Chapter 217: Time of Dark Night (2)
Chapter 217: Time of Dark Night (2)
“Ah! It hurts!”
In the pitch darkness, a voice rang out, sounding as if it had endured immense agony.
“Master! Master… Madam! Madam… Young Master, Young Master is awake!”
But no sooner had this voice sounded than another voice rang out beside it. Immediately after, the sound of hurried footsteps could be heard, gradually fading away.
“Who am I? Where is this? How did I get here?”
The owner of the voice seemed filled with profound confusion. His eyes opened, yet he could see nothing.
Darkness. All around him, nothing but darkness. Still more darkness.
“Ah, I remember. I am Tang Jinbiao. I remember I was… Huh? What was I just doing? No, that’s not it, why can’t I remember?
And, just what is going on? Why isn’t there any light at all? Could my eyes be blind? No, no. Even if blind, one should still be able to see something.”
Tang Jinbiao pondered everything that had just happened to him, yet beyond recalling his name was Tang Jinbiao, he seemed unable to remember anything else.
Though he could see nothing, Tang Jinbiao still strained to observe his surroundings. Yet it remained pitch black, nothing visible but darkness.
Tang Jinbiao tentatively reached out with his hand to touch the thing covering him. It felt somewhat slippery and soft. This should be a quilt. Why am I lying here?
“Ouch!”
Tang Jinbiao groped around, then attempted to sit up. However, he lacked awareness and directly tumbled down.
“Biao’er, Biao’er!”
Just as Tang Jinbiao fell, the urgent voice of a man came from outside the room. Following that, a middle-aged man pushed the door open in a rush and entered. Seeing that the dazed young man had already gotten out of bed, the gloom on his face vanished instantly, replaced by great elation.
“Haha… haha… Heaven hasn’t abandoned my Tang Family! Heaven hasn’t abandoned my Tang Family!”
“This…”
Though he couldn’t see the person, the moment he heard that voice, an answer seemed to surface from the depths of Tang Jinbiao’s mind.
“Tang Zhantian, my father!”
He didn’t know where this memory came from, but subconsciously, Tang Jinbiao felt this was true.
“Hm?”
For some reason, after the man entered, he seemed to notice something off and uttered a sound of hesitation.
“Master, Master…”
After the man entered, the young maidservant who had earlier run out to deliver the news also came in, the same voice rising.
“What’s going on? What’s going on? This definitely isn’t the first time!”
Though he couldn’t see, everything happening around him felt far too familiar. So familiar it felt frightening.
“Haha, Biao’er! Are you alright now? Rest assured, those petty thieves who troubled you—I’ve already extracted their souls and have them Sealed away! If it pleases you, you can torment them whenever you wish! I can even refine them into puppets—just give the word!”
Tang Jinbiao had clearly said nothing at all, yet the man’s voice, as if talking to himself, rang out beside Tang Jinbiao’s ear.
“What? Biao’er still unsatisfied? Well then! I promise you this: once you’ve recovered, I, your father, will take you to the Eastern Sea to capture a Sixth-Level Sea Dragon for your mount! At that time…”
“Hm? Uncle? Filming a movie?”
“Hehe, it seems Biao’er certainly hasn’t recovered yet. All right then, I won’t disturb you further. I’ll have Little Lv take care of you. Once you’ve recovered, I’ll come see you. Little Lv, take good care of Biao’er! If anything goes wrong, I’ll hold you solely responsible…”
“Little Lv understands, no need for the Master to remind.”
“Mm, I’ll leave Biao’er in your care then. I still have a batch of Elixirs awaiting refinement. Those above have sent people pressing. If I fail to refine them well this month, trouble will follow. Take these several bottles of Elixirs; use them for Biao’er’s recovery.”
…
Tang Jinbiao remained silent, yet the conversation between those two beside his ear never ceased. Though it seemed centered around Tang Jinbiao, it bore no relation whatsoever to him.
“What’s happening? What exactly is wrong?”
Tang Jinbiao couldn’t see anything. Out of habit, he lifted his head and turned it toward the sky.
“That direction feels like the window. Outside that window, something like the sun seems visible!
Huh? The sun? How many were there again? Why do I vaguely recall it might be nine? Or was it three?
No, it feels like different numbers were visible—one, two, three, four, all the way to nine. Yes, I think it was just so.”
Though only endless darkness stretched before him, Tang Jinbiao could faintly perceive something different.
Brightness!
Just as this confusion rose in Tang Jinbiao’s heart, a sliver of light pierced the boundless darkness. Glimmering on the distant sky’s horizon he gazed toward, was a trace of radiance.
“Come closer, come closer, this old man has something to tell you!”
Then, a voice saturated with seduction sounded by Tang Jinbiao’s ear, luring him toward that light.
“Huh? What’s going on?”
Upon spotting that trace of brightness, a flicker of doubt emerged in Tang Jinbiao’s eyes. He vaguely discerned that the light wasn’t mere illumination; it vaguely resembled… an old man?
Tap, tap, tap!
Though utterly bewildered, driven by instinct, he began walking towards that direction.
Sss…
As his footsteps fell, the entire world seemed to shift. Though he saw nothing, he felt massive changes occurring around him, transforming toward void and nothingness.
Tang Jinbiao stretched out his hand, wanting to reach into the dark. He sought to touch something, anything tangible.
But there was nothing.
Finding nothing around him to feel, he crouched down, feeling along the ground. Yet the ground itself seemed featureless, smooth and blank.
“Tang Jinbiao, come closer! Hurry! Come to me! I shall lead you out of this Eternal Night! Lead you beyond this nothingness!”
The distant radiance seemed to brighten, and the voice sounded once more beside Tang Jinbiao’s ear.
“Regret nothing! I feel deep in my bones his words ring true! As if the owner of that voice is my closest kin!”
Tang Jinbiao seemed suddenly more lucid, as though able to recall many things. Yet when he pondered deeply, everything still felt chaotic, impossible to truly grasp.
Purely guided by instinct, he pressed onward in that direction.
For an entire hour!
He walked for a full hour, yet the distance to that point of light… seemed unchanged.
“What is this? I know I feel it right—I’ve been walking forward all this time. So why haven’t I drawn any closer?”
Tang Jinbiao didn’t feel fatigue, only deepening confusion. He’d clearly been walking for an hour, yet the distance to that light remained unchanged.
“Keep walking! Do not halt! Continue without a pause! Halting even for a moment shatters everything!”
The owner of that voice seemed afraid Tang Jinbiao would stop, and it sounded again by Tang Jinbiao’s ear.
“Annoying!”
Tang Jinbiao cursed inwardly, but he still kept walking toward that direction.
…
Three hours!
He continued walking for another three full hours this time, yet he remained the same distance away.
“This? It feels like I’ll never reach the end, will I?”
After walking continuously for four hours, Tang Jinbiao still felt no physical discomfort, but mentally, the monotony was growing pronounced.
Nothing was visible around him, only darkness, and the space felt vast, boundless. An ordinary person would have been gripped by fear and unease within just an hour in such a place.
“Do not stop. Keep moving forward. This old one cannot light the path ahead for you, but I can guide you toward a new world. Walk forward, walk forward. Do not stop. Continue like this without pause, and one day, you will emerge from this endless Eternal Night. You will find that beautiful new world you seek!”
Just as Tang Jinbiao was starting to feel irritable and weary from the monotony, the voice rang out once more.
“Nuisance! Who is this person? Why is there this incessant chatter!”
Tang Jinbiao cursed in his mind. Yet he lifted his head, looked toward the distant glow, and pressed on.
…
Five hours.
Eight hours.
One day!
This time, Tang Jinbiao walked for an entire day. Although physically he experienced no fatigue, mentally he was thoroughly drained.
“Ahh, so tired. Maybe I should lie down and sleep for a while!”
Tang Jinbiao stopped. He plopped down onto the ground, intending to sleep before resuming the journey. Though physically he felt no discomfort, no sense of weariness or exhaustion, a curious illusion suggested to him: I’ve walked all day, I ought to rest now.
Naturally, it wasn’t laziness. It felt entirely instinctive.
“No! Do not stop!”
The instant Tang Jinbiao lay down and closed his eyes to sleep, the voice immediately resounded by his ear.
This time, however, it was different. Previously, when Tang Jinbiao wished to rest, the voice had always been gentle. Now it held a sharp rebuke, as if Tang Jinbiao had committed a grave error.
“What’s wrong?”
Snapped alert by the voice’s shout, Tang Jinbiao jolted upright. Uneasy, he looked around frantically. But everything was the same: beyond the darkness, there was only more darkness. He could perceive only that this was a dark, boundless expanse of nothingness.
“Walk! Keep moving forward! Never, ever stop! Even if you feel tired, you must not stop! If you do, you will be trapped in this Eternal Night forever. You will be imprisoned here forever. You will never escape this place!
“If you close your eyes, the darkness here will erode your soul! It will blind you to hope! It will leave you without a direction! You will sink, forever lost in this abyss!
“Advance! Advance!
“Do not concern yourself where you are going! Even if you must drag your exhausted body, keep marching forward, without cease! Even if you are directionless… I will persist until the moment you close your eyes!
“And if… if you close your eyes before I fall… then I can only lament! I, Huang Biaozi, roamed free my whole life, only to meet an end such as this!”
The voice continued to urge Tang Jinbiao onward from his ear.
“Huh? Huang Biaozi? That name… I feel like I’ve heard it? Hmm… Where have I heard it? Why can’t I remember?”
Hearing Huang Biaozi’s name gave Tang Jinbiao pause. He felt sure he’d encountered it before, yet he couldn’t recall the when or where. Not a single shred of memory surfaced.
Confused, bewildered, and dragging his increasingly heavy body, Tang Jinbiao nevertheless set off again, moving forward toward that unknown world…