I am a female swordsman.

The water level in the sink rose rapidly, soon submerging Rost's body. Not long after, a magical and eerie scene unfolded: the originally clean and transparent tap water suddenly took on a faint blue hue, as if dye were spreading freely in the clean water.

These wisps of seemingly alive blue outlined incredibly mysterious patterns. Many of these patterns disappeared directly into the void, while others remained on Rost's body. The obscure and mysterious blue patterns were dazzling, and staring at them for too long could cause headaches and auditory hallucinations.

The creature huddled in the small trough seemed to have transformed from an ordinary, unassuming creature into a dangerous, ferocious beast!

What's most astonishing are its deep blue to translucent green eyes, which conceal boundless wisdom! Nothing and no one can escape the traces left behind in its eyes!

An ancient and desolate voice rang out!

"Her destiny does not lie here. May she, a warrior who dares to challenge fate, be as free as the wind."

After the wise eyes and wondrous sights uttered this judgmental declaration, they vanished as swiftly as if by magic, and everything quickly returned to calm.

Glug!

Rost blew out several bubbles, looking innocently at the stunned Ophelia and Alizee.

"Don't ask me why, I have no way to explain it. I'm just an octopus monster, please don't eat me if you're not satisfied with my answer!"

Chapter Thirty-Six Knowledge

The feeling of being spied on!!

In the depths of his being, Huang Quan sensed a profound unease, as if he were being watched with the curious gaze of some cold, slippery creature. This feeling was so unsettling that Huang Quan perceived a fatal threat and, in response, directly attempted to materialize the image of the watcher at the third-tier level.

Dark, vast...

A bottomless abyss!

At the very bottom of that pitch-black abyss, beyond the reach of mortal eyes, Huang Quan's brain seemed overloaded, its processes running at an uncontrollable high speed, forcibly materializing that scene. No, it should be said that the observer noticed Huang Quan's reverse investigation and generously revealed a tiny fraction of its massive form!

In the deep sea!

Thousands of enormous tentacles coalesced into one! Waving wildly!!

The mind-bending, distorted images, the whispers that drive the brain to near madness, and the gaze of the great being that makes the already eerie scene even more indescribable, filled with maddening signs.

Even Huang Quan, with his exceptionally strong will, couldn't help but fall into a state of confusion after witnessing this scene unexpectedly.

Interestingly.

In this chaotic state, knowledge clearly outside Huang Quan's normal understanding also came along, forcibly and irresistibly poured into her brain. This situation reminded Huang Quan of a description in a novel she had once read amidst the confusion and pain: by looking directly at the ineffable and listening to forbidden cries and murmurs, one could acquire knowledge unimaginable to mortals! And she was now, it seemed, undergoing this process!

The Book of Truth (Incomplete), The Complete Guide to Ocean Potion Materials...

"Principles and Equipment of Organ Replacement", "The Correct Posture of Prayer"...

"The Energy Organ Theory, also known as the Quick Guide to Hairspray Hands"...

"Double Jump from Beginner to End," "The Old Hunter's Hunting Guide," "Lynn's Adventure Diary"...

Wait, wait, wait! What kind of nonsense is this? What kind of monster did I just stare at to get all this chaotic knowledge? Huang Quan felt a splitting headache, but thankfully the tearing pain was much stronger than the pain she was currently experiencing, so she could still focus on thinking.

Huang Quan felt a strong sense of irony from the jumbled pile of knowledge that had been crammed into him. He couldn't sort out all the knowledge, whether it was organized or not, in a short time. He could only force himself to quickly skim through it and organize it slowly when he had the chance later.

'Why would such a being suddenly spy on me? There's no reason...'

I don't quite understand why I've suddenly been targeted by a monster of this level. It's clearly a creature that lurks and roams in the deep sea, and I don't think I've had any recent contact with anything like that. If I had to talk about the ocean, the only one that comes to mind is that soft, harmless octopus monster Ophelia brought with her.

The problem is, Huang Quan himself can't even use a weapon to deal with that little thing.

Even with her bare hands, she can easily make takoyaki!

Filled with puzzled doubts, Huang Quan, who was resting on the bed, gradually turned from bright to dull. An indescribable fatigue welled up from the bottom of his heart, as if he had concentrated his energy and swung more than a thousand times in a row. His mind had been greatly exhausted in order to counter the monster's gaze!

But the hardest part is...

The throbbing sensation in his head didn't subside due to excessive exertion; instead, it left him in a state of unusual excitement, forcing Huang Quan to fully experience what it meant to be awake and suffer.

………………

A silver-haired, red-eyed girl who is being watched and coveted.

She is not the only one targeting someone. Beyond the distant, unfathomable depths of the ocean, even in this dazzling metropolis, hunters skillfully search for her.

Natalia.

Her public identity is the manager of Kanina's Bakery Company.

After using the excuse that an unfortunate subordinate had lost important company documents, Natalia easily gained access to the company's surveillance footage. She was incredibly curious, her curiosity burning like a restless kitten: what was her lovely subordinate, Midis, hiding from her?

The clattering of the keyboard was exceptionally loud.

In the dim darkness, Natalia's face, illuminated by the white light of the computer screen, appeared rather eerie. Her pink lips unconsciously pouted, and her dark, wine-red eyes, seemingly casual, were actually fixed intently on the computer screen.

"Humph."

As expected, everything that happened in the rest area this afternoon was faithfully reproduced.

"Damn it, are there no more angles?" Frustrated by the fact that there was only one camera angle, Natalia tapped the mouse impatiently, barely able to make out the person's face.

Her face bore a striking resemblance to Midis, with long, almost withered, white hair, and an air of composed elegance. Although her delicate, deep features were slightly distorted in the surveillance footage, her beauty remained strikingly cold and extraordinary!

You can't go wrong!

She was the silver-haired lady I bumped into this afternoon!

"So she really is a relative of Midis, no wonder." Natalia paused the video and carefully examined Huang Quan's cold and expressionless face.

"How nostalgic!"

Fingers unconsciously touched the cold screen, as if by doing so they could feel its warmth through the glass. For so many years, the proud eagle soaring above the empire, its dashing figure taunting the hunting dogs. Their first meeting, however, ended with that fierce and proud woman cutting off her cherished hair. From that day on, the only figure in the revolutionary army who could command her attention quietly entered her heart.

Could it be her?

She came into this world with nothing but a lingering, unwilling longing; she wasn't even a complete person. Even so, Natalia longed to truly see "her" and relive their encounter on the Saint's Roar.

She originally had plenty of time, but the emergence of another similar goal caused her conviction to waver uncontrollably. Opportunities became more readily available, but time also became scarcer.

Now that it's confirmed that Miss Silver Hair and Mitis have a close relationship, things will be much easier.

Find an opportunity to directly contact the silver-haired lady!

If they had truly fought side-by-side aboard the Saint's Cry, that familiarity would surely awaken their memories. Natalia gently placed her hand on her face, covering half of her pale, beautiful features. However, this might very well anger Mitis.

Natalia knew her subordinate's true character well, whom she had been trying to persuade for so many years. She knew that if he got really angry, he would probably turn on her without hesitation.

"I'm sorry, Midis... I also have a belief that I can't give up."

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Immortality

An unprecedented pain surged from the depths of my brain.

Driven to the brink of unimaginable agony, Huang Quan nearly cried out in pain. At the peak of his suffering, he even considered grabbing something and smashing it against his head in a violent way to alleviate the agony. But when it reached a certain point, everything vanished.

It's like an illusion.

Now the hallucinations are gone, and nothing remains but the bewilderment and emptiness of surviving a catastrophe.

With great effort, Huang Quan got out of bed and rubbed his temples in disbelief, his gaze unconsciously sweeping around as if trying to find something hidden in a corner.

"It's unbelievable."

After an unknown amount of time, in the pitch-black silence, Huang Quan's barely audible, hoarse voice finally broke through the darkness. Her voice was exceptionally hoarse and dry, like the harsh sound of two pieces of dry wood rubbing against each other, which showed just how parched Huang Quan's throat was.

Water shortage!!

After the pain subsided, it was replaced by a burning sensation that surged up from deep within her throat. Her brain finally sent a signal that she needed to be hydrated. The joke about the female ghost swordswoman dying of thirst was anything but funny.

Glug glug!

Her throat bobbed as she poured water into her mouth with a far from ladylike manner. Her slender, well-proportioned body seemed like a bottomless pit; Huang Quan finished the entire large glass bottle before letting out a satisfied burp. The water inside her sloshed around, creating a comical jolt.

It was only then that Huang Quan noticed the gray sky outside, and judging from the color of the sky, it was probably past the darkest period before dawn.

A rough calculation.

He had actually spent the entire night in agony. Looking at the large patches of sweat-soaked stains on the sheets, Huang Quan belatedly reached out and touched his jaw and neck. It was sticky. Not just where his hands had touched, but every inch of his skin felt sticky from the sweat.

Huang Quan roughly understood why he had felt an intense, burning thirst after his condition improved...

………………

Splash!

The bathroom was fairly soundproofed, and Huang Quan's showering in the early hours of the morning didn't wake her roommate. After rinsing off the sticky, disgusting feeling, Huang Quan, wearing a bathrobe, looked refreshed.

Her eyes shone brightly in the dim light of the darkness!

The vibrant scarlet color, like a magnificent gemstone, was filled with ever-changing layers, possessing a breathtaking and awe-inspiring beauty. Huang Quan felt as if something had appeared in his field of vision, something he had previously been unable to understand or had overlooked, but which he could now see again.

It's a very strange feeling!

"Extremely meticulous?"

Huang Quan habitually used a word she was familiar with to describe this state, as if she had gained many things by virtue of having glimpsed the existence deep in the sea from a certain perspective.

These things seem to be controllable at the moment, but whether they are harmful is another matter. While taking a bath, Huang Quan also carefully examined his body to make sure that there were no strange mutations, such as an extra tentacle or an extra eye under his skin.

His mental state couldn't be better; he didn't have any uncontrollable crazy thoughts, nor did he experience any memory loss or increase.

"How terrifying. The one I saw, from a certain perspective, represented knowledge itself. Was he a so-called evil god?" Although Huang Quan could not fully agree with the sense of helplessness and vulnerability of humanity in Lovecraft's myth of despair, he was aware of the absurd worldview it described.

Some things are natural disasters in themselves!

Even if they have no ill intentions towards humans, or even if they see humans as no different from ants busy crawling around on the ground, their unconscious actions and gazes could very well bring about a catastrophe for humanity!

Having been fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of its true form, an unimaginable path lay before the Yellow Springs.

Or rather, the key to the path of the great was handed to the Yellow Springs along with that chaotic knowledge. If she so desired, she could use it to break free from all shackles and embark on a path entirely different from the present one. Gaining their recognition would bring her guidance…

Reach the pinnacle of immortality!

………………

"I'm in a bad mood, so I'm going out to relax."

To be honest, it's not very convincing to say you're in a bad mood with a blank expression. That's why Mitis stared at her niece suspiciously, as if trying to see through her mask and find out what she really thought.

"Really?"

"Ah."

Feeling complicated is the same as being in a bad mood, and going out for a walk was the real reason; Huang Quan wasn't lying. What she received was quite shocking; even the system, with its shielding, didn't notice that Huang Quan had silently obtained a terrifying key.