Several more years passed.
Time reached the fiftieth year since Zhou Heng had logged into the "Compassion Realm."
To Zhou Heng, who had once sat motionless for five hundred million years, fifty years were no more than a fleeting instant.
But to "Bei'er," struggling to survive in the "Compassion Realm" in a mortal body, fifty years were enough to change far, far too much.
That year, Xin Ling'er fully blossomed.
The little girl who had once worn two braids and carried a worn-out schoolbag was now a beautiful, graceful young woman.
Her features had matured, and her face held a delicate beauty and kindness grown from the gentle soil of the "Compassion Realm."
At the end of every year, she would appear punctually at the entrance to that dim alley, bringing Zhou Heng his one point of "Truth" experience, along with a comb and a pair of scissors.
For over twenty years, she had never missed a visit.
Yet at the beginning of spring that year, Xin Ling'er never arrived to bring Zhou Heng his year's worth of "Truth" experience.
The year-end passed, followed by three days, five days, ten days...
Those familiar, light footsteps never sounded at the alley entrance.
Did something happen?
Zhou Heng raised his head slightly and looked toward the bright light outside the alley.
Just then, steady, heavy footsteps sounded outside. They were as dull as great boulders striking the ground, each step making the earth tremble faintly.
Before long, three figures appeared at the boundary between the alley's darkness and the light.
Leading them was one of the Stonefolk, a being made of stone.
It held its arrogant head high, its enormous, three-meter-tall body straight as a pillar. Coarse grooves covered its grayish-brown stone skin, and it held something in its hand.
"Run..."
A