Chapter 836: Chapter 745: It Takes Two
Jian Liu took a few steps forward, opened his only remaining left palm, and a constantly flickering Square appeared, as if its connection to the world was unstable. He handed the Square to Xu Xiaoyou.
"President, this is the Key of the Purification World. Take it and go to the next world..."
Before he finished speaking, Jian Liu’s body stiffened; then his gaze dimmed, and he slowly collapsed.
A heavy sound rang out. Chichu Chun’s eyes were calm as she waved her hand, bringing out a spray of blood. She slowly wiped the blood clean on the hem of her skirt.
"My dear, is there anything else you want to say?"
Xu Xiaoyou’s hands hung down, her head slightly lowered, shadow hiding her expression.
"Xiaochun." She said. "It’s me."
Chichu Chun’s expression visibly froze; countless memories surfaced in her mind, dragging her into thought.
The next moment, a gunshot rang out, shattering the silence.
Chichu Chun looked at Xu Xiaoyou in disbelief. The latter had earlier hidden Everme’s revolver beneath Jian Liu’s corpse.
Now, that revolver was aimed straight at her, smoke curling from the muzzle.
Aimed at her along with the muzzle was the indifferent gaze of the blonde girl.
The cloth at Chichu Chun’s abdomen and chest was soaked red; the bullet had pierced through her body. She tried to say something, but blood kept pouring from her neck, flooding back into her lungs and throat, making her choke and wheeze, unable to utter even a single syllable.
In the end, Chichu Chun fell before Xu Xiaoyou. Blood stained the corner of her lips, tears glimmered in her eyes; it was impossible to tell whether she was crying or laughing.
"Liar..."
With the girl’s final words still echoing in her ears, Xu Xiaoyou slowly raised her head and looked up at the sky burning like fire.
Under the afterglow of the setting sun lay a desolate world, sinking into ruin amid endless war.
...
"Dawn Return Program has been initiated. Welcome back, Pursuing Light and Holding Flowers."
Xu Xiaoyou returned to Daylight City.
Bai Youyou appeared in front of her.
"Data shows that you just experienced one world-line, yet uploaded forty-five Keys. Excluding the Key of that world-line known as the ’Purification World’, there are another forty-four unknown Keys..."
"It was Chichu Chun," Xu Xiaoyou said.
"I met Chichu Chun on that world-line. I killed her. These are the Keys she collected."
"I wasn’t the only one who entered the Dawn Machine. She did too. She also joined this cycle."
Xu Xiaoyou gathered her thoughts a little.
"Of course, that Chichu Chun wasn’t the Rice Wine we know. She was an individual from a different timeline."
Compared to March, that Chichu Chun was not as utterly deranged; her behavior patterns were easier to predict, and she was less guarded against her, which had given Xu Xiaoyou an opening.
Bai Youyou showed a thoughtful expression, while Angelina looked distracted. Clearly, the former grasped this kind of information better than the latter.
Inside the Dawn Machine, both space and time are in disarray; they cannot be judged by common sense.
The moment the first Chichu Chun stepped into the Dawn Machine, countless Chichu Chun were born simultaneously along different temporal dimensions. After enduring trials and growth, these Chichu Chun could once again travel to past timelines via the Dawn Machine.
Likewise, at the moment Xu Xiaoyou stepped into the Dawn Machine, countless versions of her were born. Each distinct individual has her own agency and will not be anchored to any single moment.
Just like the first Xu Xiaoyou who entered the Dawn Machine, they too can step into the Dawn Machine, and from that starting point, give birth to more ’infinite’ versions of her.
In other words, from the moment she and Chichu Chun entered the Dawn Machine, innumerable versions of them stepped into the cycle. That number is so vast it defies imagination, more than enough to fill every branching twig of the great tree.
On every future world-line, Xu Xiaoyou will meet some version of Chichu Chun, cooperating or contending over something.
Perhaps they will become companions on a brief journey; perhaps, as before, they will meet only to cross blades as enemies.
Recalling the unwilling and sorrowful look on Chichu Chun’s face before she died, Xu Xiaoyou did not know what to say for a moment.
If possible, she wanted to find the Chichu Chun she knew. But how could she find the other in these countless cycles?
It was no different from fishing a needle from the bottom of the sea. By the time they met, the other might already have turned into a hopeless lunatic like March—everything familiar, yet no way to call her back.
After innumerable cycles and reboots, how could she ensure that her own rationality would not be worn away by the long years, turning her obsessive and cold?
Xu Xiaoyou looked toward the Dawn Machine.
Its core burned quietly, flames surging and subsiding, all possibilities heaving and rolling within.
"Let’s initiate the second rehearsal," she said.
"This time, take the events after the ’Isavia Grand Trial’ as the Anchor Point and send me to a later world-line."
"Mm, good luck," Bai Youyou said.
...
World-line·02
Temporal Node: Early Golden Era
Historical Event: Medical Immortal’s Secret Transmission
"Heaven does not love the people; all living beings suffer, trapped in the mundane."
"Those who toil their lives away for the mundane of all beings have exhausted all blessings."
"Yet those whose hearts harbor vipers and poison may gain the far-off stretch of ten thousand years of life."
"But those who take blindness for sight will in the end become Heaven’s condemned."
"She who draws forth the elixir divine is the Fairy of Medicine."
In the dark temple courtyard, the sound of strings and pipes rose and climbed. The old man’s low chant slowly grew louder, shifting from a murmur into clarity. All of a sudden, his eyes bulged like bronze bells, and strange cries of "jiu, jiu, jiu" spilled from his mouth.
"Hey! The wondrous elixir~ Should a common mortal obtain it, flesh may knit upon bare bone~ life may be raised from death!"
He sang in a theatrical cadence, singing as he matched it with flailing arms and stamping feet.
No one knew how much time had passed before he stopped. His Shadow swayed in the reflected candlelight.
Rustle, rustle, rustle.
The sound of plants growing arose, leaves clashing together with a rustling crash.
The skin on his scalp split open, and from within sprouted tender branches; misshapen twigs thrust out from his head one after another with a rustling sound!
His skin began to shrivel, turning withered, like tree bark that had lost its luster.
It was as if some invisible force had gripped the old man’s upper body and twisted hard, wringing him into a spiraling, winding trunk!
He was like a tree in bloom, branches unfurling from the gnarled, coiling trunk, spreading out, growing, thrusting upward in vigor!
Before long, there was a new, strangely shaped monstrous tree in the temple courtyard...
Outside the courtyard, the old man’s long, bizarre chant still echoed, drifting into the night.
"Hey! The wondrous elixir~ Should a common mortal obtain it, tendons and bones may rejoin, a hundred poisons shall not invade!"
"Hey! The wondrous elixir~ Should a common mortal obtain it, evil may be driven out and spirits dispelled, with No Taboos!"
"Yet those whose hearts harbor vipers and poison may gain the far-off stretch of ten thousand years of life."
"But those who take blindness for sight will in the end become Heaven’s condemned."
"She who draws forth the elixir divine is the Fairy of Medicine~"
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