Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

【I see.】

And so all thoughts came to an abrupt halt in an instant.

The new clerk beside her took a small step closer, saying nothing, but his question was clearly inquiring. Luo Ye waved her hand, indicating that she was alright. Then she continued with her planned work.

The new secretary's name is Sirius, a quiet and taciturn ship girl. Luo Ye met her in the second month after Luo Ye's arrival in this world. At that time, she had just liberated an island defeated by the Abyssal Fleet and found Sirius, barely alive, in a bay—she was still fighting after the fall of her island. After Luo Ye led her to defeat the Abyssal Fleet that had previously captured the island, she quietly stayed by Luo Ye's side.

If Luo Ye could have stayed in the bubble world for a hundred years, perhaps her thoughts and the theme of this world would have changed. Unfortunately, some things are destined from the beginning; given the right conditions, they will inevitably happen.

When Luo Ye finished her day's work and planned to have a brief chat with her second secretary, a notice that stirred deep within her heart gave her something she had to face.

It's work time again...

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

Luo Ye opened her eyes. She hadn't observed any disturbances within the energy sea when she returned to the base world this time. This time, the task wasn't like the last one, which involved completely eradicating world after world, leaving not a single blade of grass. Instead, it was another task, equally important but relatively simpler.

The trillions of fragments destroyed by Chu Xuan, after being purified by the Hunting Saint Ritual, returned to the dream realm of the origin. Everything was just as Luo Ye had told Alice earlier: as long as the fragments were brought back, the dream realm could be completed, opening the path to the primordial Chang'e's slumbering place.

From the void... colossal rocks and structures silently materialized. Luo Ye removed her white admiral's uniform and donned a black hunter's suit. She descended the steps, passing the werewolf remains that had never been resurrected since being killed by Alice. Pushing open the gate, she was greeted by a small cemetery and a stone path beyond it.

Progress... about one-tenth. The complete city of Yharnam from the Bloodborne universe was laid out before Luo Ye—no NPCs, but all the monsters were in their proper places. And as Luo Ye pushed open the gate to the cemetery in front of the clinic, she heard howls from afar, and the stench of blood from the opposite direction.

In the Bloodborne universe, the two bosses in the first scene, the Cleric Beast and Father Gascoigne, are already in position. To defeat them, you must first take out the minions along the way.

Ah… mere grunts. They looked like grunts, and they fought like grunts. Those appearing outside the clinic were nothing more than a few beast-like villagers; their movements were as slow as snails in Luo Ye's eyes, who wielded extraordinary power. With a casual wave of his hand, Luo Ye decapitated these beast-like patients. However, death was only the beginning.

Simply killing the outer shell of these beast-like patients is meaningless, because they will soon revive, and because their essence is not that of 'beast-like patients infected with the blood poison of the ancient gods'—this is the interior of the original Chang'e, and naturally, the group of most loyal and powerful guards around Chang'e will protect her without ever abandoning her. And all the monsters in this dream world of the base point are manifestations of their outer shells after they were demoted by the ritual.

To defeat the leader, you must first deal with the henchmen; and to meet Chang'e, you must first eliminate all her guards. Those degraded minions scattered throughout the world are merely appetizers. What you face now is the true main course, requiring your utmost effort!

Luo Ye reached out and gently touched the ground where the three dead, beast-like villagers lay. The next moment, the world transformed!

A desolate, massive star appeared beneath Luo Ye's feet, her vision filled with endless void. Three wills, as blazing as the sun, even the weakest possessing the limit of the fourth stage, locked onto her the moment she descended. Immediately following, three divine generals, their divine bodies unfolding to the size of asteroids, wielding divine artifacts of unfathomable power, suddenly appeared a thousand kilometers away in a triangle surrounding Luo Ye. A tremendous roar caused the entire massive star to tremble and shake!

"Heavenly General Jia Ding!"—The first one's eyes are two real, mature stars, bound here by great magic. The boiling corona, under the will of the Heavenly General, has transformed into a sea of ​​fire spanning millions of kilometers.

"Heavenly General Yi Xin!"—The second being's body was made entirely of a material of the Strong Interaction Force, smooth as a mirror and tough as a barrier. Countless tiny spacetime rifts appeared around its body.

"The Heavenly General is Bingchou!"—The third figure holds a magic pestle, a divine weapon forged from the blood sacrifice of all non-human beings in the universe. Countless hatreds and curses are gathered and purified, ultimately forming a dark power that devours everything.

"In the name of Chang Sheng, we shall eradicate evil!" they roared, and before they could roar, they combined their auras into one, the three bodies forming a vague Three Talents Formation, and unleashed a destructive attack with several times the power towards Luo Ye in the center!

Luo Ye simply raised his hand, his outstretched fingers completely blocking the attack that was powerful enough to destroy a planet.

"Luoye, begin the hunt."

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

I have some bad news to share: I've... gotten hooked on Arknights...

And soon after, there seemed to be a game-themed writing contest...

Section Thirteen: The Road to Death - Part Four

Those who burn everything with their burning eyes have eyes that are scorching brightly.

He who bears all things with a flawless body, his body shines brightly.

Those who use instruments capable of swallowing the heavens to erode all things possess instruments that are malevolent and terrifying.

Luo Ye neither dodged nor evaded, neither dodged nor hid. Because she was within the Three Talents Formation, there was nowhere to hide or conceal herself. And she didn't need to hide or conceal herself. Because every attack was a sure kill, and every attack was completely blocked by her.

The Three Powers Formation is a flawless formation. All dissipated energy within the formation is recovered, and every strike is delivered with full force.

However, it was all in vain.

The three celestial generals are indeed powerful, but that power is only relative to the native powerhouses of other reincarnation worlds. They possess various secret techniques and powerful artifacts from the primordial world, and their movements are measured and controlled, their three bodies forming a unified whole within the formation. In ordinary reincarnation worlds, even if a peerless powerhouse with a mortal body were to touch the light of the soul, they could use their numerous secret techniques and formations to break through or even seal that wild fourth-tier expert. But here, that's not possible.

Because the Hunter's Cage is the largest and strongest seal, and no other seal can be contained within it. It's like creating another spatial bag within a spatial bag; the ultimate result will only be the complete destruction of one of them. And obviously, what will be destroyed will not be the cage itself.

Since the secret arts were useless, the only option was a direct confrontation. Words became worthless when the two sides faced each other face to face, given their irreconcilable opposing camps. Luo Ye remained silent, as did the celestial generals. The moment Luo Ye descended, the three celestial generals launched their fiercest attack on her, only to have it all refuted by Luo Ye in an instant.

Even a fourth-grade student comparable to a top high school is still just a fourth-grade student. Moreover, within the Hunter Saint's Cage, only Luo Ye could receive a continuous stream of power support. Luo Ye blocked the first attack, parried the second, and defended against the third through the millionth attack. At the millionth attack, the celestial bodies beneath their feet were shattered by the aftershocks of the battle. However, the existence of aftershocks meant an opening, and Luo Ye followed this opening, avoiding the numerous traps hidden behind it, until he reached the outer edge of the Three Talents Formation!

The first to be defeated was Tianjiang Yixin, because Luo Ye had studied the Trisolarans' strong interaction material and knew exactly where the flawless substance lay. When all particles are integrated into a whole, it means absolute density of mass and high concentration of energy. However, if a suitable energy vibration were used to trigger an internal chain reaction, it would inevitably face self-destruction.

If it were simply a flawless divine body, it would naturally be unable to be penetrated by the shockwave. However, the Heavenly General Yi Xin, who unleashed a million strikes in conjunction with the formation, was not flawless. Ultimately, it needed to open a channel, releasing the energy within its body at the initial attack and then guiding it afterward. Before escaping the formation, Luo Ye had spent a considerable amount of time discerning the secret of its energy channel. In the fraction of a second after escaping the Three Realms, he sent a beam of energy shockwave of a specific frequency into the Heavenly General's body. What followed immediately was the collapse of matter that obscured an entire planet.

It was a massive bomb, like the collapse of the sun. The energy jet, comparable to a small-scale supernova explosion, tore the giant star, which was shattered by the aftershocks of the battle, into several fragments in an instant!

Tianjiang Yixin was defeated, but defeat is not death. His shattered, flawless divine body may still be able to rebuild itself; with just a short period of rest, it will surely be able to recover to its original state.

However, time meant nothing to Luo Ye. She was prepared to linger here for a thousand years; after all, even with the Three Powers broken, there was still the Two Elements. The remaining two Heavenly Generals might be able to hold her off long enough for Heavenly General Yi Xin to recover. But she knew she would be the ultimate victor, because time and energy were meaningless to her. But for the three Heavenly Generals trapped in their cages, this was a crucial point that could not be ignored.

She was wrong, because the remaining two heavenly generals were even more decisive than Luo Ye had imagined—the moment Yi Xin was defeated, the heavenly general Bing Chou, who was holding the magic pestle, suddenly roared and sacrificed everything he had! He merged with the magic pestle and then threw the pestle into the hands of the heavenly general Jia Ding!

A tremendous power, yet it was not enough. Suddenly, the two stars in Jia Ding's eyes extended fiery lines, merging with the magic pestle. It opened its mouth and inhaled, and the immense heat and light transformed from the exploding, not perished, Heavenly General Yi Xin surged into Jia Ding's body. The three merged completely, manifesting a pure, crystal-clear light!

The mimicry of the light of the mind, forcibly created.

And what followed immediately was the all-out attack by Tianjiang Jiading aimed at Luoye!

A full-force strike means giving it your all, leaving no room for retreat.

The two stellar eyes dimmed and extinguished in an instant, and the divine body, comparable to an asteroid, was completely incinerated and decomposed, merging with the pure light on the vajra. The vajra spun, arriving before Luo Ye in a time interval far exceeding Luo Ye's reaction limit!

Time, time has no meaning. But Luo Ye neither flinched nor dodged. She simply raised her right fist towards the pestle surrounded by pure light, and her fist, too, was enveloped in pure light!

The light of mimicry of the mind and the light of mimicry of the mind, a needle tip and a wheat awn.

The world fell silent in that instant, for there was no longer any medium in the entire sky for sound to travel. The already fragmented stars were torn apart into dust and fragments by the surge of energy, becoming shattered molecular clusters. Time, space, matter, and energy—the four observable dimensions of this universe—all became unstable at that moment.

Then, the regular time returned to this celestial realm once again.

The light on the surface of the vajra dimmed, as did the fist that Luo Ye had thrown. Her body shattered inch by inch, like burnt-out ash, starting from her fingertips and gradually disintegrating backward. In the blink of an eye, the broken runes spread from her fingertips to her arms, to her elbows, to her shoulders, and then... to almost her entire body.

However, it was only almost. Almost, meaning just a little short. The spreading crack stopped abruptly before it touched Luo Ye's brow. And the next moment, Luo Ye, with only half a head remaining, began to revive from nothing.

Once the fourth stage of the gene lock is unlocked, as long as even a single cell remains, the injury is easily healed. For Luo Ye, however, there were simply too many cells remaining in her body.

She blinked, and her damaged body was completely repaired. The support from the Hunter's Cage poured a massive amount of energy into her body, instantly making her even stronger than at the start of the battle. She silently watched the dim, lifeless pestle, seeing this divine artifact tainted with immeasurable curse crumble and disintegrate little by little, finally transforming into a blurry phantom of a celestial general.

The battle is over.

The illusory image of the heavenly general gradually dissipated, and before it completely vanished, it uttered its second, or rather, fourth, sentence since the arrival of Luo Ye.

"It is a great pity that I cannot share the burden for Chang Sheng."

The next moment, the collapsing star and the torn sky vanished silently in Luo Ye's eyes like clouds. She returned to the base world once more, back to the long street outside the Yanan Clinic.

The corpses of the three beast-transformed patients vanished into nothingness under her gaze, and the path to the primordial Chang'e took another step forward. However, this was only one step; many more steps lay ahead. Luo Ye glanced at the Reincarnation Wristwatch on her wrist—this symbol of the main god finally revealed its value as a timer at this moment. Although Luo Ye herself knew how much time she had spent in another space, seeing it with her own eyes was still more intuitive.

One hour and fifteen minutes—that's how long it took Luo Ye to kill the three Heavenly Generals. For a battle between extraordinary beings, this time is quite unusual, as battles between extraordinary beings usually only have two outcomes: either a decisive moment or a dragging on for millions of years.

"Because they see no hope of victory, they resort to the most drastic means to fight to the death? Even without knowing the enemy's numbers, intelligence, battle situation, or overall picture, they still exert all their strength and resources from the very beginning... This saint's legion is more difficult to deal with than I imagined."

Luo Ye shook her head; she wasn't actually that surprised. Alice's habit of always imagining the worst-case scenario stemmed from her. She knew perfectly well that nothing good was likely to happen to her; everything she encountered would inevitably escalate to the worst possible outcome.

"But it's not entirely a bad thing. At least this way, my working hours can be reduced a little."

She nodded, and in those few seconds of thought, she had absorbed all the new experiences and skills she had learned from the previous battles. As she ventured deeper into the path, she felt her power—the abyss within her heart that she shared with Alice, the abyss that nurtured the light of the soul—grow even stronger.

This is a good thing, because it means her plan is gradually coming to fruition. All the growth she and Alice achieve before their inner demons are eliminated will become the resources for the ultimate victory. And this is precisely the ultimate goal of all her hard work along the way.

So……

Luo Ye lifted her foot, took a light breath, and walked deeper into Yanan.

Her steps were steady, and her progress was rapid. As soon as she took her first step, the monster configuration in the game Bloodborne appeared in her mind.

The first challenge is the plaza in Yharnam.

Yharnam's plaza is a notorious place where newbies often die and revive in the game. This is because a dozen or so beast-like villagers patrol the area, while ruthless gunmen lurk on high platforms, waiting for their chance to attack.

Luo Ye encountered a total of twenty-eight celestial generals who fought alongside him. Their average combat strength was equivalent to the three he had encountered before. They were all at the peak of the fourth level to the stage of possessing the simulated light of the mind. Without exception, they all bore traces of modification by primordial secret techniques. Some could release gamma-ray bursts, some could temporarily stop time, and some wielded karmic fire or frost equivalent to the light of the mind... Their powers differed, but they always fought side by side.

The twenty-eight celestial generals correspond to the grand formation formed by the twenty-eight constellations. Unlike the previous Three Talents Small Formation, the spatial confinement created by the Constellation Grand Formation has absolutely no flaws that any creature below the fourth level can overcome. Although sealing strategies are not feasible, they can trap Luo Ye within the formation for eternity.

They didn't do that, because the wiser among them had long ago realized that time was meaningless to Luo Ye. So, like the previous three, they used all their strength from the very beginning. The energy, spirit, blood, and will of all twenty-eight bodies converged into one, attempting to kill Luo Ye directly within the Star Array with the most ferocious power.

They failed. Luo Ye fought them for three hundred million rounds. When all twenty-eight heavenly generals died from exhaustion due to the lack of supplies caused by the prison of the hunting saint, Luo Ye was still full of energy.

It took six hours to cross Yharnam Square.

The second challenge is the sewers of Yharnam, where mutated livestock and orcs who have fully transformed into beastmen but have not yet become werewolves.

Before Luo Ye appeared several celestial generals leading a massive horde of war beasts. Luo Ye couldn't identify the type of creatures these beasts, as they represented the pinnacle of life science, capable of spontaneously evolving into bizarre forms depending on the battle situation. In some worlds, they were known as divine abominations. In the hands of the Primordial Legion, however, they became the most effective offensive tools.

It was a battle... not long, but extremely arduous. The battlefield where Luo Ye descended was a floating continent, one light-minute in diameter. When she left, the entire continent had been reduced to countless dust-like fragments. The celestial generals and their war beasts had given Luo Ye a lesson in mass warfare. And if the Hunting Saint's Cage hadn't been still operational, and the amount of matter on the battlefield hadn't been so limited, this battle might have continued until the end of time.

It took a week to get through the Yharnam sewers.

The third challenge is the two werewolves on the path to the Cleric Beast. Ah... honestly, if only I could exploit a bug to get past the werewolves like in the game, or simply skip the Cleric Beast fight altogether.

When the two werewolves revealed their true forms, what appeared before Luo Ye were two enormous creatures she wanted to strike. Two ferocious beasts from the Eastern Celestial Realm had descended upon this place, and they were armed with a powerful legion.

The first ferocious beast was named Taotie, which had the shape of a tiger and the face of a human.

The second ferocious beast is named Qiongqi, which has the body of a lion and outstretched wings.

They are naturally not the prototypes from mythology, but rather acquired alien species cultivated by the primordial sages. The number of enhancements and various special abilities they possess is so numerous that Luo Ye is too lazy to even count them.

It took three weeks to get through the Twin Werewolf Passage.

Then, Luo Ye finally arrived at her stage goal, in front of the corpse of the priest beast that she had crushed to death with a single finger.

Section Fourteen: The Road to Suicide - Part Five

What is Alice doing right now?

Luo Ye stopped before touching the corpse, raised her head, and looked up at the sky from the very bottom of the base world. She glanced at the endless branches of the tree, then precisely spotted the fruit where Alice was.

Alice has just arrived at the Skellige Islands and is currently resupplying, searching for new ships and sailors. She has managed to secure some funds and has also used puppetry to prepare some fighting force. It shouldn't be long before she successfully reaches her destination.

The Isle of Mist wasn't actually that far. Luo Ye cast his gaze, piercing through all obstacles, and discovered that the island was less than a week's sea journey from the Skellige Islands. Somewhat surprisingly, Ciri was still peacefully on the island, though her mental state was poor; it was probably still a while before she entered a state of suspended animation. But being awake was being awake, which might deviate from Alice's plans.

Luo Ye blinked. She didn't intend to interfere in this matter. After all, this was Alice's path, her trial—Alice would soon face real challenges in the wizarding worldview, and she had to overcome them herself before she could reap the rewards.

I can't do everything. Even though it's just different aspects of the same person, you at least have to put in a little effort!

Luo Ye sighed inwardly and shifted her gaze from the Isle of Mist. Following the causal threads on Ciri, she traced them outwards and soon located Geralt, who was still searching for clues in Novengrim.

Clearly, the protagonist is the protagonist. Without any supernatural interference, Geralt inexplicably provokes Janran, who is disguised as Felice Corrie. However, in his entanglement with her, he stumbles upon several clues related to Ciri. The major powers in Novengrim are severely weakened by their conflict.