flstandardbreds Chapter 336 Shocking Clouds
Chapter 336 Shocking Clouds
In the 352nd year of the Nanzhao calendar, the southern border town of Licheng awoke in the morning mist. A woman carrying a bamboo basket had just lifted the bamboo curtain of a teahouse when she saw eerie, inky watermarks winding along the bluestone path. Wherever the watermarks passed, moss withered instantly, and swarms of ants scattered frantically as if hit by boiling water. As the first scream shattered the silence, the guard at the city gate was adjusting his newly issued StarNet crossbow in front of a bronze mirror—suddenly, the mirror was covered with a layer of bloody mist, reflecting his distorted face.
Three days later, an urgent military report arrived at Xianyang Palace. Xiao Mingche unfolded the yellowed letter; the ink was blurred by some corrosive liquid, but the words "Licheng under lockdown" and "mutation of the living" were barely legible. Suddenly, the spacetime eye on his desk emitted a sharp beep. On the holographic star map, the location of Licheng was marked by a glaring dark purple dot, like a festering wound on the surface of the star network.
"Summon the elites of the Nine Apertures Academy, prepare to depart." Xiao Mingche fastened the Xuan Iron Token to his waist, glancing at the magnolia tree outside the window as it shed its leaves—it was the height of summer. Xiao Rong, the great-grandson of the Nine-Tails, jumped onto his shoulder, its nine tails swaying restlessly: "Your Majesty, I smell chaotic energy, very similar to the aura left behind by the Reverse Heaven and Earth Mirror!"
A wave of heat from southern Xinjiang, carrying with it a putrid stench, swept over them. When Xiao Mingche's mechanical kite landed ten miles outside Licheng, the scene before him was horrifying. The moat had turned into a stagnant, dark green, filled with bloated fish carcasses, and its surface was densely covered with some kind of black spores. On the city walls, the soldiers who should have been patrolling had their eyes rolled back, their skin displaying marble-like bluish-gray patterns, and the weapons in their hands were slowly sprouting vine-like spikes.
"It's miasma mutation!" Qingxuan rushed over, holding a portable detector. The data on the screen jumped wildly. "These spores not only corrode flesh and blood, but they're also rewriting biological genes!" Before she finished speaking, the mutated soldiers on the city wall suddenly let out inhuman roars, their weapons transforming into arrows that shot towards the flying kite. Xiao Mingche swung his sword, cleaving through the rain of arrows. Wherever his sword energy touched, the spore swarms emitted a sizzling, burning sound.
The infiltration into the city was more dangerous than anticipated. The once bustling market had become a dead zone; beside the rotting fruit stalls, the corpses of vendors lay in bizarrely contorted shapes, as if kneaded by an invisible giant hand. Suddenly, Xiao Rong bristled and stopped everyone: "Don't move! There's something underground!" The bluestone slab shattered with a deafening roar, and dozens of flesh-colored worms covered in suckers burst from the ground, their bodies entwined with fragments of the Star Wish Beads worn by the people of Licheng.
“The Star Wish Bead…why is it here?” Xiao Mingche’s pupils shrank. He remembered that the Star Wish Bead possessed purifying power, unless…unless its energy was forcibly stripped away by some force. When they followed the direction with the highest spore concentration to the City Lord’s Mansion, the bronze lion beast in front of the mansion gate had turned into a lump of flesh dripping with mucus, constantly spitting out secret messages bearing the emblem of Licheng.
The contents of the secret letter sent chills down everyone's spines: "To awaken the true Lord of Chaos, all sacrifices are worthwhile... Those self-proclaimed guardian star networks are nothing but shackles that imprison civilizations." The seal at the end was incomplete, but the outline of the character "cloud" was still faintly discernible.
"They're remnants of Yun Que!" Qing Xuan's voice trembled. "They're using chaotic energy to create new vessels for evil gods!" Before she finished speaking, a deafening roar suddenly erupted from within the City Lord's Mansion. The entire building began to twist and deform; the wooden beams and pillars transformed into black blood vessels, and the bricks and stones became beating heart tissue. As Xiao Mingche led the group back, they saw a gigantic phantom face emerge from the top of the building—a face that bore a seven-tenths resemblance to Yun Que, but far more grotesque and terrifying.
"Foolish guardians, prepare to welcome the rebirth of civilization!" The phantom opened its blood-red maw, spewing out black mist that cracked the ground, creating abysses from which countless monsters with eyes adorned with Star Wishing Beads crawled out. These monsters' bodies were pieced together from metal and flesh, the sound of mechanical gears turning mixed with the grinding of bones, like a symphony from hell.
Xiao Mingche quickly activated the StarNet communication: "Activate the Civilization Harmonizer! Combine the condensation technology of the steampunk world with the mechanical arts of Nanzhao!" The Xuan Tie token in his hand glowed with golden light, resonating with the StarNet and opening a passage through the monster horde. Qing Xuan seized the opportunity to launch the improved purification bullet into the core of the City Lord's Mansion. In the light of the explosion, everyone saw a huge cultivation chamber buried deep underground, containing dozens of clones resembling Yun Que.
However, just when they thought they were about to destroy the source, the incubation chambers suddenly shattered. The largest clone opened its eyes, holding half a piece of black crystal engraved with the Reverse Heaven and Earth Mirror pattern: "You think the Star Network can protect everything? True peace requires chaos to cleanse the old order!" His body began to expand, transforming into a black hole that devoured light, and the entire city of Licheng slowly rose into the air under the influence of gravity.
Looking at the distorted city beneath his feet, Xiao Mingche recalled Xiao Jingchuan's teachings: "The survival of civilization lies in accepting contradictions, not in eliminating oppositions." He inserted the Xuan Tie Token into the Space-Time Eye, mobilizing the power of all civilizations in the Star Network—Earth's quantum computing, the elemental resonance of the Magic Continent, and the mechanical secrets of Nanzhao—all converging into a rainbow-like beam of light that shot towards the center of the black hole.
In the midst of the violent energy collision, Xiao Mingche's consciousness was once again drawn into the spacetime vortex. He saw countless parallel worlds of Licheng, some destroyed in chaos, others reborn through fusion. When he chose to inject the wisdom of all civilizations into the black hole, a crack suddenly appeared on the surface of the black hole, revealing the illusory image of a child curled up inside—clearly the young Yun Que, his eyes filled with fear and longing for the unknown.
"So... he was just afraid of being abandoned," Xiao Mingche murmured softly. The beam of light transformed into a warm glow, enveloping the child, and the black hole began to collapse in reverse. When the light dissipated, Licheng returned to the ground, and the mutated soldiers and monsters all turned back into ordinary people, except that they had a silver star net mark between their brows.
In postwar Licheng, Xiao Mingche established the "Chaos Conversion Research Institute." On the ruins of the former city lord's mansion, an ancient tree nurtured by the energy of the Star Wish Bead sprouted from the ground, its branches adorned with technological achievements from different civilizations. Every nightfall, the ancient tree would emit a soft glow, illuminating those with cloud-like faces—they were researching how to convert chaotic energy into a driving force for peace.
Mirror Crossing a Thousand Warehouses: Lifeline Food Route in a Time-Space Passage
In the 354th year of the Nanzhao calendar, three consecutive years of drought had ravaged the southern frontier, leaving it cracked and scarred like a spiderweb. On the crimson earth, starving people gnawed on tree bark, their eyes filled with despair. Inside the council hall of Xianyang Palace, Xiao Mingche looked at the disaster reports from various regions, his brows furrowed in deep worry—the existing grain reserves would last no more than a month.
"Your Majesty!" Little Fluff, the Nine-Tailed Fox, suddenly burst through the palace door, its nine tails covered in fluorescent light from the StarNet monitoring system. "The Spacetime Eye shows that in a parallel universe of modern Earth, a man named 'Yuan Longping' has cultivated drought-resistant rice varieties, yielding up to a thousand catties per mu!"
Xiao Mingche abruptly stood up: "Activate StarNet communication immediately!" However, the communicator flickered for a moment before going silent. Qingxuan rushed over, carrying the device, her expression grave: "The dimensional fluctuations are too drastic; conventional transmission will cause the rice seed's genes to collapse. Unless... we use the Qiankun Mirror to open a stable channel."
When the news reached the "Time-Space Café" on modern Earth, Gu Liuli was wiping away artifacts from her time-traveling adventures. Hearing about Nanzhao's plight, her fingertips traced the fragments of a bronze mirror, and the Taotie pattern on its surface suddenly shimmered. "I remember Xiao Jingchuan improved the Qiankun Mirror's positioning system," her eyes lit up, "Perhaps we can use the principle of quantum entanglement to create a temporary passage between the two time-spaces."
Three days later, in front of the Qiankun Mirror monument at Xianyang Palace, Gu Liuli's holographic projection was guiding the master craftsmen in their modifications. Modern superconducting coils were embedded in the edge of the ancient mirror, and a mysterious purple-gold halo flowed across its surface. Xiao Mingche, holding the Xuan Tie token, slowly injected the energy of the Star Network, instantly transforming the mirror into a vortex-shaped spacetime tunnel.
“The passage can only be maintained for two hours,” Gu Liuli’s voice came from the mirror. “The rice seeds must be kept at a constant temperature and humidity during transportation.” Behind her, Xiao Jingchuan was directing the research team to pack the rice seeds into specially made nanocapsules, the surface of which was engraved with the Star Wish Bead totem of Nanzhao.
The first grain transport team was ready to depart. Qingxuan, along with the disciples of the Nine Apertures Academy, carefully pushed the wooden crates filled with rice seeds into the mirror. The moment the crates touched the vortex, a strange sight appeared—ice crystals formed on the surface of the crates, then quickly melted, as if they were undergoing a temperature difference baptism between two different time periods.
However, just as the transport was halfway through, the spacetime tunnel suddenly trembled violently. Dark red lightning struck the mirror, blurring Gu Liuli's projection: "Not good! Dimensional turbulence has arrived ahead of schedule!" From within the mirror came Xiao Jingchuan's shout: "Close the tunnel immediately!"
Xiao Mingche looked at the mountain of grain bins waiting to be transported, then at the starving people outside the palace, and clenched his fist: "Continue the transport! I'll use the Xuan Tie Token to stabilize the passage!" He inserted the token into the mirror, and golden spiritual power surged out like a tide, fiercely fighting against the turbulent currents. The nine-tailed cat Xiao Rong leaped onto his shoulder, its nine tails transforming into chains, tightly binding the crumbling edge of spacetime.
Gu Liuli was frantic with worry on the other side of Earth. She suddenly remembered the most primal function of the Qiankun Mirror—to connect heaven and earth through the power of human hearts. "Mingche! Have all the transport team members hold hands!" she shouted, "Use the power of the Star Network's belief to reinforce the passage!"
Xiao Mingche immediately gave the order. The transport team members put down the grain boxes, held each other's hands tightly, and recited the oath of guardianship of the Nine Aperture Academy in unison. A miracle occurred: the star wish beads imprinted on everyone's palms connected into a golden ribbon of light, wrapping around the spacetime tunnel and forcibly repelling the turbulent currents.
In this race against time, Gu Liuli personally led the team to transport the last batch of rice seeds. The moment she stepped into the mirror, memories flooded back—the confusion of traversing time and space, the years fighting alongside Xiao Jingchuan, all transformed into the strength that sustained her. The phantom images of the guardians of past generations appeared in the mirror, Shen Mingyue, Shen Nianli... their eyes filled with encouragement.
Finally, the last crate of rice seeds arrived safely in Nanzhao. Xiao Mingche looked at the mountain of grain crates, tears welling in his eyes. Meanwhile, on the other side of time, Gu Liuli leaned wearily on Xiao Jingchuan's shoulder, watching the gradually fading mirror surface: "I hope these rice seeds can bring them new life."
Three months later, tender green rice seedlings miraculously sprouted on the land of southern Xinjiang. This drought-resistant rice variety from modern times not only yielded astonishing harvests but also improved the barren soil. The people erected a stone tablet in the fields, inscribed with the words: "A mirror reflects across a thousand granaries, two generations share peace and prosperity."
Xiao Mingche offered the first batch of porridge made from the newly harvested rice to the Qiankun Mirror Memorial Monument. In the rising steam, he seemed to see Gu Liuli's contented smile. Meanwhile, in a modern-day museum, a special exhibit attracted countless visitors—a grain of rice from the Nanzhao Kingdom.
The cicadas' chirping in July, carrying waves of heat, swept towards Century Square. Xiao Jingchuan slowly poured Biluochun tea from his thermos into a white porcelain cup, the tea leaves swirling in the amber-colored tea. The Chu-Han border on the stone table was scorching hot under the sun, but Jiang Liushen on the opposite side was oblivious, his fingertips caressing the "horse" chess piece, his bronze skin gleaming in the sunlight.
“Old Xiao, you’re playing defensively again with this move.” Jiang Liushen’s folding fan slammed against the chessboard, startling the sparrows perched on the stone bench. “Back in the Xijing Kingdom’s martial arts arena, you weren’t this timid.” He deliberately slammed his cannon heavily onto the pawn’s position, causing dust to fall from the chessboard.
Xiao Jingchuan gazed at the gradually forming offensive on the chessboard, his eyes behind his glasses calm and serene. Twenty years ago, when he first transmigrated, he didn't even know how to use a vending machine, but now he could skillfully operate a smartphone to view chess scores. In the rising steam of the tea, he recalled the imperial study in the Nanzhao palace, where the ivory chessboard was carved with coiled dragons at its four corners, while on the edge of the stone table at this moment, a child had drawn a crooked sun with chalk.
"Your turn!" Jiang Liushen's urging interrupted his thoughts. His old friend across from him wore a faded navy blue undershirt, his cloth shoes speckled with bits of grass from his morning exercise; he looked more relaxed than when he was clad in armor. Ever since they found this brass chess set at the antique market, the two had made it a habit to play chess in the square every Wednesday.
The stone bench suddenly creaked, and a young woman dressed in Hanfu approached with a camera: "Gentlemen, could you take a picture? The way you play chess gives off a really time-traveling vibe!" Xiao Jingchuan was taken aback, but Jiang Liushen straightened his back casually, his folding fan waving gracefully in front of his chest: "Young lady, you have good taste. We really are from ancient times!"
The girl laughed so hard she almost fell over, and the shutter clicked repeatedly. Xiao Jingchuan stared at the camera, suddenly recalling the scene of Gu Liuli teaching him how to use a digital camera. They had just settled in their modern home then, and she chased him all over the house with her camera, determined to capture the way he frowned as he examined the microwave. Now, the shared bikes weaving through the square and the drones flying overhead reminded him of the wonder of this world.
"Checkmate!" Jiang Liushen's cheer pulled him back to reality. On the chessboard, the chariots were rampaging, the knights were trapping Xiao Jingchuan's king in a corner of the palace. He picked up his teacup and took a sip, the bitterness of the tea spreading on his tongue: "Brother Jiang is still as sharp as ever."
“You’re just too cautious.” Jiang Liushen picked up the kettle to refill his teacup, the sound of the water hitting the cup crisp and clear. “Remember when Nanzhao and Xijing formed an alliance? If it weren’t for your decisive night raid on the enemy camp, would we have these peaceful days afterward?” His voice suddenly softened. “Now, this peaceful and prosperous era… makes me somewhat nostalgic for the clash of swords and the thunder of horses.”
The electronic clock in the square suddenly struck, its deep male voice startling a flock of white doves. Xiao Jingchuan gazed at the white feathers spreading across the sky, recalling the scene of carrier pigeons delivering military reports in the Nanzhao Kingdom. Back then, the pigeons flew over the palace walls, their flapping wings carrying the lives of millions; but now, these freely soaring creatures were surrounded by the music of square dancing, the laughter of children, and the incessant beeping of food delivery notifications.
“It’s your turn.” He placed a piece, “Bishop” flying across the square, barely protecting the vital spot. Jiang Liushen was about to place his piece when he suddenly caught sight of the large screen in the distance—the news was reporting on the Nanzhao-themed international cultural festival. In the footage, actors dressed in replica Nanzhao costumes performed mechanical tricks, and the blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners in the audience were dumbfounded.
“Tell me,” Jiang Liushen put down a chess piece, “what would the soldiers of that time think if they saw the world now?” His fingers unconsciously traced the rust on the chess piece, marks left from years of handling. “The peace we risked our lives to protect can actually be like this.”
Xiao Jingchuan didn't answer, but simply drank the last sip of tea in one gulp. The tea leaves settled at the bottom of the cup, forming strange patterns that resembled the winding canals on the map of Nanzhao. The wind in the square lifted the corner of his clothes, carrying the aroma of cumin from the distant food stalls, which for a moment seemed to overlap with the lively atmosphere of the Nanzhao night market.
“One more game.” He rearranged the chess pieces, the sunlight gilding the top of the “general” with gold. “This time, I want to try a strong attack.” Jiang Liushen’s eyes lit up instantly, and his folding fan unfolded with a “whoosh,” the four large characters “Across the World” on the fan fluttering in the wind.