As the black giant named the Spirit of Pride disintegrated into ash.
The exquisitely beautiful yet lifeless courtyard violently trembled in its wake.
Like an ink scroll being brutally torn apart by a child.
The giant Zithers, sinister chessboards, and floating calligraphy and paintings that displayed intimidating challenges now began to crack with spiderweb-like fractures.
Crackle! Crackle!
The sounds of shattering echoed one after another, forming a continuous chorus.
But they did not fall. Instead, they decomposed in mid-air into billions of shimmering ink dots and Runes.
Like a grand festival of fireflies, they ultimately vanished silently into the void.
They had always been pointless thresholds designed by the arrogant to showcase their sophistication.
With Pride shattered, the threshold smoothed itself out.
As the last speck of luminous dust dissipated, a brand-new Path grew from the very foundation of the world, appearing before everyone's eyes.
It was a magnificent long street paved entirely with a single piece of green jade, wide enough for ten carriages to travel abreast, stretching straight to the horizon.
On both sides of the road, the artificial gardens were gone.
In their place was a bottomless, dark forest.
Towering ancient trees, like a silent army of Titans, cast mottled and menacing shadows.
The sickly sweet incense in the air had vanished without a trace, replaced by the stench of rotting leaves and damp earth, and an indescribable, ancient sense of decay.
"Is that... it?"
Lin Xiyue shook her aching wrist, flexing her stiff knuckles.
On the polished, Runed surface of her [Blackstone's Protection] shield, an irreparable scorched brand remained, a "scar" left from withstanding a God's strike.
She spoke casually, but her slightly trembling fingertips betrayed the peril of that block.
"What else?"
Lin Qingyue dissipated the Spear Intent that had pierced heaven and earth. Her staff, [Beloved], spun gracefully in her hand before she slung it back over her shoulder with a flourish.
"Leave it here to join us for afternoon tea?"
Her eyelids drooped halfway, and that same languid aura enveloped her body once more. The War God who had just stunned the heavens with a single spear strike seemed like a mere fleeting illusion.
"Seriously, this was pure cheating."
Su Wan dispelled the last wisp of frost from her fingertips, smoothing the creases of her mage robes while speaking with lingering dread.
"That entire burst combo just now, if it were any other team of the same level, even one with a full party of top-tier Hidden Classes, they would have been sent straight back to the city."
"That 'Immune to Imperfection' rule is just plain unfair."
"As they say, no matter how high your martial arts are, you're still afraid of a kitchen knife."
Lin Qingyue smiled radiantly, waving her hand at the teetering little figure in mid-air.
"No matter how broken the mechanics, one brick can bring you down."
In the air, the MVP of this battle, that little pink fluffball, was drifting down like a drunken butterfly.
Perhaps the combination of that last combo and the heaven-defying party-wide buff had consumed too much energy. The light in Mem's lively, heterochromatic pupils had faded, leaving her looking completely dazed.
"Mem?"
It let out a soft, limp cry, its tiny body tilting as it began to fall straight down.
A pair of warm hands caught it steadily.
Lin Qingyue looked at the little fluffball in her palm, smaller than her forearm, her eyes filled with pure tenderness.
"Great job, Mem."
She extended a finger and gently scratched Mem's chin.
"Mem... (Hungry...)"
The little one went completely limp in her arms, rubbing its cheek against the softness of her chest and purring contentedly like a kitten.
"Don't worry, how could the MVP miss out on the victory feast?"
Lin Qingyue flipped her wrist, and a triangular cake, emitting a rich strawberry fragrance and topped with luxurious gold leaf, appeared out of thin air.
This was a top-tier dessert from the Elf Royal Court, casually packed up from Ilanier's place.
Mem's nearly closed eyes instantly lit up like two searchlights.
"Mem!"
It swallowed it whole.
Literally swallowed it whole.
The little creature, with a head only the size of a palm, opened its mouth into a black hole completely disproportionate to its body size. With a whoosh, it sucked in the cake, which was larger than its own head.
Immediately after, its shriveled little belly visibly swelled up, and an expression of extreme intoxication appeared on its face.
"Mem~"
The little one contentedly rubbed Lin Qingyue's palm, its big fluffy tail unconsciously wrapping around her wrist. In less than two seconds, faint snoring sounded as it fell into a deep sleep.
"Oh my god..."
Lin Xiyue leaned in, her eyes looking as if she were seeing some rare treasure, wishing she could immediately build a golden statue of Mem to worship.
"This is no pet, this is simply a mobile Rule-type Planet-Destroying Cannon! Sis, I'm taking back what I said before. From today on, Mem is my niece! Anyone who dares to object will have to deal with me!"
"You said it." Lin Qingyue glanced at her with a half-smile. "Then will you be responsible for Mem's snack expenses from now on?"
"Covered! Definitely covered! I'll buy only the top-grade ones!" Lin Xiyue slapped her breastplate with a loud thud, her voice full of heroic generosity.
Xia Lian said nothing, just silently took out a piece of high-grade dried Magic Beast meat that she herself would be reluctant to eat from her luggage, and gently placed it by Lin Qingyue's hand. Her eyes were filled with awe and gratitude.
This is the treatment a powerful being deserves.
"Our hero is tired, let her sleep first."
Lin Qingyue gently rubbed Mem's head and sent her back to the exclusive space of [As I've Written].
"She'll probably sleep for a long time after this. The next hard battle is uncertain."
The words "the next" caused the atmosphere, which had just relaxed, to tighten slightly again.
Xia Lian had squatted on a broken piece of jade railing at some point, holding the shortbow [Dark Night Starwhisper] in her hand, her gaze piercing through the long green jade avenue and locked firmly on its end.
There, a tree stood.
No, it couldn't be called a "tree" at all.
It was a cyan mountain range rising from the ground, a heaven-reaching divine tower connecting the two poles of heaven and earth, a living world independent of this one.
The massive trunk occupied the entire field of vision, its textures forming canyons and cliffs.
The canopy was completely hidden above the sea of clouds in the sky, and those so-called clouds were perhaps just a raincoat for it.
Before this living, colossal creature, humans were so small they didn't even count as dust.
Jianmu.
The legendary heaven-reaching ladder connecting the Mortal Realm and the Divine Realm.
At the root of that trunk, a massive tree hollow entrance with obvious artificial carving marks, just like the open mouth of a silent giant beast, was faintly awaiting visitors.
"I have a very bad feeling."
Xia Lian's voice was kept very low.
"My 'Eagle Eye' cannot see through the darkness of the entrance, but my intuition... is screaming frantically, telling me to turn around immediately and run as far away as possible."
"Running away is not our style."
Lin Xiyue slowly stood up, moving her cervical spine, and the joints let out a series of crisp cracks.
She gripped the shield tight again, her expression no longer containing half a hint of playfulness, leaving only the resoluteness belonging to a Paladin.
"Besides, we're already here."