Chapter 92#
Genesis Fourteen#
Sunlit Street isn’t a true street in the conventional sense—or rather, it’s many streets.
This street might be an actual street, or it might be a whale’s back, a starship, or a misty jungle. Besides selling various goods, they double as showcasing those worlds’ vistas and entertainment. Goods from similar-type worlds sometimes cluster on the same street, sometimes mix. Purchased items can be used personally, brought to task worlds, or sent back to one’s homeland during Homecoming Festival—in short, maximum freedom.
Yu Feichen rarely came here. The supreme deity’s gaze surveying Sunlit Street was equally unfamiliar. They began exploring from the first street—a delicate classical magical city. Buildings sprawled intricately, visitors thronged, attendants from different races sweetly hospitable. Yet Yu Feichen had never felt shopping urge for such ornate things.
He thought the supreme deity, having experienced so many worlds, probably wasn’t much interested either—but continuing forward with this thought, he discovered the person beside him had disappeared.
Yu Feichen felt uneasy for two seconds until looking back found the deity standing before the initial merchandise. Sunlit Street had no shelves or displays; anything you saw was saleable.
He walked back.
A red-haired attendant was explaining: “Fantasy candles from the elf homeland of Kanlingen, with flowing dew inside, different luster every second, freezing in winter. Crafted from a year of the most beautiful elf’s song. On the night you light it, you have fifteen percent chance of dreaming of the person you most want to see, ten percent chance of dreaming of the place you most want to visit, five percent chance of dreaming of your favorite food, three percent chance of hearing…”
Yu Feichen looked at the candle. Admittedly, the color and shape were beautiful, and apparently someone was being seduced by the attendant’s tall tales.
Yu Feichen said flatly: “I dream of these without lighting candles.”
The attendant’s gaze lingered on him, suddenly growing alert: “Yu sir, you must know the deity establishes laws forbidding overly false introductions. You may not trust this number, but believe it’s possible.”
The supreme deity heard the attendant’s form of address and asked: “Do you often come here?”
Yu Feichen: “First time.”
He also didn’t know when people meeting him learned his name. Looking back at the candle, perhaps needing to change the subject, Yu Feichen asked: “You like it?”
“It contains an elf’s year of song inside,” the deity said. Looking at other merchandise here, Its gaze showed soft delight in the quiet—like butterflies seeing the first flower bloom after winter.
—It seemed interested in every item. Yu Feichen noticed this.
Yu Feichen felt absurd for the second time that day.
He said: “I thought you’d seen enough.”
“I… rarely truly look at them,” the supreme deity said, touching the candle’s surface with Its fingers. Crystal-like bubbles affectionately approached.
For long, It dealt with essence rather than appearance, accustomed to war rather than peace. Time had passed how long—already forgotten. As if in a blink, paradise and the divine kingdom became the bustling, peaceful place they are now. Distant subjects crafted beautiful artifacts more intricate than entire world structures.
Yu Feichen watched It reluctantly set down the fantasy candle and look toward the next one.
Yu Feichen: “If you like it, buy it.”
The supreme deity shook Its head.
Yu Feichen assumed this person would say something like “beautiful things need not be possessed”—some deity nonsense. He mentally prepared for selective hearing.
“I have no money.”
Yu Feichen: “…?”
That day, he finally heard the most absurd sentence of his life, temporarily losing ability to speak.
Someone who paved plazas with radiant ice stones said they had no money.
Yu Feichen gazed at the plaza outside.
“You,” he said, “dig some up?”
The supreme deity: “It doesn’t belong to me.”
Yu Feichen watched silently. Right, not belonging to the deity but to paradise’s people. True, the supreme god could be like this—worthy of the title.
The nearby attendant also watched silently, ready to dash to colleagues immediately after transaction completion, regaling them with the unprecedented marvel of Yu Feichen accompanying someone shopping. But now a small discord note appeared—perhaps Yu Feichen’s wasn’t genuine accompaniment but perfunctory, possibly even misleading this beautiful friend into violating laws, excavating the Radiant Ice Stone Plaza. The last person doing so was taken by the Disciplinary Deity and never returned. This sounded like a joke, but Yu-god said it without joking, and he and the word “joke” could never possibly connect…
Could there be something unspeakable involved?
The attendant’s mind wandered afar.
Yu Feichen wasn’t joking, merely purely questioning. He wasn’t genuinely asking the deity to find payment.
“Send to the Giant Tree Inn,” Yu Feichen said. “I’ll settle.”
The red-haired attendant recovered from various wild speculations, realizing the situation returned to normal tracks.
Yet the supreme deity slightly furrowed Its brow, as if this violated moral principles.
Yu Feichen could only speak with genuine tone: “I have plenty of radiant ice stones. You can buy freely today.”
The deity also replied earnestly: “But those are your legitimate earnings.”
Perhaps the supreme deity slept too long, hadn’t time to learn much, still thinking his radiant ice stones were genuinely earned from hard dungeon work. Yu Feichen gave the attendant a faint look.
“That’s right,” the attendant’s mind dredged up Yu Feichen’s dungeon pricing and looked toward merchandise pricing, suddenly dazed.
“Yu sir he… even the smallest loose change on his accounts might be… toward this price,” the attendant struggled for words, “utterly dismissive.”
The supreme deity blinked, looking at Yu Feichen as if recognizing a new him.
What followed was much simpler for Yu Feichen.
Each new street, he sat in the waiting area, watching different attendants show merchandise to the deity. They often got along well. Occasionally, the supreme deity mentioned a world’s customs; attendants, meeting kindred spirits in foreign lands, actively offered discounts.
Then merchandise was packed and sent to the Giant Tree Inn, bills presented to Yu Feichen.
Strangely, Yu Feichen discovered he could find happiness in signing bills.
He watched the deity standing under a coral tree speaking with an attendant, seemingly discussing a ritual of merfolk becoming human.
“Everything’s like the fairy tale,” the blue-eyed female attendant said. “There, to walk on land, every step is like treading on knife-tips, and we can never speak. This is the price one must pay for doing the impossible.”
The deity said something; the attendant suddenly took a pristine flower crown from the coral tree, comparing it against Its golden hair.
“You’re very suited for this,” she said, glancing toward Yu Feichen mysteriously asking: “When did you meet Yu sir?”
The supreme deity spoke softly: “Very long ago.”
Speaking this, It also gazed toward where It caught Yu Feichen’s eyes looking this way, smiling slightly.
Yu Feichen withdrew his gaze. The deity was in excellent spirits today; he could feel it.
If such things could make It happy, why didn’t the officials in the Tower of Genesis and temple attendants do them? The Temple of Twilight was desolately like a tomb.
—Perhaps no one dared invite the supreme deity shopping.
Or perhaps, in people’s expectations, deities needn’t possess worldly happiness, just as they needn’t possess worldly names.
The long bill-signing ceased when the supreme deity told him “tired from walking.” So Yu Feichen didn’t let the noble deity take more steps, bringing him aboard a unicorn-drawn white carriage back to the Giant Tree Inn.
The only unpleasant thing was timing proved unfortunate. Murphy had finished sketching by the Twilight River, now painting the Giant Tree Inn. When the carriage stopped before the tree, out of proper courtesy, Yu Feichen steadied the deity’s arm, protecting him stepping down, meeting Murphy’s eyes boring intensely this way, eye-socket flames unstable.
Yu Feichen expressionlessly looked toward the person’s canvas.
Not particularly ugly, merely unprepared aesthetic sensibility.
The painter probably found no suitable praise, softly encouraging: “That brushstroke’s color tone is well-mixed.”
When narrow paths cross, unavoidable further, Yu Feichen symbolically greeted them. The supreme deity looked at Murphy’s canvas: “You’re still painting.”
Murphy nodded, but still watched Yu Feichen, seemingly wanting to say something.
The deity put a milk tea in his hands: “For you.”
Another for the painter.
Yu Feichen coldly observed. This drink the deity brought three total to return, intending to give the three of them. But the deity met other acquaintances early; Bai Song naturally lost his.
Two cups given, one remains. The supreme deity looked at the lonely cup, continuing giving it to Murphy: “Give to Claros. I remember the Door of Eternal Night should start operating.”
Then, Yu Feichen stepped forward, naturally bringing the deity away.
Murphy snapped the brush handle in his hand.
Inside the inn, the tree-person attendant guided: “Yu sir, Sunlit Street items are over here.”
The Giant Tree Inn provided a spacious hollowed tree house for these things, interior roaming with fireflies, various-sized items placed in exquisite gift boxes.
The supreme deity quietly looked for a while, picked up a long narrow box beside, seemingly planning to open the packaging.
Yu Feichen placed his hand on the satin bow.
The deity looked at him.
Yu Feichen: “How do you plan to thank me?”
The supreme deity pondered.
After pondering, It said: “Would you like a wish?”
This time Yu Feichen pondered.
Before pondering results, the special intuition of the Door of Eternal Night opening suddenly swept through his entire body.
“Door opened, countdown 10, 9, 8, 7…”
“Gatekeeper friendly reminder: Dear guest, this world you’re about to enter: strength 8, amplitude 2, perfect score 10.”
Seeing the deity opposite unconsciously holding the box unwilling to let go, Yu Feichen suddenly felt the urge to sigh.
—He thought Claros’s eagerness to start work didn’t need to be this enthusiastic.