Chapter 596.1: Descent of the Kingdom of Heaven

Since she could remember, Yinyin had lived in her family’s garden.

She still recalled two years ago, when she was six, sitting on her father’s shoulders and looking at the world outside the farm. Her father asked her what she thought of it. After thinking for a while, she shook her head and said that although the outside world was vast, it was far inferior to the garden in the manor.

She remembered her father seemed to laugh heartily, then said something else. The exact words she no longer recalled, only the meaning. It was that soon the forests, mountains, and plains outside would all become part of their farm, and they would have a much larger estate.

At that time, she would no longer be the daughter of a farmer, but the princess of a kingdom.

At first she did not understand her father’s idea, until later when she learned the word ‘ambition’ from her tutor.

What confused her was that even though the idea did not sound bad, everyone wanted to flee, to the point her father had to take children her age as hostages, and one of them was even her friend.

Of course, that was just one of many confusions.

What baffled her even more was that even though the dream didn’t sound bad...

Why, after that day, was the world outside the fence still the same barren wasteland, while inside the fence it became more and more like the outside?

When she opened her eyes again, she saw a pure white space. Soft light fell upon her eyelashes, but it wasn’t blinding.

She looked around in confusion.

She found herself inside an entirely white space.

"Where... am I?"

A strange voice drifted from afar. "Welcome to the Lord God’s Space."

Yinyin froze, staring at the stranger who had suddenly appeared in this place, unable to process what was happening. "... What?"

"Ahem... Sorry." Chu Guang had intended to lighten the mood with a harmless joke, but only after speaking did he remember that people in the wasteland couldn’t possibly understand his reference. He coughed lightly.

Meeting those bewildered eyes, he adjusted his expression and continued, "This is the Sanctuary."

Yinyin stared at him blankly. "Sanctuary?"

Chu Guang gave a small nod. "Yes."

Still confused, Yinyin looked at him nervously and asked softly. "Then... who are you?"

Chu Guang spoke gently.

"I am the administrator of the New Alliance."

Administrator?

Confusion remained written on her face.

She had heard of the New Alliance, and maybe somewhere she had heard his title, but she did not know what he did.

Then it hit her...

Wasn’t I dead?

The fog-shrouded memory cleared in her mind, and she began to recall the last second before she closed her eyes.

To save her best friend, she had stepped in front of Yang Xiaoyang. The bullet struck her back and passed through her body.

That man approached, about to strike, when someone suddenly rushed in. They grappled and both tumbled out the window.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

And after that...

Nothing.

"Yang Xiaoyang..." Yinyin started to speak.

Knowing what she was about to ask, Chu Guang said gently, "Thanks to you, she’s still alive. We’ve already taken her under our protection."

Yinyin heaved a sigh of relief.

After a long silence, her lips trembled, and she whispered faintly, "Am I... already dead?"

Chu Guang hesitated for a moment, weighing whether to tell her the truth, then finally nodded softly. "Yes."

A look of resignation crossed Yinyin’s face.

But what surprised him was that she didn’t seem sad. Instead, she relaxed her tense shoulders and gave a slight smile.

Though that smile was tinged with loneliness and forced calm.

"So this is what death feels like..." She looked down at her hands, then up at the white ceiling, murmuring with a faint smile. "It doesn’t hurt as much as I imagined."

Chu Guang didn’t know how to respond.

His own memories of death came only in dreams. Perhaps his little players were more qualified to speak.

After a pause, he decided to answer her earlier question. "As I said, though your body is dead, your consciousness has been preserved in a bionic chip... It’s called the Sanctuary. This space under your feet is what it is. That is why we can speak to each other."

The memory in her mind became completely clear.

Yinyin nodded slightly, half-understanding, then lowered her head after a moment. "Sanctuary... is that where the chosen one lives?"

Chu Guang nodded once, then shook his head gently. "The one who spoke to you all this time was actually named Luo Qian. He may have told you he was the chosen one, but in truth, the chosen one is someone else."

She didn’t grow angry at the deception. It was as if she had expected it. She only glanced around curiously and asked softly, "So he lived in a place like this..."

"And for almost 20 years." Chu Guang nodded. After a pause, he added, "In the end, he left it to you."

"And him? Where did he go?" Yinyin searched the room with her eyes, as if trying to find the man who had spoken to her for so long.

"I don’t know. Maybe I struck a nerve. After finishing everything, he disappeared from this space."

Chu Guang looked toward the center of the room. Earlier, a plain chair had been placed there, where the old man used to sit.

He continued, "There is no more of his data in this chip. Even his Apostles... I can no longer sense their presence. I believe he gave this world to you."

"To me..."

"Yes."

Yinyin looked at him in confusion. "Why would he do that?"

"No one knows. You may be the only one who ever spoke to him as a human. Perhaps you know the answer."

"How could I possibly know that?" Yinyin clutched her head in pain. "I had so many questions I wanted to ask him. I said I would believe him... but why did he turn everyone into that? What kind of Kingdom of Heaven needs such things to be done? Can’t we... just not go there?"

At the brink of death she had finally understood everything.

Why people turned into that, how her father had really died, why those people came to kill her friend... It was a shame she realized too late.

If she had realized earlier, realized who the true culprit was, she could have told the brothers and sisters who reached out to her.

Perhaps then the tragedies wouldn’t have happened. That big brother wouldn’t have died to save her and Yang Xiaoyang.

Her only comfort was that she had stood beside Yang Xiaoyang at the end of her life.

At least in her final moments, she had not made the unforgivable mistake of letting blind trust kill her best friend.

"... Choice is more precious than survival. Since the New Alliance’s birth we’ve been fighting for that right," unable to watch her sadness any longer, Chu Guang sighed softly and said gently, "We’ll try to let you walk again in the world outside, but it will take some time. Until then, you’ll have to stay here for a while."

"If you remember anything, you can call my name."

He was about to leave the space when Yinyin, still clutching her head, suddenly lifted her gaze. "Wait..."

Chu Guang paused and turned to look at her. "What is it?"

"The fog..."

"Fog?" Chu Guang frowned slightly. "You remembered something?"

Yinyin nodded faintly, her face pale. "I think I remembered... what the fog is."

That person had told her.

Not just once either.

She started to murmured, "... The Eternal Kingdom of Heaven shall descend upon mortal lands when the gray mist rises. All life shrouded shall return to eternal peace and tranquility."

Chu Guang’s pupils narrowed.

He seemed to have guessed something.

...

Brocade Lake Municipality.

On the cold, lifeless streets.

As the gray-green fog spread through abandoned buildings and blocked the setting sun, the hunched Grand Priest Qi Gomo frowned faintly. "The time has come earlier than expected."

Beside him, Qi Gaen said blankly, "Earlier is not worse, is it?"

Unlike Qi Gomo, his gaze was fixed on the distant steel airship.

More than the Torch Church’s plan, he wanted to know how to defeat that thing.

Even if heaven descended and sheep in their pens grew docile, expansion of their flocks would still require wars.

The north was the ideal target.

He heard Boulder Town had hundreds of thousands of people, walled by giant barriers, perfect as a natural pasture.

But the problem was, those men possessed terrible weapons.

Just hours ago, that massive steel beast had unleashed terrifying firepower west of Pinecone Ranch.

Even kilometers away, he had felt the ground and air tremble.

Clearly, their fury had been aimed at his commander.

Truthfully, Gaen disliked those zealots. Even if they promised benefits, they were still Old Humans.

But he had to admit his tribe needed them.

Compared to civilizations built over thousands of years, civilization of Mutant Humans was still too young.

Only Old Human knowledge could counter such power.

Sometimes, even he had to compromise with reality.

Knowing what troubled his chief, Qi Gomo sighed, "I do not think it is bad. The sooner Kingdom of Heaven descends, the stronger our dominion. I only wonder if it is too hasty."

Qi Gaen looked at him. "And Luo Qian? Why don’t you ask him?"

A troubled look crossed Qi Gomo’s old face. "... I cannot reach him."

Gaen frowned. "Cannot reach him?"

The final ritual was about to begin. The thick gray mist was already filling the region. Soon, dozens of kilometers would be swallowed.

At such a moment, Luo Qian was unreachable?

Qi Gomo bowed his head, not daring to meet his eyes, and said softly, "It doesn’t matter... The plan is set. We just have to follow it. If we must carry out the last ritual ourselves, it will be the same."

Qi Gaen clicked his tongue, glaring with hatred toward the distant sky.

"Not a single two-legged beast can be trusted..."

He swore.

One day, he would kill them all.

...