novelraw Chapter 706: Who
Chapter 706: Who
"..."
Listening to the shouts outside the ruins, Fisher's eyelids twitched uncontrollably. Holding the Fluid Sword in his hand, after a moment of silence, he still decided to tuck the hilt into his embrace, and walked towards the outside of the Lamashtia ruins carrying an uneasy and apprehensive mood.
With light footsteps, Fisher's silhouette quickly crossed the black crystal area within the architecture, arriving at the gap in the architecture. Through this gap, he looked at the dark space filled with scarlet mist outside.
Gravity was weak within the Spirit World, but there was still a little bit. Basically, the direction of the Crevice was considered the ground, and the tip of the inverted triangle shape pointed towards the Crevice below.
And at this moment, arriving at the edge of the architecture, looking at the pitch-black Spirit World space resembling a cliff before his eyes, he couldn't help but be curious about exactly what Gou Wen used to come over.
Hesitating for a moment, he still opened his mouth,
"Gou Wen?"
After he spoke, right above Fisher, amidst the continuous disturbance of the scarlet mist, a transparent lone boat about three or four zhang long and one or two zhang wide abruptly tore through the air from above, emitting a "swish" sound.
Fisher raised his eyes to look upwards, only to see a male Whale-kin wearing simple, unadorned Whale-kin clothing standing on that transparent small boat, holding a similarly golden Fluid Sword, heading downwards.
Looking up, a lock of slender blue hair was tied in front of his chest, looking both gentle and elegant. A handsome face was warm and smooth like jade, but at this moment it was covered in black lines, especially when he saw the dumbfounded Fisher below."Gou Wen?"
"Good on you, take this sword!"
Seeing the faint embarrassment revealed on Fisher's face, Gou Wen was directly angered into laughter. He abruptly raised the golden Fluid Sword in his hand, and following the descent of that lone boat, fiercely swung a sword strike.
"Buzz!"
Fisher raised his eyes and took a look, confirming his rank had increased compared to ten thousand years ago, probably already having reached the Eighteenth Tier and above. He hurriedly turned his head and leaped back into the ruins, causing Gou Wen's sword strike to hit empty air.
"Still running? You just wait for me!"
"..."
Fisher leaped back into the ruins all at once. Meanwhile, Gou Wen, whose sword strike missed, had red eyes. Grabbing onto the ruins of the architecture with one hand, he also stepped onto the broken part of the architecture, preparing to charge inside, making Fisher's scalp go numb watching it.
He hurriedly reached out to stop him, opening his mouth to defend himself,
"Wait a minute, Gou Wen, listen to my explanation!"
"Explain my grandma's leg, how else do you want to explain?"
Hearing Fisher speak, Gou Wen cursed in anger,
"I originally thought a thick-eyebrowed, big-eyed guy like you was merely trapped by his body. As long as you corrected it, and returned to ten thousand years later when that Helaire had already vanished like smoke, wouldn't you still be able to turn over a new leaf? I never expected it, oh I never expected it, you really aren't picky, huh?"
"I've already turned over a new leaf!"
Fisher spoke with sincerity, but Gou Wen didn't believe a single word. Instead, he sneered and waved the Fluid Sword in his hand, pointing at Fisher's lower half, and said,
"Do you think I'd believe your nonsense? Let me tell you, unless I castrate you, I won't believe it. Otherwise, I feel you'll only be honest when you're dead and hung on a wall!"
"..."
Fisher paused slightly, subsequently standing up straight and asking,
"How have you been staying in the Spirit World all these years? If..."
"Changing the subject, are we? Hmm? Playing this trick?"
Gou Wen raised the Fluid Sword in his hand again. Seeing this, Fisher hurriedly raised both hands, indicating his surrender, hurriedly opening his mouth to admit his mistakes,
"I also didn't anticipate your relationship with Jasmine from the very beginning. After all, the time gap is so long, and Jasmine is so young, that was a whole ten thousand years ago..."
"Yeah, the other women you knew didn't have parents. You coax them a bit and that's it, the parents wouldn't come knocking on your door, right?"
"Exactly what kind of image do I have in your heart?"
"You scumbag. Originally, even if I felt you were unrestrained, it was only one or two. But as a result? Year after year, what exactly are the things I heard from Ramastia?"
Gou Wen was so angry he started counting on his fingers one by one,
"Let's not count the ones before you time traveled. You were together with Elizabeth, broke up peacefully, and that was that, it didn't matter... Huh, got together with a new woman, and a Dragon-kin at that. This counts as one; plus a Demon whose relationship isn't that close, I endured it all... But good on you, after getting together with Jasmine, you didn't stop, just relentlessly bullying her, right?
"One after another, what human Empress, Dragon-kin, Phoenix Race, human-troll hybrid, Demon, and even the Moon in the Spirit World, you flirt with them all. Are you collecting a species encyclopedia here? I... I'm going to hack you to death today, you bastard!"
The more Gou Wen spoke, the angrier he got. It seemed that even though Ramastia had already relayed it to Gou Wen in the Spirit World using sufficiently brief descriptions, it completely couldn't cover up Fisher's atrocious romantic track record.
Seeing him swing the sword right at his head again, Fisher retreated. He didn't counterattack, merely dodging while opening his mouth to explain,
"Wait a minute, Gou Wen..."
"Wait my..."
Fisher saw the Fluid Sword in his hand begin to extend and genuinely twist like flowing water. He simply stopped dodging, directly allowing himself to be tied up tightly and falling to the ground. Then he was dragged back by Gou Wen.
"Thud!"
With a pull from Gou Wen, Fisher was slowly dragged over by him. He didn't say a word, merely watching Gou Wen panting slightly as he dragged him over bit by bit.
Only until he was dragged to his feet by that Fluid Sword did Gou Wen lower his pale face. He gnashed his teeth as he looked at the silent Fisher beneath him, saying in a low voice,
"What, got nothing to say?"
"...You won't even let me speak, what else can I say?"
"You still want to argue?"
Fisher sighed, looking at Gou Wen before his eyes and said,
"Your body is already like this, if I run again, do you still want to live?"
"..."
Panting, Gou Wen pinched Fisher's cheek and lowered his head. That slender blue hair hung down, hitting next to Fisher's cheek.
"You see it even faster than I, a doctor."
"I'm worried about you... Everything in the past is my fault, I admit it all. However, it's already been ten thousand years, and I still don't know anything about your matters. There must be a reason why you ran to the Spirit World without a word. Not only are you Jasmine's father, Xuan Can's husband, but also the good friend of that Demi-Human Girl Con. You probably know roughly about my matters, and the conviction in your heart has long been set... It's just that before the conviction, at least let me know your situation all these years, right?"
Gou Wen narrowed his eyes, looking at Fisher beneath him. Just as he wanted to say something, he couldn't stop himself from coughing,
"Cough cough... cough cough!"
Fisher paused slightly. The golden Fluid Sword binding him also instantly retracted into its hilt. Having regained his freedom, Fisher hurriedly got up to check his condition, only to see faint scarlet mist dissipating from within his body.
That was the symbol of the power of the Spirit World Contamination...
"You..."
"It's nothing, just got a bit angry..."
Looking at Gou Wen covering his mouth and speaking with a hoarse voice, Fisher abruptly smiled. He reached out and punched his shoulder, saying,
"Ten thousand years have passed, you really talk like an old man now."
Gou Wen cast a glance at Fisher, saying hoarsely,
"Did you think everyone can travel freely through time like you and stay this young forever? Besides, when I met you back then, I was already not young anymore..."
"That's true..."
Gou Wen still wore a stinky face, getting angry looking at Fisher before him. He rolled up his sleeves, looking as if he still couldn't get over his anger. And Fisher didn't plan to dodge anymore, just looking at him like this, leaving himself at his mercy.
Mainly because this matter truly sounded a bit awkward.
Even though the lifespan gap between Long-Lived Species and humans was indeed a bit large, even though back when Gou Wen met Fisher, in terms of age, it was already a gap of who knows how many generations, but from the bottom of his heart, Fisher actually treated Gou Wen as a good brother.
And now...
Anyway, it was a bit complicated. It couldn't just end with a simple "let's judge things separately," right?
Fisher gulped down a mouthful of saliva. He raised his eyes to look at the body dissipating scarlet mist, taking the initiative to broach the topic,
"If my guess is correct, you being in the Spirit World must be related to Asuka's matters, right?"
Gou Wen cast a glance at Fisher. After a moment of silence, he asked with some complexity,
"You already know Asuka is the source of the Spirit World Contamination, what else do you know?"
Fisher shook his head, frowning as he said,
"Not much. My contact with the Spirit World Contamination has been too little; even my most recent contact was almost being devoured by It in the Spirit World. I saw the so-called scene formed by Dream Illusion, and inside it, I saw Asuka's pain... She has been waiting for me all these years. Even though I had already foreseen this kind of pain ten thousand years ago, I don't know if I should have been a bit more resolute..."
Ten thousand years ago, when he first met Asuka Karasawa, she was nothing more than an immature, troublesome little girl. Ten thousand years later, her name had already become a circulated legend. Yet arriving along with her growth was the agony currently pervading everywhere in the Spirit World.
This couldn't be called a price. If possible, Fisher even hoped she could forever remain so innocent and live happily, without needing to deceive herself.
"Exactly what happened back then? Asuka is still alive right now, correct? The pollution within the Spirit World is merely her physical body and Chaos. It is still searching for Asuka's lost soul. Her soul is currently somewhere in reality, you know where it is, right?"
"Cough cough..."
Hearing Fisher's words, Gou Wen coughed. He sighed, rubbing his forehead somewhat uncomfortably as he said,
"Asuka is indeed still alive, and you also know the current her..."
"She..."
Just as Fisher was preparing to ask questions, at this moment, matters regarding Raphaela abruptly rushed into his mind.
Logically speaking, once one entered the Mythical Rank, the problem of stillbirths would occur for the children they bore. This was why he needed to go to the Sea of Souls to find a pure soul and place it into Raphaela's lower abdomen to form a true embryo.
That is to say, their child must also require such a soul injection.
Previously, after learning the specific method, Fisher always felt Xuan Can and Gou Wen adopted this method. But this couldn't explain why they suddenly decided to have a child over a hundred years ago, instead of earlier...
The relationship between this husband and wife was deep, this was unquestionable. Bearing a child was very normal. But Gou Wen speaking this way at this moment made Fisher feel that the birth of this child had another necessity.
Combined with Ramastia's favoritism towards Jasmine... the blessing of Ramastia upon her... and, what Heon said, the matter about Ramastia hiding the soul the Spirit World Contamination chased after so bitterly...
"You're saying, Jasmine is Asuka?"
"...She is also your student, isn't she?"
Fisher wore a face full of disbelief. And at this moment, the pale-faced Gou Wen sat in front of Fisher. He covered his mouth, trembling as he spoke to Fisher while coughing,
"...You don't know the suffering she endured before she was born. Ten thousand years ago, you left without looking back, leaving her, an outsider, to survive in this difficult world. Even with Mikhail and me, these two de facto elders, helping her, but you must know, exactly how miserable the situation of Transferred Persons was during the Mythical Era...
"Cough cough... Not only did they have to suffer the spurn of the entire world, chased and crusaded against everywhere like rats crossing the street, but most importantly, they also had to suffer the mental torment from Outer Gods... Jasmine constantly told me, she could see you. From the very beginning she was certain it was an illusion, but over a long period of time, a cognitive deviation gradually occurred... When she was sad, she would subconsciously converse with that illusion, and then struggle because of the illusion's words...
"Under the influence of Chaos, a Transferred Person's mind will gradually turn frantic, while in reality they still had to live a life in precarious situations... Asuka had always been bitterly persevering. She thought that after a few hundred, a few thousand years, one day she would see your silhouette appear in a nation again. But even when she regretfully gave up at the very last moment, she still didn't wait for your arrival. I saw all of this in my eyes..."
Fisher's eyes widened. He sat down on the ice-cold crystal ground together with Gou Wen. Actually, he did feel the similarity between Jasmine and Asuka, but the similarity in personality appeared too inconspicuous beneath the huge difference in appearance. Moreover, she had never shown any related memories. This made Fisher increasingly confused.
"So, Jasmine's soul at this moment is already the purified soul of Asuka, right?"
Gou Wen shook his head softly, saying in a low voice,
"If it were like that, Asuka would be equivalent to being dead, and there would be absolutely no need for Ramastia and me to do these things, how can we speak of rescue? At the time, in order to combat the Chaos within her body, Asuka adopted countless methods, even adopting the method of separating her soul and physical body... She walked the world with her soul, while the pollution permeating the Spirit World represents her body that had already been thoroughly infected by Chaos.
"But even so, Dream Illusion's lock on souls still left Asuka with nowhere to hide. She could no longer wait for you, and ultimately decided to forcefully breach the barrier, leaving this Barrier, leaving this world; before leaving, she had a final conversation with Mikhail and me, and ultimately headed into the Spirit World all alone, attempting to depart through The Ultimate."
Fisher opened his mouth. He already knew the Barrier couldn't be left; that place only allowed entry but no exit. So Asuka must have failed.
"She failed."
"That's right..."
Gou Wen heaved a sigh, saying to Fisher,
"Back then, Xuan Can and I couldn't rest assured and simply went to the Spirit World together. We watched with our own eyes the terrifying appearance of the Spirit World Contamination chasing her with all its might towards The Ultimate, and of course also saw her endgame of having no way out before The Ultimate.
"Even though the deities took action and exhausted their full strength to contain the Spirit World Contamination, they were helpless against Asuka's endgame of having no way out. She ultimately decided to destroy the soul the Spirit World Contamination was chasing after, throwing herself into the Sea of Souls. At the moment the soul turned pure, she would truly die completely, washing away everything of the past, becoming a part of the Sea of Souls...
"Her plan indeed succeeded. The moment she fell into the Sea of Souls, the Spirit World Contamination lost its direction, turning into a fog permeating without any consciousness... But Xuan Can and I watched her struggle bit by bit over several thousand years; unable to bear it in my heart, I decided to save her..."
"I entered the Sea of Souls attempting to save her, but I was a bit late when I went; she had already almost sunk into the Sea of Souls. The properties of the Sea of Souls are very strange. Even if I exhausted my full strength, I couldn't rescue her. Thus I had to rely on Ramastia taking action to be responsible for salvaging her, rescuing her bit by bit... This rescue took several thousand years."
The timeline in Fisher's mind roughly cleared up, and the time also perfectly matched the contents spoken by the Lord of Fate.
Asuka separated her soul and physical body, causing the Spirit World Contamination to exist independently in the Spirit World, beginning to interfere with the living environment of the Chaos-kin, triggering the great chaos and several hundred years of conflict in the Northern Border.
Meanwhile, she returned to reality alone, yet the Spirit World Contamination persistently chased after her, forcing her to involuntarily produce the idea of leaving reality through The Ultimate. Thus she embarked on a journey alone, entering the Spirit World.
In the Spirit World, she probably entrusted her final wishes to the Mother Goddess. The Mother Goddess might have witnessed Asuka's endgame with her own eyes. In short, She began to experience a drastic change in temperament. Not only did she begin to interfere in reality and shelter humanity, she also taught magic to humanity. Ultimately, under the dual interference of Chaos and the Mother Goddess, the Mythical War was triggered.
Following the conclusion of the Mythical War and the passing away of the Mythical Species for a long time, in the few hundred years leading up to the present, Ramastia finally salvaged Asuka's soul.
"Jasmine is essentially Asuka, but because she sank into the Sea of Souls, it made her forget a lot of things, although her essence never changed. The Spirit World Contamination quickly realized her existence, but could no longer locate her; even the physical body of the Whale-kin couldn't completely merge with her soul. This might lead to her being unable to enter the Mythical Rank, as well as unable to display her original magical talent..."
"Have you... told Jasmine about these?"
"...No."
Fisher smiled helplessly, speaking softly to Gou Wen,
"That's good too."
Gou Wen raised his eyes to look at him, seemingly not understanding. Whereas Fisher continued speaking,
"I saw her fear of her parents within that Spirit World Contamination. Her original family was hell to her. Now she has abandoned all of it, and you guys are very protective of Jasmine, giving her the love of family she dreamed of. Even if she knew, she would definitely be grateful to you guys."
Hearing this, Gou Wen's eyes trembled slightly. After a moment of silence, he reached out his hand and struck his shoulder powerlessly with a punch,
"Since that's the case, and you're still out there messing with flowers and grass, tell me, shouldn't I stab you?"
"You should, you really should... When your body recovers, stab me a few times is fine, just don't chop my kidneys."
"Your mom..."
"No, don't misunderstand... That place was blown up, it still hurts."
Fisher spoke jokingly. Subsequently he stood up and reached out to pull the Gou Wen sitting on the ground up.
To tell the truth, this was truly a bit unexpected, especially regarding Jasmine's problem.
However, it's good that she is still safely staying within the Crevice at this moment. Fortunately Fisher risked his old life to preserve the Crevice earlier, otherwise if the Crevice collapsed and the Spirit World Contamination invaded reality, who knows what would happen to Jasmine...
All in all, everything still lingered upon the World-Ending Prophecy. To be free from all worries, one must make the annihilation disappear completely.
Thinking of this, Fisher turned to look at Gou Wen beside him, opening his mouth to ask,
"Gou Wen, the problem of Dream Illusion is probably still quite tricky right now. Do you know Mikhail's whereabouts?"
He needed to first obtain the complete Cardinal Completion Handbook, then thoroughly enter the realm of being able to look directly at deities.
Gou Wen paused slightly, rubbing his chin as he said,
"I have a bit of a lead. The last thing related to him, I went to handle it personally two hundred years ago, and even suffered hidden injuries..."
"Is he still alive?"
"I don't know. The matter between him and Michael... tsk, is also quite complicated, I'll tell you slowly."
"Mhm, speak..."
Fisher was just preparing to continue cramming the information he didn't know from Gou Wen. But right at this moment, from outside the architecture, a crisp sound abruptly echoed,
"Beep beep... beep beep..."
Fisher and Gou Wen paused simultaneously, turning their heads to look outside, only to see a Cardinal flying over staggeringly, flapping its Cardinal engine.
"A Cardinal? Why is it here?"
Fisher didn't understand the Spirit World, so he turned to look at Gou Wen. And Gou Wen also looked at Fisher with a face full of astonishment,
"In reality, have they also started building Mikhail's Cardinals after the demise of the angels?"
"What?"
Hearing this, Fisher looked at that staggering Cardinal. He quickly and bizarrely discovered that the emblem of Naris was actually still brokenly painted on that Cardinal. Yet at this moment, that Cardinal was battered and exhausted, as if it had shuttled through a bizarre space, arriving before Fisher and Gou Wen covered in scars.
"Beep beep..."
"Thud!"
"Aiyo!!"
Before Fisher and Gou Wen could react, a square-shaped book silhouette violently spurted out from within the interior of that Cardinal. That silhouette wailed, falling towards the ground. Fisher's eyes were sharp and his hands quick, catching that book into his embrace. Looking down, if it wasn't the dizzy and confused Emhart, who else could it be?
"Emhart?"
"Fi-wuwu Fisher, w... why am I here?"
"You're asking me? What happened in reality, why did you suddenly run to the Spirit World too?"
Looking at the dizzy and confused Emhart in his embrace, Fisher wore an anxious face. Because at this moment, a touch of ominous premonition had already surged into his heart. And Emhart was even more confused, trying his utmost to recall the specific situation,
"I-I don't know... Ah! No! I remember!"
He hurriedly flew up, turning to look at that battered Naris Cardinal floating behind him, crying out in shock,
"It's Alajina! That tool transferring to the Spirit World on Alajina suddenly lit up!! It abruptly flew up and charged towards Jasmine, then the Ocean Emperor chopped that thing into several pieces, shattering it all over the ground... At that time Alajina's state was also wrong, it was as if those things on her body lost control, her face was also pale...
"In the end... in the end that Cardinal actually wasn't broken! Your mom, it teleported me over! The Ocean Emperor unexpectedly didn't have time to save me?!"
Fisher opened his mouth, looking at the exceedingly wronged Emhart before his eyes, speechless for a moment.
And Gou Wen also raised his head to look at the hovering Cardinal before his eyes. Looking at its battered body, an intermittent electronic synthesized voice suddenly transmitted from it,
"Beep beep... Respected Mr. Fisher, I am... 【Hamon Hamon】! Very pleased to meet you!"
(End of Chapter)