first player

Interlude 1553: "After Shaking Hands with Noel (The End)"

“You’re not confident you can beat him,” Su Ming’an said, using a statement of fact.

“Of course, I’m just fulfilling a long-cherished wish… My life has been like that of a kite runner, always chasing a string that has long since broken, until I finally grasped the string and held on tight until it led me to the edge of a cliff…” Wu Yi said, “You have another question, right? Go ahead and ask.”

"One last question." Su Ming'an held up one finger:
"The Princess Isa you wrote is a replica of the past of Isabel, the first-level goddess of the demon mother, Rovasha, right?"

“That’s right.” Wu Yi nodded: “A long time ago, she wasn’t from Rovasa, but a princess from another inferior planet.”

He handed a lens containing a memory of the drama to Su Ming'an: "This is her story."

……

"My love! My love, where are you!"

"My heart is parched for you, I weep for you!"

Once upon a time, there was a fairy tale.

In a primitive civilization still in the Middle Ages, there lived a beautiful and graceful princess, who was melancholy in an ancient castle.

She had beautiful long, dark hair, pale skin, heavy eyelids, and fiery lips, like a stunning beauty from a Western European oil painting.

The princess was beautiful and intelligent, and as the next queen, she shouldered heavy responsibilities at a young age, which gradually led to her depression. No one could understand her, and she often fantasized about having a perfect lover who could understand her pressure and pain.

One night, the princess could no longer bear it and decided to jump off the castle tower.

Just as she was falling, someone appeared in mid-air and caught her.

He had a handsome face and a pair of affectionate eyes. He held her and spun her around in the air for a moment before slowly landing.

"Hello, I am..." the man began.

"You are my love!" the princess blurted out before he could, her eyes brimming with tears. "You've finally come to see me, the love of my dreams!"

This is a primitive civilization without magic. If he wasn't the lover she imagined, why could he appear in the air? As for why she landed safely, it must be because there was soft grass below.

The man was surprised for a moment, then smiled:

"Ah."

“I am your lover, and I have come to heal you, Your Highness.”

The man is a clear-headed person.

He was only tasked by the Lord of Dreams to record information about this low-level planet. It was a simple job, but unexpectedly, there was a problem with the positioning, and he ended up in mid-air, where he was seen by the princess, a local.

He couldn't let the locals discover his existence. Fortunately, the princess suffered from delusions, and to make up for his mistake, he decided to take advantage of the situation and pretend to be the princess's imaginary lover, gradually disappearing as her illness was cured—a perfectly reasonable plan.

In truth, if he had simply killed the princess cleanly and deliberately, making it look like suicide, no one would have discovered him. However, faced with the joy in her eyes, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

As long as he plays along with her and disappears quietly, there's no need to kill her to keep the secret; it's just a waste of time... the man thought.

"But what if you are the villain in my imagination, pretending to be my lover to get close to me?" Unexpectedly, the princess, who was only a young age, had a fairly complete fantasy, in which there were both good and bad people.

To gain her trust, the man smiled helplessly and said, "Alright, Your Highness, how should I show my love?"

The princess thought for a moment, her gaze falling on the beautiful garden and the vibrant red roses on the branches. Her bright eyes darted around, and she said sweetly:

"If you pick me the most vibrant and beautiful rose, I will believe in your love!"

As far as the eye can see, the palace gardens are vast and expansive, with roses blooming in all their vibrant colors. How can a man find the most beautiful one among them?
Faced with the girl's deliberate provocation, the man smiled gently and said, "Yes, Your Highness."

He took a few steps, picked up a sharp branch, and rammed it with his chest.

The princess was terrified, but the man slowly withdrew from her chest, revealing a rose soaked in blood. It looked so "delicate and beautiful," with blood dripping continuously.

The man trembled as he picked up the rose and handed it to the princess, placing his hand on his chest.
“Your Highness, this flower is enough to prove my love.”

While the princess was distracted, the man used his ability, "Illusion Spell," on her. This was his ability to make people fall in love with him without them realizing it, but it had to be used when the other person was distracted.

However, the princess showed no sign of infatuation. Instead, she hurriedly checked his wounds and shouted, "Help! Someone, save him!"

The man immediately covered the princess's mouth: "Shh... Your Highness, have you forgotten? I am your fantasy lover. As long as you have a thought, I can be restored."

The princess paused, staring intently at the man.

The next moment, the man's wound miraculously healed.

This was merely a man's healing spell, yet it convinced the princess: "You truly are the lover I've imagined..."

"The pages of happiness, those delicate hands like lilies..."

They began a love affair that started with a lie.

Every night, the man would cross the dew-covered garden, arriving from another world. Under the moonlight, the princess smiled as she swallowed the raspberry tower he fed her: "Without you, I truly don't know what I would do. So many people, they're all waiting for me to make a mistake..."

The man replied, "I will stay with you, don't worry."

When her mental illness flared up, the princess became depressed and even hysterically smashed things. She dared not let others discover her pain, and only men could listen to her suffering.

The man never showed himself in front of others, constantly pretending to be a princess.

In the dead of night, they swung on the swings together, read books together, and picked fresh roses together. As the first rays of sunlight pierced the morning mist, the man would always disappear on time, returning to his own world, leaving behind poems to be read the next day.

"We perform on this world stage, and my lover watches the play leisurely."
"He watched me perform on various themes, using different methods to alleviate my uneasy feelings..."

"A momentary whim pleases me, so I put on the mask of comedy,"

"In an instant, my laughter turned to sighs, and so I began to play out the tragedy. But she watched my transformations with unchanging eyes, neither rejoicing with my joy nor grieving with my sorrow..."

Lies, lies.

Who truly poured out their love, and who was deceiving them?

When the princess became depressed again, the man taught her a method: "Try giving everyone a nickname."

"nickname?"

"For example, give the prime minister a funny nickname, 'Cuttlefish.' Every time you see him, you silently repeat to yourself, 'This is a cuttlefish, this is a cuttlefish...' Wouldn't that make you feel better?"

"Pfft." The princess couldn't help but laugh.

They gave everyone nicknames, and in Isa's eyes, this world full of nicknames suddenly became interesting.

"I wish you weren't just a figment of my imagination," Princess Isabella said suddenly one day, resting her chin on her hand.

“Fantasy is beautiful precisely because it is fantasy.” The man smiled. “Princess, if this is a beautiful dream, then let it continue like this.”

If she discovers that he is not a figment of her imagination, but a real person, he must kill her to cover up the secret. The beautiful dream will instantly be stained with blood.

So let the lie continue.

The princess was delicate and intelligent. As time went by, the man gradually came to understand her. He discovered that behind the high and mighty princess lay sleepless nights worrying about the country's crises, and that the seemingly quick-witted princess would sometimes blow up the kitchen while making desserts. Stripped of her noble exterior, she was, in reality, just a girl who could cry and laugh.

He accompanied her from princess to queen, from kingdom to empire, through more than a dozen springs and autumns...

More than a decade is nothing to a man who is clear-headed. But the princess is no longer young and is gradually growing old.

The man consistently emphasized that this was a therapeutic process, and their relationship was that of patient and doctor, not lovers. Even after the princess became a queen, he retained the way he addressed her at their first meeting, calling her "Princess Isa."

It's impossible not to have feelings after spending so much time together.

But was it love? The man didn't feel it was. Was it pity? It didn't seem so either.

He is a sober man, a traveler of the universe, while she is just an ordinary person from a small planet, who would fall ill at the slightest breeze. Their lives are fundamentally different, making it impossible for them to be together.

The man thought about their relationship for a long time and finally found the right answer—that's right, this is the doctor's joy at the impending cure of a long-term patient, but also the reluctance to never see him again.

They are just a doctor and a patient, and can only be a doctor and a patient. What other relationship could they be?
Until one day, the man deduced that the princess's depression was almost cured. She had emerged from the shadows of the past and become a cheerful, optimistic, and healthy person. The man knew that the time for him to leave had come. As a "fantasy lover," he would disappear as her mental illness gradually recovered without arousing her suspicion.

He's wasted too much time here; he should go back to his own world.

It was a dark night when the man said goodbye.

“I’m leaving now. Your illness has been cured.” The man said, “You used to say that being a princess put a lot of pressure on you, and you even became depressed. But with my nightly ‘psychological counseling,’ you have gradually emerged from the shadow of depression. Now, you are very healthy. Congratulations, Isa.”

The girl's long, dark hair hung down, her eyes shimmering with light. She stared intently at the man and said in a hoarse voice:
"Those greeting letters, those gifts given to me, those sweet words to comfort me... were they all therapy? Were they all pretense? Please don't leave me."

“You are fully recovered, Isa.” The man smiled a captivating smile. “I should be going now.”

"No!"

The next moment, he received the most shocking answer he had received in a century.

"I am not cured, because I have never been sick!" The princess's melancholy eyes met his.

“I knew from the beginning that you weren’t my fantasy lover. When we first met, when you asked me to imagine the wound on your chest healing, I deliberately didn’t think about anything, but your wound still healed. This shows that it wasn’t the power of my imagination, but your own ability—you are real, you are an outsider, my lover!”

She has always been clever, and she tested the waters from the very beginning.

She understands things very quickly.

“I always knew, I knew from the very beginning,” Isha said, trembling.

"Although I yearn for love, I am still a princess of a kingdom. When you caught me in the night, my first reaction was not romance and love, but vigilance."

“I’ve never heard of anyone being able to float in the air. I know you possess abilities from beyond this world. You may be an invader, and you could kill me at any time to keep my secret.”

"So, I spoke first, saying, 'You've finally come to see me, the lover of my dreams!', setting this up for you in advance so that you would have a reason to let me go."

“I know that if I reveal that I know you are a real person, you might kill me.”

"You're pretending to be a 'fantasy lover,' while I'm pretending to be a 'princess fantasizing about a lover.'"

"You're pretending to be a 'doctor,' while I'm pretending to be a 'patient.'"

"You've been lying from the beginning, and so have I."

For the sake of the kingdom's safety, Princess Isa chose to pretend she didn't know the man was real and played the role of a delusional patient.

The men's thoughts were surprisingly similar; in order not to kill the princess, they pretended to be a fantasy lover.

So, in order to keep each other calm, they began to play a lie.

Everyone is lying; no one is giving their true feelings.

But in the end, it seemed that everyone had given their true feelings.

For a moment, the man's expression crumbled. His pupils trembled violently, and his voice was hoarse as he said, "Then why... did you have to speak up at the last minute? Wouldn't it have been better to just pretend you didn't know? Don't you know that once you see the truth, I have to kill you to keep the secret..."

“I don’t know,” the princess said. “I’ve been rational my whole life, from when I met you at sixteen to now at thirty. Perhaps it’s just a fleeting moment for you, but for me it’s been a long life. Even though it started as a lie, I can no longer bear to watch you leave. Call it impulsive or whatever, I’ve said it.”

The princess closed her eyes and offered her neck for execution.

However, when she opened her eyes again, the man was gone, and only the night wind stirred up the sea of ​​bright red flowers.

It's not just princesses who are soft-hearted.

"Ding--"

The man left behind a key, a farewell gift for her.

"I must leave. For the safety of your civilization, I cannot return."

“This is the key to the lucid dream I am in. With this, you can call me forever. You have no magic, you cannot hear my voice, but as long as you speak, I can hear you.”

"If you no longer love me, then give this key to someone else at will. You will never have any contact with me again."

The man left and never came back.

The princess kept talking to the key, knowing she would never hear his voice again in this lifetime, but it was enough that he could hear it.

However, she waited from her black hair to her white hair, from her prime to her old age, until the child she adopted from a collateral branch ascended the throne... She never saw a man again.

He is the clear-headed one in the universe, while her lifespan is but a fleeting moment. Unless he comes, she will never see him again.

Before she died, she kept reciting the poems they used to recite.

"We perform on this world stage, and my lover watches the play with leisure,"

"He watched me perform on various themes, using different methods to alleviate my uneasy feelings..."

"A momentary whim pleases me, so I put on the mask of comedy,"

"In an instant, my laughter turned to sighs, and so I began to play out the tragedy. But she watched my transformations with unchanging eyes, neither rejoicing with my joy nor grieving with my sorrow..."

Until one day, with her hair all white, she held the key and passed away peacefully in her bed, and the people of the empire mourned her death.

She lived to the age of ninety, during which time the government prospered and the empire was harmonious. People said she was "the best Queen Isabella".

The story of the princess and the man should have ended in tragedy.

—Until Princess Isa opened her eyes again in the next cosmic cycle.

To her surprise, she discovered that perhaps it was the key that had helped her retain some memories; she remembered the man.

Having gained the qualification to become a lucid being, she used this key... to successfully open the gate to the land of dreams.

The proud young woman walked within the sight of the lucid ones, through the turbulent, black-water-filled dreamscape. When she asked about the man, the lucid ones said that he had violated the rule of not killing the witness and was punished by the Lord of the Dream, no longer being a lucid being. The man was now just an ordinary person from a lower civilization.

The change in their positions left the princess dizzy.

She thought she should go find him.

She endured a long and unspeakable journey, climbing step by step from a lower life form, much like a protagonist in a story full of perseverance, for whom luck, perseverance, and strength were all indispensable. Finally, she gradually elevated herself to a middle life form, a higher life form, a third-level god, and a second-level god.

She inquired about the man and learned that he was an ordinary human from a low-level civilization called "Zhai Xing." The man's civilization had encountered a world game, and he was now a player in that game.

Despite being a god, Isa couldn't infiltrate the world game to find a man. After much searching, she learned that the man's inevitable destination was Rovasa, so she went to Rovasa, where... she officially ascended to the rank of a first-level god.

—Isabel, a first-class goddess, the mother goddess of demons.

She was going to wait for him.

She was finally able to wait for him.

During this time, she met a man named "Bai Qiu," who provided her with a lot of information about the players. She then agreed to cooperate with him, appointing him "Demon Lord" and facilitating his actions.

Until she finally met that man.

That man has become an ordinary human being.

—A handsome face, a pair of affectionate eyes.

The man must have been being chased; he fell awkwardly from the air, and her tentacles were right below him.

With a "whoosh," she caught him, twirled him in the air for a moment, and landed slowly, just like when they first met.

In hell, the red spider lilies bloomed in abundance, as beautiful and vibrant as bright red roses.

"Rose can't bloom in hell, so I can only make this place full of red spider lilies. I'm sorry," she apologized to him.

"Wh...what?" The man's expression went blank.

She knew he had lost his previous memories, so she smiled and changed the subject: "Nothing, human, what brings you here?"

"I am a psychologist." Facing the twisted and terrifying demonic mother goddess, the man remained calm and composed, approaching her with a smile. "I've heard that you've been affected by evil spirits for a long time, and you must have some psychological problems. I love treating patients everywhere I go—I'm here to heal you, Isa."

...Isa.

That title is truly nostalgic, even though the man just said it casually.

The princess gave a somewhat distorted smile—a smile that could no longer be as beautiful as a human's:
"I'm so ugly, are you still willing to treat me?"

"Still?" The man paused for a moment, then smiled and bent down to kiss the incredibly ugly tentacles affectionately. "Of course I'm willing, my Queen. You are extremely beautiful in my eyes."

Isabelle said proudly, "Human, I want you to pick the most beautiful rose for me as the price for your disrespect in falling from the sky."

“Of course, Your Majesty Isa,” the man said.

"I want you to declare your love for me aloud so I can measure whether you truly love me."

"Of course, I will show my admiration for you so that you can recover faster."

"I want you to always be by my side, to make me desserts, and to stay with my roses every step of the way."

"Of course, I will not leave you."

"I want you to truly admire me, to sing hymns with me in the night, and to acknowledge that I am eternal in your eyes."

"Of course, Your Majesty."

“Doctor,” Isa said.

"Hmm?" The man smiled.

"Don't go." Isha felt her ethereal form, as if she were shedding tears.

"Of course, I won't leave until I've healed you," the man promised affectionately, though the affection didn't reach his eyes.

After all, he doesn't remember anything.

“Doctor, what’s your name? You… you’ve never told me your name. You’ve always claimed to be called ‘Doctor’,” Isa said in a hoarse voice.

The man smiled with relief, even though to him, the demonic mother goddess before him was nothing more than a sick patient.

"The Book of Changes".

"My name is Yi Song."

……

One of the wingless companions of the Wheel of Fortune, inspired by this story, wrote WARNING-005: "Princess Isa in the Garden".

Princess Isabella would consider anyone who was willing to pick a rose for her, regardless of its beauty, as having successfully completed the task. She knew that no one else would be willing to use their blood and sweat to dye a single rose red for her.

WARNING-005 will never again encounter a lover who wouldn't hurt her. Just to put on a near-wingless act for Su Ming'an and the others, her "lover" character in the sky decisively stabbed her.

She is merely a reflection of the real Isabelle.

Su Ming'an snapped out of his reverie through the lens of the memory mirror, filled with emotion. He hadn't expected that Yi Song's actions, which had created such a mess, would turn out to be a pure love story...

Yi Song has likely already left Rovasa, and Isabelle won't go to the small world for him. One is a top-ranked player, and the other is a first-level god of Rovasa. Gods don't retain much emotion; they're more driven by obsession. They are destined to part ways.

Putting aside his emotions, Su Ming'an raised his head.

Now, he will face the Lord of Dreams.

The wingless rapier pointed straight at the cloud, and the suspended, slowly rotating dark red cloud suddenly collapsed inward!

"Come." Wu Yi didn't turn around, his voice low and deep, like a night breeze blowing through a tomb, "Lord of Dreams..."

His voice suddenly rose, carrying an almost frantic determination and provocation, "Face me! Answer me! Or... engulf me!"

The moment those three words "swallow me" fell—

It was as if an invisible, greedy maw was suddenly sucking them in. All the red light and all the mist were instantly compressed into a single point inside the cloud.

Where the cloud cluster was located, space seemed to peel away silently like fragile glass, revealing a scene behind it that was... utterly incomprehensible.

It was neither the starry sky nor the void, but countless swirling, swirling, boiling vortexes of color. An indescribable, immense will, capable of crushing the mind, surged forth from behind that shattered space.

Billions of cold, enormous, inhuman pupils emerged in layers, unfocused yet seemingly staring intently at the tiny wingless creature below and his companions—the pupils reflecting countless world lines and endings.

The walls, floor, dome, and even the light itself in the banquet hall began to distort and deform under the onslaught of this will. The air became as thick as a solid, emitting a fine groan like shattering glass.

Some people groaned, their knees buckling and almost collapsing; some clutched their chests tightly, as if their hearts were about to be crushed by the invisible pressure; some had their pupils dilated to the extreme, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.

The muscles in Wuyi's arm, which held the rapier high, were taut like steel. He still stood in the center of the raging storm, facing the indescribable form that emerged from the shattered space.

—The abyss of that gaze, the master of that dream itself. He seemed to let out a barely audible laugh.

The passage has been opened. They are now facing the Lord of Dreams.

"First life, second life, third life, I and the Wheel of Fate have always been searching for your existence," Wu Yi coldly said.
"You hide behind the scenes, gather the clear-headed, rewrite the rules, arbitrarily interfere with other people's fates, and arrange their endings—do you think you'll always be proud and smug?"

"Now—I hereby declare war on you! Lord of Dreams, if you have the guts, let me into your territory!"

"Oh? You're declaring war on me?" The Dream Lord's words were like a concept, entering their minds directly.

Su Ming'an felt that he was facing an existence stronger than the Shadow, and that he was facing it directly without any barriers.

He couldn't see the form of the Lord of Dreams, but could only see countless scarlet mists and eyes.

Like... the countless eyes he saw on the seashore, in the blank books of Noel.

“That’s right! I sacrificed three lives to finally break your plans, resurrect my sister, and stand before you.” Wu Yi grinned.
"I'm going to prove to you that you can't control everyone's fate!"

"Hmm," said the Lord of Dreams. "Alright, then come in."

The vortex grew larger, allowing the wingless to enter.

Wu Yi glanced at Su Ming'an and his sister one last time. He knew he would never return; no matter what, he could never defeat the Lord of Dreams. He was simply tired, simply fulfilled, simply wanted to resolve his final regret, simply wanted proof.

"Goodbye." Before taking a step, Wuyi turned back to Su Ming'an and said.

His blue hair flowed freely, and he wore a wine-red robe that made him look like a hero, holding a knight's rapier in his palm.

The Lord of Dreams only opened the vortex to the Wingless One, seemingly ignoring Su Ming'an.

"Goodbye." After saying this, Su Ming'an thought for a moment and added:

"Goodbye, Wingless, your story is really interesting."

When they first met, Wu Yi said, "Please choose him from the six people. His story is very interesting."

Wu Yi laughed: "If we could do it all over again, would you still choose me next time?"

“I would still choose Ashley,” Su Ming’an said honestly, clearly aware of his fear and concern for the white-haired man.

Wu Yi smiled and shrugged, saying nothing more, leaving behind only a dashing silhouette as he walked into the dream.

His companions followed him inside.

The vortex closed.

Goodbye, Wingless.

Su Ming watched quietly.

Just when Su Ming'an thought that everything Noel had revealed was over, suddenly, a wingless, panicked cry came from within the vortex:

"This, these marks...you...you actually..."

"Ha, ha ha ha ha! Never-ending! Never-ending! One circle after another! I'm tired, I'm really tired..."

"Sister, oh sister... Ha, ha ha ha ha! Sister!!!"

After the maniacal laughter subsided, silence fell over the vortex.

There were no other sounds.

Until—in the crimson-purple vortex, countless eyes reappeared, staring at Su Ming'an.

"...What did he see?" Su Ming'an asked.

The key that WARNING-005 gave to Su Ming'an was the key written in the story of the Wingless, not the real key that the demon mother goddess Isabelle possessed that could open dreams, so Su Ming'an could not enter the dream.

“I just let him discover that the edges of his story… have my handwriting on them,” said the Lord of Dreams.

Su Ming'an remained silent.

Therefore,
Wu Yi thought that after his first life, his second life, and in this third life, he had finally created a castle world free from the interference of the Lord of Dreams. However…

This is still the same instance where the Dream Lord "resurrects his sister as the master of the castle"—a never-ending cycle of interconnected events.

Beyond the vines lies the sky, beyond the sky lies the paper, beyond the paper lies the universe, and he... will never reach freedom.

But even so, this is still an ending, and Wuyi has no regrets.

"Next time, I'll deal with you," Su Ming'an said calmly. He said "deal with," not "defeat." Some concepts truly cannot be killed; they can only be resolved like problems.

This was merely a vision shown to Noel; his true form had become the World Tree of the small world, and he indeed had no chance to defeat the Lord of Dreams this time. However, Noel Argini—had shown him these things, these possibilities. He already vaguely understood how to proceed along the true path within that golden forest.

A hoarse laugh came from within the vortex.

"You're just like a small, menacing animal; you certainly have the ability to solve this problem for me," said the Lord of Dreams.

"But unfortunately, not this time, and not this line."

The scene before his eyes gradually blurred, and Su Ming'an knew that this scene was about to end, and when he opened his eyes again... it would be the end of him.

Here, he saw the white-robed people from the first World Game, his own past, the beginning and end of the Wheel of Fate, and many truths... He began to feel pain, he began to feel nostalgic, but he still had to walk fearlessly down the path he had chosen.

Before leaving, he suddenly asked the Lord of Dreams one last question, one that he had pondered for a long time—

……

"In the first world game, Shadow Su—that is, myself—did not die and revert to a previous state, right?"

……

"I was wondering about that earlier," Su Ming'an said as he walked away, without turning his head. "What are you afraid of when faced with ghost stories?"

"Huh?" Ying Su's eyes widened. "Shouldn't I be afraid?"

"Shouldn't you have risked your life and tried everything to find out important information? Why were you such a coward?" Su Ming'an said.

"Of course it is, that's dangerous," Ying Su said.

Ying Su was unwilling to take risks, which contradicted Su Ming'an's modus operandi.

……

When Su Ming'an opened his eyes again, he was standing in the library, with Ying Su standing beside him. Blake and Su Jingtang were chatting.

[...It's been rolled back.]

[It wasn't their own death rollback, it must have been Ying Su's. That suddenly appearing white thing killed them, causing the death rollback.]

Su Ming'an frowned, but a voice came from beside him:

"Noel, Su Ming'an."

It's Huizhou white.

The blond youth stood in the darkness, looking at them.

"We're going to see the castle owner's room, would you like to come along?" Hui Bai asked.

Before the rollback, Hui Bai followed Su Jingtang; after the rollback, Hui Bai walked towards Su Ming'an, who was in stealth mode.

The only person whose actions were inconsistent was Hui Bai.

……

Su Ming'an saw that beneath the crimson fog, the person seemed to be smiling.

It seemed as if a thunderous sound was reverberating in his chest, growing louder and louder...

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

……

"Yes."

"In the first world game, the player who had the ability to rewind after death was the first player, Huibai."

……

The crimson vortex shrank, and with a roar like ocean waves, everything before Su Ming'an's eyes vanished in an instant.

In his hand, Noel's palm gradually softened, loosened, and moved away.

In his field of vision, he saw a giant tree—crystal clear and dazzling, swaying in the wind, its ancient branches reaching for the sky.

It was as if he himself was standing at the end of a river, finally turning back to look at his original self, his eyes silent and sorrowful, peaceful and quiet.

Spring trees and evening clouds, it feels like home.

The trees north of the Wei River in spring, the clouds east of the Yangtze River at sunset. When will we share a cup of wine again, and discuss literature in detail?

……

Finally, Luigi Ricardoso ended the story in sync, departing from the ruins.

He closed the book and found that Su Ming'an was nowhere to be found, but that person seemed to exist anywhere on the pages of the book and in history, in any time.

Only what's in front of me, and nothing else is visible.

It is a symbol, a legend, and history.

—It is a statue of a god.

—It is a giant tree.

—It is a lighthouse.

—But he was nowhere to be seen.

……

But he was nowhere to be seen.

……

It's not over yet.