Please pull the trigger for this world one more time.

Tianhe Port, northern suburbs.

The sky was beginning to lighten with the first hint of dawn when Han Dafu walked slowly down a pebbly path.

Cool dew lay on the road, and a light morning mist still lingered around, making everything appear damp.

A tall, black stone building looms in the distance, like an immovable giant, standing in the somewhat desolate northern suburbs of Tianhe Port.

This building is the main hall of the Night God Temple in Tianhe Port.

Han Dafu only knew that the building had a long history, dating back to before the establishment of Tianhe Port.

The main hall is surrounded by a wall made of bluestone. Han Dafu pushed open an iron gate and entered the courtyard.

"Creak..."

The hinges of the iron gate seemed to be rusty, emitting a metallic scraping sound.

A rather thin-looking man stood in the courtyard, and it seemed he had been standing there for quite some time.

"You're back?" The thin man's voice was cold and detached. "Perfect timing, breakfast service hasn't started yet."

"Hmm." Han Dafu responded softly and continued walking towards the black hall.

"Wait a minute," the thin man called out to Han Dafu.

"What?"

"Give me back my mask." The gaunt man extended a hand from under his old blue robe. "These are the only two valuable items left in the palace."

"Hmph, stingy!"

After returning the mask, Han Dafu pushed open the peeling wooden door and entered the black hall.

Inside the main hall, a few not-so-bright oil lamps were lit on the walls, casting a dim light that made the rows of old wooden benches on both sides of the hall appear drowsy.

At the far end of the main hall, in the center, stood a heavy, high-legged lectern. In front of the lectern was an open space covered with a somewhat worn-out cotton mat.

Behind the podium was an old-looking statue, the main body of which was a standing woman, but the woman's face had no facial features.

A blooming flower was held aloft by both hands in front of her chest, while the woman's long, trailing hair supported two discs, one large and one small, behind her.

The blooming flower is the Night Maiden Flower, and the disc represents the Moon and Child Moon.

The statue was made of an unidentified stone that could fluoresce, making it shine brightly in the somewhat dimly lit hall.

At this moment, there was another group of men in the hall, all dressed in blue robes. One of them stood behind the podium and laid out a thick book with a blue cover on it.

The rest of the people knelt on cotton cushions facing the statue. In front of each person was a rough porcelain plate and a cup of water. On the plate were two steamed flatbreads, one large and one small, mixed with some cornmeal, with a small pile of thick blue-purple sauce on top.

If you look closely, you can see a few blue-purple petals that haven't been completely crushed in the sauce.

Two identical meals were placed on the empty seat at the end.

Inside the grand hall, where you could hear a pin drop, Han Dafu's not-too-fast footsteps produced a series of rhythmic "clattering" sounds.

The gaunt man who followed her into the hall reached the end of the hall before Han Dafu. She didn't even notice his movements before his thin figure silently knelt on the cotton cushion.

Han Dafu, who was at the very end, habitually sat in the last seat.

At this moment, all members of the Night God Temple in Tianhe Port had arrived, a total of thirteen people.

The man standing at the very front was the same man who had presided over the funeral with Han Dafu yesterday. After seeing Han Dafu finally take his seat at the end, his deep and steady voice echoed throughout the entire hall.

"Hail Salia, your faithful pray to you between dawn and night, that hunger will not disturb your peace, and that we will drink our fill and begin our day's work..."

The long string of morning prayers took the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. As the last line, "May we be flowers for all eternity, leaves for all living beings, life and death, and eternal peace," fell, the people kneeling before the statue finally began their meal.

The meal didn't last long, and after everyone finished eating, they all carried their plates to the back hall.

"Daifuku, wait a minute."

After the others returned to the inner hall, the man on the platform closed the sacred text, took out a meal identical to everyone else's from under the counter, and sat down directly in the first row of chairs.

"There's some food on the platform. You've been busy all night, this breakfast definitely won't be enough. Eat up."

Upon hearing the man's words, Han Dafu rubbed his belly and walked directly to the back of the podium using the cotton mat.

Inside the compartment on the podium were several pieces of fried cake that had cooled down and a lotus leaf wrap.

"Wow, Old Man Ji, where did you come from?"

"No noise is allowed inside the hall!" The man called "Old Man Ji" frowned and scolded.

Han Dafu shrank his neck, took the food, and sat down on the bench.

She eagerly took out a piece of fried cake and put it in her mouth, then quickly unwrapped the lotus leaf package, inside which lay many salted miscellaneous fish.

A bite of fried rice cake, a bite of salted fish.

The sweet aroma of red bean paste and the fragrance of peanut oil instantly collide with the salty and fishy smell of the seafood.

It's hard to imagine what it tastes like, but Han Dafu thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Take the rest with you and eat it on the way."

The man called Old Man Ji had already finished his meal. "Dafu, this is all we can give you before you leave..."

"What are you saying, Old Man Ji? If you hadn't taught me so many skills, how would I have had the ability to run away?"

As Han Dafu spoke, he unceremoniously took the lotus leaf package into his hand. "Besides, if it weren't for my godmother, I might have frozen to death... I know that because of this, many of us still don't like me, including you, right, Old Man Ji?"

Old Man Ji did not deny it. He said with a hint of reminiscence, "We all thought you were beyond saving, but High Priestess Yue En said that the child could live, but she would have to do it herself."

She sent us all to the back hall, leaving you and me in the main hall. To this day, we still don't know what she did to you...

But when we sensed something was wrong and forced our way in, we saw a huge bathtub placed in front of the statue.

She fainted in front of the statue; and you, half-lying in the bathtub, slowly opened your eyes.

Over the next two years, her health deteriorated, and her long hair turned completely white, while you survived.

I asked her why she did this, but she just shook her head and said it was the goddess's arrangement.

Finally, she was leaving. Just as she was about to embrace the goddess, she said to me, "You are not destined to belong here. When you leave, tell us not to stop you."

She said it wasn't just her wish, but also an arrangement by the goddess.

As the man finished speaking, he stood up, and the old bench made a jarring creaking sound.

He walked silently to the statue, looked up at it, and murmured, "For all eternity, I am the flower; for all time, the leaf; life and death, eternal peace..."

Han Dafu didn't know how to respond, and the hall fell silent for a moment.

Finally, Han Dafu broke the silence, "Then... Old Man Ji, why do you all listen to the godmother so much? Is it because you believe in the goddess?"

"Faith? Does it count...?"

The man turned around, looked at Han Dafu, and said, "We twelve people entered the temple because of her, and we serve the goddess because of her. I didn't see the goddess's gaze, nor did I see her arrangements, but with her, that's enough."

Han Dafu still didn't know how to respond, so she could only sit on the old bench and quietly watch Old Man Ji's back.

After a while, the man took out a book from his pocket—calling it a book might not be accurate; it was more like a loose-leaf notebook with a lot of content, except that it contained so much information that it had reached the level of a book.

The man took the notebook in his hand, gently stroking the kraft paper that had been wrapped around it the night before, and said softly, "This... is the most important notebook she left behind. You can take it."

Han Dafu stood up and solemnly took the notebook.

"Don't worry, I'll remember every word in the notes."

Old Man Ji nodded with satisfaction after hearing this. "Alright, hurry up and pack your bags. People get old and always like to nag a bit... Oh, wait a minute, I have one last question for you."

"What is it, Old Man Ji?" Han Dafu turned his head.

The man asked, "Could you tell me why you left here?"

"Can."

"What is it?"

"Because some diseases can never be cured."

Old Man Ji was somewhat stunned, his lips pressed tightly together.

"By the way, I have something to tell you, Old Man Ji. Apart from that Madam Chen, don't treat the Chen family members who asked us to attend the funeral this morning."

Why?

"That man didn't drown."

"How did you know?" The man was taken aback.

"He told me this while he was lying in his coffin; he almost didn't get to rest in peace."

……

Around noon, Han Dafu finally arrived at the inland waterway shipping station of Tianhe Port.

She would travel by boat upstream along the Milky Way, first reaching the inland port of Yue Li Port in the central part of the empire, and then traveling by land to Guangwu City.

Tickets for these inland waterway boats weren't actually that expensive. A regular cabin ticket, excluding meals, cost only fifty dollars, which was equivalent to half a silver dollar.

Han Dafu was on a not-too-large old-fashioned sailing passenger ship. As the oarsmen took their positions, the sailors unfurled the sails, and the passenger ship slowly sailed away from the inland river dock.

Standing alone on the deck, Han Dafu watched the port gradually recede into the distance. At that moment, she spotted a couple hurrying along on the dock.

The men and women who reached the shore also saw Han Dafu. They waved vigorously at her, and Han Dafu waved back gently. Only when the passenger ship turned a small bend and they could no longer see each other did she lower her arm.

Han Dafu didn't have much money, so she arrived almost at the last few days of the reporting period—in fact, someone offered her some money, but she refused.

Then in Guangwu City, she met a "sucker" who lost his wallet and then treated her to a meal.

……

As time returned to normal, Han Dafu's eyes held a complex and wistful look: "Me... I escaped all the way here. Here I can eat my fill and stay warm, it's pretty good."