Marionne stood gazing at the interior architecture of the giant ship with a sense of awe, along with the others who'd been rescued from their cells.
Finally, someone had helped them out of those cramped, old, narrow cells.
But it seemed they couldn't rescue everyone who'd been imprisoned—only some made it out, and not very many at that.
The interior architecture of this giant ship looked like the inside of a large church from a certain religion. The people who brought them aboard were dressed like priests from that religion.
Once they were on board, the priests let them wander around freely inside. As for the ship's owner, no one had seen where they'd gone.
No one knew yet which city or country this ship would take them to. And since they had nothing to do while sailing to wherever they were going, they wandered around to kill time.
The interior decoration was quite luxurious, beautiful, and magnificent. It looked classic and had something mystical about it, like masterful artwork designed by famous artists hundreds of years ago.
But after they'd been on the ship for a while and the excitement of escaping had worn off, they started noticing that something was off about how the mural paintings were arranged in this church-like place...
The four walls of the ship had mural paintings of the Virgin Mary and several saints. In the center was always an image of a woman many called "the Mother." On either side of the Mother were always two male saints flanking her.
While they were looking at all the paintings, someone in the group pointed out that the four men flanking the Mother weren't actually saints—they were famous for using magic or sorcery. Or to put it simply, they were "wizards." And not just any wizards, but dark wizards at that.
Once someone mentioned it, people started splitting up to examine the murals on all four walls of the ship more carefully. Sure enough, it was true.
While everyone was confused about what these images meant, one man spoke up:
"This is a trap formation pattern. In old Chinese novels, they call it an 'array.' Once the array is set up and activated, anyone caught within these four directions will be trapped with no way to escape."
As those words ended, golden rectangular frames began to glow from all four walls, surrounding the images of the Mother and the wizards.
No one needed to explain—everyone immediately understood that the array had been activated.
They all panicked, because being "trapped" was a forbidden word they never wanted to hear or have anything to do with again. So they quickly searched for a way to escape from that hall as fast as possible.
They rushed toward one large door, which was probably the exit from the ship's main hall.
When they pushed the door open, they saw a giant wave as tall as a fifty-story building forming, ready to crash into this massive ship any second.
Marionne, who'd never learned to swim and had been afraid of water forever, felt like she was about to faint. If a wave that huge really crashed this way, both the ship and her would probably shatter into pieces and scatter across the vast ocean, never to be found again.
But then at the corner of her eye, Marionne saw something moving, reflecting light that caught her attention. She turned and saw it was a rope hanging from the ship's ceiling. It was thin like a spider's web, translucent and nearly invisible against everything around it. If you didn't look carefully, there'd be no way to see it.
Marionne quickly reached out and tugged on the rope, following some instinct screaming at her.
The moment she tugged on the translucent rope, the image of the giant wave came loose. It turned out to be just a projection screen showing a fake image of a giant wave.
Now in front of everyone was a road as wide as an eight-lane highway, and what they'd thought was a giant ship was just moving along that road.
They realized immediately that this "ship" was actually just a huge vehicle taking them somewhere—and now they were pretty sure it wasn't anywhere good.
Otherwise, why would those priests go to all that trouble staging the whole "boarding a ship" scene? They must have wanted to keep everyone from thinking about escaping.
One of them opened a door to jump down. Marionne thought about jumping off this house-sized vehicle too.
But when she stuck her head out and saw how high up they were—equivalent to a six-story building—she got scared. From this height, even if her arms and legs didn't break, her body might fold into a V or W shape.
Before she could decide, shouting came from behind her.
"They know! If you're going to run, hurry! If you're going to jump, jump now!"
She jumped immediately, along with a pair of boy-girl twins who jumped at the same time.
The instant she hit the ground, her body rolled several times. After she stopped rolling, she barely had time to check if anything was broken, because one of the priest-suited men had already jumped down after them. So she quickly got up and ran as fast as she could.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the twins bolt off in another direction.
She kept running without knowing where she was going or what country this even was. She just knew she had to get away from that priest first.
After running past the wide road, the path ahead turned into overgrown grassland, and the ground got steeper. She guessed it was leading up a mountain.
The sky got darker and darker. She didn't hear footsteps behind her—maybe that priest had chased the twins instead. But either way, she had to get as far away as possible.
When the sky went completely dark, she couldn't see anything. She didn't have a flashlight or torch, so she had no idea what to do.
Like heaven was taking pity on her, she suddenly saw a faint orange light ahead, probably less than a hundred meters away. So she gritted her teeth and headed toward it.
It took just a few minutes to get there. It was a stone stairway in the middle of a forest thick with grass and trees. The light she'd seen was coming from above.
Marionne had no other choice, so she walked up the stone stairs without knowing where they'd lead.
After climbing dozens of steps, she finally reached the next level. She saw a stone wall with a torch stuck in one side. It didn't light up the whole area, so she couldn't tell how big this level was.
Just as she stood there wondering whether to explore this level or go up to the next one, a voice echoed inside her skull.
"Little lady... finally, you've come." It obviously wasn't her voice—it was a man's... ? Vague, impossible to tell where it came from, or if it was even real.
"Don't be afraid. I won't do anything to you."
"Who are you?"
"I am the dragon who has guarded this mountain for several thousand years."
Marionne said nothing. She hadn't expected to be talking to a "dragon." Actually, "dragon" should've been the last thing she'd think of right now.
"So... what do you want?"
"I have a trade to propose. If you agree, you'll have immortal life. You'll never die. You'll live until this world collapses or heaven and earth disappear."
The dragon's offer made Marionne frown. 'Live until the world ends? Does that sound appealing?'
"And what do I have to trade for it?"
"Your body... your human body."
"You mean if I give you my human body, you'll give me an immortal dragon body? Is that it?"
"Very clever, little lady. Exactly as you said. You'll get a dragon body that never ages or dies. You can fly. You can breathe fire. You'll be the last living creature standing on this earth."
"Um... Mr. Dragon... what am I even supposed to do with a dragon body? This is 2025. It's the digital age. Everything's on phones. Can dragons even use phones? Facial recognition wouldn't even work. Can dragons even own property? If I hit the lotto jackpot, how am I supposed to claim the money? How would I even spend it? When I go shopping, won't shopkeepers just faint? If I fly around, won't every country's military shoot me down? The whole world would just gang up and throw me in a zoo."
"..."
The immortal dragon fell silent for a long moment.
Marionne wasn't sure if it was silent from shock that someone refused immortal life, or because it had no idea what "smartphones" and "lotto jackpots" were.
But that wasn't her problem. What she needed was to get out of this crazy place.
"I should go. Hope you find someone interested in that immortal dragon body offer soon."
She turned back toward the stone stairs leading up to the next level, still hearing the voice calling behind her.
"Wait, little lady... don't go yet."
But she ignored it.
Thinking about it now, that dragon was probably trapped in this mountain and just wanted to swap bodies so someone else could guard it instead.
What's the point of being immortal if you're stuck here for thousands of years?
The stairs to the next level were way longer than the first. Every step felt endless.
Marionne had no idea how long she'd been climbing. It's not like she was walking in circles, right? Because the walls all around looked the same.
Then she got her answer—just a few more steps and she reached the next level.
This level was spacious but felt indescribably desolate. It looked like an abandoned temple no one had set foot in for hundreds of years.
The whole place was dark and cold, full of debris, dust inches thick, cobwebs everywhere—a place you didn't want to stay in for another second.
Unfortunately, this seemed to be the last level—the stairway ended here. There was no way to go further.
So Marionne gritted her teeth, endured the fear and creepy crawling sensation, and explored the filthy, rundown ruins, hoping to find an exit or treasure chest or something.
She didn't expect to reach the middle of the room and see golden liquid dripping from above, making a sound—plop, plop.
She walked closer, praying it wasn't alien blood or monster blood like in horror movies.
When she reached the spot where the liquid was dripping, she looked up at the ceiling.
What she saw amazed her—a sea of thick golden liquid floating on the ceiling like an upside-down ocean, as if gravity had reversed.
The golden liquid slowly drooped down, dripping right in front of her.
Startled, she tried to back away, but suddenly she couldn't move, and the golden liquid slowly poured over her head bit by bit.
"Ahhhhhhh what is this! Acid? Blood? Man-eating liquid? What kind of liquid is this?!!!"
At that moment she thought she was definitely going to die. From all the horror movies she'd watched, if she didn't turn into a pile of bones, she'd definitely become part of that golden sea.
But the moment the golden liquid touched her head, many images appeared in her mind. It was the origin of this place and the properties of this golden liquid.
She understood immediately—it was the legendary ambrosia that kept whatever it touched youthful forever.
Right now she was secretly wondering: 'Should I open my eyes and let this ambrosia flow into my eyes too? Maybe it'll fix my nearsightedness. Should I open my mouth too? Maybe it'll detox my organs while it's at it?'
Unfortunately, she never got an answer, because in the next split second, she appeared on a vast grassy plain filled with young people dressed strangely, like people from ancient Eastern times.
They'd gathered here as if waiting for something.
And Marionne got her answer just seconds later, because she saw a dragon soaring up from behind the mountain.
'So Mr. Dragon was white after all.'
And it was white like glazed ceramic—smooth, flawless, pristine. Beautiful and awe-inspiring—not just the color, but the elegant form reminded her of unicorns.
The moment they saw the giant dragon spread its wings and fly forward, they shouted excitedly, urging each other to follow.
Then they soared up into the sky after it, one by one... one by one.
'Oh my god... just like those cultivation series I used to watch.'
These people could fly!!
Were they immortals?
Marionne watched them fly off one by one until only half were left, then suddenly thought:
'Wait... could it be that I can actually fly like them too?'
Right?! Otherwise, how could she have gotten here? This was like an immortal gathering place, wasn't it? If she could get here, then that must mean she was probably one of them too, right?
Especially when she thought about the golden ambrosia that had anointed her body just moments ago.
'It must be!'
That thought made her feel excited and happy, because that meant she'd be able to fly home!
So she decided to fly up with them.
Except...
How do you fly exactly?
She watched the people who were left push off from the ground with their feet, and they just floated up into the sky. So she tried it.
Crouch down slightly... then jump...
The moment she jumped, everything blurred, like she was moving somewhere at high speed.
She wasn't flying—she was being sucked!
In a blink, everything became clear again.
Except this wasn't where the immortals had gathered—this was a three-way intersection she'd been to hundreds of times before.
Every time she wanted to go home, she always ended up here. It was like the halfway point between her house and places she didn't know. If she could just get on the right bus, she'd get home.
Except every time she ended up here, that bus never came, and she never made it home.
But maybe this time was different—she'd just come from the immortal mountain, right? Immortals should be able to get home.
Marionne looked at the intersection packed with cars, every vehicle trying to get through as fast as possible, barely paying attention to the traffic lights.
In situations like this, pedestrians like her who needed to cross to catch a bus on the other side were screwed—there was no way to cross without getting hit.
So the only way to cross was...
Marionne turned to the pedestrian bridge, but it looked even scarier than crossing the street itself. It was absurdly thin and fragile, made entirely of flimsy wire mesh—the kind used for window screens, impossibly thin—from the stairs going up all the way to the bridge used for crossing the street.
She wondered who this bridge was even built for—wuxia masters with lightness skills?
But she had no choice, so she walked up those wire mesh stairs.
People ahead of her had already gone up, their weight tearing holes in the wire mesh stairs, making it even more dangerous.
Would she die before she could even cross the street?
Just as she thought this, she reached the top step—the bridge surface—and what she saw made her legs shake uncontrollably. She saw holes in the wire mesh the size of feet where people had stepped through, and she could see the road below through the wire mesh floor.
And as if that sight wasn't horrifying enough, right in front of her was a muscular guy carrying a barbell on his shoulders.
'Aren't you afraid you won't die? And you're going to drag everyone behind you to their doom too!'
The second she thought this, the guy with the barbell fell through—the wire mesh couldn't hold his weight.
Obviously!
But the guy still hooked his fingers onto the wire mesh, refusing to fall, while his other hand still held onto the barbell.
'Is now really the time to show off your arm muscles and finger strength?'
Marionne froze—one more step and she'd fall through that hole too.
Her finger muscles weren't as strong as his.
So what should she do now?
'Wait... don't I have immortal powers? Can't I fly?'
Right... just jump.
So Marionne decided to jump off the wire mesh floor.
And once again, everything around her blurred out...