When Mo Ling bid farewell to the Little Elf, it was still reluctant to part.

But the damp mirage air constantly reminded Mo Ling that he had to find a way out of the historical phantom.

"See you in the future." After leaving it with these words, Mo Ling floated toward another iridescent, curved surface.

’I wonder where I’ll end up this time.’

’An even more distant past?’

’Back then, the Oasis must have just been a desolate stretch of desert.’

This iridescent surface seemed a bit strange. It was constantly moving in the air, as if something was repeatedly striking it.

The mirage air on the other side was exceptionally turbulent.

Mo Ling gritted his teeth and dove in.

But the moment he entered, he was met with an utterly astonishing scene.

It was a sea.

A boundless sea.

The moment Mo Ling appeared, he fell into an endless darkness.

This was the deep sea, where no sunlight could reach.

In the pitch-black distance, many things seemed to be staring at him.

Countless massive creatures roamed within the murky currents.

He couldn’t tell if their gazes were fixed on him or if it was just their unthinking glances, but Mo Ling felt as though he were exposed amidst a field of sharp thorns.

It was the feeling of having thorns prickling his back, a powerful urge to hide that overwhelmed Mo Ling.

It was the same in every direction. More and more eyes appeared, and the heavy, dense currents began to churn, as if some behemoth was unconsciously stirring the water.

A deep, mournful cry echoed up from a bottomless trench, impossible to tell if it was the call of a creature or the beckoning of the Abyss.

A few indescribably strange black shadows began to circle Mo Ling. Their bodies were covered in flaky fins that emitted a faint glow, like swirling cosmic nebulae.

Suffocation.

Even though this was just a historical phantom, Mo Ling felt an indescribable sense of suffocation, as if water was violently rushing into his lungs.

Just as Mo Ling couldn’t breathe, a faint iridescent light flashed in the distance.

Mo Ling, as if grasping a lifeline, immediately rushed over, dove into the iridescent light, and arrived in a garden.

This was a garden in Oasis City.

Warm sunlight cascaded down, but the chill on Mo Ling’s body did not dissipate.

It was a chill that came from within.

’Was that the deep sea just now?’ Mo Ling still hadn’t snapped out of it.

’We’re in a desert. Why would a sea appear?’

’Is this still the 2nd Floor of the Abyss?’

Mo Ling gasped for breath and looked around. Oasis City was beautifully landscaped with lush, shady trees. Although it was just a monitoring station, its park was as well-made as a people’s park in a metropolis on Earth.

A black shadow flashed by. Mo Ling subconsciously thought it was one of the creatures from the deep sea, but when he looked, he realized it was just a passerby.

They were strolling leisurely through the park. Some elderly people were practicing strange-looking fitness exercises.

The swinging arms made Mo Ling feel as if, in his daze, he was seeing the fins on those bizarre black shadows from the deep sea.

Some of the elderly even held reflective "treasure swords." The light glinting off the unsharpened blades was so brilliant it made Mo Ling dizzy.

A mournful cry sounded. The wind blew past the tall buildings in the distance. Between two of them was a bottomless trench—and also the endless blue sky.

Mo Ling was dazed. In that instant, the deep sea and Oasis City overlapped.

He suddenly realized he was still standing at the junction between mirage airs of different densities!

’That wasn’t an illusion!’

The undersea Volcano erupted violently. Searing hot magma tore through the darkness as glowing fissures spread across the seabed.

At the same time, the ground in Oasis City split open, a fissure racing toward the park from the distance.

The earthquake began.

A massive amount of pyroclastic material stirred up seabed sediment that had settled for years, churning and eroding the already murky sea.

Sand and dust also began to rise from the fissures in Oasis City. The seashell dust buried beneath the city was inadvertently brought near the surface.

The black shadows in the deep sea began to flee in a panic. The creatures, whether fish or mollusks, dodged the swirling volcanic ash.

The crowd in the park also started to scatter, fleeing the fissures. Amidst the spreading dust and smoke, they too became swaying black shadows.

Swinging arms and fins became indistinguishable.

The treasure swords fell to the ground, their light dimming. The stars on the fish fins were extinguished along with them.

Mo Ling simultaneously fell into the swirling volcanic ash and the dust and smoke pouring from the fissures.

He grasped with both hands, but there was no seawater, no particles of dust and smoke—only damp mist.

There was no warm sunlight, no frigid seawater—only a cool, clammy stickiness.

"What is it you desire most?"

Just as Mo Ling was stunned by this strange sensation, he suddenly heard these words.

The voice was clear and gentle.

’It’s the Little Elf!’

Mo Ling quickly looked over and saw a Little Elf looking expectantly at an Oasis City resident hiding under a park bench.

"What is it you desire most?" The same voice echoed from the pitch-black deep sea.

An identical Little Elf was floating above a rock on the seabed, questioning a woman who was trembling beside it.

Looking at the woman, who was completely unaffected by the deep sea, Mo Ling suddenly realized: these were residents of Oasis City trapped within the historical phantoms!

It seemed that because he was standing at the junction of the iridescent light, the structure of the mirage’s illusion had glitched, allowing Mo Ling to see these active people.

"Don’t lie, now," both Little Elves warned simultaneously.

"O-Okay," the two people replied fearfully.

’As I thought. The Little Elf hadn’t disappeared; it had just been hiding. Sealing the fountain hadn’t affected it at all.’

’However, the Little Elf now seems to be upholding its duty as the keeper of the Wishing Spring, constantly asking residents for their wishes.’

’Has it been granting wishes this whole time?’

During this period of the mirage’s spread, perhaps the Little Elf had also been granting many people’s wishes in places Mo Ling couldn’t see.

And it seemed there were no restrictions on who could have their wish granted; the Little Elf accepted everyone, child or adult.

At the Little Elf’s urging, the woman trembling beside the rock stammered, "I... I want to escape from here."

She probably didn’t know this was a phantom created by the mirage and just thought she had been pulled into some bizarre space.

Hearing the woman’s "wish," the Little Elf’s face instantly turned cold.

"You’re lying! That’s not what you truly want."

"What you truly want is for your companion who came to the 2nd Floor of the Abyss with you to be resurrected. He sacrificed himself to save you during a mission, and your heart is tormented by it. That is what you desire most. You even dream about it."

"So why did you lie to me?"

The Little Elf’s tone was cold and calm. As it spoke, the woman began to cry, murmuring, "Stop, please stop..."

But her soft pleas had no effect. The Little Elf continued, "You want to live a happy life with him in Oasis City, to stroll through the parks together."

"You want to watch old pre-Cataclysm movies with him at the Oasis City cinema, to eat delicacies that don’t exist on Earth."

"You want to watch the first rays of sunlight over the 2nd Floor of the Abyss with him from the Oasis City monitoring tower. You want to lie at home with him, watching the sunset from your window."

"You want to hold his hand and stand atop the high walls, looking down on the beautiful Oasis."

"You want both of you to find jobs that don’t require you to go outside anymore, to live out the rest of your lives safely and peacefully in Oasis City..."

The woman’s face was streaked with tears, but the Little Elf showed no mercy.

"Why lie?"