The rain stopped, leaving behind only the coffin filled with water.

A black ball, its tail poking out, swam up to Zhou Xiangzhe and flicked its tail at him. Shen Wang watched it, feeling as if he were seeing the little thorns that delivered pollutants to him.

“What is that?” Shen Wang asked Zhou Xiangzhe.

Zhou Xiangzhe stared at it for a few seconds before speaking. “Let me ask you first, do you mind having the same name as it?”

Shen Wang: …

Great. Now he knows what this thing is called.

Shen Wang sighed and walked to the coffin. This time Zhou Xiangzhe did not stop him. The golden silk threads were still there, covering the entire coffin. Shen Wang peered inside and saw a large, ornate butterfly soaking in the water.

The butterfly wasn’t moving. It was unclear whether it had drowned.

Half of its colorful wings were stained gold, but that golden half now looked torn and shattered. Fragments of its wings floated up and down in the water.

The pollution from the butterfly made Shen Wang sure: this is indeed the [Illusory Butterfly]

It died just like that, in the slight pollution leaked by [Deer God], and drowned in the coffin filled by  rain.

A hint of purple appeared in Shen Wang’s pupils. He stretched out his hand to touch the butterfly corpse in the coffin, which was after all a ready-made Class A pollutant.

But just before his fingers could touch the water, Zhou Xiangzhe pulled him back.

At that moment, the coffin cracked with a loud snap. The water inside, suddenly free, burst outward. The butterfly corpse fell to the ground with the water and bounced before turning into a pile of butterfly dust.

“It’s not over yet.” Zhou Xiangzhe said.

“Be careful, Deer God is very cunning. Since it can get out a little, it won’t let itself be sealed up again so easily.”

The black ball circled around Zhou Xiangzhe’s feet, then got up from the ground, with its little horns against Shen Wang’s feet. Shen Wang subconsciously lowered his head. He looked at the little ball and remembered how it swallowed ten at once.

Well, the inside and outside don’t always match, just like Zhou Xiangzhe.

“I rarely let it out.” Zhou Xiangzhe said, squatting down and picking up the black orb with a slightly distasteful look. “Didn’t even know what to name it.”

“But it hasn’t been used for three years. Might as well let it out this time.”

“Once we recover the last of the Deer God’s pollution, it’ll have to go back.”

Shen Wang pinched the little black ball, teasing,: “How do you expect to find a partner like this? Single, unmarried, and already bringing a child.”

Zhou Xiangzhe looked at Shen Wang strangely, then glanced at the black ball in his hand.

After a long time, he spoke “As long as you don’t dislike it.”

After saying that, Zhou Xiangzhe paused for a few seconds and added “I won’t separate from you again.”

Shen Wang looked at him with some amusement, “Little Seven, do you even understand what you’re saying?”

He grabbed Zhou Xiangzhe’s wrist, and Zhou Xiangzhe’s fingers loosened, and the black ball fell to the ground with a thud. Zhou Xiangzhe didn’t even glance at it, his entire attention was focused on the person in front of him.

Shen Wang’s palm was warm. His smile was radiant, but his black eyes gleamed with a hint of mischief. He looked gentle and approachable,yet carried a casual indifference, a lofty air, like a beautiful cat that knows how striking it is, lying lazily on a table, eyeing its human’s attempts to play with it with nothing but mild contempt.

Zhou Xiangzhe’s heartbeat could not help but skip a beat.

He heard Shen Wang say in a teasing tone “If you keep saying things like that, I might get the wrong idea.”

Zhou Xiangzhe thought: I hope you misunderstand.

You have no idea how much I like you, so much that I’d give up every friend I have just to choose you only.

If the world were ending and only one person could survive, I hope that person is you.

But in truth, Shen Wang understood things more clearly than he did. More thoroughly, too. How can a person who grew up in the Pollution Control Center compare to a person who has been tossed in a hospital?

Shen Wang had seen couples who spent a lifetime together, only for one to die and the other to follow soon after. He’d also seen lovers fall out so bitterly that they ended up attacking each other, and worst cases ended with one of them mutating into a pollutant.

So Shen Wang approached relationships with utmost caution. He might tease Zhou Xiangzhe, but he would never actually toy with his feelings.

After all, to be honest, Shen Wang genuinely really likes his Little Seven.

He just hadn’t decided whether he wanted to take that step forward.

Zhou Xiangzhe did not answer the previous question, and Shen Wang did not continue to ask. They tacitly let the topic fade, and wait for next time when there is a suitable opportunity to bring it up again.

It was then that a white mist began to rise around them. Within the fog, the vague outline of a city appeared, like a mirage. People moved through the illusion, faint and ghostlike, hawking their goods in a chaotic chorus of voices. The sound was messy, but not jarring.

The fog was getting thicker and thicker. Shen Wang stretched out his hand to grab Zhou Xiangzhe to prevent him from getting lost, but he didn’t touch the person who was supposed to be next to him. Shen Wang turned around and only saw empty white fog.

“Zhou Xiangzhe?” Shen Wang called Zhou Xiangzhe’s name, but no one answered.

Shen Wang frowned, gauging the direction Zhou Xiangzhe had last stood in. He took a few steps forward, and saw a few people smiling as they bought vegetables.

“You know what? The Deer God is amazing! Ever since I started worshipping Him, I feel very happy every day. I am so happy!”

“Yeah! My daughter used to cry all the time. The doctors said it was depression, but once I brought her to the Deer God, she smiles every day now and told me thank the Deer God!”

“The Deer God is incredible, he is our savior!”

“All the patients in the containment center are back, they are all cured, this is all a gift from the Deer God to us!”

“My son, the one who was sentenced to death by the Containment Center, came back just fine. It’s a miracle! Praise the Deer God!”

Shen Wang avoided these people, he walked forward while listening to the words around him, and at the same time observed whether there was Zhou Xiangzhe’s figure inside.

The people around should be the victims of Yutang South City back then, that is, the believers of Deer God. They have been mentally polluted to a certain extent, they still have their own thoughts but cannot detect the abnormality. Whether it is the recovery from depression or the release of the distorted person from the Center, it’s strange.

But they don’t think it’s strange, and are still sincerely thanking the Deer God.

Walking out of the place where these figures gathered, the white mist in front of him dispersed a little. Shen Wang raised his head, and the next moment he slightly widened his eyes.

Standing in front of him was a huge statue, which looked like a mosaic. At least Shen Wang could not see what it looked like or what clothes it was wearing, but it inexplicably gave people a shiny and extremely sacred feeling. Shen Wang rubbed his eyes, and when he looked again, it was still a mosaic.

He was silent and began to think about whether this Deer God really looked like a mosaic, or it’s a spiritual appearance?

For example: whoever you respect the most will appear in that person’s appearance, but Shen Wang ins’t polluted, so he can only see the essence, which is a mosaic…

After looking for a while, Shen Wang spread his hands and turned to walk in another direction.

“Zhou Xiangzhe!” Shen Wang shouted.

Still no one answered.

So Shen Wang sighed and complained, “It turns out that an A-level is not as good as a S-level.”

“This A-level painting can be messed up by the pollution leaked from S-level, and now I can’t even find a person. It’s too useless. I will try to eat a S-level next time.”

“But there are not many S-level in this world. Zhou Xiangzhe and Deer God are exceptions.”

“Or can Deer God…”

Shen Wang’s words suddenly stopped because he saw a person.

The young man was wearing the black combat uniform of the dispatch team, with black hair and deep pupils. He stood there and looked up at the sky. The clouds in the sky were reflected in his eyes. After looking at it for a while, he raised his hand, and there was a silver band on his wrist.

He had a cold expression and was conspicuous in the crowd, but his temperament was quiet, like a pool of clean and calm water.

Obviously, It had two completely opposite temperaments, but they complemented each other in him.

His appearance is more in line with Shen Wang’s imagination of the image of ‘Little Seven when he grows up’, and it’s also more in line with the feeling that Zhou Xiangzhe himself gives to other people.

Without the silver hair and golden pupils that are conspicuous, and without the pollution suppressor that were changed into countless small accessories, he is so clean and pure.

“Zhou Xiangzhe.” Shen Wang said, “Zhou Xiangzhe?”

However, the young man opposite could not hear his voice, and Shen Wang also knew that this was probably a memory. It’s likely that the pollution emitted by Deer God was self-constructing and replaying what happened before, so the mosaic statues and the shadows of the victims after being polluted appeared.

And this is obviously Zhou Xiangzhe who has not yet devoured the Deer God. He had his own appearance three years ago.

“This appearance…” Shen Wang turned around and looked at Zhou Xiangzhe three years ago.

He boldly commented, “Well, it fits my aesthetic.”

Silver hair and golden eyes is good-looking, but there is always an undertone of evil, something like inhuman. Shen Wang’s aesthetic is hard to describe. A more specific description is: omnivorous, but he is very picky, and those who are not good-looking are not worth being in his eyes.

However, Zhou Xiangzhe’s appearance is really good, whether it is the inhuman temperament before or the coldness like water now, they are all his favorite.

“It would be great if I could take a photo.” Shen Wang sighed regretfully.

Zhou Xiangzhe put down his hand, and he kicked the ground lightly with his toes.

“Let’s go, Little Fifteen.” (to the black ball)

The black orb drilled out of the ground in an instant, shaking its tail and following Zhou Xiangzhe.

“Where are you going?” Shen Wang was not in the mood to find the current Zhou Xiangzhe, he followed the Zhou Xiangzhe from three years ago.

The Zhou Xiangzhe with silver hair and golden eyes can be seen and touched at will now, but the Zhou Xiangzhe with black hair and black eyes is a limited edition, and it is out of print! You have to see him more!

Zhou Xiangzhe pressed the communicator beside his ear as he walked.

“Polaris Zhou Xiangzhe, I have entered Yutang South City and arrived at the contaminated area.”

“There is nothing unusual inside Yutang South City. Residents live normally and think normally except for mental pollution.”

Zhou Xiangzhe said: “No physical deformation was found. The direction of mental pollution is: strong piety to the Deer God. Everything else is normal. Code name [Deer God] is recommended.”

Since the Divine Disappearance Plan, the world has no experience in fighting against S-level pollutants. 

So after the S-level pollution incident in Yutang South City, even the Pollution Control Center was in chaos.

The only three S-level mutants they had were all sent to Yutang South City. Except for Zhou Qing, who had a special ability, Zhou Xiangzhe and another S-level mutant entered the city at different locations.

The black ball rolled around Zhou Xiangzhe’s feet. Zhou Xiangzhe was not worried about stepping on him, and stepped out with black leather shoes.

Shen Wang looked at him as he walked.

The uniforms of the dispatch team three years ago were different from the current ones, and the feeling they gave was also different. This one looked tighter, and the black combat uniform was unexpectedly lined with white. Zhou Xiangzhe buttoned it meticulously, but he dropped the top button, revealing the collarbone under his neck, which gave people endless reverie.

Zhou Xiangzhe cut off the connection with the Pollution Control Center and walked to the temple of Deer God. The temple still had traces of other beliefs. It was obvious that it was originally a temple of other beliefs. After the Deer God polluted the entire city, the people inside the high walls stopped offering incense to other beliefs and even changed the temple to rever the Deer God instead.

The statues in the temple still looked like mosaics in Shen Wang’s eyes, but it didn’t seem to be the same in Zhou Xiangzhe’s eyes.

Zhou Xiangzhe pointed at the statue in front of him, “Go.”

The little black ball rushed out, opened its mouth and swallowed the statue in an instant, and spit it out after swallowing it for only a few seconds. The little black ball returned to Zhou Xiangzhe’s feet and pointed its tail in a certain direction.

…It turned out to be a compass and a direction indicator.

Zhou Xiangzhe walked over, but saw another temple, which also had a statue of the Deer God.

He stood in front of the statue and looked at it for a while, then looked at the little black ball under his feet.

“Are you sure that it’s right?”

The little black ball pointed its tail at the statue persistently.

Zhou Xiangzhe pondered for a moment, then he turned off the communication beside his ear and reported to the Pollution Control Center again.

“Polaris’s Zhou Xiangzhe, I suspect that the Deer God is not a normal entity pollutant, but a pollutant that exists in a special state. What state? Since it is a pollutant born of faith, its form should be related to what the believers believe in, that is, [God].”

God is illusory, invisible and intangible, but can bestow blessings. Eastern gods will bring good weather and good harvests after being worshipped, and Western gods will choose devout believers and lean over them…

This kind of imaginary belief does not need a physical body when it becomes a reality.

Shen Wang has always known that Zhou Xiangzhe is a very smart person. His intelligence was shown when he was a child. He always did the homework in the orphanage the fastest and best. He could remember the poems to be recited after reading them once. Those things that made Little Twenty-nine scratch his head were easier for him than sleeping.