Chapter 00092: Light and Tears
# Light and Tears
Chapter 92
Novel: Above Destiny
Chapter 92: Light and Tears
For the first time, Ji Jue heard the wailing, shrieking, and moaning emitted by the boiling essence.
It was as if he were being torn apart.
A blurry face emerged from the swirling ethereal body, twisted in panic, crying out in agony as it relentlessly tore at its own flesh, countless fragments scattering but unable to escape the terrifying pull of the darkness.
At long last, it steeled itself for a decisive action.
The invisible force shattered with a thunderous roar! Countless streams of blood light burst forth, scattering in all directions.
Most were instantly swallowed by the darkness, vanishing without a trace, leaving only a few fragments that managed to escape from the grip of fear, fleeing without a backward glance.
These fragments brushed past the eerie deer-headed shadow, which paused for an instant but then indifferent, turned its gaze away.
It slowly stepped through an ancient door shrouded in dust.
In the suffocating darkness, vague outlines began to emerge from the eternal gloom, softly humming ancient melodies.
They resembled the spirits trapped in an endless cycle of reincarnation, futilely reminiscing about their homeland.
"Remembering the homeland… remembering the homeland…"
The lost souls sang cheerfully from the depths of hell: "How lovely is the homeland…"
From their song, a chilling aura burst forth like a waterfall, sweeping over and gradually engulfing the entire rift.
In the central corner, Ji Jue felt a wave of darkness wash over him.
He was gripped by an unprecedented shiver and fear, as if an invisible, icy hand brushed against his soul, appraising him with indifferent scrutiny before slowly drifting away.
What he felt was a terrifying gap between them, akin to heaven and earth.
It was the dread of being nothing more than meat for someone else, helpless and lost.
He recognized the maddening cries of the essence signal and it further intensified his fear.
The Dragon Festival? What’s happening? Is this for real?!
Was this really just handed over so easily?
No, Ji Jue had prepared himself to fight the non-attack and confront this monstrous being.
He had devised strategies for the battle.
Using the central mechanism to hold the line, repeatedly retreating to the ethereal sea outside… and then, directly stabbing to destroy that crushing device!
He didn’t believe this fully ethereal monster could withstand the purification processes of the mercury workshop!
But he had made plans to fight against a shepherd, and yet the opponent just vanished so simply?!
No way! This can’t be true!
Ji Jue wasn’t itching for a fight, but the problem was… if even the shepherds from the Dragon Festival could be dealt with so easily, what chance did he have?
“Prophet—”
Ji Jue turned and asked hoarsely, “What on earth was that?”
“What else could it be?”
The prophet’s expression was indifferent as he felt the dark ripples rising with the song from afar. “That is the mercury, Mr. Ji Jue, the embers once known as mercury instinctively gravitate towards the unextinguished lingering fire.”
Bang!
A muffled sound captured everyone’s soul.
That was the heartbeat.
From the deepest darkness.
Within the ethereal liquid, a shriveled heart leaped suddenly.
Then again…
“Damn it, this is insane, everyone is losing their minds.”
Beyond the central area, in the quake-riddled rift, the scattered remnants of ethereal light gathered over a corpse, a vague face emerging as it devoured the undissipated essence, barely restoring a hazy outline, flickering as if it were a candle in the wind.
Terror swayed.
At this moment, when the invisible being looked back at the slowly rising center, the fear and tremor could no longer be concealed, and disorganized curses spilled forth: “Damn these saints… they’re all frauds… everyone has lost their minds, they’ve gone mad!”
“Sorry to interrupt.”
A gentle voice cut through the darkness, accompanied by footsteps that made the blurred outline tremble, almost dispersing.
It quickly retreated, cautiously looking back.
Then, they saw a face covered in dirt and dust.
It was as if she had just crawled out from some hidden corner, bearing a heavy backpack and clutching half-torn map in anger.
An elderly woman with white hair took off her hat, fanning herself a bit, raised her head and took a big swig from her water bottle, finally sighing as she sat down: “I accidentally fell down here, this damn map led me astray, almost couldn’t climb back up… uh, you, did you just come out from inside?”
She asked curiously, “Could you tell me about the current state of the mercury?”
Just mentioning that name made the invisible outline shudder, almost unable to maintain form, failing to suppress the malice and hostility, staring fiercely at that face.
There was no matrix, no bestowal, and even her ability was indistinguishable, but her soul was condensed to the point where no trace of energy leaked, making it impossible to discern any hints of power.
So strange.
Yet, so alluring.
An instinctual hunger urged them, a compulsion to devour, unable to hold back any longer, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat!
With a furious cry, the invisible being lunged forward.
But in the next instant, it abruptly halted between folds of its closing five fingers.
“It’s been so many years, why does the Dragon Festival still look this pathetic?” She sighed, seemingly holding a dead dog, casually shaking Ji Jue in her grip: “To get in here, I even dismantled a matrix, could you at least be polite? Don’t just jump to violence. But since you aren’t being polite…”
From amidst the flickering light, her face was shrouded in darkness, slowly transforming until it vaguely outlined the cruel visage of a bird of prey.
A blood-covered ominous mask slowly emerged, obscuring the warm smile, as the ethereal blood dripped from its long beak, a fierce gaze descending.
“Then I don’t need to pretend to be a virtuous person.”
The white owl grinned, a silent sinister smile.
Boom!
With a massive crash, the earth collapsed and cracked, thunder booming across the rift.
The ground finally shattered.
The center blossomed like a lotus, opening wide, piercing through earth and sky, bathed in the eternal dim sunlight, intricate structures unfurling from within, thousands of threads flitting about, appearing as if countless invisible hands stretched toward the heavens and earth, grasping all.
From the highest point, unfolded, was a pair of translucent wings.
Reflecting the sunset’s dim light, so splendid.
Then came the second pair, third, fourth…
Until finally, an uncountable number of wings obscured the sky, and one after another, countless eyes opened upon the wings, again peering down, gazing upon the battered land and ruins.
Crimson tears fell like rain.
No lamenting was heard.
But a tidal surge of sorrow tremored once more, causing the collapsing ground to quake, swallowing everything…
Among the countless wings, outline of a hand flickered into view, overlapping and intertwining, stretching forth, hundreds of palms reached from the center, intertwining into an eerie giant ring.
It was as if the roar of a million people resonated throughout the rift.
Smack!
The last remnants of the former shepherd were obliterated from the white owl's hand, unable to let out a final wail.
At that moment, she lifted her head, gazing at the innumerable wings covering the sky, and the clumped multitude of hands twisted within them, unable to suppress a gasp.
“Hey, old Deng—what is this?!”
The white owl raised the map in her hand, furiously questioning: “You only told me to pick up a parcel before I came, you didn’t mention there was something this exaggerated in the rift!”
[That is the mercury, haven’t you seen it with your own eyes?]
On the silent map, distant words slowly appeared: [This suffering and despair replace all sins and evil burdens borne by the inkers.]
“... The aberration of the saints?”
In the stillness, a hoarse voice pushed past the white owl’s throat as she could no longer deny reality: “Is the backlash of the broken heavens this extreme? Didn’t those inkers foresee the consequences when they severed the Heavenly Origin Tower?”
[The breakage of the Heavenly Origin Tower is the worst possible outcome, but even the worst outcome is better than watching the Heavenly Origin Tower complete itself.
There is no place for gods in the world of men; this world shouldn’t have an eternal ruler or emperor.
If the emperor wishes for this world to lose all meaning, then even if the world is destroyed, the emperor cannot be allowed to survive.
The fall of the Eternal Empire is, in essence, the reaction of the greater good against the emperor's ambition to dominate everything; it could not have been initiated by a few inkers alone.
Similarly, the severing of the Heavenly Origin Tower is not Mercury's responsibility...]
The words on the map flowed like water: [But when breaking through the imperial encirclement and reaching the Heavenly Origin Tower, half of the forty-one celestial beings had perished, among those who survived, the master heavily injured and on the brink of death, only her blood could awaken the sword of change.
If it was you, what would you choose?]
The white owl fell silent, staring at the massive outline that silently cried.
No longer able to find words.
The last chance of the entire world, the accumulation and sacrifices of the inkers over thousands of years, the destinies and responsibilities passed down through generations… when the road reached its end, the world remained dark, tempestuous, while the ideal paradise was still so far, like a dream.
When everything reached its conclusion, the cruelest choice lay before them.
To turn back to the emperor's promised everlasting fantasy, sleeping like a baby in iron swaddling, or to ignite oneself, sacrificing everything for a future that might never be reached?
In that instant, in the sky above, amid the roaring thunder, the vision of the collapse of the Heavenly Origin Tower resurfaced.
This time, she finally saw the dazzling light rising from the darkness towards the heavens…
This was the first sword struck by the saintly mercury against the Eternal Empire over four hundred years ago.
And what fell to the ground was only the light of tears.
(End of Chapter)