pdf-ebookys Page 250
Page 250
Latis jerked his body out of the ground, patted himself haphazardly, glanced at the large hole in the ground, and muttered with lingering fear:
"Thankfully, Brother Niu's double jump slowed things down, otherwise I would have truly collapsed halfway through my entrepreneurial journey. Thanks to the unknown spirits along the way..."
He looked at the broken hang glider on the ground, sighed, picked it up, and threw it into the hole.
"You've truly achieved your goal..."
After offering a prayer for the hang glider, Latis suddenly noticed two people watching him from a distance. Upon closer inspection, he recognized them as "Sun" and Artur.
"Hey!" He waved and immediately ran towards the two of them.
"Your Excellency Centaur, you look very bright."
"The Sun" was the first to greet everyone, saying loudly:
"Did you find my ointment on the mountain? Has it regained its luster?"
"Uh..." Latis's head suddenly throbbed with pain. He glanced at the "Sun's" skull-like face with its inherent smile, and helplessly rubbed his forehead, saying:
"On the mountain is a giant skeleton who built it over countless years, and now..."
"He'll keep building it up, won't he?" "Sun" asked loudly, hands on hips.
"Ah, how did you know?" Latis's eyes widened in surprise.
"The Sun" burst into laughter, which lasted for several seconds. Finally, he stopped laughing and said to Artur:
"I knew it all along, I must have gone up there."
“…That might just be your imagination.” Artur shook his head and said, “This centaur gentleman hasn’t finished speaking yet.”
"No, let me tell you, gentlemen, I remember, I really remember."
The sun gazed up at the mountaintop, remained silent for a moment, and then whispered:
"I often compared myself to the sun, but it wasn't until I saw that sun that I began to feel my own brilliance faded..."
Chapter 255 The Sun Rises One After Another in the Bone Spirit Realm
Countless white moons ago, Mr. "Sun" once climbed to the top of this mountain.
He encountered Sisyphus quite naturally and, with a trembling heart, had a conversation with him.
He couldn't remember the content of the conversation, but he vaguely remembered that he had tried to share his sun with Sisyphus, but Sisyphus did not accept it.
Mr. Sun's sun is not dim, nor is it too shallow; it is just a little thin compared to the sun of Sisyphus, which still retains its afterglow after a long period of time.
Mr. Sun thought to himself that his sun would grow brighter and brighter with each passing moon, and that he would be able to reawaken Sisyphus's sun.
Later he forgot, and although he forgot, his sun did indeed grow brighter and brighter in the process of forgetting.
……
……
Latis pieced together the above story from the Sun's rambling narrative.
"real or fake?"
Artur remained very conservative in his description of the "sun." After thinking for a while, he asked:
"Without a bone spirit to contract with you, and without powerful abilities, how did you manage to climb such a high mountain?"
“Artur, you always think about things so far away.” The Sun sighed, a rare occurrence, and said softly:
"The mountain is right in front of you, why don't you just go and climb it?"
“If we exhaust ourselves climbing but cannot change the situation in the slightest, wouldn’t that be just making trouble for ourselves?” Artur said calmly.
"Death is as long as this world, that's the real norm. We reunite here after death, perhaps life is about internalizing death... In this world, how can you be sure that struggling to rush towards the stars is definitely the right thing to do?"
"Sun" tapped the empty ear canal on the side of its skull, then thrust its hips forward, reached down to touch the center of its pelvis, and said:
"Don't you have any ointment...?"
"Stop, stop, stop!"
Latis quickly interrupted their argument, stood between them, raised his hands, and shouted:
"Stop arguing! Let me tell you what's on the mountaintop first!"
He waved his hands, glanced at Artur who was shrugging his shoulders in acceptance, and immediately breathed a sigh of relief before looking at the "sun" on the ridge.
The "Sun" was seen repeatedly patting its pelvis with its right hand, while its skull head nodded with a proud smile and raised its left hand to give a thumbs-up.
Latis slapped his face, yelling with a splitting headache:
"Quack, don't lift it there!"
……
"...Perhaps it was my rambling that rekindled Sisyphus's interest in the Bone Spirit Realm, uh, anyway, in the end, Sisyphus said he would continue building this mountain upwards, perhaps all the way to the sea of stars, or perhaps even more..."
Latis briefly recounted what had happened on the mountaintop, clapped his hands, and said:
"In short, I've decided to head to that so-called 'Mount Sanctuary.' Although I've only memorized the general direction, it's enough... Sisyphus said Mount Sanctuary is farther from here than Mount Augusta was before. Without further ado, I should set off."
After a moment of silence, "The Sun" looked at Artur, who was deep in thought, raised his chin, and asked:
"Artur?"
Artur came to his senses, sighed, and said:
How could there be such a person?
"What?" Latis looked at the two people who seemed to be speaking in riddles, scratching his head, feeling a little confused.
“I said,” “The Sun” laughed, glanced at Latis, then looked up at the sky and called out leisurely:
"The sun is rising!"
"The sun?" Latis asked, completely bewildered. "Are you referring to yourself or Sisyphus?"
"The Sun's" laughter faltered. He glanced at Latis, then at Artur, paused for a moment, and then retorted:
"He really didn't feel anything?"
"When have I ever lied to you?" Artur asked with a subtle expression.
"Now I guess I've gotten my revenge, right?"
"...What's the point of comparing them?"
"Sun" muttered something, then turned its gaze back to the mountaintop deep in the clouds and fell silent.
Many fragments of memories surfaced in his mind, countless blank spaces connecting those fragments, causing him to involuntarily fall into a pale and blank state whenever he tried to recall the past.
"Sun" knew he wasn't the kind of guy who talked a lot of abstract things, but he couldn't remember what he used to be like. All he could do was have a jumble of emotions that he couldn't quite distinguish, which kept assaulting his remaining rationality.
Let's just go completely insane in this chaos.
Such a thought flashed through his skull, but he immediately dismissed it.
Limited madness is a pure will, while infinite madness is the collapse of the will. These two distinct states, separated by a thin line, are like life and death in this Bone Spirit Realm, causing countless people to struggle back and forth between them.
"Sun" is just an ordinary person, just like Sisyphus and all the wandering creatures in the Bone Spirit Realm. He is running hard before he completely loses his mind, but he also has a goal.
Is that goal to climb to the mountaintop and soar into the sea of stars?
...No, it shouldn't be.
"The Sun" felt a warm light. Although his empty eye sockets prevented him from clearly seeing the source of the light, he could feel it.
He turned his gaze to Latis.
"Oh, I understand now."
"The Sun" suddenly murmured. After removing the goal of mountain climbing from his mind, he quickly came up with his original goal.
"I wanted that guy to truly understand the meaning of life! How could I have forgotten that?"
He looked at Artur, some scattered fragments surfaced in his mind, but he couldn't piece together the memory he should have.
The "sun's" smiling skull teeth twitched, as if it wanted to say something, but then gave up.
Although he really wanted to reminisce with Artur about the past, he thought about it and realized that he had no memories left, so what was the point of looking back? He was just a little crazy, and he didn't really want to leave an impression of being a comedic character!
He lowered his hands from his hips, scratched his head, suppressed the complex emotions deep within him, and laughed heartily, saying:
“Mr. Centaur, Mr. Artur, I’m leaving.”
"Huh?" Latis looked at "Sun" with a puzzled expression as it looked around and then uttered this sentence. He felt that he really had a hard time keeping up with the skeleton's thought process, uh, skull circuitry.
"Leave?" Artur seemed to instantly understand the meaning of those words, his brows furrowing as he asked;
"Are you going to waste your time again on some vague and unrealistic goal?"
"How could it be something ethereal and unreal?"
"The Sun" turned and looked at Artur for two seconds, its gaze as indifferent as ever. Artur, however, vaguely sensed something was amiss. He shuddered, instinctively took a step forward, and called out:
"The Sun! You..."
"Hahaha……"
"The Sun" laughed loudly, put his hands on his hips, looked up at the mountaintop, and said:
"My goal is right here!"
He paused, then waved his hands and strode forward, shouting loudly:
"Artur, Artur! Look, I'm going to prove how I actually climbed this mountain!"
A surge of soul power suddenly erupted from "The Sun," who strode forward, raised his hands high, and shouted:
"Artur, Artur! Look, the visible sun is about to rise for the first time!"
Golden soul power instantly shone from beneath him, like two incredibly bright pills, shining brilliantly in this pale Bone Spirit Realm!
The brilliant light made Latis and Artur squint. In the dim, almost blurry vision, the two pills instantly grew larger and longer. Then they heard a clear, crisp, loud, and awe-inspiring sound of bone wings vibrating!
"and many more!"
Artur forced his eyes open and ran frantically toward the ridge, shouting as he watched the skeleton soar into the sky:
"The Sun! ...William!!"