Chapter 606: Changing Skies

An invisible beam of light rose from the void, surging like a torrent, reflecting a brilliant starry sky in the heavens, shedding ray after ray, merging into a majestic Light Giant Pillar that enveloped the entire sky.

The black fog, woven from myriad desires and emotions, was continually dissolved by starlight, collapsing and vanishing swiftly.

Amid the prayers of countless believers, the Hidden Sage displayed a miracle of its own.

Simultaneously with the Hidden Sage's appearance, faint, colorless glimmers—like countless illusory particles—burst from the Perfect Land, blossoming in the star realm and, in an instant, traversing infinite distance straight toward the Hidden Sage.

In the starlit sky, a sudden orange‑red glow ignited, the hue of dusk forcefully breaking in and occupying most of the heavens.

With the arrival of this dusk, surrounding matter and even the void warped; everything began to decay uncontrollably, including the starlight forged by the Hidden Sage, the faint glimmers descending from the Perfect Land, and the myriad desires and emotions interwoven in the black fog brought by the Cosmic Dark Side.

A Meng looked up at the ever‑changing sky, curled his lip, and said lightly, "Things are getting more and more interesting."

After two seconds of silence, he suddenly glanced at Lei Kèdùn, chuckled, and said, "Since neither of us can force the other back, how about a temporary truce? Sitting in the audience to watch those lofty gods clash would be more fun, right?"

"This way we're also holding the other off; after all, any move we make is hard to hide from the other's eyes."

Lei Kèdùn turned his head toward A Meng, thoughtful, and said:

"Has the loss of uniqueness severed your link with the true self?"

"Guess?"

A Meng pressed the cracked monocle over his right eye, his tone flat and slightly playful.

"I think so. How about I seize a trait of the Fate Trojan in the meantime?"

Lei Kèdùn replied calmly; as his words ended, a rush of water sounded beneath his feet, and pink peach‑blossom petals drifted in the air.

In silent instant, a barrier, isolated from the outside and hard to traverse, formed around them, rendering distant scenery a blur.

A Meng glanced around, relaxed, and said, "Even Steam stepped in personally; aren't you at all curious?"

As he spoke, he lifted his hand, removed the monocle from his right eye, and pulled a brand‑new, flawless monocle from his pocket.

He glanced at the shocked Lei Kèdùn reflected in his eyes, chuckled, "I'm not the true self; the monocle I wear isn't the true self either."

"Since it's not the true self, I can take as much as I want, swapping it at any time."

While speaking, he placed the new monocle over his right eye; the cracked one he crushed effortlessly, turning it into a pale stream of light that merged into his body.

After a moment of silence, Lei Kèdùn said flatly, "I don't grasp the uniqueness of Error, but I understand the Eternal Dark River."

It seemed countless wraiths wailed; amid the shrill clamor, a murky green‑black river rose from Lei Kèdùn's feet, surging massively toward A Meng.

Countless transparent souls struggled in the water, pulling each other; they extended thin, pale, or withered arms, trying to drag A Meng into the river.

A Meng stood calmly in place, letting the murky river flood over him, passing through his body yet never touching him.

A Meng clasped his hands before his chest, calmly saying, "Your 'Mysterious Reappearance' gave me an idea: if I steal the concepts of my position and existence, store them in a dimension detached from reality, and blend them with certain specific things, I can appear in reality both present and detached."

"Your words are increasing; what are you covering up?"

"Actually, the damage to Error's uniqueness hasn't been repaired, has it?"

Lei Kèdùn stared resolutely at A Meng, noting every expression on his face—unfortunately I'm not an audience, can't read minds.

A Meng let out a light laugh, showing no urgency about his hidden secret, and said calmly,

"You can try it. Luo Sai Er once said, 'Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth.' I think that's a good saying."

"Why do you talk so much to me? Is it to make it easier for you to be distracted and watch the outside?"

Lei Kèdùn's body suddenly became ethereal, breaking into streams of information that flowed freely within the patterned space, constantly recombining to form countless illusory books, stacking upward and filling the entire area, as if the whole world were enclosed within him.

Each book bore a pale violet eye that shimmered with cold, pure light; the higher the stack, the darker and more saturated with madness, destruction, ominousness, and disaster. These eyes stared uniformly at A Meng, sketching on the pages vague silhouettes resembling him, as if they could see everything about him and reveal all his secrets.

A Meng calmly scanned, taking in every book and each eye, and saw a familiar figure on the pages—the dragon famed for its wisdom.

"Heh, interesting. That old lizard actually lets you dissect its mythic form."

He muttered a low scoff; A Meng's figure blurred, like a malfunctioning old TV with flickering pixels.

In this state, the silhouettes reflected by the books' eyes also began to blur and warp; they flickered, some turning into black‑feathered crows, some into middle‑aged gentlemen in suits and top hats, some into ascetics in gray‑white robes, even particles of dust invisible to the naked eye. The reflected figures kept twisting, being corrected, twisted again, and none ever matched A Meng's form.

Specks of pale blue starlight spilled from the books' eyes, darting about, anchoring each emerging silhouette, recording it, then erasing it.

"Heh," A Meng sneered, pressing the monocle over his right eye.

An ancient, mottled, massive void‑shadow rose above his head.

The shadow resembled a stone‑carved wall clock face, divided into twelve sections, each gray‑white or bluish‑black, intermingled yet clearly bounded, each bearing a distinct symbol.

A Meng's movement triggered a chain reaction; the surrounding books likewise outlined the ancient mottled wall‑clock shadow, each with a cold, pure‑light eye gazing from different angles, analyzing the shadow.

The illusory chime rang, and the longest hand on the ancient mottled wall‑clock shadow moved one notch clockwise.

An indescribable invisible torrent surged from the shadow, as if spanning ages, sweeping the surroundings.

The illusory books filling the space began to tremble, as if about to collapse.

Soon the stacked illusory books flipped pages, as if finding a gap in the torrent, quickly stabilizing themselves.

The age‑spanning torrent faded swiftly, and A Meng's figure vanished with it.

In silent instant, the stacked books sprouted numerous wandering pale glimmers; within each mote floated a time‑worm with twelve transparent segments, which corrupted each book through deceit, parasitism, and theft.

Brilliant starlight poured from the books' eyes, swiftly repairing the damaged volumes and attempting to dissect the rogue time‑worms; Lei Kèdùn and A Meng were momentarily caught in a prolonged tug‑of‑war.

Beyond Beilunsi Port, Leonard, who had received no reply from Pa Lie Si, shifted his expression from panic to resolve, inhaled deeply, exhaled slowly, and in ancient Hermes tongue whispered the honored title of the Fool:

"The Fool who does not belong to this age, the mysterious sovereign above the gray mist, the yellow‑black king who wields fortune."

As the prayers fell, an odd image suddenly formed in his mind.

The intense familiarity made him instantly recognize the scene as his surroundings; he quickly located himself within it, then used that to lock onto a deformed feathered wolf sprinting through lightning, babbling madly.

In the vision, Yin Si·Zang Ge Wei Er's figure was extremely blurred, almost a blood‑red smear, apparently altered by the Fool to facilitate his observation and targeting of Yin Si·Zang Ge Wei Er.

Leonard was momentarily stunned, then let out a light laugh:

"I've found you."

As he spoke, a pale glow rose from the glove on his right hand, and his body instantly turned translucent and ethereal, like a vengeful spirit.

The next second, Leonard's body vanished on the spot, then reflected in Yin Si·Zang Ge Wei Er's eyes.

With the aid of the "vengeful spirit" grazing in the writhing hunger, Leonard used Yin Si·Zang Ge Wei Er's eyes as a mirror, performed a mirror jump, and appeared directly beside Yin Si·Zang Ge Wei Er.

Because he was extremely unlucky, Yin Si·Zangeweir's body, which maintained an incomplete mythical creature form, was momentarily paralyzed by an electric current surging along the ground as he ran.

It was precisely this brief moment that left him no time to react, and Lunnade directly stabbed the scissors emitting an abnormal icy cold feeling in his hand into his body.

The hard fur on the eight-legged feathered wolf's body offered no resistance as it was pierced through, and the giant pruning shears used for trimming branches easily plunged into its only remaining eye.

(End of chapter)