At the edge of the boundary lies a long river with no end in sight, its end seemingly connecting to boundless darkness.
Countless glimmers of light fall into the rushing river, without creating a ripple, as they travel along the river towards the depths of darkness.
Like arrows released from a bow, carrying starlight, they pierce the gaping maw of the abyss, racing wildly towards the end of fate.
This space is not lonely; the souls of every dead illuminate it, but it is cold, perhaps even colder than the far north.
The sunlight of reality cannot reach the underworld at the bottom of the world.
This is truly a place where the sun never rises, but it is precisely this icy underworld that grants all living beings the final equality—the equality of death.
"This is the end of the border. Crossing here means bidding farewell to reality and heading to the end of the world."
"The long river in front of us, carrying countless souls, is the projection of the River Styx in the outside world. The real River Styx is not here."
Looking at the magnificent scene before her, Xia Die's amethyst-like eyes reflected the surging light, and a question now stood before her.
"Lord Youming, how shall I cross this boundary?"
"Do I also need to step into this long river and drift downstream?"
Upon hearing this, Youming Butterfly shook her head vigorously, saying hastily,
"Absolutely not!"
"The temperature of this river has surpassed the extreme of ice!"
"Your Excellency, you must have heard the story of a drowning person desperately grasping at a last straw, right?"
"Even the most skilled swimmer wouldn't dare to rashly rescue a drowning person, because life's desire for survival is almost endless."
"The same applies to this long river before you.
You should know that the real world is not gentle, whether it's for soul beasts or humans."
"Those who can face death with equanimity are ultimately few.
Most people curse death; they have experienced far too much injustice and despair in reality." "
These negative emotions still exist in the soul, and some lives even have so many negative emotions that they can solidify into something tangible, nurtured by the primordial energy of heaven and earth through various coincidences, becoming ghosts."
"Of course, this situation rarely occurs, and even if it does, it won't cause much of a stir.
The real world has many soul masters or soul beasts with dark or evil attributes."
"Ghosts are a gift from nature to them."
"Therefore, great deity, I implore you not to casually step into this long river filled with 'drowners'."
"One careless step could truly lead to utter destruction."
Xia Die pursed her lips, squatted down, and gently touched the long river in front of her with her fingertips.
The low temperature, almost comparable to the extreme snow of Sister Su Tong, penetrated her soul from her fingertips.
Ripples spread across the river from her fingertips, and with just a light touch, countless hideous ghost faces emerged from the riverbed, howling and yearning for the warmth of the living.
"That's why I want to become the god of death."
"Reality is full of injustice and sorrow."
"I'm already lucky enough. My father, my two brothers, Sister Su Tong, Sister Audrey, Dr. Roman, my companions Jin Bao, and the Shadow Cat have all worked together to build a wall that isolates me from the dark side of the world."
"Within that wall, they share with me the few warmths this world has, pretending that the world is so beautiful."
"I'm truly grateful to them, grateful that they showed me the gentler side of the world."
"Life is indeed so unfair, and it is precisely because of the unfairness of life that the equality of death is especially important."
"If I could truly become the god of death, I hope death could be more beautiful."
Butterfly's voice echoed across the long river. The golden bone claw rune on her forehead shone brightly, and pure death power emanated from her fingertips.
No matter how pure the death power was, it was always cold and profound.
But at this moment, the Netherworld Butterfly actually felt warmth in the power of death.
The golden light was like a drop of ink falling into clear water, and the entire long river began to turn golden.
That gold began to spread from her fingertips until the end of the boundless darkness.
The bitter cold of the long river began to melt, and warmth gradually filled every drop of water.
The ghostly faces rising from the riverbed relaxed in the overflowing warmth, their painful wails and desperate cries transforming into soft murmurs of relief.
"Thank you."
"Thank you."
"Thank you, gentle deity."
"Death can be so warm."
"Thank you for giving us release."
"So warm."
"I feel like I'm home."
"Mother..."
"..."
In the once desolate darkness, countless voices rose from the river, and the golden river rippled with countless waves, overlapping like surging gilded gold.
The Netherworld Butterflies were speechless with shock.
Their clan had guarded this place for millennia; here, time seemed to stand still, and change was distorted.
Coldness and loneliness were the dominant themes, danger and terror were synonymous with the long river.
The Netherworld Butterflies knew, of course, how many souls, unable to reach the underworld, lay buried in this river.
These souls were either incomplete or burdened by too many negative emotions, sinking to the bottom and suffering the ravages of death.
Now, these souls, released in the warmth, began to flow along the golden river, heading towards their final resting place.
Soon, countless points of light slowly rose from the golden ripples, attracting the attention of the Netherworld Butterfly.
Its innate spiritual drive made it desperately crave these points of light, as if they were something extremely important.
If Huo Yuhao or Roman were here, they would immediately recognize it as the power of faith—a power of faith of extremely high purity.
To generate this level of faith power requires at least a true fanatical believer; a deity rarely has many believers of this caliber.
Most deities rely on quantity rather than quality.
And now, this high-purity faith almost filled the entire space. If Tang San saw it, he would probably be envious.
Not only was the Netherworld Butterfly shocked, but the Goddess of Life, who had been spying through the divine trials, was also stunned.
As a deity, the Goddess of Life had a deeper understanding of faith, even though she was a native deity of the divine realm.
"This amount of high-purity faith is enough to initially condense a divine position."
"Even if this child doesn't gain the approval of the Death God's position, she will one day forge her own Death God's throne.
She's practically a born Death God."
"So the power of death can be this warm?
If the power of death could always be this warm, I wouldn't be so incompatible with the Death God's position."
"Heh, I've really struck gold!"
The Goddess of Life realized that she had truly struck gold this time.
The warm power of death could completely combine with the power of life.
In other words, under the guidance of the power of balance, the Life God's position and the Death God's position could potentially merge directly into a brand new divine position.
The fusion of life and destruction is creation, but what rules the fusion of life and death symbolizes, the Goddess of Life doesn't know.
However, she is very clear that this brand new divine position will definitely surpass everyone's understanding, and may even reach the realm that the Dragon God dreams of.
As the former holder of the Life God's position, the Goddess of Life can also benefit from it and experience a brand new concept of life.
Just as the Goddess of Life was about to help Xia Die condense this faith, she noticed that the golden bone claw on her forehead shone brightly.
Countless golden points of light were swept up by an invisible vortex, converging into a single point above the golden river.
The compressed golden light, compressed to its extreme, resembled a sun suspended in space.
When the golden light dissipated, a spark resembling a starry sky appeared in its place, bearing golden bone claw marks.
The Goddess of Life, in the Divine Realm Committee, widened her eyes in disbelief and hurriedly used divine trials to guide the spark into Xia Die's body.
This spark was the manifestation of the power of life and death, a projection of the intersection of the two rules of life and death.
From this point on, life existed within death, and death existed within life; the two could no longer be separated.
The Goddess of Life sensed the addition of the concept of death to her divine position, and her divine power of life began to change.
Originally, she and Xiao Zi had the possibility of procreation due to Bai E's destructive intent; now, with life and death intertwined, she could fully accommodate the divine power of destruction.
If they wanted to procreate now, it might be even easier than for normal deities.
"I really owe her a huge favor."
The Goddess of Life pursed her lips.
After returning home today, she planned to rummage through her house to see how many divine artifacts she could find, and then give them all to Xia Die.
At this moment, in the boundary between life and death, Xia Die, who had merged with the fire seed, felt a special change within herself.
"Demigod."
The voice of the Goddess of Life entered her spiritual sea.
This demigod was not the demigod above the Limit Douluo level, but a demigod in the sense of the rules.
Although Xia Die was only level thirty-seven at the moment, any being walking the path of darkness and death might be directly defeated by her.
This was a dimensional reduction attack from the rules and concepts. Beings like Ye Xishui, whose death power might directly betray them and attack them in front of Xia Die.
They might even self-destruct and become a super-large fireworks show.
Even Long Xiaoyao's dark power would be distorted to a certain extent.
At the same time, the will from the universe was attracted by Xia Die's special existence, and with only its instincts, it conveyed a divine message to this demigod representing the rules of life and death.
"At the end of the sea of flowers, the souls of the living will warm your fingertips..."
"After the embrace, there will be eternal separation."
This was not a good divine decree. Before Xia Die could receive it, an even more majestic will descended upon this place, and the original divine decree began to blur.
"At the end of the sea of flowers, the souls of the living... will warm your... fingertips..."
"After the embrace, there will be... the..."
Xia Die suddenly felt a warm embrace, with a familiar scent within it, something she longed for most.
A very familiar voice issued a divine decree to her.
"At the end of the sea of flowers, the souls of the living will warm your fingertips."
"After the embrace, life and death will no longer be separated."
(End of Chapter)
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