Chapter 701: Hope from the White Tree
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The shopkeeper picked up a metal scoop and scooped out ice cream onto a cone. It seemed very delicious. But when he pa.s.sed the ice cream cone to Lu Shu, he took away the ice cream the moment Lu Shu grabbed on to the cone, leaving an empty cone in Lu Shu’s hands.
Coral laughed. Turkish ice cream was famous here as well. Thus, she had brought Lu Shu over to see how Lu Shu would react.
The shopkeeper smiled kindly. But they saw Lu Shu biting the cone like nothing had happened…
The shopkeeper once again pa.s.sed the ice cream cone to Lu Shu, but left only the cone in Lu Shu’s hand. Lu Shu pa.s.sed the cone to Coral. “Here, this cone is pretty good.”
Coral was speechless.
The shopkeeper stopped playing tricks on him. He wanted to pa.s.s the ice cream to Lu Shu, but he realized that Lu Shu was unhappy!
“Not this again.” Lu Shu took the cone from the shopkeeper’s hand and said in English, “Giving me so many cones before finally giving me the ice cream. I don’t want the ice cream anymore.”
“From Barış’ distress, +666…”
Who would trick customers into only buying a cone? Did you have any shame?!
Coral laughed so hard that she could not sit up straight. The lady in the shop next door smiled kindly, as if she was looking at the purest thing in this world.
The shopkeeper gave up. He gave Lu Shu five cones and one ice cream before sending him off.
Coral asked in Chinese, “Lu Shu, why does your brain work differently from others?”
Lu Shu wore the cones on his fingers, as if he was eating Bugles corn chips. He was invincible.
Lu Shu said, “I have no idea. It’s been this way since I was young.”
Suddenly, Coral weakly bent over. She gripped the armrest of the wheelchair. Lu Shu was dumbfounded. “What happened to you?”
“Nothing.” Coral said weakly, “I want to see the Oristano coast. I heard that the sea here is the cleanest and looks like the end of the horizon.”
Lu Shu silently pushed Coral outside the city. A majority of the coast in Sardinia were not beaches, but sea cliffs formed by the movement of tectonic plates.
Since there were few sandy beaches, the amount of pollution was reduced as well.
The two of them did not talk and enjoyed the tranquility.
Coral’s condition should not have worsened so quickly. But if she did not make a move last night, Lu Shu might have been bound even tighter by that silver ray of light.
Thus, Coral did not care about her condition and used Gungnir.
Lu Shu could not determine whether her judgment was correct. He was willing to fight. He did not want to see others sacrifice so much for him either.
He did not like to owe others. Lu Shu remembered how Uncle Li and the others, who were selling breakfast, had helped him. He would repay them when he was able to do so. Even after that, he would not forget about their deeds.
As for Coral’s feelings, Lu Shu was at a loss. He did not know how to start repaying her.
Lu Shu brought Coral to the seaside. Coral stretched out her arms. “Could you carry me to the cliff?”
Coral closed her eyes. Lu Shu silently took her into his arms and carried her to the cliff. She was so light that he felt as if he was carrying nothing.
The two of them sat at the cliff. Lu Shu opened his hand and silently looked at the white tree mark in his palm. Coral looked over. “Is that a tattoo?”
Lu Shu shook his head. “No. Maybe it’s a fateful gift. I don’t know what it does either. But when you used the Gungnir last night, that was the first time I clearly felt its presence. I suddenly thought, could this be a piece of the World Tree? If it is, I can save you.”
Coral laughed. “In the ancient records, the World Tree blots out the sky. Countless creatures can dance and rest on its branches. How could all this be encompa.s.sed within one’s palm? I know that you want to help me, but all these are not important. Just be by my side. That’s enough. No matter whether you want to bring me away, or protect me like last night, these few days have felt like the happiest moments in my life… thank you, Lu Shu.”
Although she said so, Lu Shu knew what was happening. If the white tree mark had nothing to do with Gungnir, then why did it react when a new crack appeared on Gungnir?
He did not believe that they were not related. Thus, he thought that if he was able to uncover the secret behind this white tree mark, he would be able to save Coral.
Coral was slightly depressed. “My abilities have been exhausted. My invisible storage equipment came from Gungnir. There were still seven fruits that you gave me, but I could not bear to eat them. I wanted to return them to you, but now… sorry.”
Lu Shu was shocked. “Are you crazy? I gave you the fruits for you to eat!”
“But it must have been hard for you to obtain such a rare item,” said Coral.
The next second, Lu Shu took out another seven fruits. “Eat these.”
Coral was shocked. “So many?!”
Lu Shu did not care about his secrets. After all, Coral was about to die. It would be unreasonable of him to continue keeping this secret, right? It was true that he was serious and selfish, but he had morals and feelings too.
Lu Shu saw that Coral did not believe him. He exchanged ten more fruits and threw them into his mouth. He did not care whether there would be any effects. He just wanted to prove that these fruits were worthless to him.
Coral was speechless. She thought that she had seen through all of Lu Shu’s secrets. But she realized that she had only touched the tip of the iceberg. If he made use of all these things, it would not be impossible for him to build up a super organization.
If an organization only had less than 20 people, but they were all geniuses who were above Cla.s.s A apt.i.tude, how frightening would this organization be? It was hard to imagine. They would probably be able to shake the world.
Coral ate all seven fruits in one go. But after the second refresher fruit, there seemed to be no more effect.
Her bloodline was purified once again. A whirlpool of magical energy formed at the cliff, but the disturbance was not as large as they had expected. Coral simply stopped at the peak of Cla.s.s B and did not move further.
Her apt.i.tude was already very high. The refresher fruit simply improved it further. This made Lu Shu slightly disappointed. They had to think of another way.
But he did not completely give up. At least he had the white tree mark. They may be able to find some clues from there.
“Lu Shu, do you hate this world?” Coral suddenly asked. She slowly leaned on Lu Shu. It was as if she did not want to think about how much strength she had, or how much longer she would be able to last.
In the past, she had wanted to hide the truth from Lu Shu and let him accompany her in her final days. She did not want Lu Shu to be upset. When she could no longer support herself, she would find a cliff to jump down from and prevent Lu Shu from finding her.
But she could not do so now. Her plans had fallen through a long time ago. This made her slightly sad.
“A bit.” Lu Shu said softly, “Look at other worlds. They have stuff like the seven Dragon b.a.l.l.s or Aladdin’s magic lamp. In times of despair, they could summon a G.o.d, a dragon or some other supernatural being to settle everything for them. They can revive the dead and regain what they have lost. But there’s nothing like that in our world. I hate it.”
Coral was amused. “This is a serious moment. Don’t talk about things like this.”
But Lu Shu did not seem like he was kidding. “If there were seven Dragon b.a.l.l.s, I would go to find them. I would gather them all, even if it meant death.”
“Bring me to the northern city, Lu Shu. I heard that there is a church called St Paul’s. I want to see it,” said Coral in a small voice as she leaned close to him.
“Sure.” Lu Shu nodded his head. “I will bring you wherever you want to go.”
“There may be enemies there,” said Coral.
“There are enemies everywhere.” Lu Shu said calmly, “Even if there is a mountain in front of us, I will move it away for you.”
But Coral still seemed to have many things she kept silent about. Lu Shu did not ask her either.
When Lu Shu carried Coral to the wheelchair, he felt how weak she had become.
Lu Shu held Coral’s pale foot and slender lower leg. Coral blushed. Lu Shu realized that he may have done something profane. The atmosphere between the two of them suddenly became ambiguous.
Lu Shu braced himself and asked, “Are your legs numb?”
Coral did not reply. She silently looked at Lu Shu.
Lu Shu wondered whether Coral understood his Chinese. He slowed down and repeated himself. “Are your legs numb?”
“Mama 1 .”
Coral’s heart was beating very quickly. Why did Lu Shu have this kind of request…