When I arrived at the “Divine Dragon’s” venue, I discovered he wasn’t standing at the entrance. This enormous swimming hall emitted a thick, strange smell.

It was like simmering a pot of exceptionally rich meat broth. I could even hear the “glug glug” sound of bubbling.

And at this moment, my heart also suddenly began to pound.

I gasped for breath, walking forward step by step, reaching out to push open the building’s main door. A strong wave of hot air rushed toward my face at this moment, and the meat fragrance became even more intense.

Inside the room was very hot, like a huge bathhouse.

“Dragon…” Although all of us worshipped this “Divine Dragon” every day, we had never entered his game.

This place was filled with overwhelming meat fragrance and cold “death intent.” The entire swimming hall emitted enormous water vapor, making it impossible for me to see the path ahead clearly. I only felt everything inside was a reddish hue, and the smell was also pungent.

Just a few steps ahead, through the hazy water mist, I smelled elder sister’s scent. Beside her was another person simultaneously emitting both foul stench and fragrance…

I waved away the mist before my eyes and walked step by step toward elder sister’s scent. Her smell was very strange… as if all the scents in this world were entangled on her body.

What about the others…? Were they all dead?

In this enormous building, I could only smell two living people.

“Is this okay?” An unfamiliar woman asked.

“I… I can… Thank you…” Elder sister’s trembling voice replied, “Sorry for troubling you…”

I walked forward, stepping on the sticky substance underfoot. My heart was about to jump out of my throat. I didn’t know what exactly I would see.

When I was still a few steps away from those two people, the “Divine Dragon” discovered me.

But what came into view next made my eyes widen completely.

Elder sister was lying like a dead fish on the table in front of the “Divine Dragon.” She was soaked through and flushed red. A bedsheet was spread on the cutting board, and the bedsheet was covered in blood everywhere, yet there were no wounds on her body.

The “Divine Dragon” was currently holding a knife aimed at her heart.

“Elder sister…” I called out hoarsely.

Elder sister, who was lying on the table, was startled. She hurriedly sat up to look at me: “Ying, Yingxiong? How did you get here?”

“What are you doing… what are you all doing…” I asked, “Elder sister… don’t you want me anymore?”

I thought I would cry, but I didn’t. I couldn’t let elder sister see me in such a fragile state.

“I…”

The scent on elder sister’s body instantly became incomparably sorrowful. Her lips trembled slightly, then she turned her head to look at the “Divine Dragon”: “Can you give me some time?”

After hearing this, the “Divine Dragon” sighed: “Is he your ‘concern’?”

“Yes.”

“Since you can’t die no matter what, then go deal with it.” The “Divine Dragon” said, “After letting go of your concern, remember to come back to meet your death. Otherwise, when the people from ‘above’ come, you’ll die even more miserably.”

“Okay… thank you…”

Elder sister turned over and climbed down from the table, running to my side with stumbling steps. I saw her face was pale beyond measure. I had thought her hands would be very cold, but unexpectedly when she touched me, she was extremely burning hot.

“Yingxiong… you shouldn’t have come.” She smoothed her hair and said to me, “I didn’t want you to see me like this…”

“Elder sister… why is this…” I tried hard to control my emotions, but I couldn’t say a single sentence of the language I had organized in my mind earlier, “Are you planning to leave me here…?”

“Yes… Yingxiong, I have to go.” She said with a smile through her tears, “I didn’t lie to deceive you… Remember? No matter how terrible the smell on my body is, I would never want to hurt you.”

Elder sister said she didn’t hurt me, but my heart ached terribly.

“But why didn’t you just let those people go die by themselves…?” I asked trembling, “Why do you all have to go together? You should have just let them go die themselves…”

“But I’m the ‘Divine Maiden.'” Elder sister used her scalding palm to stroke my head, “If I didn’t personally throw myself into this ‘ascension’… no one would willingly follow me here… It’s just a pity that my ‘healing’ keeps me from dying…”

As she spoke, her voice also choked up.

“I’m sorry… Yingxiong… I didn’t think I wanted to live this much…”

I didn’t quite understand… I didn’t know why she was apologizing to me. Wasn’t “wanting to live” right?

“Elder sister, come with me.” I tugged at her, my expression wooden as I said, “Don’t stay here anymore… Let’s go back… Let’s go back to eat… You still have stories you haven’t finished telling me… I won’t let you go…”

“Yingxiong, I can’t leave.” She smiled and shook her head, “I’ve already told her I want to gamble with my life. I just didn’t expect that I couldn’t die… Otherwise you shouldn’t have seen me like this.”

My throat felt like it was stuffed with a ball of cotton. I couldn’t say anything.

“Yingxiong, let me tell you the ending of ‘The Happy Prince,’ okay?”

After hearing this, I was stunned for a long time before I slowly nodded my head.

Elder sister pondered for a while, then said: “At the end of the story, when the ‘Happy Prince’ saw the swallow die, he was in unbearable pain. Even his heart made of lead cracked in half.”

“And then…”

“Then God sent an angel to the mortal world, who brought the Happy Prince’s lead heart and the swallow’s corpse to heaven, letting them live eternally…”

“Enough…” I said in a low voice, “It’s all lies… Even fairy tales are the same…”

I had originally thought I had indeed become hard-hearted, but now I knew it wasn’t like that. My lead heart was truly about to crack in half. It hurt too much.

“It’s not a lie…” Elder sister reached out to wipe the tear tracks on my face, “Yingxiong, I told you I wouldn’t lie to you. If elder sister dies, an angel will come take me to heaven. I’ll be watching you from above…”

“But there are no angels in this world…” I said through gritted teeth.

“How can there be none? We just don’t know about them…” Elder sister sniffled, “Maybe the ordinary people around us… or some very inconspicuous person is an angel… I’m not lying to you…”

She said she wasn’t lying, but her body emitted a heavy scent of “lying.” For the first time, I was so hesitant. I didn’t know whether I should expose her.

“Promise me…” She reached out to stroke my head, “I can’t bear to see you become what you are now. I hope you’ll always be a kind child… If one day you really can escape, you must love this world well.”

“But elder sister…” I reached out and clutched her clothes desperately, “But… I can’t even take the swallow’s corpse away… How will you get to heaven…? The angel won’t be able to find you…”

After hearing this, she was slightly stunned, then turned her head to look around at something. Then she stood up and pulled down from the cutting board the bedsheet that was covered with her fresh blood. This bedsheet was half white and half red, carrying elder sister’s scent.

She raised the bedsheet high and draped it over my back.

Then she tied it in front of my neck, smiling as she said to me: “Yingxiong… this is stained with my blood… You take it and go search for our heaven, okay?”