Chapter 337

"Puff… puff… puff…"

Emma, nearly collapsing, leaned most of her body against Li Ang, the back of her beige gauze dress soaked through with cold sweat.

Even though she had broken free from Li Ang's memories, the moment she recalled the slender girl's chilling proposal—the cold, brutal reality of it—and remembered how calmly she spoke of disposing of her own corpse, as if discussing what to have for dinner, Emma's heart clenched again.

Emma's heart still pounded as Li Ang's once had, as if ripped from her chest and slowly crushed, ground to pulp by human hands, so agonizing she could barely breathe.

Is this what Li Ang has been enduring all along?

After gasping for air several times, Emma, drenched as if pulled from water, looked at Li Ang beside her, who helplessly supported her, and whispered, her lips trembling:

"Li Ang… don't you… hurt?"

"…"

Li Ang understood what she meant and shook his head slightly, then glanced at the system prompt.

【Through your own observation, Guina, and repeated reflection, you have acquired extensive information regarding the "Black-White Bridge." The Yisehuizhang "Materialist Soul (Crimson)" has been activated.】

【Due to your profound understanding of the Black-White Bridge's mechanism, your resistance to this anomaly has increased dramatically—you can now fully block its deepest effects.】

It wasn't painless; he would remember this forever.

But the 【Materialist】 effect had dulled the impact, and he knew the final outcome was good—so he thought of Anna, at home every day tending to her younger siblings, laughing with Melanie, and the pain became bearable.

…

"It… still hurts a little…"

Seeing Emma's eyes filled with shock and guilt, clearly misunderstanding the depth of his inner strength, Li Ang smiled slightly, embarrassed, then explained:

"But when I think that I eventually joined the Cleanup Bureau, that things never went that far, that Anna and the others are still safe at home waiting for me, still leaving food out when I come home late… it doesn't hurt as much."

Is that really how it is…

After hearing Li Ang's explanation, Emma tried to imagine herself in his place.

But no matter how hard she tried, the image of that slender girl, calmly suggesting secretly dumping her corpse into the sewage river to claim a pension for her siblings, kept tearing at her heart again and again.

Liar—how could this not hurt?

I only watched your memory once, and my heart felt like it was being cut with a knife—yet you had to relive that helplessness and pain over and over, just to pave the white bricks for me… how could you not suffer?

"Stop thinking about it."

Seeing Emma still about to speak, Li Ang considered her situation and quietly offered comfort:

"Past pain is past. Instead of dwelling on what you've suffered or lost, focus on what you still have—and most of all, cherish the people right in front of you."

"…"

Cherish the people right in front of you…

She had heard similar advice countless times from the Red-Haired Chief, but after sharing Li Ang's memories on the Black-White Bridge, experiencing his joy and pain firsthand…

Facing Li Ang—whose parents died early, who raised his siblings alone, who voluntarily joined the Cleanup Bureau as a high-mortality officer, who truly cherished everything he had—those words, once hollow, finally reached her heart for the first time.

"Senior Emma?"

Watching Emma, who stared blankly at him, Li Ang released her hand, crouched slightly, and said:

"Just a few dozen steps left to get off the bridge—shall I carry you the rest of the way?"

"…"

Though she instinctively wanted to refuse, seeing Li Ang's narrow but undeniably reliable shoulders, Emma hesitated, then leaned forward and climbed onto his back.

As her body lifted into the air, listening to his steady, strong breaths, feeling the warmth radiating from his lean spine—the heart beneath it beating like a flame, warming her—Emma's tense body finally relaxed. She leaned fully against him and gently wrapped her arms around his neck.

Cherish the people right in front of you…

…

Finally off the bridge…

After stepping on over twenty black bricks, descending all the way to the bridge's base, Li Ang let out a long breath.

Though the 【Materialist】 effect shielded him from reliving the pain in full, vivid detail, even the diluted, "scratch-through-the-boot" version of those memories, repeated too often, still wore him down.

He took a few more steps forward, fully leaving the Black-White Bridge behind. Seeing that Senior Emma hadn't spoken, and not wanting to embarrass himself after showing off, he didn't prompt her to get down—instead, he lifted his gaze ahead.

Before him rose a black cliff so tall its peak vanished into the sky. This cliff, named 【Death】, grew lighter in hue toward the top, where the nonexistent summit seemed to merge seamlessly with the gray haze of the Death Realm's heavens.

At its base, the cliff blended with the Death Realm's dark earth—so utterly black it barely reflected light, as if it didn't exist at all, giving the impression that one misstep would plunge into an endless abyss.

Countless crimson nests of the Death-Crying Crows clustered along the cliff like red berries growing from the black mountain, or like fresh blood oozing endlessly from a vast black curtain hanging from the sky—vividly beautiful, profoundly eerie.

"Something feels off…"

Squinting at the black cliff and the crimson crow nests, Li Ang spotted a misty, massive gate at the end—or rather, the beginning—of the Path of No Return. He gently patted Emma's thigh, signaling her to look up, then frowned slightly:

"The Chief said we just keep walking along the Path of No Return—past the Black-White Bridge and the Death-Crying Crow Nests—and we'll find the Dog God guarding the entrance to the Death Realm.

But we've already crossed the bridge, entered the crow nests' territory, even seen the gate… so where's the Dog God?"

"Don't worry. Just keep walking."

Hearing Li Ang's question, Emma, using the warmth radiating from his front to fend off the increasingly frantic curses behind her, replied:

"People in the Death Realm don't like the Chief. She definitely broke in. The Dog God's duty is to guard the Death Realm's gate and keep the living out—he was probably beaten up by her on the spot.

So keep walking a bit further. If you see a dog with three heads bound by hair, passed out by the roadside, that's the gatekeeper.

If you don't find him along the way, check the crow nests near the gate. After beating the Dog God, the Chief sometimes forgets where she left him, so she'll shove him into a nearby nest so someone can find him when she comes back to open the gate."

"…"

"Oh…"