Missing Thoughts Literature

East Sea's Mount Luo was the tallest mountain in Qingyang Nation.

Mount Luo rose from the sea, reaching twenty thousand zhang high. To reach its summit, one had to cross a mirage and then climb a ten-thousand-zhang cliff. It was said that anyone below the Sage Realm could not scale Mount Luo.

From halfway up the mountain to its peak, clouds and mist swirled day and night. Through the cover of strange flowers and grasses spread across the mountaintop, red walls and black tiles could be glimpsed faintly.

The room beneath the black tiles was filled with candlelight. Pale candles had been arranged in little circles across the floor. Those near the table were taller, illuminating an old portrait hanging above it.

The corners of the paper had yellowed, as if it had been soaked. The pigments and the framework that held the lines in place had faded away, leaving only a riot of colors. It was impossible to tell what the painting depicted.

At night, scraps of moonlight spilled through the roof and fell into the cradle to the left of the table. The baby in its swaddling happened to open her unfocused eyes and greet the moonlight.

One month.

It had taken Yu Sui a whole month to slowly accept the fact that she had become a baby.

As a baby, Yu Sui had very little energy. She did nothing but sleep, and was awake only rarely.

She had only just woken up. Her dark eyes slowly turned, and she realized she was still in this gloomy, eerie room.

A maid was always waiting outside. From time to time, she would come in to check on Yu Sui. When she saw that Yu Sui was awake, she went to ask Lady Su for instructions.

Lady Su was her mother. She only came to see Yu Sui when she was awake.

Lady Su entered with a willowy figure, her long hair cascading over her white silk robes. Her pupils were pitch-black, their bewitching gleam all the more striking against her pale skin and delicate frame.

Lady Su merely watched Yu Sui in silence and rarely spoke.

Yu Sui did her best to act like a real baby, playing dumb and trying to amuse Lady Su. She did all sorts of things, from grinning foolishly and drooling to lying flat on her back with all four limbs in the air.

She wanted to see some expression of a mother's delight on that peerless face.

But Lady Su remained calm and aloof. Today, she gave Yu Sui no more than a hurried glance before leaving.

Yu Sui regretfully squeezed her tiny fist.

At times like this, she couldn't help wondering whether she was really Lady Su's child.

Fortunately, although her mother's thoughts were impossible to fathom, she still had a three-year-old older sister.

Her older sister, Qingkui, also liked to visit when Yu Sui was awake. She often chattered away to her, then brought flowers she had picked outside up to her younger sister's face to cool it. When Yu Sui giggled, her sister would laugh happily along with her.

Not long after Lady Su left, a little girl dressed in a red jacket and long skirt, her features meticulously adorned, came into the room. Qingkui carefully stepped around the circles of candlelight on the floor and went to the cradle. She had to climb onto a footstool and stand on tiptoe to see Yu Sui inside.

"Flowers."

Qingkui gently touched Yu Sui's cheek with the plum blossom in her hand, still beaded with dew.

Yu Sui answered with a laugh, and Qingkui smiled at her.

Although Yu Sui couldn't tell whether she was keeping the child company or the child was keeping her company, she soon grew tired again and closed her eyes to sleep.

*

Normally, Yu Sui wouldn't wake again in the second half of the night. But she felt unbearably hot, as if she were being roasted over a fire. She squirmed in her swaddling, raised both hands to cool herself, but it did no good. Helpless and exhausted, she opened her eyes.

The moonlight was still there. In the gloomy, dim room, that single shaft of light seemed to have come for her. Its radiance was reflected in Yu Sui's pitch-black eyes, and she suddenly felt that something was strange.

Dust motes floated through the beam of light. That was nothing unusual.

But now the dust motes were tinted with color, and they drifted far faster than usual. In Yu Sui's eyes, they gradually became tiny, burning sparks.

Strangely, she didn't feel afraid at all.

The sparks fell from the shaft of light onto her. She felt no scorching pain, yet a scene of shattering stars appeared in Yu Sui's mind:

Countless meteors hurtled down from the sky, their undying flames consuming everything between heaven and earth.

All things crumbled and shrieked. Towers collapsed, the earth split apart, and everywhere she looked lay the scenes of a living hell.

Black ash swirled among the sparks. Thousands upon thousands of ash particles joined into countless long chains, chasing after five twisted figures in the sea of fire.

Broken, distorted, savage ghostly voices reached Yu Sui's ears:

"World Destroyer."

"Heavenly Flame."

"You."

"Leave no one alive."

Yu Sui came to her senses in an instant. The moonlight was unchanged, and there were no sparks in the beam. It was as though she had only dreamed it, but the flame burning deep in her mind told her it had been real.

...No, wait. What?

Yu Sui slowly shifted her eyes, trying to find something around her. She felt a little dazed.

Starting from scratch in another world was already hard enough to accept. Now, all at once, she'd been told that she was actually a Great Devil who would destroy the world, and the whole world was hunting her down—but she was just a baby who'd only turned a month old!

Yu Sui squeezed her tiny fist. How was she supposed to destroy the world? With her baby-sized fist?

That didn't seem right.

As Yu Sui was thinking it over, a tremendous bang suddenly rang out. Every hair on her body stood on end, and she tried to look toward the door.

Two streaks of blood marked the door, blood flowing through the gap and into the room. The maid guarding it was covered in blood. She slid silently down the door and crumpled to the ground.

Yu Sui heard the pleasant ring of a long blade being drawn.

The baby in the room didn't dare breathe loudly or move a muscle.

She had only just learned she was a World Destroyer, and now her pursuers were already at the door?

Yu Sui was considering whether to call for Lady Su when she heard her mother's cool voice from outside:

"You aren't a Sage, yet you forced your way up Mount Luo Peak with Thirteenth Realm strength. You're lucky to have made it this far without dying."

Yu Sui couldn't see what was happening outside, so she strained to listen.

The man outside coughed twice and rasped, "You're also at the Thirteenth Realm. And you're on Mount Luo Peak too, aren't you?"

Lady Su replied, "I can survive. You can't."

The black-robed old man gave a dry laugh, then raised a hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth. He held a sword in one hand, his shadow wavering on the ground. Standing beneath the moon in the courtyard, he stared at Lady Su in front of the door. "That remains to be seen. I made it here. Do you think the others won't? As long as your children live, people will keep coming."

"There are only ever more Nine Schools Thirteenth Realm experts in the world, never fewer."

Yu Sui shifted her eyes. From the sound of it, the problem wasn't that her identity as a World Destroyer had been exposed and brought death to their door. It had something to do with Lady Su.

Lady Su's pitch-black pupils shone especially brightly in the night, like burning sparks. The calm detachment she had worn during the day was gone, replaced by a cold killing intent.

She said, "What a pity. At your age, if you hadn't come here, perhaps you could still have entered the Sage Realm."

Yu Sui heard the sound of swords being drawn again, followed by the crisp clash of blades, each impact surging with tremendous force, as if cleaving heaven and earth apart.

Lady Su spoke of pity, but the Killing Move in her hand showed no pity for anyone. Candlelight flickered in the room, while the shadows of the fighters outside raced across the doors and windows, changing so quickly that the eye could hardly follow.

Yu Sui also wanted to catch a glimpse, but she was powerless to do so. At the moment, she could barely even turn over.

All she could hear was the wind—fierce wind and the deafening pounding of the door. The black-robed old man tried to get around Lady Su and break into the room, but she kept him outside, unable to take another step forward.

The black-robed old man, a Nine Schools Thirteenth Realm expert, had crossed the mirage and climbed the ten-thousand-zhang cliff. By the time he reached the mountaintop, Mount Luo's icy clouds and frost-laden mists had already gravely wounded him. Yet he still disregarded his life, using the last of his strength to complete his mission.

Two figures reached the door. It remained shut, but a tremendous force pressed the room's many candles to one side. Their flames bent low, then abruptly went out.

The crisp clang of swords sounded as if it were right beside Yu Sui's ear. The door was smashed open, and someone crashed heavily to the ground, spitting blood without end.

A slender figure in white stood at the doorway, looking down.

The black-robed old man's eyes gradually lost their light. Blood poured from his mouth as he tried to speak, but in the end, he couldn't utter a word.

Yu Sui lay perfectly still in her swaddling, not daring to move.

It seemed to be over.

As a baby who had just turned one month old, what was she supposed to do in a situation like this?

Yu Sui hesitated, then wailed twice to show that, as a baby, she had been frightened.

Hearing the child cry, Lady Su shifted her gaze from the black-robed old man to Yu Sui. As she entered the room, she raised a hand and made a graceful gesture. The candles scattered across the floor flared back to life.

The room brightened again. Seeing Lady Su approach, Yu Sui grinned at her, trying yet again to grow closer to this mother of hers.

Lady Su stared at her for a while. As Yu Sui continued to grin foolishly, she slowly reached out her hand.

Yu Sui thought Lady Su was going to pick her up.

She held her smile as those slender, jade-white fingers drew near and descended toward her neck.

—Huh?

Lady Su's hand closed around Yu Sui's throat.

—Hey!

The clear look in Lady Su's eyes showed that she had made up her mind. Her five fingers tightened, ready to snap Yu Sui's neck. Just then, both of them heard Qingkui's voice from outside. "Mother!"

"Flowers!"

"The flowers I brought for Little Sister!"

When Qingkui appeared at the doorway, Lady Su immediately let go. For a moment, her eyes, reflecting the exquisitely delicate little girl at the door, turned distant.

"Has... someone died again?" Qingkui asked, too afraid to come in.

Lady Su walked toward her, speaking with a gentleness she had never shown Yu Sui. "Kui'er, come. Don't stay here."

Qingkui looked bewildered, but took Lady Su's hand and left with her.

Neither of them looked back.

As the daughter beside her curiously asked who had died this time, Lady Su looked somewhat dazed. A moment from earlier flashed through her mind:

When she had gripped the child's throat, those dark eyes had still been smiling, completely unaware that her life had been hanging by a thread.

A new maid carried away the dead one and shut the door. Once more, Yu Sui was alone in the room.

As the rekindled candles flickered, circles of fire appeared across the floor, invading the dead black-robed old man's bloodline and reducing him to ash.

Yu Sui gazed at the moonlight and slowly blinked. No one could read any emotion or thought in her eyes.

She thought:

My neck really hurts.

*

Lady Su didn't visit Yu Sui for a whole month. There were no more assassination attempts, and even Qingkui's visits became sporadic.

While she was awake, Yu Sui tried to sort out the situation:

From the assassination that night, she had learned that she lived in a place called Mount Luo Peak. The assassin had been at the Nine Schools Thirteenth Realm, and his target had been Lady Su's children.

So he didn't need to kill Lady Su.

But why did Lady Su want to kill me?

If she hadn't seen Lady Su on the day she was born and confirmed that they were mother and daughter, then, given the difference in how Lady Su treated her and Qingkui, Yu Sui would have suspected she wasn't Lady Su's biological child.

If she weren't her biological child, that would at least make sense.

But what reason could there be for treating your own daughter so ruthlessly?

Yu Sui couldn't figure it out. She was a baby, with no way to protect herself. Even if Lady Su wanted to kill her, there was nothing she could do but lie there and let herself be strangled.

The more she thought about it, the more amusing it seemed. She grumbled inwardly: I'm so easy to kill that a casual squeeze will do it. I don't have a cheat ability or even a protagonist's halo, yet I'm a World Destroyer?

What a joke!

Forget the protagonist's halo. With this setup, I'm obviously the villain the righteous protagonist will have to defeat to clear the game.

Yu Sui closed her eyes, quieted her mind, and focused. Her consciousness peeled away, and she looked inward from the outside, seeing a flame about the size of a fingernail deep in her mind. It had never gone out.

Although the thing looked like a cheat ability, she could see it but not touch it, summon it, or communicate with it. She had no idea what it did.

Yu Sui couldn't even be sure it was the "Heavenly Flame" that would destroy the world.

Rather than a cheat ability, it seemed more like a mark.

If it was the Heavenly Flame, how was she supposed to summon it and trigger the apocalypse?

Thinking carefully, there were five World Destroyers in all. Apart from her, that meant four other unlucky bastards. Could the World Destroyers have some special way to contact one another?

Perhaps it wouldn't work alone. Maybe all five of them had to gather to trigger the apocalypse.

Yu Sui yawned. Just before she fell asleep, she suddenly saw the flame flicker, and a small black dot appeared inside it, turning slowly.

Several voices sounded in her mind:

"Hey, which unlucky bastard's about to die this time?"

"Why weren't you more careful?"

"Cough, cough..."

Yu Sui instantly perked up, forcing herself not to fall asleep.

The hoarse, raspy male voice didn't sound well. He coughed for a long while before speaking in a croak. "Who... are you?"

The first man, whose voice had been so flippant, said, "World Destroyers, obviously."

The second voice, a gentle old man's, added, "When a World Destroyer dies, the Fire Spirit Orb resonates with them."

A fourth voice, neither distinctly male nor female, asked, "How did you die?"

The hoarse man chuckled. "...I was burned to death."

"Damn!" the first man cried. "I don't have any water here!"

Before Yu Sui could ask what one had to do with the other, an unbearable burning pain descended without warning. After her mind went blank for a moment, the baby's shrieks and wails nearly lifted the roof.

The maid waiting outside rushed in to check on her.

Yu Sui's bones and flesh were being roasted by raging flames. She couldn't suppress the pain, and could only scream and cry as loud as she pleased.

It hurt!

It hurt, it hurt, it hurt!

It hurt so much!