The World-Swallowing Serpent

It was them. Even though "Fuel their desires, grant what they need" was actually the Berdette family's secret to dominion, and "Though this body is cold flowing fire, it still longs for the moment it burns away" was an incantation from the necromantic secret arts Harvey practiced—neither being their original creation—Yaxiu was willing to believe that these were the marks they had left behind. "Looks like I brought down Shattered Lake's average..." Yaxiu found it somewhat amusing. He had needed to rely on the Supreme Tail Feather and the Soul Kingdom of Heaven to bear the Fifth Hell, yet Igola and Harvey had pushed through on their own. Yaxiu had always thought he would have a chance to repay them, had always thought of them as companions helping one another along, but unlike someone like him who had bumbled his way into becoming a cult leader, Igola and Harvey had landed in prison on sheer personal capability. Before growing accustomed to relying on anyone, they had already learned to hold their destinies in their own hands. Unlike Yaxiu, who was like a balloon tethered to the ground by a string, Igola was drifting blossoms, Harvey was floating duckweed, and fate was the wind... A balloon would drift away helplessly, but with a string it could be caught, whereas drifting petals and floating duckweed could only ever wander in the wind. They had to seize every opportunity to ride the gale higher, for when the wind ceased, they too would vanish into dust and smoke. Only at this moment did Yaxiu finally understand Igola's and Harvey's mindset: *No need to pursue.* No one believed more strongly than them that Yaxiu could pass the Hell Trial, yet they had left no message for him at all, recording only the codes they lived by upon the Wall of Sighs to mark a milestone in their lives. Harvey had been slovenly his entire life, while Igola was clean-cut and decisive, but in the end, neither of them lingered or hesitated. They were a balloon, drifting blossoms, and duckweed swept together by the wind. Now the balloon was to be anchored, but the blossoms and duckweed would not stop to wait for it. Not all paths could be walked together; not all debts could be repaid. Condemned prisoners adventured together only to survive, but now that Yaxiu had found a life of his own, the adventuring party naturally had to disband. The Hell Trial was merely an occasion; it would have been the same even in the carnage of a wedding battleground. The moment they witnessed Yaxiu embracing both the Sword Princess and the Witch, they would surely have slipped away without a second thought, gleefully imagining the endless torment in store for him. The last thing they wanted was to offer Yaxiu their blessings. The balloon had found its string, but the drifting blossoms still had to search for a garden, and the floating duckweed had yet to find its pond. Perhaps one day, when Yaxiu was finally kicked out by his operators, walking down a stormy night road and sleeping miserably in a cardboard box under an overpass, they would rush up from Hell just to mock him. Or perhaps the two of them would run into huge trouble, weeping and wailing when Yaxiu descended like a divine warrior before them to put on a grand display of power. But no matter what, they would surely meet again. "Is it Uncle Harvey and Aunt Bogin?" Diya asked. "It's them. They're doing well, and they're even ahead of us." Yaxiu stood up and smiled. "I really don't know how they made it through the Hell Trial... Yinzhi and Yejian couldn't have helped again, could they?" "Even if they had help from divine lords, they still had to summon a god to bear the Fifth Hell." Weixi patted Yaxiu's shoulder and teased, "Now, Master, you've actually become the weakest of all. You're the only one without a god." "I am his god," Weise said, pushing up her glasses. "And I'm his maid. If we're putting it like that, does my Soul Lock god count as his too?" Weixi curled her lips, then turned and met Yaxiu's subtle gaze. Instantly sensing trouble, she cried, "Hey, hey, Master, my most beloved Master, the most benevolent and virtuous Mr. Yaxiu..." Weixi tried to pull back, but Yaxiu seized her wrist. Her heart trembling, she hurriedly made promises: "From now on, I'll consult you before doing anything! I will never harvest souls in secret! I'll be respectful and polite to the mistresses, and I'll only seduce you when they aren't around—" "Are you picking a fight?" Caught between laughter and tears, Yaxiu reached out toward her. "Ya—Yaxiu," Weixi looked at him, her tightly pursed lips glistening like jelly, eyes shimmering with tears. "Can't you trust me just this once?" "Not a chance." Unable to resist the Ruby Chains at all, Weixi could only close her eyes and turn away, feeling a gentle flick against the tip of her nose. "I didn't force you. You promised on your own," Yaxiu released her hand and said leisurely. "If you violate it, you'll face severe punishment." How could Weixi not see through it? Yaxiu had never intended to take her Soul Lock god away; he was just seizing the chance to scare her. She didn't even feel like teasing him anymore. The moment Yaxiu turned his back, she stuck her tongue out at him, sulking off to the side—she had actually let Yaxiu get hold of something he could hold over her! If Weixi had summoned the Soul Lock god entirely on her own and Yaxiu took it from her now, she might not even be so annoyed; after all, the strong preying on the weak was a law she believed in. But the Soul Lock god's birth happened to owe a tiny bit of credit to Yaxiu as well, which only left Weixi feeling an indescribable, nagging vexation. "Let us leave an inscription too," Sonia said. "This is our honor as sorcerers." "No need for me," Weixi said, somewhat sullen. "Everyone only gets to write one sentence. Even though this is my second time before the Gate of Hell, I don't get another chance, and I have no interest in changing my old one." Weise thought for a moment. Her finger brushed across the Death Curtain, and a line of silver words was engraved into it like beams of light: "I harbored no expectations; it was you who gave me delusions." She offered no explanation. At first glance, it almost looked like a summary of sorcery experience—after all, Weise had swept through the Senluo Wasteland relying on the Delusion sorcery spirit. But even Weixi could tell that this was no mere message; it was blatant flaunting. "Me too, me too!" Unwilling to be outdone, Diya made a few strokes across the curtain, leaving behind a line in pink-gold: "The amnesiac princess has returned home; the wandering knight refuses to let go." Sonia looked at the two of them. Both Diya and Weise wore composed expressions, looking thoroughly serious and seemingly devoid of any personal sentiment. After a moment, Sonia suddenly broke into a bright smile. "Then I'll write one too." She drew her ruby rapier and slashed across the curtain, leaving a charming, lovely line of purplish-red text: "I'm going to bully you for the rest of my life." Sheathing her blade, Sonia offered a breezy explanation: "Don't misunderstand. Someone once said that to me, so I keep it in mind at all times to spur myself on. After all, the feeling of being bullied... you all know how it is." It would have been fine without the explanation, but once she explained, everyone fell silent. A moment later, Diya suddenly erased her inscription and changed it to another line: "We are the empress, the deacon, the apostle of death, the daughter, and the witch." "I—I just wanted to leave our names!" Diya looked nervously at Yaxiu. "I really didn't mean anything else! It's rare to visit the Gate of Hell, so we wanted to leave our names as a memento..." "Indeed, it should be properly commemorated. After all, it's the first time," Weise agreed, though her words carried subtle undertones, as if she were commemorating not their ascension to demigod, but rather their "first time." She wiped away her previous words and wrote new silver text: "The sea of learning has bounds; study knows no fatigue." "I'm particularly fond of this cautionary maxim." Noticing their inquiring gazes, Weise smiled. "Nothing wrong with that, is there?" "Then count me in too." Weixi's interest was suddenly piqued. She erased the famous historical words that had been displayed on the Wall of Sighs for thousands of years, and an unvarnished line of azure text appeared before everyone's eyes: "Now I am the master!" "Unlike you, what I'm commemorating is the dream I just had." Weixi mercilessly tore through the pretense everyone had been carefully guarding, her tone laced with provocation. "Even though I forgot most of the details, I definitely said something like that." Everyone stared silently at one another's inscriptions. From the moment Sonia wrote hers, the nature of this game had changed. In truth, no one wanted to leak information about their dreams; even Weixi had only wanted to discuss it with Yaxiu, and no one wanted others to know the details. But Weise and Diya had been too audacious, forcing Sonia to initiate this game of suspicion. *She showed off details—are you going to follow or fold?* Backing down now was tantamount to admitting defeat. Even Diya, who had wanted to keep things secret the most, had let something slip to prove her progress was not lagging behind at all. They tried to guess what games lay hidden within the inscriptions, what scenes were being implied, what pictures were being painted. Finally, the operators looked at Yaxiu. Sonia said calmly, "Yaxiu, your turn." Yaxiu grimaced. "I don't think I have anything worth writing—" "Then commemorate something that happened recently," Weise said. "Write down the most moving words you've heard." It seemed there was no avoiding it. But if that was the case... Yaxiu thought for a moment and pressed his finger against the curtain. His soul clearly brushed against the Gate of Hell. Like touching ice, a searing coldness lightly licked at Yaxiu's soul. In a daze, Yaxiu felt as though he had merged into one with Hell, arriving at a void dimension that transcended everything. His thoughts traversed the Gate of Hell, brushing past the First Hell, the Second Hell, the Third Hell... *Hiss.* Yaxiu heard a slick, colossal slithering sound. A despairing chill seeped into his thoughts; fear paralyzed his mind, as if clusters of ice slag were growing in his blood. In the void dimension, he turned his head and saw a colossal entity emerging from the fathomless depths of darkness. Compared to it, the Knowledge Sea turned into a tiny puddle; the Time Continent could not contain its full body; a single breath from it could blow out all the bubble worlds across the Distant Sky Realm; opening its maw, it could devour Ruby Mountain whole. It did not originate from darkness—darkness was merely one of its colors. It was lava evaporating oceans, a supernova illuminating the void; it was the all and the one, the ultimate that transcended all things. "It finally caught up!" Nether Demon's shrill voice pierced his eardrums. "Dead Frenzy, we're finished! It's all over! The World-Swallowing Serpent has caught up with us!"