A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 248 When the sun rises, forget yesterday.
Do you think she's innocent?

Qin Weizheng did not provide an answer.

Quinn turned to look at his father, who opened his mouth as if to say something, but the light in his eyes gradually dimmed.

It didn't feel like death to him, but rather like humanity was hidden within the shell constructed in this abyss, his heartbeat and breathing gradually ceasing, frozen in place, just like everyone else outside.

After the death of Lana Niu, and especially after the collapse of the [Idol] transcendental characteristic of the Domination Ritual, everything that could move in this city fell into a state of stagnation.

Qin Wei was the last one.

Quinn called out to him and poked his father's hand with his finger. He felt the warmth of a living person. If one did not have extremely keen superhuman senses to observe that his breathing and heartbeat had stopped, he would look like he was staring blankly with his eyes open.

Quinn wasn't disappointed; no matter what answer Qin Weizheng gave, it wouldn't change the past. It meant little to him now that he was an adult, and those youthful years were a distant memory.

“It looks like the city is about to rise,” Quinn said to Amamiya Nene in Temurian.

The little parrot fluttered her wings and wobbled as she landed on his shoulder. She was still a little dizzy, a sign of mental exhaustion.

"What did you just ask your uncle?" She turned her head to look at Qin Weizheng, who was not moving.

You can tell at a glance that she looks a lot like him.

“What uncle? You have to call him uncle.” Quinn corrected him irritably, “Your father has lived two lives, so he’s definitely a full twelve years older than him. You’re this old, how can your father be young? Hey, don’t peck my hair—”

Quinn swatted away the little parrot that got angry at the mention of his age, and felt her pecking at his palm. He smiled and said, "She didn't ask anything."

"Your relationship with your family is so strange."

"Family? Ha. He doesn't count as my family. His role at home is just to be placed on the table. I'm too lazy to burn incense for him. I'd rather ask the supervisor to let me work an extra hour than ask him for blessings."

Amamiya Nene said with dissatisfaction, "It's this strange upbringing that made you have such a strange personality."

"What's so strange about it?"

“You like to say abstract things to make people happy, but you’re not happy yourself. You were just asking a really sad question, but you were happy instead,” Amamiya Nene said softly.

After a moment of silence, Quinn slapped the little parrot that had flown in front of him hard and stuffed it back into his hat.

"What are you doing?"

Quinn leaned back in his seat and grinned.

"It feels really unpleasant to be seen through."

You must have been very unhappy before.

“Hmm.” Quinn looked at his father beside him, then gazed out the window. The city lights were densely packed, one by one, and the darkness silently swallowed the horizon like a rising tide. The moonlit night was not enough to obscure his vision, but the disappearing buildings, streets, streetlights, and vehicles seemed to be submerged in time, becoming blurred and farther and farther away from him from the future.

“But that was all in the past.” Quinn was somewhat dazed. Although he didn’t know why he said that, he still smiled and said, “There were happy times later on, otherwise how could I have become so fond of saying abstract things to make people happy?”

The little parrot stepped on his head.

Here, you can play with your paws.

"Store your luggage first, then go upstairs and play."

"No—no, the expiration date is now."

The moonlight outside the window also disappeared. In a short while, the night turned and the dawn appeared, with a brilliant and glorious ray of light rising from the horizon.

When they were falling, Lin said that once the sun rose, they would have no chance to leave.

Afterwards, Quinn asked her why, but the little girl didn't know either, only that the rising and setting of the sun indicated changes in the concentration of pollution in the abyss.

"Do you feel it getting hotter and hotter?" The little parrot also looked at the huge sun disc that was emitting half of its daylight.

What Quinn considered a sun large enough to launch the Wandering Earth project was quite normal to Amamiya Nene; aside from its rising and setting, its size was similar to the sun in Temuran.

Quinn took a breath and exhaled.

He was far more sensitive to the environment than Amamiya Nene; the temperature began to rise even before the sun had risen. And by the time dawn broke, the perceived temperature had increased from just over 20 degrees Celsius at night to nearly 30 degrees Celsius, making it feel like midsummer.

Not only is the flow of time abnormally fast, but this sun is also different from the ones of the past few days!
“I have a bad feeling,” Quinn said curtly. “Something might happen if the sun fully rises.”

Soon, judging by the current rate of time, the sun will be fully risen in less than a minute, bringing complete daylight.

Amamiya Nene closed her eyes and performed a brief divination, concluding, "...I think so too."

Quinn had already gotten out of the car, and the police officers lying on the ground around him had vanished without a trace. As dawn broke, Quinn finally saw clearly what the darkness engulfing the city truly was.
That was gray fog.

A vast gray fog permeated the Demon King's Castle and the Forbidden Forest, as if even time itself would be annihilated within it.

The crest of the gray fog had already spread to the surrounding streets, and Quinn had a premonition that the fog would completely engulf the city the moment the sun rose.

The only place without fog was the cross-sea bridge.

The other end of the bridge was already swallowed by fog, but surprisingly, it did not surge onto the bridge, as if the bridge was connected to another world in a place out of sight.

Quinn immediately found a Jeep that was still in relatively good condition, jumped in, turned the key, and the vehicle, which was not affected by the gray fog, actually started.

The parrot flew out and perched on the passenger side airbag, shielding its eyes with its wings. The sun wasn't fully up yet, but the light was already blinding, making it difficult to see the road. "Four days have passed. The academy must have sent people looking for us. Whatever's on the other side of the bridge, as long as we can get to the crash site, our chances of being rescued are much higher than staying here."

As Amamiya Nene was speaking, she saw Quinn turn around and run out again.

"Hey?! That fog isn't normal! Be careful not to get corrupted by the abyss—"

Before he finished speaking, Quinn came running back very fast, but it was unclear what he was doing back at Qin Weizheng's place.

"Walk."

Quinn jerked the steering wheel, and the car swerved to avoid the road roller blocking the bridge, then sped onto the bridge.

"Whoosh!!"

The little parrot laughed merrily, as if the two weren't fleeing for their lives, but rather riding in a sports car, enjoying the sunshine and a leisurely drive along the beach.

As the view gradually rose, the sea surface was as still as a shimmering blue crystal. Quinn saw through the rearview mirror the moment the gray fog closed at the end of the bridge.

The fog did not rise onto the bridge; the rising sun's silhouette was reflected on the sea surface, and the moment the sunlight fell on the fog, he saw that it was dawn.

The endless, intense light and heat ignited the gray fog, and the phantom of this small town from 1999 was instantly burned to ashes by the sunlight. Civilization and the world seemed to have ceased to exist, leaving only this highway leading to an unknown destination.

Time returned to its normal flow. Although the electronic clock on the bus was still stuck at 1:10 a.m., the sun and sky no longer moved rapidly, and the peacefulness of time hung in the clouds.

"Did you see that?" Amamiya Nene's voice was full of disbelief.

Quinn tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

"The abyss is a dream, right?"

"That couldn't really be your hometown, could it? Burning it down like that, the sun is too cruel," Amamiya Nene said casually.

"Auspicious words, not bad."

"Where does this path lead? Does it lead to the third level?"

Quinn looked ahead at the road.

This appears to be a national highway. Although the scenery that should be fields or mountains on both sides of the road is obscured by the gray fog, all the road signs and directions that should be there are still there.

In the late 90s, when the national transportation network had just been established, few people could afford electronic navigation. They relied entirely on maps and road signs to find their way. The road sign prominently displayed that Yongzhou was 128 kilometers away. After passing Yongzhou, the capital of Guangxi Province, one could get on the expressway leading to the Yangtze River and the sea.

"This road should lead to the abyss. Let's take the elevator in the China World Trade Center back."

"How long?" The little parrot's voice was strangely calm.

Quinn glanced down at the dashboard; the fuel tank was nearly half full.

Can it travel 500 kilometers? 700 kilometers?
Even the most fuel-efficient manual transmission car will break down before it reaches halfway down the road.

"Two days," Quinn said casually. "The road conditions are good. If we don't take the wrong turn, we should arrive by tomorrow morning."

"That's good, at least we have another day to find where we lost the antidote."

The little parrot yawned. Today was not only the fourth day since the two of them came to the abyss, but also the fourth day since Amamiya Nene took the druid transformation potion.

If the antidote is not used within seven days, her soul will be completely transformed into a dragon-speaking parrot, losing its humanity and memories, making it no different from death.

You're such a jinx!

Exhausted of her mental energy, she closed her eyes and curled up like a ball of ink.

"If we miss it, we'll be stuck in this mess for the rest of our lives."

Quinn reassured him, "Don't say anything auspicious, you'll catch up."

"If it can't turn back, don't add mushrooms to the bird feed."

"What kind of last words are these?" Quinn chuckled.

"Because I don't like to eat it."

He heard the sound of wings flapping, and the little parrot landed in Quinn's hat on his back, saying domineeringly, "Don't lean on me, or I'll get up and beat you up."

"There's so much space in the back seat and the front passenger seat." Quinn had to sit up straight so that Master Ningning could curl up more comfortably.

"It's too bumpy, I don't want to sleep."

Although he knew it would increase fuel consumption, Quinn couldn't help but press the accelerator harder to increase the speed.

“Hey Amamiya Nene.”

The little parrot didn't answer.

"You'll wake up, right?"

After a long while, a tired "hmm" came from inside the hat.

(End of this chapter)