The atmosphere in the cabin was so eerie that Zhang Miao, trembling with fear, crawled out through a gap and perched on top of the plane.
Time ticked by, second after second.
Zhang Miao stared at the blue waves and began to pray.
He prayed that the people rushing from the shore would be slow, and that the charred man inside the plane would somehow cling to life…
He prayed that if the man woke up, he wouldn’t go mad and kill him.
–Sigh, what did I do to deserve this?– Zhang Miao muttered, sitting on the plane’s roof.
Now, even if he wanted to take it back, there was no way.
……
Morri stood up, stretching his waist and neck. Over the past hour or two, he’d been talking about everything that happened in his church, and his mouth was dry from it all.
–What does he look like?– Boboli poured himself a cup of tea, sat down, and looked up with curiosity.
–Hmm… pretty handsome. When Xiaocheng came to the temple to see me that time, he looked exactly the same as the first time. Hair of medium length, sharp features, bright eyes, and nice skin. He seemed like a very spirited young man.–
……
Two hours slipped by. Just as the hungry Zhang Miao was at a loss, the floating plane began to sink slowly into the water.
–Ah! It’s sinking?– Zhang Miao panicked. –What do I do now?!–
–Don’t be afraid!–
Zhang Miao turned around. Against the backdrop of rippling water, a bald man wrapped in a tattered sheet stood behind him.
The charred man’s face and whole body were like cracked, peeling paint on a wall, with reddish new skin showing beneath the blackened layer.
–You… you still have such a strong recovery ability!–
Zhang Miao looked at Hong Haocheng’s right arm. It was no longer the hazy energy arm from before, but a fair, slightly reddish real arm.
How terrifying—who would ever be able to stand against him!
At that moment, Zhang Miao suddenly felt he had hit the jackpot, that his gamble had paid off.
–Not bad.– Hong Haocheng grinned. –Take off your pants.–
–What?– Zhang Miao stepped back in shock.
–Didn’t you say you wanted to join me? Now present your initiation gift! Give me your pants.–
Zhang Miao glanced at the bare legs beneath the old blanket wrapped around the person in front of him.
–I, uh, okay.-
In the afternoon slanting sunlight, Zhang Miao, wearing only his underpants, had just taken off his worn-out jeans when a mottled-skinned arm snatched them away and pulled them on, then tossed the old sheet back to him.
–Wrap yourself in that, don’t make a spectacle.- After saying that, the person with charred-black skin flashed a big white grin.
……
–Besides asking you to save Brother Zicang, did Hong Haocheng do anything else?-
–Um…-
–Alright, not telling, huh? You jerk. Fine, don’t tell me then.-
Boboli clicked his tongue, stood up, grabbed a piece of paper to wipe his hands. He was about to leave the living room and head back to his room when something suddenly occurred to him.
The curly-haired boy turned and said:
–By the way, you know what that guy’s ability is, don’t you?-
–Well…- Morri scratched his head. –Actually, I don’t know that.-
–What have you been doing for these thousands of years?!-
–Blowing Yang Zicang to people from various eras.-
……
Hong Haocheng fired off a series of questions about this world, but Zhang Miao brushed them off with a single sentence.
–Someone on the shore is trying to catch you, let’s get out of here.-
Hong Haocheng, wearing only jeans with his muscular upper body exposed, rubbed his bald head and gazed toward the other side of the blue expanse.
–What’s on the other side of the sea?-
–First, this isn’t a sea. Second, over there are giants.-
–Giants?! Where the hell is this place?!-
Zhang Miao shook his head. –Unfortunately, everyone says we’re trapped in some strange city.-
–A city?-
After explaining this world, Zhang Miao stood up, wrapped in a blanket, hands on hips, looking across the blue expanse and said:
–Over there is an island formed from fragments of another city that fell into this place. Once your ‘City Rank’ reaches a certain level, you can receive a fragment from that city as a reward.-
Both of them looked over there.
–The fragment that became the island is called ‘City No. 11’.-
Hong Haocheng let out a sigh.
At that moment, the plane shuddered, its nose tilting slightly downward toward the water.
Hong Haocheng looked down at the giant thing beneath him. The exterior of the Enightmare plane had grown some scaly outlines, but in the end, they didn’t fully emerge.
In fact, half an hour ago, these scales had already stopped growing, and the accompanying eerie aura had largely dissipated, replaced by a faint stench.
–I can’t hear it anymore…- Hong Haocheng murmured.
It wasn’t until this final tremor that the ring on his chest slowly solidified into form.
The dark red ring, like one forged from molten fire flickering between light and shadow, began to cool, its color becoming uniform. Light slid across its surface, outlining a fleeting triangle.
Hong Haocheng said, –It shouldn’t sink that fast. I’ll go in to grab something.-
–I’m coming with you.-
The two jumped into the interior through the crack at the top of the plane.
The transformed Enightmare plane was almost identical to a real plane, except there was only one cabin, and walking to the end led to the cockpit door—but now that door was merely an illusion.
Through the frosted glass window on the door, Zhang Miao saw blood mist mingling with lake water inside the cabin, a chaotic blur.
–Why can’t I hear Enightmare’s heartbeat or voice?-
Zhang Miao looked at the symbiote Enightmare, sensing something amiss in its aura.
–Because it’s dead. It didn’t complete its gestation.-
–Ah?- Zhang Miao turned to look at Hong Haocheng’s expressionless face.
–Its ability to fly in the end was the last ounce of strength it mustered to save me—like a chick that rushed out before its shell was fully cracked open. That it managed to crash this far from shore was already a mercy.-
–Hong… Brother Hong, I’m sorry. Back then, the previous captain insisted on going his own way.-
–It’s okay, it’s fate.-
Hong Haocheng walked over, and asked Zhang Miao to move aside. He closed his eyes and touched the door with his hand.
{……}
[Your trajectory, I can see.]
Hong Haocheng wanted to hear the sound of the Enightmare plane one more time, even if it was a monster, it was a monster that wanted to protect him.
{……}
[43.3 kilometers—this is the entire length of your life.]
Hong Haocheng let out a breath. –Let it begin with you.-
Zhang Miao, standing behind Hong Haocheng, thought about the other’s Moxel—unfortunately it was just a triangle. If the symbiotic Enightmare had not been attacked, the person before him would probably have been a quadrilateralMoxel.
–What terrible luck.- Zhang Miao muttered inwardly for Hong Haocheng. A red Moxel losing its symbiotic Enightmare is a very tragic thing.
He looked at the young man’s back with a complex expression.
This guy’s ability to devour souls should have disappeared… From now on, he’ll have to rely solely on his body to fight.
Just as Zhang Miao was lost in thought, he suddenly felt a distant and mysterious aura slowly filling the place…
As if a travel-worn visitor had brought a new atmosphere from afar.
–Huh?-
Zhang Miao looked around in confusion, then his gaze fell on the mirror image of the young man in the glass.
A strange inner voice appeared in Hong Haocheng’s heart.
[All my –blood- is destined to be reconciled within –time-.]
[Time will grant you new power.]
In the reflection on the glass, the man with blotchy skin slowly forced open his unsteady eyes, which kept twitching and fluttering shut.
A faint brownish-yellow halo emerged around the boy’s pupils.
Zhang Miao watched in bewilderment as a faint light kindled within those pupils.
–What is that?-
With a low hum, Zhang Miao involuntarily stepped back. He saw another phantom image of the airplane slowly emerge, misaligned from the surrounding reality.
[Soul Traveler First Ring: Mark of Life.]
Hong Haocheng’s hand passed through the glass like a magician’s, extracting a short piece of metal wrapped in flesh. Pinching it, he began to draw on the wall before him.
He drew very slowly.
Every millimeter seemed to cost him immeasurable spirit and strength.
Zhang Miao stared blankly at the scene; an inexplicable sense of oppression weighed on his heart. Then he saw traces of energy appearing under the –metal pen.-
[I have a trajectory at 1:1,000,000 scale: 243,000 kilometers.] (Note 1.)
–This is… the trajectory of soaring through the skies with the bad woman.-
[I also have a trajectory at 1:1 scale: 12,723,210,000 kilometers.]
–This is… the trajectory of traveling on land and sea with the bad wife… and the roads she walked alone…-
[I will draw the life trajectory of the target at a scale of 10,000:1.]
–Is this why you chose me? Because I, who devoured the Bloodline of Trace Drawing, can record the paths that other lives have walked in their entire lifetimes.-
Hong Haocheng’s pen moved on. With every centimeter, the number plummeted by tens of thousands!
After just two or three centimeters, he felt his head spin and his vision blur.
–I depict the paths they have walked, and walk on in their stead…-
The dark red ring on his chest began to glow.
Though it was difficult, his pen never stopped.
[I activate the digit place: the ones place.]
Snap! It was as if something in his psyche shattered and burst forth.
————
Note 1: In most cases, scale is expressed in the form –1:n-, where –1- is usually placed first, representing one unit of length on the drawing. Due to the requirements of the plot description, this does not conform to standard conventions.
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