Translator: Lonelytree
“Phecda Hero, Gu Jun?” Gu Jun wanted to chuckle. “You mean that lousy medical student?” The whole situation felt surreal, two people who were much older than he was, were referring to him as their ancestral hero. It made him want to guffaw and he did.
“You bastard…” Malachite was about to tackle Gu Jun but was held back by Peacock. “Don’t!” Elder Atal aside, the mental power of this Nightmare Man was unpredictable. Even in his limping state, he was able to cut his way through the horde of black merchants, something that both of them could not have done.
“Who are you people?” Gu Jun demanded sharply, “Do you think you can trick me with these nonsensical stories?” His guard went back up again. He even started to suspect Atal next to him, after all who would start rambling about prophecies at their first meeting… Past, present, future, the passage of time was a mess. ‘Are they in this together? What kind of trap is this? And what kind of organization is behind it?’
“Aiz…” Sensing the suspicious gaze that Gu Jun levelled his way, Atal looked back with apparent confusion.
“Mr. Nightmare Man.” Peacock said in a sincere tone. “You know that the Phecda Hero is a great doctor so why would you slander his name in such a manner? According to legend, if not for the hero’s selfless sacrifice and allow the Goddess of Hope to bring the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan back from Dreamlands to our ancestral world, our race would not have survived.”
‘Goddess of Hope?’ Gu Jun’s urge to laugh grew, his stomach was twitching from holding in the laughter. “Don’t tell me, this Goddess of Hope’s name is Wu Siyu?” He really wanted to see the expression on Dirty-minded Yu’s face when she found out about her new moniker.
“You…” The suppressed anger was turning Malachite’s face purple. “I will not allow you to…” Peacock was trying to hold her partner back but her face was equally lined with anger. “Looks like Mr. Nightmare Man has been away from the tribe for too long that your thoughts have been corrupted… Indeed, that is our Goddess of Hope.”
‘Why didn’t you call her the Princess of Hope or better yet, the Grandmeister of Hope?’ Gu Jun could not stop himself from bursting out with a laugh. He shook his head. “I know this is all just a story but at least come up with a more believable one.”
“Bastard, I will not stand for this humiliation anymore!” Malachite shook Peacock off and he jumped at the Nightmare Man. Spell appeared immune to the Nightmare Man, then he would use his fist. But in that moment, the Nightmare Man raised his eyes at him. Staring into that pair of glassy eyes, pain curled around him like a python. He gripped his face and he could hear Peacock’s voice coming through hazily. “Close your eyes! Mr. Nightmare Man, please don’t do this!” Just as Malachite was about to gouge out his own eyes in hallucination, the mental energy that gripped him suddenly disappeared.
“Ah.” Malachite gasped hungrily for air as he turned back to look at the Nightmare Man’s white mask.
“Told you not to act rashly, didn’t I?” Peacock held her partner up as she scolded him softly. She too was covered in sweat. The two of them had studied the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan to the fifth chapter already, they were the elite among the elites within their people, but Malachite crumbled with just one glance. Was that a kind of spell? But the Nightmare Man had not even spoken a word… To think that a silent chant would evoke such power, they finally understood how he managed to escape from the black merchants.
“Do you guys seriously have no idea who I am?” The Nightmare Man asked again, “Are you going to keep up this charade?”
“I do not understand what you mean… but we definitely have no intention to trick you.” Peacock said confusedly.
Atal who had been watching suddenly dropped this nugget of information, “The first time the land’s travelers came to visit me was 30 years ago.” Time, Atal realized that the issue here was time. Gu Jun took in a deep breath as he tried to suppress the rage within him… Mental corruption was more than just a number, he found out the higher the corruption rate, the more trouble he had controlling his rationality. From the perspective of psychology, he was suffering from anger management issues due to PTSD. Gu Jun monitored his breathing to help himself calm down. The more chaotic the situation, the more he needed to keep a cool head.
’30 years?’ He had no watch but the weather pattern differed based on the location in Dreamlands. Over the past few days, he had been watching the sky. There was day and night. The length of a day here was similar to how long it would be on Earth, or perhaps longer.
“How many days are there in a year?” He asked Atal.
Atal answered calmly, “380 days.”
Gu Jun thought to himself, ‘so 30 years here will be longer than 30 years on earth…’ 30 years ago, he was not even born yet but the race of land’s travelers already existed. Taking in the years they spent as nomads, their history should be longer than 30 years, so how did he, an unborn child, be their ancestor? It had been about a month since his separation from Wu Siyu and the rest. From the negotiation that took place between the Zoogs and the black merchant, Gu Jun realized a day at the abandoned island was also a day at Ulthar. Even if 100 years had passed on Earth, the timeline should not be like this. It sounded more like… A group of people from the future had returned to the past and after wandering for many years in this world, their descendants had encountered him. But if that was true, the whole thing was so complicated that Gu Jun could barely wrap his head around it.
“We should both calm down.” Gu Jun observed the expression on the two’s faces before he continued, “I know quite a lot about this Gu Jun and the ancestral world that you mentioned.” Peacock and Malachite shared a confused look. “Which is why I am curious, how come you are not speaking your ancestral language, you do not even have Chinese names, what happened to your ancestral surnames?”
The Nightmare Man claimed that he understood a lot about them but the questions he asked were common knowledge among the tribe, this confused the duo.
“We have already abandoned the concept of ancestral names a long time ago.” Peacock answered. “That will only cause separation and not unity.”
‘Oh?’ Gu Jun contemplated. Indeed, the mark of an ancestral name would create separation based on bloodline… bloodline defined familial identity and each family would strive for the benefit of their own and not as a collective… The travellers now had 30000 people. The concept of the ancestral name was probably dropped when they were only several thousand people.
“Mr. Nightmare Man, I have no idea what you mean by our ancestral language.” Peacock continued, “But the language that we speak is definitely different from our ancestors. It has been 300 years since our ancestors, the Ten Thousand Kindle successfully migrated into Leng. They did not carry anything with them. When they left Leng, there were only 2000 people left. We have lost technology because, according to our historical teaching, most of the scientific theorems do not apply in this world. In the same way, we have lost knowledge, language and writing…
“Mr. Nightmare Man, you have to understand that in that nomadic age, any kind of legacy is hard to maintain. We do not even have pen and paper for the first 100 year, we could only carve on stone and we were trapped inside the Eastern Desert for the next 100 years…” Peacock’s voice took on a saddened tone as she went through her people’s harsh legacy, “However, certain measures have been taken to ensure that the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan and certain legends are passed down through generations verbally.”
‘Degradation of civilization?’ Gu Jun pondered. ‘It is possible.’
“Peacock, do you mind telling me the history of our people from start to beginning?” He requested, Gu Jun wanted to hear what kind of story it was, “Make it as detailed as you can, just treat me as an outsider who knows nothing about our people.” As confused as Peacock was, she nodded. Malachite and Atal were listening quietly too.
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