Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

This is something that transcendent species can achieve, but even for transcendent species, it will take a long time to accomplish this.

However, their collaborative research wasn't entirely fruitless; at least Amiya's mental interference methods were successfully replicated early on. Furthermore, the technology that would allow the Cataclysmic Messengers to travel freely within the warp and be isolated from external mental contamination was successfully developed and put into use.

So what exactly are they doing? — Actually, it's not that complicated. What they're doing is modifying this sea of ​​consciousness called the Warp, causing it to gradually shift towards the boundary line between the material universe and the Void Seas as it expands in size. The ultimate goal is to ensure that when the war completely engulfs every corner of this universe, Terra and the Warp surrounding Terra will still have a path to take, preventing them from being drawn into the conflict.

After all, Terra is an ideal state, and if an ideal state does not want to fall from its position in this ritual, it must avoid the flames of war.

How can an ideal nation participate in war?

How can there be pain and death in an ideal country?

Of course, more importantly, the six outer states are now locked in a state of absolute, indecisive quality war. Whether it's Qin, the Void State, or the remaining five states, each occupying a different level of power—pride, decadence, ordinariness, rebellion, and sublimation—their scientific research capabilities have reached a point where further progress is impossible. Unless Hu Hai releases the spacetime he has locked, this quality war will continue until the very end of the universe.

But would Hu Hai relinquish his control over time and space? — No. Because he doesn't need to be responsible to any living being, and no individual can interfere with his decisions. Locking the timeline is his own will and decision, so unless Qin is on the verge of collapse, he will not step out of his palace.

Therefore, the war of mass will continue and spread to every corner of this universe. And judging from the area Alice is currently observing, about one ten-thousandth of the entire Trial Grounds universe has already been completely engulfed in war.

Going from one ten-thousandth to one thousandth isn't difficult, and going from one thousandth to one hundredth is actually quite simple. If the battlefield reaches one percent of the entire universe, then traversing the remaining ninety-nine percent is a mere leap. According to Alice's rough calculations, the entire universe would be completely submerged by the mass war in about three thousand years. That might be a long time for mortals, but for transcendent beings, even without time-related interference, three thousand years later is not significantly different from the next second.

Therefore, the battle will end in three thousand years. Although this may not be exactly what Anubis planned, once the representative of all races appears, Alice no longer needs to worry too much about Anubis's feelings. She knows that as long as she stays in the ideal country called Terra, she will not be bound by the war. And in these three thousand years, she has plenty of time to focus her attention on her 'opponent'.

Andromeda.

During her time working with Andromeda, she unsurprisingly discovered that many of her enemy's little habits were quite familiar.

For example, she will always step out with her left foot first when leaving the house, no matter how many doors are connected or how many corridors lie behind them. When crossing a threshold, she will always step out with her left foot first.

For example, she can concoct the most precise combination of liquids, but if the purpose is to consume it, then no matter what kind of medicine or solid it is, what she ultimately makes will be a potent poison.

For example, when she sees a person or object that she is not interested in, she will examine the person from bottom to top instead of from top to bottom or from left to right.

For example, when she encounters a problem, she will rub her left temple, and when she overcomes it, she will easily squint her pale purple eyes and look at the most open space around her.

She likes purple, light purple rather than dark purple. She adds a spoonful of patchouli powder to her tea, seven grams each time.

When she buttoned her shirt, she would button the middle one first and then work her way up from the bottom. When she wrote an article, she would finish writing the content first and then add the title at the end.

Many details were familiar to Alice. Apart from her absolute refusal to drink black tea, Andromeda's every action could be found in Alice's memory bank.

very funny.

Alice, however, did not intend to end the game quickly.

After all, she had already figured out the true meaning behind this game—

Oil is lighter than water, so the water sinks below the oil. When the temperature rises, the water doesn't separate, but the oil is quickly forced to evaporate due to exposure to air. Ultimately, when all the oil on the surface of the water has dissolved, the water in the container remains intact.

Water will dominate the entire container, becoming its sole dominant element. However, if one can only observe from the surface of the container before the oil has completely evaporated, the conclusion is that the liquid inside is entirely oil.

— It's a very simple logic, a very basic principle.

Just as Sirin, even though she hasn't woken up yet, has already occupied more than 9,999 out of 10,000 of the individual named 'Lin Xi,' leaving only less than one ten-thousandth of the superficial 'Lin Xi' personality to dominate the body on Terra. Patchouli Knowledge and Andromeda are in a similar situation now.

There may be some differences in the details, but in general, there is no difference.

So……

My role is that of the 'high-temperature gas' atop the oil layer, accelerating evaporation through airflow. The ultimate goal is to ensure the oil evaporates completely before the inevitable end. Phew, Patchi has already taken over ninety steps out of a hundred; will she need my help for the remaining steps?

No wonder Andromeda said he'd bet 'everything,' but then wouldn't tell me how to 'bet.' It seems this is a secret that dies in the light. So, having understood this condition, all I need is a skillful push at the crucial moment.

What is push hands?

Ah, it's very simple. A violent conflict, a strong stimulus, an agreement, a contract, something that can cause someone's emotions to fluctuate wildly—Alice has countless methods for this. And as long as any one of them is used, the goal can be achieved in an instant.

"I only need one action, one word to wake Patsy," Alice thought to herself.

[But why should I be in such a hurry?] However, she did not make such a decision with obvious benefits.

She knew that after becoming a transcendent being and a true god, she often took time, even creating an avatar, to accompany Patchouli. But she also knew that neither she nor Patchouli gained much happiness from that companionship.

After all, in the process of becoming a true god, or even in the transcendent stage of becoming a true god, the emotions—joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness—that Alice Margot and Patchouli Knowledge, as intelligent beings, are already ordinary parameters that can be completely controlled and regulated by their own will.

Joy has long since become data, even the flower-filled planet created when Patchouli successfully ascended to godhood. In essence, it is nothing more than a certificate made by materializing the emotion of 'joy'. In nature, it is not much different from carving an exquisite stone sculpture. When the celestial body is successfully forged, the emotion that surged in the heart but was completely controlled is also stripped away and disappears without a trace.

The love between Patchouli and me has become nothing more than pure love.

[Lust, possessiveness, joy, jealousy, and all other complex emotional structures have been completely analyzed and purified. Therefore, they no longer exist.]

Is this a good thing? Ah... it is a good thing. Because all the uncontrollable internal factors become terrible weaknesses when things get critical, eliminating them naturally prevents emotional vulnerabilities from arising.

Even so, eliminating the uncontrollability of emotions is still not a pleasant feeling... at least, that's what I think until I can control what 'feeling bad' means.

The girl lowered her eyes and pondered for a moment.

The flow of time surged around her, and she gazed at the increasingly turbulent sea of ​​consciousness. Before the tides rose and fell, she quietly exhaled a breath of warm air from her lips.

Pure things are certainly good. But impure and uncontrollable things are not without their merits as well.

There's no going back now—the scales shouldn't tip before fulfilling their responsibilities. But you're the only one on the scales, and there's no need to be too demanding of your partner in this matter.

—Even if it is inevitable.

Even if it was inevitable—Alice opened her eyes and reached her final conclusion.

So, let Patty take this rare opportunity to reminisce about the peaceful times we spent together.

And so, time continued to pass.

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

Alice set the date for her third solo meeting with Andromeda as seventeen years after Janlan's departure. During this time, they jointly attended numerous scientific research activities on Terra that were worthy of being recorded in history books, and made many significant contributions. To outsiders, the two appeared almost inseparable, yet no one knew that they actually didn't exchange many words.

There's not much communication because it's unnecessary.

Words are few because everything is understood without being spoken.

On that autumn night of the seventeenth thought, Alice chose a new meeting place, different from the previous two—she selected one of the many continents floating outside Terra. And the place she chose to land was a vast wasteland stretching as far as the eye could see, where everything in sight consisted of ordinary grass only two inches high.

She chose the very center of the wasteland, and she chose the time after nine o'clock at night. When she and Andromeda arrived at their destination, the sky was already filled with stars.

The starry sky… In the original Terran consciousness, the concept of 'starry sky' did not exist. This is because Terran's history contained very little record or study of celestial phenomena. Furthermore, most Terran inhabitants, from childhood, could only see the heavy steel fortress shrouded in Cataclysmic clouds. Throughout history, only a very few scholars have had the qualifications and leisure to observe the starry sky.

In the subspace, things that are unknown or not acknowledged are, in most cases, equivalent to 'non-existent'.

However, that was in the past. As the wars outside intensified, and as more and more souls of the dead from the outside world joined the Warp and were restored by the technology mastered by the inhabitants of Terra, more and more knowledge belonging to the outside world appeared in this vast and boundless Warp. And among these new things brought about by knowledge, the most dazzling and eye-catching thing is the 'starry sky'.

"Do you like looking at the stars?" Alice asked.

She didn't wait for Andromeda's reply, but instead found a comfortable spot on the grassland beneath her feet, lay down, and looked up at the sky.

"I like to look at the stars because when I am weak, they make me realize my own insignificance and warn me of the dangers around me. And when I am strong, they remind me of the vastness of the universe and make me realize that weaknesses often lie in many details that I usually don't pay attention to."

She gazed at the sky, the twinkling stars reflected in her pale blue eyes.

Andromeda lay down an arm's length away from her, also looking up at the starry sky above, which shone brightly due to the interference of outsiders' perceptions.

Andromeda fell silent as he gazed into the distance.

silence.

The moon silently moved one space.

"You..." Her lips moved slightly, her voice weak as she spoke. "...How much do you know?"

“I don’t know,” Alice replied calmly. “Perhaps a lot, perhaps very little. Perhaps I know everything, or perhaps everything I know is wrong.”

silence.

The starry sky silently rotated several times.

"What do you plan to do?" Andromeda asked softly.

“I don’t know,” Alice replied.

silence.

A few more minutes passed in silence.

"You...don't you have anything to say to me?" Andromeda asked again.

This time, Alice simply kept quiet.

Chapter Sixty-Six: Alice

The two of them watched the stars all night long, and after that, neither of them said another word.

As the stars disappeared and the sun rose, Alice and Andromeda rose from the grass together in perfect unison. Then, one went north and the other went south.

Alice didn't say anything more, nor did she ask anything more.

Like her, Andromeda never asked another question after the first one was asked.

The two parted ways, only to meet again the next day at the research institute as if nothing had happened. However, on the same day every year thereafter, they would both come to that meadow, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, gazing at the starry sky.

And so time continued to pass.

One year later, another year followed. Ten years later, yet another ten years passed, and as a century silently slipped by, and the land of Terra in the Warp flourished like never before, news reached the capital of Terra that Angelina of the Heartfelt House, the greatest messenger of the Scourge and a pioneer, had died of natural causes during her explorations.

This news brought grief to countless Terrans, for in the past century, Angelina and her Scourge messengers had uncovered countless calamities for Terra and the Warp. Countless psychic beasts were discovered, captured, and returned to Terra to be purified into pure souls. And billions upon billions of lost souls were thus rescued and allowed to join the ever-expanding world of Terra.

She made great contributions in her not-so-short life, earning the respect of the entire Terra civilization. When her memorial service was held in the capital square, Alice, as the director of the research institute, also attended and delivered a eulogy. As she read the hastily prepared draft, she saw the deceased Scourge Messenger, who had returned to being Janran, sitting in an inconspicuous spot in the audience, and winking at her before disappearing.

It seems Zhan Lan has achieved something that satisfies her. She will likely appear on the outer battlefield under a different identity, acting as a messenger of calamity. Alice can roughly guess what she obtained before leaving, because her death itself is a clear harbinger of disaster.

She died on her journey to retrieve the corrupted souls of lost mortals, a phenomenon that, in Alice's eyes, was a stark warning about the mortal realm itself. Her death illustrated just how dangerous mortals truly are. Sadly, very few Terrans could see things from Alice's perspective.

Since there weren't many, there was nothing that could be done. However, even if many people knew, the inhabitants of Terra at this moment couldn't bring themselves to isolate or expel these resurrected mortals—on the contrary, they valued Angelina's achievements even more because of her passing. Before long, the mortals were regarded as a new race on par with the other races of Terra, and thus were incorporated into Terra's system.

Pitiful mortals, pitiful Terra.

Even without using any of her powers, Alice could see the changes that would soon become reality. Although she didn't know the price the myriad races had paid to distort Terra into its current morally superior form, she was certain that the interference of the myriad races would have absolutely no impact on the mortals' minds.

What happens when a group of mediocre people live together with a group of virtuous people?

What would happen if you lived with a group of beings who would give as long as they had something?

Such things don't even require predicting the future to see the outcome—even if that outcome is still a long way from maturity. But it is something that is already destined and inevitable.

[Zhan Lan has left behind a mess.] — Alice thought to herself.

However, she quickly came to terms with it—after all, this was just her style. She was always capable of doing things that harmed others without benefiting herself—after all, in the entire Central Continent Team, only she, Zhan Lan, could be judged as evil.

Alice, chin in hand, drew a conclusion in her office after the memorial service. But the next moment, the two swirling wisps of air before her eyes began to distort and blur.

A tall, slender, and effeminate male body, resembling a viper, appeared first. His hand was holding the hand of another female body, a beautiful and delicate woman whose body resembled a coiled snake.

Zhao Zhuikong and Zhao Yingkong, a predator and an assassin.