He and It Chapter 167: The Serpent of Pharisee (33)

Chapter 167: The Serpent of Pharisee (33)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

Looking at the human’s departing back, Pallas Athena turned to her father.

“O father of the gods,” she cautioned, “you have given that boy too many privileges, and I do not believe, in your wisdom, that you cannot see the hatred that runs in his heart.” 

Zeus smiled disdainfully, and said, “He is but a man, and has not held a day the sword of murder, nor a day a heavy shield, and what can he do with his brush and paper?” 

“He is bound to seek the Earth Mother.” Says Athena, “While Echidna waged a war of disobedience, Gaia also opened a grand giant eye, and looked vaguely upon His children.” 

“The oath of a god, reserves him only the right to walk upon the earth.” The God-King supported his head, and said, “Thou mayest look upon him, and if the child pleads with the Mother Earth to send himself to Tartarus, then I grant thee, using the divine power of thunder to cleave the bones of his legs, and condemn him to an eternity of not being able to walk on two feet again.” 

Nodding her head, Athena took her orders.

“Dorus, what are you going to do?” Standing at the exit of Mount Olympus, Aphrodite looked at Xie Ning worriedly.

Xie Ning looked at the goddess and smiled. He was just like the first time he came to this era, carrying a drawing board, a traveling bag, and holding a celestial horse in his hand, ready for a long journey.

“Thank you,” he whispered, “for speaking up for me, for taking me in, for blessing me… I don’t know what I would have done without your support. But now, I have to go on my way alone.” 

The goddess of love and beauty stared at him, and all the creatures of the world were to be lost in the beauty of SHE, but the eyes of this young man were always clear and melancholy, for he had already possessed a love that was painful to the heart, and had filled his heart with an even more beautiful lover.

“Then, take care of yourself,” Aphrodite sighed, “I want you to know that I am blessing your victory in my heart.” 

Xie Ning bowed his head thankfully, and then, stepping into the saddle and onto the back of the Pegasus, he soared up among the clouds of Olympus, bound for the earth and the world.

The horse lifted its wings vigorously, and the wind blew Xie Ning’s hair, but he did not feel the cold. He looked down, the mountains were like undulating green waves, the rivers entering the sea divided the land like an irregular color palette, the kingdom inhabited by human beings was condensed into a small fist, and the capitals were like scattered white stones and pearls, rolling down on the boundless land.

He flew on, and according to the private rumors of some of the lesser gods, the great plague of Echidna had long since been atoned for by the gods. Rivers and seas corrupted by venom, mountains and forests scorched by fire, were restored to their original state, and once dead beings returned to the earth in dreams, for Hades had agreed to let them go because of the overcrowding of souls would have overwhelmed the palaces of the Underworld.

Hades agreed to let them go. The Heavenly Horse was hovering above, and out of fear, it refused to come too close to Arima. Xie Ning had no choice but to let it land in the distant mountains, then loosened the reins and walked over by himself.

The four fields were empty, and the former underground palace had been completely overturned during Echidna’s riot, and there was no trace of their former life.

The gardens that Xie Ning had spent so much time tending, the river of stars in the night pearl, the throne that Echidna had often circled, the crib that he had made for himself, and the geothermal spring… they were all gone. They were all destroyed, leaving only a circle of black earth exposed to the sun, black as the pupil of a lightless eye, on which a figure could be faintly discerned lying down. That was the trace of where Echidna had placed him when he was poisoned.

Xie Ning knelt on the ground, gently touching the edge of the trace, the poison was so strong that even after such a long time, it still lingered on Gaia’s soil.

“Gaia,” Xie Ning leaned down to the anointed ruins of the Mother Goddess’s hand and called out in a low voice, his volume as low as a whispered murmur, “Gaia, please see me, I know that you woke up once, Gaia.” 

The fields were silent, not even the wind blew through them, and Xie Ning stooped, his lips almost pressed to the divine earth, as if he were speaking in intimate whispers.

Suddenly he heard the sound of breathing, from far away and near, floating among the mountains and forests, the rivers and streams, the wilderness, and the hundred thousand rolling hills. It was so far away, as if it only existed in the concept of “the end of the world”; and so close, as if it was undulating in Xie Ning’s blood and hair.

“I’ve never fallen asleep, I’ve never woken up.” After a breath, a voice said, “I’m right here, I’ve never left.” 

Xie Ning lifted his head again, and saw the hundreds of rivers like a sea, the green sky like a wash, and “she” transformed into a mountain lying on its side, crossing the blue-violet sea.

There is no mother in this world that is uglier and more beautiful than she, she’s bloated and cumbersome belly, pregnant with “the beginning” and “the end”, but the lines are so delicate that they make people cry, better than eleven million graceful and wildly dancing foxes, and eleven million strands of entangled spring breeze. The winds of spring are entangled in them.

Gaia, the original mother goddess, the bearer of all things.

She half-opened the left eye of the firmament, half-closed the right eye of the four poles, and said vaguely, “I know why you have come to me, and I also know what you want to do…” 

Xie Ning only looked at she, and turned his face sideways.

He was only human, unable to bear such a huge, huge amount of beauty – compared to the goddess of love and beauty herself, Gaia’s beauty was total disorder and chaos, enough to drive any sane individual completely insane.

“I didn’t come here to ask you to save Echidna,” Xie Ning said, taking a deep breath and gathering her courage, “and I didn’t come here to beg you to send me to Tartarus.” 

“I know.” Gaia said.

Xie Ning froze, “You know?” 

“I also know where you came from.” Gaia whispered sleepily, “You are a human being from ten thousand years later, a body carrying a restless soul, a time when the gods were gone, and the light of the phantasmagoria had completely faded… You touched a god, experienced a god, fought a god, and fell in love with a god, but you were a spectator of history, for you witnessed the demise of myth.” 

At this point, Earth Mother’s eyes widened slightly.

“And now, you’re going up against a god, well, Phoebus Apollo… The young new god, son of Leto, who took over the golden chariot of the sun after Helios left.” Gaia said, “You can’t win, you don’t have a chance, but I know what you have in mind, and because you’re such a bystander, you’re going to paint a picture of the fall of the gods, and end the cycle of Zeus’ rule.” 

Xie Ning didn’t answer, Gaia’s words had broken through to him, and in his heart there rose a boundless fear that the Mother Goddess would veto this idea and break his illusory bargaining chip of revenge.

“But why should I help you?” Gaia asked, “According to your plan, no god in heaven or on earth can escape your judgment, not even me, not even Caius. As narrator, you will end the age of myths, and bring the world to the future you know so well, the future of ‘science’, of ‘justice’. There are no gods there, mankind is searching for their truth in the cold darkness of space… Tell me, why should I help you? Ah, never say, “Please, for Echidna’s sake – Typhon was the last of my youngest sons, and I never sought freedom for him, let alone Echidna, a side heir.” 

Xie Ning turned his face away, and, with Echidna in his mind, he looked resolutely into the pupils of the Earth Mother’s eyes-no matter how ghastly a world he saw there.

“How long has it been since your last child fell into the abyss of Tartarus?” He asked, “And how long has it been since the Heavenly Ghost of the Father’s line, took the place of the Earthly Ghost of the Mother’s line?” 

Gaia was silent, and looked at him with the same silence.

Xie Ning asked again, “What is the difference between going to my time, and your current state of slumber? At least I can take revenge for you, and help you pay for the humiliation you have suffered.” 

I don’t know how much time had passed, but the Earth Mother asked softly, “What do you want, human?” 

Xie Ning’s face was pale and thinner than paper from looking into the eyes of the primordial gods, but he said resolutely, “I want your eyes.” 

“My eyes.” The Earth Mother, thoughtful, murmured a repetition.

“I want to see all the gods, whether they are in heaven or on earth, and I want to get their true likeness!” Xie Ning exclaimed, “Only your eyes can take in all the gods, for you are the mother of all, and from your bosom they were all born!” 

Gaia breathed, she gazed at the tiny human being, who in her eyes was smaller than a strand of hair, smaller than a tenth of a grain of dust, and yet, he carried an endless canvas, held an indestructible brush, had colorful and bountiful horns hanging from his waist, and in his chest beat a heart that was loved by the gods and goddesses.

“As you wish,” she said, “I’ll give you my eyes, and you go.” 

Xie Ning blinked, and in the next second, the world in his sight suddenly changed.

In front of him, the green mountains were still green mountains, the sea was still the sea, the earth mother had left, but her face was firmly engraved in his mind. xie Ning looked up, looked down, circled around to measure the world, every kind of deity appeared in his sight. He looked far into the distance, and could even see the infinite void behind the canopy, where Chaos was sleeping soundly, the ultimate blackness and the ultimate colorfulness, with a million disillusioned bubbles floating in his long hair, and a million planets flowing from each bubble.

Xie Ning laughed once, then twice, three times. Standing in the deserted wilderness, he suddenly burst out laughing, until he was out of breath and bent over, and he still laughed intermittently.

“O Goddess, didst thou ever hear what the Earth-Mother said to him?” Flying high in the clouds, Hermes looked nervously as if something very bad was going to happen!” 

Athena’s brow wrinkled, she said urgently, “What the Earth Mother did not want to be heard, we could not hear in any case! The only thing that is certain is that Gaia did not help the human to go to Tartarus, nor did she help Echidna to escape from the prison of the Abyss. My brother, go quickly to our father, and ask him not to presume to underestimate this human, who, with Gaia’s help, is perfectly capable of causing some trouble!” 

Hermes flew away quickly, and on the ground, Xie Ning stopped laughing, he began to stretch the infinite canvas, and gripped the bullhorn at his waist.

“Chaos,” he said in his heart, “not only have I seen you, I will paint your face!” 

He grasped the horns and splashed them across the inexhaustible canvas, and the colors of the worlds erupted in a torrent, like an unceasing flood, and in a moment they were churned into a chaotic mass. All the colors collided and intermingled with each other, and gradually dissolved into an obscure pure black. ¹

Against the blackness of all the colors, Xie Ning made his first brushstroke.

Just as his brushstrokes could directly reach Echidna’s soul, even the chaotic Ancient God could not help but feel a tremor in his heart with this stroke, and he let out a puzzled grunt, awakening from his dream.

“There is a man,” he said indistinctly. “Who is ‘writing’ about me.” 

With these words, Chaos turned his head and fell into eternal sleep. The very act of turning his head caused countless illusory forms to break and countless others to be reborn.

Even if Chaos only woke up for a moment, it was as long as a pause in time for the Gods. Zeus stood at the peak of Mount Olympus, and he was shocked to see Xie Ning’s painting as he shoved away the clouds.

“What have you done, child, to awaken the Great God of Chaos?!” The king of the gods scolded, and the thunder rolled down to the earth, but they did not reach Xie Ning, and dissipated like clouds.

Xie Ning’s brush didn’t stop, he sketched out the rising and falling bubbles between Chaos’s hair, and made the gods tremble with fear; he traced out Chaos’s human-like, but far from human, eyebrows, and the ancient gods who had long been avoiding the world, all stood up from their secluded realms, and cried out loudly in shock.

Among all the gods, the three sisters of destiny, who had never appeared, finally left the looms of the theirs, stepped over the Styx, and came to the plains of Arima.

One of the three is old, one is strong and plump, one is young and slender, as pale as a drop of dew.

“What are you painting?” The oldest woman asked.

Xie Ning replied, “I have borrowed the eyes of Gaia, and I am painting all the gods.” 

“Why are you painting all the gods?” The middle-aged woman asked.

Xie Ning replied, “Because I am a narrator. I am a spectator after ten thousand years, and I see the demise of the gods in this age, so I am going to paint it.” 

“How will you tell the exact reason for the demise of the gods?” The young girl asked.

Xie Ning replied, “I remember the prophecy of Prometheus – Zeus will meet with Thetis, the goddess of the sea, and they will give birth to a child who will be stronger than his father, and then overthrow Zeus’ current rule. It is a prophecy Zeus has never told any of the gods, but I know he cannot escape his destiny, and I will draw their union, which will be the beginning of the end of the gods.” 

These three questions and answers traveled across the land, resonating through the heavens, and due to the excessive shock, the Gods were dumbfounded, unable to utter a single word or phrase.

The Three Goddesses of Fate nodded, they turned away, and returned to the room where they used to weave destiny.

The air was dead silent except for Zeus’ furious roar, as if billions of people were shouting in unison, “What has made you mad? What has made you mad? In the mighty hands of the Gods, one should not talk like that!” 

Enraged by the revelation of his deepest secrets, the father of the gods, unable to break his oath to interrupt the painting of mankind, rushed, with sacred thunder in his hand, into the deep, dark underworld, to the three goddesses of fate.

He swore to take back a statement, swore to ask the Goddesses of Fate to prove that that kind of nonsense, that kind of wild talk is completely nonsense, is a delusion that can not be realized, but when he split open the door of fate, see the three goddesses, he was stunned.

–The loom of destiny was shattered, rotted like dead wood, covered with broken threads, and the goddesses of destiny were sitting on it, spreading their hands upwards, their palms covered with dust, as if they had been sitting there in silence for millions of years.

At this moment, the king’s face turned gray, and his lips mumbled in bewildered fear, and he could not speak.