Chapter 300: Listening to Suffering

Chen Ling fell into silence.

In his mind, the figure in white clothes and white hair appeared once again... Although he had spent less than half an hour with the Aurora Lord, the impression the other party left on him was too profound. In such a strange and desperate era, being able to meet someone who could communicate on the same frequency was in itself rare and precious.

"However, it won't be easy for Tan Xin to use the Aurora Lord's soul as a driver." Wen Shilin spoke again. "Tan Xin is only at the eighth rank, while the Aurora Lord is at the ninth... He has almost no chance of winning."

But after thinking for a moment, he added, "It's hard to say, though. The Aurora Lord's lifespan has reached its end, and his strength is definitely not what it used to be..."

Chen Ling recalled the Aurora Lord's figure and was about to say something with a frown when a piercing alarm suddenly echoed over Aurora City.

嗡——！！

嗡——！！！

嗡——！！！！

This sound interrupted Chen Ling's train of thought, echoing in every corner of the city. At the same time, the black-clad law enforcers scattered throughout the city seemed to have received some news and immediately began searching within the city.

"It seems he has already started..."

……

West City, Small Building.

"Mm, mm... I'm listening."

“……”

"So that's how it is. No wonder you are all together... You must have a very good relationship, right?"

“……”

"District 3? Sorry, because I just woke up too... What kind of place is District 3? Can you tell me about it?"

“……”

"In the Aurora Domain, are there still places where life is this hard? It must not have been easy for you to get into Aurora City, right?"

“……”

The wind and snow howled outside the snow-white window. Frozen corpses lay silently in various parts of the room. Those pale faces leaned against each other. At the doorway, a figure in white clothes and white hair was moving a chair, listening intently.

The Aurora Lord gently held Ling'er's corpse, nodding from time to time, his expression incredibly complex.

"Chen Ling... I know him too. Although he seems cold and heartless, he is actually a good person... He isn't dead, you know? He just went to avenge you."

“……”

"And that child... named... named Zhao Yi, right? Don't worry, he is alive too. I saved him at the base entrance."

“……”

"No, no need to thank me... I actually didn't do anything. On the contrary, I need to apologize... If I could have kept the aurora from dissipating, none of this would have happened."

“……”

"Talking to souls? I don't think I'm that amazing."

The Aurora Lord stroked Ling'er's frozen hair with one hand and slowly closed his eyes.

"I'm actually not very good at talking to others. In the past, I spent my time in the laboratory dealing with instruments... After I gained this ability, I haven't had a single good night's sleep."

"I can hear the painful souls who died in the war wailing. I can hear them calling out the names of their loved ones in despair. I can hear them weeping as they recount the good deeds they did in their lives, and then questioning the heavens why they had to experience such suffering... Their pain, their unwillingness, their pleas, their resentment, have always echoed in my ears..."

"So, I always hide away, trying to escape these voices." The Aurora Lord smiled helplessly, as if recalling something. "But even if I hide, the suffering is still there; it's just that I cover my ears and can't hear it..."

"But this time, I don't want to hide anymore."

The Aurora Lord slowly raised his head, his gaze passing through the frosted glass to look at the dead, icy city outside.

"This city rose because of me and fell because of me. At the very least... I want to hear its voice."

呜呜呜——

The cold wind howled outside the window, emitting a low, humming sound, like weeping and complaining.

"In any case, it's nice to meet you all." The Aurora Lord turned back to look into the room. "Thank you for not cursing me or attacking me, but instead sitting here and talking with me quietly for a while..."

"Everyone, please ascend to heaven."

As the Aurora Lord's voice fell, the aurora swirling in his pupils became even more brilliant. A wind of ethereal magnetic fields rose from the room, and faint, shifting glimmers began to spread in the air...

That was the aurora, the aurora drifting out from the corpses filling the room.

These auroras broke free from the cages of their corpses and, under the Aurora Lord's gaze, rose through the roof into the sky, like ethereal veils, silently disappearing into the heavens.

The last wisp of glimmer drifted out from Ling'er's body, swaying gently, as if waving goodbye to the Aurora Lord.

"Goodbye, little sister."

The Aurora Lord reached out and touched the head of Ling'er's corpse.

As the room fell back into cold, dead silence, the figure in white clothes and white hair slowly turned around and walked toward the street alone.

"So cold... so cold! Can someone save me?"

"Mom... why hasn't Mom come back yet? I'm so cold..."

"Mom went to buy coal, she should be back soon. Let's wait a little longer."

"Why, why!! How could this little bit of coal burn out so fast? I... I don't want to die yet!"

"God! What sin have I committed? Why do you want to freeze my whole family to death... Ah??!"

"A living person! There's still a living person on the road!! Why wasn't he frozen to death?! Die, die, die..."

“……”

Voices rose and fell, drilling into the Aurora Lord's mind. His gaze swept across the surroundings, seeing a brother and sister frozen to death in their home, already breathless; seeing a mother holding an empty coal basin, collapsed outside her door; seeing a family of five frozen into statues around an extinguished stove; seeing a beggar who had frozen to death on the roadside long ago, glaring fiercely at everything before him...

The Aurora Lord walked through the ice and snow, his white coat dancing in the biting wind. Those divine eyes, surging with aurora, were filled with pity and sorrow...

He was feeling the suffering of this city.

His peripheral vision swept across a street corner, his expression moved slightly. He bent down and picked up the cold corpse of an infant still in its swaddling clothes from an abandoned corner.

"There, there... don't cry." The Aurora Lord stroked the silent infant's cheek and whispered softly.

At this moment, the survivors in Aurora City were all struggling to hold on at home, relying on coal. Not a single pedestrian could be seen on the streets. That figure in white was submerged in the howling wind and snow, and the tears sliding down his cheeks were instantly frozen into ice.

As he moved forward, wisps of faint aurora drifted out from the cold corpses. Their existence was too ethereal for almost any naked eye to see.

The Aurora Lord carried the infant in his arms for a long time, until a black figure carrying a black box was outlined in the wind and snow in the distance.

The Aurora Lord slowly stopped walking.