Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

She could still feel her heart beating, but a chilling current, deeper than the coldest winter in her memory, gradually enveloped her heart.

“I…” She looked at her hands. “…I just didn’t want to be bullied…”

'Thud—' A sharp pain suddenly shot through her back as an ornately decorated sword pierced through her back and emerged from her chest. She could actually feel the sudden opening of the spatial rift and the sword blade, but she didn't really want to resist or dodge.

Then more swords, knives, axes, and spears shot out from the numerous spatial rifts around her. Piercing her chest, piercing her lungs, penetrating her heart, stabbing her in the stomach—in an extremely short instant, at least a hundred weapons imbued with powerful curses or other effects pierced through her, pinning her firmly to this frozen earth.

Her strength and life were draining away, accompanied by excruciating pain caused by the curse. She knew she could turn things around at any time, that she could easily escape if she wanted to, and even take down another Han Yang, but she didn't want to do that at all.

She looked up, and as her eyes were pierced by a rapier, she saw a blond man hovering in mid-air. His crimson eyes held only a coldness more solid than ice, and he held a spinning spiral sword in his hand.

She knew he had nothing to say to her, and she had nothing to say either.

In the moment her vision dimmed, she heard the serpent god's furious roar, the heat currents and frost sweeping in from the south and east, and the wrath of the ancient gods from the far north. She heard... a mournful song from the ocean, drawing ever closer to the land every second.

It was all over. The earth began to crack, and stars rained down like a storm. Shocked by the loss of control, the Old Gods no longer cared about maintaining the alliance, and recklessly tore down endless lightning and fire from the heavens. A colossal bull of the heavens and another sun lord clashed, while the frost of the underworld spread across the land, greedily swallowing all living things into the dead.

All the goddesses decided to protect humanity in their own way, and all the goddesses considered each other to be enemies. The enraged serpent goddess indiscriminately sought out the Golden King. And when the divinity within the serpent goddess, which was not her own, faded, the primordial mother, grieving the loss of her beloved son, took her first steps onto the earth.

Because she killed people who shouldn't have died, everything in this era is over.

As she finally plunged into endless darkness, she seemed to see a huge, indistinct circular table in the sky above the heavens.

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

At the same time—or at some other point in time.

In Chaldea, Dr. Roman, who was taking a break from his busy schedule to fish, suddenly awoke from a light dream. He felt his heart pounding, and a sense of utter foreboding instantly overwhelmed him.

“Romani?” someone asked in his ear.

He ignored the voice completely; the panic coursing through his body compelled him to manipulate Chaldea's main computer and allocate all computing resources to the Seventh Singularity—

The next moment, Olga Marie's scream suddenly rang out in the control room!

"Immediately recall Fujimaru from the singularity! Immediately! Right now!"

Section 21: The Pause After the Jump

Around the table.

"I oppose this development." Zheng Zha frowned, a rare occurrence, and looked at his companions with a serious expression: "To entrust a massive power comparable to the upper limit of the fourth level to a little girl whose mind may not be entirely sound and whose past experiences are somewhat antisocial. And to deliberately amplify certain extreme emotions in her head... What are you doing? Norrell, are you making a cherry bomb?"

"Disposable cherry bombs? What exactly do you mean by going to all this trouble?"

"It was just an experiment, and also part of the plan." Patchouli's words were indifferent and detached. "Her personality is suitable, easy to mold, and certain targeted actions can make her a crucial part of the script I've woven—for example, she was completely insignificant to the overall story before, but after destroying a world, she naturally became one of the supporting characters..."

“Every change and action of Anastasia is within my calculations,” Patchouli emphasized again. “Everything. She is destined to use all her power when faced with the first danger, and it doesn’t matter what the target of her destruction is.”

The deceased princess already had her place in the gods' script. It was unchangeable. And since everything was under Patchouli's control, then the true identity of the voice the princess heard in the eternal darkness, that thing that resembled Alaya…

"Wait a minute." Zheng Zha rubbed his forehead and interrupted, "If all of this was really orchestrated by you from beginning to end, and you did it intentionally, aren't you afraid that those two guys will suddenly..."

"No, it's not that big. Besides, the gradual probing has already yielded the corresponding conclusions." Alice replied calmly, "Flora overturned the seas in the Third Singularity, destroyed the North American ley lines in the Fifth Singularity, and almost created a world fault in the Sixth Singularity. These repeated probing attempts are enough to prove that those two don't care about some of the subtle changes in this projection stage. Because the protagonist can't die and won't die, the story can continue indefinitely. And as long as it can continue, we won't be held accountable."

She shrugged. "And from beginning to end, we've only used interference to influence this stage. Since we're not on the chessboard, those two could easily take us down without wasting even a fraction of their effort at this crucial moment in the struggle."

“Everything is still under control.” Alice withdrew her hands, folded them together, and formed the shape of a tower. “These subtle changes cannot alter the grand scheme we have created. Or rather, such an action is itself an important step in creating this ‘grand scheme’.”

Zheng Zha was speechless. He sat in his seat and pondered for a few seconds.

"What...do you take people for?" His tone was devoid of any additional emotion; it was simply a question.

“We treat people as people,” Patchouli replied quietly. “A person is a person, Homo sapiens, a bipedal, upright, vertebrate intelligent being. That’s all. There’s no need to fill it with too many titles or conceptual parameters. Captain Zheng Zha, as a true god whose heaven and earth decay but whose spirit is immortal, you should look at those mortal things with the right perspective. Don’t presume to add unnecessary burdens to yourself just because they have similar external biological structures to you.”

She paused slightly: "If you really care, why not take care of the Earth in your world of origin—that's where your true kin live. Even pity for the weak should have its limits, and I think you should be well aware of that."

"...Do others think the same way?"

“Brother Zheng Zha.” Xiao Honglu’s fingertip scrolled through a card, which depicted the changing times and the rise and fall of kingdoms. “You and I both know that death has many levels. Moreover, the situation here is very special.”

"This is the platform for the struggle for supremacy, destined to become the resources of the victor at the end of the story. All living things, food, glory, and sorrow will ultimately become worthless. Flora, Hinako Akuta, Ritsuka Fujimaru, even if they shake hands and make peace, even if they work together to restore humanity, at the end of the story, if the victor is the one from the primordial era, then all the efforts and sacrifices will cease to exist. But if it is another one, then beyond the annihilation of all things, there is a small possibility that everything will flow back to the time before the reincarnators descended and before the struggle for supremacy began."

“During this time, everything we do will leave no trace,” Zhang Jie continued. “Whether we destroy the world or save it, aside from our own gains, it will all be for nothing.”

“Brother Zheng, our role from the beginning has always been to profit from the struggle for power. Like hyenas on the African savanna waiting for the lions to finish off the deer before scrambling for the scraps,” Zhan Lan interjected. “Regardless, this ‘deer’ is doomed; the only question is how badly the lions will devour it. Are you, as the alpha dog of what isn’t the strongest hyena pack, planning to lead us to challenge the lions’ authority?”

"If so, I'll go along with it. I don't care about the others, as long as you're sure you really want to do it."

So the focus returned to Zheng Zha, who then turned his gaze toward Alice.

“Zheng Zha, if you feel it’s not appropriate, then we can start all over again,” Alice replied, casually pushing the table so that a projection of the Mesopotamian continent appeared in the center. The positions of several gods were specially marked and lit up, but even the most powerful True Tiamat was not considered unapproachable in the eyes of the reincarnators present.

“We certainly cannot, and should not, interfere with time on this stage. But we can move all the molecules and atoms in that world to a state one hour ago. A few mere native gods can be defeated until they lose their memory. All the dead can return, all the pain can be erased, and everything will be restored as if it never happened. Then we can decide on a new arrangement.”

"Can we simply smooth over all the etched scars and forget all the painful memories, as if nothing ever happened?" Zheng Zha's brows furrowed deeply, like a tangled storm.

“Yes, for mortals,” Alice replied calmly. “We did something like this once before in the old world of The Wandering Earth. And you were deeply involved in it.”

“But not for us,” Zheng Zha nodded. “Not for me.”

He rose from his seat, his fingers tapping the table. “My companions, my trust in you has not changed, nor will it. I do not deny that my subsequent actions, even in my own eyes, were quite foolish and reckless. But even so, my views will not change.”

He gazed upon the Mesopotamian land beneath the table, where the war between the gods had dragged all things into twilight. Except for the mortals of Imanithyc, all living things had perished. The primordial sea washed over the lifeless land; the old era was drawing to a close.

The Holy Grail has been destroyed, and this world will soon lose even its status as a singularity, transforming into something completely detached from the original timeline. Of course, the story will continue. Because the 'protagonist' still exists. Although their true identity cannot be fully confirmed, they inevitably remain. However, only the 'protagonist' remains.

He looked away.

“I have absolutely no interest in the life and death of those mortals. After all, Norrell is right. Rather than worrying about the mortal kingdoms of another world, I should extend my compassion to my neighbors in the source world. People who can’t even take care of their own family and friends but are busy with the affairs of another world… I don’t want to judge such people, nor do I want to become one of them.”

He gently clenched his fist.

"I just can't stand... that higher life forms regard everything that lower life forms cherish, protect, and struggle for as worthless waste, or even as dust that they wouldn't bother to pay attention to... I just can't stand this kind of thing."

“My friends, the path I walk is a path of pioneering. I want to pave a way forward for these people… no, for this world. By my own means.”

"Even if it means you have to directly face the power of a saint, for this temporary stage that doesn't even deserve a script that can be repeated and is destined to perish forever?" Alice asked calmly.

Zheng Zha did not answer.

"Excuse me." He simply nodded to the others. Then, he took a step away from the edge of the table.

A blazing star fell from the highest heavens and quickly disappeared into the endless dark void.

An awkward silence immediately fell around the table.

One minute.

Two minutes.

three minutes.

Around the table, someone chuckled and whispered.

"Why did it have to come to this?" she said softly to the unidentified target while devouring the delicious food in front of her, which she had been eating for who knows how long. "Wouldn't it have been better to proceed gradually? Why escalate the conflict to the point where it has come to this?"

“But this is part of the gradual process,” Alice replied calmly. “Zheng Zha knows what he is doing and what we want him to do. His ‘going down’ from here was already part of the plan. What we’ve done is simply to create a suitable reason for him, to give him the motivation and external factors to ‘go down’.”

"Oh?" Sirin put down her knife and fork, chuckling softly. "It seems the relationships within our team are indeed quite complicated. Well, he should go down, but what about us? As members of the Central Continent team, are we just going to sit here in a safe place and watch our captain walk into the dead end?"

“Of course we’ll go down too, just at a different time and in a different place.” Alice pressed her temples and said calmly, “Sirin, don’t you feel it? After reaching the middle of the fourth stage, fully consolidating this stage and reaching the limit, is there no way forward?”

"Power is inexhaustible, the body is indestructible, the soul is immortal, and the will is free from obscurity. As a life form, the True God stage has reached the upper limit of a single universe. What remains is merely an increase in scale without creating any fundamental difference. We cannot learn from the paths of our predecessors, because their paths are all traps. If our predecessors are still alive, following them will result in being corrupted by the Dao and becoming a part of them. If our predecessors are dead, then such actions may very well turn us into provisions for their resurrection."

"We cannot use those powerful treasures, such as innate spiritual treasures and great artifacts, to improve our level, because that would only turn us into the human form of those so-called treasures. As for those so-called elixirs and miraculous medicines, they are utter nonsense. They may be able to turn mortals into extraordinary beings, close to true gods. But they are useless to true gods, because if they were useful, they would inevitably be another manifestation of Dao erosion."

“We have nowhere else to go but to forge our own path. And the only known ways to do that are to forge our own path are two.”

"Either, we slowly accumulate it over an eternity so long that even time and matter lose their meaning, until one day we reach that boundary. Or..."

Celine continued, "Either stride confidently on the edge of death and annihilation, and prove yourself." The doubt and self-mockery on her face had turned into a bitter smile: "So becoming stronger is such a heavy thing... Alice, I always thought you were the kind of person who wouldn't act unless you had a 90% chance of winning... Don't you have a better way?"

“Admitting one’s incompetence is indeed difficult, but I’ve tried many times.” Alice picked up a cup of coffee that had appeared out of thin air and took a small sip. “From a true god to a spirit, without the risk of erosion, I really can’t think of a better way. The vortex of the struggle for the Dao among saints is certainly dangerous, but this is the safest opportunity for advancement that I can predict. After all, neither of the two saints has any subjective malice towards us, and whether we hide in a safe place and get a drop of soup, or take a risk and grab ten or a hundred drops, it doesn’t make much difference to them.”

"There's always some risk involved."

She spoke softly, her thoughts drifting to the prediction records she had carefully sealed away. In those records, the only mention was twice of how to advance from No. 4 Middle School to No. 4 High School.

During a conversation between someone and a member of the Demon Team, it was learned that Zheng Zha, who was stuck at the limit of the fourth tier and unable to make any progress, had fought against an unknown being named Da Yunyang, whose level was definitely above the fourth tier. The final result was that Zheng Zha was marked with a terrible injury that even the main god could not heal. When he recovered from that injury with immense willpower and luck, he successfully unlocked the fourth-tier high-level gene lock and became an immortal being of the first level of spirit rank.

The second instance was the final battle of the predicted cycle, where the original Zheng Zha, through Zhao Yingkong's temporary blessing, briefly broke through and, at that time, reached the Quasi-Saint stage, fought a desperate battle against the clone who was already above the Fourth High level. Although the clone used about the size of the Pacific Ocean, it is an indisputable fact that the original Zheng Zha became a Fourth High level figure through this battle.

In other words, both methods require fighting and surviving an expert at least at the Quasi-Saint level. Only then can one have a chance to advance from the Fourth Middle School to the Fourth High School. But how does one find a Quasi-Saint to fight to the death right now? Should one go to the world of Death God Apocalypse and fight against the Heavenly Emperor of the Netherworld?

That's obviously courting death!

Then her thoughts returned, and she sighed softly.

“This is indeed the lowest-risk opportunity,” she repeated. “I’ve reached a level where I need to take this risk. Zheng Zha has too. And it won’t be long before Xilin, Zhao Yingkong, Zhao Zhuikong… and others who are suppressing their own cultivation levels will all have to face this problem.”

“Zheng Zha understands and is aware of this, so he went down using the excuse we made. Acting according to cause and effect is more appropriate than rushing down without reason. Although this reason is rather far-fetched, it is still the reason that has created this connection. And since there is a connection, the resistance will be a little less.”

She looked at the other people whose names she had mentioned.

"In this incident, Patchi and I have prepared more than one 'destiny'. Some of them are causally aligned with your paths. If you are willing, you can naturally go down. If not, then I have some other arrangements."

She looked at the others, and they looked at her. A few moments later, several more members of the group around the table silently disappeared.

Her gaze then fell upon Chu Xuan, and she nodded slightly.

The 'game' is ultimately just a game, merely a safety net for the Central Continent team members who are not yet ready to participate in this Daoist struggle, ensuring they don't end up empty-handed and have something to do. Now, with the arrival time for the other participants drawing ever closer, it's time for those eager for a rich reward to join the fray.

Section 22: The Overture After the Rest

"One last question before we leave." — Before the Round Table meeting adjourned, someone asked Alice, "Should we reverse all the molecules and atoms on the stage back to their state an hour ago, and then start all over again?"

“No,” Alice replied calmly. “That’s not something we should do, and we don’t have the power to interfere to that extent right now. Besides, this stage for the struggle is much more solid than you think. Even though it’s just a projection, the script will evolve into new developments even if we ignore it.”

"...Does that mean history will repeat itself? That's quite different from the previous theory. The anchor point formed by the Holy Grail should still be effective. Or are you planning to take the greatest risk and directly interfere with time controlled by the saints?"

"The theory is sound, but I will not interrupt or interfere with the time on this stage. Because someone will do it for me. Don't forget, this stage, the starry sky outside this stage, and the vortex of origin above this starry sky are all manifestations of the two saints. Strictly speaking, there is no truly independent creature on that land below, because their essence is an infinite fraction of the two saints."

“I see…” The questioner nodded. “We can’t do it because we dare not, because we are afraid that if we do it, we will be corrupted by the Dao and unknowingly become part of the saints. And those below are originally part of the saints, so as long as they can obtain the means, they can interfere with time at will… just like nerves control muscles.”

Alice agreed. "Just like nerves control muscles."

"What is the meaning of everything Captain Zheng Zha has done and will do? Is it to help a bunch of cells escape from their host? Or to help a drop of water leave the ocean where all the waters gather?"

"It's meaningless, but perhaps that's what they call a man's romance."

"...What the hell is this?"

"Pursuing unattainable dreams, seeking unreachable bubbles. To knowingly do the impossible, yet still do it—this folly and arrogance is precisely the embodiment of so-called male romance. Of course, the same meaning can be extended, for example, to a man's promises..."

"That sounds stupid."

"It's not just that it seems stupid, it's just that it's really stupid. But ignorance and arrogance aren't without their merits, so let it be... Do you have any other questions?"