Rescue and Farewell

Christopher walked towards him step by step, his pace unhurried.

He looked at the young man who couldn't even stand up, and the impeccable smile returned to the corners of his mouth beneath the mask.

The system sighed, just about to make its move.

Sudden.

Something in the sky shattered.

Like a giant mirror being smashed by a punch, countless cracks spread across the sky, and then with a crash, a huge fragment fell from the entire sky.

Two girls jumped down from the void.

A white-haired girl with a delicate face looked around with great interest. She landed with clean and swift movements, smoothing out her skirt before it had even fully fallen.

A blue-haired man, a full head shorter than the white-haired man, held up a dowsing ruler that glowed with an eerie blue light, its tip pointing directly at Kexi, who lay on the ground covered in blood.

She looked down at the dowsing ruler, then looked up at Kexi, and then turned to Bai Mao with a smug smile.

"See! I told you I could find it! You actually didn't believe me, a celestial being? When have I ever made a mistake?"

"Not bad, Buling. As expected of someone who passed my new branch assessment, you have more talent than I anticipated."

Chun glanced at the corpses and rag dolls scattered on the ground, then looked at Christopher, whose mask had a crack in it, in mid-air.

Buling tucked the dragon-seeking ruler into his robes, put his hands on his hips, and raised his chin high. "Of course! Don't you know who I am? -- Wait, why are there so many dead people here?"

Christopher stopped in his tracks the moment he saw Tsubaki.

For the first time, his eyes, hidden beneath the mask, revealed an emotion that could be described as "fear."

"Are you the playwright from the Fractsidus?" Chun tilted her head slightly.

"Are you Tsubaki from the Black Shores?" Christopher's voice was still gentle, but his speech was a beat slower than before.

What did you do in Sonoro?

"Of course I'm finishing a wonderful piece of work." Christopher closed the book and put his hands behind his back.

"So, your work is his?" Chun gestured with her chin towards Kexi, who was lying on the ground.

"I'm so sorry, but he's mine, you can't touch him."

Chun's lips curled up slightly.

"Ms. Tsubaki, I don't really want to fight you, but this is a task assigned by the chairman." Christopher's tone remained gentle and polite, but his fingers had unconsciously tightened their grip on the spine of the book.

"Svarog? He also tried to invite me to join the Fractsidus back then, saying that all the leaders of your Fractsidus are good fighters. I wonder if that's true?"

Christopher broke out in a cold sweat.

He had seen Chun's information, knew who she was, what she had done, and even knew what her words meant.

But he is the director of the Fractsidus, he is Christopher, he has his pride, his script, and the drama he has meticulously constructed for so long.

We can't let an uninvited spectator ruin things here.

"Ms. Chun, if you insist on protecting him, it's not impossible to discuss it—"

"Ah, my favorite way to negotiate is through fighting. Come on, use your hands, use your methods, and communicate with me fiercely."

"Red Camellia, bloom!" she cried out in a frenzy, her gray hair turning red.

Before Christopher could finish speaking, countless red camellia flowers bloomed in the air, surging towards him in a deluge.

His expression changed again.

Why is it "again"?

"Etc..."

He wanted to say something more, but Red Camellia ignored him completely and let out a hearty laugh.

His protective shield crumbled like paper amidst the sea of flowers.

Buling walked over and squatted down next to Kexi.

Kexi lay on the ground covered in blood, the golden cracks on her body not yet completely faded, making her look like she had just been pulled out of a pool of blood.

Buling nudged his shoulder. "Hey, are you alright?"

Kexi groaned softly from her poking, too weak to even lift her head. "Do you think... I look alright?"

"Hmm, doesn't seem like it." Buling carefully examined him for a moment and gave an objective assessment.

Cioccolata climbed out of the rubble, clutching her left ear which was still ringing from the shock, and limped over. Her face was covered in blood and ash.

Jinhsi also crawled out from under the stone pillar at the mountain gate, a large bump on her forehead. She stumbled over and squatted down next to Kexi. Looking at his blood-covered appearance, and then at the motionless Qiuyuan, Suisui, Yangyang, Chisa, Changli,

Her nose tingled with emotion.

"Brother Xi... Master and Senior Sisters..."

Kexi remained silent.

He didn't know what to say; all he felt was a deep sadness.

On the other side, the battle between Tsubaki and Christopher has turned into a one-sided crushing defeat.

The red camellia blossoms surged towards Christopher like a tidal wave.

He glanced at Tsubaki, who showed no sign of stopping, and gritted his teeth.

Maintaining this Sonoro requires a large amount of energy.

The battle with Qiuyuan had already depleted his strength, and now, with Chun's relentless bombardment, he was barely able to protect himself, let alone maintain the stability of this world.

Let's abandon Sonoro, preserve our strength, and report back to the guild master later.

Next time they meet, he'll write an even more exciting script specifically for these unruly audience members.

He turned to the last blank page, quickly wrote a line on it, and then transformed into a dark red light that shot into the sky and disappeared into the void shattered by Chun.

The Christopher left, the whole world began to crumble.

The sky began to peel away in large swathes from the gap shattered by the thorn, revealing the pitch-black void behind it.

The distant mountains were silently shattering, turning into gray powder bit by bit from the summit and being sucked into the void.

The stone slabs beneath my feet trembled, and cracks spread in all directions like a spider web.

Jinhsi suddenly looked down at her hands.

Her fingertips are fading little by little, disappearing from this world bit by bit.

She looked up in confusion and found that Cioccolata had not disappeared, Buling had not disappeared, Chun had not disappeared, and her Brother Xi had not disappeared either.

Only she disappeared.

She was confused.

"Brother Xi... why are my hands...?"

When Kexi saw Jinhsi's hands gradually fading, her heart felt as if it had been squeezed tightly.

After hesitating for a while, watching her body grow increasingly pale, he finally decided to tell her the truth.

"Jinhsi, this world... is fake. You are a character created by Christopher. You don't actually exist. You were all born because of me. I'm sorry."

Jinhsi was stunned.

She looked at her hands, which had faded so much that she could see the floor behind her through her skin, and remained silent for a long while before accepting the fact.

She raised her head and revealed a bright smile, the same smile she had when she jumped and shouted "Brother Xi is here!" in front of the mountain gate that day, with her eyes curving upwards.

"Oh, I see."

That's great.

Master is gone, Senior Sister, Second Senior Sister, Fourth Senior Sister are all gone, and Junior Sister is gone too.

Brother Xi has also left.

If I were the only one still alive, I wouldn't know what to do.

Everyone's gone, and I don't want to be alone.

Otherwise, I'll be left alone guarding the mountain gate, and I'll cry.

So this is good, Brother Xi, don't be sad.

Her voice was so light and cheerful, as if she were saying something completely ordinary.

"Haha, Brother Xi, remember to eat after I leave. Don't let anyone remind you to eat, or you'll starve."

She disappeared completely amidst laughter as soon as she finished speaking.

Kexi reached out, but only grasped at air.

He looked at his empty palms, and felt as if something was blocking his throat, making it hard for him to breathe.

He remembered the first time he saw Jinhsi; she skipped and hopped out of the mountain gate, her skirt swaying, and clung to Chisa's arm, shouting, "Brother Xi! I'm here!"

He thought this junior sister with the blatant accent was the epitome of Christopher's wicked sense of humor, and he would mentally complain every time she called him "Brother Xi".

But now he longs to hear her call out again, even just once.

A fair, white hand was extended in front of him.

Chun looked down at him, her face expressionless, her voice calm and collected. "This Sonoro is on the verge of collapse. Share your thoughts outside."

A red camellia flower bloomed at the feet of the three, its petals closing to envelop them.

Then the flower pierced through the crumbling edge of Sonoro and vanished into the void.

Kexi caught a glimpse of the Mystic Sect Mountain Gate through the gaps in the petals.

The bluestone steps that Yangyang had first carried him up were breaking, and the Clear Heart Hall where he and Qiuyuan had an ambiguous relationship was collapsing into fragments and being swallowed by the void.

Then the whole world shattered into nothingness.