Dad, Please Let Me Be Your One-Pick!
The ashes scattered in the wind must be rekindled in the light, like the fleeting sunset on the horizon, wanting to illuminate once more this world for which no one has ever sacrificed anything.
How ridiculous? And how lucky?
Dream Weaver The mascot's outline, hazy and floral, somehow sketched out a slender human figure in the light, then withered like a fleeting ephemera, seemingly imitating Chu Yuanqing, slowly dissipating into the twilight, leaving only a few delicate whispers:
"Savior from either the past or the future, I wonder."
"Regardless of the outcome, thank you for granting humanity an additional 17 years of dreams."
Two hours later, the second Public Performance ended without incident.
The bus carrying the "Flash Dance" crew drove along the highway as night gradually fell.
Chu Wangshu rested her head against the window, her eyelids drooping wearily, half asleep and half awake.
The Green Eyed Cat sat beside her, showing no demeanor of a senior, shamelessly leaning on the Little Cotton-padded Jacket's shoulder and soundly falling asleep.
Xie Qingxuan glanced warily at the person sitting in the front row, still imagining what kind of mischief her sister was up to.
Xie Qingyu felt like crying but had no tears. She was deeply hurt by her sister's cold and suspicious gaze. At that moment, she was listless and dejected, like a withered sunflower. She could only hide her dejected expression with a pair of aloof sunglasses.
Damn it, how come I feel like Xuan Bao dislikes me even though I didn't do anything?
Does Xuan Bao really hate riding in the same car as me? But it's what Teacher Dream Weaver asked us to do, it's not her fault!
On Xie Qingyu's fair wrist, Little Butterfly, acting as a watch, is chirping away in her soul:
"Silly Xiaoyu, Xuan Bao definitely thinks you'll come to <Flash Dance> as a guest just to find a chance to bully her, of course she won't give you a nice look."
"Just correct your speech habits and find a chance to explain things clearly. Xuan Bao is so cute and innocent; a few more conversations will make things clear, and you can be like normal sisters, going out together, shopping together, playing games together, and maybe even playing rock music together."
Xie Qingyu was filled with longing after hearing this, immersed in the rosy picture painted by the Little Butterfly, and couldn't help but praise it in her heart:
"Violet, are you really a genius?"
The Little Butterfly ignored the foolish praise; its senses, covering the entire bus, seemed to have discovered a new continent, and it exclaimed in surprise:
"Xiaoyu, who is that super pretty little girl?"
Xie Qingyu glanced at it and said without any surprise:
"That's Chu Yuanqing, the junior who saved us once. If it weren't for her Shine Magic, Violet, you might have already died a heroic death."
Normally, the Little Butterfly would probably slap the other party a few times with its wings, but right now, in a form even more ethereal and delicate than its true form, it quietly peeked out from behind the dial, looked at the alluring Pure White Witch in the distance, and said earnestly:
"Xiaoyu, I want to be Chu Yuanqing's lantern! She's so beautiful, and she smells so sweet, it makes the lantern feel all dizzy..."
As the Little Butterfly spoke, it stumbled back onto the clock face, shattering into a large patch of shimmering purple Light Dust. It looked as if it had fallen into a drunken stupor, which was quite embarrassing.
Xie Qingyu was deeply shocked by what she saw, and her feelings were extremely complicated.
Wait, Violet publicly "cheated" on someone; wouldn't that be considered being sexually assaulted in front of her?
How terrifying! How could there be such an outrageous junior? I must make sure Xuan Bao stays away from him, otherwise all the lanterns he awakens in the future will be kidnapped by Chu Yuanqing. He's such a troublemaker!
Chu Yuanqing was unaware that she had been secretly given the nickname "Lantern Raider," as she was still pondering the information she had gained from her conversation with the Dream Weaver Rabbit.
This was a very fruitful experience.
First of all, the world situation is very clear, and Charlotte and her plan has succeeded halfway.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, she will die in four months, causing the collapse of [Pure White] and triggering a repeat of the cataclysmic end of civilization.
By then, most of the measures humanity has prepared over the past 17 years will have crumbled on their own.
Even the most massive and magnificent underground bases could not survive the catastrophe caused by the creeping and squeezing of continental plates. Whether they could be preserved depended solely on luck. The authorities might be able to save more people, but they could not change the overall situation.
On the other hand, it seems that because the Disaster Tide had not officially broken out, humanity only managed to discover the [Witch] through the obsidian, but no being with the blessing was ever born.
--Blessing.
People in the old days called those who possessed the power to bestow blessings the chosen ones, agents, calamities, and children of God...
There are many such alternative names, and the specific term used depends on the local cultural context.
In the City of Doomsday, everyone regards those who possess the blessing as heroes who wield the torch, so calling them the torchbearer or the hero is acceptable; essentially, it's all a blessing.
Chu Yuanqing believed that the so-called blessing was a kind of authority hidden deep in the soul, which needed to be seized from the unknown through the medium of the Sea of Truth.
The process of awakening and receiving blessings is different for everyone. For some, it is like trekking alone through a long night; for others, it is like taking a nap and having a vague dream; for still others, it is like wading through mountains of knives and seas of fire, sinking and rising in hell.
"Who was the first person to awaken and bestow blessings in the old era?"
"It seems that since then, similar existences have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, without any pattern. The New Era has not yet bestowed blessings, perhaps because some hidden condition has not yet been met, or perhaps... it is the price I pay for correcting the Worldline."
Chu Yuanqing did not want it to be the latter.
Although she had decided that before her death, she would have the authorities take her to various forbidden areas to select a few of the most hopeless Disaster God for humanity to subdue.
However, if no more blessings can be generated, then even if the plan goes smoothly, humanity will find it difficult to fight against the remaining Disaster God, and the outcome may even be worse than last time.
Chu Yuanqing sorted out her thoughts, trying her best to find information from her fragmented memories that could help people in the New Era.
For example, some blessed awakening processes.
For example, information about Disaster God and Calamity Beasts.
For example, when things are beyond saving and a disaster strikes, which continental plate will be affected, where will an unprecedented tsunami occur, and where will immediately become the domain of the Disaster God?
But no matter how you look at it, these are just temporary fixes, things that are useful but not very effective.
Information about the future and calamities is rarely 100% reliable, nor can it help New Era generations to use it to fight against Disaster God who is billions of times stronger than themselves.
In fact, even in an era where blessings were abundant, the only person who had ever personally killed the Disaster God was himself, who relied on [immortality] to be exempt from all negative effects, repeatedly inheriting the wishes of his predecessors, snowballing through a large number of blessings, and forcibly clearing the game.
Thinking of this, Chu Yuanqing suddenly realized something, and she muttered to herself:
"The Sea of Truth is directed at my soul, at my very being, not at any blessing bestowed upon me."
"If, after unleashing Laevateinn, I were to pass it down to future generations along with [Undying], perhaps the others could follow in my footsteps, defeat all the remaining Disaster God, and achieve... the future we all yearn for."
Volume 1: 190. Speculation, the aftermath of the exposure. (5K)
Chu Yuanqing was deep in thought.
The blessing of inheritance is a rule established at the very beginning of the City of Doomsday.
This is why everyone regards the Awakened Ones as the torchbearers, and it is also why that main city can become the last pure land for mankind.
Although some people realized that the Blessing could be transferred through the dying person's wishes shortly after its creation, there are only a few similar cases in the world. Only the City of Doomsday has firmly implemented it and established it as a rule.
There are many reasons for this.
First, the conditions for transferring blessings are too stringent. It requires a strong will at the moment of death, a clear impression of the object of the transfer of blessings, and a devout trust.
Secondly, the person who inherits the blessing cannot possess the blessing themselves, otherwise it will cause conflict, place a great burden on their spirit, and if it accumulates to a certain extent, it may even cause the soul to collapse.
Third, the transfer of blessings may contain some of the memories of the person bestowing the blessing. Even if there is no conflict between the blessings, there is a possibility that cognitive confusion may occur.
The City of Doomsday can do this because it is itself a miraculous creation forged by numerous blessings.
The so-called blessing is not passed down to a specific person, but is given to the city itself, so as to become a flame to resist Disaster Tide and maintain this rare pure land.
In other words, this rule is equivalent to building a shared home, requiring you to protect your own home. Under this premise, both conditions are easily met.
Chu Yuanqing understood that the biggest obstacle to transferring his own blessing was not the Sea of Truth, nor anything else, but rather...
Are there truly any humans in this world capable of receiving this blessing?
Those are the thirteen Disaster God' s authority, the legacy of the entire City of Doomsday, the dying wishes of too many comrades, the weight of the unity of everyone's ideals, and the epic and remains left by the old era.
Chu Yuanqing had experienced the greatest tragedy and felt the deepest despair along the way. She endured one personality analysis after another and survived one death after another that she had become accustomed to. She bled dry and cried, forgot her humanity and self, and reached the end with her obsession with fulfilling the promise.
Even so, is Chu Yuanqing, who witnessed Charlotte's suicide and the sinking of the City of Doomsday into the sea, yet remained unmoved and unable to shed a tear, truly still Chu Yuanqing?
It was nothing more than an obsession, a lost soul. Only after arriving in the New Era with her daughter did she manage to regain some sense of reality as a human being by sealing herself off.
This unrepeatable experience forged Savior rewrote tragedy and reversed the flow of time.
Without experiencing and enduring these things, she wouldn't be able to properly integrate not only Chu Yuanqing's blessings, but even some of the blessings left by her comrades-in-arms. So, wanting to defeat the Disaster God would be utterly absurd.
Chu Yuanqing hadn't considered this idea before for the same reason. Now, she's turning back to consider its feasibility because she's willing but unable to do so, wanting to leave humanity some leverage before she dies.
On the other hand, the idealistic nature of magic and the essence of [pure white] gave her a lot of inspiration, and she sought some hope for the inheritance and blessing.
Chu Yuanqing murmured to himself:
"We still have to wait until [Full Bloom] before we can talk about it. The power of Magical Girl is still too weak compared to the past; they don't even qualify for leverage."
"Furthermore, I should find an opportunity to visit those forbidden areas."
Although the numbers, weight, and even the location of their descent match those of the thirteen Disaster God, theoretically, the power of the others resides within themselves. Even if the concept of Disaster God exists theoretically, it is without origin, so how can they possibly descend?
Chu Yuanqing had some guesses about this.
First, there are no Disaster God in the forbidden area, only their aura remains, and what is being nurtured is the Supreme Calamity Beast.
Second, the Sea of Truth stole the Disaster God authority from her, thus allowing the thirteen Disaster God to be conceived normally.
Both of these have a certain probability of occurring.
It's understandable that people in the New Era don't understand the power of the Disaster God and call it a forbidden area.
The curse of the Sea of Truth is essentially about reversing her corrections to the world and restoring the authority of the Disaster God to its rightful place; this is naturally one part of the process.
However, although she was essentially separated from the Savior after building the Blessing into a wall to resist the curse, she shouldn't have felt nothing at all about being stripped of her authority.
So there is another possibility.
That is, the thirteen Disaster God are indeed being conceived, and the reason they are suppressed by [Pure White] is because the power is still in their own hands, and they are all in an extremely incomplete state, so they have to exploit the bug until the system crashes, returning to the life cycle of an egg.
Chu Yuanqing reviewed the situation again and felt that it made more sense, but no matter what the facts were, he still needed to find an opportunity to visit the forbidden area.
Actually, she could have made this request directly to Dream Weaver Rabbit just now.
However, each of the thirteen forbidden areas is comparable to billions of nuclear reactors, and it is no exaggeration to say that they involve the safety of all mankind. Having just revealed his identity, it would be difficult to get such a request immediately before the other party has confirmed and digested this information.
Moreover, even nightmares can find her. If she gets too close to the forbidden area, it's inevitable that the Disaster God will discover her, which could cause countless conflicts. Before she has sufficient strength, she doesn't plan to take any risks.
"Sigh, even if I come clean, I still have to mingle among these kids and act like an idol."
Chu Yuanqing sighed inwardly, then glanced at the Little Cotton-padded Jacket and the Green Eyed Cat on the other seat. Her expression softened, and she felt a sense of healing from their peaceful and adorable sleeping faces. Suddenly, she felt that her current life wasn't so bad after all, and a smile appeared on her face.
Although it only lasted for a little over two months, being an idol, learning to dance, posting on Weibo, performing on stage, and interacting with the audience—these seemingly light and airy things were completely out of step with my past life, so much so that looking back now, I have a feeling of being in another world.
During this period, the positive emotions she genuinely experienced, thanks to her talent as the Pure White Witch, far surpassed what she had gained from defeating the Disaster God, protecting the main city, and saving humanity.
Chu Yuanqing didn't find it absurd, nor did she feel any sense of loss. She was able to gain a lot of positive emotions precisely because the world was in Peaceful Era after the history was revised, which gave people the leisure and time to enjoy entertainment.
This magic, forged by the emotions of the audience, is like a boomerang thrown in the past, carrying flowers and praises never before received, pleading to maintain this hard-won peace and prevent the world from falling into a desolate wasteland again.
Chu Yuanqing felt only joy and relief.
Of course, it would be even better if one of the lanterns didn't keep trembling.
Inside the carriage, the atmosphere among the contestants was rather somber. Few could sleep soundly like the carefree Green Eyed Cat. They all seemed to have experienced a turning point in their lives through the college entrance examination, their hearts filled with mixed feelings of anticipation, confusion, fear, and unease, making them extremely anxious.
Although the Program Group set up a screen in the Waiting Room to broadcast the live event, only the two teams in the lounge could watch the audience voting and mentor comments.
In other words, everyone only knows the number of votes for the teams in the same PK group, but they can't calculate the "score line" for advancing. They're basically hanging on by the Dream Weaver Rabbit, so naturally, they're not in a good mood.
Time passed, and no further incidents occurred on the way to the base.
The 165 athletes returned to the base, awaiting their fate tomorrow.
Xie Qingyu originally wanted to humbly learn from Violet's advice and have a chat with her younger sister, but unfortunately, the car was full of strangers, and after getting off the car, the other party immediately left with her teammates. She was even refused to meet them when she knocked on the dormitory door.
According to the bureau's transfer order, she had to leave Sea Capital that very night and return to her original post. She could only regretfully wait for the next opportunity to meet. She pulled away the reluctant Violet and left the Zhelong Base with Dream Weaver seeing her off.
Meanwhile, the thousands of audience members who participated in the second Public Performance have safely returned home and are sharing their experiences on various platforms, causing a huge stir online.
Xu Ling was among them. When she got home, she was overjoyed. She successfully calmed her resentful little cousin down with just one Crazy Thursday meal. She sat on the sofa, hugging her little dinosaur pillow, and shared her joy at watching the Public Performance that day.
As for the two encounters on the subway and at the venue, they had completely forgotten about them.
Xu Ling unpacked the takeout, took out coconut milk tea and several boxes of Zhou Hei Ya (a type of braised duck), and watched the fourth episode of "Flash Dance" on the TV, talking animatedly:
"Qing Bao's team won two matches without any upsets, so they're definitely going to advance."
"It's a bit of a shame that the two A-Class teams didn't clash in the first two rounds. After all, if the opponent had been stronger, their performance on stage would have been better, right?"
Pei Xiaotong complained:
"It's not that easy. It's not some kind of action anime. Even [Flow State] has its basic principles, right?"