Chapter 344: Fairy Tale

Chapter 344: Fairy Tale

Darkness.

After an endless stretch of darkness that seemed to have no terminus, Lin Yu awoke once more.

He stared bewildered at his whole body, then reached out to touch his own neck.

It was whole, smooth, unmarred by any wound.

Sitting up again from the floor, Lin Yu instinctively scanned his surroundings.

It was still a vast, white‑washed chamber, yet this time no sound reached his ears.

“Why must you keep me alive??”

Lin Yu’s voice was low, yet tinged with hysteria as he asked.

There was no reply.

The room remained unchanged.

He walked toward the wall, and as his hand brushed it, the entire surface dissolved like mist evaporating.

Lin Yu gaped, stunned by the sight.

It was the first time he had witnessed a room fading away.

Yet.

How could such a room possibly exist in reality??

Mountain City

What sort of place is this, anyway?

Lin Yu drew a deep breath; even now, he stood on the outskirts of that village.

Yet on closer inspection, he saw that the village had altered somehow.

Its scale had grown.

As if, during the time he had been dead, years had silently slipped by.

Lin Yu fixed his gaze on the distant settlement, lips pressed tight, his steps as light as a whisper.

He could not tell what he feared or what he guarded against.

After all, for him, even the worst outcome was merely a single death.

Yet, he was afraid.

He inhaled deeply, stifling his inexplicably pounding heart, and pressed onward.

The nearer he came to the village, the stronger the “sense of reality” it imparted.

Smoke from cooking fires, rooster cries, dogs barking, voices in conversation, the aroma of meals, a breeze brushing his skin.

Every sense of his body whispered the same truth.

This was a real village, a peaceful, tranquil, happy village.

Yet Lin Yu did not believe.

He did not know how he had arrived here, and he refused utterly to trust what his eyes beheld.

It was merely a plot of Mountain City.

No matter how enticing or sweet the façade of the scheme was packaged, its core darkness could not be altered.

Lin Yu’s heartbeat suddenly steadied.

It was as if an anchor had sunk into the sea floor of his heart, binding the ship firmly amid the storm.

So, what does it matter?

Since they have erected such a world here.

Why not take a look for oneself?

Lin Yu strode purposefully toward the village, and after crossing the small river at its entrance, he instinctively sought the signpost that once stood at the gate.

But he quickly discovered that the signpost had vanished.

“What are you looking for?”

As he puzzled himself, scanning the surroundings, a voice sounded from behind him.

Lin Yu turned; the speaker was a barefoot child.

Small, slightly frail, yet seemingly healthy.

“I’m looking for the signpost.”

Lin Yu answered without thinking.

“A signpost? What is that?”

The child stared at Lin Yu in confusion.

“Where do you come from? Why have I never seen you in the village?”

“Don’t you know where I’m from?”

Lin Yu’s gaze hardened.

He was a Saint‑blooded wanderer of the wasteland, and he held no mercy for any foe.

Not even a child.

The youngster seemed startled by his stare, took two hurried steps back, then spoke:

“I don’t know where you’re from!”

“Don’t look for me! I’m still a child!”

Saying so, the child fled toward the distance.

As his shout faded, a woman emerged from a wooden hut and wrapped her arms around him.

From afar, Lin Yu saw the child pointing toward himself while speaking with the woman.

For a moment, he even found it a little amusing.

Everyone here clearly knows where they come from, right?

Just as before, this village had already prepared a dwelling for him.

Yet they pretended ignorance, as if their performance were so convincing that he would believe it.

Lin Yu shook his head, stepped forward, and addressed the woman:

“No need to act any longer.”

“I will not linger in this village.”

“Tell me, which direction is Mountain City?”

“I am heading to Mountain City.”

“You’re going to Mountain City??”

The woman stared at Lin Yu, her eyes wide with astonishment that seemed genuine.

Lin Yu furrowed his brow.

“What, you can’t go?”

“I can.”

The woman stammered:

“But Mountain City has long since ceased to exist.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Lin Yu was instantly stunned.

“What do you mean?”

“What do you mean by Mountain City no longer existing??”

“That… that happened centuries ago; Mountain City was destroyed long ago!”

Destruction??

Centuries??

Lin Yu’s muscles tensed in an instant.

Had he been asleep for centuries??

How could that be?!

The interval between his last death and resurrection could not have been long, for he clearly remembered a voice once telling him, “The Huaxia army is attacking Mountain City.”

A month?

Perhaps at most a year!

The Huaxia army would not linger; how could they allow a foe like Mountain City to persist, how could they wait forever!

But now.

Has Mountain City already been annihilated?

Then why wasn’t I rescued?

Was it the work of the Huaxia army??

Lin Yu stared straight at the woman and demanded sharply:

“Why was Mountain City destroyed?? Was it the Huaxia army??”

“I don’t know! I don’t know!”

The woman recoiled in terror, shouting for help.

A sharp cry rang through the village, and from the wooden houses in every direction a crowd of varied faces surged forward.

Lin Yu instinctively took a step back.

He tentatively clenched his fists, only to find that the strength and speed he once boasted of had vanished.

Perhaps at this moment he was no different from an ordinary person.

That had once been his heart’s desire.

Yet now he felt disaster looming.

“Capture him!”

“Seize that outsider!”

Lin Yu stepped back two paces, then turned and fled.

——

He didn’t truly know why he ran.

Perhaps simply because he refused to die here in such a manner.

The information he had was woefully scant.

If each death demanded centuries of price, when would he finally gather enough clues to escape this world??

Lin Yu sprinted with all his might, but his ordinary body protested with severe discomfort.

It was as if he were running through a mire.

Not fast enough, not high enough, not agile enough!

Lin Yu stumbled and fell, and in that fleeting instant his back took a crushing blow.

Someone lunged onto him, pinning him to the ground!

He struggled desperately, but it was already too late.

A surge of people pressed him hard to the earth; he could only press his face to the ground in humiliation, while they bound his hands and feet and strung him on a long wooden pole, dragging him back

to the village.

He could not escape.

A ridiculous, absurd thought suddenly flashed through Lin Yu’s mind.

——

So these people aren’t like the cannibal tribes of legend, roasting him for a meal, are they?

Or perhaps they’ll treat him like a blood‑skull, torturing him to death?

No, their appearance does not resemble blood‑skulls.

Moreover, the look in their eyes is not merely rage and ferocity; it is chiefly terror.

“Why let him enter the village?!”

Lin Yu heard a man who looked like a chief shouting.

“Why let him in?!”

“The wounded beast is coming soon! We have no time!”

“From now on, everyone must close their eyes! I mean everyone!” Close your eyes?

Lin Yu’s heart lurched.

What are they to do?

Is it to spare the others from a gruesome sight, so they forbid anyone from looking?

But why not simply disperse the crowd?

Question after question rose in Lin Yu’s mind, and at that moment the man continued:

“Everyone, forget everything you have seen!”

“Count down! Count down!”

“Start counting down from ten thousand!”

“Now! Immediately!”

The command was given, and the countdown began to echo.

“Ten thousand, nine thousand nine hundred ninety‑nine.”

At first the counting voices were scattered, then they gradually fell into order.

“Nine thousand nine hundred ninety‑one.”

One by one the sounds coalesced, and Lin Yu watched, eyes wide, as those people, eyes shut, groped their way toward their homes.

——

It was called groping, yet their movements were anything but unfamiliar.

As if they had performed the same act countless times before.

Lin Yu stood bewildered, trying to break free, only to find the ropes that bound him unyieldingly tight, impossible to escape.

“Let me go!”

“Let me go!”

Lin Yu shouted, demanding:

“What on earth do you want? Why have you tied me here?!”

“Silence!”

A man who wore the air of a leader stepped forward.

He already wore a blindfold over his eyes, unable to see where Lin Yu stood.

He could only rely on sound to roughly locate Lin Yu; after turning toward him, he barked:

“Stop shouting!”

“We don’t wish to harm you!”

“But if you want to live, you must obey my words!”

“Listen to me: close your eyes, put on this blindfold, and begin counting down from ten thousand!”

“It won’t take you long!”

“When the countdown ends, everything will be over.”

“What a joke?!”

Lin Yu stared in confusion as the leader fumbled at his face, shaking his head desperately to dodge the forced blindfold.

The other seemed weary of his torment; after another failed attempt, the leader shouted:

“You must listen to me!”

“Do you want all of us to die with you??”

“The wounded beast is coming! We didn’t have to die in the first place!”

“You—”

“It’s all because of you!”

“We don’t even know where you came from! Yet you’ve dragged everyone down with you!”

“We still want to save you, but it’s a last resort!”

“Close your eyes, don’t let everyone die because of you!”

“Why?!”

Lin Yu could not fathom what the other was saying.

“Why must I close my eyes? Why would you die because of me??”

“What is a wounded beast?? If I close my eyes, will it not kill me??”

“I don’t know!”

The leader’s fingers began to tremble faintly; Lin Yu could see clearly that he was terrified, or perhaps extremely nervous.

“If you’re so eager to know, go ask the wounded beast yourself!”

“You may try to die, but you cannot; even if you die, the outcome remains the same!”

“You must close your eyes; you cannot bring any new change to this village, not a single one!”

“Please, I beg you, please”

“No matter where you come from, listen to me, will you listen to me??”

The leader’s tone grew humble; Lin Yu furrowed his brow, yet finally complied and let the blindfold be placed upon him.

Darkness fell over his sight in an instant.

Lin Yu drew a deep breath and asked again:

“I will cooperate with you.”

“But can you now tell me what you are all fleeing from?”

“Is it some monster? Or some other enemy??”

“You don’t even know what a wounded beast is. You don’t belong to this world?”

The leader’s hand, which was feeling the blindfold on Lin Yu’s face, suddenly quivered.

Then, trembling with fear, he said:

“It’s over.”

“Completely over.”

“You are not of this world; our efforts have been in vain.”

“Why??”

It was the word Lin Yu had uttered most in the past few minutes.

Everything about this village left him perplexed.

What wounded beast, what closing eyes, what countdown,

and what “not from this world.”

He indeed was not from this world.

But… what does that matter??

Isn’t my situation the same as yours?

Aren’t we facing the same enemy??

Instinctively he tried to struggle, to pull the blindfold off.

Yet a strip of cloth clamped his mouth shut with iron grip.

“Stop talking. Stop talking.”

The leader muttered to himself while tightening the cloth; Lin Yu gasped violently, a low growl rising from his throat, but he could no longer form a complete sentence.

The shackled body began to ache, even merely standing drained a great deal of his strength.

The countdown echoed incessantly in his ears, as if it were some

demonic hymn.

“Nine thousand seven hundred ninety‑one”

“Nine thousand five hundred forty.”

Lin Yu felt his consciousness gradually blur amid the countdown, his thoughts plagued by a fierce sense of “defocus.”

Yet that very sensation sparked an abrupt awakening within him.

Wait.

He had once employed this method to counter the mind‑reading of that “mysterious voice.”

Could it be that the villagers now were doing the same thing?

The so‑called “injured beast” referred to the master of that voice, perhaps?

Lin Yu instantly steadied himself.

Begin the count from ten thousand.

It would not take long.

He should cooperate with them and see what the final outcome truly is!

He drew a deep breath, gradually matching the rhythm of the voice.

“Nine thousand five hundred twenty.”

“Five thousand one hundred twelve.”

“Ten”

“Nine”

“Two”

“One”

The moment the countdown ceased,

Lin Yu’s vision flared suddenly.

The blindfold was lifted.

—

No.

It was not the blindfold that was removed.

It was his own “soul,” departing from his body.

Lin Yu stared in astonishment at his own body still lying below.

Then a flash of white light streaked by.

He witnessed with his own eyes the village’s annihilation.

The villagers scrambled out, only to vomit blood and collapse lifelessly.

In an instant, nearly every living soul perished before his very eyes.

And his consciousness itself began to dissipate.

Before he was utterly engulfed in darkness,

Lin Yu beheld a colossal, void‑like shadow.

(End of Chapter)