Nightmare Temple

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

[System alert: Whoever kills his opponent and walks out of the temple wins the game.]

[The victor gets an audience with the Evil God.]

There was only a worn pool between them, surrounded by columns crawling with damp plants, and they looked up, at each other, between the daylight and the wind that fell from the vault of the sky into the pool, with its damp sea air, and old memories that made it uncomfortable and taut.

"Why did you ......" Lu Yizhan took a deep breath, "give up your immunity?"

Bai Liu calmly asked back, "Why did you give up?"

They lapsed into silence again.

Because Bai Liu knew, and Lu Yizhan knew, that at this point, with all but one of them dead, this game called Evil God--

--It's not going to end.

"I will, this time, definitely not let you." Lu Yizhan smiled in relief, his eyes contained tears as he shouldered his heavy sword and said hoarsely, "I will definitely cut you down here!"

Bai Liu drew out his all-black bone whip, his gaze placid, "That would be best."

Reality.

When Fang Dian woke up early, she wasn't surprised to find that Lu Yizhan wasn't there anymore. Even though today was a public holiday, Lu Yizhan had never had the concept of weekends, not to mention the fact that the man had scratched his head and said that he had changed his position, hugging her around the waist and complaining that he would be even busier in the future.

When exactly can we get married?

Lu Yizhan sighed worriedly, as he always did, but the last time he complained about it he rarely mentioned it, and even Fang Dian gave him a surprised look.

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

However, Fang Dian is not in a hurry to get married, as two people have a lifetime of work to do, and are not in a hurry to get married.

It's a long time coming.

Fang Dian got up and stretched his waist, began to clean up the house, while cleaning up while planning in his head, this winter is a little cold, should we give Lu Yizhan and Bai Liu, these two do not care about their own guys to add some clothes and so on, the evening to eat a meal together and so on, clean up to the halfway point, when Fang Dian received under the bed, suddenly stopped.

Slowly she pulled a small red velvet box from under the bed with a letter underneath.

Fang Dian raised an eyebrow in amusement - after all these years, Lu Yizhan's hiding place hadn't changed.

She was about to put it back as if she hadn't seen it, and flipped the letter over when she accidentally glanced at the time it was sent on it - same city courier, which meant that it was sent today, so she was receiving it today.

But how come it didn't get mailed?

Lu Yizhan isn't the kind of person who would forget to do something, the fact that he hid this thing and hid it under his bed means that it's important to him, so why didn't he send it?

Dian Fang paused in her motion to put it back, and with some doubt she took the letter and the little box out, and after a moment's hesitation, opened it.

[To the wife of the family.]

[Though it's a bit out of place to call you that, forgive me for calling you that anyway.]

The black bone whip fell down hard from the sky and smashed into the pool, stirring up countless waves, Lu Yizhan shouldered his heavy sword to block this whip, but the strength of this whip was too horrible, smashing him directly into the walls of the temple.

Lu Yizhan banged against the wall, choking and coughing, the wound caused by that soul-crushing gun on his right shoulder hurting so badly that he let go and his heavy sword crashed down.

Bai Liu stepped out of the smoke from the whip, his eyes cold and unforgiving, another whip smashed down hard on his face, Lu Yizhan couldn't dodge in time, he gritted his teeth and put away his heavy sword, turning it into a palm, ready to take the whip hard.

[System Alert: Player Judge of the Counter God uses personal skill (Taijutsu)]

This is the skill of Wu Ruishu, the Bai Liu who believes that there is always a world line and is the positive crusader for good boys.

Dian Fang kneels by the bed and reads word for word down the line:

[Even though you don't remember, you used to teach me a lot of things, and there are a lot of people who have taught me a lot of things, but they're all gone.]

[I will always miss them because the only things I have in me were left to me by them, and I couldn't have lasted until now without those things].

[And what has really kept me going so far and hasn't gotten lost is my faith.]

[My faith, you gave it to me, Captain Fong.]

Lu Yizhan caught Bai Liu's full force whip by relying on his Taiji Palm with a hard hand, then used his strength to turn the whip back, drew his heavy sword again with his backhand, and hissed with fury, "World Lines Overlap!"

"Leave the temple, Bai Liu!!!"

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

"You also-" Lu Yizhan viciously swung his heavy sword down, smashing it against Bai Liu's open whip, tears slipping from his eyes, "- -didn't even want to be this evil god, 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 realized that whether it was monsters, heretics, or sinners, the boundaries between them and normal human beings were so unclear that even I, the Judge, couldn't tell which one should be judged and which one shouldn't.]

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

[I have seen so many futures, in each of which everyone has become a monster and a heretic, and has committed all kinds of crimes that hurt people, should I be like Cen Buming, and judge all the heretics in order to protect more human beings, or should I be like Bai Liu, and accept all the heretics?

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

[The more it came to the last moment, the more I hesitated, the more I was confused, I was not a qualified judge or a qualified savior, but those who were good judges and saviors, had left me.]

When I was most confused, I met Bai Liu.

[- Only fourteen-year-old Bai Liu.]

The temple was a mess, Bai Liu's whip collided with Lu Yizhan's spatial folding skill and was folded into several broken sections, flickering and falling to the ground, Bai Liu's right wrist was broken in its entirety, Lu Yizhan's heavy sword was stuck in the wall, his shoulder was covered in blood, he braced himself from the ground and tried to stand up, his chest rising and falling violently.

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 glanced at each other and at the same time gave up using their weapons and lunged at each other with their bare hands.

Fang Dian turned the letterhead over a page.

[Fourteen year old Bai Liu, a very peculiar child, I thought he was a monster, but he cries, laughs, loves story books, and even remembers a casual remark of mine, gets up in the middle of the night to read a book to take a test for school, and coldly warns me not to be self-absorbed when I find out that he didn't read the book because of what I said, but because he wanted to read it himself.]

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

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

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

[I am a human being, Bai Liu is a human being, Cen Buming is a human being, the former captain of the second team is a human being, all of us are human beings with desires, feelings, things to fight for, and endings we want to achieve--]

[- There are people who want to protect.]

[Reality is reality not because the game can't be logged in, but because in reality, there are things we want to guard for, even if these things are just a toy to the Evil God, but to us, this is something that is worth giving everything for, turning into a monster for it, and even turning from a monster into a human again for it.]

[Monsters can't stay monsters forever, and people don't stay people forever.]

Lu Yizhan held Bai Liu down on the ground, shedding tears, and slammed his fist hard, "Bai Liu! You can't keep going!"

"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 slammed him into the ground over and over again - his tactic with prisoners.

Bai Liu's body was drenched in blood, his hands and feet were covered with bruises, but Lu Yizhan's body wasn't much better, his nose was knocked out of shape, his face was bruised and swollen, and his pair of eyes, which were always bitter or gentle, were filled with a certain kind of unprecedented intensity, staring at Bai Liu with a deadpan stare, seemingly ready to charge at any time.

They savagely, unmercifully wrestled with each other.

Lu Yizhan, however, had tears seeping out of his eyes, and he raised his hand and wiped his eyes, rubbing his whole face to a bloody pulp, then raised his head and forcibly choked and questioned him, "Bai Liu, what is the meaning of your existence?"

"--just to become the monster standing across from me?"

"Aren't you alone?"

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

[I often forget my duties in the midst of being with you, forgetting that I am in the midst of a game with an evil god; I know it is a game, but because of you, how I wish it was reality.]

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

[I wishfully thought that the game would come to this world even a minute slower if I just used less of the game's stuff, and I've always made this struggle to do anything about it, but I've seen the future and know that the truth isn't going to be what I want it to be.]

[The end, and the future, will be as it should be.]

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

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

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

Lu Yizhan's pupils shrank.

He saw Bai Liu crying.

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

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

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

Bai Liu tilted his head as a heavy sword levitated out of his hand, held tightly in his grip.

[System Alert: Player Bai Liu used the soul banknote of player Against the Gods to log into the system panel and use the skill - (Judge of the Against Gods)]]

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 fourteen-year-old Bai Liu where I would end up with him.

[This game, which lasted ten years, was ultimately won by him.]

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 he deserves a smiling face at the end of the game, but I finally understand it now.]

[Because he lost his best friend.]

[Squad, I've been saving this ring for a long time, with my paycheck, and the first time I looked at it, I thought it would look good on you.]

[Though it has become quite inappropriate to say this, this letter, with my guts, will more than likely end up not being mailed if I write it, so I'll just write it--]

[-Marry me, Fang Dian.]

The heavy sword penetrated Lu Yizhan's heart, and he slowly slid down, a large swirl of blood from his heart haloing open as he collapsed onto Bai Liu's shoulder.

Bai Liu tilted his head, his expression blank, obviously he was the one who made the move, but in the end it was as if he was the one who died.

"Right not ...... up." Lu Yizhan's eyelids slowly fell as he slid down the heavy sword that had penetrated him from Bai Liu's shoulder to the ground, blood spilling from the corners of his mouth, his face actually wearing a relieved smile, "In the end, it was still, self-serving to stand in front of you ......"

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