Chapter 176 The Fifth Day After God's Departure (13) ...
This new chapter is an extra chapter, and it doesn't contain much content.
The story begins with the mother's recollection: at the end of a ceremony 19 years ago, the woman stood alone on the mountaintop, gazing at the sky. A raging fire climbed up the hem of her dress and suddenly materialized into the shape of lips: "What are you looking at?"
"Look at the sky."
"The Black Sun is about to descend!" the cult leader said in a fanatical tone, revealing no hidden meaning. "You've seen it many times, haven't you?"
She replied, "I'm waiting for a meteor shower."
"Meteor shower?"
"Everyone's saying there will be a meteor shower tonight, and the top of Siji Mountain is the best place to watch it."
"Predicting a solar eclipse as a meteor shower is really not very accurate."
"I'm going to give myself a new name."
The cult leader stuck out his tongue and looked at his sister. Her current state was somewhat strange, and he couldn't figure it out.
She said to herself, "Yi, how about it? The Yi of 'ripples'."
The cult leader said, "Water can overcome fire. What an unexpected turn of events. This name might protect you. However, the ripples are too small. How about something like 'sea,' 'wave,' or something similar?"
"Ripples appear on the water, regardless of size."
“Su Yi, not bad. Should I also come up with a name to match my sister?” The cult leader thought for a moment, then gave up immediately. “Never mind, too much trouble.”
He already knew her fate, and hearing her give him a new name now was like listening to a joke. Besides, human names were useless; his true name awaited his return: "Tescatlipoca".
"You reminded me that I also need to change my surname." She thought for a moment, "Xie Yi, that sounds much better."
"Thank you? Thank you for the carving?"
"grateful."
"What are you thanking me for?"
"Thank you, fire; thank you, water; thank you, miracle." The fire finally engulfed her entire figure, and she seemed to be smiling in the fire. "You're right, this is a blessing."
Memories coalesced into her human form, and Xie Tan threw himself into her arms, crying as he said he loved her.
She was his mother, but Xie Yi knew that without Xie Tan, there would be no her. Their fates were intertwined, each contributing to the other's destiny.
[This wish belongs only to you. Have you thought it through, Tan Tan?]
[Wow, Mommy's name has finally appeared! Is it the incantation for the next book?]
[How amazing! It's clearly the mother cat who gave birth to kittens, but in terms of cause and effect, it was actually the kittens that helped the mother cat safely overcome the danger and arrive at her destination.]
[I knew it! After being cleansed, one becomes more energetic. Why is Ah-Tan in front and Mommy behind? So that's what Mommy was thinking, waaaaah!]
So, thank you to Lulu, Atan, and Hart Ruanruan.
Is Uncle possessing Mommy's body? This cursed tower on the mountaintop—only the eyes can enter, right?
Judging from Uncle's expression, he probably didn't know about Mommy and Lulu's conversation. The patriarch was thrown out, and he probably was too. Mommy and Lulu's power level is higher than theirs.
[Waaaa, Mommy, you saw the cult leader die! He had nowhere to escape during the ritual, and all the people he parasitized were exposed. He's really dead, Ah Tan really did it! My poor Mommy, my poor mother-son duo QAQ]
[!! This conversation between the mother and son! So the wish wasn't used?]
Is that wish the sword of the new double pupils?
[Damn, so Lu Lu was trapped because of his bet with A Tan, and he increased the intensity himself?]
[He originally intended to trap Ah Tan. Lu Lu knows Ah Tan is a complete being, right? No wonder.]
So this wish is useless! Ah Tan can come out now!
[Ah Tan is clearly going to use this wish to save Lu Lu regardless of his own life or death!]
[They're at their wits' end. They're trapped in a smokescreen and waiting to die, while the mirror on the other side is waiting to be shattered. What a miserable couple!]
The mirror was indeed broken.
It was the sun god himself who smashed it, and Xie Tan was unable to stop it; his spirit trembled and his soul was shaken.
His lover embraced him, and from an angle he couldn't see, the image shattered like a mirror, then gathered like mist, menacing like a demon, proclaiming his inevitable death, as if it were an ironclad law.
But when it comes to those words of love, Lu Jinzhao is no different from an ordinary person; even gods can feel sadness and resentment.
God said that once you meet him, you can no longer be a god.
[Ah Tan, do you remember? You owe me a wish.]
I'm going to make a wish.
The sun god spoke of his love in countless voices, and made a wish to part from him.
【Ah ...
【!! No matter how much we planned, we never expected that Lu Lu would break the mirror herself】
[Damn, who remembers that besides the refining target of the ritual, there were also three people who entered the circle of the day of fall? I was thinking that the one who entered the Feathered Serpent position was probably the one who broke through the mirror.]
At first, I thought he was the head of the family. His tentacles actually looked more like snakes without scales. When he hid, scales appeared under the fire. I thought it was Ah Tan who was detained on Tiger Day, and that he was the "feathered serpent" who had turned out.
Later I thought it was a cult leader who knocked down God and replaced Him.
The leader's downfall makes me lament that Director Jiang used Wolf Dad as a tool to slay the god, and Wolf Dad's "feathered serpent position" was exploited.
And then... oh my god, the divine mirror shattered itself, all to save her beloved!
So the "Feathered Serpent" rank still goes to Atan! This is too hellish!
[This god is totally boring, sob sob sob]
There must be some enjoyment, or rather, joy, for loss is what creates obsession, and makes even "God" lose its meaning... At this point, the bet is truly complete.
This time, he really is an angel dog! QAQ
[Enough! We're just a couple, we want to be together!!! Is nobody going to do anything about this?!]
[That's right. A-Tan wants Lu-Lu to live, and Lu-Lu wants A-Tan to live, but these are both compromises. Their real wish is the same: to be together...]
[You two little rascals, you clearly know how the other person would live without you! !!!]
[LuLu, are you confused? I just wailed about Atan. You think everything is boring now that you've lost Atan? Well, think about it: Atan avenged Mommy, then lost you. What's the point of him living?! I'm going to waile about you too! You're such a worry, waaaaaah!]
[Director Jiang, you really predicted it, haha! Our Lu Lu is shattered (both physically and mentally), and our Atan is shattered too (soon to be physically shattered as well). Was the heartbreaking Four Seasons Mountain meteor shower beautiful? Haha, that was just the eternal farewell of our family fortune at the end of the century! Ahhhhhh, I hate you, Director Jiang, sob sob sob]
[These two know how to break each other's defenses. One trapped her husband on the fourth day, preventing any backlash, constantly reminding him of his desires. The other trapped her wife on the fifth day, even freezing her in place, forcing him to watch her shatter. Haha, is our tangent theorem really pure love? Or are they enemies? I'm impressed, sob sob! I punish you two by making you peacefully indulge in your lovemaking for a month!!!]
[Holy crap, I understand why Ah Tan suddenly went crazy. It wasn't that Ah Tan was unprepared for Director Jiang, nor that he didn't expect to be shut down; it was at that moment that he finally realized how the smoke mask had shattered... Holy crap!]
After this short message, the main character of the blind box is Lu Jinzhao.
Late at night, he stood in the hospital corridor where people were coming and going, watching the boy cry.
He was calling "Mommy, Mommy." A stretcher passed by him, and he suddenly lunged forward, trying to jump into the human-shaped figure's arms, but was stopped by the medical staff and carried to the other side.
The boy moved further and further away from him, but his cries grew louder and louder.
Lu Jinzhao pressed his hand to his chest in a daze.
He had seen countless scenes like this, but he had never felt anything. He could see the ashes from a burned leaf, yet he couldn't see them.
He is neither kind nor compassionate, and he is arrogant and condescending.
But then he thought of Xie Tan.
For a moment, he hallucinated that young Xie Tan was standing opposite him, staring blankly at the white sheet on the stretcher between them receding into the distance.
Then his heart suddenly skipped a beat and he felt a pain, and he realized there was such a spot.
Ah, the pain of mortals.
He stood there for a few seconds, then suddenly chased after the boy, searched all his pockets, and handed him a piece of candy.
"Don't cry."
He thought to himself, "Don't cry, Ah Tan."
[Knife God, ahhh! My rotten hand brings back winter, I'm crying like a stupid dog]
[Good or bad, you slashing god, why are you chasing me to kill me?]
[Waaaaah, because of Atan, Lulu has a heart too.]
[Help! My prayers to Lu Lu are as intense as those at the Yonghe Temple! I'm praying on a new prayer card next door that Ah Tan will be alright, and this is the only way to wish him alright?! Are you going to exchange Lu Lu for me?! Aaaaaaah!]
[Haha, the cult leader's wish didn't come true. I thought Lu Lu had finally given up his supernatural powers, but it turns out it's because the mirror shattered on this very day. Who cares about wishes anymore? Haha.]
The cult leader failed to achieve his goals, so it's hard to say whether that's lucky or unlucky.
Xie Tan suddenly stopped.
The cult leader's wish was not fulfilled?
Yes, the cult leader wanted to become a god, but before that, he was dragged down by the patriarch who had already achieved enlightenment.
The mirror wasn't broken yet at that time.
Could it be because this was the last unlucky day, and the mirror broke during the cycle, that the cult leader's wish could not be fulfilled? But the cult leader had already made a wish long ago.
Xie Tan looked at the blind box from the previous episode again.
The witch's divination was to determine his safety, but her words never strayed from the cult leader who shared the same sacred calendar with him.
It can be seen as a reflection of the smoke mirror in the human world, but it leans more towards the "destructive" nature of the smoke mirror, resonating with it...
The cult leader's wish is to replace the smoke mirror.
Today it is said that the destruction of God is also inevitable.
When Xie Tan looked back, he saw countless boxes filled with "I love you," crammed into a page, but one small box was sandwiched in between, containing only "...", which was very inconspicuous.
Some forums have pointed this out, but many believe it's simply an omission, given the limited size of comic panels.
But Xie Tan doesn't think so.
He thought that he was unharmed during the ritual not only because his eyes were already complete, but also because he was in the smoke mirror, like the calm eye of a storm. The ritual did not cover all areas, and the smoke mirror of the past timeline on the mountaintop was that "blank space".
The cult leader parasitized his mother, so why didn't he have it in his body?
Xie Tan reached out to grab the sun fire. This wasn't difficult, as the whole mountain was covered in fire. But it was also difficult, as the fire avoided him, afraid of harming him in the slightest.
"Come here." Xie Tan's palm was still open. Huo hesitated and jumped twice, then nudged his sleeve with the tip of the fire, like a dog nudging him with the tip of its ear.
As the cuff caught fire, Xie Tan's exceptionally sharp eyes instantly locked onto the faint shape of lips within the flames. The thing reacted swiftly, dissolving itself before it could even take shape, disappearing back into the fire.
Xie Tan used a shard of a fallen mirror to cut off half of his sleeve, and when he looked up, number 7 cat was sitting right in front of him.
It wagged its tail and winked at him playfully.
Xie Tan's expression relaxed; it was his mother.
The cult leader couldn't hear the conversation between his mother and Jinzhao, so he shouldn't be able to hear him either.
Parasitizing his body is merely leaving behind a wisp of soul, a way out.
But the cult leader probably didn't expect that Jiang Linji also had no intention of letting Xie Tan go. Once Xie Tan died, the cult leader would be completely dead.
Xie Tan said, "I've thought of my wish."
The surrounding space and time became still again, as the pointers belonging to the "Strange Tales" project were at work.
Xie Tan entered the wishing interface again.
"I want to pass this wish on to someone else," Xie Tan said, "to fulfill the wish that the cult leader once made in front of the mirror."
"Are you sure you don't want to change it, meow?"
Xie Tan nodded, and the pen-sword master in the interface winked at him. With a stroke of the pen, he cut open the comic book paper, revealing a pitch-black space beneath. Countless incantations, like the operating code of the world, were engraved into it, and this wish was etched into it.
"Your wish has been granted! Thank you for your continued support and dedication, host! Love you, meow!"
As Mengmeng's voice disappeared on the 7th, the fifth day came to its final 7 seconds.
The sky was ablaze with shards of mirror, and fire rained down from the heavens. Within the flames, countless lips emerged in waves of fire, black tinged with red.
The laughter of the demons echoed through the mountains.
The clock struck midnight, ushering in a new century and a new day.
As Jiang Linji watched the black mist slowly dissipate, incantations instantly covered her arm. The moment the sun rose, she threw her obsidian knife.
The incantation then swirled from his arm, spiraling around the blade like a rocket, propelling the blade to pierce the sun in one fell swoop.
Crack—
The sun, which had just been restored, was shattered once more, and a teeth-grinding cracking sound echoed throughout the entire night.
Jiang Linji waited calmly.
The flames surged even higher, climbing wildly from the ground into the sky, as if trying to hold up the setting sun.
The black fog that had been obscuring the sun finally dissipated, revealing its true form.
Jiang Linji's pupils contracted.
The black sun was intact, without any cracks.
Flames clung to it, and the sun burned fiercely.
How could that be? She clearly heard a cracking sound! There were also cracked lines in the sky... wait a minute.
Did that black sun in the sky "turn around" and take a look?
Jiang Linji followed the cracks in the darkness and looked into the distance.
That's where the shattering originated.
That's the direction of the art haven.
There was also a black sun there, and the obsidian knife was stuck in the center of the sun. Without anyone manipulating it or using any incantations, the knife plunged into it fiercely, causing a hurricane to rage.
The fiery red lips reflected in the mirror could not stop it; all it could do was scream.
Art Harbor... The origin of the Smoke Mirror is Four Seasons Mountain, and Art Harbor is the origin of the cult leader!
It was there that he became the tongue of God and drew near to Him!
Xie Tan, who witnessed this scene through the eye of observation, suddenly realized that the first time he saw the Black Sun was in Art Harbor, and it was in a broken state.
The enormous smoke screen shattered, scattering fragments like a shower of stars.
Each ray of light trailed a long, fiery tail, densely covering the night sky, even obscuring another black sun.
Just like...
Like countless world lines.
The mirror shattered, leaving a void—the only blank space in a night filled with world lines.
Suddenly, an eye opened in the blank space, as black as an abyss and as still as a pool, like a black moon.
Xie Tan was startled. He realized that when he blinked, the eye in the sky was blinking too!
These are his eyes!
All world lines were burning, and one by one they were annihilated.
Da, da da.
Xie Tan suddenly heard the sound of the hands turning.
Number 7 appeared on his shoulder: "Would you like to stay here, or return to your original world, meow?"
"Leave."
Number 7 raised its paw and said, "Then, baby host, quickly choose a timeline, meow!"
"Choose..." Xie Tan was stunned. "Me?"
"The new sun is shattered, the old sun could not be repaired, you are the only eye to observe! Complete, meow! You are also the only blank, come on, one last orbital determination, meow meow!"
Countless burning world lines flickered in Xie Tan's eyes.
He reached out into the darkness, as if sketching something from afar.
He was certain; it was the one.
The world line that passes through the center of the old sun.
A new fire is burning.
Burn the sky, burn the earth, burn time and space.
The ceremony is complete.
Xie Tan felt as if he were falling in the darkness, falling for a very long time.
But miraculously, he did not feel fear; instead, he felt as if he were in a sweet dream.
When he woke up from his dream, he opened his eyes.
The sky was overcast; it was a rainy night.
The bus slowly drove away from behind him, splashing mud onto his trouser legs.
He was at the entrance of Heshun Residential Area.
Xie Tan was stunned for only a moment before running like a madman towards Building 9, climbing the stairs all the way up.
He knocked on the door of room 701 and shouted, "Jinzhao? Jinzhao!"
But after he filmed for five minutes, there was no reaction.
He heard footsteps downstairs and immediately leaned out to look. It was the neighborhood committee lady who looked at him suspiciously: "Child, who are you?"
“…” he said, “I am the son of the resident of 702.”
"702? Oh, it's that girl! No wonder you're so pretty!" The older woman's memory was awakened, and she beamed. "You opened the wrong door. 702 is the one on the left. That's how it is in old neighborhoods. The sign is missing somewhere, and the motion-activated lights break down every now and then, but the cleaning is still pretty good. In that respect, I'm the best..."
Xie Tan asked anxiously, "Auntie, where are the residents of 701?"
“701?” the old woman said. “That house has been empty for many years, no one lives there.”
Xie Tan's expression went blank for a moment.
He even forgot to give a perfunctory reply, simply grunted in response, and returned to 702 dejectedly.
702 was still the same as he remembered. He sat by the window, staring blankly at the drizzle.
He chose the time when they first met.
Did I make the wrong choice?
Did he still disappear?
Xie Tan was at a loss. He took out his phone, wanting to send a message to Lu Jinzhao, but when he saw the empty contact list, he realized that they hadn't exchanged contact information yet.
His heart felt empty, and he felt dizzy, as if he had returned to a long, long time ago.
Beep beep.
Suddenly, his phone rang. He looked down and saw a verification message with no name or profile picture.
[Knock knock.]
Xie Tan's eyes widened instantly.
He suddenly stood up, ran straight to the door, tripped over the corner of the table, but got up and kept running without paying attention, then pushed the door open.
A familiar hug enveloped him, carrying the warm scent of the sun and the feeling of a sunny day.
“Ah Tan,” Lu Jinzhao said in a hoarse voice.
God has lost the ability to grant wishes, but he has magic given to him by those he loves.
Xie Tan hugged him tightly in return.
...
At night, the young couple, who had just reunited, finished their dinner and lingered on the sofa for a while before going downstairs together for a walk to digest their food.
This was their previous habit, proposed by Lu Jinzhao, in order to encourage Xie Tan to move around more.
The streets were wet after the rain, and a gentle evening breeze blew. Xie Tan looked up and saw real starlight.
They held hands.
Lu Jinzhao's eyes were drawn to a movie poster on the street; it was for an upcoming mystery thriller. Remembering their first date, he immediately launched a dog-eye attack: "A-Tan, I want to see this!"
Xie Tan glanced at it as well: "I thought you had lost interest in this kind of work?"
That happened after their first date. Lu Jinzhao became obsessed with it and read a lot of similar stories. At first, he even asked Xie Tan for recommendations. Xie Tan recommended Sherlock Holmes, a classic among classics.
Lu Jinzhao also thought of this: "A new beginning, a new look! Maybe I'll have a new interpretation? Or find new fun, like we could go on a two-person adventure, and I'll be A-Tan's Watson~"
Xie Tan refused: "The word 'detective' sounds exhausting."
Lu Jinzhao: "Then A-Tan can act as Watson and record these adventure stories he has experienced!"
“The story is sure to be a bestseller.” After Xie Tan finished speaking, he looked into Lu Jinzhao’s eyes and smiled knowingly.
Lu Jinzhao blinked: "What kind of name should we choose?"
Xie Tan received his hint, paused briefly, then stopped and looked at the empty space beside him.
“A new beginning, a new look,” he said. “How about we call it ‘Tales of the Strange’?”
The final page of the comic features a boy turned to the side, looking directly out of the camera's view. The words "奇谭" (Qitan, meaning "Strange Tale") in the frame are written in the same font used by the official comic's creators.
There's also a big one:
【over】
-----------------------
Author's Note: It's finished! [fireworks][fireworks] I'm doing a giveaway, the winner will be announced on Christmas! Love you all!
The side story will probably be an epilogue (including the last chapter in forum style) + A-Tan and his guardian spirit in the mirror in the ABO world (if route). I want to take a few days off and will not be updating daily for the time being. I will post a leave note for the number of days I do not update.
[Heart][Heart]
My next book will be titled "The Savior Gone Bad After Viewers Spoiled the Plot".
I'll choose to start either "The Kree Family, But My Inspiration is Zero" or "Stop F***ing Reloading!"
If you're interested, please bookmark this page! [Please!]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
