Chapter 48: Mountain of Corpses, River of Blood. The Midgard Serpent¹, the World Serpent Biting Its Own Tail…

“We’re about to get lucky… indeed.”

Liu Ming suddenly smiled. He flashed Yun Zhou a very boyish grin, one very much in Yun Zhou’s own style. “I’ve got it! I know what to do now! I know where the Fourth District is! Leave it to me!”

With that, he ran forward, following the thread on his wrist that still hadn’t vanished.

“Hey?! Liu Ming! Where are you going! Liu Ming! There are spatial rifts everywhere, don’t forget those three Anomaly Kings are still here! Hiss—Liu Ming!”

Yun Zhou finally understood how he had made others feel in the past. He stomped his feet in frustration. “Then wait for me—”

However, his voice didn’t catch up.

A black tunnel entrance appeared directly in front of Liu Ming. At the moment he followed the pull of the thread and charged into the tunnel, Liu Ming suddenly looked back:

“Yun Zhou! The Fourth District… is right beneath the Seventh District.”

“I’m going. I’ll leave you with just one sentence: hurry up and die.”

Hurry up and come meet me in the land of the dead.

After all, only through death can one enter that mysterious Fourth District, which Chairperson Black Swan has always kept classified as top secret.

Liu Ming spoke terrifying words, yet he smiled happily. He turned and threw himself into that patch of blackness. The tunnel vanished rapidly after Liu Ming disappeared. Even though Yun Zhou used his spatial teleportation ability, he only managed to grab a wisp of black mist in the end.

“Hurry up and die… what does that mean… has Little Ming gone crazy, or have I?”

He had originally thought the existence of the Fourth District was merely a lie told by Hela to provoke him, to make him succumb to Y003’s control as quickly as possible. But looking at Liu Ming’s attitude now, could it be…

The Fourth District really existed?

Yun Zhou stared at the black wisp in his palm, his head buzzing. As usual, he couldn’t understand what Liu Ming was talking about.

But… he would just do as told.

Anyway, Liu Ming always led things toward a perfect ending.

Yun Zhou nodded vigorously. His gaze settled on the spatial tunnel entrances scattered across the Seventh District, which led to unknown timelines.

Wanting an Anomaly King—especially one who was a future Dragon Attendant—to die was no simple matter. Perhaps if Liu Ming were here, he could think of a better way, but at least for now, Yun Zhou’s brain couldn’t come up with anything superior.

To make his current self die, there was only one path—return to a previous timeline where the Black Dragon was reviving, provoke the Black Dragon, and use the power of the Anomaly Emperor to kill himself.

As for how to go to a past timeline…

To die as quickly as possible, he would trade time for space.

Yun Zhou’s expression gradually became firm. He gripped the wisp of black mist and transformed into a black shadow, charging toward a spatial tunnel entrance in another direction.

Using timelines to travel, jumping through different cycles to reach different locations just to catch up with the Liu Ming of the seventh cycle and reach the Fourth District of the seventh cycle—trading time for space was something he had never done before.

But it didn’t matter. As long as he did it, he would succeed.

Because he was the Anomaly King who mastered space.

**

On the other side.

Liu Ming followed the thread and burst out of the tunnel, stumbling onto the ground.

He used the thread formed from his spiritual power to hook onto a nearby rock, stabilizing himself.

This was a land completely independent of the other seven districts.

Crimson shadows permeated this world. The sky was a total blood-red, and behind the clouds, strange, giant figures rippled.

Countless translucent Spiritual Bodies floated here—humans and Anomalies alike, and even the Spiritual Bodies of simple animals.

This place stored many, many human souls. Judging by their state, they were likely the people who had died since the arrival of the Anomalies.

The entire space presented a bizarre circular shape. As far as the eye could see, the edge of the space was a bottomless circular abyss, and the clouds in the sky also formed visible circular patterns, as if something frequently crawled there, leaving such marks over the years.

A creature that massive would be considered a behemoth even compared to the sizes of Kraken and Surtr.

Liu Ming followed the guidance of the thread and walked forward, soon reaching the edge of a bottomless cliff. He tentatively peered toward the bottom of the abyss, only to see a pair of familiar, blood-colored eyes.

Eyes belonging to an Anomaly, and also belonging to that giant serpent that had swallowed him before entering the Seventh District, given him this silver-blue thread, and guided him through seven cycles of reincarnation.

In the darkness, the monster let out a rumbling sound.

It was moving its body.

As Liu Ming thought this, he caught a glimpse of a section of that massive lifeform amidst the haze beneath the bottomless cliff.

The silver-blue giant serpent gently poked its head out. It flicked its tongue, seemingly signaling for Liu Ming to stand on top of its head.

Liu Ming hesitated for a moment before stepping onto it lightly.

The giant serpent tried its best to move gently. It coiled within the deep abyss, its body wide enough to fill the bottomless trench surrounding the Fourth District. It moved extremely fast, soon stopping beneath the ledge of a bottomless cliff.

The giant serpent prostrated itself in a posture of submission. It lay there quietly, making it easy for Liu Ming to step off its head.

Liu Ming patted the giant serpent beneath him. For some reason, he felt no fear toward this behemoth that was clearly at the level of an Anomaly King; instead, he felt a deep sense of kinship in his heart.

Liu Ming walked forward a few steps. Using the faint light emanating from his spiritual power, he looked down.

Countless human remains were piled beneath that ledge deep within the abyss. There were clear tracks nearby where a giant snake had crawled; evidently, the silver-blue giant serpent had been guarding this place.

Liu Ming’s eyes trembled. The moment he saw clearly what lay beneath that small ledge, his hands shook uncontrollably.

Broken bodies, those missing arms, those turned entirely to bone, those twisted into fragments…

There, layered upon layer, were the corpses of the dead Liu Mings.

In that instant, Liu Ming understood why he had never appeared in Yun Zhou’s memories of the first six cycles.

Because…

In this cycle of reincarnation, there were countless Yun Zhous, countless Du Shuis, countless Ying Huos… but there was only one Liu Ming.

The Liu Ming of every cycle… was the same one.

They were all here.

This wasn’t the soul-dwelling place Yun Zhou had imagined at all.

Countless memory fragments came rushing in. The scales on the behemoth behind him peeled away inch by inch, transforming from the giant serpent that could encircle the entire Fourth District back into that familiar little snake Spiritual Body.

The little silver-blue snake slid into Liu Ming’s collar as usual, trembling slightly under his touch, though whether from excitement or the anxiety of waiting was unclear.

While stroking his Spiritual Body, Liu Ming began attempting to process the massive amount of information in his mind—memories that had been sealed by his past selves through death.

This was the Fourth District, the underworld where souls were kept, the origin of the countless cycles for Yun Zhou and the other Anomaly Kings: the land of the Ouroboros.

And he wasn’t at all what he had thought—someone controlled by Plot Strings in past cycles, seeking his own death deep within the Anomaly swarms of the Endless Wilderness because he was constantly at odds with the protagonist group.

Because in the second cycle, the one where the Scorching Ghost first appeared, Liu Lin had handed T231 to Liu Ming, just like at the start of the seventh cycle.

The Scorching Ghost that made Yun Zhou so wary was, as the other District Chiefs suspected, personally released by the First District Chief, Liu Lin.

The purpose was to spark the bond between Liu Ming and the trio of Yun Zhou, Du Shui, and Ying Huo.

However, Liu Lin’s calculations failed every time. Because the Liu Ming controlled by the Plot Strings failed to arrive at the scene where Yun Zhou’s group was being chased by the Scorching Ghost every single time. After these twists of fate, the Liu Family could only proceed with their plan.

With Liu Luo and Liu Chuan on the surface—one in the Anomaly field and one in the Tower’s field—they secretly gathered the power of the Anomaly Kings in the shadows to prepare for the final “Plan,” while Liu Ming acted alone in the dark…

To find the only one who had never appeared in several cycles, the one who should theoretically be the strongest of the three Dragon Attendants and the one who understood the Black Dragon King best.

Y002, who had vanished into the cracks of time.

Liu Ming had always exerted every effort to complete the Liu Family’s missions. He had made a deal with Y009 and the mentor behind him named Yuga, obtaining the Anomaly Core belonging to that Dragon Attendant. He merged with it to become a new Anomaly King, and then, at the moment the Black Dragon King was about to successfully revive in every cycle, he chose to give up the fusion with the Anomaly Core, tearing his own Anomaly Core out to sever the process of the Dragon King’s revival.

Then, he would turn the hands of time, pulling the world’s progress back to a past within his capabilities. The price was the death of an Anomaly King.

Why were the Anomaly Kings not affected by the reset of the cycles?

Because the power to reset the world also belonged to an Anomaly King.

One…

“It seems I’m still a step too late.”

A familiar voice rang out. Liu Luo appeared behind Liu Ming, half her form encased in ice and the other half human, bringing with her a cool breeze.

They stood side by side, gazing down together at the bottomless pile of corpses beneath the cliff—the remains that belonged to Liu Ming.

“You woke up after all.”

Liu Luo looked somewhat sorrowful. Her voice was painfully hoarse, yet she spoke every word with deliberate care, reciting Liu Ming’s name as the King of Anomalies.

“The Serpent that Circles Midgard, the World-Encircling Ouroboros, the Dragon Attendant who commands Samsara and the past… Y002—Jormungandr.”

Liu Luo sighed. Her tone was full of regret, but her expression held no surprise, as if she had long anticipated this.

“Grandfather and Liu Chuan said we had to keep it from you. They thought that maybe this way, you wouldn’t have to suffer such torment or be found by that terrible fate (Y003). But little brother… you still came here. It seems that before your last death, you left yourself a hidden hand.”

Liu Luo looked at the silk thread on Liu Ming’s wrist, unsure of what to say.

“I had Hela tell Y003 about the existence of the Fourth District, and I had Y009 appear before you as the bullet-chat. I let you join the Savior Squad. The goal wasn’t for you to come here, but for Y003 to come here.”

Facing the mountain of his own corpses, Liu Ming actually smiled.

“Sister, it’s the same if I come here. Don’t chase me away.”

He looked at Liu Luo, showing a smile like the one Mute and Jenny shared—a normal interaction between siblings, rare and devoid of any calculation.

“Sister, do you trust me?”

Translator’s Notes