Lord of Mysteries: Yao Guang

"Esther, is Xiao Wu still with you?"

Crow asked.

Esther thought it was remembering Xiao Wu's situation and hinted that she would try to unlock Xiao Wu's seal now. She immediately nodded vigorously, then fumbled through the compartment of her bag and took out the curled-up Worm of Time.

Her perception has no problem identifying the general outlines of objects, but when it comes to details, she's still no better than with normal amblyopia.

Only then could Esther see that the circles of silk thread surrounding Xiao Wu bound it like a cocoon, and the outside was full of intertwined ring symbols.

But the next second, the light cocoon in Esther's hand disappeared. She raised her head blankly and looked at the crow opposite.

"Xiao Qi" was holding the seal that wrapped the Worm of Time in his mouth, and then he raised his head and swallowed it.

It's not Xiao Qi...it's definitely not Xiao Qi!

Xiao Wu's existence disappeared directly from Esther's perception, blending into the shadow like a worm embracing.

In Esther's "sight", the shadow began to distort, and it finally reunited into a human form. The young man crossed his legs and sat leisurely on the top of the bush opposite. For him, gravity could just steal away at will. Something like that, there was a completely black shadow in the young man's right eye, blocking the blurry outline of his face like a black hole.

Of course Esther knew what it was, it was a monocle.

Amon waved, and a crow transformed into something unknown flew down, landed lightly on his arm, and innocently tilted his head to look at Esther.

He pointed at the crow and looked at Esther with the same smile:

"What, do you want your friend back?"

Where is Xiaoqi? What happened to Xiaoqi?

Esther was a little unbelievable for a moment, so that all her confusion and doubts were displayed on her face. She remembered the first night at the beach, the warm white-rimmed crow clinging to her side, telling her those two sentences, which should be just Chinese that the other party knows.

Amon smiled even more happily: "The Silver Moon you described is quite beautiful and strange, including those two sentences in your hometown. Where did that language... come from?"

His words were clearly conveyed into Esther's mind. She wanted to speak, but her mouth was still tightly closed.

So, before setting foot on this island, the crow had already taken back Xiao Qi's Worm of Time?

The real culprit who brought himself to this island.

"It's normal for you to be so resistant to playing the role of 'thief'," Amon smiled and rubbed the neck of the crow in his hand, and the crow gently nagged his fingers. "After all, the instinct of the 'destiny' path is to follow the heart, and ' Fraud' is just the opposite."

The white-eyed crow flapped its wings and jumped up, flying in the direction of Esther, but before it fell, Esther raised her wooden gun and pointed it at it, so it flew back to the branches of the tree angrily, blending in with the people watching here. among the same kind.

"Look, our game isn't over yet. Do you plan to stand here until dawn?"

Amon said, raising his head and pushing the monocle on his right eye.

In Esther's perception, shadow-like ripples appeared in the dark black hole, distorting the outline of Amon's figure, which made her subconsciously take half a step back.

"If you can really win, it's not impossible to add 'Xiaoqi' to the bet." Amon suggested.

lie.

Esther shook her head, raised her hand and drew the word on the ground with a wooden gun.

Amon laughed loudly until Esther turned around and left, slowly walking towards the other side of the forest. His laughter still did not stop, but echoed behind her.

A crow poked its head out of the grass at Esther's feet and said to her happily:

"Happy New Year, Esther, what a pity you're missing out!"

Esther paused in her steps but ignored the crow.

It is not Xiao Qi, nor is it the insect of time that accompanies her through the memories of her first and loneliest nights in another world, nor is it the crow that only flies to her shoulder to chat or discuss.

Xiao Qi just disappeared...

Esther didn't know where she remembered a few words she had read:

"Other friends have long since separated,

Tomorrow morning it will leave me too, just as my hope has faded.

Then the crow said - 'Never again'. ”*

Never again.

These words that suddenly popped up in my heart opened a deep hole.

Only Esther herself knew that the scene she perceived became increasingly chaotic due to her emotional fluctuations, like a sand painting that had been disturbed.

Midnight on December 31st had passed, and in the early morning of January 1st we arrived at this small island whose date was completely meaningless. It was located in the corner of the vast sea, not even on the channel of any ship.

——

Light gradually emerged from the sky.

At the edge of the beach, the clone of Amon from Sequence 2 was sitting on a stone. In front of him was a fire that had already cooled down. There were also a few shells of Tyana fruits scattered beside it.

This is the place where Esther stayed when she came to the island on her first day.

He was playing with an emerald green snake corpse not much bigger than an earthworm in his hand, turning it over and over, tying and unknotting it, looking quite bored.

He deliberately stole this thing from its original hiding place. There will only be one winner in this game, and it will not be determined by good luck.

When Esther was innocently looking for "the last thing" on the island, He decisively chose to take the snake into his hands and let her hold on to the last bit of hope to do useless work.

Anyway, all we have to do is continue to delay time until——

Footsteps sounded from the woods behind Amon, walking firmly in this direction. Esther, with her eyes tightly closed, walked steadily around the stumbling weeds.

The wooden gun in her hand had disappeared. Under the prank of several other Amon clones, Esther could not hold back her anger. The wooden gun she threw out nailed one of them, but was stolen by another clone. .

In her perception, they arbitrarily laughed at her useless efforts, "kindly" advised her to give up, and even suggested that she let "Zoya" negotiate as soon as possible, telling Esther bluntly that that was their goal.

Esther only found it funny that they didn't even pretend anymore.

There were a lot of blood on her hands and body, which seemed to have been left while hurriedly wandering around the island.

The beach is covered with sunshine, the shadows of the long night are shot down, and everything becomes brighter and brighter.

Esther couldn't see any of this and still couldn't hear the waves.

Ordinary sounds that do not contain "information" cannot be received by her.

All her attention was focused on the shadow of the young man's appearance, a snake shape full of light, which was being held in his left hand.

Amon adjusted his monocle with his right hand and smiled again: "Is this also your good luck that led you here?"

Esther walked to Him resolutely, and then opened her palms to Him, her meaning was very obvious.

"You think I'd give this to you?"

Esther nodded.

Amon stopped looking at her, threw the snake into her arms, then stood up with a smile:

"I'm really curious, is your luck useful or useless?"

He dropped these words and his body shape twisted and changed.

The black crow flew into the air, got under the robe of another black-haired young man, blended in and disappeared.

The young man in the sky is also wearing a black classical robe and a pointed hat. He is no different from the "Amon" who talked to Esther a second ago.

Esther raised her head. In her perception, the figure in the sky was darker. All the silver threads and rivers were cleverly avoided, unable to touch him, or just indistinctly connected to him. Destiny can be broken at any time.

The most difficult thing to outline clearly is the black hole-like monocle at his right eye. In Esther's perception, a thin chain is connected to the side of the monocle and extends to the earring at his right ear.

But in just the next moment, the shining earrings disappeared.

The thin chain beside the monocle is simply tucked behind the ear.

He was floating above in such a condescending manner, allowing Esther to look up at him.

"Your ex-partner seemed to know I was coming, so he gave me a little trouble."

Amon pinched his right eye socket, and a stream of light flashed across his monocle. After confirming the memory of his clone, his smile became brighter.

"Long time no see, Zoya. But you have met me many times, haven't you?"

*Excerpted from "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe, translated by Minglun Cao.

Second update.