Beyond Both Worlds

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The Death Coil gleamed with an eerie black light.

Lost gripped the cursed dagger and plunged it into his heart.

Activated by blood and boundless hatred, the Blade of Curse suddenly shone, and not a drop of blood flowed from the wound that pierced the body; strange energy fluctuations suddenly spread out.

With a loud shout, Kang De's Dou Qi suddenly erupted. The Crimson Blood Flame Edge had pierced Lost's body twisted and pulled, causing a large amount of blood mist to burst out. He sensed that something extremely dangerous was approaching, so he retreated sharply and pulled out a pistol from the inside of his thigh with his other hand, firing repeatedly at Lost.

Lost jerked his head to the side, narrowly avoiding a fatal blow to the head. Then his body jolted violently as he was struck several times in the chest and abdomen, narrowly escaping only a head wound.

Then, he suddenly pulled the small sword from his heart, and with endless hatred and curses, he slashed at Kang De with a Shadow, shadowy blade that moved silently and arrived in an instant.

Its speed transcends the concept of space.

It passed through Kang De's body.

Kang De's retreating figure suddenly stiffened, his face turned pale for a moment, and a painful twist flashed in his eyes. He involuntarily released the fire axe in his hand and pressed it to his chest.

After the intense pain comes a gradual feeling of weakness.

He felt an invisible force lurking in his heart, slowly, gradually slowing his heartbeat, like a gentle, whispering death.

After Lost the Blade of Curse, Lost staggered back two steps and collapsed to the ground. He had suffered multiple severe injuries, and his life force was rapidly draining away; he was no longer going to survive.

But he was laughing.

Ignoring his injuries.

He laughed triumphantly.

I felt an immense sense of satisfaction.

Kang De released the pistol and pressed it against his chest.

Spiritual energy is dispersed and Extraction.

But... what should Extraction?

His spiritual power penetrated his skin and flesh, allowing him to feel the beating of his heart and its shape and contours. However, a strange power clung to his heart, wrapping around it like vines. When he tried to touch it gently, he sensed extremely complex changes in its Element, profound and mysterious.

Although it cannot compare to the inscriptions on the Fire Thief Altar or the White Mist outside the neighborhood.

But it's far from something that Kang De could Extraction and analyze in his current understanding.

A sudden realization flashed through his mind.

This is... the power of the gods.

Lost laughed maniacally, "The cursed treasure that should have been used on the Sword Saint Cascading Snow has been used on you, a mere Joker. Feel honored! And fearful! You are going to die! You are about to die!"

Kang De clutched his chest and looked at the other person.

His expression was gloomy and constantly changing.

Ferocity, hatred, regret, rage, fear, resentment.

But in the end, it turned into acceptance.

A calm sense of relief.

"So that's how it is... Am I going to die?"

He knew that Lost was telling the truth; he had personally verified the power of the curse.

Kang De slowly revealed a complex smile.

"It doesn't matter..."

He chuckled softly, "Anyway, I'm tired of living."

Seeing this, Lost's Lost, gleeful laughter abruptly stopped. He roared in exasperation, "Why don't you feel remorse? Why are you so calm? You're about to die! You're going to cry! You're going crazy! You're going to be furious! You're going to be resentful! Why are you so calm!"

Because I have nothing left to lose, what does fate matter?

Kang De smiled and said, "Why can't I be at peace? I have no regrets. I avenged my dead friend. I fulfilled my friend's request. I used my life to block this curse and prevent the Sword Saint Cascading Snow from dying. With her by Tina's side, Tina's journey ahead will be much easier."

"On the contrary, it's you."

His smile gradually filled with sarcasm and mockery, "Because of your greed, because of your betrayal, you turned against the innocent, wielding your butcher's knife against your former allies. What have you gained? Magnificent buildings, inherited wealth, family glory, the lives of your loved ones—everything has turned to ashes. You tried your best, but you couldn't change anything. What's the point of killing me? Will all of this ever come back? The Good Family is finished, and you have nothing left either. Why don't you cry?"

Lost was struck dumb.

His body trembled violently.

Looking at the ravaged land, at the bodies of loved ones who were nowhere to be found, the eldest prince's words of advice—future wealth and status, the lives of family members—what, in the end, is most important?

But none of that matters anymore.

Because everything is already destroyed.

But...

But...

Tears welled up in Lost's eyes. He closed them and took a deep breath of the unpleasant air. He was born here, grew up here, and all his memories were here.

"At least..." he murmured, "I can die in my hometown."

Kang De's smile froze.

He stood there silently, standing there.

"You're right."

Earthlings whispered.

As life drew to a close, the madness and hatred in his eyes slowly faded.

It became calm.

I felt relieved.

He looked up at the sky, his eyes filled with endless sadness and longing.

"So..."

Kang De said softly, "I also want to die in my hometown."

He tugged at his clothes a few times, removing the blood-stained tactical vest, then the various tactical straps on his arms and legs.

The spiritual energy dispersed and Extraction, causing those things to continuously disintegrate.

"Because I came into this world clean, I will return clean."

Then he picked up the pistol.

Extraction, decomposition.

Shotgun.

Dagger.

Nail gun.

One by one, they burst forth.

"Because I don't want the last human being on Earth to be buried with weapons."

Crimson Blood Flame Edge also turned to ashes in his hands.

Kang De held his last weapon, the fire axe.

He looked at Lost, who was sitting on the ground.

All the Element that had been separated flowed into the axe, and the blade shone with an intense brilliance.

He rushed toward Lost, and Lost saw his gaze.

The two moved simultaneously, mustering their last bit of Dou Qi, and charged towards each other. At this moment, the inner force driving them was no longer hatred and madness, but other, purer and more essential reasons.

Three meters away, Kang De suddenly hurled his axe. The Tomahawk, imbued with intense will, flew out with a whoosh, slashing through the air and severing Lost's protective battle Dou Qi, which he couldn't dodge in time.

It pierced his head.

Kang De lunged forward, grabbed the axe handle, and the two figures passed each other. Lost's head snapped back. Kang De, holding the axe in his right hand and pressing down on the knight's back with his left, pushed and pulled, and Lost's head was embedded in the axe blade and forcibly torn off.

Bones, flesh, blood vessels, and the flowers of death bloom.

Lost's headless corpse lunged forward two steps before collapsing to the ground.

Kang De did not look back.

He said softly, "I hesitated last night. I should have put the bomb in Hannah's stomach. If I had, you would have been seriously injured by the explosion, and you might not have had the strength to use this thing."

"In other words, my final moment of weakness and hesitation led to my death."

"How ironic."

But then again...

Kang De sighed softly, "I must admit, if I had done that last night, I would have no face to go home now... In the end, fate is so mysterious; what we lose in one place, we gain in another. The world is ever-changing, and everything is impermanent; who can say for sure?"

Kang De threw the axe to the ground.

"I will leave my last hatred here."

"Now, I've paid off my debts, and I've gotten what I was owed."

"The Good Family perished here; the blood debt has been repaid."

"I am now completely at peace with this world."

He looked up at the sky, at this not-so-beautiful earth, at this infinitely vast other world.

"Unfortunately, there's no time left to take a proper look."

However, there's nothing to regret.

Kang De smiled.

Then slowly raise both hands high.

He raised two middle fingers towards the sky and towards the world.

"Damn this world."

A black halo suddenly appeared around him, space shattered, and portals that allowed him to travel through time and space were created.

The next moment, Kang De, an Earthling, left the other world.

Glittering Sand was completely silent; there wasn't a single living creature left. No one saw that the Blade of Curse in Lost's hand suddenly lost its luster at that moment.

As if he were in a boundless deep sea, crossing hollow bubbles one after another, he finally arrived at the place he wanted to go. After the inexplicable surging sensation disappeared, Kang De opened his eyes.

The familiar ceiling.

This is his home.

It is also the place where he Homecoming to die.

I can't die in bed.

I want to die at a tombstone, to die by the sword of Cleveland.

He struggled to get out of bed, opened the bedroom door, but everything went black before his eyes, and he collapsed to his knees.

He was breathing heavily.

My vision went black.

His heartbeat gradually slowed, and he was nearing the most dangerous moment. The previous final blow and the Extraction enchantment had consumed a lot of his power, and now he had no strength left.

Kang De collapsed to the ground, powerless.

"Bang."

He no longer wanted to move.

Bang bang bang.

He was already very tired.

"Bang bang bang bang bang."

Let's rest like this.

"Bang bang bang bang bang bang."

Speaking of which, why is it so noisy today...?

"Buzzing... buzzing..."

Even my phone started vibrating.

--etc!

His increasingly heavy eyelids snapped open.

The shouts seemed both near and far.

"Kang De! Kang De!"

He heard someone calling him.

The voice sounded familiar; it often appeared in my dreams. Was it a hallucination before I died?

No, it's not.

No.

Because the phone in my pocket was vibrating, vibrating.

The sound grew clearer and clearer; it was coming from outside.

"Kang De! Are you there?!"

It was that voice. Yes, he recognized the voice.

How could I forget?

His mind was a complete blank, and he was falling into the dark void, but the voice was like a ray of light. Kang De's body trembled, and he felt hot tears welling up in his eyes.

He shouted, "Old Wang! Old Wang!"

Kang De's voice choked with emotion.

The shouting stopped, and a moment later, there were even more violent and intense banging sounds, as if something was hacking and striking the door.

Then, the door was violently yanked open.

A figure came into Kang De's view.

"Kang De! What's wrong with you!"

The anxious voice sounded very familiar.

Including her beautiful yet spirited face, her long black hair tied in a ponytail, her tall and well-proportioned figure—all of this was the image he remembered, the image he longed for.

His childhood sweetheart, his neighbor, his best friend.

Now they've reappeared before him.

It was like a dream.

Kang De gazed at her and murmured, "It's you, it really is you, why..."

The girl was shocked to see his condition. She quickly helped him up and rushed outside, shouting, "I'll take you to the hospital!"

Kang De was in a daze, weaker than ever before, his life slipping into the abyss. He was in a daze, letting the other party do as they pleased, but before leaving home, his gaze subconsciously swept over them.

Then he paused, startled.

There should have been a radio transmitter and a gasoline generator on the table.

He also took some items from the house to another world.

But now, there's no radio, no generator, and the furniture is arranged just like before.

"What... is going on...?"

The girl practically dragged him to the elevator.

It has electricity.

The indicator lights were displaying numbers from floor to floor.

Up to the first floor.

Old Wang led him downstairs, where an elderly couple was walking their dog on the road ahead. They were both surprised to see this and quickly came upstairs.

The old woman said worriedly, "Oh dear, what happened? Old Li, come and take a look!"

The old man rushed forward, glanced at Kang De's face, and listened intently to his chest for a moment before declaring, "It's definitely a heart problem! Get him to the hospital immediately; the Third Hospital is less than a kilometer away. We can't delay any longer!"

Old Wang agreed and hurriedly ran towards the entrance of the community. The elderly couple followed, and the old man reached out to help support Kang De's other side.

The girl thanked them and took out her phone to dial 120. Just then, a mother and son came down from another building. The mother saw what was happening and came up to ask what was wrong, saying, "The Third Hospital is close by, but we need to turn the car around. We need to go out, and my husband is driving out..."

The Little Boy immediately ran towards the gate of the residential complex. "I'm going to tell my dad!"

Kang De's consciousness grew even more hazy. He only saw unfamiliar faces approaching, their expressions filled with surprise and worry. He felt hands supporting him, and the movement quickened.

But he no longer had the strength to care about any of that.

He looked around with a slightly bewildered and confused expression. There was no White Mist, and the faces of the people did not show the fear of having experienced a disaster or anomaly. Everything was as usual. There was no graffiti by him on the roadside, no trace of his life. He was helped by the crowd to the vicinity of the entrance to the community. On the stone wall there was engraved that wonderfully timeless Song Dynasty poem. There was no epitaph of Civilization, nor the sword of Cleveland.

It's as if none of this ever happened.

But it really happened; it wasn't a dream. The power of the Fire Thief still exists within him.

But how did all of this happen?

Kang De was stunned, and tears streamed down his face.

He muttered, "What is this? What is this?"

The sorrow and despair of the past year, the collapse and madness after the loss.

But...

Seeing the world as it was before, seeing these unfamiliar yet worried faces, security guards, passersby, neighbors—whether they knew each other or not—almost everyone offered a helping hand.

It turns out, none of this was ever truly lost.

But I experienced a sorrowful journey.

That would be wonderful.

It doesn't matter anymore.

It doesn't matter what I've been through, this is good enough...

He slowly lowered his head, and the calls in his ears gradually faded away.

The mind, filled with madness, sorrow, despair, and pain, slowly calmed down.

The car roared, ran red lights, and honked its horn all the way, speeding toward the nearest Third Hospital.

In the emergency room, the doctor who arrived rushed over glanced at the equipment and said, "Prepare the defibrillator!"

Old Wang waited anxiously in front of the emergency room.

Dozens of miles from Glittering Sand Town, in a mountain range, the weary princess finally met the person she had been waiting for. She threw herself into his arms and murmured, "Auntie, hurry, hurry back to Glittering Sand Town to save them, Kang De and the knight are still there..."

But she didn't know that those two people were already gone.

Suddenly, a towering column of water shot up from the dock in Glittering Sand Town.

The people in the port had long since fled, and the seagulls flying in the sky fell uncontrollably into the sea. Beautiful, slender feet stepped onto the land. The girl had short, refreshing red hair that reached her ears, a voluptuous figure, and a firm chest. She opened the wet bag in her hand, and one by one, her clothes floated in the air, instantly drying out.

She tilted her head, as if recalling something, and then, one by one, she put on her clothes: underwear, outerwear, and boots. The girl gripped the steel rod in her hand, a look of dissatisfaction on her face, but she was reluctant to throw it away. Then, she had a sudden inspiration. The rough steel rod was enveloped in golden light, and the power of the elements continuously gathered and smelted it. In the end, the steel rod turned into a long, gleaming golden staff.

She whispered, "Kang De... Kang De..."

The girl gazed at this unfamiliar world, a hint of confusion flashing across her face before her expression hardening.

She stepped into this strange world to find her closest loved ones.

The emergency room door opened, and a doctor came out. "Are you a family member of the patient?"

Old Wang nodded casually. "Yes, I am a doctor. How is he?"

A troubled look appeared on the doctor's face. "It's strange, his symptoms disappeared immediately after the defibrillator was used, but his condition..."

Old Wang's face showed concern. "What's wrong?"

"He looked very weak and tired, and his condition was very poor, but the test results showed that all his indicators were within the normal range, even better than that of a normal person... He should be hospitalized for observation for a few days."

The doctor then asked, "Also, has he recently experienced any major emotional setbacks or blows?"

Old Wang asked doubtfully, "No, he was perfectly fine when I saw him two days ago. What happened?"

"That's strange," the doctor said, "Because even while he was unconscious, he kept crying and speaking a foreign language I couldn't understand."

The girl's heart suddenly clenched.

She asked, "Can I go in and see him now?"

Kang De was just having a dream.

He dreamed of a world shrouded in White Mist, where everything was as quiet as ever, and all the scenery was largely the same as on Earth, but there was something different. There was a tombstone there, and a sword was stuck in the ground beside the tomb.

What he didn't know was that when the divine power within the Blade of Curse dissipated, a bridge was erected in the void, connecting the sealed world, the pure world, and the world full of hope.

Even the gods could not detect this change.

Only the river of time remembers everything, flowing mightily and ceaselessly. That epic, filled with sacredness and sorrow, will be written by new heroes, and it will surely be etched eternally beneath the starry sky...

Myth.

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PS1: A long chapter of 5,000 words! The update is late! The reason for the lateness is this chapter itself! Do you have any opinions on this?

PS2: Anyone who guessed that A Xing and the princess would come to the rescue, come out and get a beating! Just kidding, I'm imitating someone, how could I let you little brothers guess my tricks?

PS3: By the way, it's obvious that Kang De's grief stemmed from the loss of everything in the old world. The knight's death was just the last straw that broke the camel's back. So, the princess and the A Xing's comfort couldn't calm Kang De down, not even the knight's resurrection.

PS4: At this point, the basic framework of this book has been fully laid out. The detailed settings, the reasons for Kang De's return, and all the questions will be answered one by one in the following sections.

PS5: That's all for today. I'm a little tired, so I'll rest early.

PS6: Hand over your blades! Donations! Monthly passes! Recommendation votes! Hand them all over!

PS7: I'm awesome.