Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

And then everything disappeared.

The board game club is gone, the three game pieces have vanished, and even the board itself has collapsed. Only the last lone little ball of light remains, flickering in the void.

A long time passed after that.

For a very, very long time.

The chessboard fragments gradually converged and concentrated towards the small sphere of light, eventually becoming part of it.

This will be a very, very, very long process.

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

Many, many, many years later.

"The last Holy Emperor has also fallen... As expected, you are all dead."

"Everything is going exactly as I planned. The old universe has been completely destroyed, and the remaining remnants have been absorbed by the final war universe in which we live, forming a new multiverse."

Luo Ye gazed at the sky, sensing the elimination of the concept of 'genetic lock' within her body. She knew that the gaze of the original humans had departed from this multiverse that was no longer qualified to be a chessboard, and this final war universe, which was moving from finite multiverse to infinite multiverse, had thus gained true freedom.

"Is this the ending you hoped for?" Alice appeared beside her and asked. "A victory won through cunning rather than strategy, without using one's own hands?"

"This is the ending I hoped for, and the result I had planned."

Luo Ye flicked her fingers and looked away.

"What's the use of wiping out one side, or several sides? Wiping out all mortals, all races, all demons... It's not that we can't do it, it's not that we're without confidence. But what comes after that?"

"If Gaia cannot advance, the game will continue."

"Humans will not be the main characters; the game will continue."

"Once the game continues, no matter what we do or change, the final result is simply being overturned and started over in a new game. At that point, we won't even have the self-satisfaction we felt when we achieved something in the past."

"Therefore, for us, the real victory is to let go of all those hands that control the fate of all things—when they have finished their game, they will naturally leave. And on that basis, the more we preserve, the greater our victory will be."

She gazed at Alice, her eyes sparkling like stars.

"So how should victory be achieved? It's simple: Adam will never lose before the Primal People's gaze shifts away. Adam will never win after the Primal People's gaze shifts away. Ultimately, the balance will be disrupted. A life-or-death struggle will inevitably ensue between the Holy Emperors. The Holy Emperor supporting the human side and the Holy Emperor supporting the myriad races, whichever side falls into decline, will try every means to perish together with the other. And at that time, our final war universe, and Adam, who is cooperating with us, will be the smallest but most influential factor in the balance, and also the guarantee that no Holy Emperor will survive."

"Everything we planned and schemed was just to get rid of Adam. And now, it's all settled."

She looked behind Alice—the clones of Alice and Patchouli, as well as the original Patchouli, were having a tea party there, and there were two empty seats left.

“So, my silly little sister.” She turned around, reached out, and ruffled Alice’s hair. “Now do you understand what winning really means, and what losing really means?”

Alice lowered her eyes.

She certainly understood the meaning of winning and losing: achieving the goal meant winning, and failing meant losing. Everything else—how many people were killed, how much was done, how much cost was paid, how many sacrifices were made—were all insignificant details.

So, have we won yet?

As members of the Central Continent Team, now that all members of the team are alive and free from the constraints of the Supreme God, they have naturally won.

As an independent transcendent species, although the 'Four Highs' level no longer exists, it has already achieved the rank of Quasi-Saint. Furthermore—

She clenched her fist slightly, the concept of 'change' expanding along with the multiverse in the final battle continuously supplying her with power. Her level of existence remained that of a Quasi-Saint, but it was experiencing a chain reaction of explosive growth as she ascended from the finite multiverse to the infinite multiverse—the difference between a Quasi-Saint and a True Saint in terms of level of existence lay in whether or not they had broken free from their obsessions. However, the difference in their form of existence lay in whether their own concept pervaded the entire multiverse.

In the past, only by breaking free from attachments could one fully liberate the image of the 'Tao,' thus directly reaching the infinite from the finite. Therefore, without breaking free from attachments, a Quasi-Saint would forever remain a Quasi-Saint, or even have the possibility of self-destruction. However, now, as long as one can grow into the infinite together with this finite multiverse, then even if attachments remain, they can be transformed into reality through the accumulation of this quantity that can touch the 'endless.'

In other words, Alice is now a true saint, a quasi-saint. Perhaps, as time continues to flow and the infinite multiverse is rebuilt, she will become a saint emperor like Gu Jun of the past. But perhaps before that, she will have already seen through her own obsessions and thus achieved immortality.

This is proof that she is no longer bound by the Lord God, and also proof of her victory as a transcendent being.

All her wishes have been fulfilled.

No longer as a tool, no longer as a pawn, no longer bound, no longer restricted.

And it's not just her; all the living reincarnators have the opportunity to enjoy this primordial dividend that came with the birth of the new multiverse, a dividend that was originally only available to innate demon gods. More importantly, there is no primordial god who can control or take back everything.

Everyone won.

Everyone achieved their desired outcome.

Even those who died in the cycle of reincarnation, those defeated Holy Emperors, did not gain nothing—did the Supreme God not continue to exist? Did not the depths of the Warp conceal the Flip Terra forged by all races? Did Adam no longer leisurely enjoy his vacation? Did those dead Holy Emperors not leave their names, directly or indirectly?

They will eventually return. After countless eons, all the defeated will return to the world. Even those primordial demons of Gaia who slumbered in the depths of the Abyss of Death and shattered along with the outer multiverse will return one by one and participate in this eternal battlefield.

"I've won," Alice thought. Because the hand that held the chessboard would never return, and in this newly born multiverse, rapidly evolving from finite to infinite, there was no one left who could defeat her.

She nodded slightly to Luo Ye in agreement.

“I understand, sister. We won.” Her gaze shifted slightly, looking at the beings on Earth caught in the eternal war. “And them? Did they win too?”

“Of course they won,” Luo Ye replied. “Because war is inherently eternal. And what we actually did was not to make the flames of war never die out, but to ensure that none of the defeated would perish.”

She reached out from the sky and touched the sparks of fire on the ground.

“All races are protagonists, and protagonists never die. Defeated races will rise again in new lands, and then, anyone who comes into contact with them is destined to face war. This is an inevitable law, an unchanging ending.”

She turned her head and looked at Alice.

"We were not the only ones who chose war; they chose war as well."

"And after that, their fate was up to them."

Luo Ye turned and walked towards the tea party, leaving Alice alone to gaze at the vast earth beneath the starry sky.

a long time.

"Gods to gods, mortals to mortals," she murmured. "You will never perish, and the future you face is up to you."

"Development and change... indeed, this is my philosophy."

She turned away, no longer paying attention to the beings on earth who were neither worthy of her attention nor needed her attention. For her companions were calling to her at their tea party, and in their tea party, she anticipated a victory of a different kind.

—Iris's victory: no longer a tool, no longer restricted, all her companions alive and free, her feelings for Patchouli unchanging—goal achieved.

——THE END——

Author's Closing Remarks and New Book

It's finished.

Three million eight hundred and eighty thousand words, I feel like I should be able to win a trophy on Shuke (a Chinese online bookstore). Although I always seem to procrastinate for a few days at the beginning of each month, I think I've managed to maintain my good character.

In short, that's how it is. After all, all good things must come to an end. Alice's story has been going on for almost three years, and it's time for it to come to a close.

I felt like I should say something... but after thinking it over, I realized I didn't actually have much to say.

All I can say is thank you.

Thank you to the editor and all the readers for your continued support. Strictly speaking, I'm actually not a very confident person. Every post and comment from you readers is a tremendous support to me. And it is indeed because of your support that I have been able to continue writing this book, and to write it this long.

Anyway, thank you.

Thank you everyone, for letting me know that I can at least tell stories.

as well as--