Chapter 401: Doctor (5k)
“Hahaha.”
Just as Fisher was completely enveloped by the moonlight that covered all his consciousness, he had no idea how much time had passed around him. He felt as if he hadn’t been moved at all, yet it seemed like he had a very long dream where nothing existed except that enormous, cold moon he was so familiar with, hanging in the air and quietly staring at him.
In this ancient, unchanging, chilling gaze, Fisher awakened, but not naturally; it was a forced and extremely painful awakening.
He felt a tremendous difficulty in breathing, worse than the times he had to breathe underwater, as if his lungs were being drained with no nourishment of air whatsoever. The sound of a loud tinnitus filled his ears, as if his body had returned to a state of extreme fragility, but clearly, this time it was caused by other reasons.
“Fisher! Fisher! How are you? It’s too high up here, there’s no breathing air. Wait for me to pull you!”
“Emhart.”
Amidst his extremely painful gasps, Fisher clearly caught the echo of Emhart’s distinctive quacking voice layered over the tinnitus, but it didn’t sound as it usually did; it felt as if Emhart’s voice was emanating from inside his brain.
It appeared Emhart was using his mouth to grab Fisher’s clothing, with great effort, trying to pull him in another direction.
But before the nearly suffocating Fisher could understand the specific situation, even now he could barely open his eyes, he suddenly heard Emhart exclaim in panic as if he had seen something,
“Fisher! Fisher! Wake up! Someone is coming! Wake up! Ah! Let go of me! Holy Spawn, I—”
“Humans? Why are they appearing here? What is this?”
Emhart’s voice abruptly cut off, and the breathless Fisher hurriedly pressed his hand to his chest, forcing his eyes open. He lifted his gaze and was nearly blinded by the dazzling light before him.
He painfully covered his eyes but vaguely saw two tall silhouettes standing before him. At the same time, a calm male voice erupted in his mind. Although he had never heard the language they spoke before, for some reason, he almost instantly understood their words.
“Did they run up from [Day One]? His physical quality is strange, not like an ordinary human. Capture him first and then put him in the [Cage]. After that, I will report to Lord [Raphael].”
“[Cage] has…”
“Fisher! Waaa! Let go of me!”
The completely breathless Fisher felt his consciousness becoming heavier and heavier. He could only crawl on the ground, straining to gasp for air, but to no avail. It wasn’t until several seconds later when his consciousness was about to fade again that he felt himself being lifted by an unseen force, and the conversation of the two silhouettes became intermittent again, while Emhart’s shouting echoed,
“Fisher!!”
“This thing…”
“I’ll… take it too.”
Then, Fisher’s consciousness was once again dragged into complete darkness.
“Haha!”
After an unknown period, Fisher finally felt a long-lost sensation of breath. His chest was heaving, and the murky consciousness became clearer with each breath he took. He quickly realized he seemed to be lying somewhere, and a strange male silhouette was squatting beside him, silently caressing himself with his hands.
“Boom!”
Fisher’s pupils constricted slightly, and he suddenly raised his right arm and swung it toward this guy’s head next to him. The sudden violent strike created a huge gust of wind that rushed toward the stranger’s head, scaring him to the ground as he frantically retreated, oddly evading Fisher’s punch.
“Calm down, calm down, I mean you no harm. Calm down.”
Taking advantage of the moment the man retreated, Fisher sat up. He first felt his body to confirm he wasn’t injured, then checked his possessions. Upon touching, he discovered that the Magic Lord ring on his hand, the Fluid Sword in his pocket, and Emhart were all missing.
The Magic Lord ring had become completely useless after being used once under the Parasol Tree. He hadn’t had time to explore its activated secrets while being chased by death. Losing it was one thing; the Fluid Sword was quite valuable and useful, and losing it stung a bit.
But most importantly, Emhart was taken; Fisher couldn’t accept that. Especially since it seemed he had heard his cries while being dazed. He seemed to have been captured by someone.
However, that three Complete Manuals were still with him and had not been taken, and the items given to him by Renee as well as those included with the Supplement Handbook were all wedged within the Complete Manuals and not lost.
Looking around again, he found himself sitting in a relatively spacious enclosed space, with dark walls made of an unknown material. However, when he checked his soul, he found he had been cut off from the outside world. Fisher had experienced this feeling before, and upon seeing the decorations in this place, he suddenly felt a sense of familiarity.
Indeed, he had seen such things not long ago, just outside the shrine of the Moon Rabbit Tribe in the Northern Region – the Turan family’s relic called the [Cage of Sealing]. The place Fisher was currently in looked identical to that Cage of Sealing, albeit evidently more beautiful and intact than it had been at that time.
Emhart had mentioned that this cage was a relic used by the angels to imprison criminals.
Which meant he was now inside the Holy Realm, captured by the angelic beings?
“Don’t think too much. When you entered, most of your belongings were probably searched; nothing should still be on you.”
Just as Fisher frowned in doubt, the earlier muttering voice came again. Listening closely, the man before him spoke very gently, with a pleasant voice that brought a sense of spring breeze upon hearing. Yet the language he spoke was utterly foreign to Fisher, but for some reason, he could understand his meaning.
He turned his head to look at the speaker, sizing him up. Across from him, in this relatively spacious area, a man wearing a bizarre, loosely fitted white robe made from some seaweed was smiling and leaning against the edge of the Cage of Sealing. His skin was pale and smooth, with yellowish-golden eyes and an exceptionally handsome face. His light blue hair was tied at the end with a golden ring, resting against his chest, giving him a gentle and elegant demeanor.
But what attracted Fisher’s attention the most were the pair of long black ears that were even longer than Jasmine’s, and the wide whale tail behind him. In the dim enclosed space, the inhuman parts of his body glowed with bright fluorescent patterns, making them quite noticeable.
Yes, this man was of the Whale Folk!
Looking at the gentle man’s slightly curved eyebrows, Fisher’s animosity toward him decreased significantly. He rubbed his still slightly painful head and asked,
“Why can I understand the language you speak?”
“I have never heard your language either. I understand human language, but it’s the first time I’ve heard you speak this. As to why I can understand it—”
The Whale Folk man scratched his chin, then pointed upward toward the ceiling and continued,
“Because ‘God said: Let there be no barriers to communication.’ This is the angels’ saying, meaning, the existence revered by the angels set a rule of [no communication barriers] here, so we can communicate with each other.”
Fisher was momentarily stunned. He touched his chest and murmured,
“I have entered the Holy Realm.”
“Yes, and to be precise, it seems you were previously in [Day Two]. I don’t even know how you managed to come up here without any preparation; you almost suffocated to death.”
“Suffocated?”
“Yes, [Day Two] is nearly twenty thousand zhang above the ground (one zhang is about 3.33 meters). Generally, living beings can’t survive even a moment up here before dying. Luckily, your physical quality is extremely high; otherwise, before they could provide you with a [Breathing Relic], you would have already died. Angels have a much higher life level than us; they can live without breathing.”
Halfway through, seeing Fisher looking down at himself but finding nothing that could be called a relic, the Whale Folk smiled and pointed at Fisher’s chest, saying,
“Stop looking; that relic isn’t on you; it has already entered your body and is wrapped around your lungs. Instead of this, we should worry about our fate afterwards. We are currently in [Day Three], in the punishment area governed by the angel [Uriel]. We have both intruded into the Holy Realm and have been captured by angels, and soon we will likely be burned to death by Uriel.”
Fisher squinted. He was unfamiliar with the terms the Whale Folk mentioned. He paused for a moment, then asked,
“The second day and third day you mentioned are different regions of the Holy Realm, right?”
The Whale Folk looked at Fisher with surprise, exclaiming,
“Wow, it’s already bizarre that you appeared in [Day Two], but I didn’t expect you to know nothing about the situation in the Holy Realm. I thought you were a slave raised by the angels in [Day One]. Your life level shouldn’t be that of a slave.”
“There are seven layers in the Holy Realm. Although it’s called the angels’ residence, most angels live beyond [Day Two]. The higher the level, the further away from the ground, and naturally, it’s not suitable for other beings to dwell. The Holy Realm is ruled by seven powerful archangels, each governing a layer and possessing different powers and preferences.”
The Whale Folk cheerfully began to count on his fingers, raising one for each layer he mentioned,
“The archangel [Remiel] governs the first layer, responsible for earthly matters; the archangel [Raphael] governs the second layer, responsible for medical affairs; the archangel [Uriel] governs the third layer, responsible for punishment and judgment; the archangel [Raguel] governs the fourth layer, responsible for angelic laws; the archangel [Michael] responsible for war and forging governs the fifth; the archangel [Gabriel] in charge of wisdom and treasures governs the sixth; and of course, there’s the seventh layer, which almost has nothing, ruled by the archangel [Salie].”
“Ah, of course, because the archangel of the seventh layer also often intervenes in earthly matters, you can also call her by her other name [Pandora].”
The more Fisher listened, the more troubled his brow became. The more he listened, the more his scalp tingled, especially as he leaned against the window and through the transparent material at the edge of the Cage of Sealing, he saw the outside scene.
Only then did he truly realize what kind of existence the [Mythical Beings] he had never encountered before were.
Just outside the Cage of Sealing, Fisher first saw a pale yet beautiful array of buildings. Most of those structures were slim and scattered, floating in the air within a certain range. There were few roads here, mostly vast, grand independent building groups.
However, the surroundings of those buildings were not a blue sky, but an incredibly dark void beyond the sky, because at that moment, they were positioned incredibly high. Looking down from here, one would immediately see a vast blue planet, a gigantic sphere that seemed to occupy Fisher’s entire view, quickly making him realize that below was the place they had lived their whole lives.
And stretching up from the ocean’s surface of that planet were large white, suspended cylindrical passages. After a certain distance, different yet stunningly beautiful architectural styles appeared in large clusters, which seemed to be referred to as [Heaven] by the Whale Folk.
It was easy to imagine that just above where they were, there were several layers of such beautiful architecture whose destinations remained unknown, deep, and dark.
Unlike the time zone Fisher was in, right now, if he looked south along the blue ocean before him, he saw a continent he had never seen before. At the southern end of that land, which also marked the limit of Fisher’s line of sight, a gigantic, indescribably ethereal golden tree grew from the planet, extending until its massive, twisted golden branches reached far into the dark expanse of the universe, places that Fisher could not see.
That ethereal golden tree’s size was proportional to the planet before Fisher, resembling the tree from ancient myths.
Fisher did not dwell in shock at the breathtaking scenery. He quickly calmed himself and realized there was an error in Renee’s arrangements.
According to the Whale Folk’s explanation, only in [Day One] were there dependents and slaves, and these dependents and slaves could not ascend to other days, let alone meet the archangel Pandora in the seventh day and her Holy Grail. Therefore, Renee likely did not fully understand the composition of the Holy Realm, and Emhart had no memories of the Holy Realm to rely on. Moreover, he should still be captured by angels.
As for whether it was a good or bad thing that Renee had accidentally sent him to the second day with only angels, it was questionable, but these angelic beings were all genuine mythical creatures, and now he had been captured by them.
The brow of Fisher became furrowed deeper and deeper. After several seconds, he suddenly seemed to remember something and looked toward the gentle Whale Folk man, expressing his gratitude,
“Thank you for the information; it has been of great help to me. So, what brings you to the Holy Realm? As far as I know, the Whale Folk rarely come out from the depths of the ocean.”
“Ah, well, this is a long story.”
The Whale Folk man smiled wryly, scratched his chin, and then continued,
“To be honest, I am a doctor; I am very interested in the various medical practices that exist in the world. I have already learned quite a bit about the medical concepts and methodologies of various races. I originally planned to visit the angel Raphael since he is said to be very skilled at healing others; I wanted to communicate with him. But he flatly refused to interact with me. I had no choice but to come up myself to see how the angels practice medicine. Unexpectedly, it was fine on the way up, yet now I can’t go back.”
“…So you were examining my body just now?”
Why did it feel like the Whale Folk he encountered, aside from Xu, all resembled Jasmine in a way?
Fisher looked at the gently smiling Whale Folk in exasperation, unsure of what to say. Just when he was at a loss for words, the Whale Folk suddenly clapped his hands as if remembering something,
“Right, because that group of angels was rough when implanting the relic, and you were unconscious for so long, I was quite worried. By the way, we’ve talked so much, but haven’t introduced ourselves. I guess we can only call each other ‘Human sir’ and ‘Whale Folk sir’ for now, right?”
“Ah.”
Fisher sighed, looking outside. His myriad thoughts made him a little absent-minded, but he still spoke to the person before him,
“My name is Fisher; I am a human scholar. I wonder if there are still human scholars now.”
“There should be.”
The Whale Folk smiled slightly and didn’t mind Fisher’s current nonchalance. He shifted his sitting posture, looking out the window as well, while also introducing himself,
“My name is Gouwen; I am an ordinary Whale Folk doctor.”
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(End of Chapter)
