Chapter 154: A Quick Trip to Dan Heng's Old Haunt
Is this chair even usable anymore?
Jing Yuan stared at the Space Anchor that had sprouted directly from the seat of his favorite chair. He tentatively measured the height of its shimmering tip with his hand, concluding that sitting down was now a physical impossibility. There was simply no way to do so without getting impaled.
He wasn't constipated, and he certainly didn't need this… thing to "treat" him.
He sighed, a deep, weary sound. Eight hundred years ago, he'd been on the receiving end of that man's signature, infuriatingly cheerful 'Ciaooo~!'; eight hundred years later, he was still the target of his pranks. That old fellow truly had no sense of boundaries, treating the General of the Luofu as if he were some common Abomination of Abundance to be swatted away.
That divination had been right on the money. Some people were just born to be your natural nemesis.
Jing Yuan felt a wave of regret so deep he could have beaten his chest and stamped his feet. Why was he so naive back then? Why did he ever listen to a word that man said?
'You came from The Finality…'
An idea suddenly struck Jing Yuan, sharp and clear.
Trailblaze… The Finality.
Trailblaze. The Finality.
A wild, audacious theory ignited a firestorm in the General's mind. 'Could it be… that The Finality is clearing the mines… for the Path of Trailblaze?'
While Jing Yuan was left to find a new chair, Rekka had already rounded up Stelle and Dan Heng, ready to go Trailblazing with gleeful abandon.
His sales pitch was simple and urgent. "I worked my butt off to get this opportunity from the General! I have no idea when he'll come to his senses and regret it, so we absolutely, positively, cannot miss this chance!"
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Stelle hefted her bat, grinning. "Let's Trailblaze."
Armed with the permit personally issued by Jing Yuan, the trio made their way to the entrance of the Shackling Prison.
Dan Heng had no objections, merely reminding the other two not to wander off or, under any circumstances, attempt to release any of the prisoners.
"Whoa, look at this gate," Stelle said, poking at the massive metal slab. "It's pretty high-tech. Does it have an anti-pinch design?"
A nearby Cloud Knight guard answered in a monotone. "There is no such design. Please do not loiter at the gate of the Shackling Prison."
"Fine, fine," Rekka said, waving them forward. "We'll just go in and activate the anchors."
He said "activating," not "placing." Someone had, impossibly, already been inside the Shackling Prison to set up a network of Space Anchors.
"Trailblazers, right?" Rekka mused aloud. "Aren't we amazing?"
"I'm more curious about who came in here and installed these things one by one," Stelle muttered, tapping the first anchor they came across, which hummed to life. As long as a Trailblazer from the Astral Express drew near, the bio-electric field would reactivate it.
"It doesn't feel gloomy here at all," she observed, looking around the sterile, well-lit corridors. "So, did Dan Heng have a criminal record here before?"
"He sure did," Rekka chirped.
"Ahem," Stelle said, turning to the jailer escorting them with a perfectly innocent smile. "Excuse me, miss jailer, could you take us to see Dan Heng's old cell?"
A death stare from Dan Heng followed.
Just as Stelle braced herself for a lecture, Dan Heng spoke, his voice even.
"I know the way. I'll take you."
Good heavens. He wasn't angry at all. It seemed this place no longer held the same painful power over him. He wasn't serving a sentence here anymore; he was just a visitor.
The jailer glanced at the transit permit, personally stamped by the General, and shrugged. A simple tour was fine, she supposed, as long as they didn't get too close to the occupied cells.
"That cell," she said, gesturing down a heavily fortified wing, "once held Imbibitor Lunae."
"I heard Rekka say the Xianzhou Shackling Prison also holds an Ori—" Stelle began.
"Don't say it," the jailer cut her off, her voice suddenly sharp. "That name cannot be mentioned."
"Oh. Okay." Stelle obediently clammed up. The jailer gave them a long, silent look before continuing the tour.
Rekka, meanwhile, casually placed a new Space Anchor outside the entrance to the Eternal Prison. He noticed a predecessor had already dropped one on the opposite side of the corridor. With a thoughtful hum, he positioned his to create a perfect, symmetrical pair.
'Seriously, who came in here to place all these?' he wondered. He was starting to suspect that some of the actual prison cells might have anchors hidden inside them, left by some unknown, ridiculously bold Trailblazer.
"The tour is over," the jailer announced abruptly. "Please leave."
The three of them were "escorted" all the way back to the main gate. The heavy doors slid shut behind them with a dull, final thud.
Back on the Astral Express, Stelle finally voiced the question that had been bothering her.
"By the way, why couldn't we mention that original long-life person you talked about?"
"Because it's a matter of extreme security," Rekka explained, shaking his head. "If that… entity… shows even the slightest sign of waking up, the Marshal has to be notified immediately. The location of its imprisonment is one of the Xianzhou's most guarded secrets."
"Is it… that big of a deal?"
"Let me put it this way," Rekka said, his tone turning serious. "A Lord Ravager couldn't kill him. And I don't mean a lesser lord on Phantylia's level."
He mentally pulled up the file. Original Long-Life Species—Crimes: Refining the Elixir of Immortality, becoming the first long-life inhabitant of the Xianzhou.
"Because he was the one who created the Elixir, the Xianzhou people became a long-life species," Rekka continued, waving a copy of The General History of the Xianzhou he'd picked up. "If you look closely, the actions of the Xianzhou seem contradictory. Their longevity comes from Abundance, yet they want to kill the Aeon of Abundance and forbid others from seeking immortality. Sounds like a bunch of ungrateful hypocrites, right?"
He paused for effect. "The answer is that the Denizens of Abundance aren't altruistic. They give, but they also take. During the Era of Three Sufferings, there are records of people blessed by Abundance literally starving to death—and the torment of that starvation was far longer and more painful than it would be for a mortal."
"So why did the Xianzhou turn around and start fighting other followers of Abundance?" Stelle asked.
"Because the Denizens of Abundance, as a whole, deserve to die," Rekka stated bluntly. "A few good people on the Path of Abundance don't change the fact that most of them are monsters. How do you think those space-faring swarm disasters came about? Once the Xianzhou realized that Ascension was a trap, they had to stop everyone else from falling into it and contain the fallout. Otherwise, if some truly terrifying Denizen of Abundance was born, it would be a universal catastrophe. They really do act as cosmic police, and despite their internal politics, they are firmly on the side of Lawful Good. Besides, even if you're a 'good' person blessed by Abundance, other followers will eventually take the initiative to hunt and kill you."
"Oh," Stelle said, processing that. "Then why did you say even a Lord Ravager couldn't kill that original guy?"
"Because…" Rekka started, then forced himself to swallow the words. The full truth was too much. 'Because I saw it happen, back when I was walking the Path of The Finality as an avatar of Terminus.'
"When did you walk the Path of The Finality?" Stelle's curiosity was instantly piqued. "How come I never knew?"
"It was a long time ago," Rekka said evasively. "Before I even joined the Express."
"Then what does Terminus's avatar look like?"
"It's a Hajimi," Rekka said with a straight face. "A little black cat."
Stelle nodded, having gotten the answer she wanted. She looked completely satisfied.
"You know a lot," Dan Heng murmured, his eyes slightly lowered. A thought suddenly surfaced, sharp and dangerous. "...Wait, Rekka."
Rekka turned to him.
"Can you… change the past?"
"I can," Rekka replied, his voice devoid of its usual humor. "When The Finality, Trailblaze, and Remembrance intersect at the same time."
Dan Heng's gaze locked onto Rekka's face, searching for any hint of a lie. "...The price?"
"The price is that our timeline will be permanently discarded," Rekka said flatly. "I won't disappear, but everything else will. Including the entire universe."
The carriage fell into a heavy silence for a few seconds.
Stelle blinked, looking from Rekka's grim expression to Dan Heng's conflicted one.
"Then it's better not to change the past," she concluded simply.
Dan Heng gave a heavy nod.
"You want to change Imbibitor Lunae's past?" Rekka asked softly.
"It was just a thought…" Dan Heng mumbled, looking away.
"It's not impossible to avoid discarding the entire timeline," Rekka added, his voice dropping lower. "But the person resurrected, and the person whose fate is changed, will both clearly remember their original ending. And at the same time…"
Rekka's pupils, tinged with the faint gold of his unique blood, met Dan Heng's gaze.
"...they will self-destruct under the will of the universe."
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