Please, Inherit the Sun

Fang Xiaoxia stared blankly at Bai Zhou's figure. That pale, weak, yet brilliantly bright smile filled the girl's sight. Happy... birthday? Who wouldn't care about their own birthday? A big red circle drawn on the calendar, excitement that kept you awake a whole week before the day arrived, wondering what surprise would come. You wanted a birthday cake taller than you were. You wanted the surprise of nine hundred and ninety-nine roses gathered together. You wanted a birthday gift you hadn't imagined... and then you fretted over what expression would be polite and still show all your joy. There are 365 days in a year, and fifty-one holidays that give a decent excuse for receiving a gift. Only a birthday belongs to you alone. Only a birthday gift is a unique surprise that exists just for you. In truth, Fang Xiaoxia didn't expect much of that. "Dad and Mom" had not given her a gift in years, and her classmates even less so. So Fang Xiaoxia had learned to hide her birthday from the people around her. Not to play at being mysterious—only so she would not hope for a birthday gift. If she did not hope, there would be no shameful disappointment she could not bring herself to speak of. So long as no one else knew, she would not have to explain, awkwardly, why there was no celebration. So long as she held no extra hopes, the day could pass as flatly as any other. At most she would eat a small strawberry cake as an extra treat, twelve yuan and fifty cents, tiny, finished without getting in the way of a normal meal. She comforted herself: Fang Xiaoxia, you are already a mature girl. You can't keep losing yourself in this childish game of trading gifts. If she took those words out and said them again every year, she would gradually grow used to them, and even come to believe they were true. Until tonight. She had really thought everyone at the class gathering had prepared a birthday surprise for her. She could not believe it, and yet she was overjoyed. Night after night she had stayed up, putting all her care into it, and pinched out several dozen chibi clay figurines of Fang Xiaoxia. Under the desk lamp in her bedroom she had held her voice and her breath, not daring to make a sound, terrified that Dad and Mom would find out she was staying up all night "neglecting proper work" to pinch little clay people. Back then Fang Xiaoxia had been weary, but happy too. —Though, thinking of it now, she had only been on guard in a room by herself against parents who were not there at all. The big house was pitch-black. Only the bedroom's weak light shone on the shadow of a girl with her head bent, pinching clay. A bit funny. Then came what happened at the class gathering. And after that, Bai Zhou arrived. A youth in a trench coat dropped out of the sky with a crowd of burly attendants in suits, bursting through the door. Under her classmates' eyes, as if they were looking at a god, he drove her off in a Maserati and sped away. He took her into a life-or-death chase on an elevated highway in the rainy night. Maybachs, vans, traffic officers' motorcycles, and the law officers' special-duty vehicles all failed to catch her from behind. In the end they even saw a helicopter hung with missiles. The paper airplane crossed the sea. The tricycle spanned the mountains. The whole way they swept through Tinghai in a rush, and every little worry of the past suddenly seemed not worth mentioning. A grand adventure, a thrilling journey, made Fang Xiaoxia feel that the mediocrity of her last eighteen years had been lived for nothing. In the middle of all that, Fang Xiaoxia had nearly forgotten that at midnight she would come into her birthday—after all, a thing like that was too small. So small that, in the course of flight, the subject ought not to have appeared in Fang Xiaoxia's mind for even one second. It was like the bloody battlefield of Normandy. You were huddled in a trench, trembling as you faced the Allies, when both sides suddenly ceased fire by some unspoken agreement. Your own supreme leader came down from the sky in a plane to your side and said happy birthday, and that once you've finished this cake, we'll go back to deciding the future course of the world. It sounded too absurd. It could even be called eerie. The world would not call a peaceful half-hour truce just because a foot soldier had a birthday today. A great leader was even less likely to remember one foot soldier's birthday. The chests of great figures, broad as the sea, had no room for the boring trivialities of mortals. Even if a spy stole the treasure map, they would only leave a generous signature on it, and then say, "Take it and trade it for your glory. The empire doesn't care." By the same reasoning, Bai Zhou was obviously a man who did great things. His head must have been full of how to counter the villains' schemes, how to save this city and even the world. Those great ideas glittered with a hero's light. Every one of them required the youth to rack his brains and think in earnest. How could there be mixed in among them... a girl's birthday? Like a little hamster that had wandered into a Jurassic ringed by dragons. But Bai Zhou had remembered anyway, and at eighteen seconds past midnight he delivered, right on time, his blessing for Fang Xiaoxia's eighteenth birthday. Not long before, it was this person who had driven a burning vehicle of steel, broken her out of a false cage, and congratulated her on a new life. Now it was this person again, standing at the city's edge, who in a raging storm of lightning and thunder drew his bow, called down thunder from the ninth heaven, and blasted to pieces the school that had imprisoned her soul. In this moment, Fang Xiaoxia, welcoming back half a soul, came not only into her life at eighteen, but into a "complete" new life. Fireworks bloomed as they pleased in the night sky savaged by the storm. Blue flowing light, fiery red meteors, orange flames wheeling to paint the characters of a birthday blessing. The whole city witnessed this grand bursting of fireworks, as if the sky had become a basket laden with flowers. The roses, the cakes, and all the rest Fang Xiaoxia used to imagine were, in this moment, before these shocking fireworks, hopelessly vulgar. The whole city had witnessed the birthday gift the youth gave Fang Xiaoxia. If they knew the truth behind it, they would be struck dumb, staring so hard their eyes flew out. Earthshaking. Nearly mad. The grand, nearly absurd fireworks lit the profiles of the girl and the youth at the same time. She didn't know what had come over her. Fang Xiaoxia's eye rims inexplicably flushed red, hot, as if steaming boiled water were brewing there. So she could not quite see the person before her. The boy's blurred figure wavered there, and farther off were colorful, blurred phantoms. These phantoms were too beautiful, like multicolored bubbles. One did not dare reach out a hand, for fear that the instant of touching them the bubbles would burst, she would wake from the dream, and only then would one discover that everything had been false. Fortunately, these were not false. The bone-piercing cold of wind and rain could not douse the warmth in Fang Xiaoxia's heart, yet it was just enough to make her realize that this was reality, and nothing could be more real. She had no heart to experience the concrete changes once her soul was whole. Only the colorful fireworks filled the girl's curving eyes to the brim. The tearful girl's smile, blooming without her meaning it to, was a little more brilliant than the fireworks. In this moment, Fang Xiaoxia felt that tonight's birthday, and tonight's birthday gift— she would never, she would certainly never forget them for the rest of her life... Bai Zhou, lit by the grand fireworks, the chief culprit who had made all of Tinghai "quake" on every level... His mood was not particularly light. There was even a faint unease. Because he was far too weak now. Too frail to stand a breeze was not enough to describe Bai Zhou at this moment. The spirituality in his body had been drawn out almost entirely. Rain had soaked Bai Zhou's hair. Only that one cowlick on the crown of his head still stood unyielding against the wind and rain. In theory, the Major's underground base was a good hundred kilometers from here. The hard-pressed Major was already exposed before all of Tinghai. However one thought about it, he should have no time to spare for Bai Zhou's affairs. —But this was a man who dared take the two words "Ascension to Sainthood," words one did not understand and yet found overwhelmingly impressive, and make them his plan. Bai Zhou had been his nemesis for so long. He still had to guard against him with care. He had endured so long a night. Only with difficulty had he seen the first light of dawn. He could not grow careless for a moment and fall on the last night before dawn arrived. Most important of all— with the shot of this arrow of Bai Zhou's, Zhenlu Mountain was likewise exposed before others. One arrow had flown out like a meteor. The place that the thunderous flying arrow had come from would not be very hard to find. The authorities certainly would not ignore the underground base that had suddenly appeared beneath Longluo Private High School. Just as Bai Zhou had thought, they might pin the Major and his men right there— But the authorities would be even less willing to ignore the hidden hand on Zhenlu Mountain who had set off a heaven-shaking blast and caused tremors the whole way through. On the other side, the Zijing Group would not fail to act either. So Bai Zhou had every reason to suspect that powerhouses above Level 6 had already set out and were coming to kill him. —Bai Zhou had to take Fang Xiaoxia down the mountain at once! Yet Bai Zhou had not forgotten that at the foot of the mountain, Picasso and the Principal were still fighting fiercely there, blocking the gate. Although Picasso was most likely already lying dead, or about to be, that Principal—impossible to tell friend from foe, mysterious in purpose—required Bai Zhou's highest vigilance! Not of our kind, his heart must differ... This Principal was no human, but a quasi-King of Wicked Desires! The two words "wicked desire" were already enough to make plain the essential nature of this anomalous life. Faced with wolves ringing him on every side, Bai Zhou's weakness would be a fatal flaw. Never mind that he seemed, at this moment, to be riding high in triumph, that one distant arrow had blown the school apart in unmatched style... In truth, the vigilance in Bai Zhou's heart, that lack of any sense of safety, had instead reached its peak. "Still..." Fortunately, Bai Zhou was not unprepared for this. Ever cautious, he had timed the arrow for midnight in the deep night, not only because he knew Deputy Director Liu was to meet the Major at this hour, but even more because... From 24:00:00 to 00:01 every day had never, for him, been merely one minute—sixty seconds. —It could also be twelve hours. The twelve hours between September 8 and September 9, hidden by the surface of Blue Star. For Bai Zhou, it was twelve hours in which he could rapidly restore his own condition, and could absolutely go a step further. After all, in "Zhuluoji," he still had trial rewards from the Sun Temple that he had not yet cashed in. This time it was not an adventure, and Bai Zhou need not do much of anything. He only had to make one trip, hand over the Greco-Roman soldier's head, and exchange it for the reward from the civilization of Troy... That last step at the bottleneck before Level 5 Adventurer, and the final ripening of the third-stage Intent Seed— perhaps both could find their place there. "Quick there and quick back!" Bai Zhou had clearly planned everything long ago. So, under Fang Xiaoxia's gaze, Bai Zhou turned. This man, who had stirred up the wind and clouds of the whole city and stirred up a sky of wind and rain in the girl's heart, said only three things, in an extremely weak voice. The first was, "We can't let our guard down. We aren't completely safe yet." When that sentence ended, the time on his wristwatch reached 24:00:23. The second was, "Your parents' deaths are probably connected to the Major. We have the same enemy... But it doesn't matter. I have a feeling every old score will be ended completely tonight." When that sentence ended, the time on his wristwatch reached 24:00:25. Then Bai Zhou said his last sentence: "It's just that my strength now may still fall short..." "So don't move from here. I'm going to advance a bit." At those words, Fang Xiaoxia was just about to ask where he was going. Her gaze was scalding and stubborn. It gave Bai Zhou a start. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought she was a deathsworn he had raised from childhood. She wanted to say that wherever he went, she wanted to follow, even if it meant death. Just as when Bai Zhou had pedaled the tricycle up the mountain and given her a cabbage for a cushion, however dirty and broken the tricycle's bed, she sat in it and was glad of it. She had not even asked Bai Zhou's purpose. Even if Hell lay ahead, she would follow Bai Zhou and fight all the way to the very bottom of the eighteenth level. But Fang Xiaoxia had no time to open her mouth. "Hum!" Bai Zhou had already poured spirituality in and activated the Gold Pass. Of course, as cover, Bai Zhou took out a shard of streetlamp glass to serve as a mirror and started the ritual he had drawn on his palm in advance. In Crow's eyes, Bai Zhou was about to fall into the Reflected Ruin Realm. "A clever choice." Crow nodded and murmured. The twelve hours hidden by the world were just enough to give Bai Zhou time to catch his breath and recover. He only needed to hide in some corner of the Ruin Realm where no one would notice him. With the power of the Moon Wolf Totem and the Tears of the Moon Goddess, by the next second, when Bai Zhou returned, his spirituality ought to have recovered to more than half... —Yet in Bai Zhou's eyes, the time of the whole world paused at this moment. Wind and rain alike froze in midair. A great road forged of gold seemed to spread open beneath his feet. Before he stepped toward the golden road, Bai Zhou's gaze swept quickly over Fang Xiaoxia's face, over the faint light of the streetlamps at the mountain's foot, and he looked once, far off, at the Major's "Place of Ascension to Sainthood," where thick smoke rolled. He lifted his foot. The youth stepped onto the road of magnificent golden light. Whether he was speaking to someone, or whether Bai Zhou was only murmuring to himself... He said, "See you in a bit." This moment was September 8, 24:00:30. For an Extraordinary of the mystical world, a rather "long" gap still lay between this time and the true arrival of 0:00 on September 9. The scene before his eyes was a blur, as if changing rapidly. He could make nothing out. The mark on his left wrist, silent for who knew how long, suddenly burned hot. That scorching feeling enveloped Bai Zhou, and the scene before his eyes gradually grew clear. Weak as he was, Bai Zhou stumbled and nearly pitched to the ground. When he lifted his head again, what lay in Bai Zhou's sight was no longer the city of Tinghai tossing in the storm. It was a ruined ring-shaped plaza, the open court overhead, an ancient tree of vivid red, statues coated in dust, and a sacrificial altar set full of candlesticks. And, close enough to touch, the statue of the Wolf Knight half-kneeling upon a broken pedestal. Everything was quiet, as if sealed in dust for who knew how many years. Only Bai Zhou, this uninvited guest, made a faint sound as he breathed. —And, of course, the "High Priest" overhead. Its vast monstrous body showed halfway beyond the open court, and now and then thunderous echoes issued from its mouth and nose. "I'm back..." Bai Zhou let out a long breath. The smell of decay that reached his nose and mouth set him at ease instead. "It seems this trip of yours to Rome did not go smoothly." On the Wolf Knight statue, the emeralds that stood for its eyes flickered. The voice that came from the statue was exceptionally mechanical. Plainly, the temple had detected how weak Bai Zhou was now. At those words, Bai Zhou cast his gaze that way and was silent a moment. "...Actually, it was all right?" Bai Zhou answered quietly, then reached into his clothes and felt about. A moment later, he drew an enormous head out of the Trojan Horse. The head was as big as a water vat. Its features were perfect, nearly an inhuman sculpture. Both eyes glared wide, round and ferocious, and would not close even in death. The blood-qi at the neck had still not congealed. It seemed liquid and also gas, surging without dispersing, like red clouds of dawn. Bai Zhou cradled the top of the head, careful not to touch that blood-qi. Merely drawing near made his fingertips burn. After Bai Zhou produced this enormous head, the Wolf Knight statue, visibly, fell silent. "Why so quiet?" Bai Zhou blinked twice. "Did it break?" The words had barely fallen when a rustling tremor rose from the ground beneath his feet. "Boom! Boom, boom, boom!" The whole ring plaza, the whole temple, seemed to be shaking. Upon the altar, the eighteen flames Bai Zhou had lit with his own hands last time seemed infused with a violent life force, and roared up into eighteen madly dancing fire serpents. "Swish!" A pure white beam suddenly descended from the sky and enveloped the head in Bai Zhou's hands. [Verifying the identity of the deceased.] A cold mechanical voice, from no one could say where, sounded beside Bai Zhou's ear. [Verification passed.] [Individual identification: a professional soldier of the Roman Empire's legion, under the eagle standard. Rank—sergeant major.] [Judgment: trial objective... perfectly achieved.] [Pious Fire Tender, the trial has been fulfilled beyond its measure.] The mechanical voice cut off. At the same moment, it was as if some older, vaster consciousness revived within the temple. That vast consciousness blew across the ring plaza like a wind, as if it came from an ancient, untamed history, heavier than ten thousand jun. It was as if every stone in the temple, every wisp of dust, was sounding together. After that resonance, a magnificent voice rose low and quiet beside Bai Zhou's ear. It was not the mechanical verification from before, nor a proclamation from on high as in the past, but something... Some joyful invitation? [O Fire Tender.] He said, [—Please, inherit the sun!]