Chapter 3: There Should Always Be Light in Life

“Xue Yue, you — “

The blood-red sword light exploded, shredding Xue Kuang’s chest and heart. Blood blossomed across his torso.

Xue Kuang was dead!

‘To hell with the game!’

‘To hell with the falsehoods!’

Perhaps this was not the best choice.

But Lu Mo did not want to change her principles or her bottom line.

She did not want to become someone… who disappointed herself.

Xue Kuang’s corpse slowly collapsed to one side.

The woman stared blankly at Lu Mo, who stood before her.

She had imagined countless possible scenarios, yet she never expected that a Sequence member of the Shadow Moon Hall would suddenly turn traitor and kill another Sequence member.

She did not know what Lu Mo was thinking, but looking into those clear eyes, she could sense that Lu Mo harbored no hostility.

A flicker of light suddenly appeared in her despairing eyes.

“Big sister!”

The girl stumbled, finally running to the woman’s side. Upon seeing her sister’s blood-stained dress and mangled wounds, she collapsed to her knees uncontrollably. Sobbing, her tears fell incessantly.

“Big sister… I… ” she choked out.

“Elia… you shouldn’t have come back…”

Seeing Elia’s heartbroken expression, she wanted to raise her hand to stroke her head just as she used to.

But now, she found it difficult to perform even the simple action of raising her hand.

“It’s all my fault… it’s all my fault… it’s all because I’m a burden that this happened… ” Elia kept her head lowered, her voice broken by sobs.

‘Elia? Is she the girl in this Simulated Reincarnation?’ Lu Mo thought as she watched the kneeling girl.

Elia had not heard the conversation between her and Xue Kuang. She did not know Lu Mo’s identity; she had only seen her kill Xue Kuang at the final moment.

Because of this, Elia did not hold any wariness or hostility toward her.

“It’s all right now, Elia. The bad guy has been killed by a partner of justice,” the woman spoke gently.

“But, Big sister… ” Elia continued to speak, but her voice gradually faded. Her body swayed as if she were about to collapse.

“Elia, it’s fine. You’re tired. Get some rest first…”

Lu Mo realized the woman had used magic to put Elia to sleep.

As Elia was about to hit the ground, Lu Mo stepped forward in time to catch her.

Lu Mo’s action slightly exceeded the woman’s expectations.

But soon, the woman’s expression returned to normal, and a trace of a smile appeared on her pale face. “Thank you, kind lady. Come to think of it, I don’t even know your name yet…”

“Lu Mo.”

It was only an illusion, so Lu Mo didn’t think too much of it and gave her real name directly.

She was terrible at coming up with names anyway. It wasn’t like she could temporarily call herself “Universe Invincible Tyrannosaurus Warrior” or something, right?

“So it is Miss Lu Mo,” the woman said. “Thank you for everything you have done, Miss Lu Mo.”

Her gaze lingered on Elia for a moment. “I know it might be presumptuous to say this upon our first meeting, but I still have an unkind request. I hope Miss Lu Mo will listen.”

“Hmm?”

“As you can see, I am about to die…” The woman smiled bitterly. “I suppose I cannot continue to accompany my younger sister. But she doesn’t seem strong enough to go on alone yet…”

She looked at Elia once more, her eyes filled with reluctance and attachment.

Finally, she struggled to look up at Lu Mo and said in a nearly pleading tone, “I hope you can accompany this child for a part of her journey. Just a small part is enough — until she can be independent and take care of herself. That will be enough. These are for you.”

She opened her hand. In her palm was an ancient ring engraved with intricate, beautiful circuits.

This had been personally handed to her by her father not long ago. He had told her to take the treasures inside and escape through the teleportation array in the secret room with Elia.

“I am also a Sequence member of the Shadow Moon Hall,” Lu Mo said.

“I know,” the woman replied. “But I can also tell that you are different from those people.”

The two looked at each other.

Seeing the woman’s pleading gaze, Lu Mo’s heart was suddenly touched.

After a brief silence, Lu Mo gave her answer.

“I promise you.”

It wasn’t just because the mission required Elia.

It was also because of… something else.

***

A short while later.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Lu Mo, carrying the sleeping Elia on her back, looked at the woman.

Currently, the woman held a crimson crystal in her hand.

Engraved within the crystal was a Leyline-level spell. Upon being crushed, the power of the Leylines would explode, incinerating everything in the vicinity.

This included the woman herself.

Meanwhile, Lu Mo’s wrist was wrapped in bandages.

At the woman’s suggestion, she had just spilled some of her blood in the main hall.

“This is the last thing I can do, isn’t it?” The woman smiled. Her life was slowly reaching its end.

“Please leave quickly, Miss Lu Mo. Otherwise, the people outside the hall will notice something is wrong.” She urged Lu Mo to leave early.

Lu Mo nodded with a soft sigh and finally bid the woman farewell. “Then, goodbye.”

The woman was still smiling at the two of them.

Her hair was disheveled and her face was covered in blood. If this hadn’t happened, she surely would have been very beautiful.

She watched until Lu Mo and Elia completely disappeared from her sight before she felt a sense of relief.

Having shed all her strength, she rarely showed vulnerability and sadness.

“Goodbye, Miss Lu Mo. And goodbye, my little Elia. From now on, I will never be able to hold your hand again…”

She pressed down on the crystal, slowly injecting the last bit of her power.

***

Meanwhile, outside the mansion.

Two figures were slowly walking over. They were an elderly man and a middle-aged man.

“Elder!”

“My Lord!”

After recognizing the identities of the newcomers, several members of the Shadow Moon Hall stationed outside the hall immediately cleared a path and spoke respectfully.

“How is the situation inside the mansion?” the middle-aged man asked.

“Reporting to My Lord, Senior Brother Xue Kuang entered alone quite a while ago. Senior Sister Xue Yue also recently — “

Before that Shadow Moon Hall disciple could finish his sentence, terrifying energy suddenly erupted from within the mansion!

Light and fire intertwined, tearing the mansion apart in an instant and completely illuminating the dark night sky!

The rampaging energy turbulence and terrifying heat caused the expressions of both the middle-aged man and the elder to change instantly.

“This is… Leyline-level power!”

“What happened inside the mansion?”

“Damn it, two of our Pavilion’s Sequence members are still inside!”

That night, an elder of the Shadow Moon Hall stood outside the light and fire, his face livid.

That night, a man wearing a crown raised a glass of wine toward the burning mansion, a faint smile on his face.

That night, a young woman ran outside the city with a sleeping girl on her back, never looking back.

That night was destined to change too many things.

***

The following day.

“Big sister!”

The girl woke up from an uneasy dream, sitting up abruptly and reaching out in front of her.

But in the end, she caught nothing.

Before her eyes were no longer the familiar walls and decorations, but an open, empty plain.

The girl froze.

So, everything from before wasn’t a dream, was it?

Father, Mother, and Big sister… everyone was…

A massive, indescribable wave of sorrow flowed through the girl’s heart. She lowered her head, and tears were about to pour from the corners of her eyes.

Everyone was gone.

She was the only one left.

Lonely and desperate.

She thought about dying.

Perhaps, to her, that was the only release.

A long and painful life…

“Do you want to come with me?”

At the darkest moment of her life, a young woman’s voice sounded in her ear.

She looked up and saw Lu Mo standing before her, looking down at her.

She remembered Lu Mo.

It was this young woman who had saved her sister and herself from Xue Kuang’s hands.

She saw Lu Mo with her back to the sunlight, bending down and slowly reaching out a hand toward her.

Those eyes were as gentle as water, seemingly even gentler than the sunlight misting in the morning fog.

So gentle… that she could not refuse.

“…Yes.”

Her mind was a mess, but somehow, she managed to make a sound.

Then, she subconsciously reached out her own hand.

This time, she no longer grabbed at thin air.

She touched Lu Mo’s skin, feeling its smoothness and warmth.

She was slowly pulled up by the young woman.

Step by step, she followed behind the young woman.

She followed Lu Mo entirely out of instinct.

But the massive sorrow hidden in her heart clearly wouldn’t disappear so easily.

As if sensing her sadness along the way, the young woman kept saying things to her that she only half-understood.

Things like “Don’t die, but don’t live in loneliness either,” and “Life is all we have,” and “Endurance,” and “A golden scale is not a thing of the pond,” and “Use the Fire Punch on them later.”

Although she knew Lu Mo was trying to console her, she was always left confused.

However, there was one sentence Elia remembered particularly clearly.

At that time, the morning mist had dissipated, and they were walking through a shaded forest.

The sunlight was strong, and even when cut into fine fragments by the branches and leaves, it was still somewhat dizzying as it fell upon the ground.

“No matter what, the sun will always rise, won’t it?”

Elia lowered her head, squinting at those fragments of sunlight, while Lu Mo spoke softly at that moment: “In life… there should always be light.”

The girl suddenly looked up. She saw Lu Mo’s silhouette flickering between the shade and the sunlight, but in that instant, she felt that Lu Mo was even more dazzling than that fragmented sunlight.

Dazzling, as if she illuminated her life.

Dazzling, as if she had pierced through… the rest of her life.

***

At the same time, in reality.

Sunlight pierced through the thick cloud layer, falling upon the Imperial City and shining into the palace.

“The light in life…”

As if remembering something from the past, the woman reached out her hand to touch the beam of light shining into the hall, revealing a rare tenderness that only a young girl would have.

“Lord Elia?”

The woman standing respectfully to the side was stunned upon seeing this.

She had never seen her Lord show such an expression.

And if a third person were present to witness this scene, they would likely be even more shocked into silence.

Because the one standing respectfully to the side was none other than the current Empress of the Frost Whisper Empire!

“Finally… I’ve found you again…”

Elia withdrew her hand and murmured softly, her gaze falling upon the crystal on the desk.

The image projected by the crystal was the figure of a young woman.

Lu Mo Thrassyll.

A member of the Thrassyll Family of the Ward Duchy.

And also, her…

“Sister… Lu Mo.”