Ji Jue heard a familiar beeping sound as the sll of disinfectant lingered in his nose. He turned around, still dizzy, and saw a grimy hospital room. On the bed, there lay a frail, emaciated woman. Her hair had already fallen out, revealing a wrinkled scalp.
The unshaven man by the bedside held up a bowl of food, wearing a flattering, ingratiating smile. “Eat sothing. Please, eat a little more. You still have to go for chemotherapy this afternoon, so you should eat sothing to keep your energy up.”
However, she did not eat. She could barely even lift her hand anymore.
“I don’t want to go through this treatnt anymore. Listen to , let’s go ho, okay? This illness... costs too much.”
The man froze in place. The hand holding the bowl hung in the air, and he bent forward ever so slightly, as if pressed down by sothing invisible.
He lowered his head and said, “Alright.”
That was the last word he uttered before his tears fell.
Then ca a torrential downpour. In that blurred world, there was nothing but wailing. The woman on the ground rolled around before clutching her child’s leg, tears streaming down her face as she begged, “Stop taking it! Please don’t use it anymore! I’m begging you, as your mother! Once you get hooked on this, your life is ruined!”
Bang!
A stick ca crashing down, drowning out the sound of the rain. The world spun.
In another closed room, cries and moans echoed from a bed. A naked woman, her face covered in blood, was grabbed by her hair and slamd against the wall. Then she endured slap after slap, punch after punch in silence. She let the tattoo-covered man roughly violate her, enduring it until he finally got his fill. When he was done, he pulled off his belt and yanked her face up from the ground. “You little slut, did that feel good?”
Shivering in fear, that sowhat familiar face twitched, forcing out a difficult smile. “Brother Yang... you’re so strong... I feel so good...”
Blood slowly trickled from the corner of her eye, yet her smile was so sweet, as if she was filled with ecstasy.
Please... please... I’m begging you... don’t hit anymore...
Even at the very end, she never found the courage to say those words out loud.
Ji Jue closed his eyes, unwilling to look anymore, but those chaotic sounds kept seeping into his ears. In the end, they turned into a hoarse, muddied voice, like a prayer.
“Great compassionate Buddha, please protect us... Save this child, save her... This disciple is burdened with heavy karma, so she deserves to sink into endless suffering and endure the tornts of hell. But she’s still so young... she hasn’t even gone to school yet...”
In front of a Buddha statue, an elderly man wept uncontrollably, kowtowing as he prayed in a hoarse voice. He repeated the plea again and again, never daring to stop.
Apart from praying, he had no other option. The gods and Buddhas gave no response. Only the choked, rasping prayers lingered in the silence, before gradually fading into nothing.
Enough! Stop it... please, I’m begging you... Let go!
Ji Jue covered his ears, but it was useless. More voices, images, mories, scenes, and nightmares poured into his mind. There was no end to them. He wanted to scream, to cry out, but amidst countless wails, he could not make a sound. He was still falling, deeper and deeper into despair.
Finally, everything fell into complete silence.
It’s over.
For a brief mont, that was what he thought, until flas rose from the ruins and wreckage, spreading and illuminating the outline of hell.
On the scorched earth, the fire flickered and danced. Winds carrying the stench of sulfur and ash swept through, dispersing the dark smoke that blanketed the sky to reveal a crimson night. The stars twisted and warped like molten glass, dripping down faint threads of dim light.
Just like that, they illuminated a world in ruin. This was what a natural disaster left behind—a nightmare reborn. Structures collapsed, ruins echoed, steel twisted onto itself with a piercing screech, and sowhere far away, a faint song drifted from within the flas. The voice was hoarse and broken, yet strangely gentle.
This was the Tidefire Calamity from ten years ago.
Ji Jue finally understood that he had arrived in the deepest part of hell, a place that belonged to him.
On the broken and cracked earth, the railway tracks had been scorched red and lted. Train cars, having derailed, tumbled across the burned ground, scattering bones as they rolled away before eventually sinking into the ashes. Flas spread between the broken seats as thick smoke billowed. Amid the fragnts and scorched earth, there were still people wailing and struggling, trying to crawl out of the fire, only to be swallowed once more by the ruins.
Inside a shattered carriage, soone softly sang a lullaby. The gentle song echoed through the flas and smoke.
The sun sets, and night befalls♪
Close your eyes now, let sweet dreams embrace you♪
Ji Jue stood frozen in place and stared at the half-broken door in front of him, not daring to push it open. He wanted to turn and flee, but there was nowhere to go.
The stars are shining, and the moon is rising♪
Look at the glow of the setting sun. I will stay with you and wait for you to wake... I’m not going anywhere... I’m waiting for you to wake, with sweet dreams beside you...♪
Bang!
The shattered door fell from the blaze, and the horrific scene inside the carriage ca into view.
This place resembled. Yet in this hell, soone was singing, bathed in the flas.
She was kneeling on the ground, cradling a child who had lost consciousness. She had placed the only gas mask she had over his face, wrapped him in a fire-resistant blanket, and used her own body to seal off every gap.
And so, she smiled so blissfully. Within the burning inferno, she kept singing, slowly losing her breath. Only that hoarse song echoed in the child’s dreams again and again, staying with him, as if it would continue into eternity.
As if she had never left.
Ji Jue staggered forward, letting the flas scorch him. He walked toward the end of the dream. This was the outco left behind by that great catastrophe.
“Cursed Ones,” “Chosen Ones,” “miracles of life”... Ji Jue had no idea what those people were rambling about. He didn’t understand, and they were all wrong, anyway.
“The one who should have survived back then... wasn’t , right, Mom?” Ji Jue asked, looking at her with a soft gaze. “I was the lucky one who wasn’t supposed to be on the survivor list, wasn’t I?”
Ten years ago, on the train that would never reach its destination, a child nad Ji Jue was supposed to have died in the disaster and returned to dust. However, soone had exchanged her life for his.
Ji Jue slowly reached out, trying to touch his mother’s face, but his fingers stopped midair, afraid to move any closer. He was afraid that she would turn into a fragile illusion that would shatter at a touch and vanish without a trace.
And yet, he could no longer hold back his tears.
“I miss you, Mom,” he whispered. “I really miss you.”
There was no response, but the sound of the burning flas suddenly vanished. Only the song remained. It echoed within hell, growing clearer with each repetition, like a tide rising slowly yet steadily.
At the end of that song, a loud, piercing train whistle rang out. The darkness was pierced, and the scorched earth vanished. The flas were gone, swept away in the howling wind. The nightmare was torn apart and crushed into pieces with ease.
In response to Ji Jue’s call, that dream which had accompanied him for ten years rose from the deepest depths of despair and swallowed everything, as if ti itself had reversed.
Soft sunset light spilled in through the window. Amid the rhythmic clatter of the train against the rails, Ji Jue awoke from his nightmare and stared at everything that felt so familiar, as if he had once again returned to the ti before the disaster and he was back on that train rushing forward, embraced by those warm mories.
Soone gently stroked his cheek, her eyes filled with tenderness. “You look so sad, Ji Jue.”
Ji Jue looked at his mother. Several tis he opened his mouth as if to speak, but in the end, he lowered his head to avoid her gaze.
“I’m just... a little tired.”
“Then rest well. It’s okay to sleep a little longer.” She ruffled his hair. “If sothing is too hard, it’s okay to let go sotis.”
“Mom, can I hug you?” Ji Jue asked softly.
“Of course.”
Without hesitation, she opened her arms and pulled the child, whom she hadn’t seen in ten years, into her embrace. Though she was so slender and frail, being held by her felt so reassuring, as if nothing in the world could harm Ji Jue.
The entire world could no longer hurt him.
Ji Jue closed his eyes, and his tense body gradually relaxed. He listened to his mother’s humming, feeling her warmth and breath. It was such a beautiful dream, one without an end in sight.
He opened his eyes and clenched the watch ticking on his wrist.
“Are you leaving?” she asked.
Ji Jue looked at her. “Yeah. There are still so things I have to do, even though they will be difficult. Don't worry, I’ll handle it. Just like before, nothing can stop .”
He took a deep breath and said his final farewell. “Goodbye, Mom. I might... never be able to co back again.”
She let out a gentle laugh, as if she were watching a child worrying over sothing unnecessarily complicated, when in truth it was all so simple.
“Then keep moving forward. Don’t look back.” Smiling, she cupped her child’s face in her hands. “I’ll be watching you, no matter where you go, and no matter where you end up. I’ll miss you, just as you miss .”
And so, she held him one last ti and left a soft kiss on his forehead. Then, she watched as Ji Jue turned and walked away.
After taking a few steps forward, Ji Jue couldn’t help but want to look back again, but he didn’t dare to do so. At least, not until he heard her voice from behind.
“Ji Jue!” Under the glow of the sunset, his mother waved at him. “Do your best.”
“Mm.” Ji Jue nodded firmly and wiped away his tears. He turned around and pushed open the door at the end of the carriage.
Thus, he said goodbye to everything that had once been. The train seed to fade away, vanishing like a departing dream.
Ji Jue plunged once again into a crimson sea of blood. It was cold, suffocating, and filled with pain, yet sohow so familiar. This ti, he was no longer afraid. He raised his head and stared at the countless echoes of humble suffering and despair.
Ji Jue took a deep breath and shouted with all his strength, “Hey! Can you hear ? I’m right here!”
The crimson sea surged violently, churning like it was boiling. Countless streams of blood-red fury rushed toward him, seeking to tear apart this foreign presence that did not belong. Ji Jue extended his arm toward those lingering obsessions, making an invitation.
“Co with . I’ll avenge you.”
The crimson sea fell into a deathly stillness, frozen in place. The wails and cries abruptly ca to a halt. Countless eyes were looking out from a dead world, staring at the young man before them. They stirred against one another, clashed and fought each other, stirring up unprecedented turbulence.
In the end, they coalesced into a blood-soaked hand that grasped Ji Jue’s hand. Like this, a contract was ford.
An ocean of boundless suffering and despair split open from the center. A torrent surged forth, engulfing Ji Jue. Endless pain, like towering mountains, lifted him up and carried him toward the mortal world, toward the world that did not belong to them.
Ji Jue opened his eyes. Through the bizarre giant tree, he gazed at the sky covered in crimson, at the collapsing, shattered hospital, at countless towering crystal pillars rising from the ground, and at the innurable writhing masses of flesh scattered everywhere.
Figures that had beco monsters lashed their tentacles, laughing maniacally as they continued to swell and grow. Everything in sight looked as if the world had turned into hell.
But he was not afraid of hell; he had already crawled out of there. Having been granted the most precious gift in this world, he would live well, and he would make sothing of himself. From that day onward, every day of Ji Jue’s life felt like heaven!
And now, it was ti for retribution. Thus, he stretched out his hand.
In the midst of the fierce battle, Lawrence’s expression stiffened as he once again felt the severance of the dragon blood supply.
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