Chapter 1078: Sleepy
“...Grandpa?”
Gao Yang's trembling voice echoed in the empty underground space, taking on an otherworldly quality.
“Haha, my dear grandson’s all grown up. Grandpa almost didn’t recognize you.”
The old man’s deep, hoarse voice sounded bleak, like he had seen the rises and falls through the ages. The crimson pond at his feet rippled in response.
“What…what is this? Didn’t you, didn’t Granny…”
“Yang Yang, you saw what happened that night, didn’t you?” His grandfather narrowed his gray eyes. “Your granny cut off my arm so that I couldn’t sing.”
Gao Yang’s pupils dilated. It felt as if his blood was going in reverse.
“Haha.” His grandfather continued to speak to himself, calm like he was recalling a mundane memory. “Grandpa discovered who you were. Worried that I would sing, your granny wanted to kill me. But she knew that wouldn’t help. If she killed me, there would be another me.”
Gao Yang activated Psychic Armor, his tone hardening. “What monster are you?”
“In human language,” his grandfather’s eyes flashed with an eerie red, “I’m the summoner prime.”
Summoner prime!
Things fell into place in Gao Yang’s mind.
“So,” he said tentatively, “You’ve been waiting for me?”
“Yes.” His grandfather’s expression turned gentle. “Grandpa has been waiting for you. I know you’d one day find your way here.”
After a few seconds, Gao Yang finally mustered the courage to ask, “Grandpa, are you a friend, or foe?”
“Friend? Foe?” His grandfather considered the words. Then he sighed softly. “I don’t know. Grandpa has always cared about Yang Yang, but I have my mission to carry out.”
Gao Yang fell silent.
Even with Psychic Armor activated, a sliver of sadness and regret still slipped through the cracks to hit him.
No matter what, the old man before him was now the only family he and Gao Xinxin had, yet it didn’t seem like this story would end in a happy reunion.
His grandfather chuckled before slowly explaining, “Yun didn’t kill me. She made a deal with me, telling me to give our grandson a little more time. I wouldn’t sing until you’re grown up and matured.”
“You…promised Granny?” Gao Yang asked in disbelief.
His grandfather curled his lips. “Singing is my duty. I only have to complete it. It doesn’t matter much if I sing earlier or later. Now that Yang Yang’s all grown up, your granny and I can rest easy.”
He slowly rose from the red chair. “Yang Yang, Grandpa is going.”
“Wait! Tell me what you’re going to do!” Gao Yang had an ominous feeling. He jumped up to stop his grandfather, but an intangible barrier stopped him. He tried Teleportation; it didn’t work.
Just then, the purple butterfly perching on the old man flew to the stump of his left arm, slipping into the empty sleeve. Purple light spread. The butterfly seemed to melt.
His left forearm regenerated. Thick white bones tore the cropped sleeve open, then dark red muscles and tendons followed. Gao Yang saw that it wasn't a human arm, but what appeared to be a horn of flesh.
The old man slowly turned around, inserting the organic horn into the massive red horn behind him.
“Wrath, delusion, greed! All suffer!”
“Pride, life, death! No causality!”
“Ten thousand wonders!”
“All return as one!”
Tremendous energy erupted from the old man's chest. He tipped his head back and howled, shaking the underground palace and sending the crimson liquid surging like a fountain, its patterns rippling like sound made visible.
The old man's body began to bleed. Then his skin and flesh "melted" like red wax under intense heat.
“No!” Gao Yang screamed. He tried again and again to breach the barrier, to stop what was happening, but the force field around the crimson pond remained as impenetrable as his own Absolute Barrier. He couldn't break through.
In ten seconds, his grandfather's body dissolved into a pool of blood, flowing into the giant red horn. Then crimson energy pulsed outward in rings, rushing—no, sounding the horn.
An ancient, mysterious sound rang out, winding and desolate. Defying nature itself, it penetrated flesh and bone, washing over body and soul alike. Gao Yang felt an oppression and anxiety he had never known. Unknown to him, the horn's call had reached every single person on every isolated island in the Mist World.
He watched his grandfather die, paralyzed with indecision.
“Leave!”
Suddenly, a voice urged him; it seemed to have come from his head—no, his heart.
He didn't know whose voice it was, but he obeyed. Without hesitation, he Spatial Jumped out of the underground palace.
Whoosh. A second later, he stood in the clearing outside the dried well. Looking up, he found everyone had gathered, surrounding the well as they waited for him.
Evening had fallen. The crimson setting sun painted heaven and earth in red. They had all heard the oppressive, unnerving horn. They looked to the sky in confusion and helplessness, as if witnessing the end of time.
“What’s going on, Gao Yang?” War Tiger asked seriously, lifting his Dragonslaying Giantsword off his shoulder.
Vermilion Bird asked gravely, “What was that sound?”
“There’s a palace under the well. The summoner prime had been hiding there. It was my—” Gao Yang stopped, his gaze falling to the back of the group. Something was wrong with Wang Zikai.
He seemed dazed, his eyes repeatedly closing as if he was fighting sleep.
Gao Yang weaved through the group and hurried up to him. “Wang Zikai?”
“Hm?” Wang Zikai blinked awake when he heard Gao Yang’s voice, widening his eyes and breaking into a grin. “You’re finally out, bro. What was in the well?”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m okay. What can be not okay with me?” Wang Zikai was going to say something else when a yawn interrupted him. “It’s just…I suddenly feel…sleepy…”
He closed his eyes and collapsed to the ground.
Houseau3's ThoughtsNo. Noooooo.
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