August 25, around 12:00 PM, at the Xia-Ke residence.
Xia Zili had been sleeping the entire morning. She had woken up very late that day, and her eyes remained closed even as noon arrived.
She felt as though she were trapped in a nightmare, one from which she would never wake.
Meanwhile, Xia Wenna and the rest of the household were too busy searching for Ke Mingqing's whereabouts to wake her.
In that endless dream, Xia Zili felt as if she had turned into a tiny figure in a picture book.
She looked down at her slender arms, sketched out in thin lines, and occasionally glanced at her bare toes before slowly raising her head. She was trudging through a dark, gloomy world made of simple stick figures.
A dilapidated village entered her view. Standing beside her were two rows of paper-cut figures holding ghostly blue torches, muttering two words in a low, repetitive chant:
"Ösku (Ashes)... endir (End)... Ösku (Ashes)... endir (End)..."
It sounded like Icelandic. Xia Zili had once heard the language in a documentary, and it had left a deep impression on her.
Xia Zili pondered this in a daze as she wandered aimlessly through the stick-figure world.
The faceless paper-cut figures beside her stomped their feet against the floor. The rhythmic thudding grew louder and louder, eventually booming like the heavy strikes of a gavel in an ancient imperial court.
Finally, she stepped onto an altar. Tied to a crucifix on the altar was a stick-figure girl.
The stick-figure girl's body was being incinerated by grayish-blue flames. Sobbing, she struggled violently against the cross, a grisly streak of blood marking her wrist.
"Brother... Brother..." the girl murmured.
Xia Zili stared at her blankly.
Suddenly, a woman in a white robe approached her side. "Every witch's persona remembers the experiences of her past life," the woman said softly. "She brings her unresolved hatred and agony to someone who is just like her. Because of this, she understands your pain. And when your souls resonate, she will take your body..."
Xia Zili remained silent. She kept her head raised, quietly gazing at the moaning girl on the cross, her eyes growing faintly red for reasons she couldn't explain.
After a moment, she lowered her head, knitted her brows, and shouted at the stick-figure girl with narrowed eyes:
"Are you Sadako? Stop following me!"
As a torrential downpour began outside, the young girl in the bedroom suddenly woke from her dream.
She slowly opened her eyes and lifted her head from the pillow, revealing a face that looked just like a stick figure's.
Her facial features were obscured by a messy, swirling tangle of drawn lines, and a blue flame fluttered like a flower at the corner of her eye.
The stick-figure girl turned her head to stare at a utility pole through the veil of rain, whispering softly:
"Brother?"
In the quiet world of the room, she tilted her head and spaced out for a long time, a trace of confusion and bewilderment in her eyes.
She sat up, got out of bed, and walked alone down the empty hallway. Heading downstairs, she sat on the living room sofa and turned on the TV with the remote.
The stick-figure girl stared at the television in silent curiosity.
The Leijing Television Station appeared to have been hacked; a live broadcast slowly faded into view on the screen.
In the live feed, Blue Pigeon sat slumped in a chair, covered in injuries. His arms and legs were bound with iron chains, leaving him looking as frail as a snapped reed.
In an instant, the blue flame at the corner of the girl's eye vanished.
Xia Zili stared blankly at the scene, suddenly jolting as her pupils shrank to pinpricks. Uncontrollable rage surged from the depths of her heart. With red eyes, her lips parted slightly, and she almost cried out on instinct:
"Brother?"
The next moment, she tilted her head. The blue flame ignited at the corner of her eye once more as she murmured:
"No... that isn't Brother. Who is it, then?"
The stick-figure girl tilted her head again, tapping a finger against her chin.
"So angry... why?" the stick-figure girl mumbled. "Are you the one who is angry?"
Brother...
Brother, Brother...
Her lips moved in a silent murmur, emitting a voice that didn't belong to her. But the sounds were all drowned out by the roar of the pouring rain.
The rain fell harder and harder.
Yet in the damp air, the wisp of blue flame at the corner of the girl's eye only grew brighter and more vivid, like a magnificently blooming flower.
"Let's go. Let's go kill them all... We'll kill everyone who gets in the way. Then it'll just be us and Brother left, and Brother won't get hurt anymore."
The stick-figure girl said this softly, the corners of her mouth suddenly curling into a smile.
She rose from the sofa and walked to the entryway, stepping out into the curtain of rain. Her body was gradually enveloped by a hazy cocoon of light before she vanished down the desolate street.
...
...
Meanwhile, on the other side of Lijing.
A figure clad in a dark red metallic trench coat was speeding through the storm-drenched sky, riding atop the Wind and Fire Wheels.
"White Jack... what exactly are you doing?"
"You promised me..."
Red Lotus murmured silently. Burning with anxiety, she tore through the veil of rain like a streak of fiery light, instantly evaporating the raindrops in her path.
She knew in her heart that given White Jack's habit of spouting endless lies, there was absolutely no way he would give Rain Crow the correct address.
So, without a second thought, she rushed straight toward St. Honghu Avenue.
She wanted to find White Jack and ask him face-to-face what was going on.
Why had he abducted Blue Pigeon?
Why was he torturing her little brother and her old man like this?
Hadn't they made a pact at the lighthouse that day? That he would absolutely never lay a hand on her family?
Red Lotus gripped the Fire-Tipped Spear tightly in her right hand. She felt as though an invisible hand were crushing her chest, making it almost impossible to breathe.
At that moment, she felt as if she had taken in a stray dog off the street, thinking it pitiful and amusing, only for that dog to suddenly go rabid one day and tear out her family's throats—yet she could still remember the innocent look in its eyes as it wagged its tail at her.
She wanted to run away, to escape the mocking voice echoing from her phone.
But right now, every giant screen atop every high-rise in Lijing was displaying the exact same scene:
Rain Crow was charging through explosions, rushing toward an abandoned factory, while White Jack stood quietly behind Blue Pigeon, gently cupping the boy's chin with both hands.
Catching this out of the corner of her eye, her heart skipped a beat. She hovered completely still in midair for a long moment before finally turning to face the massive screen, locking eyes with that hollow, mocking, and unfamiliar gaze.
The torrential rain battered Red Lotus's body.
She hovered blankly in the storm, looking like a puppet with its strings cut.
After a long silence, Red Lotus became entirely certain of one thing.
She had been betrayed.
Amid the downpour, Red Lotus clutched her chest with her metal-gauntleted right hand and lowered her head, taking a deep breath. With red, teary eyes filled with a mix of fury and aggrieved hurt, she eventually looked back up.
"Were all those things you told me a lie...? Were those fireworks over the overpass fake, too?"
She spoke softly as a streak of liquid slid down from the corner of her eye.
It could have been warm rain, or it could have been a tear.
Keeping her head bowed, Red Lotus reached out her right hand, wanting to touch the ugly face on the giant screen.
But she couldn't. She could never do it again.
Right at that second, a sudden ding cut through the rain. Glancing at the vibrating pocket of her battle suit, she pulled out her phone and checked the screen.
[White Jack: Don't be nervous, Miss Red Lotus. This is just a doll beside me. Your little brother hasn't been hurt. He's perfectly fine.]
[White Jack: We had a deal, didn't we? I won't hurt your family.]
Red Lotus froze in surprise before abruptly biting her lip.
[Red Lotus: I'm never believing you again. Even if you're telling the truth, you still did that to my old man...]
[White Jack: It doesn't matter whether you believe me or not. Your old man's current state is just a necessary condition to draw out Clock Maker—you have to commit to the bit if you want to sell the act. He'll definitely thank me for this later.]
[White Jack: Relax. A few flesh wounds like these are nothing to Rain Crow.]
[White Jack: By the way, Clock Maker is almost here... You'd better be careful moving forward. There's a high probability you'll run into people from the Clockwork Alliance on your way.]
[White Jack: They are the children personally raised by Clock Maker. Do not underestimate them.]
Red Lotus stared at her phone in silence for a long time. Turning her head, she cast one last look at White Jack's face on the screen. In the next instant, she shot forward on the Wind and Fire Wheels once more, the rapidly spinning sparks vaporizing the rain into a trailing blanket of white mist.
A long time later, just as she entered St. Honghu Avenue, Red Lotus looked up into the distance.
She could see the abandoned factory far ahead, but at that moment, several figures were standing in the middle of St. Honghu Avenue.
One was sitting in a wheelchair, another was draped in a monk's cassock, and another was wearing an iron wok on their head. Their appearances were incredibly bizarre, making it difficult for them not to catch her attention.
"The children raised by Clock Maker... Is this them?" Red Lotus murmured.
At that exact moment, a snow-white top hat was dancing through the rain. Acting almost like a living creature, it quietly 'stared' at the figures gathered on St. Honghu Avenue.
...
...
One minute earlier, inside the abandoned factory on St. Honghu Commercial Street.
Ke Mingqing was hiding in an inconspicuous corner at the edge of the factory. Using the E-grade skill Mist of Loss, he had conjured a minimal radius of purple fog and concealed his figure within it.
With his head bowed, he watched the live broadcast on his phone.
When his gaze fell upon the heavily scarred Rain Crow sprinting like a mad dog, a trace of complex emotion flickered in his eyes.
After a long moment, he let out a soft sigh.
"What are you getting so worked up for? Isn't it embarrassing? It's just an adopted son... You'd have been better off not choosing me at all,"
Ke Mingqing thought to himself. After a long pause, he suddenly gave a quiet, self-deprecating chuckle and said, "Besides, your son was replaced by me a long time ago. Replaced by a stranger. Once you find out about that, how much are you going to hate me?"
If only I were the one who was chosen...
If only it were really me.
Ke Mingqing lowered his head, his jet-black bangs covering his eyes.
A short while later, he silently lifted his head and tore his gaze away from the projected screen, no longer looking at Rain Crow's battered, bruised state.
He used a different phone to send a message to his third sister.
"Third Sister definitely hates my guts right now," Ke Mingqing thought. "But in order to lure Clock Maker out, all of this is necessary. Clock Maker is no fool; if I don't put on a convincing act, he'll definitely notice that something is off."
Soon, the countdown given by White Jack ended.
Taking a deep breath, Ke Mingqing looked up and controlled White Jack, having him raise his cane. Using the flame at the base of the cane, he ignited the oil spilled across the ground, sending a sea of fire roaring upward.
The flames climbed up Blue Pigeon's combat suit like venomous snakes. The wooden chair beneath him teetered precariously, and the iron chains binding him were heated to a glowing red.
Rain Crow's hoarse growls echoed from the other side of the screen, but it was useless. Ke Mingqing kept his head raised, his eyes sweeping across the entire factory as he quietly waited for that uninvited guest to appear.
Before long, as the world was draped in a layer of quicksilver, Ke Mingqing's body suddenly froze in place, and his pupils slightly dilated.
—Clock Maker had arrived.
"Did he pause time just now? I couldn't even see where he came out from."
Ke Mingqing thought to himself, glaring fixedly at Clock Maker's figure.
The man stood alone amidst the sea of fire like a tyrant of time. Even the once-roaring flames had been tainted with an eerie, quicksilver hue.
Standing in the distance, White Jack quietly watched Clock Maker as well.
Clock Maker undid the iron chains binding the chair and picked Blue Pigeon up in his arms. He then turned his head to cast a glance at the utterly wretched Rain Crow on the other side of the screen.
"Clock... Maker."
Rain Crow stared at the screen, spitting out the name syllable by syllable.
Watching the scene unfold, Ke Mingqing knew full well that the crow his old man had dispatched was already inside St. Honghu Commercial Street. In just a little while, his old man would be able to swap places with the crow using his ability and appear right inside this abandoned factory.
"Absolutely pathetic... I am almost losing interest in the current you. You're already crumbling, and the children I raised just for you haven't even had to lift a finger."
Clock Maker spoke slowly before letting out a sneer. "How truly pitiful."
With that, carrying the unconscious Blue Pigeon, he stepped out of the sea of flames one step at a time.
At that exact moment, hiding in the corner of the factory, Ke Mingqing suddenly shivered. He jolted in fright and whipped his head around.
This chain of reactions was not because of Clock Maker. Rather, whether it was an illusion or not, a freezing-cold sensation had suddenly brushed against his back.
It was as if a serpent from a frozen tundra had abruptly and soundlessly coiled itself around his neck.
Immediately after, a frosty voice drifted from behind him:
"Don't move."
Ke Mingqing recognized the voice. Actually, it would have been stranger if he hadn't.
"Shadow... Girl?" Startled, he slowly shifted his gaze to look behind him.
What entered his vision was a short-haired woman in a black bodysuit. Dark shadows wafted across her entire body, with only the area above her neck retaining her original appearance.
"Do not move," Shadow Girl said, pressing a dagger forged from shadows against his throat. "Or I will kill you."
Ke Mingqing breathed a sigh of relief. "Hey now, can't you recognize my voice? You must have heard it when we went to 'deliver the package' together, right?"
Shadow Girl remained silent.
She was a quiet person. In the past, her silent demeanor had always brought a sense of calm, but for some reason, her silence in this moment made a faint unease creep into Ke Mingqing's heart.
"I'm Blue Pigeon." Ke Mingqing sighed, looking down at the dagger. "The fake outside is just a doll White Jack is using as a disguise. Stop joking around."
"I know. So do not move," Shadow Girl said expressionlessly. "Otherwise, I will definitely kill you."
Ke Mingqing was stunned.
He tilted his head slightly, staring into Shadow Girl's eyes. Seeming to realize something, he asked in a hoarse voice after a long pause:
"Are you... one of Clock Maker's people?"