Chapter 53.1 - Reader: The call from the artifact.
Chapter 53.1 – Reader: The call from the artifact.
Du Ze opened his eyes and saw Xiu’s perfect chin. He was lying pillowed on Xiu’s thigh and he was wearing his clothes again, which were now dry and clean. It seems that Xiu put the clothes back on him. Du Ze did not feel any discomfort on his body; this was obviously the work of his 0-point restore ability.
Xiu was looking out into the distance, as though he was thinking deeply about something. Du Ze’s gaze moved downwards and saw the blond youth’s bandaged chest oozing blood. His wounds must have opened. As for the cause…
Haha.
At the thought of yesterday’s disharmonious scene, some silly, cute person wanted to cover his face. He and the Moe Lord rolled around in the sheets without a care, even though they were out in the wilderness and Xiu was injured. How crazy were they? But if it happened again, Du Ze, with tears in his heart, had to admit that he still wouldn’t refuse the Moe Lord’s request to consummate their union.
Because Xiu made him feel that this person is completely insecure.
Each word from the Moe Lord poked the hole in the crazy fan’s brain so that his common sense leaked out and the cute, silly reader had no choice but to obediently lie down and be overwhelmed.
Du Ze got up from Xiu’s lap. Xiu woke up from his reverie and watched, his eyes a soft watery blue, as Du Ze groped around for his glasses and put on his headphones. Being looked at like that, some silly, cute person was somewhat uneasy. Trying to escape from the somewhat ambiguous atmosphere, the stiff-faced youth started to converse.
“What were you just looking at?”
“There’s a voice…” Xiu was unsure and asked: “I heard someone calling me, can you hear it?”
Du Ze shook his head but even if he didn’t have the advantage of knowing plot spoilers, some silly, cute reader could tell from his years of reading YY novels that this voice is from an artifact/god beast/goddess/mentor. The four dog blood (cliche) plots are: jumping down from a cliff but not dying, cheap teacher, helping the beauty, and an artifact calling to the hero. Those lonely artifacts/god beasts/goddesses/mentors were stuck in an isolated place for thousands of years, so when a protagonist appears, they act like they were injected with chicken blood (very energetic) and like to send a call: Come, hero, accept my love!
Just as the reader was elated by his ability to see through the author’s plot, he heard his family’s Moe Lord say: “It’s noisy.”
Du Ze imagined he could hear the artifact’s glass heart shatter.
“Do you know what that is?”
Du Ze shook his head helplessly. He hesitated for a moment then decided to frankly confess everything to Xiu.
“I don’t know many things now.”
——I know a lot, you can use me.
This was the reason why Xiu was willing to keep him around. Du Ze looked at Xiu and could see that Xiu’s expression is still soft. The blond, blue-eyed youth even seemed … happy? Du Ze had thought a lot about how Xiu would react but he had never guessed that he would be happy. A silly, cute person was very confused. Now that he knew that Du Ze had no more value, why was Xiu pleased?
Xiu seemed to see through Du Ze’s uneasiness and confusion. He stretched out his hand, his fingertips lingering on the skin of Du Ze’s neck.
“You just have to stay with me always. That’s enough.” Xiu’s lips curved up. “You said you wanted to see me become a God.”
——I want to see you become God.
Du Ze’s heartbeat began to quicken as he remembered that feeling of excitement. Xiu will become the supreme god; Du Ze is certain of that but some silly, Moe person was chagrined because he knew too little about the ending of “Mixed Blood.” The slimeball Yiye Zhiqiu wrote quite a lot of foreshadowing, but the information wasn’t complete. There was no mention of how a person can become a god. Du Ze suddenly remembered someone － that green-clothed man who is always holding a book, isn’t Dan an authentic demon god?! FML! Yiye Zhiqiu probably used the unscrupulous trader to prepare for that moment!
After he thought it out, Du Ze suggested to Xiu: “You can summon Dan, he knows the path to becoming a god.”
Xiu meditated on these words for a moment before nodding and agreeing to Du Ze’s proposal. He did not take out the note that Dan gave him. Instead, he simply called out: “Dantalion.”
Du Ze was surprised. Why did Xiu know Dan’s real name?
“When I was at the Gnome Ruins, I summoned Dan to help me get you out of the Wheel of Time.” Xiu explained it to Du Ze: “He told me his name when he left.”
When he was sucked in by the Wheel of Time? Du Ze suddenly felt like he had missed out on a lot of things. He hadn’t felt much when he was in the Wheel of Time, but seeing Xiu speak about the time in the Gnome Ruins as though he was recalling a bad memory, Du Xe realized that what had been a very short time to him was an unforgettable four years for this person.
********
In the city of Yuehua, a green-clothed businessman closed his book in a very bored manner. There were piles of boxes in front of him. Everyone was rushing about, faces full of panic, not paying attention to Dan or his stall.
“I heard the beastkin have broken through the city’s defensive perimeter…”
“God of Light above! The savage beasts are under a god’s protection…”
“It’s not only protection, someone saw the beast god’s presence. That’s why our line of defense was broken so easily.”
“How can a man beat a god? God of Light, will you forsake your poor believers …?”
The murmurings came from all directions into Dan’s ears. Dan looked at the two moons in the sky that would be soon be replaced by the sun. At this time, the purple and yellow moons intersected with each other, each covering half of the other. Dan placed the book over his face, obscuring his expression.
The Chaos Continent will soon be a mess.
Dan suddenly put down the book. He heard a call, but he cannot go to that place in his present form.
What a pity! He will have to wait for His Royal Highness to come out and play with him, Dan thought. Bored, he opened his book again.
********
Xiu and Du Ze waited for half a day, but Dan did not appear. Gods can hear their name when it is called, no matter where the caller is. To God, no matter where they call their name, they can hear it. Du Ze doesn’t know if it’s because Dan doesn’t want to come or because he can’t come. Du Ze thought of the water above his head and figured that the latter was more likely.
This place, a Grand Canyon in the depths of the sea, is such a strange place that Du Ze would never have thought it would be in “Mixed Blood.” Xiu found the artifact’s calls annoying. They discussed it a bit and decided to investigate – Du Ze thought that Xiu’s motive was not to collect an artifact but to eliminate the source of the noise.
Xiu summoned the unicorn and Du Ze rescued the fat chirp from the bandages. By this time, the unicorn seemed used to Du Ze. It was quite calm and just gave him one mournful glance. The two people mounted the unicorn and ran to the top of a mountain peak. As they ran, Du Ze saw some glowing sea creatures: jellyfish with their long, luminescent tentacles. Though Du Ze had seen the magnificence of the Gnome Ruins, the magical Elven Forest, and the glorious Sky City, he was still shocked by the beauty of the scenery in front of his eyes.
The unicorn jumped down a hole at the top of the mountain. At that moment, the unicorn turned into a nightmare and bounced from wall to wall, defying gravity and slowly descending. They eventually reached the bottom where the light from the opening at the top was the only illumination. Xiu cast a light magic spell; more than 10 balls of light flew in all directions, instantly lighting up the entire cave.
The light spell revealed a huge black creature – a black dragon with its wings outstretched. Its neck was raised and a silver-blue dragon spear was deeply embedded in its “nilin”1 – this palm-sized spot, covered in white, is the dragon’s biggest weakness. The black dragon was frozen in mid-movement. Its black scales reflected the light cast by the illumination magic. The dragon looked alive but the spear was too deeply embedded for it to be alive.
The whole scene was quite shocking and daunting. Du Ze gazed at the black dragon, whose front claws were stretched out as though he wanted to grab someone. Its taut muscles showed its fury and hatred.
Xiu’s gaze fell on the spear. The thing that has been calling out to him was this dragon spear.