vrcanaries Chapter 768: The Red Moon Closed the Loop and Trapped the Mask, Time is Hard to Chase, and the Heart
Chapter 768: The Red Moon Closed the Loop and Trapped the Mask, Time is Hard to Chase, and the Heart
As the sea water flooded over his calves, the soles of Wang Mian's boots crushed fine salt grains on the rock wall.
Chen Yangrong's laughter was still sticking to his eardrums, like soaked seaweed, carrying a rotten smell into his nostrils.
He grabbed Yue Gui by the back of his collar and pulled the team member who was almost swept away by the waves back to his side.
This was the third time he pulled someone in during the evacuation. The first two times were Tan Xiang who slipped on the mucus and Xing Hen who chased after Chen Yangrong's residual soul.
"Captain!" Qiangwei's sword tip pushed aside a ball of pale green slime. When she turned her head, the ends of her hair were still dripping with seawater.
"That old man just said 'They won't believe it'. Who won't believe it?"
Wang Mian didn't answer.
He looked towards the fishing village - the blood moon was hanging on the top of the old locust tree at the entrance of the village. A layer of dark red floated in the silver-gray moonlight, like a gauze soaked in blood.
Twenty minutes ago, when they emerged from the crack in the stomach wall,
The stone mill at the entrance of the village was still stopped at the third quarter of the yin hour, but now the moss on the millstone was moist with the moisture of the morning hour.
Time is flowing backwards, half a moment faster than the last time I went back.
"Come here." He stood under the old locust tree. Yi Yuan's scabbard knocked against the bluestone slabs, the sound colder than the moonlight.
“The time loop of the fishing village is not naturally formed.”
When the team members gathered around, Tan Xiang was scraping the mucus off his cuffs with a dagger - the mucus glowed pearly white in the moonlight, like the saliva of a giant beast.
"Captain, you said it was Chen Yangrong who used forbidden techniques to freeze time."
“That was my conclusion before my last retrospective.”
Wang Mian's thumb stroked the cloud pattern on the sword's hilt, which he had carved with his own hands during his third time back in time.
"But just now, in the stomach wall, I touched Chen Yangrong's memory."
He paused, his Adam's apple rolling, "The real purpose of the closed loop is to prevent the giant beast in the depths of the sea eye from reviving."
Moon Ghost's breathing suddenly became heavy.
The girl who always hid the talisman in her hair clenched the copper bell at her waist.
The clappers made a crackling sound: "So Chen Yangrong..."
"He is the gatekeeper." Wang Mian's voice was like iron soaked in seawater.
“Use your own life and the time of the entire fishing village to shackle the beast.
Just now he asked us to draw our swords so that we could cut off the shackles——"
"Bullshit!" Xuan Vortex suddenly roared.
His short blade was still dripping with mucus, and the tip of the blade splashed sparks on the bluestone slab. "During the last beast tide, this old guy led us to the deepest part of the stomach wall!"
"If the captain hadn't used Backtrack to save us, the grass on my grave would be two meters high now!"
The veins on his neck bulged, and his usually smiling face flushed red. "He said he'd take us to see the sea?"
"I think they're taking us to feed the sea!"
Chen Yangrong's voice suddenly exploded from behind.
"My friend... draw your sword..."
The team members turned around at the same time.
I don't know when a shadow appeared under the old locust tree, with a hunched back and half of its face sunken in the shadow.
The other half was dazzlingly white—it was Chen Yangrong.
His right hand was placed on his waist, where there was a strangely shaped bulge, as if a knife was hidden.
"I have lived one hundred and thirty years." The old man's voice was like a broken bellows.
"I've seen the beast open its eyes three times."
"The first time, the entire Qingshui City sank into the sea; the second time, 100,000 fishing boats were reduced to shreds; this third time..."
He suddenly coughed violently, and black blood oozed out from between his fingers.
“I can’t hold on any longer.”
"Draw your sword, pull out the Dinghai from my waist, and you will live."
"Alive?" Qiangwei's sword pointed at the old man's throat.
"Last time you said 'It's good to follow me', but you ended up leading us into the giant beast's stomach."
"Now you're saying you can survive by drawing your sword?"
She flipped her wrist, and the sword tip pressed out blood beads, "Do you think we are fools?"
Chen Yangrong smiled.
When he pulled his hand out from his waist, there was a piece of rusty iron in his palm - not a knife, but half of an anchor.
"Silly child, Dinghai is not a sword, it's my old bones."
He suddenly grabbed Qiangwei's wrist, his withered fingers like iron hooks, "Look."
The moonlight suddenly dimmed.
Wang Mian's pupils suddenly shrank.
He saw countless golden chains floating in the blood moon behind Chen Yangrong.
The ends of the chains were pierced into the sea horizon, and each chain was engraved with the name of the fishing village: Wangchaopo, Tingfengxiang, and Sunwangping...
There was a silver nail as thick as a thumb stuck in Chen Yangrong's chest, and the red rope wrapped around the nail was exactly the same as the prayer rope on the old locust tree at the entrance of the village.
"Every time we go back in time, a link in the chain breaks."
Chen Yangrong's blood dripped onto the bluestone slab, blooming into black flowers, "Now there are only three left.
When the last one breaks... "He let go of his hand and stumbled back two steps.
“The beast woke up.”
Suddenly, the sound of bones breaking was heard in the air.
When Wang Mian turned around, he saw that Yue Gui's talisman was burning.
Her usually neatly braided hair was undone, and a few strands of hair were smoking. "Captain, I just used the 'Time Tracking Talisman' to check the timeline..."
Her voice was shaking.
"The gap in the closed loop is shrinking, ten times faster than last time."
"So you asked us to draw our swords so that we can be the pawns in your place?" Tianping suddenly spoke.
The man who always held the copper scale had stood at the front without knowing when, the weight spinning in his palm with a whirring sound.
"Our lives in exchange for the chains not being broken?"
Chen Yangrong didn't say anything.
His eyes swept over each team member: the knuckles of Xu Wei grinding the short blade, the compass on Tan Xiang's waist, the lightning leaping at Xing Hen's fingertips, and finally fell on Wang Mian's face.
"Before the last time we looked back, you were all dead." Wang Mian said suddenly.
His voice was very soft, but it was like a hammer hitting a bluestone slab.
"In the beast tide, in the stomach, in the eye of the sea."
He took out Yi Yuan, the blade reflected the blood moon,
“So this time, I’m going back to before I entered the fishing village.”
"Are you crazy?" The weight of the balance scale slammed to the ground. "Going back in time requires burning the soul!
Last time you burned one-third of it, and now you burn it again..."
"It's better than watching you die." Wang Mian held the hilt of the knife with his backhand, and the cloud pattern on the scabbard hurt his palm.
"Vortex, guard the village entrance; Moon Ghost, use the spell to mark the timeline; Rose, keep an eye on Chen Yangrong—"
"Wait!" Vortex suddenly rushed over and grabbed his wrist.
This young man who always loves to tell bad jokes has red eyes and his Adam's apple rolls up and down.
"Last time, after you burned your soul, you lay in bed for three days and three nights, unable to even hold a knife..."
“So this time I’ll only burn it for half a minute.”
Wang Mian pressed his back neck with his backhand, the force was not strong but it was as firm as an iron clamp.
"If it works, I'll be on the net drying ground at 2:15 AM."
"If you fail..." He smiled so faintly that it was almost invisible.
“Just treat me as dead.”
The light of the knife flashed.
When Wang Mian's figure disappeared, a burnt smell floated in the air - that was the smell of a burning soul.
Moon Ghost's talisman swished with a blue flame. She stared at the dancing sparks on the talisman, her voice trembling, "The timeline... is broken?"
Half an hour later.
On the rocks of the net drying area, Wang Mian staggered backward, covering his mouth.
His cuffs were dripping with blood, and what seeped out between his fingers was not red, but dark gold - the color of his soul.
Moon Ghost's talisman suddenly exploded, and blue flames wrapped in sparks fell to his feet, burning into a line of bloody words: Not returned.
“Failed.”
He pulled off the corner of his clothes and wrapped it around his wrist. When he looked up, he saw a vortex running towards him from the village entrance, with its short blade still dripping with slime.
"what happened?"
“The timeline is rejecting you.”
The Moon Ghost held the remaining talisman, with ash from Mars on his eyelashes.
"I just used the 'Time Chasing Talisman' to check, and you clearly returned to the time before entering the fishing village, but..."
She swallowed, "But the fishing village is still in a closed loop. As soon as you stepped into the village, you were bounced back."
"Captain, take a break."
Tian Ping came over and put the copper scale into his sleeve without knowing when.
"I'll take Tan Xiang and Xing Hen to the north end of the village to find a gap; Qiang Wei and Yue Gui will guard Chen Yangrong; Xuan Vortex..."
He glanced at the young man who was still breathing heavily.
"Come with me to the south end."
Wang Mian wanted to refuse, but his throat suddenly felt sweet.
He held onto the reef, the salty sea breeze filling his lungs, and only then did he realize his back was soaked with cold sweat.
"Two hours." He pulled the corner of his mouth.
“I’ll try again in two hours.”
Two hours later.
The blood moon climbed to the zenith.
Wang Mian stood under the old locust tree, and Yi Yuan's sword reflected his face - there was a wrinkle at the corner of his eye, and the ends of his hair were white, as if he had suddenly aged ten years.
"Captain?" Yue Gui's voice was filled with tears.
"Your soul..."
"Don't talk." Wang Mian interrupted her.
He pressed his fingers between his eyebrows and could feel his soul cracking like shattered jade.
This time he burned for a whole moment, and the timeline surged into the sea in his consciousness.
He saw the child nailed to the reef twenty years ago, and saw the countdown in the pupils of the giant beast.
I saw my own reflection when I first entered the fishing village...
Then, he was bounced back.
"How could it be..." His knife fell to the ground with a clang.
"I've clearly found the gap..."
Chen Yangrong's laughter came from behind.
The old man sat down on the millstone, holding the anchor in his arms. The moonlight stretched his shadow very long. "They won't believe it..."
He repeated, his voice becoming softer and softer,
“I don’t believe it…”
Wang Mian suddenly looked up.
He looked at the blood moon and suddenly remembered what Moon Ghost had said: "The timeline is rejecting you."
But it's not him who is excluded, it's the time loop itself—
Like the two sides of a Möbius strip, no matter how he traced back, he was trapped in the same loop.
"Klein..." He muttered to himself, his voice carried away by the sea breeze.
Chen Yangrong, who was sitting on the millstone, suddenly coughed violently, and a piece of gold foil floated up in the black blood that seeped out from between his fingers.
Wang narrowed his eyes—on the gold foil, he could vaguely see the strokes of the word "境".
The blood moon suddenly shook.
Wang Mian's hand was on the knife at his waist.
He could feel that the giant beast's heartbeat was faster than before, as fast as a drum.
And his soul has been shattered into pieces.