Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Her mission was finally accomplished.

Then, she became involved in an event that would determine centuries of war and peace. And...

...She never came back.

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

Thus, the timeline and spatial axis aligned correctly. Amidst the vast stars of this trial grounds, a girl with purple hair and purple eyes opened her eyes.

A faint light struggled and flickered deep within her eyes, but it was quickly and completely suppressed by another unknown force. Although it still burned stubbornly and had not yet been extinguished, it was also suppressed to the deepest darkness, leaving only a flickering ember.

"Mortals always like to be self-righteous. This was true in the past, and it is true now."

She glanced at the reincarnation watch on her wrist. Suddenly, she let out a soft chuckle and laughed.

"So you've actually fallen to this level."

"...Fuxi".

Chapter Twenty: Patchouli Knowledge II

She blinked, gazing at the vast expanse of space amidst the stars and somewhere beyond that space, seemingly oblivious to Hu Hai's fury. Only when her gaze pierced through space and landed on a distant, ancient land beyond this trial universe did her delicate brows furrow slightly.

Her things, her power, were cut off.

Her legacy, her treasures, her achievements and her spiritual attainments were transformed.

She let out a soft sigh of relief.

"I made two mistakes in my foolish life, two things I deeply regret, things that led me to this state."

She raised her hand, and the stars throughout the entire celestial realm resonated with her. The stars became active, the planets trembled incessantly, and the inhabitants of the celestial bodies screamed and scattered in terror. In the next instant, the Qin officials who ruled the star field, the extraordinary beings holding the position of village chief, unleashed their power to suppress the earth, only to be eroded and suppressed by an even greater force in the blink of an eye!

"You scoundrel, how dare you!" Hu Hai's anger manifested as a tangible shout. Although it sounded like an accusatory tone, it was as mechanical as a machine, devoid of any emotional fluctuation. His words traveled across the vast universe, and countless forces that roamed the cosmos immediately amplified them!

A colossal magical sword, formed from words, appeared in the star field where the girl resided. This was the Tai'a Sword, the Emperor's Sword! Its edge was the supreme imperial authority, its hilt the radiant sunlight, its spine the magnificent mountains and rivers, its guard the vast oceans, and its clasps the prayers of countless beings. It embraced the star map of the Qin Realm, enveloping the workings of spacetime. Above it reached the heavens, and below it shattered the earth!

And then the blade slashed downwards!

The girl's form shattered in an instant, and along with it, a desolate planet behind her and the vast void beyond it were also shattered and dissected. Yet the girl's voice did not cease!

"The first thing I regret is that I sympathized with humanity and sided with them during the war that created the world."

The core of an administrative planet suddenly trembled, and in the next instant, the extraordinary life force suppressing the planet was eroded, assimilated, and twisted into the form and appearance of a young girl. She snapped her fingers, and in the same instant, everything on the entire planet, living or dead, transformed into her, and the planet became her new body!

The ocean merged with the earth, becoming her blood along with the magma. The continental plates stretched outwards, extending to become her limbs. Dense vegetation grew, obscuring the sky, forming her garments that enveloped her body. And the star core pounded violently like a heart, melting the rock layers, causing her form to return to its delicate state.

The Emperor's Sword struck again, but this time she caught the blade with her five fingers and with a little force, the transgressive light blade, which was a fraction of a light inch long, shattered and transformed into layers of radiant light that formed a decorative wheel behind her.

"Being an enemy of the Source of Diversity has cost me dearly, even though I'm not even worthy of her glancing at me. My position as the leader of the stars, the one who governs billions of stars in the cosmos, has been demoted. From the East to the West, from Doumu Yuanjun to the Mother of Night, Nix, who can't even touch a single star..."

She turned her gaze, and the nearest star collapsed and disintegrated at the edge of her vision, then reassembled in her hand, transforming into an open scroll.

"...Zhunti, Zhunti, you've picked a good peach."

In many mythologies, the two individuals, Cundi Bodhisattva and Doumu Yuanjun, are intertwined and confused. Since the original Doumu Yuanjun has passed away, the Doumu Yuanjun who now enjoys a prominent reputation in the multiverse is, in essence, an incarnation of the former Cundi.

Ah…this is how wars between sages are. The traces of the loser are either completely erased, as if they never existed in the first place, or their traces, their history, their achievements, and their world are devoured by the victor, becoming one of his incarnations. And it is precisely because of this that, although there are only a few dozen sages in the primordial heavens, there are so many gods, Buddhas, immortals, and demons in the multiverse.

She slowly unfurled the book, and in the next instant, the second Emperor's Sword, which had traveled across billions of light-years, arrived in this region of the sky. Its power was a hundred times greater than the first, as if it were about to burn this star field, which spanned countless light-years, to ashes!

However, when the sword struck down on her head, it was like a gentle breeze brushing past an illusion.

Missed?

No, it hit. Because this sword could only break her before she opened the scroll. But when she opened the scroll and built a defense, the sword light fell on the billions of stars in this star field. In an instant, the bodies of all the mortals in this star field were directly separated, and their souls were completely extracted!

"Oh, so you move your people off the battlefield as soon as possible so that your will and power can fully settle here?" The girl tilted her head slightly and blinked. "He really is a mortal emperor... Ah, that's right, that's how it should be, to protect one's own people and kill all foreign enemies or foreign enemies who claim to be allies. If only I had figured that out sooner back then."

She clearly watched as the countless souls extracted were reshaped into bodies on the distant shores of the starry sky. And immediately afterward, boundless radiance suddenly descended from the endless void.

Her new body disintegrated once again.

The cascading, dazzling light melted away the vegetation, decomposed the earth, evaporated lava and iron, and her form was completely destroyed from this place.

However, as her physical form crumbled, the Scroll of the Sun in her hand remained perfectly intact. And in the very next instant, the scroll, now unattended, turned to the next page.

Patchouli's path is a secretive one, drawing upon the stars to record and preserve all knowledge found wherever starlight reaches. Her power is to know all laws of the world; nothing that theoretically has the potential to be deciphered or replicated remains a secret in her eyes.

Her past life shared the same path as hers, using her body, and naturally, she was also able to wield the power she possessed.

"My second regret is that I didn't side with any of the races during the Great War of the Myriad Races. Was I influenced by that red, stinking ditch? Or was I misled by my friendship with Fuxi? Ah... I was so foolish to stand idly by with my compatriots. I actually thought that helping you would bring me rewards."

A pale, slender hand emerged from the book, and the book's dimensions shrank and thinned as the rest of the body appeared. Finally, when the book returned to the size of a mortal's hand, it landed peacefully in the hands of the girl, who had also returned to a tiny form.

This happened in an instant; Hu Hai's radiance still lingered, but it had no effect whatsoever on the entire process of the girl's reshaping.

Not only that, but that radiance became the girl's own power. Because she had broken through it and mastered the method to control it.

And that boundless light gathered in her hands, becoming part of the structure of the book in her hands.

“I made a mistake. I should have realized that there has never been any trust between races. I should have realized that I still had value to you back then, which is why I didn’t encounter hostility. Even though I was demoted from a True Saint to a High Saint, I still have a huge influence among my compatriots.”

She clenched her fist slightly. She witnessed a huge rift opening in space and a palm emerging—a palm exceeding ten light-minutes in size, a pure manifestation of force, because Hu Hai, faced with her elaborate and dazzling display, chose to crush her with the purest and simplest power.

Everything has its weaknesses, and every technique has its blind spots. However, even to exploit weaknesses and blind spots, the opponent needs to possess a certain level of 'mass'. Otherwise, even if the most vulnerable point is exposed, what can you do with strength that can't even budge a hair?

Obviously, nothing can be done.

After all, this is a trial world under the watchful eyes of the main god; if there are no sages here, then there are no sages here. If the 'First God' is the strongest, then a power stronger than the 'First God Huhai' wouldn't suddenly appear out of nowhere.

The powerful hand closed, crushing the ten-light-divided region into chaos where even spacetime structure ceased to exist. The girl and the book she held were instantly reduced to dust. However, the next moment, in another celestial region, the girl's form reappeared in a mortal city on an ordinary planet.

“I have deep regrets, because by the time I felt regret, the reckoning had already begun. The mortals who had suppressed all races began to purge their alien allies. And I and my people were the first to be affected.”

She reached out and touched the earth beneath her feet amidst the bewildered gazes of the mortals. The earth responded with silence, for this star, like all other stars in the universe, was merely a dead corpse.

“I am the leader of all stars, the very first star to be born. Even if I am demoted, I am still the banner and leader of billions of star souls. Fuxi, Fuxi, you tool. Everything you promised me back then was nothing but waste.”

Many, many, many years ago, all the stars possessed souls, and all celestial bodies were independent and ancient, colossal life forms. They perched high in the heavens, watching the myriad races vie for power as if observing a monkey show. For even though they were among the myriad races of the primordial era, the other races held no interest in them whatsoever.

What can monkeys bring to the earth? What can reptiles provide for the celestial bodies?

It's meaningless and worthless, just like bubbles in ink have nothing to do with fish swimming in the deep sea. They belong to completely different realms, so why force them into one?

There was no need, so the Star Souls simply gazed silently at their feet, or rather, at the earth upon them. Until one day…

"Cooperate with us humans! There is no hatred or conflict of interest between us. We need your strength, and with our help, you can achieve a peaceful world."

A strange and powerful human arrived on the most primordial star in the multiverse, awakening a celestial body that had silently observed for countless years. This human claimed to be Gu from the Pan tribe, and he wished to carve out a new world for his people.

His proposal was actually quite unappealing, yet the original Star Soul still responded. Was it because it was influenced by the blood-red river? Or because this human had piqued its interest? It's unknown, and it doesn't matter. And after that, humanity, which sought to create a new world, gained a powerful ally.

After the creation of the world ended, Gu died. The original star soul also fell into a deep slumber. When it awoke again, it discovered that a large portion of its authority and power had been plundered by a human named Zhunti. And when it attempted to take some action, a human claiming to be Fuxi, along with the man named Zhunti, knelt before it, refusing to yield.

"Hello, I am Fuxi. I am the successor of the ancients." The human's voice was gentle, completely different from the ancients'. "I know you are angry, but Fellow Daoist Zhunti was severely injured in the battle of creation and had no choice but to borrow some of your power to sustain his life. Please calm down for now, and we will give you sufficient compensation."

Compensation? Where is the compensation?

The ancient star soul initially wanted to refuse angrily, but ultimately hesitated... This human was Gu's successor. So, it decided to give Gu face and spare him this time.

It thought this, and then it wondered why it had to give face to humans, while humans didn't need to give face to it.

Does bending your knee count as giving yourself face?

She didn't understand, or rather, she understood, but didn't continue thinking about it.

After that, it gathered its remaining power and rebuilt its degraded status, waiting for the promised compensation or the return of authority. But it waited a long time.

It waited and waited, until the final battle between all races and humanity arrived. But when it felt it could no longer wait, the man named Fuxi sent an avatar devoid of power, bringing with it a chessboard.

"Let's play chess," said the man named Fuxi. "Gu has always regretted not having played chess with you back then. Can you make up for that regret?"

"I can leave later." It intended to leave. However, before it left, it saw through the structure of this avatar.

It turns out that the reckless man back then really did have the idea of ​​playing chess with it, and this incarnation is the manifestation of that idea.

"You can only descend now," Fuxi's avatar said to it. "I can no longer return to my original form and will soon disappear."

He was telling the truth, so Xinghun finished the game of chess with him.

Both he and it knew what was happening outside, what would happen, but they still continued playing chess.

Once the game was over, everything was settled.

Then, it saw Fuxi, the other sages, those who had fought alongside it and were called comrades-in-arms, and Zhunti, who dared to appear before it again.

"All races have been destroyed, my friend. I have come to fulfill the covenant we made long ago." Fuxi looked at it, his voice still as gentle and kind as it had been back then.

"What kind of alliance was it?" It couldn't even remember what happened back then.

"It's an alliance between you and Gu. You help us, and we'll give you a peaceful world."

After that, it only saw endless light.

Ah...a peaceful world. When everyone's dead, we naturally become closer.

When she opened her eyes again, the great era of humanity had arrived. She had become the daughter of the king of a small kingdom in the western part of the primordial world. She saw all her compatriots dead, leaving only their corpses for mortals to dig up and use at will, as if that land had belonged to them from the very beginning.

She regretted it, but it was too late.

She knew that the reason she was able to wake up was because the karma she carried was too heavy; those humans simply didn't dare let her die so easily.

"We have prepared a path for you, a path to ascend from mortal to sage. You don't need to do anything, just be a well-behaved little princess. Then you can become a sage again, an immortal star." — The messenger of Fuxi appeared before her, because she was no longer worthy of Fuxi's personal visit.

Ah… those mortals have quite the idea. Once she becomes part of the stars again as a human, she will also become part of humanity. The former Star Soul race will cease to exist, and all these stars will become land for mortals to use at will.

It's hateful, but what's the use of hate?

Its greatest use is simply to prevent the other party from getting what they want.

Therefore, even though the legend of Andromeda circulates among the diverse worlds, in the history of the primordial celestial realm, the girl named Andromeda chose to die at the last moment before ascending to heaven.

That was her only chance to move freely. Even so…

"Even so, the cause and effect of that year were partially erased by mortals through such means... because they did indeed fulfill their promise. Because I myself gave up the opportunity to return to the Lord of the Stars."

She raised her head, gazing at the star that had somehow been replaced by a ravaged, scorched sun. She looked at the boundless, parched land before her, and at the girl named Luo Ye who had appeared before her.

"Do you regret it?" Luo Ye pushed up his glasses and asked.

“Of course I regret it,” she replied. “But regret is worthless; revenge is what matters.”

"Even if mortals do fulfill their promises?" Luo Ye asked again.

“The agreement was based on the premise of no hatred. But now, I hate them. So I must come back to life.” She opened the scroll in her hands. “Let’s finish this quickly, you don’t want to face that powerful monster here, do you?”

Luo Ye nodded and drew a worn-out sword from his hand.