Chapter 187: Buy one get four free

Perletti suddenly shoved Feiye out of her arms and began gasping for breath, her chest rising and falling violently.

Everyone present looked at each other uneasily as they watched Perletti’s near-mad state.

They assumed the shock had been too great for her, that she had completely broken down.

Only Sira remained silent, quietly watching her with eyes as deep and ancient as a bottomless well.

She raised a hand and waved it lightly.

In an instant, everything around them dissolved like drifting smoke.

Feiye’s lifeless body vanished. The cold crystal coffin vanished. Every elf and witch present vanished as well.

Between heaven and earth, only Perletti and Sira remained, standing within an endless darkness.

“Not bad.” A trace of amusement finally entered Sira’s voice. “I thought you had already forgotten what kind of place this was.”

“Hahaha…” Perletti laughed too, tears streaming down her face. “So you’re not dead after all. I thought you’d already returned to dust like the others.”

She slowly straightened her body and fixed a sharp gaze on the person before her.

“So?” she asked word by word. “As the ruler of this world, what exactly are you planning to do?”

After a pause, she laughed again, her tone laced with mocking understanding.

“Or should I call you… the God of Decay?”

“I’ve already done everything I needed to do.”

Sira turned around, facing away from Perletti. She pressed a hand lightly into the air, as though plucking an invisible thread.

Far away, buildings collapsed in response, swallowed by endless darkness.

The next second, Sira’s appearance began to change.

Her tall figure gradually relaxed. The magnificent robes transformed into a plain-colored long shirt. Long hair cascaded downward, while the cold sharpness in her features faded, replaced by a weary sort of laziness.

Standing before Perletti now was no longer the domineering woman known as Sira.

Instead, it was a handsome long-haired young man with exhaustion lingering between his brows.

“Allow me to introduce myself.” The young man smiled faintly, his deep voice pleasant to the ears. “The God of Decay, and also the God of Time—Lüluo.”

He looked at the stunned Perletti and asked softly,

“Mortal, this is your fate. How does it feel?”

“My fate?”

An invisible pressure descended from all directions, yet Perletti seemed completely unaffected. She merely repeated those four words blankly.

“To stare with hollow eyes as everyone around me dies one after another… this is my fate?”

“Yes.” Lüluo nodded calmly. “Watching the people beside you die before your eyes one by one. That was originally the path you were destined to walk.”

“Then why was Qingcheng’s experience completely different from what I saw?!”

Perletti abruptly raised her head, a glimmer of hope flashing in her eyes—the final lifeline she could grasp.

“Qingcheng…” Lüluo sighed softly. “She arrived at the World Tree ahead of time under my guidance, which caused many changes.”

“You’ve always wondered why she seemed like a completely different person after leaving this place, haven’t you?”

He turned to face Perletti directly.

“I can tell you the answer.”

“In the illusion created for her by the World Tree—the same illusion you just experienced—she tried hundreds of times. Carrying memories repeated hundreds of times, she struggled with everything she had to change fate.”

“Unfortunately…”

Lüluo shook his head gently.

“Every single attempt failed.”

“The reason I waited here for you and prepared this illusion for you as well is because these are unavoidable stages of fate. You cannot hide from them, nor escape them.”

“But at the very least, you should know how they died.”

“Remember it well. It’s important.”

“Ha.”

Perletti let out a laugh as though she had heard the greatest joke imaginable.

“You’re a god, and after waiting here for so long, all you wanted to tell me was that fate cannot be changed?”

“Of course not.”

Lüluo raised a brow, amusement flickering across his face.

“I’m here to help you resist fate.”

“Resist fate?!”

Perletti’s eyes instantly reddened as she screamed hysterically,

“Then stop hiding here and watching everything like a spectator!”

She had had enough.

These lofty gods, all claiming they wanted to resist fate—but how many of them had truly acted?!

“…Sigh.”

Lüluo let out a helpless sigh, his voice carrying faint melancholy.

“It’s not that we haven’t done anything. You simply can’t see it. Perhaps someday in the future, you’ll understand.”

He looked at Perletti and spoke slowly, his voice weathered with the understanding of countless ages.

“The fate of this world has mutable paths, but fixed endpoints.”

“What is destined to happen will inevitably happen. But we can change the process by which it occurs, and even extend the endpoint.”

“Just like now.” He smiled faintly. “The trial you were supposed to endure here has already ended. And the task I remained here for has also been completed.”

“So that means…?”

Perletti’s heartbeat unconsciously quickened.

“It means it’s time for me to leave.”

Lüluo stretched lazily, relief evident in his tone.

“To be honest, if it weren’t for that contract, I wouldn’t want to stay another second in this pitch-black hellhole.”

As his words fell, a door radiating soft golden light silently appeared before Perletti.

“Well then, my task is finished.”

Lüluo pointed at the door casually.

“Your little girlfriend and your pet are still behind it. Go bring her out yourself, and she won’t have to die here either.”

“As for the reward from the trial and the other things you’re supposed to receive, they’ll naturally be delivered to you once you leave. Qingcheng will explain how to use them.”

“M-My little girlfriend? Wait a second, who told you Olivia and I are in that kind of relationship?!”

“Isn’t she?” Lüluo tilted his head. “You two seemed awfully close.”

“…Forget it.”

“Anyway, I still have one more question.”

Perletti stopped him, stubbornness lingering in her eyes.

“What kind of contract did you and Qingcheng make back then?”

This was the answer she wanted most.

Lüluo paused mid-step and glanced back at her, a meaningful smile curling across his lips.

“You already know that I wanted to send a mortal back into the past.”

He spoke slowly, a rare trace of seriousness entering his voice.

“Under the laws of 【Order】, doing something like that inevitably requires an equivalent price.”

“And the price Qingcheng offered was—”

He paused deliberately before enunciating each word clearly into Perletti’s ears.

“【To kill fate】.”

“The price she paid far exceeded the divine power I needed to expend.”

Lüluo smiled, admiration flickering in his tone.

“So, in order to balance the scales, I sent a few extra people back with her.”

Perletti’s entire body trembled violently.

She stood frozen in place as her mind buzzed uncontrollably.

A few extra people—

The people she knew?

“Hah…” Perletti muttered softly before suddenly laughing, tears pouring down her face once more.

“You really did a wonderful job.”

“Do you have any idea how much trouble the things you created caused me?!”

“What trouble?”

Lüluo rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Without me, your life would’ve been far more miserable than this.”

Apparently truly tired of arguing with her, he casually waved a hand.

A gentle force immediately pushed Perletti toward the golden door.

“I don’t want anything to do with this mess anymore.”

“Goodbye.”