The light across the world began to warp.
It wasn't growing darker or brighter. Color itself had lost its meaning, and outlines were growing indistinct.
Everything seemed to melt into flowing paint, its surface constantly shifting into eerie patterns.
Cen Qing shook her head violently, trying to dispel the intense discomfort.
The outlines of people and objects in her field of vision began to waver and blur, as if she were looking at the world through rippling water.
She could clearly see the First Emperor, Ying Zheng, in his Cloud Chariot not far away, and Xu Fu off to the side, yet the distance between them seemed to stretch wildly, as though an ever-widening chasm lay between them.
In her ears came countless jumbled, meaningless murmurs and shrieks, as if thousands upon thousands of people were howling at her all at once, or as if echoes from some distant time and place were desperately burrowing into her mind.
Next, her own memories surged out of control.
The scenes she couldn't bear to revisit flashed before her eyes and vanished again, beyond her control:
The despair in her people's eyes as they were dragged aboard the ships; the endless lamps deep within the Mount Li Mausoleum, burning with the oil rendered from her kin's corpses; the coldness and inner turmoil she had felt while carefully plotting her scheme... The images twisted and warped, laced with sharp mockery, and battered her mind again and again.
Strangest of all was a group of bizarre little figures whose faces she couldn't make out. Dressed in brightly colored clothes, they appeared from nowhere and surrounded her like a rising tide.
They bounced and spun around her, making shrill chattering noises like countless shards of glass rubbing together:
"Ah, a live mermaid! So rare, really so rare!"
"She's a princess, too! The book says mermaid princesses always turn into sea foam in the end, right?"
"I think turning into foam makes perfect sense! That's what happens in all the stories!"
"No, no! Look at her. She doesn't seem young, and it looks like she's even been married, right? Only the youngest little mermaid turns into foam!"
"I remember now! The book says the youngest daughter turns into foam, and her older sisters... go bald! All their hair falls out!"
"That's right, bald! Bald! Hee-hee, ha-ha!"
"Bald princess! Bald princess!"
The absurd, mocking words poured into Cen Qing's ears in a relentless torrent.
She tried to cover her ears, but the voices seemed to sound directly from deep within her mind.
She didn't understand what was happening, or what these bizarre "little people" were.
"Get away!" she shouted, swinging the Ice Blade in her hand, but it passed uselessly through their illusory figures. They scattered like smoke, then gathered again, continuing the maddening racket.
She looked around. The world had become a completely surreal nightmare:
She saw people trapped in transparent boxes that kept shrinking, desperately beating against the walls;
She saw layer upon layer of glazed towers, shining with eerie light, thrusting into the warped sky, taller than any mountain...
The intense assault on her mind surged over her like a colossal wave, drowning her consciousness completely.
Cen Qing's vision went black, and she promptly lost consciousness.
Cold seawater enveloped her, pressing in until she could barely breathe.
Cen Qing jerked awake and began coughing violently, salty seawater flooding her mouth and nose.
She realized she was in the sea, slowly sinking.
Instinctively, she swished her tail and fought her way toward the surface.
The moment she broke through the water, she greedily gulped in the air, tainted with smoke and the stench of blood.
An inexplicable emptiness came from the top of her head.
She reached up without thinking—and touched smooth, cold skin.
Her hair... her thick, seaweed-like hair... was gone.
A surge of humiliation and panic seized her, but there was something more important to check right now.
She jerked her head up and looked toward Langya Terrace.
In the sky, the phantom of Jiang Yan, which had once filled half the heavens and radiated boundless pressure, was crumbling inch by inch, like a sand sculpture weathered by the wind.
Just before the phantom shattered and vanished completely, Cen Qing's keen Shark Person eyesight let her see Jiang Yan clearly: he had withered into a skeleton draped in robes, his eye sockets filled with absolute darkness.
His skeletal jaw struggled to open and close as he uttered one last, faint whisper:
"You... aren't a Heavenly Human... You're..."
His words ended there.
Then the phantom shattered completely and vanished, as if it had never existed.
And below, Langya Terrace—which should have been reduced to rubble, or even erased entirely, by the earth-shattering upheaval...
Cen Qing's pupils contracted. She could hardly believe her eyes.
Langya Terrace still stood.
But it hadn't returned to its original state. Instead... it was as if thousands of years of wind and rain had swept over it in an instant.
The once-new stone was now covered in signs of weathering, its edges rounded, and stubborn moss and lichen even grew in the cracks.
More baffling still, the terrace was densely covered with countless crude wooden markers.
They stood in no particular order, carved with symbols and writing she couldn't understand. Silent and still, they seemed to mark something.
Chen Jin, who had been floating in midair, had completely disappeared.
No one knew where he had gone.
When Chen Jin regained consciousness, he hadn't returned to his own empty safehouse.
Instead, he was in a dim hall.
The bricks beneath his feet were still dark as soot. The space was empty, with black pillars standing in uneven rows. The lights were dim, and the hall stretched beyond sight.
"You have completed this Yanfu Event. However, it will not count toward your total completions. Your current number of completed Yanfu Events: 15."
"Under certain conditions, the Walker's status allows this repair to be performed at no cost."
Settlement begins!
Scenes from the past flashed back one by one, like strips of broken film.
A leaden-gray curtain of rain covered the ancient city. A young Chen Jin raced down an empty street as the slowly turning Law Eye watched him with detached indifference.
Chen Jin opened the crude wooden door. Outside stood the timid little Shark Person "Xi," her long hair trailing down and her whole body soaked through.
But the next moment, the scene began to distort.
The subsequent records looked as if a child had splashed them with thick paint. Dark red and inky black spread over every detail. The outlines of the setting and the movements of the people alike melted into muddied colors. Only a few blurry patches remained, flickering wildly, impossible to make out. Even the timeline had become hopelessly jumbled.
A line of scarlet text filled his entire field of vision:
"Yanfu Event data has suffered extensive contamination and damage from unknown causes. Critical records are missing..."
"Task settlement terminated..."
"Review procedure initiated. The executor's identity and conduct must be verified..."
"Please await the arrival of the reviewer. Leaving the current area is prohibited during this period..."
"Reviewer designation: Rain Mistress."