Chapter 138

Chapter 138

After their reunion, Ning Wang had mocked Ning Shuo for being indecisive. Ning Shuo had lightly shot back, “Before anything happened, you were far more indecisive than I ever was.”

Before the disaster at Xie Manor, before his master died at the hands of the Jinyiwei while covering his escape, Ning Wang had always been indecisive.

After his master, Ning Lingxing, died, Ning Wang remained in a slump for a long time. From then on, revenge was his only goal. As for the path of the sword, he had practiced little more than its outward form while nearly forgetting its heart.

Only after the Swordsman entered the System and met many companions did he slowly recover the sword heart he had all but lost.

Then the plan fell through, and he was trapped in the System. Just when there was finally a chance to destroy it, his lover’s life was placed in the enemy’s hands.

Ning Wang was given no time to think. A pale hand covered the back of his hand. “Idiot. Have you gone so long without using a sword that you really think he’s the only one who knows how to use one?”

Those words were aimed at the Main God.

Ning Wang’s pupils contracted. He instinctively tried to pull back, but the person behind him had already taken the sword.

The next instant, it slashed down hard-

Everyone had underestimated the rank of the World-Descent Rule. Unless one of its permanent rules was completely broken and it collapsed on its own, only someone from outside the World-Descent Rule could destroy it completely.

But to the Main God, this scene was an outright provocation.

A crack appeared in the World-Descent Rule. The Main God roared and moved to strike, but the Water Moon Mirror suddenly vanished from his hand.

001, who had returned at some unknown point, was holding the mirror. He walked over and stopped behind Ning Shuo. He did not need to say a word. That single action was enough to make his stance clear.

The Main God’s eyes nearly split with fury. “001… you?!”

001’s voice was calm. “Nothing more than grieving for a fellow creature when the rabbit dies and the fox mourns.”

If he could kill even Shu Xiao so casually and without the slightest regard, then the other Judges meant even less.

Emotions really were a burden.

The old him would never have felt something like grief.

Or rather, he had never imagined before that Shu Xiao would die.

After noticing the Main God’s covert movement, 001 said, “No need to call the other Judges. They look impressive, but they’re useless.”

He had already dealt with them on the way here.

The one the Main God favored most was 002, but the one with the closest actual connection to the System was 001.

002 knew the World-Descent Rule was the foundation of the System, but he did not know what happened if it was violently destroyed.

If the World-Descent Rule collapsed on its own, the people in the Living Zone might still survive.

But if it was forcibly destroyed from the outside, it would be like a meteor striking Earth. The data would collapse across the board, and the people inside would fare even worse.

001 said to Ning Shuo, “Sorry. To obtain data permissions, you’ll probably have to suffer a bit.”

In the next moment, the Water Moon Mirror shattered. Ning Shuo’s fist clenched abruptly, and he had to lean against Ning Wang to stay standing. “…What are you doing?”

001 pulled up a Virtual Screen. “The medium information linking you two to the World-Descent Rule was something I created using System permissions. When the Main God planted the Surveillance Anchor in 002, it happened to coincide with a critical stage of the medium-separation process.”

After realizing that the Main God might move against all of them, 001 had not destroyed the medium. Instead, he had kept the data packet.

Before destroying the Water Moon Mirror, he transferred the medium onto it. “None of us has permission to carry out a destructive operation on the World-Descent Rule. We can only use the medium to make it collapse temporarily for a moment and seize part of the System’s permissions.”

“I couldn’t exactly kill you. I’ll be careful about how much I damage the Water Moon Mirror.”

The Main God stepped forward to snatch the Water Moon Mirror, but a sword tip was instantly pressed to his throat. His self-protection barrier activated at once. He would not be injured, but he also could not force his way past that sword to seize the Water Moon Mirror.

Ning Wang was still an NPC, after all, and one who had directly interacted with the System before. Without that protective layer, his throat would already have been pierced through.

Once the protection activated, it was as if the balance between spear and shield had tipped toward the latter, and the Main God’s movements were greatly restricted.

With the medium destroyed, the inside of the System once again fell into chaos. 001 successfully seized most of the permissions, his fingers flying. “I’ll send you two out first…”

Suddenly, his fingertips stopped. He looked at the Main God in disbelief. “You’re activating the self-destruct program…?”

In the final analysis, the World-Descent Rule was still only a tool in the Main God’s hands.

And in a sense, the self-destruct program was still a form of violent override originating from the Main God.

The Main God’s expression was dark and vicious. “Hah. Since it’s already out of control, everyone might as well die together.”

001 frowned. “Right now, you’re only able to hide your whereabouts because of the World-Descent Rule. If it’s gone, the World Management Bureau will find you in minutes. Did you forget that?”

Ning Shuo had thought the Main God was prepared to drag everyone down with him no matter the cost, but the moment 001 finished speaking, he saw the man’s expression freeze.

…Ha, idiot.

Ning Shuo couldn’t help letting out a scornful laugh. “So you really did forget.”

The self-destruct program was abandoned before it could even start. The warning messages on the virtual wall cast a red glow across everyone’s faces.

001 finished adjusting the settings. “All right. I’ll send you two out first.”

“Your souls are identical. If I put you in the same world, the laws of that world might detect it and forcibly erase one of you. I’ll send one of you to the modern world and the other back into the Li Kingdom Script.”

Ning Wang was in far better shape than Ning Shuo. In a world filled with Ghost/Monster, Ning Wang was obviously the better fit.

“Also, the transmission channel is a fixed configuration of the World-Descent Rule. It can’t be modified. Anyone who leaves through it won’t remember what happened in the System, just like those who made a wish to leave the System.”

He grabbed them both by the collars. “I’ve set the program. After some time, the System will pull you back…”

Before he could finish, a muffled boom suddenly echoed through the System, like some kind of warning.

The Main God said darkly, “Recycle confirmed.”

It meant clearing and reclaiming all the data in this entire space.

And the first step of reclamation was to shatter everything first, making the subsequent compression easier.

When the explosion began, it was not fire but a blinding white light.

After 001 shoved him into the transmission channel, Ning Shuo knew nothing more.
After that, he opened his eyes to find a strange 21st Century before him.

Rain was falling from the sky. Ning Shuo got to his feet in a daze, unable to tell what day it was, or even what age.

He looked toward a shop window by the street. In the reflection on the glass, Ning Shuo suddenly realized that the face he remembered from when he was nineteen seemed to have grown much more mature.

He knew nothing about where he was, when this was, or what had happened.

His body had grown older, his features had matured, but much of his inner force had vanished. Even his hairstyle had changed. As for everything that happened after he turned nineteen, he had forgotten it all.

A laugh sounded by his ear, like an old acquaintance arriving. “Hello, do you need help?”

It seemed as though, at some point in the past, someone had asked him the same thing when he was in a sorry state.

A little like his master, yet not really the same.

Ning Shuo lowered his eyes and thanked him. On the way to the police station, the newcomer smiled brightly and said, “My name is Rong Xi. What’s yours?”

“Ning…”

Ning Shuo paused.

For some reason, he instinctively didn’t want to give that name.

Since he couldn’t figure out why, he stopped thinking about it and answered casually, “Ning Shuo.”

Before the words had even fully left his mouth, he froze again.

Giving that name… why did it feel so natural?

Seeing Ning Shuo zone out for no apparent reason over and over again, Rong Xi privately wondered whether the man had some kind of mental health issue. He tried to be tactful-though not all that tactful-and in the end only managed a gentler tone. “Do you want to go to the hospital first and get checked out?”

The familiar shadow was gone. Ning Shuo thought to himself that a “hospital” was probably this world’s version of a clinic, so he smiled and gave Rong Xi a light pat. “There’s nothing wr-”

Before he could finish saying “wrong,” dizziness suddenly slammed into him. He couldn’t suppress the metallic taste rising in his throat. Covering his mouth, Ning Shuo dropped to his knees.

Damn.

Miscalculation.

So that was it. A large part of the inner force he thought had disappeared had actually gone to protect his heart meridian.

The panic on Rong Xi’s face inexplicably overlapped with another blurred face in his memory. Before losing consciousness, Ning Shuo thought that this man was already kind enough as it was, even going so far as to take him to a clinic. He really was troubling him.

—

Ning Shuo and Rong Xi became good friends, and before long, Ning Shuo discovered another abnormality about himself-

He had somehow ended up with a cursed skill.

Ning Shuo had forgotten that this passive skill was a side effect of breaking free from the Water Moon Mirror without carrying even a single fragment of it on him.

He had a hard time adjusting to this passive skill and even, for a time, wanted to stay away from other people entirely.

After Rong Xi died, Ning Shuo remained in low spirits for a while. After that, he became even more guarded in social situations. He often used exaggerated mannerisms to crack inconsequential jokes and liven up the atmosphere, even though the very first time he put on that kind of act, he seemed strangely practiced, as if he had done it many times before.

Later, he re-entered the System. After crossing paths with a Clown, Ning Shuo returned to the world that had once been his own.

He went back to the small courtyard where he had often stayed before he was nineteen. After coming face-to-face with a female ghost, his hand trembled a little.

It had been too long since he had used the Art of Qimen Dunjia his master taught him, and for some reason, Ning Shuo found his emotions lifting.

Unless it was necessary, he preferred to keep a low profile. He also had no habit of acting embarrassingly dramatic in front of strangers. Under the camera of the Live Stream Room, he fell to the ground, panting weakly even as he observed his surroundings.

There was a gaze on him, but it felt different from the one he had sensed before.

Closer. It was coming from somewhere nearby, and Ning Shuo did not resist it.

Realizing that the person hidden in the dark meant no harm, Ning Shuo ignored them and turned to leave.

When they met again that night, the Swordsman pointed his sword at the Priest and raised a brow. “Are you a Ghost/Monster too?”

Ning Shuo had never imagined that he would still meet another Ning Wang in this world.

He had never even considered that this “Ning Wang” might be a trap set by some Ghost/Monster. Smiling, he replied as if they had already interacted this way for a very long time: “No. I’m a god descended to the mortal world to undergo tribulation.”

And Ning Wang did not suspect in the slightest that he might be some Ghost/Monster in disguise.

Even though, during the nearly two years he had been trapped in the Script, many Ghost/Monsters had used that face to disgust him.

But this person-Ning Wang trusted him completely from the very first glance.

Trusted him so much that, upon their first meeting, he wanted nothing more than to pull him into an embrace, as though he were keeping a long-overdue appointment.

—

When Ning Shuo woke up, the full moon was hanging high among the branches.

He suddenly remembered where that phrase, “white moonlight,” had come from.

After the fragment of the Water Moon Mirror had been given to Mingzhi, and the complete mirror had also been taken away by the Main God, the passive skill of the Water Moon Curse appeared on him. The first time it showed up was when Ning Shuo was testing an NPC and suddenly his words became reality, causing him to go blatantly OOC.

Later, this kind of thing became very common. Ning Wang openly went to ask the Main God about it, and the Main God gave a perfectly airtight answer: “The Water Moon Mirror’s full name is the Mirror Flower Water Moon Mirror. Mirror Flower Blessing, Water Moon Curse-mirror flower and water moon, blessing and disaster accompanying each other. That’s why, in everyday speech, it’s simply called the Water Moon Mirror.”

While that mirror had still been in hand, the Water Moon Curse hadn’t really shown itself. In fact, the Koi Luck attribute had been stronger.

Once the mirror left his hand, the curse surfaced.

After that, they continued carrying out their Script tests as usual, but Ning Shuo suddenly became much quieter.

Ning Wang knew what he was thinking and comforted him. “So what if it’s called the Water Moon Curse? It’s such a nice name. The moon is so beautiful, and there’s even a phrase called white moonlight.”

Ning Shuo didn’t know the phrase. “It describes… moonlight?”

Ning Wang pinched his cheek, eyes brimming with laughter. “It describes the you I love.”

Ning Shuo’s eyes reflected the love of the person in his heart. He paused for two seconds before smiling. “I see… then let’s make it our code phrase.”

Making a code phrase was a little childish in itself, but when you’re in love, childish little details show up all the time.

Not to mention, Xie Ning himself was childish enough already.

In every intimate moment afterward, President Wang would murmur that line into the Knight’s ear.

“Knight, your ears are red. Wasn’t white moonlight your phrase?”

“This is our code phrase. I’ll carve it into my bones. If one day we meet again and don’t recognize each other, then I hope that when I see the moon, I’ll say it instinctively-and you’ll remember, at least a little.”

“And if you can’t remember, that’s all right too. Let’s just treat it as a secret between us.”