An Yu sat down in the dining area and raised his hand to light the decorative candles on the table.
An came over and said, "Go to Ning. I'll feel it when you get close enough."
"Sit down first." An Yu said, "Try something with me."
An's face looked a little ugly. Although the whispering he heard was very weak, it was enough to disturb his spirit.
He moved his hand, and a white butterfly flew out of the cuffs, spreading its thin and wide white wings with green and gold patterns on them. It fluttered in the air twice and then disappeared.
He bit his lip and looked at An Yu intently. Seeing that An Yu didn't respond, he turned around and walked to the end.
The candle lit up a small flame, and An Yu took out all the tissues in the transparent tissue box on the table, leaving only one, and then moved a little further away, focusing on the connection between it and the candle.
Out of the corner of her eye, An pressed her back to the corner and hugged her knees.
An Yu suddenly asked: "Besides finding Ning, have you tried other ways to relieve discomfort? For example...enclosed space?"
An looked at him confused.
Then, his eyes were suddenly attracted to the table in front of An Yu - the candles on the table suddenly disappeared under his eyes. The next moment, a black border appeared on the napkin in the tissue box without warning, and there seemed to be looming circles around the black border. The flames spread rapidly, and the black edge spread quickly, swallowing up most of the paper in a blink of an eye.
The tissue box vibrated on the table, as if something unstable was about to pop out. An Yu stared at the tissue box intently, with a hint of red in his golden eyes.
For a long time, the tissue box became completely silent. The paper towels burned out, and the faint glow in the box finally disappeared.
An Zheng said: "Your superpower is..."
An Yu closed his eyes and relaxed his tense arms, "Space folds."
His first use of space folding was teleportation, which was triggered by stress under life threat - folding, but only folding once, and achieving fixed-point travel by instantaneous folding and popping.
It wasn't until he saw the prayer coin just now that he suddenly realized that maybe he could make the two points overlap stably and seal the original space stably at the overlapping point, just like...
"Space confinement." An Yu added.
An's eyes changed when she looked at him.
"What does it smell like?" Xu Shuangshuang suddenly ran out from behind and looked around, "What's on fire?"
No one answered. She looked down and saw the black ash in the transparent tissue box, stretched out her hand and said, "What the hell is this..."
"Don't!--"
"ah!!!"
Xu Shuangshuang threw the hot tissue box away and blew his hands wildly, "What the hell is this? Why is it so hot!!"
An Yu: "..."
He went to the back kitchen and skillfully pulled out oven gloves and put them on, picked up the tissue box from the floor and put it back on the table, and carefully put the lid back together after it had fallen off.
Although this is most likely an illusory world, this tissue box can be regarded as his asset, included in the future 90 million store fee.
The golden eyes lightly scanned the tissue box, and with a flash of red, the "disappeared" candle returned to the table without anyone noticing.
During the meal, Xu Shuangshuang kept dancing and talking about the wedding she was planning for next year.
She and her fiancé are college classmates, and they plan to have a child in the second year of marriage. Just one child, preferably a girl, because research has proven that the average genetic entropy of women is slightly higher than that of men, and the probability of exceeding the threshold of the main city is greater.
"Otherwise, separation of flesh and blood is secondary." Xu Shuangshuang suddenly became quiet and sighed at the empty street outside the window, "I would feel ashamed of the main city. In the past few years, the genetic entropy threshold of the main city has been declining. .There are fewer and fewer children around the world being born with high genetic entropy."
An Yu lowered his head and sent a message to Qin Zhilu.
-Sir, I learned a new method of space folding. The large space can be stored into a small space after folding. Can you practice with me when you get back?
The little circle goes round and round, the signal is lost and cannot be sent.
The sparkle in his golden eyes disappeared, returning to indifference.
An Yu picked up the terminal and said coldly: "Trash."
Xu Shuangshuang paused, "Who are you talking about?"
"Up to the peak."
It's said to be a low-level mission, and it shouldn't be in the time-space disordered area. What's the result?
The information was not accurate.
Xu Shuangshuang was stunned for a while and whispered, "You can't blame the decision-makers for this. We still have to rely on ourselves to give birth to any children. No, it should depend on God's will. You are too harsh on Shangfeng."
An Yu remained silent, lowered his head and took two big mouthfuls of rice.
An, who was sitting next to her, didn't move her chopsticks. The sky outside was getting darker and the chatter seemed to be getting louder and louder.
His fingers gently dug at the stool. Even Xu Shuangshuang noticed his anxiety and asked with concern: "Are you okay? Is the food not to your liking?"
An immediately turned her head, covering her head tightly with the wide brim of her hat, not even showing the side of her face.
An Yu asked Xu Shuangshuang, "Can you hear the sound?"
"What sound? Oh, are you talking about this outside-"
Xu Shuangshuang stood up and opened the window, smiling at the night.
The evening breeze brought strange whispers and fishy odors into the room. The young girl stood by the window and stretched out her arms. She closed her eyes and said intoxicatedly: "The prayer song of the Koi God Cult. Believers gather together at sunset to pray. We can all give birth to babies with high genetic entropy, so that our families and humanity can survive better——"
Ann immediately got up and went to the other side away from the window.
The endless chatter only made An Yu irritable, but his face became paler and paler amid the noise, and his eyes wandered around the room uneasily, finally landing on a shelf in the corner.
It was a storage rack used to dry utensils, displaying clean jam jars of various sizes.
An Yu picked up the smallest silver jar, which was used to hold honey and was only a quarter of the size of a palm.
He cut a piece of thick baking paper and laid several layers against the inner wall of the jar. Then he waved the small jar in front of An's eyes and said, "Do you like it?"
An looked at him confused.
"Then let's take this." An Yu said, took out a long olive ribbon from the cabinet, wrapped it twice around the neck of the jar, tied a knot, and raised his hand to put it on An's neck.
An immediately reached out to grab the inexplicable thing, but saw An Yu's eyelids raised slightly, "Don't pick it off."
With these two faint words, An suddenly felt that his arms were heavy. After a moment of stalemate in the air, he actually put them down.
An Yu took a deep breath, and after a long time he explained gently: "Sorry, this may come in handy later, so don't pick it off yet."
He said, looking out the window at the rapidly darkening sky, "We should be meeting Ning soon."
*
They stepped on the sunset and followed Xu Shuangshuang to the main city center behind the church.
If An Yu remembered correctly, the tallest office building in the main city should have stood here, but at this moment, there was a gypsum carved column reaching the sky - the column was carved with circles of koi carps that circled upward. Looking up, I can't see the top.
A towering stench emanated from the ground beneath the carved pillars—right under their feet at this moment.
There was no need to dig, An Yu crushed it with his toes, and the stone bricks that were supposed to be hard felt soft to the touch. Through a thin layer of stone slabs, it felt like he had stepped on someone's face.
As dusk fell, a group of women suddenly appeared in the empty city.
They were all as young as Xu Shuangshuang, and their decent clothing and manners revealed their identity as residents of the main city. They came from all directions, forming a circle, and approached the carved pillar step by step.
The chattering was not only louder, but also denser. Ann's body began to tremble, as if she was retreating uncontrollably.
When An was about to retreat to the carved pillar behind him, An Yu reached out and held him.
"Don't retreat." He looked around at the approaching crowd and said softly: "Your will is not as weak as you think, don't give in easily."
As he finished speaking, he finally saw the figures of Zhu Tao and Ning in the crowd. In the other direction, Chaowu with long rose-red hair was also walking towards them.
After entering this inner space, they all followed different people and arrived at the same place at sunset.
The bells of the central church suddenly rang - that was the symbol of night prayer every night in the main city.
The sky-reaching carved pillar behind him suddenly lit up, and a bloody halo lit up the night. The red light reflected the corners of the eyes and eyebrows of every believer. Under everyone's excited and pious gaze, a circle suddenly appeared around the carved pillar. Another circle around the floating woman.
——They were connected end to end like the koi carves engraved on the prayer coins, with their eyes closed tightly. They spiraled upward around the carved pillars like fish in the water, stirring up invisible vortexes in the red light.
An Yu looked up - the women at the top gradually grew scales and fish tails. Looking further up, they were no different from the naked corpses buried underground, with their lower bodies completely transformed into fish tails.
Xu Shuangshuang had already walked into the praying crowd. She stood in the innermost circle and looked up at the carved pillar with a longing smile.
They collectively chanted: "For better quality reproduction, for a more stable existence, we should shoulder our due responsibilities for women."
"Please God give me a descendant with high genetic entropy, let it live in the main city, and let it create higher value for mankind."
"This life is small, body and spirit, everything you love and desire can be sacrificed for future generations."
Chao Wu squeezed out from the crowd and frowned: "It's so ridiculous. A woman from the main city would actually think like this?"
Zhu Tao thought: "Maybe I just have a similar idea, but it is amplified here."
In the endless repetition of prayers, An Ye finally slowly raised his head and looked at the carved pillars that were glowing red.
The believers floating around the carved pillars swam in those eyes, and his lips began to open and close. Although he made no sound, his eyes gradually became distracted.
Ning quickly pushed aside the crowd and ran towards this side, "An!"
——The moment he reached out to An, An had already closed her eyes, her toes lightly touched the ground, and floated up behind the last woman.
Immediately afterwards, the petitioners standing in the innermost circle took off one after another and floated towards the carved pillar. After Xu Shuangshuang recited the last sentence, he finally closed his eyes and merged with the mighty believers spinning upward.
As the number of Pillar Walkers increases, the cryptic chatter becomes louder.
Veins popped up on An Yu's arms, and the red light in those golden eyes became stronger.
The cool smell suddenly covered the surrounding fishy stench.
The strange red light almost burned the ends of Ning's hair, but a peaceful aura suddenly appeared around him.
Blue Morpho butterflies flew out of his sleeves one after another, flickering with bright spots in the air. He smiled behind the mist-like halo he created. Several blue Morpho butterflies flew upward, It flew to An who was swimming with his eyes closed, landed on his lips, and fluttered his wings.
Ann opened her eyes.
The olive pupils were blank for a moment, then regained their energy.
Chao Wu stretched out her long rose-colored hair, supported An's body, and let him fall to the ground gently.
Ning immediately knelt down and hugged An.
An's hood almost covered Ning's head. An Yu couldn't hear clearly what he was saying to An. He could only see An reaching out his hands from his wide sleeves and grabbing the clothes on Ning's back tightly.
The spiritually purifying butterflies only pulled down a few people who had just floated up. The expressions of those who were pulled down were relaxed. In a blink of an eye, they disappeared into the crowd of petitioners and started singing again.
After a while, they were indeed back on the pillar.
