Chapter 121#
Creation Fifteen#
“Conversion beginning.”
“War won.”
“Please select a believer.”
— These were the Tower of Creation’s built-in system prompts: mechanical and cold.
“Gatekeeper Warm Reminder: The time elapsed for this adventure was — Target World: 17 days; Eden: 10 minutes. Your occupation time in this world was exceptionally short, surpassing 98.3% of all Eden travelers. Excellent work — keep it up!”
This was Claros’s system — cheerful and lively. It continued broadcasting:
“For this adventure, Reward 1: Basic Strength Enhancement, 15%.”
“Reward 2: The Bishop’s Secret Language Dictionary. Purpose: converts your words into a secret language that no one else can understand. Activation method: mental invocation. Number of uses: unlimited. Effective range: universal. Effective targets: universal.”
“Gatekeeper Heartfelt Reminder: Rewards are hard-earned — cherish them!”
“Settlement complete. Please select your believer~”
Yu Feichen: “…?”
Regarding the second reward, he felt a faint… puzzlement.
He turned and found the Chief God standing right behind him. He asked: “What did you give me?”
“What did you receive?” He said. “Rewards are determined automatically by the Tower of Creation’s operating rules.”
Yu Feichen gestured with his eyes toward a deep crimson dictionary that had materialized in front of him, with a caption description floating beside it.
The Chief God looked at those lines of text and slowly blinked.
Then He smiled.
“Since it’s a reward, just accept it,” He said.
From the other side came a sound from Baisong — a soft, appreciative “oh.”
The time before last, in the temple, Baisong had followed Yu Feichen and also received a basic physical enhancement reward, but nothing else.
The time before that, in the Gear Castle, he had received nothing at all — because Yu Feichen had claimed the entire fortress for himself.
This time appeared to be different. Yu Feichen said: “What did you get?”
“A mirror-star wormhole generator,” Baisong read from the description, “Purpose: opens an instant travel passage between any two locations. Activation method: mental invocation. Number of uses: 3. Effective range: within the current world. Effective targets: universal. Note: passage remains open for 1 minute and can be closed early.”
The Chief God said: “Not bad at all.”
“Bishop Tangpo? Why are you here too?” Baisong’s eyes went wide. “Are you coming back with us? Then —”
“He’s not.” Yu Feichen walked over and patted Windsor on the shoulder.
That reward had sounded absurd, but it at least made Windsor look rather favorably positioned — he could bring someone along after all.
Windsor was roused from his stillness, and looked around. He showed none of the shock that Baisong had shown when he was first brought along.
Windsor rested his chin on his hand: “How extraordinary.”
“Are we leaving already?” he said. “I haven’t had time to say goodbye to my omega brothers.”
Baisong: “Then you’d be saying goodbye until next year.”
“Fair point. Besides, they’re already married.” Windsor sighed. “They’ll never know that Windsor was actually an alpha who had feelings for them.”
The countdown chimed in Yu Feichen’s ears.
He instinctively looked toward the Chief God, and found He was already looking back at him.
“My landing point differs from yours,” He said. “I will be summoned back to the Dusk Shrine.”
Yu Feichen couldn’t help reminding Him: “You still have things at my place.”
The countless gift boxes from Sunset Glow Street.
The Chief God gave it genuine thought.
“Can you come find me at the Dusk Shrine?” He said.
The God made His request in that gentle, unhurried tone of His — no believer could have refused it.
But the countdown reached its end at precisely that moment, and the Gate of Eternal Night left Yu Feichen no room to answer.
In the next instant, the world receded like a tide.
Yu Feichen expected to return the same way he had last time — to the noisy Radiant Ice Stone Plaza. Instead, the surroundings plunged abruptly into darkness: a vast, quiet emptiness. The thirteenth floor of the Tower of Creation.
From somewhere came Claros’s half-dead voice: “Quick — help me.”
The light here was extremely dim. Yu Feichen used the reflected glow of the Gate of Eternal Night to look around, and eventually spotted a vague flat shadow on the floor — a silhouette pressed against the ground like an oddly shaped puddle, this puddle desperately wriggling, trying to peel itself off the floor and emitting faint cries for help.
“Lend me a bit of your power — yes, the kind having to do with material composition.”
Yu Feichen drew out a measure of power from the Gear World. The pure energy left its owner and scattered like specks of starlight onto the shadow on the floor. The shadow took solid form. Gatekeeper Claros’s body rose up from the ground like a grey turnip being yanked out by its roots.
Probably aware that this was embarrassing, the first thing Claros did after pulling himself upright was yank his hood down to cover his face, followed by a transparently unconvincing fake cough.
— Though that was as far as the face-saving went.
“Don’t ask me what happened,” he said. “When a person accumulates too much power, a few hiccups are inevitable.”
Yu Feichen hadn’t actually planned to ask what happened, but after Claros made such a pointed effort at misdirection, it became rather suspicious. He said nothing.
“If you hadn’t come back,” Claros continued, talking to himself, “I’d have had to call your Chief God to come rescue me.”
Having said that, he moved his joints like a marionette coming to life, then returned to his black iron throne and resumed his aura of mysterious, shadowy Gatekeeperness.
“Though that wouldn’t have worked either,” Claros let out a sudden laugh. “He went out with you. Tsk. Things are about to change.”
Only then did Yu Feichen speak his first words: “Why?”
“When someone who should be sleeping is awake, unusual things are bound to happen.” Claros’s eyes blinked under the deep shadow of his hood’s soft brim. “Besides, the signs were there long before.”
His gaze shifted, and landed on Windsor: “A new face this time.”
Windsor smiled faintly: “Hello.”
“Somewhat familiar.” Claros said. “Truly brought back from an intact world?”
Windsor blinked: “What are you referring to?”
Claros’s grey-violet eyes fixed steadily on Windsor. After a long moment, he rose from his black iron throne. “Let’s go draw a card.”
And so they stood in the elevator.
On the panel of floor buttons, the notation next to Murphy’s floor still gleamed loudly: “Claros, Yu Feichen, and dogs not permitted.”
Now two of the three named parties were present — all they needed was a dog on a leash, and they’d get to enjoy the sight of Murphy seething. Yu Feichen pressed the button without a trace of guilt. Claros and Murphy’s floors were close together; they arrived in moments.
Murphy looked up from behind layers of hourglasses and skeletal specimens, watching them approach with an expressionless face. The flame burning in his eye sockets crackled when it landed on Yu Feichen.
As they passed through the elegant, mysterious magic-filled room, Windsor took in his surroundings with unhidden curiosity.
Claros: “Good evening, God of Time. We’re here to draw cards.”
“First meeting — hello.” Murphy, card box in hand, came to stand before Baisong and Windsor, dutifully reciting his pitch: “Care to draw a card? Let me show you your past, present, and future.”
Baisong quietly explained the meaning of the cards to Windsor. Windsor raised an eyebrow.
“But I don’t want to see any prophecy about my future fate,” he said. “Is it not possible to preserve a little illusion about what’s ahead?”
Toward anyone other than Yu Feichen and Claros, Murphy’s manner was still cooperative.
“Of course,” Murphy said. “You may draw only the first card — it represents your past or present.”
“Thank you.” Windsor smiled, and said to Murphy: “Your eyes are really beautiful.”
Murphy’s lips curved slightly. He spread the cards out for him.
Claros nudged Yu Feichen with his elbow: “Does this look like the reaction of an ordinary person entering Eden for the first time?”
Yu Feichen: “Why would I bring back an ordinary person who’d be shocked by everything?”
Claros crossed his arms, his gaze still not leaving Windsor. “That’s not what I mean. You understand.”
Yu Feichen said nothing, though in truth he was also waiting to see Windsor’s result.
Windsor studied the spread of cards for a long time, then finally pressed his finger down on one slightly right of center.
“The position you chose reflects an inner inclination,” Murphy said. “You are accustomed to protecting yourself — you never act rashly before you have a full grasp of the situation.”
“Quite right.” Windsor readily agreed with this assessment.
At the same time, he turned the card over.
Black mist drifted silently across the card’s face.
The hourglasses throughout the room abruptly stopped flowing.
Claros let out a low laugh.
“Familiar?” he asked Yu Feichen.
It was familiar to Yu Feichen.
His own third card — the one Claros had once shown him — and the card Windsor had just drawn: anyone with eyes could see they belonged to the same series.
But there was a difference. Windsor’s illustration was far gentler than his.
Murphy lowered his gaze to the card face, and said, word by word: “An Outer God card.”
Baisong scratched his head.