“In this world, conflicts exist every minute, every second. Some probably began over a piece of bread, some for reasons that were not as straightforward… Listen to my word of advice, the inevitable trajectory of this continent is doom; Everything and anything were simply a representation of that trend. To vainly try and forcefully obstruct it with one’s strength is no different than a mantis trying to stop a chariot.” An eccentric elder heaved a sigh while supporting himself on a cane. In Ji Bai’s eyes, the long gown he wore seemed to be extremely bizarre, with the crown he wore on his head seemed to be casted in the image of a specific creature.
It was a decoration he had never seen before. There was no race that had a hair ornament of this sort in his memories.
The language the elder spoke clearly didn’t exist in his linguistic memory, with its pronunciation and intonation differing greatly from the human language. Yet, by mere coincidence, he was able to understand them.
It was truly a miraculous state.
Although the sighing elder before his eyes was within reach of him, he couldn’t touch him as his body was refusing to listen to his commands. Like a spectator sitting in the audience seat, he was completely incapable of interfering with the actions of the actors on stage.
His vision swayed side-to-side several times, as if he was shaking his head— All of which were out of his control.
“Indeed…”The elder heaved a sigh, as if he had received the answer he expected.
“The allied forces in the continent have long been routed. The dragon race chose to escape by secluding themselves in the wooded mountains, the demon race had its vitality greatly damaged and the entire winged race had its clan exterminated. The genies, angels and Satan had chosen to abandon the primary plane to flee to another dimension. The remaining races were not exempted, with heavy casualties befalling each and everyone of them… Just like the era when the Guran clan had risen in masses to besiege the vampire clan, resulting in their demise. Everything went according to plan…” The elder looked up into the heavens and heaved a long sigh. “And thus, for the deeds they committed in their earlier days, the Guran clan had paid the price with their lives…”
The scene changed; The ground, darkish-gray in color, was submerged in seawater. Flashes and howls of lightning streaked through a dark mist, as torrential rain plummeted downwards.
Following a series of howls and flashes that ripped past the horizon, countless gigantic tendrils bore out of the surface of the ocean, as two horrifying bright lights radiated out from the deep sea.
It was seemingly trying to drag the whole world into complete darkness.
………
As the morning sun rose, the desolate snow plains were greeted with the first light of daybreak.
An itchy sensation on his nose tip roused Ji Bai’s consciousness awake.
The instant he opened his eyes, a strand of silver hair flashed past his vision and a familiar body scent assailed his nostrils.
It was a young silver-haired girl whose supple hair had been tied into a ponytail. Crouching beside him, she was twirling a strand of her silver hair and incessantly tickling the tip of his nose through the seams of his helmet.
“…” Ji Bai instantly sat up.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting a lazy pig up from his bed.” Said Lin absentmindedly after shifting the strand of silver hair she had used to tease Ji Bai back to her head.
“…What time is it?” Ji Bai seemingly realized something as he got up from his make-shift bed on the floor.
“Noon.”
“…”
‘How did this happen?’
Ji Bai slapped his metal helmet in puzzlement at the sudden malfunction of his inner clock, which had always been on the dot. He then shook his head, causing rattling noises.
He remembered having a really long dream, but his muddled mind couldn’t recall any details and could only bring some scattered fragments to the surface.
“Is everyone waiting for me?” Ji Bai looked towards Lin.
She didn’t offer any response and merely stared at him in an emotionless manner.
“…” Ji Bai slightly tilted his head to the side, revealing several traces of a guilty conscience — He had recalled a certain awkward scene from last evening.
On the other hand, Lin wasn’t particularly concerned; Seeing that she had already succeeded in waking a certain lazy-bones who was sleeping in his bed, she left the tent without turning around.
After a moment, Ji Bai walked out of the tent with his make-shift bed properly packed and his sword in his hand. The cold wind that rushed towards him ruthlessly whipped against his face and blew what little remained of his drowsiness away.
“Hmph, Thinker. You’re finally awake, are you? Just in time.” With his back facing Ji Bai, the wind-whisperer, Carpeau, had a callous arc plastered on the corners of his mouth as he held his swords within his embrace. From how his body was shaking and shuddering in the wind, he had probably stood out there for a considerable amount of time just so he could pull off such a pretentious act in front of him.
“Let’s get straight to business.” Ji Bai didn’t bother sparing a glance at a certain Chuunibyou youth in front of his tent as he walked towards Lin who stood not too far away from him.
“Hey, hey, hey— What is that supposed to mean? Are you ignoring this humble self?? You are-…”
“Sigh! Forget it, old pal. You’re really bad at gauging people’s thoughts.” Raybia, who had just happened to be around to witness this scene, immediately held onto Carpeau before he could go up and start an argument.
“Bad at gauging people’s thoughts?” Carpeau knitted his brows, as he shot a glance at the individual with a cross-shaped visor helmet before turning his puzzled gaze towards Raybia.
“Sigh! You’re really an inflexible blockhead. Aren’t you aware that words are different from humans? They’re absolute and set in stone, but humans aren’t.” Raybia rolled his eyes and approached Carpeau’s ears.
“Let me tell you. Our helmet pal definitely doesn’t have time to entertain you, you know that?…” Said Raybia in an extremely mysterious manner after shooting a furtive glance at Ji Bai who was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Lin.
“Mhm? Why not? I’m his lifetime’s nemesis!”
“Who cares if you’re his nemesis or not? Do you know this? Last night, around midnight or so, I woke up to relieve myself. Just then, I managed to see our helmet pal leaving Teacher Lin’s tent before sneakily making his way to his own…”
“Could the two of them have something to discuss?” Carpeau furrowed his brows as he realized that there was more than meets the eyes.
“What the hell could they discuss! Don’t you get what exactly happened? I’ve already laid it down in such an obvious manner and you still can’t figure out what has happened? Don’t tell me you still have no clue why he got up this late today??” Raybia rapped his knuckle against Carpeau’s head, disappointed that the latter’s intelligence did not live up to his expectations.
“…Oh!” Carpeau revealed a meaningful expression.
“Hehe, you get it now?” Raybia showed a hopeful expression that suggested Carpeau wasn’t too far gone and untied the canteen on his waist.
“Tch… I don’t even know which part of this brat could have caught the fancy of a stunning and curvaceous beauty like Teacher Lin. I clearly thought that I’ve-…”
“Those two! They actually burnt the midnight oil studying the mysteries behind martial arts! To think they actually didn’t call this humble self along with them, how despicable!” Carpeau clenched his chest with a painful and bitter expression.
“Pfft…” Raybia, who was just about to drink some water to moisten his throat, spat a mouthful at Carpeau’s face upon hearing those words.
“Woah!! What are you doing?! This is very rude and unhygienic, you know?”
“Forget it, forget it… I couldn’t get through to you…”
Not far away, the pair that were standing in the wind remained silent.
“I’m sorry for sleeping in and holding back the group.” Said Ji Bai. After a considerable time had passed, he was the first to break the silence, even though his apology was mostly directed toward the event that had taken place the day before.
“Did you come here just to tell me this?” Lin replied after being silent for a moment.
“More or less, I’m done now.” Ji Bai heaved an inexplicable sigh. “Pack your stuff, we aren’t here just for a mere sightseeing trip.”
After saying that, Ji Bai walked towards his tent.
Roughly 20 minutes later, the group had put away their tents and luggages before walking ahead, towards the stretch of empty land that lay beyond the lacquered metal arches.