Chapter 1248: Follow

It felt as if Gao Yang’s life had come to a halt. When he realized it, he was already crying.

A tear fell onto the night sky on the canvas. Gao Yang panicked and wiped it without thinking, only to make the stain more pronounced. He felt a stab of anger at himself, and regret rose in his heart.

Why are you this careless?!

Why can’t you even do this little thing right?!

Why are you still this useless even after all that’s happened?!

Gao Yang shook violently. His pupils dilated, and red flooded his vision. An agitated, chaotic, desperate, and unhinged power threatened to explode in his chest.

“Brother, rainbow!”

Suddenly, a familiar voice in his head sliced through the darkness in his soul, disarming the bombs in his blood and flesh. It felt like someone had come up from behind him to take his hand and gently guide him.

Gao Yang bit his finger open, pressing it to the spot stained by his tear, drawing an arc.

His tears, blood, and the paint mixed to portray the rainbow in the night sky.

Gao Yang cried and smiled at the rainbow.

Relieved, he hugged the oil painting to his chest with great care, sitting down with his back pressed against the cold rocky wall and his eyes closed. Fire quietly cast dancing lights on his face.

...

Qing Ling waited outside the cave. There was a bloom of light, then it slowly faded.

Finally, Gao Yang emerged.

He hadn’t teleported out. Instead, he crouched down and crawled out of the cave with difficulty. His face was pale, but his eyes were calm. He was holding a wrapped gift.

Qing Ling glanced at it, but didn’t ask.

“I found Xinxin,” Gao Yang said.

“Did you have a proper goodbye?” Qing Ling asked.

Gao Yang nodded and smiled. “My little sister has grown up. She decided to stop following her brother around.”

Qing Ling didn’t say anything to that.

“Let’s go.” Gao Yang walked without turning back.

Qing Ling glanced at the cave before catching up to Gao Yang.

...

The New Year arrived for the Mist World. This would be its last year. To most awakeners, time seemed to crawl along yet fly by at the same time. It was already March when they realized it.

Since Gao Yang woke up, everyone had been throwing themselves into the work to prevent their doom. The four most likely keys were Captain, Cerulean Dog, Dragon, and Heavenly Way.

Captain was the keyword Wenzi—Ke Yo—left them. Vermilion Bird was responsible for finding its meaning. Although she had tried everything, she made no progress.

Gao Yang and White Dew were mainly looking into Cerulean Dog, and they found something.

Their conclusion: White Dew’s once boyfriend, Cerulean Dog from the Twelve Zodiac Signs, the “cousin” who had saved Tang Xiaocong and Sun Hu, and Qing Ling’s actual cousin might be the same person.

The time of death matched, and the personality seemed consistent.

Most importantly, no pictures were left of any of the four identities. And while they all remembered the man, they couldn’t recall any details about his appearance. It could be Cerulean Dog’s power, or it could be the doing of a greater force, such as the Heavenly Way or the Gluttonous Snake.

There was more to Cerulean Dog than met the eye, but that was as far as they got.

Chen Ying started an investigation team and doubled down on the effort to look for Dragon, but found nothing.

Dr. Jia had been looking into the intention of the Heavenly Way day and night, but he met a series of failures due to a lack of key materials and data.

There were two theories regarding the exact time the doomsday would come:

Some believed that doomsday would arrive on the last day of the year.

Others believed that it would be the coming summer—the previous Crimson Tide should’ve come in summer 2020, had it not been brought forward artificially.

If the latter was true, they would have even less time.

There was good news, though.

They were still comprehending new Talents. It seemed that Heavenly Way had recovered the ability to take care of its pawn once more.

Losing his real system, Gao Yang no longer saw “Luck” on his status screen, and he could no longer actively comprehend Talents. All the Luck points he accumulated were allocated to his stats.

While the change was too minuscule for others to notice, Qing Ling, who spent all her time with him, could tell that Gao Yang had been getting slowly stronger every day.

That infuriated her.

She had to go through the trouble of sparring and training to slowly get stronger, yet Gao Yang was improving without doing anything. It was unfair.

What pissed her off further was that Gao Yang had come to acquire four new Talents over time: Weak Point, Beastly, Avian King, and Drunken Master.

Gao Yang thus overtook Liao Liao and became the awakener with the most Talents, and he was the first to acquire a Talent for each of the twelve Rune Types.

Late March, another good news came—well, it could be many people’s worst nightmare.

Wang Zikai woke up.

It was Liao Liao’s birthday. Gao Yang, Qing Ling, Vermilion Bird, Zhang Wei, Adept Horse, Heavenly Dog, and One Stone were celebrating for her. When Vermilion Bird carted out the cake and they were about to sing her Happy Birthday, Gao Yang sensed that his Absolute Barrier had been triggered.

He shot to his feet. “Wang Zikai’s awake.”

Many’s smile stilled.

“I’m heading there. Have a good time.”

Qing Ling went up to him. “I’ll go with you.”

“Me too.” Vermilion Bird followed suit.

“Me three!” Zhang Wei lit up. He was finally going to see Brother Kai again.

“Geez, let’s just all go together!” Liao Liao was ready to break down in tears. The demon king was awake. It would be impossible for her to enjoy her birthday.

She made a simple wish for heaven to bless her and prevent her death tonight. Then she blew out the candles and rushed to Gao Yang.

Gao Yang conjured a double and used Spatial Migration.

Two seconds later, they vanished and reappeared in the depths of the crystal mine. As expected, the purple crystal wasn’t going to contain Wang Zikai. It had shattered into pieces, and standing still topless in the Absolute Barrier, Wang Zikai helplessly tried to break out.

He was beside himself when he saw Gao Yang and the others.

“Bro, you’re finally here!” Wang Zikai rushed up, only to be stopped by the barrier. He shot Liao Liao a glare. “It must be your terrible idea! Is this how you fucking treat your savior?”

“It’s not! I know nothing!” Liao Liao blanched.

“It was my idea,” Gao Yang said.

Wang Zikai blinked at him. “Is this...so that you’d know if I’m awake immediately? That’s smart, bro.”

Gao Yang wordlessly walked into the barrier and stood before Wang Zikai.

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Wang Zikai grinned. “Bro—”

Gao Yang slapped him.