Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 384: Chapter 1: The Twist Spread Out

Countless worlds split apart, eventually forming a special zone.

The outer perimeter of the Well.

Jing Er preferred to call this place—the Path to God.

With a face full of compassion, he looked at the world around him, the deserts, oceans, glaciers, cities, forests, and hills—all these different places mingling together, all because of the various rules twisted by the Well.

Jing Er knew he could only stay in this place for a very long time.

It was because he had to guard the Well, and also because... he had sustained too serious injuries.

Jing Si’s actions left Jing Er able only to manifest with his thoughts, as for his pure physical body, it would take a very long time to recover.

Nonetheless, Jing Er returned to the Path to God. After this departure, he reinforced a belief—to never leave the Well again, to just be a peaceful Guardian of the Well.

Because the Path to God was too distorted, not many creatures dared to approach it, even though the boundaries between regions had disappeared.

In front of Jing Er, there was only a White Deer.

Jing Er was dangerous, but the Jing Er of the moment was merely a thought-body condensed from Buddha-like light.

The White Deer lay on the ground, watching Jing Er, showing no fear.

Jing Er pondered his problems, and the pair—a man and a deer—looked rather harmonious together.

Was he a hypocrite, a true Buddha, or perhaps both? It was a difficult question to clarify.

At least this White Deer truly could not sense any evil aura from Jing Er.

Jing Er was contemplating problems. After returning from Baichuan City, two major events had occurred.

Both events were related to the Well.

Although he was the Guardian of the Well, Jing Er actually did not know where the Well was.

Even though he was close to the Well at the moment, it was still hard to locate it.

Jing Si had found it before, but if asked to find it again, Jing Er believed that Jing Si might not be able to do so.

But this did not affect Jing Er’s ability to open and close the Well.

The Well possessed the natural ability to open, which would "enlarge the world."

To forcibly open it required the use of Jing Er’s shard—Heaven’s Mandate.

As one who had bound himself with the Well, the cost of using Heaven’s Mandate was substantial. Once possessed, one would not be able to leave a certain range of the Well while it was sealed.

However, there was a time when this constraint could be broken—by using Heaven’s Mandate.

All six Well Level beings held powerful fragment shards.

Jing Si’s shard could resurrect someone in some form, but due to being unable to suppress his own madness... he gave his shard to one of his own hearts.

A part of himself that was stripped from his body finally gained some sanity, and that fragment named Full Moon was obtained by Bai Wu.

Jing Er’s shard, Heaven’s Mandate, could forcibly open the Well for a period of time or close it in advance.

Opening and closing did not affect the twisted changes of the world. But once the Well was opened, many rules within the distortion might change.

This is reflected in the regional rules and the distribution of the Evil Fallen within the region. And when the Well is opened, the probability of finding the Well becomes much greater.

Jing Er now recalled that in the end, he was indeed frightened by his younger sister’s prophecy.

But did that prophecy really exist?

Was Bai Wu truly the one who would destroy the Well?

Or as Bai Wu himself claimed, was he just a chess piece used by his younger sister to deceive her other brothers? Was there in fact no such prophecy, and the Well would exist eternally?

Jing Er did not know, he only knew that opening the Well rashly out of fear was very foolish, and now two very serious events had occurred.

The first event was that Jing Si had left.

Jing Er had been watching Jing Si as that expanse of starry sky slowly expanded. He too had felt fear, but Jing Si’s madness would never end.

As long as that madness did not subside, the deepest subconscious desire of Jing Si was to keep himself trapped.

Jing Er had originally thought that Jing Si was as good as a living dead, but he hadn’t expected that his younger sister had set her sights on Jing Si.

Now, Jing Er felt that Bai Wu was the one who would break the prophecy about the Well, and Jing Liu had woven a lie of great magnitude, both of these could actually be true.

The second matter, Jing Er also only recently discovered when he attempted to use a fragment of Heaven’s Mandate to close the Well... it wouldn’t close.

The fragments of Heaven’s Mandate could force the Well open or closed, but for some reason, the Well couldn’t be sealed.

Such an occurrence only happened when the Well opened naturally.

And the natural opening of the Well signified expansion.

At this very moment, Jing Er, trying and failing to close the Well again, furrowed his eyebrows.

"Could it be... the Well is expanding again?"

The White Deer looked at Jing Er, puzzled. The monk had seemed compassionate just a second ago, but now he appeared as though he could destroy everything.

It trembled with fear, suddenly wanting to go play with the little girl it had seen not long ago.

But Jing Er gently stroked its antlers, leaving it unsure whether to be happy or terrified.

"No... even if the intervals of opening are shortening, it shouldn’t be this brief... there must be a problem with the boundary... could Hei Wu have been breached?"

"Wait... how can there be such a coincidence in the world, could it be that my younger sister’s real plan is to force an expansion..."

With the thought of forced expansion, Jing Er, looking at the continuously shifting landscape of heaven and earth, mountains and seas, showed fear—an emotion that also started to infect the White Deer nearby.

What kind of thing could make this monk so afraid?

Jing Er slowly returned to serenity.

High Tower hadn’t appeared for a long time; it only manifested in the early days of the apocalypse, back when the world had just begun distorting, not yet as severe as it is now.

It wasn’t until the beginning of the year 2129 that High Tower disappeared.

Jing Er remembered what Laoda had said: the Tower possessed a powerful sealing mechanism, and with each opening of the Well, the world’s distortion intensified. For Evil Fallen and all lifeforms born of distortion, the less the distortion, the weaker their vitality.

But if the world became more distorted... then the possibility of finding High Tower diminished.

Searching for High Tower to free that supreme existence was their mission, but enhancing distortion was also their mission.

Thus, as the Well kept opening, the chances of that supreme existence breaking free from High Tower’s banishment grew increasingly slim.

This was essentially an unsolvable situation, a seal that couldn’t be broken, to the extent that even several Well Level monsters seemed to have a somewhat resigned attitude.

So for seven hundred years, Laoda had contentedly looked after the farm.

The one known as Laosan inside the airliner had no intention of waking up at all.

Laosi had gone mad. Because unlike the others, Laosi wasn’t thinking about lifting the seal but about killing that supreme existence.

Laowu had been busy managing his own faction over the years.

As for the little sister, no one knew her thoughts. Although she wasn’t a fighter, in Laoda’s eyes, she was an extremely dangerous and mad woman.

Because in her eyes, there was no opposition, no factions; everyone and the Evil Fallen, all moral dichotomies, were just tools to achieve her ends.

But what her true motives were, no one knew.

If High Tower couldn’t appear, distortions would continue to grow, and that existence closely linked to the Well would forever be unable to escape the shackles of High Tower.

But what if the world were forcibly expanded?

"If the powerful concentration of distortion gets diluted because the world is forcibly expanded..."

This musing of Jing Er already came extremely close to the truth.

"At least for a short time, as distortion continuously spreads, more and more new ’white areas’ are born, High Tower might reappear.

Until the Well keeps opening, and the concentration of distortion in these areas once again increases, and new blue, purple, and even red and black areas emerge, High Tower will disappear again."

"By that time, finding High Tower in an even more distorted and vast world would be nearly impossible. But at least... High Tower would appear for a while."

Jing Er looked at the White Deer, as if seeking confirmation of his deductions.

The White Deer shook its head, as if to say, it shouldn’t be so; I am just a little white deer.

Heaven’s Mandate couldn’t close the Well, making Jing Er suddenly realize something... Jing Liu was making a huge gamble.

"So this is Little Sister’s real purpose, right? After plotting for so many years, she found a way to awaken Laosi... or rather, to suppress madness, and at the same time guided someone to find the edge of the world, and also created a pawn like Bai Wu? In the end... forcibly expand this world? To bring back High Tower?"

White Deer’s face winced a bit from the rough handling by Jing Er, who then realized his own strength was a bit too much and pressed his hands together, offering a sincere apology to White Deer.

But at that moment, the antlers burst into fragrant flowers.

These flowers, once their scent was inhaled, induced a desire to fall asleep.

But the next second, Jing Er glanced at White Deer, and those blossoms immediately withered.

White Deer didn’t dare move, allowing Jing Er to ruā its face.

Others may stroke cats, but Jing Er stroking Evil Fallen seemed perfectly reasonable.

He genuinely adored any cute creature, but this sincerity didn’t conflict with his identity and pride as a superior being.

"Indeed, I should calm down and think. Thank you for keeping me company. From the journey in Baichuan, I’ve realized something—I should perhaps reassess humanity."

White Deer could understand but didn’t want to respond, finding its current state of being ruā very comfortable.

"But what is Little Sister’s goal, to bring forth High Tower, or to have it vanish completely? Why did she take Laosi away?"

Neither the monk nor the deer knew.

...

...

Outside Hei Wu, Shengxiang Academy on Aulora Island.

As a country very close to Hei Wu, Aulora Island had, out of humanitarianism, taken in a large number of people from Sheng Country seven hundred years ago.

There was a specific Sheng Country district and educational institutions, among which Shengxiang Academy was the most prestigious.

Presently, Shengxiang Academy on Aulora Island was hosting a winter sports meet.

Tang Jing had no interest in the winter sports meet; what he cared about was how things were going with Zhao.

This extremely wealthy man claimed he would support Yan Qi to go Inside the Mist to investigate, and Tang Jing had no idea how that was progressing.

He was online, browsing through many posts, ranging from discussions on current issues like "why more and more young people choose to lie flat" to celebrity gossip and anime fan updates.

Though this was very unlike Tang Jing, he still tried as much as possible to act like a young person.

Even if he had no interest in these topics, he would still go study them.

But soon, Tang Jing came across two pieces of news that interested him.

They were from the Olympic Games at Shengxiang Academy on Aulora, which he least cared about.

"Explosive news, Li Jian’an of Class 3, Software Engineering Department at Shengxiang Academy, has broken the world 3000 meters running record! The record of seven minutes and twenty seconds has been incredibly raised by five minutes and twenty seconds!"

The post was titled "I got stronger, but also uglier."

Tang Jing was intrigued; it’s unheard of to break a world record by that much. And it shouldn’t be the traditionally sports-weak Software Engineering Department.

Tang Jing thought it was a rumor at first, but upon clicking through, he found... it was true.

He copied the words of "three thousand meters record" and tried searching on the engine and was shocked.

"The men’s world record was broken by an Aulora person! A monumental feat for the historically unremarkable in athletics Asian race, stunning the sports world."

There’s no way, Tang Jing thought. A mutation? How could the record be raised by so much?

The story was indeed true, yet he quickly noticed that on the trending topics on Weibo, this news was nowhere to be found...

Ranked nineteenth in terms of heat, it had some popularity, but he couldn’t imagine that the top eighteen spots could be a group of young idols who fell into ditches in a row? Otherwise, how could star power beat such explosive news?

But when Tang Jing saw the higher-ranked topics, he was dumbstruck.

"Is this the Weibo that’s constantly filled with controversies I’m looking at..."

Tang Jing couldn’t believe it; the topics ranked in the top eighteen were, in fact, of the same nature as the nineteenth, Li Jian’an breaking the world record.

Summed up, they all had something to do with two words—mutation.

Aulora Island, Meinan, unbelievable incidents occurred in multiple locations in these two areas. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

A cat of massive size appeared in the Jinjiao Province of Aulora Island.

The cat had been neutered, and no matter what, it looked just like a pet owned by a normal person, so people couldn’t help but suspect... whether this cat came from some secret laboratory.

Because this cat was simply too huge.

Tang Jing had a bad feeling in his heart and clicked on the next trending search.

He saw a report from a local resident:

"Dore Street is truly a living hell right now, we’re almost in winter, but the temperature here reached an astonishing fifty-one degrees! No exaggeration, I turned off the air conditioner, went for a stroll on the street for a few minutes, came back and I was medium rare! God forbid there’s a power outage!"

The third piece of news, a power outage on Dore Street.

The fourth piece of news finally involves a top trending celebrity. It seems like only the trivial matters between stars suit the vibe of Weibo.

However, Tang Jing clearly underestimated the severity of the situation. After reading it, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine.

This wasn’t about some fresh meat’s gossip or scandal, but this highly attractive fresh meat... had mechanical metallic lines growing on his face.

He had been disfigured.

This time, Tang Jing truly realized something was not right, world records paled in comparison to these bizarre events.

"[Have you all seen the news? I am going to say something big, you had better be mentally prepared.]"

As Tang Jing felt shock and fear in his heart, Zhao sent out a message in that strange chat group.

"[I’ve seen it, what’s going on? Today isn’t April Fool’s Day, is it?]"

"[Everyone be quiet and listen to me, Yan Qi has already entered Inside the Mist, but as always, I can’t make contact with him.]"

"[What we see now can all be explained by mutation, the world is mutating, humans are mutating, and so are living organisms. Not long ago, the military forces of various countries covered up an incident.]"

"[What incident?]" Tang Jing couldn’t help but ask.

"[A ship so massive it’s like a small half of a city emerged from Inside the Mist, and this ship is heading towards Aulora Island.]"

"[That may be to avoid panic, but Zhao, how do you know this?]"

"[I bought eleven satellites.]"

Tang Jing fell silent, suddenly taken aback by this plain and simple answer, as shocked as he was by today’s news.

"[Does this mean... the Mist is going to spread?]"

"[This spread is different from what we sensed before, it’s still unclear now, but gentlemen, we need to be prepared, if the enemy is on the other side of the Mist...]"

Tang Jing was also pondering this question.

If there was an enemy on the other side of the Mist, what kind of enemy would it be? What role could we, who can remember the Mist and are aware of its spread, possibly play?

"[We currently know nothing about that ship, countries are intercepting it right now, but no one knows what’s happening in the immense fog, there are places I can’t monitor either, I reckon it’s only a matter of time before that ship lands on Aulora Island.]"

"[We can only pray what’s on that ship... are people who escaped from Inside the Mist, not... monsters that will destroy the world.]"

Tang Jing always felt like Zhao’s words would become an ominous prophecy.

It’s strange to say, but all of them felt the expansion of the Mist, and that there were a great number of monsters within the Mist threatening the world.

Perhaps some of the mutation phenomena occurring in various places are related to the Mist.

Tang Jing has always been wary of the Mist, but he always had some kind of ’prophetic’ intuition.

Mutation was upon them, and as the massive ship finally broke through the Mist, an enemy appeared on the other side... Perhaps the world would soon see all sorts of distortions and absurdities, and people would live in fear.

In that moment, Tang Jing’s intuition changed.

This might have never been the beginning of a disaster; perhaps this war had been going on for a very long time.

On the other side of the Mist, there might not only be enemies, but also... heroes who can end it all!

(I originally planned to finish writing this evening, but I got stood up for a dinner invitation, so I came back to write.)