Yashu stared intently at the glowing red warning text on her phone screen, her delicate eyebrows knitting tightly together. She broke the silence with a voice full of bewilderment:
-"How strange... Even the scanning feature of Travel Together couldn't trace its origin. This necklace must have an extremely special background. Adding that bizarre poem from earlier, what on earth is going on? Why did that old man call you 'Emperor'?"
I slowly put my phone back into my pocket, my five fingers still tightly gripping the previous gemstone in my palm, feeling the piercing coldness radiating from it through my skin.
-"There are too many unanswered questions." - I said in a low voice, looking at Yashu: "But there's one detail I just realized. The poem mentioned three words: 'Yue', 'Xin', and 'Dao'. If combined, they form 'Ling Yue Xin Dao' - the title of the Moon Sovereign. This necklace definitely has a close connection to her."
Yashu crossed her arms over her chest, slightly tilting her head in thought. Her eyes clearly showed a contemplative look as she tried to piece the clues together:
-"Besides, two completely unfamiliar names appeared in those verses: Jiu Mu and Ye Yuan. Who are they? Could they be related to the Moon Sovereign? What a pity, if that crazy old man had been a bit more lucid, maybe we could have extracted some more information."
I sighed, staring blankly into the dark emptiness outside the warehouse door, where the madman had just rushed out:
-"Although there is no concrete evidence yet, I have a feeling this poem is reenacting the history of the Uncanny World. Or at least... it is exposing a buried corner of the Moon Sovereign's own past."
Yashu frowned slightly, looking at me with a scrutinizing gaze:
-"Why are you so sure about that?"
I opened my palm, looking at the exquisite gemstone that was emitting faint, dim rays of light under the murky warehouse lamp.
-"I don't know either..." - I shook my head, my voice fading - "It's just a vague, invisible intuition urging me to believe it."
The sudden appearance and disappearance of the crazy old man left a massive question mark in my heart. I pondered in deep thought; this madman was truly bizarre. He completely lacked the identifying characteristics of a player, but judging by his behavior and attitude, he didn't resemble a typical NPC at all either. Even so, the terrifying source of power hidden within that battered body was undeniable. He was like an ancient and mysterious existence, wandering companionless in this world full of the uncanny.
Suddenly, a flash of light crossed my mind, making me jolt as a chill ran down my spine:
( Wait... just now he warned: "When you reach the River of Destiny, use it!" )
The River of Destiny?
This name instantly triggered a memory buried deep in my head. Wasn't that the mysterious location the entity inside the demonic mirror once mentioned? [ This detail is in chapter 46! ]
Beads of sweat broke out on my forehead as I realized a terrifying paradox. The crazy old man used the phrase "When you reach" rather than "If you reach". This meant he knew with absolute certainty that, in one way or another, I would definitely set foot in that place. How could he be so dead certain about my future? Prophetic ability? Or had every single step of mine in this world actually been orchestrated from the very beginning?
I took a deep breath to regain my composure, softly reciting each word in my head over and over to memorize that bizarre poem, before carefully putting the jade necklace around my neck.
The strange thing was, I memorized the poem unnaturally fast. Every single word and verse fit into my memory so smoothly that it was frightening. This feeling... felt less like memorizing a new poem and more like reviving an ancient memory, as if I had already read it somewhere in the past.
Yashu saw me standing rooted to the spot, my facial expressions shifting from one shade to another. She spoke up to break the dense atmosphere with a half-serious, half-joking remark:
-"I definitely need to go buy a notebook right after this. This continuous onslaught of massive information is about to make my head explode."
Looking at her face contorted in helplessness, the heavy mood within me lifted slightly. I let out a soft laugh and turned to reply:
-"Not a bad idea at all. When you buy one, remember to get a matching one for me."
Looking toward the empty exit of the warehouse, an intense urge suddenly welled up inside me. I truly wanted to lift my feet and run after that crazy old man, to hold him back and question him until everything was clear. However, my reason quickly brushed that thought aside. Rushing after a madman of unknown whereabouts in this hazardous, uncanny world was indeed a reckless and highly risky decision. Moreover, his ecstatic screams had long since faded away; chasing him now would most likely only mean facing the endless, yawning darkness.
I sighed softly, suppressing my emotions, and pulled out my phone. After a moment of thought, I decided to open the chat box to text Xi yong'an, recounting the entire sequence of strange events I had just experienced to him.
The screen flickered for a few seconds, and Xi yong'an's reply instantly popped up:
💬Xi yong'an: "It seems like you're quite an important character in this game."
I stared at the message, involuntarily breaking into a bitter smile as my fingers swiftly tapped the keys in response:
💬Zhao Tianxia: "I'm not sure either. But the current situation does seem that way. I just don't know if this 'importance' is a good omen or a disaster about to strike my head."
It took a long while before there was a signal of a reply from the other end:
💬Xi yong'an: "Wait a bit, I'll come down to your place later. Right now, I'm busy handling the rest of the company's troublesome paperwork."
💬Zhao Tianxia: "Alright. See you later."
Turning off the phone screen, I leaned my back against the shelf, lightly reaching up to touch the gemstone on my neck. The space in the warehouse fell back into stillness, but within my heart at this moment, the undercurrents of doubt had begun to surge.
After that, we went back to working as usual. But that poem kept lingering in my mind, and from time to time, I discussed it with Yashu.
Yashu said contemplatively:
-"The meaning of these verses is too vague... 'In Ye Yuan's night, the glorious soul decays' - Perhaps it talks about the decline, meaning that Ye Yuan's soul is being rotted and eroded right inside the illusory aura of wealth and glory?"
-"'Jiu Mu bears evil through the endless days' - this line probably implies that Jiu Mu has fallen into the demonic path, suffering a degeneration and malice that lasts for thousands of years and countless eons without any turning back." - I analyzed following her words.
In a similar manner, we began to analyze the remaining lines:
-"'Ling's sacred dream in long night brings bitter tears': In Ling's dreams ('Ling meng' also means sacred dreams in Chinese transliteration) amidst the endless long night, the character could only shed bitter tears out of helplessness against fate."
-"'As pure devotion turns to song for years': 'He' - a deity, a superior, or a revered lover, or it could also be Ling from the line above - gathered all of his grief-stricken affection and sorrowful thoughts to entrust and release them into resentful songs and melodies over the years."
-"'Yue binds the fading sky with broken thread': Yue - which also means 'moon' - in the decaying sky signals that destiny has reached its end. The thread of fate or the celestial bond has snapped and been disrupted, completely beyond salvation."
-"'Ten thousand feet of Xin Dao, a God Fan instead': The Xin Dao - the blade in the heart, a symbol of fighting will or lethality - measuring ten thousand feet suddenly lets go or gets destroyed, turning into a 'God Fan', which represents a biased, solitary deity, or a divine fan - a weapon that has lost its fierce, slaughtering nature."
-"'Four corners of the world mourn sins too late': The vast sky and earth in all four directions are dyed in sorrow, desolation, and riddled with sins, devoid of any vitality."
-"'Birds gone, fish sink, no return for the Potentate!': The birds of the sky have all flown away, and the fish have dove deep into the bottom of the waters, disappearing from sight. In the end, the 'Potentate' - the king or the sovereign lord - has departed forever and will never return again."
The more we analyzed, the colder my spine became. This poem was not merely the rambblings of a madman. It was like a miniature epic painting, recording a horrific grand war or a blood-and-tear-stained restructuring of the order of the Uncanny World in the past.
But if the old "Potentate" had "returned no more", then what on earth did the old man's final chant as he fled mean... "Dragons fly, phoenixes dance, the King reclaims his state!"?
Could the ''King'' in the poem actually be referring to me?
Because right after the old man shoved the necklace into my hand, the ending of the poem immediately changed.
-"'Dragons fly, phoenixes dance, the King reclaims his state!': This line expresses the revival, triumph, and restoration of order of a dynasty or a mythical world after a succession of dark days. It completely contradicts the preceding clause: 'Birds gone, fish sink, no return for the Potentate!'."
So this meant the crazy old man's action of handing the necklace to me had entirely altered the ending of the future. But as for the first part - the past tragedies of Ye Yuan, Jiu Mu, or the Moon Sovereign - it seemed like they were still predestined things that could not be erased by any means.
Yashu spoke up, breaking my train of thought:
-"How strange. This poem clearly has a quite profound order and meaning, it doesn't look like something a madman could write."
-"I feel the same way." - I replied while moving goods - "But is there a possibility that he had memorized this poem before he went mad? It must carry an incredibly heavy significance, because even after losing all his memories, that old man still only remembered this one thing."
We fell into silence, continuing to lift the cargo boxes and stack them onto the trolley.
A long while later, I proactively spoke up to ask:
-"When do you plan to participate in the 4th mission? I think I'll work here for a few more days, and then I'll head straight into it."
Hearing that, Yashu burst out laughing:
-"Haha. Has your reckless habit flared up again? But at least you're finally in better spirits, huh? Seeing you like this makes me happy too."
While we were engrossed in our conversation, suddenly, a rough and firm hand unexpectedly clamped down hard on my shoulder:
-"Peek-a-boo!"