"Not yet?"
Having heard Lyle's familiar, ever-unchanging response, Ye Chen's gaze went unfocused and his expression froze in astonishment. Then, forcibly suppressing the raging fury in his heart, he spoke to Lyle in a trembling voice:
"I already blasted myself to pieces in the real world."
"I already became nothing more than a wisp of a dead soul."
"I've already come this far."
"And you're telling me it's still not time?"
"Do you really not want me to know the truth that badly?"
"Or do you simply enjoy watching me stumble about in the dark?"
Yet, facing Ye Chen's eyes brimming with bewilderment and fury, Lyle calmly denied it.
"No, you are not dead."
"Your life will continue."
"This is not your end, Ye Chen."
At these words, Ye Chen's face suddenly stiffened, his expression undergoing another drastic change.
"What?"
"How is that possible?"
"In the real world, I clearly crushed the Abyss's vital point, successfully disarming its Abyssal power, and then dragged it down with me to be buried beneath my own power—"
"The Abyss couldn't use its power!"
"And my own body completely dissolved within it!"
"I already went so far as to leave no stone unturned—"
Ye Chen stared at Lyle with trembling eyes and shouted his challenge.
"How could there possibly still be any chance for me to survive—!?"
Lyle confessed in an even tone.
"That is not what happened."
"At the final moment when you tried to drag the Abyss down with you."
"I, standing here, intervened and stopped everything, helping the Abyss release a portion of its power."
"So, even though your body in reality was once destroyed and perished, after some time, it will still be able to reform out of thin air."
"And that is precisely the greatest reason I am standing