Chapter 712: A Device from Afar
“What…?”
“Everyone! The Hero has already explained this. This is exactly why he sent me back!” Gu Yu’s brother swept his sharp gaze across everyone present and announced, “Within the next two days, I will personally locate those ‘Jades’ and distribute them to every one of you! If I fail, I will accept punishment according to the ‘Family Rules’!”
His words were resolute, echoing in everyone’s hearts. The scent of doubt that had hung in the air gradually shifted to reassurance.
They agreed to give Gu Yu’s brother two days to find those ‘Jades,’ and they also agreed to regard me as their sole faith.
That day, as the crowd dispersed, I was about to return to my room when suddenly, from somewhere extremely far away, I caught an unprecedented and overwhelming scent.
I turned my back to the crowd and gazed into the distance, standing there in a daze.
Gu Yu’s brother and Sister Thinking noticed my reaction and came up beside me. They followed my gaze but saw nothing there.
“What’s wrong?” Sister Thinking asked.
“An overwhelming scent…” I stared blankly into the distant sky, lost in thought.
“A scent?” Sister Thinking paused. “But there’s no one over there.”
“No…” I raised my hand and pointed toward the sky. “It’s far away… but I can smell it… right there…”
Sister Thinking asked, “Is it a ‘Fragrance’? Or an ‘Emotion’ or a ‘Thought’?”
“None of those…” A faint tremor ran through my body. “No, it’s all of them… There’s a sweet scent, a foul smell, intense emotions, restless obsessions… and a colossal thought…”
My words left them even more puzzled. “A colossal thought…?”
Gu Yu’s brother pondered for a moment before speaking. “Hero, could it be psychological? The direction you’re pointing in—there’s no one for hundreds of meters. Theoretically, scents can’t travel that far.”
Sister Thinking glanced at him and quietly asked, “Gu Yu… are you saying that Brother Wan’s death has had a psychological impact on the Hero?”
“I’m just saying it’s a possibility.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I really do smell it… I can feel that person’s thoughts in my mind.”
“What thought?”
“‘Come find me,’” I answered. “He told me to go to him. He said, ‘Whether you see this, hear it, think of it, or sense these changes from afar, please come find me. No matter how many years pass, I will be here waiting for you.’”
At those words, the scents emanating from my brother and sister both turned cautious.
“Hero… usually, you can only smell a person’s ‘thoughts’ when they’re extremely intense, right?” Sister asked.
“Yes. That person’s ‘thoughts’ are extremely powerful. They’re transmitting directly into my mind.”
I kept staring in that direction. The scents kept flowing, and the thoughts kept coming without end.
“But isn’t that strange?” Sister Thinking frowned. “We have no way to tell if that person is friend or foe. We don’t know what they want. Why would they be summoning you?”
Truth be told, I didn’t know the reason either. But from those scents, I sensed an unprecedented level of despair and sorrow.
They were calling out to someone who could perceive them.
They needed my help.
“Brother Gu Yu… where is that place?”
He looked in the direction I was pointing and said, “You mean…”
“Which city?” I pressed.
“It’s ‘Dao City,’” he replied. “It’s about a day’s journey from here.”
Sister Thinking paused, then asked, “Hero, do you want to go see?”
“I…”
I was caught in hesitation as well. Should I go?
But if I left this city, what would become of it?
“I won’t stop you,” Sister Thinking said. “As I told you before, you can do whatever you want.”
“No…”
I knew that I could never bring danger to Gu Yu’s brother and Sister Thinking for the sake of a complete stranger.
But that person also said he would wait for me no matter how many years passed. So sooner or later, I would have to go and see.
In the days that followed, just as Gu Yu’s brother and Uncle Wan themselves had predicted, the people here felt no attachment to the name ‘Wan Cai.’
What they needed had never been Uncle Wan—it had always been me.
I wonder if Uncle Wan had ever anticipated that one day, he would truly become the ‘guide’ he once spoke of.
After guiding everyone onto this path, he was mercilessly discarded.
Gu Yu’s brother told me that many of the minds in the family had already become twisted and rigidified, and the corruption continued to spread. We could no longer change them. Many of the rules Uncle Wan had set in his lifetime still had to be followed.
Things like worshipping the ‘Divine Dragon,’ using the ‘Executioner’ for punishments, and reciting the ‘Slogans’—except now the object of their worship was no longer someone else, but me.
I was the true Hero of ‘Jade City.’
When Gu Yu’s brother found all those ‘Jades’ and distributed them equally to everyone, the people’s adoration for me reached its peak.
But I knew this was wrong… At this point, it wasn’t those ‘family members’ who seemed strange—it was the three of us.
The three of us were far too clear-headed, making us utterly out of place among those ‘family members.’ If we couldn’t pretend to be like them, we would eventually be treated as outsiders.
So we had no choice but to go with the flow, following the crowd in their daily routines.
Fortunately, everyone treated me better and better, and I responded in kind. I did my best to help every person, every day. I didn’t know how I was supposed to treat them, because I had never been a ‘Hero’ before. Could someone please tell me… what a true ‘Hero’ is really supposed to be like?
One morning, after I had finished ‘judging’ everyone’s ‘Fragrances’ and was letting my nose rest for a bit, Gu Yu’s brother called Sister Thinking and me aside.
“What’s wrong…?” Sister Thinking asked.
Gu Yu’s brother sighed. “I’m worried about something…”
“What?”
“I’m worried that one day, the Hero won’t be able to hold up anymore.” He didn’t try to hide it from me and spoke very frankly. “When I was in other cities, I heard that if the ability of ‘Fragrance’ involves strengthening a specific part of the body, overusing it will inevitably cause backlash.”
“You’re worried about Hero’s nose…”
“Yes,” Gu Yu’s brother said. “But come to think of it… I once saw something very interesting in ‘Dao City,’ and now I’m considering whether it’s feasible to replicate it.”
“What is it?” Sister Thinking and I asked at the same time.
“As I said, there are many clever people in ‘Dao City.’ They managed to use ‘Fragrance’ to create a massive display screen. On that screen, there was a bronze bell. Whenever a ‘Fragrance user’ appeared, the bell would ring, and the screen would then reveal that person’s ability. However, their terminology is slightly different from ours. Just like ‘Whirlpool City’ calls them ‘Ripple Soldiers’ and we call them ‘Fragrance Users,’ the people there call those with superpowers ‘Echoers.’”
Sister Thinking imagined the scene and asked, “So that display screen… would show ‘So-and-so has started to echo’?”
“No… the reality is even more interesting than that,” Gu Yu’s brother said. “That display screen seems to have a life of its own. It says, ‘I have heard an echo.’”