abcnovels
Book 1
Book 1: Chapter 219: Countdown to the Finale
I knew that I was in an illusion, because this feeling was very similar to when I had ingested snake pheromones before. Everything seemed so real in these illusions because it was real information that was instilled into my brain through the snake pheromones or thunder. It seemed like I could interact with the surrounding environment, but that actually wasn’t the case.
Even Boss Jiao on the side wasn’t real.
I was definitely an expert when it came to hallucinations. I had experienced all kinds more than a dozen times, with the most profound one being in the Qinling Mountains with Lao Yang (1). I really didn’t know whether that one was my personal experience or the whole thing had been an illusion. I only remembered that I was unconscious twice: once by the riverbank and once after rushing out of the riverbank.
I ignored Boss Jiao, knowing that everything around me was just my reaction to hearing the thunder. I just needed to wait for more information to come in.
After I quieted down, the whispers around me became clearer and clearer. Every time lightning flashed, I could hear countless voices coming out of the thunder.
I happened to look at Boss Jiao and suddenly found that he was getting younger. No, he wasn’t actually getting younger, he was just a younger version of himself. His eyes were full of doubts as he looked at the thunder around him.
I suddenly realized that this Boss Jiao wasn’t the Boss Jiao who was currently lying in the coffin with me. He must’ve been the Boss Jiao who listened to thunder for the first time so many years ago. I saw this Boss Jiao shouting everywhere, "Wu Sanxing! Wu Sanxing!”
I paused. He was looking for my Uncle Three?
I saw Boss Jiao's lips turn pale and his whole body tensed up. I approached him and heard him muttering to himself, "Don’t be afraid, Tian Youjin. Don’t be afraid, Tian Youjin."
Tian Youjin?
I looked at Boss Jiao and suddenly realized what was going on. Boss Jiao was really Tian Youjin?
I watched his trembling body walk into the fog. As he slowly reached its depths, a huge streak of lightning appeared up ahead, constantly flickering. He looked at the lightning, his eyes slowly turning white as he entered a nightmare state. I heard him mutter to himself, "What? What did you say? You’re asking what I want to know? I want to know where Wu Sanxing is. I want to go back."
"What? He’s not here? Where is this?"
"This is Thunder City?"
"Where’s Thunder City? Who are you?"
I couldn’t hear any replies. All I saw was the young Boss Jiao talking to himself.
After a while, Boss Jiao suddenly began to speak a different language. I knew that it was a special language, but I couldn’t understand it at all.
While I was trying to understand what was going on, Boss Jiao suddenly turned to look at me. His white eyes moved past me and looked into the distance. I began to see all kinds of strange shadows in the fog, so I carefully looked at them. There was a huge ship floating on the sea and many people marching in the fog.
My surroundings became something like that “Qingming Shanghe Tu” painting (2). There were countless shadows and voices, which all seemed to be fragments that I had or hadn’t experienced in my lifetime.josei
When I looked at these shadows, I suddenly realized that they seemed to be the answers to the puzzles I always sought.
The answers to all the puzzles I had encountered in my life were actually in this fog. I walked in one direction, the shadows gradually becoming clearer. It was a group of people trekking through the rainforest. I realized that it was Uncle Three's team when he was in the snake marsh ghost town, and I was being shown what he did after he disappeared. The farther I went, the better I was able to see what the team looked like.
I turned and looked around. Were all the shadows in the fog the answers I wanted to know but never got to experience?
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TN Notes:
(1) Pretty much everything that happened in Vol 3 “Bronze Tree of Death”
(2) It’s a painting by the Song dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan, called “Along the River During the Qingming Festival”. It captures the daily life of people and the landscape of the capital, Bianjing, during the Northern Song. More info here. Qingming Festival is known as “Tomb-Sweeping Day”. Info here.