CHAPTER 978: CHAPTER 975: "LI MINGYUE LINE - THE REPUBLIC

Su Ming’an opened his eyes.

He saw Li Mingyue across the table, who was currently sipping wine with her eyes downcast, unsurprised by his arrival.

He chose Li Mingyue because her place was the safest. Li Mingyue guarded Dao Ya City, and deities couldn’t interfere here.

"Godfather," Su Ming’an said.

Li Mingyue raised an eyebrow, her cold expression breaking: "Why are you calling me Godfather? Don’t force me to kick you out."

Su Ming’an remained silent. He didn’t expect that after two days, Li Mingyue no longer recognized him. It was like a mother throwing a fit at her rebellious son who left his hometown.

In Su Ming’an’s memory, Li Mingyue always spoke to him softly, patiently listened to him, never being this cold and hard.

"I don’t agree with your radical ideas. The current ’Republic’ is still small, only enough to protect Dao Ya City. Staying in Dao Ya City ensures your safety," Li Mingyue said coldly.

Su Ming’an was puzzled: "What radical ideas? And what is the Republic?"

...Did he propose any radical ideas?

Li Mingyue said: "Didn’t you just say you want to ascend the sky to seek deities? With your current strength, you’re not enough to face deities. The Republic is the name of the protective shield I established; it can bless Dao Ya City."

"I didn’t say I want to ascend the sky to seek deities... Hmm?" Su Ming’an sensed something was off; his voice had become more subdued?

He looked down and saw himself wearing a khaki trench coat. When he pulled open the trench coat, the white shirt tucked in his waistband was quite messy. He quickly realized something, reached back with his right hand, and accurately grabbed a small ponytail.

"..."

Su Ming’an opened his mouth in disbelief.

He adjusted the system mirror to look and was confronted with a pair of shimmering gold eyes, like sedimented gold.

Li Mingyue looked at him coldly, touching all over: "This is the church, Mr. Su Rin, don’t act insolently here."

"Godfather, I..." Su Ming’an said.

He finally understood why Li Mingyue’s attitude was so cold—he had possessed Su Rin!

Apparently, Su Rin and Li Mingyue were talking, Su Rin proposed to ascend the sky to seek deities, then Su Ming’an’s consciousness arrived, causing the mismatch situation.

"Call me that title again, and leave Dao Ya City immediately." Li Mingyue was already very angry, fingers tightening around the wine glass, the chilling cold around her feeling like solid ice: "I’m not your Godfather."

"...Godfather, I’m Su Ming’an." Su Ming’an spoke.

In an instant, the aggressive aura surrounding Li Mingyue paused, and her anger-filled eyes froze, then softened at a visible speed. She sat down, her tone gentle: "...Sorry, it’s you."

"...Godfather?" Su Ming’an said.

"Mm, I’m here."

This time, Li Mingyue did not get angry; she responded faintly. Her attitude shifted drastically.

Li Mingyue explained that when Su Ming’an touched the cross necklace, his consciousness would automatically be drawn here. Under the deity’s watchful eyes, the only thing she could do was pull Su Ming’an’s consciousness out. So, Su Ming’an’s body was still with the deity.

Su Ming’an’s consciousness needed a host; Su Rin should have just received the system prompt for an incoming consciousness and chose to agree for Su Ming’an to come over.

"I really didn’t expect... you would choose me," Li Mingyue said.

"Chao Yan and Xiao Jingsan, they don’t seem like normal people." Su Ming’an comforted the empty-nest elder: "I trust you."

...

[NPC (Li Mingyue) Favorability: 85+5 points!]

...

Suddenly, Su Ming’an realized a problem—Su Rin’s body was now the host for his consciousness. Where did Su Rin’s consciousness go?

He had a bad premonition.

Meanwhile, in the church, pitch-black eyes slowly opened.

Su Rin looked up at the deity before him: "Deity, I’ve been searching for you for days."

...

Having understood the situation, Li Mingyue began teaching Su Ming’an how to fight against deities.

"First, you need to clarify your ’cognition.’ What you see may not be real; what you hear is the same. When you start to firmly believe in your situation, make sure to examine your psychological state in time."

Su Ming’an immediately activated the "Eternal Dawn" skill, this skill could forcibly elevate his mental state. He instantly felt everything was vividly clear, with his mind exceptionally sharp, able to see Li Mingyue’s translucent white hair in the morning glow.

His cognition hadn’t shown problems yet, or perhaps there were problems, but they hadn’t reached a level to impact the bigger picture.

As the saying goes, when you see one bug, it indicates countless bugs hidden around you. If Su Ming’an could spot deviations in his cognition, it meant the deviation was already very substantial.

He glanced at his san value, 50 points; the situation wasn’t very serious yet.

Li Mingyue: "Secondly, you need to participate in the tower within the relics. As the tower opens, seals on you will continuously unravel, and you will become stronger."

"Thirdly, you need to quickly collect the three elements for becoming a god. Now you already possess the Eye of the Old Days; you also need the Sword of Destiny and the Immortal’s Talisman."

"Fourthly, you need to quickly complete the Night Walk game."

Su Ming’an nodded. With Li Mingyue’s explanation, he understood.

Clear and straightforward—three tasks: 1. Participate in the tower within the relics. 2. Collect the three elements for becoming a god. 3. Complete the Night Walk game.

Su Ming’an: "I would like to ask you a couple of questions."

Li Mingyue: "Please go ahead."

Su Ming’an: "Am I an Old God?"

Li Mingyue: "Yes. But I am not clear about the situation a thousand years ago."

Su Ming’an: "What is The Republic?"

Li Mingyue: "You could understand it as a kind of defensive shield. Currently, its range can only cover Dao Ya City. My goal is to make it cover the whole world, so that the deities can no longer intervene in this world. The expansion of The Republic requires a vast amount of emotional power, and I have been collecting this power."

Su Ming’an: "Why do the deities want me to become an angel so much?"

Li Mingyue: "You should know the importance of ’recognition.’ You becoming an angel of the deities is equivalent to you ’recognizing’ their legitimacy. The deities very much need this kind of ’recognition.’"

Su Ming’an: "What does the Dream Tour game represent?"

Li Mingyue: "I am not sure."

Su Ming’an nodded. The situation was now very clear, leaving only a few unresolved questions.

Next, Li Mingyue kept teaching him how to discern illusions and handed Su Ming’an a "Rule Book."

Su Ming’an opened it to find all of the instant death rules of this world, like [Rule 0289: Do not approach the seaside at four in the morning, or you’ll suddenly drown.], [Rule 1832: You can eat the fruit part of the cake that suddenly appears on the table, but not the cream], [Rule 4261: If the pen in your hand starts moving on its own, immediately empty the ink from the pen]—these seemingly random rules.

This book had 9,210 rules written in it. The ink of the first rule had faded significantly, suggesting it was written long ago, while the ink of the 9,210th rule was still fresh, as if it had just been written. There were still large blank pages at the end of the book, indicating that it was not finished yet.

"Were all of these summarized by people?" Su Ming’an was flipping through the pages, feeling a sense of respect. Each rule was derived from countless experiments by predecessors, even sacrifice of lives—it must have required enormous sacrifice and countless deaths to compile such a thick Rule Book.

At this moment, he noticed a faint fatigue and pain on Li Mingyue’s face. Those who sacrificed exploring the rules were likely once her companions.

"Yes...it took...a long time." Li Mingyue lowered her eyes, her fingers caressing the yellowed pages.

...

"Ding Dong!"

[TE5· "A Flower, A World, A Leaf, A Bodhi" (Helping "Li Mingyue" in completely establishing the system of rules) Perfect Completion Progress: 50%]

...

Su Ming’an finally understood. It turned out that what Li Mingyue had been doing was to collect all the instant death rules into one complete system book for people to memorize. As a result, no one would die because of [the rules] anymore. When he first arrived in this world, he often heard about people dying due to rules, and Noel had to dress as a woman to walk at night, or he would trigger the instant death rule.

What Li Mingyue was doing was something that could save countless lives.

At the beginning, Su Ming’an had suspected Li Mingyue of harboring ulterior motives, but now it seemed there was indeed no one safer than Li Mingyue. It was all thanks to his companions.

"Now that you’ve left the small town, you need to be careful about some instant death rules. This book isn’t finished, and some instant death rules haven’t been discovered yet, so you have to be careful." Li Mingyue said.

"Okay." Su Ming’an looked at the blank at the end of the book, "Some instant death rules haven’t been discovered yet, probably because they are difficult to trigger, and there are not many dead, so it’s hard to figure out the specific instant death rules."

"Indeed. The triggering of rules varies in difficulty, like this one—" Li Mingyue pointed to Rule 32: "[Rule 0032: Do not shake your legs while eating, or your blood vessels will burst.]" This is an easily triggered rule; people are aware of it."

Su Ming’an was shocked—he wasn’t aware of this rule! It was really dangerous. Maybe some players had already died because of this rule.

But in the eyes of people in this world, this was already considered common sense. No one shakes their legs while eating, just like no one would run naked in the streets; no one explicitly emphasizes this.

Su Ming’an looked further down at more rules like [Rule 0084: Do not stay up in bed past three in the morning, or there’s a chance of encountering sleep paralysis and dying from it.], [Rule 0102: Do not charge and play with your phone at the same time, or there’s a chance of triggering anomalies and dying from an electric shock.] and so on.

"There are thousands of rules, I don’t require you to remember them all." Li Mingyue said, "You can remember the few hundred that are easier to trigger; they’re written at the front."

Su Ming’an flipped back to look for the rules with higher triggering difficulty.

[Rule 8718: When succulents, cacti, and flytraps coexist around you, do not extend your arms and yell loudly, or you’ll be devoured to death.]

A rule like this has high triggering difficulty, requiring multiple kinds of plants around while extending your arms and shouting. Su Ming’an could hardly imagine how predecessors tested these rules step by step, even needing details like "extending arms may lead to death" or "reducing one plant might prevent death." Such sacrifices must be incredibly horrific.

...But he knew nothing about these people.

At least Fire Transmitter left traces, but these sacrificial testers of rules, Su Ming’an had never even heard of. Their sacrifices were completely erased, leaving no traces.

No, maybe there are traces left.

——There still remains a Rule Book filled with rules lying in Su Ming’an’s hands.

Su Ming’an held the pages, which felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

Why were the [rules] created? No one knows. Since a certain day, [rules] have existed. Breaking them leads to disastrous consequences.

Maybe the deities know. But they would not say.

"I suddenly understand the significance of Dao Ya City." Su Ming’an said: "The last transfer point of the Special Medicine is here. The torch of human history and civilization is here. All the rules painstakingly explored by people are also recorded here."

He clutched the yellowing pages tightly in his hand.

Dao Ya City is the only place that the deities cannot erase, the only safe place—all traces can be preserved here. Even when everyone else abandoned history, Li Mingyue continued to protect this area that cannot be erased by the deities. Everything would be remembered by him, turning him into the tomb of history, the Tomb Guardian waiting here.

"..." Li Mingyue silently watched him.

On the top of the church was a depiction of a deep blue full moon, hanging quietly from the dome, surrounded by angelic stained-glass art. Ancient, complex, and deep mythological tales were preserved in the glass artwork.

Su Ming’an looked around the church. There were many bookcases here, with tens of thousands of books recording past arts, literature, and music. They couldn’t be erased.

——Like humanity’s last Eden.

When Su Ming’an first arrived at the church, apart from thinking that Bishop Li Mingyue was an albino, he had no other impressions. The church felt ordinary to him.

But this time, as he looked around again, he realized—everything here that was stored and watched over were monuments of human and historical significance. The abundant books of the old ages, the stones engraved with sacrificer’s names, the ink-stained Rule Book, and even the Special Medicine Li Mingyue once personally received... This church, this bishop, now presented colors both heavy and vivid. Humanity’s last torch and hope.

Li Mingyue continued watching him.

Su Ming’an glanced back, but said, "Who are you looking at through my eyes?"

He was familiar with such a hollow gaze; Li Mingyue wasn’t looking at him at that moment.

Li Mingyue was stunned for a moment, then under the beautiful and gorgeous blue full moon, the white-haired bishop showed Su Ming’an a bitter smile he had never seen before.

"...I’m looking at the moonlight."