Chapter 584: The Temple of Nightmares

When Bai Liu turned around, he saw Lu Yizhan, also standing in the temple, a very narrow map, narrow like an arena, like their mission.

[System Alert: The person who kills the opponent and walks out of the temple wins the game].

[The victor gets an audience with the evil god.

They were separated only by a dilapidated pool, surrounded by pillars crawling with damp plants, and they raised their heads to look at each other, between the daylight and the wind that fell from the vault of heaven into the pool, with its damp sea air, with old memories that made discomfort tighten again.

"Why did you ......" Lu Yizhan took a deep breath, "give up the get-out-of-jail-free card?"

Bai Liu calmly asks in return, "Why did you give up?"

They lapsed into silence again.

For Bai Liu knew, and Lu Yizhan knew, that having come this far, with the exception of one of them dying, this game called Evil God -

--Impossible to end.

"I will never let you, this time." Lu Yizhan smiled with relief, his eyes brimming with tears as he hefted his heavy sword and said hoarsely, "I will cut you down here!"

Bai Liu drew out his all-black bone whip, his eyes flat and unruffled: "That would be best."

Reality.

Fang Dian was not surprised to find that Lu Yizhan was no longer there when she woke up early. Although it was a public holiday, Lu Yizhan had never had a weekend, not to mention the fact that he was scratching his head about his new position, crying and hugging her waist, complaining that he might be busier in the future.

When exactly can we get married?

Lu Yizhan sighed worriedly; he always said this, but the last time he complained he rarely mentioned it, and even Fang Dian gave him an astonished look.

When Fang Dian agreed to his proposal, she was in a trance for two days, giggling in her sleep.

However, Fang Dian is not too anxious to get married, as it is a lifelong affair between two people, not an urgent one.

There is a long way to go.

Fang Dian got up and stretched out, and started to clean up the house. While she was cleaning up, she was planning in her head whether to give Lu Yizhan and Bai Liu, two guys who don't care much about themselves, some clothes or something, and have dinner together tonight.

She slowly pulled out a small red velvet box from under the bed, with a letter underneath.

Fang Dian raises an eyebrow in amusement - after all these years, Lu Yizhan's hiding places haven't changed.

She was about to put it back as if she hadn't seen it and turn the letter over when she accidentally caught sight of the time it was sent - same city courier, that's today, so she would receive it today.

But why wasn't it sent?

Lu Yizhan is not the kind of person who forgets to do something. The fact that he hid this and hid it under his bed means that it was important to him, so why didn't he send it?

Fang Dian paused in the act of putting it back, she took the letter and the small box out with some confusion, and after a moment's hesitation, opened the letter.

[To the wife of the family.]

[It's a bit out of place to call you that, but forgive me for calling you that anyway.

The black bone whip came crashing down from the sky into the pond, sending waves into the air. Lu Yizhan raised his heavy sword to block the whip, but the strength of the whip was so terrible that it smashed him right into the wall of the temple.

Lu Yizhan slammed against the wall and choked out a cough, the wound on his right shoulder from that soul-crushing gun hurting so badly that he let go and his heavy sword fell.

Bai Liu stepped out of the smoke from the whip, his eyes cold and unforgiving, and brought another whip down hard on his face.

[System Alert: Player Inquisitor of the Reverse Gods uses personal skill (for taijutsu)]

This is the skill of Wu Ruishu, the Bai six who believes that there is always a world line and that the good boys are the righteous judges of the cross.

Fang Dian knelt beside the bed and read down word by word.

[Even though you don't remember, you used to teach me many things, and there are many people who have taught me many things, but they are no longer there].

[I'll always miss them because the only things I have left in me are from them, and I wouldn't have lasted this long without those things].

[And what has really kept me going so far is my faith.

[My faith, which you gave me, Captain Fang.

Lu Yizhan caught Bai Liu's full strength whip with a hard Taiji palm, then used his strength to turn the whip back around, and drew his heavy sword again with his backhand, hissing angrily, "World line overlap!"

"Leave the temple, Bai Liu!!!"

"I will never let you become an evil god!"

"You also--" Lu Yizhan swung his heavy sword down viciously, smashing it against Bai Liu's open whip, tears slipping from his eyes, "-- -didn't want to be this evil god at all, did you?!"

[I have judged many monsters, sinners, and heretics].

[These things originally had clear boundaries in my eyes, but the further I went, the more I found that whether they were monsters, heretics, or sinners, the line between them and normal human beings was so Buming clear that even I, the judge, could not tell which should be judged and which should not.]

[So the moment I became a heretic myself, I was confused, Captain Fang.

Should I be like Cen Buming, who judged all the heretics to protect more humans, or like Bai Six, who accepted all the heretics?

[I don't know how to choose the right one.]

[The more I came to the end, the more hesitant and confused I became. I was not a qualified judge or a qualified saviour, but those who were good judges and saviours, had left me.

When I was at my most lost, I met Bai Liu.

[Bai Liu, who is only fourteen years old].

Bai Liu's whip collided with Lu Yizhan's spatial folding skill and fell to the floor in fragmented pieces, Bai Liu's entire right wrist was broken, Lu Yizhan's heavy sword was stuck in the wall, his shoulder was covered in blood, and his chest was heaving violently as he braced himself from the floor to stand.

Half of Lu Yizhan's face was red with blood, and Bai Liu's shirt was soaked with blood that only the back was white.

They looked at each other and simultaneously gave up using their weapons and lunged at each other with their bare hands.

Fang Dian turns the letter over a page.

[Bai Liu, aged fourteen, is a very peculiar child, I thought he was a monster, but he cries, laughs, loves story books, even remembers a random word of mine, gets up in the middle of the night to read for his school exams, and coldly warns me not to get ahead of myself when I find out that he's not reading because of my words, but because he wants to].

[He ...... doesn't look like a monster.]

[You told me not to look at the world with the eyes of a monster.]

[Whatever their future may be, they are, at this moment, human beings.]

[I am human, Bai Liu is human, Cen Buming is human, the former second team captain is human, we are all human, we have desires, we have feelings, we have things to fight for, we have an ending we want to achieve -]

[- There are people who want to be protected.]

[Reality is reality not because the game cannot be logged in, but because in reality, there are things we want to guard for, even if they are just a toy to the evil gods, but for us, it is something worth giving everything for, becoming a monster for, and even turning from a monster to a human again for.]

[A monster cannot always be a monster, nor can a man always be a man.]

Lu Yizhan pinned Bai Liu to the ground and, with tears streaming down his face, punched him hard: " Bai Liu! You can't go on any longer!"

"You've done enough to win this league!!!"

"Keep going and you'll lose more!"

Lu Yizhan squeezed Bai Liu's shoulders and arms and wrestled him to the ground over and over again - a tactic he used on the prisoners.

Bai Liu's body is drenched in blood, his arms and legs are covered in bruises, but Lu Yizhan is no better, his nose is bruised and battered, and his eyes, always distressed or gentle, are filled with some unprecedented intensity as he stares at Bai Liu, motionless and dead, as if ready to charge.

They brutally and unmercifully wrestled with each other.

Lu Yizhan, however, had tears leaking from his eyes, and he raised his hand to wipe his own eyes, making his face a bloody mess, before looking up and questioning him with a choked sob: "Bai Liu, what is the meaning of your existence?"

"- just to be the monster standing opposite me?"

"Aren't you alone?"

[...... The ten years I've spent with you and Bai Liu have been the happiest I've lived in a long time.

[I often forget my duty in the midst of your company, forgetting that I am in a game with an evil god, which I know is a game, but because of your presence, how I wish it were reality].

[My reluctance to bring game props into reality and exchange game points for real currency is all because of my self-avoidance].

[I wishfully thought that if I used less of what I had in the game, the game would come to this world even a minute slower, and I always did this struggle of not being able to do anything about it, but I've seen the future and know that it's not going to be what I want it to be.]

[The end and the future, both as promised].

[- It's like I knew from the beginning that I couldn't have a wedding with you, couldn't marry you].

"But I don't want to be alone." Bai Liu tilted his head, his face deformed by Lu Yizhan, only his dark eyes still clear, his voice hoarse but still clear, "I'd rather be a monster surrounded by them."

"I don't want to be one either."

Lu Yizhan's pupils flinched.

He saw Bai Liu crying.

"What else can I lose ......" Bai Liu stood up slowly, his voice hoarse as he raised his bloodied face, "Wasn't my loss of all my future doomed the moment I was chosen by the gods? "

" Lu Yizhan, you have seen this future, haven't you?"

"You know I'll even kill you myself."

Bai Liu tilting his head, a heavy sword levitates from his hand and is held tightly in his grip.

[System Alert: Player Bai Liu uses Player Reverse God's Soul Note to log into the System Panel and use the skill - (Reverse God's Inquisitor)]

Lu Yizhan looked somewhat dazedly at the heavy sword in Bai Liu's hand - it was his heavy sword.

I knew from the moment I met 14-year-old Bai Liu that I would end up with him.

[A game that lasted ten years, and in the end he won.]

The only thing I didn't know at first was why Bai Liu cried when he won a game against me, he always likes to win and should have a smile on his face at the end, but I finally understand now.

[Because he lost his best friend].

[Team Fang, I've been saving this ring for a long time, with my salary, and the first time I saw it I thought it would look good on you.

[Although it is quite inappropriate to say this already, but this letter, with my guts, will most likely not be sent even if I write it in the end, so I will write it-]

[- Marry me, Fang Dian.]

The heavy sword penetrated Lu Yizhan's heart and he slowly slid down, a large stain of blood staining his heart as he collapsed on Bai Liu's shoulder.

Bai Liu tilted his head, his expression blank, it was clear that he was the one who did it, but in the end it was as if he was the one who died.

"Right no ...... up." Lu Yizhan's eyelids slowly fell as he slid down the heavy sword that ran through him from Bai Liu's shoulder to the ground, blood spilling from the corners of his mouth, a relieved smile actually on his face, "In the end, it was, self-inflicted, that stood in your way ......"

"...... made you kill your best friend with your own hands."