Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

"Let's do as we agreed before. I'll be the first to activate the resurrection altar and then resurrect Zhang Heng."

Her will was firm, her eyes filled with determination. The other two, naturally, had no reason to resist, as this was something that had already been decided long ago. Soon, Ming Yanwei, holding the Golden Book of the Sun she had received from Zheng Zha, entered the black pyramid containing the resurrection altar.

Her steps were light, and after she entered, the pyramid remained silent for a long time. This ancient structure, protected by the power of the Egyptian god of death, had the ability to isolate sound from both inside and outside. Although Alice and Zheng Zha, both extraordinary beings, possessed advanced sensory abilities capable of penetrating divine protection, they both chose to wait at this moment.

This is a private matter between Ming Yanwei and Zhang Heng, and no one else needs to interfere.

This silent wait then lasted for fifteen minutes.

“Margot Royd,” Zheng Zha broke the silence between them. His posture remained unchanged, as he gazed at the black pyramid before him and spoke softly, “Between you and Norrell, isn’t there something…”

"You noticed?" Alice's voice was as calm as still water.

“I can see it, and it’s quite obvious.” Zheng Zha forced a small smile, as if trying to make the conversation less awkward. “Although we haven’t known each other for very long, I’m quite familiar with Norrell’s calm personality—she even directly threw a magic cannon between me and Logando at the main square earlier… In the past, she probably wouldn’t have cared about such a thing at all.”

Alice lowered her eyes.

"You really do have the potential to be a confidant... But don't worry, there's nothing wrong between Patchouli and me. She won't affect the team. The reason she's acting so strangely is because of me..."

"...walked too fast."

"Transcendent... indeed." Zheng Zha sighed softly. Upon reaching the fourth stage, he did indeed experience the pain that anything transcending the mortal realm inevitably encounters—he had become too strong, excessively strong. So much so that even without consciously enhancing his senses, his body's perception naturally increased dozens of times.

Zheng Zha's previously painstakingly achieved pseudo-time stop in the Final Destination world has now become almost permanent. Worse still, his vision has become exceptionally sharp and perceptive. Ordinary reincarnators are fine; aside from enduring the slow-motion effect caused by the drastically stretched sense of time when communicating with them, they are generally unaffected. But if it's ordinary mortals from the upper world…

"The Buddha sees 48,000 insects in a bowl of water"—Zheng Zha had never understood this saying before. However, when he could see the rough pores on the faces of mortals and the tiny grime hidden beneath their cilia without needing to concentrate, and smell the complex odor of human bodies—a mixture of sweat, urea, and other indescribable odors—he finally understood why all the extraordinary beings he had encountered before had appeared to be inhuman and unresponsive.

Because at this stage where quantitative change leads to qualitative change, it is really difficult to continue to regard oneself as an ordinary person as before.

They are reincarnators, and reincarnators live with all sorts of dangers every day. It's impossible for them to weaken their senses by 80-90% like the superhuman protagonists in fantasy novels who hide in plain sight before throwing themselves into the various missions of the reincarnation world—because that would be suicide. No one knows if they might be struck by a Seven Arrows of Nailhead or something worse due to a moment of carelessness.

Since they cannot weaken themselves, they can only choose to endure.

Even Zheng Zha, a kind-hearted fellow, was now troubled by this problem. The first thing he did upon returning to his personal space after leaving the world of Starship Troopers was actually to exchange a flawless celestial body for Luo Li. He truly didn't know how long he could endure the faint scent of that young girl's body.

"What do you plan to do?" Zheng Zha sighed melancholy. He could only speak freely when talking to Alice, another extraordinary being, and the clearly abnormal Chu Xuan, without suppressing his full power. "If we weren't reincarnators, we could find a peaceful, serene area to suppress our senses and then gradually unseal them, using a long period to get used to these auras. But I think… Norrell wouldn't tolerate that kind of development."

“Yes, that’s true. So Patchouli is getting impatient.” Alice nodded slightly, saying with a hint of melancholy, “She can’t hold back for long… even if she knows she should calm down, she can’t hold back for long. She will try everything to close the gap with me, and I will stop and wait for her patiently. Part of the reason for this trip to Gensokyo is for this. And I believe… she won’t keep me waiting for long.”

"I hope so." Zheng Zha smiled wryly. He didn't dare to say something like, "What if Norrej doesn't make it in time?" He knew very well that if he did, he'd probably be facing a thousand or two full-power shots of Red Dragon Sulfur Fire. For the sake of his pride, it was better to keep some things to himself.

However, the next moment, an explosion suddenly came from inside the black pyramid!

'boom--!'

He instinctively reached for his foot, but forcibly restrained himself before taking the first step. His senses had already told him what was happening inside the black pyramid, and his involvement now would only be counterproductive.

So he chose to wait.

During the wait, there was a continuous series of sounds: arrows whistling through the air, cracking and shattering, and the faint, discernible timbre of a man trying to explain something. Then came the crisp sound of fists striking cheeks, accompanied by the cracking of bones. This sound continued for about five minutes before subsiding. Two minutes later, Ming Yanwei's indifferent figure appeared at the exit doorway.

Holding the Zishan Bow in one hand, she dragged a poor man along the ground by the collar with the other—the unfortunate fellow had clearly been thoroughly beaten. His baby face was swollen like a pig's head, and his ribs, limbs, and other less important parts were mangled beyond recognition. Yet, all the injuries avoided vital organs and areas with dense blood vessels, even though the unfortunate boy was beaten into a deep coma. If she were to throw him into the healing pillar of the main god, the required repair reward points might be less than twenty.

His appearance was terrible, but that was all.

After receiving the Sun Scripture from the silent Ming Yanwei, Zheng Zha walked into the black pyramid with a wry smile. He knew very well that it was best for him to do nothing and say nothing right now. Zhang Heng's current state of being beaten unconscious was already the best possible start. If Ming Yanwei ignored him or killed him with an arrow, that would be truly disastrous.

That's all I can help with. The rest is up to you. Ugh, why is it so cold here...?

Zheng Zha thought to himself that, for some reason, as he entered the black pyramid, he felt as if the dog-headed statues around him in the temple were staring at him. Moreover, for some reason, a chilling coldness rose up from his back, and this coldness gradually spread to his limbs and bones over time.

[Can fourth-tier beings also get cold? Or is Anubis watching me right now?]

He glanced instinctively at the craters, half a meter or a meter wide, blasted out by the spiritual arrows in the temple where the altar was located. After thinking for a moment, he went over and kicked some sand to fill the craters. After that, he carefully examined the statues and then rotated them one by one so that they were staring at the wall.

He vaguely felt that the temple had become colder.

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

"Are you cold?" Alice suddenly turned her head to look at Ming Yanwei, who had been silent since tossing Zhang Heng's unconscious body aside. A simple spell to ward off misfortune and bring good fortune was then cast, quietly blocking a curse that was about to pass over the two of them.

She had just sensed the fluctuations of a powerful curse. The curse was extremely potent and incredibly pure; in the past, even if she didn't use it to replenish her magic, she would at least reserve a portion for research or collection. But this time, she felt it was best to stay out of it.

She watched as a large circle of curses was shoved into the unconscious Zhang Heng's body. Then Ming Yanwei looked at her hesitantly.

“Miss Alice, if I… do not resurrect him, will I end up on a completely different path in life?” Her fingers twisted nervously, revealing the turmoil raging within her.

“But you have already resurrected him,” Alice replied calmly. “You have to bear the consequences of your actions. There’s no point in regretting it unless your purpose from the beginning was to make yourself regret it.”

"How could that be?" Ming Yanwei shook her head violently, then sighed heavily.

"I just don't know... whether what I did was right or wrong. I should have completely given up on him. I also planned to stop caring about him and start a new life on my own. But when I resurrected him, I saw his memories again. I saw him desperately trying to save me after I was captured... and when I came to my senses, I beat him up like this."

"I... I don't know what to do right now."

Section 5. A certain M suddenly felt a tightness in her heart.

Alice gently rubbed her forehead.

Ah... this is truly a case of karma coming quickly. I was just saying Zheng Zha had a natural talent for being a confidant, and now I have to take on the role of a confidante sister. Relationship problems and all that... goodness, I've never even been in a relationship with a man, how would I know about that...?

[I need to steer the conversation towards something I'm good at... Damn, even pursuing women is something I've been doing for centuries... If you include my memories, it's probably been seven or eight thousand years ago! And back then, I was always the one being pursued!]

She couldn't help but sigh inwardly, her head throbbing—even though she didn't actually have a head right now. But a conceptual headache was much harder to deal with than a physical one.

But she only experienced a headache for a tiny moment, with the time interval between her thoughts being at most three microseconds, which was completely outside Ming Yanwei's perception range. Within the time gap formed by these three microseconds, she quickly assembled a set of words and simulated their deduction.

Since the problem cannot be solved, the only option is to eliminate the person responsible. Of course, eliminating the person doesn't necessarily mean resorting to physical violence. Sometimes, covering up the old problem with a new one can be more effective than resorting to force.

The witch's eyes darted around: "The little girl you created, her name is Huizi, right? And her surname is Ming, just like yours?"

“…No, I didn’t give her a surname.” Ming Yanwei shook her head and said, “Her name is Huizi. She is the successor I adopted in the world of Ju-on’s memories. Originally, I thought I had been reincarnated into another world and that my life had started anew, so I adopted her… Later, after returning to the Main God Space, I extracted and recreated her data… I remember that the data that recreated her was given to me by Miss Alice.”

"So you're raising her as a daughter?"

"A daughter?" Ming Yanwei fell into thought. After a long while, she shook her head uncertainly. "I'm not so sure, but I don't think I adopted her out of maternal instinct. Anyway... um... I guess I wanted to find something that could communicate with me and keep me company. Like adopting a cat... I don't mean to treat her as a pet!"

Alice whistled, shrugged, and exuded a sense of ease, as if she were back in familiar territory. "I think I roughly understand what's going on between you and her. While I probably don't have much say in this, I think you might want to consider how this man..." She lifted her foot, the toe of her boot lightly tapping in the direction Zhang Heng was lying. "...how he views this new relationship you've built. And, can you allow him to interfere?"

Ming Yanwei hesitated for a moment, then said in a low voice, "...I will not allow him to do that."

"That's it."

She turned her head to look at the surging energy reaction inside the black pyramid—the resurrection ritual had begun and would soon end, leaving only Zhao Yingkong, whom she had specifically requested the resurrection authority for before her departure. And so, this brief chat naturally came to an end.

She looked at Ming Yanwei, her expression serious and earnest.

"I'm not someone who's been through this, so I don't really understand what men and women your age are thinking. In short, the decision of what to do is in your hands. Whether you want to get back together with him or forget him completely is up to you. But remember, no matter what you choose, you will have to pay the price."

"Because love is selfish and cannot accommodate many other things. And this is especially true for us, those whose lives are like candles flickering in the wind."

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

Zheng Zha gently unfolded the Sun Scripture, and the Supreme God's voice immediately rang in his ears. He took a deep breath, calculated the resources at his disposal, and uttered the words he had rehearsed countless times in his mind.

“Resurrected reincarnator Zhan Lan, resurrected reincarnator Xiao Honglu.”

The scenery before Zheng Zha's eyes suddenly changed.

He felt as if he had returned once more to the battlefield of the Land of the Dead, and once again witnessed that group of solemn and holy ancient angels with pure white wings that blotted out the sky—feathers of light cascading around them, wielding greatswords burning with flames and holy light, rampaging through the watchtowers and fortresses that reflected the metallic luster. Thousands upon thousands of mortal soldiers, armed with ordinary guns, launched a futile attack against them, only to be reduced to dust in the holy light and flames.

Angels are weapons, machines, killing machines whose primary objective is the purging of mortals. When the defenses were easily breached, dozens of ancient angels, their wings of light flashing, charged forward. However, as they approached the core of the steel fortress, heavily protected by the shattered defenses, they abruptly halted their advance. For a vast array of mortals—more numerous, weaker, and easier to kill than the armies they had previously slain—had appeared in many places outside the fortress's core. And all they needed to do was swing their greatswords in that direction—

"Next time, let's stand side by side... I'm sorry."

As the light and fire fell, several meteors streaked across the outer edge of the defensive line. These were small flying machines, each carrying an archer, a young girl, a sniper, and a boy with a cane. They launched an attack on the angels, using arrows of light and jets of energy. However, their attacks were as weak and ineffective as a spring drizzle when they struck the ancient angels—they couldn't inflict any real damage. They merely harassed and lured them away, causing several of them to deflect.

The archer was the first to die; a beam of light traversed a vast distance, shattering him and his aircraft into a shower of scattered sparks. Next came the sniper, now without cover or distance for protection; a chain of lightning ended his life before he could fire his second shot.

Following them were the woman and the child with the staff, whose strength and experience were even greater. They cooperated, using artillery support, psionic lightning, and runic spells to hinder their opponents while carefully dodging attack after attack. Soon they had held off two, weakened three, and destroyed one. Then… a greater number of ancient angels turned their gazes and surged toward them.

The child was burned from head to toe by the blazing white flames, leaving behind a jade-like, crystalline skeleton. The woman, on the other hand, was imprisoned in mid-air by a force field and then cleaved into four pieces by two intersecting beams of light. Her remains fell from the sky, and the only thing that reached Zheng Zha's ears was a faint but clear sound.

"I...don't regret it."

After that, light and shadow flickered once more. Numerous fragments of records flashed before Zheng Zha's eyes, yet at this moment he could see nothing at all.

Beneath his feet, around him, the ground and air cracked little by little, then healed again. Molecules were broken down into atoms, and atoms recombine into molecules, while the energy released by this physical change boiled over his body—his palms were clenched open, and the blood seeping out wriggled back into the wounds while releasing the surging energy. And what remained in the end was a layer of crimson flames covering his body.

【Binana resides in the realm of the emperor.】

His pupils shrank little by little, and then opened little by little.

【Binana resides in the realm of the emperor.】

The veins on his arm taut one by one, then softened one by one.

【Binana resides in the realm of the emperor.】

"Brother Zheng Zha, you look scary."

In an instant, all the strange phenomena surrounding him vanished. He suddenly opened his eyes wide, and a beautiful, bespectacled girl, whom he knew all too well, stood smiling at him. The next moment, he opened his arms and embraced the girl before him amidst a scream of surprise.

"Zhan Lan," he said softly. "Long time no see, thank you for your hard work."

The woman's body, which had instinctively tensed in his arms, softened at his voice. His gaze then shifted to Xiao Honglu, who was standing to the side, observing the two with great interest.

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

This is routine; the next session will be in two hours.

Section 6 - Almost done tidying up [3/8]

"What are you looking at me for? I'm not some big-breasted beauty." Xiao Honglu raised an eyebrow, and Zheng Zha finally realized what was happening and quickly released Zhan Lan, whose pretty face was flushed red. He took a step back and coughed lightly to cover his embarrassment. "Anyway, we've safely passed through the Final Destination world, and some things happened afterward, so we had to go through another world to accumulate enough reward points... But that's not important. Zhan Lan, Xiao Honglu, welcome back to the team."

Zhan Lan gave a soft "hmm," the blush on her face quickly fading as rational thought returned. Only then did she have time to examine Zheng Zha—and what she saw shocked her. When she instinctively activated the unique detection abilities of the Spirit Clan's prophets, the immense energy source that met her eyes almost blinded her!

"Ugh..." She gently covered her chest, suppressing the turmoil in her blood and qi caused by the collapse of her detection ability. Xiao Honglu, who was beside her, also exclaimed in surprise, covering his eyes and forehead and complaining.

"Brother Zheng Zha, why do you look like the sun?!" Bloodshot veins appeared in Xiao Honglu's eyes. He had to turn his head to look at the wall after shutting down his supernatural senses in order to barely free up his energy to treat himself. Although the simple healing spell that took effect immediately repaired his eyes, the memory of looking directly at the sun was firmly engraved in his mind.

"What kind of medicine did you take?! That Sentinel's magic potion?"

"Ah, sorry, sorry. I got so excited just now that I couldn't completely control my aura, and I don't watch American comics." Zheng Zha smiled wryly, taking out the trigger-based healing amulet made by Alice from his storage ring and giving it to the two of them—this thing was of little use to him now—while explaining the current state of the team to them as they busily repaired their injuries.

About ten minutes later...

"...Brother Zheng Zha, you've already broken through to the fourth stage of the gene lock? And Sister Alice too? I remember you were only at the second stage in the Final Destination world... How long has it been?" Xiao Honglu looked at him with a dazed expression, as if to say, 'How many versions have I missed?' Zhan Lan, standing to the side, was clearly in no better shape.

"There are many complicated reasons behind this..." Zheng Zha scratched his head, grinning sheepishly. "Mainly, the enemy in the last world was just too outrageous, forcing us to push ourselves... After all, compared to that quasi-saint in the Final Destination world who never even had a chance to meet her, the Senzhou team was truly an overwhelmingly powerful team. If it weren't for Margot Lloyd using the main god's resurrection mechanism to severely sabotage her, even with Chu Xuan's scheme, we probably wouldn't have been able to..."

He shook his head slightly. He didn't know much about Chu Xuan's scheme, nor did he have any interest in wasting his brain cells. He only knew that Chu Xuan played a crucial role in the overall layout of the Gate World. Just how crucial... well, he was incredibly powerful.

"Is it alright to revive Chu Xuan?" Zhan Lan looked at Zheng Zha with some worry. "The alien, Li Shuaixi, and the things in the real world. What if he..."