Chapter 453 The Ash Apostle is not just any unit!
Chapter 453 The Ash Apostle is not just any unit!
"Team B, Class 2...?"
Although his vision was blurry, Lin Yi's mind was extremely clear. When he saw the house number of his class, he was startled.
Looking at "his" current state again, a creepy feeling instantly spread in his heart.
“Could it be…?!”
Before he could react, he saw himself reaching out to press the door handle. The next moment, there was a "click-click-click" sound from inside the door, and the sound was very long, as if the door had been locked more than a few times.
This also made Lin Yi feel more uneasy and weird.
Finally, the door opened...
“Squeak—Gah—”
With a strong expectation of seeing what was going on, he slowly followed the vague vision into the classroom.
At this moment, the lights in the classroom were off. A large number of students were huddled under the desks at the back of the lecture hall, hugging the table legs and staring at the ground. A strong feeling of fear spread like gasoline on the water.
In the pitch-black classroom, there were tombstone-like figures. These were all pseudo-human sculptures. In the darkness, they regained their vitality and made a rustling sound as they moved...
Outside the explosion-proof glass window filled with water vapor, heavy rain was pouring down from the sky. The white lightning that tore through the sky made the classroom constantly switch between black and white. The whole environment was as gloomy as a dark trench where no light could penetrate.
Suddenly, Lin Yi saw a dim, flickering light...
The light of the flashlight!
A pseudo-human sculpture holding a flashlight was dragging slowly in the classroom. Next to it was a dark humanoid mass...
Little genius!!
“No way…?!”
"This is really the classroom on the evening of May 5th...?!"
"When the little genius died, I was hiding in that classroom over there..."
No wonder Lin Yi was so clear about the moment when the lights went out...
Because the "conceptual sculpture" at that time contained the "will" of his future self? !
Lin Yi's scalp felt numb as if it was constantly stimulated by countless needles. He was unwilling but also wanted to see if there was "himself" squatting over the desk so as to make a final confirmation.
So he stared at the back of the classroom eagerly...
Until this moment, he had not realized that an evil and strange closed loop feeling, with a strong and indescribable fear of being shrouded by fate, was slowly falling on him...
No wonder the "conceptual sculpture" seems to be looking for something. I didn't expect that it was the "present me" looking for the "past me"?
Or, in other words, when I first entered school, I had no idea that it was my future self who was looking for myself?
He thought of the moment before he repaired the city wall in the gymnasium. He had a similar premonition in his heart, but it was not as strong as it was now.
At this moment, he heard "himself" seem to be saying something...
It was a language similar to a warning, obscure, lengthy, and intermittent, but at this moment Lin Yi seemed to be able to hear something, as if it was saying...
"Listen to me..."
"explain……"
"don't want……"
"save……"
"Maozi..."
"Run away..."
"tomorrow……"
"time……"
"run……"
"no……"
"This time..."
"run……"
"Run away..."
Surprisingly, there is a voice coming from a third will!
Lin Yi's mind was shaken, and he felt as if he had fallen into some kind of horrible reincarnation.
He thought of The Flash Paradox—the idea that one never knew how many Flashes were in the house the night his mother was murdered.
"Could it be... that I am also caught in this paradox?"
And the me from the future, at this moment, is sending a message to the me in the past (the evening of May 5)? Or is it sending a message to the me in the present (noon of May 6)? !
[Leave tomorrow] means... does it mean that I should leave tomorrow, or does it mean that I should flee the campus the day after May 5, which is the morning of May 6?
December 5th...
"etc……!"
A dazzling light flashed through Lin Yi's heart again.
"Mr. Tian seemed to have said that he tried to leave the campus on May 5, but found that he could not leave..."
"On the night of May 5th... the conceptual sculpture, the Ash Apostle, that is, 'I'... did go to Mr. Tian's classroom. Could it be that Mr. Tian got some information from it...?!"
What on earth happened in the future that made me leave right after entering the school?
But there is no way I can leave on May 5th!
What exactly is going on? !
Lin Yi's mind was shaken, as if he was trapped in some terrible time loop.
At this moment, the vision in front of his eyes began to collapse and blur again, filled with floating lights, phantoms and some unclear illusions.
He tried to look towards the back of the lecture hall. For some reason, his subconscious wanted him to look over there...
But when he looked over there, he found that he couldn't see anything clearly. Senluo's classroom seemed to be filled with an inexplicable power. The aura emanating from that power made him feel palpitations and terror. But was there anything beyond common sense over there?
Could it be... Wei Liang?
"Liangzi on the night of May 5th... Could it be that he has done something unknown?" Lin Yi was a little shocked. He felt that he would never be able to guess how much Liangzi had hidden.
But what if this feeling doesn’t come from Wei Liang?
On the night of May 5th, there were still experts in the classroom?!
At this moment, a fierce sound of breaking wind rang in his ears.
"Swishala--!!" A glowing iron chain shot in from outside the door and wrapped around "him" like a nimble snake!
At the door of the classroom, white mist continued to surge, and the end of the iron chain extended into the hands of the iron tower-like figure in the mist.
"security guard!"
Lin Yi immediately thought of the "plot" on the night of May 5, where the security guard used a chain to drag the "Ashebringer" out of the classroom, and then the classroom was safe.
At this moment, from a long distance, Lin Yi could only see the flowing mist moving around the security guard like a thick quilt.
Under the fog, the security guard's golden eyes were like the reactor on the chest of a super mecha, flowing with a deep golden glow.
"Rumble--"
Thunder tore through the night sky, and the security guard at the door seemed like a mountain rising from the sea level in the black ocean. The powerful sense of oppression made all the pseudo-human sculptures in the classroom lose their ability to move.
"get out!"
The majestic voice was like thunder exploding in the low sky, echoing in the classroom. The next moment, the iron chain tightened with a "clang" and a huge force came over him. Lin Yi felt that "himself" was being pulled out.
His vision flickered rapidly, and he left the classroom in the blurry light and distorted illusions.
When his vision reached the corridor, a figure in the corridor immediately attracted his attention!
"Homeroom Teacher-040?!"
"No, it's Homeroom Teacher-039!"
The figure was slender and graceful, and the lines outlined in the mist were almost perfect. She was wearing a uniform that covered her entire body, similar to the uniform of the homeroom teacher-040. It was difficult to capture her by perception, but Lin Yi saw her at a glance with his keen insight...
The next moment, his field of vision quickly collapsed, and all that was left in his ears was the clang of the wind. He seemed to have fallen into a gravity-free passage. On the walls of the passage were countless vortex patterns like a starry night. Those were images formed by the distortion of countless blurry images. Those should be what the "concept-level sculpture" had experienced, but he could not capture any of it at all, as if those images had nothing to do with him.
Suddenly, he felt something from one of the vortex patterns...
He seemed to see a man in shabby clothes floating in the air, holding a cane and standing against "him". On the other side, a dormitory building like a natural chasm rose from the ground, confronting "him" like an ancient giant sword...
He saw Mu Daxian appear in the corridor of the teaching building again...
This is the picture from the evening of May 5th...
It was blurry, but he could make it out.
Before he could get a good look at the shop owner, the vortex pattern moved away from him, but soon another vortex hit him...
This time, he saw a broken glass window, and a sky full of ashes descended from the void, slowly falling down...
And "he" was standing in front of the broken glass window, staring blankly at the track of ashes in front of the window, like a sculpture.
Suddenly, the movement behind him caught his attention.
When he turned around, he saw...himself!
“He” who brought Li Huiyuan into the abandoned classroom that morning!
"Ah?!" Lin Yi was shocked, and suddenly realized that at this moment... his perspective came to the "Ashe Apostle·Fire Man" (a non-existent person)!
"what happened?!"
He was confused. If the "conceptual sculpture" had some connection with him, he could understand it, but what did the "Ashebringer - Fire Man" have to do with him?
Isn't this a "cross-platform" thing? !
"Maybe we can communicate..." Lin Yi's eyes lit up. What would happen if two of his selves communicated across time and space?
Before he could react, the "Ashebringer - Fireman" shot towards him.
Lin Yi quickly said: "Another me, we should talk!"
But his voice didn't seem to be uttered, and at that time he also performed the operation that made him feel extremely familiar.
"Come on, let's fight to the death!" At that time, he showed a "high-spirited" look.
[Stop——] Lin Yi yelled, but when it fell into the mouth of "Ashes Apostle·Fire Man", it revealed a long howl that sounded like "war-loving".
Then there was the scene where he was mercilessly thrown out of the door by his then-self...
As soon as he went out, his vision collapsed again, and he was soon back in the corridor accompanied by the clanging sound of the wind.
At this moment, everything around him was moving away from him, as if being peeled off bit by bit.
Finally, when the wind died down and the light and shadows dissipated, he found that his vision had returned to the door of the convenience store.
At this moment, his flesh and blood were still growing in the burning ashes, and his muscle fibers were reflecting a glass-like luster, like diamonds, like glass, but more like some kind of tempered substance.
His body was constantly reshaping itself, and its flesh and blood drew strength from the burning ashes during the process, beginning to constantly temper and sublimate itself.
The burning ashes seemed to no longer be able to harm him. Looking at these ashes, he sincerely developed a sense of affinity, and even had a strange illusion that "my thoughts and the ashes are one."
As time went by, his body was gradually being reborn in a more bizarre and extraordinary form...
He suddenly thought of something and couldn't help but look at his wrist.
11: 20.
Time is passing.
That's good.
But amid the burning ashes, he discovered that his watch had no effect at all—no, his clothes actually had no effect either.
Dead things...seemingly unaffected by the Ash Fire?
He didn't waste time on this kind of question. Instead, while his body was being reshaped by the burning ashes, he "took time" to review the scenes he had just seen...
If the scene from the perspective of "Ashemer·Fireman" had not appeared later, Lin Yi would really think that "Ashemer·Conceptual Sculpture" was related to his future self. He might even think that it was related to the time dimension. However, "Ashemer·Fireman" was simply something fabricated by Shan Nan and had nothing to do with himself.
In this way, the speculation that the "Ashebringer" is "him in the future" is denied.
But if that's the case, how do we explain his connection with the Ashbringer?
He found some clues through the limited information currently available.
First of all, the "Ashebringer" is unique. At least no matter how many units have entered the "Ashebringer" path, the final "Ashebringer" can only be one.
This is just like countless monks chasing after the only chance to become immortal. Currently, he is just a member of the "Immortal Road". Only after completing this "Immortal Road" can he be called an "Immortal", that is, the "Apostle of Ashes".
So what is the "glorious evolution" that the weird art teacher pursues?
"etc!"
Lin Yi suddenly understood!
"Is it possible that the 'Ashebringer' is not an independent individual, but... some kind of special 'state' of his?!"
Could it be that "Ashes Apostle" does not refer to someone who has completed the "Immortal Path", but refers to... the "Immortal Path" itself!
All units that have entered the "Immortal Path" are "Apostles of Ashes", which is a special state of "carrying ashes without being extinguished", especially... units in the "ash burning state"!
He thought of the appearance of the "concept-level sculpture", and also thought of Tian Bufan's previous speculation - "the concept-level sculpture is a quantum state projection of some higher-level existence in the real world"!
“Conceptual level” is indeed correct, and “quantum state” is also correct!
(End of this chapter)