Chapter 54

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

[<<< | Table of Contents | >>>]

—–

Chapter 54: Purgatory Reunion (VI)

At this moment, the world was silent.

Qi Leren stood on a black rock in the middle of the lake of fire, staring at Ning Zhou, who had become a dragon. The dragon also stared at him. The slender and horrible vertical pupils of cold-blooded animals showed the gentleness of recognition.

The fire and rain falling from the sky stopped, and the magma erupting angrily because of the force of destruction also stopped. This dark underground world was immersed in the warm sunshine pouring in from the gap and the holy light from the Prophet’s Heart.

For a moment, Qi Leren couldn’t say anything, because there were too many words choked in his throat. When he opened his mouth, the words that could be said and could not be said were about to slip away before his eyes.

He held out his hand and wanted to touch the dragon that he was so close to. Even in purgatory, its head was head high rather, not low. But the dragon in front of him gently lowered its head and stopped in front of his eyes.

Qi Leren stroked the dragon’s cold scales, and then hugged him. He didn’t even dare to put pressure into it. He just put his face on the cold dragon scales and choked:

“Ning Zhou, I’m back.”

This sentence was like a spell. Qi Leren’s tears that had been building finally flowed down. These tears were full of love and joy. He was thankful that he wasn’t too late, and that the tragedy in his nightmares hadn’t taken place. He finally came to Ning Zhou before everything was irreversible.

As long as Ning Zhou was still alive, there was still hope for everything.

It was also with this sentence that the dragon standing in the lake of fire slowly changed back to its human form—a thin, gaunt, but still alive Ning Zhou. When he stared at him with his blue eyes that held too much emotion, Qi Leren suddenly felt that Ning Zhou knew everything, and he understood everything.

Whether it was misunderstanding, deep guilt, or love, when they met again in this hot lake, a pair of loving souls embraced everything.

&&&

“Is this who you were talking about, His Majesty’s dead lover?” The Witch of Nothingness turned her head. Although she never opened her eyes, she “stared” at the Devil of Evil, waiting for his answer.

All the demons sitting around the long table looked at him. This oppressive gaze made the Devil of Evil feel pressured. He spread his hands: “According to intelligence, he is indeed dead, but the truth of the matter doesn’t seem so simple. I’m afraid even our Majesty thinks he’s dead.”

“Whose side is he from?” The Witch of Desperation only cared about this problem.

“The Holy See?” the Witch of Resentment murmured, staring at Qi Leren who was shrouded by the power of a holy angel.

“No, the intelligence said that he’s a foreigner. He came here from another world, and he had no faith. However, his strength is biased towards the Holy See. Which master in their camp gave him an item to borrow strength?” the Devil of Evil mused.

The Witch of Desperation waved her hand, and the magic mirror’s perspective pulled away, overlooking the lake of fire from a distance. The paradise reflected in the holy light covering the sky had the divine beauty of dusk, just as it had been repeatedly described in the Canon, the home of God.

“It’s the Village of Dusk’s Prophet!” The Witch of Nothingness recognized the characteristics of this miracle and revealed it in the same breath.

“It seems that His Majesty’s little lover is a man favored by the Prophet. If he doesn’t know what his original strength is, he’ll never become a ‘guardian’ like Maria, right?” The Devil of Evil touched his chin and showed innocent cruelty in his eyes. “Oh, I don’t want to see the tragedy of that year repeat itself.”

The Witch of Desperation looked at the magic mirror silently and said after a long time, “It’s a pity… It’s almost too similar.”

The Witch of Nothingness comforted: “There’s no rush for a while.”

“Haha, aren’t you going to rush out and stop them now? Even if you say yes, I won’t go, I still want to keep this life for a long time.” The Devil of Evil put his hands behind his head and leaned lazily against the back of the chair.

“Wait and see. It’s not time for us to show up yet,” said the Witch of Desperation, drawing a pause symbol on the attempted operation.

&&&

The two people didn’t go far. Ning Zhou was tired when Qi Leren found him, as if he hadn’t slept for several days, and he forced him to have a rest. They settled down in a secret cave not too far from the lake of fire, and Ning Zhou set up a barrier to prevent harassment from lower demons.

There were fluorescent fungi and luminous moths like butterflies in this cave, and Qi Leren took out a lantern to make the dim light illuminate their surroundings.

Qi Leren leaned against the cave wall, and Ning Zhou rested on his leg, his body covered with a blanket.

The warm light of the lantern allowed the two exhausted people to briefly escape from this Nightmare World and take a nap in a pure peaceful land. The scarred soul wrapped in its scarred body finally found rest here.

Ning Zhou quietly looked at Qi Leren, but he couldn’t close his eyes for even a moment until Qi Leren secretly hooked his hand under the blanket, and their two hands clasped each other. Then, his nervous look eased slightly.

“Can’t sleep?” Qi Leren asked softly.

Ning Zhou shook his head gently, holding Qi Leren’s hand tightly, as if when he let go, the warmth in his hand would slip away quietly.

“Then let’s talk for a while?” Their old estrangement had long since disappeared. At this time, Qi Leren simply had endless questions and endless words. He was curious about everything about Ning Zhou, his childhood, his past, his mood, and he also had a lot of things to tell him, such as how worried he was… He can talk about forever on his own.

Qi Leren couldn’t help but talk about it. From the beginning when he had found love at first sight, he talked about his inner struggle and suffering.

“…I’m not afraid to love someone of the same sex, but I’m afraid my feelings will hurt you. At that time, I even thought… if I choose to be patient to let you live better, I would rather… be patient my whole life. But… but, in the end, my love has become your burden. I’m sorry, Ning Zhou… I’m sorry…”

Just as tears fell from his eyes, Ning Zhou wiped them away with his fingers.

“At that time, I wrote a 7 to tell you that I would be resurrected in seven days, but the moment I wrote it, I regretted it. Because… I shouldn’t have said this… I never knew it would be so painful to tell the truth. If I hadn’t said it, maybe you wouldn’t be here now, you’d still be living in Neverland, and you wouldn’t suffer so much…”

When Qi Leren had learned of Ning Zhou’s end in that game, besides his great fear, his heart had been filled with endless guilt and remorse.

He instinctively blamed himself for everything, and decided that his existence had made Ning Zhou embark on a road full of thorns, which was indeed the case. Without his existence, Ning Zhou’s identity would still be an exorcist in Neverland, instead of… a descendant of the Destroyer.

“Then you would spend your whole life deceiving yourself?” Ning Zhou asked gently.

Qi Leren was silent.

“Calm pain is better than hypocrisy. I should pay for it all my life, but I shouldn’t cheat it all my life… I’ve never regretted my choice.” Even at the moment when he was determined to end himself, his heart was filled with endless sadness and despair, but there was no resentment or regret.

Even when he sank into the abyss of despair at that moment, he was illuminated by a beam of light, and he had been redeemed.

God gave him a miracle to embrace the light at the end of Hell.

He had courage and determination again. He wanted to give it a try and see if he could control the raging destruction, not sink into the power and become a slave to it. He was willing to try for the person he loved, even if it was an almost impossible challenge.

He was willing to die for this world, but he was willing to live for his lover.

Sometimes it was harder to live than to die.

“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Those who can endure and overcome temptation will be rewarded.” Ning Zhou gently recited the words in the Canon and looked at Qi Leren. “God has rewarded me and he sent you back to me.”

Qi Leren could no longer speak. He felt another person’s heat on his skin, so warm and pleasant.

He read another person’s soul from his eyes, so pure and calm.

He was glad again that he had not missed Ning Zhou.

Qi Leren took out the Canon and said with a smile: “Chen Baiqi gave it to me. I’ll read it to you. If you’re tired, just sleep.”

So in the dim light, he read from the first page: “After the destruction of the ancient world, everything was chaotic and asleep. There was no past, no future, no center, no margin, only endless darkness. The gods came from outside, each sowing a seed. Some seeds died before they germinated, while others were swallowed up as soon as they sprouted. Only the seeds of Father God were born within light and darkness, sky and earth, sun, moon, and stars. Father God was happy, for he wanted to bring life into the seed and make it become its own world…”

Ning Zhou closed his eyes and seemed to be asleep.

Qi Leren closed his book carefully and gently stared at Ning Zhou. At this moment, his heart was full of both sourness and sweetness. He was glad that he had arrived here in time, and pulled him out when Ning Zhou was at his most helpless and vulnerable, so that he didn’t fall into the abyss of death.

At first, he thought that Ning Zhou’s death would be at the hands of others, but when he came to the lake of fire and watched the black dragon roar in despair, he suddenly understood.

What would kill Ning Zhou was not the devils hidden in this underground world, but the devil inside Ning Zhou.

At that time, Ning Zhou’s heart was so desperate that he would rather die of guilt than live in the world… This thought made Qi Leren feel sourness in his eyes.

A fluorescent moth, which had stopped on the cave wall, came down lightly and stopped on the blanket that covered Ning Zhou, emitting blue-green light. Qi Leren moved his fingers and drove it away.

“I believe that power has nothing to do with good and evil. You have never fallen,” Qi Leren whispered, tracing Ning Zhou’s sleeping face with his eyes.

Ning Zhou didn’t open his eyes, but he held his hand tightly.

A teardrop trickled down from the corner of his eye and sank into the shadows.

In this dark world where only a lantern shone faintly, they devoutly delivered trust and love, and then received redemption from each other.

The long night road that they had once thought they would never be able to see the end of, all of a sudden, had already revealed the tiny lights between the distant mountains.

Qi Leren suddenly felt deeply touched. When he was trained hellishly by Chen Baiqi, he had rationally understood that all this was for his own good, so deep down, he had no hesitation or complaints. But when he held Ning Zhou’s hand at this moment, he suddenly understood everything, and everything he had endured, whether it was hard training or life and death tests, had taught him to grow with every step. He had to keep growing.

What he shouldered was no longer his own life.

To the world, he was only a trivial person, but to the one who loved him, he was his whole world.

——I am willing to create a paradise on earth for you, and I am willing to hold your wandering and painful soul here.

——At this moment, I only wish that you have a good dream.

—–

Editor’s Notes: After nearly two hundred chapters, we finally get to see some sweetness between them :’)

[Here] is some fanart of their reuinion.

—–

[<<< | Table of Contents | >>>]