Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

However, when the wind stopped, the object that appeared in Patchouli's field of vision made her pupils shrink!

That was... something so common, so ordinary, so unremarkable that most people in the world could come into contact with it, yet it made absolutely no sense that it was here.

That was... a peach about the size of a fist, with a bright green leaf still attached to its end.

Patchouli could tell at a glance whose peach it was from.

Author's Note:

......................................................

Holy crap, it's cultivation again...

I think I'll collapse after finishing 2x3. So today I'll sheepishly finish 1x4... _(:з」∠)_

Section 78 Recipient

The angels above the Vatican held out longer than Saito had anticipated. He had initially thought he would need to personally delay them to ensure Alice and the others wouldn't arrive at Vatican headquarters until the sixth day. However, he hadn't expected that the protective mechanisms he had set up within the Vatican would allow him to wait until the sixth day without doing anything.

sixth day.

The sixth day of Genesis.

—Let the earth produce living creatures: livestock, creeping things and wild animals, each according to its kind.

—Man will multiply and rule over all the creatures on the earth and over the sea and the sky.

Saito Hajime was a history enthusiast, and he was naturally very familiar with classic literature like the Bible. He also knew that if its contents were reversed, all living things on earth would be extinct today.

He knew the solar storm would erupt today, and he also knew the recipient would come to collect the letter today.

My life ends here... I hope I have prepared enough.

He stepped out of the church where he had taken refuge and looked around. This tiny country, spanning only 0.44 square kilometers and hailed as the smallest in the world, along with the vast Roman city area within a radius of several kilometers, was devoid of any living creature. Men, women, the elderly, infants… except for the hundreds of Awakened Ones he had deliberately kept away with his abilities. The Papacy and the entire city of Rome surrounding it had become a death zone.

No one on the dead bore any wounds, not even a single corpse showed any sign of pain. Without exception, all the dead were praying, devoutly worshipping the gods for protection—and their wishes were indeed fulfilled, at the cost of the faith and souls of hundreds of thousands. Although countless nuclear bombs detonated in the sky, they caused no real damage to the city.

"Ah, that's right. I deliberately fought Zhao Yingkong to a draw and depleted most of her energy to force her to ally with Alice. This allowed her to gain the most effective path to growth while eliminating at least some of her inner conflicts, thus enabling her to become a valuable asset to the team."

“I deliberately stirred up Alice’s hatred for the Church to ensure that she would make this place her target. Then I set up a faith conversion array to make this place an impregnable stronghold.”

"Then I gathered many Awakened Ones and brought them to the Holy See, thus binding the angels who protect them to this place as well, using a massive and protracted war to attract their attention. Then, when the 'recipient' arrives, they can obtain the most detailed information immediately."

He exhaled a deep, stale breath, casually ripped off his glasses and tossed them aside. His fingers clenched tightly, and an unprecedented, immense power resonated within his broken body.

Ah, that's right. I'm doomed. Since the Supreme God has chosen me as the entrustment, this deal will inevitably be completed under the Supreme God's observation. And all those who know about it will be purged; even if they aren't completely annihilated, they'll at least have to die once to escape.

That's why he used those roundabout methods to reveal this information to Alice and Patchouli. Whether it was the note that led to Boston, the cooperation with Patchouli, or the information he inadvertently revealed, it was all to let them know that this transaction involving the main god—the main personality Zhao Yingkong—was an unexpected bonus, but it was beneficial and harmless to the overall plan.

They were intelligent; once they realized they were caught up in this mess, they knew they were doomed. Alice repeatedly tried to sabotage her own mind to escape, but these things… if once doesn't work, try again. And once they knew they were destined to die at least once, the Captain's Trial and the Sun Sutra in Zheng Zha's possession became their only hope for breaking free.

Excluding Alice, Patchouli, themselves, and Zhao Yingkong, the only candidate for captain is Zheng Zha. If the God wants to silence them, everyone who knows the truth, regardless of whether they are captain or not, will die. Therefore, in order to seize that sliver of hope, they will definitely keep this deal involving the God completely hidden from Zheng Zha, who is still completely unaware of it, and try every means to push Zheng Zha into the captain's position, hoping that he will forcibly escape this world through the captain's trial and resurrect himself through the Golden Book of the Sun.

Zheng Zha must become the captain.

Saito lowered his eyes, his eyes, hidden behind his eyelids, showed no human emotion whatsoever.

Not for his outstanding leadership, nor for his potential to reach the fourth rank, or even become a saint. It's for his sentimental and benevolent heart. Because only if he becomes captain will there be a chance he can reach *The Chronicles of Narnia* in the future and resurrect me using the Houtu Reincarnation Platform!

[Yes, I am doomed this time. To maintain secrecy, the Supreme God might even erase my records in the cycle of reincarnation, denying me any chance of resurrection. But regardless, the Houtu Reincarnation Platform surely holds the power to revive me.]

[Therefore, he must become the captain, because countless timelines have proven that he can definitely reach the fourth tier. And he will never abandon his companions; I didn't scheme against him, so he will inevitably revive me. Chu Xuan might be a variable, but someone of his superhuman nature couldn't possibly be uninterested in a deal with the main god, so at that time, it will definitely be Chu Xuan who revives me, and only Chu Xuan will see my memories, therefore there's no need to worry about leaks later.]

[And the others...]

He raised his head and looked up at the sky, where Zhao Yingkong and Alice were rapidly sweeping away the angels who had lost their faith. Though countless thoughts raced through his mind, he showed no sign of it outwardly.

[Blame yourselves for being too clever, too powerful, and too unfamiliar to me—Alice Margot Royd, Patchouli Knowledge, and the main personality Zhao Yingkong. In the future I foresee, you either don't exist or are merely a mirage; I can scheme against you with a clear conscience.]

On one hand, there's a teammate who has remained loyal and reliable throughout countless future records; on the other, there's a complete stranger who has appeared only once by chance, and whose background is entirely unknown. Which side to help is a no-brainer.

[You are destined to die in this world. For the chance of resurrection, you will do everything in your power to conceal the existence of this deal made by the God of God from others. You can see Zheng Zha's kind nature, so you will do everything in your power to help him and others who are unaware of this deal escape from this world.]

【You should all obediently devote yourselves to my true comrades, burning your souls and shedding your last drop of blood. Poor witches, isn't this the kind of ending you've always been destined for?】

However… one has to go all out with the act. He slowly stretched out his hand, calculating the time it would take for the recipient to arrive. He took a deep breath and began preparing for the ritual he had retrieved from the depths of his memory.

[Information asymmetry means they could never know about the Houtu Reincarnation Platform, the second chance for resurrection, or that I would scheme for what happens after this world. Therefore, they can't fathom my motives. And based on everything I've revealed so far, in their eyes, I'm probably a 'poor soul who accidentally brought disaster upon himself and is trying to benefit his teammates as much as possible before he dies.' So I must portray this side as vividly as possible before I die… attacking the recipient with the most destructive self-destructive ritual. Misleading them into believing I want to guide the team to victory by sacrificing my life.]

[I need to make it seem more dramatic so they'll truly believe me. After all, it's true that I'm helping others pave the way for the future and dispel their inner conflicts. It's true that I'm providing intelligence and uncovering the secrets of this world as much as possible. And even at the end, it's true that I'm attacking the recipients at the cost of my own life so they can obtain the true solution to this world.]

Everything I did was real, the price I paid was real, and the results I reaped were real. Therefore, with this mutilated body and soul as the price, you... cannot escape my scheme!

He exhaled the air he had inhaled, along with a string of words that seemed to have a physical presence, like thunder, and even if one only vaguely sensed them, they would still make the whole world resound!

Hear my call! Lord of the Endless Void! Starshifter! Solid Foundation!

He could clearly sense that the recipient was about to arrive, although he had not yet observed any signs. But a cry from the depths of his heart told him that only a dozen seconds remained!

"Master of earthquakes! Conqueror of terror! Creator of suffering! Destroyer! Victorious victor! Child of the void and chaos!"

He felt his body cracking open, and something strange writhing deep within his soul. Everything before him blurred, but he knew his vision was fine. The answer was obvious: the entire space around him was beginning to transform, rapidly shifting towards something bizarre.

"Guardian of the Abyss! God of Darkness! Lord of Dimensions! Mysterious Sage! Guardian of Secrets! Lord of the Labyrinth! Master of Angles! God of the Night Hawk! The Final Pinnacle! Lord of the Gate!"

He saw all the angels in the sky fall, with only a few remaining struggling against Alice and her companion. But before they could achieve victory, something from beyond would arrive in this world. His eyes reflected countless silver portals slowly opening in the void. Once he finished reciting this final sentence, the barriers between time and space would cease to exist!

This... is the end.

"The primordial, almighty, and eternal Lord! Ummel At Tavel! LA—"

The next moment, his voice stopped abruptly.

He saw his throat being stretched open, and a fair, slender, and smooth young girl's hand reached out from it, her fingertips pinching his vocal cords.

The ritual was interrupted, and not only his vocal cords were damaged, but the entire structure of the ritual was also destroyed. All the silver portals in the void closed in that instant. Even if he forced himself to finish chanting the incantation using his muscles, the strange object from the void would not descend again.

He failed.

However, more than the regret of failure, he was now in shock. He couldn't believe it, couldn't understand it, and couldn't comprehend what was happening before his eyes.

"Why...why are you inside me!" His chest throbbed, the vibrations of his muscles and bones conveying a voice of questioning. "Why...why are you here at this time!?"

The pale hand stretched outwards, like opening a coat hanging on a clothesline, pulling open a huge doorway from his mouth. A soft voice came from within, its tone seemingly echoing in his heart.

“That thing is troublesome. If we let it come over, it will be a huge hassle to send it back. So I have no choice but to close the door and let the uninvited guest wreak havoc elsewhere. After all, this planet belongs to me, and this single universe is also my territory. I can’t just destroy it so easily.”

Saito's eyes widened, but the next moment his eye sockets were filled with white feathers, his head was split open, and multiple wings grew out of it. With the sound of wings unfolding, the figure of a girl emerged from Saito's broken body.

"If you ask me why I'm inside you, it's only natural. I'm a veteran employee who served under the Supreme God, and although I've retired, I still have to keep up with the Supreme God's mission—do you remember that gust of bone wind that hit you when you left the Supreme God's protective shield? From that moment on, your body, your soul, your thoughts, and your wishes have become a part of me. But you did a pretty good job, so you deserve a reward."

The girl had long, white hair that reached her waist, and deep, pale red eyes. A pair of smooth wings unfurled behind her, making her appear as dazzling as a goddess—no, she didn't just resemble one, she *was* a goddess. Because from her, Saito felt an unimaginable pressure, a power that even in the depths of his own memories, at the very end of that 'plot deduction,' he could barely glimpse.

“Quasi-Saint…” Saito Hajime lamented and wailed in his heart.

"If you hadn't used my power, do you think you could have dealt with that little girl named Zhao Yingkong so easily? A fourth-tier is still a fourth-tier. No matter how incomplete it is, it's not a power you can counter by relying on memory and trickery. Don't you think your understanding of spacetime is too profound? Your plans for the future are too perfect?"

Why...?

"Why? Ah... you don't need to know that. You just need to know that you've done a great job of the mission I gave you, successfully disrupting the plotline and pushing the situation to this point where I have an excuse to intervene. After all, although this is my planet, it's also a plot world under the control of the main god. That biased guy won't give me, a retired employee, any face. Even under the pretext of official business, I can't just attack a reincarnator—although watching ants fight can be quite interesting. But this is an 'acquaintance,' how can I not go and say hello in person?"

The girl chuckled softly, her outstretched wings slowly closing, crushing Saito's body bit by bit into quark-like fragments—she was meticulous, not even missing a single atom or a single wave, and Saito was naturally powerless to resist her.

"You must be very unwilling, but this is also your destiny. Haven't you ever thought about why this deal between the Supreme God never happened in any of the countless futures you've glimpsed, but it did this time? Who exactly is the Supreme God making this deal for, and why is he making it... Compare these two worldlines, what are the differences between this worldline and the other worldlines you've seen?"

Saito's physical form had long since disintegrated, and his remaining heart had stopped beating. After a long while, a painful sound finally escaped from his last remaining, mostly collapsed ventricle. "...Alice Margotroved. The deal with the Supreme God was for her! Why...why didn't I think of that before?"

"Of course you wouldn't have guessed, because I interfered with your way of thinking, forbidding your brain from thinking in this direction. Otherwise, how could you, how dare you scheme against her? How could you drive her to the brink, to the point that she had to forcibly shake the humanity, or rather the principles of civilization, on this planet just to survive? Giving me a reason to act? Rejoice, you've been more than competent as a tool, so just rest assured... die."

She chuckled softly, and the next moment, Saito Hajime's remaining half of his heart, along with his unspoken "I'm not reconciled," collapsed—all his data, all his records, all the elements that made him who he was, were gathered into one, turning into a colorless little sphere.

The girl swallowed the sphere whole.

"Alright, the six-day-delayed document collection project is now complete. So the time to fully upload this data is... five days, twenty-two hours, one minute, and seventeen seconds. Oh dear, it should now be the sixth day, one hour, fifty-eight minutes, forty-two seconds, seven hundred and thirty milliseconds since this reincarnation team came to this world... God, you stingy bastard, you only gave me one microsecond to etch myself onto my own timeline. That's just too terrible."

"But a microsecond is barely enough, just need to be used sparingly." She stretched lazily, folded her wings, snapped her fingers, and the time that had been frozen the moment she appeared began to flow again.

She looked up at Alice, who was still high in the sky and knew nothing of what was happening below.

"It's nice to see you again, Alice."

"It's good to see you again, Margot Lloyd."

"Four thousand standard years have passed since I last met you in the God Realm. But if we switch to the time I've spent in this single universe, that's 616 million years. Although celestial beings are immortal, they are still..."

"I hope this time you won't be like those discarded items from before."

Section 79. Would you like to eat a peach?

When the last angel was defeated, the protective barrier surrounding the Papacy vanished—in fact, this barrier had already become as faint as a bubble when Rome itself was reduced to a dead zone. And now, this final barrier had completely disappeared.

[I just sensed something strange coming from down there... Hmm, could there be some kind of trap there?]

Her lips twitched slightly as she converted the sound waves into electromagnetic signals and transmitted them directionally to Zhao Yingkong, who was on the other side of the battlefield: "Something seems off down there. Can you sense anything? Are there still any living people in that city down there?"

She waited quite a while before the voice of the main personality, Zhao Yingkong, finally reached her ears.

“I detected no anomalies. The people in the city below should all be dead... No, there are still about a hundred people alive. I just sensed their life force, very weak, they should be unconscious, but still alive. If there are no surprises, they should be the group of summoned Awakened Children.”

“Understood. Then let’s split up and go down. I suspect there might be some traps down there, so let’s be careful,” Alice replied, then ended the remote communication.

Not long after, she saw Zhao Yingkong, located at the other end of the chariot, plunge headlong into the city below. She quickly disappeared from her sight. A few seconds later, she received a signal from Zhao Yingkong that she had found the group of Awakened Children.

Nothing unusual happened.

Am I mistaken?

Alice raised an eyebrow and floated lightly down to the ground. As she descended, she looked around. The countless corpses of the dead, who had died in a posture of worship, filled the silent square with a sense of unease.

Offering one's faith, burning one's life, and consuming one's soul—even for a fanatic, this is going too far. And if the number of these devotees is expanded to hundreds of thousands or even millions in a city, then to regard them as fanatical believers willingly sacrificing themselves would only reveal one's own foolishness.

For ordinary people, the fear of death is the norm; otherwise, sacrifice and dedication would not be praiseworthy qualities. If everyone were fearless in the face of hardship, there would be no need to praise struggle and perseverance.

Undoubtedly, they were not acting willingly… or their spirits were all corrupted, turning them into puppets subjected to conversion. Someone had established a hidden institution within this city to forcibly convert faith and souls, powering the angels. And all the mortals in this city were merely fuel.

[This isn't the work of angels...it contradicts their operating mechanism. If angels didn't need to maintain secrecy and couldn't indiscriminately harm the innocent, why would I have gone to so much trouble to find them? Therefore, this must be the work of a third party...How strange, making it so obvious, are they afraid I won't notice? If a third party truly exists, they shouldn't expose themselves so directly after lying in wait for so long. At least they should have arranged some backup plans to erase the traces.]

Alice's eyes suddenly narrowed as the unusual feeling she'd sensed just seconds before—a feeling that 'something extraordinary had happened down below'—abruptly resurfaced in her mind. If that feeling wasn't an illusion, then combined with the current clues, she could immediately arrive at a reasonable deduction: 'A third-party force did exist, and it did prepare a backup plan to cover up this arrangement, but it failed for some unusual reason, thus preventing the cover-up from being successfully executed.'

[So that's how it is... Not only a third party, but also a fourth party hostile to the third party. Based on the Razor's Principle, and without considering the existence of entirely new and unknown entities... We, the angels, the recipient... Ah, I see, the third party is Saito Hajime. Although I already knew this guy was ruthless, I have to look at him with new respect for his ruthlessness.]

She took a deep breath, raised her hand, and the numerous corpses lying on the street were flung aside by the suddenly deployed gravity field, clearing a passage connecting her current location to the 'abnormal area'. She hesitated briefly before taking her first step, then cleared her mind and headed towards her destination.

"Using the entire city's mortals as fuel to prevent me from reaching the Holy See at the right time—you actually went through all that trouble. While I'm not exactly a paragon of virtue for using nuclear weapons to clear a path, at least... never mind, it's just a case of the pot calling the kettle black. There's no point in arguing further."