“...”
Xu Mo was silent for a moment.
His mind raced as he made sure he hadn't misheard, and he couldn't help but ask:
“Wait... You and Liu Yun, are you two actually enemies?”
Based on the vibe between them earlier, he had thought they were a pair of star-crossed lovers...
Liang Shuguang lowered his glaive slightly, his response seemingly out of left field:
“Even thirty years ago, when Dawn City was at its absolute peak with talents.”
“Liu Yun was still the most gifted among them.”
Xu Mo sensed that Liang Shuguang was beginning to see his life flash before his eyes, but he didn't interrupt. He simply listened quietly.
Liang Shuguang continued to talk to himself: “Thirty years ago, that... thing didn't seek me out first.”
“Those chosen by the Evil Gods of the Old Days are naturally extraordinary existences. So, the first person that thing found was her.”
Xu Mo stood there in a relaxed manner, treating it like a backstory cutscene. He asked:
“Oh? Then why does it look like... your condition is much worse?”
Liang Shuguang stared quietly at “Bai Feifei,” suddenly letting out a somewhat complicated laugh.
“That's another story.”
He didn't elaborate, simply shifting the topic: “In short, no one in Dawn City is allowed to achieve Sainthood!”
As he spoke those words, his tone carried an almost authoritative certainty for the first time. He suddenly looked up at the black-and-white armor before him.
“Bai Feifei, you can hear me, right? Your talent is also very high, so this applies to you too. You must not achieve Sainthood within the boundaries of Dawn City!”
“The land of Dawn has already been cursed. I don't have much time, so don't ask me why. In short, Bai Feifei, get out of here! Dawn's hope does not lie in Dawn!”
After listening to him, Xu Mo spoke up:
“So, the reason Liu Yun has never been able to achieve Sainthood is because you've been holding her back?”
Anyone else hearing this would have found it incredibly bizarre. Sainthood was such an unimaginably distant threshold, yet they were speaking of it as if failing to reach it was the anomaly.
Liang Shuguang nodded.
“Yes. Thirty years ago, I used the Blood Medal to alter some of her memories.”
“Over the years that followed, I constantly found ways to make her feel guilty and lost. I made her feel like she owed me, and that all of Dawn City's problems were because she failed her duties, thereby damaging her state of mind.”
“But she is just too formidable. Even so, she still reached the peak of the Prophet rank, only a single step away from seeing herself.”
Liang Shuguang's voice grew heavier, as if bringing a distant story to its close.
“Hehe... My death should deal another blow to her. Yes, I'll say that I died because of her...”
After he finished speaking, silence fell over the black cocoon for several seconds.
Inside their shared mind, Bai Feifei's mouth fell open in shock. Recalling her impressions of Liu Yun during this time, the Prophet's hesitant and wavering behavior suddenly made perfect sense.
To think that even the universally acknowledged strongest Prophet in Dawn City had been under the City Lord's schemes and calculations all along!
Deep in his mind, Xu Mo pieced together the sequence of events, feeling a bit stunned.
Looking at it this way, for the past thirty years, Liang Shuguang had to deceive his lover and comrades, betray the citizens who trusted him, utilize sycophantic officials, twist his own conscience, resist the backlash of the power inside him, and ensure that the Evil God never noticed him...
It was as if, over these thirty years, he had been playing a single-player rules-based creepypasta game all by himself in Dawn City!
Even now, there were still many things he hadn't made clear. He was still talking in riddles!
Even for a final boss, the complexity and depth of this storyline was somewhat absurd.
“Damn, you really... are something else!”
This wasn't just being something else; it was on a whole other level. He was practically a walking theatrical performance!
Liang Shuguang ignored the compliment. He simply smiled, then planted the butt of his glaive on the ground.
“I'm done fighting.”
The statement was incredibly abrupt, but the life-and-death tension inside the black cocoon instantly dissipated the moment the words left his mouth.
He stood a few paces away, the green cracks on his body still glowing as their energy flowed into Xu Mo's body, but he no longer swung his blade.
“Is Bai Feifei still there?” he suddenly asked.
Bai Feifei was slightly startled, not knowing why he was suddenly calling her out.
“I'm not going to make it. I have something to say to her,” Liang Shuguang said, staring at “Sinking Black” in front of him.
Xu Mo remained silent and did not reply. But in the next second, the faceplate shifted from black to white-gold, and the half of the face belonging to Bai Feifei took over once more.
Bai Feifei looked at Liang Shuguang, unsure why he wanted to speak to her. “What is it?”
Liang Shuguang stared at her, then suddenly moved without warning!
A sneak attack!
The glaive spun in his palm, its dark red blade carrying a green light that tore through the air as it slashed straight down at Bai Feifei!
The strike came too fast. Bai Feifei's muscles tensed instinctively. Her body's reflexes already knew exactly what to do, and her swords clashed upward in an instant.
Clang!
The moment the blades collided, energy surged, but Liang Shuguang suddenly let go of his weapon!
The long blade was instantly knocked away. Carried by momentum, Bai Feifei's sword thrust forward, wrapped in a black-and-white light, and pierced straight through Liang Shuguang's heavily cracked chest.
Schwing!
The blade tip emerged from his back, bringing with it a spray of thick, bloodless residue.
Liang Shuguang looked down at the impalement wound in his chest, his lips twitching.
“...It really is better to die at the hands of someone from Dawn City,” he said weakly.
Bai Feifei held the hilt, slightly dazed. She could feel Liang Shuguang's life slowly crumbling beneath her blade.
“You...”
Liang Shuguang unconsciously muttered:
“A relay race...”
“My failed leg of the race is over. Next, it's up to you to see if you can bear the fate of Dawn City.”
“Be careful!”
His body could no longer hold out. The black cocoon also began to shake unstably, unleashing the most intense anomalous fluctuations.
Liang Shuguang suddenly raised his head slightly, staring blankly at Bai Feifei.
“Tell me... can Dawn City forgive me?”
Bai Feifei lowered her head, reflecting on everything she had just learned—his struggles, and the distortion born of his obsession with salvation.
“I am sorry,” she finally spoke, her voice firm. “But...”
“No!”
Liang Shuguang pursed his lips and said nothing. In the end, he simply smiled and nodded.
“Good. That's how it should be!”
“Hehe... Only now do I feel that you really do resemble their child.”
Rate on N.U.
