Chapter 91

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 91: Return to the Village of Dusk (II)

Two rows of ready-made army of soldiers stood on both sides of the road. The main road of this Underground Ant City connected with the central square, where the new Dragon Ant Queen would hold the enthronement ceremony.

The streets were crowded with people and demons. Looking down from the roof, it was an ocean of colour.

Qi Leren and Ning Zhou walked on the roof and shared in the spirited mood. He and Ning Zhou talked about their experiences in the mission, and also talked about the story of Maria and the Destroyer.

Ning Zhou had been listening quietly, but Qi Leren could feel the undercurrent of sadness in his heart.

What was the end of power? What was his future? Where did this road lead to?

All signs suggested to Ning Zhou that there was only destruction ahead of him, and that he was destined to become a devil.

But when Ning Zhou took Qi Leren’s hand, he suddenly had the courage not to bow to fate. He wanted to give it a try. Even if it didn’t end well, at least he had this.

“The Sacrifice of the Devil task required one-third of the royal power. What did it mean?” Qi Leren asked.

“That’s a third of his demon crystallization, one of which was in his own body, another should be in the hands of his old followers, and the remaining one…” Ning Zhou’s hand was on his chest, over the place where his heart was beating, which was also his demon crystal.

Qi Leren looked at his hand and felt sad.

In the Will of the World’s memory, one third of the authority was taken away by Maria, and this one third was in Ning Zhou’s body.

“She should have sealed this in her own body to avoid the power, but leaking, but later she had me.” Ning Zhou said quietly, “She has foreseen this possibility, so she tried her best to stop me from taking this road. But sometimes, there are some things that cannot be decided by people’s will…”

It was like when he was young, when he sat in front of his dying mother’s bed and prayed to God again and again, begging Him not to take away his only relative, but she eventually left him.

There was an earth-shaking cheer in the crowd. At the far end of the street, the honor guard of the Dragon Ant Queen was approaching.

The lively hubbub caused the solemn atmosphere of the ceremony to melt away. Qi Leren looked down at it, and the Dragon Ant Queen could already be seen in the distance.

“Aya is coming!” Qi Leren pulled Ning Zhou’s sleeve and said excitedly.

“It will take some time for her to get here,” Ning Zhou said, calculating the slow speed of the honor guard.

Qi Leren smiled and looked at the group slowly coming. He started another topic: “Speaking of it, the half-field is really good. If my tasks don’t ban half-fields in the future, I can rest in my own.”

“Don’t use it too much,” Ning Zhou warned.

Thinking of Ning Zhou’s own broken half-fiend, Qi Leren felt sad.

In fact, ordinary half-fields were not so fragile, but Ning Zhou had forcibly condensed his half-field with an incompatible original force, which was inherently unstable. In addition, before that task, he had just continuously overused his half-field, causing serious overdraft, and finally it was broken in the Witchcraft Sacrifice task.

Ironically, the half-field condensed by the force of destruction that he hated was so solid that it may even be infinitely close to a field.

Ning Zhou quietly took his hand, and a kind of silent sweetness emerged in Qi Leren’s mind. He smiled and rested his hilted head on Ning Zhou’s shoulder for a moment, as if he had just told a joke.

“The name of the field, have you thought about it?” Ning Zhou asked.

Qi Leren sighed, “Of course not. Please help me think about it, I really can’t name it. When I met Aya in the Dragon Ant Queen’s mission, I still used your name in reverse as my pseudonym.”

Ning Zhou stunned: “Zhou Ning?”

“Yes, do you like it?” Qi Leren poked Ning Zhou’s waist with his elbow.

“Hmm,” Ning Zhou responded softly.

Qi Leren stole a glance at him and whispered in his ear, “I see your ears are red.”

“……”

“Your face is red, too.” Qi Leren laughed.

Ning Zhou looked at him with a serious face. Qi Leren couldn’t laugh. He wondered if he was angry.

Qi Leren didn’t react until his lips were kissed hard: He was careless! Ning Zhou had tricked him!

But when he looked at Ning Zhou again, he had already turned his blushing face and was looking at the crowd below intently.

Qi Leren shouted “cute” in his heart, and it felt like his heart was dancing as his feelings surged.

“…The Underground Ant City has changed a lot,” Ning Zhou suddenly said.

“Ah? Oh, yes.” Qi Leren was stunned by this sudden change of topic. “Aya’s worked very hard. When I went to see her the day before yesterday, she sat with me and talked for a long time about her vision of the future of Underground Ant City, which was discussed by her and her subordinates at a meeting overnight. She’s also learning how to manage this field and be a qualified leader. She also told me that she dreamed of the little Queen and she was very grateful to her.”

Ning Zhou was silent. At that time, when Qi Leren was chatting with Aya, he and the maid had gone to the Holy Flame to check how it was doing. When he came back, he had found that Qi Leren and Aya had changed from sitting face to face to standing side by side, looking at the plan of the Underground Ant City together. If it weren’t for the Dragon Ant Queen’s lower body hidden beneath her large skirt, the two of them probably would have been standing even closer.

It could be seen that Aya really liked Qi Leren. When she looked at Qi Leren, her eyes were full of longing for affirmation and approval, but when he walked into the palace, Aya stopped laughing. She was dignified like a student who had not finished her homework, and her face was full of uneasy introspection in front of the teacher.

He had tried to stand far away, eager to give them the seat in the center of the palace, while he stood in the corner with her maid.

Even after they left the Dragon Ant Queen’s palace, Ning Zhou was still thinking about this question: Why was Aya so afraid of him? When he’d met her in the desert, she was obviously not like this…

The cheers became very loud, and in the noise, the dressed-up Dragon Ant Queen came toward them along the road that was covered with bright red carpet.

The honor guard pounded the drums, played the trumpet, played the rites and music, and surrounded the Queen walking in the center.

She held a scepter and the heavy Canon in her arms. The Queen’s crown was heavy and gorgeous, and a hazy veil hung down before her eyes. Her long skirt was made of gold silk, and the train dragged for more than ten meters. Seven children carried the train for her.

Under the guard of soldiers and ants, the group marched across the street and walked toward the altar, with humans and demons cheering along the way.

The magnificent altar had already been set up in the central square. The new Dragon Ant Queen went up, looked down at her subjects, smiled and waved calmly in the deafening cheers, and started her speech.

“Today, I stand here and see the residents of the city surrounding me on the altar. I feel the heavy responsibility shouldered by me, and am deeply honored and deeply scared.

”…The city has experienced too much suffering. The monthly evil tide causes us to lose our relatives and friends. We are afraid, desperate and helpless. In addition to this natural disaster, man-made disasters have never let us go. In the lower city not far away, every day and every hour is filled with bloody killings and brutal plunder. We have been numb, letting demons bully humans and letting humans crowd out demons. We reject each other and look at each other with suspicion and malice.

“…When I was a young girl, I lived on the Surface. It was not a beautiful heaven, but another hell on earth. The desert destroyed my people all the time. We endured hunger and discrimination, but it didn’t bring us hope. My people, they died in a demon attack. Only I, a humble sacrifice dedicated to the Dragon Ant Queen, survived by luck. Now I stand here.

”…Pain and suffering have taught me sacrifice, dedication, and forgiveness, but it is not worth boasting about, and my people should not bear it. Although you live underground and suffer from evil, you may never be able to bathe in the sun again in your whole life. But you are all people of the Ant City, my people. When you live in this field dominated by me, you have crossed the boundary between humans and demons. Demons should restrain your minions. Humans should also let go of your prejudice. Laws and morals make you different from monsters and beasts. You understand rationality, so you are equal.

“…Now, please listen: in my field, no bullying, no tyranny, no discrimination, and no unprovoked killing. You don’t need to love each other as family members, but you need to treat each other as you would own kind, and shield them with armor and sword to protect each other against the evil tide every month. You are all my people. You must abide by my rules when you accept my protection. Now, I declare: You are created equal! If the law cannot make you learn to be equal, then death will tell you the answer, and I will not have the slightest tolerance for atrocities, because this is abhorrent.

”…Until now, we have lived in a long night, but my subjects, dawn is not too far away. Don’t curse fate for the injustice and darkness that hasn’t ended yet, it shouldn’t have made us so afraid. For the coming dawn, we have endured, fought, and sacrificed. Let us once again ignite hope and courage, hold the hands of our companions, and bravely meet the coldest night before the dawn!

“…I am full of hope for the future of this field and this world, and we will finally break free from suffering and embrace the real light. Let’s live for that day! Live! Live!”

At the end of the speech, Aya looked at the direction of Qi Leren and Ning Zhou if she felt something.

Separated from the cheering crowds, the future Dragon Ant Queen showed a sincere smile, and her anxiety and fear were smoothed out.

She put her hand on the old Canon and silently said to herself, I will do it, and all this will come true one day.

—–

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