Chapter 936

"A certain scientific Railgun."

"But putting it another way, Stopcloud has already repaired her body today and should be able to recall what happened that day, right? Black Wing eagerly asked, "If Stopcloud can really recall something from the past, she might become the key for the Astral Express to deal with Phantomy later!""

"It's difficult..." After a slight thought, Mikoto Misaka still shook her head, "The best way to deal with Suiyang now is still sealing; complete annihilation is impossible. But even sealing can be undone one day, and Suiyang has infinite time to wait for the Astral Express to make a mistake. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Black Wing teleported to behind Misaka, wrapped his arms around her waist, "Oh, big sis, don't speak in riddles~"

"Let go!" Misaka turned and pressed her hand against Black Wing's forehead, "What I want to say is simple: to defeat Phantomy, we probably need to first kill the Destruction Star God."

"Huh? Kill Nanok?" Black Wing's eyes widened, "Never mind whether we can beat Him in the future; even if we wanted to fight, we'd have to wait a very long time."

Misaka let out a soft sigh: "Yeah, although I don't know how many Extinction Sovereigns there are now, Phantomy should also be the hardest to completely defeat among them. If the future War of the Gods can kill Nanok, making Destruction an ownerless Path, it should greatly weaken Phantomy's power. By then... that would probably be the best time to subdue Phantomy."

"They're both Suiyang, I really don't know how she caught Nanok's eye—could she be stronger than Suiyang's ancestor, the Flame Emperor?"

—— (just a separator line with em dash). Need to output 【9】 with translation? The line is just "——". Should we translate as "——"? Probably keep as is. It's a line of punctuation. We'll output same.

"Stopcloud... that name sounds so familiar, is it someone I know?"

"No need to doubt, just keep going forward." That familiar female voice rang in her ears again.

"Again it's you, who is speaking to me?"

Stopcloud came to the platform on the second floor of the lab, and in the distance saw several antimatter legion monsters wandering nearby.

"These are..."

"This is the wound left by Destruction, already taking root inside you, impossible to shake off."

"Destruction?" Stopcloud became alert, "Please tell me who you are? Why do you keep refusing to show yourself?"

"I cannot come to your side; all I can do is wait for you to finish this journey."

"You want me to go through here? I... do I have to fight it?"

That voice seemed to sigh: "No need, that's too dangerous, you can't do it. Don't resist, accept it, try to coexist with it, like stroking your own scar."

"A scar?"

As soon as Stopcloud finished speaking, the two monsters already brandished their swords and rushed toward her.

"Wait?! Can this be called coexistence?"

Fortunately, that cold female voice helped; although these monsters are dangerous, they're not that strong. Although they were knocked down, they couldn't be completely eliminated.

And further down the road, there were more similar Destruction obstacles ahead. But strangely, they didn't actively attack Stopcloud, nor did they even "see" her.

"I told you you can't eliminate them; no one can." At the end of the road stood a lady as beautiful as a plum blossom. She slowly turned around, gazing calmly at her across the road filled with hundreds or thousands of monsters, "Either die together with the scars of Destruction, falling into darkness, or come over here, return to the world, bringing them with you. This is a choice of one or the other."

"Return to the world? What are you saying?"

Ruan Mei showed no expression as she looked toward the life support chamber nearby; Stopcloud followed her gaze upward and saw inside the chamber a woman identical to her, silently floating in the life support fluid.

At this moment, she fully understood.

"Ah... no wonder those two ignored me. Have I... become a lonely ghost?"

"Quite close, but not quite."

"Is that hovering between life and death, like a bardo?"

"That's understandable."

—— (again separator). translate as same.

"Qin Shi Ming Yue."

"The night was as dark as ink, the moon behind the clouds."

"The surface of Mirror Lake shimmered with a faint silver light; as the wind blew, the reeds swayed gently, making a rustling sound, but it was soon drowned out by the excited voice of the boy in front of the lakeside cottage."

"Life and death's edge... isn't that just having one breath left? Can this be saved? Miss Ruan Mei truly has miraculous healing hands! If I may say, Miss Woman, your medical skills still need practice——"

"Dawn." By the fire, Gai Nie coldly interrupted: "No nonsense; medicine is for healing and saving lives, not for mutual undermining and comparison."

"Oh..." Tianming's head immediately drooped.

"It's fine, Mr. Gai, don't blame Tianming." Duanmu Rong's eyes remained fixed on the sky, unmoving, yet the depths of her usually calm eyes now seemed veiled by a thin mist, as if hiding some ripples.

From the day she was called the Mirror Lake Medical Immortal, "resurrecting the dead" has been repeatedly used to praise her medical skills; those grateful relatives, passersby who spread her title... they always praised her without reservation, saying she has miraculous healing hands.

But we also need to list in glossary: named entities include characters, places, etc. So we need to add "Jinghu Yixian" as a nickname? The glossary instruction: list every named entity / coined term in these lines: characters (incl. protagonist & minor ones), places, sects/clans/factions/peoples, official & sect ranks/titles, techniques, cultivation realms/pills/treasures, named beasts/items, fan-fiction names. Nicknames count as character names. So we should include "Jinghu Yixian". However we already have "Ruan Mei". Also "Tianming", "Gai Nie", "Duanmu Rong". Also "Qin Shi Ming Yue" maybe a title of a work, not a named entity? It's a proper noun of a work; but it's not a character, place, sect, etc. Might be excluded. We'll see.

"But she never accepted such talk."

"Because she knew deep down that those were just polite words from people, expectations of healers... merely a nice saying."

"No one can truly achieve resurrection, no one."

"She has successfully treated many, and also watched many die helplessly. Her hands can take pulse, administer needles, apply medicine, but she cannot reignite a extinguished lamp, nor can she return spilled blood to the body. Yet that woman in the heavens..."

"Duanmu Rong lowered her gaze."

"The firelight shone on her face, giving her cool features a warm hue, yet it couldn't warm those eyes."

"Miss Rong, what's wrong? Is it because of Tianming——"

"No, I'm just wondering if there truly is a resurrection technique in this world; Miss Ruan Mei is demonstrating it before us, yet I can't even comprehend it..."

"You're comparing her to her." Gai Nie said, not as a question.

"Duanmu Rong remained silent."

"Silence is the answer."

"Gai Nie also didn't know what exactly Ruan Mei had done, nor could he understand the technology used in the heavens to heal Stopcloud; he simply lumped it all under the barely comprehensible Power of Abundance, then comforted Miss Rong."

Gai Nie didn't know what Ruan Mei had actually done, nor could he comprehend the technology in the firmament used to heal Stop Cloud; he could only attribute it all to the power of Abundance, which he barely understood, and first comforted Miss Rong.

"Abundance power?..." Duanmu Rong's face eased slightly, "The Immortal Vessel regards Abundance as taboo, but if this power could be held by a kind-hearted person, it could also save countless people!"