After Mo Ling discovered that he was changing, everything around him blurred as well. His face kept shifting, and his body rapidly faded into a phantom.
Yet even as his body grew increasingly indistinct, that warm feeling continued to build. Whenever a new face appeared, that person's hope overlapped upon Mo Ling.
He suddenly felt that countless people were standing beside him. The Flame of Hope passed from person to person, burning ever brighter, no longer a lonely spark.
After humanity stole fire from the forest, they spread its spark everywhere. Everyone felt the warmth of the flames. When fire-roasted food entered their stomachs, everyone felt the searing heat of cooked food within their bellies. It was such a novel sensation, and so deeply alluring.
That fire spread throughout humanity. Those who mastered flame opened the gates to a new world. They burned cities into being, burned civilization into being, burned the future into being. Once fire existed within every person, hope would never be extinguished again.
"Everyone is a Fire Thief."
Mo Ling suddenly understood those words.
Hope expanded without end. The flames burned through his shell and spread into the darkness. This nameless fire actually burned a path through the profound darkness, turning the entire world into a realm of hope. Firelight was everywhere. Despair had nowhere left to hide; it was burned away completely, reduced to ashes that no longer existed...
Mo Ling's thoughts spread alongside the firelight, flying into the distance, toward the future.
Amid the wild drift of his thoughts, Mo Ling seemed to hear a conversation between two people.
It was the Little Sprite and Lu Youqi. They appeared to have regained consciousness long ago and were discussing the current state of the Abyss Fourth Layer.
"This place is called the Sky Sea