Chapter 366

Chapter 367: Facing the Past: The End Web

The planet was torn open. The sky burned bright. The shelves of the continents fell into the molten core. Above the shattered world, the stars hung like a mad crown. The dying Behemoth slid over the top of the dried-up air and over the Rift that split the whole planet. On its back, Yu Sheng and the others finally came down to a slow landing.

The Behemoth’s back was broad without end, like a big island floating in space. For some reason, a last shell of air clung around the Behemoth, as if formed by an unknown force to shield them from the doomsday outside. And on this “land” the Behemoth carried like a lifeboat, there was actually a green peach grove, with a spring and pond at its edge and a bamboo hut with a small bridge. It was clearly man-made.

But the bamboo hut had long been empty, and the clear spring was almost dry. When Yu Sheng rode down on the Demon Fox’s back, the only living person here was Zheng Zhi.

He was safe and sound, sitting a bit dazed under a peach tree in the middle of the grove. On the stone table in front of him sat a game of chess that was not finished.

From far away, Irene yelled at the top of her lungs: “Big nephew!”

Zheng Zhi snapped out of it. He turned around in a hurry and finally saw Yu Sheng and the others on the silver-white Demon Fox, with Immortal Qian Ji and Xuan Che floating down nearby. Joy flashed across his face as he called: “Brother Yu! You’re finally here! I thought I was dead for sure!”

Yu Sheng swung down from Foxy’s back and walked to him fast. Luna and Rapunzel jumped down right after. The Mermaid came last, lowered gently by Rapunzel’s hair.

Zheng Zhi saw Rapunzel and the Mermaid and let out a long breath: “You two are okay too. Good. I thought you fell out there. If you fell outside, you would be done for. I dragged you into this…”

“For us, you’re the one who fell ‘outside,’” Rapunzel shot back, then looked him up and down. “Not bad. Your luck is huge.”

Zheng Zhi rubbed his hair, still not quite sure what was going on. His eyes moved to Yu Sheng and he asked: “Brother Yu, is this the ‘Otherworld’ you were exploring before?”

“In theory, yes. But last time we came in, it wasn’t this intense.” Yu Sheng lifted his eyes to the distance. The tilted horizon rose slowly from the Behemoth’s back. Under the pressure of the lava inside, the planet’s cracked crust was lifting away in silence, steaming rock and small shards spilling into space.

Then he looked back at his big “nephew,” who was still safe thanks to the Behemoth’s shelter: “So you stayed in this grove the whole time? You landed here right after you slipped in from the real world?”

“Yeah, I fell straight here,” Zheng Zhi nodded. “And when I first landed, there was an old sir here.”

Yu Sheng had no reaction to the first part, but his eyes flew wide at that: “What? A person? You met someone here?”

“Right,” Zheng Zhi said, startled by Yu Sheng’s tone. He explained quickly, “He looked like an immortal. He said the grove was his, and this was his Qian Kun Beast. I didn’t understand much. Then he pulled me to play chess. I told him I can’t play, and he looked disappointed.”

He pointed toward the stone table under the peach tree as he spoke.

The unfinished game still lay on the board.

“A person in the Otherworld?” Rapunzel murmured, stunned. “I’ve never seen that. Even Red Hood probably hasn’t.” She spun and stared at Zheng Zhi: “So where is he? The old sir who wanted to play chess?”

“He vanished all of a sudden. He said the time had come and the Celestial Sovereign was calling him,” Zheng Zhi answered honestly. “I wanted to ask who he really was and how to leave this place, but I didn’t get the chance.”

Yu Sheng and Irene looked at each other.

Immortal Qian Ji sighed in a regretful tone: “We are late. If we had found this place earlier, we might have met the elder.”

Xuan Che spoke without thinking: “Do you mean this place is…”

Immortal Qian Ji did not answer at once. He raised a hand and pointed at a slanted patch of sky above the grove.

Xuan Che followed his finger. He stared for a few long seconds, then his eyes opened wide.

“Do you recognize it?” Immortal Qian Ji asked, watching him closely.

Xuan Che opened his mouth and struggled, but no words came.

The Lingxi Mirror floating at Immortal Qian Ji’s side drifted up and reflected that tilted corner of sky.

At the horizon of The End Web, a torn slab of crust was rising slowly into space. A curtain of burning magma hung between that slab and the planet below. On the slab, shapes of land could still be seen.

It was mountain after mountain, Thousand Peaks upon Thousand Peaks. The old pavilions were all charred and gone.

Others might not have seen anything from that twisted, blackened piece of crust. But for Xuan Che and Immortal Yuan Ling, no matter how warped it looked, they could see its true form at a glance.

It was Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain, ripped from the planet’s face.

The weight of it all hit everyone. Yu Sheng was about to ask Zheng Zhi for more details when a strange roar and a heavy quake underfoot cut them off.

The Behemoth beneath them let out a dying cry, different from before. Along with that came a hard lurch and a sick tilt that threw at their bodies all at once.

Yu Sheng snapped his head up. Past the Behemoth’s back, the already slanted horizon was shaking hard and leaning even more. The whole landmass was slowly “rising.” Seas of lava and torn chunks of ground were bearing down on them with crushing force.

A thunderous crash came from far away. A broken peak slammed into the Behemoth’s side. Countless fragments exploded from its flank. Hot fire rose like spraying blood at the edge of everyone’s sight.

The Mermaid clapped her hands over her ears like the sound was splitting her head: “It’s about to die!”

Yu Sheng didn’t need the warning. He already felt it. The Behemoth under them was dying fast. It was falling toward the breaking planet, and as it died, the artificial gravity and air around it began to fail.

He reached out without a second of doubt and pulled open The Door: “Everyone, retreat.”

No one hesitated. The training of the Special Affairs Bureau and the strong discipline of the Fairy Tale Organization showed their worth. Zheng Zhi, Rapunzel, and the Mermaid rushed through the doorway to the real world, the Parted Clouds Palace Grand Hall. Xuan Che followed right after.

Immortal Qian Ji turned once before stepping through. The charred pieces of the former Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain were spinning apart in the dark. The red-stained stars reflected in the lenses in his eye sockets. He seemed to be recording the scene. After a moment he stepped into the Parted Clouds Palace.

Fire rose at the edge of the peach grove. As the Qian Kun Beast died, the protective power around the Behemoth faded with it. Scorching fragments blown up from the surface set the grove alight. Twisted flames climbed like a wall through their view and quickly swallowed the spring, the bamboo hut, and the small bridge.

“You three go too,” Yu Sheng said when he saw Foxy had changed back into human form. He urged Irene, Foxy, and Luna with a nod.

Irene froze for a heartbeat, then groaned as she got it: “Not again?”

“I plan to watch a little more,” Yu Sheng said without hiding his thought. “This Otherworld is special. Next time we come in, the scene might be different. There may not be another chance to gather info about ‘this moment.’ You three go first. If Xuan Che and the others ask, tell them I’m busy with something else and will come back on my own soon.” [I need to see this through.]

“Fine. I’m used to you dying outside anyway,” Irene sighed, climbed into Foxy’s arms like a pro, and waved at Yu Sheng. “We’ll go back first. When you finish dying, hurry over.”

Foxy stared at Yu Sheng, squeezed her fist, and said: “Benefactor, you can do it.”

Yu Sheng fell silent. [Great. My fox and my doll are both getting way too calm about my life and death.]

Luna’s response was more serious. She had no response.

Yu Sheng waved them through and closed The Door.

He turned to face the tilted, rolling land that was pressing toward him and drew in a breath.

It was his last smooth breath here.

A gale rose and almost swept him into space. The last layer of air around the Qian Kun Beast peeled away.

The flames in the peach grove went out. The world’s final little pocket of life support stopped.

The Behemoth underfoot died completely and became a dead stone like the drifting shards of the planet around it. It kept rolling slowly. Some leftover reflex in its body made the ground tremble now and then. With gravity gone, Yu Sheng felt his body grow light.

He looked up and saw the broken planet hanging overhead. Its blazing core had been cut bare by the power of the end. Fire filled his sight. It felt like gravity itself had glitched. The magma around the core spread in space like a terrible bloom. Everything was speeding away from the planet.

Yu Sheng frowned a little. [So this is the end of a world.]

A hot drop of molten rock swept past the Behemoth and slammed into the peach grove.

While Yu Sheng was studying the core, he got roasted to a crisp.