Sundering Nature-Volume 8 Chapter 52
Original and most updated translations are from volare. Please don't read elsewhere and stop supporting theft.
TL: Zhao
Editing: Krisaia
"And he left, just like that?" In their room on the second floor of the tea shop, Bai Ze was intrigued by Li Yiming's story.
"Yep, after I asked him what he fought for, he just stood there and smiled and then I was suddenly back to reality." Li Yiming said as he licked his lips. He did not understand the meaning behind the clone's smile even now.
"What are you planning on doing now?"
"Well, part of my soul is still missing and…" Li Yiming said as he said as the metallic orb floated in the air in front of him. "I can't use this."
"Forget about it. That guy still inside, and you're thinking about using it? I'd throw it away if I could." Bai Ze said as she pursed her lips.
"Well, we'll leave that for later. We need to find someone right now." Li Yiming said as the metallic or re-entered his body.
"Who are you looking for?" Bai Ze said as she filled her mouth with potato chips.
"Apparently that video about Liu Meng came from a Recorder. I wonder if I'll be able to get more information if I find another Recorder."
"And where are you going to find another one?"
"Him…" Li Yiming jumped up from his bed and gave his cell phone to Bai Ze.
"Fu Bo? He's still alive?" Bai Ze stared at the webpage on Li Yiming's phone which showed that Sundering Nature was still being updated.
"The last update was a month ago." Li Yiming's eyes lit up. 'The way this is written… The non-existent attention it received… This has to be him.'
"Now that you mention it, I kinda miss him too. How are you planning on finding him?"
"I don't know." With Fu Bo's technique, Li Yiming knew that it would be even harder to find him than Liu Meng.
"Well, you can figure that out yourself. I'm going to check if Fang Shui'er finished filming."
Fang Shui'er, who was still busy with work, had moved her filming location to Pure Water Herb Hall. It also conveniently brought more attention to the tea house, which hopefully resulted in more customers.
* * *
Fu Bo moved into the elevator with a pale countenance, his back wet from sweat. As soon as the elevator door opened, he sprinted toward the hotel room and kicked its door open.
"Ahhh!" Sai Gao's scream was heard. Both he and Shao Xian wore thin silk pyjamas and had their faces covered by a paper mask.
"Why weren't you answering my calls?" Fu Bo yelled between gasps for fresh air.
"We were in the middle of a game…" Sai Gao showed his cell phone screen to Fu Bo. He had moved to the hotel with Shao Xian, since the rock Fu Bo brought back affected him greatly.
"He's my friend… Sorry about that. How about you go get some clothes?" Sai Gao said as he resumed playing.
Shao Xian seemed rather irritated by Fu Bo's rude interruption, and she picked up a pillow to conceal her attractive curves as she made for the bedroom.
"Do you even know what time it is? And you're still playing games?" Fu Bo complained.
"I think you're doing pretty good…" Sai Gao said nonchalantly.
"Wait, are you hurt?" Sai Gao put down his cell phone and looked at Fu Bo.
Fu Bo crashed down on the sofa and emptied the drink in front of him.
"What happened?" Sai Gao stopped fooling around after understanding that something serious was going on.
"I think I might have made a mistake…" Fu Bo said after a long moment of silence.
"Don't tell me you cut open that rock?" Sai Gao joked.
"I wanted to. I even tried with an electric saw, and all I achieved was breaking two saw blades."
"Then what happened?"
"I tried this…" Fu Bo hesitated and took out what looked like an old, yellowed notebook.
"Are you crazy? You used the Death Notebook on that thing?" Sai Gao jumped up from the couch. This was one of Fu Bo's abilities, everything he wrote down would eventually happen, but the change of fate would have to be paid with his own life.
"Look at this rock, its dimensions match those in the book! Look at the holes in it! They also match the positions of the cardinals and the heavenly bodies... This is the rock! I was just curious, so…" [1]
"What did you write?"
"That the rock would break, and he would come back to this world."
"And then?" Sai Gao's eyes widened.
"I felt like all of my life force was sucked into that rock."
"I'm surprised you didn't die." Sai Gao sighed in frustration. If that rock was the real deal, not even a hundred of you would have been enough.
"It was strange, though. The entire thing didn't even last a second, and all of my life force came back immediately after."
"What?"
"In fact, I'm only slightly hurt now because of the recoil." Fu Bo said as he put his hand in front of Sai Gao for him to examine.
"What about the rock?" Sai Gao asked after examining Fu Bo's wrist.
"It… it cracked into two…"
"Seriously?" Sai Gao tightened his grip, forcing a moan of pain out of Fu Bo.
"It was only a tiny little crack, about this wide, and this long…" Fu Bo grimaced as he showed the size of the fissure.
"And then what happened?"
"Well, I was worried about something happening to you, so I contacted you. Since you weren't answering, I rushed here…"
"We need to go back right away!" Sai Gao pulled Fu Bo toward the exit.
Are you not going to change yourself first?" Fu Bo looked at Sai Gao's attire.
"The world is about to end, and you have time to worry about this?" Sai Gao rolled his eyes and paced towards the door.
Back in the garden where they had set down the stone, the two stared at the ground dumbly.
"What happened to the stone?" Sai Gao said as he stared at the empty backyard.
"It was there when I left…"
"Think harder. Can you think of anything that happened after the rock broke?" Sai Gao said with a severe countenance. An object having the power to suppress the power of guardians could not have been moved so easily.
"When it cracked... Oh, yes, I remember a small ripple in the space around it." Fu Bo said as he closed his eyes to concentrate on the events that transpired.
"Anything else?"
"No, nothing."
"A space ripple…" Sai Gao squinted as he concentrated on capturing traces of what happened. He suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils gradually being colored with a golden light, and looked at the sky.
"There are traces of Heaven's Laws being bent here."
"Is it because of me?" Fu Bo said.
"No, it's beyond your abilities. The laws have been altered."
"Sai Gao, did I mess something up?"
"I don't know if this is a foreboding omen of a disaster to come or a good sign… Oh?" Sai Gao suddenly saw a flash of light from one of the stars hanging high in the sky, as if it was going to fall down towards Earth.
"I think… something just fell…"
"What?" Fu Bo looked up.
"More like someone did."
* * *
Inside the bamboo forest, Stargaze suddenly opened her eyes with a terrified gasp.
"Qian Mian, tell all of our people to come back. Tell them to stay alert for any kind of trouble. Stargaze put her hands together in front of her. The words she spoke became glyphs of light which flew into the orb of light she held. Following that, twelve barriers of light were erected as she vanished from sight along with the entire mountain.
"Liu Meng… Where are you?"
1. Fu Bo is referring to the rock from which Wukong came out, in Journey to The West