Chapter 131: The Sea of Wandering 24
The Old God, disregarding everything, pounced forward, trying to stop the movement in Fan Xiaoying’s hands, only to be forced back to the edge of the cliff by the iron chains smashing into her face! Thin white smoke rose from the muzzle as Yi Ke pulled the trigger again. The bullets left the chamber, crashing into the metal at high speed, driving those chains to whip towards the Old God with heavy force. And just as she scrambled to dodge, the two decks of glowing poker cards had already smoothly interwoven in Fan Xiaoying’s hands like flowing water, then merged back into a single stack.
With the action of fate being shuffled, time and space seemed to stagnate for a moment. The world swayed slightly, and the “vacuum water column” trapping Qing Gang was forcibly reversed, beginning to rotate backwards, and soon shattered into a mist of water.
Two team members caught Qing Gang as he fell towards the sea surface and brought him back safely to the ship.
[Card of Retrospection] When fate is reshuffled, time in the designated area will flow backwards briefly, but the core destiny of those within it cannot return to the starting point.
In other words, Fan Xiaoying’s shuffling could return the water column to its dispersed state from a minute ago, but it couldn’t make Qing Gang, who was trapped by the water column, also return to a minute ago. The damage caused by the vortex to him could not be reversed. Fortunately, Qing Gang had thick skin and plenty of HP, his physical constitution having evolved to be extremely tough—he was the number one master of taking a beating in the Jincheng Order Maintenance Department.
Several action team members fired simultaneously, and more iron chains were driven towards the Old God by the bullets. Meanwhile, the cards were constantly being reshuffled in Fan Xiaoying’s hands. With the shuffling motion, the Old God fell into the retrospective vortex. The time around her retreated again and again to a few seconds ago, and with each retreat, the Old God had to face the same whistling iron chains—although theoretically, as long as Fan Xiaoying kept shuffling, the iron chains would forever stay five centimeters away from the Old God’s nose and wouldn’t cause substantial harm to her, but… no one knew when the shuffling would suddenly stop.
The Goddess of Fate of the past finally fell into the crossroads of choice. She didn’t even get any time to think, only passively experiencing the flow of time again and again, witnessing the cycle of scenes repeatedly. Finally, after an extremely brief moment of distraction, the Old God was hit in the shoulder by the Chain of Fate that originally belonged to her. With a crisp sound, her body fell into the sea like a butterfly.
“Thump!”
The Old God vanished just like that.
The New God embarked on a new journey.
Fan Xiaoying obtained three item cards: “Abyss of Devouring” which could manipulate black holes, “Retrospective Cards” which could reverse time, and finally “Pact of Gemini”—this was also the reason why the merfolk came to find the Goddess of Fate.
Apart from a regular item card, the “Pact of Gemini” also had a blank sub-card. The blank sub-card could copy any item card of any player in the game. Upon success, the copied item card would become a waste card, equivalent to directly stealing someone else’s fate. However, this copying could not be completed instantly and required a certain amount of time.
The merfolk had worked hard to drag the ship for a whole day, but failed once again to fulfill their promise to their ally. The “Eye of Destiny” which could predict the future was still firmly held in Ye Jiaoyue’s hands, with no chance of being copied. If they had brains and thought about it slightly, they would realize that this trip today was simply like specially assisting the transition of fate between the new and old goddesses… How should one put it? They were indeed allies, but allies helping the opposite side.
Inside the cabin, no new text appeared on Fu Dong’s King card for the time being. He didn’t even need to ask, think, or look out the window to know that this group of trash must have failed again.
…
After being briefly unconscious for more than ten minutes, Qing Gang slowly woke up. When he woke up, Cabin 103 was noisy. Colleagues formed a circle around the table, heads touching, chattering away, presenting a different kind of happiness. A strong sense of participation rose in his heart: “Why didn’t you call me for something good?” Regardless of the stars still spinning in his eyes, he stubbornly supported himself on the headboard with one hand and his forehead with the other, disabled but determined, and tenaciously moved down.
The ship happened to bump and shake at this moment. Qing Gang’s knees trembled, his footing unstable. His stalwart two-meter-one body immediately lost its center of gravity and rushed straight forward like a cannonball, stumbling!
“Ahhh, dodge quickly!”
Accompanied by a series of loud banging noises, Yi Ke lay flat on his back with limbs spread wide, acting as a human cushion. Qing Gang, who was pressing on him, turned pale with fright. He quickly helped the man up, placed him properly on a small chair, patted off the non-existent dust on his body, and thanked him with tears in his eyes: “Brother, you are the best to me. Look at them, they dodged so fast.”
Yi Ke was crushed until his vision went black, presenting a marvelous state of being alive but not quite alive, also known as Schrödinger’s life. He waved his hand weakly: Stop talking, I didn’t want to catch you; I was afraid you would smash my precious wifey.
Qing Gang’s memory still stopped at the moment he was swept into the vacuum water column. After hearing the follow-up this time, he repeatedly looked over the three cards Fan Xiaoying obtained, greatly envious: “Hey, do you guys think I should have something in my hand too?”
“That’s not necessarily true.” Zhong Mu poured him a glass of water. “It’s also possible you are purely a vase (eye candy).”
“Although based on my looks, that is indeed possible.” Qing Gang started a discussion. “But if the Princess is a vase, then logically, shouldn’t there be a Prince? Otherwise, who am I being a vase for?”
“Merfolk Prince.” Zhong Mu pointed to the sea surface. “Otherwise, why are they dragging the ship with such effort? Eighty percent chance it’s to drag you to the bottom of the sea for a wedding.”
Somehow it sounded a bit reasonable. Qing Gang was persuaded. After all, considering Fu Dong’s character, he was totally capable of doing such a thing. He returned the three item cards to Fan Xiaoying and began to seriously consider his marriage alliance. Zhuang Ningyu patted his shoulder: “It’s okay. In another dozen hours, Team Leader Ye’s Seer card can be used again. We can check your future then.”
“Really?” Little stars burst from Qing Gang’s eyes. “The Seer card can only be used once every 48 hours. Are you sure you want to give such a precious opportunity to me?” He even professionally suggested, “Shouldn’t we check the Queen first, or check the King again? After all, in the last prophecy, he really looked like he was dead.”
Zhuang Ningyu shook his head: “It’s fine. There’s no 48-hour restriction now.”
Qing Gang didn’t understand: “Why?”
Fan Xiaoying picked up the “Card of Retrospection” he just returned to her and explained, “Because we can use it to constantly push the time around the ‘Eye of Destiny’ back to before it was used. In other words, as long as we keep retrospecting, the ‘Eye of Destiny’ will become a Seer card that can be used infinitely. And the cooldown time for the next 48 hours will only start calculating when we stop retrospecting.”
Qing Gang gasped: “Woah, we can exploit a bug like this?”
Zhuang Ningyu spread his hands: “Whether we can or not, we’ll know when we try.”
The merfolk were still pushing the ship towards the depths of the ocean. Whether they were discouraged by successive failures or not, their energy seemed largely drained, and their sailing speed slowed down significantly, changing from swift as the wind to wobbling along. In Room 102, Zhuang Ningyu helped Yi Ke carefully treat the small wounds left from the fight just now. Although there wasn’t really much to treat, it was mainly for the sense of ritual.
Zhuang Ningyu tore open a Hello Kitty band-aid and pasted it on the fingernail-sized wound on his chest. Yi Ke asked rather puzzledly: “Is the Logistics Department going for this style recently?”
“It has nothing to do with the Logistics Department; I bought it with my own salary.” Zhuang Ningyu closed the medicine box and patted his shoulder. “Because I think it looks cute on you.”
Yi Ke was amused and leaned in. So cute, just looking isn’t enough. Come, come wifey, touch, let you touch. Zhuang Ningyu turned sideways to dodge and packed up the medicine box. Both of them had just finished showering. He had changed into a pale yellow T-shirt. The fabric, washed many times, stuck softly to his body. When he squatted down to organize the backpack, his whole person looked soft and harmless.
Feeling a sudden weight on his back, Zhuang Ningyu stopped what he was doing: “Stop fooling around, go put on your shirt.”
“No.” Yi Ke hugged him from behind, acting coquettishly. “Let me recharge for a while first.”
His muscles, still pumped with blood from the fight, hadn’t completely subsided. Hard pectoral muscles pressed against his lover’s back, carrying a higher temperature than usual, and his breath was hot too. Zhuang Ningyu ignored him and continued packing the luggage, incidentally acting as a free human power bank. But Yi Ke refused to settle down. Resting his chin on his shoulder, one hand rubbed the slender waist under his palm through the pale yellow T-shirt: “Wifey, you are so beautiful.”
Zhuang Ningyu zipped up the backpack: “I know.”
Yi Ke laughed and continued pressing the side of his face against his ear. “I liked you the first time we met.”
Zhuang Ningyu grabbed the window frame, stood up carrying the large clingy spirit on his back, and expressed full understanding: “Lust at first sight, it’s human nature.”
“What about you?” Yi Ke pressed. “What were you thinking the first time you saw me?”
Zhuang Ningyu recalled the quiet bookstore filled with sunshine that afternoon and didn’t answer.
“Tell me, wifey, just say it.” Yi Ke was relentless, hugging him and pressing him onto the bed, a little expectation shining in his eyes.
Zhuang Ningyu simply cupped his face with both hands, looked up, and kissed him. Yi Ke cooperated very well. Only after the kiss did he continue the previous topic: “Say it.”
Unable to muddle through, Zhuang Ningyu went on to state: “I thought the environment there was bad.”
Yi Ke didn’t understand at first, thinking he meant the bookstore environment was bad. He thought for a moment before realizing. Zhuang Ningyu took the opportunity to push him away and sit up: “So let’s talk about it after we get out.”
“Mmh.” Yi Ke agreed, sitting on the bed hugging a pillow, suspicious happy blushes gradually rising on his cheeks. Zhuang Ningyu didn’t quite understand his sudden shy pose. He even lowered his head to check his own clothes—no problem, very decent.
“Wifey.” Yi Ke affectionately held his hands. “I didn’t expect you to place such high importance on discussing the scene when you first saw me. Don’t worry, after this mission is completed, I will definitely cover the house with nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine beautiful and fragrant Ecuadorian red roses, and prepare your favorite pink champagne. We can sit in the romantic sea of flowers then, wearing couple pajamas, drinking and reminiscing.”
Zhuang Ningyu made a prompt decision: “Actually that day… Mmph.”
Yi Ke covered his mouth with a hand, resolute: “No, you are not allowed to say it now!”
In the afternoon, sea breezes blew in gusts. Zhuang Ningyu supported himself on the railing with both hands, looking at the golden sky in the distance. The wind blew the windbreaker belonging to Yi Ke that he was wearing, and his hair flew messily. He looked full of the vicissitudes and fatigue of a married man.
On the other end of the deck, Zhong Mu asked in confusion: “Does Captain Zhuang have something on his mind?”
Qing Gang grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds and cracked them: “Probably not. It’s too stuffy in the cabin; just out for some fresh air.”
Zhong Mu: “But I feel his back doesn’t look as upright as usual, as if he is carrying some heavy pressure.”
Read as “heavy,” written as “nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine Ecuadorian red roses.” If one rose weighed eighty grams, then nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine roses would be nearly one thousand six hundred jin (approx. 800 kg). Currently, Captain Zhuang’s waist was only slightly less straight and he hadn’t collapsed directly on the ground; he was already quite capable of bearing the load.
When he first saw Yi Ke in the bookstore, it was indeed not without impression. It could be said, but it really didn’t need to be said accompanied by one thousand six hundred jin of red roses. The ship bumped, and Zhuang Ningyu gripped the rusty railing tightly with his slender white fingers, still considering how to persuade Yi Ke to abandon this terrible plan. The next moment, his hands were pried open. Yi Ke skillfully padded the railing with a folded, fragrant, soft Hermes handkerchief before placing his hands back on it.
“…”
His waist, which was already not very straight, instantly hurt even more.
