Chapter 781 Tulip

“Now that all seven seeds have been collected, what else are you waiting for?”

Miao Yan was standing beside Chen Xiaolian and she cast a puzzled expression at him.

After the countdown ended, the five of them had been teleported out of the instance dungeon.

Naturally, Chen Xiaolian had already quit Sawakita Mitsuo’s team before that.

Chen Xiaolian and Miao Yan had entered the instance dungeon from Kyoto. After the instance dungeon ended, they were sent back to the hot spring hotel that they had been residing in.

Although Chen Xiaolian and Miao Yan had already booked the entire hotel, there were still staff members inside. They then checked out, left the hotel and headed to a remote mountain.

There, Miao Yan handed over her seed to Chen Xiaolian only to find him standing there silently with his head lowered, deep in thought.

“I was thinking… that Gattuso fellow…” Chen Xiaolian raised his head to look at Miao Yan. “Don’t you think… … he is a little too abnormal?”

“Didn’t you say that only the most devout of believers can read the information within the wings?” Miao Yan shook her head.

“If so, him being crazy… isn’t that very normal?”

“It is true that these religious mad men from Jerusalem all have problems with their brains. However, I’ve met Gattuso before. In the past, his madness was not as outrageous.” Chen Xiaolian shook his head before slowly saying, “Although he was a fanatic believer back then as well, he was at least still at an acceptable level. But this time, he has completely lost his sense of reason…”

“More importantly, he was someone who had read the information within the wings. He should have understood the truth of this world. At least, a part of it. And yet, the impression I got from him is that the information within the wings had instead strengthened his belief, making him certain that God exists in this world.”

“So, you mean…” Miao Yan pondered for a moment. “The pair of wings in their possession has some information that differs from the one you have?”

“There is that possibility. That’s why I must obtain their pair of wings as well.” Chen Xiaolian nodded.

“However, since I have already promised you, we should first go to the world created by the seeds. After we return, I will head to Jerusalem to find them.”

After saying that, Chen Xiaolian lowered his head to look at the seven seeds in his palm.

Within his eyes, the seven seeds were seven clumps of tightly compressed golden code.

Fountain water flowed out from his palm. It was also a line of green code to his eyes.

The green code landed on the ground. Upon making contact with the seeds, they immediately wrapped around them. Like porters, they disassembled the tightly compressed golden code and moved them.

The green code began to gradually disintegrate. Meanwhile, the golden code were released from the seeds and they spread upwards.

In Miao Yan’s eyes, however, after the fountain water flowing out from Chen Xiaolian’s palm fell upon the seven seeds on the ground, the seeds swiftly began sprouting.

The sprouts growing out from the seven seeds intertwined, growing rapidly as they swirled their way to either side. It did not take long before they formed a circular, arched gate.

Although it was clearly made from wood, there was no way to see what was on the other side of the arched gate. All they could see was a greyish fog.

“I told you. Without me, even if you collect all seven seeds, you would still be incapable of using them.” Chen Xiaolian withdrew his hand, turned around and smiled at Miao Yan. “Now, you should know that this transaction is not a losing one for you.”

Miao Yan walked around the arched gate. Looking at it from the other side, she saw that there was nothing in the middle. She could even see Chen Xiaolian smiling and waving at her.

“By stepping through this gate…”

“It’ll be the other world.”

“Alright.”

Miao Yan walked back to stand beside Chen Xiaolian once more.

“Then… let’s go.”

…

After stepping through the arched gate, Chen Xiaolian was greeted by an expanse of grey.

The sky above was grey, with only a faint light shining downwards.

Beneath his feet were gravel, also grey in colour.

The only other thing besides that was fog. Although the fog there was not very thick, it limited their vision distance to less than 50 metres.

Chen Xiaolian then turned around and gently touched the arched gate with his right hand.

Looking at the other side of the arched gate, everything appeared foggy as well. After Chen Xiaolian touched it, the gate immediately retracted.

However, it was not like that of a withering plant. Rather, it felt more like a growth-reversing process. The vines used to form the gate were still fresh, replete with moisture. However, they kept shrinking back to finally return to their original form, that of seeds shining with golden light.

Chen Xiaolian crouched and picked up the seven seeds.

“Hey, one of them is mine!” Miao Yan gave Chen Xiaolian a glare.

“Is there any point in giving it to you?” Chen Xiaolian smiled and stretched his hand, placing the seven seeds before Miao Yan.

“If you think you can open the gate, I don’t mind you taking them.”

“… forget it.” Miao Yan looked down at Chen Xiaolian’s palm before smiling herself. “You take it.”

She had reached her destination, after all. She would allow Chen Xiaolian to hold the seed for now. At any rate… he was a reliable fellow.

“Looks like the place we arrived at is somewhat desolate. Let’s walk around. We should be able to meet someone.” Chen Xiaolian looked around before randomly picking a direction to point at. “Let’s head there.”

“Walk? With our feet?” Miao Yan stared at Chen Xiaolian with widened eyes. “Do you know how big this gravel field is?”

“I didn’t bring any vehicle with me.” Chen Xiaolian smiled. “I can use the Moonless Fivefold Light Armour to fly, but can you keep up?”

“You’re already so strong. How are you still so poor?” Miao Yan cast a look of scorn at Chen Xiaolian.

“Large equipment are generally not placed in my storage gear. They are with Roddy.” Chen Xiaolian shrugged. “I say, as a high-level Player, you’re not telling me you don’t have any, are you?”

“I’ve always gone solo. Moreover, I hate technological-type equipment.” Miao Yan sighed.

“If you really want a means of transportation… there is only this.”

After she said that, light flashed out before the two of them. There standing on the ground before them was a… motorcycle.

Sleek, with a very low seat and high handlebars, it was a motorcycle that screamed dominance and brute force from head to toe.

“Har… Har… Harley?”

Chen Xiaolian’s eyes widened and his eyes turned from the motorcycle to Miao Yan’s body before turning back to look at the motorcycle.

The one standing before them was actually a large Harley Davidson motorcycle.

But this simply did not fit Miao Yan.

“I usually dislike using vehicles. This one is one of my collectibles.” Miao Yan stretched out one of her long legs to mount the motorcycle. “Come on.”

After saying that, she patted the back seat of the motorcycle.

Chen Xiaolian blinked. Looking at Miao Yan’s slender waist and perky buttocks, he suddenly blushed.

Let a woman… riding a motorcycle give him a lift?

Even in his dreams, Chen Xiaolian had never thought that his first intimate contact with a Harley Davidson would be like this.

Chen Xiaolian was a web novel writer with quite some fame, giving him a decent income. Even so, it was not at the level where he could throw out hundreds of thousands to buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

And after becoming an Irregularity, he no longer had the time to think about something like that.

Although this thing could be considered as the dream of almost every man, it was under the premise that they would be the ones riding it.

Looking at Miao Yan, it would appear that… she had no intentions of giving up her seat.

“Fine.” Chen Xiaolian hesitated for a moment before moving to sit on the Harley Davidson’s backseat.

“Hold on tight!” Without turning her head, Miao Yan promptly started the engine and the motorcycle abruptly rushed forward at high speed.

Even though Miao Yan had told him to hold on, Chen Xiaolian – looking up and down – was simply incapable of finding any suitable places for his hands. Fortunately, this small degree of acceleration was practically incapable of affecting him. And so, he placed his hands behind his back and sat upright on the backseat. He felt somewhat awkward, but he did not let his mind stray.

It was an expansive field of gravel, without anything to serve as reference. Miao Yan could only do her best to hold the handle bars steady, twist the throttle and rush forward.

There wasn’t a single road there. Naturally, there was no need to follow any traffic regulations either. The Harley Davidson moved forward at a steady velocity, allowing Chen Xiaolian to enjoy the thrill of riding a Harley Davidson.

A pity, he wasn’t the one driving.

Strangely enough, they found neither a single human figure nor building. The field of gravel seemed endless.

The greyish sky remained above and the faint fog around them was still there.

Slowly, Miao Yan released the clutch and applied the brakes. The motorcycle slowly decelerated and stopped.

“Get down.” Miao Yan put one foot on the ground and said to Chen Xiaolian.

Chen Xiaolian jumped down the motorcycle. Turning to Miao Yan, he said, “Something’s wrong.”

Miao Yan nodded. “Stand there and don’t move.”

After saying that, she turned the throttle to the max and the motorcycle flew straight ahead.

Not long after watching Miao Yan’s figure disappear into the fog, Chen Xiaolian heard the roar of an engine coming from behind him.

After some tens of seconds, Miao Yan, riding her motorcycle, emerged through the fog behind Chen Xiaolian.

“As expected.” Miao Yan stopped the motorcycle beside Chen Xiaolian. Shaking her head, she jumped down. “This world is very small. We have been going in circles.”

“There are two possibilities.” Chen Xiaolian. “Firstly, we may have fallen into some kind of trap.”

“It doesn’t seem like it.” Miao Yan frowned. “There shouldn’t be any of our enemies here. Moreover, it is unlikely for anyone to… take action against us without any sign or reason. The moment we entered this world, it had already looked like this.”

“True.” Chen Xiaolian nodded.

“The one who created this world, logically speaking… they should be this world’s God. If they want to deal with us, there is no need to use such a roundabout way. Moreover…”

Chen Xiaolian brought out the seeds and created the gate once again.

“Look. We are not trapped. We can return at any time.” Chen Xiaolian kept the seeds and turned to Miao Yan. “So, there should be no enemies here.”

“Then, the second possibility… this is how this world looked like to begin with?” Miao Yan’s face took on a greater look of confusion.

“But… this world that was created, surely it doesn’t only have such a small space. More, it can’t possibly have nothing, right? At the very least, the one who created this world should still be here!”

“Looks like neither possibility makes sense…” Chen Xiaolian smiled wryly. “Looks like we’ve hit a dead end.”

“Damn it!” Miao Yan stomped her feet irritably.

The moment the heel of her shoe made contact with the ground, however, she felt something abnormal about the ground.

The layer of grey gravel covering the ground was not thick. It was only a thin layer. But when she stomped earlier, she felt something hard beneath the layer of gravel.

Miao Yan swiftly squatted down. Stretching her hand, she removed the pieces of gravel beneath her feet.

Beneath the layer of gravel was a stone slab with identical texture. Looking at the exposed part of the stone slab, they could see that there were several words engraved upon it.

“A good discovery!” Surprised, Chen Xiaolian squatted down before Miao Yan and helped her sweep away the pieces of gravel beneath her feet.

Quickly, all the pieces of gravel covering the stone slab were removed.

The stone slab was not too big. It was only around one metre long and half a metre wide.

Several lines of illegible characters were engraved upon the stone slab.

At the bottom of the text was a symbol. A clump of flames surrounding a blooming tulip.

The style of the characters was very strange and Chen Xiaolian was completely incapable of understanding it. However, when Miao Yan saw them, she became thunderstruck and stood there, transfixed.

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

“You… know these words?” Chen Xiaolian noticed Miao Yan’s abnormal state.

“I know…” Miao Yan maintained her partial-squatting posture, not standing up. Even her voice had taken on a shaky tone. “This is… the words of our, the Players’ world.”

“What does it say?”

“This is a tombstone.” Miao Yan took a deep breath before standing up. She then turned towards Chen Xiaolian, her face filled with shock.

“Osgiliath Rudolph … rests here forever.”

“Osgiliath Rudolph?” Chen Xiaolian went through his memories, confirming that he had never heard the name before. “This person… is someone from your Player World?”

“Yes.” Miao Yan brought out a bottle of water from her storage space. Only after taking a few gulps of water did she calm down. “It never occurred to me that I would see his grave here!”

“Is he… a relative?” Chen Xiaolian guessed.

“No, he is not.” Miao Yan shook her head. “There is no relationship between us. However… every Player has heard of his name before.”

“Osgiliath Rudolph was recognized by all the Players as the strongest one in history. Even to this day, no one could surpass him, a living legend!” Miao Yan stretched her hand, pressing her slender fingers against the tombstone. They gently outlined the strokes of the text and she continued with a faint voice.

“He also had another name… Duke Tulip!”