cluster. If the cluster could pass over the mountaintop, it meant that the world would not be destroyed and a new century was about to begin.
To celebrate, a "New Fire Festival" or "New Fire Ceremony" will be held.
The priest would remove the heart of a living person who was to be sacrificed, and in the hollow of the heart, he would use the method of making fire by friction to light a new fire with flint to appease the sun.
As the sparks gradually ignited into flames, they were used to light a bonfire, symbolizing new life.
Messengers carried the flames to every household, and people used the new fire to light their hearths, ushering in the next century.
Xie Tan looked up at the mountaintop sky covered by the "meteor shower," then looked down again.
A fleeting inspiration crossed his mind, but he couldn't quite grasp it.
He suddenly took out his phone and quickly opened the comic app.
Something's missing. To fulfill this "best wish," he must have overlooked some information!
Once the wish-fulfillment state was lifted, several modules of the app unlocked again, and the comics were indeed updated.
Cat number 7 jumped out, its little paws pressing down Xie Tan's fingers as he frantically swiped the screen, and said, "Remember, meow, you are half of the Eye of Observation! Come and try it, the true power of observation? Meow!"
Xie Tan was slightly taken aback, then realized that the "cartoon" format was also a form of protection for him, shielding him from the side effects of the Eye of Observation.
“Okay,” he immediately agreed.
In an instant, the latest comic updates and the discussions on the "Gathering of Tongues" forum flashed across his iris and into his mind like shifting fog.
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