"Boom!" Dragonspine, standing tall on the earth, was still plagued by snowstorms. However, this time, within the immense storm, a faint flicker of firelight could be vaguely seen.
The snowstorms on the outskirts of Dragonspine were indeed terrifying, but to Yu Jin, who could externalize his power, they were somewhat insignificant.
He started from the foot of the mountain and, enduring the perpetual blizzards, rushed all the way up to above the mid-slope of Dragonspine.
"Tap!" Yu Jin lightly stepped beside the Statue of The Seven in the City of Buried Snow. Only two hours had passed between his departure and his return.
He looked at the Sky; the sun was already setting in the west. If he delayed any longer, Joel might not see his father tonight.
Yu Jin quickly ran to Joseph's grave, looked at the still fresh earth, and then dug Joseph out.
However, he thought about it again and reburied him. What he did didn't seem to qualify as true resurrection in the real sense.
Standing up, Yu Jin ran to the bottom of the cliff at the end of the cave, to the place where Joseph had died.
Watching the pit he had just dug out quickly being refilled by accumulating snow, Yu Jin couldn't help but once again lament the intensity of Dragonspine's snowstorms.
However, no matter how great the snowstorm, it must dissipate when it meets the sun!
"Crackle..., crackle..., whoosh—whoosh—, shing!"
Beneath Yu Jin's armor, immense sparks began to erupt! At this moment, Yu Jin's body was like an infinitely large furnace, devouring wind and clouds while spewing forth the fire and smoke of the soul!
The continuously erupting sparks swirled around Yu Jin, melting the accumulating snow and illuminating the world.
Yu Jin extended one hand, and the fire that spread across the world seemed to find a target, beginning to gather in his palm.
The sparks compressed, compressed, and compressed again in Yu Jin's hand! They converged into a single point, striving to burn and bore through.
Finally, where the firelight shone, a tiny crack began to appear. It was not black and red like the Sustainer, but pure white, dazzling white.
The appearance of the crack was like a horn, the horn of something solid being shattered. The tiny white began to expand from there, growing larger and larger.
Finally, endless light appeared, piercing through heaven and earth; everything paled in comparison to this light.
In the light, Yu Jin saw. He saw a group of people come here when Mondstadt was still a land of bitter cold. They lived here, and they prospered here.
He then saw the Skyfrost Nail fall from the Sky, and the silver-white ancient tree was destroyed. From then on, even the Anemo God's fierce winds could not blow away the snowstorms of this place.
He saw many things, from the appearance of the world's first light until now... Light is time! It records everything!
Yu Jin looked at all the past, with tragedies and joys. However, for now, he couldn't interfere with such distant times, because he wasn't even sure he could bring Joseph back.
The time was right, and Yu Jin made his move.
His rusted gauntlet reached into the flowing light. In an instant, the gauntlet turned to dust in the flowing light.
Even creations of gods cannot escape the fate of being corroded by time. Only gods themselves can remain unharmed in time.
Beneath the armor was Yu Jin's palm, which he had not shown to anyone for countless years.
Could it even be called a palm? Countless faces twisted and merged, barely forming the shape of a "hand."
The eyes of those "people" were festering, orange-yellow, and manic; on the "human faces," countless red and white dots adorned them, and the oozing, wriggling clumps of flesh were the only things on this "hand" connected to life.
Between the crevices of the human faces, fiery red light constantly emerged, and from its appearance, the light was intensifying.
"Truly, quite ugly!" Yu Jin looked at his palm and laughed self-deprecatingly.
His hand clawed in the flowing light, but it was like trying to catch the moon in water; he caught nothing.
"Haha, is this little power really not enough?" Yu Jin looked at himself clumsily trying to grasp something in time, feeling a bit emotional.
But soon, his gaze sharpened, and he laughed loudly, shouting, "I have moved you before, it was so in the past, it is so now, and it will be so in the future!"
"Crackling!" More violent Burning sounds emanated from within Yu Jin. The power of fire began to manifest on his armor; large sections of iron armor Melted, and molten lava flowed over every part of Yu Jin's body.
Firelight burst forth on his arm, and fierce flames covered everything. His palm, at this moment, was forged from condensed flames!
The Burning palm now fully extended into time!
Gods twisting time is perfectly normal.
He caught it! Yu Jin saw his palm suddenly emerge from space, gripping Joseph, who was in the midst of falling.
"Come back to me!" Yu Jin roared. His palm pulled Joseph, who was still bewildered, out of time.
The moment Joseph emerged, the light that connected heaven and earth dissipated, and Dragonspine returned to its usual tranquility, as if nothing had happened.
"Haa..., haa..." The moment Joseph emerged from time, the darkness within Yu Jin seemed to sense his weakness and collectively assailed him.
Yu Jin knelt on the ground, feeling endless pain coming from all over his body. His flesh and blood began to develop their own consciousness; they bit and struggled, wanting to escape from Yu Jin's body.
Madness, brutality, cruelty... countless shadows churned in Yu Jin's mind, trying to dominate his actions.
"Go..., quickly go..." Yu Jin lay on the ground. Every word he spoke had countless overtones, as if countless people were screaming at the same time.
"Bang!" Joseph heard Yu Jin's warning and, without even a cry, instantly exploded. Only a wriggling mass of flesh remained on the ground, blood instantly staining the earth and Yu Jin's helmet.
"Heh..., heh heh." Yu Jin let out a few chilling dry laughs. He laughed for a long time, until his stomach hurt.
He also looked at the mass of flesh for a long time. Under his gaze, Joseph's flesh and blood began to flow back, and the mass of flesh once again transformed into a human form.
Looking at the reborn "Joseph," Yu Jin tapped his head and said in a soothing tone:
"Go, go down. You are Joseph, Joel's father. You love Joel very much. You successfully completed the mountain Adventure, and now you are going back to celebrate."
The pain on Yu Jin's body seemed to disappear. He bowed his head in thought for a while, as if everything happening to him had nothing to do with him.
He seemed to have become a different person.
As if thinking of some oversight, Yu Jin added to "Joseph," "Once Joel lives out his days, you will be free."
After saying this, Yu Jin watched "Joseph" slowly walk down the mountain, disappearing into the snowstorm.
"Crunch—, crunch—" In the deep night of the snow mountain, only the sound of Yu Jin's iron boots crunching through the snow echoed.
Yu Jin walked to the place where Joseph had died; now only the pure white of snow remained there. He dug up a handful of fresh earth, walked up the cliff, walked into the cave, and walked to Joseph's grave.
Yu Jin dug a new large pit next to the grave. He silently placed the fresh earth from his hand into the grave. Then, he covered it up little by little.
Soon, a new grave reappeared before Yu Jin's eyes.
He sat directly in front of the grave. At this time, Yu Jin's body had begun to calm down; his body no longer bit each other, and his mind was no longer filled with madness.
"Hahaha, trash!" Yu Jin chuckled. It was always like this. Should he say they were indeed the collection of sin and the dark side of humanity?
After all, foolishness is also a sin.
"You always seem to forget how I absorbed you into my body in the first place." Yu Jin's voice changed from its previous lightness, becoming cold.
"Hmph—, well, it's easy for things to go wrong if you keep it all bottled up. Something just went wrong, didn't it?" Yu Jin seemed to be asking a rhetorical question, or perhaps mocking himself.
"Why aren't you talking? You were speaking so well just now, weren't you?" Yu Jin spoke to himself like a madman, with no audience, or perhaps the audience was simply only visible to him.
"It's been a long time since I've seen blood." Yu Jin suddenly said, and then his voice became light again.
"Anyway, you can't die, so I'll just kill you one more time."
--+--
T/N: Although I'm an inexperienced Editor, I do have a Patreon account! Although it seems like I don't have many supporters right now, my webnovel will be released in full every day, and the advanced chapters will be uploaded to Patreon.
It may not be worth it now, but who knows, it might be different in the future. Who knows!
patreon.com/Greyhounds
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