Chapter 152

Chapter 152

Perhaps because so many years had passed, his brother had a lot to say. He chattered on and on, like they were just catching up.

His body was shrouded in a faint black mist, his entire person as cold as a corpse just thawed from ice.

Light passed through him. He cast no shadow on the ground.

In a moment of dawning clarity, Lu Yan realized something. After the time reversal, his brother probably didn’t have a physical form.

He existed like an expired virus that had invaded a computer, living in the crevice between reality and the virtual, and Lu Yan was the bridge connecting those two worlds.

The surrounding seawater was still scalding.

For the first time, Lu Yan realized this truly was a dream. No different from when Brain Blossom had pulled him into that mental space at the airport.

Lu Yan looked into those blood-red eyes. "So, you called me here. What's the purpose?"

His brother answered with a smile. "What if I just wanted to see you?"

Lu Yan's expression remained placid. "Then you can let me go back."

"I wish I could," his brother replied. "Unfortunately, I can't. We made fundamentally different choices. That means only one of us can reach the ultimate end."

Excitement glimmered in his eyes as he slowly spread his arms. "It's my fortune to follow you once more. But devouring is my nature."

The calm water erupted in that instant, churning into towering waves. The dark sea surged upward, cresting a thousand meters high.

"We've delayed long enough. Your fusion is complete."

His brother's brows and eyes relaxed. "Come. Use your bow and your blade. Try to kill me. At least here, in this moment, we are equals."

---

Shen Qingyang vanished.

Vanished might not be the right word.

Small blisters appeared on Lu Yan's face. On closer inspection, they looked exactly like the eyes that grew on Shen Qingyang's tentacles.

The difference was these eyes had turned a silvery white. They coldly observed everything around them.

Time here was frozen.

The seawater stopped churning. The seaweed stopped growing. Even the massive white creature before him halted mid-stride, one foot lifted in a comical pose.

Only Jiang Yue's gaze remained active, fixed on the scene before him, brimming with a chaotic, alien malevolence.

In this suspended space, only two things still moved.

One was Lu Yan on the ground, his form hovering between monster and human, eyes tightly shut, trapped in a bizarre dream from which it was hard to wake.

The other was Tang Xun'an, propped up by the swirling yellow dust, barely able to stand.

Golden blood seeped from the gaps between his scales, quickly diluted by the seawater.

He could feel his body was like glass, webbed with cracks. The slightest touch would shatter it.

But Tang Xun'an knew he couldn't fall. Because Lu Yan was behind him.

This was perhaps a rare moment of calm before the storm.

Everything else was frozen. Tang Xun'an was healing, using the dragon skeleton to forcibly piece his fractured body back together.

The white Mother Worm let out a derisive snort. "Give up. The Old God will awaken within his vessel. There will be no exceptions."

"You haven't experienced it. You can't understand. What kind of monster is the one you're protecting?"

"Can you accept him? Can others who know the truth accept him? I forgot… you probably still know nothing… How laughable. Ignorant and reckless."

"He does not belong to humankind. Nor does he belong to you."

Her words echoed in Tang Xun'an's mind like valley reverberations, layer upon layer.

Tang Xun'an quickly realized she was using [Delirious Speech].

This talent could bewitch the mind, especially effective against those with weak wills.

Unfortunately for her, Tang Xun'an was the type to walk a single path into the darkness, even if he smashed his head bloody against a wall. He wouldn't turn back.

He acted deaf, giving no reaction, though golden blood trickled from his ears.

Tang Xun'an knew the time he could suspend was limited. Only a few minutes. But this was already his body's limit.

Lu Yan's current state was special, as if existing in a higher dimension. Accelerating time on Lu Yan was even less feasible than suspending it.

Tang Xun'an couldn't help but think of small things.

When he was nineteen, he returned from the future.

Qiao Yu held back for a long time, but finally couldn't resist asking what kind of future he had seen. Was it good or bad?

When his talent first awakened, Tang Xun'an had also tried to go to the future. The Qiao Yu of that time had sternly warned him, saying the cost was too great, and that no matter what he saw in the future, he must never speak of it.

This time, even Qiao Yu himself couldn't resist asking. He must have been truly curious.

Tang Xun'an said he had seen a future full of hope, better than the best future they had ever imagined.

And the one who brought it all was Lu Yan.

So, Tang Xun'an believed in him unconditionally.

Realizing her attempts to sow discord were ineffective, the Mother Worm fell silent, calmly waiting for it all to end.

Her body was ready for battle.

The vessel was not yet fully matured. She had to reclaim it.

Tang Xun'an used his dragon's breath to light a tranquilizer, placing it in his mouth.

He stood up. His bones emitted soft cracks.

The expression on Tang Xun'an's face was less fear, and more… excitement.

Excitement for the inevitable fate he was about to meet.

---

The war in the other dimension raged on.

Lu Yan reached for his quiver and found it empty.

Blood seeped from his forehead. His vision blurred. He raised a hand to wipe the grime from his face, casually stuffing a dangling section of intestine back into his body.

Regeneration repaired him, but it had reached a dangerous threshold.

His brother was right. Here, they were truly equal.

They possessed bodies of the same strength, the same talents. What he could do, his brother could do. No one understood each other's bodies like they did.

The moment his blade pierced his brother's shoulder, his own hand bones were shattered.

The instant an arrow shot into his brother's heart, his own abdomen was run through.

But within the sameness, there was difference.

His brother retained the influence he'd held over Lu Yan since childhood—fear.

He lived in Lu Yan's dreams, his memories, in every heart-palpitating, suffocating nightmare.

When Lu Yan was young, countless times he had woken up crying expressionlessly, his entire body trembling physiologically from terror.

The dream was of a blood-red sky, absurd and kaleidoscopic.

He knew there was someone behind him. That person called him brother and said he would protect him.

But Lu Yan never believed it.

Now, the source of those childhood nightmares stood before him.

Lu Yan's strikes remained vicious, yet tears streamed uncontrollably from his eyes.

His brother let out a low, rumbling laugh from deep in his chest. "It seems a second time makes no difference. Last time, I was the petty thief. This time, you chose the wrong path. You were born to be the perfect vessel for evolution. Yet you retroactively acquired cumbersome emotions, and even now, retain a human body."

"I am disappointed," his brother sighed.

Black mist coiled around his body. Deep red tentacles sprouted from his eye sockets, his mouth, even his ears, quickly replacing his original head.

He embraced Lu Yan, not for a hug. The aberrant tentacles lengthened endlessly, forming a net that tightly bound its prey.

The tentacles pierced Lu Yan's body and began to greedily gulp down his blood.

Lu Yan's body grew cold, as if about to freeze.

As the tentacles impaled him, familiar terror drowned him.

Lu Yan heard it—the slow, steady heartbeat emanating from his brother's chest.

It was reviving.

Just as the cold threatened to steal his consciousness, a searing, burning heat erupted across Lu Yan's back.

It was… the dragonbone bow.

The arrows were spent. Only the coiled bow remained.

Now, that bow burned almost painfully hot. In his daze, Lu Yan realized something.

If Tang Xun'an discovered the one who woke wasn't him… he would probably be devastated.

Lu Yan had told the system he liked to see Tang Xun'an cry.

But not for a reason like this.

Fear came from the unknown. But now, his brother was right in front of him. They embraced. The tentacles remained, but his brother had resumed human form.

Lu Yan lifted his gaze. "You're right… emotions are cumbersome. But it's these very cumbersome emotions that make me feel… I'm still alive. Like a person."

He raised his hand. His left palm slowly split open along a massive seam, nearly cleaving it in two.

White fibrous threads had been waiting. They looked exactly like the umbilical cords he'd seen wrapped around the stone pillars.

These threads plunged, ravenous, into his brother's heart.

[Talent-25: Devour]

His brother's tone held a faint trace of amusement. "Using my own talent to devour me? Isn't that redundant, brother?"

He had anticipated this possibility.

But it was useless. Lu Yan's devouring was a step behind.

In the end, he would devour Lu Yan first.

Yet soon, his brother detected a problem. He was disappearing. Or rather, being purified.

His brother's eyes widened abruptly. "...How?!"

Their talents were the same, yet different.

On the Talent Sequence List, [Devour] had a large asterisk, marking it as a healing-type talent.

However, after becoming a pollutant, this talent lost its original purpose of healing.

The system had said the Wang Yu with the tongue possessed the talent Devour.

It had also said, "This fish truly is the one with the greatest potential among all the fish."

Because the superior evolution of Devour was called Revelation.

...

...

The entire city of Laleye began to rise.

The Mother Worm's face twisted into an expression of rapturous joy. "The God! It is my God! He is about to awaken!"

Her body was riddled with gaping holes, white larvae crawling in and out of the wounds, secreting a gelatinous substance to repair the damage. She had been nearly hacked to pieces, but the Tang Xian'an before her wasn't much better off.

He was dying.

Half of the black dragon's body had simply vanished, leaving nothing left to bleed.

Tang Xian'an's consciousness began to fray, memories dissolving until only one thought remained, hammering against the inside of his skull.

Don't let them take Lu Yan.

Laleye continued its ascent. Outside, the bloody full moon swelled impossibly large, staining the entire sky a dull, ominous red.

Countless voices began to pray.

Yet, just as the stone pillars supporting the city were about to breach the surface, the upward progress shuddered to a halt.

Without warning, the pillars began to fracture. After a heartbeat of stillness, the entire city plummeted downward.

Nothing is more agonizing than despair that follows hope.

"No—NO!"

The Mother Worm's wail was a sound of pure anguish.

She had forsaken everything of her humanity, descended into the deep sea, willingly become nourishment to gestate a god—all for that future where pollutants would rule the world. Her child would become the sovereign of all, and she would stand beside its throne.

Tang Xian'an's body could no longer sustain the dragon form.

He shifted back, but the human part of him was little more than desiccated bone clinging to a polluted frame, not unlike the monstrous version Lu Yan had seen in the mental space. He clutched Lu Yan to his chest and kicked upward, but the fine threads spat by the Mother Worm coiled around his ankles like steel cables.

The twenty-four-hour efficacy of the swim bladder had long expired. Seawater flooded Tang Xian'an's nostrils and lungs, a corrosive, burning agony.

With the last of his strength, he pushed Lu Yan away, upward.

They were close to the surface now. A faint, grayish light filtered down from above.

The next instant, the threads swallowed Tang Xian'an whole. His expression, however, was calm. A strange sense of finality settled over him, almost a relief.

He had fought his entire life.

Finally, he could stop. He could rest.

*

Lu Yan awoke in a world of ice and snow. Or rather, he found himself adrift on a floating ice floe.

Confusion clouded his features.

The current carried his floe to the island where they had first boarded the ship. The place was silent but for the wind and snow, utterly deserted.

No Tang Xian'an. No Shen Qingyang. Not even the fish-men that once haunted the shore. The entire world seemed reduced to this endless, frozen whiteness.

Finally, the system's voice crackled in his ear. [You're finally awake? You scared me half to death. I thought you might not wake up. Or that someone else would wake in your place…]

Lu Yan pushed himself up, his body screaming as if every bone had been pulverized.

Yet he had been protected well. His body bore no major wounds.

His fingers brushed against something warm.

He looked down. It was a broken sword.

Tang Xian'an's Huangchen. Only half remained, attached to the hilt. It looked like it had seen brutal combat, the very edge of the blade curled and blunted.

Lu Yan's hand closed around the hilt. "Where is Tang Xian'an?"

[...]

He asked again, his voice trembling with a fear he didn't recognize in himself. "Where is Tang Xian'an?"

The system was silent for a long moment. [He sank to the seabed with Laleye.]

Lu Yan clutched the broken blade, unable to speak for a long time.

His mind went blank.

"What happened?"

Uncontrollable emotion rippled across his skin, a field of grotesque, glaring eyes erupting across his flesh.

[Host.] The system's tone was uncharacteristically gentle, full of consolation. [Calm down. Breathe. It hasn't reached the worst possible outcome. He is alive. Believe me.]

Almost as soon as it finished speaking, a dark, ragged figure fell from the sky.

The person had dragon wings sprouting from his back—newly grown, their use still clumsy—and he tumbled several times upon landing, rolling to a stop right before Lu Yan, a life-support pod clattering beside him.

He had beautiful golden pupils. His panicked gaze lifted and collided directly with Lu Yan's own.

The system let out an audible sigh of relief. [See? Puppy-dragon.]

*

In the devastated abyss.

The long-dead body of the colossal black dragon twitched. A layer of accumulated silt and dust shook loose from its scales.

Half its body had already decayed, yet slowly, with immense effort, it opened its golden eyes.

Tang Xian'an's vision swam, dizziness washing over him. An impossibly long stream of memories played like a film reel inside his skull.

He finally remembered.

At the world's end, he too had devoured the twins. And from them, he had obtained the complete form of Talent 2.

[Talent 2 - Death and Life]

To be reborn from the brink of death.

One death. One life.