Acheron gazed at you quietly.
For a long time, she said nothing at all.
In truth, in a certain sense, there was nothing wrong with using these as an anchor.
But she knew that you seemed to lack some of the fundamental common knowledge of the cosmos.
Enveloped within the shroud of Nihility, you appeared to believe that the final destination of all things in existence was death.
This viewpoint, in and of itself, was not wrong.
But you had come to regard this death as the inevitable conclusion to all matters.
Which meant that you, yourself, did not mind accelerating the process of this death.
You had even grown accustomed to it.
Though your perspective had already shifted somewhat by now.
But what would happen once you truly understood that common knowledge?
Once you knew that every single one of these grave mounds had once been someone you cherished most deeply—once you understood the past that had come before—would your emotions spiral out of control?
Those shrouded beneath the shadow of Nihility all possessed unbearably tragic pasts.
Of this, she harbored no doubt whatsoever.
After comprehending such a past, emotions spiral out of control, reason ground to dust, and in the end, dissolution into nothingness.
Even if you were special enough not to dissolve into nothingness…
You were still a Xianzhou native!
Mara was the destiny of the long-lived species.
When that time truly came, your end would be nothing more than becoming a mindless beast that knew only the hunger for human flesh.
Acheron shook her head gently at you.
“At this moment, what is it that your heart cherishes most?”
She was not yet ready to give up.
The question caught you off guard.
Your first thought was the white jade sword you had forged.
But then you remembered that forging that sword had been nothing more than a task done in passing.
It didn’t count as the thing you cherished most.
And yet, within that sword lay all your memories.
So a tangle of conflict knotted in your chest.
You then thought of the Nihility Infection Equation and the Nihility Connection Equation.
But after a moment’s reflection, you cast those aside as well.
You then thought of the cemetery built within your Dan Fǔ Realm.
But that option had already been ruled out by her not long ago…
Your gaze was drawn to the small wooden carving—the one barely recognizable as a human silhouette.
You faintly remembered, within your memories, that this thing was very important to you.
“I suppose…
it would be her?” You placed the wooden carving into your palm.
Acheron said nothing more.
She merely let out a soft sigh.
She, too, had once done something like this—and nearly lost her life because of it.
Measured against the totality of the Path, feeble emotions held no meaning whatsoever.
In novels and storybooks, love could transcend all, bridge life and death, and grant boundless strength.
Yet, swept up in the torrential currents of the Path, such things seemed so utterly powerless…
And more than that—love was far too narrow…
To use a single person as the anchor of one’s own existence carried far too much uncertainty.
It was, in essence, staking one’s entire life upon that one person.
And human nature—human nature could least of all withstand scrutiny.
And in your current state, you couldn’t even be certain whether that person was still alive.
If she were still alive, then all would be well.
But if she were dead—that would be nothing short of a death sentence pronounced upon you.
“What do you plan to do next?” The topic shifted abruptly.
You thought carefully for a moment, only to realize that, for the time being, you had nowhere to go.
You wanted to visit the Xianzhou, but you didn’t even know which Xianzhou ship you were from…
And surely you couldn’t just crawl back under the black sun’s shadow and hole up there again, right?
“If you truly have no destination in mind, why not travel with me for a time?” Acheron added.
“Perhaps, along the way, you will come to new realizations.”
After a brief hesitation, you nodded.
Having bid farewell to the Doctor of Chaos, the two of you departed together.
“By the way, what was that Doctor of Chaos supposed to be treating me for?” A sudden curiosity flickered up within you.
“…Doctors of Chaos are not physicians.
They do not heal.”
“???
If they don’t heal, why are they called doctors?”
“…They chose the name themselves.”
“…” Only silence remained.
[In the time that followed, you accompanied Acheron on a journey known as ferrying.]
Though, truth be told, you felt you’d been roped into forced labor…
[You also came to understand Acheron’s philosophy.]
She stood against the dissolution of Nihility in the stance of a “Ferry One.” For those who wandered and wavered, she “crossed the river,” helping them break free from the bewildering fog of Nihility and find the meaning of their own existence.
Her “ferrying” was not merely physical escort but spiritual salvation—allowing the lost to regain clarity and a sense of belonging to their homeland, to stand against the ultimate Nihility of “being forgotten.”
As you escorted these Sin Thirsters, you also bore witness to the myriad facets of existence.
Sin Thirsters were born from the embers of the cosmos in the aftermath of large-scale destruction, war, and slaughter.
They were hollow spiritual entities whose substance was woven from guilt or obsession.
In essence, they were the coalesced collective will of those who had departed the stage.
Some were the residual thoughts of the Swarm.
Some were the residual thoughts of warriors.
And some…
were the residual thoughts of an entire civilization.
Among them, there was one civilization you remembered with exceptional clarity.
It was a civilization that had only just reached out into the interstellar age.
But one day, a virtual reality game suddenly erupted into a global phenomenon.
Within this game, what players heard and felt was virtually indistinguishable from reality.
And every player was the creator god of their own world.
A player could define their own identity, set the rules of the world, and design the people who would share relationships with them.
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Appearance.
Background.
Romantic partners.
All of it.
All you needed to do was move your fingertips, and they would truly manifest around you.
The world was set ablaze with fervor over this game!
In less than a year, the media declared this simulation game to be humanity’s Second World.
Three years later, the entire world’s economy began to collapse.
The political structures started to undergo irreversible destruction.
Because people had discovered that their physical bodies in reality could be destroyed—but their minds could persist eternally within that other world.
For the ordinary people who had long lived under the crushing weight of reality, this was nothing short of paradise!
The overwhelming majority did not hesitate.
They turned and threw themselves headlong into that beautiful world.
And those few with foresight and wisdom found themselves unable to make their voices heard against the sweeping tide.
It was as though there was a wild beast lurking in the darkness, steadily reaping the harvest of their souls.
As for how it ended?
In the final reckoning, the only ones left in the entire world were those who had originally stood at the pinnacle of the pyramid—the figures who had once controlled the political and economic lifelines of the world.
And the culprit behind all of it…
was a Lord Ravager called Phantylia.
The annihilation of an entire civilization—for her, it was nothing more than a dessert after a meal.
And this Sin Thirster, formed from the lingering reverberations of that civilization…
In the end, it transformed into a Voidranger of Destruction and was extinguished by your hand.
[Year 813.
You decided to leave.
At the very least, before you died, you wanted to wander through the cosmos a little.]
[Acheron’s path was not suitable for you.
Or perhaps, it would be more accurate to say—you, who carried the weight of hundreds of billions within you, felt somewhat…
tired.]
[During this time, you had also searched through many texts and records across the cosmos.
You could, by now, roughly confirm that the violet-black sun within your sword was indeed the entity the Xianzhou people called the Devourer of Worlds, Rahu.]
[And you yourself came from the Xianzhou Cangcheng—the ship that had long since been destroyed.
What your Dan Fǔ carried within it…
were the bones and ashes of billions upon billions of your own people.]
[After that great catastrophe, most of those who had survived had, by now, long since passed away.
Over eight hundred years…
that was enough time to erode away many things…]
[Though you were somewhat unwilling to admit it, those two graves were very likely all that remained of your family…]
Homeland extinguished.
Loved ones departed.
What remains in these empty sleeves but heaps of bleached bones?