Chapter 137

“The chaos begins here.”

The most effective sentence that the simulated self had thought of, the last words shouted by the corpse in the simulation, produced no reaction.

Sharl, who had transformed into the “Inspector,” remained calm despite the unexpected situation.

Before everything began, she had felt a sense of tension.

Success or failure hinged on this moment. The more critical the situation became, the calmer Sharl grew.

Sharl cut her left wrist with a small knife, allowing blood to flow down her fingers and onto the ground, where she drew a blood sigil.

Simultaneously, Sharl controlled the corpse, repeating all the words the simulated Sharl had tried, from beginning to end.

It wasn’t necessarily the final word that fully awakened the feather pen’s memory; these preliminary actions were equally important…

…

A raven circled above Borough City, hovering over Derton Manor.

The enormous shadow it cast covered a large area below. In its cold gaze, a woman with long brown hair emerged from the entrance of Derton Manor.

Holding a rust-colored coin, she seemed to be attempting to leave the manor.

As soon as she stepped inside, the raven’s shadow swooped down, landing on the outer wall of Derton Manor and staring at the woman. The entire raven shadow seemed to envelop her.

But the woman appeared oblivious to the raven’s shadow, picking up the coin and tossing it upward. The coin flipped and then fell back toward her hand along a parabolic path.

The rust-colored coin landed steadily on the woman’s hand. In the raven’s shadow, an invisible line connecting the coin and the woman instantly snapped and reconnected to another line.

This action caused the coin, which had been lying flat on her hand, to slide off at a strange angle and fall to the ground.

The eyeball demon on the coin looked skyward. Seeing this, the woman’s face changed slightly. She bent down to pick up the coin, hesitated for a moment, and then retreated back into Derton Manor.

In recent days, the woman had been testing boundaries with the coin. Soon, she would understand what she needed to do.

The raven spread its wings and took flight, heading towards the city center.

To it, the city seemed shrouded in a gray mist, with countless threads intertwining and connecting different people.

These threads were made up of white, blue, and orange light, though the orange light was scarce. The brown-haired woman had a hint of orange among her threads.

Following one of the orange-dominant threads, the raven flew straight toward Clock Tower Lane District.

This thread connected to a well-dressed, golden-haired nobleman holding a gold-trimmed cane. He walked down the street in Clock Tower Lane District, holding a blue crystal resembling an eyeball in his left hand.

Another person who hadn’t found their place in life…

The nobleman casually manipulated the blue orb, which suddenly transformed into a deep purple with a crimson core, fixating on a servant following behind him.

The nobleman turned around, just in time to see the attendant, who had drawn his pistol and aimed directly at the nobleman.

After the attendant was discovered, he cursed and pulled the trigger.

Bang —

Ding —

The bullet shot toward the nobleman’s face, but when it hit his skin, it made a crisp sound, sparking and deflecting to the side.

Bang bang —

More gunshots rang out, causing chaos in the street. The bullets that missed the nobleman struck several civilians, who fell into pools of blood.

The nobleman showed no emotion as he watched the fallen civilians, but his expression changed slightly when he saw one wearing the robes of the Salvation Goddess Religion. He immediately reached out, knocking out his attendant with a punch.

He was in trouble now.

The raven’s shadow in the sky, satisfied with what it had witnessed, finally departed.

At this moment, it felt like a god, controlling everyone’s fate and playing with life as it pleased.

And it seemed to be enjoying this control, flying toward its next destination with a joyful heart.

When it reached the top of a dilapidated factory, it sensed something unusual. However, compared to this sensation, it was more interested in the woman standing below the factory, with only a single blue thread connecting her.

This…

It perched on the ceiling, its massive raven shadow covering the entire area.

The woman’s words were muddled and disjointed, but hearing them caused the raven to feel a sharp pain from the spirit.

This… What is this?

I am an omnipotent god… How could I not understand what she’s saying?

Impossible…

I am a god…

Silver gears in the raven’s eyes rotated slightly. Instantly, a flood of memories surged into its mind.

I knew it, I definitely knew…

The massive raven shadow instantly spread its wings, but then both the raven and the shadow froze.

Because this time, it truly understood, and upon understanding, the memories it had deliberately sealed away, belonging to the “mortal,” began to slowly surface.

“From now on… shall we call you Slade?”

“There’s no special meaning, it just sounds good.”

Slade…

The woman, half-hidden in the dilapidated factory, performed a bizarre solo play under the gloomy sunlight, even without an audience.

Her “performance” gradually tore open the raven shadow’s sealed memories.

“Professor, look! I can also give… life now, right? Can I graduate?”

“Ugh… Slade, your ink is too expensive, couldn’t you make your own?”

The massive raven shadow twitched and twisted. From its vantage point on the roof, it caught a glimpse of the woman’s face, and its entire spirit seemed to be struck. More memories flooded into its mind.

Knowledge, recollections, experiences… A torrent of thoughts collided within its skull, almost like a sharp explosion in its ears.

Yet, it stood still, its eyes already showing illusions.

The dilapidated factory seemed to transform into a magnificent palace hall, and the golden-haired

The woman sat on the steps adorned with red carpets, speaking to the raven shadow in her hand.

Suddenly, the woman froze mid-action, as if a wind-up doll had run out of its program and started another one.

She stood up, lifted her head, and looked towards the direction of the raven.

“Slyde.”

“Run!!!

Rip!

Flesh and clothing exploded from the woman’s waist. The magnificent golden palace that the raven saw transformed into a sea of flames in an instant, and the woman’s figure was dragged into the darkness.

No… No no no…

The raven’s cold and indifferent gaze finally showed some fluctuation. Without any hesitation, it dived toward the woman, not even sure why it was doing so.

But it felt that if it didn’t do this, it would regret it again.

This time was different; this time it was a god, it could save everything…

The raven enveloped itself in shadows and plunged into the darkness, but what awaited it was not the terrifying mosaic of darkness it remembered. Instead, it encountered a black-haired girl with all fingers of her left hand severed, along with a horrifying monstrous hand.

Nearly the moment the monstrous hand appeared, it vanished from sight, and even before the gears could activate, the hand had already seized the raven’s throat and dragged it swiftly toward a blood-red vortex…

…

“Phew…”

Xia’er slowly exhaled.

Luckily… nothing went wrong.

Xia’er watched the still spinning blood-red vortex.

The raven and Xiao Zuo had already entered, and now it was her turn.

Xia’er manipulated the corpse to stand up again, and the corpse that had been lying on the ground performing death lunged toward the blood-red vortex, but passed through it as if it were a glitch, hitting the wall instead.

So it doesn’t work…

Perhaps because it lacked the traits of a spiritual being or an extraordinary person?

Or perhaps the inspiration hadn’t reached a certain level?

Xia’er didn’t continue with more experiments; these were trivial matters. There were more important things to attend to.

Her left hand continued to bleed, replenishing the blood-red vortex. She stepped over the blood array and extended her right hand toward it.

A monstrous hand emerged from the blood-red vortex, grabbed Xia’er’s wrist, and directly dragged her into the vortex.

The “Spiritual Alert” echoed loudly in Xia’er’s mind, and a large amount of gray fog enveloped her vision. Everything around the factory began to distort.

In the mist, countless terrifying shadows writhed, closing in on Xia’er as the thick fog obscured her vision.

There was no time for Xia’er to hesitate. She quickly rushed toward the raven, which was being eroded by the Other Realm and was frozen in place.

“(Ancient An Su language) Impossible… I am a god… Impossible…”

It seemed to sense something approaching in the mist, but before it could react, a hand reached toward its pupil.

The moment the hand stretched out, the raven felt a searing sensation in its eye.

A large amount of spirit, spiritual body, and knowledge were being violently stripped from its spiritual body and form, causing its originally twisted spiritual body to become full of holes.

Powers and knowledge not belonging to it were being plundered, leaving only a fragmented body and memories of a once-dead spiritual body.

But it merely watched the hand extend toward it without struggling, letting it reach for its eye.

Then, its vision went dark, and the other eye also seemed to be destroyed, rapidly decaying along with the rest of its body.

The fear before had completely dissipated, leaving only fragmented memories burning like a scorching sun in her mind.

At the same time, Xia’er’s vision began to change.

Silver gears floated above her fingertips, shining and swirling.

The gears seemed to accelerate the convergence of the mist, with dark shadows rolling toward Xia’er.

At that moment, the “Echo of Silver White Time Binder” flew out of Xia’er’s pocket, colliding with the gear and bursting into dazzling silver light.

The silver light almost swallowed Xia’er’s entire vision, dispelling the surrounding mist. For a moment, the whispers in her mind diminished, replaced by a warm, familiar feeling.

The ancient silver pocket watch, with the addition of the gear, began to twist and deform, with complex carvings appearing on its surface. At the center of the dial, a gear was gradually forming and rotating.

[Go!]

In a flash of silver light, a system screen appeared before her eyes, then vanished, but it rekindled Xia’er’s thoughts.

Xiao Zuo!

The moment Xia’er’s thoughts were sensed, Xiao Zuo leaped and grabbed Xia’er’s collar, throwing her directly into the shrinking blood-red vortex.

Bang!

Xia’er’s body was thrown out of the blood-red vortex, flipping rapidly on the ground before crashing into the factory wall with a loud bang.

The violent impact made Xia’er’s image flicker. Her black-blue hair quickly lost its color, turning red as she returned to her normal state.

Meanwhile, in the Salvation Goddess Church, a holy maiden with closed eyes suddenly opened them, filled with shock and disbelief.

She quickly got up, jumped down from the altar, and ran toward the door where the Pope was standing, talking to a cardinal, without even putting on her shoes.

“Your Holiness! Something bad has happened…”

“A deity has reclaimed part of its uniqueness… Not the goddess!”

“Where? Which church?”

“I don’t know… The signal is very vague, and even whether it’s in this world is unclear…”

This scene played out not only in the Salvation Goddess Church but also among various different churches and secret societies.

Someone had regained uniqueness after the Chaos Era—a feat that no one achieved even during the ancient millennium-long war for resources.

Only a few of the highest-ranking individuals knew about these events, but everyone knew that the world was about to start falling apart…