Chapter 287: The Last Moments
“So…”
Once Long Bang adjusted his emotions and began recounting the past again, Luxianbei couldn’t help but ask, “That night, did they all d*e in battle?”
“No.” Long Bang shook his head and said, “I originally thought that after that night, my comrades had all died in battle in the southern part of the city…”
“After hearing about the deaths of my fellow soldiers, I left the County Prince’s Mansion despite still being injured. On the very night I left the mansion, an incident occurred that led me to discover there were still a small number of survivors.”
“What happened that night?” Luxianbei asked curiously.
“That night, as usual, I went to the border between the north and south to stand guard…” Long Bang reminisced, “The first half of the night was calm, and I thought those monsters had been temporarily repelled and wouldn’t attack again soon. However, in the second half of the night, over a hundred monsters infiltrated the northern part of the city from three directions.”
“At first, I only noticed one group of monsters that was larger in number and went after them without a second thought. After I managed to k*ll that group, I turned back to chase the other group, only to find they had already approached near Dai Mu Institute.”
“Coincidentally, that very day, five women went into labor one after another. This was the first instance of so many newborns being born since the closure of God Realm Yumen, and throughout the night, the crying in Dai Mu Institute seemed to last until dawn…”
Upon hearing this, Luxianbei nodded thoughtfully.
She had heard Long Bang mention before that, to prevent pregnant women from being affected by the power of the Shaman Queen and giving birth to deformed babies, nearly all pregnant women would be gathered in the Dai Mu Institute, which had been modified by Xia Lianqing and was equipped with many special spell formulas.
Of course, this was not a big issue. The real problem was that on the same day, five babies were born one after another.
She had witnessed firsthand what it was like when several newborns were gathered together.
When her eyesight had just recovered and she was still under observation in the hospital, she often wandered around the hospital. Once, she accidentally wandered into the obstetrics ward and experienced firsthand what it meant to have “one cry beget a hundred responses.”
It was no exaggeration to say that when one baby started crying, the others would immediately follow suit, as if racing to compete with each other.
“The children’s cries stirred the aggression of the monsters, prompting them to launch an attack on Dai Mu Institute. My injuries had not healed, and I could not k*ll them all. I watched helplessly as they were about to break through the spells set outside Dai Mu Institute, just at that moment, I heard the sounds of weapons clashing and a song from afar…” Long Bang continued.
“I looked towards the sound of the song and saw several figures in armor appear at the end of the street. Though I couldn’t see their faces clearly, judging by their armor’s standard, they were likely comrades from the Longxiang Army.”
“They drew the attention of those monsters, successfully diverting most of them and buying me enough time to k*ll the remaining monsters, finally resolving that crisis…”
“To be honest, if it weren’t for their appearance, I would have been ready to perish with those monsters that night… Regardless, the children had to be protected, for they were the hope of Yumen.” As he spoke, a warm smile appeared on Long Bang’s face.
At that moment, Luxianbei suddenly felt that he resembled an ordinary old man, smiling affectionately, just like he would when talking about his grandchildren…
————
“The Four Seas Imperial Wind Cover, the Millennium Virtuous Water Clear;”
“The military attire is no longer donned, today I declare the achievement of success,
Looking back, the Qin border lies low as horses, gradually seeing the Yellow River flow straight north.
The divine might sweeps across Yumen Pass, and the Hu people across the land hear the Han songs!
The Four Seas Imperial Wind Cover, the Millennium Virtuous Water Clear;
…
We sang “Horses Treading on Yanran” and “The Qin King Breaks the Formation,” striking our weapons to lure those monsters out of the northern part of the city, ultimately cornering and killing them in a deserted mansion in the southern part of the city.
However, although we emerged victorious this time, I still had my worries.
We had all contracted the red spot plague, and there was no cure for this disease. We feared our lives would not last long; while we could still rush to aid the northern part of the city this time, the next time we might have to join those monsters.】
Flashes of Chen Yunge’s second to last record crossed Shen Baiwei’s mind, and she felt a wave of indescribable bitterness rise within her.
Yet, when she saw Chen Yunge’s last record left three years later, she breathed a sigh of relief, and that bitterness quietly transformed into mixed feelings.
【Recently, I can clearly feel that my time is drawing near.
Thinking that my uncle had entrusted me to continue documenting the changes in the city for the Miracle Saint, I must not let it end with me, I secretly ventured into the northern part of the city to find my son, wanting him to inherit his father’s legacy.
Along the way, I heard by chance that our deeds have been widely circulated in the city, and I felt no regrets in this life, hence this note.】
Indeed, that night, a group of lucky survivors from the Longxiang Army, stricken by the red spot plague, came to aid Dai Mu Institute, and this event was passed down in God Realm Yumen, eventually becoming a strange tale.
In the tale, the Longxiang Army soldiers who fought and died against the southern monsters did not disperse, becoming ghostly immortals, lingering in unseen places, protecting the children of the city from demonic harm, ensuring they could grow up healthy.
It sounded like some kind of bedside story, like a mother and child spirit of the earth.
In subsequent records by Chen Yunge’s son, there were also many accounts of children witnessing the Longxiang Army soldiers.
Some children accidentally fell into wells and were rescued by a black-armored man.
Some children, while playing, strayed into the ruins of the southern city, lost their way, and were guided home by a black-armored man.
Even some orphans who lost their parents were secretly raised into adulthood by a black-armored man.
Because of the existence of these rumors, it seemed that a certain being, or multiple beings, comprising the ghosts of the fallen Longxiang Army had birthed strange tales in the southern part of the city, protecting everyone.
Over time, legends about the deceased Longxiang Army became the most widely spread tales in God Realm Yumen, aside from the “two original Miracle Saints.”
Initially, Shen Baiwei was quite curious about how God Realm Yumen had continued for a thousand years.
In her view, even if Long Bang had advanced to the Cataclysm Grade, it would not be sufficient to govern Yumen for a millennium.
Relying solely on Long Bang, it was feared that his fate would be similar to those Cataclysm Grade legends who had fallen alongside their faith, twisted and corrupted.
However, after reading these records, she suddenly felt enlightened.
The maintenance of God Realm Yumen’s continuity for a thousand years was not solely due to Long Bang’s Cataclysm Grade strength and the power of the Miracle Flower, but also because of those Longxiang Army soldiers who had transformed into strange tales, quietly guarding the realm.
As a result, under the influence of these three factors, God Realm Yumen enjoyed a long period of stability and quiet.
Yet the greatest crisis for God Realm Yumen—the depletion of resources—had only just begun.
God Realm Yumen appeared spacious, but could hardly sustain tens of thousands of people for an extended period.
About three hundred years after Shen Baiwei and Luxianbei departed, the spirit energy obtained from those tribal warriors had been nearly exhausted, leading to water source depletion, crop failures, and livestock deaths…
Having narrowly survived the crisis of the red spot plague, God Realm Yumen resembled a patient who had just recovered from an acute illness but was now afflicted with a severe chronic disease.
Unfortunately, this “chronic disease” had no cure…
Compared to previous records that were detailed to the point of being trivial, only very brief records were left regarding this period.
【Inside the city, food has run out, water has dried up, and more than a hundred people d*e daily.】
After this record appeared, the documentation of changes in God Realm Yumen clearly diminished. New records appeared only after several years, sometimes even a decade.
【Famine lasted over ten years, with only one in ten survivors.】
【The County Prince advanced to Cataclysm, sending five sons out of Yumen to seek a glimmer of hope.】
…
From those terse yet heavy records, Shen Baiwei fully and profoundly understood what it meant for “the fewer the words, the greater the events.”
The five young men who set out to seek a glimmer of hope for God Realm Yumen ultimately did not return. In the following seven or eight hundred years, God Realm Yumen seemed to fall into a vicious cycle.
Every approximately three hundred and thirty years, as the number of external strange tales surged, the spirit energy of God Realm Yumen would be replenished, ushering in a “good time” lasting twenty to thirty years, only to gradually decline again until the next three hundred and thirty-year mark would come, cycling continuously.
Now, having just passed the third three hundred and thirty-year mark, God Realm Yumen had only enjoyed five years of “good times” before encountering two major events—the Shaman Queen’s escape and the return of the two original Miracle Saints.
Therefore, just before Shen Baiwei took over that small booklet, countless descendants of Chen Long wrote the last record.
【The miracle has returned, redemption is at hand.】
After a long time.
Finally waking from a “deadlock” state, Shen Baiwei felt the tumultuous and powerful spirit energy within her, almost ready to break through a critical point, along with the further fluctuations of spirit energy; a singular thought flashed through her mind—d*mn the Shaman Queen!
If it weren’t for the disaster wrought by the Shaman Queen, would God Realm Yumen and the residents of the city have endured over a thousand years of suffering?
Following that, she looked down at the now blank booklet in her hand and seemed to recall something, furrowing her brow.
From the records on it, it seemed the last time God Realm Yumen had gained a replenishment of spirit energy was five years ago, almost aligning with the time the nights became longer…
It also mentioned that prior to this, such occurrences happened every approximately three hundred and thirty years… This could not be a coincidence.
Could it be that the nights becoming long was not the first occurrence?
But why, before this, had she never heard of it? Shen Baiwei wondered in confusion.
Not only had she not heard of it, she hadn’t even seen relevant records in the Solar Eclipse Society’s archives.
She had a vague feeling that someone, for some unmentionable reason, had deliberately concealed the traces of this strange cycle.
In fact, over a period of more than three hundred years, erasing the traces of an event that has occurred is quite easy to accomplish.
Taking the changes in the power of a strange tale as an example makes this easy to understand. After all, if someone were to deliberately promote it, a mere hundred or eighty years would be enough to completely change most beings’ understanding of a strange tale.
Wait!
Suddenly, Shen Baiwei frowned.
Could it be that this cycle occurring every three hundred years or so involved some unmentionable entity, or even just the thought of it could invoke dangerous tales, which is why it had been deliberately erased from memory?
If that were the case…
Just as Shen Baiwei was lost in thought, the voices of Luxianbei and Long Bang interrupted her musings.
“Miss Lilith, are you back this time to take everyone away?” Long Bang asked.
“…” Luxianbei remained silent for a long time, ultimately speaking the somewhat cruel answer, “No, now is not the time.”
Though the truth was harsh for Long Bang, it was as the Proxy Player Sister said; if they let the remaining residents of God Realm Yumen leave now, it would be akin to pushing them towards extinction.
“We…” She hesitated midway, glancing at Shen Baiwei from the corner of her eye before changing her words, “I don’t have enough power yet to take everyone away.”
Having said “we” but then shifting to exclude herself puzzled Shen Baiwei, who furrowed her brow at this point.
“But don’t worry, in a few years, at most ten years, I will come back again, then I will be able to take everyone away.” Luxianbei continued.
When she would gain enough power to complete the God Realm Prototype, she herself couldn’t assure, and claiming it would take just over ten years was already quite exaggerated.
For the vast majority of spiritual ability users and strange tales, creating a complete God Realm capable of sustaining life for the long term might well be something they could not accomplish in their lifetime.
“A few years, even a few decades…” A fleeting shadow of gloom passed through Long Bang’s eyes, but then a smile emerged on his aged face, proceeding to say something astonishing.
“In fact, Miss Lilith and Miss Shen are the people from a thousand years later, aren’t you?”
Long Bang’s seemingly nonsensical statement instantly widened the eyes of both Luxianbei and Shen Baiwei.
“I only suddenly guessed it when I saw you just now…” Long Bang explained, “After all, now you both are just as you were when you left, be it in strength or appearance, as though you only left for a cup of tea’s worth of time…”
Indeed, they had only been gone for about that duration… Luxianbei thought, reassessing Long Bang with a furrowed brow.
She suddenly realized that though Long Bang appeared the same as he did back then, that was only from her and Shen Baiwei’s perspective.
From another angle, Long Bang was also a genuine, fully-fledged Cataclysm Grade monster that had existed for a thousand years. His perspective and understanding of spirit energy likely rivaled that of Zhang Hainan, if not worse.
It was not surprising he could guess their identities and origins.
“You are still the same as back then, but I have already grown old.” Long Bang continued, “I have grown very old, relying purely on the power of the Miracle Flower to survive. Otherwise, I should have died hundreds of years ago…”
The more Luxianbei listened, the more she felt that Long Bang’s tone was off, and she couldn’t help but interject, “What do you want to say?”
“What I want to say is, currently the Shaman Queen is no longer under confinement, and God Realm Yumen has lost its most important source of spirit energy. It won’t last much longer, so let me carry it through the last few years to a decade, shall we?”
Luxianbei, “!!!”
