Chapter 70

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Chapter 70: The Queen’s Inheritance (IX)

The force of destruction receded. Ning Zhou looked at the road ahead indifferently, and the familiar self-loathing appeared in him again. Qi Leren secretly glanced at him and quietly hooked his hand. Ning Zhou shivered and held his hand tightly, as if by doing so, his lover could give him endless courage and strength to fight against an almost impossible instinct.

Qi Leren also felt the heavy power in his hand: Ning Zhou’s love, Ning Zhou’s hesitation, Ning Zhou’s worries… He could feel all these, but right now all he could do was support Ning Zhou spiritually.

Because of Ning Zhou, the current Qi Leren was more afraid of death than ever before.

He was afraid that one day he would die suddenly, and he couldn’t imagine how heavy a blow his death would bring to Ning Zhou.

Ning Zhou was different from others. He was neither Dr. Lu nor Chen Baiqi. They would accept his death with sorrow, and one day they would come out of their grief and move on with their lives. But Ning Zhou was different. He was a strong man, but after repeated blows and successive losses, his soul was fragile. His attachment to the world had been destroyed, leaving only Qi Leren who had come back from the dead to support him.

After experiencing so many hardships, even through life and death, they managed to walk together, but they were shy in sincerely expressing their love. If he made him face this loss again… Qi Leren couldn’t imagine what Ning Zhou would be like.

Now, Qi Leren’s life was not only his life, but also carried the weight of another person’s powerful but broken soul. If he died, the guilt before dying would cause him to suffer more than death.

Now, he could only hold this man’s hand, give him trust, give him courage, and give him strength. Qi Leren looked at the side of Ning Zhou’s determined face with a warmth in his eyes that he wasn’t aware he possessed. One day, he would become as strong as the Prophet, enough to shelter his loved one and the world he loved.

He would do it one day.

The metal-plated soldiers backed away, and the two men followed the Flame Virgin with straight backs because of the tension, and walked through the long corridor and countless magnificent doors, and even an underground river valley with a magnificent stone bridge above it. Looking down from the stone bridge, the underground river rolled away with a roar.

A group of glowing red butterflies flew past Qi Leren’s eyes, looking just like burning flames. They came from the direction of the deep underground river valley, and this group of flame-like butterflies came from there—the Holy Flame in the rift.

It represented the existence of the Underground Ant City’s field. From the information given by the task, this flame was not at its most vigorous, but was gradually extinguishing as the Dragon Ant Queen grew weaker.

A blindfolded and flustered priestess ran quickly from ahead to the Virgin who led the way. She whispered in her ear, “I’ve told the virgins to search the whole palace, but the assassin hasn’t been found.”

The Holy Flame Virgin frowned: “How is the Queen?”

“The Queen was not injured, but… the heir has…”

“Continue to block the palace, the assassin can’t have escaped from here. Seize him, and torture whoever it is!”

The priestess who had given the report lowered her head and gave an affirmative, then raised her skirt and “watched” the Flame Virgin who led the two strangers to where the Queen was.

Qi Leren took two steps, and a feeling of being watched made him look back. The priestess of the Dragon Ant Queen furrowed her brows and stood respectfully.

She shouldn’t be able to see, because she was also blindfolded.

The strange feeling only stayed for a moment, and Qi Leren had already crossed the stone bridge before he could think about it too much.

Through the underground river valley, the passageway suddenly opened into a huge hall.

Walking into the hall, the first thing they encountered was a metal-plated soldier in front of them. It was different from the group of metal-plated soldiers outside. The soldier here was not so tall, only about one meter high, and there was no ant head. As if the ant had been cut into two pieces, this soldier had only its lower part.

And the metal texture of this ant’s body was a little weird. It seemed to be metal yet also an exoskeleton, which is mysterious.

Expressionless maids stood in two rows on the red carpet in the middle of the room, and at the end of the carpet was a huge bed four times as large as an ordinary bed. Behind the black curtain, a woman could faintly be seen sitting there, making creepy groans and cries.

Several maids filed in, holding transparent goblets filled with bright red liquid in their hands. They came to the bed without raising their eyes and knelt down, holding the goblets in their hands high above their heads: “Your Majesty, the solution you requested.”

A bony hand stretched out from behind the curtain, took the goblets, and drank them. In a trembling voice, she ordered: “Not enough! Give me more solutions! His Majesty is coming soon! Now!”

One of the young maids whispered awkwardly: “But the ‘honey ants’ have all been killed or injured…”

Behind the curtain, the queen flew into a rage and threw the goblet in her hand to the ground. She shouted sharply, “Take off your shoes and walk through the debris!”

The maid looked in horror at the shattered debris on the ground. Her eyes were red with fear, and her whole body trembled violently, but she dared not defy the oppressive queen.

“Your Majesty, His Majesty has come.” The Flame Virgin who had led the way for the two men bent respectfully to help the poor maid escape.

The curtain trembled, then it was violently pulled down, revealing the true appearance of the woman on the giant bed.

Qi Leren’s eyes widened, his breath coming as a gasp.

It was hard to tell if the old woman lying there was alive or a mummified corpse. The wrinkles on her face were as deep as knife marks, and her long hair hung unkempt on her scalp. Most of her hair had fallen out, and the rest of her hair was like dried and withered seaweed. The places where her eyes should be had become into two sunken holes, and the eyeballs were diseased, the whites of her eyes mixed into a morbid brown. There wasn’t a single tooth left in her mouth.

But this was not the most horrible thing. The most horrible thing was that she had only half a body!

The horribly aging Dragon Ant Queen, her body below the waist was gone!

Tears rolled down from her bloodshot eyes, and her voice was almost squeezed out of her decaying throat, but there was a madness in it: “Your Majesty… To think I would see you again in my lifetime.”

With her dying cry, the half-ant standing quietly on the other side of the red carpet also turned around and bent its hard waist in the direction where Ning Zhou was located.

She mistook one for another. Qi Leren looked at the excited Dragon Ant Queen and thought, She mistook Ning Zhou for his father, the Destroyer, whom she once swore allegiance to.

The Dragon Ant Queen revealed a penetrating smile, as if finding hope deep within the mire: “My chosen heir has died, the inheritance has failed, and the Flame has declined. Although I’ve restarted the ceremony, it’s too late; the field is about to collapse, and I can’t support it long enough to choose a new heir… But you came, you’ve saved me again… Please hold my hand, just like before.”

With this said, she held out her hands that were covered in liver spots and prominent veins, begging for the strength to support her crumbling field.

Qi Leren nodded to Ning Zhou, and Ning Zhou stepped forward and took the Dragon Ant Queen’s hand.

At the moment when the two people’s hands touched, time suddenly seemed to stand still, as if the whole world had fallen into water, and all sounds, smells, and colors became different. A mysterious force permeated this huge hall, and at the same time, there was a system prompt.

[The first step of the Queen’s Inheritance task: Finding the Dragon Ant Queen has been completed. Activating the second step: Escape from the memory vortex.]

[Task Background: The heir of the Dragon Ant Queen was assassinated by a mysterious person just before the inheritance occured, and the inheritance ceremony ended in failure. Seeing that the whole field was about to collapse, the Dragon Ant Queen prolonged her life by hook or by crook. At the end of her life, she once again saw the force that had once touched her. Under the guidance of the force of destruction, the final selection ceremony continues, a new heir is about to be born, and the consciousness of the Dragon Ant Queen has ended. However, the death of such a field-level figure has accidentally triggered the memories of the Will of the World, and you have been cast into a memory vortex…]

[Task Requirements: Avoid being found as an abnormality by the Will of the World’s avatars. Being found out will result in a restart, with the remaining restart times: 3. Beginning to extract memory… Randomizing… Completing the extraction… Retrieving the memory chapter: Fated Reunion… Difficulty assessment: A.]

[Transmission countdown, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, transmission completed.]

&&&

The sun was shining brightly.

Qi Leren suddenly woke up. He found that there was a beautiful garden in front of him, with blue and white flowers blooming in a copse of trees. They swayed and fell gently in the wind, and the bushes were full of white roses. He sat on a swing, and the sunlight passed through the spaces between the branches and leaves above his head, leaving mottled light and shadow on the book on his knees.

Qi Leren suddenly stood up, and the book on his knees fell to the grass. A cool wind between his legs made him tremble. Qi Leren looked down and was surprised to find himself dressed in a white dress. The book that had fallen to the ground was an elegant copy of the Canon.

The Garden of the Holy Tomb? How could he be here? Moreover, the Garden of the Holy Tomb looked neater than what he remembered. It had been carefully taken care of and never abandoned.

A young man in a monk’s uniform came from a distance. Qi Leren looked at him and waited for a while. He didn’t know who he was. The monk smiled at him and said, “Maria, the Pope has been looking everywhere for you. Go meet him in the cathedral.”

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Editor’s Notes: Updates will be going down to three chapters a week, now on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Thanks for your patience <3

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