The Herta noticed that the disturbances outside were gradually dying down.
She tried contacting Lin Yi and Screwllum, only to find that neither could be reached for the moment. That was enough for her to understand that the two had already left.
She couldn't reach Stephen either.
Who knew where that guy had run off to?
That left only Ruan Mei.
One of Herta's puppets crawled out through the plum-blossom mark.
The instant it raised its head—
A massive Skaracabaz was staring it straight in the face.
The puppet instinctively activated its self-defense protocol and raised its enormous hammer.
"Time to twirl~"
The Herta immediately shut down the puppet's self-defense mode.
"Ruan Mei, what exactly happened over here?"
"Where did this bug come from?"
"And judging by this presence... an Emanator of Propagation?"
"The Aeon of Propagation is already dead. Where did an Emanator of Propagation come from?"
The Herta stared at the enormous insect.
"And why is this thing inside Shanjian Heaven?"
"How did you end up fighting it?"
Ruan Mei's movements paused briefly when The Herta suddenly appeared.
She gently stroked the spot on Skaracabaz's head that Herta's puppet had accidentally struck with its hammer.
But she didn't stop her analysis.
"It's a long story."
"My research into recreating and birthing an Emanator of Propagation... unexpectedly succeeded."
The Herta stared at her, utterly baffled.
"Recreating an Emanator of Propagation?"
"How did you do that?"
"Now I'm extremely curious."
Ruan Mei wasn't particularly willing to waste time explaining everything right now.
"I'll tell you the details later~"
"Lin Yi and Screwllum have already left. You came to ask when I'll be finished here, didn't you?"
A trace of apology appeared on Ruan Mei's face.
"I'm sorry."
"My portion of the operation was interrupted by this big fellow."
"It is extremely important to my future experiments and research. I couldn't simply ignore it."
The Herta waved dismissively.
"I don't particularly care."
"The memories of countless worlds stored inside the Floating Light Sea are already enough to keep me occupied for a very long time."
"I accomplished my objective ages ago."
Then her expression became slightly more serious.
"But this operation doesn't involve only the two of us."
"You'll still need to give everyone a reasonable explanation afterward."
Ruan Mei nodded.
"I will."
"So when are we leaving?" The Herta asked. "The Garden of Recollection's people could return at any moment. Once they do, getting out won't be nearly as easy."
Ruan Mei's hands never stopped moving.
Most of her attention remained focused on the Emanator of Propagation—Skaracabaz.
Only after a short while did she answer.
"Give me another thirty-seven seconds."
"In thirty-seven seconds, I'll no longer be able to interfere with or control it."
"At that point, we really will need to leave."
Ruan Mei might currently look as though she were effortlessly playing with Skaracabaz, treating an Emanator of Propagation like a harmless experimental subject.
But that was only because she had interfered with every stage of its birth.
Once Skaracabaz completely broke free from those restraints—
Only then would it truly reveal its fangs.
At that point, the positions of attacker and defender would be reversed~
Ruan Mei had no intention of letting her experiment backfire on her.
As for the mess afterward?
Naturally, that was the Garden of Recollection's problem.
Leaving Skaracabaz behind would even buy them additional time, preventing the Garden from pursuing them.
Allowing an Emanator of Propagation to continuously spawn swarms throughout Shanjian Heaven would cause far more destruction than several geniuses ever could.
After all—
This was the greatest of the universe's Three Great Calamities.
Ruan Mei located the fragment of Tayzzyronth's divine remains that had been enveloped within Skaracabaz.
The Herta prepared to unleash her full strength against the seven memosprites.
They themselves had said they weren't conventional life-forms and couldn't truly die.
Perfect.
That meant she didn't even have to hold back.
Ruan Mei attempted to sever the connection between the divine remains of Propagation and Skaracabaz.
It didn't work.
The two had already fused completely.
Meanwhile, the Fourth Mirror quietly sealed off the surroundings of the Floating Light Sea.
It intended to remind those seven memosprites of one simple truth—
Lord Mirror was still Lord Mirror~
Ruan Mei completely recorded all of Skaracabaz's soul information.
She had also monitored every single stage of its genetic transformation from beginning to end.
And as it turned out—
Ruan Mei had misunderstood Skaracabaz.
That enormous pile of genetic spaghetti code had existed only to bypass the restrictions she had planted within it.
Now that it had nearly escaped her control, Skaracabaz's genes had returned to an orderly structure.
The unique arrangement overflowed with the beauty of Life.
Ruan Mei found herself entranced by it.
At the same time—
Skaracabaz was already beginning to ignore her commands.
Elsewhere, The Herta finished packaging the replicated memories of countless worlds produced by the seven memosprites representing the seven emotions—Joy, Anger, Sorrow, Thought, Surprise, Fear, and Worry.
Obviously, in such a short amount of time, the memories they had managed to replicate amounted to less than one percent of the Floating Light Sea's total contents.
Then—
The Herta suddenly attacked.
The seven memosprites had anticipated this possibility and were prepared.
Unfortunately, preparation meant very little when the difference in strength was so overwhelming.
Trying to oppose The Herta was like an ant attempting to shake a tree.
And so—
The seven of them died here.
Again~
The Herta directly packed up the entire Floating Light Sea.
In its place, she left behind all the copies those poor memosprites had worked so hard to reproduce.
Of course, The Herta wasn't completely heartless.
She even left them a message.
Its general meaning was simple:
She truly only needed the information inside and had no particular interest in the memories themselves.
Once she returned home, she would gradually replicate them and upload everything into the Simulated Universe.
After every memory had been successfully recorded, she would return the originals exactly as they were.
But—
If the Memokeepers came looking for trouble...
Well.
Then she couldn't guarantee anything.
Perhaps some unfortunate little "accident" might occur and damage those memories~
At the final moment before leaving, The Herta turned her attention to something hidden beneath the Floating Light Sea.
These were unique memories that hadn't been stored within the crystal-sphere-shaped memoria universe itself.
The Herta reached out and seized one of them.
As expected—
The entirety of Shanjian Heaven began to tremble.
And as the vibrations spread, the remaining memories suddenly scattered on their own, fleeing in every direction and concealing themselves.
Clearly, these memories were extraordinarily important.
The Herta examined the one she had managed to seize.
Her eyes widened.
"This is..."
"The complete process of Nanook ascending to become the Aeon of Destruction!!!"
"And it's this comprehensive?!"
"This is priceless!"
The Herta immediately became intensely interested in the other memories that had seemingly grown legs and run away.
Unfortunately, finding them again could take who knew how long.
Time was up.
She no longer had the luxury of searching slowly.
Filled with reluctance, The Herta took her spoils and left.
Not long after she disappeared—
The seven memosprites representing Joy, Anger, Sorrow, Thought, Surprise, Fear, and Worry reappeared yet again.
Following closely behind them was Shi, Emanator of Remembrance.
Shi took a deep breath.
She instructed the seven memosprites to clean up the aftermath before heading over to assist Mana.
By the time they found the location of the "robber"—
The robber was already gone.
What remained was an Emanator of Propagation...
And an enormous disaster consisting of countless swarming insects.
Who could possibly understand Mana's rage at that moment?
She wanted nothing more than to tear those geniuses apart with her bare hands.
And yet, gritting her teeth, she still had no choice but to deal with the extremely troublesome Emanator of Propagation first.
This was precisely why people said you should never fight on your own territory.
Sure, fighting on home ground gave you an advantage.
But the property getting destroyed was also your own.
...
Present Day.
As Lin Yi listened to The Herta recount their expedition into the Garden of Recollection from her perspective, he found himself recalling what had happened back then.
Apparently, he wasn't the only one who had secretly walked away with an enormous prize.
The others had their own hidden gains too.
Which, honestly, was perfectly normal.
Now he knew what Ruan Mei had obtained.
He also knew what The Herta had obtained.
That only made Lin Yi even more curious.
What exactly had Screwllum and Stephen gotten their hands on?
During that entire operation, Stephen had practically disappeared from the story.
Where the hell had he gone?
Lin Yi, The Herta, and Ruan Mei had all gained something valuable.
He refused to believe Screwllum and Stephen had somehow walked away without obtaining a few extra prizes of their own.
And then there was another question.
How had the Garden of Recollection ultimately dealt with that Emanator of Propagation?
All Lin Yi could say was—
Ruan Mei had hidden this ridiculously well.
Aside from The Herta, who had discovered it entirely by accident...
None of the others had known that Ruan Mei had pulled off something this outrageous.