Yu Sheng stood in the chaotic space, steadily gazing at the small figure—who was this petite puppet beside the campfire at this mont?
Was it the remnants of Erin’s consciousness? Another fragnt of the on? A ntal projection lingering in the World Bridge after the two had fused? Or, as before, was it also an "incomplete mind" ford by the consciousness dissipated from the little puppet?
Yu Sheng couldn’t tell for the mont—the existence and decay of the On Goddess over the past three thousand seven hundred years were entirely beyond his comprehension. He had originally believed that the golden-haired Erin, having fused with this Alien God back then, had taken away most of the latter’s "essence" and obsession. Yet now, it seed that the remnants left behind by a "God" after fragntation far exceeded human imagination, and Erin’s fusion with the on was not as thorough as once thought.
This might have been because Erin back then was already at her wits’ end when she rged with the on, or perhaps because... the strength of the Alice Puppet alone was insufficient to fully bear the weight of an entity as vast as the On Goddess.
Cautiously, he approached the petite figure imbued with various characteristics, looking at her face, remarkably similar to the black-haired, red-eyed Erin he knew well. In his hesitation, he murmured, "Are you the on, or Erin?"
"I don’t know..." The small puppet shook her head, seemingly trying hard to curl herself in the crevice of the campfire’s light and shadow, "I, I can’t rember. Everyone wanted to co over, to find... find help here, but the bridge suddenly collapsed. I only recall wanting to fix it. I’ve been repairing it, but it never stays connected..."
Yu Sheng frowned.
The bond established by blood was quickly strengthening. He could feel himself simultaneously initiating a "assimilation" with this trendous dinsional construct from both "ends" of the World Bridge—his blood flowed through this massive shell, and as this process continued, he finally began to understand what was occurring here.
"You... don’t understand what ’death’ ans, do you?" he cautiously asked.
The petite "puppet" raised her head, gazing at Yu Sheng’s eyes in confusion.
"So, the World Bridge doesn’t understand this either, right?" Yu Sheng pondered and then sat directly in the darkness. "You think the World Bridge can be repaired, and the World Bridge thinks... it can ’repair’ you—you deem it broken, and it thinks you’re rely asleep."
The small puppet still looked at him, bemused.
Yu Sheng pressed his lips, looking around at the surrounding chaos.
Enormous ancient constructs operated in the shadows, with pulses of light emanating swift energy flows from the power glands, illuminating the World Bridge’s skeleton hidden within the fissures of ti and space—diverse structures of incongruous styles forcibly blended to form an astonishing... living organism.
According to the Boundary Land’s definition, the "World Bridge" itself is a dark angel, an "artificial angel" crafted by dark angels.
An artificial angel lacking a complete mind cannot comprehend the concept of death.
Surprisingly, the young On Goddess seed unable to grasp this notion either, even though she had experienced an apocalypse. Apparently, her believers had sohow removed the concept of death from their deity.
This might also have been a part of their "Sanctuary Plan" back then—in the plan, the On Goddess would beco the new world’s "sun," and a sun devoid of the death concept would obviously operate slightly longer.
Nobody anticipated this would evolve into a deadly, perpetual cycle one day.
Perhaps even Erin, three thousand seven hundred years ago, realized this. Upon recognizing that she couldn’t destroy the out-of-control Alien God in front of her, she had no choice but to resort to the makeshift solution of "fusion" to buy ti. Simultaneously, due to the mutual incomprehension of death between the World Bridge and the On Goddess, Erin’s fusion left behind that continuously decaying but never completely dissipating "Divine Corpse."
The On Goddess futilely tried to repair the World Bridge; the World Bridge futilely attempted to awaken its sole passenger. This perpetual loop went on for more than three thousand years until now, where the accumulated errors reached the extre, finally triggering an automatic restart of the initially interrupted connection task between the now entirely rged remnants—and Luo, who happened to "pick up" the World Bridge fragnt at this critical juncture, beca the first unfortunate victim in the entire process.
"What is death?" the petite puppet suddenly asked.
Yu Sheng opened his mouth but hesitated just before answering.
He himself couldn’t quite grasp his life-and-death issues.
However, after a mont’s hesitation, he began to speak.
"In most cases, for the deceased individual, ’death’ signifies the end of everything."
"The end?"
"Yes, the end: the loss of all consciousness and self, ceasing thought, ceasing movent, individual consciousness, and all mories vanish from this world. All glory and debts no longer pertain to the dead, and no unfinished tasks or wishes remain—the bond between the deceased and the world is reduced solely to the living’s rembrance and the material world’s natural cycles. There are actually more complex philosophical explanations for this concept, but I don’t think that might be the answer you’re seeking."
After saying this, Yu Sheng looked at the small figure before him.
The other person listened earnestly, perhaps unsure if she could indeed grasp this concept just through words, yet she suddenly smiled, appearing genuinely happy.
"Alright then."
Then that nearly transparent small campfire extinguished.
Wisps of crimson mist infiltrated this chaotic space, intertwining and gathering around Yu Sheng, settling into the darkness as if forming a red, velvet-textured carpet where the petite puppet lay soundly asleep, a faint smile upon her face.
It seed she was having a good dream, a dream where she could finally rest.
Yu Sheng pondered a bit, approached the little "puppet," gently patting her back, and slowly stroked her hair afterward.
The crimson color suddenly spread behind him, as if the blood mist was growing infinitely, perating and saturating the entire chaotic space in the blink of an eye, then continued to extend to all the superstring structures of this dinsional construct, and gradually dissipated afterward, everything returning to chaos.
...
In Boundary Land, everyone within the fog defense line heard the strange roar from the sky—the surface of the shattered black Tower was covered with red fissures, withdrawing gradually from the gap of the Big Shield, the starlight refracted from distant tis into Boundary Land had unknowingly disappeared, even the giant Space Station that the World Bridge penetrated and projected over Boundary City was slowly being sent back to its original position.
The shadows that dripped into Boundary City dissipated completely, the depth of Boundary Land was quickly restoring to normal values.
Minutes later, the World Bridge vanished from the sky, the last temporal rift closing with it, and the damaged Big Shield began self-repair.
The luminous glow floating on the surface of Council Tower gradually cald, yet the "Requiem" system was cautiously continuing its emotional interference for all residents...
Inside the Special Service Bureau Headquarters Building, the figure of "Baili Qing" sat behind the desk, while Song Cheng’s gaze turned towards the floor-to-ceiling window; after staring at the Big Shield entering the repair process for a long ti, he finally couldn’t help but turn back: "What’s the situation now? Has ’Angel Fall’ happened? Over at Yu Sheng’s side..."
"Don’t ask, I can’t get in touch with my sister," "Baili Qing" sighed, "It’s still unclear whether it has happened, perhaps... it’s ’Angel Pending’?"
Song Cheng opened his mouth, then turned back to solemnly watch the view outside the floor-to-ceiling window.
At the edge of the old city, as the Diffusion Device depleted and shut down, the surrounding blood mist completely dissipated, the Bone-devouring Immortal finally breathed a sigh of relief, not caring about any image, directly sat down on the road.
She looked up, seeing the girl with the exaggerated blonde hair not far away, sitting on a stone pier by the road, one hand still tightly gripping the golden War Scythe woven from hair, maintaining a posture that allowed brief rest but could confront at any ti.
The other "Fairy Tales" mbers around were the sa, each seemingly only in their teens, without the slightest cultivation level, yet seasoned as if they were warriors experienced in hundreds of battles—plus the various bizarre and powerful skills displayed in prior combat were endless, and difficult to comprehend.
Oh well, this is indeed an uncanny place, no wonder the world says Boundary Land is a place of outstanding talent, today it seems there’s so truth to it—won’t co again in the future.
Being in the Demon Suppression Tower is better, everyone there has a relationship forged through being beaten up together, cursing when not outdoors, fighting when outdoors, life is very simple.
Just don’t understand why the Snake Demon that lived next to in the cell earlier is here, and seemingly has beco a weapon... Also captured by Yu Sheng True Monarch?
Seems like everyone has their own difficulties...
...
It seems a long ti has passed, yet sohow it felt like only a few seconds—within this chaotic space located "inside" the World Bridge, ti seems a very ambiguous concept.
Yu Sheng sat cross-legged in place, he was accompanying the little "Puppet", while pondering over many things related to the World Bridge, on, and Dark Angel.
He felt the body under his palm lightly move.
Yu Sheng lowered his head, seeing the Puppet’s eyelids tremble.
The shadows covering the Puppet’s body had turned into a familiar black dress.
Her long black hair spread out.
The Puppet opened her eyes, crimson and crystalline.
"Awake?" Yu Sheng smiled, reaching out to rub Erin’s head.
The little Puppet muffled a response, as usual climbing into Yu Sheng’s arms with hands and feet, finding a comfortable posture to nestle in, silent for a few seconds.
She is rarely this quiet.
"Dying isn’t good, living is better." She suddenly muttered softly.
Yu Sheng nodded: "Mm, then let’s live."
"Feels like I had a nightmare," Erin muttered again, "When I woke up, my head was filled with lots of things."
Yu Sheng rubbed her head again: "Glad you woke up."
Erin blinked: "...Shall we go ho?"
"Sure, but first we need to pick up Hu Li and the others—your body is still ’outside’."
"Okay!"
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