Chapter 406: Return Home

Chen Xiaolian gasped heavily for breath.

The pain from his wrist rapidly faded away and was gradually replaced with a feeling of itchiness. Chen Xiaolian gave a sigh of relief. Thanks to the sensation, he was able to determine that the healing substance was working.

Just now, he had lost a lot of blood, leading to him feeling rather weak.

“What did you do?”

Skyblade’s voice came.

He was still lying on the floor.

Chen Xiaolian turned to look at the blade that was lying on the floor and he let out a bitter smile.

I’m really unlucky.

“I…”

“I can feel that something is wrong. You must have done something,” said Skyblade in a grim tone. “No… this is not right! The atmosphere in this room is beginning to change!”

Chen Xiaolian exhaled. “Didn’t you say that as long as the lamp is extinguished, we will be able to get out?”

“… … …yes.”

Chen Xiaolian sighed. “Well, the lamp has been extinguished.”

“… … what?!” Skyblade blurted out.

At that moment, a burst of wind abruptly pushed open the door of the room! The wind poured into the room and Chen Xiaolian’s hair was blown into a messy state.

Chen Xiaolian quickly jumped up and shouted, “The door is open!”

Skyblade replied anxiously, “The door opened? What is going on?”

Chen Xiaolian had already stridden toward the door. This time, he did not encounter that mystical spatial power and was able to easily reach the door. His hand made contact with the door that was opened by the wind.

When he was standing before the door, he looked outside and became stunned!

Outside!

Was falling apart!

The distant mountains and even the large blue coloured stone on the mountain had collapsed and shattered, accompanied by loud rumbling noises.

All around him, the many tall buildings were also shaking and collapsing. Large chunks of buildings fell down from the sky!

Cracks appeared on the ground and large areas on the ground sank until it disappeared!

Chen Xiaolian could feel his feet staggering and he was unable to stand steadily. A loud rumbling noise could be heard and he found that the tall building that he was in was beginning to crumble and collapse as well. He looked around and saw that the ground was gradually disappearing into nothingness. Additionally, the collapse caused a large amount of dust to rise up the sky, blotting out the sun.

Chen Xiaolian became anxious.

“Skyblade! The outside is falling apart! Hurry up and think of something! How do we leave this place?”

Skyblade was silent.

Chen Xiaolian gritted his teeth. Seeing as the tall building was tilting, Chen Xiaolian placed his body near the door as his one hand gripped onto the door tightly. Just as he was about to jump outside, he suddenly turned his head and saw that Skyblade was still lying on the floor.

Chen Xiaolian cursed out.

He abruptly turned around and ran into the room. Gripping onto Skyblade, he then made his way toward the outside once more.

A roaring sound erupted and a beam directly overhead descended upon Chen Xiaolian’s head. He subconsciously swung Skyblade who was in his hand.

The one slash split the beam into two. Chen Xiaolian then leapt forward and jumped out of the door.

The building continued to collapse and almost all of the ground had disappeared. The building was rapidly falling into the unknown nothingness!

Looking around, Chen Xiaolian saw that there was no place to run to. He clenched his teeth, gripped Skyblade and bolted toward the corridor of the tall building. He ran up the building!

The building had 108 floors. But Chen Xiaolia had already forgotten all those and he simply rushed upward along the stairs.

The building was rapidly collapsing, thus a high number of stairs too were collapsing. Chen Xiaolian carefully jumped through several of the ruined pieces of debris, just like a brilliant ape doing its best to climb up the building.

At that moment, there were no other thoughts in his mind. Knowing that the building was collapsing, he instinctively wanted to escape to higher ground.

Chen Xiaolian dodged another falling segment of eaves and rushed forward. Then, he realized that he had reached the end of the stairs.

Numerous glazed roof tiles began falling down.

He had already reached the highest floor!

Chen Xiaolian regarded this floor. The door leading to the room on this floor had already collapsed and ceiling beams had utterly blocked off the room – Chen Xiaolian had no interest in entering the room. He raised his head and looked up. Then, he abruptly jumped and thrust Skyblade heavily into the surface of the wall. Next, using Skyblade as a leverage, he vaulted up and stood on the roof of the building!

Chen Xiaolian ran across the glazed roof tiles until he reached the highest pointing eaves. Still holding onto Skyblade in his hand, he gasped for breath as he observed the Earth-shattering scene!

Heaven and Earth were collapsing!

The mountains were crumbling down!

Copious amount of dust enveloped the sky!

Chen Xiaolian who was standing on the roof watched as the bottom part of the building gradually split apart and layer after layer of the building began disappearing.

There was nowhere to run.

Chen Xiaolian felt frustrated and he spat out furiously, “Skyblade! Say something! What do we do now?”

Skyblade finally replied with a grunt. “You’re asking me? Who should I ask?”

“Didn’t you say we can go out after extinguishing the lamp?”

“I know we must extinguish the lamp, but how should I know what to do after the lamp has been extinguished? Although I came here earlier compared to you, I have never escaped from the room.”

Chen Xiaolian was left speechless.

The collapse finally reached the 108th floor. Chen Xiaolian watched as the floor beneath his feet disappeared, leaving only that fragment of the roof amid the nothingness. However, half of the roof had disappeared and it would appear that it would not last much longer.

Chen Xiaolian stamped with his foot. “If we can’t think of any way soon, we’ll die!”

“Die?” Skyblade suddenly burst into a maddening laughter. “If we’re to die, then we’ll just die! At any rate, I’m already dead! I, the dignified Skyblade had actually become a blade! What reason is there for me to continue living?”

Chen Xiaolian was taken aback. He lowered his head and looked at the blade in his hand. “You… you knew?”

“Only just.” Skyblade replied brusquely. “When you grabbed me, you used me to slash apart a ceiling beam and even used me to stab into the wall for leverage… could I not feel that? Back then, when I lost my sense of sight and was no longer capable of moving, I thought I had been subjected to some form of restriction. How unexpected… … I no longer have a body!”

Chen Xiaolian exhaled. He watched anxiously as the roof beneath his feet began crumbling. “You may not have a body anymore, but you still have your consciousness! If you still have your consciousness, that means you are not dead! It may be possible to recreate a body for you… you, you need to think of something!”

“Think of something? There no need to think of anything! Let’s just die together! Let’s die a quick death!”

Skyblade suddenly let out a mad laugh.

Crap, he’s gone cuckoo! Chen Xiaolian swore to himself.

The support beneath his feet suddenly gave way as the roof finally disintegrated and Chen Xiaolian fell.

Falling toward the endless abyss…

…

Bang!

He felt his ass hurting!

Chen Xiaolian felt his body striking the hard floor beneath him.

He instantly jumped up and assessed his surroundings with widened eyes.

It was a room, a silent room.

Before him was a table and traditional looking furnitures.

Even the sofa had a traditional style to it.

Chen Xiaolian was stunned.

He was presently standing inside Fatty’s old home!

He cast his gaze forward and saw that the ancient painting was lying on the table where he had placed it. It had not been moved at all.

“I’m back! Ha ha ha ha!”

Chen Xiaolian laughed out in a frenzy and flailed his arms. It was then that he found out that he was still holding onto a blade.

Skyblade!

Chen Xiaolian immediately stopped laughing.

“Skyblade?”

No response.

Chen Xiaolian suddenly realized that the content in the ancient painting had changed!

The immortal, the human and the mountain ranges had all disappeared and the painting finally became… a white piece of paper!

A flash of light erupted and the white piece of paper caught on fire. It burned to ashes in the blink of an eye.

Chen Xiaolian inhaled.

This probably meant that the space within this painting has disappeared, right?

Chen Xiaolian who was feeling both mentally and physically exhausted was suddenly hit by a wave of fatigue. He swiftly made his way toward the traditional looking sofa and sat down.

Although the sofa felt hard on his body, Chen Xiaolian only let out a long sigh of relief.

He retrieved a bottle of mineral water, unscrewed it and gulped it all down in one go.

“This kind of fortuitous but risky encounters… in the future, the less, the better it would be ah…” Chen Xiaolian let out several dry laughs.

He had placed Skyblade on the table beside him. Chen Xiaolian looked at the blade and attempted probing it, “Hey, are you still here?”

“Humph.”

When he finally heard the familiar voice, Chen Xiaolian revealed a look of relief.

“Let me break the good news to you. We’re back! As of now, we are in your home.”

Skyblade was silent.

“There is no need for you to be so dejected. The thing that’s gone is just your shell. Since your consciousness is still here, that means you are not really dead. I’ve heard before that there is a method to recreate the body. Who knows…”

“I will die,” Skyblade stated in a composed manner.

“Eh?”

“I can sense it. From that moment… the moment that world began to fall, I could sense my power dissipating away. Although the rate at which it is dissipating is not very fast, it is dissipating. I can also sense my inability to stop this process from happening. Perhaps… when my powers are completely gone, my consciousness will truly fade away.”

Chen Xiaolian was left speechless.

“It’s possible that there was a certain power or rule inside the room, which allowed my consciousness to continue existing. But now that the world had disappeared and we are back in Zero City which does not have that rule, the me who has lost my body will slowly dissipate – that means I will truly die.”

Chen Xiaolian remained silent – he simply did not know what to say.

“I don’t feel particularly sad or pained by this. Thinking about it now, I had likely died very early on. However, that world allowed me to languish around.” Skyblade continued in an indifferent tone, “The one thing I’m vexed about… I had stayed in there for so long, but I was unable to comprehend the secret hidden within the jade wall! But you… you brat! Don’t even think about hiding it from me! For so many things to happen, you must have acquired something from the jade wall!

“That skill you used to eliminate my blades of light… you had acquired it from the jade wall, didn’t you?”

Chen Xiaolian sighed.

There was no way for him to tell Skyblade the truth. You were unable to comprehend the secret of the jade wall because you were not given a key by Mr San.

The jade wall was akin to a safe, which contained something left behind by the owner.

Because Chen Xiaolian had a key given by the owner, he was able to open the safe and acquire the item inside.

As for Skyblade, he did not have the key. It was as simple as that.

“So be it! If this is fate, then I can only accept it!” Skyblade grunted. “I also do not want to ask you what abilities you acquired from the jade wall… at any rate, I am going to die soon. So what if I find out… rather, I might end up puking blood if I find out about it.

“Humph, I nearly forgot. The me right now don’t even have a mouth to puke blood.”

Chen Xiaolian sighed again.

“Whatever. All my plans had evaporated. Perhaps, this is the inevitable end that awaits me.” Skyblade’s voice took on a sorrowful tone. “One final thing, I hope you can help me with one thing. Bring me to… meet Bluesea.

“No matter what, I have to give the guild an explanation.

“My stubborn nature had caused this guild, formed from all our hard work to fall to such straits. I need to give my brothers an explanation.”

“All right.” Chen Xiaolian nodded and said, “I will bring you to meet with Bluesea. Err… … and also your son.”

…