Free Web NovelChapter 825: Chapter 734: Walking Alone on a Thorny, Poisoned Path (Finale)
’Xu Xiaoyou’ gently swayed, collapsing onto March, her eyes filled with dim firelight flickering, the {Fire God’s Dao Opening} in her hand glowing brightly and then fading away.
March reached out, gently embracing the girl in front of her. She wrapped an arm around the other’s shoulder, burying ’Xu Xiaoyou’s’ head in her chest, and softly drew away the card from the girl’s hand.
’Xu Xiaoyou’s’ life quietly faded away.
"Making such a grand scene, in front of the people closest to you, still not a bit of guard, huh."
The light and shadow of the secret room vanished, the world of ruins slowly becoming clear.
March looked up, her gaze piercing the somber sky, falling somewhere in the world, her lips forming a smile.
"What will you do next?"
...
Wastelands, the end of barren earth.
"No!" Chichu Chun reached out, "No no no, stop asking... don’t do this!"
She froze,
Everything before her was so familiar.
At this moment, she was standing under a tree, the coordinates provided by Pu’er Shazan.
But this time, there were no girl’s remains under the tree, nor the magnificent ’Stone of No Color’, only a scene of decay and deathly silence.
Tears slowly slid down Chichu Chun’s face. Unspeakable resistance and sadness surged from her heart, a wave of nausea rising up, she stared dazedly at the tree, crying, crying...
Chichu Chun could not stop retching, trying to grasp something to rely on nearby, but caught nothing, falling beneath the tree, the sharp roots cut her hand, piercing into her flesh.
She wanted to cry and wail like before, but after countless hardships and growth, Chichu Chun instinctively loathed this side of herself. She covered her mouth, yet the tears uncontrollably rolled down her cheeks.
She failed once again, once again witnessing the other die in front of her.
She had accomplished nothing to change...
The future became worse because of her.
Compared to the pain of failure and the despair faced after hope, the blonde girl’s incomprehensible, distant indifference scorched Chichu Chun deeply, aggravating her pain.
No one knows how long after, the girl dried her tears, woke in a daze. The first ray of morning sunlight penetrated the thin fog, falling on her face, dissipating the yesterday’s oddities and secrets.
Chichu Chun shielded her eyes from the light. Silently for a long, long time, she thought of letting herself go numb, until the crisp sound of insects chirping came from the side.
In this barren earth, there still are new lives, sprouts of plants drilling through the cracked soil.
Chichu Chun’s face bears traces of yesterday’s tears, her weary face reflects in the water surface, strands of hair falling onto her shoulder, then slipping to the corner of her mouth.
Clearly, she had killed March, clearly she could stop Solomon, had done the utmost, yet still couldn’t change the predetermined fate.
Chichu Chun felt weary of ’why?’ More than such questioning, she wanted to know from the beginning, can the future be changed?
If from the beginning, the future cannot be changed, then what is the significance of all she has sacrificed for this?
She no longer had a third chance.
Everything had long been marked with chips in the dark, she had lost everything.
The Chichu Family, her brother, those she wanted to protect, and the ones closest to her.
Compared to hating the unfairness of fate and the suffering befalling her, Chichu Chun hated herself more for being incapable of changing it all.
She was sick of herself.
She turned over, covered her ears, wanting to block out the sound of chirping.
Moments later, Chichu Chun opened her bloodshot eyes.
She thought of the Priest’s words.
——"You will repeatedly kill the ones closest to you, repeatedly be killed by the ones closest to you, wandering in pain and despair, solitude will accompany you every day and night of your life."
——"Once you set foot on that thorny path, you will be alone, with no way back."
She was not in enough pain.
She had not truly experienced despair.
Thinking of this, Chichu Chun felt genuine relief, a smile appeared at the corners of her mouth.
She had not yet been killed by the ones closest to her...
She had not truly set foot on that thorny path, even though she was all alone.
It must be like this.
This meant the future could still change, she must have overlooked something.
She still had a chance, could change it all.
She still had a chance to save Xu Xiaoyou, to save everyone around her.
She must have overlooked something...
Just then, Chichu Chun saw the stone in her hand.
It was that Stone of No Color.
She had unintentionally grasped this Stone of No Color, like a drowning person grasping at straws.
A flower pure as snow and flawless, named Sleep and Wake. In a dream it feels, bloom and wither.
In her mind, these words emerged.
"So that’s how it is..." Chichu Chun murmured in shock.
Miracles are always bidirectional; the positive effect of the immaculate flower miracle is consciousness swapping with those it touches. But its reversed effects have long troubled Chichu Chun.
And now, she understood.
Chichu Chun’s lips curled into a smile. She cupped the Stone of No Color with her hand, slowly pointing its sharp end towards herself, her heartbeat gradually quickening.
The girl used the Stone of No Color to stop her own heart from beating.
The world reversed.
Chichu Chun opened her eyes again.
She returned to the body of March; or rather, this body originally belonged to ’her’.
All the threads of destiny converged at this moment.
The nameless corpse beneath that tree was March, and also ’her’.
The Stone of No Color left under the tree was left by ’her’.
March had taken this Stone of No Color from her hands.
And just now, she killed March once again.
The immaculate flower is a dream; blossoms bloom and fall.
Of the two who have swapped consciousness, once one realizes the reversed miracle’s effect, only one can continue to exist.
Blossoms bloom and fall...
The initiative was always in her hands.
As long as she killed herself, the miracle would reverse, and March would die in her place.
The warmth in her embrace was fading as Chichu Chun’s eyelids drooped slightly, hugging the blonde girl. That perpetually weary face was exceptionally serene at this moment. Chichu Chun’s eyes were calm as she gently wiped the bloodstains from the other’s lips, slowly leaning down...
She held the cold girl tightly in her arms, like a child with their favorite toy, softly humming a childhood lullaby.
"Snow, gently bends the branches."
"The child of ice and snow forgot her name."
"Run, run. White flowers left in the snow ~"
"In an instant, swept away by the north wind ~"
"Run, run, she counted every icicle, new shoots sprouted from the ruins."
"Lonely child, child of ice and snow."
"Will people remember her?"
"Run, run, matches sprouting in pockets, frozen songs start to melt ~"
"New shoots bloom, spring arrives."
"Sleep, sleep, spring will remember each of her."
"Sleep, sleep..."
"Spring will remember... each of her."
The youthful song drifted further on the wind as two lonely souls passed by each other, moving towards a further future.
Under the bright sunlight, Chichu Chun stood at the starting point of an expedition — before the Dawn Machine.
Alone.
By killing March, she also inherited a portion of March’s memories, learning the truth of why March could venture into different world lines.
She was dissatisfied with this future.
She made a decision.
She couldn’t use [Reboot the Future] to restart this world line, but she could journey to the next world line, and the one after that, until she found a world line she was satisfied with.
In that world line, people would no longer endure suffering, and she could reunite with Angelina, Bai Youyou, Tang Xin, and the others.
Someday,
She would find the future she hoped for.
Even if,
She would walk alone on a thorn-filled path.
"Sleep, sleep..."
Chichu Chun looked back on the past, singing softly, letting the wind carry the lullaby further away.
"Spring will remember... each of her."
...
[Affinity Plot: Walking Alone on a Thorn-filled Path]
[Perfect Completion Requirement Achieved!]
