Seventy-two hours?
He couldn't wait even a second, let alone seventy-two hours.
I choose A.
Without the slightest hesitation, he squeezed out two words through gritted teeth, as resolute as a knife severing the past.
"A wise choice." Mei'er chuckled contentedly.
The contract was formed the instant Xiao Han made his choice. An invisible shackle bound him tightly to Mei'er within the Soul-Devouring Pearl.
"Then, let's begin, Master. Open your mind and let me guide your soul power..."
Xiao Han took a deep breath and stopped resisting. He could clearly feel a pure essence of his soul being drawn from his sea of consciousness like a flood. It was a feeling of weakness originating from the deepest part of his life, as if someone was continuously sucking his life out of him with an invisible straw.
Under his control, this immense soul power, mixed with Mei'er's eerie Succubus Law, surged into Su Linglong's body.
The scattered fragments of soul seemed to be drawn back by an invisible force. They circled around Su Linglong's body, and under Mei'er's guidance, they began to intertwine and weave, eventually forming a semi-transparent purple cocoon of light about the height of a person.
On the surface of the cocoon of light, countless strange and alluring runes appeared and disappeared uncertainly, emanating a chilling aura. Through the cocoon of light, one could vaguely see Su Linglong lying quietly inside, her soul no longer dissipating, but in a peculiar state of stability.
"Alright." Mei'er's voice carried a hint of weariness. "The 'Soul-Weaving Cocoon' is complete. It will draw nourishment from your soul's essence and remain indestructible for at least a hundred years. Now, it's my turn to fulfill my promise."
A star map coordinate was directly imprinted in Xiao Han's mind.
"The Primordial Soul Spring is located deep within the 'Asura Blood Sea,' one of the three forbidden areas of the Shattered Star Sea."
Asura Blood Sea!
Just hearing the name sent chills down Xiao Han's spine. It was a forbidden land formed from the blood and resentment of fallen gods and demons, a place where even Martial Emperors would face certain death.
But he doesn't even know how to leave this void, let alone head to the Asura Blood Sea.
As if sensing his predicament, at that moment, the deathly silence around them suddenly rippled, like a stone being thrown into a calm lake.
A ship, an ancient ferry pieced together from the bones of countless colossal beasts and shattered stars, silently tore through space and appeared before them.
The ship was small, yet it exuded an ancient and desolate aura capable of freezing the soul.
A figure stood at the bow of the ship.
It was a skeleton draped in a tattered black robe and holding a long white bone oar. It had no flesh and blood, and two eerie green flames burned in its empty eye sockets as it silently stared at Xiao Han.
"A shattered soul... a newborn greed..."
A voice, seemingly emanating from the deepest hell and formed from the friction of countless withered bones, resounded directly within Xiao Han's soul.
"I... am the Ferryman of the Netherworld River."
Xiao Han's pupils contracted sharply. He shielded Lin Qingxia and the light cocoon enveloping Su Linglong behind him, his entire body on high alert.
"What you up to?"
The Skeleton Ferryman seemed to grin, making a silent smile, and the two ghostly flames flickered.
"I'll give you a ride. To anywhere you want to go. Including... the Asura Blood Sea."
Xiao Han skipped a beat, and he asked warily, "What is the price?"
"The price?" The Skeleton Ferryman's ghostly eyes slowly swept over Xiao Han, then over the unconscious Lin Qingxia in his arms, and finally landed on the purple cocoon emanating an eerie aura.
"I don't want your treasure, nor do I want your life."
"I just need one... compelling story."
The Skeleton Ferryman lightly touched the void with his bone oar, his voice carrying an age-old indifference.
"Use the story of the world you just ended to pay for your ticket."
Its empty eye sockets turned towards Xiao Han, the eerie green flames seeming to see through everything.
"Your story will determine how far my ship can take you. And the Asura Blood Sea... is the graveyard of gods and demons; my ship is the only means of transportation."
Xiao Han accepted the bizarre deal without saying a word. He carefully placed Lin Qingxia on the deck of the Bone Ferryboat and then placed the purple cocoon containing Su Linglong's remnant soul beside her.
The moment my feet touched the ship's hull, a profound sense of death and desolation, a hundred times more intense than the void of the universe, instantly assaulted me. This ship seemed not to be pieced together from skeletons, but rather condensed from countless ended "times" themselves; every step felt like stepping on the tombstone of some civilization.
The ship glided silently, sailing into a deeper void. Xiao Han's divine sense warily swept across the surroundings, only to discover that they weren't alone on board. In the shadows of the ship's railing stood several indistinct phantoms. They varied in form, shrouded in an impenetrable mist, emanating the same ancient and powerful aura; clearly, they too were "reincarnated ones" who had paid the price to cross this void.
There was no wind, no waves, yet the bone boat moved forward on its own. Xiao Han withdrew his gaze, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes.
He began to speak.
Without using sound, but with divine thought as the pen and spiritual power as the ink, scene after scene unfolded slowly in the void above the ferry, like the most realistic illusion.
That was the "Dragon-Locking Well" of the Imperial Capital Academy, the ferocity of the Blood Sacrifice Grand Formation and the despair of Instructor Lin Qingxia bound to the altar; that was the ten-thousand-foot golden dragon that emerged from the Soul-Suppressing Space from the remnant soul of Emperor Xia, the heroic declaration "The land of the Dragon Nation is forbidden to gods," and the tragic grandeur of a noble death; that was the "Genesis," transformed into Godslaying Spear, crashing into the world of Pseudo-God with resolute determination and devastation; that was him personally detonating all the power within him, transforming himself into a cocoon, reforging the seal, and ultimately bringing about the collapse of the world...
Scene after scene, event after event, filled with betrayal, sacrifice, resistance, and destruction. This is no longer just one person's story, but the final lament of a world. These tragic and magnificent images transformed into the purest fuel propelling the bone ship, causing it to accelerate dramatically through the void.
At the bow of the boat, the two eerie green flames in the Ferryman's empty eye sockets flickered violently with the ups and downs of the story, clearly indicating his extreme satisfaction with this epic "delicacy."
Just as the story was about to reach its end, a distorted, ghostly passenger suddenly let out a piercing scream.
"Lies! All lies!"
The phantom suddenly expanded, and a wisp of gray-black mist broke free, forcibly invading the image projected by Xiao Han. The image abruptly distorted, and the scene of Xiao Han sacrificing himself to save the world was transformed into a dark ending where he actively sacrificed Lin Qingxia and Su Linglong in order to seize the Worldheart Fragment, and detonated the world to frame the Divine Court.