[Your mind was plunged into utter chaos.
Yet, with terrifying clarity, you could perceive that your very existence, your very life force, was being drained away by something.]
[Your five senses were stripped from you.
You couldn’t feel the passage of time.
But you could still sense, with agonizing sharpness, that you seemed to still be alive.
The sensation was anything but pleasant.]
[It was like being trapped in a pitch-black room—unable to hear, unable to see, unable to smell, unable to touch.
As though you were sinking endlessly into a bottomless abyss.]
[Just as the awareness of your own existence was about to fade into oblivion, a single point of blue light blazed to life at the end of time!]
“Sorrow and rancor have no boundary; the hunt and chase have no end.
How much grief does the Hunter Lord bear?
The celestial arrow rests upon the string; golden pupils blaze with searing flame.
O Reignbow, turn not thy head back!”
[You stepped into a mysterious region threaded throughout the Sea of Stars.
Luminous ribbons woven from Imaginary Energy intertwined at the far end of the path.
The starlight of the boundless firmament paved the road ahead beneath your feet!]
[You were about to stride forward when a blue, centaur-like silhouette manifested at the end of the path!]
The Reignbow Arbiter!!!
[You did not know what form the Reignbow Arbiter truly took, but the very instant your eyes fell upon that towering, magnificent figure, you knew beyond all doubt exactly who He was.]
[Perhaps it was nothing more than your imagination, but you seemed to feel the weight of His gaze, cast down upon you.]
[But your tangled thoughts did not have long to spiral.
Your attention was seized entirely by His motion.]
He drew the bow.
He nocked the arrow.
Without the slightest hesitation, He loosed that strike—a blow sufficient to annihilate the entire cosmos—straight toward you!
[You jolted awake with a violent start.
Cold sweat had already soaked your body through.
But you had no time to dwell on the visions of the dream—your surroundings themselves crushed down upon you with suffocating oppression.]
[It was as though…
you had been buried alive?]
[Above your head were bricks, tiles, mud, and grit.
Fortunately, a small pocket of air remained, which meant you hadn’t been buried too deeply.]
[Beneath you, there was something—soft, slightly moist soil?
But rather than soil, it was more accurate to say it was…
flesh?]
[A shudder crawled across your scalp.
You hurriedly clawed aside the mud and rubble above and hauled yourself onto the surface.]
[You gasped for breath in huge, heaving gulps.
Dust caked your entire body.
Your clothes had been reduced to tattered rags, and dark crimson bloodstains dotted both your garments and your hair.]
[But none of that mattered.
You swept your gaze around you, yet all you could see was a landscape of endless ruins.
Amid the rubble, a few petrified Abominations of Abundance still stood.]
[A gust of wind blew past, and those few remaining petrified abominations crumbled into nothingness.
This was no ordinary weathering—it was as though they had been erased on a conceptual level.]
[Following the direction from which the wind had come, your eyes landed upon an enormous pillar of white jade, towering into the heavens.
The death of those abominations had been its doing!
You were absolutely certain of this—though even you did not know why your conviction was so unshakable.]
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[You tried to speak.]
[Your lips moved faintly, but no sound came out.
You realized you had lost your voice.]
[You remembered, then—you should have been dragged onto that Activated Planet.
Which meant the ground beneath your feet…
was it.]
[A vast, directionless bewilderment settled over you.
You no longer knew what you were supposed to do next…]
[On this soil of death, the very idea of survival was a fantasy beyond reach.]
[You glanced unconsciously toward that pillar of white jade.]
[…Even if you did survive, how were you supposed to leave this planet?
Not to mention that you’d never studied starship construction.
Even if you had, there were no materials here to build one.]
[…You stared blankly at that heaven-piercing white jade pillar for a long, long time…]
[Then, as though a thought had suddenly struck you, you picked up a nearby stone.
You dug your hands into the mud and sand around you and began to dig downward.]
Perhaps…
just perhaps.
Maybe there were others who were still alive, just like you.
Maybe Liuliu, and Uncle, and Aunt were all still alive too!
And if you couldn’t find them…
then that would be wonderful too!
It would mean they hadn’t been pulled onto this planet.
It would mean they were safe.
But if they weren’t here, then you should at least dig out your stinky old man and your stinky old mom!
This time…
you are not allowed to leave me behind again…
Cangcheng Ruins.
Post-Disaster Forward Base.
Little Jingliu, with all the earnestness her small frame could muster, swept her gaze meticulously across the crowd.
Her heart was thumping with restless unease.
She was among the earlier refugees to be rescued.
Those who had been pulled out in the same batch as her had already been relocated to other Xianzhou ships to resume their lives not long ago.
According to the Cloud Knight elder sister who had saved her, this was now the very last group of refugees.
Mom and Dad, Uncle and Auntie, and Qiong—they had to be in this group!
She had always believed this with all her heart!
Because Mom and Dad had never, ever lied to her!
Mom and Dad had promised they would go rescue Little Bai, so they would definitely, absolutely rescue Little Bai!
Several system hours later…
She was still staring at the empty passageway ahead.
Not long ago, the very last person had boarded the ship.
That meant that among the refugees yet to board, only she remained.
“Come.
It’s time to go.”
A woman clad in military attire gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
“…Mm.”
Jingliu lowered her head.
Her eyes brimmed with glistening tears.
Her tiny fists clenched tight.
Silently, she followed in the footsteps of that Cloud Knight elder sister.
She was a very sensible girl…
That’s what Mom and Dad always said about her.
Little Bai said she was very sensible too.
So…
so she couldn’t cry.
She couldn’t make trouble for others.
Night fell.
Inside a cramped little room aboard the transport ship.
Jingliu gazed out the window in silence, watching the starry vista beyond.
“Drip—drip—”
Before she knew it, tears had soaked through her clothes.
She tried to wipe them away with her hands, only to find that this time, no matter how much she wiped, the tears just wouldn’t stop…
If only Qiong were here…
He would definitely know what to do…
“Uuu…
uuuu…”
It was as if the final string in her heart had snapped.
She shrank into her bedding and let the tears pour freely from her eyes.
She let out muffled sobs like a tiny wounded beast.
All the grief she had held inside burst forth in that single moment.
Standing outside the door, the woman in military attire silently set down the fruit she had brought.
She let out a soft sigh.
“Perhaps it’s for the best.
Crying it out…
will help, in the end…”
She stood quietly before the door for a few more seconds, gave a faint shake of her head, then turned and walked away.
[Year 10.
Your hands had long since become torn and mangled beyond recognition.
Yet the innate blessing of Abundance that all Xianzhou natives carried within their blood kept them from being reduced to shredded pulp.]
[You did not know the trajectory the Activated Planet had followed when it devoured half the Cangcheng.
So you were left with only the most foolish of methods—digging outward in all directions through the ruins, using your own position as the center point.]
[A year’s time had not been entirely without results.
You had unearthed the corpses of many Xianzhou natives.
But among them were neither the people you sought, nor anyone still alive.]
[You had grown numb.
Your body had wasted away to little more than skin and bones.
But still, you did not stop digging through the ruins.]
[At the very least…
at the very least, you had to find your mom and dad.
So you could…
die together with them…]
[For the first time in what felt like an eternity, the thoughts in your mind stirred faintly.]