Chapter 1304: A Magnificent Masterpiece
Qi Xia suddenly turned his head toward an empty patch of ground, staring wide-eyed for a few seconds as he pondered.
Then he slowly opened his mouth. "From now on... you cannot mention Bai Yang's name."
The empty patch of ground held nothing, yet a quiet voice responded.
"If you must mention someone, mention me."
The ground still gave no reply, but Qi Xia seemed to have gotten his answer.
"Only then can you survive. After all, you have no choice."
...
"Sun."
The moment the crowd heard Tian Gou's words, they fell silent.
Although the two characters had clearly reached their ears, they felt as though they hadn't truly understood them.
"This is... the Sun...?" Jiang Ruoxue said, pressing her feet down firmly. She found the sensation beneath her still strange—hard yet springy. "We're standing on the Sun...? What nonsense are you spouting...?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Tian Gou replied. "Take a look around. We're right here in 'Peach Blossom Spring.'"
The group paused, then slowly turned around. Behind them lay an endless expanse of yellow-white earth, and the door they had walked through hung in midair like a floating cave entrance.
When they looked up, they realized there was no sun in the dawn sky at all.
Could it really be what Tian Gou said... that they were in the "Land of Finality," and at this moment, the Sun wasn't in the sky but beneath their feet?
Zheng Yingxiong kept his hand clamped over his mouth and nose. The overwhelming scent was already flooding in, and even though he held tight, traces of it still surged into his mind, leaving him dizzy and unable to think.
"The smell here..." he forced out through gritted teeth. "No... it's too strong..."
"You're a 'Scent Seer,' aren't you?" Tian Gou glanced back at Zheng Yingxiong. "Looks like you're far more capable than Tian Shu."
The others looked at him, not understanding what he meant.
"Everyone." Tian Gou pointed at the ground beneath them. "It's not just the 'Scent Seers' who suffer inhuman torment here. Even we 'Scent Hearers' are afflicted—the immense echoes rattle our eardrums... It took me a long time to get used to such a deafening sound..."
"Why is that...?" Jiang Ruoxue furrowed her brow. "What's so strange about this Sun...?"
"A masterpiece built over generations." Tian Gou showed a rare smile. "Even if I'm truly about to die... I had to come see it one last time before the end..."
He walked slowly forward, his footsteps landing on the ground like stamping on a large drum filled with water.
The others, bewildered, followed him step by step.
"What a wonderful sleight of hand..." Tian Gou chuckled. "Even though this 'Sun' has always hung above your heads, none of you ever noticed anything wrong with it..."
Yan Zhichun listened as she lowered her head, carefully examining the yellow-white earth. Deep within it, she could see enormous veins of bluish-black.
Those veins felt strangely familiar, like...
"This is... an enormous... eyeball...?" Yan Zhichun murmured. "My god..."
Her words sent a chill down everyone's spines. Jiang Ruoxue suddenly felt very uneasy standing there.
"Zhichun... don't say something so terrifying all of a sudden..."
She wanted to argue, but when she looked down, what difference was there between these veins and textures and those of an eyeball?
Now they weren't just standing on the "Sun"... they were standing on a giant eyeball?
"Qing Long and Tian Long have five eyeballs, 'Divine Beasts' have four, and 'Heavenly Tiers' have three." Tian Gou continued walking forward. "Why is there a limit on numbers?"
The group's minds were already reeling from the cascade of truths. They could only follow him mechanically.
Zheng Yingxiong, meanwhile, desperately tried to identify the two characters that the overwhelming scent was forcing into his brain. But right now, it felt like standing beneath a massive inscription—look up, and you couldn't make out the outline.
"It's because we tried before... Five eyeballs is the maximum a thinking person can bear." After a few steps, Tian Gou slowly crouched down, reaching out to touch the ground beneath him as if caressing a lover. "The night sun doesn't emit 'flares,' so no one ever notices its existence... Only during the day does it give off a faint light, just like the real sun."
Zheng Yingxiong stared at the look of the eyeball below, feeling an inexplicable fear. But thinking it over, he could trace where that terror came from.
Since he could smell the scent of this eyeball, that meant he was a "Fragrant One."
He couldn't help but grab the hand of Jiang Ruoxue, who was nearest. She felt how cold his fingers were.
"What's wrong?" Jiang Ruoxue asked.
"This eyeball..." Zheng Yingxiong swallowed. "This thing is alive... It's a living person... A living person floating up in the sky!"
...
Qi Xia paused again, staring at another empty patch of ground.
"Have you arrived there yet...? If the door isn't closed, you can hear my voice... You're not that dumb... are you?"
His neck slowly turned, as if he were thinking, or perhaps just in a daze.
"You need to tell Yan Zhichun the whole truth. She's not crazy enough yet, understand? If that doesn't work... the woman beside her is 'Cause and Effect,' don't you get it?"
Qi Xia tilted his head back, his entire demeanor growing unhinged.
"If I'm not mistaken... that was the last door on the entire 'Train' that could lead to the 'Land of Finality'... You will also be the only 'Heavenly Tier' left alive. Cherish this last chance, got it?"
...
Tian Gou stopped in place, his expression quivering. Then he turned to face the others and said, "Y-yeah... This little brother is right... This eyeball is a giant living person floating in the sky... But unfortunately, not her whole body was 'gigantified'... Only her eyeball..."
His words made Yan Zhichun shudder again.
The thing beneath their feet—only its eyeball had been enlarged?
In other words, they were now walking on a living person's eyeball... Could she feel it?
Would she feel a sharp pain in her eye? Where was her pupil looking?
"Don't worry... She's no different from the original residents." Tian Gou smiled eerily. "She has no thoughts... Even if it hurts, she can't say it... Look—"
As he spoke, he began hopping on the springy surface, producing a series of drum-like thuds.
*Thump, thump.*
"Jump! It's fine! It's fun!"
*Thump, thump.*
*Thump, thump.*
Zheng Yingxiong shot Tian Gou a cold look. He could sense that despite the big smile on his face, Tian Gou was afraid.
The scent of that fear was very strange. It didn't seem to be fear of the eyeball, but fear of something far away.
"Stop jumping..." Yan Zhichun said with a slight tremble in her voice. "What the hell is wrong with you? Is this supposed to be fun?"