From the end of the world

Chapter 687 Mugwort
After a moment of contemplation, Xiaowan said, "...If the obstacles to reviving Ms. Aiye are really as Mr. Xugou said before, then the matter of reviving her will become far more difficult than we originally calculated."

Upon hearing this, the Dog looked utterly disappointed.

No matter how many people one can resurrect with the power of impermanence, those one truly values ​​are not included. The more one desires something, the more unattainable it becomes. This incredibly cruel law seems to have descended upon me once again.

"I now possess power I never dared to dream of before. I can split mountains, part oceans, and even cut and rewrite history at will... yet I can't even save the people I love. What am I going to do with this power?" Dog said as if cursing himself.

It's likely that Xiaowan didn't only realize the potential difficulties in reviving the female researcher Aiye at this point. Even I felt there were suspicious points at the time, so it's impossible that Xiaowan couldn't have thought of them. It's just that she needed to persuade Xugou to surrender earlier, and perhaps also wanted to extract more information from Xugou, which is why she intentionally used some simple rhetoric.

But things didn't seem hopeless. I sensed some leeway from Xiaowan's earlier words, so I asked, "You said 'difficult'... which means it's not entirely impossible?"

The dog seemed to realize something only then, and a glimmer of hope appeared in its eyes.

Xiao Wan nodded first, then said, "This is based on the attitude of the Lord of the Divine Seal. If reviving Lady Ai Ye was completely impossible, then the Lord of the Divine Seal would have told Mr. Xu Gou that from the beginning. But the reality is that he has always been waiting for Mr. Xu Gou to produce the fragments of the Divine Seal and exchange them for answers. This means that a method must exist."

"As for this method, although I cannot fully calculate the details, I can guess the general direction."

The dog suddenly became excited, but after a slight change in expression, it paused, as if afraid of being disappointed, and asked with some doubt, "You... can guess the Lord of the Divine Seal's thoughts?"

Speaking of which, it seems that the Dog has never witnessed the Little Bowl's abilities.

With his discerning eye, he should have been able to see that Xiao Wan possessed extraordinary qualities, and might even have noticed her blessing upon me. Considering her previous attitude and her status as a Void Realm Apostle, he couldn't possibly have truly regarded her as an ordinary young girl without any special abilities. However, that understanding was limited to her power; he was unaware of the remarkable intelligence Xiao Wan possessed.

The thought that he would also witness Xiaowan's prowess filled me with a sense of pride.

Xiao Wan turned to look at me, a slight smile on her face, then turned back to Xu Gou and said solemnly, "Mr. Xu Gou, your situation is actually somewhat similar to mine."

"You?" Dog was slightly taken aback.

"It's a long story, so I'll get straight to the point. The reason Ms. Ai Ye cannot be resurrected is because your rebirth is based on her sacrifice. In other words, your life has taken over her existence. Unless this state is lifted, resurrection is nonsense," Xiao Wan said.

Upon receiving this reply, Xu Gou perked up and said, "You mean... to revive Ai Ye, all I have to do is die?"

“That’s not accurate. Even if you commit suicide, the fact that your life was built on the sacrifice of Ms. Ai Ye will not change. It’s like I made a table from a stake; even if I dismantle the table later, the original stake can never be brought back,” Xiao Wan said. “The key is to reverse this fact, which requires the use of ritual means… Simply put, it means that you must be used as a living sacrifice to exchange for Ms. Ai Ye’s life.”

"Then isn't the result the same?" I said.

No matter what choice he makes, it seems that Xu Gou is destined to die. Only one of him and the female researcher Ai Ye can survive. Even if he could resurrect his deceased beloved, they would be destined never to meet again.

"—So that's all it takes!" Xu Gou suddenly burst into ecstatic joy. "I'm willing, I'm willing to give up my life! I was already a person with little time left, just a worthless life, only able to prolong my life thanks to Ai Ye's sacrifice. She is the one who should live... So, how should I perform this ritual? Can you tell me?"

Xiao Wan seemed surprised by Xu Gou's sudden excitement and quickly said, "Please don't get so excited... First of all, I need to tell you that you probably cannot obtain that kind of ritual through any means other than the Lord of the Divine Seal."

"The Great Impermanence is a deity, an object of sacrifice. A ritual using the Great Impermanence as a living sacrifice is unheard of. Perhaps you feel that you are not the Great Impermanence in the true sense, and therefore an exception, but the most important thing in this matter is the size of your magical power and the scale of your existence. In this respect, you are no less than other Great Impermanences. At least to the extent of my knowledge, there is no ritual method in the world that can bear such a heavy responsibility, unless it was designed by the Lord of the Divine Seal with his near-omniscient abilities."

The dog also calmed down, "I see, since that's the case... wait..."

As he spoke, he seemed to belatedly realize something, his voice revealing a hint of suspicion, "Didn't you want to recruit me as a fighting force? Why are you telling me this kind of information now? Although I'm willing to do anything to revive Ai Ye, in your eyes, Ai Ye should just be a researcher burdened by the darkness of the Humanitarian Department..."

"If I were to personally go to the Lord of the Divine Seal to exchange for the ritual necessary to resurrect Ai Ye, and then trade my own life and Ai Ye's life for it... wouldn't that be a very unworthy deal for you?"

I'm curious about this too. While I don't want to portray Xiaowan as overly cunning, it's unlikely she would simply let an outsider with such immense potential for exploitation walk into their own demise. She must have already devised a plan to make Xu Gou obediently follow her instructions; or, to put it another way, she probably anticipates things won't turn out badly. "I need to wait a bit before I can explain this to you," Xiaowan said earnestly. "Right now, I'll help you see Ms. Ai Ye again. Mr. Xu Gou, are you ready?"

Dog's attention was immediately diverted. He put on a serious expression, but his voice trembled slightly as he said, "I'm ready... uh, no, wait a minute, could you let me recover from my injuries a little longer? I don't want to see Ai Ye like this..."

He looked at me with pitiful eyes, and I agreed, "Okay."

He quickly repaired his tattered black power armor, his body shimmering with silvery-white magical light, decomposing the blood on the armor and the floor until it disappeared.

"Xiaowan, are you okay? Since that mugwort leaf is so special, the difficulty of communicating with it should be quite different from communicating with ordinary people, right?" I asked.

“It’s alright. There might have been some impact, but Mr. Xu Gou is a powerful and special medium... so it’s not a problem,” Xiao Wan said. “Then, I’ll begin.”

After saying that, she gently tapped the huge powered armor of the dog.

A white light appeared on her fingertip. She then extended that finger towards the floor not far away. The white light detached from her fingertip, fell to the floor, and then rapidly expanded and split, transforming into soft white rays of light.

All the white light converged inwards, as if an unseen weaver was using light as cotton to weave a human-shaped silhouette in the air.

The dog seemed to hold his breath. I could hear his heart pounding fiercely in his chest. His heartbeat grew faster and heavier.

A moment later, a pretty woman wearing a white coat, a simple sweater and trousers underneath, and a ponytail appeared before us.

She looked quite young, not much older than me, maybe two years older, at most a senior in my class. She seemed like a female student you might bump into on a university campus, rather than one of the evil scientists who once served in the Humanitarian Department.

She slowly opened her eyes, and we came into her field of vision.

Like Yuchi in the past, the dog made a dull sound, then called out as if in fear, "Artemisia... Artemisia?"

"...Huh?" Ai Ye seemed not to have reacted yet.

She looked at the dog that had called her, then at us, and said with a puzzled expression, "What... what's going on? And this power armor... Dog, is that you?"

"It's me, Ai Ye...it's me!" Xu Gou seemed about to cry.

Unlike the Great Impermanence Qilin, Ai Ye didn't seem to immediately grasp her situation. She looked at her palms over and over, and said, "Isn't I already dead...?"

“We have communicated with you, Ms. Ai Ye,” said Xiao Wan.

Then, she introduced herself and me to Ai Ye and explained the whole situation in detail. Gradually, Ai Ye accepted the situation; and the time spent explaining seemed to have helped Xu Gou regain some of his rationality.

"I never imagined you would become the Great Impermanence... and so many earth-shattering things happened afterward?" Ai Ye looked at Xu Gou with great astonishment.

Before the latter could react, she revealed a jubilant expression, clenched her fist tightly, and shouted, "And—the Humanitarian Affairs Department was actually destroyed? That perverted, sadistic widower Ying Lingyun is dead too? LOL, hahaha! Good riddance, a wonderful death!"

Speaking of researchers, I imagined them to be rational and aloof, but I was wrong; this person was surprisingly lively. If you ignored her white lab coat, she would look exactly like a teenage girl who loves to watch the drama unfold.

(End of this chapter)