novelLamp's Fire
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Ch63. 1 – Lamp's Fire
"I want to wake up with you in the same bed everyday."
Translated by: DMlations/Zryuu
Edited by: Amelea, FistFullOfDollars and Juurensha
—
Before anyone could react, a guttural roar thundered above them. Yu Hao had completely missed it earlier when he arrived, but now when he looked up, he saw a dark, colossal mechanical monster above the nexus of the black hole. The monster seemed like a mechanical spider with its countless outstretched metal arms. Various sharp and blunt weapons jutted from the end of its metal arms: knives, saws, guns, hammers and other such sharp and blunt weapons. It moved towards them with lightning speed!
"Oh my god, what is that?!" Yu Hao immediately cried out upon seeing the mechanical monster.
Zhou Sheng shouted, "The monster that knocked us into the ruins!"
Yu Hao hovered before Zhou Sheng and Chen Yekai, protecting them with his barrier. He shouted, "Do we fight it?"
Zhou Sheng opened up a huge shield, and all of the mechanical monster's weapons simultaneously collided with it. A loud "clang" sounded, almost deafening Yu Hao's ears. From behind the shield, Chen Yekai suddenly fired a shot, and the light pillar that shot out broke one of the metal arms. The metal arm that wielded a sharp knife was immediately sucked into the depths of the subconscious.
Even more metal arms began pursuing them. Zhou Sheng grasped his shield and transformed it into the jingubang. A few clangs rang out as the jingubang clashed with the metal arms all around them. He shouted, "Get out of here!"
"But where do we go?"
Chen Yekai shouted, "Follow intuition! Intuition!"
"But I have no intuition......" Yu Hao flew through the sky, and his barrier was just like a spaceship. Zhou Sheng and Chen Yekai stayed beside him, guarding him while attacking the monster with innumerable metal arms that encompassed the heavens and the earth. Its metal arms would constantly break and fall off, yet rather than decreasing in number, its numerous weapons only seemed to multiply.
"Intuition!" Zhou Sheng urged, "Where are you flying to? The six channels are analogous with the six senses, go after the intuition channel!"
Yu Hao instantly understood: the six spiral arms around the black hole represent Liang Jinmin's six senses — hearing, sight, touch, taste, smell, and intuition! In addition, her dream world that currently relied on those six channels was being sucked unremittingly into the Forgotten Ruins!
"Does it lead to the upper conscious world?" Yu Hao shouted.
"There's no upper world!" Zhou Sheng replied, "Her dreamscape has already been shattered. Head to the end of Intuition, I'll explain later!"
"But how do I get to Intuition?" Yu Hao searched the fragment-filled galaxy. Chen Yekai accurately shot at the sharp claw that headed towards them and shouted, "A path constituted of similar fragments!"
Yu Hao immediately understood and found a peculiar path amongst the six spiral arms. On that path, all the memory fragments that were being sucked in were spherical and identical in size and shape. Yu Hao doubled back, quickly dove down and began flying against the flow of the Intuition current.
A miracle occurred as they flew along the Intuition Milky Way: the teardrop-like spheres along the path were continuously drawn towards the lamp in Yu Hao's hand as if attracted to it!
The memories in Intuition were entering the flame, and the lamp's light grew brighter and brighter.
Chen Yekai said, "It worked!"
"I guessed right!" Zhou Sheng shouted, and in the next moment, a giant hammer swung violently towards all of them. Zhou Sheng let out an angry roar, and the golden flame that enveloped his body was unleashed with a blast. His shield had assumed a golden colour, and a faint sun wheel motif appeared on the surface of his shield — it blocked that hammer!
Yu Hao saw a platform emerge at the end of the Intuition path and instantly flew towards it with Zhou Sheng and Chen Yekai.
"We succeeded!" Chen Yekai shouted, "That's great!"
Yu Hao, "......"
When they rushed onto the high platform with the lamp, all of the fragments on the path of Intuition had been sucked into the lamp, and an altar appeared on that platform!
Zhou Sheng shook his jingubang, turned around——
"Haaaaai——yaaaaaa!" With a loud cry, Zhou Sheng swung his jingubang down and smashed all of the metal arms that were closing in on them into pieces.
Yu Hao, "What do we do next?"
"Look at me...... perform a magic trick for you!" Zhou Sheng smiled, turned to the side, then blew into the lamp.
With a soft swish, the lamp wick separated from the flame and struck the altar like a bolt of lightning. A pillar of fire erupted from the altar with a "buzz"! It then illuminated the entire world!
When the golden fire began burning, the world turned bright.
Yu Hao was already in a chaotic mess; he was only following Zhou Sheng's directives and had no idea what he was doing at all. Zhou Sheng said again, "Quick! Baby——! Next path!"
Chen Yekai said, "Go!"
Yu Hao flew with the other two towards the second path, which was filled with bizarre, multi-coloured picture fragments that looked like stained glass. As they flew along the path, all of the picture fragments were sucked into the lamp. After they reached the end of the path of Sight, another altar appeared there as well!
Zhou Sheng blew into the lamp a second time, and a golden fire pillar also shot up from the altar at the end of Sight path.
Zhou Sheng, "Keep going!"
The mechanical monster at the zenith seemed to sense a threat. It emitted a harsh shriek that grinded against their ears, and even more metal arms that tore at the air shot down. The entire subconscious world quaked violently. However, the monster was extremely terrified of the areas where the golden pillars of fire already burned, and didn't dare to approach them.
"I'll stall it!" Chen Yekai shouted, "The rest is up to you guys!"
As he spoke, Chen Yekai rushed out of Yu Hao's barrier and went back and forth between the metal arms to draw the attention of the gigantic monster.
"Keep going!!" Zhou Sheng shouted, "Yu Hao!"
Taste, Touch, Smell, Hearing...... Yu Hao grabbed Zhou Sheng's hand, Zhou Sheng carried his jingubang on his shoulder, and the two of them protected the lamp as they flew towards each altar. Each time they got to an altar, Zhou Sheng would blow once and the flame from the lamp would shoot out; a golden pillar of flame would then erupt from the altar!
"What's this?" Yu Hao asked, "A new magic spell of yours?"
"It's the hope to live."
When the last altar burst into flames, Zhou Sheng glanced at Yu Hao and smiled, "We're done, time to call it a day!"
They worked their way through until the end of the last path. The altars on all six platforms burned brightly with raging flames, and the entire subconscious was lit up in an instant! All of the darkness retreated, and the lamp's flame disappeared completely!
Yu Hao, "......"
Zhou Sheng threw Yu Hao an enigmatic wink, "Did you forget about the day we first met? How did the fire beacon on the Great Wall come about?"
Yu Hao suddenly remembered that a long time ago, General took him along to light up the fire beacons! He was the one who found the lighter, and he had passed it to Zhou Sheng. After Zhou Sheng lit up the lamp, he brought him along as they crossed the Great Wall and lit up the beacon.
At that time, he had not yet fallen into his subconscious world, and the flames that were lit up illuminated the boundary between the subconscious and his consciousness.
Zhou Sheng carried the jingubang with one hand while his other was draped over Yu Hao's shoulder. The entire subconscious world began to vibrate. Chen Yekai flew towards them. The blaze on the six altars began to change direction and converge towards the black hole in the middle. The six flame pillars travelled along the six paths of the senses and flowed into the black hole, which began rotating after being fed with flames. The skies and the earth trembled, and the metallic monster let out a mad roar.
Lin Xun, "You actually...... managed to return from the subconscious......"
"Lin Xun." Liang Jinmin's voice rang out, "Are you unsatisfied because you didn't manage to kill me?!"
The revolving black hole erupted, lighting up the vast space around it. A white light flashed by, the periphery of the black hole expanded continuously, and a luminous area that looked like an island appeared in the center. Following which, it turned into a shockwave that swept past the three of them, and within this tempestuous storm, Zhou Sheng immediately turned around and protected Yu Hao.
The moment the storm came into contact with Yu Hao's barrier, it disappeared instantly!
"We succeeded......"Chen Yekai's voice trembled, "We succeeded!"
The world suddenly transformed: the earth turned into solid rock, mountain ranges rose, and erupting volcanoes materialised everywhere. Volcanic ash rose into the sky, and the conscious world appeared!
The world was dark, but compared to the dark void in the subconscious, it now had an indistinct outline. Magma flowed continuously from the volcano and into a mechanical city in the middle of a lowland. A humongous monster that was at least 10, 000 metres tall was also entrenched in the center of the city!
That monster opened its massive, insect-like eyes that looked like black spheres. At first glance, Yu Hao's first impression of it was that it looked like...... Lin Xun's head! His eyes protruded slightly, and his forehead and face looked extremely similar to the huge metal bug! But its mouth and ears seemed to belong to someone else.
Their opponent in the subconscious was the lower half of that monster, and at this time, the lava had almost covered the entire conscious world and had surrounded the city.
That "Lin Xun Bug"'s metal arm could stretch out for thousands of metres. Utilising extremely complex mechanisms, it thrashed about in the air as it smashed, hacked, and wreaked havoc to destroy this world. The volcanoes erupted incessantly and even more magma gushed out and flowed towards the city.
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