“What nonsense are you talking about!” Lu Zhi grabbed his wrist, leaned in close, and demanded urgently, “That anomaly that shouldn’t have appeared in the outer perimeter, did you really cause it? Are you insane? Why would you do that? Are you trying to get us all killed?” httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
He didn’t understand. Everything had been fine. In just two more days, all of them would be able to leave the cage safely. Now, they were facing imminent death.
Shen Qi’s eyes were calm, devoid of any emotion, like stagnant water. His silver-gray irises slowly lowered to look at the wrist held by Lu Zhi, and he let out a sudden chuckle, “Are you angry?”
“Shouldn’t I be angry?” Lu Zhi frowned, finding Shen Qi to be a lunatic – moody, unpredictable. Two days ago, he was a diligent, good teacher. But now, those calm, icy eyes were so foreign and frightening.
Lu Zhi unconsciously released Shen Qi’s wrist, but in the next second, Shen Qi grabbed it back, holding it tightly. The chilling temperature made his entire arm erupt in goosebumps. Just as he tried to break free, Shen Qi said, “I had a dream.”
The topic shift was too abrupt. Lu Zhi instinctively asked, “A dream?” What did a dream have to do with what he was doing now?
Shen Qi’s silver-gray eyes seemed to be veiled by a layer of haze. “Ah, no, not a dream, but an incomplete memory. Someone very important to me lied to me and hid my memories. I’ve been searching for him all along.”
Lu Zhi was completely confused. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him. “Wait, you mean you’re doing this to retrieve your memories? Just for that?”
Shen Qi curled his lips, his eyes fixed on Lu Zhi’s dark pupils, which were exceptionally bright due to his anger. “This is very important to me.”
Lu Zhi gritted his teeth. “Fine, even if it’s important to you, can’t you find another way?” He paused, then asked seriously, “Why create a level 5 anomaly?”
He couldn’t understand the connection between retrieving memories and creating a level 5 anomaly.
“To break the ‘rules’,” Shen Qi released Lu Zhi’s wrist, his calm silver-gray eyes brimming with excitement. “Once the ‘rules’ are broken, a new ‘law’ will descend.”
Upon hearing this, Lu Zhi’s heart pounded, and a great fear trembled from the depths of his soul.
Why did Shen Qi know all this?
Rules were used to control the cage.
Law was the will of the world’s creation.
If the rules of the cage were broken, the world’s law would be rewritten. Would the world still develop according to the novel’s plot?
“Are you trembling?” Shen Qi seemed to notice something novel, tilting his head and staring intently at Lu Zhi’s flustered dark eyes. He suddenly reached out and pinched Lu Zhi’s chin, asking, “What are you afraid of?”
Being pinched by the chin by a boy of a few years old and forced to bend over looked awkward in every way.
Lu Zhi slapped his hand away, concealing his inner panic and fear, and said with a cold laugh, “I’m about to die, can’t I be afraid? I’m not you. I don’t have your immense power. Once that level 5 anomaly arrives, no one will be able to walk out of the cage alive.”
He couldn’t let Shen Qi see what he was truly afraid of.
“Have you forgotten?” Shen Qi curled his lips, his eyes dark. “You still have a god.”
Lu Zhi’s heart rate faltered. “What do you mean?”
“Before the new ‘rules’ descend, whether they can survive depends on you.” Shen Qi smiled brilliantly and beautifully, his silver-gray eyes full of playful amusement.
Human lives were, to him, a game, creatures that could be carelessly belittled and toyed with.
This realization was like a thorn in Lu Zhi’s throat. His dark eyes trembled, as if seeing the person before him for the first time. He murmured, “How did you suddenly become like this…”
Where had things gone wrong?
“How did I become like this?” Shen Qi laughed softly. “Because the me you know is not my complete self at all.”
Lu Zhi was startled. What did he mean by that?
“Lu Zhi,” Shen Qi suddenly called his name earnestly, his eyes calm yet with darkness almost overflowing, “Don’t disappoint me.”
At this moment, Lu Zhi clearly saw his own reflection in Shen Qi’s eyes, yet it seemed as if Shen Qi was looking through him at someone else.
Suddenly, the barrier of a realm turned red. The fiery light from outside shone into the bedroom, and into Shen Qi’s eyes. At that moment, those silver-gray eyes seemed to turn golden-red…
Thump… Thump…
Lu Zhi covered his chest with one hand, where the divine mark had suddenly become scorching hot. His breathing became erratic and even more fervent. It turned out that the unease and inexplicably familiar sense of danger were because he had overlooked a very important issue all along.
How could there truly be someone who looked exactly like a god in this world, when powerful gods possessed divine bodies?
Was the Shen Qi he knew a human or a god?
Or, was the memory Shen Qi spoke of related to his own identity? Perhaps… the memory of a god.
Then what was the trigger?
Was it him?
Did he himself, in order to survive, make a pact with a god and awaken it?
Crack—
The sound of shattering glass, accompanied by the sharp screams of gunfire and terror, pierced the sky.
Lu Zhi rushed to the window. The realm shattered, and the gray sky was showered with crimson fragments of the barrier, beautiful but filled with fear and despair.
It was a level 5 anomaly that was almost human. The barrier was like nothing in its eyes. Gunfire couldn’t harm it at all. Countless black, viscous tentacles erupted from beneath the feet of the reverent who fired, piercing deeply into their abdomens before being pulled out. Bright red blood, along with corpses, bloomed in Lu Zhi’s eyes.
His hands, unconsciously clenched the window frame tightly, his soul-lost gaze fixed on each fading life.
Human lives were always so fragile and vulnerable. Knowing it was a futile resistance, like gnats trying to shake a tree, they still charged forward, sacrificing themselves to tear open a bright and glorious path from the darkness.
“See?” Shen Qi, who had somehow returned to his adult form, enveloped Lu Zhi in his arms from behind, his chest pressed tightly against Lu Zhi’s back. He lowered his head and whispered in his ear, “These are weak humans. Without the protection of gods, they will only march towards extinction step by step.”
Drip…
A tear gently fell onto Shen Qi’s hand. His silver-gray eyes cast a sideways glance.
Lu Zhi dazedly touched the tears on his face, an irrepressible surge of sadness welling up in his heart. He said, “I like humans. They possess emotions, unlike aloof gods who lack mercy and survive on faith.”
Shen Qi pinched his chin, lowering his gaze with an emotionless sneer, “But you, you need Him.”
“No, you’re wrong. It is the god who needs us,” Lu Zhi suddenly stepped onto the windowsill and leaped down.
With a tentacle of the anomaly wrapped around his neck, his life hanging by a thread, Lan Yushan, in his blurred consciousness, saw the person jumping from the tall building.
Lu Zhi’s gaze was firm and unyielding in the wind as he fell: “My god to whom I offer my soul, please listen to your most devout believer’s plea and descend!”
Clang~
In this blood-soaked dark world, time seemed to stop at this very moment.
Lu Zhi’s falling body halted in mid-air. His dark eyes reflected scarlet petals and surrounding moths, filling the hazy firmament.
Jingle~
The clear sound of silver ornaments clashing in the symphony of the breeze resembled an ancient melody.
Black and red moths flew from cold white fingers, their wings brushing past the crimson lips, sweeping over those silver-ringed, golden-red eyes, condescendingly surveying all below.
With bare feet adorned with red string and silver bells, he stepped into the void. His figure instantly appeared before Lu Zhi. He raised Lu Zhi’s chin with an index finger, a playful curve on his lips. “Oh, isn’t this my lovely believer?”