On the first night of the next cycle, I came before Siwei Jiejie with the dagger in my hand. If only I could kill her here, then everything would get better, right?

This was my first time killing someone. My entire body was trembling.

I wanted to protect her, so I had to kill her. Could someone please tell me whether this idea was right or wrong? Why had I never heard of such a thing before…

But it didn’t matter. As long as I could bring Siwei Jiejie’s “mind” back, nothing mattered to me.

If she could forget all of this… that should be the happiest thing for her.

I surely couldn’t escape from this “prison,” right? I was waiting for death, but Siwei Jiejie was different. As long as this swallow had never seen the “Happy Prince,” then she wouldn’t stay here.

Whether it was Uncle Wan, me, this family, or everything that had happened over all these years—I couldn’t forget, but she could.

I didn’t know what sins I had committed in the real world, but here I was truly about to commit a heinous crime. I wanted to personally kill Siwei Jiejie, who loved me most in this place.

Previously, I had always been waiting to escape from this place. Now I had figured it out—I simply couldn’t get out, so it didn’t matter if I killed someone. Let the memories between Siwei Jiejie and me forever become the deepest secret in my heart. It was fine if only I remembered them in this world.

When I approached her neck with the dagger, her scent suddenly changed, and then she opened her eyes.

In the silent darkness of night, her eyes were extraordinarily bright, now flashing with an unusual light as she stared at me. A terrifying scent emanated from her entire body—I couldn’t even identify the name of this scent.

“Ji-Jiejie…” I said chokingly. “Jiejie, don’t be afraid… I will kill you… Everything will be fine…”

“There’s no need.” She said softly. “Put down the knife and sleep.”

“But Jiejie, you…” I held the knife, my entire body trembling. I knew that only by killing her could I resolve all of this. Otherwise, the next time she opened her eyes, she would be a different person.

“I will resolve all of this.” She said.

“I’ve thought of a way. Let me resolve all of this.” She smiled bitterly. “Hero, I’ve thought of a way to liberate both of us.”

“Really?” Hearing Jiejie say this, my voice changed.

“Really.” Siwei Jiejie nodded. “Soon… you’ll be able to ride your bicycle wildly through the streets to your heart’s content. You can shout happily and loudly, you can do everything an eight-year-old child wants to do. No one will control you anymore.”

“Jiejie…”

She smiled and patted my head. “Hero, you just need to remember that no matter how foul the scent on my body becomes, I could never want to harm you.”

“Mm.” I nodded.

“So the only thing we can do next is wait.” She said. “Now we just need to wait for an opportunity, and I’ll have a way to make a change.”

“What opportunity?”

“An opportunity that Zhou Zhenglong will give us.”

Later, although we didn’t leave the room, we could still feel that Zhou Zhenglong’s tyranny had been continuously changing this place. He established an enforcement squad specifically responsible for violent law enforcement and extensively revised the “house rules.”

At first, the family members who came to me for judgment in the morning began to have injuries on their faces, yet their bodies had no scent other than “fragrant scent.”

Later, the number of people I needed to “judge” every morning became fewer and fewer, and the scent on the remaining people became increasingly angry.

Every time, Siwei Jiejie would step forward, use her ability to heal these people’s wounds, then whisper a few words in their ears as comfort.

The people she comforted would always fade the angry scent on their bodies, only to return the next day with an even more furious scent.

Was the era that Wan Cai spoke of about to come?

He said that after the “Era of Order” would be the “Era of Chaos,” but Guyu Gege and Siwei Jiejie relied on their own efforts to integrate what should have been a chaotic era into the “Era of Heroes,” but the third era would not change no matter what.

The “Era of Collapse” was coming.

On a certain ordinary night, a large amount of shouting and sounds of killing came from outside the prison cell. Someone had begun a rebellion.

Jiejie told me that since force could be used to rule this city, naturally someone would also use force to overthrow it.

Outside, various sounds of “fragrant scent” being activated and fighting merged into chaos, while Jiejie and I just sat expressionlessly in the corner, quietly listening to the upheaval. Neither of us spoke.

Was this the so-called “opportunity”?

But I worried that “Jade City” was just replacing one king with a new one, and we would still be the prince and the swallow.

Just as I expected, Zhou Zhenglong won the first several chaotic uprisings, and all the people involved in the rebellion were collectively tied up and sent to the Punishment Official Jiejie’s site to be executed.

Over the course of two years, countless rebels emerged, but the result was that nearly half of the people were executed. The number of people I needed to “judge” every day became fewer and fewer. Jiejie said they now had no time to do anything else. As soon as they landed, they would begin forming factions and engaging in war and killing. As long as they could drag people to the Punishment Official’s site and use extreme methods to force them to bet their lives, they could permanently weaken the opposing side’s strength.

But I always felt there was something inconsistent. These people clearly knew they couldn’t defeat Zhou Zhenglong—why would they choose to go to their deaths wave after wave?

Finally, on a certain night when I was about to despair, the small door to our storage room was smashed open. The bright light from the bonfire outside pierced into the room, making my eyes hurt.

“We’ve rescued the Hero and the Saint!!” a woman shouted back. “We’ve won!!”

A group of people rushed in, pulled out the deathly pale me and Siwei Jiejie, and dragged us outside. Each of them bore wounds, but they were shouting and cheering, utterly frenzied.

Jiejie pulled my hand from the side and said softly to me, “In this sick city, rule by brainwashing and force are both unstable. Only faith is.”

She released my hand, walked alone into the crowd, then raised her arms and shouted, “The holy war is victorious!!”

The group of people also shouted after her, “The holy war is victorious!!”

I felt like I no longer knew Jiejie. What difference was there between her now… and Wan Cai?

Surrounded by family members, she ascended to the new throne. She raised her arms and shouted about the “holy war,” loudly worshipping the “Hero,” but now I knew that she was the one in power now. She was another Wan Cai.

After Wan Cai and Zhou Zhenglong and countless other rulers, now it was finally Siwei Jiejie’s turn.

What would the days ahead be like?

Siwei Jiejie stood in the center of the hall, countless people surrounding her. As her hand gently pointed toward me, the crowd walked before me, lifted me up, and tossed me toward the sky.

I was thrown up and fell down along with the cheering crowd, rising and falling, never stopping.

I turned my head to look at Siwei Jiejie. She was expressionless, her scent foul.

And my heart, like my body, rose into the sky with the “holy war” victory, then fell into the depths with Jiejie’s rule.