When the Wild Beast is Trapped in the Nightmare Cycle (BL)
Chapter 638: For Naught

Chapter 638: For Naught

Sword of Heaven’s death had just occurred recently, but in this Cycle, it had been over a century?!

Knowing that they had probably hit the jackpot this time, Shen Nianzu promptly took out all the available snacks in the hover car and used it to coax the boy to talk more. The bait was a grand success; Piko was so bedazzled by the assortment of snacks before his eyes that he didn’t even wonder why the two people in front of him had no idea about the world’s common history.

As he shoved the delicious potato chips into his mouth, he began to spill everything he knew.

The catastrophe happened way before he was born. He had heard the tale from his mother, who had heard it from her mother in return.

Back then, human technology had not yet reached the level of sophistication as it was today. The land flourished with lush forestation and sweeping meadows—nothing like the current cyberpunk city which reeked heavily of iron, steel, and smoke. At that time, the reigning ruler of the land was not Master Nasser, who hadn’t even been born in that period. He was a wise, kind, and just ruler, but ironically, it was also because of him that most of the land was brought to ruin, turning it into the wasteland they were seeing right now.

Piko mumbled with his mouth full, "Grandma said Heaven punished him."

"Why?" Shen Nianzu asked.

"Because he wanted to unify the three main territories."

Shen Nianzu was caught off guard by that statement. He’d had a faint inkling, and with Piko’s answer, it had almost become a confirmation now.

The Master of the Land at that time... it must be Sword of Heaven!

It sounded just like something he might do, striving to unify the three main territories. The ignorant cursed him for his boundless greed, but Shen Nianzu didn’t believe even for a second Grandpa Song was such a vile person. Maybe, just maybe, the reason why he chose to do this was because he could no longer bear seeing the sirens, humans, and garudas suffer in a mutually hostile relationship. And he wanted to do whatever he could within the best of his ability to break this impasse.

Yet it all backfired.

History recorded him as a greedy ruler who drove his people and land to the brink of destruction.

So that’s how it is, Shen Nianzu felt enlightened now.

In the back of his mind, he had briefly wondered why such a vast land didn’t manage to catch Master Nasser’s eyes for city expansion. Instead, he had been more invested in building submarines and aircrafts to conquer the sky and ocean. But if this was all because of the devastating aftermath brought by the Nightmare’s presence, then everything could be explained.

There’s no way he wanted to touch this ’cursed land’ that reeked heavily of death and stillness.

What exactly happened back then that compelled the Nightmare to descend into this Cycle? Did it have something to do with its weakness, which the Sword of Heaven had discovered?

Shen Nianzu tried to extract more information from the boy’s mouth, but Piko was completely clueless about this. In his mind, the preceding Master of the Land was simply punished due to his insatiable greed.

Sighing, Shen Nianzu finally acknowledged that this wasn’t something a native would know about. It was futile to keep up the questioning, so he asked Piko to lead them toward the area where the former Master had perished.

They eventually got further and further away from the cyberpunk city, and everywhere they saw was a mere shell of the old city swept by the rampaging wave of destruction. Crumbling buildings lay in ruins, their skeletal frames jutting out like broken teeth, while yellow sand blanketed the roads, making it seem like they were traversing across a desert rather than a city.

Along the way, he maintained light conversation with Piko.

"How do you survive until now if you have nothing to eat? Are there others with you?"

"It’s not like the land is completely dead..." Piko muttered sheepishly after all the desperation he showed about having nothing to eat. "Some trees can still grow, but their barks are so tough and hard to bite, and the leaves taste bitter and astringent. Also there are a lot of rodents around, they dig through the sand and make their house underground. We’ve been surviving by hunting those rodents, gathering rainwater, and eating barks... but I’m sick of those." He pursed his lips tight. "We used to move in a large group, but over the years, people died and many chose to move into the city to pursue a better life."

"Agh, if I had known things would turn out like this, I would have entered the city too instead of honoring my mother’s dying wish!" He grabbed his dirty mop hair in frustration.

"Your mother’s dying wish?" Shen Nianzu echoed with an arched brow.

"She didn’t want me to enter the city no matter what..." he trailed off, clearly reluctant to elaborate. But under Shen Nianzu’s encouraging gaze, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and force the words out in embarrassment. "It’s silly, I know... she–she was senile during her last moments and often babbled strangely. She told me... there’s something dirty above the city and didn’t want me to go near it. Said it would bring all of us doom," he shrugged, a wry smile hanging on his face. "What’s doom compared to now? At least in the city, I can try to work and earn to feed myself..."

He had expected Shen Nianzu to laugh at him, chuckling at his foolishness, yet the siren unexpectedly maintained a serious expression. "Something dirty... above the city?" he muttered, his gaze lowered in thought.

"Oh, Nian’er, Nian’er—look!"

Jin Jiuchi exclaimed from the driver seat.

Following his gesture, Shen Nianzu saw that at a distance, amidst the swirling clouds, was the faint outline of the floating island aka the sky territory. Shen Nianzu had once glimpsed this magnificent scenery when he had just emerged from underwater, but this was the first time Jin Jiuchi had ever seen it—hence the excitement.

"Woah, how can it float like that? Do they use magic?" He stuck his face to the window, his eyes shining in wonder. "What if the magic runs out? Will the whole island fall straight down?"

Unfortunately, inside the hover car were two sirens and one other unconscious human, none could satisfy his childlike curiosity.

They traveled for another half an hour at twice the speed before Piko exclaimed, "W-We are here, it’s right ahead!"

Both Jin Jiuchi and Shen Nianzu peered at the direction he pointed out, only to see... nothing. The sky was in a mellow shade of blue and gray, while faint clouds occasionally drifted by. There was not even a trace of the fissure that had once split the sky open.

"You sure?" Jin Jiuchi questioned the boy with a face full of doubt and suspicion. "You didn’t lead us astray, did you?"

"N-No!" Startled, Piko shrunk into himself and replied fearfully, "It’s really there! I have heard a lot of people talk about it in passing... I swear I’m not lying to you!"

Shen Nianzu, on the other hand, was not too surprised by this outcome. He had kinda seen this coming after learning that over a hundred years had passed since Sword of Heaven’s passing in this Cycle. He had intended to search for clues provided that Grandpa Song had left them recently, but if it’s been so long... then forget it. Time had erased all the traces left behind, and the world must have repaired itself.

He let out a sigh—their journey out here turned out to be for naught.

"Should we go out and look around just in case, Nian’er?" Jin Jiuchi proposed, though judging from his tone, he simply wanted to leave the car and move his limbs that had gone stiff from staying still for so long.

Before Shen Nianzu could reply, however, Jin Jiuchi’s terminal rang and he accepted the call with an overly cheerful tone upon seeing the caller,

"Moshi-moshi. Wassup, my good brother? Miss me already?" He was so bored that he started to mess with Noir again, eliciting a big eyeroll from Shen Nianzu.

He could perfectly understand why Noir wanted to thrash this damned husky all the time—and honestly he didn’t blame Noir because sometimes he got the same urge too!

Whatever Jin Jiuchi heard on the other side caused the smile on his face to fade bit by bit, and he turned to hand the terminal to Shen Nianzu, his expression faintly confused unlike anything Shen Nianzu had seen before, like he was utterly lost on what to do,

"Nian’er, Noir said... Xinxin is in trouble?"

Shen Nianzu’s complexion blanched at the unexpected news. "What?!"