Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Alice felt she should say something, because this was the first time she had encountered Luo Ye without any external pressure or time constraints. And the scene wasn't in the Heart Abyss or any other random place, but in front of a large group of companions—she met this woman she didn't know how to evaluate. The problem was that all her usual cleverness and agility had vanished without a trace, leaving her speechless and unsure where to begin!

What to say?

Have you eaten? Is the weather nice? Your clothes are beautiful!

Damn! Is this something you can say in this situation?!

Alice felt a tightness in her chest, and the usually reliable Patchouli was now just watching the spectacle—no! Right now, the most unreliable person in the entire multiverse was Patchouli Knowledge!

She was almost speechless with anger!

Even though she was speechless with anger, Alice coughed softly.

"Um..." she tried hard to start a conversation.

“The fact that possessing the complete Light of the Soul would lead to being judged as an independent individual by the Main God is indeed beyond my expectations.” Luo Ye pushed up his non-prescription glasses, which he used for show—for some reason, Alice had the illusion that Luo Ye had also breathed a sigh of relief. “It was my mistake. The long battle of hunting saints made me overlook this insignificant detail. However, it won’t be a serious obstacle.”

"Ah..." Alice responded, feeling completely bewildered, her mind still reeling.

Luo Ye then raised her left hand, looking at the faint outline of the Reincarnator's Watch on her wrist—it seemed completely different from the watches of other Reincarnators. It wasn't a physical object, but rather something between reality and illusion, seemingly capable of constantly shifting according to her will. In other words, Luo Ye's Reincarnator identity was currently in a bizarre superimposed state of being observed.

"The Supreme God seems to regard me as a member of the Central Continent Team, but I should not occupy a spot in the Central Continent Team. Instead, I share your Reincarnator privileges. I can access all your reward points and side quests, and I can freely travel to any story world you have ever been to—but don't worry, I won't touch your things."

“Oh…” Alice continued awkwardly—to be honest, she probably still didn’t know what Luo Ye had just said.

How pitiful. She was clearly a true god whose computational power rivaled that of a galaxy, yet she'd been reduced to a complete idiot. Just like Miss Sirin, who could see through everything but preferred to give up thinking altogether. Alice knew that she could easily handle this situation by simply activating her computational power or adopting an emergency personality. However, the problem was… she didn't seem to intend to do that.

So Luo Ye rose from the edge of the table and walked towards an unclaimed portal on the outer side. Her thoughts were deep and obscure, making it impossible to judge from any external clues.

"Just pretend I don't exist. I won't appear before you until your next mission begins, and I should be able to handle the current matters when your next mission starts. So..." She paused for a moment.

"...Farewell."

Alice felt a heavy kick to her shin... She knew without a doubt that it was Patchouli, that completely unreliable woman, who did it. But so what if her leg bone was broken? She could still pretend she hadn't felt anything, and she could still pretend she had a prosthetic leg.

then……

A faint, shimmering light, like ripples on water, emerged from the portal to Chu Xuan's personal space. Miss Ai Ge, who should be a contender for the shortest person in all of Central China with Xiao Honglu, rushed out. Her eyes lit up when she saw Luo Ye, and she hurriedly took small steps to Luo Ye's side.

"Your Majesty Luo Ye! Your Majesty Luo Ye!"—Her voice made Luo Ye stop in his tracks.

"What is it?" Luo Ye asked calmly. "Does Chu Xuan have something to say to me?"

“That’s how it is!” Aika breathed a soft sigh of relief. “My father asked me to follow you from now on. He said he has many important projects on his plate and can’t spare the time…”

Luo Ye frowned.

“Beating around the bush, that’s not Chu Xuan’s style. He must have said something else.”

"My father said you're better at taking care of little girls..."

A soft chuckle came from somewhere in the void, then it was abruptly cut off as if someone had covered a mouth, leaving only a suppressed tremor. This made Luo Ye raise an eyebrow slightly.

"Wait for me here." She snorted coldly, turned her head, and directly pierced through the protection of Chu Xuan's personal space with a single finger before walking in. Two seconds later, she left through the door, and as she walked out, a terrifying aura, as if the world had just been created and the stars had been annihilated, surged wildly from the crack behind her!

The rift was quickly restored by the self-repairing power of the main god. Luo Ye appeared no different from when she entered. However, everyone present could see that she put her left hand in her pocket after leaving the room!

That must have been a rather unpleasant meeting for both sides. But since it was a meeting, there was bound to be a predetermined outcome—

She approached Aigo, who seemed a little uneasy.

"Lo, Your Majesty Luo Ye?"

“Two things.” She held up two fingers, then pressed down the first one. “From now on, don’t use honorifics when you see me. There’s no hierarchy in this team.”

"Yes Yes!"

“The second thing.” She glanced at another unclaimed portal beside her, reached out to open it, but found that the portal had actually taken a step back in the direction of her outstretched hand—it was clearly a portal fixed in the square, but it seemed as if it had grown legs and moved backward!

“It seems that a single reincarnator cannot acquire two personal spaces.” She emphasized the phrase “single reincarnator.” “You’ll stay here with me in this plaza from now on. I’ll try to create a demiplane on my own later… if the God of God allows me to do so.”

Where neither she nor Alice could see, Patchouli stretched out her hand and gave a thumbs-up to some point in the void.

Then, before Luo Ye could make a move, she grabbed Alice, who was now a wooden doll, and extended an invitation to Luo Ye.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to do such an unnecessary thing. After all, Alice and I have a pretty big house, and it makes no difference whether two people live there or four. If you don’t mind, Miss Luo Ye, you can come and sit with this Miss Sha Tiao, have some tea, eat something, and chat about interesting things… Alice would definitely think that would be nice too, right?”

Alice, who had been pretending to be a block of wood, suddenly widened her eyes. In an instant, her wisdom and thinking ability were completely restored under some indescribable sense of crisis. Just as she was about to do something, the true form of the deity, which resembled the Andromeda Nebula, appeared from the shadows before her and completely suppressed all her little movements. Patchouli's hands also landed on her shoulders without her noticing!

Both power and physical body are imprisoned!

【You betrayed me! Patchouli Knowledge!】—A witch who wanted to play the ostrich screamed inwardly, but her facial muscles involuntarily worked, forcing a stiff smile while her vocal cords trembled unnaturally!

“Patch-is-right, I-have-no-opinion.” Her voice and tone were so strange that they could instantly restore the confidence of even the most tongue-tied stutterer!

Luo Ye did not object to this.

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

Seconds later, the group disappeared at the entrance to Alice and Patchouli's combined personal space. Shortly after their disappearance, abnormal spatial distortions appeared in many hidden places beneath the God's sphere of light. In the blink of an eye, the once empty God's Plaza was once again packed with people.

It's rare to see Alice make a fool of herself, so it's impossible not to watch the show—absolutely impossible. It's like how the clone of Alice would specifically come to witness Chu Xuan's embarrassing moment and even take photos. With the scene changed, similar things would naturally repeat themselves. And this is probably considered a kind of team culture within the Central Continent Team…or so they say.

"So... we're just going to watch like this?" asked a certain clueless young man who didn't want to be identified.

"Otherwise what?" An unknown captain who had used his authority at a crucial moment to make the main god refuse to open the personal space again casually asked. "This is already the limit. If we interfere any more, Margot Lloyd might turn on us—trust her, she should be able to solve this problem."

He shrugged.

"After all, Miss Luo Ye helped us a lot, although I don't know exactly what she did. But I think Chu Xuan, you wouldn't mind explaining?" He looked at the bespectacled man who appeared from the entrance of the personal space, his right hand in his pocket. "After all, you entrusted that young lady to her, which should be considered your approval, right?"

“You can think of it that way.” The emotionless man pushed up his glasses. “Sajo Aika is a crucial part of my plan in the Moon World. She earned the right to join the Central Continent Team as a vassal through her performance and hard work. As for Luo Ye—without her assistance, we should have returned to the Main God Space after the main mission on Wandering Earth was over.”

“I see.” The captain of the Central Continent team nodded slightly. “In that case, it’s not so unacceptable for her to be our teammate and a member of our Central Continent team—if she’s willing to stay here.”

"Let Alice handle that herself." Finally, Ms. Sirin, who didn't bother to censor her name, offered a concluding remark. "Although she's behaving like a high school girl caught in a relationship by her mother, I believe she'll eventually manage to resolve this..."

"...After all, she is Alice."

"Alice Margot Royd".

Section Two: Sisters

Long ago, shortly after joining the cycle of reincarnation, Alice had a dream. She dreamed that one day—at least briefly—she could return to the era before she left Gensokyo. No pain, no curses, no need to consider any research projects or resource planning. Then, she could enjoy a rest, whether short or long, but absolutely thorough.

A complete rest, instead of doing what we did before, busy with all sorts of work while using a small portion of our computing power to create an avatar and pretend we're on vacation—ah, speaking of which, how long has it been since the Central Continent team took a vacation?

Alice didn't really want to think about this question. Because a true god who could interfere with the timeline and jump freely across it couldn't possibly have vacations. Even if she did in the past, she wouldn't now! She would very consciously shift unfinished but urgent work to past years, making her past self, who once had vacation time and didn't appreciate the value of work, work overtime in the past!

This wasn't just empty talk; she actually did it because she loved someone! In the final stage of the Moon World, while observing the history of her own source world, Alice 'casually' dumped a whole bunch of messy and tedious projects onto her past self, pushing many of her studies forward several notches without altering her own timeline!

[Anyway, according to Luo Ye, my past self was inherently very capable, but simply hadn't unleashed my potential. Since that's the case, I can simply extract that untapped talent for scientific research. This way, the past timeline won't be altered by my interference, and I won't have to idly watch hundreds of years of boring time in my original world... I can do both thinking and working—isn't that wonderful?]

—That's what Alice was thinking at that point in time.

For a witch like her, forget about 996, even 007 would be a tremendous blessing. After all, her only boss is herself. And she's always hated wasting time. So, working non-stop since birth is naturally the lifestyle she believes in. However, saying one thing and doing another...

...But even though she loves someone, she still occasionally wants to take a real break for a little while.

And now, her little hope, hidden deep in her heart, has finally become a reality.

But she couldn't feel happy at all.

Yes, that's right. She's currently slumped in her usual chair, looking completely blank. She's staring at the boundary of her personal space, which is now painted to resemble a beach sunset. She's doing nothing, thinking nothing. Countless important processes in her mind have all ceased operating, leaving only her long-outdated mortal senses passively receiving external natural information.

She knew the restraints on her body had been removed—or more accurately, those restraints were completely ineffective against her. She knew Patchouli was less than five meters away, but she also knew that Luo Ye was less than three meters away!

Patchouli and Loyal seemed to be talking about something… or more accurately, Patchouli was asking questions, and Loyal was answering in parts as needed. She knew she could hear them whether she listened or not, but she refused to. She felt that even if she listened, it would be useless, or rather, she felt that hearing them would be detrimental to her.

Why is it unfavorable?

Will he lose a piece of flesh, or will he ruin his reputation in his later years?

Alice didn't understand, and she was too lazy to figure it out. Her head was throbbing terribly, and she refused to think about anything, whether complicated or simple. Then—a faint fragrance slightly stirred her senses.

aroma?

At first, she thought it would be the 'girlish fragrance' that would worsen her headache. However, when the mixed molecules of spices and ingredients were detected by her long-dormant olfactory cells, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief—she then remembered that Luo Ye shouldn't have any scent. Yes, Luo Ye never adjusted her figure or appearance. In Alice's mind, she even had difficulty judging whether Luo Ye, aside from secondary sexual characteristics, could even be considered a woman.

"Woman"—perhaps that's not quite accurate. "Humanoid intelligent life form" might be a more fitting term. After all, everyone has a love of beauty. Even Alice herself had made minor adjustments to her appearance and habits to conform to Patchouli's aesthetic standards. But in her memory, every time she saw Loyal, it seemed he never made any changes or modifications to her appearance.

—Perhaps this is also part of the "unchanging"? Alice wasn't sure. But as she shifted her gaze slightly, she immediately saw the source of the fragrance.

Oh, so it was them.

That was Ai-ka, whom Patchouli had invited in with Luo-ye. She consciously changed into a maid outfit and then busied herself around the little devil, who had recently become extremely invisible, and Shanghai Penglai, who was almost invisible. They prepared food, set up a campfire, and many other picnic supplies in the makeshift kitchen.

Luo Ye did find a well-behaved and sensible little follower—no, perhaps she should be considered Chu Xuan's follower? Well, that's probably not accurate either. After all, in Chu Xuan's understanding, there are probably only two kinds of things: 'experimental materials' and 'non-experimental materials,' and this Miss Sha Tiao would undoubtedly be classified as the former—if this poor little girl really stayed by Chu Xuan's side all the time, she might one day become 'research waste' or some strange finished product prop. So it seems that following Luo Ye might actually be the result of her own efforts.

How terrible, how pathetic.

Alice never hesitated to speculate about Chu Xuan with the deepest malice, and the facts often proved that Chu Xuan's position was several levels deeper than she imagined. If the ninth level of the Underworld was Satan's abode, then Chu Xuan would probably have to dig nine more levels down, all the way to the eighteenth or nineteenth, before finding a place worthy of him—but Alice was never too worried about that, because Chu Xuan was always watching Zheng Zha, just as she herself was always being watched by Luo Ye.

Ah... I'm being stared at by Luo Ye.

Her head started to ache again. The few thoughts she'd had earlier were finally stirring up trouble in her brain—she knew she'd have to face this problem sooner or later. And now that she was out of her slump, it was time to take action… or at least start thinking.

What exactly does Luo Ye mean to me?

She still remembered the first time she encountered the physical form of Luo Ye—it was a very distant past, the time when she first came into contact with her inner demons. And when she first met Luo Ye, her attitude towards this guy who 'claimed to be her abandoned past' was actually one of disdain.

Yes, disdain. Because back then, she knew nothing, simply believing that Luo Ye was just an ordinary inner demon encountered when unlocking the fourth stage of the gene lock—she didn't even think Luo Ye was a true inner demon, but rather regarded it as something similar to an inner demon, but essentially just cellular distractions. After all, in that distant past, she always believed that her inner demon would only be Patchouli.

She didn't believe Luo Ye was her inner demon, so she naturally treated him with strategic contempt—and subsequently easily 'defeated' him. Perhaps even Luo Ye himself thought he had been defeated at that moment.

After all, perception is gradually revised as knowledge and information grow. With each advancement in her life level, the hidden knowledge within the Abyss of the Heart, the Abyss of Death, and even the Path of Sagehood is repeatedly unlocked. Her understanding of Luo Ye also changes time and again. Sometimes she believes Luo Ye and herself are two sides of the same coin; sometimes she thinks they are different facets of the same individual. And in her most complex moments, she even believes Luo Ye is the true essence, while she herself is merely a superfluous inner demon!

To be honest, if Luo Ye really was her inner demon, then Luo Ye would have had at least three opportunities to devour her completely, leaving not a trace—but if we reverse the situation, perhaps it's precisely because Luo Ye isn't her inner demon, but something closely related to her, yet impossible to define, that she hesitated repeatedly, to the point that she still can't make an accurate judgment.

Ah…that’s right. The reason I’m so troubled by these complicated thoughts is because I can’t figure out what you are to me at all. Luo Ye, should I call you my other half, or my sister, or perhaps…

……my mom?】

"Actually, it doesn't matter which one it is, because all three answers are correct on some level." Luo Ye's voice suddenly rang in her ears.

In that instant, she was so frightened that her heart stopped beating.

"No need to be so nervous, I won't do anything to you." Luo Ye reached out, seemingly wanting to pat Alice's head. But before his fingertips touched the ends of her hair, he paused, subtly shifting his movement slightly, and then casually rested his hand on the back of the sun lounger.

“I will not hurt you, Alice,” she said softly.

On the outside, the beach under the setting sun has been transformed into a sky full of stars under the night sky. A bright moon hangs high in the sky, and the moonlight casts a reflection on the sea, making the waves look like fish scales. The night wind blows, and the continuous waves echo in the wind like a low sob.

The campfire was already burning, and Patchouli was talking to Sajo Aika on the other side of the fire—or rather, Patchouli was giving Sajo a one-sided lecture and guidance—the fire flickered, and the incomplete burning of the charcoal produced a crackling noise. Without using any perception beyond the level of mortals, this side and that side could be regarded as two separate parts.

It's a bit like burying your head in the sand, but better than nothing. And then...

Alice took a deep breath.