Chapter 597 - 594: Night on the Hua Sheng Islands

Chapter 597: Chapter 594: Night on the Hua Sheng Islands

The sky slowly darkened as Li Luo sat by the beacon, watching the black discs in the sky merge into even larger ones.

Meanwhile, the discs continued to compress, their density increasing.

The Black Calamity on the Central Island had been mostly cleared. In the distance, the busy figures of Healers moved about. Some were healing creatures rescued from the labyrinth, while others cleared away its ruins.

Once people no longer feared the Black Calamity, it stopped taking on terrifying forms.

The beacon’s signal was slowly returning to normal. Li Luo couldn’t figure out the principle behind how it monitored the Sky Island, but it seemed to have some special way of detecting that the crisis on the island was fading.

But since the beacon was resetting so quickly, it meant she wouldn’t have to stay on the Hua Sheng Islands for much longer.

With the towering labyrinth walls gone, the mist on the Central Islands had thinned considerably, gradually revealing the distant scenery.

There were some stone structures around the beacon, but now they lay in ruins. They had likely been built by the Healers long ago, only to be destroyed when the labyrinth walls rose. It would probably take the Healers a long time to rebuild.

As the sky grew darker, a wave of drowsiness washed over Li Luo.

The side effects of the Pain Transfer Pills seemed to be persistent. Ever since taking one, Li Luo had been constantly drowsy. She probably needed a good, long sleep to fully recover.

On top of that, she felt incredibly thirsty. She had drunk nearly all the water in her cup.

Just as she was licking her dry lips, Block flew over to her, and a can of coke instantly appeared on top of it.

Li Luo blinked, surprised, and took the can of coke from on top of Block.

"Just how many of these did you get from Xi?" Li Luo asked curiously.

Block shuddered, seemingly unwilling to answer, and flew off to one side.

The cool liquid washed away some of her drowsiness. Li Luo yawned, setting the empty can aside.

Block flew back over. An electronic screen materialized on its surface, its faint glow illuminating Li Luo’s face.

Li Luo quickly took the screen and began to read.

It was an account of Block’s experiences in the Healing Space.

She was still feeling sleepy as she looked at the dense text, but her drowsiness vanished the moment she read that the Ever-Thirsty One’s library had become the Pipe Fortress.

Her brow furrowed as she read the contents on the screen again and again, confirming what she saw.

’The Pipe Fortress... was left behind by the Ever-Thirsty One?’

’The Ever-Thirsty One is dead, but it left behind the Pipe Fortress. Was that an act of goodwill, or malice?’

’Do the people of the Pipe Fortress know its origin?’

’And that library... where did it go?’

It seemed the Pipe Fortress wasn’t as simple as it appeared. Humanity itself held many hidden secrets. The tension returned to Li Luo, dispelling her relaxed mood.

She recalled her time in the Pipe Fortress. Looking back, everything about it seemed strange.

Lost in thought, she leaned against the beacon and drifted into a deep sleep...

...

’Are the side effects of the Pain Transfer Pills really this severe?’

Mo Ling wondered, watching Li Luo sleep deeply.

’Drowsiness, thirst, vivid dreams... I wonder what she’s dreaming about right now.’

As Li Luo’s breathing grew steady, Mo Ling decided to let her sleep undisturbed.

Night fell. In the distance, the Healers were still at work. They seemed to need no rest, their forms like points of candlelight flickering in the darkness, accompanied by faint, intermittent sounds.

Mo Ling could finally quiet his mind and reflect on his recent adventure...

What was that strange feeling he had on the silver ship? The one that came over him when he was about to teleport the data slate and eliminate the source of the Black Calamity?

’Why did that feeling try to stop me from teleporting the data slate?’

It was an overwhelming sense of unease, a warning not to go through with it. As if his actions would trigger some terrible consequence.

"’What would have happened,"’ Mo Ling wondered, his thoughts running wild, "’if I had chosen to teleport that data slate back then?’"

If his teleportation had worked, the slate would have been sent inside Block. It would never have traveled with the ship to the home world of the Mercury Creatures.

Then the Mercury Creatures would never have become aware of the Black Calamity, would never have observed it, and would never have caused its outbreak.

If the Black Calamity hadn’t broken out, it wouldn’t have ravaged the abyss. It wouldn’t have been weaponized by the Ever-Thirsty One to invade the Hua Sheng Islands.

’But if the Hua Sheng Islands were never invaded by the Black Calamity, I never would have come here... and there would have been no one to teleport the data slate in the first place!’

Mo Ling suddenly realized it was all a causal loop, a chain of interlocking links. Break any single link, and the entire chain would shatter.

And that strange sense of unease had been the very thing stopping him from breaking that chain!

’The ’correct’ course of events was for me *not* to teleport the data slate. That way, the Black Calamity would break out, allowing everything else to happen...’

If he had teleported the slate, the version of him who was there to teleport it would never have existed!

A shiver ran down Mo Ling’s spine.

It was as if some unseen force was keeping everything on a predetermined track, preventing any deviation.

As Mo Ling recalled the feeling, his breathing grew heavy.

’Was I... fated not to teleport that data slate?’

On Senluo Island, he had been able to forcibly change the entire timeline, but here on the Central Island, he was restricted.

He had used the same fundamental method to alter the past in both cases, yet the results were completely different...

The distant Healers flickered, their intermittent glow forming a line in the darkness, like a winding chain stretching into the far-off night. It seemed the fates of these Healers were also bound together by some invisible chain.

They were invaded at the ’right’ time, they fought back at the ’right’ time, following the chain to its next link.

Mo Ling’s gaze followed that chain of light, his thoughts sinking deeper and deeper. He couldn’t figure out how to possibly break such chains.

A faint hum came from the nearby beacon. It must have detected the changes on the Hua Sheng Islands and was recalibrating its signal.

Mo Ling’s thoughts grew more and more chaotic until he felt himself sinking into that very chain of light...

...

"Senior? Senior?"

Xi stretched out a hand and waved it in front of Mo Ling’s eyes.

"Senior, why are you spacing out?"

"Huh?" Mo Ling snapped out of it, realizing he was now inside Xi’s Healing Space.

"Are you here to help, Senior?" Xi asked, pointing to the surrounding medicines. "Cleaning all this up is such a pain..."

Mo Ling fell silent for a moment before asking a question that had been on his mind for a long time. "Xi, why do you think I’m a Healer? I should look completely different from one, shouldn’t I?"

Xi paused, then picked up a stone from the ground. In her hand, it transformed into a mirror, which she held up to Mo Ling.

Mo Ling stared at the reflection in the mirror, stunned.

Reflected in the mirror was the figure of an unfamiliar Healer...