BOOM—!!!
The massive body of the aberrant dragon crashed to the ground. Its grotesque frame—flesh tangled with vines—began to collapse and disintegrate. March 7th's arrows pierced the last twitching tentacle, while Stelle used her flaming lance to pry up rotting scales.
"Found them!"
At the dragon's "heart," they discovered Bailu and Huo Linfei, wrapped inside a fleshy cocoon. Bailu's small body was protected tightly in the arms of Huo Linfei—his physique restored to normal. Her breathing was steady, deep in sleep.
"Huo Linfei!"
March 7th ignored the nauseating slime all around and tore the cocoon open with her hands. Stelle gripped the flaming lance, staring at the utterly motionless Huo Linfei within—then shot a glare toward the Scalegorge Waterscape in the distance, shimmering with strange auroras.
"Huo Linfei… wake up!"
March 7th gently shook him.
No response.
No breathing.
No heartbeat.
"No…" March's eyes reddened. She pressed her ear to Huo Linfei's chest through the torn shirt—ripped open from his earlier transformation—but heard nothing. Not a trace of life.
"March, I'm going to help Uncle Yang and the others."
In the distance, the aurora began to change again—each pulse accompanied by a deafening boom and a burst of light.
"You… stay with him."
The spear vanished. The bat reappeared in Stelle's hands. Her golden eyes flickered—her Preservation power drained away, replaced by the star core's force, swelling at the edge of eruption.
March lowered her head, kneeling before the aberrant dragon's corpse. Her pink bangs hid her expression.
Somewhere unseen, Black Swan held a fainted monkey in her hand.
"He still noticed…" she murmured, as if speaking to someone. "The observation data is complete, but…"
In Black Swan's vision drifted a sequence made solely of 0s and 1s.
"Reality… changed because of him…"
Darkness.
Endless darkness.
Huo Linfei opened his "eyes" and found himself standing atop a pitch-black water surface. Every tiny movement sent ripples spreading across it.
To his left stood the familiar gray statue—silent, like an eternal law. Within its embrace, two currents of energy rotated slowly, just as before. Simply being watched by it crushed and flattened all of Huo Linfei's emotions—ground them down and "balanced" them.
To his right was an indistinct black silhouette, its shape constantly shifting in Huo Linfei's eyes—sometimes masked, sometimes showing a twisted grin. A buoyant, uncomfortable cheerfulness radiated from it, like it was watching some absurd comedy.
"Hi! It's me—Aha!" The silhouette waved. Its unidentifiable voice was intensely upbeat. "This is 'Hu'!"
"Who?" Huo Linfei wasn't swayed by the cheer. "How would I know who 'who' is?"
"I mean what you call this guy is 'Hu.'" The silhouette that called itself Aha started shaking.
"Mahjong—three missing one." Huo Linfei, unable to muster emotional waves under Balance's influence, tried a deadpan joke to change the subject.
"..."
After a long silence, Aha's shadow burst into giggles and turned into a deck of cards, shuffling in midair. "Three people can play Dou Dizhu~"
"You know Dou Dizhu?"
The cards snapped back into a seated silhouette, cross-legged in the air. Its "finger" pointed at Huo Linfei.
"I don't just know what you know—I know what you don't know right now."
"Riddle-slinger…" Huo Linfei didn't want to get tangled. "Did you drag me in here?"
"Observation." Hu's voice sounded like the whisper of ten thousand people.
"Your energy is generated from nothing. It will unbalance the universe's entropy."
Aha leaned in next to Huo Linfei. "In plain terms? You're cheating, and the GM noticed you!"
"So what—are you going to kill—" Huo Linfei suddenly realized his emotions were actually stirring despite Balance's influence. He turned toward the floating silhouette.
"Using power requires a price… but you have already paid." Hu's voice remained utterly flat.
"Already paid?" Huo Linfei frowned. "When?"
Aha clapped both hands over its nonexistent mouth. "Waaait—did the old fossil just decide to go easy on you?"
Huo Linfei felt heat flare in his chest. He reached in and pulled out the burning thing: within the shard of Balance, two different-colored orbs slowly emerged—one blue, one red—and drifted toward the center of his chest.
"Big shot, is this… the power of the ocean and the earth?" he muttered.
Huo Linfei looked up to demand an explanation—but the gray statue had already vanished from this mental space.
All that answered him was a body brimming with Ability Energy.
"Think about how that black jade felt. Think about the companions you've been longing for. Think about your sister…"
Aha casually conjured popcorn, tossed it up, and let it fall into its "mouth."
"Just push through even a little more and you can leave here."
"Easy for you to say."
Huo Linfei closed his eyes and sat down on the surface of the water. The ripples faded. The space settled into stillness again.
The red and blue orbs circulated within him. Beyond restoring his Ability Energy, a new source began to rise—fresh, fundamental. The blue orb flowed into that colorless origin and lit it up.
Is this… the Cold Shadow Art?
Huo Linfei realized he no longer needed to actively "harmonize" the two conflicting energies in his body. If he had to describe it: the two forces now sat in separate "containers," unusually stable.
He tried the visualization method Jing Yuan had taught him again, but the two full reservoirs of Ability Energy didn't increase. Even in peak condition, the method only accelerated recovery and improved efficiency of use.
The black jade…
"When you have passed through seven layers of loneliness, only then can you become a true strong one…"
Huh?
Huo Linfei's brow tightened. The mental space began to quake violently.
"In darkness there is no love…" the deep voice continued. "Love can create everything—and destroy everything!"
With each tremor, the black water beneath him surged into towering curtains of spray.
"The more a tree longs for the light above, the deeper its roots must go—down into the soil, into the depths of darkness…"
Damn it—Underworld Lord quotes are auto-playing in my head!
The water curtains blocked Aha's silhouette from view, but its laughter echoed through the entire mental realm.
"Oh, right…"
Aha's voice suddenly returned to Huo Linfei's "ear," impossibly close.
"If you save Baiheng, then the future Bailu won't exist~"
In an instant, memories flooded into Huo Linfei's mind like a burst dam:
Shuhu's calamity… the Imbibitor Lunae rebellion… the Arbor's resurgence… the aberrant dragon… the Shackling Prison…
This wasn't the first time he'd stepped into this looping stretch of time.
Baiheng awakened the black jade and crushed Shuhu.
Teng Xiao sacrificed himself, sealing Shuhu's consciousness within his own body.
The Vidyadhara High Elder, trying to resurrect those who died in war, used the Transmutation of Dragons on Baiheng's remaining flesh—
…and created the aberrant dragon.
"Heehee… heehee…"
The laughter grew manic. The entire mental space warped, transforming into an ocean of countless masks that swallowed Huo Linfei whole.
"Tsk~ I thought this was just a whim of the Hunt… didn't expect to find something this interesting!"
Huo Linfei's consciousness completely detached from the space. The masks vanished with him, leaving the water surface calm once more.
"Seen enough?" Aha's laughter disappeared. It lowered its head, peering down beneath the water.
A pink-haired girl glared up at the god above, furious.
"Mad?" Aha teased, crouching down. It scooped up a handful of water; the liquid streamed slowly through the gaps of its "fingers."
"Compared to you, that kid is way more fun. There's only a thin layer of shallow water between you…"
"…and you still don't even dare to meet him face-to-face?"
"A child of 'Memory'?"
An illustration appeared beneath the text.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 90)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 95)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 80)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter70)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter70)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter50)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter60)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 20
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 20
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