Chapter 187: Just Need to Create a Calamity
Luxianbei stood by the window, watching the chaotic scene inside Yumen Pass, immersed in a surging despair and sadness, as if tied in a dry well, unable to move. Suddenly, a heavy rain fell from the sky, and she watched helplessly as murky water accumulated in the well, gradually submerging her mouth and nose.
This is strange!
She had just swallowed the worldly smoke and fire not long ago; according to the Proxy Player Sister, the remnants of the worldly smoke and fire within her would take at least a few months to dissipate. Before that, she shouldn’t experience sadness, despair, or any particularly strong emotions.
While she was lost in thought, a scarlet light shot up from the ruins, heading straight for the golden figure in the sky.
Two terrifying spirit energy fluctuations collided with each other, like a furious roar echoing suddenly. All other sounds were drowned out by that roar, and the entire Yumen Pass seemed to fall into a dead silence in an instant.
The pure white light that had shrouded the sky just a second ago dissipated instantaneously, and darkness descended once more.
At the intersection of the pitch-black spear and the body of the First Generation Miracle Saint, a dazzling scarlet light burst forth, gathering at a point, suspended high above the sky, as if bringing calamity to the earth.
For a moment, the entire God Realm Yumen felt like someone had suddenly extinguished a lamp, leaving only the scarlet sparks on the wick still dancing in the darkness.
Luxianbei stared at that point of scarlet light in the sky, as if experiencing an illusion; a crisp sound suddenly rang in her ears, like a glass bottle shattering.
The swell-like appendages growing from behind the First Generation Miracle Saint, resembling flower buds, began to crumble piece by piece at the sound that barely seemed to exist.
Countless sharp golden fragments, carried by a violent gust of wind, scattered in all directions along with the swirling scarlet light, resembling crimson roses adorned with golden powder, blooming in the sky, serene and beautiful, yet carrying terrible power, tinting the entire city gate with hues of red.
As that beautiful yet chilling “flower” bloomed, enveloping the whole Yumen Pass, Luxianbei suddenly felt as if the city gate had been cursed by some force, sliding towards the abyss of destruction at an astonishing speed.
At that moment, the core of her mythological species urban legend also shook again; a scorching flow sprouted from within, rushing towards her eyes.
Her eyes itched, as if something had pricked them, causing Luxianbei to blink involuntarily.
And just as her eyes opened and closed, the scene outside the window underwent a dramatic change.
She finally caught a glimpse of the source of the sadness and despair that enveloped her.
One, two…
Countless faint silhouettes, retaining only their outlines, appeared within the city gate. Some were tall and sturdy, wielding weapons, but most resembled ordinary people one would see anywhere in a city, some tall, some short, some fat, some thin, some old, some young.
They seemed to still be alive; some sat slumped in the ruins, ragged clothes, muttering to themselves in a daze.
Some picked up nearby sticks and stood their ground against the oncoming enemies on the long street, refusing to retreat, even if they were the only person left on that long street.
Others fled rapidly under the pursuit of the armed figures and scurried through the ruined streets, dragging packages and heavy boxes towards the city walls.
Luxianbei recognized the shape of those boxes from Summer Lianqing’s room, where they contained various supplies.
Could this be the scene inside Yumen Pass when the Shaman Queen’s Army approached? Luxianbei wondered, feeling a sudden wave of fatigue wash over her.
She suddenly understood that the remnants of worldly smoke and fire within her had indeed not dissipated; she herself would indeed temporarily have no strong emotions.
That intense sadness and despair was not her own emotion but rather the lingering traces left by the lost lives in that catastrophe from hundreds of years ago, imprinted in this God Realm, unable to be erased.
“Boom——!”
A muffled thunder echoed from the distance.
It was the city gate closing, the towering Yumen Pass returning to its true nature as part of the God Realm, separating from the real world.
Soon, with a distortion of light and shadow, the earth was covered by thick smoke, while the clouds accumulating in the sky were scorched red by flames, giving the illusion that heaven and earth had flipped upside down.
On the violently chaotic streets, the earlier sounds of battle and loud noises suddenly vanished, leaving only the omnipresent cries, wails, and lamentations.
“Help! Someone come help me… Oh God, who will help me!”
From a nearby collapsed ruin of Dai Mu Institute, a hoarse, suppressed cry for help emerged.
Luxianbei followed the direction of the sound and vaguely saw the remains of what used to be recognizable on the street corner. She clearly saw an elderly man, tear-streaked and holding a dying little girl, continuously shouting, as if trying to summon the last glimmer of hope.
She remembered that it seemed to have once been a small tea stall, with the old man taking care of it and the little girl selling flowers nearby.
“Good girl, hold on, someone will come to help us soon, very soon…”
While shouting, the old man occasionally stopped to gently comfort the little girl, wiping away the bl**d that kept seeping from her mouth.
Luxianbei wanted to respond to them, to say, “I’m here, I’ll help you!”
However, she couldn’t make a sound, couldn’t move her feet, only able to helplessly watch, her raised hand suspended in the air, lingering there without lowering.
A moment later, the little girl lost her breath, and the old man froze in place, his already stooped back seeming to collapse even more suddenly, bending deeper.
Immediately after, Luxianbei heard whispers coming from the closed spice shop near the grandfather and granddaughter, sounding like a pair of young lovers.
“Don’t be afraid! It’s just a temporary closure of the city gate. I’ve heard people say that before the general left Yumen Pass, reinforcements were already on their way here, and once they arrive, everything will be alright,” the man said.
“And when… will the reinforcements arrive?” the woman asked.
The man didn’t answer, remaining silent for a long time.
Just then, a voice broke the silence, answering for him.
“They will never come.”
As the words rang out, the air around them suddenly quivered, feeling like it had been pressed the pause button, coming to a standstill.
Hearing this, Luxianbei paused, turned around, and saw a silhouette leaning in the shadows of the wall, slowly walking over.
“Proxy Player Sister? When did you…”
“Um, let me think.” The Proxy Player Sister tapped her chin with a finger, pondering for a few seconds, then said, “Probably when you started crying?”
“After all, you’re my most important client. Knowing you were crying, I had to come take a look, right?”
As she spoke, she walked towards Luxianbei and paused momentarily as she passed by Shen Baiwei, glancing at her and muttering, “So that’s what she really looks like? Much more pleasing to the eye.”
Luxianbei looked at the Proxy Player Sister, then at Shen Baiwei, confused, “You know her?”
The Proxy Player Sister turned her gaze back from Shen Baiwei to Luxianbei, stopping in front of her and shaking her head, “Not familiar!”
The taste is also mediocre, not as good as Jumeng… the Proxy Player Sister added silently in her heart, waving her hand, “Alright, don’t worry about her.”
Noticing that the Proxy Player Sister seemed reluctant to talk more about Shen Baiwei, Luxianbei also refrained from looking at Shen Baiwei. After a moment of contemplation, it was as if she remembered something and looked outside, “Those silhouettes outside are…”
“Oh! Those?” Before Luxianbei could finish her sentence, the Proxy Player Sister jumped in, explaining, “They’re all formless urban legends! Haven’t you seen them before? Forgotten?”
Hearing the Proxy Player Sister say this, Luxianbei suddenly recalled that she had indeed seen many formless urban legends. The more vivid memory occurred when she escaped from Shihhekou Middle School and called Uncle Zhang Shan to pick her up, noticing the backseat of Uncle Zhang Shan’s car was filled with shadows like a performance of the Eastern Army.
And the figures that appeared inside Yumen Pass just now were indeed quite similar to those formless urban legends.
While Luxianbei was reminiscing, the Proxy Player Sister spoke again, “I guess they are the people who got trapped inside when Yumen Pass closed thousands of years ago.”
“Each one died a suffocating d*ath, full of resentment, and most had no potential for spirit energy, unable to become urban legends, so they transformed into these ghostly entities. Under the power suppression of God Realm Yumen, they can never leave, until their once-minuscule existence is ground down to nothingness…”
Upon hearing this, Luxianbei suddenly felt a chill.
Although formless urban legends had a hazy consciousness, they were not entirely without it.
According to the Proxy Player Sister, those who transformed into formless urban legends and were trapped in Yumen Pass had been tortured for over a thousand years, like being caught between dreams and waking life.
Such torture would be terrifying even for the notorious King of Huacheng.
“From the looks of it, their existence has likely been almost worn away, nearing disappearance. If it weren’t for those two guys in the sky clashing, causing the entire Yumen Pass’s spirit energy to agitate, you probably wouldn’t even be able to see them,” the Proxy Player Sister continued.
“Speaking of which, so many formless urban legends, tens of thousands of them, this scale is something I’ve never seen before. To be honest, it’s quite spectacular!”
It was indeed spectacular, a kind of cruel yet desperate spectacle.
Tens of thousands of formless urban legends, along with the terrifying urban legends now roaming within Yumen Pass, were certainly not all the people trapped inside; just a small fraction.
“It feels like… a kind of dessert buffet, don’t you think?”
For many lower-level urban legends unable to hunt down the cores of urban legends, formless urban legends were indeed an excellent source of spirit energy. From a certain perspective, being regarded as “desserts” by the Proxy Player Sister, who could devour A-grade urban legend cores as main courses, wasn’t unreasonable.
Luxianbei ignored the Proxy Player Sister’s ramblings and pressed, “Why did you say earlier that reinforcements won’t come?”
Upon hearing this, the Proxy Player Sister rolled her eyes at Luxianbei and pouted, “You were the one who devoured the core of the top student in history, Liangyue! Why don’t you make use of it?”
“What’s that got to do with Liangyue?” Luxianbei replied, baffled.
She had no idea what the Proxy Player Sister meant by suddenly bringing up the urban legend she had devoured “eight hundred years ago” at Shihhekou Middle School.
“You read the memories of that Long Bang guy earlier, right?” the Proxy Player Sister reminded her, “Think about how old he was, then calculate the time!”
After the Proxy Player Sister’s prompt, it was as if a flash of lightning crossed Luxianbei’s mind, followed by Long Bang’s memories surfacing inside her head, and she suddenly became clear-headed and enlightened.
“The God Realm Yumen was sealed during… the first year of Xiantong?”
“That’s right!” The Proxy Player Sister thumbed up.
No wonder, if that was the case, there really wouldn’t be any reinforcements… Luxianbei thought.
The previous emperor had just died, there was chaos in Jiangnan, and the Nanzhao Kingdom was invading; who had the time to care about the lives and deaths of the people at Yumen Pass?
Moreover, with the God Realm Yumen sealed and the Shaman Queen suppressed, the threat was eliminated, making it even less likely for reinforcements to come.
Even if reinforcements had originally set out, they might have turned back halfway.
“But…” Luxianbei turned to look out the window, frowning, “Isn’t there any way to help them? Earlier I…”
“You want to say that you went back to the past and helped Summer Lianqing do a lot of things, and if possible, you want to go back again to help out, right?” the Proxy Player Sister interrupted.
Did she not know what Luxianbei was thinking? She saw through her in an instant!
Luxianbei nodded.
She genuinely wanted to do that, and her core urban legend was also urging her to do it.
“I’m sorry, that’s very difficult!” the Proxy Player Sister shook her head.
She knew full well that with Luxianbei’s current abilities, no matter how much she did, she wouldn’t be able to change the outcome.
Under the corrective force of that existence, the main trajectory of history was almost impossible to change, meaning those who were meant to d*e would still d*e.
“If… you helped me?” Luxianbei tried to probe.
“…” The Proxy Player Sister opened her mouth, instinctively wanting to agree, but then suddenly remembered something, avoiding Luxianbei’s gaze, her brows furrowing, “This time I can’t help you.”
To change the already historic conclusion, one must possess the power to end history.
As an existence that had concluded the history of the entire world, the Proxy Player Sister indeed possessed such power, and it was unprecedentedly strong.
But she didn’t plan to lend that power to Luxianbei; she feared that once Luxianbei became entangled with such power, it would be irreversible, causing her to become like her.
What she hoped for Luxianbei to possess was not the power to end history but the power to create history; only by creating history could there be a “future.”
After hearing the Proxy Player Sister’s words, Luxianbei’s gaze darkened slightly, but just as she was about to give up, she suddenly heard the Proxy Player Sister speak again, “However, there is another relatively compromise way to ensure they won’t be trapped in this ghostly place. Are you interested in trying it?”
Hearing that, Luxianbei’s eyes lit up, and without hesitation, she replied, “Yes! What do I need to do?”
The Proxy Player Sister turned her gaze to Shen Baiwei on the ground, a smirk creeping onto her face, revealing a smile that sent chills down Luxianbei’s spine, “Just need to create a calamity…”
