Editor: Junyans
After that, they changed two cars and bought some food at a self-service car restaurant. Xia Tian ate half a bowl of porridge, which he vomited all out.
Bai Jingan sent him to sleep in the back seat. Xia Tian reluctantly went over with two guns, a rocket launcher, and a small bag of bombs, but he immediately fell asleep once he closed his eyes.
Bai Jingan continued downward and passed through the maintenance station leading to the Lower City—the authority of the construction department directly allowed the car to pass—continuing their escape.
The difference between Upper City and Lower City felt like night and day. But with the right clearance, it was not that far to get between them. Just a floating wall separated the two.
After a while, the sun rose. They entered the Lower City all the way and saw the sunny District N7 at a distance from a maglev road.
When the sunlight came down, warm and grand, it gave the city a strange sense of sanctity.
Beyond that, the shadows cast by the Upper City became more horrifying. The lights seemed so dim, as if they couldn’t illuminate anything. Beneath the floating city, the whole world was in darkness.
District N7 was bustling at this time.
The water of the Reflecting Lake had just receded not long ago. Garbage and mud were visible everywhere. There were newcomers everywhere, gathering from the sunless Lower City. They had come to see the sunshine.
Bai Jingan had never imagined that one day, his hometown would be shrouded in such light and be filled with people once again. These people would live here, do business, fight, fall in love, and die. They also talked about the Killing Show, the God of War Xia Tian, Bai Jingan, the riot in Zone N, and Bai Lin. People from the Lower City always talked about Bai Lin.
Bai Jingan left the maglev highway, switched to ground driving mode, and entered the streets of District N7. Before rescuing Xia Tian, he had located a place to stay online, where they should be able to hide for a while.
After so many years, he had returned to this city once again, seeking refuge.
Forget the fake District N7 they had shown in the Commemorative Show. This was the real District N7—long abandoned, dirty, and crumbling. But under the sun, there was a flicker of life starting to stir in its broken bones.
Bai Jingan skillfully turned a corner, his movements seeming instinctual. And indeed, he was intimately familiar with this place. He knew every corner, brick, construction panel, billboard, and locked sewer grate. Though his memories had been swallowed up and was an irretrievable black hole, some things still remained.
This was his hometown.
Ahead, a storefront screen played audio clips from “Children of Darkness.” One scene was a fantasy about Bai Lin seeing the sunlight for the first time in the Upper City. They liked to fantasize about these things, but Bai Lin had never seen sunlight in his life.
Here, that person had ultimately failed to save the one he had wanted to save. Everything he had wanted to protect—his hometown, friends, and dreams—had all died and were buried in darkness.
The events of that time had already been forgotten. Yet, people still told tales of resistance.
Now, as he walked through the streets that still felt cold even in the sunlight, he seemed to still see the skeletons in the corners, belonging to all those they had tried to protect but failed. Sunlight finally reached this place, shining upon the graves, yet the streets remained the same.
He heard Xia Tian in the back seat mumble, “Lil’ Bai?”
“Yeah, I’m here,” Bai Jingan replied.
Xia Tian calmed down and fell asleep again.
Bai Jingan looked at him in the rearview mirror. He was curled up in a ball, holding a gun. He was still in pain and alert in his dream.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The fifth day of the Guest Show. A never-ending hell was finally coming to an end.
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These people would eventually destroy everything. Like a giant, insatiable monster, they would devour all that was good, one piece at a time. Just like they had devoured Bai Sang, Bai Lin, and his entire hometown…
Bai Jingan’s hands twitched again, and he almost lost control of the steering wheel, but he quickly regained control.
The old, bloody hole in his body was growing, the damage from overusing drugs becoming more apparent… But now is not the time for mistakes, he thought. The Guest Show is still going on, and the situation has not improved.
Although at this moment, looking at the streets under the sunlight, he suddenly felt, unrealistically, that everything would be okay. Something smoothed the ravine of fear and darkness and made him feel safe.
To protect what he needed to protect, he could kill anyone who needed to be killed and do anything extreme.
In the back seat, Xia Tian had a nightmare and woke up with a start.
Even when he had nightmares, he was quiet. He would just curl up tighter, his breathing quickening and his fingertips trembling as he fought off enemies from who knows where.
He woke up quickly. Just as Bai Jingan was about to wake him up, he suddenly opened his eyes wide and gripped the gun tightly, not knowing where he was for a moment.
He blanked out for a moment, then climbed to the front seat with a grim face, hands shaking. Bai Jingan turned to look at him.
“It’s nothing,” Xia Tian said contemptuously, “just a dream.”
He rummaged through the storage cabinet and pulled out a small bag of fruit candies he had bought at the restaurant earlier. He handed one to Bai Jingan, which the latter took—it was strawberry flavored, and the shiny candy wrapper looked beautiful. Xia Tian then picked one for himself, probably orange flavored.
Tearing open the wrapper and looking outside, he said, “District N7?”
“Yeah,” Bai Jingan confirmed.
“I’ve been here a few times,” Xia Tian remarked. As he looked at the city, broken like a garbage dump yet radiant in the sunlight, he suddenly said, “He did it just for his sister.”
“There are some things that you know you can’t do, but you just have to do them.” Bai Jingan said.
Around them, the sunlight and the shadows cast by the upper city were distinct, like a rift. There was something about the city that stretched around him, bringing warmth but also encouraging bigotry, violence, and hatred.
Xia Tian bit a piece of candy and smiled at him again in the sunshine.
Bai Jingan gripped his own candy, thinking it must be really sweet.
Bai Jingan turned the car into the property he had reserved. This was meant for the Upper City residents who had come for the purpose of “pilgrimage.” The sunken Yingkong Lake acted like a connection, greatly strengthening the connection between the two cities.
Parking the car, Bai Jingan packed up the weapons, food, and medical supplies inside—he always kept them, knowing Xia Tian would need them—and walked into the house that was hidden on the edge of the sunlight.
There was nothing in the house except the necessary supplies, but it was very clean. Xia Tian was happy to find that there was hot water in the bathroom and said, “I want to take a shower first.”
Bai Jingan went to fetch the box containing the medical device, and for a moment, his heartbeat slowed down suddenly and his whole body trembled. He pressed his hand against the table, steadying himself, and didn’t fall.
He took a breath and felt that the situation was okay. He continued to unpack the medical device and said to Xia Tian who came out of the bathroom, “Sit down and let me take a look at your physical condition. Take off your shirt.”
Xia Tian reluctantly complied, and Bai Jingan noticed the whip marks on his back at a glance.
They must have healed a lot already, but they were still densely packed, making it hard to imagine how brutal it had been before. Bai Jingan tentatively reached out to touch them, and Xia Tian’s body suddenly tensed up.
“It’ll get better,” Xia Tian said in as calm a tone as possible, “Don’t worry about it.”
Bai Jingan withdrew his hand, grunting in agreement. Xia Tian looked down at the gun on the coffee table, his body tense, fists clenched tightly, and his expression unreadable.
In a swift movement, Bai Jingan closed the gap between them and enveloped him in a tight embrace.
Ever since he became acquainted with Xia Tian, the level and frequency of physical intimacy he’d experienced with him had simply far exceeded what he’d experienced with others. But given the circumstances, he was left with no alternatives; a hug was all he could offer.
The man cautiously relaxed, resting his chin in the crook of Bai Jingan’s neck, trembling.
“I… I couldn’t say this…” he whispered, “This time was especially painful… it’d hurt so much, Lil’ Bai…”
“I know, I know,” Bai Jingan said.
He felt himself trembling too, his fingertips burning with anger. His heart, just clenched, now ached with a raw tenderness. Then, an unknown force struck him, leaving him in unbearable pain.
He couldn’t move, but he had never felt so determined to destroy something, to make someone pay the price!
He didn’t know what those people had done, but Xia Tian’s bodily indices were all over the place, extremely chaotic, making one wonder how he could even walk.
Bai Jingan used the latest comprehensive medical device from the Floating Gold Medical Department—obtained with the Hall of Offerings’ authorization—but it couldn’t even provide treatment advice, only suggesting that he wait.
Bai Jingan looked at the data with a grim expression, and Xia Tian said, “It’s okay. They just drugged me heavily. It will be metabolized in a few hours and it will be fine.”
Those people had tortured him with the most extreme methods, injecting all sorts of things into his body, but repairing his appearance, making him look completely intact and maintaining the appearance of a premium commodity under the sacred-style lighting.
This Guest Show… wouldn’t end just like this, he thought, but this time I’d never leave Xia Tian again. I can’t do this again.
Xia Tian reached out to touch a wound on his forehead, looking worried, but his fingertips were warm. Bai Jingan dodged slightly and said, “I’m fine, you…”
Before he could finish his sentence, the whole world turned pitch black and upside down, and he was falling towards somewhere—
Xia Tian immediately grabbed him using his quick reflexes.
Bai Jingan struggled to regain balance, saying, “I’m fine. You should sit back…”
Xia Tian didn’t respond and simply dragged him to the sofa. When he was about to go fetch the medical kit, Bai Jingan unconsciously grabbed Xia Tian’s arm, wanting to call him back and properly deal with his injuries, but he couldn’t say anything.
It was as if all his words were broken and his body refused to obey… That black hole was always inside him—hollow and immense, with corpses strewn about. He was never whole; that hell had swallowed too much.
But he had to piece himself back together again, Bai Jingan thought. The situation was dire; he couldn’t afford to have something happen now—
“You need to tend to your wounds, Lil’ Bai,” Xia Tian said, “You’ll die if you keep this up—”
Bai Jingan wanted to say he wouldn’t die. Although he was broken, he could hold on for a long time without falling apart, could pick up his gun, make the best plans… but he couldn’t speak. He could only tightly grasp his teammate, who was heavily scarred from the nearby injuries, whom he had just barely rescued. What if he disappeared again?
But Xia Tian didn’t disappear.
He helped him onto the bed, removed his uniform—blood wasn’t prominent on his black clothes and he didn’t feel pain, but he was probably injured. Xia Tian’s complexion was very bad as he treated the wounds, assessed his condition, and administered treatment injections.
Bai Jingan finally regained some energy to speak. He tried hard to make himself look normal and confident—although he was still quaking like a leaf and couldn’t control it at all—and said to Xia Tian, “I’m fine, I just over-medicated. Your injuries are serious. I’ll deal with it…”
“Lie down!” Xia Tian said.
He pressed him onto the bed and dragged a blanket over.
The blanket was warm. There was a faint smell of disinfectant in the air. Bai Jingan could vaguely hear the bustling noise of District N7 outside the window. The blanket was wrapped loosely around him, but it felt huge and safe.
“I’ll take care of both of us. You get some sleep,” Xia Tian said.
Bai Jingan didn’t think that he should sleep. The situation was still dire… It wasn’t a world where you could sleep; you had to stay awake, guarding what was most important to you. There was no time for treatment; the wounds would just fester, but the Upper City had enough medication to solve that problem.
But Xia Tian held him down with great force, and he even reached out to smooth his hair, as if he was stroking an injured animal’s fur. His movements were gentle.
Then Bai Jingan realized he had no strength left. His limbs felt weak and he felt tired, and all the strength he had painstakingly gathered disappeared in the bed that had this unreal sense of safety.
“Get some sleep,” Xia Tian said.
Bai Jingan closed his eyes. He couldn’t resist and had no choice. He thought he could just sleep for a short while. A little sleep shouldn’t hurt…
He fell asleep quickly.
Bai Jingan’s sleep had always been light and conditional, but this time, drowsiness emerged like a new entity, growing warm and tingling from within his body. He had never slept so deeply.
When he woke up, he didn’t know what time it was or where he was.
His body still ached, as if it had been torn apart and clumsily put back together, and it didn’t fit at all. He felt a strange and extreme fear, as if sleep had robbed him of something extremely important. He reached out to grab his gun—
Then he saw Xia Tian and realized where he was.
Nothing had happened. Xia Tian was curled up sleeping beside him, breathing softly. He was within arm’s reach.
Bai Jing’an could feel the weak trembling in his body. His head was still hurting, but that was to be expected. He knew that this was just a phase, and that things were already much better.
He moved his fingers, making sure that he could kill the intruder in an instant if needed. He should not have left any clues for others to find this place, but—
He knew he had to stop.
He had already thought through all the possibilities, and what he needed now was rest. Otherwise, this fear would really drag him down to hell.
He looked at the person huddled up next to him, warm, safe, alive. He leaned over a little, reached out, and gently put his hand on him.
Xia Tian woke up, but didn’t open his eyes. He brushed his fingertips against Bai Jingan’s arm and drifted back to sleep.
Bai Jingan listened to his breathing, feeling warm and safe, filling the entire world.
He closed his eyes as well, falling asleep once again.
Thank you for translating so well. Absolutely enjoying this story.