Sundering Nature

Original and most updated translations are from volare. Please don’t read elsewhere and stop supporting theft.

TL: Zhao

Editing: Krisaia

Right as Li Yiming uttered the name of the person he saw fighting every possible imaginable foe, the world around him darkened. As he woke up once more, he found himself on the deck of a large cruise ship in his swimwear. Fang Shui’er was on her knees in front of him, giving him a thigh massage while Bai Ze ate a giant ice cream cone right next to him. The sudden change of scenery only brought surprise and confusion to Li Yiming as he exchanged looks with the people around him.

’It’s over...’ This was Li Yiming’s first thought.

’What did I just miss?’ Such was Li Yiming’s second thought.

Fang Shui’er stopped her massage as Li Yiming sat up. She looked at Bai Ze hesitantly but stayed quiet. Li Yiming’s eyes went from Bai Ze to Fang Shui’er, and then to the crowd around them.

Li Yiming let out a cough to hide his embarrassment and stood up. After one last glance at Fang Shui’er, who stayed on her knees, he picked up Bai Ze from her chair and walked to a cabin nearby.

"What happened after I fainted?" Li Yiming asked.

"That Mr. Kong on the island was the real deal. He borrowed your body and finished everything with one swing of his staff. Then he made that woman sign a soul-binding contract..." Bai Ze said as she took a large bite.

"Soul-binding contract?"

"She gave you her soul. She’s your slave now. She needs to obey your every command."

"So that’s why..."

"I made her do it. I was angry that she chose to betray you after you gave her your trust."

Li Yiming sighed and threw his hair to the side out of habit, only to realize that his hair had been cut short.

"She cut your hair for you. She’s pretty good. At least you won’t have to go to the salon." Bai Ze joked, obviously in a good mood after she witnessed the obvious connection between Li Yiming and Mr. Kong.

"Anyway, did you see something after you fainted? I can’t believe that was really Mr. Kong." Bai Ze’s voice was full of curiosity and excitement.

"Maybe we’ve been wrong all along..." Li Yiming broached the subject.

"What?" Bai Ze did not understand what Li Yiming meant.

"I don’t think that he was the real Wukong..." Li Yiming frowned as he remembered the conversation he had with the two different "Mr. Kongs."

"That’s impossible! You should have seen that staff... It’s obvious... Who else could it have been?" Bai Ze waved her arms, and more than half of her ice cream fell from her cone.

"I’m just saying that maybe I am..." Li Yiming scratched his head.

"No way!" The rest of Bai Ze’s ice cream fell to the ground as she could tell that Li Yiming was not joking.

"I’m not sure..." Li Yiming said with frustration.

"That’s not something you should joke about..." Bai Ze stared at Li Yiming’s eyes.

"’To exchange your body for a fresh start, and to split your soul from it...’, how would you interpret that?"

"That sounds like the body being split into several parts to hide from Heaven’s Laws while the soul reincarnated to unbound itself from the rules..." Bai Ze said.

"One part went to Eden and then to Tianshan, and then another to the Island of Eternity..." The small orb of metal appeared on Li Yiming’s palm.

"You’re saying you’re the last part of the body?" Bai Ze asked.

"No, I think that I’m the soul..." The metal orb in Li Yiming’s palm turned into a very small replica of Wukong’s golden staff.

"Then that last part..." Bai Ze took a step back; even the sight of a replica was enough to intimidate her.

"Mr. Kong..."

* * *

"The Island of Eternity is gone... Who are you?" Mr. Kong clenched onto his bag tightly. For the first time, he seemed confused.

"Could you really be him?"

"No way, I saw it with my very eyes..."

"Golden Wok... Island of Eternity... Li Yiming..." The man continued muttering, leaving behind him one foot mark after another, until the trail was suddenly broken.

* * *

"Water please..." After checking on Liu Meng quickly, Eyeglasses threw a bottle of mineral water in Sai Gao’s way and concentrated on mending his own wounds.

Qing Linglong glanced at Liu Meng and took out her weapons in case she needed to defend Liu Meng. After letting Liu Meng face the doom of the punishment domain alone, she was ridden with guilt, so the last thing she wanted was for something else to harm Liu Meng while the latter was unconscious.

"What do you want?" Big Beard’s voice came from the mecha’s amplifier. He had an especially conflicting opinion of Sai Gao, since he had fought together with the latter in Tianshan, but his former team’s demise could be attributed to Bai Xi as well as Sai Gao.

"What is he up to?" Stargaze frowned at seeing Sai Gao’s unexpected appearance.

"I’ll finish what you started." Sai Gao let out a sigh of contentment as he licked away the water on his lips and suddenly slammed the ground.

"Careful!" Qing Linglong brandished her dual blades and created a wall of blades in front of her.

Eyeglasses vanished and reappeared behind Sai Gao, ready to fire with his sniper rifle while Qing Qiaoqiao picked up Liu Meng and jumped onto the shoulder of Big Beard’s mecha, which soon blasted off into the sky.

"What is he trying to do?" Stargaze closed her eyes for a moment and turned to look at Li Huaibei.

"I owe you a favor for Tianshan. Now we’re even." Sai Gao explained.

The ground started to tremble violently. Fissures appeared on the ground and continued to grow in size.

"It’s an earthquake! Come up!" Big Beard looked at the signal which came from his mecha and shouted. Eyeglasses and Qing Linglong wasted no time and hopped onto his mecha.

The earthquake’s magnitude grew stronger by the second. It was not long before the small city in the distance became a barely recognizable pile of ruins.

"He..." Eyeglasses looked at town which had just been razed to the ground, and then at Sai Gao, who remained standing still.

He’s helping us..." Qing Linglong put away her blades.

"That just to pay back a favor?" Big Beard was impressed by Sai Gao’s righteousness, but he still had a hard time believing that a camouflager would be willing to help them.

"Is he not bound by the rules?" Qing Qiaoqiao asked hesitantly.

"It doesn’t seem like he is..." Qing Linglong said.

The earthquake died down as quickly as it began. However, within a few minutes, the small town which was famed for its wooden toys was completely wiped off the map. Gone along with it were its two hundred thousand residents.

"It’s over?" Eyeglasses let out a sigh of relief.

"There’s not a single living soul left here..." Big Beard stared at one of the monitors inside the pilot cabin.

"He helped us..." Qing Qiaoqiao glanced at Liu Meng and suddenly felt like crying.

"It’s not over yet..." Li Huaibei and Stargaze threw a cold stare down at Sai Gao.

"What now?" Stargaze closed her eyes once again.

Sai Gao looked at the desolation around him and hid away his dejection. He took out a small stereo, put it on the ground, and pushed on the play button. A melancholic piece of cello and harp began playing.

"What is this?" Upon hearing the music play, Qing Qiaoqiao could no longer hold in her tears. She felt indirectly responsible for the destruction of an entire city.

"Wait, something’s wrong..." Big Beard suddenly said with a severe countenance.

"The domain isn’t over..." Qing Linglong looked at Sai Gao, who just took out a beach chair and laid down on it.

"He’s not immune after all..." Eyeglasses said hesitantly.

The domain was indeed not over. The last person who deserved to die was in front of them — the monster who single-handedly butchered two hundred thousand lives.

"Go. Those two will not fight me, and you cannot defeat me. I don’t want to hurt you by accident..." Sai Gao closed his eyes and said lazily.

"What is he trying to accomplish?" Eyeglasses could not understand the meaning of Sai Gao’s message.

Big Beard looked at Stargaze and Li Huaibei, who stood in the distance. "Aside from them and us..."

"There’s only one more person left..." Qing Linglong’s eyes widened.

"He’s going to fight Yun Yiyuan!"