Faced with the metallic wind, Bai Xi closed her eyes, waiting for the blood to tear her apart. This would be okay. This was okay. Maybe if she died, he’d be able to escape.

“I’m sorry. I don’t want to live anymore,” she thought. Out loud, she whispered, “I’m sorry…”

But then, an angry roar sounded. A hand suddenly reached over, interrupting the almost frozen moment. It clutched her hand in a death grasp, pulling her into his embrace.

And Ye Qingxuan flew up. An invisible force crashed against him, as if wanting to reduce him to dust. He could even hear the sound of his bones cracking.

He tumbled through the air, and fell onto the ground. He coughed in immense pain. Strings of thick blood flowed freely from the gaping wounds on his back. The white of his bones was visible.

Thankfully he blocked the attack at the last moment with his left hand. It was numb. The broken bones pierced through the skin. It looked comical and laughable.

He saw countless shadows attracted to blood flow, blocking the entire room. They buzzed with energy, tracking them down like wild dogs. They seemed to sense the resonance from the formless ghosts and slowly gathered towards him.

He tried crawling, but his body no longer moved. If it had not been for the hallucination that had blocked out all physical pain, he would have had passed out long ago. But if he had died in that state, it would have been better than seeing death come for him with open eyes.

He sighed, feeling the girl tremble in his embrace.

“Didn’t you want to go home?” He used the last of his strength to hug her close, for the last time. Sighing, he breathed out, “Be good and listen, Bai Xi.”

“Sorry, sorry…” He said. Sticky blood flowed down from his neck, falling into his lap. The girl made a strangled noise. Was she scared?

She must have been scared this time.

Would she be more obedient? Please be a bit more obedient.

“Look at you. It’s all my fault. I’m sorry.” Bai Xi’s tears splattered onto his neck.

“This is my first time hearing you apologize. I can’t believe it’s under this situation.” Ye Qingxuan wanted to laugh, but he did not know how to.

He truly wanted to comfort her and say, “Don’t be scared. No matter what happens, this will end and we’ll live happily ever after. There will always be a turn at the most hopeless moment…” But things did not just end in this world, and there was not always a turnaround at every hopeless moment.

This world was so cruel and scary. If only he could say those heartwarming and pretty words, and help more people like Bai Xi and him from the past. But with some things, he was powerless.

Yes, this was how it truly was. No matter how many times the story would repeat, the ending was still the same.

From the bottom of his heart came a mocking voice, full of contempt and disdain. “Ye Qingxuan, haven’t you already experienced this feeling before? Have you ever believed your lies, even for just a second?”

Avalon was big. It was full of people drunk on money and wealth, but it had no room for someone without a home. It was no place for the weak.

If only time stopped in the past.

If only it stopped during that snowy night—the only night he was able to sleep peacefully.

Just like now, hugging someone like him, feeling warmth within his arms.

This was good—a hundred times better than fire, a thousand times better than eyes filled with pity. No matter how cruel and cold the world was, there was nothing to fear, not even death, as long as he was with his own people. As long as he was no longer lonely.

But everyone was lonely in the world.

“You hug the girl in your arms, wanting to protect her until the end. But do you hear how she cries?

“Her heart is buried in the abyss; she can’t find you with her eyes.

“And you are still powerless.”

—

Hariti’s wails shattered the stillness once again.

Her high-pitched wails echoed through the sewer. Multiple limbs squirmed within the blood mist, as if something was crawling out of hell.

Their shapes kept changing. Sometimes they were a headless prisoner, other times they were a three-headed dog, or a pile of scales like a deep sea monster. The twisted formless ghosts transformed and crawled out of the blood.

It was the resentment called forth by reading the aether here. The piles of white bones buried in the deep well from over the years was their source of energy. The music score manipulated the resentment, transforming them into monsters and demons for Hariti.

“Tiryagyoni · Prologue”—Way of the Animal.

Its power had not been fully unleashed until now. It danced crazily in the darkness.

But looking at them, Ye Qingxuan no longer felt fear. Instead, he felt loss, and relief. His heart felt light, as if something painful was soon about to be over.

The hallucination finally started to lift. Misery was leaving him too. Even the cries in his ears were getting distant. Maybe this was the last pity the gods had taken upon him.

The world before his eyes faded, but he still did not want to sleep. He wanted to talk to someone, to the girl beside him…

“Bai Xi, do people in the East really put out food for free?” he asked quietly. “It must be so nice to be a beggar in the East.”

“I lied,” Bai Xi replied. “Something like that isn’t possible.”

Ye Qingxuan forced a smile. “So no one revolted because they didn’t want the Emperor’s meat pies?”

“Nope.”

Ye Qingxuan sighed. “Bai Xi, you really love lying.”

“I can’t help it. That’s just who I am.” Her shoulder trembled as she choked out, “Annoying, right?”

“Yeah, so annoying.” Ye Qingxuan nodded. He could no longer see clearly, but he could feel the girl looking at him, and he squeezed out a smile. Bai Xi froze. With her eyes on him, she asked, “You’ll save me even if I’m annoying?”

“Yeah, I will.” His head dropped. Using his last strength, he whispered, “I’ll save you no matter what.”

Right before the darkness came, he heard Bai Xi’s murmur in his ear, “Thank you.”

The girl hugged him lightly, tears falling down. “You can save me now.”

It was as if it were a hallucination, but the cries had disappeared. The world was quiet for once. But in the quietness, Bai Xi’s heartbeat echoed, and she was still praying in a choked voice, “Please save me.”

—

In that instant, Ye Qingxuan heard thunder, screaming wind, and the soft sound of tears rolling down his cheeks. In an instant, he was embraced by the sun.

Limitless heat and pain entered him once again.

It was like lava had been poured into his veins, and the terrifying pain spread from his heart. The daze and darkness were swept away. Only the fire filled every crevice of his body, pulsing with his blood.

He forced his eyes open, but was blinded by this thing in the air—a brilliant light. It was as if the sun was enveloping the world.

Countless aether collided, unleashing piercing electric light. Like sharp blades, they cut through the darkness, setting off something thunderous in Ye Qingxuan’s ears.

It was in this thunder that he finally heard clearly the sound of Bai Xi’s breaths.

No one imagined that such a little girl harbored such immense strength—so immense that she was about to tear herself apart.

This awesome strength rushed into Ye Qingxuan’s body, following the embrace, igniting his soul, and raising it above the sun.

Ping!

Ye Qingxuan shuddered. The skin on the back of his neck split open, revealing bone. But then a long nail embedded in that bone shot out with invisible force and dug into the wall. The force did not stop there. It reverberated in his body, breaking through every obstacle in his joints.

Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!

He did not know when those nails had been hammered into his bones, but they were being forced out now, flying into the wall and disappearing.

Ye Qingxuan’s body was dyed red, but he felt calmer than ever despite the pain. It was as if he had finally shaken off his shackles and returned to the world—returned to freedom!

All light was extinguished.

But the boy’s black eyes were ignited. Under his thin eyelids, they shone like the moon.

He woke up from a memory-like hallucination, but he felt that he was not himself anymore.

A different sense of awareness came over him from somewhere far away, and entered his body. It was foreign, but was manipulated by his vessels. It blended in with his own awareness. It guided his thoughts, leading him to look at the world from another angle, to see things as they truly were.

For the first time in his life, he was able to clearly feel the presence of aether.

It existed everywhere in the world—hidden in the wind, sleeping underground, burning in flames, flowing in water.

“Is this aether?”