The words settled heavily in the air.

Neo didn't speak for a long moment.

His mind drifted back to the village he had seen when he first arrived in the True Blessed Lands.

The chanting. The stillness.

The way every single body had looked wrong, as if the world itself had been drained dry.

Dao is corrupt.

Those words echoed again.

When he had seen that place, there had been no survivors. Just corpses and more corpses.

"Well," Veydran said after a pause, "even if the Machine God hadn't discovered this method, someone else would have eventually. Cultivators are desperate. The lack of Qi is choking them. Everyone in the Heavenly Sect is searching for a solution.

"Anyway, they want to capture you because of this. They want to understand how you are creating Qi (World Energy) on your own."

Neo's mood soured further, and he didn't ask any more questions as they reached the sect grounds.

People greeted them at the gates.

Some nodded respectfully. Others spoke casually with Veydran, clearly familiar with him. It was obvious he had been coming here regularly, long before Neo arrived.

Neo responded when spoken to, but his mind wasn't really there.

By the time evening came, he barely remembered eating dinner. He barely remembered returning to the room he shared with Elizabeth.

He lay down beside her, staring at the ceiling, his thoughts tangled and heavy.

If this world truly was a copy of the Celestial Worthy's world, then what he had seen long ago in the village might have….

It might have been the present state of Celestial Worthy's world.

Had that world already collapsed?

Had its people killed each other to reduce Qi consumption?

Had they discovered a method to generate World Energy by sacrificing consciousness itself?

'We didn't have Spiritual Roots. So we were forced to create World Energy on our own.'

The thought tightened his chest.

'Was this what the Celestial Worthy was searching for?'

'A way to create World Energy without Spirit Roots?'

Every clue pointed in that direction.

And yet, something felt wrong.

There was a missing piece, and Neo could feel it like a stone lodged in his thoughts.

'How does the Dao being corrupt fit into this?'

'And why exactly was everyone dead? Who killed them?'

'Who would be cruel enough to slaughter an entire world?'

He wondered if he was making forestretched assumptions.

The apocalyptic scene he had witnessed might not represent the entire Celestial Worthy's world.

There was a chance—however small—that it was still thriving somewhere.

While Neo was lost in his thoughts, Elizabeth had opened the packages he had brought back from the market.

"Neo," she said, holding something up. "What is this?"

He turned his head and saw what she was holding.

White stockings.

Her lips twitched.

Only then did the realization settle in for her.

She finally understood why he had insisted on going to the market earlier, why he had seemed oddly focused despite everything else happening.

For someone who had been acting like he hated what happened the night before, he had been surprisingly proactive.

Neo blinked, then looked again at what she was holding.

"Oh, that. I just thought they'd look good on you."

There was no teasing in his tone. No embarrassment either.

Elizabeth frowned.

His expression was serious, and distant. His mind was clearly somewhere else.

Before she could say anything else, Neo sat up.

"I'm going to the training hall," he said.

"At this time? And what exactly are you planning to train?" she asked. "

"Yes, at this time. I'm going to meditate. I need to try reaching enlightenment."

Elizabeth stared at him. "Enlightenment?"

"We have ten years before we face Apollyon. If possible, I want to comprehend Primordial Chaos before then," Neo said.

He didn't know why the urgency had hit him so suddenly.

Maybe it was the information he learned today.

Maybe it was the image of that dead world.

Maybe it was the idea that someone, somewhere, had already solved the problem in the worst possible way.

All he knew was that time felt short.

Shorter than it should have been.

The feeling that time was running out was suddenly haunting him.

That's why he intended to train instead of sleep.

"…Okay," Elizabeth said, seeing him off.

After he left, she bit her lips.

"It's happening like this again," she muttered.

Today, unlike what Neo thought, Elizabeth had secretly sent a Technique Spirit to guard him.

It was this Technique Spirit that Veydran was cautious of when Neo threatened him.

Otherwise, Veydran, who hated Neo because Daniel's last remnant disappeared after Neo took his final authority fragment, would've probably used force to overwhelm Neo for a bit.

And through this Technique Spirit, Elizabeth had seen Mu De.

Neo had not noticed, but Mu De had been staring at Elizabeth's Technique Spirit when talking about his [Fate].

Elizabeth felt that Mu De had come to warn them of Neo's future.

Of what would happen if he did not stop chasing strength.

"Endless Hell. Does that mean he will never get rest?"

Elizabeth's heart trembled when she thought that he might suffer more in the future. That his suffering might be endless.

Neo didn't know, but Elizabeth had already met with the Witch of Greed and checked all information about what had been happening in the Cosmos.

She knew how much he had suffered.

She knew that her death in Tartarus had nearly driven him insane.

She knew that he had fought like a madman to kill Tartarus for revenge.

And even after Neo won, his suffering had never stopped.

It had only increased.

"I need to make him happy."

What would Neo do after he defeated Apollyon?

Elizabeth had a faint inkling that he would try to chase more strength.

And given what Celestial Worthy had said, all of Neo's [Fate] were tied together.

As long as he — Eternal Transcendent — kept chasing strength, his Endless Hell would never stop.

Elizabeth bit her lips.

Blood was drawn.

"I… need to meet Moraine."

Morrigan had been helping Neo search for Elizabeth for his happiness.

For a witch to help her lover find another woman, Elizabeth could feel how much she loved Neo.

Because just the thought of sharing Neo with Moraine drove Elizabeth mad.

For Morrigan to help Neo find Elizabeth, she must've loved him enough to go mad for him.

And Elizabeth knew Neo loved Moraine just as much.

"Only if Neo is with his whole family will he be happy," she said, biting her lips harder.

Her plan was simple.

By the time Neo defeated Apollyon, she had to make him happy enough that he was content with spending time with his family instead of chasing strength.

Of course, thinking of sharing Neo with Moraine was making her go mad.

But she repeatedly told herself that it was to make Neo happy.

And hadn't Moraine decided to give Neo to Elizabeth when she was helping him search for Elizabeth?

If she could overcome her possessiveness, Elizabeth could do the same.

Her pride would not allow her to be inferior to anyone else.

Of course, Elizabeth was consciously using multiple Technique Spirits to calm herself right now.

And she did not know how she would act upon meeting Morrigan.

There was a high chance Elizabeth might try to kill her.

But…

'No, I must not fight her.'

Because Elizabeth dreaded the possibility of losing Neo.

If he did not settle with his family, if he kept chasing strength, she felt she would lose him forever.

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