Within Avici

The instant she opened her eyes, she saw the Spirit-Destroying Sword halted dead in front of her. A cracked, petrified hand held back the doom descending from the sky like an iron vise, completely unwavering. Holding back the doom falling from the heavens—Ji Jue! Once again, he had erected an impassable cliff, standing before Wen Sheng to block him. Those eyes of his, carrying an ambiguous smile, looked at her. At this very moment, it was just like back then—except it was even worse! Wen Wen could already imagine how chaotic things would get once word of this scene reached the Beishan Section. This time, she might suffer social death for years, wouldn't she? *Why does this bastard always show up right when I want to die the most?* Yet all those grievances and accusations seemed to vanish without a trace the moment she saw that smiling face. All that remained was a soft sigh of relief. "You slept for quite a while, Ji Jue." "Yeah. I almost didn't make it back. Sorry about that." Ji Jue wiped the grime and dust from her face. His fingers hissed in the scorch of the runaway dragonfire, rotting away in an instant and turning to ashes. She looked just like a shattered statue. Minerva's matrix was on the brink of collapse, her soul cracking, her body fractured. Destructive dragonfire seeped from within like blood, spreading relentlessly and expanding at rapid speed, burning that familiar face beyond recognition. It was a devastating sight. No matter how he wiped, not a trace of her original appearance could be recovered. The corruption had taken deep root, immovably entrenched. "Sorry, did I scare you?" Wen Wen swallowed the bitterness in her heart, letting out a self-deprecating sigh. "This is what I really look like. I'm afraid I've let everyone down—" "Huh?" Ji Jue fell into an eerie silence, hesitating as if he wanted to speak. When Wen Wen narrowed her eyes and peered closely at him, she finally detected a hint of guilt and embarrassment on that familiar face. "Well, actually... ahem." Ji Jue lowered his head, unable to keep from coughing. "I found out a long time ago... yeah. I was just too embarrassed to bring it up." "Huh?" Wen Wen froze, struggling to comprehend. "After all, look—since I went through all the trouble of drugging you, it's not like I could just do nothing, right?" Ji Jue's eyes continued to dart around as he put on a brave front. "Don't worry, though. While I didn't skip a single thing I was supposed to do, as for the things I wasn't supposed to do, I didn't touch a single—*oof!*" Before he could finish, his vision went black. *Thump!* Wen Wen could no longer hold back. Gritting her teeth, she mustered the last of her strength to drive a punch squarely into the face right in front of her. *What things were you supposed to do and what weren't you supposed to do?! Clarify them one by one first!* She couldn't restrain herself at all! She wanted to clamp that dirty mouth shut, slap him left and right, and beat him silly until she tore the touched feelings she had just fed to a dog right back out of his throat. Immediately after, she heard his voice. "Still, don't worry, Sister Wen. I don't find it terrifying at all, nor is there any disappointment to speak of." Ji Jue looked at her solemnly, without the slightest resistance or disgust, his smile intact. "If anything, you're breathtakingly gorgeous right now." "...Look who knows how to sweet-talk, huh?" Wen Wen seemed to smile, shaking her head wistfully. "I'll just take that as you comforting me." Ji Jue fell silent. He let out what seemed like a helpless sigh. Then, without a second thought, he leaned down. Before she could even react, that familiar face was already inches away. Before she could open her mouth to change the subject, he sealed her lips. Completely out of nowhere! Her eyes fluttered wildly and went wide in utter bewilderment. Instinctively, she wanted to glare at him, but her vision blurred into a daze. As illusory light radiated outward, everything lost its clarity. Only those eyes right in front of her remained, gazing at her—yet they threw her into instinctive panic. When she tried to turn away, she found there was nowhere to run. She had already fallen into bewitchment, her heart no longer her own. The sound of fracturing rang out from Ji Jue's body. As the stony gray across Wen Wen's form rapidly faded, an even fiercer petrification spread across Ji Jue! Without hesitation, he swallowed every bit of the runaway dragonfire, propping up her soul on the verge of collapse once more, smoothing away every wound and mending every crack. Emulating the Celestial Rail system's extraction of corruption, he deployed his own authority to reenact the power of All-Domain Circulation Control, transferring every bitter consequence into his own soul through an exchange of spiritus! With that, the transaction was complete. His corporeal body burned away to ashes in the flames, yet his soul emerged once more from the cinder, bathed in the cruel fires of the Desolate Ruins. His smile remained, as though he felt no pain whatsoever. He took in her bewildered expression with apparent delight. "Now that proves I wasn't lying, doesn't it?" He raised his insubstantial fingertips and brushed them across her cheek, causing the charred crust to peel away, the fractures to knit together, and her flesh and blood to regenerate. Everything returned to its original state. As the flowing light merged into her, the phantom spirit nestled within her body, continuously pouring fresh power into her. This time, the raging fire of the Desolate Ruins could no longer harm her in the slightest. Amidst the blaze, that youthful face gradually shifted, maturing rapidly back to its original appearance. Yet it didn't stop there... Deep within her soul, the long-sealed essence of the Desolate Ruins was unleashed once more! Under the suppression and control of two combined souls, that violent force revealed a new transformation. Like flowing water, it integrated seamlessly into her being; she no longer needed to expend her consciousness or soul to rein it in. Instead, it circulated obediently, as though it had always belonged there. Frail flesh and blood dissolved in the flames, replaced by scales as brilliant as gemstones, crystalline wings that blotted out the sky, and a magnificent form towering like a mountain range! Countless rivulets of quicksilver coiled around her, streaming through the gaps between scales to weave intricate circuits and structures. They continuously suppressed and guided her nearly berserk nature, plating the gem-like dragon of the Desolate Ruins in a resplendent silver sheen! At this moment, iron and stone became one, inseparable from each other. A true dragon had taken form! A single breath easily scattered the defense Ji Jue had poured all his strength into erecting. A single spread of her wings cast the entirety of the dream beneath their shadow. When those six majestic, star-like eyes looked down from above, the enemy before them seemed as tiny as a speck of dust! As for Wen Sheng— Wen Sheng was about to go mad! No, he felt he had already gone mad. In less than half a minute, it felt as if he had read through every horror story in the world. After witnessing all of this with his own eyes, he even began to wonder if he had succumbed too deeply to corruption, his sanity evaporating into some hallucination or delusion. *Who am I? Where am I? What just happened?* *Why the hell did that bastard Ji Jue suddenly pop out of the Huangliang Relic's dream? Why did the two of them suddenly start kissing? And why did Wen Wen suddenly resurrect at full strength and turn into this monstrous abomination?!* He couldn't make heads or tails of it at all! It was too bizarre, too uncanny, and too utterly absurd! So absurd that he could no longer hold himself back. He was consumed by boundless fury! "What the hell are you two adulterous dogs doing in my dream?!" In that instant, amidst his deranged roar, those three faces overlapped once more as boundless faith poured down. In the blink of an eye, the Celestial-Human Foundation reassembled. Yet this time, the emptiness of the Abyssal Void, the greed of Weiyang, and the distortion of Defilement began to spread rapidly. Almost like drinking poison to quench a thirst, he overdrew his potential and embraced corruption, forcibly elevating his own power! He expanded his soul endlessly—swelling, expanding, ballooning until it reached the very limit the dream could contain. The moment he reached out his hand, countless self-nature moths took flight from the great serpent of bones that encircled the dreamscape, converging into a tidal wave. A deluge of pitch-black darkness cascaded down like a waterfall into his grip, forging a blade meant to annihilate all souls. With every ounce of his might, he brought it down toward the monster before him! *Crack!* The sound of shattering rang out—from the blade itself? The boundless torment and despair Wen Sheng had accumulated from his self-nature had actually cracked upon colliding with the sweep of those iron-and-stone wings! The dragon of the Desolate Ruins raised its gaze, watching it all coldly before slowly opening its jaws. It seemed to draw in a deep breath. Then, a crimson breath erupted from the dragon's maw, rushing forth in a violent deluge like a tsunami, filling everything in its path! Yet that breath was not flame; it was the boundless light of Pan Ying! Within the Realm of Ultimate Bliss, everything in sight was blanketed in crimson, severed, ripped apart, and ground into dust. The entire Realm of Ultimate Bliss shook violently, teetering on the verge of collapse. It could not bear such terrifying power. What was even more shocking was that outside the dream, a minute fissure had actually appeared across the great skeletal serpent coiled over the sea of souls! It was as if it had been struck by a sword! The true essence of the Desolate Ruins, transcending the local Ascension, began to shake the entire illusion. It dispersed every delusion and annihilated all fantasies, inflicting actual damage upon the dreamscape! "Whoa! So cool!" Ji Jue cheered, his soul dancing excitedly within the dragon's sea of consciousness. "Now that's our blood-pumping combo move, Sister Wen!" "Ji Jue..." The dragon that was Wen Wen remained silent for a long while before speaking softly. "Thank you." "Ah, it was nothing!" Ji Jue waved his hand casually, playing it cool on the outside while smugly shaking his head and grinning inside, thrilled to death. *Now this is how it should be!* *I racked my brains to treat your injuries, stabilize your condition, sacrificed so much, and even gave away my purity—wasn't all of that just to hear a few words of gratitude and thanks?* *I love hearing it, want to hear it, enjoy hearing it—say a few more!* "And..." Wen Wen paused for a moment, then informed him, "I'm beating you up once we get out." She considered it, then added with absolute finality: "At least two beatings!" "...A-Alright." Ji Jue hesitated, beginning to debate whether it was more realistic to plead with Sister Wen for mercy, or to contact Hope Hospital the moment he got out. Any delay, and he might end up halfway dead! Still, it didn't matter. As long as the person dying right now wasn't him, that was plenty! Within the bloody fires of Pan Ying, Wen Sheng was incinerated into ash, only to reassemble and resurrect completely unharmed. Yet in the very next instant, he was shattered to pieces again by the sweeping wing of the giant dragon! Popping like a bubble, he was reborn once more. He had virtually no way to fight back. Yet this was no problem at all. Within an illusion, birth and destruction were mere dreams. As long as the dreamscape persisted, he could resurrect infinitely, seated firmly upon invulnerable ground. What truly chilled him to the bone was how mere mortals like Wen Wen and Ji Jue, two defeated foes, could sustain such a colossal monster under this blockade! The Desolate Ruins was inherently incompatible with Ascension, to say nothing of forcibly manifesting such an outrageous monstrosity inside a dream—it was practically like lighting a fire underwater. Where were they getting their spiritus? Where was the faith coming from? It was true that Ji Jue's authority was [Remake], but where was he getting the divine power to sustain all of this? Clearly, after his reset, all of his opponent's influence should have been wiped clean, and the Supreme Goodness system's interference should have fallen to its nadir, asymptotically approaching zero! And yet... it was stuck? It had stalled right at the threshold of 0.0001%, unable to drop any further, let alone be erased completely! It wasn't until he turned back in a daze to look at the ocean of souls below that he spotted an indelible, minute gleam amidst the shifting prismatic light! What... was that?! Under the observation of his heavenly eye, that faint glimmer in the sea of bitterness pulsed, flickered, and then... began to multiply! One point, two points, three points... Under the accelerated passage of time, it spread like wildfire at a jaw-dropping speed. In the blink of an eye, it claimed half of the territory! Like a plague, it surged wildly through the heavenly sea of bitterness! *** In his daze, it felt as though he had lived through an extraordinarily long dream. Yet upon opening his eyes, everything before him felt so real. Under the brilliant sunshine, the laughter of children drifted from the park. Yu Shu raised his head blankly, gazing up at the boundless blue sky. Beneath the dancing white clouds, the world was as bright as a dream come true. Everyone on the street wore joyful smiles. Amidst endless peace and serenity, everyone had attained a happy ending. It was so wonderful. "So it was just a dream?" Under the breeze blowing against his face, he let out a self-deprecating chuckle and lowered his head. "To think I still harbored such unrealistic fantasies." Everyone walked hand in hand with smiles on their faces toward a beautiful future—free from cruelty, disease, and pain. No one would shed tears anymore, because extending a helping hand was second nature to everyone. Each person offered up a small measure of compassion and love, turning the world into a paradise. "If only it were real... how wonderful that would be." He bowed his head, burying his face in his hands, trying to suppress the ache and confusion in his heart. "Daddy, what's wrong?" A small child stepped forward, staring at her father's sorrowful expression in confusion. "Did you bump into something? Let me rub it for you, okay? The pain will fly away!" "Yeah, it'll fly away." Yu Shu stroked her cheek, reaching out to draw her into his arms. He could no longer hold back the tears streaming down his face. Why couldn't any of this be real? Why must his own fantasy appear right before his eyes? "Daddy?" The girl tilted her head up in confusion, looking at her father. Feeling the hot tears falling drop by drop onto her cheeks, she tried her best to wipe them away with her little hands. Until, through his spent tears, a sorrowful smile emerged. "Sweetheart, do you love Daddy?" "Of course I do!" The girl nodded, answering without hesitation. That smile grew all the more sorrowful as he embraced her, finding it agonizing to let go. "Daddy loves you too. I love Mommy, so, so much... but Daddy has something very important he must do. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry—" Yu Shu paused, finally realizing his mission. "So, I have to go." He had to cast aside this dream and happiness to bid farewell to everything before him. At last, he let go. As if fleeing, he stumbled to his feet and used every ounce of his strength to walk outward, step after step. Cries and calls seemed to echo from behind him. He didn't dare look back. Closing his eyes, he let out a roar and sprinted forward, one stride after another. His daughter's calls, his wife's reproaches, his colleagues' pleas and pursuits... All of those voices faded away. In the desolate wilderness, he fell to his knees, utterly exhausted. Yet his hands brushed against something in the dirt. Sharp-edged, exceptionally hard. Digging away the loose soil, he once again saw the case buried deep within the dream—the case Mr. Ji had entrusted to him! It had been here all along, right beside him. It trembled and struggled incessantly, humming without pause, rousing him from the dream time and again as it waited for the day of its liberation. All he needed to do was undo the final latch. *Click—* In that instant, a gale surged from the narrow case. Yu Shu was thrown back, tumbling across the ground. Raising his head in a daze, he saw an infinite torrent erupt from the box, soaring straight into the sky without end! Amidst the radiant light bridging heaven and earth, a figure cloaked in black flames faintly materialized. Gazing out over this unfamiliar world, it seemed to understand everything. Finally, it gave Yu Shu a nod, turned, and departed. Crossing the rift of the dreamscape, it strode toward that boundless sea of bitterness. —Chunjun, released! *** The situation was deteriorating. Deteriorating continuously, at a speed visible to the naked eye. Feeling the speed with which Ji Jue was reclaiming authority and the renewed instability of the Holy God's dream, Wen Sheng's expression turned livid, unable to comprehend what was happening. Just as Wen Sheng could manipulate the dream via the Holy God, Ji Jue had likewise planted a crucial contingency and placed it into another's hands. Even Yu Shu, the one carrying it out, had had no idea what a vital thing he was keeping safe—what Ji Jue had left behind was the reflection of his own soul, the Chunjun forged from his self-nature. From the very beginning, he had put this crucial safeguard and insurance in place. Even if everything collapsed completely, he could rely on Chunjun hidden in the dark to start anew. He simply hadn't expected things to deteriorate to this point. Now, the soul reflection manifested by Chunjun traversed the sea of bitterness, spreading its influence once more to shatter the dreams, dragging soul after soul that had been immersed in bliss and beauty back down into hell. Ji Jue's authority began to swell again, even turning back to erode Wen Sheng's very foundation. Pursuing relentlessly, infiltrating everywhere, employing every trick in the book. All that could be seen was darkness rolling like a tide, wildly expanding to leave indelible blemishes across the prismatic sea. Like persistent mold, it clung to him relentlessly. With just a single *ding*, everything that had been shut down was turned right back on! In the blink of an eye, fires erupted everywhere, smoke billowing on all sides. In the sea of bitterness beyond the Realm of Ultimate Bliss, the Holy God's dominion was shaken once more, countered tit-for-tat from the outside. Meanwhile, trapped within the blockade of Limbo, Wen Sheng was forced to take a relentless beating under their combined assault. Until Wen Sheng could endure it no longer! *You think you're the only ones with cheats?!* *Snap!* A crisp sound of shattering rang out once again. The phantom image of a pocket watch reappeared behind Wen Sheng. Time began to turn back once more, returning everything to the starting point. Even the fissure on the skeletal serpent vanished without a trace. Restored to its original state. Reload save! Before Wen Sheng, the dragon's silhouette visibly faded, weakening rapidly. Just as he had predicted, once it lost the support of divine power, it was ultimately water without a source, bound by its limits. In the short term, it would struggle to pose a threat. The urgent priority right now was to completely eliminate that meddlesome bastard, Ji Jue! Yet when he tried to repeat his trick to push Ji Jue into the dream once more, he discovered—the Huangliang Relic had no response! The dream that should have risen again lost control, dispersing entirely before it could even take shape. It was as if it was refusing his command. No response whatsoever. In that instant, Wen Sheng finally understood that there was no retreat left for him. As expected, as time accelerated in the lower realm, Ji Jue's pollution and interference would begin to spread once more, rising to its peak again. The save file was soft-locked. No matter how many times he restarted, this was an unavoidable premise. In that case, the only choice left was the most troublesome, agonizing one—to settle the score for good within this endless loop of struggle! Ascension, where a single thought was undying and all phenomena shifted, versus the Desolate Ruins, which annihilated dreams and rejected illusions. Between them, only one side would walk out alive! *Then bring it on!* Wen Sheng's resolve did not waver in the least. No matter how many times he had to repeat this, it didn't matter; he would never give up. He might never match the unyielding solidity of the Desolate Ruins in his lifetime, but when it came to the obsession of Ascension, he would never bow to anyone! *Snap!* After one brutal battle after another, the moment Ji Jue's corruption spiraled out of control again, that crisp sound resonated from Wen Sheng's soul once more! The phantom of the pocket watch emerged, reversing all phenomena and returning everything to the origin. Once again, back to the starting line! "Again!" Wen Sheng sneered, reforming anew without the slightest hint of weakness. As long as the Holy God and the pocket watch remained, he could lose countless times, but he only needed to win once! By contrast, what his opponents faced was a true Avici hell—an endless torment of suffering and agony! Yet very quickly, he realized that he, too, was beginning to suffer. As everyone knows, no matter what you're doing, the moment hard time begins, your entire experience depends on the caliber of your cellmate... Especially when your cellmate has no class whatsoever!