IWOL Chapter 107: Fish-form Sage

Cui Zuojing woke up dried-mouthed and dizzy-headed.

He closed his eyes for a while, using his other sense to analyze the situation first before carefully opening his eyes again.

He was lying next to a pool of water, which laid to his right. Under his head was a flat rock, and above him was a layer of overlapping leaves that blocked out the sun, leaving only mottled spots of lights.

The Tang Sword was placed near his feet.

Cui Zuojing tried to open his mouth and discovered that his throat and lips weren’t too terribly dry; apparently someone had fed him water.

He slowly, soundlessly sat up and rubbed his temples. He looked around but saw no one.

He moved to the river bank and stretched out his hand, plunging it into the crisp, cold water. He splashed the clear water on his face, and it instantly sobered him up.

Behind him came the sound of grass being stepped on. Cui Zuojing turned his head vigilantly and saw the man with blond hair and gray eyes walking out of the shadow of a tree, a snake in his hand.

Domingo walked out under the leaves with his head down. When he raised his eyes and met Cui Zuojing’s gaze, he paused and said, “You’re awake.”

“Yeah.” Cui Zuojing shook the water from his hand and stood up. He asked, “You brought me here?”

“When I heard the sound of the temple collapsing, I hurried over and found you in the rubble.” Domingo went to the pool of water to prep the snake in his hand. It’d been a while since Cui Zuojing saw him. His shirt was torn and his hair was a bit messy, but he still maintained a calm and indifferent air.

“Did you see anyone else?” Cui Zuojing asked. He was a little anxious. He’d just tried and couldn’t find the prisoner link that had ordinarily been so obvious, even intrusive. In short, the connection between him and Dong Zheng was broken.

At that time, Dong Zheng was directly buried under the rubble, which was dangerous. However, his lack of wounds also meant that Dong Zheng had no physical injuries.

As for the spiritual aspect, he himself was currently very weak. He didn’t have much energy left, making him unable to sense Dong Zheng’s mental state. With the connection broken, even though Dong Zheng’s spiritual energy was overloaded, he couldn’t return to the prisoner’s space.

“No, I could only find you.” Domingo drew a knife from his waist and cut off the snake’s head. He threw the head aside and added, “When I arrived, there was a monster wandering nearby. I was afraid it would see me if I searched for too long, so I was only able to bring you out.”

“A monster?” Cui Zuojing thought about it. Before he passed out, he did hear the roar of some kind of creature.

“According to its appearance, it seemed to be the giant of the wilderness, Behemoth.”

Cui Zuojing thoughtfully said, “Behemoth…I have already seen Leviathan. According to legend, God created two monsters on the sixth day. The female was called Leviathan, who lived in the deep abyss of the sea, and the male was called Behemoth, who occupied the entire desert.”

Domingo added, “God also created a sacred bird called Ziz, whose purpose was to protect other birds. When the end of the world comes, Ziz, Behemoth and Leviathan will become food for the holy world.”

Cui Zuojing said, “We saw a huge bird that set off from the middle of the island at dusk and patrolled around the island before returning back to its nest.”

Domingo said, “That should be it. I’ve seen it these past two days.”

Cui Zuojing looked at the angle of the sun in the sky. He speculated that this was already the second day. It was morning when the temple collapsed, and now it was roughly afternoon. He was injured by the mental attack so it was impossible for him to wake up so fast.

He asked, “How long have I been unconscious?”

“I found you yesterday afternoon, and it’s now the next day.”

The answer was as Cui Zuojing thought. He still felt a little light-headed so he sat and watched as Domingo dealt with the snake meat. He suddenly remembered that, when he was in a coma, someone seemed to have kissed him.

He raised his hand to touch the spot on his forehead where the kiss had landed and asked, “Has anyone else been here?”

“Only myself. I haven’t met anyone else since we were separated at the cave until when I found you.”

Cui Zuojing frowned. Who could it be? Or, maybe he guessed wrong and it wasn’t a kiss at all

Soon, Cui Zuojing was convinced that he’d guessed wrong. Before he left home, his mother had tearfully kissed his forehead goodbye. Her kiss was full of love and reluctance. This kiss he’d experience while in a coma was very similar. But now, in this Pure White Realm, it was impossible for anyone to have such strong feelings for him.

Cui Zuojing helped gather firewood. Since neither of them had flint, Domingo had to sharpen a branch, parpare a block of wood, and sit on a stone to drill wood for fire.

He did it very skillfully. It didn’t take long for smoke to come out. A small spark ignited the leaves and was successfully fed into a small bonfire.

Snake meat and snake skin still had some parasites and, although their current conditions were difficult, they should try their best to deal with it.

When Domingo asked Cui Zuojing if he wanted to drink some snake blood, Cui Zuojing did not refuse. Snake blood was good for replenishing the body. He took two sips, making his mouth full of a fishy taste. Afterward, he waved his hand and returned the snake to Domingo before going to rinse his mouth.

Domingo began to roast the snake meat.

As Cui Zuojing was rinsing his mouth, he looked over and saw that Domingo was concentrating on roasting. He took off his top clothes that he’d been wearing for many days and took a quick bath.

After being buried under the ruins of the temple, his body had a lot of dirt, which made him feel terribly unclean.

Having been in a coma for a day, he was indeed quite hungry. They ate the snake, filling their stomach. Afterward, Cui Zuojing felt much better. Domingo buried the campfire and asked, “Can you travel?”

The youth stood, patting his butt, and said, “This is nothing. Let’s go.”

Like this, they temporarily walked together.

As Cui Zuojing walked next to Domingo, he asked, “I need to find my teammate. What about you?”

Domingo said, “I found a place to the west that appeared to be a temple. Unless there’s an unexpected accident, that place ought to have a lot of clues about the box.”

“Okay, then I’ll go with you. Anyway, once we retrieve everything, I can join the others at the Sealed Land in the middle of the island.”

They headed west. Cui Zuojing had just woken up from a coma. Even after eating, he was still a little tired. Fortunately, he only needed to keep up with Domingo, whose pace wasn’t very fast. He seemed to be taking care of Cui Zuojing, either intentionally or instinctively.

“We truly haven’t met before?” Cui Zuojing couldn’t help asking.

Domingo glanced at him. “Why do you say that?”

“You seem familiar and yet unfamiliar.”

Domingo smiled and said, “Maybe you’ve seen my sister once before?”

Cui Zuojing’s mouth twisted. “Come on, I’m not a blockhead. You’re also not a common plant. But maybe there might be some intersection in the real world, and we’ve just forgotten.”

“Maybe.” Domingo looked ahead. “The western temple is right up ahead. Let’s walk faster.”

They finally reached their destination just as the sun was about to set. This temple in front of them looked similar to the northern temple, except that the shape was somewhat different and was more akin to a parthenon.

“There’s a temple in each direction, which contains the items needed for the seal. Is it convenient to tell me what you saw in the northern temple?”

There was nothing to hide so Cui Zuojing told him everything he saw in the northern temple. The only thing he left out was Dong Zheng’s mental and spiritual discharge. If he guessed correct, it should be the result of his ability evolving.

When Fu Zhe’s ability evolved, he also caused a lot of trouble. Fortunately, when it happened, there wasn’t much danger in the box and so he passed it just fine.

The ways in which brain developers’ abilities evolved was different from other people. A little carelessness could result in a backlash that could turn the person into a fool. Therefore, each one was incredibly precious.

Could Dong Zheng survive it?

Although he still didn’t know what the result will be, Cui Zuojing had an inexplicably deep confidence in Dong Zheng. He felt strongly that with Dong Zheng’s adaptability toward growth, he would definitely accompany him to the very end.

“There were seven character stone slabs corresponding to the gap, and a column carved with ‘I bless the dead,’ right?”

Cui Zuojing nodded.

“That ought to be Abraxas.”

“What’s that?”

“The supreme existence of Gnosticism in Christian heresy. Later, Gnosticism failed. In Christianity, Abraxas was demoted to a fallen angel. Its name in different ancient languages ​​means ‘I bless the dead’ or ‘Everything will be destroyed.’”

Domingo paused and continued, “Its name Abraxas is written in Greek as ABPA∑AΞ. Euripides proposed that in this name, A stands for 1, B=2, P=100, ∑=200, Ξ=60, which exactly adds up to 365, which corresponds to 365 days in a year and also represents 365 heavens, making him the ruler of 365 virtues. If I guess right, the remaining stones are probably other letters. After spelling Abraxas, the gate of the temple will open.”

Cui Zuojing was shocked speechless.

“No way, you even know this?” After a while, he sighed. “Do you have an encyclopedia in your head? Is there anything you don’t know in this world?”

“My mind is comparatively useful, allowing me to quickly remember things and expanding my knowledge.” Domingo smiled. They went up the steps and stood at the door of the temple. Unlike the northern temple, the door to the western temple was already open.

“Someone has been here,” Cui Zuojing said. “The pilgrims that gathered with us at the time were divided into four groups, and each group went in the four directions, east, west, south, and north, to collect the items from the codex.”

“Let’s go in and take a look.”

As they walked into the temple, the sound of their footsteps echoed in the hall. The hall was mostly empty except for all kinds of statues on both sides. Time had damaged the temple to a certain extent. Although the northern temple had collapsed before Cui Zuojing could see the inside of it, he expected that it would be similar to this place.

As he entered the hall, Cui Zuojing’s eyes grew cold, and his hand immediately grabbed the hilt of the sword beside him.

On the high altar stood a man with his back to them. He seemed to be gazing at the intricate black and yellow mural in front of him.

The man wore a black robe that hung all the way down to his feet, and he turned around when he heard them entering.

Under the hood was the face of an old, male human, with a slightly curly white beard. Meanwhile, the bottom of the robe had fins where it should have two feet. The arms were also deformed like fish fins with finger-like structure at the end.

It was only about 1.5 meters tall as it stood on the altar and looked down at the two rash intruders, Cui Zuojing and Domingo.

Fish-form sage.

The name immediately appeared in Cui Zuojing’s mind.

When they first landed on the island, Dong Zheng found a white, sandy beach covered with human skulls and fish bones, which appeared to belong to the fish-formed sage.

Domingo said in a voice that only they could hear, “The fish-form sage, Apkallu. In Mesopotamia legend, God sent seven carps from the water to teach humans. The first was named Uanna, who taught mankind many things and freed them from an era of ignorance and savagery.”

Although the sage couldn’t hear the content, it knew that they were talking trivialities. It held a black, average-looking scepter and looked at them with small, bright eyes. It said to Cui Zuojing, “Finally, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”

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