Chapter 165: Do You Still Remember My Mom?
Hearing this sound, Lao Yang’s smile vanished. He looked at Lin Yan in astonishment, standing there leaning against the inner wall of the coffin well, yet he clearly remembered that before Lin Yan spoke, no one was there!
Could it be that Lin Yan also discovered the secret here? Lao Yang’s mind became a jumble. He didn’t know whether to first explain the wonders of this place to Wu Xie, or to investigate where Lin Yan had appeared from.
Although these two matters were essentially the same, he looked at Wu Xie, who was smiling and walking towards Lin Yan, and frowned: Is this Lin Yan real? If this Lin Yan is real, then what was that strange reaction he had towards the bronze tree before?
Although he made up the story about experiencing hallucinations when touching the bronze tree, Lin Yan’s state clearly indicated he was possessed. Without external forces, he shouldn’t have been able to regain consciousness, so how could he be standing here perfectly fine?
Wait, what did Lin Yan just say? How much of his ability was left?
Seeing that Wu Xie wasn’t paying attention to him, Lao Yang secretly glanced at the face sealed within the corpse cocoon, which looked somewhat blurry—it was still his face!
This is wrong! His expression instantly darkened. He knew the power of the bronze tree like the back of his hand; this kind of thing shouldn’t have happened at all! At first, if it showed his face, it could be explained as Wu Xie’s subconscious projecting him as the final boss, but now that he was thinking of Lin Yan’s face, how could there still be no change?
Lin Yan watched Lao Yang’s face turn from ashen to black as the bottom of a pot, finding it quite amusing. He didn’t realize Lao Yang had such a talent for changing expressions! It seems if he can’t find a job in the future, he could do commercial performances to supplement his income.
“Lin Yan, where did you come from?”
Seeing Lin Yan, Wu Xie immediately forgot about Lao Yang’s cryptic demeanor. He looked Lin Yan up and down, and seeing that his complexion was good and his body seemed fine, with no apparent injuries, he finally felt relieved.
“You scared me to death earlier! You kept climbing up, and we couldn’t hold you back. You climbed so fast, we couldn’t keep up at all! Have you been here for more than a day? Why didn’t I see you when we came down just now?” While speaking, Wu Xie’s eyes fell upon the little white bundle Lin Yan was holding. He hadn’t petted it all day, and felt a bit antsy, so he took it and started petting it vigorously, rubbing and shaping the little white zombie like a tangyuan, making “ying ying ying” sounds.
Lin Yan glanced at Lao Yang, who was standing there blankly behind them, and felt it would be better to let him answer. After all, it was he who had tricked Wu Xie into coming here. However… there were some things he could tell Wu Xie in advance to prepare him mentally. To be honest, although this world had been fantastical since Wu Xie’s first descent, what was about to happen would be a test of his worldview.
So, he beckoned to Wu Xie: “Don’t you want to know where I came in from?”
“Ah? Oh, right, right.” Wu Xie was still immersed in the joy of petting the bundle. Hearing Lin Yan’s question, he looked up and scanned the surroundings and above the coffin well: “I didn’t see you when I slid down either? All four sides here are sealed, and there was no movement from above just now. Where exactly did you come in from?”
Lin Yan took his hand and led him towards the bronze wall of the coffin well behind them.
The surface was rough and cold. Even through the gloves, it sent a shiver through Wu Xie: “Isn’t this solid?”
Lin Yan shook his head and simply told Wu Xie, “Try again.”
Could this not be solid? Could it be a door? Wu Xie was somewhat hesitant and surprised. He looked at the width of the coffin well and recalled the width of the bronze tree. It seemed… there was indeed some discrepancy? But that didn’t seem right. The bronze tree was so tall and massive; if it weren’t thick enough, it wouldn’t be so stable. Even if there was a coffin well inside, the other parts should be solid!
Or could it be… a mechanism?
While thinking, he slowly applied more force to the wall of the coffin well and indeed felt something was off: “Is this inner wall a door?”
Lin Yan blinked: “Do you want to know where it leads?”
Wu Xie looked back at Lao Yang and, seeing him still staring blankly at the corpse cocoon without speaking, couldn’t help but shake his head. He applied more force with his hand—he didn’t feel like he was pushing a door, but rather he watched his hand sink into the wall, and a question mark slowly formed in his mind.
???
Wu Xie quickly withdrew his hand, looking at the wall as if it hadn’t been touched. The place where his hand had sunk instantly returned to its original state. Disbelievingly, he placed his hand on it again—it still felt like a wall. What was going on?
He looked at Lin Yan. Lin Yan smiled and, without hesitation, reached his hand into the wall, then half his body… Wu Xie watched, dumbfounded, as Lin Yan walked into the wall and disappeared before his eyes. Two seconds later, he miraculously walked out of the wall.
Was he dreaming? Or had he gone mad from the influence of the bronze tree? His right hand pressed against the wall trembled, and the feel of it told him it was indeed a real bronze wall, its surface uneven and slightly rusty from corrosion by the years, warmed slightly by his hand.
But Lin Yan had clearly walked right in.
Seeing Wu Xie looking absent-minded, Lin Yan stopped teasing him, figuring he might start doubting life if he pushed it further: “You try it, this is actually a door, you can go in too.”
“Really?”
Wu Xie tried to find the spot where his hand had sunk in before, but in his panic, every time he pressed down, it was a solid wall. His wrist bones ached from the pressure, but there was no movement at all: “W-why can’t I?”
Seeing Wu Xie really starting to doubt life, Lin Yan patted his shoulder and told him to calm down: “It’s okay, just follow me.”
He pulled Wu Xie’s arm, and with one step, half his body was inside the wall. Seeing Wu Xie still a bit dazed, he gave a hard tug—before Wu Xie could react, his vision went black, and he heard a familiar squeaking sound.
“Here…” he asked suspiciously, fumbling for his flashlight. He pressed it twice, but it didn’t turn on. Beside him, a light illuminated. He turned to look; it was the beam from Lin Yan’s flashlight.
The light shone on the surrounding scenery, making him feel very familiar, like the winding boardwalk on the stone wall in the distance.
“Are we outside already?”
He suddenly turned his head, finding it incredible: “This bronze tree is so wide, and the diameter is so different from the coffin well inside, how did we get through? And this door…”
He walked back and used his hand to push against the place he came out of. As expected, it had turned back into solid bronze, and no matter how much he pushed, he couldn’t get through: “What’s going on with this door? How exactly did we get through?”
Lin Yan looked at him with a playful smile: “It’s very simple, you just wanted to come through, so you did.”
“…What do you mean?” Wu Xie didn’t understand, tilting his head to look at him, his small eyes filled with great confusion.
Lin Yan repeated meaningfully: “You wanted to come through, so you did.”
You wanted to come through, so you did? Wu Xie repeated the phrase, feeling like he had caught a hint, but the tail of inspiration was just a centimeter from his fingertips; he needed more related clues.
“…Then can I go back if I want to go back?”
He muttered to himself in disbelief, but Lin Yan nodded: “Yes, you can go back if you want to go back.”
So Wu Xie pressed against the cold bronze, trying hard to think of his hand as a door that would lead him back to the coffin well where Lao Yang was. But minutes passed, and the bronze under his hand remained bronze; no matter how hard he pushed, he couldn’t get through. Could it be that this bronze was selective, that Lin Yan could pass but he couldn’t?
Seeing that Wu Xie couldn’t do it no matter how he tried, Lin Yan seemed to understand the problem: “This won’t work, you have to believe in yourself. Your subconscious still thinks this is solid bronze and not a passage, so you can’t get through.”
“But…” Wu Xie frowned. If that was the case, he hadn’t believed there was a door here before, so how had he gotten through? He asked Lin Yan, who paused: “Maybe you believed me?”
That seemed right, Wu Xie thought. He had indeed subconsciously believed in Lin Yan, which might be why he was pulled through by him. But he couldn’t seem to go back on his own?
Seeing Wu Xie looking at him with a troubled expression, Lin Yan understood that Wu Xie’s focus was still on why he couldn’t go back and hadn’t grasped the core issue. When he did, his expression probably wouldn’t be so calm.
But Lao Yang must be getting impatient by now?
He glanced at the bronze tree, as if trying to see Lao Yang’s face through the thick inner wall, and in the next second, he grabbed the still-dazed Wu Xie and walked inside.
“No, I haven’t—”
Wu Xie didn’t finish his sentence before stumbling and returning to Lao Yang’s front, meeting eyes with Lao Yang, who had turned upon hearing the movement: “I haven’t prepared yet.”
Lao Yang’s complexion was very poor now. He looked at Wu Xie’s eyes filled with confusion and gave Lin Yan a slightly self-deprecating smile: “Did you tell him?”
Huh? Tell him what? That this wall can be passed through if you want to?
Lin Yan looked at Wu Xie, who still hadn’t grasped the main point, and rubbed his forehead: “Why don’t you tell him? I hinted at it subtly, but he doesn’t seem to have figured it out yet.”
Figure what out? Why did Lin Yan and Lao Yang seem to be in cahoots now, teaming up to speak in riddles with him?
Wu Xie was internally going crazy. If he hadn’t known that Lao Yang and Lin Yan had no prior connection, he would have suspected these two of conspiring to trick him!
“What exactly is this thing, can’t you just say it clearly?”
“I did say it,” Lin Yan spread his hands innocently. “You can, as long as you want to.”
What kind of hint was this? Seeing Wu Xie bewildered, Lao Yang gave a bitter smile: “Still haven’t reacted? You can do anything as long as you want; you can obtain anything as long as you want. Don’t you understand yet?”
“As long as… I want?” Wu Xie seemed to have grasped something and thought desperately about the sentence, becoming creeped out as he thought. As the saying goes, if you eliminate all impossibilities, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Thus, that unrealistic, absurd notion gradually took root in his mind: “As long as… I want, anything can be achieved, right?”
“In essence, yes.”
Lao Yang gave a bitter smile and nodded.
Wu Xie looked up at his surroundings, finding this place increasingly bizarre. How could something like this exist? Then wouldn’t anyone here become a god? In that case, when Li Pipa’s ancestors entered, did they subconsciously believe there was a goddess below, so they saw a goddess’s corpse? They thought there was treasure below, so there really was treasure below, and anything they thought of would appear, which is why they left that suggestive phrase for their descendants?
Then what about Li Pipa and the others above… Wu Xie shivered and abruptly looked up to ask Lao Yang: “If the things… if things are like this, what about people? Do those with life also work the same way?”
He involuntarily lowered his head to look at the giant corpse in the corpse cocoon. Could it be that if he thought of this corpse coming alive, it would actually be reanimated?
Lao Yang understood Wu Xie very well. As soon as he saw him look down, he knew what mischievous thought he was having and quickly interrupted him: “Stop! Don’t think about it! Stop!”
Seeing Lao Yang’s tense expression, Wu Xie forced himself to clear his thoughts and returned to the previous topic: “So, Li Pipa and the others being alive, was it also because of this? They all knew they had died once! And Uncle Tai and the others… why were their corpses in the coffins below?”
Lao Yang looked at Wu Xie and shook his head: “This ability can only be obtained after coming into contact with the bronze tree, and the only ones who had contact with the bronze tree before were…”
He silently looked towards Lin Yan. Wu Xie was startled, and then he remembered that Lin Yan was the only one not wearing gloves. But he thought: “That doesn’t seem right either? The timing is wrong. Boss Wang and the others said they woke up over a day, almost two days ago. We hadn’t even touched the bronze tree then!”
Lao Yang sighed and silently took out the branch he had sawed off earlier from his bag. There was still a tooth mark left by Lin Yan at the tip of the branch.
Wu Xie was shocked. Could touching it so long ago still have an effect?
As if knowing what Wu Xie was thinking, Lao Yang looked at Lin Yan with a complicated expression: “Honestly, I thought it was impossible at first, but after thinking about it, this is the most likely answer. And I can see that his mastery of this ability is stronger than mine.”
Much stronger. Lao Yang thought with bitterness, looking at Lin Yan as if he were jealous. He didn’t know why, but this bronze tree seemed to belong to Lin Yan. Ever since Lin Yan arrived, his control over this ability had been declining rapidly.
At first, he thought his ability had weakened due to not coming to the main trunk of the bronze tree for so long. But now that he had arrived, his control was weakening even more, and Wu Xie clearly couldn’t use this ability well. Only then did he realize it was because of Lin Yan.
“So, Lao Yang, the ability you want to give me is this kind of ability?”
Wu Xie frowned, finding it somewhat unbelievable. This ability actually existed? Although it seemed useless outside of this place – otherwise, Li Pipa’s ancestor would have become Emperor long ago – but such a world-shattering thing actually existed?
Wu Xie felt like his whole being was off. Although at first he was ecstatic that he could also become omnipotent, this moment was followed by dread.
He didn’t believe that pies would fall from the sky for no reason. This kind of ability definitely wasn’t obtainable that easily; there must be certain limitations or side effects, even if they weren’t apparent now.
And Lao Yang had come here three years ago. Recalling Lao Yang’s deception when he said he was short a large sum of money, it seemed like a lie now, but he had a strange intuition that Lao Yang wasn’t lying about this matter. But since he could control this ability, why didn’t he create some treasure for himself and instead deceive him into coming down together? Was there something that absolutely required him?
“Lao Yang, you’ve told me all this, and you still won’t tell the truth? Why do you insist that I have this ability?” Having figured this out, Wu Xie looked at Lao Yang’s eyes with a frown, in a posture as if they were about to go to court.
Lao Yang smiled bitterly and took out a photograph from a place close to his heart, his voice strangely tinged with sorrow: “My mom, do you remember her?”
Woke up: Huh? Where’s my chapter? Oh, it hasn’t been published yet. This story tells us not to believe in scheduled publishing; it can cause formatting issues.
