Chapter 43: Exile is Yun Zhou; Liu Ming: Could the Title Be a Little More…

“Ah, it was indeed beautiful, but I destroyed it with my own hands.”

Exile gazed at the snowy mountains and the starry sky. Across the wasteland, numerous black, jagged spatial fragments hovered in silent suspension.

The surrounding area was devoid of human life. There were only a few houses made of stacked logs, most of which had already been toppled by the high-altitude winds.

“You’ve probably noticed by now, haven’t you? I’m different from those Kings of Anomalies.”

Exile sighed, as if having made a final decision, and began to recount his past.

“I come from the future.”

It was the future Liu Ming had seen in that dream: the World Tree collapsing, anomalies growing wildly, the Kings of Anomalies reviving one after another, and the Emperor of Anomalies awakening from its cocoon.

The Black Dragon’s wings would blot out the entire sky, and the Emperor of Anomalies would ascend the throne. Upon a land of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, the final Dragon Attendant, symbolizing the future, was born.

In the future, he would take up the mantle of the two previous Dragon Attendants, becoming the sharpest blade and sword of the Emperor of Anomalies, eternally maintaining the Black Dragon’s rule over a world already destroyed by anomalies.

“Dragon Attendant…?”

Liu Ming was stunned. That was a core secret of the Tower that even the heads of the Seven Districts rarely knew. Just as every King of Anomalies brought a companion tide upon birth, the Emperor of Anomalies—the great Black Dragon—would also have companion anomalies born at the moment of its revival.

However, this process was far longer than that of the Kings of Anomalies. For the Black Dragon, every King of Anomalies born was its companion tide.

Among the several Kings of Anomalies, the top three were known as Dragon Attendants.

Dragon Attendant Y004 represented the future, Dragon Attendant Y003 controlled the present, and Dragon Attendant Y002 symbolized the past.

They were servants directly responsible to the Black Dragon, guarding the process of the Black Dragon’s revival and burdened with the mission of accelerating that process at the appropriate time.

But no one had ever seen a King of Anomalies of that level. Even Y010, the World Tree, was enough to restrict the movements of all anomalies below its own sequence. The power of sequence anomalies Y004 and above was something people could only imagine.

During his time at the Tree Tower Academy, Liu Ming had imagined several times how powerful Y004, Y003, and Y002 must be—entities that had never appeared and whose existence was only hinted at through sequence detection via technological means. Now, Liu Ming was seeing it for himself.

The entire Seventh District had been torn apart and destroyed by the descent of space, turning into a tattered piece of fabric riddled with spatial loopholes. Every few steps, one could see the entrance to a shattered spatial tunnel. Those tunnels traversed not only space, but time as well.

The mere descent of Y004 had turned an entire district into a desolate forbidden zone—a forbidden zone for life itself.

High in the sky, not even an eagle would fly past.

If Liu Ming wasn’t mistaken… if Exile was indeed… then with what kind of heart was he now watching this land that could once be called home?

Liu Ming thought perhaps he should be subtle, but in the current situation, subtlety was a waste of time. He looked at the thread on his wrist. This thread, which seemed to have been tied by himself, led toward an unknown future with no end in sight. He had to resolve the issue with Exile as quickly as possible.

So he spoke.

“Exile, you are the future Yun Zhou, aren’t you?”

He said this without any preamble, startling Exile so much that the wolf ears and tail composed of black mist flickered chaotically for a moment, nearly losing their shape. “! How did you know?!”

Liu Ming gave him a look as if he were looking at an idiot. Exile immediately wilted. “Fine, actually, I didn’t hide it at all.”

Liu Ming: Stare—

Exile ruffled his hair. “What do you want from me! Fine, fine! I admit my acting skills are terrible, okay?! I am Yun Zhou! I admit it!”

Liu Ming: “…There’s no need to be so self-deprecating. Is being Yun Zhou such an embarrassing thing?”

Exile: “…It’s not that I hate myself that much. More importantly, when are you going back? I’ll send you back. Ying Huo, Du Shui, and even the Liu Family are waiting for you over there, aren’t they?”

“I’m not going back right now. Besides, they’re waiting for you too.”

Liu Ming looked up, his ruby-like eyes fixed on Exile. The emotions contained in those eyes were complex, leaving Exile somewhat dazed.

Could he actually be looked at by Liu Ming like that? He thought Liu Ming only looked at people with that “you’re an idiot” expression.

“I’m different from you. This place is practically my domain. I still have to stay here to stop those three Kings of Anomalies who will be sent back by the Plot Strings once they realize something is wrong.”

Exile spread his hands, intentionally speaking in a light tone, but Liu Ming continued to just stare at him.

The young master of the Liu Family had seen too many liars and told too many lies himself. How could he be fooled by this clumsy pretense of ease?

The two stopped their banter. In the silent atmosphere, Liu Ming spoke another startling sentence.

“Exile, I’m going to see where this thread leads.”

He spoke abruptly, his voice filled with a finality that had already made its decision, giving Exile no chance to offer advice.

“What?!”

As expected, Exile cried out. He had been trying to ignore the thread on Liu Ming’s wrist that stretched toward an unknown destination. Now that Liu Ming had intentionally brought it up, his reaction was inevitably intense.

“Why are you reacting so strongly? You definitely know what this thread means, don’t you?”

Liu Ming pressed his advantage. His face showed only an urgency to know the truth, without a hint of fear. “When you first appeared, you were actually prepared to kill me. I’m a mental-type Guide; I could clearly feel that your killing intent toward me wasn’t fake. What do you know about me?”

“And what… is at the end of this thread?”

Liu Ming asked all his questions in one breath. Considering the other man’s feelings, he forced himself to add a sentence: “It’s too much of a strain for only you and Ratatoskr to be working hard. I suspect this First Cycle is actually your seventh reincarnation. We probably don’t have much time left.”

Exile remained silent. Clearly, Liu Ming was right.

“…I finally know why I never became friends with you in the previous six times… Liu Ming, you really don’t let the friends around you keep a single secret. You’re quite annoying.”

Liu Ming didn’t care. “For the Liu Family, negative terms are compliments. Can you stop praising me? Even I feel embarrassed after hearing so many words of praise.”

Exile: “…Can you just be a normal person?”

It was truly a breakdown of all social order¹. He never expected to say those words in his life, and to the usually reliable Liu Ming at that.

“I’m leaving. As for whether you want to follow, please yourself.”

Liu Ming shrugged. He walked straight in the direction the thread pointed. The thread disappeared at the other end of the wasteland, connecting to a small Spatial Tunnel.

He didn’t hear footsteps behind him, but a familiar mass of black mist followed quietly in his wake.

Liu Ming closed his eyes and smiled. In a sense, Exile was even easier to handle than the current Yun Zhou. He was just too easy to read.

They were the same person, after all.

The end of the thread was as he expected: a black Spatial Tunnel located next to a log house. Translucent glass shards floated around the tunnel.

Liu Ming did not hesitate. He stepped inside as if walking through a patch of mist. As he reached the mouth of the tunnel, he felt an increased pull from the other end of the thread on his hand. The next second, he was pulled into that small opening.

The world turned upside down. The bullet chat that had completely disappeared reappeared, but this time the text was a vivid, deep blood-red, as if someone had used space as a canvas and drenched it in their own blood to print the words.

【This is the first time.】

Liu Ming opened his eyes. He saw the dream he had at the very beginning, which was also the starting point of Yun Zhou’s journey.

The world was destroyed.

The massive World Tree was withering, and people were withering too.

Magma covered the ground, hurricanes triggered tsunamis, and the shadows of the earth spread rapidly. All life was swallowed by the enraged elements of wind, water, fire, and earth, becoming un-melted bones amidst the scorch marks on the ground.

In the Third District, Izayoi Ame got his wish and perished along with the mimicked Kraken. The true culprit, the Second Elder, who hadn’t been discovered due to the influence of the Plot Strings, laughed atop the ruins of a messy sea platform, waving his hand to revive the true Kraken.

Du Shui couldn’t escape her fate. In the end, she still slew her own younger sister. But without the help of Liu Ming and the others, she had to bear the mental power of Umizukimi-no-Mikoto alone, becoming a one-time-use weapon.

“Live… I must live… My companions are still waiting for me… I can’t…”

The young girl propped herself up with her long blade, half-kneeling on the fallen remains of the Kraken. The dawn had already risen on the horizon. Before her consciousness faded, she stubbornly murmured those few words, but she could hardly keep her eyes open.

Blood flowed down, obstructing her vision. The Kraken components implanted in her eyeballs dissipated with the death of the main body, plunging her into sudden blindness.

Blood-red veins spread across the shrine maiden’s entire body. The hero who had slain the King of Anomalies was now transforming into an Anomaly herself as her Mental Landscape collapsed. She gripped the Umizukigiri tightly, looking as if she might stand and swing her blade again at any moment, but her breath had already ceased.

She would never open her eyes again.

Even in death, her Spiritual Body remained those two jellyfish that did not belong to her.

Liu Ming heard a very soft, sharp intake of breath from the black mist beside him. For the Yun Zhou of that time, witnessing the agonizing death of a companion was no different from dying himself.

The good thing was that Yun Zhou still had Ying Huo by his side.

The bad thing was that Yun Zhou only had Ying Huo by his side.

Liu Ming continued forward, coming upon another cluster of raging flames.

In the Fifth District, chalcopyrite had been completely unearthed from the ground by the wind and snow. Splattered snow formed a thick crust over the wasteland. Jenny reached out and casually dragged Yun Zhou from the ruins of the mining area, tossing him aside like a piece of scrap metal.

The woman who had become the King of Anomalies no longer cared for the life or death of anyone. She gazed feverishly at the Anomaly Core before her, which was swirled with wind and snow. It was Skadi’s Anomaly Core.

“We will destroy the entire Fifth District. Skadi, wake up… we all need to wake up…”

Before she could awaken Liu Luo, Ying Huo had already made his decision.

Using himself as a medium and drawing upon his spiritual power rooted in the Y006 Anomaly Core, he completely fused himself with the core in a final, burning embrace.

His melting human body merged with the Y006 Anomaly Core, scorched into a blurred yellow shadow under the extreme heat.

But even though he had made his choice with such finality, even though he had steeled his resolve…

Ying Huo murmured.

“Yun Zhou…”

“I don’t want to die, Yun Zhou.”

Before the towering giant rose from the magma deep within the earth, he cried out in grief.

“I haven’t even reunited with my father yet. I haven’t told him that his child didn’t actually die in the Great Fire Incident… I don’t want to die!”

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Translator’s Notes

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1. breakdown of all social order: A translation of the idiom ‘li beng yue huai’ (礼崩乐坏), literally ‘the collapse of rites and music.’ Historically used to describe the disintegration of social hierarchy and moral standards during the Zhou Dynasty, it here emphasizes the character’s shock at the breach of social norms. ↩