Ma Shilong strode like the wind, his retreating figure still carrying the surging aura of the King of the Big Black Pigs. It gave Qin Luming a sense of health and vitality rarely seen in ordinary fat people.
Reborn as a pig, rampaging through the mountains and forests.
That was quite an interesting premise. As long as readers could be rid of their aversion to pigs, and the filthy, stupid image of pigs could be overturned to portray a clever and courageous temperament, the contrast between appearance and inner nature, behavior, and showing off would surely let some readers relate to it.
Qin Luming followed Ma Shilong's pace and soon arrived near the dam. He saw the passageway leading into the dam, the one he had noticed every time he came and went.
People above the dam were still searching with lamps. Qin Luming saw signs that the road had been cleared; someone had probably gone inside the dam to investigate as well.
Vines, grass, and twigs beneath his feet made faint rustling sounds when stepped on. It was all so real... Was this already within the range of Zhou Nan's formation?
Qin Luming kept his distance from Ma Shilong and slowed slightly, unafraid of losing him.
Since Ma Shilong had specifically come looking for him, he certainly would not run off on his own just because Qin Luming walked a little slower and make his trip here pointless.
Ma Shilong entered the dark passageway. Qin Luming hesitated for an instant, then saw a ring of azure ripples spread around Ma Shilong as he entered, filled with the sci-fi sensation of warped space and time, no different from the scenes of crossing barriers in most film and television productions Qin Luming had seen.
Qin Luming could not resist such a fantastical, mysterious sight and hurried after him.
It was night within the barrier as well.
The darkness seemed to have boundaries, like a semicircular canopy draped overhead. Far away, at the very edge of the horizon, lights like comet tails flickered. They also resembled the aurora Qin Luming had seen descend in Northern Europe, circling the entire skyline.
Beneath this nocturnal dome, Qin Luming was already standing atop the dam. Only now did the magnificent dam seem to reveal its true towering grandeur, broader, sturdier, and taller than it had appeared to Qin Luming during the day.
Dense, intricate runes were etched across the ground, like a reinforcing defensive formation. They gave Qin Luming a feeling of impregnable solidity, as though they contained the confidence to withstand anything.
Ahead of him was the missing Men'gangou Steel Bridge. One end rested on the dam, while the other extended all the way to the missing Zinc Factory.
The steel bridge had long since been completely renewed. There was no trace of its years of disrepair, nor of the decay and rust stains that had accumulated after its abandonment. It was like an elderly man suddenly straightening his back, making the wrinkles on his forehead and age spots on his skin vanish without a trace as he stood tall.
Along the railings of the steel bridge stood statues of figures dozens of meters high. Some wore crowns, some stood atop strange beasts. Some looked down at the world with cold indifference, while others watched ahead with concern. There was even a statue of a white-haired old man holding a scroll. From time to time, it raised its head, gazed into the distance, and stroked its beard, as though the imposing presence and expressions of a sage from the river of time had reappeared.
"Let's go." Ma Shilong glanced back. Qin Luming's stunned expression at the sight before him greatly pleased Ma Shilong. Smiling, he beckoned and headed toward the other end of the bridge on his own.
Qin Luming looked around as he followed behind Ma Shilong... He had seen all manner of strange things in his life, but this was the first time he had personally witnessed and experienced the fantastical scene of another world.
This was probably what it felt like to first travel to another world, even though Qin Luming knew he was still in the real world.
Zhou Nan had created all of this. What immense power was that? It was practically the power of a god who created the world. And the novel written by Ma Luming was the root of it all. It was truly marvelous.
Qin Luming was a little excited. He wanted to experience what it felt like to create all this too. That damned eunuch Ma Shilong was truly enviable.
The bridge was very long, and Ma Shilong walked quickly, but Qin Luming could not help stopping to examine the statues. Their bearing was absolutely not something sculptors in the real human world could express; they contained traces of countless divine arts.
Qin Luming thought of the statue of Jesus on Corcovado Mountain that appeared in countless films. He thought of the time he had vacationed in Manado, when he stepped out of his room and suddenly saw the statue of Jesus opening its arms toward him... Only statues carrying religious faith and gathering the spiritual power of believers had even the slightest similar feeling.
The closest experience Qin Luming could recall was when he had accompanied his mother and sister to worship Buddha at Nanshan Temple. They stayed overnight at a hotel in the Nanhai Guanyin Cultural Park. That night, a sudden torrential storm struck. The vast black sea was like a violent beast poised to devour the coast. Amid lightning and thunder, illuminated by a flash of white light, Qin Luming looked up and saw the 108-meter Nanhai Guanyin Bodhisattva, her expression tranquil and peaceful. In that instant, his mind had calmed.
Even then, it had taken a special setting and atmosphere to make the statue seem to radiate divinity. Yet these statues before him needed no embellishment or backdrop to inspire the urge to prostrate oneself in worship.
After finally crossing the bridge, Qin Luming looked back and realized that he had not had time to notice: at both ends of the dam stood two hundred-meter-tall statues guarding it. One held a longsword, while the other held a staff, seemingly symbolizing two different systems of power.
Qin Luming sucked in a sharp breath. Was this the magnificent, majestic cultural spectacle of another world, so breathtaking that it beggared belief?
"Can he really write novels better than you?"
As Qin Luming marveled, he suddenly heard a young girl's voice. It carried an imperious air mixed with a trace of childishness, its ending slightly sharp, as if she were constantly imitating the way adults spoke but had created an unnatural rise and fall through trying too hard.
In short, she could not speak properly and thought she was acting.
Qin Luming turned around, and his eyes immediately widened as he glared furiously at Ma Shilong.
Ma Shilong cupped his hands, his face full of smiles. "Brother Qin, forgive me. Ma is only a pig, after all, and truly does not want to write novels anymore, so I had no choice but to ask Brother Qin to fill in. Brother Qin needn't take it to heart. Think of Zhu Bajie from Journey to the West—was he ever someone worthy of trust? Brother Qin's mistake was treating me like a person while forgetting that I am a pig... Ma is now the Black Rider General under Her Majesty the Empress. Naturally, I must ease Her Majesty's worries and solve her troubles."
Qin Luming gritted his teeth in hatred. Ma Shilong was right. His mistake had been continuing to treat him as a person.
Although Ma Shilong kept calling himself a pig, Qin Luming saw him looking human enough. How could his ingrained way of thinking change at once? How could he have imagined that after becoming a pig, Ma Shilong no longer possessed such things as character, humanity, or a human heart?
At the root of it, there was another reason: Qin Luming's curiosity was simply too strong... He did not blame himself. With a telescope for peering into another world right before his eyes, how could he not lean over for a look?
"Your Majesty, we meet again." Qin Luming calmed down and cupped his hands in salute to Zhou Nan. Even if he wanted to carve open that pig Ma Shilong, he had to suppress it for now and deal with this breathtakingly beautiful young empress first.
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