Chapter 47: Golden Sunlight on the Snow Mountain. Liu Ming: Perhaps the meaning of your reincarnation is…

At the end of the fifth cycle, Yun Zhou stood there exhausted. He said nothing, waiting in silence for Hela to continue.

Hela smiled, knowing she could proceed.

“Perhaps it is because humans are so insignificant that they always love to chase grand ideals. Y004, are you going to let yourself be trapped in that kind of life too?”

She was referring to the leader of the Tower, Black Swan. As an opponent of the anomalies, Black Swan had always sworn to kill every King of Anomalies. Therefore…

She had personally killed her close friend of many years after that friend merged with the Anomaly Core of Y010, without a moment’s hesitation.

Not only did she not hesitate, but she also turned her friend’s corpse—the body of a King of Anomalies—into a prison to hold all other anomalies, ensuring her friend would never know peace.

“Even as a King of Anomalies, I find her a bit too ruthless. She uses any means necessary to prevent the birth of the Black Dragon, eventually turning into a heartless lunatic that even a King of Anomalies cannot compare to. Even if the world is destined for destruction, even if she could reverse the situation, she doesn’t think it’s worth it.”

Hela rarely used such a mocking tone to evaluate someone. It was unclear whether this mockery was directed at herself or truly at Black Swan.

“But she… no, but I am the Savior.”

Yun Zhou’s voice was raspy yet firm. His golden eyes had turned into the same blood-red eyes as Liu Ming’s due to his anomalization, and beneath them were deep, haggard dark circles.

Because he was the Savior of the prophecy yet had achieved nothing—even becoming a King of Anomalies in the end—he had no choice.

“Hela, in the process of trying to stop you, I tried countless times not to destroy the Seventh District upon my descent. But every time, no matter where I arrived in the Seventh District, it was uncontrollable. Just like you are bound to destroy the Fifth District. The only difference is that you do it intentionally, while I have absolutely no control over my actions.”

Yun Zhou took a deep breath. He had always been a sincere person; if others treated him with sincerity, he would reciprocate, even with an antagonist like Hela. As long as she spoke from the heart, he was willing to respond in kind.

“I only wanted to tell them of the coming disaster, but instead, I became the disaster.”

Hela remained silent for a long time. In that moment, perhaps she felt a spark of resonance. She wanted to ask many questions—such as how he knew she truly wanted to destroy the Fifth District of her own volition—but those questions were now meaningless. Their positions were fundamentally mutually exclusive.

Hela wanted to quickly awaken all the Kings of Anomalies and accelerate the awakening of the Black Dragon.

Yun Zhou wanted to stop her, delaying the Black Dragon’s awakening for as long as possible.

After an indeterminate period of silence, Hela finally spoke to break the atmosphere.

“Yun Zhou… I will give you a new choice. Do you know of the Fourth District?”

“That is the Underworld. If you are brave enough, perhaps you can try this—kill everyone you care about and send them there.”

After saying this, Hela walked straight ahead. She moved quickly, vanishing into the vast sandy mist in the blink of an eye, leaving Yun Zhou standing alone.

“The Underworld? The Fourth District?” Liu Ming turned his head, wanting an explanation from Yun Zhou, only to realize that Yun Zhou had disappeared at some point.

The black mist that had been following him was gone.

All that remained was the passage leading to the sixth cycle.

The surrounding sandy mist grew thicker. Liu Ming hesitated for a moment before finally stepping inside.

But what he saw was not the prompt from Y009 stating 【This is the sixth time.】 Instead, it was a familiar landscape of high-altitude snow mountains.

Below a mountain pass where snow fell upon ruins, in front of a small cabin made of stacked logs, the Yun Zhou existing between the fifth and sixth cycles sat in silence, facing the snow mountain before him.

He sat there motionless, like a quiet statue. The silk thread on Liu Ming’s wrist also stopped, unmoving. Thus, Liu Ming stood there as well, quietly watching Yun Zhou.

The snow in the Seventh District fell with a soft rustle. Yun Zhou had grown accustomed to seeing his homeland destroyed every time he opened his eyes. This was the first time he sat quietly in the snow, facing his ruined home directly, until a thin layer of snow settled on his shoulders, only to be scattered by the power of space.

Liu Ming didn’t mistreat himself by standing the whole time; he walked over to Yun Zhou’s side and found a spot to sit down.

And so, before that cycle truly began, the Liu Ming from the seventh cycle accompanied the Yun Zhou of the sixth cycle—who had just destroyed his own home—in contemplation for seven days.

Y004 pondered for seven days in his ruined homeland, and Liu Ming pondered with him. Those were seven days filled only with the sound of breathing and the noise of a breaking world. The sky of the Seventh District was riddled with shattered voids, boundless black mist, and a fractured highland landscape.

On the silent seventh day, Yun Zhou stood up. He finally walked toward the true sixth cycle, stepping onto the path toward Tree Tower Academy.

Liu Ming saw the light in Yun Zhou’s eyes flicker out bit by bit.

During the first cycle, the eyes of the youth who had just become a King of Anomalies were full of pleasant surprise: “Since I have a chance to start over, I can definitely save everyone!”

During the second cycle, the youth who fell while stumbling could still comfort himself: “It’s okay, it was just one failure. I can still—”

During the third cycle, Yun Zhou could still barely reassure himself with the encouragement of his companions: “It’s fine, I still have a chance… I can definitely do it, definitely…”

During the fourth cycle, the exhaustion of repeated deaths had dulled his mind, yet Yun Zhou still said: “…One last time. I can’t start again… this constant reincarnation, it’s not fair to anyone…”

During the fifth cycle, even though everything had been changed, the irrational Y003 still descended, twisting everything.

Yun Zhou sat in the wind and snow of the Seventh District at the start of the sixth cycle, taking a long time before he could manage to stand up.

“Can I really do it? If I fail, just let me die here. Don’t let my descent and restart destroy another district…”

“Let me die.”

“If… if we can really reunite in the Underworld…”

“If… the Fourth District is truly as Hela described…”

No, he knew. The knowledge of all Kings of Anomalies was practically shared, all originating from their great father, the Black Dragon.

Liu Ming watched as Yun Zhou’s smile began to twist. He began to transform into that wicked, irritable version of himself from the beginning of the seventh cycle, back when they first recognized each other.

“I will save this world, so please, go die. In the Fourth District, the Underworld… we will meet again. Everyone will continue to live on in the form of the dead.”

In truth, his wish had always been the same. When he wandered the Seventh District, he hoped the tribal residents would be well. When he attended Tree Tower Academy, he hoped all his classmates would be well. When the ten great anomalies appeared, he hoped everyone could survive.

He simply… always hoped everyone could be well and choose the lives they wanted.

“If death allows everyone to enjoy the peace they deserve… then death isn’t such a bad ending after all.”

Thus, Yun Zhou set out on his journey once more. The silver-blue silk thread followed Yun Zhou’s figure forward. Liu Ming sighed and followed.

【This is the sixth time.】

He saw Yun Zhou become friends with Du Shui and Ying Huo as usual. He saw Yun Zhou reach out his hand while Ying Huo’s back was turned.

Black mist solidified in his hand, turning into a sword sharp enough to pierce Ying Huo’s heart.

I only need to kill him, but… this might be the last time.

But if I truly strike, what is the meaning of my reincarnation? Wouldn’t I be no different from that high-and-mighty Black Dragon?

Liu Ming heard Yun Zhou’s inner thoughts. Or rather, he didn’t even need to listen; even this version of Yun Zhou, who seemed to be turning dark, was still the same Yun Zhou who wore every emotion on his face.

Liu Ming saw a wriggling black-gold silk thread slowly rise from the shoulder of the sixth-cycle Yun Zhou.

Those were the Plot Strings.

Yun Zhou was still hesitating, but Liu Ming never hesitated. He struck directly, brushing away that Plot String.

“It’s alright. I’m here now. The meaning of your reincarnation was to wait for me.”

To his surprise, those black-gold strings that had troubled Yun Zhou for countless days and nights really were like ordinary threads made of mental energy. The moment Liu Ming touched them, they shattered into fragments.

Those black-gold strings were like Yun Zhou’s wind—once a brilliant, holy gold, now turned into the black of the Dragon.

The Plot Strings were erased just like that, but Liu Ming knew why.

It was because the existence of a King of Anomalies was unique, and that included the creations of a King of Anomalies—such as the Plot Strings left behind by Y003.

During the previous viewing, Liu Ming had resolved the Plot Strings on Yun Zhou’s body from the seventh cycle, so the Plot Strings on the sixth-cycle Yun Zhou crumbled easily at his touch.

…Still… I… still…

“Let them enjoy this beautiful time together.”

Liu Ming whispered softly into that Yun Zhou’s ear.

Yun Zhou froze, feeling as if he had just experienced an auditory hallucination, hearing someone’s gentle reminder.

Yun Zhou looked at Ying Huo’s back ahead of him, and the hand he had raised finally dropped back down.

That whisper, which felt like a mere illusion, shattered his resolve and his misguided obsession. Thus, Yun Zhou once again walked forward alongside Ying Huo down the paths of Tree Tower Academy.

Even though he had already walked this path five times without hope.

But because he still held on, because a sliver of hope still remained, and because he was still dreaming, he did not stop. He would never stop.

Liu Ming was the same.

Liu Ming and Yun Zhou walked in opposite directions, their backs to each other. One stepped into a black spatial tunnel, while the other walked toward the tomorrow of the sixth cycle. This time, Yun Zhou would continue his seemingly futile efforts, and then…

He would head toward the seventh cycle where Liu Ming waited, where the path would finally open up¹.

A new spatial tunnel appeared before Liu Ming. The Yun Zhou of the sixth cycle had failed again, but the versions of them in the seventh cycle were still pushing forward, only a single step away from victory.

Once the sensation of spatial travel passed, Liu Ming opened his eyes. He had returned to the familiar Seventh District that belonged to the seventh cycle.

Yun Zhou was standing there anxiously, his face lighting up only when he saw Liu Ming appear.

“You’re finally here! I thought you were going to vanish into the chaotic cycles. What was that thread trying to do… was it another one of Y003’s schemes?”

“No, nothing like that.”

Liu Ming shook his head. He looked toward the horizon of the Seventh District, only to see a flash of golden light atop the snowy mountains.

“What is that?”

Liu Ming asked.

“Sunlight hitting the golden mountain²,” Yun Zhou replied with a relaxed smile. “Maybe our luck is finally changing.”

Translator’s Notes