Chapter 139: Twilight and Dawn

Chapter 139 Twilight and Dawn

What is the easiest thing to ignite?

—Naturally, a wooden marionette.

At this moment, Elius only needed to stand there to become the perfect kindling.

This twilight spectacle was unusually magnificent, blurring the boundary between heaven and earth with boundless afterglow. People could only see a twilight that seemed to consume the entire world—and the towering figure gradually being ignited within it.

The blazing twilight sun wheel raged like wildfire before Elius, filling her entire field of vision. The radiant glow flowed and reflected through her tangled, voluminous crimson locks, as if threatening to ignite her dark crimson mane and emerald eyes until they turned to ashes.

The apparition of the True God "Twilight Calamity" was devastating by its very nature, and with Chu Fu using his Ability "Future Definition" to channel all the damage from the image directly onto Elius...

Even though Elius immediately attempted to defend herself, countless rippling mirror surfaces materializing around her, she still couldn't escape being scorched by the decaying twilight.

The power of decay rapidly spread across Elius's body. Her hair lost its luster like abandoned cobwebs, and her fair skin gradually revealed a lattice of fractures, as if pieces of white porcelain were peeling away to expose the charred, hollow structure beneath.

Amidst the twilight, Elius flexed her fingers, only to find the joints between them rusted as if by the passage of time, emitting mute protests.

"This body... is about to break down again."

Elius with palpable disinterest released the library and the players she had been holding. Half of her face remained flawlessly beautiful, while the other half was covered in charred, web-like cracks, resembling shattered porcelain—uncanny and horrifying.

Only her emerald-green eyes, tempered in fire, remained sharp enough to send shivers down one's spine, burning with a smoldering madness and seething hatred.

Through the dazzling twilight light, Elius stared directly at Chu Fu and sighed, "What an unromantic gift to give a lady upon your first meeting, such a perilous present."

Chu Fu raised an eyebrow, seemingly admiring the sight of Elius burning, decaying, and melting within the twilight.

He teased, "With all due respect, you may not have the talent to judge romance either—for example, the taste of the world of Urban Legends you created was rather pedestrian, don't you think?"

"You simply don’t understand the romance found in tragedy," Elius lamented, shaking her head.

Her figure gradually grew translucent within the twilight, cracks spreading across her fair skin, yet her expression became calmer than before, even carrying a faint, dreamlike smile as if lost in reverie.

She spoke as if describing a beautiful dream: "To blindfold every living being, shackle their feet, and have them trudge through the quagmire—the deeper they sink, the harder they struggle; the harder they struggle, the deeper they sink... until they exhaust themselves and finally hit rock bottom, where nothing can escape the fate of falling."

"Don’t you think that’s beautiful? Only in such despairing and chaotic soil can the most resplendent blossoms bloom."

Chu Fu fell silent for a moment before remarking, "You’ve either been tainted too severely by the Fate Black Goat or gone mad after disappearing for millennia."

"Am I mad? Perhaps."

Elius smiled with her horrifying, cracked face. "In the process of climbing upward, the only way to rise above the rest is to be more insane than our competitors, to harbor more unshakable obsessions, and to climb over their corpses."

"So, I’ll take your assessment of 'madness' as a compliment for now."

"...Suit yourself."

Chu Fu snorted coldly, unwilling to engage in further pointless debate. Instead, he meaningfully reminded her, "Keep running—no matter where you flee, you’re already exposed to the watchful gaze of Fate."

"He has always excelled as a consummate hunter. I hope you last long enough to keep Him thoroughly entertained, so He won’t have time to trouble me."

Chang Shuyue listened silently to their exchange, her expression growing increasingly inscrutable.

If she dissected every word and analyzed them carefully, the implications would be staggering...

And the attitudes of these two superiors were equally mercurial, impossible to decipher.

At times, they seemed like sworn enemies at each other's throats; at others, like old friends reminiscing, as if sharing some unspoken understanding beyond others' comprehension...

Perhaps among beings of their level, attitudes were always this ambiguous. Like two mighty torrential rivers flowing side by side, they would cautiously maintain room for maneuver until one finally swallowed the other.

It seemed their friendship, hostility, and murderous intent would only be revealed at the very last moment.

Beneath the flowers, smiles and honeyed words, the glint of a blade lurked in secret.

By now, Chang Shuyue vaguely grasped the truth that there was no irreconcilable life-or-death struggle or hatred between Chu Fu and Elius.

Chu Fu’s targeting of her was more about making his stance clear to the true ruler of the Fate Domain—the Lord of Fate—declaring that he would never stand on the opposite side.

Elius, despite her seemingly unhinged mental state, appeared to have grasped Chu Fu’s stance as well.

While trading barbs, the two subtly gauged each other’s conditions and quietly reached an understanding—

A token effort would suffice. Neither was at their peak strength, both being "expendable pawns" or "prisoners" in a sense. There was no need to fight to the death under such circumstances.

How complicated.

Chang Shuyue sighed inwardly. These high-level powerhouses were all unfathomable characters.

As they spoke, Elius’s figure had already half-dissolved, dark ashes still warm drifted down like snowfall, like countless falling black butterflies.

She asked the unfamiliar prophet, "May I know your name, you ill-mannered sir?"

"My current name is Chu Fu," he replied with a nod. "But in the distant past, my true name was Wu Suer—I await your return gift at any time."

Elius softly repeated his true name and nodded slowly. "I’ll remember it. Reciprocity is only fair—here’s half of my 'return gift' for now. As for the rest... I’ll deliver it to you personally later."

As soon as she finished speaking, a circular mirror coalesced in her hands, its surface refracting dazzling sunlight until it shone as luminous as the full moon.

Within the mirror, myriad horrifying, grotesque deaths flickered into view—all of them pointing to the same raven-haired, azure-eyed figure.

"My friend, I’ll let you choose the form in which this 'gift' is delivered," Elius said gently.

Chang Shuyue whipped her head toward Chu Fu, but whatever he had chosen left his face drained of all color in an instant.

A slow breeze carried the faint scent of blood as it began to spread.

Elius gave a vicious smile. "I hope you like my gift. Until we meet again."

With that, she gracefully performed a flawless curtsy, as if at the finale of a grand ball, elegantly taking her leave.

As she bowed, her wide-brimmed witch’s hat burned away in the twilight, revealing the two curved black ram’s horns atop her head, making her resemble a demon consumed by purifying flames from ancient legends.

"—I will return."

Before her figure vanished completely, Elius made this declaration.

A simple sentence, yet it cast an unforgettable shadow over the hearts of all who heard it.

From then on, Elius’s name and image would be synonymous with chaos, misfortune, and disaster.

Her notoriety would spread anew across countless worlds, spoken of in fear and awe by countless people—

"The harbinger of endless calamity and chaos, the death-bringer."

But at this moment, Chang Shuyue had no time to ponder the future repercussions.

"Mr. Chu! What's wrong?"

She eyed Chu Fu with concern, quickly noticing a spreading, wet crimson stain across his chest. The metallic tang of blood thickened in the air.

Expressionless, Chu Fu lowered his head for a glance before calmly stating, "Ah, it's nothing... Oh, just my heart got ripped out."

"Oh, that's fine—wait—"

Chang Shuyue was momentarily fooled by his composed demeanor before her words abruptly halted. Realization dawned, and her voice rose uncontrollably, "Excuse me?!"

As if the fatal wound wasn’t his own, Chu Fu repeated flatly, "Just that my heart's been ripped out."

"Oh, right," he added, turning to the stunned Chang Shuyue with polite inquiry, "Got a cup or something? Preferably big enough to hold my heart and blood."

Chang Shuyue’s mind went blank. Numbly, she nodded, "Uh, yeah..."

……

Days later, the players gradually withdrew from the instance world.

Chu Fu stayed until the end, originally intending only to observe the restored order of Guiyin City. Yet, the players whispered among themselves, unanimously concluding:

When a top player strolls around, you call that *just* a stroll?

There must be some hidden reasoning behind his actions!

Perhaps he was checking for the Witch’s leftover traps, ensuring she could never return—or maybe it was part of some other secret plan...

Chu Fu: "..." Whatever. Let them talk.

That day, as Chu Fu wandered the streets as usual, neon lights and signs illuminated the bustling crowds. Every face bore the relieved grins of survivors.

Standing quietly at a street corner, he observed quietly. Before long, a middle-aged woman in a trench coat, carrying a briefcase, stopped beside him and murmured, "Such a lovely sight, isn’t it? We have you to thank for this. This peace will last for a long, long time."

"Everyone will remember that date—the day 'Mother' was completely expelled from our world. The source of power that created and sustained the Urban Legends vanished, and no new ones will ever form."

"Don’t mention it," Chu Fu replied slowly, seemingly uncomfortable with such direct gratitude. "I just took out my trash."

Investigator D chuckled helplessly, humoring him. "Alright, alright... Regardless, thanks to your help, new Urban Legends won’t arise, and the existing ones are fading."

"With their power source severed, all Urban Legends are fading for good. Some have already fallen into permanent sleep. Recently, we observed that Mirror Image No. 414 has reverted to an ordinary scrapped bus, and several place-bound legends are gradually sealing themselves off."

"We got reports lately—some 'people' suddenly melted into goo in public. They were identified as the A-class Urban Legend 'Replicants.' Several college students also mysteriously vanished, later confirmed to be members of a paranormal club. Their loved ones even recalled that they had already died and been buried long ago."

"These shocks and griefs are like the growing pains of our world returning to normalcy."

"—Perhaps soon, Urban Legends will vanish entirely, and the city will finally be ours again."

Gazing intently at the passersby, Investigator D painted the future she had long yearned for: "By then, the city will be safer everywhere. No more creepy rules or whispers, no more weird, random deaths..."

Chu Fu glanced at her and interjected, "And no more people willingly throwing themselves in Urban Legends to get info, sacrificing themselves to maintain the illusion of peace?"

Investigator D coughed awkwardly, smoothing her hair. "You knew, huh?"

Instead of answering directly, Chu Fu encouraged, "Keep striving to live. Hope pays off for every hopeful soul."

With a quiet acknowledgment, Investigator D suddenly noticed the container in Chu Fu’s left hand—a narrow-waisted, wide-mouthed gold cup, its surface intricately engraved, like it belongs in a museum, utterly out of place in modern society.

A layer of white gauze covered the rim, obscuring the contents and adding mystery.

Unable to resist her curiosity, Investigator D asked, "Mr. Chu, what is this...?"

"This?" Chu Fu casually lifted the gauze and presented the goblet to her. "Wanna look?"

Unprepared, Investigator D peered inside—and almost choked.

Within the gleaming gold, a bloody sludge sloshed with Chu Fu’s movement, thick and viscous like tidal waves. At the bottom lay a fist-sized heart, long still and cold, kept fresh by the cup’s magic.

Cautiously, Investigator D ventured, "...Is this a human heart?"

"It’s mine," Chu Fu mused, then added uncertainly, "Well, pretty sure it’s human?"

Investigator D fell silent.

What *is* Chu Fu—someone who couldn’t even confirm if he was human?!

In that moment, she realized no legend topped his weirdness.

But on the bright side, at least he’s harmless. He was just carrying around a goblet containing his own heart—not someone else’s!

With that thought, her racing pulse steadied.

Satisfied by her horrified expression, Chu Fu draped the gauze back over the goblet, waiting to freak out the next person.

Regaining her composure, Investigator D studied him deeply. "In the end, I must still thank you—on behalf of The Bureau and all citizens of Guiyin City."

"Finally, the day has come when The Bureau’s archives will no longer need new entries."

The archivists had solemnly sealed the records into folders and locked them away.

The final file documented Chu Fu’s existence—S-003, "Judgment Day of Urban Legends," "The End of Calamity."

Humans were creatures prone to forgetting, but for centuries to come, the people of this world would remember his name thankfully, honoring him for banishing all Urban Legends, fear, and disaster.

And over an even longer span, perhaps those terrifying or fantastical tales would fade into history, preserved only as dusty old records.

After standing with Chu Fu for over ten minutes, Investigator D checked her watch and smiled. "Apologies, but it’s time to pick up my child from school. I’ll take my leave now."

"Goodbye, sir!"

With a brisk wave, she strode out of the street corner into the radiant sunlight, merging with the crowd as they surged toward the future.

Sunlight glinted off strands of hair, like countless flowing points of light, converging into an endless river.