Chapter 40: Sister and Brother. Liu Ming: Who said you were the only Anomaly…

“You’re a complete lunatic! It’s one thing to cause trouble for yourself, but you actually dared to target… to target Yun Zhou!”

The Exile appeared even angrier than Hela, whose true motives had just been exposed. “Do you insist on pushing things until He truly wakes up!”

“Wouldn’t it be better if He woke? Aside from you and those thousand-eyed, thousand-bodied words that are always busy delivering messages, there isn’t an Anomaly King who doesn’t want their Creator to awaken…”

Hela seemed to grow quiet after her true goal was called out. Surrounded by her attackers, she revealed a sinister smile. “Besides, Liu Ming… your sister, Liu Luo, and I are old friends. We’ve collaborated for so long just for this moment. What makes you think… I would underestimate you so much?”

“Underestimate… us?”

Du Shui’s blade faltered for a moment, and The Exile stood dazed in confusion.

“What do you mean? You have another card to play?”

Liu Ming’s brow furrowed. News of his sister caused him to lose his composure instantly. He took a reckless step forward, only to freeze when he saw a wisp of floating thread in Hela’s hand.

It was the manifestation of his own mental power.

Hela summoned several giant beasts to wall off Du Shui and the others who tried to intercept her. She stared at the thread in her hand as if seeing her imminent victory. “That stupid wolf over there… is only valuable because of The Exile’s presence. But your mental power is precious no matter the time or place.”

Hela’s blood-red eyes, so similar to Liu Ming’s, stared fixedly at him as if looking at a priceless gemstone.

“Even for us Anomaly Kings, it is a rare treasure.”

Hela suddenly burst into a fit of manic laughter. She snapped her fingers, using the thread of Liu Ming’s mental power as a medium. The power within the Y006 Anomaly Core was guided out by Hela. The surrounding yellow flames flared up even more intensely, as if resisting the weakness of having their power stripped away.

The flames surged toward the sky. The Y006 Anomaly Core let out a hoarse scream, and the entire mining area began to rapidly melt and collapse. The ground vanished beneath everyone’s feet as the once-solid earth split down the middle into steep cliffs. The subterranean rock began to melt rapidly under the heat of the flames, quickly turning into a churning mass of black-yellow lava at the bottom of the abyss.

Heat rushed toward the heavens. The mining area had completely collapsed, revealing the azure horizon beyond. However, the sky of the Fifth District, which was usually clear for thousands of miles, was now a deep, somber ink-gray. Wind had begun to howl out of nowhere.

No, it wasn’t just wind. Liu Ming reached out his hand. He felt a cold sensation dripping onto his fingertips. It was snow.

It was snowing.

In the Fifth District, known as the “Heat Pole” of the Seven Districts, a land of a thousand miles of yellow sand, it was snowing.

“Hahahaha – didn’t expect that, did you?”

Hela abruptly raised her hand. All the power Surtr had collected was converted by her into the power to revive Y005. The wind and snow grew heavier, and blue-white snowy shadows flowed along the path of the wind, gradually forming the silhouette of a long-haired woman.

“The reason you couldn’t find the member of the Liu Family who was helping me is because until now, I was the only one physically present in the Fifth District. Liu Luo’s body has been in a state of collapse because of the Y005 Anomaly Core, transforming into the wind and snow that flows across this land.”

Hela’s hand lightly touched the figure made of snow. The texture of the wind and snow solidified instantly, turning into a black-haired young woman who was half-human and half-blizzard.

She had upturned phoenix eyes extremely similar to Liu Ming’s, and her aura possessed the same indifferent, detached quality. Unlike Hela, whose lips curled up even in silence, this woman was as cold as the winds on the plateaus of the Seventh District when she spoke.

She was like winter itself, bringing traces of snow to the Seven Districts without bias.

Y005 on the Anomaly Sequence, an Anomaly King – the Goddess of Wind and Snow, Skadi.

Liu Ming began to think desperately about what his sister had gone through and why she had appeared before him in the form of the revived Y005.

But his mind, which was usually able to reach conclusions rapidly, felt as if it were frozen solid, becoming terrifyingly sluggish.

“Hello, little brother. It’s been a long time.”

Liu Luo opened her eyes. One eye was the color of ice and snow, while the other was the crimson of an Anomaly. When she looked at Liu Ming, her overflowing mental power kicked up a bone-chilling wind.

“Liu Ming…”

Du Shui and the others looked worriedly at Liu Ming, who was being watched by his own sister. Liu Luo looked too much like Liu Ming; even their temperaments were identical. It wasn’t hard to guess that this was the Liu Luo who had previously broken ties with the Liu Family.

“Sister… why did you become an Anomaly?”

Liu Ming did not allow his silence to last long. He pushed up his glasses, appearing to adjust his emotions quickly. Without hesitation or fear, he met those eyes belonging to Y005.

“Can you tell me?”

He asked with great sincerity, as if he were merely a seeker of knowledge hungry for an answer.

“You’re mistaken, brother. I didn’t become an Anomaly… I returned to my origin.”

Liu Luo’s voice was very soft, yet she answered Liu Ming’s question with care.

Liu Ming lowered his eyes. His sister’s words revealed a terrifying reality. If he wasn’t mistaken, the reason his sister had suddenly lashed out and broken ties with Grandfather Liu Lin was definitely because she had discovered something.

And the truth she discovered was absolutely related to the fact that she had now become an Anomaly.

What did she find?

Did she still remember it now that she had become an Anomaly?

Liu Ming couldn’t be sure, nor did he have a way to verify it.

The situation seemed to have fallen into a stalemate. Two Anomaly Kings had appeared in the Fifth District simultaneously, and they were clearly on the same side. Even with The Exile standing against Hela, they had no chance of victory.

This was because Y005 was a fully revived Anomaly King, whereas The Exile was trapped within Yun Zhou’s body, limited in more ways than one.

“Liu Ming… actually, the first thing I should have done upon my resurrection was ‘kill’ you. That way, you wouldn’t have to do it yourself.”

Liu Luo cast a deep, lingering look at her younger brother. Every movement she made now brought forth an endless flurry of wind and snow, yet her tone was full of regret, sounding as gentle as if she were still human.

“But now, you can go. Brother, everyone else here must stay, but you alone are free to leave.”

Liu Luo’s expression remained calm and unruffled. Liu Ming almost laughed at the words. “Sister, I never had that kind of privilege when I was a child. How could I possibly have it now that I’m grown? Why are you letting me go? Let me think…”

“It must be because I still have some use to you, right?”

Liu Luo smiled at that. The two members of the Liu Family stared at each other as if no one else existed. Despite being the closest blood relatives in the world, there wasn’t a hint of intimacy in their conversation. Instead, they seemed like enemies harboring deep-seated resentment, their voices chillingly indifferent when mentioning one another.

“Why must you always point it out? Brother, that’s exactly why I’ve disliked you since we were small.”

Liu Luo brushed her long hair back. As her strands passed through her fingertips, they were dyed the color of ice and snow by her mental power. The sudden shift in the climate became increasingly obvious, the wind and snow growing more violent by the second.

“Liu Ming, run away with your tail between your legs. Tell that old man in the First District that I’m back.”

Liu Luo turned to Hela. “Let’s go. On to the next step of the plan-“

“Who said… you could leave?”

Frail, swaying threads stretched out with sudden firmness, blocking the path of the two Anomaly Kings. The sight made The Exile’s eyes widen in shock, unable to comprehend what Liu Ming was trying to do.

Those were two Anomaly Kings working in tandem… they stood no chance of winning right now.

But Liu Ming was remarkably confident. He snapped his fingers, and the threads rapidly wove and stacked together, firmly barring the two Anomaly Kings from departing.

He acted without fear because, at that moment, the bullet chat had finally changed from 【??????…】 to 【Just logged on, what’s the situation?!】

He had used T231’s ability to strip away the Plot Strings covering the bullet chat, though even he hadn’t expected that the Plot Strings could be applied to the chat interface itself.

It seemed these bullet chats were also entities belonging to their world, given they could be controlled by Plot Strings rather than being the high-dimensional lifeforms he had initially imagined.

【??? Wait, guys, are we finally unblocked? Did one of us do something?】

【Holy crap! I missed a goldmine! Look at the protagonist’s party! How many Anomaly Kings are even here… Y007, Y005, Y004… and there’s even a Y006 Anomaly Core!】

【Y007 and Y005 actually teamed up. What secrets do they know? Why would one Anomaly King be so open with another? I’ve never seen a scene like this!】

【You haven’t seen it, but we have. But how is the protagonist’s group going to break this deadlock…】

【Wait! Is he looking over here?! That Young Master Liu!】

…

The bullet chat covered Liu Ming’s vision with unprecedented density. He took a few seconds to adjust, then abruptly looked up. His gaze didn’t focus on anyone present; instead, he stared straight at the space where the bullet chat appeared.

Liu Ming shouted, “I said, since you’ve been watching me for so long, shouldn’t you answer my questions?”

“Some of you must know… how to keep these two Anomaly Kings trapped here, don’t you?”

Silence. A suffocating silence blanketed the entire area, leaving only the sound of burning flames and the rustle of wind and snow.

He was questioning the bullet chat.

The chat exploded instantly:

【??? Did I just hear that right?! Young Master Liu is talking to us?!】

【No way, when did he find us?! Why can he see us? Right now he’s clearly just a human!】

【Is it the main body? I remember the main body projected her consciousness twice before, once in the Third District and once in the Fifth… Wait! Is it the main body?!】

Liu Ming sighed, interrupting the panicked chatter. “It’s not the main body. I figured it out myself. Now, please answer my question, otherwise you won’t have anything left to watch this cycle.”

The bullet chat fell silent instantly. They seemed to have entered some sort of contemplative state, but Liu Ming had no intention of giving them time to think.

“Silence is fine. You aren’t a single monolithic block; someone will eventually answer me. Or rather, I should say, some Dian Zhu will eventually answer me.”

Liu Ming shook his head. “Don’t make me reveal your final identity right here in front of these three Anomaly Kings.”

The bullet chat immediately behaved.

【Don’t say it, don’t say it! If you let them know we’re watching, we definitely won’t be able to watch anymore!】

【It’s serious! If we can’t watch, we won’t have any intel to sell! We’ll starve!】

【Young Master Liu, calm down! But it’s not like we’re an encyclopedia…】

Liu Ming: “I’m going to call your main body and tell her you’re using the intelligence network meant for monitoring the seven districts to watch a new anime.”

The bullet chat folded instantly: 【We were wrong! Young Master Liu, if you want to stop those two, you can pull them into the Seventh District! It’s not a permanent solution, but it can at least buy time for Chairperson Black Swan! The First District already knows about the situation in the Fifth District, and Chairperson Black Swan is on her way!】

Pull them into the Seventh District?

That was an unexpected answer.

After all, everyone in the seven districts knew that Yun Zhou’s home, the Seventh District, had become an isolated ruin of space due to the descent of Y004. Inside, there was nothing but eternal night.

But he absolutely could not let those two Anomaly Kings leave now. Liu Ming understood his sister’s pride. As a member of the Liu Family, she would never have allowed herself to become an Anomaly King unless the benefits were substantial enough.

And an interest that carried more weight than being an Anomaly King…

He could only think of the entire world.

“If we want to deal with three awakened Anomaly Kings all at once…”

Liu Ming whispered. Hela was already prepared to retreat, but before she left, she intended to take more with her.

For instance, the Anomaly Core of Y006.

She reached out, and shadows of the crimson earth surged forth, rushing toward Ying Huo and Mute, who were currently using their mental power to restrain Y006.

Liu Ming was forced to coordinate with Du Shui, using his silk threads to bind those shadow arms before Du Shui severed them with her blade.

But they couldn’t hold them back forever.

Liu Ming made up his mind. “The Exile! I’m counting on you. Take them into your domain!”

The Exile was still charging in that direction, and his eyes widened at the words. “What?!”

“Aren’t you a space-type?! Take them to the plateau in the Seventh District that’s already been swallowed by the black mist! Is that clear enough for you?!”

Liu Ming finally realized that when speaking to characters of the Yun Zhou series, he had to use the most direct language possible, without any beating around the bush or metaphors.

“Are you joking?! The Seventh District… the situation there is special. Even if I am a space-type… if I’m the only Anomaly King, there’s no way I can do it!”

The Exile shouted back at Liu Ming as he ran toward Ying Huo and Mute, not even stopping to wonder how Liu Ming knew he was a space-type.

“Who said you were the only Anomaly King?”

Liu Ming yanked the silk threads in his hands. Even though the lines were cutting into his palms and leaving bloody welts, he was actually smiling.