The hopes the world hoped for

Her gaze fell on the top of Ye Jiang's head, and as she looked, she drifted off into thought, remembering Ye Jiang's hair and eye color. That color was so unique, like... A word surfaced but Xiao Pei swallowed it back. She suddenly felt her lips were dry and stuck out her tongue to lick them.

Ye Jiang found the room stuffy, so after Xiao Pei woke up, she ran to the roof of the unfinished building and sat there. The city in the illusion was reflected in her eyes, and it was incredibly quiet. The illusion, which had once been so real that it had deceived the Ghost Mother, now finally revealed a hint of falsehood. The people in the city were still wearing armor and stood motionless, as if the pause button had been pressed.

The illusion was constructed from energy particles, but due to the Pollution and impact of the Ghost Mother, it was severely damaged. Ye Jiang...

She can't help with the repairs right now.

Time stood still in the illusion.

When Xiao Pei reached the rooftop, she was stunned by what she saw, and almost exclaimed "Holy crap!"

"Is the illusion being affected by the Ghost Mother? It's remained motionless like this? Are we going to be trapped in this illusion forever?"

Xiao Pei had already figured out how to escape the illusion: after one illusion ended, she had to rush out of the mountain's magnetic field range during the two-second pause in between. This only took two seconds, and the speed had to be extremely fast. It was something that only speed-type ability users and S-Rank ability users could do. Ming Xia could do it too, as she could use her gravity manipulation to accelerate.

Having figured out a way to escape, they didn't panic and planned to wait until they had found all the missing citizens before bringing them out together, which would be more efficient overall.

That was their plan, but who knew that the Ghost Mother Ghost Mother would appear in the illusion? If Ye Jiang hadn't been there, they would have perished here. They haven't perished yet, but the illusion is broken.

Xiao Pei's eye twitched; this was going to be difficult!

Xiao Pei stepped on the ground beneath her feet; the texture was still very realistic. The illusion didn't seem like it would collapse; it was simply stuck.

Xiao Pei's forehead was lined with worry.

Ye Jiang sat on the edge of the roof, her legs dangling over the edge, showing no sign of worry.

The young man stood a step behind her, like a silent pine tree.

Crack! Crack!

The top superhuman from the Ability Control Bureau stomped her feet on the ground, making a piercing noise. Ye Jiang turned to look at her.

"No," she blurted out abruptly.

"What?"

"You won't die of exhaustion." So don't cut it.

She stared at one of the female warriors' feet with a hostile gaze.

"..."

Xiao Pei stopped what she was doing. "Ye Jiang, do you have a solution?"

Ye Jiang simply hummed in agreement, saying nothing more. Xiao Pei's expression was complicated. "You can even cultivate illusions?"

Is there anything Ye Jiang can't do?

Even monsters can't use multiple supernatural abilities, right?

Of all the abilities that can manifest, Xiao Pei only knows... a word that Xiao Pei had swallowed back resurfaced in her mind.

Xiao Pei forced herself to distract herself and said awkwardly, "Then I'll leave it to you."

Instead of asking Ye Jiang when she would recover, she stared at her back for a moment before asking, "Are you injured?"

Ye Jiang's eyes flickered, and she turned to look at her. Xiao Pei said, "... You look even more listless than before."

She chased him to the rooftop just to ask him this.

Although Xiao Pei had asked Ye Jiang if she was alright after waking up, and Ye Jiang hadn't responded, Xiao Pei still wanted to ask again because her freak friend, who looked like a dried-out salted fish, seemed even more depressed than usual, so she had to ask again.

Ye Jiang's eyes flickered slightly.

"No," she said.

"Really not?"

"No."

"Really, really not?"

"You're so annoying."

She still had the energy to find her annoying? Xiao Pei finally laughed, "That's good."

Ye Jiang: "..."

Xiao Pei approached her without thinking, stretching out her long arm to touch her head; it looked very soft. Only after reaching out did she realize she wasn't touching an ordinary person, and her arm immediately stiffened. Ye Jiang was about to dodge, but seeing Xiao Pei's hand frozen there, her eyes glanced at the rough surface of her hand. After a long pause, she asked with a blank expression, "Still want to touch me?"

Xiao Pei was instantly charmed by her cuteness, laughed heartily, and ruffled her hair.

Ye Jiang's hair was messed up by her, and she looked a little annoyed, refusing to let her touch it a second time.

Xiao Pei quickly left the rooftop, leaving Ye Jiang alone and depressed.

A gaze fell upon her head, Ye Jiang looked up to see the young man behind her.

Ye Jiang's face went blank.

"Don't even think about it," she abruptly said.

The young man remained silent, his eyes as silent as he was, and in that silence was a hint of... dejection.

Ye Jiang: "..."

Her low spirits couldn't make her back down.

Ye Jiang's gaze fell on the top of the young man's head—why is everyone staring at her head? Why don't they let someone else touch their own head?

She just kept watching, until the young man finally looked away.

Seeing this, Ye Jiang lowered her head and looked at the silent city.

Suddenly, a figure appeared beside her. The young man silently sat down next to her, leaned a little closer to her, and then—bowed slightly towards her.

At such close range, a faint scent of pine resin wafted towards Ye Jiang.

The young man actually lowered his head, making a gesture as if he wanted to be touched.

Silence.

Ye Jiang looked at the young man, who in turn looked down at the house.

Ye Jiang's hands, which were supporting her on either side, moved. One hand rose and gently touched the young man's hair. The young man slowly raised his eyes, and their gazes met.

The rosin seems to have become stronger.

Ye Jiang thought.

It smells wonderful.

After resting for a few days, Ye Jiang finally felt a bit better. She wasn't injured, just a little exhausted, and now that exhaustion was finally gone. Only Ming Xia was awake in the building; Ming Chun was still asleep for some unknown reason, and the citizens were still in a daze, as their mental Pollution hadn't been completely eliminated.

Xiao Pei spent most of her time inside the building watching over the citizens, and a small portion of her time observing the illusion from the rooftop.

Xiao Pei happened to be there when Ye Jiang stood up from the edge of the roof, where she liked to sit. She watched Ye Jiang stand up, and at the same time, something changed in the city. The armor on the people in the illusion disappeared and was taken back by Ye Jiang.

A small, dark red energy ball rose from Ye Jiang's palm, slowly ascending into the sky above the city, and then instantly transformed into light and merged into the illusion.

In that instant, Xiao Pei sensed a peculiar energy fluctuation, exactly the same one she had felt on Blood Moon Day. She mechanically looked at Ye Jiang, a certain hypothesis becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

The clamor rushed towards her, and Xiao Pei forcibly suppressed the strange feeling in her heart as she looked at the city. She saw that the people in the illusion were moving. The illusion, which had been stagnant for several days, was finally flowing again.

"... This is the repair you were talking about?" Xiao Pei asked with a complicated expression. "It's fixed already?"

Ye Jiang stood on the edge of the roof and felt the wind.

"Not only," she said.

Xiao Pei: "?"

Looking at the bustling city, Ye Jiang said, "And then there's the cleanup."

She said, "I erased the memories of the people in the illusion about the outsider."

She removed all the people and elements that shouldn't have been in this story.

This was something she had planned to do long ago: to clear out the restless audience and the things they brought, so that the story could remain pure.

So, what the audience will see next is a true story that has been buried for three hundred years.

Ye Jiang gazed at the city, a ripple of emotion churning in her dark eyes.

She said, "The end is coming."

Chapter 166: Expectations from the World

One day later, at the hospital.

She pierced the thief, who had lost all humanity, with a single sword stroke.

'If you were merely robbing me, I wouldn't take your life, but you've killed several people for money; I cannot tolerate you.'

'In your next life, may you be a good person again.'

The swordsman sighed deeply, picked up his blood-dripping sword, and turned to leave.

The crowd began to cheer, chanting the swordsman's name and praising him endlessly.

The human figure faces the window, holding a pen in his right hand, as if the pen were the sword wielded by a swordsman in a story, the outside light filtering through...

The windowlight fell on her, enveloping her lightly. She turned her head slightly, her gaze, tinged with melancholy, toward the only listener behind her...

Ye Jiang, the only listener. "..."

Only Ye Yanran could tell a story so vividly and even immerse herself in it.

After repairing the illusion, Ye Jiang replaced the puppet and returned to her hospital room, inwardly complaining.

Ye Jiang's eyes were extremely cold. She was playing the role of her from the real past three hundred years ago. Three hundred years ago, she was brought back by the humans from the Special Affairs Office. The humans believed that she was an ordinary Living Dead who was only different in appearance. Now that the illusion has returned and the interference from outsiders has been eliminated, Ye Yanran continues to live with the perception from three hundred years ago.

Ye Yanran was a strange person. In the real past, Ye Jiang only glanced at the picture book in the hand of the boy named Jia Le by chance, Ye Yanran took it very seriously and thought that she liked books, so she wanted to teach her to read and give her a name.

The process of learning to read was not as smooth as it had been in the illusion. Ye Jiang never responded to Ye Yanran. Ye Yanran just taught on her own, and interspersed some entertaining stories during the lessons.

A story like the one just described.

"So? How was the story? Was it interesting?" Ye Yanran ran back to Ye Jiang for her opinion. She had always treated Ye Jiang as if she were a conscious human being.

Ye Jiang didn't speak, nor did she meet the other person's gaze. This was her true nature—cold and indifferent—which is why the Special Affairs Office had never been able to detect that she was different from the Living Dead.

In fact, the examination she underwent when she was taken back to the hospital was also a copy of the Living Dead's results due to Ye Jiang's interference.

Even under these circumstances, Ye Yanran still treated her like a normal human being.