The Heavens: A Qing, the Yue Girl at the beginning

The rain trickled down along the lines of the church's stained glass, dividing the face of the statue into mottled light and shadow. Uesugi Yue slowly closed the Bible in his hand, his knuckles slightly white. He raised his head, and his turbid golden eyes were like a dying charcoal fire in the dim candlelight.

"FBI?" He sneered, his voice hoarse as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper. "Since when did you Americans start to control even the community churches in Tokyo?"

Ange did not answer, but just slightly raised the collar of his black windbreaker to block the cold wind coming in through the gap in the door.

His eyes swept across several astonished old men in the church, and finally stopped on Uesugi Yue's hunched back.

Then, Ange raised his hand and gently pressed it on Uesugi Yue's shoulder. The force was not strong, but it made the latter tremble all over - that was the feeling of the expansion of the "Time Zero" field.

It seemed that in the next second, his movements would be infinitely slowed down, and Ange's blade would accurately pierce his heart.

"Official business for cross-border cooperation cannot be delayed too long." His Japanese was fluent and almost sarcastic. His fingertips tapped lightly on the silver-plated cane, making a regular "tap, tap" sound, like a countdown urging.

Uesugi Yue was silent for a moment, then slowly stood up.

His movements were slow, as if every bone was resisting, but Ange knew that this was just a disguise - the old bastard's muscles were still tight, and the body hidden under the gray coat could still burst out with power comparable to that of a pure-blooded dragon.

The two walked out of the church one after the other.

The rain eased a bit, but the sky was still as gloomy as iron. The vending machine on the corner of the street was emitting a pale light, reflecting Uesugi Yue's deeply wrinkled face.

He took out a pack of crumpled "Peace" cigarettes, put one in his mouth, but did not light it, just letting the rain soak the tobacco.

"Ange," he finally spoke, his voice so low that it was almost drowned out by the sound of the rain, "You're finally here."

"Such a big thing happened in R, I knew you would come." He spit out the wet cigarette, and his golden eyes lit up slightly, "...Can you get me a flight abroad soon?"

Angers smiled.

That smile was like an ice knife cutting across glass, sharp and cold.

"After all these years, you are still the same coward you were back then."

He slowly took out a cigar from his pocket and lit it with a silver lighter. The smoke condensed into a pale line in the rain. "To be honest, with your physical fitness, it shouldn't be a problem for you to swim across the entire East China Sea, let alone across the Tsushima Strait, right?"

The corner of Uesugi Yue's mouth twitched, as if a nerve was pricked.

"Oh, do you think everyone is like you, living for over a hundred years and still looking so proud to hold a knife and chop a dragon?"

He squinted his eyes, the rain dripping down his white hair, "I am old, Ange. My time is over."

"No, your era has never ended." Ange stared at him, "It's just that you chose to escape."

Uesugi Yue was silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed, his laughter was filled with self-mockery: "Ha, you are still so good at poking people's sore spots." He looked up at the gloomy sky, "Yes, I ran away... I ran away for half a century. Now, I just want to find a place to wait for death quietly."

"Waiting to die quietly?" Ange sneered, "Then why are you still hiding in the church to pray? Can God help you get rid of those crazy metal-gnawing ghost tooth vipers? Or can God let you avoid the coming 'Night Food Field'? Some things can't be avoided by hiding."

Uesugi Yue's pupils suddenly contracted.

"...Do you know Yezhiyuan?" His voice changed, becoming low and dangerous, like a dormant volcano suddenly awakening.

"I know more than you think."

Angers blew out a puff of smoke, his eyes piercing through the rain curtain, looking at the overcast sky in the distance, "For example, the sign of the awakening of the royal blood is to obtain the mark that allows one to enter the 'Night Food Field' - this mark is passed down through the bloodline of the Eight Snake Families."

Uesugi Yue's breathing paused slightly.

He had long felt that something was wrong with the rain - although he had not been the Shadow King for a long time, Uesugi Yue still remembered the legend of the Night Food Plain very clearly. Heavy rains and floods cleansed the world, and after the tide receded, a new city stood on the earth, and its name was the Night Food Plain.

"Ancient books say," Ange continued, "that on the day when the Night Food Field opens to the human world, a great tide will wash over Tokyo, and the moon in the sky... will be black."

Uesugi Yue's golden eyes completely ignited, and the blazing light even dispelled the rain and fog around him. His back was no longer hunched, and his muscles were tense, like a beast about to pounce.

Silence spread in the sound of rain. A black cat jumped from behind the garbage can and kicked over the empty cans with its claws.

"... You really came here for this. For the White King's secret."

Uesugi Yue's voice was low, with a kind of relieved fatigue: "If it was someone else, I would doubt his purpose, suspect that he wanted to seek the power of 'God', but you are different, Angé. You have been slaying dragons all your life... I believe in you."

"I just want to put an end to it." Ange said calmly, "to put an end to the disaster and the shadow of the dragon race."

Uesugi Yue stared at him for a long time.

"You're still the same." He shook his head. "So, what do you want to know?"

"How do we enter the Night Food Field?" Angé asked directly.

Uesugi Yue laughed again, with a hint of sarcasm, relief, and even schadenfreude.

"You probably wouldn't guess," he said slowly, "that you are now in the Night Food Plain."

Ange's pupils shrank slightly, but his expression remained calm.

He looked around - the streets, the church, the vending machines, everything was the same as in reality, and the dim atmosphere of the Eternal Night was not much different from a cloudy, rainy day.

Only the chill in the air suddenly intensified tenfold or a hundredfold, making one suspect that the raindrops would freeze instantly:
"You said we are now in the Night Food Plain?"

Heavy rain hit the wooden buildings and roofs that were nearly a hundred years old. The construction technology of these buildings was passed down from the Edo period. The craftsmen laid layers of tiles between the wooden rafters. The rain flowed along the tile gutters, shooting out silver parabolas in the night.

If this place is the Night Food Field, then the Night Food Field is not necessarily such a scary place. It is just a bit sad, like a forgotten corner.

"You know I own all the land on this street, and now I'm so poor that I only have this piece of land left. But I'd rather sell ramen than sell this piece of land. Do you think this is just out of my nostalgia?" Uesugi Yue said faintly:

"I miss Japan during World War II so I don't want these old houses to be demolished? Do you think I am such a person?"

"I did think so before. I think that although you had your days as a stud when you were young, you might become a little pedantic when you are old, and miss the days when you were a big shot in the Japanese underworld during World War II, and by the way, you also miss the old Tokyo."

Angers did not deny his prejudice against this guy.

"...You really underestimated me... Well, that's true, especially when the 'Kuroten Shrine' built in my name was transferred to the church at a low price, that was really special..." Uesugi Yue shrugged self-deprecatingly and reached out to catch a falling raindrop:

"Let's not talk nonsense. The walls of the alchemical maze of Nibelungen, which is too ancient and without dragons to maintain it, will gradually collapse over time, opening up an unstable passage to the real world."

"This street is one of the passages. It is located right at the intersection of the real world and the Night Food Plain."

"However, in the past few years, even though I have the 'royal blood' flowing in my veins, I could only sense the existence of the Night Food Field, but I couldn't find a way to enter or exit. It was like there was an invisible film between the two worlds, and I couldn't touch it, let alone enter it."

"So you have been staying here not for nostalgia, but to guard this hidden gap?" asked Angé.

“I guess so.” Uesugi Yue scratched his head, “Although I do just sell ramen most of the time.”

"Then I really have to revise my impression of you." Ange sighed, weighed the Assyrian bronze box in his pocket, and felt the weight of the plutonium ball: "But why did you get in so easily this time?"

"…It may be that the Night Food has undergone some changes, and the rules are no longer the same as before." Uesugi Yue's eyes suddenly became solemn: "In my opinion, either it is a sign that its lifespan is coming to an end and it is beginning to collapse rapidly and merge into the real world, or someone has tampered with it."

"This is my first time in Nibelungen Space. Although it is quite memorable, I don't want to die here or get trapped."

He added: "The entrance just now is not the same as a safe exit, Ange. We need to go to a higher place to see the whole picture of this area to avoid those ancient corpse guards."

"Corpse guard? Who is staying in..."

Before he finished speaking, Uesugi Yue grabbed Ange's hand and leaped upwards. Each step covered more than ten meters. The two of them broke through the rain like cannonballs and landed on the cross on the spire of the church.

The rain hit their faces, freezing cold, but even colder was the scene before them—the entire street was twisting.

The familiar buildings seemed to be pulled by some invisible force; bricks, steel bars, and glass, everything was slowly deforming and reorganizing.

On the stained glass of the church, the faces of the saints gradually blurred, replaced by ferocious dragon reliefs; the vending machine on the street corner melted into a pool of silver metal liquid, and then slowly condensed into an ancient bronze lampstand.

"Is this the Night Food Source?" Angé narrowed his eyes, his golden pupils sparkling in the dim light.

"No, this is just the 'surface' of the entrance."

Uesugi Koshi's voice was low and tense, "The real Yomiurihara is older and more twisted than this... It is a giant dead city, a tomb abandoned by the Age of Gods civilization." He pointed to the distance - in the direction of Tokyo Tower.

The place should have been a brightly lit steel giant, but now it has turned into a pitch-black obelisk with a huge chain wrapped around it. The other end of the chain extends to the sky, as if it is tying up some indescribable existence. What is even more creepy is that the moon in the sky...

is black.

It was not obscured by clouds, nor was it a lunar eclipse, but rather pure black that swallowed up all light, like a hole hanging in the night sky, or like the eyeball plucked out by an ancient god.

Perhaps it represents the legendary "Eye of the Black King", or the one that Odin sacrificed in exchange for the Fountain of Wisdom?

"What the ancient books say is correct." Uesugi Yue murmured, "'On the day when the Night Food Field opens, a black moon will appear in the sky and a great tide will wash the world.'"

Ange clenched the folding knife in his hand, his eyes fixed on the dark sky.

Because, an F-18 carrier-based aircraft was flying low, and the roar of its engine tore through the rain. But the paint on that aircraft was not the blue-gray color of the modern US military, but a strange dark gold color, and a dry world tree emblem was printed on its wing.

"Is this the support from you, Cassel? They are so powerful that they arrived in just a few minutes! But it seems a bit too ostentatious to carve the school emblem on a fighter plane and show it off in public."

Uesugi narrowed his eyes, his voice filled with absurd expectation, and suddenly he felt something was wrong. "Why do I always feel that it has bad intentions and wants to swoop down and strafe us? Or launch an air-to-ground missile? Is it a hallucination caused by mental weakness?"

"...I'm afraid this is not your illusion." Angers spoke slowly, his voice as low as thunder, "This is not the academy's plane. Cassel's logo is a half-rotten world tree, not a completely withered one. Don't make a mistake!"

“Who can tell the difference?”

"It's not like it's standing still. You need dynamic vision to keep up to see it clearly." Uesugi Yue argued, "Whose is that?"

"Odin."

Uesugi Yue was stunned.

"Odin? The one from Norse mythology?" His voice tightened slightly. "You mean... he really exists?"

"Not only does he exist, but he has already been here."

Ange's voice was cold and sharp. "Nibelungen is a projection of reality. If I'm not mistaken, Yezhiyuan copied and pasted the Seventh Fleet near Tokyo Bay."

As if to confirm his words, the outlines of warships slowly emerged on the distant sea level - Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, Ticonderoga-class cruisers, and even that behemoth - the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.

In past texts, the Nibelungen was described as a mirror space that reflects reality and seems to be able to reproduce medieval castles or ancient ruins. It is truly mysterious.

However, being able to visualize one of humanity's most powerful technological creations - an entire modern naval fleet, with all kinds of electronic equipment perfectly simulated, is still an unprecedented phenomenon.

Does this mean that no matter how humans develop, they are just piling up toys in the sandbox preset by the dragon clan?

Or does it prove that the dragon race is not an ancient existence eliminated by the times, but has been learning and evolving in secret, and even controlling the direction of human civilization from beginning to end?
The next moment, dozens of dazzling flames suddenly lit up on the sea. The tail flames of the Tomahawk missiles cut through the rainy night, but when they rose to mid-air, they twisted strangely, and the trajectory was like a string plucked by an invisible hand, turning towards the church where they were.

"Run!" Uesugi Yue's roar tore through the rain curtain that was breaking the sky.

His old body burst out with incredible strength, and the moment he dragged Ange down from the cross, the machine gun's fiery bullet chain had already shredded the bronze cross into pieces.

The 20mm depleted uranium bomb exploded in the church dome, creating brilliant sparks, and all the saints in the stained glass were martyred within half a second.

Ange's golden eyes suddenly shone brightly, and the realm of time zero expanded silently, freezing the falling raindrops around into suspended silver needles.

He grabbed Uesugi Yue's shoulders and included him in the range of amnesty. The two figures suddenly accelerated in the roaring sound of the fighter plane's engine, like two blurry afterimages passing over the low eaves.

The F-18's machine gun fired a series of flames behind it, and the depleted uranium bombs tore through the bricks and stones, but it was always half a beat slow.

Uesugi Yue's muscle memory was awakened. Although he complained that "I have an old body but still want to risk my life for you", his pace was not disturbed at all, and he followed Angers and rushed through the narrow alleys.

"Go east!" Ange said in a low voice, pointing the tip of his cane at a low concrete building in the distance. "There are nuclear defense facilities left over from the Cold War. The structure is strong enough to withstand a round of bombing."

Uesugi Yue spat, and the rain fell down his white hair: "Then what? Stay in there and wait to die?"

"We have to hold on as long as we can." Ange's tone was calm and almost cruel. "The flow of time in Nibelungen is different from that in reality. We have to buy time and wait for the help outside to locate our signal."

"Help?" Uesugi Yue sneered, "You don't expect those brats from Cassel to charge into the Nibelungen, do you?"

Ange didn't answer, but just pulled him hard, and the two of them slipped sideways into an underground passage. As soon as the heavy metal door closed with a bang, the whistling sound of a missile breaking through the air was heard above their heads, followed by a deafening explosion, and the entire block was shaking in the shock wave.

Dust fell down, Uesugi Yue coughed twice and wiped his face: "Damn it, Odin is determined to blow us into ashes."

……

About three hours later.

The temperature in Tokyo's underground cave dropped sharply, and ice crystals spread out magnificent frost patterns on the rock walls, as if some ancient runes were writing themselves. Xia Mi sat cross-legged in the center of the cave, surrounded by a faint blue halo, which was the authority of the ocean and the king of water being completely refined and integrated by her.

Her body was changing in subtle ways - her originally pure gold dragon eyes were now glowing a deep ocean blue, her hair was faintly flowing with a luster like water ripples, and her bones, muscles, and blood were all adjusted to a more perfect state through the recombination of dragon genes.

But the most crucial thing is Xia Mi's spiritual world - she finally understood Zhao Qing's hidden intention: the fetal breathing cocoon, the realization of emptiness, those seemingly useless flowers and plants... all of them are showing her the way of "keeping oneness" in different ways, keeping her original heart and not being infected by external authority.

Shi Yiguang's fetal breathing cocoon taught her how to keep her "self" intact when her inner core was reorganized; Zhao Qing's realization of emptiness taught her how to maintain a clear mind when her power surged;

The color-changing Asterixis and Phoebe sempervivum are like metaphors for a certain form of life - they are not simply decorations, but demonstrate the laws of "adaptation" and "balance", the Taoist harmony of "holding yin and embracing yang".

"So that's how it is..." Xia Mi suddenly realized.

She once thought that Zhao Qing was just practicing on his own, but in fact, he had already integrated "teaching" into the environment.

What surprised her even more was that as her refining power gradually broke through, the cultivation states of Zhao Qing and Shi Yi Guang also subtly changed synchronously - the former's starlight trajectory became smoother, and the latter's fetal cocoon became more solid.

They refer to each other and complement each other.

"So cunning..." Xia Mi's lips curled up slightly, but a rare sense of respect surged in her heart.

She no longer resisted, but imitated Shi Yiguang's fetal breathing state, letting her mind sink into the tranquility of the deep sea. At the same time, she began to adjust the flow of dragon blood in her body, integrating the thousands of changes of Gangjin, making it like Zhao Qing's sword energy and sword intent, with both sharpness and order.

"boom--!"

The last ray of the Ocean King's authority was completely refined by her, and the water vapor in the cave instantly condensed into millions of tiny ice crystals, suspended in the air, like an upside-down galaxy. Xia Mi opened her eyes, and the gold and blue in her pupils intertwined, and finally settled into a deep blue.

The dual-line Dragon King was officially born.

She stood up, feeling the surging power in her body, stronger than ever before, yet more... awake than ever before. The heaviness of the earth and the depth of the ocean blended perfectly under her will, forming an unprecedented balance and resonance.

From now on, the mountains will be waves of the earth and the oceans will become plates in the water.

The fusion of the two powers is not a simple superposition, but a transformation of its essence - just as in the ancient times, the White King used "spirit" to control the four elements. At this moment, is Xia Mi touching the forbidden area?

"Congratulations." Zhao Qing's voice came from the side. She was still sitting cross-legged on the ground, but there was a faint smile on the corner of her lips:

"It seems that you have a good understanding."

Xia Mi snorted, but couldn't hide the pride in her eyes: "Of course! But...thank you."

Zhao Qing nodded slightly and said no more.

Xia Mi took a deep breath, suddenly stretched out her hand and put it on Zhao Qing's shoulder.

"Now, it's my turn."

She raised her hand, and two completely different energies appeared in her palm: the heavy khaki color of the king of the earth and mountains, and the deep blue of the king of the ocean and water. The two forces intertwined at Xia Mi's fingertips, and eventually turned into a spiral stream of light, rushing straight towards Zhao Qing and sinking into her back.

Zhao Qing's state of "attaining emptiness" was instantly triggered, and the spiritual worlds of both parties overlapped briefly. The two forces of the Dragon King circulated in her body for a circle, and were then tamed and controlled by her with her mysterious realm of cultivation. The chaotic bushes that were injected into the earth veins were transported to the "Sky Curtain Mirror Array".

The mirror door is open!

Above Tokyo, countless suspended ice crystal mirrors suddenly trembled. Originally a passive structure that refracted and reflected starlight, they seemed to be "activated" by some force. Deep vortex-like passages emerged on each mirror, and "doors" appeared.

The invasion path of Night Food Plain has been opened in reverse!
The next second, billions of sparks and sword lights poured in like the Milky Way, piercing deep into the Nibelungen along the mirrored channel! The pale and silent flames emitted invisible rays of burning, falling all over the sky, tearing apart the sky that was sinking into eternal night!
...(End of chapter)