Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

She felt her head throbbing violently, and the enormous thing slumbering deep within her thoughts, like a giant whale in the deep sea, revealed only a few scales on the surface of her mind.

Something is about to wake up.

Something ancient and slumbering casts a sleepy glance toward the surface of my mind.

In the dim light, she saw the vast ocean that represented her thoughts, and the magnificent image hidden beneath that ocean of thoughts.

It was a young girl with purple hair and golden eyes, her eyes, which had not yet gathered divine light, held a slanted cross pattern. She was enveloped in a golden-white dress that she could hardly describe in detail, but which instantly filled her mind with concepts of 'elegance' and 'nobility'. Behind her, six distinct and constantly shifting powers floated.

And from that swirling vortex of power, whispers echoed in her ear.

【……coupling.】

Step out.

The ocean collapsed in an instant, and the slumbering girl transformed into countless bubbles that scattered in all directions. Vision was filled with darkness in a moment, then immediately returned to light.

The moment her intellect returned, she found herself standing at the gate of Alice's villa.

She suddenly had a feeling, a feeling that she could connect with everything in the world, temporarily regard them as part of herself, and thus change her spatial coordinates. But this feeling came and went quickly, disappearing without a trace like a phantom in the blink of an eye, and her hand was already on the doorbell of the mansion.

'Ding-dong—Ding-dong—'

The doorbell rang, and the door opened.

She stepped inside, leaving behind all the noise and mundane world.

It was strange; despite having just gained new power, she felt no surprise whatsoever. It was as if it were her hands and feet, the tips of her hair, a tiny part of herself that she rightfully possessed. And with another step forward, she went from downstairs to upstairs.

She watched as Alice poured a cup of black tea into the trash can and then threw the trash can into the sun—this was extraordinary, something absolutely beyond the reach of ordinary people, yet it seemed perfectly normal to her. She then took another step forward and leaned back limply against the sofa opposite Alice.

This is a very impolite sitting posture; in the past, she would never have done something so rude.

But now—

“Long time no see.” ██ She saw an unprecedentedly genuine smile appear on Alice’s face, and from her thin lips uttered a name whose exact syllables she couldn’t make out. “I thought I’d be waiting for you here for a long time, but I didn’t expect you to achieve your goal so quickly. Just one step away?”

Then she felt her gaze waver slightly, and nodded modestly.

"Are you still asleep?" She saw Alice reach out, conjure a tea set out of thin air, and pour another cup of black tea. "Or are the aftereffects of being killed by Fenrir still affecting you?"

Her words were somewhat difficult to understand, leaving Lin Xi feeling confused. However, before her inquiring will could materialize into a tangible voice, her own vocal cords provided a completely different and irrelevant answer.

"I have a question." Lin Xi heard herself say this, and was 'not surprised' to find that she felt no panic at all about the state of her body being out of control.

She saw Alice make a 'please speak' gesture.

"I want to know what's most important to me." — Then, she heard herself say the second half of the sentence.

"I can't answer that question." Alice took a small sip of coffee, a strange, enigmatic smile playing on her lips. "If a mortal were to answer, he would be instantly corrupted and assimilated by your Dao. If a transcendent were to answer, he would be utterly annihilated, leaving not even a single atom behind. And if I were to answer, the battle between us would turn this cosmic dream into a boiling cauldron of chaos."

“I can’t answer you, and I can’t answer you.” She saw Alice put down her coffee cup, her hands gently resting on each other like a tower.

“So, all I can do is ask you in return—” She leaned forward slightly. “What is most important to you?”

The exquisite living room before them vanished in an instant, as if a computer had refreshed its graphics, as if matter had collapsed into energy. The moment Alice uttered that question, the two found themselves in an endless, dark expanse of space. She saw countless stars adorning the void beneath her feet, and then these chaotic stars rapidly brightened at a visible speed.

And so, the dark cosmos was dyed pure white by endless radiance. The exact number of supernova explosions and gamma-ray bursts is no longer relevant. For after the pure white radiance filled everything, countless tiny, seven-colored flowers sprouted from within it.

A largest flower bud bloomed beneath their feet, devoid of a stamen; its seven-colored petals became their resting place. The ordinary reception table remained between them. The blooming seven-colored flower continued to grow upwards until it reached an ocean of foam.

Lin Xi felt she should be excited, should scream, should marvel at this sudden and breathtaking illusion.

But she didn't.

Her heart remained unmoved, and she felt that the seven-colored sea of ​​flowers was Alice's true form manifesting.

So she reached out, wanting to touch the sea of ​​foam at the tip of the petal. She vaguely saw that each bubble contained different kinds and types of things. Some were ordinary tools, some were civilized nations, some were collections of knowledge, and some were oceans of energy. And some invisible medium enveloped them, connecting them into a cluster.

coupling……

Interconnected...

Her fingers touched the foam, but the foam rejected her.

And so, everything around her dimmed, and she returned once again to that ordinary reception hall.

"You haven't answered the question yet." Alice smiled at her, reached out, and poured her a cup of tea.

The walls were now covered with all sorts of clocks, and all of them pointed to 11:59:59 and remained motionless.

Lin Xi opened her mouth, but the answer that seemed so easy to give remained elusive. She turned her gaze away and picked up the tea in front of her. She felt a connection with the tea, a connection that allowed her to instantly understand the composition of the tea.

“Sleeping pills, a dose that’s more than enough for you right now,” she heard Alice’s explanation.

"If you really can't answer that, then this might get you some other help. It will temporarily turn you back to your original state, and then you might be able to get a complete answer from another perspective."

So Lin Xi raised his cup and drank all the tea in one gulp.

Then, she collapsed to the ground with a thud, already drifting into a deep sleep.

Chapter 45: I Will Die

"Hello, Dr. Lin Xi. Welcome back to Terra."

When Lin Xi opened her eyes, she heard a soft, slightly husky female voice greeting her in her ear.

She turned her gaze away—

What came into view was a woman wearing a hooded trench coat. Her limbs were slender, her eyebrows were slightly dark, and her facial features were somewhat familiar. On her chest was an ID card.

—DR. Andromeda. That's the woman's name. And if Lin Xi's previous memories are correct, then this woman should be the security chief of Rhode Island Pharmaceuticals, and also an expert representing the pinnacle of medical technology in this world.

"Hello, ███," Lin Xi greeted him subconsciously, but what came out of her mouth was a sentence with an ambiguous meaning.

She didn't know what name she had uttered, but she clearly saw the woman in front of her raise an eyebrow. She should have felt some kind of extreme threat and premonition of death, but what she perceived was merely a faint breeze.

“…You know this name, ██. It seems you already…” She saw Andromeda’s lips tremble slightly, and then a similarly ambiguous answer escaped his throat.

Then, the person she was talking to noticed the subtle change in her expression.

“So you’re still asleep.” Andromeda’s raised eyebrows relaxed, and he smiled at her. “Did Alice bring you here? She couldn’t wait any longer?”

"I don't quite understand what you're talking about." Lin Xi frowned, looking at the woman in front of her. Her intuition told her that it was best not to use 'connection' on this woman who called herself Andromeda. And while staring at this woman, she also felt a surge of excitement.

She... wanted to fight, to fight the woman before her.

But why this woman? Why her?

Her fingers trembled slightly, and just as she was about to lift them, she found that Andromeda's fingertips were already pressed against the tips of her fingers.

“You’re not ready yet.” She saw that smile still on Andromeda’s face. “When you wake up, when you become yourself, then we’ll fight.”

“…I don’t quite understand.” The pressure on Lin Xi’s fingertips silently dissipated. She raised her neck slightly and looked at the person she was talking to.

"What don't you understand?" Andromeda responded with a smile. "Although our positions are not aligned now, I can still answer some of your questions."

"I want to know who I really am. I want to know why I am the way I am now. I should have many questions, many confusions, fear, dread, anger, and sorrow... but why do I lack all of these things that normal people should have?"

"Why do I always say strange things? Why do I take it all for granted? Why can't I hear or see certain things? And... why do you, Alice, always talk to me in this evasive and mysterious way?"

She leaned slightly forward, her tone earnest, but her eyes and expression remained languid. A golden hue silently settled over her eyes, and in the center of that golden hue, a slanted cross shape silently appeared.

Beyond Terra, in a certain star field, her gaze was perfectly aligned with the direction she was currently looking. The next moment, a small inorganic planet, comparable in size to Ceres, began to shift and twist, growing layers of crystals. These crystals instantly accumulated into a tree-like structure, spreading across the star field and expanding underground at a visible speed!

The next moment, the entire star transformed into a golden eyeball. And in the pupil area, there was a slanted cross-shaped pattern!

This is the Qin Inner Galaxy, this is the territory of Qin.

The next moment, over ten thousand star system destroyers, each around thirty kilometers in length, jumped to the vicinity of the nameless star that had transformed into an eyeball. Immediately following, billions of rays of light cascaded down like a waterfall!

This is an inverse number line array generated primarily to correct mathematical rules. Its principles are complex and intricate, and its manifestation is the modification of the mathematical laws governing a spatial region. A random value is temporarily removed from the number line. What follows is the collapse of the mathematical system within that spatial region!

A number was removed—a random, ordinary number. This number is represented as [39762].

Thus, in the affected spatial region, the '39762nd' atom, the '39762nd' ray of light, the '39762nd' particle string, and so on, along with their multiples, were utterly destroyed in that instant. They were erased directly from this space due to the removal of the mathematical tool. And when the duration of the mathematical weapon ended, the celestial realm, once again perceived by the observer, underwent a collapse due to the loss of essential elements!

That planet, which resembled an eye, was completely destroyed under the watchful eyes of the Qin army fleet.

Also destroyed was this cosmic region, which had been transformed into a boiling soup of matter—the spherical array of over ten thousand annihilation ships, interconnected to form a massive, eggshell-like net.

The standard administrative unit in Qin was the 'Tingzhang', whose life level was equivalent to that of a transcendent being. Within this array of tens of thousands of starships, there were exactly tens of thousands of 'Tingzhang' stationed. They communicated rapidly through a unique information network, verifying every parameter and checking for any possible anomalies.

—【The sector mathematical model has stabilized and is under verification... No anomalies found.】

—[Spatial structure reorganization complete...Verification complete, no abnormalities found.]

— [Unknown event detection unit is operating... No abnormalities detected.]

— [Intellectual Life Detection System in operation... No options detected...]

Their wills collide in an invisible network, they connect with each other, and share every special or normal intelligence matter.

They gathered here because of Qin's will; they are Qin's hair and claws.

And soon, they reached a conclusion. That was—

—The abnormality has been completely suppressed.

Meanwhile, in the distant world of Terra, Lin Xi continued to gaze at Andromeda before him, awaiting his reply.

“You have many questions.” Andromeda pursed his lips, his hands clasped together like a tower. “But I can answer all of them. I thought you would ask me that embarrassing question. It seems Alice made you ask that question a long time ago.”

“Then let’s start with the simplest thing.” She held up one finger. “The reason you are the way you are is because you are dead. And now, you are on the path to resurrection.”

Lin Xi's eyes widened little by little.

"I... am being resurrected?" Her tone was flat, because she did not feel the horror and panic that she should have felt.

At the same instant, in the distant future, the airspace enveloped by the starship array suddenly trembled!

—[Attention all units! Event reconstruction detected—the target is reverting to its previous shape!]

The boiling broth of matter subsided abruptly, and in the blink of an eye, the completely destroyed and disintegrated eye-shaped star returned to its original form from nothingness. The next moment, a similarly powerful mathematical disruption erupted around that eye-shaped star!

Then the number... 1474, deleted.

The entire fleet disintegrated instantly due to the extraction of its essential elements. All material structures vanished in a flash, leaving behind only tens of thousands of energy clusters resembling stars!

Qin's fleet, except for the 'village chiefs', was completely wiped out.

From afar, the emperor's gaze suddenly fell upon them.

However, before that gaze could reach this place, a waning sun crashed directly into Qin's territory from the other side. In an instant, nearly an entire celestial region's stars were corrupted!

The emperor's gaze was fixed.

Most of its structure was removed to deal with the strange phenomena on the other side of the boundary. However, a small portion was still projected onto this cosmic realm and infused with the scattered, yet still network-like, myriad rays of light.