Chapter 199: Miracle (25)

"……"

Herbert silently savored the feeling for a while longer, nodded, then poured the prepared hot water over it and skillfully began plucking the feathers.

Things have come to this—let's eat first.

It's already dead; can't let it go to waste.

Kunkun shall not have died in vain!

"All the fancy knife work is changed for you, all the nourishment is arranged for you too~"

Herbert hummed as he began preparing things with practiced ease.

Since Valentina couldn't wake up for the time being, he could only enjoy it alone.

"We'll meet again in the belly~"

"Food… is far from enough…"

Shi Diwen looked at the rotting flesh still clinging to the fish head, made an estimate, and shook his head heavily.

Although he had previously made up his mind to sacrifice himself to that unknown deity, now that the moment had arrived, he still hesitated.

Human nature is like that—once there is hope, the decisions made in despair begin to waver again.

Shi Diwen hoped to struggle one last time.

"There's no fresh water. In my current condition, I can hold out for at most three more days."

He had tried to collect water, but when the thick fog dispersed, no dew was left behind.

As for the freshwater lake that had swallowed his companion, Shi Diwen didn't dare give it any further thought.

Food was only enough for three days, and he himself was already very weak, needing a great deal of energy to repair his body.

Especially the wound on his wrist—although it had been treated simply, seared with a red-hot blade to barely stop the bleeding.

But that only addressed the symptom, not the root; the wound still risked rupturing at any moment, and had even begun to show faint signs of rotting.

Perhaps his constitution was strong enough that he hadn't developed a fever yet, but if fever set in once he grew weaker… he might not even last three days.

Death's envoy followed right behind him, a shadow at his heels.

He had to find a way out.

But unfortunately, he had no boat that could carry him away from here.

With his wilderness survival knowledge, he actually had enough skill to build a wooden raft and escape.

But the trees here were far too hard.

Shi Diwen had tried chopping them—the trunks were as hard as metal, and in his current state there was no way he could fell them.

The branches he'd used earlier to start a fire had been picked up off the ground.

And swimming across to the opposite shore with his bare body was clearly unrealistic; the sea was full of dangerous creatures that could swallow him in an instant.

He gathered some broken branches around the area, intending to build himself an extremely crude shelter near the wooden stakes.

When he returned from the seaside to the altar's pure land, he was completely stunned.

Because there was an extra building there!

A crude shelter, exactly as he had pictured it in his mind, without the slightest difference.

!!!

"Th-this…"

Shi Diwen stared at the building, his mind completely blank.

He clearly remembered that when he left, there was absolutely no such building!

And this building was exactly the same as what he had imagined.

Am I dreaming?

Is this a miracle?

Did that deity hear my call?

This…

Amid the excitement and shock, Shi Diwen also felt fear.

What kind of being could know what was in his heart and reproduce it in reality?

A deity.

Only a deity could do such a thing.

Shi Diwen was not a devout believer.

He held no particular reverence for the gods; he only paid lip service to the Sun God.

In his heart, he actually didn't think much of the divine—at best, he felt the miracles the churches preached were just tricks to fool the faithful.

But now he had truly seen one with his own eyes.

A miracle.

A miracle of creation out of thin air!

He knelt before the shelter, continuously expressing his reverence.

He desperately hoped the deity would answer his prayer at this moment and show him the way.

No matter who it truly was.

No matter what it truly wanted him to do.

Please reveal yourself!

But until the sun set and the Misty Mountains were once again shrouded in darkness, Shi Diwen still received no indication whatsoever.

That unknown deity had ignored his prayer.

"……"

But this did not discourage Shi Diwen.

Having witnessed a miracle with his own eyes, he now held a fervent faith in the divine.

It was absolutely not that the god could not reply to me, but that He was unwilling to pay me any heed.

My devotion is still not pious enough!

To prove his piety, he dragged his battered body before the wooden stake, praying and giving thanks without cease.

What Shi Diwen had not noticed was that, just as he kept prostrating himself before that wooden stake… in the darkness, a special existence was watching him.

Those indifferent, deep-set eyes pierced through the Pure Land's radiant shelter, silently observing Shi Diwen's every move.

It was a female grey centaur whose form appeared illusory and translucent.

Her features were bold and heroic; she wore a suit of plainly styled leather armor on her upper body, a longbow strapped to her back, and her horse-like lower half was clad in Cloaked in Heavyness battle armor.

Moreover, her four hooves were not touching the ground at the moment, but floating in mid-air.

After a moment, her gaze fell upon the wooden stake, fixing on the bloodstains left behind, and a flicker of hesitation crossed her eyes.

What on earth was that…

Why does it emanate His aura?

Has He returned?

Or is that His new chosen one?

So much time has passed, yet He still has not completely dissipated?

He returns now and makes such a grand, public declaration — does He mean for us to submit of our own accord?

After everything that's happened, is that even possible?

"……"

The centaur pondered in silence, then suddenly sensed a faint mist of water drifting from behind her, and faintly heard some sounds of laughter from the past by her ear.

"Tsk, the Wine of Forgetting… that fellow is running about all over the place again."

She knew it was the one hiding in the lake water who had also come, and had broken the rules by barging into her territory.

She glanced back in some annoyance, but said nothing, and vanished in an instant.

Forget it, she'll observe for now.

This aura that only she and the Wine of Forgetting have noticed for the moment… best not to act rashly.

Although His envoy has entered her domain and brazenly occupied a portion of it, that's no big deal.

She can endure it.

She'll wait until those fellows hiding in the depths also notice his existence before deciding what to do.

She refuses to be the first to stick her neck out!

And after the centaur departed, the ground where she had originally stood slowly split apart, and an eggshell half a person's height poked out.

The eggshell cautiously observed for a while, then only carefully burrowed its way out of the earth.

A small hole broke open at the bottom of the eggshell, from which a slender, scaled tail extended, propping the whole thing up and driving it forward.

The eggshell gazed at the wooden stake stained with Herbert's blood and at Shi Diwen, who had been prostrating before it, bobbing up and down once, as if very pleased with the sight.

(End of this chapter)