Chapter 724: The Last Holy War
On the first night of the next cycle, I held the dagger in my hand and came before Sister Siwei. If I could kill her right here, wouldn't everything become better?
This was my first time killing someone, and my whole body was trembling.
I wanted to protect her, so I had to kill her. Could someone please tell me whether this thought was right or wrong? Why had I never heard of such a thing before…
But it didn't matter. As long as it could bring Sister Siwei's "mind" back, nothing else mattered to me.
If she could forget all of this… that would probably be the happiest thing for her.
I must be unable to escape this "prison" now. I was waiting for death, but Sister Siwei was different. As long as this swallow had never seen the "Happy Prince," she wouldn't stay here.
Whether it was Uncle Wan Cai, me, this family, or everything that had happened over the years—I couldn't forget it, but she could.
I didn't know what crime I had committed in the real world, but here I was about to commit a heinous sin. I wanted to personally kill Sister Siwei, the person who loved me the most in this place.
Before, I had always been waiting for a chance to escape from here. Now I understood—I could never get out. So killing her didn't matter anymore. Let the memories of Sister Siwei and me forever become the deepest secret in my heart. Only I would remember them in this world.
As I brought the dagger close to her neck, her scent suddenly shifted, and then she opened her eyes.
In the silent darkness, her pupils were exceptionally bright, now shimmering with an unusual light as she stared at me. An awful odor emanated from her body—I couldn't even name that scent.
"Sis… Sister…" I choked out. "Sister, don't be afraid… I'll kill you… and everything will be fine…"
"There's no need," she said softly. "Put the knife down. Go to sleep."
"But, Sister, you—" I held the knife, my whole body trembling. I knew that only by killing her could I end all of this; otherwise, when she opened her eyes next time, she would be a different person.
"I'll take care of everything," she said.
"What…?"
"I've figured out a way. I'll solve all of this." She gave a bitter smile. "Hero, I've found a way for both of us to be liberated."
"Really?" At my sister's words, my voice changed.
"Really." Sister Siwei nodded. "Soon… you'll be able to ride your bike freely through the streets. You can shout and scream joyfully, do everything an eight-year-old child wants to do. No one will control you anymore."
"Sister…"
She smiled and patted my head. "Hero, just remember this: no matter how awful my scent becomes, I will never want to hurt you."
"Mm," I nodded.
"So the only thing we can do now is wait," she said. "We just need to wait for an opportunity, and then I'll have a way to make a change."
"What opportunity?"
"An opportunity delivered to us by Zhou Zhenglong."
Later, even though we didn't leave the room, we could feel Zhou Zhenglong's tyranny constantly changing this place. He established an enforcement team specifically responsible for violent law enforcement and massively revised the "Family Rules."
At first, the family members who came to see me for judgment in the morning had injuries on their faces, but their bodies carried no scent other than "fragrance."
Later, fewer and fewer people came to me for "judgment" each morning. The remaining ones carried scents that grew increasingly angry.
Every time, Sister Siwei would step forward, use her ability to heal their injuries, then whisper a few words of comfort into their ears.
Those she comforted would always let their angry scents fade—only to return the next day with even angrier scents.
Could this be the era that Uncle Wan Cai had spoken of?
He said that after the "Era of Order" came the "Era of Chaos." But Brother Gu Yu and Sister Siwei had managed to transform what should have been a chaotic era into the "Era of Heroes" through their efforts. However, the third era was inevitable.
The "Era of Collapse" was coming.
One ordinary night, shouts and sounds of slaughter erupted from outside the prison. Someone had started a rebellion.
My sister told me that if force could rule this city, then naturally, others would use force to overthrow it.
Outside, various sounds—"fragrant" sounds and the noise of fighting—clashed in chaos. My sister and I just sat in the corner, expressionless, listening quietly to the upheaval. Neither of us spoke.
Was this the so-called "opportunity"?
But I worried that "Jade City" was just getting a new king—that we would still be the prince and the swallow.
As I expected, Zhou Zhenglong won the first few rounds of chaos. All those involved in the rebellion were tied up together and taken to Sister Xinguan's venue to be executed.
Over two years, countless rebels emerged, but the outcome was that nearly half the people were executed. The number of people I needed to "judge" each day dwindled. My sister said they now had no time for anything else—as soon as they landed, they started forming factions and waging war and slaughter, all to drag people to Xinguan's venue and force them to gamble with their lives through extreme means, thereby permanently weakening the enemy's strength.
But I always felt a sense of dissonance. These people knew they couldn't beat Zhou Zhenglong, so why did they choose to go to their deaths wave after wave?
Finally, on a night when I was on the verge of despair, the small door to our storage room was smashed open. The light of bonfires outside pierced into the room, stinging my eyes.
"We've rescued the Hero and the Saintess!" a woman shouted back. "We've won!"
A crowd rushed in, pulling me and Sister Siwei—both of us looking like the dead—out. Every one of them was wounded, but they shouted, cheered, wildly ecstatic.
My sister took my hand and whispered softly to me, "In this sick city, rule by brainwashing and force is unstable. Only faith is stable."
She let go of my hand, walked alone into the crowd, then raised her arm and shouted, "The Holy War is won!"
The crowd followed her, shouting, "The Holy War is won!"
I felt like I didn't recognize my sister anymore. Now… what difference was there between her and Uncle Wan Cai?
Under the crowd's adulation, she ascended to a new throne. She raised her arm shouting "Holy War," loudly worshipping "the Hero." But now I knew that the one in power was her—she was another Wan Cai.
After Wan Cai, Zhou Zhenglong, and countless other rulers, it was finally Sister Siwei's turn.
What would the days ahead be like?
Sister Siwei stood in the great hall, surrounded by countless people. As her hand gently pointed at me, the crowd came forward, lifted me up, and tossed me into the air.
I was thrown up and fell back down with the cheering crowd, rising and falling without end.
I turned my head to look at Sister Siwei. Her face was expressionless, her scent foul.
And my heart, like my body, soared high with the victory of the "Holy War," then plummeted to the bottom with my sister's rule.