Chapter 361: The Trembling Eye

Chapter 361 -363: The Trembling Eye

Everyone clearly heard the first heartbeat. Afterward, however, there was no great reaction, much less a storm.

However, everyone present knew that Jilian’s body had begun to revive.

Even without a sound, they could feel a surging Life Force flowing within her body.

Despite lacking a crucial soul, despite having no Magic Power yet, she already exuded a powerful pressure on everyone present.

Brown and Su Su felt it most keenly.

It was as if they were constantly in a strange, static-filled environment, yet their hair and clothes remained unaffected. Perhaps this sensation was merely a change in their souls, but it was definitely not an illusion.

Jilian’s wings had already begun to faintly glow.

The Red Demoness came down from Jilian’s head and landed beside Su Su and Brown, watching Qin Xiaoxia’s back from behind them.

At this moment, Qin Xiaoxia was calmer than ever.

He looked at the two little ones on his shoulder. Because of the revival of Jilian’s body, their own bodies were now quite stiff, as if they had been affected by something.

“Ai You, Axi, you only have this one chance. If you fail, your souls may also disintegrate.”

“If you fail, even within this Secret Realm, the most we can do is collect the shattered elements of your souls, but the chance of survival won’t be high.”

In his view, the two little ones’ expressions were completely different from their usual coquettish and mischievous selves. They were filled with solemnity.

“Master Sage, we can feel it. The meaning of our existence is for this very moment. Dawn will be with us!”

Ai You and Axi spoke in unison with their delicate voices, performing a solemn fist-over-heart salute.

He smiled for the first time tonight. The little ones’ performance over this period proved they had integrated well into the environment of Dawn.

The man who, in the eyes of the Six Nations of the World Alliance and all of Dawn, was the wise, calm, powerful, and mysterious Master Sage, was also, at times, a very sentimental person. He wanted to say something more, but in the end, it came down to a simple phrase.

“Blessings upon you!”

Qin Xiaoxia’s expression warmed Ai You and Axi, and their bodies felt as if they had been brushed by a spring breeze.

“Go on!”

Taking flight, Ai You and Axi held hands in mid-air. They glanced back at Qin Xiaoxia, then their gazes swept across the faces of Su Su, the Red Demoness, and the others.

They understood that perhaps, after this, they would no longer be who they once were. Their individual souls were too weak; only by joining forces did they have a chance, but that would inevitably mean losing their former selves.

There was no complex ritual, no intricate incantation. They simply flew to the spot on Jilian’s forehead.

They deliberately sought out the spot Qin Xiaoxia had touched with his hand earlier.

They pressed their foreheads together, and also against Jilian’s skin.

The three foreheads, vastly disproportionate in size, touched, leaving a tiny triangular gap between them.

The light from their four pairs of tiny wings flared, and finally, Ai You and Axi were completely engulfed in light.

Before the eyes of Qin Xiaoxia and the others, the light from their bodies seemed to be injected, gradually flowing into Jilian’s forehead.

Until the light on Ai You and Axi’s bodies completely vanished, the two little ones drifted down from the air like falling leaves.

SWOOSH~

As if teleporting, Qin Xiaoxia appeared where they were falling. He reached out and caught one in each hand.

He gently placed them on his shoulders before slowly returning to his original spot.

As time passed, the attention of the others gradually shifted from the small bodies on Qin Xiaoxia’s shoulders back to Jilian.

‘Was it a failure or a success?’

He glanced again at the small bodies on his shoulders. ‘As a bloodline that had resonated with Jilian’s body the moment they arrived in this world, they couldn’t be so weak as to not even cause a ripple.’

RUMBLE…

At that moment, an unusually small earthquake erupted within the Secret Realm, its epicenter being Jilian’s body.

WHOOSH…

A fierce gust of wind erupted from ahead, sending the hair of those standing near Jilian flying. It was her exhaled breath.

In a daze, it seemed as if the surrounding air had taken on a certain color.

This was no illusion, for the color was deepening, gradually evolving into a golden-red, mist-like radiance.

“Back away! This is Jilian’s Magic Power!”

At Qin Xiaoxia’s command, everyone around them seemed to be dragged away by the power of the Secret Realm, instantly crossing a distance of over a thousand meters.

From this slightly farther distance, a massive amount of Magic Power appeared around Jilian’s body without any warning.

This power caused the Main Secret Realm Wall to automatically appear. Shards of mirrored glass shimmered with Magic Mirror Runes, suppressing the Magic Power within a fixed area.

The process, however, caused the entire Secret Realm to tremble continuously.

“Heh, it seems they succeeded!”

After all, in terms of life, a body without a soul cannot generate new Magic Power.

“But… is this really the amount of Magic Power for someone who just recovered…?”

Mumu murmured in disbelief. As an Elf who had lived for hundreds of years, it had never heard of an Ancient Species, let alone seen one. It had not even seen the Demon Eye of the past. But the Jilian of this moment completely overturned its understanding of the world.

The massive eyelids slowly opened, and bright, golden-red eyes once again looked upon the light.

Amidst the faint tremors, Qin Xiaoxia and the others tilted their heads further and further back.

A peculiar female voice rang out, as if with a dual echo, full of richness and magnetism.

“Misfortune is a constant companion in the cycles of time; on a bewildering journey, the self is a cage. Born small, and so are the strong…”

Jilian’s wings beat gently. Her long hair, formed of light, cascaded down both sides of her back as her body moved, revealing her preternaturally white back, and her hips and legs of the same complexion.

What does it feel like to watch a being who is a super-giant slowly rise to her feet?

As spectators, it was as if Qin Xiaoxia and the others were dazedly watching a mountain peak rise from the earth.

Her eyes were filled with bewilderment, which only began to clear as she finished rising.

She shook her head slightly, as if finally seeing clearly what was before her, and her gaze fell upon the small group of figures on the ground.

A flash of excitement lit up her eyes.

Jilian slowly lowered her body again, bending her right knee to kneel.

It was still that rich, magnetic voice, still with that dual-toned echo. It was unclear if this was a peculiarity of the soul born from the fusion of Ai You and Axi, or if this was simply how Jilian was meant to sound.

“Jilian, at Master Sage’s command!!!”

Along with her voice came a standard Dawn fist-over-heart salute, and a gust of wind that blew past the crowd.

However, this voice was distinctly different from the first words she spoke. To Qin Xiaoxia, it felt psychologically as if they hadn’t been spoken by the same person.

“Jilian, what did you mean by what you said just as you woke up?”

“Hm?”

The figure before him, seeming to reach the sky, had a flicker of confusion on her face.

“I… said nothing.”

Unable to place the feeling, Qin Xiaoxia was puzzled for a moment but simply committed her words to memory, not thinking on it further.

‘Perhaps those words came from the Jilian that had already dissipated. It’s not something to think about right now.’

He looked again at Jilian, who was maintaining her salute.

Er, this…

Qin Xiaoxia wondered if he could find a tailor to make some clothes for her. The position of her hand over her heart made him feel a little guilty for looking directly.

“Um, can you recall any past memories from your body?”

He quickly asked a question to divert his attention, otherwise he’d feel like some kind of pervert.

Jilian showed no signs of a headache or deep thought, answering directly.

“I can recall memories, but I know it’s not everything. At the very least, the memories from the moment before death are rather vague.”

‘Vague? Not completely forgotten?’

‘That’s not the main point right now. What’s important is Jilian’s revival and recovery, but clearly I don’t need to worry too much.’

Even though the souls of the sisters Ai You and Axi were weak after twisting together to become the new Jilian, in just this short while, the aura of her soul was already growing stronger and stronger.

Although it stopped after reaching a certain point, and the soul was by no means as strong as Jilian’s would have been in her prime, there was no longer an exaggerated sense of mismatch. At most, it could be considered weak.

As if noticing the two motionless little figures on Master Sage’s shoulders, Jilian glanced at them.

The next moment, a light shone from his shoulders, and Ai You and Axi took to the air once more.

“Ai You likes Master Sage the most!” “Axi does too!”

Su Su immediately broke into a surprised smile, but Qin Xiaoxia’s expression turned grim.

“Jilian, don’t do things like this in the future!”

“Yes!”

The echoing female voice seemed to realize its mistake.

“Do you need me to take them back?”

“No need. Think of them as your avatars. At least they retain some of their personalities. But you must remember, even if their souls are reshaped and their personalities preserved, they are no longer them!”

Only then did Su Su and Brown on the side realize what had happened with the newly revitalized Ai You and Axi. The sadness that Sister Su had worked so hard to suppress resurfaced.

“Alright. I originally planned to let you recover for a while, but seeing your current state, you’re perfectly capable of going to see an old friend first.”

The others were slightly confused, but a very amused expression flashed across the Red Demoness’s face.

…

「At one end of the Magic Mirror, in the Desolate World.」

The light at the original Magic Mirror entrance flared brilliantly, and cracks spread across the sky.

The quiescent Eye of Void suddenly appeared above the mountain range, its powerful Magic Power causing the mountains to tremble.

‘This heart-pounding sensation!’

Its gaze snapped upward. Terrifying, bluish-black veins appeared in the giant eye.

“Impossible!!!! Jilian!!!”

It was a stormy voice mixed with terror and Magic Power. The moment it erupted, it destroyed several surrounding mountain peaks.

BOOM~ BOOM~ BOOM~

The sound of mountains shattering.

KABOOM~

The sound of a colossal body landing.

An echoing female voice, tinged with a hint of mockery, rang out.

“Dororian Kwa, you’re actually still alive!”

“Impossible, impossible!!! Jilian!!! You really didn’t disappear! You’ve been hiding in that other world this whole time!!!!”

The Demon Eye was on the verge of a psychotic breakdown.

Suddenly, it noticed the symbol on Jilian’s left shoulder.

“I should have known!! I should have known!!”

‘A deeper sense of fear and relief coiled in its mind. A lunatic like Jilian had been with Dawn this whole time!!’

“You pathetic eye. So this is you now, barely clinging to life. If the dawn of a new era weren’t imminent, and if Master Sage hadn’t sent me to greet you so loudly, I really wouldn’t have wanted to see you.”

As she spoke, Jilian’s golden-red pupils suddenly fixed on the Demon Eye, her tongue lightly licking her lips.

Even though she revealed no Magic Power and there was no mental clash, the Demon Eye still felt like a frog being stared down by a venomous snake.

“Jilian!! I’m warning you, I’m not afraid of you! Besides, I’m also an Eye of Dawn, I don’t want to clash with you!!”

‘All bark and no bite!’

Jilian was weak, but she felt the creature before her was even more pathetic, and she lost interest.

“Alright, I’m leaving. I have no interest in fighting you. You’re one lucky fellow. Stupid and ignorant, yet you were still chosen!”

The cracks in the sky had not yet fully mended before the Ancient Demon waved her hand and shattered them again. The Desolate World was just that fragile.

Only after Jilian’s terrifying figure had vanished did the Demon Eye dare to spit out the retort it had been holding back.

“No, I know that kind of terror all too well!”

Its gaze was fixed on a patch of green moss in the distance.

Then it suddenly realized. What had Jilian just said?

‘Is it finally starting?!’