The neon from distant skyscrapers melted into the sea of stars across the artificial canopy. Dense traffic moving ceaselessly around the clock was like the city's bloodstream, while the sleepless streetlamp knights below carved out domains of light several meters deep.
Brilliant and resplendent, slathered in thick rouge, remnants of an old era unwilling to step off the stage dressed themselves up as the future. Shadows greedily drank in the desires bleeding from the metropolis; every corner seemed like a monster waiting to devour human flesh, burying countless degenerates shaped by alcohol, cigarettes, and sugar.
Yaxiu and Annan leaned against the windowsill, looking at each other. Half of their bodies were illuminated by the lights of the room, while the other half was dyed in the city's murky gloom. In their eyes, light flickered and waned, reflecting ambiguous images of one another.
"Thank goodness Igola warned me. You aren't trying to renew our deal with a verbal contract, are you?" Yaxiu crossed his arms in refusal. "If I say yes, will that one-hundred-and-one-day slave contract automatically renew into eternity?"
"How could it?" Annan shook her head. "I might have some authority within Gospel, but at most, the contract can only be extended until December 31, 2100."
"Isn't that more than five hundred years?!" Yaxiu recoiled. "Gospel Country might not even exist by then! What if your descendants find my grave in the apocalyptic wasteland and shout, 'Yaxiu Heath, heed the contract's summons,' and I have to crawl out of Hell to keep being a dog for the Dorans for several more centuries?!"
"That's impossible. No matter how powerful a contract is, it can't drag back the dead." Annan shook her head. "Unless I have Harvey turn you into an undead—then you could become an heirloom of the Doran clan. Tsk, damn that Igola, ruining my plans."
"Praise be to Igola, for leading us away from wicked women and delivering us from evil."
Seeing Annan's pout of thwarted scheming, Yaxiu breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
When he had suddenly heard Annan's "I'll support you" confession earlier, he hadn't been able to suppress a faint surge of secret delight—actually far more than just a little, but he only permitted himself a tiny bit. Once rationality flowed back, however, it gave him quite a headache.
His relationship with Annan was twisted.
If not for Annan, he would have slipped away with Lisi long ago; even if Lisi wanted him to rescue the princess in the high tower, he would never have dragged Lisi into danger. It was Annan's stubborn insistence on carrying out the plot to assassinate the princess that kept them stuck in this underground city.
Or rather, from the very beginning, it was Annan who wanted to profane Gospel and deceive the Weaving Ceremony, which was why they were scurrying across Gospel like rats dodging boots. Yaxiu just wanted to find a place where he could dispatch avatars to work, take care of Lisi by day, and adventure in the Void Realm with the Sword Princess and the Witch by night.
With Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook, Yaxiu felt that becoming a Legendary Sorcerer was only a matter of time. He didn't need to go out risking his life at all—he could just lie low and grind all the way to the top.
Yet right now, he was still a slave under Annan's control. Unable to resist any of her commands, he had no choice but to follow her to the grave. If Annan truly liked him, and if he really ended up with her, wouldn't that just be Stockholm syndrome—falling for your kidnapper?
Though in typical stories, it was usually the kidnapped heroine who fell for the male lead; in his case, the roles were somewhat reversed...
Fortunately, Annan was a wicked woman. Fortunately, Annan was only a wicked woman.
Yaxiu changed the subject. "By the way, I've decided on my wish."
"What's your wish?" Annan asked curiously. "Upgrading your avatar sorcery spirit into an all-around, fully loaded super-servant that can handle everything for you?"
"...That's my secondary wish. If there's any capacity left in the wish, please do include that. Oh, and add the option to customize the avatar's appearance and gender freely." Although Yaxiu was sorely tempted, he still kept his promise to Lisi. "My primary wish is to permanently abolish the List of the Unconnected."
"Huh?" Annan paused, startled. "Abolish that Gospel list?"
"That's right." Yaxiu nodded, already preparing an excuse in his throat.
Yet Annan fell silent for a moment and did not ask for the reason behind his wish. She simply nodded. "As long as I obtain the divine wish, I promise your wish will be fulfilled."
Yaxiu breathed a sigh of relief. Mission accomplished for the night. Disclosing Banjie's situation to Annan was partly to prevent a tragedy born of secrecy, but also to leverage that favor so Annan would take his wish seriously. Scheme executed successfully!
Relaxing, he asked with a smile, "Then what do you plan to do after the Weaving Ceremony ends? Surely you won't wish to become an angel and depart from reality altogether?"
"My wish won't change my personal strength at all," Annan said, shaking her head. "If I'm fortunate enough to obtain the divine wish and survive the Weaving Ceremony..."
She paused, then suddenly chuckled. "How silly. The Weaving Ceremony hasn't even finished yet. What's the point of pondering the future right now... We might end up dead in the imperial palace in a few days."
"Precisely because we might die in the imperial palace, we need to think through our future lives right now," Yaxiu said seriously. "If we truly die, at least we will have lived out the rest of our lives in our imaginations. If we survive, that vision will be the courage that spurs us on, and maybe it will work a miracle.
"'The future' is the greatest hope. Once you have a future you desire, neither mountains of blades nor seas of fire can stop you." He smiled. "In that sense, contemplating the rest of our lives is conducting our own Weaving Ceremony—weaving our own future, and then making it reality."
Annan stared blankly. "A Weaving Ceremony... is it?"
She stroked her earring in silence, then suddenly asked, "Do you think the Weaving Ceremony is a good thing?"
"Hmm?" Yaxiu thought for a moment. "Honestly, an event like the Weaving Ceremony is a 'force of nature' capable of guiding societal trends and shaping the development of sorcery. Evaluating it merely as good or bad is a bit naive, like judging whether the sun is a good person or a bad person... But if forced to choose, I'd say it's probably a good thing.
"By using the lists to predict national progress, technological revolutions, and pivotal talents, Gospel is guaranteed to develop faster and better, almost never stagnating or regressing. If this Weaving Ceremony hadn't prophesied an apocalyptic catastrophe, I might even think Gospel's future was a boundless sea of stars."
"What about for the Echoers?" Annan said. "Is knowing a predestined future in advance really a good thing for them?"
"Depends on the situation. If the future happens to align with what you want, of course it's great. If the future is the exact opposite of what you desire, it's pretty miserable." Yaxiu spread his hands. "Still, life can never be completely smooth sailing. Even at a buffet, there are bad dishes."
"I don't see it that way. Whether the future aligns with one's expectations or not, I don't think it's a good thing," Annan said. "For example, if the Weaving Ceremony declared that I would spend my whole life with you, then regardless of whether I liked you or not, I would feel deeply uncomfortable.
"Setting aside the case where I disliked you—even if I genuinely loved you, I'd still wonder: Must I be tethered to you forever? Can I not leave? Can I not change? Can I not choose a different life?"
"Being denied by the future is painful, but being affirmed by the future brings its own pressure." Annan looked down at her hands. "In the end, why isn't our future held in our own hands?"
"Having stayed in Gospel for so many days, I'm actually curious about your perspective on it." Annan turned toward Yaxiu. "As an outsider, do you think Gospel is good? Did the Omniscient Weaver bestow Gospel truly out of deep love for humanity?"
Yaxiu fell silent, pondering for a long while before asking in return, "Do you know about the social system of the Blood Moon Country?"
"I do. The Consanguinity Prohibition Act, the Blood Moon Trial, the Blood Saint clan and the Moon Shadow clan, everyone raised in rearing institutes, rampant biological modification..." Annan sighed. "It's essentially a savage jungle masquerading as civilization... I'm sorry, I apologize if I offended you."
"No, your summary is spot-on. The Blood Moon Country is just a farm carefully cultivated by the Blood Moon Ultimate Lord," Yaxiu said. "In my view, Gospel and the Blood Moon share the exact same essence."
"Huh?" Annan stared blankly. "I may be criticizing the Omniscient Weaver, but surely the Weaver hasn't sunk that low..."
"Though their social systems and cultures are worlds apart, the foundation of both nations stems from the will of a god," Yaxiu said. "The god decrees the rules, and all living beings must live by them. That rule could be the Consanguinity Prohibition Act, or it could be the Gospel system.
"A god neither loves nor despises mortals—even the Blood Moon Ultimate Lord is the same. The Blood Saints and Moon Shadows may be the ruling class, but that doesn't stem from any favoritism on the Lord's part; it is simply built atop the Consanguinity Prohibition Act. In a world where bloodlines are forbidden, only selfish, self-absorbed long-lived species can maximize their advantage. It's like flies being the dominant species in a latrine—you can't say the latrine favors the flies, can you? In another country, these scarce long-lived individuals would quickly be persecuted into hiding by coalitions of short-lived races."
Annan murmured, "So you think gods don't care about mortals?"
"No." Yaxiu shook his head. "Though they neither love deeply nor hate, they do care about mortals. Otherwise, why would the Blood Moon Country or Gospel Country exist at all? But they care not about one or two individuals, nor about a single era, but about all people from the birth of the nation down to the present day.
"If you ask me, wishing for a god to deeply love humanity is mistaken. The impartial, non-interfering stance the gods hold now is the proper one."
"Why?"
"Because love is a bestowal," Yaxiu glanced at her. "Are mortals qualified to reciprocate the love of a god? They would only drown in it. Just like Fanmula, where the Six Crest Patriarch loved his clansmen unconditionally, and the result was an entire people lost in decadent stupor."
"Not necessarily," Annan couldn't help saying. "In certain ancient myths, races favored by gods mastered Silver- or even Gold-tier sorcery arts right at birth—"
"Do you remember what you told me about 'gospel sorcerers' and 'silent sorcerers'?" Yaxiu smiled.
Annan froze, quickly grasping Yaxiu's meaning. "Gospel sorcerers" were those who consulted Gospel whenever they encountered obstacles in their field, essentially copying answers. "Silent sorcerers" were traditional sorcerers who never asked Gospel, relying on themselves to break through in their sorcery arts.
In Gospel Country, "gospel sorcerers" made up the vast majority of One-Wing Sorcerers, but among Two-Wing Sorcerers, seventy percent were "silent sorcerers," while Sanctuary Sorcerers were exclusively "silent sorcerers."
"In the evaluation system of sorcery, a god's love for a race will only lead to its degradation," Yaxiu said. "Sorcery isn't like money, resources, or means of production that can accumulate automatically. It is knowledge one must delve into and pursue for a lifetime. If a god assists sorcerers in their craft, it only diminishes their potential and erodes the foundation of their knowledge.
"On that point, the Omniscient Weaver has actually 'spoiled' you far too much. Do you consider what the Omniscient Weaver did to be right or wrong? Looking at the Consanguinity Prohibition Act from the other side, don't you think the Blood Moon Ultimate Lord was attempting to forge an intensely competitive environment of universal equality, pushing mortals further along the path of sorcery? Do you consider the Blood Moon Ultimate Lord's approach right or wrong?"
Yaxiu paused. "Of course, that's strictly within the evaluation system of sorcery. If we're talking about general happiness, the Blood Moon Ultimate Lord isn't fit to lick the Omniscient Weaver's pinky toe—"
Annan clamped her hand over Yaxiu's mouth, shushing him. "Don't speak ill of gods like that."
Yaxiu nodded and continued, "So it isn't that gods deeply love mortals; rather, mortals deeply love their gods, projecting their own feelings onto the divine, and thus convincing themselves that the gods love them.
"When you ask whether the Omniscient Weaver truly loves humanity, what you're doubting isn't the Weaver's attitude, but whether the Weaver is right." He smiled. "You simply feel that the Weaver made a mistake. Because of that, you no longer love the Weaver, and as a result, you believe the Weaver doesn't love humanity either."
Annan stared blankly at Yaxiu, then blurted out, "You really are a cult leader after all. I thought Igola was just smearing you on purpose."
"Your impression wasn't wrong—he is deliberately smearing me," Yaxiu retorted testily. "Where do I look like a cult leader?"
"Everywhere."
"Give me an example! Predictions from the Future Boards don't count!"
"There's an example right in front of you." Annan smiled. "You've successfully bewitched me."
She touched her earring. "I'll make sure to weave the rest of my life well."
"Then I'll head back."
"I'll walk you out."
Annan accompanied Yaxiu to the door and reached out to grasp the handle, yet she did not push the door open.
Yaxiu waited for a moment, asking puzzledly, "What's wrong? Is it stuck?"
"Yaxiu, do you hate me?"
Yaxiu froze.
"You probably do," the purple moth said softly to the door, her back turned to him. "If I hadn't captured you before the Void Realm passage, if Keluolisi and I hadn't coerced you, you would never have been swept into the whirlpool of the Weaving Ceremony. Maybe you would already have established yourselves in Azura by now, living peaceful, happy lives.
"Though I keep claiming to treat you as equals, that's nothing more than self-satisfying arrogance. You are all bound by contracts, so in status, we could never be equals. Not to mention I'm making you participate in an operation that is practically suicidal—Harvey is probably already plotting how to get revenge on me once this is over, isn't he?
"I have my own unavoidable plight, but what does my plight have to do with any of you? A purple moth doomed to throw herself into the flames, yet forcing you to burn alongside her.
"Your first thought was 'Is Annan, that wicked woman, trying to trick me again?' I brought that on myself.
"However..."
Annan turned around to look at Yaxiu, her green eyes glistening with soft ripples of light.
"In a few more days, the first half of my life will come to an end." A slight, wandering tremor crept into her voice. "We might all die."
Only then did Yaxiu realize: she was terrified.
Or rather, who in the Funeral Parlor wasn't afraid, other than Harvey? It was just that Igola never showed his fear, having walked the razor's edge between life and death countless times before; Lisi relied completely on Yaxiu, burying her fear beneath absolute trust; and Yaxiu...
Over the past few days, he had constantly been thinking about life after the Weaving Ceremony. It had always been a way to fend off fear with hope, combat fear through Lisi, and ward off fear through Igola.
Annan was different from escaped convicts like them. In all her past ventures, Banjie had been there to catch her fall, and in her career, she had operated with impunity thanks to Gospel's omniscient perspective. This plan to profane Gospel was the most dangerous venture of her life, and assassinating the princess was a gamble unlike anything she had ever faced.
Yet she could not display the slightest hint of fear before the others; that was her responsibility as their leader.
Only now did she shed all her pretenses, revealing the fragile side of a female superior.
"The question I asked earlier was also the answer I wove." The purple moth gazed intently at the cult leader. "I will ask you once more.
"Are you willing to weave the future with me?"
This time, it was no joke.
She was serious.
He couldn't brush it off.
Looking at that pretty face—poised between a pout and a smile, bold yet touched with shy hesitation, her eyes brimming with longing—Yaxiu momentarily lost himself.
Truth be told, he really couldn't think of a reason to refuse. While she wasn't an ultimate heiress like Yifalin, compared to Yaxiu—who had been preparing to scavenge cardboard boxes and sleep under an overpass—Annan, with her luxury penthouse, was wealthy enough to cover all his daily needs.
Not to mention Yaxiu had the burden of taking care of Lisi; only Igola and Annan were willing to support them. In truth, Yaxiu had only been joking with Igola; once Lisi's life was settled, he would find ways to earn money himself. He couldn't truly live off Igola forever.
Yet Annan's promise was one with no discounts and full after-sales service! Since he'd be selling his looks anyway, Yaxiu could shamelessly shout, "Rich lady, feed me!"
Did he like Annan, then? First of all, Annan was on the Azura Beauty List; her looks and figure were far out of league for a zero-star loser like Yaxiu. Secondly, being around Annan was easy and comfortable, like childhood sweethearts who had grown up together, completely devoid of distance.
He definitely liked her, and married life would certainly be bliss.
And yet... and yet.
Yaxiu closed his eyes. Images of many people flashed through his mind: his parents, his older brother, the Veela, and... crimson hair...
He opened his eyes and looked at her intently. Seeing the tenderness rippling in his gaze, the purple moth understood in an instant.
"I..."
"Wait. I want to paint a portrait of you."
Chapter 463