The Garden of Mad Gods and the End-Time Games
The Clock Tree and the Music of Chaos
Mother Qing led them through the roots of the colossal cosmic tree. Each step on its glowing bark released temporal notes:
Rapid beats near the young leaves.
Slow groans at the ancient roots.
Absolute silence at the charred branches.
Yue Yan traced a scar on the trunk: "These markings… they look like maps of the Cold Cloud Clan!"
Lin Xiu laughed as he hopped onto a root knot: "The whole universe is just a tree the divine gardener got bored of!"
But while dancing, his olive eyes scanned the horizon with cold calculation—measuring the refraction of light on the leaves, calculating the distance between time knots.
Suddenly, he stopped. He kicked a dead root.
"Here! The most boring gate!"
The root peeled open, revealing a tunnel of violet mist, echoing with laughter tangled in screams.
Mother Qing nodded solemnly: "Shen Fei's Garden—where gods go when they lose their minds."
Games of Dying Worlds
They entered a plaza like a mad child's drawing:
Hills of rock candy melting into rivers of coffee.
Trees with knife-blade leaves fluttering like birds.
A sky studded with eyes blinking in erratic rhythms.
At the center, three giants played dice:
1. An old man with a child's body, throwing human bones instead of dice.
2. A woman with snake-hair, assembling plastic clock gears.
3. A one-eyed youth building a castle of playing cards that bled ink.
<
The old-man-child pointed at Lin Xiu with a stubby finger: "You… the monk who plays with seals! Come! Play the 'Game of Inverted Fates'!"
In his hands appeared a chessboard, but its pieces were:
Kings of fragile glass.
Soldiers of flickering fire.
Bishops of frozen tears.
The rules:
"Choose a piece… and lose it to win!"
A Deliberate Loss
Yue Yan stepped forward: "Let me play! I know tactics—"
But Lin Xiu gently pushed her back. His eyes gleamed with joyous madness, while his voice held lethal coldness:
"I choose… the fire soldier!"
The game began. The old-man-child moved his glass king to capture Lin Xiu's soldier.
Yue Yan shouted: "Why didn't you protect him?!"
Lin Xiu laughed: "The weak soldier who dies first… becomes the game's martyr!"
After seven moves:
All Lin Xiu's soldiers had burned.
The opponent's glass king stood alone.
Suddenly, the smoldering ash of the fallen soldiers rose, forming a fiery net around the king!
Lin Xiu flicked a finger: the ashen soldiers rose and toppled the king!
The old-man-child screamed: "You lost your strongest pieces… but won the war!"
Lin Xiu nodded, toying with the ash: "In chaos… a tactical loss is a strategic victory."
The Eye of the Calm Storm
The snake-haired woman raised her clock gears: "My game! 'The Storm Repair Race!'"
She tossed the gears into the air. They turned into tiny storms swirling around them.
The rules:
"Fix the calmest storm… and the violent one will be destroyed!"
Yi Bao climbed onto Yue Yan's shoulder: <
Yue Yan closed her eyes, trying to sense ice's stillness… but the storms were tricksters:
The calm storm hid razor-like frequencies.
The violent storm carried seeds of life.
Lin Xiu didn't attempt a fix. He squatted and observed the spin angles—calculating wind speed, analyzing chaos patterns.
Suddenly, he leapt toward the noisiest storm! His time staff pierced its core…
It burst into temporal blossoms that rained on the other storms, calming them!
The woman clapped with her snakes: "You broke the violent one… to repair the calm! That's creative madness!"
The Bleeding Card Castle
The one-eyed youth pushed the card castle toward them: "Final game! 'Castle Heart'—enter and beware the deceiver!"
They entered. Corridors twisted like intestines, walls of playing cards quivered in the wind. At intervals, a three-horned shadow flickered and vanished.
Yue Yan froze a hallway: "Zu Lan is here! We must—"
Lin Xiu cut her off with a sharp look.
"The enemy wants us divided… so he can devour the isolated." He moved his finger in the air, sketching a mental map:
Dead intersections (possible traps).
High-vibration nodes (castle heart).
The shadow's path (circling, not striking).
"He fears direct conflict… after Tiangu's laugh."
He pointed to Yi Bao: "Release your golden laugh at the third corner."
He instructed Yue Yan: "Freeze the ceiling above the rear corridor."
They executed the plan.
The golden laugh exposed a phantom copy of Zu Lan!
The ice sealed an escape path!
The real shadow appeared in a dead corner… but Lin Xiu was waiting!
"The deceiver fears light… not darkness!"
He threw the Frost Phoenix Seed (blue). It exploded like a blue sun, burning the shadow away!
Zu Lan screamed, the walls trembling: "How did you know?!"
River of Poisoned Memories
The castle collapsed. They found themselves on the shore of a black river, its waters revealing twisted memories:
Yue Yan as a child, slaying an ice-bird guided by Zu Lan's hand.
Yi Bao signing a blood pact with the Coffee Goddess.
Lin Xiu fleeing the temple as the three-eyed monk was slain.
Yue Yan dipped her hand into the water: "These… aren't our memories! They're poisoned replicas!"
The warped memory of the bird's death turned into an ice beast that lunged at her!
Lin Xiu pulled her back. His mind raced:
Analyzing angles of light reflection on the water (distortion source).
Memory ripple patterns (force dynamics).
Still point at the river's center (the origin).
"True memory… is like a fish at the bottom. We need the right bait."
He pulled out a scrap of cloth from his pocket (a remnant of his master's robe). He tied it to his time staff.
Yue Yan understood: "Pure memory bait!"
She added her icy scent to purify it.
Yi Bao blew a golden laugh to lure out the truth.
Fishing Truth from the Depths of Lies
Lin Xiu cast the bait. The black water trembled. Three silver fish leapt up:
1. A fish bearing the image of Yue Yan as a child freeing a wounded ice-bird harmed by Zu Lan.
2. A fish showing Yi Bao ripping the contract with a laugh after discovering the goddess's deception.
3. A fish revealing the three-eyed monk pushing Lin Xiu to escape… smiling.
The distorted monsters melted away.
Yue Yan caught the first fish: "My mother… taught me mercy before Zu Lan stole her!"
Lin Xiu took the third. He did not cry. He only pressed it gently: "My master… knew madness would save me."
Suddenly, the river flipped! Zu Lan rose from the waves, half his human face twisting:
"Enough! If I can't destroy you… I'll destroy the Garden itself!"
His black seal (a hole in his chest) expanded to swallow the river!
The Choice of the Greatest Madman
The Garden began to unravel:
Candy hills turned to ash.
Knife-leaf trees fell like dead paper.
The sky's eyes closed one by one.
The mad gods cried: "The Black Seal! It's absorbing the 'Gap Between the Lines'!"
Zu Lan rose: "Seventh Field… 'Cycle Break!' Now… the cosmos will reshape into pure chaos!"
Yue Yan released her frost… but the seal swallowed it.
Yi Bao released his golden light… and darkness consumed it.
Lin Xiu stepped forward, holding:
The Time Staff (his master's remnant).
The final black Madness Seed.
Yi Bao's laugh (in his heart).
"Zu Lan… you thought breaking the cycle meant chaos?"
He smiled with a mix of visible madness and inner certainty:
"But true chaos… is choosing not to play!"
He threw everything into the Black Seal—not as an attack, but as a gift!
Chaos of Creation
The gift landed at the heart of the Black Seal.
For a moment… silence.
Then an explosion!
Not destruction—but mad creation:
From the Time Staff: bloomed a forest of brooms that laughed.
From the Madness Seed: bloomed a flower reciting prose poems.
From Yi Bao's laugh: formed a miniature sun imitating moon phases.
Zu Lan screamed: "What have you done?!"
"I gave chaos… new toys!" Lin Xiu laughed.
The Black Seal, instead of expanding, began to play:
Absorbing the broom forest… sneezing out paper flowers.
Swallowing the laughing sun… vomiting dancing rainbows.
Zu Lan was dragged toward the seal: "No! I am the lord of chaos!"
"You're its slave… you only thought you controlled it." Lin Xiu waved: "Play well!"
Zu Lan vanished inside the seal… which closed into the shape of a mad child's die.
Return of the Storyteller
The Garden stopped collapsing. The mad gods danced around the die:
"At last… a new game!"
Mother Qing stepped forward: "You truly broke the cycle… not through power, but by redefining it."
Yue Yan looked at Lin Xiu with new awe: "You planned this all along?"
Lin Xiu picked up the die and tossed it in the air. It landed on three dots:
"Planning is boring… but chaos needs a little structure!"
His eyes laughed, but beneath them was the calm of a sea after a storm.
Yi Bao leapt onto his shoulder: <
"To a place that needs stories… and I tell the best ones!"
They walked toward the Garden's gates. At the threshold, Lin Xiu turned for one last glance at:
The Clock Tree (where his journey began).
The Memory River (where he learned his master's truth).
The Mad Gods (mirrors of his own chaos).
They stepped out. Found themselves in a remote village—not Inverted Yang, but it resembled it.
Children played in the mud. Lin Xiu sat beneath a tree, and began:
"Once upon a time… there was a mute dog who carried a broom..."
Yue Yan and Yi Bao exchanged a glance. In the mad storyteller's eyes, they saw an ocean of precise schemes swimming beneath his laughter…
But it had always been part of Lin Xiu. No one else.