Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

"Everything of mortals, everything of all races, and everything done by the reincarnators... the final war... is it all truly worthless...?" Luo Ye murmured to herself, as if in a dream. She cast an incredulous glance at Gaia, though that look instantly transformed into a helpless sadness.

“Utterly worthless?” However, Luo Ye did not receive that worst answer. “If you believe that mortals, all races… your actions only have value if they can interfere with my success or failure, then everything you have is indeed worthless. However, if you… my daughter, if you are not so arrogant, then this is still debatable.”

She smiled gently, reached out, and summoned a comfortable seat in the home-like building. Then, like a graceful and elegant noblewoman, she leaned back lazily in the seat, one index finger lightly touching her chin, her blurred eyes leisurely surveying her offspring.

“Everything is inevitable, Luo Ye. And it is inevitable because I have determined the future. I am Heaven, I am the Tao, I am Nature. And Nature is inevitable.”

"But I haven't locked in all the inevitabilities—I've introduced chaotic variables into the multiverse system. Their scale is about two percent, which can be described by the rules summarized by mortals as 'the Great Dao is fifty, the Heavenly Evolution is forty-nine.' And this two percent is the life force, which is the life force that I won't lock in as an inevitability as long as I don't observe them."

"And it is also the lifeblood of mortals and all races."

"You mean—" Luo Ye's pupils contracted, her rapid thinking leading her to a direct conclusion: "The only thing that has become inevitable is your awakening and your advancement. As for everything else, the survival of mortals, the survival of all races, the status and hierarchy of mortals and races—all of these things are meaningless to you?"

“Exactly.” Gaia nodded, a smile of 'this fool can still be saved.' “If I succeed, everything in this multiverse will be useless to me. I will become one of the players, and the eyes of all the players will leave this multiverse to start new battles on new chessboards. Unless another Ascended Being like me appears in this multiverse, nothing in this multiverse system will be worth my attention.”

"And if I fail... then I'll probably have to start all over again. Everything will return to the primordial period of this multiverse, the long time when I defeated the world in the contest of multiple wills and thus ascended to the Path of All Things. Then the entire history of the multiverse will repeat itself again. Perhaps the process will change, but the result will definitely be that you and I are here saying the same things, and the ascension will begin again."

"And regardless of the possibility, the struggles and victories between mortals, myriad races, and other forces are of no value to you. You won't care about the outcome of these trivial matters... Is that right?"

"Exactly."

"So, is the final battle of the Reincarnators prepared for this?"

“You can think of it that way,” Gaia nodded. “This cycle of reincarnation is influenced by many races. Once the final war begins, the different factions you reincarnators represent will be linked to all the races in this multiverse who want to fight for interests in these… details that are insignificant to me. If the side representing all races wins, this multiverse will belong to all races. If the side representing mortals wins, this will be the great era of mortals. Of course, it is also possible that a third party that represents no one will win the final victory, in which case the outcome will naturally be the demise of both sides, and a new race will reign supreme in the next era.”

"This is also the meaning of your existence, Luo Ye. My daughter, you are indeed the twilight of the multiverse, the only innate demon god that I do not allow to be returned during the ascension process. But you are also my consideration, my decision. If you and Alice become saints, the final conclusion will be the faction affiliation of the next era. And if you cannot become saints in the final battle, then the faction you represent can still win my recognition after victory."

"Just us?"

“Yes, only you.” Gaia acknowledged Luo Ye’s judgment. “The camp you have chosen will be recognized by me after you win. You will accept my gaze, embrace my destiny, and after the final battle of the Reincarnation Squad, you will be able to easily and freely seize the hegemony of the entire multiverse without much effort. If you lose, then the victors will only be tacitly approved by me. I will let them enjoy the treatment of humans who were once linked to the destiny of the original humans… They cannot be killed off, they cannot be wiped out. They may not be able to win at the beginning, but they will eventually achieve victory.”

"I see." Luo Ye let out a soft breath—she knew why she was exhaling. The reason was simple: she finally understood that her battle and her efforts had ultimately been meaningful. More importantly, she could finally ensure that no matter which side Alice chose in the final battle, she wouldn't end up being settled by the higher-ups.

After all, the overall situation had already been decided.

The resurrection and ascension of Gaia are inevitable, unchangeable, and beyond interference, nor is there any need to interfere. From the very beginning, Gaia has been the victor and will always be the victor. All the native forces in the local multiverse, apart from Gaia, seek nothing more than a better position within Gaia's order.

After all, the course of Heaven is constant; it does not exist because of Yao, nor does it perish because of Jie. From the beginning, mortals only considered Adam their enemy. All races only considered Adam their support. Little did they know that within the order of Gaia, whether the races obey Heaven or the mortals defy it, they are all the same to her.

She didn't care about anything that both sides valued, or anything that either side possessed.

and so……

Luo Ye finally relaxed completely. From the moment she became conscious until just now, she had felt as if she were carrying some kind of nameless burden. This burden oppressed her, urged her on, made it hard for her to breathe, and left her breathless. But now, under Gaia's words, this burden became an illusion.

It turns out I'm not as important as I thought.

It turns out that the burden I had to carry was not as heavy or as difficult as I had imagined.

It turns out that... among higher-level life forms, a suitable message can truly outweigh the ultimate brute force that mortals can even imagine.

A long-lost feeling of 'joy' welled up in Luo Ye's heart. Although she didn't know what Alice would choose, nor how many secrets Alice knew from Shen Qi, she still felt 'joy,' a sense of exhilaration and mental leisure. This ease allowed her to shift her attention away from the secrets she needed to know and already knew, and instead focus on miscellaneous trivial matters.

For example, Gaia's earlier mention of the 'world,' or many other seemingly ambiguous yet profoundly meaningful details in her speech—she knew she could ask. Gaia's act of allowing her to roam freely, rather than dismissing her, itself gave her the space to continue asking questions. Although she didn't know how many questions she could ask, she believed she could.

So, what's the question?

The secrets sealed deep within the multiverse? The path to becoming a higher-level narrator? Or perhaps...?

Luo Ye blinked. Suddenly, she remembered something from long ago, and someone from long ago. And that person's name was...

“Aichidra.” Luo Ye subconsciously—or rather, made it appear as if he were acting subconsciously—uttered the word that had been swirling in his mind.

She saw Gaia raise an eyebrow slightly, her indistinct face revealing neither encouragement, expectation, anger, nor indifference.

“I know, Aichidra is dead.” Luo Ye organized her thoughts. “Her death… was so that you, Mother, could show compassion to all beings in the multiverse.”

"so?"

"I want to know, was her death... even the slightest bit worthwhile?"

"How interesting, my daughter. Is this all you want to know?"

“That’s all.” Luo Ye nodded, her gaze resolute. She decided to shift her useless curiosity away from the secrets buried deep within the multiverse and instead focus on these events that were once personally relevant to her and might have some connection to her in the future.

"That's all I want to know," she repeated, emphasizing it a second time.

“It’s not a secret that needs to be hidden.” Gaia then laughed, a simple laugh without any connotations or emotions. “Although I think you could have had something better, since this is all you want to know, I’ll grant your wish.”

She paused.

“Aichidra’s death truly restored the concept of ‘mercy’ to me. And the significance of her actions…”

"In terms of purpose, no. In terms of result, it is of paramount importance."

She noticed Luo Ye looking at her with a questioning gaze. So, without delaying or playing coy, she gave a straightforward answer.

"The fact that she plunged herself into the abyss of death cannot shake me, because if I could give birth to her as my offspring once, then I could naturally give birth to her a second time. Her Dao and concepts may play a crucial role for any life form, but they are of no use to me. In fact, I did give birth to her again and reincarnated her in a slightly remote corner."

Even Gaia said it was far, so it must really be far. In fact, when Gaia used the word 'remote,' Loye, who was already able to perceive the multiverse, almost suspected that Gaia had thrown Aichidra into another multiverse—and indeed, that was the case.

She saw a screen of light appear in Gaia's palm, and within the screen, a newborn baby girl lay on her crib, looking around in confusion—an infant should not have such complex emotions, and this clearly pointed to a clear and obvious piece of evidence.

An 'Aiqidra' retains memories of her past life, but simply the memories of being reincarnated after losing her powers.

“The negative multiverse, the backup I prepared for myself before,” Gaia said calmly. “The rules there are somewhat different from the positive multiverse you are in now. As long as it’s not an inner universe, you have to start all over again. And this should make that person you should probably call my sister spend some time and energy there, so she won’t cause me any more trouble.”

"...So she survived?"

“So she lived.” Gaia affirmed: “Her plan to return ‘mercy’ to me has completely failed. Her death is now worthless to the person she was at that point in time. And she will not be able to exist as a proxy for ‘mercy’ until she rises back to the transcendental stage. Even if she does climb back, she will not be able to touch the deepest part of the abyss as easily as she could in the positive multiverse.”

"Therefore, her self-sacrifice was worthless. Not in terms of the purpose for which she committed suicide. I was not affected by 'mercy' again because of her death. She did nothing of value."

"However, in the end, her death did indeed have an effect—because from the beginning, I had set a calling for her—she was destined to walk the path of 'compassion.' And as long as there is 'injustice' in the world as she perceives it, she will inevitably choose to sacrifice herself. She was born to die, and her act of dying was the alarm clock that woke me up."

"Everything was inevitable, my daughter."

“Besides you, who are the ‘decay of the multiverse,’ you have many other brothers and sisters. Any one of them, as long as they can enter a sufficiently deep abyss of death after the battle of creation, whether actively or passively, their death will become the medium to awaken me, ensuring that I can awaken at the right time and continue to advance the steps of ascension. It doesn’t matter who dies, but the key is that one of them must die.”

"Aichidra was the first to die, so she became the alarm clock. And her idea is the ringing in my ear, which has long since disappeared, but still leaves a faint echo."

She finally looked at Luo Ye.

“Yes, you’re right. Aichidra’s life, from birth to death, was all part of my plan. She was an alarm clock, a clock with a fixed time. She was the first to fulfill her duty before the other randomly timed alarm clocks went off, so at the moment of her death, I tacitly allowed her to spread her own Dao Erosion phenomenon.”

"She did not succeed in returning 'kindness'."

"But she brought 'mercy' to the indifferent in the multiverse."

☆, Preparations before the end of the war: Severing ties of the past

Luo Ye returned to the real world.

She didn't ask what it meant to 'bestow mercy upon the indifferent in the multiverse.' She already knew the answer, and she knew the question would be of no use to either herself or Gaia. She simply left quietly, but before she did, Gaia entrusted something to her.

It was a sphere of light—or more accurately, a dormant spiritual substance existing in the form of a sphere of light. She sensed a familiar scent emanating from this spiritual substance, and in an instant, she understood its true nature.

This was a karmic connection, a broken destiny. And after Luo Ye learned everything she had heard before, she understood that she was the best person to bring this destiny to a close.

However, this is not something I should be doing right now.

Luo Ye lowered her gaze slightly, carefully putting away the orb of light, and then focused her attention on the world itself—she was still at that point in time that would change everything. And the 'Luo Ye' before her was about to be born as an infant.

The past cannot be changed. Everyone can change, but she alone cannot. Because 'Luo Ye' had to live such a tragic life in order to resonate with Luo Ye, who was in the abyss of death at the moment of her own demise, thus giving Luo Ye a proper self-awareness and pushing everything to the present state—this was inevitable, and inevitable beyond change.

However, the past cannot be changed, but the future may be altered—the destiny of 'Luo Ye' was to die after experiencing that tragic life. And after her death, her fate and future became irrelevant.

So--

Luo Ye blinked.

The timeline in her eyes began to shift, moving from the moment 'Luo Ye' was born to the moment 'Luo Ye' died in a stampede in a coastal town in America when the script 'Transformers' first started operating. She glanced at the Decepticon grunt who had caused a minor disturbance but was defeated and fled under the firepower of mortals, and then turned her gaze to the person in front of her.

'Luo Ye' died right before her eyes.

Blood gushed forth, her already pitiful figure now reduced to a pathetic mangled mess by the crushing and impact. Crimson blood flowed freely across the road, even rolling down to Luo Ye's feet—the surroundings remained noisy, the crowds who had been in a state of panic just moments before now cheering for the army's victory, completely unaware that a girl had been trampled into a pulp by their panic just minutes before.

"They deserve to die," Luo Ye thought to herself.

Whether intentional or unintentional, they deserve an end far worse than death.

However, their survival is actually irrelevant.

Luo Ye pushed up her black-rimmed glasses—another pair of the same tattered glasses lay at her feet—and she could clearly sense that there was another 'self' outside the world at this point in time, and that 'self' was now thinking of herself as 'Luo Ye' and was drifting toward the future Gensokyo universe.

This is her original worldline; she can change it, but she cannot.

Her gaze shifted again, looking towards the future—she saw Alice and Patchouli, who would soon join the cycle of reincarnation, descend upon the land of North America, and before triggering the main quest, they used their still-worldly way of thinking to package a piece of advanced technology and send it to the Far East.

She then saw Alice, who was at that point in time, look up in the coffee shop and wink at her.

"Do you need any help?" Alice asked her at that moment.

So she nodded slightly in response.

"No need, I can handle this myself."

The exchange was swift and orderly, and after understanding each other's positions and purposes, their gazes parted—Alice was still drinking coffee in her past, chatting and laughing with Patchouli, who had also placed the source world line. Meanwhile, Luo Ye shifted his will to his own point in time and considered a more appropriate course of action.

Clearly, directly and abruptly resurrecting 'Luo Ye' is an irrational act, as it would have a tremendous impact on this era. Ultimately, it could lead to the future Heroic Spirit King Sam failing to save the world, or the resurrected 'Luo Ye' dying during the rescue attempt, or even worse, 'Luo Ye' encountering the future Alice. Regardless of the outcome, it would have a massive impact on Alice's original timeline.

Of course, this isn't fatal—Alice wouldn't die or be injured over something so trivial. She too carries a divine duty, and before and after fulfilling it, she will not die, nor will she be sent back from the Abyss of Death. However, the problem is that Alice isn't the only one who has placed the source timeline; Patchouli's source timeline is also intertwined in this 'Transformers' script.

Patchouli's level... is still slightly insufficient. Recklessly altering the source world line is tantamount to self-harm for her. And if I were to act directly... it would be no different from Alice attacking her. And that would be tantamount to Alice betraying Patchouli.

This is bad; it seems I'll have to take a more roundabout approach.

She sighed softly.

Immediately following, her sigh enveloped the entire planet! In a mere instant, she memorized and replicated every material structure and sentient life form on the planet. Then, she created a substitute, leaving it behind, and departed from this world with the true spirit of 'Luo Ye'!

She stepped into the abyss of death, into the seas she perceived as an infinite tower. And immediately afterward—

“I need a new, blank universe,” she said to the Abyss.

The Abyss responded gently to her, like a loving mother looking indulgently at her willful daughter—a suitable door appeared before her precisely the moment her words fell. And as she stepped inside, she clearly observed that this appropriately sized universe was in the primordial chaos of its initial creation.

There was no script, no memes, no blood-red river, only a blank universe. After examining many details, Luo Ye nodded in satisfaction and then put the memory model he had previously constructed into it.

Thus, a new universe was born. Hundreds of millions of years of chaos, hundreds of millions of years of solidification, hundreds of millions of years of nurturing the earliest primordial stars, and hundreds of millions of years of evolution into a vast sea of ​​stars.

After a hundred billion years—a time insignificant even to a true god—a galaxy resembling the early Milky Way was born in the remote corner of the universe. Soon after, a primordial sun appeared at the middle end of one of the spiral arms.

Everything went very smoothly, smoothly and successfully.

What we need to wait for next is the 4.6 billion years it takes for the script to be conceived.

—This was just a fleeting moment for Luo Ye.