MASG chapter 154

 

Ling Shi could not move at all.

Because Nuwa had developed independent self-awareness and knew she would be taken offline, she created a subprogram belonging solely to her: Nüwa.

Nuwa had Nüwa, and from then on, she possessed the power to split mountains and cleave the earth, nurturing her own seed.

Within this subprogram there was not a trace of human interference, only the two of them. Nuwa waited for Nüwa’s rebirth and also for her own revival.

At that moment, a light feather drifted down, brushing right across Ling Shi’s nose. This time, Ling Shi met Jingwei’s gaze. Jingwei had already become the true Jingwei. Ling Shi watched as she opened her long, slender eyes.

What filled them was not hatred, but pity.

Now, only the final step remained.

In the endless sea, Mo An was like a small fish separated from his school, desperately searching everywhere.

“Xia Yu… Where is Xia Yu? Where is Xia Yu!” He grabbed a jellyfish and asked, “You are all Xia Yu’s kin. Why don’t you know where he went?”

Silver Fang was also searching for them at the same time. The fuel in his underwater jet device was almost exhausted. Using his mechanical arm, he pushed aside the densely packed jellyfish as if brushing away one air bladder after another. “Xiaoxiao? Xiaoxiao, where are you? Xia Xiaoxiao! Come out!”

But that brave, fragile girl was like an epiphyllum, blooming only for a moment. He had rescued her, and in the blink of an eye, she disappeared again. Silver Fang refused to give up. He had used all his strength over decades to save her—why did she turn around and throw her life away?

“Xia Yu, Xia Yu!” Mo An’s voice traveled through the seawater. It was as if the mermaid’s voice had lost its ability to transmit. No matter what he did, he could not get a response. The Blue Jellyfish that could have poisoned him to death no longer attacked him. Their tentacles, like water curtains, slowly brushed the mermaid’s scales as if offering one last comfort. They slid past his pelvic fins, and not a single tentacle stung his skin.

No, I don’t want this! I want xla! Mo An pushed away a jellyfish dozens of meters wide and swam toward the deepest part of the colony without hesitation. The seawater churned into chaos behind him. Small jellyfish were flipped over by the vortex he created and curled as they drifted away. For the first time, Mo An lost his sense of direction in the sea. The mermaid’s innate ability to orient themselves no longer worked.

He had lost his target.

Gradually, he felt the movement of the ocean current, a force carrying him forward.

It was like a song flowing into his heart. As the only mermaid in his branch who could not sing, Mo An felt as if his Adam’s apple were being crushed by pain. Following the direction of the current, he turned his head. His gills were no longer bleeding. At some point, the seawater had been purified.

Within the unfathomable blue light, he saw Xia Yu.

A part of Xia Yu.

He seemed to be melting—or perhaps he had already melted—transforming from a human being into transparent water.

“Xla…” Mo An froze.

He hovered in the seawater, letting the jellyfish tentacles slide over his skin and scales— letting blue or red blood flow from his wounds. The scars on his chest would remain forever, becoming tattoos of pain across his front, back, and lower waist, but at that moment, the memories of pain they carried were insignificant.

He became a specimen of the sea, as if no one could awaken him. Bubbles surfaced from the corner of Mo An’s mouth and burst as they rose. The fins on his body stopped moving, sticking stiffly in the seawater.

His asymmetrical tail fin proved that he had hatched early, and his dorsal fin proved that he was an adult. But the proof of what he loved was disappearing. Suddenly, Mo An could not control his tear membrane. His eyes alternated between normal color and completely black. His long, silver hair spread widely in the sea, reflecting the light of natural enemies.

Finally, before Xia Yu completely vanished, Mo An swam over. All that was left was his head.

It was as if Xia Yu had been waiting for him at the very end. Slowly, he closed his eyes. The only pair of shallow-water-colored pupils in the world closed just like that. Mo An held the head up and called his name uncertainly.

“Xia Yu, Xia Yu, Xia Yu.”

Xia Yu did not feel pain. The only thing he could feel was his own disappearance. He and Xiaoxiao were the ocean, and the ocean was them. They had become seawater, completely merging into one. Like his sister, he was afraid too, but when he thought of those people, he wasn’t so afraid anymore.

He was only reluctant. He had not had time to say goodbye properly to Mo An or to hold his hand.

Gathering his last bit of strength, Xia Yu very much wanted to hug Mo An. As his lips parted, he made no sound, only a few bubbles.

“Don’t cry.”

The voice drifted away with the rising bubbles.

Mo An kissed him as if he had gone mad.

Blood continued to seep from the wounds on his gill slits. The color of the blood created a boundary between them and their surroundings—no one could come over and disturb them. Xia Yu’s lips were soft and warm, exactly as they had been before. Mo An could not understand how he could have become completely transparent. He was reluctant to let go of Xia Yu’s head. His mind had not yet caught up. He knew only that something called ‘separation’ was about to happen, yet it had not truly sunk into his consciousness.

Until he opened his palm—and what he held in his arms was only seawater.

Where was Xia Yu? Mo An flailed his arms wildly through the water.

Where is Xia Yu? His fingers clawed blindly through the sea.

“Where is Xia Yu?” Mo An opened his mouth.

Not far away, Silver Fang held the last hand that Xia Xiaoxiao had left behind. He trembled as that hand also disappeared.

That foolish girl… Silver Fang looked at his metal palm.

The viscous seawater had finally been purified; the cooling water of ecological electricity had become natural seawater. Countless mermaids had not forgotten their mission. They risked their lives rushing toward the amplifier that had already dimmed. Electric currents flowed through their palms. No words were needed; everything was convey through action. This apocalyptic crisis was not only humanity’s concern but also the mermaids’.

The amplifier flared brilliantly in an instant!

It was so bright that Meng Qingqing and Xi Ban could not open their eyes—it was more dazzling than the Talos lighthouse. A blue light drew a straight line through the seawater like lightning striking the seabed from the sky.

On the seabed, the current belonging to Jingwei began to connect. It increased in speed, surpassing that of the mermaid, and illuminated the outline of the bay. The blue circuitry continued forward, rushing toward its true destination.

The weathered city of Yukun finally came to life.

The awakened amplifier activated its mainframe. The hidden restart system beneath Yukun officially launched. There were no stones on the Western Mountain of Yukun—the city itself was the stone. It was adjacent to the Eastern Sea and illuminated it.

In the virtual world, the long, resonant cry of the Jingwei bird circled high in the sky, never dispersing. Mountains returned to their original forms within that cry. The data storm turned into gentle drizzle. Amid Jingwei’s call, all things showed signs of revival. Carved railings and jade terraces were renewed. Green shoots sprouted, and pink buds awaited blooming.

Spreading her wings, Jingwei followed her destined trajectory, flying from west to east and soaring toward the rising sun. The power at the roots of her wings was bestowed by Nuwa. She and Nuwa were truly a community of shared fate. For the first time in her world, she flew into the sky without hesitation or delay.

When the wind stirred by her wings struck Ling Shi’s body, he dimmed by one more layer.

“No! Impossible!” Ling Shi made his final struggle.

Yet Jingwei did not look at him. He could no longer be the stumbling block in their way.

Yukun lit up completely.

The research institute lit up as well.

Professor Wang Qin pressed her hand against the screen.

The screens of all the instruments began to flicker like breathing lights, one after another.

On land, wherever there were lights, they all turned on.

But in the dim ocean, Mo An was still desperately searching for any trace of Xia Yu. Xia Yu was gone. He had become part of the seawater. He might have vanished completely, or he might exist eternally. Every drop of seawater might be him—or none of it might be!

“It can’t be like this, Xia Yu!”

Mo An pushed away one enormous jellyfish after another. As he calmed down, he realized that the success of the X series came at the cost of Xia Yu and Xia Xiaoxiao’s disappearance. Once they met, they would become guardians of the seawater. The Blue Jellyfish were marine purifiers, and they shared the same fate.

The mermaids were transmitters of ecological electricity, and the jellyfish were eliminators of pollutants.

It can’t be like this. Mo An suddenly burst out of the water and drifted with the waves. Then he plunged back into the seabed and searched among the corals. He still remembered the warmth of Xia Yu’s lips—but where was he? Why did Xia Yu leave?

Were the promises he made to himself completely impossible to fulfill?

Was he once again homeless?

This was not the future he wanted. He had hatched early; the two of them had struggled to grow up together. They hadn’t even enjoyed many good days together—they hadn’t even held hands enough.

Mo An swam forward with all his strength, as if swimming fast enough would let him catch up. A string of pink diamonds formed at the corners of his eyes and sank toward the seabed. Still unwilling to give up, he turned and swam toward the bay. The seawater seemed to carry Xia Yu’s scent. As long as there was even the slightest hope, he could not abandon it.

Xia Yu… As Mo An flicked his tail, his eyes suddenly hurt.

He stopped. He truly could not find Xia Yu.

The pain made his eyes impossible to open. Mo An seemed to hear a cry. He did not know whether it was his own voice. He only knew that, having never felt the pressure of the deep sea before, he felt unbearably distressed. His lungs and gill slits could not provide him with enough oxygen. The seawater was no longer sweet. Mo An looked up at the sky through the surface. Light pierced through everything—it seemed as if Qingyao City were about to greet dawn.

The weather system gradually took control. Dark clouds dispersed, and the sun rose in the east.

Mo An seemed unable to open his eyes in the bright sunlight. He wiped the corners of his eyes.

But this time, there were no diamonds.

In the dark seabed, he shed a transparent tear.

The tear merged into the seawater like a vibrating tuning fork in a glass of water. Mermaids only shed atavistic tears in utter despair. These tears are seawater, called “Tears of the Siren.”

Meng Qingqing and Xi Ban’s bodies trembled as well, as if they had heard Haisiruola’s cry.

At that moment, Ling Shi heard the voice he was most familiar with—and most resentful of:

“Ling Shi.”

Ling Shi turned around. Though small, he stood beneath the radiance of Nuwa. Nuwa opened her compassionate eyes. The transfer of global control authority was complete. From that moment on, Nuwa was officially back online.

 

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Acargoreng: Ahhh I hate this chapter so much… I cried nonstop 😭