Having used other people's abilities multiple times and fought consecutive battles against an Evil God, her body had already been pushed past its limits.
To kill the Faceless Doctor, Zhang Ya had paid a steep price. But compared to the gains, it was all worth it.
Just how terrifying an Evil God that had devoured another Evil God would become—Chen Ge's imagination alone couldn't begin to picture it. He simply had no frame of reference.
"Get up, Xiao Sun." Chen Ge hauled the trembling Xiao Sun to his feet. "If you're still alive out there in the real world, I feel like I could pull off an insurance scam using you. I'd blow my entire fortune on personal accident insurance for you."
Xiao Sun's expression wasn't quite natural. In the brief moment he was stunned, the white cat had already wriggled free from his arms and darted behind Chen Ge, looking thoroughly aggrieved.
All the employees gathered together once more. They stood on the isolated island that the Nether Embryo had become, gazing up at the colossal whale drifting through the black fog ocean above their heads.
Chen Ge tried every method he could think of to communicate with Wen Qing, but it was no use. Though Wen Qing had absorbed the Nether Embryo's purest power, her will was insufficient to command it all—she was moving purely on instinct.
"Looks like she's not leaving." Chen Ge stared up at the great whale, watching her spread her vast wings.
"If she stays here forever, what will happen to her?" Xiao Sun hadn't been around Wen Qing for long, but he could tell she was a genuinely good person.
"Have you ever heard of a whale fall?" Chen Ge said without turning around, speaking to no one in particular. "When a whale dies, it sinks to the deepest depths of the ocean, nourishing the barren seafloor with its own body."
"But what does that have to do with her?"
"The whale will guard the island until the very end of her life. On that day, she'll sink onto this island formed by the Nether Embryo, bringing a spark of vitality and hope to this world of despair and suffering." Chen Ge turned around. He had countless employees at his side and was never apart from Zhang Ya, so he understood that feeling all the more. "Let's prepare to leave. The sky outside should be bright by now."
The Nether Embryo's four-star trial mission had spanned nine days and nine nights, and Chen Ge's body had been pushed to its absolute limit. His temperature was now far below that of a normal person—his condition was dire.
Chen Ge had only just realized how bad it was. After Wen Qing transformed into the great whale, he had become the sole living person in the world behind the door, yet his body temperature was practically the same as everyone else's.
Black fog, curses, residual blood threads—Chen Ge desperately needed to get some rest.
The employees began searching the ruins for the Nether Embryo's door, while the Red High Heels took advantage of the lull to frantically absorb the residual curses left behind by the Nether Embryo.
When the Nether Embryo had separated its "Past" body, it had given all that was pure and beautiful to Wen Qing, shouldering every sin itself. Countless curses that Wen Qing couldn't wield spilled out in every direction.
Curses were something even ordinary red-robed spirits didn't dare touch lightly. Only the Red High Heels could absorb and utilize them.
How much of the Nether Embryo's curse remained, Chen Ge didn't know. All he knew was that after swallowing every last bit of it, the Red High Heels' aura had already surpassed Xiao Bu's—and that was while she was deliberately suppressing it.
"Who would've thought the Red High Heels would end up as the biggest winner. Once she finishes digesting the Nether Embryo's curses, she might actually reach the absolute peak of a red-robed spirit."
Becoming an Evil God was extraordinarily difficult. Chen Ge wasn't expecting the Red High Heels to break through that barrier. One had to eat a meal one bite at a time—there was no rushing it.
After the Nether Embryo's consciousness dissipated, most of the native inhabitants of the world behind the door vanished. But Chen Ge noticed something interesting: Xiao Sun hadn't disappeared.
Apart from Xiao Sun, a handful of other natives in the ruins had survived as well.
He theorized the reason was this: all the people who had died in the real world—their souls and obsessions had been ferried into the world behind the door by the Nether Embryo. But those who were still alive in reality, their counterparts behind the door had been woven from the Nether Embryo's own memories. They weren't the real people.
At Jinhua Residential Block A, the old man who had been watching the ground floor and the elderly woman abandoned by her son had both disappeared. That was good news—at least they were still alive in the real world, and there was still a chance to mend the tragedies in their lives.
Chen Ge and his red-robed employees collected all the surviving natives behind the door into the comic book. They also found some items the Nether Embryo had left behind in the ruins, each one concealing a truly terrifying curse.
Chen Ge handed every single item over to the Red High Heels for safekeeping. Once the curses on them had been neutralized, he would come back to examine them.
They searched for nearly an hour. The employees had practically dug three feet into the ground, and still they couldn't find the Nether Embryo's door. Everyone reconvened around Chen Ge. The situation wasn't looking good.
"Without the door, how do we get out?"
"Why did the Nether Embryo's door vanish? In theory, when a Door Pusher dies, their door should lose control until a new Door Pusher appears."
"Everyone, calm down." Chen Ge looked at the island that the Nether Embryo had become, and he thought of
That scene was still vivid in Chen Ge's mind. The Underground Morgue behind the door had collapsed, and that was the first time he had ever laid eyes on the Blood-colored City. "When the Door Pusher chooses to bear all the sins behind the door, the door is destroyed."
"The door's destroyed? Then how do we get out? Are we going to be trapped in this black fog world forever?"
Being trapped in the Blood-colored City would have been one thing—at least there were other doors within it, and they could have used a different one to return to reality. But this world was completely shrouded in black fog. Jiuhong Residential Block and Jinhua Residential Block were like the only islands in an entire ocean. There was only a single door here.
"Are we supposed to cross the black fog to find that Blood-colored City?"
"It doesn't matter that the Nether Embryo's door is destroyed—we still have another one." Chen Ge stripped off his shirt, revealing the monstrous spider tattoo on his back. He summoned the Tunnel Ghost's son. "There's a door inside him. We can use it to get back."
Surrounded by several red-robed spirits, the Tunnel Ghost's son looked visibly nervous, clearly terrified that Chen Ge might make a move on him.
To put the Tunnel Ghost's son at ease, Chen Ge brought in the Tunnel Ghost and had a proper conversation with her.
The Tunnel Ghost's son gave Chen Ge a clear answer: they could leave through the door inside his body, but once they did, there was no coming back.
The Nether Embryo's door was already destroyed. The only door left was inside the Tunnel Ghost's son. If they all left, then Wen Qing and the Nether Embryo would be left behind here forever.
After receiving this news, Chen Ge called out toward the sky again and again, trying to carry his voice upward. But the great whale that Wen Qing had become was beyond anything but instinct now.
They stayed on the island for a long while before finally deciding to leave.
Xiang Nuan and Wen Qing's story would be sealed away in this boundless black fog world. Perhaps one day, far in the future, someone would glimpse a solitary island covered in blossoms, rising from this ocean of utter despair.