Chapter 45: Rebirth in Thirst [Revised]

That question filled her with an inexplicable sense of confusion.

Go home?

Back to where?

Who was... waiting for her?

Vague images flickered at the edge of her consciousness.

Just as she was about to touch them, the visions slipped through her fingers like water filtering through sand.

020 was waiting for her inevitable answer.

Xingyu could clearly feel the bizarre connection binding them, resembling countless slender threads tightly tying her real physical body to 020.

It was waiting for her inevitable answer.

This was not a choice; she had never truly possessed any right to choose.

Only a single path awaited her—to return to the nest, or to perish in an incomplete form.

"I..."

The simple syllable escaped her lips, yet it seemed to drain every ounce of her strength.

This was the first word spoken after her rebirth.

Like the birth declaration of an entirely new existence.

Using human language felt profoundly unnatural to her. Her voice seemed packed with cosmic dust, and every vibration brought an unbearable, parched dryness.

An overwhelming dryness swept through her entire body, as if every single cell was desperately craving moisture.

She felt an exceptional agony, yet she still forced out words mixed with static.

"I want to..."

Accompanied by the thin and trembling human speech, silvery-white liquid began to flow slowly in the air.

The droplets resembled miniature galaxies, searching for their ultimate equilibrium point under the influence of an invisible gravitational force.

Starting from the very extremity, the liquid condensed into sharp protrusions. These tips gradually extended and split, eventually forming five slender digits.

These protrusions continued to extend and converge, bending in mid-air to form joint-like structures.

Without any true skeletal support, the "fingers" remained in a limp state, as if they might lose their shape at any moment.

The surface of the liquid trembled slightly, forming fine and vividly realistic skin textures.

"I wish to..."

This was reverse evolution.

Starting from the most basic silvery-white droplets, it step by step copied and mimicked intricate biological structures.

The surface of the liquid trembled slightly, forming detail-rich yet completely temperatureless human skin textures.

As the "hand" was completed, the liquid began to extend upward, forming the contours of the wrist, forearm, and upper arm.

The simulated muscle texture faintly manifested on the silvery-white surface, as though a complete skeletal structure truly existed beneath the liquid.

Ultimately, this entity revealed a vague humanoid outline. Yet this was not an ordinary human form—every detail was unsettlingly precise, yet entirely different.

The form presented a pure, silvery-white hue, devoid of any other color. The liquid constituting the hair and eyelashes flowed ceaselessly, and deep within the pure white pupils, resembling human eyes, the void was contained.

The moment it took shape, consciousness began to re-converge within the newborn form, like foam slowly floating up from the abyss.

She uttered words that even she herself could not comprehend.

"I want to be... Cang Xingyu."

The moment those words left her lips, her body was stained with color as if rapidly dyed.

Beginning from the tips of her hair, a deep blackness spread swiftly toward the roots like ink, turning into genuine hair that fluttered gently in the breeze.

Her pupils resembled drops of ink falling into clear water, expanding rapidly to form a deep, profound black.

The surface of her skin began to ripple subtly, as though countless microscopic particles were rearranging themselves, instantly shifting from a temperatureless, glossy texture into soft, resilient human skin.

The nest prepared for her instantly fractured into pieces, and the Void Realm rapidly collapsed and closed before her eyes, reverting into an invisible singularity.

In its place was the scene of the real world—gray, drab streets, drifting dust, and three dim night-suns hovering indistinctly in the night sky.

*「…Vor-zo. Zhi-ni eth-th vor-zo.」*

...Greed. A price must inevitably be paid.

Unlike before, this time the voice carried an extremely faint, complex emotion.

Then, this voice dissipated as swiftly as if it had never existed at all.

It was like... hatred, or perhaps... expectation?

The entire process lasted merely a few seconds, yet it felt as though she had undergone an astonishing evolution, or rather, a reverse degradation.

When everything grew calm, what stood there was no longer a silvery-white liquid, but a genuine, living human form.

She opened her eyes, her pupils flashing with an astonished brilliance akin to a newly born star.

Her very first breath—the dry scent of dust mixed in the air—felt exceptionally fresh to her, and her senses rejoiced as though celebrating a reclaimed lease on life.

Yet, it seemed she was the only one rejoicing in her rebirth.

020 displayed unbridled fury—

Black shadows rapidly coiled around Xingyu's body like living creatures, every single strand imbued with unimaginable power that left her completely immobilized.

Its hooked claws sliced through the air with a spine-chilling arc, as though capable of tearing her apart effortlessly.

*"Dak mur-th zhi-zo nag-ni thu?"*

Why mimic a fragile form?

*"Dak vor kel-zo eth-ni thu?"*

Why reject the sacred transformation?

This time, she heard 020's language with utmost clarity.

It was not some garbled speech mixed with static; rather, every part of it was sounding off simultaneously, from the tiniest cells to the grandest organs, weaving together a complex fabric of sound.

This language resonated directly with Xingyu's soul, bypassing the ordinary auditory system and forming meaning directly within her consciousness.

Xingyu was firmly controlled in her physical body.

She showed no panic.

Her "feet" altered their form in an instant, transforming into flowing silvery-white liquid that broke free from the restraints entirely.

The moment 020's attack descended, Xingyu's body shattered like struck quicksilver, dispersing into countless silvery-white droplets.

They suspended themselves in the air, connected by threads imperceptible to the naked eye, forming a constantly shifting network.

The liquid rapidly condensed, churned, and retreated in mid-air, and by the time it landed, it had already re-formed into a human shape.

Xingyu took a step back, then another, attempting to break away from the invisible gravitational pull between her and 020.

She picked up her blade, her expression laced with alertness.

An unfamiliar language flowed from her lips.

*"Nag-ka-ul tru-zo ess mur ni. Kli-ni vor-zo mur ya?"*

...You have already verified my true essence, so why cling to my superficial shell?

Xingyu was astonished to find that her communication with 020 was now completely unobstructed.

Those languages that did not belong to her could now be articulated so fluently from her mouth.

Only, the energy within this voice seemed far too powerful for her present self.

The moment she uttered the first syllable, she felt an intense urge to tear open her throat and shatter her vocal cords.

020 seemed to have calmed down because of her words, though its speech still carried hesitation.

*"Dak mur-th zhi-zo thu, dak-ni kel-zo eth-th thu? Dak-ni kel-zo vor-th eth-th thu?"* (*With a fragile body, how can you act as the proxy of the Lord? And how can you accomplish the mission that spans eternity?*)

"You and I are the final heirs. Our connection will grant us greater power. Why slaughter one another within the weaving net of destiny?"

She answered cautiously in human language.

She could feel that simulating a human form did indeed restrict her power, and continuing to use that ancient tongue would cause her existence to begin disintegrating.

At this very moment, she was able to maintain the stability of her form entirely due to the resonance between kindred—

Her senses and power grew stronger when she drew close to 020, and the bloodline connection of their kind was resonating—020 must have felt this connection as well.

*"Nag-ka eth-th vor-zo..."* 020's voice suddenly filled with an epiphany bordering on fanaticism, as though it had touched upon some truth transcending time and space.

*"Nag-ka mur kel-zo eth-th. Nag-ni thu, vor-ka kel-zo eth-th vor-zo."* (*I have glimpsed the infinite wisdom of the Lord. Permitting your existence is a manifestation of His unspeakable profound intent.*)

*"Nag-ka kel eth-th vor-zo, nag-ni mur-th kel-zo eth-th."* (*He chose this path with infinite wisdom, and we naturally shall obey.*)

At this point, 020's form grew hazy.

This time, Xingyu clearly witnessed its transformation.

The shadow connected to the Void Realm, and the suspended dark shadow instantly tore the membrane between planes, melting into another layer of reality.

Xingyu attempted to revert to her true form.

In this brief yet seemingly eternal moment, the Void Realm revealed itself before her.

The shadow did not vanish into thin air; rather, it converted into that invisible reality.

In that dimension, she saw a nest surrounded by sharp ring-like structures resembling canine fangs—that was where 020 resided.

*"Nag-ka eth-th zhi-zo... Nag-ni thu, mur-zo, kel-zo eth-th-zo, dak-ni mur-th vor-zo eth-th."* (*The time has come... Remember, youngest sister, under the Lord's will, we shall reshape the foundations of reality.*)

In the very next moment, an indescribable agony flooded over Xingyu like a tidal wave.

The instant 020 fully returned to the Void Realm, she felt her existence being ruthlessly squeezed by reality.

An intense sense of dryness swept through her entire body, and her flesh began to drop to the ground droplet by droplet, unable to re-condense due to the excruciating pain.

The agony transcended the boundaries of the physical body, piercing straight to the depths of her soul.

At the final moment, just as she was about to be completely crushed out of existence by reality, Xingyu mustered every ounce of her remaining willpower, forcing herself to re-simulate a human form as though cramming herself forcibly into a vessel that was far too small.

Color was re-injected into her body.

Though her physical form retained its human shape, her blood seemed to have turned into boiling magma, flowing through her veins and scorching the tissues it passed. Her bones emitted faint cracking sounds, as if reshaping their own structure.

Yet the pain from just moments before had been deeply branded into her soul like an unhealing scar.

The dryness grew increasingly intense, as though every drop of moisture within her body was being drained away. Her skin began to crack, and she felt as though she were a dried-up riverbed.

The knowledge and memories she had newly acquired felt as though they were being forcibly ripped out of her thoughts and mind, as if someone were hacking open her skull with a blunt instrument and violently churning her thoughts.

Shattered visions flickered in her consciousness.

A planet covered in endless blue-black, a foam-like universe, a chip implanted in her prefrontal cortex, frozen eyeballs inside a freezer...

The sharp pain caused her to curl her body into a ball, her fingers scratching against the ground. Everything her fingertips touched shattered instantly, leaving deep gouges behind.

Her vision began to blur, the world warping and deforming like a distorted mirror, and sounds grew distant and distorted. Every breath felt like swallowing broken glass, bringing sharp pain to her throat and lungs.

Darkness began to erode the edges of her vision, spreading like ink across paper.

She felt herself falling, plunging into a void devoid of light, sound, and sensation.

After a protracted struggle and confrontation, the pain gradually subsided.

Her breathing grew faint, and her heartbeat steadily slowed down.

Amidst the ruins, she finally closed her eyes.