No Talking About Last Night!

"The chrysalis and partner swap are meant to give the trial-takers a chance to understand each other?" Youlan desperately wanted to sneer at such a conclusion, but looking at Yaxiu's earnest expression, she found herself unable to laugh. After a moment of silence, she took a seat in a chair slightly further away from him. "What do you want to talk about?" "Can you take off your mask?" "No..." Youlan shook her head. "My name, my appearance, and every key piece of information that could point to my identity will remain hidden. Not only to evade miracles from the prophecy faction and the like, but even more so for..." "For what?" "Whenever Silver Lantern is willing to tell you her true name, she'll tell you the answer to that as well." "Fair enough." Yaxiu hadn't really expected to extract crucial intelligence with mere conversational tricks anyway—he wasn't Igola, after all. "What kind of ending does this trial ultimately lead to?" Youlan chuckled. "You've clearly already made up your mind. Why ask me?" Yaxiu paused, eyeing her suspiciously. Youlan feigned bashfulness and lowered her head. "Don't stare at me like that, I'm still wearing a mask..." "No, it's just that your tone reminds me a lot of the Watcher," Yaxiu said. "Whenever I ask a question, he always shuts me down with that exact phrase." Youlan blinked. "Neither of us is wrong, though, are we? If the answers we give differ from your own assessment, would you really change your mind? If you wouldn't, what point is there in answering?" "Indeed, not much point at all," Yaxiu agreed readily. "Still, I'm used to starting conversations with lighter topics before gradually delving deeper. That way, you might inadvertently let some important information slip..." "Techniques of a mind sorcerer?" "Maybe. He who stays close to a Lalafell ends up chubby; I suppose I unconsciously picked up plenty of his bad habits," Yaxiu said. "Though, it might also just be that I enjoy chatting with friends. "Without any particular meaning or agenda, isn't just rambling aimlessly with people meaningful in itself?" Youlan suddenly smiled. "That makes you sound like a sorcerer who has never experienced loneliness." Yaxiu instantly grew tense, feeling as though the Mirror Master had seen right through him. However, Youlan did not pursue the topic further. Instead, she said quite directly, "This is a Divine Fire Trial left behind from the Grey Fox Divine Era, a subsystem belonging to the Divine Fire system. While it cannot directly determine the grand law that will govern the next divine era, it will still exert a critical influence." "So it really is related to the Divine Fire..." Yaxiu wasn't particularly surprised and nodded. "Then your ultimate goal is to become a grand law?" "I wouldn't call it the ultimate goal, but becoming a grand law is indeed a stage in our plan." "Can you tell me what you're truly pursuing, then?" "Hasn't Silver Lantern already divulged that to you?" Youlan said. "We believe this world is merely a phantom dream of the god, an illusion shared by all living beings. What we pursue is to pierce this dream so that everyone may return to an eternal future." "That's actually what baffles me the most," Yaxiu said. "Assuming you're right and the world truly is a dream, that viewpoint only explains why you're so utterly unscrupulous—why extinguishing lives is as simple as breathing and unleashing catastrophes as casual as eating a meal. After all, nobody needs to care about consequences in a dream. "What I can't understand is why you want to pierce the dream at all. Letting everyone live, age, fall ill, and die within the dream before returning to the Void Realm—what's so bad about that for you? If you're that eager to escape the dream, you could just return to eternity yourselves." Youlan slowly shook her head. "Did you ever encounter Heroic Spirit Commanders on the Time Continent?" Yaxiu paused, then nodded. "I ran into a few." "Then you should understand that death is not the end, and eternity is merely another form of enslavement," Youlan said. "Only by piercing the dream of reality can we completely sever the shackles between the god and us, finding freedom within eternity." "So what you're chasing isn't power, fame, status, or great deeds in reality, but eternal freedom after death?" "You could put it that way." Yaxiu realized that an irreconcilable contradiction truly existed between him and Silver Lantern. What he cared about was reality, whereas Silver Lantern was utterly disappointed in it. Yet she had also realized that the Void Realm was hardly a tranquil, idyllic utopia, which was why she sought to forge a better future by destroying reality. To use a video game analogy, Silver Lantern was like a player who knew a secret cheat code; she believed that as long as she completely wiped out the first stage, she could secure a far better class and identity in the second. More importantly, she felt not the slightest attachment to the first stage. Come to think of it, Senluo natives all possessed a somewhat misanthropic streak to varying degrees. After all, another way to phrase 'burning faith' was simply 'dying sooner to reincarnate earlier.' Silver Lantern had grown up in the Calamitous Fire Temple. When she opened her eyes, she was met with a scarred, apocalyptic wasteland, endless warfare between rival sects, and the Strangling Green of the night mutating the weak. It must have felt as though the world had always been this rotten. Yet paradoxically, everyone knew that many years ago, this world had once been the peaceful and prosperous Grey Fox Divine Era, and they could even reminisce about that glorious past through the Grey Fox legacy... Compared to living in perpetual darkness, those Senluo folk who could periodically glimpse the past's glory naturally despised the wasteland era all the more. To the people of Senluo, reality was indeed a garbage game. Unless Yaxiu could make Silver Lantern indulge in illusions once more, she was dead set on destroying this world! Seeing Yaxiu lost in thought, Youlan smiled. "Well? Mutual understanding isn't so simple between people, is it?" "No, this was a huge help," Yaxiu said. "At least you've helped me see that Silver Lantern isn't some incomprehensible monster, but an ordinary person with weaknesses." "I feel like I've betrayed Silver Lantern a bit," Youlan murmured. "As compensation, could you answer a question for me?" "My dream is to grow old together with the one I love!" Yaxiu replied instantly. Youlan blinked. "Then my question is: who is the one you love?" Yaxiu's eyes darted around, and he threw his hands up. "You wouldn't know them even if I told you." "Yet you hesitated." Youlan stood up. "Let me guess: did you hesitate because you aren't sure who it is you love..." "Or did you hesitate because there's more than one person?" Yaxiu immediately grabbed a nearby cushion and hurled it at her. Youlan nimbly dodged to the side, drifting into her bedroom like a breeze, leaving behind silvery, bell-like laughter. "Good night, Yaxiu." "Good night, Mirror Master." Yaxiu returned to his own bedroom and locked the door. After washing up, he realized he was already past their agreed log-in time. He hurried over to lie on the bed, pulled up *Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook*, and selected 'Void Realm Exploration'! Soon, Yaxiu opened his eyes inside the dream bubble and saw his three companions gathered around him. "Watcher—!" Diya rushed forward and threw her arms around him, her eyes brimming with tears. "I didn't mean to hit you yesterday!" "It's fine. Didn't I almost hit you too?" Yaxiu said. "It was all the fault of that 'Love-Hate Inversion.' At the end of the day, running into that sort of cursed affix suddenly was rooted in my status as a semi-feeler. I was the one who dragged you all into it. "If we keep running into cursed affixes like that, I might have to consider temporarily stepping out of the team and letting the three of you explore together until I resolve this semi-feeler curse before returning..." "No!" Diya clung to him tightly, shaking her head vehemently. "You've helped us so much; it's our turn to help you! Isn't that right, guys?" "Yes," Weise responded promptly. "Without the captain's help, my exploration progress would have been painfully slow. If the only price to pay is helping weather a few cursed affixes, it is an absolute bargain." Two of the three operators had already voiced their stance. The group then turned around, only to notice that the red-haired Sword Princess had quietly wandered off at some point. When they caught up, they heard the Sword Princess's calm voice: "Stop slacking off. Let's start looking for affixes." The Witch trotted alongside her and said, "But we were just talking about last night..." "No talking about last night!" Sonia brought a swift chop down onto Diya's forehead. Yet when she looked up and caught Yaxiu's expression—struggling desperately to hold back a smirk—her face instantly burned scarlet. Steam practically drifted from her head, and her right hand instinctively reached for her hilt... "I hate small talk the most," Yaxiu declared with righteous indignation. "Hurry up and search for affixes! We have to make up for yesterday's quota today—our goal is ten bubbles!"