Chapter 1179: Loneliness
"So we've been expelled." Zhang Shan said with a smile.
"No... not 'expelled,'" Chu Tianqiu replied. "I don't want to expel anyone. It's just that 'Heaven's Mouth' no longer exists. You don't need to risk your lives for those three hollow words. So run away now, while you still can."
"So you're not our leader anymore?" Little Glasses asked from the side.
"And I don't have to respectfully call you 'bro' anymore, right?" Kim Won-hoon said.
"You guys..."
"We can do whatever we want, can't we?" Li Xiangling asked with a smile.
Hearing their questions, Chu Tianqiu felt a sting in his nose. An extremely complex emotion swirled in his heart.
"So from now on, you can't give us orders," Zhang Shan said. "I want to die here myself. Nothing wrong with that, right?"
"Yeah." Kim Won-hoon nodded. "I suddenly feel like fighting today. This place is perfect. If I die, so be it, right?"
"Tianqiu..." Wen Qiaoyun said from the side. "Do you really think these people risked their lives just for the name 'Heaven's Mouth'?"
"I..."
The many members of "Heaven's Mouth" remained calm, as if Chu Tianqiu hadn't said anything at all.
Many of them had been in "Heaven's Mouth" since its founding. Perhaps there had been gaps in their memories with Chu Tianqiu, but there were no gaps in their current feelings.
When he saw that these people still chose to die here even after "Heaven's Mouth" was disbanded, Chu Tianqiu finally understood what that lingering feeling in his heart was.
It was the heavy loneliness that had lasted for a long time and was only now beginning to dissolve.
Only when he saw so many people standing behind him did he finally realize what kind of loneliness he had fallen into.
It was the loneliness of walking against the crowd; the loneliness of looking down at the ground during gatherings; the loneliness of wanting to speak but always worrying that no one would understand.
He felt a surge of tears, but he knew he wasn't sad. Logically, he shouldn't be crying.
But when he touched his own cheek, the tears had already fallen.
Perhaps the emotion that makes people cry isn't just sadness, but also the kind of smile like his.
Once upon a time, he had charged into "Heaven's Mouth" with a vague wish.
He had wanted to save the lost travelers of the entire "Land of the End," but in the end, it was "Heaven's Mouth" that saved him.
Yes, its very purpose had always pointed toward heaven.
"I understand..." Chu Tianqiu said. "I finally understand... What I need to look at next is not 'Heaven's Will,' but 'My Will.' After all, that 'Heaven' character... was added later by myself."
He slowly extended his right hand, four bloody eyeballs clutched between his fingers.
"Tianqiu... you..." Wen Qiaoyun sensed something wrong and reached out to stop him. "You look like you're already in 'Over-Reverberation'..."
"Only a hundred people," Chu Tianqiu said, tears streaming down his face as he smiled. "I take back my words. 'One against a hundred' is truly possible. It just depends on the price you're willing to pay."
He gently pushed Wen Qiaoyun aside and threw all four eyeballs into his mouth, crushing them.
The next second, his hair stood slightly on end, his pupils turned a bloody red, and a strange magnetic field began to ripple around him.
"I'm someone preparing to peek into the 'God's Dream,' someone preparing to crack open Tianlong's dream..." Chu Tianqiu said in a hoarse voice. "How could I lose here... to mere 'Heaven's Will.'"
The Earth Rat watching from a distance frowned. The aura on this man was far too strange.
He was like Qinglong, but not entirely.
Chu Tianqiu pointed at a withered tree. In the next instant, the tree crumbled into countless splinters. A fierce wind rose, sweeping the splinters like locusts toward the dozen or so people in front of him.
Under the immense "Gale Force" and "Displacement," those splinters burrowed into the skin of many "Participants," instantly turning them into bloody messes.
Chu Tianqiu stepped forward, waving his hands in the gale like a conductor performing an open-air concert in a storm. The swirling debris spun rapidly around him.
The "Participants" finally realized that Chu Tianqiu, who had remained still until now, might be the most powerful "Reverberator" among this group. But his appearance was odd—he seemed to be on the verge of complete madness. If they could just withstand this wave of attacks, he might defeat himself.
With that thought, many "Participants" grabbed corpses from the ground and held them up as shields to absorb the fierce, sharp debris.
Chu Tianqiu was prepared. When the corpses were embedded with splinters, he raised his right hand and clenched it tightly. A series of micro-explosions spread across the bodies, blood and shredded flesh erupting with muffled sounds, blasting another large group of "Participants."
He himself slowly bent over, gasping heavily.
This "Combined Reverberation" sent a searing pain through his brow, as if his very soul were being drained.
"No, I'm still afraid..." Chu Tianqiu murmured. "How can someone like me enter his dream..."
He pressed his hand against his forehead, feeling as if his brain had activated some protective mechanism, using pain to warn him that what he was doing was extremely dangerous.
"You have to free yourself..." Chu Tianqiu seemed to be talking to his own brain. "Only fear causes pain... but there's nothing to fear here..."
Seeing a gap in Chu Tianqiu's attack, the "Participants" rushed forward to surround him. The members of "Heaven's Mouth" quickly stepped in, using their own bodies to block the attacks for Chu Tianqiu.
In the chaos, one "Participant" charged forward with a sharpened iron pipe, aiming directly at Chu Tianqiu's chest.
"Why are you stopping us from escaping!!" The man, blinded by bloodlust, vented all his hatred on Chu Tianqiu.
At the critical moment, Wen Qiaoyun leaped forward, throwing herself onto the man and tackling him to the ground.
Chu Tianqiu's eyes flew wide open. All the pain in his head seemed to be suppressed by something at that moment.
"Damn it!" Zhang Shan shook off the few people in front of him and rushed to Wen Qiaoyun's side, forcibly separating her from the struggling participant.
The next second, he saw a huge gash across Wen Qiaoyun's abdomen. The sharpened iron pipe was stabbed in diagonally, draining blood like a hose.
"Qiaoyun..." Chu Tianqiu looked up, his eyes already bloodshot.
He didn't have time for unnecessary movements. He flipped his hand and another eyeball appeared in his palm.
"You won't die... Qiaoyun... I still have a 'Vitality Unending'... I'm going to..."
"No..." Wen Qiaoyun reached out to Chu Tianqiu, speaking weakly. "Tianqiu... no... I was meant to die anyway..."
"What nonsense are you talking about..." Chu Tianqiu said, his eyes wide.
"Don't lose all your reason... Don't swallow that thing..." Wen Qiaoyun said with a bitter smile.
Chu Tianqiu squeezed the eyeball in his hand. He knew that what he needed to save wasn't just Wen Qiaoyun, but also the bottomless loneliness.