Chapter 1853 - 1852: Serenity/New Copy World Character (Extended - for Monthly Tickets)

Dong—dong dong—bang—

Beneath the scattered chunks of rubble, a tightly shut underground iron door was pushed open from below.

With the sound of stones being flung aside, a head poked out from under the iron door. He lifted his head, looked at the silent night around him, at the surrounding ruins, and his eyes slowly widened.

"What is it? What is it? What’s going on outside?" From below came other people’s slightly anxious questions, "Don’t block the doorway, what’s happening out there?"

Right after that, the figure sticking his head out wobbled, as if someone down below was shoving him.

"Don’t push, don’t push!" The figure reached out, braced his hand on the ground beside the exit, pulled his body out of the basement, and tumbled into the rubble to the side.

"Let me see, let me see." Another figure poked his head out at the exit. He lifted his gaze and swept a glance around at the scene. "Holy shit, the whole damn city collapsed."

"What, what?" Hearing his words, the people below instantly grew anxious. "Don’t block the way, don’t block the way!"

"Right there, right there." The second figure also reached out his hand and climbed out of the exit.

Right after that, one figure after another crawled out from under the exit and looked at the desolate, silent surroundings.

"My god, it really all collapsed."

"What happened, was it a massive earthquake?"

"If it were a massive earthquake we’d have been buried down there too. It’s like something just swept across the buildings on the surface."

"Maybe it was some kind of battle aftershock?"

"Battle aftershock? You been reading too many novels?"

"So what the hell is this situation?"

"You ask me, who am I supposed to ask?"

A burst of noisy chatter rose from the crowd.

"A lot of people must’ve died this time, the whole city’s collapsed."

"Die what? The residents here moved out ages ago, we only just came."

"The residents moved out, but there’re still inner and outer city patrols, aren’t there?"

"Didn’t you hear the sirens? When the alarms went off, the people in the outer city all ducked into the air-raid shelters too."

"Come on, you’re telling me a disaster this big didn’t kill anyone, how’s that supposed to make sense?"

"If you think it doesn’t make sense, here, there’s a rock. Go bash yourself to death."

"You think I’m stupid? This rock’s so small, how’s it gonna bash me to death?!"

Bang—bang—

Amid the clamor, from the ruins not far away came sound after sound—the noise of small, tightly shut doors being forced open.

"Speaking of which, is that big shot in the inner city still around?"

"No idea. The inner city’s been completely turned into ruins. We’re all still here, so that big shot should still be around too, right."

"You two quit muttering here. There’s a shelter door over there blocked by a big rock, we gotta help clear it."

"On it, on it!"

The cool wind of the silent night swept over the land, over one figure after another running through the ruins.

The brilliant cluster of stars hung upside down in the sky, mingled with the reflection of a giant gray-white planet.

——

Western Lands

"Still no way to get in touch with Sir?" Lin Chichi put down the file in her hand, lifted her head, and looked at Yan Yue, who was sitting in front of the phone.

"No, it’s been six days already." Yan Yue shook her head. She looked up at Lin Chichi. "Ever since Sir disappeared, that mark in the Heaven has vanished too..."

She paused, wanting to say something, but it stuck in her throat. She hesitated, not knowing how to put it.

She had guesses in her heart, but didn’t dare voice them, afraid that saying them out loud would make them come true.

"It’s fine," Lin Chichi smiled and took a deep breath. "Sir will be fine. We’ve been through so many crises, and every time Sir got us through. He’s going to be okay."

"Mm." Yan Yue nodded slightly. She turned her head and glanced at the dim glow beyond the sky.

Then she drew back her gaze, looked at the ended call on her phone, pondered for a moment, and then raised her hand and hit redial.

"Beeep—"

A busy tone sounded from the phone.

Lin Chichi, who had lowered her head, was drawn by the tone and shifted her gaze to the phone screen.

"Beeep—"

The second tone, still no answer.

Yan Yue’s gaze lowered slightly, and Lin Chichi slowly withdrew her own.

"Beeep—"

At the third tone, Yan Yue was about to look away.

"Cold noodles for sale—"

Right then, a rather loud ringtone rang out in the office, echoing a little.

Yan Yue froze for a moment, not yet reacting.

But Lin Chichi had already raised her head, looking towards the source of the ringtone.

A thin young man was standing at the door, holding a large-screen phone, staring at the incoming call display with a somewhat puzzled look.

"Sir!" Lin Chichi shot to her feet and looked at the young man, calling out excitedly.

"Morning, Chichi." He Ao lifted his hand and greeted Lin Chichi.

"Minister He?!" At this moment, Yan Yue turned around as well and looked at He Ao.

"Morning, Yan Yue." He Ao lifted the phone in his hand, glanced at the caller ID, and asked calmly, "Do I need to pick this up?"

"No." Yan Yue shook her head quickly. She immediately picked up her phone and hung up the call. As the ringtone faded completely, she suddenly didn’t know what to say. She paused, a bit at a loss, and said, "Sir, it’s not morning anymore, it’s almost evening."

As soon as she said it, she realized something about that sounded off, like she was nitpicking her own superior.

Lin Chichi also realized this felt a bit wrong. She looked at Yan Yue, then at He Ao.

The whole office instantly sank into a slightly awkward atmosphere.

But the awkwardness didn’t last long. The three of them met each other’s eyes and suddenly burst out laughing.

"So, Sir," Lin Chichi lifted her head with a slightly relieved smile and looked at He Ao, "where have you been these past few days? We haven’t been able to reach you at all."

"Didn’t go anywhere." He Ao shook his head with a smile. "Just a bit of jet lag."

A person who manipulates time is not within the time being manipulated. Likewise, that Divine Being seated high above the Starry Sky is not affected by the changing flow of time.

And the region where the Divine Power descended—where He Ao confronted it—was also extracted from the stream of flowing time.

The final result was that He Ao and the surrounding Gobi Desert, along with the edge of the Gobi where Ningta City lay, had their time unaffected and still moving at a normal pace.

But outside, a solid six days had gone by.

"Are you in Central Earth?" Yan Yue asked softly.

Clearly, the "jet lag" she understood was not the same "jet lag" He Ao meant.

"Near Central Earth." He Ao didn’t go deeper into that question. Instead, he asked, "These past few days, have you still been setting up that Array?"

"Yes. We’ve completed about two-thirds of it." Lin Chichi nodded slightly. "But because that Array had some unexpected changes before, the sect and the Research Institute—"

She glanced at Yan Yue. "And World Tree and Moonlight discussed it and decided to leave a small gap in each Array. None of them are fully constructed."

"This was led by Chichi," Yan Yue added on the side. "Dean Liu and Lady Ge Ya are both quite supportive of her plan."

He Ao turned his gaze to Lin Chichi, nodded slightly, and smiled. "You did very well. You’re already a person in charge who can hold the fort on your own."

"It’s because Sir taught me well." A faint smile curved naturally at the corners of Lin Chichi’s mouth. Then she asked softly, "So do we still continue setting up this Array?"

Hearing this question, He Ao paused slightly, then nodded lightly. "Keep setting it up."

"Okay." "Okay."

Lin Chichi and Yan Yue both looked at him and nodded heavily.

——

Beidu

Liu Zhengyun sat in the quiet little courtyard, lifted his head, and looked at the silent stars and night outside the window, at that illusory grayish-white planet.

"It’s so late. Still not going to sleep?" A soft question came from beside him.

Liu Zhengyun’s body paused slightly. He raised his head, looking back, at that thin figure.

The clear Moonlight traced out the sharp lines of that face; only when his gaze fell on those cheeks did Liu Zhengyun’s movements slowly come to a stop.

He withdrew his gaze and sighed lightly. "You’re back?"

"You weren’t worried I wouldn’t make it back?" He Ao walked to his side and pulled over a cool reclining chair to sit down.

A faint cool breeze brushed his cheeks, even easing the pain in his Soul a little at this moment. "This is actually pretty comfortable."

"This is something I can’t decide and can’t affect," Liu Zhengyun leaned back in the chair, took a palm fan from the side, and handed it to He Ao. "If you didn’t come back, life would still have to go on."

He Ao accepted the fan he handed over. "You seem to have gotten old all of a sudden. When I was a kid, my grandpa used to sit with me and fan the air with something like this all the time."

"Maybe sometimes I just want to step away from modern society and look for some pure, natural feeling," Liu Zhengyun said, gently fanning the air with the palm fan. "In the end you still saved those 2.7 billion people."

"They were fine to begin with, so how is that saving them?" He Ao lifted the fan and gently stirred the air.

The soft breeze brushed across his cheeks.

"If it weren’t for you," Liu Zhengyun sighed, "they would, with high probability, have died."

He raised his head and looked at the huge illusory planet in the sky. "So, is the matter resolved?"

"You could say it’s been postponed." He Ao let out a soft sigh.

"So the ruin will still eventually Advent in the end? When?" Liu Zhengyun asked in a low voice.

"I don’t know. At the longest, ten days or half a month; at the shortest, three to five days," He Ao spoke softly. "But sooner or later it will come back."

"When that time comes, will you still be able to send it back again?" Liu Zhengyun asked quietly.

"This method only works once." He Ao said calmly.

The small courtyard fell silent again, leaving only the chirping of insects and calls of birds in the night.

"I still haven’t asked you how you pushed back a ruin that had already Advented." Liu Zhengyun turned his head and shifted the topic.

"Let me think how to explain it to you," He Ao looked at the palm fan in his hand, then turned his head and asked with a smile, "Do you know what an electric fan is?"

"I was born in the last century," Liu Zhengyun couldn’t help but laugh. "Not a hundred years ago—I never met the last Emperor."

"Just imagine that kind of electric fan without a guard, just the blades," He Ao slowly stood up. "A little ball gets thrown over from far away,"

He lifted his hand and tapped lightly at the air; a rock in the distance rose up. "Normally, that little ball can pass through the gaps in the electric fan and hit me, but..."

He shifted his field of view forward; the rock suddenly shot toward him. He Ao raised the palm fan and gave a gentle horizontal flick, and the rock was knocked flying back.

He turned back to look at Liu Zhengyun. "When the ball was thrown over, I snapped the electric fan on with a ’pa——’, and the ball got bounced away."

"That simple?" Liu Zhengyun’s eyes opened slightly wider.

"The actual principle is much more complicated," He Ao smiled. "But in essence, that’s what it is."

"Then why do you say this method won’t work next time?" Liu Zhengyun asked, curious.

"Because next time, the one throwing the little ball might instantly adjust its own rotational speed. If it adjusts its speed to match the fan’s, it’ll be relatively still with respect to the fan, and then it can pass through the gaps in the fan again."

He Ao shrugged and sat back down in the chair. "At that point, turning the fan on or off, or cranking it up to any setting, won’t help."

"Is it hard to be able to adjust your own rotational speed?" Liu Zhengyun asked in a low voice.

"Hard—very hard for us," He Ao lifted his head and looked at the grayish-white planet overhead. "But for that thing up there in the sky, it should be very simple."

The small courtyard fell quiet again.

"So has the scene in the sky caused any panic?" This time, it was He Ao who asked the question.

"No panic. That power interfering with cognition still exists; it’s just weaker now," Liu Zhengyun said softly. "Most people still won’t look up at the sky. Those who do will just assume that what they see up there is a natural assumption. Only the few who know the truth actually care about it."

"That’s pretty good," He Ao shrugged. "In a sense, that guy up there is actually pretty nice to people."

Hearing this, Liu Zhengyun was slightly stunned, then laughed quietly. "True, he is kind of nice."

At that, the two of them exchanged a smile.

"You’re not nervous?" Liu Zhengyun lifted his head once more, glanced at the sky, and asked softly.

"Being nervous doesn’t help," He Ao slowly stood up and stretched. "I believe everything will turn out fine."

Liu Zhengyun turned his head to look at him.

"When my grandpa was still alive, he often told me not to fear the difficulties in front of us—that everything would eventually get better," He Ao said, lifting his head to look at the sky with a faint sigh.

"Do you think we can win?" Liu Zhengyun looked at the planet in the sky.

"That sounds like a classic flag-raising line right before the final Chapter," He Ao shook his head and looked at the slightly surprised Liu Zhengyun at his side. "Say that, and you have to die in the last battle."

"There’s such a saying?" Liu Zhengyun froze for a moment.

"Thinking about winning or losing doesn’t really mean anything," He Ao looked at him and smiled. "We only have one ending, and that’s to crush the enemy—same as we’ve always done."

He lifted his head and looked at the grayish-white planet in the sky. "Our story is still very long. This isn’t the grand finale."

"Alright, I should get back to my work." He Ao folded up the palm fan in his hand, looked at Liu Zhengyun, and set the fan down on the chair. "Thanks for the fan."

A rushing train sliced through the void, taking his figure away.

Liu Zhengyun lowered his head to glance at the palm fan on the chair and froze slightly, then lifted his head to look at the stars in the sky, gently waving the fan as the furrow in his brow slowly eased.

——

Antarctica

He Ao lifted his head and glanced at the wind and snow filling the sky above, then shifted his gaze to the countdown in the corner of his field of view.

The countdown had already reached its end.

The system’s countdown was bound to the time of the Main World, not to the time He Ao himself experienced.

No matter how long He Ao had gone through, as long as seven days had passed in the Main World, the system’s countdown would automatically run out.

It was just that this time, the speed of that "countdown" wasn’t quite normal.

He Ao also didn’t know whether anything would change.

He lowered his head to look at the "Barrier Wood" in his hand. If not for the existence of the Barrier Wood, he would have been almost completely unable to pull off all this.

A powerful cheat is certainly handy—so handy it feels like the universe and fate itself are helping him.

But what is the price?

He Ao looked at the leaf in his hand. Amid the drifting ice and snow, the wooden leaf faintly reflected the outline of a human figure.

Sharp and angular.

00:00:01

00:00:00

The world fell silent for an instant.

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