Collapse, women's clothing strategy Qiyana, then

He went to great lengths to prevent Kiana's identity from being exposed, precisely to prevent such an unpredictable situation from occurring.

It's best if only May and Alicia know that Kiana is a Herrscher.

Unfortunately, no wall is truly impenetrable; what's meant to happen will happen.

After waiting quietly for a while, Sakura finally recovered.

His tone concealed deep pain.

"I agreed to Mei's request and told Ling the truth."

"Then Bell's consciousness was uploaded into the Paradise of the Past World created by Vilvi ahead of time."

"Everything seemed to be going well, but we never expected that the Twelfth Herrscher was born along with Bell's soul; it appeared in the afterlife."

Bai Yan was stunned: "What?!"

Oh no, in that case, ring...

"The only good news is that the Twelfth Herrscher is also trapped inside."

After saying that, Sakura seemed to lose all her strength and swayed involuntarily.

She looked at Bai Yan, and tears finally welled up in her eyes.

She cried, a bitter smile still lingering on her lips.

"While we were racking our brains trying to figure out a solution, the bell sent a message from inside."

She said she discovered that the Twelfth Herrscher did not have human consciousness and was completely unable to communicate.

"She hoped that Dr. Mei would disregard her own feelings and find a way to eliminate the Herrscher..."

Sakura lowered her head and looked at her hands.

"Do you know, Bai Yan, the Paradise of the Past is the Twelfth Divine Key. The complete Twelfth Divine Key."

"..."

"Outside of the Pure Land of the Dead, there's nothing I can do..."

Sakura covered her face with her hands, tears sliding down her fingertips.

When the millennia-long slumber ends and the ocean of memories surges forth, what first submerges the calm coastline is the pain that can never be forgotten.

Bell's consciousness never reappeared.

In the Land of the Past, no one can find the bell.

Silence fell between the two.

It took a long time for Sakura to finally return to normal.

She looked at Bai Yan: "I'm sorry, I lost my composure..."

Bai Yan remained silent.

"Even now, I don't know what kind of plan you and Dr. Mei agreed on."

"Mebius doesn't know either, and neither does Velvi... So what is it?"

Bai Yan shook his head: "We didn't actually make any agreement."

Sakura was taken aback: "What?"

"Generally speaking, plans are often full of rational calculations and preparations; for example, the Stigmata Project."

"Sometimes we gamble on the smallest of possibilities, all for the sake of the best possible future, even if there's only a sliver of it; like Project Fire."

"Mei and I envisioned the third option."

Sakura waited for a while, but found that Bai Yan did not continue speaking.

The boy's face was even filled with worry.

Sakura couldn't help but ask, "What is the third one?"

"...reversing cause and effect, taking the established past as the result and a possible future as the cause."

"With this line of thought, start with the result and work backward to the single cause and reason."

"When all the conditions are met, we will stake everything we have on that eternal cycle that can never be reached."

Bai Yan took a deep breath as he finished speaking.

In fact, the conditions are almost met, and the curtain of darkness has already been completely lifted.

There are no unknown conditions.

After Bai Yan finished speaking, Ying's eyes widened as she stared at him in disbelief.

Her lips trembled, as if the shock was no less than the impact of the bell on her.

"...The Stigmata Project alone required such a price. And if you want to achieve that, you..."

"You've waited fifty thousand years, you can't wait in vain."

"The girls in the Destiny Organization are also waiting for you to come back."

"……Correct."

At that moment, the faces of more than one or two people flashed through Bai Yan's mind.

Yes, I'm not alone anymore.

"So, how will you deal with them?"

Bai Yan silently stood up, looked into the distance, and gazed at the slowly operating facilities.

Those machines, whose duration is unknown, continue to diligently fulfill their mission.

Sakura also stood up and, without hesitation, positioned herself in front of Shirohiko, staring intently at him.

Their faces were almost touching.

"Don't run away, look at me," Sakura suddenly said.

Bai Yan took a deep breath, turned his head, and looked at Ying.

"A win-win solution is hard to find, let alone one for such a goal?"

Volume 1: Chapter 255: The black and white chess piece conversion is too boring, let's add some red pieces.

Destiny Headquarters.

The group gathered on the floating island.

Durandal spoke with Kiana for a while before searching for someone.

"Where's Bai Yan?" She searched for a while but couldn't find him, and her communicator wasn't on her either, so she asked.

"I didn't see him—where was he before we entered the dream space?" Kiana asked, puzzled at first, then, as if remembering something, she inquired about Bai Yan's condition before that.

"He's also at the Destiny headquarters, but for some reason we can't find him now." Durandal shook her head.

"It can't be that we're still in a dream, can it?" Kiana asked suspiciously.

"With his abilities, it's impossible," Durandal said with certainty.

"How about we look around at headquarters first?" Rita suggested.

The other two nodded and immediately split up to search.

Seeing this, Rita sighed slightly and also started searching in another direction.

At this moment, Theresa noticed that her two nieces and a maid had all disappeared, and scratched her head, looking puzzled.

Then she grabbed Himeko, who was passing by.

"Himeko, what are they doing?"

"Looking for Bai Yan."

"Isn't he at headquarters?"

"That's rather complicated, and I can't explain it clearly."

"What do you mean?" Theresa sensed something unusual and quickly asked.

"Walter was also there during Dr. Tesla's conversation, so I overheard them for a while. I heard them say that the large dream seemed to have some kind of strange passage."

"A passage? Which passage leads to?"

"Uh... they say it's a parallel world, but after talking for a while, they started arguing about how to travel between parallel worlds."

"What's there to argue about? Ask Anna. If that doesn't work, find Bai Yan first and ask him too."

Himeko scratched her face, looking somewhat conflicted.

She was troubled about how to make her old boss understand.

After a moment, she managed to find the right words.

"That's what they were discussing."

"Is the world connected by that strange passage in the dream world a bubble, a parallel world, or another dream world?"

Walter believed it was a bubble world; Tesla believed it was another dream world; and Einstein believed it was a parallel world.

"They debated this topic for a long time, but because they hadn't measured some parameters of that world, their respective statements had some flaws, but they were more inclined to their own guesses."

After Himeko finished speaking, Theresa quickly fell into confusion.

—What is Himeko saying?

"No, I mean, why don't they just ask people who have experienced it firsthand?"

"I'm afraid that won't work, because they are convinced that people who have experienced it firsthand are more easily misled."

Upon hearing this, Theresa thought of the large dream she had been placed into earlier.

Then she understood.

Because part of my consciousness was sealed before I came out, I didn't feel anything was unreal...

"But Himeko, does that mean we're really out now?"

"No, no, no, Tesla has already tested it. We are definitely out of the dream. There is no such thing as a scene from a movie."

"Oh," Theresa breathed a sigh of relief.

"Let's help look for it too," Himeko said.

"Oh right, let's go."

The two also started helping with the search, but Theresa chose to send a communication to the World Serpent first.

After the call connected, Mebius appeared on the screen.

"What's wrong, little lab rat?"

"Tsk, forget it, I can't be bothered arguing with you—do you have any news about Bai Yan over there?"

"No, what? You lost him?"

"After the dream was shattered, we returned to where we were, but we didn't see him."

"That's weird."

“Where is the one who carried out the Stigmata Project?” Theresa asked, her gaze sharpening.

“Ah (seven) Sanlin Siqi IIIsi, who knows?”

"Aren't you in cahoots with her? How come you don't know where she is?"

Mebius's eye twitched upon hearing this.

"Perhaps it's because of that ultimate secret plan, anyway, it has nothing to do with me."

"So, you're saying we can cooperate?"

What gave you that misconception?

"You abandoned her to carry out the Stigmata Project on your own, wasn't it because you and she disagreed?" Theresa asked inexplicably.

"..."