Chapter 27: The Clouds Part to Reveal the Blue Sky

"Did you notice? Then it's time to begin."

Inside the convenience store, Kamikawa Mitsu gazed into the distance, his eyes profound as if stars were sinking and sun and moon revolving, capable of discerning all falsehoods.

His words echoed through the convenience store.

No one heard them.

Japan, Arakawa Ward.

"Mother, I've arrived in Japan and am currently shopping."

A Chinese exchange student from America walked down the street, holding her phone, video-calling her mother back in America.

To reassure her mother and prove that her study environment in Japan was good.

She raised her phone, framing herself in the shot while also capturing the surroundings.

As she filmed.

She happened to include the sky behind her as well.

"OMG!!"

In the video, the American mother and daughter were chatting when the mother's peripheral vision caught something; she instantly gasped, her eyes widening enormously.

"My God! Daughter, look at the sky, the sky behind you!!"

The American mother screamed with great excitement.

Acting as if mad.

At that moment, she kept pointing at the sky above her daughter's location through the phone screen in the video.

What's wrong with Mom?

The sky behind me?

What's wrong behind me?

The Chinese exchange student from America looked utterly confused and turned to look at the sky behind her.

Instantly!

She gasped, covering her mouth with both hands and screaming incoherently.

"OMG!! Fuck! Is God appearing?"

At the same time.

Similar exclamations erupted in Arakawa Ward and in the wards adjacent to Arakawa Ward.

Above Arakawa Ward.

The originally pitch-black night sky was filled with rolling clouds, dense and gathered as if before a rainstorm.

But they were not dark clouds, nor was it raining.

The clouds were white, vast and Wang Yang.

Suddenly!

In the midst of the rolling clouds like a white Wang Yang, one cloud burst forth with primordial light as if the universe and heavens had just been created.

The light of the Great Beginning, chaotic yet sacred.

Then, centered on this cloud, a holy divine radiance continuously spread and expanded to the surrounding clouds.

Within a few breaths, all the clouds glowed, holy like the auspicious clouds of the Nine Heavens in legend, existing only in the era of the gods.

The sea of clouds blazed brilliantly.

As if a cosmic galaxy had descended upon the sky above Arakawa Ward.

The light was too bright.

At this moment, Arakawa Ward was bathed in brilliant light, as bright as midday.

Immediately after, like a stone thrown into a lake.

The sea of clouds in the sky, shimmering with holy light, rippled and swayed, rolling like waves.

The cloud waves churned.

The waves were so high they seemed ready to overturn this world.

The light of the sea of clouds flickered; sometimes blazing with ten thousand rays of brilliance, yet at other times transparent like a thin film, fluctuating between light and dark, as if the virtual and the real were intertwining.

Each time it dimmed and turned transparent.

A vast power surged outward.

The earth trembled faintly, the heavens swayed, as if some terrifying mighty force was causing the sky to collapse and the earth to sink.

"What is that! Are aliens descending?!"

An office worker who had just finished his meal and was about to return to the company for overtime work looked up, his gaze dazed at the incredible scene in the sky, so startled that he dropped his briefcase.

"Wife! Wife, come quickly, stop putting on makeup, come look quickly, in the sky, there's a door in the sky!"

Inside a Japanese apartment, a husband sat on a chair by the window waiting for his wife to finish her makeup and go out, but at this moment he screamed in horror as if he had seen a ghost.

"What are you shouting about? What's wrong with you? How could there possibly be... Sky! Sky! Husband, the sky!"

His wife came out angrily, but the moment she saw it, her makeup seemed to crack from fright.

"My heavens, am I seeing things?"

"Look at the sky!"

"What is that?!"

The earth-shaking phenomenon above Arakawa Ward drove everyone mad.

Hearts were shaken, souls were stirred.

The scene in the sky was magnificent and tumultuous, never before seen.

Gazing at the boundless sea of clouds, radiating the holy light of the Supreme Heaven, people felt as if they had entered a dream.

"Quick! Quick, take a picture of what's in the sky!"

No one knew who shouted that.

Everyone rushed to pull out their phones, snapping photos frantically, their faces overflowing with unparalleled excitement.

At this moment.

The night sky, the Holy Dawn Sea of Clouds, shone like day.

Below, in the Arakawa District, dense and numerous, tens of thousands of lights flashed, twinkling like stars.

Those were the flashlights of phones taking pictures.

Excitement, exhilaration, wonder, and other emotions filled everyone's hearts.

They wanted to capture this shocking scene, a historic moment that would very likely be recorded in history.

"Quick! Quick, report the situation here to the East..."

In the Arakawa District, the chief of a police station, too excited, almost bit his tongue while speaking.

"Chief Nakamura! Look!"

Hearing his subordinate shout, the chief looked.

"Damn!!"

The firmament.

That sea of clouds, vast with holy light, flickered as if reaching its limit; after flickering once more, the surging light suddenly withdrew inward.

In an instant.

The center of the sea of clouds exploded.

A deafening roar, startling ten thousand li, could be heard throughout all of Tokyo.

Those who didn't know might think a nuclear bomb had been dropped on Tokyo, exploding in the Arakawa District.

In the center of the sea of clouds, the clouds remained, but that dazzling divine light had turned into misty vapor.

This scene was like a celestial lake in the Nine Heavens above.

Clouds gathered around the lake's edge; the lake water was not water, but composed of misty vapor.

Faint flowing lights circulated and swept through the mist.

The light-mist was gentle, spiritual energy rippled, giving the feeling that a slight touch would make the mist spread like water ripples.

The thought arose.

It was as if an invisible giant hand of a deity, immense and capable of covering ancient mountains and blocking the sun and moon,

landed in the celestial lake sea of clouds.

Gently rippling.

The sea of clouds changed, truly like "parting the clouds to see the blue sky."

The celestial lake rippled, ripples scattering petals of light, the radiance multicolored; the mist dispersed, revealing the scenery within the lake.

"What is that?!!"

"Hiss!!"

The scenery in the lake had no water, no fish, only...

towering high-rise buildings.

Streets lay scattered among them, silent and desolate.

Besides this, within the lake there was also a sky; the sky was at dusk, with the setting sun hanging high.

This was a scene of a city in its twilight, bleak and desolate.

"Isn't this our Arakawa District?"

Someone recognized it; the lake scene in the clouds was none other than the Arakawa District.

In the image, every building, every street, was exactly the same as the Arakawa District.

Looking up at the cloud-lake scene.

The crowd felt a strange sensation.

It felt as if they were not looking up at the sky, but standing above the Arakawa District, looking down upon it.

The scenery lay fully before their eyes.

If not for the fact that the image was composed of a sea of clouds, and that around the image's edges, surging flowing lights still darted like meteors.

It truly looked like a giant mirror in the sky, reflecting everything on the ground within it.

Except...

Though it was a reflection,

the mirror reflected no people, only buildings and the environment.

And the reflected sky scene had turned into the dusk of a setting sun.

"Could it be a mirage?"

The thought of a mirage arose, then was immediately discarded.

If the image in the sky truly was the streets of the Arakawa District,

it could absolutely not be a mirage.

A mirage is a natural phenomenon formed by the refraction and total internal reflection of light; it usually refracts distant scenery. How could it possibly refract a local scene?

Moreover, the scene clearly showed a dusk sky.

It was night now, no, a night as bright as day, having nothing at all to do with dusk.

Most crucially, there was a setting sun in the scene.

At this moment.

While everyone marveled at the Yunhu in shock, wondering if it was a mirage.

Within the Yunhu in the sky, the scenery shifted and changed.

Mist swirled in the lake, and spiritual light flashed across the nine heavens.

The misty Yunhu rippled; with every circle of waves spreading out, the image drew closer and enlarged.

It seemed as though a deity in the heavens was gazing down upon this region through the immortal lake and sea of clouds, from above the nine heavens.

The image was moving too??

This definitely isn't a mirage!

As the images in the lake changed, everyone reached a firm conclusion: this was no mirage. So then, what is this?!

A few blinks passed.

The lake waves rippled, circles descending; the image became even larger, like a panoramic projection, being pulled back once more.

"Quick!! Damn it, go report to the Police Department immediately!"

The chief of the Arakawa Ward Police Station roared, then looked up at the sky with utter shock.

At this moment, everyone was stunned, staring at the Yunhu image in the sky.

"Are you sure this reflection is of Arakawa Ward?"

"The c-c-city, a floating city!!"

In the sky, the vast and boundless Yunhu scene no longer remained fixed on the Arakawa Ward city; it was pulled upward once more.

And this upward pull.

The twilight sky within the image, along with vast stretches of scenery, came fully into view.

Among them, a massive, ancient city floating in the heavens also entered everyone's sight.

……

(Sorry for the late update; to express my apology, I will add extra chapters over the next few days.)