Zhou Huai closed his eyes and asked softly.

Hearing Zhou Huai's question, Chun on the shore smiled.

"Lie down."

She said, "Imagine yourself lying in a warm, big bed..."

"Or rather..."

Chun's voice suddenly paused.

As Chun uttered this second sentence, her gaze suddenly became somewhat unfocused.

Through Zhou Huai, she glimpsed a distant past.

"Or rather... imagine yourself back in your mother's womb."

Her voice trembled slightly.

Zhou Huai failed to notice the unusual emotion in Chun's mood.

Following Chun's instructions, he completely let down his guard and leaned back.

"thump."

He lay directly on his back in the warm, viscous, emerald-green lake water.

The lake water went over his head.

Surprisingly, the expected feeling of suffocation did not occur!

The lake water, rich in vital energy, did not enter his mouth or nose; instead, it gently enveloped him, continuously providing him with oxygen and vitality!

Zhou Huai felt very comfortable.

It's very comfortable.

His eyes stung with tears from the intense feeling of being enveloped.

This feeling is very familiar.

I miss it.

Having overcome the barriers of two lifetimes, they returned to that safest and warmest harbor.

A single, scalding tear involuntarily flowed from Zhou Huai's tightly closed eyes.

The tears blended into the lake water and disappeared.

"Mother......"

Zhou Huai's lips twitched slightly as he silently uttered those two words underwater.

For some reason, he felt a sharp pain in his heart.

Was that the original owner's lingering obsession?

Or is it the instinctive call from the depths of [N O V E L I G H T] this body's blood to the woman who has been missing for many years?

Zhou and Huai couldn't tell the difference.

All he knew was that he really wanted to have a good cry right now.

It was right on the verge of emotional collapse.

Chun's ethereal and otherworldly voice traveled across the water's surface:

"Relax."

Don't think about anything.

"Let your consciousness wander... Next, you will see what you want to see."

Hearing this guiding statement.

Zhou Huai tried his best to clear his mind.

He closed his eyes tightly, shutting out all external distractions. He couldn't hear any sound, not even the sound of flowing water.

My body felt light and airy, free from the constraints of gravity.

He felt as if he was no longer in the water, but floating in the boundless sky.

The feeling of weightlessness, the sense of vastness as you move through the clouds, felt incredibly real.

I don't know how long I drifted aimlessly like this.

It may be a breath, or it may be a century.

"call!"

Zhou Huai snapped out of his daze, jolted awake from that mysterious state!

He instinctively stood up from the water.

"Splash—"

Amidst the splashing sound of water, he gasped for breath and forcefully wiped the water off his face.

When he opened his eyes, he habitually looked around.

Zhou Huai stood there, completely stunned!

His eyes widened!

Because he found that the scene in front of him had been completely transformed!

Where is this place again, the dark, damp, and root-filled underground ruins of Simon City?

What came into view was a vast and boundless fairyland shrouded in mist!

Beneath your feet are soft, snow-white clouds; above your head is a wondrous sky radiating seven-colored light!

The power of the law, so concentrated that it condensed into water droplets, circulated visibly in the air!

"Where...where is this?"

Zhou Huai couldn't help but mutter to himself, his voice trembling.

An illusion? Or did the lake transport its consciousness to another dimension?!

He swallowed hard and turned away from this fairyland.

The next second.

His breathing stopped completely.

At the end of his line of sight as he turned away.

Suddenly, I saw a towering tree radiating a holy light!

Even though they were separated by countless miles, that tree was still enormous! On each of its leaves, the birth and death of a world flowed; every of its roots was deeply rooted in the void, drawing upon the origin of heaven and earth!

Standing before this tree, Zhou Huai felt even smaller than a speck of dust!

"This... is the beginning of all things, the origin of the world, as described by the woman named Chun?"

"The Sacred Tree of Origin that Mr. Duan went to great lengths to steal?"

Zhou Huai stood there, stunned.

Isn't this the underground ruins of Simon City?

I was just lying in that emerald green lake, how did I end up in this strange place in the blink of an eye?

Was it a dream?

Or has he traveled through time again?

Zhou Huai looked around.

He swallowed hard, forcing himself to calm down.

The power of the laws flowing in the air felt incredibly real; with each breath, one could feel their soul being cleansed—something no ordinary illusion could achieve.

He took a step, and the clouds beneath his feet felt like solid, flat ground, without any sense of floating.

He walked forward step by step, his intuition telling him that the answer lay beneath the sacred tree that radiated endless light.

"What does that woman named Chun want with me, bringing me to this godforsaken place?"

"Upgrade? Break free from the shackles of a professional?"

Zhou Huai looked around.

Just as he reached the edge of a sea of ​​clouds that appeared to be the shore.

He stopped in his tracks.

Raising his head, his gaze pierced through the swirling wisps of celestial energy and fell upon a figure not far away, causing him to freeze in shock.

It was a woman.

The other person had her back to him, wearing a simple white dress without any extra decorations.

They noticed the movement behind them.

The figure paused slightly and slowly turned around.

When Zhou Huai saw the other person's face clearly, he froze on the spot.

It was an extremely beautiful face; time had not left any trace of aging on her face, only her brows were slightly furrowed.

Zhou Huai stared at the other person.

Reason told him that he had never seen this person before in his memory.

However, when he saw that face, a deep-seated sense of familiarity erupted from the depths of his soul!

Having lived two lives, he yearned for warmth deep within his heart during countless lonely nights!

"Thump, thump..."

Zhou Huai's heart was pounding, and his chest was heaving.

His vision began to blur.

He thought he was cold-blooded enough, that he had long since developed a heart of stone in this cruel apocalypse.

But now, all the pretense, all the strength, has crumbled.

Tears welled up uncontrollably.

Tears streamed down her face as she approached the figure.

The pace, which started hesitantly, became faster and more urgent.

In this ethereal fairyland, Zhou Huai wept uncontrollably.

When he finally reached the figure, tears were streaming down his face.

He didn't bother with any precautions, nor did he consider whether it might be an enemy trap.

He was simply following his body's most primal instincts.

His knees buckled.

Zhou Huai knelt on one knee in front of the other party.

He looked up at the face he had longed for day and night, his lips trembling.

He was afraid that the noise would be too loud and shatter this ethereal dream.

He could only whisper one sentence:

"mom......"

"Is it...you?"

The words fell.

The surroundings quieted down.

The woman standing in front of Zhou Huai froze.

Originally carrying a sense of emptiness and confusion, it had just awakened from a long slumber.

Upon hearing the call, she froze on the spot.

I was stunned for a full three seconds.

Three seconds later, her eyes finally focused, fixing on the face of the young man kneeling on one knee in front of her, tears streaming down his face.

That familiar yet unfamiliar face gradually overlapped with the image of the frail, pale boy in her memory who could only sit in a wheelchair.

The woman's eyes widened, and then her eyes reddened.

Her well-maintained hands trembled as she reached out into the air, wanting to touch something, yet not daring to.

"you......"

"You are... Zhou Huai?!"