Chapter 142 - Crimson Asura Realm (XI)
Editor: Kitty
Ying used a sharp stone to carve another ‘正’ character on the tree trunk. Although he knew that the character would disappear soon and the tree trunk would recover, it did not matter. He would remember how many ‘正’ characters he had carved.
However, Ying was not willing to recall how long he had been here. The word time would always remind him of something, and he would subsequently feel depressed or upset due to it. Ying did not want to be depressed or upset, so he refused to recall and think.
So Ying sat under the big tree and built an invisible line of defense for himself so that no one could get close to him. And that was why he always sat here alone. He emptied his head and gazed at the never-moving red sun in the sky in a daze. The crimson sun rays would pour down through the gaps between the branches of the big tree and shine on his cheek.
Ying closed his eyes momentarily as he waited. He felt the powerful beating of his heart in his chest. His heart was beating faster and faster, as if to reflect what he felt inwardly. Then Ying opened his eyes and raised his head to look at the man who appeared in front of him.
Ying said to the man, “Finally. For more than 100 years, I have been waiting for the day you would arrive.”
The man in front of Ying seemed to have just climbed out of the battlefield. He was soaked in blood. Under the blood-red sun, the entire person seemed to turn red. He even held a red umbrella in his hand. The colour was so dazzling it almost hurt his eyes. The umbrella appeared warm and friendly, but it was extremely dangerous.
“What’s your name?” Ying said with a hoa.r.s.e voice. He lightly brushed the scattered long hair on his forehead so that he could look at the person with a clearer view. He noticed that this man was very young. He seemed to be about 20 years old and about 1.7 meters tall. He was a black-haired and black-eyed Asian, and half of his face was covered with blood. One eye seemed to be injured, so it remained closed.
Disregarding the thick bloodstains, this man had a rather pleasant appearance. He had slightly delicate facial features and a gentle temperament, accompanied by a gentle smile of a typical big brother next door. He was probably this sort of man.
It was a pity that this kind of gentle temperament was all destroyed by the killing intent that was surging through the entirety of the man.
He looked like a devil who had just crawled out from the Asura Realm in h.e.l.l……or rather, it was more apt to say that he just crawled out from the Asura Realm. He defeated everyone and wiped out every monster, creature, and player. In short, everyone in the Asura Realm, except himself, was lying unconscious on the ground.
He was the winner, but he did not seem to be happy. His face was expressionless, and he neither cried nor laughed. When he approached the tree, his killing intent continued to emanate from him. His eyes were as sharp as those of wild animals, and he was staring at Ying.
“My name is Luo Jian.” The man finally showed a smile. When he said this to Ying, his voice was a little hoa.r.s.e as if he had not spoken for a long time. He did not adjust his pitch properly, but this did not detract from his verve.
Ying was not afraid of Luo Jian, who was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with killing intent. It seemed that the other party had just left the battlefield and could not control his killing intent. Ying knew that this man had been in this Asura Realm for a long time. From the moment he came in, he had never left the battlefield. Everyone in the Asura Realm were all like him. They were repeating an endless cycle of killingk2026;k2026; or being killed.
So Ying waved to Luo Jian and said to him, “Come here and sit by me.”
Ying sat cross-legged on a big rock, and there was a rock almost as high opposite him, and put together, it appeared as if the rocks were two similar-looking chairs. Ying had been sitting on one of the chairs, waiting for the chair opposite to him to be filled by someone. That person would then be able to talk to Ying face-to-face.
Luo Jian obeyed Ying’s wishes. He walked slowly forward, step by step. His walking pace was slow but powerful. Ying could see that the man was too used to fighting. He was used to keeping his guard up with every step that he took. He was wary of attacks from all different directions, even from the sky and the ground, and was ready to fight back at any time.
Ying understood that he had to allow the other party to relax first, to remove him from a deep state of concentration, to allow the man to relax and forget about killing and battling.
So Ying lowered his tone, and in a relaxed tone, as if his voice was a piece of wondrous music, he stated: “Luo Jian, relax. You don’t have to fight any longer. You beat everyone. You’re the winner.”
Luo Jian did not speak. He raised his head and looked at Ying. Suddenly, he swung the red umbrella in his hands. Then he opened the umbrella, put it on his shoulder, and slowly walked towards Ying. This time, he no longer inched forward with difficulty. He seemed much more relaxed and soon sat down on the rock in front of Ying.
“In more than a hundred years, you are the first to sit here.” Ying looked at this man with admiration. He felt that he had a long, crazy dream, but today, he finally woke up from the dream.
Luo Jian seemed to be nervous. He turned the handle on his shoulder to allow the red umbrella to spin above his head. However, the frequency with which he rotated the umbrella seemed too paced. It seemed that the umbrella had been slowly rotating at a constant speed. The speed was very constant. It was easy for someone to descend into this strange rotation, as it led people to feel that the skies were spinning.
Ying looked at the man for a moment, then shook his head and said, “Don’t try to hypnotize me.”
Luo Jian also raised his head. He put the edges of his umbrella too high up as he stared at Ying’s face. In fact, one could not see Ying’s face clearly because his hair was a mess. His hair was long enough and scattered everywhere to cover his body, and his hair was also disorderly arranged in front of his forehead. And because of this, there was a sense of mystery attached to Ying’s face.
Luo Jian stated: “I didn’t hypnotize you. I was just used to it.”
“I know, you’re used to being able to hypnotize people constantly, right?” Ying, with a gentle smile, said, “I sometimes notice you when I sit here. You would always deliberately reduce your sense of being to allow everyone to ignore your existence and prefer to remain in that state. But sometimes, you will deliberately magnify your sense of existence. It’s amazing how you can change from a small fry that n.o.body cares about to a being that can capture everyone’s sight wherever you go.”
“Were you paying attention to me?” Luo Jian was staring at Ying. He did not move his gaze away from him.
“I am able to pay attention to everyone on the battlefield. Some of them are very strong and some of them are quite vulnerable, but sometimes the weak ones are the ones able to survive to the end.”
Luo Jian hesitated for a moment, and thereafter, he asked, “I want to know something.”
Ying smiled: “Of course, you can ask anything, I will answer any question you ask, unless I don’t know the final answer to that question.”
Luo Jian thought for a moment and asked, “Who are you?”
“Oh!” Ying shook his head in chagrin: “I forgot to introduce myself. My name is ‘Ying,’ the ‘Ying’ that stems from Lao Ying. But this is not my real name, but a code name. As for my real name, I have forgotten it.”
Ying continued, “I don’t remember my age. I think I’ve lived for too long. I’ve forgotten where I came from, but what I can tell you is that I’m not someone from this era.”
“I was told that you were one of the first players to enter the secret chamber. Is that true?” Luo Jian’s speaking speed was a little slow because he was not in a hurry. He had spent too much time here, and time had honed his flexibility and patience.
He asked questions slowly, trying to get all the information he wanted to know.
Ying was not disappointed and replied honestly, “Yes, this is true. I spread that information myself.”
“Well, the first players to enter the secret chamber, how many…… of them are alive?”
The question seemed to make Ying feel a little desolate. He sighed, “I’m the only one that survived. I’m the only one alive.”
Luo Jian seemed to notice something, and he went on to ask, “Are the rest of them dead?”
“Yes, mostly.”
“You know those players, don’t you?” Luo Jian said: “You even know how many players were the first to enter the secret chamber, right? How did you enter the secret chamber?”
“Well, let me slowly answer your questions, one by one.” Ying smiled and he said, “First, I do know all the players that first entered the secret chamber. Second, there were only eight players in the first batch, including me. Third, the eight of us entered the secret chamber voluntarily.”
Luo Jian did not speak. He seemed to show very, very little of his expressions, and it was difficult for him to experience any mood fluctuations. Luo Jian had stayed in the battlefield for too long. He knew that he had become numb like these people. He had numbly forged ahead in the battlefield. He had been thinking about how to make himself survive longer and how to kill everyone around him every day.
He did not know when he became silent, reticent, and introverted.
“You’re smart, Luo Jian.” Ying lowered his head a little, and his hair started to become messed up again, but he did not care. He continued: “We don’t have to hurry. In this Crimson Asura Realm, we have a lot of time to spend. It’s fine even if we talk for a few days and nights.”
“I know what you want to know, too,” Ying said, “You want to know the origins of the secret chamber. You want to know how to leave here or how to leave the chambers forever. You may also want to save some of your companions. Everyone who came here thought so too, and every one of them faced similar predicaments.
“So before I tell you the truth, I have to tell you a story, a horrible story, which has been in my heart for a long time, so long that I don’t even want to mention it again.”
After saying that, Ying remained silent for a long time. Something seemed to be brewing in his mind. He prepared a long, boring story for the guest in front of him. In fact, Ying did not know whether he was doing the right thing or the wrong thing. Was the decision he made right or wrong, good or bad? It was a pity that he had no room for regret now.
Clearly, Ying had all the time in the world, but he could not withstand time’s effects.
So Ying took a deep breath. He raised his head and opened his eyes. He looked at Luo Jian, who was sitting in front of him, and began to tell him a story that happened in the distant future. It happened in a future far more distant that anyone could imagine:
“This story begins about a billion years later in the future. At that time, Earth has exhausted its resources and is no longer suitable for the survival of any human being. Because of war and struggle for survival, human beings began to experience an unprecedented evolution globally. It was an evolution just as wonderful and terrifying as how monkeys…… evolved into humans.”
“Humans have become very powerful, but they are no longer suited to live on Earth, so they migrated to other galaxies, leaving behind the once beautiful but now totally different Earth…… to rotate by itself.”