Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

The next moment, numerous pop-ups and documents appeared on the tablet in Alice's hand, opening and closing repeatedly. She unearthed many hidden databases using methods slightly more advanced than those of this era, but not far beyond. Finally, the top of the tablet froze on a half-length portrait of a bald, wise woman.

[The Ancient One, the former Sorcerer Supreme. She died not long ago in a rebellion she orchestrated herself. Tsk, bald Zhao Yingkong, just thinking about it is amusing.]

Alice glanced at the time on the corner of the tablet—September 21, 2019—this number made her abandon the idea of ​​judging information according to the plot sequence of the cinematic universe in her memory. This world was ultimately just an external record, and it was normal for many details to be slightly different. She quickly selected keywords to search through the information, and soon more information came into her view.

Two years ago, renowned surgeon Stephen Strange retired due to injury. However, after completing his medical treatment in the East, he made several appearances at the hospital where he previously worked, performing several undocumented surgeries. One of these surgeries involved a Celtic monk who had fallen from a high building; the monk died shortly after being taken to the operating table.

A new photograph surfaced on her social media feed—a low-resolution image taken casually with her phone. It showed Dr. Strange, or rather, the current Sorcerer Supreme, dressed in outlandish attire, pushing through a crowd with another monk to try and rescue a woman in a yellow robe lying on the ground. Subtle facial details made it easy to conclude that she was the same person from the photograph Alice had previously obtained.

[Timeline determined, spatial axis determined, event axis determined... Ah... Very good.]

She closed her tablet, finished her coffee like an ordinary teenage girl, and paid the bill. With the data at hand, she could roughly pinpoint the location of the Ancient One's tomb even without using magic. Her next task was to find the tomb as an ordinary person, and then use the traces inevitably left within to locate Zhao Yingkong, who had feigned death and disappeared.

Her movements were unhurried and very natural. On the way to the airport, she even had the leisure to take a look at the famous Stark Industries building—she didn't need to use any supernatural powers to clearly see Tony Stark, the male lead of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in his office at the top of the building through the one-way glass. And when she saw him flirting with his girlfriend, she shrugged slightly and looked away.

No one noticed her, no one paid attention to her arrival. And her love for someone was clearly not like many Marvel movie time travelers who needed to make their first fortune and tried to cultivate a relationship with this notoriously foul-mouthed Avengers leader. She simply marked this male protagonist with her gaze, hoping it might come in handy at some point in the future.

Nobody noticed her.

Her footsteps, along with the collection and refinement of intelligence, quietly disappeared from the surface of this bustling city.

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

Two days later, Alice arrived in Nepal on an international flight. She easily located Kamar-Taj, the holy site for wizards in this world, within Kathmandu. She casually spent the afternoon drinking coffee in a café, and through traces of spatial interference, learned that the current Sorcerer Supreme, Strange, had already left the area. The next moment, she strolled forward as an ordinary tourist girl, effortlessly entering the holy site.

The barrier surrounding this sacred site was quite robust, and the magical system of this world had its unique aspects. However, it was unfortunate that this wasn't the original site, so naturally there weren't many dimensional demons or their agents—not 'many,' but not entirely absent—and Alice broke through the magical barrier here in about five minutes without using any supernatural power. She then spent several times that amount of time touring this magical sacred site, which should have been destroyed but was rebuilt due to a deviation in the timeline.

[There are traces of darkness in the magical energy here... Ah, that familiar feeling, it's the residual energy from Zhao Yingkong's mimicry of the Light of the Mind. She really is here... It seems my guess was right all along.]

She moved slowly through the sacred ground, aided by light, shadow, and psychological illusions. She could walk right past novice mages practicing their martial arts without leaving a trace. More experienced mages might see through this disguise, but their minds were subtly manipulated by the sonic waves emanating from Alice's steps, a targeted hypnotic effect that rendered them inactive before they could even act. Specific hormones secreted by glands in their brains completely neutralized their motivation.

They were too weak. Or rather, the Holy Land was too weak without the Sorcerer Supreme in charge. This performance was also recorded as information in Alice's intelligence database and stored as reference data for the energy level of the entire world.

[This world should be the world where Ex is from. And her identity… tsk, there are only one or two possibilities no matter how you look at it.]

Alice casually flipped through the numerous magical tomes within the sacred ground, easily dismantling the protective spells and alarm mechanisms stored within them as if they didn't exist. She knew very well that in the many worlds within this Saint-hunting ritual, any truly valuable knowledge of power was essentially a derivative of the power of the primordial Chang'e Saint. She also knew that this power system, mixed with the path of the Saint, would be more harmful than beneficial to her. Even using it as reference data was a risky undertaking.

So she spent about half an hour browsing through ninety-nine percent of the magical books in the library. The remaining one percent consisted of arcane tomes containing true power. Naturally, she rationally ignored those secret knowledge pieces that could grant mortals immense magical power, or even grant them instant ascension to immortality. When her free borrowing journey came to an end, she arrived at the edge of a nameless little hill on the inner side of the holy site and stopped.

She could clearly see the old, disturbed marks around the earth. She could smell the scent of a coffin beneath the soil. Someone had come here to pay their respects not long ago; she could clearly sense it. And she was able to confirm that someone's remains were buried here, undisturbed.

[Zhao Yingkong...]

She reached out and touched the ground, and the ground immediately cracked silently, revealing a sealed black tube rising from the earth.

Let me see where you're hiding right now...

An invisible force of interference expanded outwards, completely isolating everything around the nameless mound. Then…

She saw the corpse of an ordinary person.

It wasn't Zhao Yingkong, nor anyone else. It was simply a mortal being, a supreme mage from an outer world. And this mage exuded a familiar aura of power.

This is the simulated light of the mind, a power unique to Zhao Yingkong that lingered on this body and is gradually dissipating. Along with it, the original soul of this body is also vanishing, just like a truly dead life.

Time rolled forward at a leisurely pace for about five or six minutes. And everything returned to normal.

“I see,” Alice said softly.

The next instant, all the alarms within the sorcerers' sanctuary sounded simultaneously. Space was violently torn apart before her, and endless dark energy surged forth and receded. When the native sorcerers mustered their courage to surround the area, they saw no signs of anything amiss. A top-level alarm immediately departed from Kamar-Taj, traveling to some location on Earth.

The Dark Dimension, which was once repelled by the current Sorcerer Supreme, has shown signs of descending once again.

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

Meanwhile, in outer space, around the ruins of a floating continent called Asgard.

With a silent burst of light that seemed to bloom among the stars, half of the Asgardian fleet was neatly annihilated. These powerful beings, who considered themselves gods, struggled to resist, but all their efforts were in vain. When their king was beaten into incapacitated by a heavy bombardment, the Asgardians finally succumbed to utter despair.

"Loki! No—!"

With the agonizing screams of the new King Thor, the former god of mischief, the viceroy of Asgard who had stirred up so much strife, had his neck snapped. His soul was sealed within his skull, broken along with his spine. A piercing, agonizing sound, enough to drive mortals mad the moment it was heard, echoed through the hall along with the ethereal energy flowing from his eyes. Then, it vanished into nothingness at a visible speed.

"You will pay the price! Thanos! I swear! I will kill you—!" Thor's roar echoed through the void. Even severely wounded, his voice was enough to bring unblessed steel to life and transform it into a ravenous beast. However, all of this was in vain, for his life was no longer in his own hands, and he was like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment.

The beasts disintegrated into atomic dust the instant they were born. Ebony Maw, who had done this small thing, was about to silence the loser when a slender hand stopped him.

A slender hand. And the owner of that hand had just killed a god as easily as crushing an ant. Just moments before, she had also crushed the fire giant Surtur, the goddess of death Hela, and half of the Asgardian land and half of the Asgardian fleet that had been ravaging Asgard, as easily as brushing dust off a window.

When the owner of the hand wanted to speak, even the Thunder God, enraged to the extreme, instinctively fell silent.

"Fourteen million, six hundred and six." The interstellar overlord, known as 'Thanos' by many of the destroyed, held the azure Space Stone in her hand. She slowly placed it on her gauntlet. An invisible energy field immediately expanded outwards, which she treated as a gentle breeze.

She simply asked the question calmly.

"Do you know what this means? This number, this meaning?"

She looked at her servants, who remained respectfully silent. She looked at her adversaries, who glared at her with mindless rage.

"Perhaps killing Loki this time was a mistake; he might have given me some surprises." She shook her head, her disappointment evident.

"Your wisdom is unmatched, my lord," Ebony Maw said obsequiously, kneeling on the ground. "There is no wise man in this world who can compare to you. You only need to speak, and others only need to listen."

“A wise man? No, you don’t understand what this means.” The girl with golden eyes looked at Thor and shook her head again. “You don’t understand either, none of you understand.”

"Thanos! I'll cut your brain off sooner or later—"

The girl's fingers trembled, and Thor's roar vanished into nothingness as the air and energy medium were extracted. A massive portal opened beneath Thor and his friends, revealing the clear outline of Earth on the other side.

“I’m tired of this, but I think this time there might be some unexpected surprises. In a week, I will tear the entire Earth to shreds into atomic dust. And you have all that time to prepare.”

"I hope this time, you can give me a good time."

Section 54. The Harmony of Events and Images

There are two paths leading to the eighth branch of the Tree of Events, which is the world of *No Game No Life Zero*. One of them is a portrait painted by a certain artist. Before this painting was completed, the entire Tree of Events was covered and contained by an unknown force. Apart from the rulers of the Hunting Sacred Ritual, no living or dead thing could perceive the existence of this eighth Tree of Events. Even Luo Ye, located in the Dream World of the Base Point, could only vaguely sense the existence of the eighth Tree of Events when she did not fully examine her Sea of ​​Energy.

This is the first path, while the second path is through the authority granted by the ritual master. It involves arriving in this area spatially, and then passing through a door that doesn't actually exist—the second path is slightly more likely to succeed than the first.

Yes, bigger.

At least within the cycle of birth and death of these trillions of fragmented worlds, in that long period of time where even time itself loses its meaning, this method can be achieved twice.

The first time was when Patchouli and Chu Xuan descended. And the second time is this time.

As the meteor that Zhao Zhuikong transformed into streaked across the nearly infinite sea of ​​energy and reached the boundary of the eighth Tree of Events, Xiao Honglu, entrusted by Alice, and others who had been waiting there for a long time were present.

"Long time no see, Brother Zhao Zhuikong." Standing at the edge of the energy sea, Xiao Honglu smiled as he watched his companion, who had gradually materialized from a meteoroid form into a humanoid shape, appear in his true form. Beneath his feet was a colossal floating city that seemed completely out of place in the entire energy sea. A card with a blank facet spun rapidly between his fingers.

"Long time no see, how have you been?"

“Xiao Honglu.” Zhao Zhuikong surveyed the floating city beneath his feet. He could clearly distinguish the heartbeats of the many inhabitants within the city, sensing countless unique life forces. He could savor the history and civilization that had settled between the steam-powered streets and the floating engines, before his gaze finally settled on the blank card in Xiao Honglu’s hand.

"When you say 'many years,' how long do you mean?"

“This is a question worth discussing, Brother Zhao Zhuikong.” Xiao Honglu snapped his fingers, and the timeline of the entire floating city was moved forward by one month. When spacetime stabilized, a luxurious grand hall was erected on the platform where the two had originally been, and this happened to be the day of celebration. Amidst the noisy and festive atmosphere, the two became inconspicuous guests at the banquet. A glass of champagne was then pushed in front of Zhao Zhuikong.

“My memories tell me it was only three years and seven months; I played Gwent in that world for that long.” Xiao Honglu toyed with a glass of orange juice, fresh fruit pieces floating in the glass and releasing a refreshing aroma. “But this city tells me I’ve been in that world for 140,000 years.”

"Of course, this 140,000-year record starts from the moment I built this city. But how many times I tried, how many times I worked hard, how many times I failed, and how many times I repeated myself before that is impossible to calculate."

He slowly sipped the juice in his glass, gently crushing the real fruit pieces. He shrugged and replied, "Maybe a million years, maybe 140,000 years and a few days... who knows? My vast future hasn't crushed my insignificant past, and I am still me now."

"Do you have any other questions?" He raised his glass to Zhao Zhuikong. "Brother Zhao Zhuikong? Or do you think I'm some kind of idiot who's lived for hundreds of years and doesn't even know who he is, so lost that I'm here because I can't even pluck a hair?"

“In the past, I would have definitely given you a good assessment of your character. But now, the thought of it just makes me laugh.” Zhao Zhuikong clinked glasses with Xiao Honglu and drank the slightly sour wine. “So you were supposed to be waiting for me here, right? Someone commissioned you to come here to open the portal to Xilin for me?”

His gaze pierced through the thick walls of the floating city and the sacred guardians that separated the energy sea, then abruptly stopped before a hazy image of the Eighth Manifestation Tree. "Is that Alice?"

“BINGO!” Xiao Honglu snapped his fingers. “That’s right, it was Sister Alice who asked me to wait for you here. The other part of Sister Xilin’s world is a bit special right now. You can’t enter without permission, and I came here specifically to be your guide, Brother Zhao Zhuikong.”

As he spoke, the space beneath the floating city began to ripple. A massive energy vortex, just large enough to allow passage through the city, unfolded within their field of vision. The sea of ​​energy churned violently with the manifestation of the vortex, impacting the sacred guardians surrounding the city. A piercing alarm immediately blared outside the hall, and the many guests and attendants who had been attending the banquet displayed expressions of panic, composure, or bewilderment. The host of the banquet forced himself to step forward and calm the crowd, and then a chaotic mix of mechanical sounds filled the air outside the hall.

This is not a city of dolls; it is a genuine city, imbued with civilization and history, yet essentially a city of cards at Xiao Honglu's fingertips. Compared to the enormous vortex that opened in the pure white energy sea, and the vast galaxy that appeared beyond the passage, Zhao Zhuikong's attention was focused on his companion, whom he hadn't even considered a threat until recently. A small dagger on his belt silently drew seven times in a few seconds, then slowly closed again. Finally, it dissolved into a sigh.

"How wonderful it would be if you could have taken this step? You could have done it anytime, so why did you have to stop before this final step?"

“Because I don’t want my city to be destroyed, Brother Zhao Zhuikong. Although this city is intact, it is ultimately not qualified to be our battlefield.” Xiao Honglu waved his hand and gave a forced smile. “Just kidding, I don’t want to fight with you, Brother Zhao. Besides, now is not the time.”

"What do you mean by 'not the right time'?"

“Because our past selves are establishing their path in this world. And now is a crucial moment.” Xiao Honglu replied, as the scene around him transformed back into the original stargazing platform as the timeline reversed. He looked at the endless starry sky that appeared at the edge of his vision, a cryptic smile playing on his lips.

"Sister Alice made some adjustments to the plan. Although I don't know how she did it, the past versions of our entire Zhongzhou team were indeed pulled out of the past timeline and thrown into this trial like branches of a tree, which originally belonged only to her. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it is at least an indispensable opportunity."

The vast galaxy materialized, and the floating city closed the portal the instant it exited. All the escaping particles were restrained and sealed by an invisible force. Thus, no trace of its arrival was revealed.

What came into view was an unfamiliar galaxy, with the floating city carrying the two of them silently suspended directly above one of its canyons. At a distance of over a thousand light-years, a planet within the canyon, which shouldn't have shone, was exceptionally bright. Xiao Honglu's fingertip pointed directly at that planet.

“Disbod, that is the name of that planet. Our past selves were on that planet, wrestling with its native gods and creations. Unlike us now, their flaws were removed through the intervention of the Sacred Hunting Ritual.”

The floating city began to glide, and Chu Xuan handed it to Alice, who then gave it to Xiao Honglu for one-time use. The distance of thousands of light-years gradually shortened at a visible speed. The planet with its enormous presence was constantly closing in on the two of them.

“On that planet, I wouldn’t be afraid of fire because of a fire in my childhood,” Xiao Honglu said, then added, “Of course, I don’t have any particular feelings about fire now either. I can even summon the vengeful spirits who died in the fire to fight for me without any additional emotional changes.”

Zhao Zhuikong chuckled.

And the person pretended not to hear.

"Of course, it's not just me. Everyone else is the same. We entered the God's Space because of despair, but here our despair is stripped away by the God—the Overlord will still grieve for his fallen comrades, but it won't disturb his mind. Sister Mingyanwei still remembers some bad memories, but she will let them go completely here. And Zero Point, Zhang Heng, Brother Zhang Jie, everyone's flaws are eliminated here because of the ritual and the effects of that unknown power. Of course, that includes Sister Yingkong as well."

Xiao Honglu turned his head at a forty-five-degree angle, as if to retaliate against that sneer. His tone was urgent and full of certainty. "The darkness in her heart that was suppressed by the ritual will be completely shut out here. And she does not need to worry about the bad consequences caused by the integrity defects of the light of her soul."

The next moment, Zhao Zhuikong beside him erupted with an uncontrollable, sharp aura. Thousands of thin cracks appeared on the pristine stargazing platform in an instant, only to be swiftly repaired by an unknown force. He saw Zhao Zhuikong's spine spin like a rusty machine, emitting a grating crack, and his deep, dark eyes turned crimson in a flash.

“That’s really good news.” He licked his lips, a line of blood appearing on the tip of his tongue where sharp teeth had cut it, only to have it heal quickly. “A very, very, very interesting piece of good news.”

“Of course you’d be very interested, otherwise why would Sister Alice have sent me here to pick you up?” Xiao Honglu snorted. “Our past selves are flawless here, so it’s easy for them to establish their own path or gather the light of the soul. The past reflects into the present, and our timeline will merge with theirs and sublimate at the moment of their success. However, the problem is that our past selves may not take this step in this world, and before this ritual ends, we, as the present selves, cannot contact our past selves in any way.”

"You should be very clear about the principle that there cannot be two 'me's' online at the same time."

"We can't make contact... but you and Alice still sent me here." Zhao Zhuikong closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his eyes had returned from deep red to a dark abyss. "Then I guess, among the past bodies sent back here, there isn't my past body, is that right?"

“Your guess is correct, and originally there wasn’t even a past life of Sister Xilin,” Xiao Honglu replied. “I don’t know the specifics either, but I think you might be quite interested in it. The reason Sister Alice asked me to send you here at this time is so that you and Sister Yingkong can seize the opportunity to gather the light of the soul here.”

He smiled mischievously, only then did he show a bit of his childlike side.

“What one person can’t do, two people can do. What one person can’t face, two people can defeat. You’re here to help Sakura-neechan advance, using her power to defeat the demon in her heart. And after you go out, you’ll return to your current self to defeat the monster in Sakura-neechan’s heart… Although this might require some… ‘extreme’ methods. But it’s necessary, and you can control the degree of it, right?”

Zhao Zhuikong nodded silently. At this moment, he was like a blade sharpened, eager to suck blood.

“Sakura Sora…” His voice was low and hoarse. “Will gather the light of the soul in this world.”

The next moment, the surface of the crimson planet Disbod appeared before the two of them.

“That’s good. And…” Xiao Honglu’s gaze settled on a piece of airspace marked with a specific symbol. “We’ve arrived at our first stop, the place where Sister Patchouli’s current presence has made her foothold.”

"The royal city of the fairy race, one of the fifteen races—"