Senro's Hunting Dog!

"We're almost there, A De, just hang in there, we're almost there."

The voice in my head.

"Hang in there, Wei Ke! We're almost there."

The sounds in reality.

As Wei Ke drew closer to the Blood Healing Statue, his mind became increasingly hazy. Memories in his mind and the events unfolding in reality were constantly intertwining.

One second it was Wei Ke walking in front, the next it was Yi Weina.

Although they are two completely different people, in the constantly flashing memories and real-life scenes, the two quickly overlap in Wei Ke's eyes.

"Wei Ke!!"

"Ah?"

Wei Ke looked up as if he had been suddenly awakened from a half-asleep state, and found Yi Weina looking at him with a worried expression.

"Are you alright?" Yi Weina asked.

"I..." Wei Ke hesitated for a moment, then said firmly, "Very good!"

Wei Ke didn't want Yi Weina to worry, but he didn't know that in Yi Weina's eyes, his current state was not even remotely related to the word "good".

Yi Weina could see that Wei Ke's condition was deteriorating. Although this also proved that they were on the right track, it still worried Yi Weina.

Can Wei Ke really hold on until the truth is revealed?

Or rather, what will he become after discovering the truth?

Yi Weina hadn't considered this issue before, but now she had to, since Wei Ke was in no condition to think about anything else, so it was up to her.

She stood on tiptoe and glanced ahead. From their current position, they could already see the Blood Healer Hunter Statue, and they would reach it soon.

But...

Yi Weina hesitated for a moment, then decided to keep the distance a secret and said to Wei Ke, "Let's rest for a while."

"No." Wei Ke instinctively wanted to refuse. "I can still walk."

"But I can't," Yi Weina said, pointing to her legs, her voice pleading. "I can't walk anymore, so can I rest for a bit? Just a bit!"

After a brief hesitation, Wei Ke nodded. "Okay."

So Yi Weina quickly helped Wei Ke sit down under a big tree nearby.

By this time, Wei Ke was drenched in cold sweat and trembling all over.

He wasn't in such bad shape when he was in Hall of Valor.

Seeing Wei Ke's expression, Yi Weina pursed her lips and made a decision.

"Take a break, Wei Ke." She reached out and touched the back of Wei Ke's head, lowering her voice. "Just a little while, just a little while."

Yi Weina's words seemed to possess a certain Magic Power, causing Wei Ke's consciousness to become increasingly blurred, and his eyelids to droop constantly.

In less than half a minute, Wei Ke fell asleep.

Yi Weina then withdrew her hand, stood up again, and looked at the blood healing statue in the distance.

She decided to go ahead and see what was there.

If there's nothing there, she'll come back and take Wei Ke there; but if there really is something...

She glanced at Wei Ke again.

Consider it repaying a life-saving debt.

Yi Weina made her decision and then walked resolutely toward the statue.

"A De."

A De opened his tired eyes and the first thing he saw was a crackling campfire, with the person he knew best sitting beside it.

"Are you feeling better?" Wei Ke asked.

"Waaah..."

A De responded with a weak sob.

"I see." Wei Ke sighed softly. "It's my fault. If I hadn't been so obsessed with becoming Hunter, you wouldn't have ended up like this, would you?"

A De could sense Wei Ke's frustration; they had been connected for so many years. But it couldn't comfort Wei Ke, for its body had reached its limit, and that whimper just now was its last bit of strength.

"The Blood Healing Statue is just ahead," Wei Ke said. "If I could obtain the power of blood healing, I could definitely save you, but... I don't know if I can succeed. Along the way, we've seen far too many things we shouldn't have seen, haven't we?"

"Waaah..."

"I can't stop thinking about it," Wei Ke said in a low voice. "If there's something wrong here, if everything at the Sacrificial Ground is a conspiracy, then we're all going to die here."

"Waaah..."

Wei Ke stared silently at the campfire before him, the flames seeming to ignite his dark eyes.

"But we can't all die here." He made his decision, looking at A De again. "That would be too much of a loss, wouldn't it?"

"Woo..." A De didn't know what Wei Ke was going to do, but it felt uneasy.

"I've made up my mind. I'll go take a look by myself," Wei Ke said. "If the statue can still respond to my prayers correctly, then I'll come back for you. If not..."

A De guessed what Wei Ke was trying to do, and made another "woo-woo" sound, while also trying to shake his head.

But it no longer had the strength to even shake its head.

"It was my insistence on becoming Hunter that led me to bring you here." Wei Ke reached out and gently stroked A De's head. "If I really caused your death because of this, I would never forgive myself for the rest of my life."

"Waaah!"

"Alright, A De, get some sleep," Wei Ke said. "If I come back, we'll leave here together. If I don't... then you leave and never come back."

"Waaaaah!"

"Alright, alright, I won't let you leave alone." He smiled and looked at the nearly empty food bag beside him, and said softly, "I won't let you leave alone, I will always be with you... A De."

Boom!

A De suddenly opened his eyes and saw the dazzling lightning tearing through the night sky.

Two seconds later, the torrential rain and thunder roared down, splashing onto A De's face.

A De opened his mouth, and after a long while, he let out a mournful cry under extreme suppression.

"Waaaah... Wei Ke!"

It finally remembered everything, but it was all over.

So it cried out in despair in the torrential rain.

It's raining!

Yi Weina tightened her collar and quickened her pace again.

"Boom!"

Another flash of lightning streaked across the night sky, freezing Yi Weina in place. She whirled around to look.

But she couldn't see anything, only hear the slowly approaching thunder.

...strangeness.

She felt as if she had just heard a familiar yet unfamiliar voice.

Like her... grandmother.

But how is that possible?!

Yi Weina took a deep breath and reminded herself once again that the dead cannot be brought back to life before preparing to set off again.

It's raining, and she has to get to the statue quickly, otherwise Wei Ke will...

As Yi Weina turned around, her eyelids twitched violently.

Because she saw a figure standing under a tree in front of her.

"Who?!" She immediately drew her weapon, ready to defend herself.

But the shadowy figure froze on the spot with just one sentence.

"It's me, Yi Weina."

Yi Weina stared intently at the figure in the distance.

Then another bolt of lightning struck, and in that brief moment of daylight lasting less than a second, she still managed to see the other person's face.

That was his grandmother.

Her grandmother smiled at her and slowly raised her hands.

"Come here," Grandmother said softly, "Come here... let me hug you."

Yi Weina's breathing gradually became heavier, but she did not move.

"What's wrong?" Grandma asked with a smile. "Don't you recognize your grandma?"

Yi Weina's body was trembling, as if she was desperately trying to stop her legs.

"You... aren't you done yet?" she said through gritted teeth. "Want to do it again?!"

"What are you saying, Yi Weina?" Grandmother seemed a little sad. "Do you hate your grandmother?"

"Enough!"

Yi Weina roared and hurled the blade in her hand at her grandmother.

The blade struck Grandmother precisely in the chest, splattering blood everywhere.

"Yi Weina, you!"

Grandmother looked incredulous before slowly collapsing.

Another flash of lightning, and in that Pale World, Yi Weina saw her grandmother's blood flowing from the bushes, a sight that was particularly glaring.

This greatly stimulated Yi Weina, and she almost couldn't control her impulse and rushed over.

But she still didn't move.

The rain and wind grew stronger, and in such a downpour, Yi Weina was like a sapling that could be swept away by the wind at any moment.

Delicate, yet steadfastly standing in place.

After an unknown amount of time, the "grandmother" in the pool of blood moved and made a series of sounds that were a mixture of male and female.

"Hehehe, you've grown up, Little Saintess." Grandmother stood up, looking at Yi Weina with a smile. "I thought you would never improve."

Yi Weina recognized the voice, gritted her teeth, and said, word by word, "You damned Wildfire Cultist!"

"How rude of you," Grandmother said calmly. "Have you forgotten? Even if you are our future saintess, you should call me... Chief Nick."

Nick, the last of the Wildfire Five Great Chiefs.

"I will not become your saintess!" Yi Weina said. "Don't try to fool me anymore!"

"Lie to you?" Nick asked with a smile. "What did we lie to you about? We did indeed raise you as our first saintess, but you betrayed us."

"... You're still lying to me even now!" Yi Weina stared intently into Nick's eyes. "You're still using my grandmother's identity to deceive me!"

"Heh, why do you say I'm lying to you?" Nick said. "Couldn't I be your grandmother?"

"You're nothing but a despicable Wildfire Cultist!"

"Oh? Really?" Nick said casually. "You like red."

Yi Weina paused, then asked, "What?"

"I said, you like red," Nick said with a smile, "Because you think red is bright and beautiful, but there isn't much red in this land, so when you were little you would often cut your finger with a knife and drip blood onto white cloth to dye it red."

Yi Weina opened her mouth. "You..."

"You're terrified of being alone, not even for a little while. So when you get up to go to the bathroom at night, you always pull me along, right?"

"I..."

"And you love snuggling in my arms." Nick opened his arms. "No matter what happens, as long as I hold you, everything will be alright, right?"

Yi Weina stared intently at Nick.

"See? I not only have your grandmother's body, but also all her memories," Nick said with a smile. "I'm the person who knows you best in this world. I clearly remember every scene and detail of you from childhood to adulthood. If that's the case, why do you say you're not your grandmother?"

Yi Weina's breathing quickened again, her grandmother's face flickering in and out of focus amidst the flashing lightning.

"Actually, I haven't lied to you about anything." Nick spread his hands. "I did bring your grandmother back to this world, you just don't want to believe it, do you? To be honest, the reason I haven't laid a hand on you yet is because..."

He paused, then used Yi Weina's grandmother's kind and gentle voice again.

"Because I still love you, my dear Yi Weina."

At that moment, Yi Weina's mental defenses nearly collapsed, and she couldn't help but begin to doubt whether Nick's words were true.

Grandmother... has she really come back?

But this thought only existed in her mind for a brief moment.

"Yi Weina, do the right thing."

She thought of what her grandmother had said to her, even though it came from this body, but...

Etc.

Yi Weina's eyes widened little by little.

The dead Hunter, the vanished hound, the Wildfire Cultist who could "resurrect" the dead, and... the flesh and blood of her grandmother that she had given to these Wildfire Cultists.

Suddenly, she seemed to understand everything; a thin thread connected all the clues.

And this thin thread was given to her by Nick.

"I understand," Yi Weina said softly. "I finally understand, it's about replacement."

Nick narrowed his eyes slightly. "What?"

"It's replacement." Yi Weina looked at Nick again, this time without hesitation or struggle in her eyes, only with a clear understanding that saw through everything. "Wildfire Cultist, I understand your development trajectory, your plans, and how your so-called leader is supposed to become a god. It's replacement, isn't it?"

Nick didn't speak, but his eyes gradually turned cold.

"I've never understood where the Wildfire Sect came from. Why were you completely unknown when the Senro God was alive, but suddenly appeared out of nowhere after Senro God death?" Yi Weina said. "It doesn't make sense, because you have no history and no gods, yet you've developed so rapidly, as if you've been preparing for a long time. So there's only one possibility: you've always been there, but no one has noticed you, or rather, no one has noticed your ambition."

Yi Weina's gaze gradually moved downwards.

"Boom"!

Another thunderclap resounded through the sky, and two seconds before that, a dazzling flash of lightning turned the entire night into day.

Yi Weina also clearly saw Nick's lower body under the bushes.

It's the lower half of a wolf.

"What Wildfire Cultist?" Yi Weina said, enunciating each word clearly. "You are the Senro's Hunting Dog."

"All Wildfire Cultist."

"They're all Senro's Hunting Dog!"

I'm desperate. I'm going to have a colonoscopy in two days, and it feels so scary.

Of course, I'm even more afraid that they might find out something.

The current symptom is diarrhea whenever I eat greasy food (such as hot pot, barbecue, or takeout), and this has been going on for several years. I only decided to go see a doctor today.

Sigh, I hope everything's alright.