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Chapter 148: Chapter 148

Compared to Blacktide Continent and Silvermirror Continent, the Jadeite Continent wedged between them was the smallest—its area was less than half that of either neighbor. During the Origin Civilization era there had only been two nations here: the world’s third great power, Grinot, and a tiny state called Chirang.

And Yvette’s trip across the Jadeite Continent lasted only ten years.

The reason it ended so quickly was simple: the entire Jadeite Continent is a huge tropical rainforest straddling the equator, and vegetation has reclaimed the ruins even more thoroughly here.

If the ruined cities of Blacktide still left recognizable outlines, Jadeite’s relics had been completely swallowed by forest and were hard to distinguish, which made it a real headache for Yvette when she tried to locate aberration nests.

Still, the gains over those ten years were significant: Yvette’s mana rose to nearly eight thousand, and her aberrant mana doubled to four hundred thousand.

Worth mentioning: during her exploration she didn’t slay a single aberration above Stage Five—not because she couldn’t win, but because winning would be a loss; it wasn’t necessary.

Besides, aberrations at that level commonly showed intelligence on par with humans and could speak. To suddenly slaughter an intelligent being that wanted to communicate and hadn’t provoked you seemed unnecessary to Yvette.

In her view, the post-apocalypse’s new world order would either be born among the Machinists or among the aberrations—she didn’t care which.

As a traveler, so long as her own absolute safety was guaranteed, she could remain curious and play the role of an observer no matter which direction things went.

One quiet night, after leaving the last marionette duchy she’d encountered on Jadeite, Yvette adjusted the autopilot and set the Magitech Vehicle to head for a place she’d passed long ago.

Driving on Jadeite had its inconveniences: countless giant trees tens to hundreds of meters tall blocked sightlines, and roots sprawling like mountains often obstructed the way.

But the Magitech Vehicle couldn’t fly constantly—the mana consumption was too high. It wasn’t fair to treat Yvette like an endless power bank; her mana recovery couldn’t keep up with continuous flight.

She turned and saw Ice Rain writing in a travel journal in the cabin while Abella read some magazine she’d acquired somewhere. Abella’s two snow-white legs were lazily propped on Ice Rain’s shoulder—using her like a footrest.

After a while, a message arrived in the vehicle that caught Yvette’s attention. She glanced and found it was from Lant.

She didn’t think much of it—Lant messaged almost every month to report what he’d seen on Blacktide.

Sometimes he’d be amazed at the anthropomorphic behaviors of the marionettes within the marionette kingdoms; sometimes he’d fought powerful high-tier aberrations and, after a bloody exchange, ended up friends—those cases weren’t rare. As a Demonkin, Lant lacked the aberrant factors aberrations need; any sensible high-tier aberration could calculate that fighting him to the death was a poor investment, so it was better to turn an enemy into an ally, share information, and exchange stories between the two worlds.

After all, although Supreme Demon King Rosalyn died alongside the Doomsday Witch, the two worlds hadn’t fought a full-scale war. From Lant’s perspective, the filth demons bore him no personal blood feud—only the Abyssal Demons were the object of his vengeance.

Beyond that, Lant also liked to report trivial little discoveries.

For example, in the ruins of a launch site he came across evidence of the Origin Civilization’s space exploration and was astonished; he’d write excited messages praising the Origin Civilization.

Or, through some leftover writings, he’d find odd terms used by the ancients and message to ask what they meant.

As a teacher, Yvette couldn’t really explain those things—she taught magic, not every other subject.

But she also didn’t want Abella to corrupt the kid’s mind, so she’d always be vague, or tell him to ask his marionette friends and dig into those strange terms together.

What they ultimately uncovered was none of her concern.

Still, Lant’s messages weren’t useless. From his little finds Yvette learned a few things.

For instance, the Skytear Group seemed to have actually used Field Magic to develop an anti-gravity engine and built the world’s only aerospace carriers equipped with true anti-gravity—unrivaled globally. Other contemporary aerospace carriers still relied on Wind Magic and were affected by elemental environments: the closer to space, the worse the mana-efficiency ratio, making independent spaceflight nearly impossible.

Yvette remembered that in the dream world she had entered, anti-gravity engines were as mythical as “gate-space technology”—always a half-joke of “in thirty years’ time.”

So it wasn’t just wishful thinking—they’d actually done it?

On the day the apocalypse came, did anyone escape on an aerospace carrier? Even to survive on a lunar base or space station?

Without overthinking, Yvette opened Lant’s message. This time—unlike his usual long dispatches—he’d sent a farewell.

He had seen an aurora.

Yvette was silent for a moment, then called Abella over. Together they sent Lant some reminders and blessings.

At first, when Lant became her third student, Yvette hadn’t been very invested—he’d effectively been free-raised.

But over the years his messages came frequently, and she replied seriously; their exchanges had become a bit like pen pals.

That teacher-and-friend relationship looked : Lant stayed respectful and never crossed bounds—he observed the rituals of a disciple properly, unlike Abella, who was a walking menace.

So when Lant left, Yvette felt a regret she’d expected but still hadn’t gotten used to.

“Write something too,” Yvette said after finishing her note to Lant, looking at Abella.

Abella, predictably in low spirits, puckered her lips and wrote a few faux-nonchalant lines—told Lant to hurry up and get lost—then hesitated for ten seconds, deleted them, and finally sent a bland, short farewell.

Less than a minute after sending, Lant’s final message came back—no long paragraphs this time,

just a built-in big crying emoji.

Thinking of Lant’s honest, simple nature, Yvette guessed the boy was probably already sobbing his heart out.

Even though freeing Lant’s full Demonkin form had greatly extended his lifespan, whether they’d meet again in their lifetimes remained unknown.

After Lant left, Yvette’s Jadeite journey drew to a close and she began preparations to return home.

But before she left she wanted to revisit one more place: the ruins of Gade City, capital of Grinot.

Yes, in terms of the Land of the End, her Jadeite trip was ending—but in another sense it was only just beginning.

Many years earlier, at the very start of her Jadeite expedition, she’d found a Dream Mist in Gade City.

She’d been tempted to enter then but hesitated, deciding to finish Jadeite first and return when her aberrant mana was more abundant.

Now that she had 400,000 aberrant mana and had learned Light-Shadow Magic, she felt more confident. She set two main goals.

One: investigate the Firestealer Program and see if it could lead to more clues about the Machinist God. Two: learn Nature Magic—one of the five major concept magics—while here.

After all, the Dream Mist here might be the only one on Jadeite, so she had to seize the chance; the local university actually taught it—at worst she’d audit a few classes.

As for the true cause of the apocalypse, frankly she wasn’t very interested anymore. Either someone in The Eight Corporations leaked things like the “Shentu” incident, or it was the work of Agent Zero—the suspects boiled down to those two options.

She also had a special hypothesis about the Dream Mist.

First, she’d confirmed the Dream Mist was a boundless open world with extraordinarily rich detail. Every passerby had a clear, distinct life trajectory—this couldn’t be pieced together from a single person’s memories.

In other words, it was a full, real world; she herself was the external intruder.

Combine that with Agent Zero’s last cryptic words, and she wondered whether the answer lay in those few phrases.

Zero had said the world wasn’t entirely false—meaning parts were false and parts were real. The question was which parts were which.

Zero had also asked her to take care of Lianna.

Did that mean the Dream Mist might be fabricated, yet some people inside—at least Lianna—were real?

She didn’t know if the guess was correct, but she estimated her next evolution was imminent.

Among the five major concept magics—Life, Soul, Nature, Field, and Light-Shadow—the one she most lacked was Nature Magic. She already had a solid grasp of the others; her understanding of Light-Shadow Magic might even surpass that of the Origin Civilization itself.

Once this Dream Mist run finished and she filled the gap in Nature Magic, she planned to return to the island and evolve again. Then she would have enough combat strength and confidence

to approach that legendary Machinist God.

Many unanswered mysteries, she suspected, could probably be solved by it directly.

And Yvette’s trip across the Jadeite Continent lasted only ten years.

The reason it ended so quickly was simple: the entire Jadeite Continent is a huge tropical rainforest straddling the equator, and vegetation has reclaimed the ruins even more thoroughly here.

Still, the gains over those ten years were significant: Yvette’s mana rose to nearly eight thousand, and her aberrant mana doubled to four hundred thousand.

Worth mentioning: during her exploration she didn’t slay a single aberration above Stage Five—not because she couldn’t win, but because winning would be a loss; it wasn’t necessary.

She was a good person, after all.