LIGHTNOVELONLINE Time War [3]
A heavy silence fell between them as Ling Xuan processed this revelation.
CRACK!
The scene around them flickered, showing glimpses of The Titan’s decaying body turned archipelago, lush with vegetation and teeming with life.
SPLASH!
Waves crashed against the decayed strands of flesh.Yet no matter the threads held on.
“Do you now understand, Ling Xuan? You can’t win against me! You are a mere mortal born from a mortal womb, and I am a being whose very flesh is that of a God!” The scene broke apart to reveal the thatch hut.
“A dead god,” Ling Xuan refuted.
“But a God nonetheless,” The Maitreya snorted.
Ling Xuan felt his body becoming stiff as his memories began to distort, causing him to fall to the ground.
“You seriously didn’t assume I would just use words to try to bring you to my side, right?” The Maitreya spoke. “Memories, they are quite the funny thing. They are like information from a first-person point of view, but they contain emotions. And if one were to weaponize memories, hijacking someone’s mind becomes quite easy.”
Suddenly, Ling Xuan stopped fidgeting and only knelt on the ground.
“Praise me, Ling Xuan. Praise The Maitreya!”
Ling Xuan didn’t move, yet his lips seemed to be twitching.
As The Maitreya neared Ling Xuan’s mouth, excited that it had tamed him, Ling Xuan only uttered two words.
“Fuck you.”
Suddenly, Ling Xuan acted, pulling a gourd from his waist. He destroyed its cork and splattered the contents onto The Maitreya.
“You dare!” The Maitreya roared, the liquid evaporating under its rage and sending Ling Xuan flying.
Yet Ling Xuan merely grinned as blood seeped from his mouth. With his enhanced perception, he had noted that a single drop had come into contact with The Maitreya’s body.
That was all that was needed.
As The Maitreya neared Ling Xuan’s body, it stopped, eyes widening in fear and shock.
“What have you done?” It roared at Ling Xuan, who kept grinning.
“You won’t know, but your future knows,” Ling Xuan replied.
“You!” The Maitreya tried to move, yet it couldn’t as black veins started to appear around its body.
As Ling Xuan saw this, he felt the urge to give a soliloquy, so he did.
“When I completed the construction of The Ox Pathway, several memories flooded my mind—some I had sealed myself and some were hidden by something else, The Maitreya of the future. It was then I realized that you have been playing me from the moment I entered The Archipelago!
“You have been influencing my actions ever so slightly, making it so I had to go to Avalokiteśvara Isle! They weren’t too major, as you didn’t conceive me as a major threat until a certain event—no, someone happened! It was Feng Mui! He somehow managed to know the future! This without doubt confused and shocked you, even more so when he gave me the route to Amrita, which would without doubt lead me to confront Mara. And when he spoke his last words to me, you knew you had to alter them somehow. Thus, you seeped a bit of Qi into my brain using The Archipelago as a network and altered my perception of what he’d said!
“You only slightly altered it, and this was your mistake. You were not cautious enough. It was never to ‘Drink the Gourd and Crush the Apple!’ No, it was ‘Smear the Gourd and Crush the Heart!’ By only changing a few words, you managed to create another meaning!”
The Maitreya’s face contorted in rage and pain as the black veins spread, its body trembling with the effort to resist.
“Yet this was where the flaw was. Although you managed to change the meaning, you didn’t account for Feng Mui knowing of your tampering! He could’ve chosen several different words with the same meaning, but he chose that specific phrase because he knew what you would’ve changed it to! He accounted for one thing you didn’t—common sense! After knowing what coming into contact with Mara would’ve done to me, there was no way I'd ingest it! And he knew this very well, which is why he chose those words.”
The Maitreya of the past may not have fully understood Ling Xuan’s words, but it comprehended that its future self had been tricked.
“Mara is quite something, you know—a living virus would be the best way to refer to it. Every second, a part of your being is chipped away and replaced with Mara. You can never win against it by force; it’ll just spread until it takes over!” Ling Xuan laughed.
“You think it’ll let you live?!” The Maitreya spoke in agony
“No, it’ll kill me unless.” Ling Xuan smirked. “Unless you are erased from existence first, taking down Mara as well!”
“You are in n—” The Maitreya began to refute but stopped.
“Hahaha! Do you realise now, O Fleshmoulded! I was never meant to take you down! He was!”
Meanwhile, as Xia Longwei was battling The Maitreya, who was recovering from the backlash inflicted by Xia Fugui, black veins suddenly began to spread across The Maitreya’s entire body.
“What the—!” The Maitreya was undoubtedly surprised.
“Huh?” Xia Longwei was confused but then grinned. “You’ve done it, Junior! I knew I could count on you!” Xia Longwei laughed and caught hold of The Maitreya, dragging it through time.
“What are you doing!” The Maitreya shouted as Xia Longwei dragged it to the past.
“Ending this!” Xia Longwei grinned as his body transformed into a serpent, coiling around The Maitreya as they went farther and farther into the past.
“No! Why are you taking me to that era!” The Maitreya screamed in fear as it realized where it was being dragged to.
Suddenly, an immense pleasure assaulted both The Maitreya and Xia Longwei.
“Looks like we’ve reached the destination!” Xia Longwei laughed. “The final moments of The Era of Myth!” Xia Longwei exclaimed, transforming back into a humanoid form and throwing The Maitreya into the era.
By now, The Maitreya was completely wreathed in black veins, its limbs decaying and leaving it unable to resist even the slightest.
“XIA LONGWEI! YOU BASTARD!” Those were the last words Xia Longwei would ever hear from The Maitreya as it was completely transported to The Era of Myth.
“Well, that’s that.” Xia Longwei exclaimed in exhaustion as the pressure continued to pile up, forcing him to retreat.
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“You’ve won, Mortal.” The Maitreya of the past spoke as it slowly disintegrated.
Ling Xuan sat there in silence.
He spoke no words for there was no need for them.
He only thought.
“Now that the Ox has been constructed,next is The Serpent Pathway.” Ling Xuan thought as he slowly lost consciousness.
Being dragged through time was without a doubt, quite an ordeal.
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The shimmering rays of the sun shone down upon Ling Xuan’s closed eyelids, prompting him to twitch and slowly open them.
“Where am I now?” Ling Xuan wondered aloud.
“Ah, so you’ve finally woken up, eh?” A voice called out.
Xia Longwei approached Ling Xuan with a casual smile.
“The Maitreya really bruised you up, huh?”
“I guess it did,” Ling Xuan replied, realizing he was in a room.
“Where am I?” he asked.
“We’re currently in Kinnara’i Gyi Sangsum.”
“I see,” Ling Xuan nodded.
They sat in silence for a moment before Xia Longwei spoke up again.
“Well, it was nice meeting you again, but I’ve got to go now.” Xia Longwei reached into his robe and pulled out a piece of paper.
“Here’s a ticket for a ship that’ll arrive in a couple of hours. Its destination is The Continent. Seeing the future really is something.” Xia Longwei grinned, handing the paper to Ling Xuan. As he approached the door, he paused.
“You know, I’ve always wondered why the serpent ate the sparrow's eggs,” he mused with false curiosity.
“It was hungry,” Ling Xuan answered.
Xia Longwei chuckled to himself and left.
Ling Xuan stared at the parchment in his hand.
“Time to go home, I guess,” he thought.
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Arc 2 Completed : The Shambala Archipelago.