Chapter Sixty-One: The Serpent at the Edge of the Sky (With gratitude to Comrade Liu, who is forever in search of good books, for the generous reward of five thousand!)
For a while, Catherine couldn’t figure anything out, so she quickly gave up. She pulled another Magic Eye Sprite from her spatial pouch and began connecting it, chatting with Ling Mo as she did: “Master, master, how was my acting just now? Did it look like a real accident?”
“Mmm, that little gasp was a stroke of genius.”
“Hehe,” Catherine grinned, then huffed, “Look at your dutiful disciple, Master! For the sake of your martial arts ambitions, I was even willing to smash my Magic Eye Sprite that cost over a thousand gold coins, and yet you tricked me! And as if that wasn’t enough, you didn’t even give me a reward afterward!”
“Just continue your livestream!” Ling Mo replied, exasperated. “I appreciate the thought, but your little performance was unnecessary. Remember, once you’re live again, make sure to film the sky. The Fourth Moon phenomenon looks beautiful at the end.”
“Alright,” Catherine responded, patting her cheeks and flashing a bright smile as she powered on the device. “Dear friends, did you miss me? Don’t worry, nothing happened to your favorite streamer! Those in the chat claiming I died can save their breath!”
“First!”
“I thought something happened when the screen suddenly went black!”
“When your stream cut out, I thought you were in trouble!”
“Why do you have to be so negative? You’re the one in trouble! Your whole family is in trouble!”
“What happened, streamer?”
“What’s going on? Did the Magic Eye Sprite break?”
“I saw a shadow! Was it some kind of giant magical beast?”
“How giant could it be? Could it last a minute against Teacher Ling?”
“Thirty seconds. No more!”
“User ‘Cutest in the World’ sent the streamer a Hellfire reward! Message: Don’t scare me like that! I watch your stream every day, worried something will happen to you—what about my medicine then?”
“User ‘Wealth Unmatched’ sent two Hellfire rewards! Message: Can the person up there act like a human being? All you talk about is medicine—so annoying!”
“User ‘Cutest in the World’ sent three Hellfires! Message: Who needs you to care what I say? I’ve only known the streamer a few days, but all I care about is the medicine! Anything else would be fake, unlike you!”
“User ‘Wealth Unmatched’ sent four Hellfires! Message: Is ‘fake’ really the word you want? Your language teacher would jump in a river out of anger!”
“……”
Though Catherine was eager to see if these two wealthy viewers would keep escalating their gift-giving according to an arithmetic sequence, she remained a consummate professional and quickly smoothed things over: “Guys, let’s not argue, alright? And you two, no need for a contest—this was all my fault! My apologies for the streaming issue. I’m a bit frugal, so to extend the Magic Eye Sprite’s lifespan, I always deactivate its phasing mode after a fight. Just now, a gust of wind kicked up some pebbles and broke it. Luckily, I had a spare! Sorry, everyone!”
She stuck her tongue out playfully, but few in the chat bought her explanation:
“6666666! Maybe if I was still a newbie, I’d believe you!”
“Don’t underestimate us newbies! I am one, but I don’t buy it.”
“Streamer, even if you scalded your chest with boiling water, I wouldn’t believe you now!”
“Don’t listen to those idiots! If you actually burned yourself, I’d believe anything you said—even if you claimed snow was black!”
“Can’t people focus on real issues for once?”
“In those few minutes of black screen, there must’ve been some big secrets! (serious face)”
“I smell something fishy going on!”
“Can someone explain what ‘fishy’ means in this context?”
“You all have it wrong! The streamer’s apology isn’t sincere. Isn’t it common sense to show some cleavage when apologizing?”
“No, a real apology means showing your belly!”
“No, it’s showing your butt that’s common sense!”
“User ‘Supreme Turret Cult’ sent a Chaos Meteor reward! Message: Why argue? Just compromise and show it all!”
“Are you sure that’s what ‘compromise’ means, rich guy?”
“Your language teachers are weeping!”
“……”
Catherine exaggeratedly covered her sensitive areas and laughed, “Don’t even think about it, guys! I’m a serious, technical streamer—I earn my keep with skill. Even if I starve to death—out in the wilds, among the magic beast jungles—I’d never stoop to selling my looks for… Thank you, ‘Supreme Turret Cult’, for your generous reward! Much appreciated, that’s really generous!”
After a barrage of ‘6666’ comments, Catherine composed herself, pointed the Magic Eye Sprite at the sky, aiming at the gloomy clouds and the strikingly large circular void, and spoke softly: “Alright, everyone, enough fooling around. My main job isn’t comedy—there are far more talented streamers in that field. As an outdoor adventure streamer, I should stick to what I do best!”
She brought her knees together and sat like a proper lady atop a small mound, pointing at the deepening red in the sky. “I’m not sure if you guys can see it clearly, but from my angle, the Fourth Moon feels incredibly oppressive. It’s much larger than the other moons. For those who are outdoorsy, you’ll know that on nights when the moons shine bright, you can barely see any stars—especially when all three moons are out, only the brightest stars are visible. But the Fourth Moon is different. Even though it’s so bright, the stars around it remain vivid. This suggests the Fourth Moon is incredibly close to the continent!”
“I don’t know why such a near, massive celestial body is invisible in daily life, but it truly is beautiful! The other moons, seen with the naked eye, are just blank, and even with a telescope, you only see craters. But the Fourth Moon has several pale vortices slowly swirling across its surface, as if… yes, as if enormous tornadoes are moving across it!”
The chat fell silent for a while before someone finally commented:
“Stop describing it, streamer! You’re making me itch with curiosity, but your Magic Eye Sprite’s zoom is garbage—can’t see a thing!”
“Agreed! Every time I take a screenshot, the bright spots are just faintly pixelated!”
“Luckily, the streamer will soon get the best Magic Eye Sprite! Then the images will be clear!”
“But by then the Fourth Moon will be gone. What a pity!”
“……”
But Catherine didn’t have time to pay attention now. A sudden thought had flashed through her mind, filling her with excitement. She jumped in front of Ling Mo and exclaimed, “Master! I just thought of something—is the Fourth Moon a gaseous planet?”
“I don’t know.”
“Master, you don’t know? Please tell me!”
“I really don’t know.”
“…” Catherine returned to the camera, a bit put out. “Master won’t tell me, but I really think my guess is likely! If it’s not a gas giant, and those ‘vortices’ are actually landmasses, then their movement is far too fast—it wouldn’t make sense! Are there any astronomy experts in the chat who can analyze whether my theory holds water?”
“You still have time for this?” came Ling Mo’s indifferent voice.
Catherine was puzzled. “What’s wrong?”
“Look up,” Ling Mo pointed at the massive void. “See that? The once perfectly round shape is already blurring in places. That means the Fourth Moon is about to end! And its first effect will be a massive drop in temperature!”
Catherine didn’t need Ling Mo to explain. The circle in the sky was shrinking, like the eye of a storm, while the inky black clouds around it spiraled inward, sucked into a powerful vortex that swept up everything nearby. Even the dirt and small stones on the ground were drawn aloft. From afar, yellowish-brown tornadoes stretched from earth to sky, the Fourth Moon looming faintly amidst the dust—a truly spectacular sight!
The wind roared, and the temperature plummeted by a degree or two every second. Before long, transparent ice crystals formed in the air, whipped by the gale to sting against her skin. Catherine had to activate the Magic Eye Sprite’s phasing mode, shielding her face with one arm while searching for shelter, yelling into the camera: “For those who haven’t ventured into the wilds, you might not know! When a storm gets this bad—especially a blizzard—the sky turns deep red, tinged with violet! Not the gray you’d expect! The stars are still visible, shining brilliantly! This rare starry sky doesn’t come often—take your screenshots while you can!”
She cranked the Magic Eye Sprite to its highest resolution, aiming at the soon-to-vanish Fourth Moon to record this breathtaking scene. Lifting her head, she was confronted by a sight beyond imagination:
In the shrinking void overhead, a hazy shape appeared—a giant serpent, stretching for tens of thousands of meters! Its body spanned the heavens, and only its fierce, single-horned head was visible; its tail extended who knows where. Though it had appeared abruptly, it felt as if it had always been there. The serpent glided slowly across the sky, drawing nearer to the Fourth Moon—then, opening its terrifying maw, it swallowed the moon whole in a single bite!
(Damn, there are so many censored words. The author rarely uses profanity, but still can’t avoid all these filters—truly exasperating.)