Samsara Paradise: Dream Weaver of Connections.

The light from the white candles continued to spread throughout the wooden house, and the golden halo washed over every inch of the wooden planks like a tide, dispelling the gloom that had accumulated in the corners for who knows how many years.

Those shadows that were originally wailing and turning to white ash in the candlelight were just the first victims of this light.

Saint Tracy's shrill screams came to an abrupt halt.

Her body froze against the wall, her urchin-shaped pupils contracting violently, as if she were fighting against some kind of force.

The golden candlelight fell on her face, and the skin cracks that had been torn open by madness were now healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The edges of the cracks narrowed inwards, the rough skin became smooth again, and the dark red texture that was faintly visible from the cracks was gradually covered by the newly grown white skin.

Her hair is also changing.

The dark red color receded from the ends of the hair like the tide going out, revealing the gold underneath.

When the last strand of black and red disappeared from the top of her head, her full head of golden hair revealed a completely different texture than before—no longer just a simple sheen, but a warm, gentle quality, as if it had been imbued with the patina of time.

puff.

Tracy fell off the wall.

She fell onto the hard, muddy ground with a dull thud, curling up into a ball, her body trembling violently.

Lin Yi stood still, the white candle in his hand still burning quietly.

Su Xiao stood beside him, her gaze sweeping over the chains still attached to the wooden wall on Tracy's body, then over the three items on the wooden table, and finally landing on Lin Yi's profile.

Bubuwang nestled beside Lin Yi's legs, its furry head peeking out as it curiously observed the woman who had been clinging to the wall like a gecko just moments before, but was now trembling like a leaf.

Baha landed on Su Xiao's shoulder, tilted his head, and stared at Tracy with his black bean-like eyes without blinking.

The huddled figure slowly stopped trembling.

She looked up.

Those eyes were no longer the unsettling urchin-shaped pupils they once had; instead, they had returned to their normal emerald green color.

Her gaze passed over the candle in Lin Yi's hand and landed on the black priest's robe he was wearing.

This robe, chosen by Lin Yi, had no extra decorations, but in the eyes of this saintess who had been imprisoned for countless years, it represented a completely different meaning.

Tracy's eyes widened suddenly.

Tears welled up in her eyes, sliding down her newly healed cheeks and leaving tiny wet streaks on the dusty ground.

"You are..." Her voice was hoarse and dry, as if she hadn't spoken in many years, "Are you... sent by God?"

She knelt there, her hands on the ground, her forehead almost touching the soil.

My whole body was trembling, but the trembling was no longer from fear, but from some kind of excitement that had been suppressed for too long.

Lin Yi's gaze passed over Tracy's trembling shoulders and landed on the wooden wall behind her.

There are writings there.

The dense writing stretched from the bottom of the wall to the ceiling, covering the entire wooden wall.

Some of the handwriting is neat and clear, while some is so illegible that it is almost impossible to read, and some is covered by deep scratches, as if someone carved it on the wooden board with their hands in extreme pain.

Those words weren't written with a pen, but rather carved little by little with fingernails, teeth, or anything that could leave a mark.

Lin Yi took a few steps closer, and the candlelight illuminated the engravings.

The top row of characters is relatively neat, indicating it was engraved with some kind of sharp tool, and the strokes are clear:

“My name is Tracy, the last saintess of the Holy Light Empire. Seven days before the empire's demise, the sorcerers of the Church transformed me into a weapon of war. They tore my soul apart, turning one half of me into a monster that only knew how to kill. They said it was to protect the last believers, to ensure that the glory of the Holy Light would continue.”

The handwriting paused here, and the strokes of the next line began to tremble:
“But I lost control. I killed them, I killed everyone, and when I came to my senses, there wasn’t a single living person left in the entire capital. I walked through every street and saw every familiar face—I had killed them all.”

Further down, the handwriting becomes denser and more chaotic:

“I can’t remember how I killed them, but when I woke up there was blood in my mouth and pieces of their clothes under my fingernails. They are crying in my soul, crying every day, begging me to wake up, begging me not to become that monster again.”

Lin Yi's gaze continued downwards.

The engravings then became chaotic, with some being repeated words: "Save me," "Kill me," "I'm sorry," "I don't want to"—these words were engraved countless times, layer upon layer, almost carving through the wood.

But amidst these chaotic markings, a few relatively clear lines of record occasionally appear:

"A girl pushed open the door."

The marks in this row are particularly deep, almost penetrating the wooden board.

Lin Yi's gaze lingered there.

"She was about fifteen or sixteen years old, dressed in very ordinary coarse cloth clothes, her hair was messy, and her face was covered in mud. When she pushed open the door and saw me, her first reaction was not to scream or run away, but to tilt her head and ask me: 'Are you hungry? I have some dry food here.'"

“I told her I was dangerous and would kill her. After listening, she thought for a long time, and then said, ‘Before you kill me, can you talk to me first? I haven’t talked to anyone in a long time.’”

“I didn’t know what to do. She just sat down at the door and started telling her story. She said she was an adventurer who grew up in the mountains and had never seen much of the world. She came out this time to find the legendary ‘Fountain of Immortality’ to cure her master’s illness. She said her master was the one who found her and treated her very well, and she was determined to save him.”

“She talked all night. I listened all night. At dawn, she said she had to leave, but would come back the next day. I said, ‘Don’t come, you’ll die.’ She turned to look at me, her eyes sparkling, and said, ‘I don’t think you’ll kill me. The look in your eyes is so much like my master.’”

“She really came every day. She brought dry food, water, and sometimes some wild fruits from the mountains. She told me about the outside world, about the strange people she met, and about the stupid things she did. I don’t know why, but when I was around her, that urge to kill would weaken. I could even talk to her soberly.”

“That night, I had a dream. I dreamt that I became a normal person, and that I left this place with her to see the strange people and things she had mentioned. When I woke up, I tasted rust in my mouth.”

"There was a piece of blood-stained cloth on the ground. The bite marks at the broken edge were clearly visible."

"It's her clothes."

He continued reading, but the inscriptions thereafter were completely blurred. Only a few words were occasionally legible:
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry..."

"I killed her! I killed her! I killed her..."

"Has she come back? Has she come back? Has she come back...?"

She didn't come back. She'll never come back.

The engraving ends abruptly here. Behind it lies a vast expanse of blank space, with only a single, extremely small line of text at the very bottom, so small it's almost illegible:
"If anyone can see these words, please don't come near me. Please leave me alone. Please... don't make me kill anyone else."

After reading the last word, Lin Yi looked away and down at Tracy, who was kneeling on the ground.

She was still kneeling there, her forehead touching the soil, her whole body trembling slightly.

Lin Yi strode towards her.

Bubuwang wanted to follow, but Su Xiao gently pressed his head down.

Su Xiao stood still, his gaze fixed on the chains embedded in the wooden wall on Tracy's body, his fingers resting on the hilt of the Dragon Slayer Blade.

Lin Yi stopped in front of Tracy.

The candlelight danced in his hands, its golden glow enveloping the two of them.

Tracy's body trembled even more violently.

She hadn't felt this warmth in a very, very long time.

It wasn't the warmth of the candlelight, but the inner peace that came from within.

She looked up, her tear-streaked face displaying a complex expression of longing and fear.

"I..." Her lips trembled, her voice broken and barely forming sentences, "I killed her...I killed the only person who was willing to stay with me...I don't deserve...I don't deserve to be saved..."

Lin Yi looked at her.

After a long pause, he spoke.

"I was not sent by God."

Tracy's body stiffened abruptly.

“But I’ve seen many people just like you,” Lin Yi continued. “They were transformed into monsters, used as weapons, and abandoned by everyone. In the end, they either went completely insane or killed everyone who cared about them in their madness.”

He paused.

"You are the first type."

Tracy's tears flowed even more fiercely.

"You just asked me who sent me," Lin Yi said. "I came by myself."

He shook the white candle in his hand.

"This stuff can temporarily clear your head. As for how long you'll stay awake, I don't know."

Tracy stared at him blankly, tears blurring her vision.

"I..." she opened her mouth, "What should I do..."

“Tell me about your sins,” Lin Yi interrupted her.

Tracy's body trembled violently.

“I saw what you carved on the wall,” Lin Yi said. “But you wrote it when you were lucid. I want to hear what you said yourself. Tell me everything about what you did in your madness, how much of it you remember.”

Tracy lowered her head.

The silence lasted for a long time.

Then, she spoke.

Her voice was very soft, almost inaudible, but in the silence of the cabin, every word was clearly audible.

"When those sorcerers modified me, they cut my soul apart. Not cut it in half, not divided it into several parts—they split the upper part of my soul in the middle, leaving the lower part still connected. The left side remained sanity, and the right side was dedicated to fighting."

She looked up, her emerald green eyes empty.

"That way they can control me. With some kind of magic, they can make the soul on my right act according to their will, while the one on my left can only watch and can't do anything."

“They did these things in front of my parents and brother.”

Her voice began to tremble.

“I was tied to the table, fully conscious, and could feel every knife cutting into my soul. I could hear my own screams, I could—” She paused, taking a deep breath.

"I could see my parents and brother being burned alive through the glass window."

“They said it was a necessary sacrifice. They said that for the continuation of the Holy Light, this price was nothing. They said that I was a saint and should give everything for the believers.”

"Then I went crazy."

A twisted smile appeared on her lips.

"After the transformation was complete, they released me from my restraints to see how powerful their war machines were. The first person I killed was the sorcerer who wore a raven mask and burned my parents alive with his own hands. I twisted his head off and ate it bit by bit in front of those high-ranking members of the Holy See."

"Then came the second. The third. The fourth."

"When I came to my senses, there was no one left alive in the entire capital."

Tracy continued, her voice growing softer and softer, as if she were lost in some distant memory.

“I can’t remember their faces. But I know they existed. Because every time I kill someone, their soul becomes attached to the soul on my right. Over the years, those souls have long been assimilated by me and become a part of me. I don’t know if this counts as atonement—living with them and seeing the world for them.”

"And then I got stuck here."

“At first, I was still sober, so I carved those words on the wall to warn others. But after each episode of my madness, I would forget what I had written, and when I woke up the next day and saw the new carvings on the wall, I realized that I had lost control again.”

“Until she comes.”

Tracy covered her face with her hands, her shoulders trembling violently.

“I ate her. I, this monster, ate her piece by piece while I thought I was dreaming.”

She never came back.

A deathly silence fell over the cabin.

The only sound was the occasional slight crackling as the white candle burned.

Lin Yi looked calmly at Tracy, who was kneeling on the ground and sobbing uncontrollably.

“So you’ve been waiting all this time,” he said.

Tracy looked up, her tear-streaked face filled with confusion.

"We're waiting for her to come back," Lin Yi continued. "Even knowing she can't come back, we're still waiting."

She didn't argue. Because he was right. She was waiting. Waiting for someone who would never return, waiting for a promise that could never be kept. For the past three thousand years, the first thing she did every morning was look at the door, hoping it would be pushed open and that the girl in coarse clothes, her face covered in mud, would reappear, tilting her head and asking if she was hungry.

But she knew in her heart that the door would never be opened again.

Lin Yi looked at her and suddenly asked, "Do you want to go back to normal?"

Tracy's pupils contracted sharply.

She raised her head, and a very special light burst forth from her emerald green eyes.

That's the light a drowning person sees when they see driftwood.

Tracy's lips moved, but no sound came out.

She opened her mouth, wanting to ask him if he was joking, if he could really do it, but all those words got stuck in her throat, and she couldn't utter a single one.

She didn't dare ask.

She feared it was all a dream.

She was afraid that if she opened her mouth to ask, the dream would end, and she would return to that cold wooden house.

So she just knelt there, head tilted back, looking at Lin Yi with her tearful eyes, her lips slightly parted, like a fish out of water.

Lin Yi had no intention of continuing to waste time with her.

The saintess's fighting prowess can be glimpsed from the descriptions carved on the wall.

A world-destroying monster that slaughtered half the world's inhabitants—such combat power would be an ace in any situation.

But the premise is that she has to be controllable.

Lin Yi withdrew his gaze and looked at Tracy again.

"In your current state, I can't take you out. I need someone who can function normally, not a ticking time bomb that might go berserk at any moment."

Tracy's body trembled again, but she didn't speak; she just nodded vigorously.

She understood.

She understood perfectly.

That girl, the girl in the coarse cloth clothes, was the one who was blown to pieces the most during the explosion.

"So, we need to cure you first."

As soon as he finished speaking, Su Xiao looked at him.

The look in his eyes was direct and the meaning was clear: Is there any hope for this guy?

Su Xiao had seen too many people who had been transformed, and too many souls struggling in madness.

It is a miracle that one can remain conscious when one's soul is torn to pieces like this.

Want her to return to normal? That's practically impossible.

Lin Yi met Su Xiao's gaze and waved his hand.

"Small idea."

Su Xiao's eye twitched slightly.

He didn't say anything more, but simply looked away and leaned back against the door frame.

Since Lin Yi said there was no problem, then there was no problem. This was the tacit understanding that he and Lin Yi had developed since they started working together.

Tracy stared blankly at Lin Yi, her emerald green eyes filled with disbelief.

It's nothing.
Did she mishear?
In her own eyes, her soul, altered by those sorcerers with the cruelest methods and torn into this bizarre form, was already an incurable monster.

In the mouth of this man dressed in a black priest's robe, it was just "a piece of cake"?
Lin Yi didn't give her any more time to space out.

He stepped forward, stood in front of Tracy, and raised his right hand.

"Don't move."

Tracy's body stiffened.

It wasn't out of fear, but because she dared not move.

She was afraid that if she made a move, the dream would end, and this only chance would slip through her fingers.

Lin Yi condensed his abyssal power into the finest thread, probing it from between Tracy's eyebrows and slowly seeping along the cracks in her soul.

The pain came on faster than expected.

It was an indescribable pain, not physical pain, but a tearing sensation originating from the deepest part of the soul.

It was as if someone was using a blunt knife to slowly press her torn soul back together.

"what--!"

Tracy let out a piercing scream.

Her body convulsed violently, and her hands instinctively rose up to grab Lin Yi's arms tightly.

The fingernails dug deep into the flesh, but not a trace of blood could be drawn.

She opened her mouth, revealing a row of teeth that had torn countless people apart, and bit down hard on Lin Yi's wrist.

At that moment, her eyes changed again.

The emerald green pupils began to contract, and a fine black ring appeared around the edges.

That was the prelude to madness, a stress response when the modified fighting instincts were stimulated by pain.

If she had taken that bite, with the bite force of a world-destroying monster, an ordinary person's wrist would have been broken long ago.

But Lin Yi is no ordinary person.

The instant Tracy's teeth touched the skin of his wrist—

A pale golden light emerged from Lin Yi's body.

That was a blessing personally bestowed by Anna, an absolute protection from the owner of the House of Death for Lin Yi.

Inside this house of death, any attempt to harm him would be blocked by this light.

Tracy's teeth bit into the pale golden light.

click-

A slight, crisp sound.

It wasn't Lin Yi's wrist that broke, but rather a small crack that appeared in Tracy's tooth.

She released her mouth in pain, letting out a whimper, but her hands still clung tightly to Lin Yi's arm, refusing to let go.

Tracy released her mouth and hands, kneeling on the ground with her head tilted back, letting Lin Yi's hand continue to cover her forehead.

Tears flowed silently.

Tracy's body trembled, her fingers dug ten deep marks into the ground, her teeth clenched, but she didn't scream or try to attack Lin Yi again.

She was enduring it.

For the first time in three thousand years, she truly wanted to hold back.

Because this is her only chance. (End of Chapter)