"I know about the Empty Door sorcery spirit," Weise asked, puzzled. "What about it?"
"The Empty Door sorcery spirit can create a passage to another place," Yaxiu said. "Naturally, that includes other realms."
"I know, but—"
"Do you know why I came to the Silent Spiral?"
Weise paused. In all honesty, while she was slightly surprised by Yaxiu's appearance, it wasn't entirely unexpected. Her relationship with Yaxiu was a tangled mess to begin with, and considering the massive commotion she had caused at the Silent Spiral, it was only natural to draw over an accident engine like him.
Weise had thought she would run into Yaxiu when opening the Silent Spiral and be forced to fight a grueling battle before reaching the eighteenth floor. She hadn't expected the journey to be so effortless, with Yaxiu arriving late to attend her coronation only after the dust had settled.
Her first reaction had been that Yaxiu came specifically to stop her. But on second thought, it had only been a few days since she opened the Silent Spiral; even if Yaxiu had traveled day and night without rest, it would have been difficult to make it here in time from neutral areas like Black Robe Town.
In other words, by the time she activated the Silent Spiral, Yaxiu was already on the way.
His destination had also been the Silent Spiral, but he hadn't come for her. And now, Yaxiu had only one goal, plus the Empty Door sorcery spirit...
"Did you come to the Silent Spiral to use the Empty Door sorcery spirit and create a passage to another realm?"
Yaxiu nodded. "You probably know the drawback of the Empty Door sorcery spirit as well. If used on the surface, the Empty Door passage is not only unstable, but there's a high probability it leads into turbulent currents. Even if it's a real passage, the other side might open into solid earth, magma, or ocean currents."
"However, one of us learned from the Inquiries of Destiny that the proper way to use the Empty Door sorcery spirit is underground. The further from the surface, the more stable the Empty Door passage becomes, and the easier it is to roll a real passage... We came here precisely to roll a real passage leading to the Gospel Realm."
"So there is already a solution!" Yaxiu gripped Weise's shoulders, saying with excitement, "The Senluo Realm can be destroyed, but before it falls, we can create stable Empty Door passages to evacuate all of Senluo's people to a safe realm!"
Weise's lips trembled slightly, but she quickly answered, "Other realms do not welcome foreign travelers. Crossing over recklessly will only get them treated like vermin!"
"They can go to the Gospel Realm!" Yaxiu said. "The Empress of the Gospel Realm is my daughter... my kin. I should be able to persuade her to take in the people of Senluo. Besides, Senluo only has a population of ten million or so; the Gospel Realm has more than enough room to absorb them."
"Even if they don't go to the Gospel Realm, going to the Blood Moon or another realm is still better than waiting to die in the wasteland. In other realms, there's at least a chance of survival, but staying in the wasteland means shattering along with the dream!"
Weise shook her head. "How could they ever be willing to leave the wasteland? The people of Senluo are religious lunatics. They only want to stay in Senluo to realize their ideals. What's more, this is their homeland... Even if it's barren and chaotic, with a starless night sky and Strangling Green running rampant, it is still the land that birthed and raised them."
"Yes, I also thought it would be difficult to drive the people of Senluo out of the wasteland. On my way here, I kept wondering how to solve this problem. After all, even if we presented proof, the vast majority would never believe it—they couldn't accept such a future." Yaxiu looked at Weise and said earnestly, "But you've already resolved that biggest hurdle!"
"Me?"
"As you gradually take over the Senluo dream, the wasteland will turn into a land of death, like doomsday drawing closer step by step!" Yaxiu said. "Even religious zealots won't throw their lives away in a hopeless impasse. They'll definitely preserve their lives until a time when sacrificing them truly counts."
"If the newly formed concept of the Empty Door is the way to untie the dead knot, then you, Silver Lantern, are the hand that unties it! It is precisely because you are forcing their hand that Senluo's sorcerers, whether willing or not, will inevitably research how to use the Empty Door sorcery spirit to escape the wasteland!"
"When that time comes, the Senluo Azure Lord, the people of Senluo, and the Senluo Realm can all start anew," Yaxiu said. "Silver Lantern, you don't need to push yourself anymore."
Weise slumped down gently, her expression dazed, and sat on the sand, murmuring, "It seems... it really is feasible."
It wasn't that she didn't know about the Empty Door sorcery spirit, but after trying it a few times, she found it of little use and far too random, so she hadn't paid much attention to it. Moreover, because her soul had been damaged lately, she couldn't enter the Void Realm, and in reality, aside from gathering intelligence, she rarely moved about outside. All of this had led Weise to misjudge the Empty Door sorcery spirit.
"If that's the case, weren't the Grey Fox sorcerers ridiculously wrong?" Weise suddenly gave a laugh. "And the Senluo Azure Lord, too, along with everyone who died in the Dead City..."
Yaxiu crouched down, looked at her, and said, "They didn't choose wrong. It was just that when they made their choice, there was no better choice."
"Two hundred years ago, it was the right choice. When you entered the Dead City, it was the right choice. Even when I first arrived in the Senluo wasteland, it was still the right choice."
"Yet who could have predicted that the newly formed concept would actually normalize travel between realms through the Empty Door?" Recalling it, Yaxiu also found it amusing. "Could it be that all four claimants of the legacy wanted to cross realms?"
Weise froze, gave him a side glance, and quietly watched a tiny hermit crab crawl out of the sand.
"Besides, their efforts weren't in vain. If you hadn't become the Dream Lord, this migration plan wouldn't even be possible," Yaxiu said. "No one ever knows when they might become the protagonist ordained by destiny."
"So, let's go."
Yaxiu reached out a hand toward her. "Let's head back and reverse this tragedy."
Weise looked at him calmly. After a long silence, a helpless smile gradually formed at the corner of her lips. She reached out her hand—
—and pushed Yaxiu's hand aside.
"I'm not like you. I don't have an overabundance of righteousness, nor do I care to watch strangers applaud me." Weise stood up and said, "If you want to be a savior, go ahead by yourself. You have to return to the Gospel Realm anyway—consider it bringing back a demographic dividend for your Empress."
Yaxiu was somewhat astonished and asked in confusion, "Then what about you? You're not leaving?"
"Why should I leave?" Weise walked into the shallows, letting the seawater lap past her calves. "Whether there's an Empty Door passage or not, what I set out to do has never changed."
Yaxiu watched her back and asked, "You still insist on destroying Senluo? Staying here to be buried alongside it?"
"That's right, I'm not leaving." Weise shrugged. "I planned this for over a decade. The average lifespan of a person in Senluo is only twenty-five years. This goal spanned my childhood, youth, and adulthood—it is my life... If I give it up, it would be equivalent to denying my entire life."
"The people of Senluo are religious zealots, and I'm no exception." She tilted her head up and closed her eyes, letting her face feel the gentle caress of the sea breeze. "Destroying Senluo is my faith."
Yaxiu shook his head. "But now there's the Empty Door passage. Leaving Senluo to run its course would be enough; there's no longer any need to—"
"In Senluo, faith has always been a necessity of life," Weise said. "Besides, do you really need me to spell it out so plainly? I enjoy this job."
"Huh?"
"In the very beginning, I might really have run around to save people, feeling joyful over saving lives. But later, I discovered that what truly commands all my passion is the act of destroying the world."
"I want to see the grandeur of the world's destruction, to see the wreckage left behind. I want to listen to the earth's wails, look at the scars in the sky, feel the flight of the wind, and watch the sea part." Weise turned her head toward Yaxiu. "Just as some sorcerers fly toward the sun until they burn to ashes, some seek to slay the White Ox and shake the Void Realm, and some treat themselves as test subjects to recklessly alter their own bodies..."
"So there are also lives born solely to destroy."
Yaxiu asked, "Even if it means dying?"
"I'm not Mercury Trojan; I'm a normal native of Senluo," Weise said. "The people of Senluo don't fear death. What's more..."
"'Reality is merely a fleeting illusion; the Void Realm is the eternal future,'" she said. "I have already proven the first half. It's time to verify the second."
*Reality is merely a fleeting illusion; the Void Realm is the eternal future.*
Yaxiu fell silent for a moment, then said, "I thought you were driven by atonement, seeking to pay for what you did in the past with your death."
"If thinking so leaves you with a better impression of me, then go ahead and think that," Weise said. "Though, is there a chance that, having become the Dream Lord, I can't leave this floor at all?"
"This is the starting point of the dream, and also my cage." Weise raised both hands in a lifting gesture. "Once I completely take over the Senluo dream, I will remain here supporting the entire Senluo dream until it thoroughly collapses into ruin."
"Regardless of whether the people of Senluo can be saved, my fate was sealed long ago." Weise lowered her hands and said, "Still, thank you. What you said meant a lot to me."
Yaxiu sighed. "Is there really no other way?"
"It's remarkable enough for mortals to untie one dead knot; don't go trying to challenge a second," Weise said. "By the way, if you want to save people, don't go spreading random things about me. Just keep propagating the same old story."
"What do you mean?"
"'The world is ending, and the Silver Lantern did it.'" The corners of Weise's mouth curled up. "I guarantee that sentence will make them believe doomsday has arrived fifty percent faster, and they'll travel twenty percent quicker."
"True enough." The corners of Yaxiu's lips curved upward as he shook his head. "From the Four Pillar Cult to the Transcendent Cult, your notoriety is known to all."
"In stories, isn't there always a demon king bent on destroying the world for no clear reason? Cliche as it is, it's the easiest kind of story to believe," Weise said. "Since someone's playing the savior, someone has to play the demon king. And I was already the demon king anyway."
She pointed behind Yaxiu, and a mist gate quietly formed.
"Go," Weise said. "The next time we meet, it will be in the eternal Void Realm."
Yaxiu said, "Usually, that's called a final farewell."
"I consider it a reunion," Weise said. "When that time comes, there will be no more illusions."
With that, Weise turned to gaze at her reflection in the sea. A thought suddenly occurred to her: should she tell him that the Silver Lantern was Weise? After all, taking such a secret to the grave was meaningless; it wouldn't even count as burial goods.
Yaxiu would definitely realize that Weise had been a mole from the very beginning, using clever words in the Void Realm to manipulate his actions in reality. But at this point, Weise no longer cared whether Yaxiu hated her even more.
Yet even if she didn't say it, he would find out sooner or later. Thinking of this, it was better to keep silent—Weise had already ruined one of his chances to solve the mystery back in the Dead City; this time, she might as well let him savor the joy of uncovering the truth.
While thinking this, Weise suddenly sensed something amiss. Turning her head, she found Yaxiu still hadn't left.
Yet Yaxiu wasn't looking at her either. Instead, he stared blankly at the ocean behind her.
Weise turned her head to look and froze as well.
Across the vast azure sea, a battered vessel that barely passed for a ship was riding the wind and cleaving through the waves toward them. On the highest mast stood three figures.
The closer it drew to the beach, the more the ship began to disintegrate. The three on the mast still didn't move. Just as the vessel finally fell apart completely, it deposited them right at the edge of the beach. With a single forward step, they set foot onto the soft sand.
Throughout this, Yaxiu and Weise had unconsciously moved side by side, warily watching the three unexpected guests.
"Greetings, Inheritor."
The first to speak was a handsome bespectacled man wearing a white feather-patterned trench coat and a white top hat. "Pleasure to meet you. I am White Dove."
Beside him, a red-haired cat-eared girl in a white shirt and black suspender skirt waved enthusiastically and giggled, "Hello, everyone! I'm Fire Cat!"
A long-legged, mature woman with teal hair and white feather garments said coolly, "Blue Bird."
Chapter 719