52: Chapter 52 Incense Offering and Dharma Image

That speck of glimmer was like the first star cast into a deathly abyss, carrying a soul-shaking tenacity that suddenly burst into a breathtaking brilliance within Lu Bei's nearly extinguished consciousness.

【Gossip Reporter Little Trumpet】.

It was her.

Lu Bei's spiritual body was drained almost instantly. The excruciating pain and sense of void brought by burning his divine soul rushed in like a tide, nearly swallowing him whole.

But he desperately held onto his last shred of clarity, pouring all his remaining power into that trembling thread of silk.

This was his only anchor to the players, the hope for restarting the entire world.

"Come back..."

Using the last of his strength, he uttered this murmur that sounded less like a call and more like a prayer.

...

Darkness.

Boundless, silent darkness.

No time, no space, not even the concept of 'self'.

For "Little Trumpet", after pressing the [Ultimate Sacrifice] button, the world collapsed into such a pure 'nothingness'.

There was no logout prompt, no penalty notice for character death; it was as if the computer's power had been yanked out instantly, and even the hard drive had been formatted along with it.

She once thought this was the end of the game.

An overly realistic dream that vanished upon waking.

However, within this eternal silence, a faint call seemed to come from the other end of the world, carrying a familiar and undeniable Majesty.

That voice was calling her name, enticing her return.

"The Chen family's territory is still waiting for you to plan and construct..."

"Immovable as a Mountain... that tsundere, is he really going to ignore everyone after logging off?"

"Chen Kang... that fool, he won't really think we're devils, will he?"

Thoughts emerged from the deepest part of her heart one by one, carrying resentment, concern, and a trace of... attachment that she hadn't even noticed herself.

"I... I have to go back and see."

As soon as this thought arose, that infinite darkness shattered with a bang!

...

Light pierced her eyes.

【Gossip Reporter Little Trumpet】 snapped her eyes open, her vision gradually focusing from a blur of white light.

What met her eyes was an apocalyptic scene.

The sky was a washed, heart-stoppingly clean azure, as if that blood-colored array that had blotted out the sun never existed.

But the ground was hell.

The ancestral hall, once jokingly called the "Novice Village Square" by players, had completely disappeared, leaving only a gargantuan, glass-edged terrifying crater.

In the center of the pit, a seven-colored divine gold spirit tablet hovered there, emitting a weak but resilient light.

Scorched earth stretched to the horizon. The former war fortresses, artifact factories, and alchemy workshops... every home built by players brick by brick through all-nighters had turned to dust and lava.

The air was thick with a pungent smell, a mix of burnt stench and a strange fragrance.

Those were... the embers left behind after countless pieces of equipment, props, materials, and pills were sacrificed along with their owners.

Silence.

A silence even more suffocating than when she was in that darkness.

There were no shouts from Infrastructure Maniac commanding the engineering team, no hot-blooded clamoring from Charge to the End in the world channel, no dull thuds of Immovable as a Mountain silently wiping his precious pot lid, and no chirping, arguing, or bragging from countless players...

The world channel was gray.

The friends list was a deathly black.

In the Legion channel, the last message was frozen on Immovable as a Mountain's resolute command.

【All Pot Lid Army, hear my command! Fire on me!】

Little Trumpet's eyes instantly turned red.

She reached out, wanting to touch something, but only grasped a handful of cold air.

She was still alive.

No, she had... come back.

She was the first, and the only one to return.

"An... Ancestor?"

She tested, calling out softly toward that divine gold spirit tablet.

Her voice was hoarse, carrying a trembling and expectation she hadn't even noticed.

The light on the tablet seemed to flicker because of her call.

A thought, so weak it seemed it would dissipate at any moment, sounded directly in her mind.

"...You're back."

It was Lu Bei's voice.

Little Trumpet's heart eased, as if she had found her pillar of support, but then she felt the near-total exhaustion contained within that voice.

"Ancestor! How are you? Where are the others? Charge, Shield Mountain, and the rest..."

"They... are all waiting." Lu Bei's voice paused, as if organizing his words. "That strike exhausted everything. I burned my divine soul just to barely reforge the link between us. To awaken more people, we need... new 'energy'."

"Energy? Incense? I'll go offer incense to you right now!" Little Trumpet said urgently, immediately about to rush toward the place where wood was stored in her memory.

"No... ordinary incense is no longer enough." Lu Bei's voice carried a trace of fatigue. "I need something purer... the 'conviction' of living beings, the 'recognition' of the world, and... 'merit' that can be accepted by this heaven and earth."

Merit?

This word stunned Little Trumpet.

This had exceeded all her understanding of the game.

What was this?

A major version update?

Unlocking hidden settings?

"I... what should I do?" she asked blankly.

"Go... find that man named Chen Kang." Lu Bei's thoughts were intermittent. "He is a 'living being' recognized by this heaven and earth, and there is karma between us. Have him... sincerely offer a stick of incense to our family. His conviction can become the first fulcrum to move everything."

"Find Chen Kang..." Little Trumpet immediately understood the key to the task.

This was no longer a simple errand, but... the key step to restarting the server!

"I'll go right away!"

Without any hesitation, she turned to leave the ruins.

"Wait." Lu Bei's voice sounded again. "Take... this."

As soon as he finished speaking, a glimmer flew out from the divine gold spirit tablet and landed gently in front of Little Trumpet.

It was a tattered, rusted copper heart-protecting mirror.

The surface was covered with spiderweb-like cracks, appearing as if it would shatter completely with a light touch.

Little Trumpet recognized it.

This was one of Immovable as a Mountain's signature pieces of equipment, the [Monolith Heart-Protecting Mirror], a blue-tier item he had looted from a minor boss; because its stats were good, he had never been willing to replace it.

She carefully picked up the mirror, a cold sensation coming from her fingertips.

She could almost see how that taciturn man had used his own chest to brace this mirror, holding up a safe sky for the reckless warriors behind him.

"He... hasn't gone far." Lu Bei's thought came faintly. "Take it, and perhaps you can find some... clues."

Little Trumpet gripped the mirror tightly and nodded heavily.

She took one last look at this deathly battlefield, her gaze sweeping over a patch of molten iron whose shape vaguely resembled a wild greatsword.

She knew that was Charge to the End's weapon.

She didn't cry again, but suppressed all her sorrow and longing deep in her heart.

Now was not the time for sentimentality.

She was the only hope for the whole village, the "Chosen Worker," the chief engineer responsible for restarting the server.

She turned, identified the direction, and set off.

One step, two steps...

Just as she was about to step out of the crater's edge, the corner of her eye suddenly caught a strange crystalline light.

It was on a patch of scorched earth, a speck of pure light that was extremely discordant, as if it had condensed moonlight.

Her heart stirred, and she walked over, crouching down.

It was an irregular crystal fragment about the size of a fingernail.

It was icy cold all over, emitting a chill that seeped into the bones even in the post-war residual heat.

This was definitely not a fragment of player equipment.

Player equipment, after sacrifice, would only turn into pure energy or leave behind mundane iron remains.

Was this... left by the Demon Sovereign?

She remembered the secret about the "key of the divine prison" and the "Old Day Evil God" revealed by the Ancestor in a fleeting glimpse before the sacrifice, as well as the seemingly genuine sorrow of Demon Sovereign Night Radiance.

As if possessed, she reached out her finger and lightly touched that crystal fragment.

Buzz—

In an instant, an inexpressible, sea-deep sorrow, mixed with the exquisite sleeping face of a woman and endless despair and obsession, crashed into her mind like a bolt of lightning!

The image flashed by, too fast for her to capture any details.

But that sorrow, which felt like it would freeze her soul, was clearly imprinted.

Little Trumpet snapped her hand back, her heart racing.

What was... this?

A bug?

Or... a clue for a hidden plot?

She looked at that small crystal fragment, then at the direction she was headed, and a bold thought that she herself found crazy emerged uncontrollably.

Perhaps, to gain the "recognition" of this heaven and earth, what was needed was more than just a friend's "conviction".

Sometimes, one also needed... an enemy's "tears"?

She took a deep breath, no longer hesitating, and carefully tucked the crystal fragment and Immovable as a Mountain's heart-protecting mirror into her inventory.

Then, without looking back, she sped toward the market town a hundred miles away.

Above the ruins, only a small and determined figure remained, disappearing at the end of the horizon.

On the divine gold spirit tablet, Lu Bei's consciousness, after watching her go, finally could not hold on and slowly sank into the deepest level of hibernation.

Before his consciousness completely went silent, he had only one thought.

"Girl, it's up to you..."