SIATOWITF Chapter 79
by VolareChapter 79: Ji Mo An of the Starry Sky [Bonus Chapter for 2000 Nutrient Solution]^^……
Chapter 79: Ji Mo An of the Starry Sky [Bonus Chapter for 2000 Nutrient Solution]^^……
The world within the tree hollow was like a cloud, a vast expanse of white everywhere.
The old man stood alone in the misty air, suddenly noticing a hissing sound coming from beneath his feet.
It was the sound of a snake, and he quickly looked down to find it.
“Hiss…”
“Hiss…”
The sound was faint, seemingly buried beneath the clouds.
Ji Mo Lin searched for a long time, when a black snake tail suddenly flashed in the corner of his eye.
He chased after it, following the blurry shadow and crashing headfirst into a wall of solid white.
–
After a blur, his vision suddenly cleared.
Ji Mo Lin was surprised to find himself standing on a high bridge.
“Caw… caw…” The weather was gloomy, and dark clouds churned. Countless crows circled around, pairs of scarlet eyes emitting a red glow beneath the dark clouds.
Suddenly, a crow swooped down, grazing Ji Mo Lin’s ear like a black bullet.
Ji Mo Lin instinctively followed the crow to the edge of the bridge, but was blinded by a sudden burst of light.
“Caw…” A crow suddenly screamed below, and the other birds circling in the sky all emitted cawing alarm calls.
At the same time, a powerful suction force suddenly came from below, and the crows that couldn’t escape in time fell stiffly from the sky, unable to even scream.
This force was so strong that even Ji Mo Lin had to sit back against the bridge railing.
His body felt terribly heavy, and even breathing became a luxury.
Just as he felt like he was about to shatter, the golden threads fluttering from his fingertips suddenly emitted soft golden light spots.
The terrifying feeling disappeared in an instant, and he straightened up against the wall to look down.
By this time, the searchlight had turned to the other side, and the dim underside of the bridge was covered with a dense layer of crow corpses.
The sky darkened further, and the road covered with corpses lit up with dim yellow lights.
Click… click… creak…
That was the sound of boots stepping on the ground, crushing bones.
Thunder rumbled, and blue lightning instantly illuminated the world, devouring the corpses in raging flames.
A tall figure emerged from the fire, wearing a black trench coat, with a wisp of flame still burning on the fluttering hem.
Click… click… Black boots stepped over the burning crows, crushing the charred bones into powder.
He kept one hand in his pocket, seemingly indifferent to everything, even in the midst of the mountain of corpses and sea of fire.
“An… An’an…” The old man on the bridge widened his eyes, incredulously leaning forward to get a clearer look at the face of the person below.
No… he didn’t need to see clearly…
That was the child he had raised, and he could recognize him at a glance no matter where he was.
But how had his child become like that…
The searchlight turned back, and the dazzling light paused on the person below the bridge for a few seconds before quickly moving forward.
Ji Mo Lin saw clearly that his child had combed all his hair up, revealing delicate eyebrows and eyes, but his dark pupils were filled with indifference.
That face was more youthful and even colder than the twenty-six-year-old Ji Mo An.
Suddenly, he stopped.
[Ji Mo An] turned to the side, and his jaw and neck were covered with scattered spots of red.
But it didn’t seem to be his own, more like splatters… from a severed artery…
Ji Mo Lin opened his mouth, but couldn’t make a sound. He watched his child reach out, and as his fingers slid downwards, the flames that had been blazing high instantly subsided, and the crows on the ground turned to ashes in an instant.
Again, that powerful suction force, and the old man, half-leaning over, felt like an invisible hand grabbed his neck and dragged him straight down.
Just as he fell to the ground, Ji Mo Lin opened his eyes and met a pair of abyss-like black eyes.
They were the eyes that looked at the dead, so cold they almost froze the soul.
Falling to the ground was like falling into the clouds again.
After a burst of white, the dizziness and suffocation disappeared.
Ji Mo Lin was surprised to find himself standing in a room.
It was a very exquisitely decorated room, and Ji Mo Lin recognized its owner at a glance.
Gems.
Gems everywhere.
The glass display cases covering half the wall were full, each grid carefully lit with the most suitable light.
Such beautiful rubies… more beautiful than any he had seen at any auction…
Whirr, whirr… rustling sounds came from the other end of the room.
Ji Mo Lin held his breath, and he tried to lighten his steps, and opened the frosted glass door.
The sound inside stopped abruptly, and the black snake tail that had been swaying back and forth froze in the air.
“Ha…” The snake, who was rummaging in the refrigerator, suddenly turned around and hissed in Ji Mo Lin’s direction.
“Xuan Bai?” The old man tentatively called out the snake’s name.
But the snake still stared warily in his direction.
As if it couldn’t see him, Ji Mo Lin walked in, and the snake brushed past him.
Xuan Bai circled the doorway, found nothing unusual, then wagged its tail and swam back to the kitchen…
…to continue raiding the refrigerator.
Ji Mo Lin stood aside, watching the snake pour two bags of potato chips into its mouth, then mixed cola and Sprite to drink. It ate cakes one by one, and even swallowed raw eggs with their shells.
Finally, it didn’t forget to pack all the remaining snacks and stuff them into the blue flames.
“Hiss~” The snake wagged its tail contentedly and swam out triumphantly.
Ji Mo Lin quickly followed the snake, but the snake plunged into a pure white portal in the living room.
Suddenly there was fog again, and he squinted and waved in front of him for a long time before regaining his clarity.
His fingertips were hot, and the golden threads wrapped around his fingers shone brightly and shortened by an inch.
While he was pondering this, the door behind him was pushed open, and a familiar figure appeared again.
This time, the Ji Mo An who walked in was clearly more mature than last time, and no longer filled with murderous intent.
“An’an.” Ji Mo Lin called to him, but Ji Mo An didn’t respond.
He didn’t even give him a glance.
He couldn’t see him… Ji Mo Lin finally confirmed.
The place he was in now must be in the children’s memories, that is, in the world called Starry Sky.
“Cancel the meeting, I came back early.” Ji Mo An pointed to his wrist, and a silver staff appeared out of thin air.
He put the staff by the door, then took off his beige coat and hung it on the hanger.
“Bo Bo Snake?” He called out while changing his shoes.
However, there was no response.
The snake wasn’t there; Ji Mo Lin had already checked all the rooms for him.
“Xuan Bai?”
“Ouroboros!”
Ji Mo An called out several names, then put on the shoes he had taken off and walked straight to the kitchen.
He pulled open the two doors of the refrigerator, and it was as empty as a new refrigerator.
Ji Mo Lin watched Ji Mo An smile.
Not a happy smile, but a smile of extreme speechlessness.
Ji Mo Lin had seen this smile before, a few years ago when Ji Mo An had just taken over the company and had berated all the troublemakers; he had smiled like that then too.
Ji Mo An tapped his wrist a few times, and a blue light screen appeared in front of him.
“Pull up the surveillance.” Ji Mo An said.
The light screen flickered in response, and a video popped up.
Ji Mo Lin stood behind Ji Mo An, watching the snake in the recording lying at the door of the refrigerator and eating out the entire refrigerator.
It was the entire refrigerator, the refrigerator that had been stuffed full. It even ate raw spinach and raw dough that didn’t seem to belong in a refrigerator.
“…” Ji Mo An silently watched the entire recording. The snake had eaten for an entire day!
A surge of killing intent instantly erupted from his body, Ji Mo An turned to leave, grabbed his coat and staff, and slammed the door shut.
It felt like a snake was about to suffer… Suddenly, Ji Mo Lin, who was eating his popcorn, followed Ji Mo An all the way to the underground garage.
He never expected that he would be able to ride in his grandson’s car in his lifetime, Ji Mo Lin got into the passenger seat with great interest.
The next second, an extremely strong sense of push in the back almost caused him to sink into the seat.
Ji Mo An stepped on the gas pedal, and the speedometer needle shot out to two hundred.
That was too fast… Ji Mo Lin watched the red needle gradually point to three hundred, Ji Mo An even had the leisure to open the car window.
Okay, the strong wind did blow Ji Mo An to look very handsome, but the old man couldn’t withstand being blown every which way.
Fortunately, this memory didn’t tend to torment the old man, and after a burst of white fog, the scenery outside the window had changed from a bustling city to a wilderness of barren mountains.
But the speed of the car didn’t decrease at all, but instead seemed to be getting faster.
Finally, the world outside the car began to become strange. Large, flat rhombuses and rectangular grids appeared on the edges of the originally smooth sky, and square clods of soil appeared on the ground from time to time.
It was a bit like the scenes in the game where Xin Xin loved to play with pixelated characters, stacking small squares to build houses.
“Beep… beep…” Ji Mo An’s wrist suddenly turned red, and a series of small red squares jumped back and forth on his wrist.
“Restricted area ahead, please stop, host. Restricted area ahead, please stop, host!” An electronic voice came from the red squares, and red exclamation marks appeared all around the steering wheel.
“Shut up.” Ji Mo An said coldly.
“…Host st…” The voice stopped abruptly, and the red exclamation marks disappeared.
Then Ji Mo An poked his head out to look outside and stepped on the brakes.
He seemed to have come to the edge of a cliff, and a blue sign hung on the cliff.
[Player Lobby]
Ji Mo An crossed the edge of the cliff without looking back, and he stepped on the void as if walking on solid ground.
After passing the sign, Ji Mo Lin curiously looked back, only to see that the sign had turned red, and two words had been removed.
[Constellation]
Constellation?
Just as he was thinking, two giant axes fell from the sky and slammed down in front of them with a loud thud.
“Restricted area ahead, players stop.” A burly man carried a giant axe on his shoulder and reached out to block Ji Mo An.
“I’m looking for someone.” Ji Mo An didn’t react much.
“I can relay the message to Lord Ouroboros; please return.” The burly man didn’t budge.
“Urgent matter.” Ji Mo An glanced at his hand.
“This is the rule; please return.” The burly man didn’t move at all.
“He ate a refrigerator full of snacks in one day.” Ji Mo An raised an eyebrow.
“Um… in principle, I can’t let you pass.” The burly man coughed awkwardly.
“Expand the refrigerator; that’s a month’s worth of snack allowance.”
“I f…” The burly man quickly covered his mouth.
“Mr. An, Lord Ouroboros is currently in Lord Sacranus’s dungeon. Are you going to…”
“Go directly to him.”
The burly man swung the giant axe, drawing a huge cross in the air.
“Thank you.” Ji Mo An nodded to him and walked into the cross.
“Mr. An, Lord Ouroboros has a dungeon mission in three days; you…” The burly man began to fidget.
“Got it.”
Ji Mo Lin watched the burly man with satisfaction, he felt that his child was doing well in Starry Sky. Although he didn’t know what the situation was last time.
Stepping out of the cross, he was immediately shocked by the scene before him.
Pure white palaces stood tall in the clouds, connected by countless towering white stone pillars and white steps inlaid with gold leaf.
Soft clouds surrounded the palaces, and golden sunlight fell as if gilding everything, highlighting every carving on the fountains and harps to the extreme.
Unbelievably beautiful, Ji Mo Lin had never seen such magnificent palaces, never seen such a huge sun.
But Ji Mo An was already used to it, he changed out his staff, and went directly to the largest palace at the peak of the clouds.
Xuan Bai was throwing potato chips into the mouth of the archangel.
The delighted archangel suddenly shut his mouth and began to pluck his own wing feathers. He dyed his six wings the same color as his hair, golden and shining like a ball of blazing sun.
“Hiss…” The snake clearly felt the danger, and immediately bared its sharp fangs and turned around.
Clang.
The silver staff hit the ground, making a crisp sound.
The snake stopped hissing halfway.
“I’m sorry, I was wrong, I won’t dare to do it again.” The archangel, without any brotherly affection, stuffed the small cake in his hand into the snake’s arms, and tumbled out of the window flapping his wings.
The snake, left behind to fight alone, began to wag its tail a little guiltily.
“Eating thirty days of snacks in one day, you’ve become capable.” Ji Mo An slammed the staff on the floor next to the snake.
The white floor instantly had a pit, and gravel collapsed everywhere.
“Hiss…” The snake instinctively used its tail to circle the remaining snacks, and hissed at Ji Mo An in a low voice.
“Try to protect your food again?”
Ji Mo An glared at the snake, and the snake immediately shut its mouth, turned around, climbed onto a pillar, and hid behind a pure white sculpture.
“Come down.”
“Hiss…” The snake began to wag its tail ingratiatingly to show weakness.
“Come down!”
The snake didn’t want to go down, because it would be beaten, so it continued to hide behind the sculpture.
Ji Mo An raised his hand and pressed down, and the surrounding air suddenly sank.
Again, that feeling…
Ji Mo Lin, who was watching the excitement, almost knelt on the ground, he was now really sure that his grandson controlled that power.
The current Ji Mo An was actually an ability user.
“An’an…” Ji Mo Lin reached out, and just as he was about to touch the child’s shoulder, a burst of white fog surged up again.
Bang!
The sound of impact came faster than the white fog dissipated, and a figure slammed into the wall past Ji Mo Lin’s side.
“An’an!” Ji Mo Lin was shocked and rushed over.
“Cough cough…” Ji Mo An was covered in blood, and his appearance had returned to his youthful look.
He looked like he was in his early twenties, that is, what he looked like when he had the car accident.
“Hiss… hiss…” It was still the snake’s threatening hiss, but this sound carried real killing intent.
The snake climbed down a black pillar, its golden vertical pupils contracted to the extreme.
It opened its mouth slightly, and its brow bone was completely cut open, and scarlet blood flowed down its black scales, hanging on its sharp fangs.
The ground was covered with fallen black scales.
“Hiss… hiss…” The snake swam closer to Ji Mo An, opening its mouth to tear at his neck.
“Hiss…” The youth kneeling on the ground reversed and locked the snake’s neck, pressing his knee against the snake’s chest. With his movement, the powerful pressure instantly pressed the snake’s tail to the ground.
Ji Mo An wasn’t in a better situation than the snake, even more miserable.
He was covered in blood, his exposed skin covered with cuts of all sizes, and even his eyelashes were solidified with blood scabs.
Seeing that the pressure couldn’t hold the snake down, Ji Mo An simply swung his fist and slammed it on the snake’s body.
“Hiss… hiss…” The snake rolled under him, all the scales on its body standing on end.
“This is a Level F dungeon, you can’t beat me.” Ji Mo An gritted his teeth, punching one after another. The snake scales were extremely hard, and by the end, the back of his hand had revealed its bare bones.
“Put your teeth away for me!” He panted and drew a silver dagger and plunged it deep into the snake’s neck.
The snake propped up its neck, and every time it moved, the dagger plunged deeper.
Finally, the snake put away its fangs, and its entire body softened.
“Ha…” Ji Mo An obviously breathed a sigh of relief. “If you’re obedient, I won’t kill you, and I can’t kill you.”
“That thing was forced on me by the system, I didn’t know it was yours, I’ll find a way to return it to you.”
“Hiss…” The snake started to stir again when it heard this.
Ji Mo An raised his dagger, and the snake stopped moving.
“Don’t even think about resisting, I specifically chose this dungeon to deal with you, and you just shed your skin.” He pulled a bag from the rubble and drank a tube of light blue fluid.
“Woo woo…” The snake lay on the ground, making a sound like a whimper.
“Come here.” Ji Mo An drank three tubes of liquid in a row, and the wounds on his body healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
“Hiss…” The snake shrank back, its golden pupils trembling pitifully.
“You come here, I won’t hit you.” Ji Mo An slammed the empty can on the ground and took out a few rolls of bandages from his bag.
“Don’t move.” He glared at the snake, poured the last bottle of blue liquid on the snake’s wound, and then skillfully and quickly wrapped the snake into a mummy with bandages.
The snake didn’t seem to expect that it would be bandaged, and its vertical pupils suddenly turned into round eyes. It pinched its fingers and carefully fiddled with the bows on the bandages, tilting its head to look at Ji Mo An.
“I never wanted to hit you, but you didn’t listen to me and came up to kill me.” Ji Mo An breathed a sigh of relief and sat down beside it, reaching out to rub the snake’s head.
“I can’t help it either, you would have killed me if it was anything higher than a D-level dungeon.”
“Hiss…” The snake shook its head, trying to shake off Ji Mo An’s hand.
“You can talk, why are you just hissing?” Ji Mo An found it a little funny, he flipped his hand and conjured a candy as if by magic.
“What’s your name?” He held the candy in front of the snake, waving it back and forth.
The snake didn’t speak, but its eyes followed the candy around.
“If you’re good, I’ll have to clear the dungeon later. I used the last bottle of repair fluid on you; there are quite a few people in this dungeon. If other players kill me, you can cry by yourself.”
“Hiss…”
Ji Mo An put the candy to the snake’s mouth.
The snake stretched out its long tongue and gently touched the candy, then tentatively raised its head, carefully licking Ji Mo An’s hand with the tip of its tongue.
“Good.” Ji Mo An gave a smile and rubbed the snake’s already healed head hard.
This was Ji Mo An and Xuan Bai’s past… Ji Mo Lin stood not far away, his fingers still trembling.
The golden threads fluttering from his fingertips began to shorten rapidly, and the white mist began to gather again.
Ji Mo Lin stared blankly at the fog wall, his heart filled with mixed emotions.
He didn’t know what he would see in the next scene, and his heart began to beat faster.
The fog dissipated, and a tall figure gradually became clear.
This time, Ji Mo An was still the first to appear, holding a silver staff.
Ji Mo Lin waited for his child to turn around, and this time Ji Mo An’s face was infinitely closer to his real self.
What kind of plot would it be this time?
Ji Mo An moved first, walking straight towards Ji Mo Lin.
Could it be that the snake was nearby? Ji Mo Lin looked around with some doubt.
But there was nothing. The surroundings were still filled with thick white fog, so thick that it made him panic.
Something was wrong… This time, no scene had been loaded. Both of them were standing in the dense fog, only Ji Mo An was moving forward.
Ji Mo Lin began to speculate wildly, until…
He felt a weight on his body, and his child had actually pounced on him and hugged him tightly.
“An… An’an?” Ji Mo Lin’s voice trembled instantly, and he raised his hand but didn’t dare to touch the person’s body.
He was so afraid… afraid that he could touch the entity, and even more afraid that he would touch a void.
“Grandpa.” Ji Mo An buried his head in his neck and chuckled softly.
But that wasn’t his current child.
Ji Mo Lin knew clearly that the Ji Mo An who was hugging him had many more things in his eyes, and many more calluses and scars on his hands.
“I never thought I would see you again. I miss you so much.”
But that was his child.
Tears and words fell together, and the trembling hand stroked the equally trembling back.
“You’ve suffered, child.” Ji Mo Lin stroked Ji Mo An over and over again.
Whether it was Ji Mo An from the past life or the current Ji Mo An, they were both his children, and that would never change.
“Take me away, Grandpa, take us home.”
“Grandpa…” Stars of light suddenly appeared on Ji Mo An’s body.
Ji Mo Lin couldn’t speak, he could only hold his face, and watch his child turn into spots of light and slowly dissipate.
“Grandpa… tell me.”
“This is just a wonderful journey. When I wake up, I may remember some things.”
“But please tell me firmly that I am who I am. Don’t doubt, don’t be afraid.”
“That’s just an extra journey. I won’t believe anyone, not even Ouroboros, but I believe you, because you’re my grandpa, and you’ll never lie to me.”
“Tell me not to doubt myself, there’s no such thing as a past life or a parallel world, Ji Mo An has always existed. Grandpa, you saw my past, you’re my witness, tell me, I have always existed. In the six years of leaving, I existed. In the six years without leaving, I still exist.”
“You have to remember me, I existed.”
“I remember you, An’an, you won’t disappear, never. When you wake up, we’ll slowly think about it, okay?” Tears fell uncontrollably, the old man’s most beloved child turned into starlight, leaving only a soft ball of white light nestled in his palm.
Ji Mo Lin continued to walk forward, and the last golden thread on his finger also turned into starlight and fell into the white ball in his hand.
Gradually, gradually, the pure white around him darkened, gradually turning into extreme black.
“Hiss…” The giant snake swam past the old man, its huge golden eyes taller than half a person.
Ji Mo Lin walked on.
He walked into the nightmare that had trapped Ji Mo An for six years.
“Let go of me!”
The giant snake stretched out its tongue, wrapping it around Ji Mo An’s hands and feet.
It tightly wrapped around Ji Mo An’s body, wrapping together the cracked soul.
“You can’t go, you have to strengthen the soul, the soul will dissipate.” The snake explained, but it could only make hissing sounds.
Ji Mo Lin hugged the white ball of light and walked behind Ji Mo An.
He saw it, he saw the missing corner on his child’s forehead.
It was like it had collapsed, and countless cracks extended from the broken place, covering half of his face.
He had been missing a part of his soul for too long, and the soul that had been stitched together by the snake wanted to split apart at all times.
But it couldn’t split apart, if it split apart… then there would be no Ji Mo An in the world.
So the snake made a second sacrifice, burying the giant snake in the subconscious of that soul.
Whenever the soul wanted to drift away, the giant snake would swim out in his dreams.
It didn’t dare to tighten the soul with its body, so it could only stretch out its tongue and lick it over and over again.
But Ji Mo An was afraid of it.
Of course Ji Mo An was afraid of it.
Because every reinforcement was tantamount to squeezing the soul, which was extremely painful and would bring extreme fear and resistance.
Fortunately… the snake came.
Fortunately… Ji Mo Lin also came.