Chapter 356: Accept or Abandon
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
An Lin was rooted to the spot as he stared at the boy smiling wickedly at him.
Never would he have thought that the life he had created would turn on him in cold blood and try to take away everything he had.
His heart throbbed with pain, but he was no saint, so he was unable to find it within his heart to forgive him.
Thus, An Lin immediately chose option A: Kill him!
An Lin’s body slowly vanished, leaving only the boy standing in this barren world.
“Ah! Big Brother An, why did you disappear?!” the boy exclaimed in shock.
He hadn’t even begun to absorb his power and shown Big Brother An the process of his growth, why did he suddenly vanish…
Thus, the boy became the only person in this world.
He looked around him to discover only nothingness.
There was only a boundless expanse of black ground and grey skies.
The boy stared at the longsword in his hand as his arms trembled.
There would be no one to talk to him and no one to impart knowledge upon him.
The boy suddenly felt like he had lost all direction.
He had been abandoned by Big Brother An… or perhaps, it was because he had abandoned Big Brother An first?
Did he feel remorse?
The boy stared up at the sky as tears welled up in his eyes. He couldn’t find it in him to take a single step forward.
An Lin watched from the sky above as the boy collapsed onto the ground with tears streaking down his face.
After an eternity, he was driven mad by loneliness and despair.
He gradually became more and more agitated as his emotions became more and more unstable.
The vital energy in his body began to surge, and his blood turned black as his eyes became red, and a layer of keratin began to form around his body.
He was starting to become what Big Brother An had described to him—— an animal. A series of thin legs began to burst forth from his body, and his torso expanded to complete his transformation into a spider.
Not long after that, he transformed into a huge black tiger, sprinting like mad through the barren landscape.
He became a falcon and charged at the sky with all his might as if he was trying to escape from something or prove something.
In the end, he plummeted to the ground with exhaustion.
He was killed by the fall.
However, not even death afforded him the relief he desired.
Grief, pain, despair, violence, depravity…
He became the manifestation of countless negative emotions, and he continued to walk the barren land in his inky, twisted body.
An Lin’s heart trembled at the scenes unfolding before him as if something had finally shed its facade.
As his emotions surged, he fell into a spell of dizziness.
In the next instant, he appeared in an antiquated room.
There was some sort of event going on so everything was very bustling and lively.
An Lin lay in a recliner chair with a content expression.
He looked out the window to find that it was snowing outside. There was a thick layer of snow covering the ground, but he was warm in his room where firewood crackled in a fireplace and a warm, golden glow enveloped the room.
A cylindrical blue specter opened its eyes and hovered to An Lin’s side before carefully pouring out a cup of hot tea and handing it to An Lin.
An Lin picked up the cup and sipped on the tea with a satisfied smile on his face.
There was a golden flaming bird playing around with a turtle above a bed of cloud and mist. There was a tiny little stone golem caught in a daze as well as a white humanoid creature decorating a beautiful tree.
A small fish was arguing with a small dragon about something, while a little gnome was busy preparing a dinner feast in the kitchen.
A little girl with black wings growing on her back ran toward An Lin and latched onto his leg. “Big Brother An Lin, the little rainbow snake is cheating. She lost a bead to me in a bet but she still hasn’t handed it over to me!”
An Lin was at a bit of a loss for what to do as he looked at the little girl with the serpentine lower body and a reluctant expression on her face.
The little girl had her lips puckered up in distress as tears welled up in her large, bright eyes. She had clearly made a bet with something she was unwilling to part with.
Just as An Lin was scratching his head at the dilemma he was faced with, a knock suddenly sounded on the door.
He stood up from his recliner and opened the door before his expression faltered.
A little boy was sobbing at the door as he hugged a black longsword to himself.
His clothes were torn and tattered and his nose, face, arms, and bare feet were red from the cold as snow gathered in his hair.
“Big Brother An Lin, I was wrong, I made a mistake…”
Tears flowed uncontrollably down the boy’s face when he saw An Lin. His body was still s.h.i.+vering as he looked up at An Lin with boundless remorse and fear in his eyes.
An Lin was, of course, familiar with this boy. This was the boy he had created and who, in the end, also stabbed him in the back.
“Big Brother An Lin, please forgive me, I’ll never do anything like that again.”
The boy fell to his knees in the snow as he begged for forgiveness.
An Lin could see that his grief and remorse was not feigned.
However, should he forgive him just because he apologized?
The sound of laughter and firewood crackling in the fireplace was still audible.
Everything was so warm and lovely, it was like paradise.
Outside the room, the biting wind continued to blow, and there was only an endless expanse of dark skies and forbidding snow.
Everything was filled with loneliness and despair.
An Lin stood in the doorway, and it felt like he was choosing between heaven and h.e.l.l.
Should he accept this boy or abandon him?
An Lin was very fond of this boy.
They had been companions for a long time, and the boy was so lovely and pure, like a blank canvas with infinite possibilities.
It was exactly because he loved this boy with all his heart, that his betrayal hurt so much.
The boy’s head had already been lowered into the snow as he hugged his sword to himself, which was the only thing he had left. He knelt down in the snow, and his body had curled up like a hedgehog.
An Lin didn’t move, and the boy didn’t move either.
Snow was still falling and it soon enshrouded the boy’s fragile body in a layer of white.
The door remained open for what seemed like an eternity.
An Lin didn’t know what prompted him to act as he did, but he strode out the door and gently brushed the snow from the boy’s body before wrapping him in a tight hug.
Hot and cold merged together at this moment…
Everything fell into chaos and darkness.
An Lin felt like he had just had an extremely long dream. He woke up to find that there were tears on his face.
He wiped those tears away and looked around him in confusion. Stone walls, stone pillar, jade coffin…
Oh… right! I was in the process of coming into contact with the Heart of the Divine G.o.d!
Thank goodness there was no one around, otherwise, it would be far too embarra.s.sing to be seen sobbing like this!
He was unable to comprehend why the Heart of the Divine G.o.d would present such a bizarre dream to him.
What did the dream represent? What did his choices mean?
An Lin’s heart grew heavy as he thought back to the boy.
A thought began to occur to him, but he didn’t dare to follow the train of thought.
Right at this moment, the white ball of light and the white streams of light suddenly began to move.
They both rose into the air and began to merge into his body!