Blood.
The entire sky was a sea of red.
In this vast blood river with no end in sight, Elansno walked slowly forward, expression vacant, without direction.
In the river, semi-transparent wandering souls occasionally drifted past.
Most were faces he didn’t recognize—some soldiers, some ordinary people.
All died because of him or were killed by him.
They seemed to exist in two different worlds. He walked north, they walked south, going in opposite directions, unable to see each other.
This blood river…
Was it his sins?
Elansno lifted his head slightly.
His body was covered in bloodstains, white hair mottled. The scene before him seemed to abstract into a cruel painting condensed from four colors: red, white, black, and red.
He didn’t know how long he’d walked forward when he saw the first different color.
A smiling man in military uniform, yet with a serious expression, walking forward with a candy pressed between his fingers. The candy wrapper was colorful and beautiful.
Elansno reached out, but his hand passed through the man’s body like a phantom.
He paused slightly.
[He died for loyalty.]
A solemn, dignified voice rang in his ears, like the judgment of a deity.
[The River of Life and Death—time has no order. No looking back, no going against the current. The living move forward, the dead trace back.] The voice said.
Elansno wanted to turn back for another look at the man, but discovered his body was extremely stiff. He couldn’t turn his head. All he had were the three or four seconds when the wandering soul passed by him.
He also couldn’t linger in one place too long. Elansno gave up and continued walking forward.
He seemed to have forgotten something. He wanted to find someone here, but who was he looking for? He couldn’t remember.
Until he saw a figure clearly distinct from all the others.
That person had black hair in a high ponytail, wearing a coat with golden pupils. Faint purple light rose from the semi-transparent wandering soul.
Lan Xia walked very slowly, as if waiting for someone. His eyes held gentle sorrow, as if worried and conflicted about something.
“Brother…”
The instant Elansno saw that figure, he remembered. His eyes reddened and he called out softly.
He didn’t dare walk forward anymore and didn’t blink, afraid to miss even a second.
“Brother, do you resent me for killing you? Are you disappointed in me? Look up at me, scold me, please…” Elansno cried silently.
He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but after he finished speaking, Lan Xia’s wandering soul ahead stumbled slightly and its path shifted directly in front of him, slowly walking toward him.
Elansno held his breath.
He stiffly extended his hand hanging at his side, reaching forward.
The wandering soul drew closer and closer.
Elansno’s eyes brightened slightly.
The wandering soul passed through his body.
Not even a trace of wind stirred.
“…”
The bit of light in Elansno’s eyes instantly extinguished.
He struggled again, desperately trying to turn back for one more look at his brother, but no matter what, he couldn’t turn his head or step even once backward.
He could see the wandering soul. The wandering soul couldn’t see him.
Elansno, back turned to the wandering soul, half-knelt in the blood river, sobbing quietly: “Brother, I’m sorry…”
The wandering soul paused slightly, as if sensing something. It frowned and spoke: “Is that A-Nuo? Brother is fine. You must live well. Brother will walk very slowly—don’t be afraid.”
Unfortunately, he was a wandering soul.
The dead couldn’t see the faces of the living. The living couldn’t hear the words of the dead.
The wandering soul murmured on and on. Elansno called out to him again and again, voice hoarse.
Neither of them could turn back.
[He died protecting someone.] That solemn voice spoke again.
Elansno froze.
[The River of Life and Death—time has no order. No looking back, no going against the current. The living move forward, the dead trace back.] The voice repeated: [You should go now.]
…
Inside the soul sea.
Gong Du opened his eyes. After a long while, he breathed out lightly.
The moment Lan Xia’s avatar died, the authenticity value had just reached one hundred percent, and the part of his soul he’d split off returned.
However, worried something might go wrong, he specifically checked with the world consciousness.
In the original world line, the brothers Lan Xia and Elansno were also victims of cruel fate. Lan Xia never awakened mental power and died directly in the chaotic magnetic zone, becoming food for Wall-Stabbing Ants.
And the villain Elansno, after the Federation was overthrown, faced public trial for his crimes—reviled by thousands, cursed by all, his body torn apart. Only before death did he remember he’d forgotten his brother.
Not until later when the Zerg invaded and Dawn led all humanity in resistance were the matters of the Hall of Divine Mercy and research institute uncovered.
Perhaps future generations would discover what the two brothers endured in the Hall of Divine Mercy, but could only sigh over it—at most leaving a line or two of regret in history books.
It was just that with the small world collapsing, whether the protagonist group could even grow up was another matter.
To prop up the small world’s world line and keep it roughly on track, Gong Du created a new ‘Lan Xia’ at the moment when the real Lan Xia died, using it as his avatar—partly to help the protagonist group, partly to obtain fortune value.
This was practically dancing on the line of rule violations.
Fortunately, in the end ‘Lan Xia’s’ authenticity value was sufficient to replace the original Lan Xia’s ending.
Small light orb tossed confetti: “Mission accomplished! Not only did you rake in a huge fortune value, you even did a good deed on the side.”
Gong Du smiled: “It’s not over yet.”
The reason it was called a good deed was because Lan Xia’s original ending was too tragic—his soul scattered, with absolutely no chance of entering reincarnation.
Elansno was the same. His sins too deep, he also had no chance of reincarnation.
The two brothers, forever missing each other.
However, Gong Du borrowed their identities to maintain the small world’s world line. Lan Xia’s authenticity value also reached one hundred percent, plus with such a tragic script, the world consciousness would surely give these two brothers some compensation.
That blood river just now was also called part of [the Yellow Springs]—the place people in this world passed through after death. Of course, dying people with strong obsessions could also walk there.
Gong Du: “I saw Lan Xia’s soul in that blood river just now. Seems that with authenticity reaching one hundred percent and the world line being overwritten, his soul finally reconvened—except his mind now holds memories that don’t belong to him.”
What passed through the blood river was the genuine soul of Lan Xia, who apart from treating Gong Du’s script as his own real experience, bore not a trace of Gong Du’s mark.
Of course, after Gong Du finished playing Elansno and left, the real Elansno’s soul would also treat Gong Du’s script as the reality he’d experienced.
This was somewhat cruel, but it was the world consciousness protecting the world line. Gong Du was an outsider after all—the fewer traces left, the better.
Gong Du snatched Small light orb’s snacks in the soul sea: “What I performed was their lives.”
“So when I’m fully immersed in the role, can you please stop cracking sunflower seeds in my head?”
Although both endings were tragic, the tragedy of the brothers Lan Xia and Lan Nuo couldn’t be reversed to begin with.
His script was already the best possible result considering the comprehensive fortune value gains, maintaining the world line, and the characters’ fated tragic deaths.
How painstaking his efforts were!
Small light orb: “But QAQ it’s so sad. Lan Xia never even heard ‘Brother’ at the end.”
Gong Du’s head hurt from its crying: “…This is the script. Besides, once I finish the plot, they’ll directly reincarnate and meet in their next lives. There’s no time to be sad at all. At worst, I’ll negotiate with the world consciousness before leaving to let them be brothers again in the next life—happy and joyful for a lifetime.”
Creating the Lan Xia avatar was already dancing on the boundary line. In the original world line, Lan Xia and Lan Nuo never reunited before death, so he couldn’t just casually write a happy ending where they recognize each other.
Small light orb: “That’s what you say, but you’re really trash. I might know why you failed the exam.”
Gong Du perked up: “Why?”
Small light orb: “Because you’re trash.”
Gong Du: “…”
He choked for a moment, then reflected, but found his conscience didn’t hurt, so he felt relieved: “No matter what, the predetermined ending can’t be changed. I’ve indirectly helped Lan Xia realize his wish to protect his younger brother.”
The deity of disease was the kindest and most sensible god there was.
He casually flipped through the script: “Though Lan Nuo’s wish to become a great hero can only be half-realized at most.”
Next world, he must choose a role where he could freely improvise without having to fill in the past.
Writing that script would definitely be more satisfying than now.
Gong Du was eating snacks when he suddenly froze: “Besides wandering souls, people near death can occasionally go to the blood river… I just went to the blood river wearing Elansno’s shell and performed a scene, didn’t I?”
Although it was to check whether Lan Xia’s soul had been reconvened, wearing the shell meant he had to perform, no matter where.
Small light orb: “That’s right!”
“…”
One black orb and one blue orb stared wide-eyed at each other for two seconds.
Small light orb shrieked: “Oh no, I forgot you’re currently insane and attempting suicide!”
——
The sealed room had not a trace of light.
Inside was only an iron bed.
Chained to it was a man with a deathly pale face. All four limbs were wrapped in iron chains. His carotid artery bore countless slash marks—some new, some unhealed. His neck also wore a mental power suppression ring, with a layer of soft gauze beneath it.
An extremely fine thread of golden mental power crisscrossed at his wrist, then spread into bleeding wounds.
The originally black bedsheet was soaked to an even deeper shade.
His breathing at his nose grew weaker and weaker. That thread of fine mental power dissipated. The man’s body temperature was draining away like a cold, pale corpse.
Until the room’s door was suddenly flung open. Jin Daike, eyes red and swollen, calmly directed medical personnel to transfer the man on the bed into a medical pod.
Everyone moved with practiced efficiency, having done this countless times.
Two days passed in a flash.
Elansno opened his eyes again.
Still in this sealed room. He was still chained.
His eyes held not a ripple of emotion, couldn’t reflect even a bit of surrounding light—desolate and empty.
Why…
Why was he still here? Why wouldn’t these people let him go find Brother?
Algiers’s group of four surrounded the area, some sitting, some standing.
They all wore black clothes without a trace of bright color, their expressions grave as they looked at the man on the iron bed—
Teacher’s younger brother.
The younger brother who’d killed his brother with his own hands.
Whether willingly or under control, this person’s hands were ultimately stained with Teacher’s blood. If they didn’t understand the full story, they should hate, should resent, should detest, should personally kill Elansno.
But now… in their hearts, there was surprisingly more sorrow and pity, mixed with an indescribable anger.
They would never forget Elansno’s vacant expression that day, nor Teacher’s death amid guilt and self-blame. This was Teacher’s younger brother, after all.
Algiers had just extracted himself from complex administrative affairs, rubbing his temples: “How many times is this for him this month?”
Jin Daike: “The 61st.”
Shou Bing remained silent.
After that day, they’d thought getting Teacher’s body back from Elansno would be very difficult, but unexpectedly, Elansno gave it to them easily, smiling and saying: All of this is an illusion in the mirror.
As soon as the words fell, he gripped the broken sword and slashed at his own neck—palm and throat, blood flowing freely.
Shou Bing stopped him with ice-attribute mental power, forcibly bringing the mentally unstable Elansno back to their temporary residence in the capital.
During the month of preparing Teacher’s funeral, Elansno had attempted suicide countless times without warning.
He didn’t make a fuss at all, completely immersed in his own world. Often he’d just be silent, then suddenly his breath would begin to weaken. If they hadn’t discovered it in time, Elansno wouldn’t have survived three days.
They’d tried every method—put a suppression ring on Elansno to restrict mental power use, tied him to the bed, gave him no chance to contact dangerous items.
The blue veins on his arm were now covered densely with needle marks.
Day and night consumption—in just over twenty days, they’d watched helplessly as the cold, proud Federation Admiral they once viewed as someone who must be killed transformed into the pale, gaunt, half-dead person he was now.
Not decadent, not depressed, but a kind of self-destruction where life force gradually ceased. In other words, Elansno had already sentenced himself to death.
During that brief time in Dawn, they’d vaguely glimpsed the pure shadow of ‘Lan Nuo.’
They’d rather Elansno stay that annoying than see him like this—even with eyes open, living as if he had no soul.
Gong Du smiled: “Baby, you need to remember one thing—as long as I can make myself as miserable as possible, no one else can make me more miserable.”
The transformation of all emotions often only needed one clever point.
Small light orb: “…”
It spat out a sunflower seed shell.
So trashy.
Author’s Note:
Small light orb: *spits*
PS: “Trashy” (屑) is a meme meaning “not being human” and “scummy.”
**
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152
Ahhh, my heart hurts so much…
God. This cursed fate of the two siblings..