Chapter 166: The End of the Forest Is…
“I’ve brought the bones out. When would be the best time to perform the ritual?”
According to Xu Zhi’s plan, she wanted to hold it immediately. After all, she had brought the black cat out as well, and right now it was unconscious. Who knew what kind of trouble it would stir once it woke up?
But her condition wasn’t good at the moment. Xu Zhi was no longer the naive girl who used to rush into everything—she knew that holding a promotion ritual in this state would be unwise.
Still, her understanding was limited. The game console, which had always seemed to monitor her condition closely, probably knew better than she did when the best time would be.
[Rest for half a day, then begin as soon as possible.]
[Also… why did you bring it out too?]
The Narrator’s voice sounded faintly puzzled.
That, at least, confirmed one thing—it truly didn’t know what she’d done inside Midnight.
“I made a deal with it. It told me some secrets, and in return, I brought it and the bones out.”
She paused, then added, “Though I didn’t expect those bones to be in such a visible spot.”
The Narrator was silent for a moment, then spoke, as if afraid she might misunderstand:
[It’s not that I didn’t want to tell you.]
“I know,” Xu Zhi waved her hand, “You couldn’t say it.”
“I saw that much.”
The countless hidden dangers and secrets of Midnight—those were all taboos the Narrator could not speak of.
Even the black cat had suffered backlash for revealing them. Xu Zhi had seen that with her own eyes.
“But… are you aware something has changed inside Midnight?”
[I don’t know the specifics, but I can guess roughly what happened.]
“Since you can guess, then I don’t need to explain.”
Xu Zhi had been wondering how to hint at it, but now she didn’t need to bother.
[What do you plan to do with it?]
The meaning was obvious—it was asking about the black cat.
“When I ascend, will the bones still exist? If not, it should die on its own, right?”
Xu Zhi didn’t want a dangerous being lingering around her. It wasn’t a real cat, after all.
To her, her own familiar, [Nightmare], was the real cat.
[They’ll still exist.]
Xu Zhi frowned. “Then is there a way to kill it directly?”
[It’s difficult. It has no physical form. But there is one way.]
[Let Nightmare devour it.]
[However, it’s risky. They’ll fight for control of the shared consciousness. Whoever wins becomes the ‘Nightmare.’]
[Fortunately, since your familiar is linked to you, once you ascend, Nightmare’s odds of winning will greatly increase.]
“That’s good.” Xu Zhi nodded. Then she asked, “But if it wins, would it still count as my familiar?”
[No.]
The Narrator’s answer was firm.
[Nightmare’s nature is special—it has no fixed form. If its consciousness is devoured by another, your familiar ceases to exist.]
“That won’t do.”
After settling the matter of the cat, Xu Zhi’s expression grew serious. She raised her palm, showing the brand burned into her skin during Midnight.
“You know what this is, don’t you?”
[…Yes.]
“Then you must have known I’d be branded with it?”
The Narrator fell silent for a moment.
[Yes.]
[But there was no other choice.]
[This world’s resources are too scarce. Even the paths to ascension are limited. At present, this is the only way left for you to ascend.]
[I knew this would happen—but I couldn’t stop it. Right now, all you can do is increase your strength, no matter the cost.]
[At least this mark won’t kill you immediately. If you can’t survive the crises ahead, then the mark won’t matter anyway.]
Xu Zhi arched an eyebrow, “So from the way you’re talking, this thing sounds even scarier than that world-ending Demon Lord.”
Since she couldn’t say its real name aloud, she used a nickname instead.
[They’re not the same.]
The Narrator’s tone was unyielding.
[This mark… may never even activate. You don’t have to worry—if you live long enough, that is.]
At that point, it seemed even the Narrator couldn’t imagine what would happen if she survived.
So it could only add:
[In any case, don’t overthink it. Focus on getting stronger—quickly.]
The Narrator’s cryptic tone was becoming more frequent lately. Perhaps because Xu Zhi was no longer asking surface-level questions—she was now brushing against the core truths, the hidden layers of this world.
“Alright, I get it. So as long as the world hasn’t ended yet, I don’t need to worry about this mark, right?”
[Correct.]
Something about that sounded off—a subtle, unsettling contradiction. But Xu Zhi’s brain was too foggy to puzzle it out right now.
After finishing the conversation, she closed her eyes to rest. Maybe it was exhaustion, or the lingering drain from Midnight—but before she knew it, she had fallen asleep against the Little Aberrant creature beside her.
When she woke, it was nearly time to begin the ritual.
The sigil’s formation pattern was already stored in her mind. Most of the materials needed were the limbs and bones of [Moth]-attribute extraordinary creatures, mixed with a gray pigment forged from [Moth]-cores and other materials.
Once Xu Zhi finished inscribing the small but intricate array, she retrieved the black cat’s bones from her inventory.
The moment she did, the black cat’s tail twitched slightly—as though sensing the aura of its own remains.
Xu Zhi ordered the Little Aberrant to keep watch over it; its [Sealing] trait should be somewhat effective. Then, she placed the section of bone at the array’s focal point, stepped into the center herself, and activated the formation.
A surge of silvery light burst upward, and Xu Zhi’s vision blurred.
From the sigil poured a storm of pale moths. They swarmed around her, lifting her—dragging her—into another, all-too-familiar place.
A forest of pure white.
“It’s been a long time…”
She hadn’t seen this place in ages.
But arriving here meant the ritual was working. She had to complete her “ascension” before the ritual ended.
The remains guided her deeper into the forest, revealing a faintly glowing path. At some point, a bleached skull—like that of a goat—appeared, hanging from one of the trees.
Xu Zhi couldn’t help thinking the guidance system here was… unique. After confirming that no other direction showed a sign of bones, she started down the path.
Strangely, this time the journey was calm. Perhaps due to the ritual and the presence of the bones, she sensed no danger at all—the road was smooth and eerily peaceful.
Just as Xu Zhi began to doubt her own instincts, she suddenly noticed something up ahead.
The forest… had an end.
“I’ve reached the end of the path?”
Confusion filled her mind. Could it really be this easy? No—something was off. Something had to be wrong.
Yet, before her eyes, the trees truly ended—replaced by a blank white expanse, with no paths and no forest beyond.
Driven by curiosity, Xu Zhi stepped forward to take a closer look.
And what she saw next made her freeze in disbelief.
At the edge of that endless white…
—lay a vast, bottomless cliff.
