Chapter 318: Against the Flow of Causality, Waiting for One in the Mortal World |
"The earliest appearance of Lu Ya can be traced back to when Chongxu was not yet Chongxu."
Traveling through the space tunnel, Sonora tightly held onto one of Jiang Si's arms while carefully observing her surroundings.
In the endless darkness, colorful fluorescent lights flowed, and as they passed by the two of them,
they would collide into circles of brilliant white.
"Back then, Chongxu was just a transit station. All magical girls had to pass through here to reach the Magic Kingdom. It was only a resting place, until that girl appeared."
Although Jiang Si was right beside her, and they were in the space tunnel where they wouldn't be monitored by Chongxu, Sonora still treated that name with extreme caution.
As she spoke, Sonora hesitated again and looked at Jiang Si, who was only staring upward.
"It's a bit inconvenient to say the rest directly."
"What's inconvenient about it?"
Just as Jiang Si was about to lose patience, Sonora whispered, "Let me take another bite."
The young man extended his hand, but Sonora shook her head. "I need to bite your neck, so I can pass on the taboo memories to you."
Although he didn't know what she was thinking, Jiang Si was focused on tracking the positions of Jialan and Su and didn't have the mood to argue with her, so he casually nodded.
So Sonora carefully climbed onto Jiang Si's back, wrapped her legs around his waist as if to secure herself like a mount, and then crouched down by his neck.
First, she stuck out her tongue and carefully licked Jiang Si's neck.
Without getting annoyed, she patiently moistened and licked it, making Jiang Si's neck relax.
It reminded Jiang Si of the animal documentaries he watched as a child.
This was how bats sucked blood.
They kept licking the legs of cattle and horses until they let their guard down, then carefully bit a small opening to drink the blood—later, when it came to web novels, the bloodsucking was much more direct.
Just directly sacrifice the masses, no thinking required, no tedious preparation, an easy-to-operate setup, anyone could do it.
But Sonora's tongue was obviously not that simple; it probably also had muscle-relaxing and numbing effects.
From this perspective, she was still a traditional bat.
After licking for a long time, she bit down hard, and indeed, blood came out.
But it was her own blood...
Her teeth almost shattered again!
Damn it! I'm reporting someone for selling zombie skin!
Originally, after suffering the last time, Sonora had been thinking about how to get back at him, and after having her Core Blood taken away,
there was inevitably some resentment in her heart.
This bite was meant to tear through Jiang Si's neck viciously; she had even planned to make her fangs pierce his trachea!
In reality, after Lu Ya absorbed her Core Blood, the two of them became connected in sensation. If she bit through his throat, Sonora herself would also suffocate—luckily, Yang's Core Blood didn't have that function.
Otherwise, the little bat would really die in front of him!
Even though she didn't want to die anymore.
Abandoning her dignity, she shamefully nuzzled at his neck for ages, and it was completely useless!
How could he be so tough...
Covering her mouth, Sonora felt nothing but grievance and unwillingness. Tears swirled in her eyes, but she refused to lose face by crying.
"Say something when you bite."
As if dealing with a child, Jiang Si, who hadn't even noticed what she was doing, casually remarked.
Then he made a cut on his neck, and the steel-like skin that Sonora couldn't open was easily torn into a small opening, like paper.
"Drink up."
Unwilling, Sonora ground her fangs there for a while before just mumbling, "Oh."
She felt like she was being kept as a pet by Jiang Si, but she had no choice.
Listlessly, she leaned down and bit, sinking her fangs into the wound on Jiang Si's neck.
As she bit into his neck, when her fangs touched the bone beneath the skin, the little bat, whose sensations were shared, instead trembled in pain on Jiang Si's back.
Jiang Si, however, felt nothing.
Not even a reaction; his muscles weren't tense at all. He was completely unaware that she was trying to bite him to death here.
Sonora felt that if this continued, she would probably become the first fool in the world to bite herself to death.
She loosened her mouth slightly and began to focus on savoring Jiang Si's blood. At that moment, all the resentment, unwillingness, grievance, and even pain,
vanished in an instant.
She sucked greedily; only at times like this did she truly resemble a vampire...
But in the end, Sonora relied on her strong self-control to snap herself out of that intense temptation and happiness.
"Be careful."
Finally, Sonora whispered a reminder.
After the Core Blood merged, not only were their physical sensations shared, but even their memories could be shared.
It was just that it was troublesome; they had to exchange blood like this.
"This memory has been passed down through generations, but no one dared to look at it. Once you sink into the memory, many people can't wake up. Although your death would be better for me, I still want to take revenge with my own hands, so please don't fail to come back..."
"Heh."
A killer trying to escape suspicion.
Jiang Si saw through her little scheme at a glance. She probably wanted to kill him, but she was afraid he would come back to bother her.
A good two-sided plan.
"Don't worry, I won't kill you even if I come back."
He temporarily calmed her down first.
Sonora was stunned for a moment and murmured quietly, "Will you kill me, then..." or something like that.
In the end, the memory transfer was completed.
On Jiang Si's side, along with the exchange of blood, everything before his eyes began to blur.
Then, he seemed to walk to the entrance of a village.
The hawking voices inside the village were exceptionally loud. Although there were power lines at the village entrance, the whole village looked like it was from the last century.
There wasn't even a television.
The ground was muddy, without asphalt roads. There were quite a few people coming and going, all dressed simply, and no one was holding a phone.
There weren't many buildings in the village; the most eye-catching was the iron tower in the center.
It seemed completely out of place with the rest of the village.
The power lines in the village were all drawn from that tall tower.
Just as he was still looking at the tower, someone suddenly covered his eyes from behind.
"A date isn't knowing, and knowing isn't a date."
"What does 'date' mean?"
A crisp voice; there was no need to guess who it was.
Jiang Si just went along with it and said, "A date is a half-baked thing."
"Wrong~"
The girl let go of her hands, clasped them behind her back, leaned out from behind with a grin, and took his hand. "A date is holding hands and going for a walk."
Generally speaking, when Lu Ya gave up on explaining her cold jokes, it meant she had lost the argument and was admitting defeat.
Jiang Si calculated that this was probably the sixteenth victory.
Including the Tang Dynasty joke from last time, Lu Ya was left speechless and could only laugh to herself.
"You're so slow, Jiang Si."
Swinging Jiang Si's hand, Lu Ya pulled him forward. "I knew you would definitely come."
It was like back in the day after school.
Jiang Si looked at the girl's swaying hair in front of him. It was almost no different from back then, like a dancing sprite.
But it wasn't quite as he had expected.
Jiang Si had thought that in this memory, he would only be an observer.
However, the breeze weaving through the village brought the fragrance of flowers, and there was the warmth of the hand holding his.
The sensation was very real.
Rather than a memory, it was more like using this memory to enter a reflection of history left behind in the River of Time.
Because history was real, was what he was seeing now also real?
Using the effect as an anchor, going against the current, straight to the initial cause—I understand.
This is the "City-Head King."
Following Lu Ya as she trotted forward, as they passed through the village, many people looked at Lu Ya with strange eyes.
Jiang Si realized that the people here could only see Lu Ya.
No one could see him.
Sure enough, it was a scene of causality that only Lu Ya could see?
"Don't worry about them."
Lu Ya turned around, pulling his hand while walking backward. She puffed out her cheeks and kept waving her hand in front of his eyes.
"Look at me, look at me. Focus your attention, focus your gaze!"
"What is this, a primary school spring outing homeroom teacher."
"That's right. Now I'm your homeroom teacher, classmate Jiang Si. Please don't look around. Put your attention on the teacher!"
But back in high school field trips, Lu Ya really did act like this.
She liked to run ahead of him, chatting with him while making him focus his attention and stuff.
But in reality, it only made him find it troublesome.
Because Lu Ya was just too noticeable in school.
Although Jiang Si had stopped looking around, the several incubators in the village were indeed quite eye-catching.
There were incubators here, as well as magical girls, and quite a few of them.
It was very different from the previous Chongxu.
He was led by Lu Ya all the way to the tall tower. After they entered, Lu Ya immediately turned around and locked the door tightly.
Jiang Si looked at the door, which could be kicked open with one foot, but didn't pay it any mind.
"Classmate Jiang Si."
After locking the door, Lu Ya put on her glasses from somewhere.
She actually looked somewhat like a teacher. "Now, look behind you."
So Jiang Si turned around and looked.
It was a huge piano.
"Sit down."
She pushed him down onto the chair in front of the piano, and then, with a "heave-ho," sat on Jiang Si's lap.
To be honest, it wasn't very romantic.
Because Jiang Si wasn't very tall. When Lu Ya sat on him, she almost covered half of his body.
But luckily, Lu Ya was very light, so light that he could barely feel her weight.
"Didn't you say before that you like serenades? I found a teacher at home to learn it specially, but later I never had the chance to play it for you. It took me a lot of time. Even if it's not good, you have to listen..."
She acted spoiled like a little child throwing a tantrum.
Jiang Si thought for a long time, but he couldn't remember when exactly he had said he liked serenades.
"When watching 'Arcane Throne.'"
Unexpectedly, before he could even open his mouth, Lu Ya had already guessed what he was going to say and even answered him in advance.
But it was a bit surprising. If it were before, Lu Ya would have waited for him to speak.
Then Lu Ya grabbed his hand and made him wrap it around her waist.
When Jiang Si tried to pull his hand back, Lu Ya giggled, grabbed his hand, and pressed it against her waist. "Don't move around; it tickles. Teacher Lu Ya is about to start playing. Quiet, quiet!"
Only after Jiang Si behaved did she let go of her hand and place both hands on the piano.
Soon, the pleasant sound of the piano filled the air, and everything fell silent.
Her feet, which couldn't reach the ground, swayed gently with the piano music, and her slender calves occasionally rubbed against his pants legs.
Her heels also kept tapping lightly against Jiang Si's shins.
Today, Lu Ya was wearing a creamy white cotton dress, with delicate lily of the valley embroidered on the cuffs and a light blue ribbon loosely tied at the collar—it was a rare outfit for her, probably changed into after arriving here.
When she started playing, her expression was very serious. That cute and pretty face was a little tense.
To her, playing a serenade was probably not an easy task.
Only after half a minute did Lu Ya gradually get into the groove. The melody flowing from her gentle fingertips became more natural, like whispering softly by the ear, gently recounting longing.
She tilted her head slightly, probably trying to glance at Jiang Si from the corner of her eye.
The stray hairs on her forehead slid down, covering half of her eyebrows and eyes, making her even harder to see clearly.
As the piano climbed into the higher registers, Lu Ya's face began to flush with a faint rose color. Her fingers seemed to be tapping lightly on the tip of her heart, and the lingering notes rippled in the air with a numbing sensation.
Occasionally, she would let out soft hums in tune with the melody.
Her swaying feet finally stopped on Jiang Si's shins. As the final note lingered, she suddenly spoke:
"Speaking of which, I was listening to the song repeatedly during practice before. As I listened, it suddenly went into low frequencies. I was wondering why the piano piece had added a bass line to it. It turned out later that it was actually my phone vibrating from a call..."
She rambled on, just like before, always telling him about her trivial daily affairs as if they were stories.
Jiang Si nodded and finally said, "This is the funniest one."
Lu Ya froze for a moment, then bit her lip and tapped the top of Jiang Si's foot with her toe. "My previous jokes were funnier."
"This is the funniest one."
"The previous ones were funnier."
"This is the funniest one."
"I put a lot of thought into the previous ones. They're the funniest."
"You can just stop if you have nothing to say."
Probably, the Great Dao of the two people was incompatible.
Jiang Si thought, grabbed Lu Ya by the back of her collar, and was about to lift her up, but she jumped down from him first.
It was as if she had already guessed what his next move would be.
"Classmate Jiang Si, I'm angry now. I won't tell you any more cold jokes in the future."
That would be great.
Jiang Si glanced at the tape recorder next to the piano.
Speaking of which, that serenade Su played in Chongxu before was almost exactly the same as the one Lu Ya had just played.
Even the unnaturalness from the first thirty seconds of nervousness was perfectly replicated.
Su La had said that version was by Karl Böhm. When did Lu Ya change her name to Karl Böhm?
"Now we should go eat..."
But Jiang Si, who was sitting at the piano, didn't move. He just looked coldly at the figure running ahead of him.
There was no doubt that it was the real Lu Ya.
Illusions, data imitations, or anything else, Jiang Si could distinguish them all clearly.
And the figure before him was a genuine, authentic person, without a trace of falsehood.
But precisely because of that, Jiang Si found it even stranger.
"You can't see me, can you."
The moment his words fell, the active Lu Ya in front of him stopped.
Like a fixed procedure that had been interrupted, causing the machine to stall. Her footsteps, breathing, and the trembling of her eyelashes all reset to zero at the same moment. Then she slowly turned around.
At that instant, it was as if the picture was spliced back together, and Lu Ya was replaced by another Lu Ya.
Replacing the pre-recorded footage, responding to the sudden turn of events,
the new Lu Ya revealed a helpless smile on her delicate face.
"How did you figure it out?" Her tone carried a puzzled, spoiled-like tone. "It was obviously flawless."
Jiang Si just calmly stared at that gradually familiar face.
"But since you can't see me, you shouldn't be able to hear my voice either."
The sweet smile that Lu Ya had always maintained finally gained a hint of faint darkness.
It was like milk slowly being mixed with coffee, silently spreading from the corners of her mouth.
Although her smile hadn't changed, and the depth of her dimples maintained an adorable perfection, her pupils, now soaked in black,
made the delicate sweetness begin to carry a trace of bitterness.
"How much did you record."
With that, his Personal Reality began to spread within the tower.
Like a bursting flood, cold light patterns exploded from Jiang Si's feet. His self, which stood above all things, filled every inch of space in the tower with unstoppable force!
From the doorway to the piano,
in just a few steps, hundreds of Lu Ya figures materialized out of thin air.
Some stood, some sat, some laughed, some pouted. Some were playing the piano, some were making tea, some were reading, some were talking to the void—every movement was incredibly precise, every line was perfectly timed, every expression was lifelike.
Then, more and more, countless more!
On the stairs, by the tables, beside the windows, in front of the bookshelves, under the chandeliers.
Every corner, every crevice, was filled with Lu Ya's figures. They were walking, talking, playing, dancing, doing everything Lu Ya might do, speaking every line of dialogue that might occur with Jiang Si.
The virtual images of Lu Ya almost filled the entire tower.
Movements, expressions, lines, micro-expressions, breathing rhythms, changes in pupils, even the split-second hesitation before her fingertips touched the keys, even that moment of hesitation when playing earlier.
Truly, every single one was recorded by Lu Ya herself in person.
He didn't know how much time it had taken.
Jiang Si then looked out the window.
Outside, in almost every direction, he could see Lu Ya, maintaining a greeting posture.
Densely packed, like Qinghua's puppets, scattered throughout the village.
"Because, I had nothing else to do anyway."
So another Lu Ya virtual image in the tower said, "Besides, thinking about what Jiang Si might say to me is also fun. Even if I can't see, even if I can't hear."
She reached out and gently stroked Jiang Si's face.
But in reality, she clipped through him.
As for the other virtual images, their positions weren't even right.
The memory had eventually been drowned in the long river of time.
Only futile efforts remained.
Lu Ya was still smiling.
Brilliantly, brightly, as if she never knew what disappointment or exhaustion meant.
On this unfamiliar land, in countless rehearsals, she had broken herself apart and pieced herself back together.
Until she constructed the perfect, flawless, physical-object-free performance that could fool him for a moment before Jiang Si.
"No matter what you say, I will always respond to you, Jiang Si."
Hundreds, thousands, countless Lu Ya virtual images. No matter what Jiang Si said, they could find the corresponding dialogue.
She had prepared for every option.
Throughout this journey, she had even made Jiang Si unaware of the abnormality for a time.
It was the first time he had encountered a method that could deceive his Personal Reality.
Taking a deep breath, Jiang Si felt a profound respect.
Lu Ya, had she finally advanced from being a little friend to a Dao companion?
Countless Lu Yas turned their heads simultaneously. In their eyes, some held doubt, some held smiles, some held reproach, some held concern. However, all their gazes passed over him and landed on the wall behind Jiang Si.
Not a single virtual image could truly see him.
So Jiang Si casually pressed a piano key. A high-pitched note pierced the calm within the tower.
Before all the Lu Ya virtual images disappeared, Jiang Si let out a heartfelt exclamation.
"Truly, a ghost brain of the highest purity."
Worthy of being Dao companion Lu Ya.
Then, Jiang Si continued moving upward through the tower.
Time was forcibly pushed forward.
Inside the tower and in the village outside the tower, time flowed at an incredible speed.
By the time he stepped onto the second floor, computers, cell phones, and other high-tech devices that were completely out of place with the tower had appeared inside it.
Through the window, he could still see Lu Ya standing in the center of the village, using money, machinery, and mana refinement techniques to slowly mold this wasteland into the rough shape of Chongxu.
When he reached the third floor, Chongxu was almost fully established.
Many magical girls and incubators had gathered around Lu Ya, seemingly becoming her friends. Lu Ya laughed and talked with those magical girls.
Then, standing atop the tower, they together looked down at this Chongxu, which now had a new order, was more stable, and was more prosperous.
They had sworn an oath that they would definitely protect Chongxu until the end.
But when he arrived at the fourth floor, he could see the shattered team.
They had split into the two organizations: the Nightwatchmen and the Witch Association.
Everyone was fighting for Chongxu.
Everyone had betrayed Lu Ya.
As the one who had led the establishment of Chongxu, Lu Ya was not a magical girl, nor did she possess any power.
She was just an ordinary girl.
When those former friends turned hostile, she didn't even have the qualifications to resist—her authority was taken away, the super AI was suppressed, and in the end, even her name was erased from Chongxu's map, as if she had never existed.
When Jiang Si reached the final floor,
he saw Lu Ya, lonely and destitute, curled up at the top of the tower, emitting pitch-black emotions.
Despair, pain, hatred, disgust.
It was as if she could turn into a Disaster Beast at any moment. The seething polluted magic made the girl indescribably unfamiliar.
But when Lu Ya looked up, those jet-black pupils, as deep as an abyss, seemed to truly meet his gaze across time and space.
She looked at him with a half-crying, half-smiling expression. After a long time, she drooped her head and buried it between her legs.
Finally, she just muttered softly:
"They're bullying me, Jiang Si."
"I clearly wanted to make Chongxu better in the end, so when you came, you would definitely be happy..."
"But it doesn't matter. All of Chongxu's authority is still with me."
"As long as you let me out, Chongxu will still be the way Jiang Si likes it."
Her gaze as she looked over was moist, like a knocked-over honey pot, with a thick, cloying sweetness that made one involuntarily want to drown in it.
The girl tilted her head and reached out her hand.
"Come find me soon, Jiang Si..."
Her fingertips seemed to want to pierce through the layers of the tower walls, through the lies and despair, to touch his chest.
But just as they were about to touch, Jiang Si raised his right hand.
The right arm, clad in the mecha Mu Shang, was a pitch-black cannon barrel.
It was coldly pressed against Lu Ya's forehead, stopping her movement.
"Only you aren't."
Before the stunned girl could speak,
flames instantly engulfed her head. The explosion was like seawater overflowing the tower, surging and bursting outward!
Various debris fell like rain, pouring down to flood the village below!
Getting up from the ruins of the tower, Jiang Si twisted his neck. The sounds and images around him gradually began to blur.
When he opened his eyes again, Sonora beside him was looking at him nervously.
"How, how is it? Are you okay?"
Jiang Si didn't say anything more. He just grabbed Sonora and leaped up!
His figure instantly shot through space, crossing millions of miles!
When he burst into the second layer, Jiang Si casually threw Sonora away and looked up toward the center.
The tower from his memory was standing there quietly.
There was no change. It bore ancient scars, with lush vines and branches entwined around its body, climbing over its windows and roof, exuding an aura of antiquity.
Jiang Si grabbed the Starfish Cannon from the mecha.
Amidst the crackling sparks, an eerie wind also coiled around the Starfish Cannon.
The Immortal Dao killing move, the Wind to See a Friend Off!
"Farewell on your journey, Dao Companion Lu Ya."
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