"Why can’t we reach the end, have we taken the wrong path... What do you all think—" On the sixteenth level of the Silent Spiral, Ash was walking along an infinite wall. Upon entering the level, they saw only this wall in the endless darkness. After Igula told him everything, he and Gwen returned to the fifteenth level, leaving Ash alone to cross the unknown trial of the sixteenth level. Ash quickly reached the wall, but found all attacks ineffective against it, and couldn’t fly over it, leaving him no choice but to walk along it. After walking for a while without anything happening, he began to feel a bit impatient and instinctively wanted to ask the others for their thoughts. But as he spoke, he realized just how vast it was here, the sound really hollow, and the surrounding pitch blackness made him feel truly insignificant. Fear born from darkness, anxiety born from the unknown, gradually climbed into Ash’s heart, making him instinctively press against the wall beside him, trying to find some comfort. Actually, previous trial locations were no smaller than here, but Ash never felt fear; the Void Realm was even more unknown, but Ash never felt anxious. Because in reality he had Igula and the others, and in the Void Realm he had Sword Maiden Witch Weiser and the others. With them around, no world seemed empty, no darkness seemed frightening, whether returning to reality or the Void Realm, Ash could loudly say ’I’m home.’ Or in Ash’s rather vulgar words, ’With someone by my side, even if I die, there’s someone to bear my corpse, just thinking about that makes me feel much safer.’ Upon reflection, although Ash has journeyed for so long, it seems he’s never truly been alone. Even during the gap period after the jailbreak, Ash spent it with Freyja, the silly Meiwa college student; even when mistakenly entering the Divine Fire Trial, Ash fought side by side with the Twins Observers. But now, Harvey and Qikara remained at the tenth level of the Silent Spiral to host a grand funeral for the insane first Mage of Senluo. Igula and Gwen went back to find Tamasi to counter the crafty Mercury Wooden Horse. Ash was forced to go alone, going down to the deepest level, to hunt down the Silver Lamp one more time. Thinking of this, Ash couldn’t help but laugh at himself. His main mission upon arriving in Senluo was to hunt down the Silver Lamp, even though he had already abandoned the task midway, he didn’t expect to continue it before leaving, it was like a dead main mission suddenly jumping out to attack him. —Can’t things be less conclusive? Ash recalled the information Igula had just told him and couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh. "How about not going then?" Ash was startled, turned his head to look, "I’m here, it’s me, I’ve been following you for so long and you didn’t recognize me." He finally confirmed, the voice source was the shadow on the wall—his shadow. The shadow waved at him: "Hi, finally able to talk to you, so excited, can we shake hands?" Ash showed a puzzled expression but still touched the hand of the shadow on the wall, the shadow happily said, "You truly are a gentle person, can you stay here and talk with me?" "No." Ash said, "I need to reach the deepest level to stop the Silver Lamp, can you help me find the Fog Gate leading to the next level?" "Why?" the shadow said, "You actually don’t want to go, right?" "You clearly know Silver Lamp and Tamasi are the same kind of people, their lives are short, their faith strong, that’s why they can burn everything for their dreams wholeheartedly. They are like fireworks, as long as they’ve shone brilliantly, it’s enough, what they pursue is the moment of ignition." "Silver Lamp prepared for her dream for so many years, her life is completely bound to her dream, she disregards life and death, as long as she achieves it she wouldn’t mind dying the next second, how could you possibly stop it?" the shadow advised, "You might as well immediately go back to find Igula and the others, then use Mercury Wooden Horse’s Sky Gate channel to go to another realm, maybe it’s Dazzling Star or Gospel!" Ash asked back, "Don’t you hope I stay?" "Yes." The shadow scratched its head, "But I know you definitely wouldn’t stay, there’s no Sword Maiden Witch here... Oh by the way, could you bring them here next time, so I can see their shadows..." Ash neither confirmed nor denied it, asking, "Does this wall have an end?" "No," the shadow shook its head, "This wall is endless, you can’t get past it. This is quite an—powerful trial! You can only stay here chatting with me, but isn’t this nice too?" "Impossible, every trial must certainly be passable." Ash gave the shadow a strange look, "Even by force, I have to break through." "Don’t look at me, I’m just a shadow, can’t affect this trial." The shadow shrugged, "But why must you go through? Stopping the Silver Lamp is dangerous, even if you can retreat to the Heavenly Kingdom of Thousand Wishes at any time, there’s no guarantee there won’t be accidents." "More importantly, Igula and the others aren’t around now. If Silver Lamp goes mad and directly triggers the apocalypse, you won’t even have time to drag them to the Heavenly Kingdom of Thousand Wishes for refuge. With the Sky Gate channel, you have the fallback of the Heavenly Kingdom of Thousand Wishes, and you could safely bypass the Senluo End. But if you insist on going it alone, you might end up being the only survivor." "Or do you think the lives of all the Senluoians are more important than Igula and the others?" The shadow seemed very curious: "Are you hoping those strangers will cheer for you? But no one knows what happened with the Silent Spiral, and no one will know you’re being the Savior." Ash: "You’re so annoying." "You’re just losing the argument with me." The shadow said with hands on hips: "I also know what’s troubling you—it’s guilt! You feel you have the ability to save the Kingdom of Senluo and happened across this matter, at least you should do your best. Otherwise, if the Kingdom of Senluo truly perishes and millions vanish with it, you’ll feel it’s your fault for dodging responsibility, which will weigh on your conscience." "But having a troubled conscience is better than letting Igula and the others die, right? A troubled conscience is better than putting yourself in danger?" The shadow said: "Besides, you’ve always been someone who overlooks minor wrongs for major principles—your conscience gets troubled all the time—when you first started working, even taking a bonus made you feel uneasy, wondering if you were exploiting the capitalists a bit." "Even crossing over to become a Cult Leader is something you can self-regulate, how can a troubled conscience be something you can’t deal with? When you meet Sword Maiden, touch her conscience every night, and soon your own conscience energy will recover. If that’s not enough, touch the Witch’s conscience too, okay?" Ash pondered: "Touch the conscience?" The shadow said: "If you can bring in their shadows, I’ll demonstrate for you..." "No, what I mean is, can only touch?" "If I weren’t stuck in the wall, I’d have punched you by now." The shadow said: "So what now? Act like nothing happened, go back to Igula and the others, take the Sky Gate channel to another land for refuge, then set up two Sky Gates, one to cling to Liss for support, another to touch Sword Maiden’s conscience." "The only issue is Tamasi, but both you and Igula are skilled at dealing with this crow. He’d surely give up revenge and saving the world for you, obediently leaving with you." Ash pondered: "Your suggestion does make sense." "But I just want to look at Silver Lamp from afar, and I’ll leave once I’ve seen her." Ash sincerely asked: "Can you let me pass to take a look?" Shadow: "...Saying that just lacks meaning. Really see Silver Lamp, if your gaze can move away from her, I’d consider myself defeated." "Why do you make me sound like a pervert." Ash shrugged and said: "But you know my determination, don’t you?" The shadow paused in silence: "You’re originally just wanting to return home, not to save the world. You have no preparation, why must you wade into this mire?" The most update n0vels are published on 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵✶𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮✶𝓷𝓮𝓽 "Who said I’m unprepared? I came with preparation." Ash said: "Without preparation, how did I pass the trial guarded by Senluo’s top mage? Without preparation, how could I let the Mercury Wooden Horse watch me walk away?" "Wasn’t that the work of your friends?" "They are my preparation." Ash said: "They support me to walk here. Without them, even if I wanted to save the world, I couldn’t achieve it." "The most indifferent Harvey stayed behind to hold off strong enemies, the most calculative Igula not only didn’t obstruct me but went back to assist Tamasi, letting me have no worries." Ash stopped and said to the shadow: "This preparation, isn’t it sufficient enough?" "I actually don’t really want to save the Kingdom of Senluo, but the Transcend Sect was kind to us, and the people of Black Robe Town are quite interesting, along the way there have been many who helped us... More importantly, Fate has pushed me to this point." "So, you’re forced?" The shadow immediately said. "Yes." Ash nodded and said: "To prevent guilt from overwhelming my conscience, I am indeed forced." "But my sense of justice at this moment is also beyond my control." "The curse here should be Loneliness, right?" Ash raised his head and looked at the endless wall: "If you feel lonely, you’ll never surpass this wall." "Thank you for reminding me." Ash looked at the shadow and said: "You’ve made me realize I’m never alone." Inside the shadow began to appear white mist, it shouted: "Don’t blame me for not warning you, Ash! When you fail and lose everything, you’ll regret your decision now, and hate the version of you that made wrong choices!" "If I still fail after doing my utmost, then I can blame this world heartily rather than hate myself." Ash reached out and pushed through the Fog Gate in the shadow: "Moreover, what I’ll truly regret isn’t what I did wrong, but what I didn’t do." "Can’t do anything about you..." The shadow mumbled: "Then in the future, don’t let the shadow hold back your steps."