Chapter 50: The Final Vow (Two in One)
Stunned for a moment, Xia Yibing frowned and did not respond immediately.
Front and back... turned over?
She couldn't quite understand what this meant.
“We’ve eaten pomelo, right?” Hitzfeld asked.
Xia Yibing nodded.
The price of Goli pomelo, a common tropical fruit that is durable, once skyrocketed because Goli was about to be swallowed by the gray fog, but after being convinced that Sarah had a way to drive away the gray fog, many ship owners in the port shot themselves.
Its most notable feature is that its skin is thin but tough, and the skin is difficult to cut with a blunt knife. The most labor-saving way to handle it is to pull out the handle on the top, pinch in through the small hole, apply gentle force, pull open its highly elastic skin, and push the flesh out.
[Now Namiya is a pomelo.] Hitzfeld smiled at her, [Its outer skin is the world that Amen-Haven experienced, and the inner skin is the inner world.]
[But now someone has turned it over, so that the inner world is outside and Amen-Harwin's world is inside.]
[The relationship between the inside and outside has been reversed, which has led to the reversal of some factors. For example, the relationship between the poles and the equator, some of which are inconsistent with the records in the literature.]
Her smile was gentle and natural, but Xia Yibing felt uneasy.
My Goddess!
Does she really dare to guess like that?
This kind of groundless conjecture... was it just because of the White Shadow Palace? Because the White Shadow Palace, which was supposed to be in the shadow, surfaced, she felt that the relationship between the inside and the outside was reversed?
[The shadow world is not an ordinary inner world.] Hitzfeld shook his head slowly, [When the stratification of Namiia was still established, it originated in the order of the present world-the flesh and blood world-the shadow world/the primary color world-the point and line world.]
[From the full reality, to the skin peeling off and only the flesh and blood left, to the color peeling off and only the shadow left, to the dots and lines without even the shadow left... You can find that this is a step of gradually fading away from reality, just like the creation process of a painting is reversed, the original origin should be only a "small dot". ]
That's where the pen starts.
Xia Yibing said in her heart.
If this is really a painting, when you put pen to paper, slow down your movement countless times. No matter which brushstroke you use, the first stroke of your pen must be a dot, there is no doubt about it.
But if we calculate according to this progressive order, shouldn’t the “realm of flesh and blood” be the one closest to the real world?
She could probably understand what Hitzfeld meant, which was that she felt that the "Shadow Realm" was the most special of them all. The Shadow Realm was likely preserved after the other inner worlds and the present world were completely integrated, becoming the skin and inner rind of a pomelo.
But why isn’t it the white shadow from the “Flesh and Blood Realm”—oh well, maybe it’s the “Red Blood Palace”—rather than the elements there acting as the endothelium?
[An upside-down coffin?]
Tentatively uttering a noun, Xia Yibing began to speculate.
The upside-down coffin, an extremely mysterious artifact.
According to Yusilian, it is the legacy from the "Shadow".
It wasn't her imagination, but the phrase "inverted inside and out" was too similar to the description of the Inverted Coffin. She believed that as long as anyone had heard of the reputation of this artifact, even if they had only heard its name, they would subconsciously make this association.
So was this reversal done by someone manipulating a magical artifact?
Is the Upside-Down Coffin so powerful?
The Apis Cube can only provide theoretically unlimited recoverable energy, and the Nature Orb can only replenish the vitality consumed by the human body, and at most it can bring the effects of immunity to all diseases and fusion.
Even the sword drawn by Aisuen... we now know that it is actually called "Sword of the Sun King".
What a powerful weapon, the sword of the Sun King!
Even if it's just a drawing, since it's a sword, it's meant to be used to kill people, right?
That is to say, it needs someone to hold it and chop it for it to work, right? At least it still needs to "chop someone" to work, right?
So what is this upside-down coffin?
Can it swap the "world" and the "shadow of the world"?
Isn't this a bit too mythical...
Xia Yibing was so confused by the explosion that she had completely forgotten that the words "Shadow Night Goddess" were hanging above her head.
[It's just a reverse deduction from the result.] Hitzfeld looked at the endless darkness above his head and continued to pass on the message, [Don't you think the description of the shadow world is interesting? The most important thing is that it looks familiar to every Namiyan today.]
She said it looked familiar but not familiar...
Xia Yibing's chest heaved as he took a breath and slowly replied to her with a word.
【Dream world.】
……good!
"Inversion"... "relationship between inside and outside"... "another world"...all these descriptions seem to be without reason at first glance. They are simply fictionalized mythical world that they cannot see or touch.
When Xia Yibing first heard this, she really suspected that Hitzfeld was crazy. After all, they had been to the place of origin. If it was the secret of the evil god, it would be fine, but it was just the secret of the world of Namiya.
Why can't the Shadow Night Goddess, who ate the mother tree, see the so-called other world?
But don't think too deeply.
What if the answer is right there on the puzzle?
What if they have actually heard of and seen this other world, or even been there more than once, and are actually very familiar with it?
All Namiyans have been deeply troubled by nightmares. They live in reality trembling, restrained and fearful, worrying that one day they will be led by a mysterious force to a horrible place, brought back from there, or simply turned into some kind of monster.
This is the dream world...
The dream world is exactly the opposite of reality...
Entering the Dream World from Wayne Harbor, diving into the Comb River, and coming out upside down from the other side of the water, what you see is actually Victoria Harbor, which has been lost in time...
The Treemen once hid Alwyn's spirit there, and these characteristics are exactly the same as the shadow world described by Yusilian!
Xia Yibing didn’t understand—was this a coincidence or something else?
What about Yusilian?
Why had Yusilian never thought of this?
[This is what I think... Although the essence is similar, the dream world is no longer what it was before. ]
Explanation comes from Hitzfeld.
[Assume that the dream world is the original "reality". And the reality we are in now was originally a "shadow". ]
【“Reality” refers to the world that was completely corroded and polluted by the gray fog in the Folding Era. It has never disappeared, and this pollution has never ended. The reason why we cannot see this phenomenon in reality is not because we won in the third century, but on the contrary, we may have lost... and the price is that the original “reality” has become a dream world, and the original “shadow” has been forced to swap with the “reality”, and the “shadow” has become the world we have been living in. 】
[They were swapped, and the grapefruit peel was turned over. This resulted in the replacement of Victoria Harbor by the Port of Wayne, which originally existed in the shadow, and the replacement of the Hollyoak Palace by the White Shadow Palace. The history that once existed in the shadow became reality.]
[This peculiarity may be due to the fact that Amen-Hawen is not only the King of Seran, but also the master respected by all spirits in the Shadow Realm.]
According to the information provided by Alwin, Aymen-Hawin was once named the 18th Guardian Duke and was given the title "Divine Shadow".
After she was crowned, she quickly ascended the throne, but there is no record of this in the official history of the outside world, including the previous 17 dukes. Hitzfeld believes that this is why the White Shadow Palace remains - because the Sun King has absolute control over the Shadow Realm, and she trusts this special inner world very much. It is even possible that after merging with the mother tree, she still chose to preserve the Shadow Realm, just to commemorate a period of history that she had personally experienced.
She thought this was the answer to the mystery of the White Shadow Palace...
It is also the final explanation for why the Avenue of Light and Shadow exists and why this set of carving knives brought them to such a place.
【Aisun.】
Xia Yibing held his wife's hand and walked slowly on the avenue of light and shadow in the shadow world, calling her name in his heart.
There are rows of statues of dukes on both sides of the road. On the high pedestals are complete full-length statues, and the carved characters below have not been erased by weathering, so you can see a clear record of their life stories.
Ah... now we know who they are.
The Blood Shadow Duke.
The Duke of Corpse Shadow.
The Duke of Explosion.
The Duke of Soul Shadow.
Excluding those messy names, these titles are enough to prove one thing: the Avenue of Light and Shadow and even the White Shadow Palace are indeed not what should have existed in the original Namibian reality.
[Aisun, why did we switch to "mysterious" communication in the first place? ]
Although it is not impossible, who would give up the speaking habit that has been used for more than 20 years unless it is absolutely necessary?
【Because I discovered part of the truth about the Eclipse.】
Hitzfeld answered simply.
[I forged the "Secret History" and threw it into the Abyss, but the Abyss still accepted it and healed itself. From that moment on, I was sure that there was someone behind the Abyss.]
Logically speaking, only secret history can repair the Abyss. This is the "iron law" formed by all the information they discovered.
This is something like a rule...
It has to be established.
If it is not true, it means that all the information they have received before is false.
They are all specially sorted out for misleading purposes.
Someone wants them to believe that the Abyss must be repaired with secret history. Then they are misled into collecting and retracing those so-called secret histories, making them believe from the bottom of their hearts that those secret histories are true.
But those secret histories - many of which actually came from secret treasures seized from captured evildoers, didn't they? - it is possible that they were tampered with in advance.
In other words, some of the flashback images they saw might not be true.
From that moment on, Hitzfeld was filled with distrust of the world she saw, so she and Xia Yibing and even Emily had to use the "mysterious" intranet to exchange important information.
【Do you know what this means? 】
Xia Yibing found it extremely difficult to say these words.
【I know. 】
Hitzfeld nodded slightly.
Of course she knows.
These things had been pointed out to Xia Yibing long before she came to Ceres Island and communicated with the gray algae giants. Her lover was certainly not asking questions knowing the answer, but the speculations revealed behind the information were too terrifying and too scary. She was unwilling to believe that possibility, so she had to muster up the courage to confirm with her again... Everything she was experiencing now was not an illusion.
So what does that mean?
In the Folding Era, Namiia might have lost?
The dream world... could it be the reality that once existed? Is it the remains left after it was swallowed and eroded by the gray fog?
Could the Upside-Down Coffin have such great power? Could it actually turn the world inside out?
The White Shadow Palace actually has such a history? Someone is deliberately manipulating the Eclipse Abyss?
No.
Neither.
It's much more than that.
They also mean that—
In the Folding Era, there is something in the gray fog that can compete with and even defeat Amen-Haven.
This means that the thing was really strong, so strong that Aymen-Haven was forced to use the Upside-Down Casket and temporarily pull up the shadow as a substitute method - to eliminate the consequences of the complete erosion of reality.
This means that He may have the ability to tamper with people's perception of the world. It is this ability that folded time, making people think that three hundred years have only passed in a moment. It is also this ability that makes people recognize that it is the "dream world".
He completely destroyed all the living beings in Namibia's understanding of the nature of the world...
Such a horrible "truth".
An ancient and great being who was even capable of rivaling the Sun King and even the entire Kingdom of the Sun God... He might be sleeping in the abyss.
Combined with Tusa's shouting "She can't do it! She can't do it!!!", it makes sense why this guy, not Amen Harwin, stayed.
His Majesty Hawen.
And even the true fate of the entire Kingdom of the Sun God - the only hope of Namiia.
This really is one.
A difficult problem that makes people dare not think about it anymore...
At this moment, even though both of them were spirits, Hitzfeld could still feel Xia Yibing's body shaking.
Their hearts were "mysteriously" connected, and she could vaguely feel the complex sorrow in the other person's heart.
A lot of fear.
