Why play in a band if you don't form one for life?

However, Shizi had already stood up, took out a cookie from his pocket and ate it, and the wound healed quickly: "It's okay."

She conveyed the remnant soul's words.

"To the Eden Center... OK, we were going there anyway." Kita breathed a sigh of relief. No matter what, knowing what happened to me was better than knowing nothing.

Shizi was relieved and checked around. "They are all handmade... here... there is a fingerprint..." She stroked the objects on the shelf with shining eyes, already immersed in them.

Kita looked at her back and revealed a barely perceptible smile.

Thank you.

Kita lowered his head and saw that a stone statue had appeared in his arms at some point, and its face was exactly the same as the Taoist nun in his memory.

When the two left, a jar of ashes appeared on the spot, and Shizi sealed the mouth of the well. In this way, nothing could disturb the gentleman's rest.

Although, I still don't understand his identity.

But it didn't matter. Kita stayed there for a while, holding the statue, and followed the others.

Soon, the ashes turned into starlight and dissipated in the air.

Chapter 45: Great Hall

The speedboat sped silently across the Guang River.

The ground had turned into abstract glass at some point, and the complex scenery belonging to civilization and life had long disappeared without a trace.

Clouds formed by countless floating and sinking rectangles floated across the sky, like the result of a rendering error after a computer freeze. The light of the black sun shone through the clouds and focused on the tiny speedboat.

"I draw... this one." LAYER drew a card from No. 2's hand.

"Ah." She was stunned and looked helpless, "I lost."

In LAYER's hand, the Joker laughed silently, as if mocking her failure.

MASKING lay on the edge of the boat boredly, watching the three of them: "It always feels a bit weird to see three identical people drawing joker cards."

Lisa reminded LAYER: "When you get a joker card, your eyebrows will relax a little. Didn't you notice?"

LAYER was a little surprised: "I really didn't notice..."

Beside her, Liang suddenly moved, raised his hands, and lifted up the fishing rod. There was nothing on it.

"I clearly felt something..." She frowned.

"It would be strange if we could catch anything on such a fast boat." Hong Xia complained beside her.

Sitting on the other side, Yazi kept looking at the scenery outside, muttering to herself: "Border Rift... No, it's better to call it the Fictional Zone..."

"Xiao Yazi...are you...choosing a name?" asked Linzi.

"Yes." Ako looked up, "Rinrin, Rikka, what do you think is a cool name for this place?"

"Hmm..." Rikka racked her brains, "I can't think of anything..."

"The realm of emptiness." At the bow, Shizi interrupted without turning his head.

Yazi curled her lips: "You copied this..."

At the stern, Yili was reading the book in his hand in the sunlight. It was the copy of Qingyu Town that Shizi had made.

"Goto, can you understand?" Ichiri heard someone talking to her. She was nervous, looked up, and found that it was Sayo. She breathed a sigh of relief, "No, I can't understand, but I'm learning Chinese." Her other hand was flipping through the translation given by Shizi. She compared the original text with the translation and read it with difficulty.

Saya became interested and moved to sit next to Ichiri. They looked at the rubbing together and said, "The text on the stele is slightly different from modern Chinese. It may not be useful for you to use it as study material. Moreover, the grammar of ancient Chinese is completely different from that of modern Chinese."

Yili's eyes were blank for a moment: "Yes..."

On the side, Kita and Yukina were using their respective abilities to fight in a small area. This kind of training could improve their fine control abilities.

PAREO kept looking at them: "Wouldn't you two like to take a break?" She held up the paper bag in her hand: "Here are some snacks."

"No need." CHU? leaned on the edge of the boat with one hand and looked into the distance, "We're here."

At the end of the river of light, there was light welcoming them.

The new deserted city is larger than Qingyu Town, and the buildings are generally one floor higher, like a city. There are no city walls in the whole city, and you can go directly into the city by going up to the large dock. The buildings in the whole city are still in the Han style, mostly made of wood. The natural erosion is more serious than that of Qingyu Town, and there are almost no traces of human beings outside the city. The bones are buried everywhere, which is more complicated than before.

"I have a feeling we'll run into LAYER number four here," Kita muttered.

LAYER said calmly: "I'm used to it."

"I'm not used to it." Number Three followed her onto the shore. "It still feels a little weird."

A wide stone street leads directly to the center of the city, to a luxurious palace.

"It looks like this is the political center of this area." Sayo came ashore, "Why is there no city wall?"

"Maybe there are those seniors who are suppressing us, so there won't be any war in the mortal world." Shizi came ashore last. She had told others about what happened to Kita before.

"Peace..." Hearing this, Rikka fell into deep thought, "It's so good..."

"Let's go check it out to see if it's true." Yukina walked to the front, and the others followed one by one.

Walking along Central Avenue, you can see archways from time to time on the street, some of which have collapsed, while others are still supporting. If you venture into a house, you can often see plaques with words such as "Qinghe Building" and "Phoenix Pavilion" written on them.

There was a plaque that caught Shizi's attention. On the top of the tall plaque, there were two characters "Taixue" hanging, and there were still some remnants of colored paint around it. When she turned around, she had already pushed the door open and entered.

As soon as he opened the door, his heart trembled. A skeleton fell behind the door, fell to the ground, and broke into pieces. But it was just a small shock. Shizi looked inside the door and saw a yard full of weeds. There were wells in the two corners, and thick vines grew out of them.

There are townhouses on both sides of the yard, and the ivy covers the window frames, making it impossible to see what's inside.

"Is there anything?" Yukina followed in.

Shizi walked to the side and opened a door that was not yet entangled by vines: "No, I just wanted to take a look."

Saya was at the back, looking up at the plaque. She could understand the words "Taixue". She recalled her previous experience, and found that the places with special props were all in places like shrines and ancestral halls, and they also had some mythological colors. In this case, Taixue, as the center of Confucianism, might also have such props. She looked at Kita: "Any reaction?"

Kita nodded hesitantly: "It seems a little...but she doesn't seem very happy."

"It seems that he doesn't like reading very much." Chu waved his hands, walked past the two people, and stepped over the threshold, "Let's go and take a look."

"Eh? Why would someone not like reading?" Kita chased after him with a puzzled look on his face, "Wait a minute, everyone——"

Yili stood there, emitting a low pressure all over her body: "I just don't like it..." But when she saw everyone else going in, she hurriedly followed.

There were several rooms in a row, and there was nothing unusual in them. Layer followed the group and wandered around, not knowing where she was. Before she knew it, she walked into a room, and the smell of dust and decay hit her face. She held her breath and looked up, and saw a few portraits that made her feel strangely familiar.

"Is this... Confucius?" LAYER asked Shi Zi who was standing under the portrait.

Shizi opened his mouth wide: "Yes..." The statues of Confucius, Mencius, and several other portraits that Shizi felt familiar with but could not recognize were placed here, all arranged in strict order according to status.

However, after Confucius and Mencius, Shizi saw a completely unfamiliar girl. Below her were a few words: "Mother of Changle".

Someone stood silently behind her. Shizi was sweating profusely and turned around. It was Kita. "Oh, Kita, I was scared to death..." she said.

Then, I saw Kita's lifeless pupils.

"…Is he your acquaintance?" Shizi asked.

Kita nodded. "She stayed here and built the city with other people. I didn't expect the city to grow to this size." The voice sounded in Shizi's mind.

Upon hearing this, Shizi looked helpless and said, "So, do you want to take this painting away? You can see it anytime you want."

Xiduo paused for a while and nodded slightly.

So, Kita then carried another scroll. They searched the Imperial Academy again, but found nothing. They turned around and around and couldn't find the original path for a while, but they found a side door. After going out of the side door, it was still not the original path, but they could still see a corner of the palace between the bricks and the grass. So they continued forward.

The road now is not as wide as before, nor as flat as over there, and you can often see forks in the road.

After turning around a few times, I saw a temple.

The temple door was wide open. Youxi's ear: "There is a sound."

Shizi and Youshina looked at each other, lowered their voices, tiptoed over the threshold, walked along the wall, bypassed the Heavenly King Hall and the Release Pond, followed Youshina's footsteps, and sneaked towards the Main Hall.

The sound came from there.

LAYER and the others followed closely. Everyone hid in front of the palace door and heard footsteps coming from inside.

"Hmm!" Kita suddenly felt that the residual soul living in his body began to run wild, as if it was angry.

Blood. LAYER smelled blood. Her muscles tightened and her hand touched the handle of the knife.

Then she heard her own voice: "Who's that outside?"

ps: Looking back at this long chapter, it is really not suitable for follow-up reading... It is still in the preparation stage until now.

Chapter 46 Reasons for Moving Forward

Ruiyi finally reached the foot of the mountain.

"Huh..." She wiped the sweat off her forehead and looked at the abandoned city in front of her. From the first time she saw the city on the top of the mountain to the time she reached the foot of the mountain, it took her about half a day.

She said it was about half a day, because she didn't know how long it had been. In this land where time has frozen, nothing can be judged. She only knew that her hands were rubbed with blood marks by the hemp rope she rubbed, and the blisters on the soles of her feet had long been numb. In a place without a hiking trail, she never thought that climbing a mountain would be so tiring. Fortunately, she had died several times and her strength had increased, otherwise it would be difficult to persist.

But it's all worth it, she thought. It was the first time she saw traces of humans since she crossed over. Although this looked like a dead city, there were no traces of ghosts.

Maybe - she took a bite of the wild fruit she had just picked and started again - she could find traces of Xiaohua here.

In the city, only Ruiyi's footsteps echoed. She found a usable long knife in the half-collapsed blacksmith shop, and used a whetstone to grind off the rust and use it for self-defense.

Not bad, she thought. As soon as she entered the city, she found something good that she had never gotten before. If she were in reality, she would definitely find countless better weapons, but now she couldn't expect too much. This was already much better than having nothing.

She walked out of the blacksmith shop and continued to explore the streets. The various plaques hanging on the street and lying on the ground were all written with Chinese characters. They looked different from the Japanese Chinese characters, but combined with the buildings themselves, she could barely guess the meaning.

"(Restaurant... Inn... Teahouse...)" She counted them one by one. Every time she passed a door, she would go in and look, trying to find something useful to her like a long knife. She lacked everything, so almost everything could be useful to her.

"(My clothes are basically all rotten...)" She walked out of the tailor shop disappointedly, frowned, tugged at her barely wearable shirt and vest, and looked to the other end of the street. There was a courtyard surrounded by a red wall, with two stone lions squatting at the door, their eyes wide open.

She suddenly felt thirsty. She touched the bottle and found it was empty. She had prepared the bottle before she took the initiative to travel through time, which provided her with a lot of convenience.

"(There should be a well in the yard.)" She stepped over a tree root and walked towards the two stone lions, "(I hope the well is not dry.)"

Not far away.

"Excuse me." She said to the unguarded vermilion door, grabbed the brass door knocker, and pushed the door open. The door was several people tall and heavy. It had not been maintained for thousands of years, so it was even more difficult to open. Fortunately, Ruiyi was not an ordinary person, and there were no tree roots behind the door, so she finally pushed it open a crack.

The door creaked harshly. Ruiyi went in and pushed it open. As it trembled, a tile flew over the words "Daxiangguo Temple" and fell to the ground, breaking into several pieces.

"(Is it a temple?)" As soon as she walked in, Ruiyi recognized the structure of the place. But it had nothing to do with her. She ignored the sight of several sculptures in the Heavenly King Hall through the paper window and went straight to find the well.

Several spaces away, the dusty Great Hall stared at her silently.

The well was found next to the monks' quarters. There were many human bones nearby, but fortunately the well was still usable, and the water was clean and slightly sweet. It had been a long time since I had drunk such cool water, and I felt refreshed. She bowed in the direction of the main hall to express her gratitude and was about to leave.

Yet an hour later, she was still wandering around the temple.

"The mountain gate... should be in this direction, right?" She hesitantly crossed a spine and looked at a corner she had just passed. She recognized a gap she had seen before, "No, this is... I've been here before."

Not only had she been here before, she had passed by here many times. Turning around this corner, she would see the Heavenly King Hall. Opposite the Heavenly King Hall was the mountain gate.

That's how it should be.

Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat. Ruiyi frowned and tightened her grip on the knife handle. At this moment, only this half-rusted weapon could give her a sense of security.

She realized that she was experiencing a phenomenon known as a wall of delusion.

Is it accidental?

However, several experiences of death forced her to be cautious.

If this is man-made, then there must be a source.

The moment she realized this, the world in Ruiyi's eyes suddenly lost its color, like the black and white film taken by a nostalgic camera.

really!

Source... Ruiyi's heart skipped a beat again. Her eyes suddenly lifted up, through layers of brick walls and green plants, and locked onto one direction.

Mahavira Hall.

She raised the knife and walked towards that direction step by step.

There was no water in the release pond. When Ruiyi passed by before, there were only weeds under the bridge. However, at this time, all the weeds were replaced by white ribs. The wriggling black air flowed between the ribs. Ruiyi felt an inexplicable fear at a glance and almost turned around and ran away.

"(This place... is affecting... my spirit...)" Rui Yi could only lower her head and move forward with difficulty.

Walking down the bridge, she saw the broken floor tiles with lotuses painted on them. This meant that she had reached the square in front of the main hall. She remembered that there were two pagodas here. However, she did not dare to raise her head. As long as she raised her head, she would see something that she could not see. This idea was deeply implanted in her mind and could not be questioned.

Run away quickly.

There seems to be a sound.

Leaving, there is still a glimmer of hope.