The warm morning sun filtered through the thick tree canopy, dappling the face of the young girl in the woods.
After stretching lazily, she remembered something and quickly checked her Soul Brain.
During her third exit from the dream of Agasha, she had conducted an experiment to see if she could bring living things out with her. The conclusion was that while her body could be transported out, the spirit would disappear.
However, there was a significant difference between the Soul Brain and a pure spirit.
Firstly, it wasn’t classified as a living thing; secondly, it wasn’t entirely a conglomerate of soul runes. During the production process, she had incorporated other runes and rare elements for reinforcement. Finally, Yvette had kept it connected to her own spirit, effectively turning it into an extension of her soul for the time being.
Yvette didn’t know what the process of bringing items out from the dream world entailed, but she felt that if she had made it this far, not being able to bring something out would be quite disheartening.
A few seconds later, when she confirmed that the Soul Brain was still intact, Yvette let out a sigh of relief. She then initiated a system self-check to see if anything had been lost during the exit from the dream.
Not checking would have been better; she was shocked by what she found.
This was a significant drawback of the Soul Brain. Even the Reincarnation High Priest from the Holy Spirit Sect had to remain vigilant against the influence of those memory fragments while using the Soul Brain. With just a little carelessness, one could become a cyber-psychic, often managing to use it for no longer than half an hour.
In her own tests, Yvette had discovered she could endure nearly six hours before feeling any abnormalities in the memory unit, indicating that her spirit strength could sustain her without descending into chaos for that duration.
That was impressive enough to meet most of her usage needs, so she hadn’t found it cumbersome.
However, she never anticipated that once she exited the dream, the Soul Brain would still be there, but all the sewn-together memory fragments would be filtered out — completely untransmittable.
Wasn’t this directly leading to invincibility?
Soon, with her spirits lifted, Yvette left the wilderness, traversing through the ferns until she climbed a hill outside the Water Tower Nation, looking down upon the post-apocalyptic city while mentally comparing it to pre-apocalypse Firth River.
Before the apocalypse, Firth River had been a crowded, vibrant hive filled with low residences painted in vibrant shades of red, orange, and white, with only the city center boasting any skyscrapers.
Now, however, it had transformed into an expansive, boundless blue lake. Only a few tall skeletal structures remained, like stone spears dropped by giants, stubbornly piercing the water’s surface, floating in the azure depths. They were interconnected by decaying wooden walkways or rusted metal bridges, forming a kingdom of islands adrift upon the waters.
Thinking of her imminent departure, she delayed her return flight, instead strolling along a metal walkway suspended above the lake’s surface. She walked several kilometers under the light reflected from the shimmering water before leisurely entering the interior of the Water Tower Nation.
Along the way, she could recognize many familiar places, such as Yangguang Street near the city center, where she had first rented a duplex. Furthermore, farther away, the remnants of the Soulfire Cathedral barely rose above the water’s surface. Over the years, it had changed beyond recognition; if not for some identifiable carvings on its spires, she might not have recognized it immediately.
“Good afternoon, Miss Yvette. Have you had lunch yet?” a gentle mechanical voice called out from within a partially collapsed building. Following the sound, Yvette saw a young humanoid automaton resembling a man named Ed, along with a few others gathered nearby.
After recalling, she remembered that this humanoid automaton was the governing officer of the Water Tower Nation, “Ed.”
He had assisted her previously upon her arrival in the Water Tower Nation when she delivered Mr. Copper’s letter to Ms. Bellflower, ultimately guiding her, along with Ice Rain and others, to see Ms. Bellflower’s burial site.
“Are you preparing lunch?” Yvette asked, glancing at the clean floor where a fire was burning. Several automatons were skewering dead fish, placing them next to the fire and rotating them.
However, they clearly had not grasped the art of cooking fish; each was charred to a coal-like state. Still, they showed no intention of stopping, seemingly engaged in some sacred ritual, fully focused.
“Yes, it’s a technique Mr. Duglabi taught us before he left, a piece of human ‘art’,” Ed smiled, adding, “Even though Mr. Duglabi has departed forever, we will keep this technique alive.”
Why did it sound like Duglabi was dead? Yvette pondered.
Afterward, noticing that Ed offered her some roasted fish, she glanced down at the charred remnants, revealing her hesitance. She politely declined his kind offer and expressed her intent to take her leave.
“You’re leaving?” Ed’s mechanical face displayed a surprisingly human-like surprise.
“Won’t you stay a bit longer?”
“It has been quite a while, hasn’t it?” Yvette thought for a moment. “How long exactly have I been here?”
“Not too long, just four years,” Ed replied.
“Four years already?” Yvette was astonished. Perhaps due to the lack of major events to use as anchors for memory, it felt like her time in the Water Tower Nation had flown by like just four months, and the experiences were even less substantial compared to her two to three months of scheming against the Holy Spirit Sect in the dream world.
However, for both her and the automatons, four years wasn’t considered all that long. For beings without lifetime limits, it was commonplace to postpone all matters for ten years or even a century.
It was undoubtedly due to the urgency of the dream world that she had felt so pressed, constantly under threat from enemies.
“I’ve grown quite familiar with the scenery here. It’s time to move on,” Yvette stated.
“What a pity,” Ed sighed—to his credit, it sounded like a truly heartfelt lament—and he ceased to try to retain her. “Safe travels.”
Yvette nodded, and then thinking of something, said, “Oh, there’s one thing I hope you can help me with, Mr. Ed…”
She carefully relayed information regarding Rosalyn to him, along with an image, and once she had received Ed’s solemn assurance, she finally felt at ease.
In the afternoon, Yvette called for Ice Rain and Abella, climbing onto a magitek motorcycle together, slowly departing the Water Tower Nation.
Just like in the dream, her next stop was still the eastern coast.
However, rather than hastening to escape to another continent, her intention was to circle the entire coastline of Black Tide Continent, exploring every city region she encountered along the way, ensuring that no matter where Rosalyn came from, the nearby automaton kingdoms would be alerted first, as if she were planting flags everywhere.
Only then could she feel comfortable proceeding to the Jadeite Continent and repeating the same round-the-continent journey.
This was undoubtedly a very long endeavor.
Firstly, the remnants of large city ruins scattered across the post-apocalyptic wasteland were once proud symbols of the New Eden Federation, Rustbone Free State, Black Tide Federation, and even the Southern Coalition.
Even fixating solely on the ruins of cities ranked three or higher, with each city taking merely a month to clear out aberrations and scavenge through the dream’s mist, the number of “search-and-clear” locations would far exceed three digits.
Furthermore, she was likely not to spend just one month in a single place; if she stumbled upon stunning landscapes or particularly interesting local automaton kingdoms, it would be easy for months to pass by.
But that was fine, for the travelers on this journey were certainly not short on time.
Crossing over Firth River and reaching the eastern coast of Black Tide, exploring all the way down, and finally making a large loop back to the initial landing point she arrived at Black Tide, near Agasha, took her over twenty years in total.
Considering she had only spent four years in the Water Tower Nation, the fact that it had taken her twenty years to circumnavigate the continent while passing through an unknown number of cities indicated an impressively high efficiency.
During this time, Yvette’s magical and aberrant powers had significantly increased—her pure magical energy surpassed 3100 points, finally exceeding Abella. Meanwhile, her aberrant energy had long ago exceeded 200,000.
But this was not the key point; the crucial matter was that she had developed a strong premonition—the potential for her Pure White Touch would definitely undergo some changes with further consumption.
As for what those changes might be, that remained to be seen.