Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

From the beginning, she never had any chance.

As time passed, the three of them quickly formed a deep friendship.

Yan Yu still often chatted with her, sharing the joys and trivialities of life. Su Yunjin had her son recognize Lin Ning as his godmother, frequently went shopping with her, and complained about her husband's female secretary constantly trying to be a mistress—luckily Su Yunjin had unconditional trust in Yan Yu and was never worried he would cheat.

The three even occasionally traveled together, as close as a family.

This trust particularly moved Lin Ning. She had to admit, she still held some special feelings for Yan Yu, but she would never break the tacit understanding in their trio relationship.

Until we all turn to dust.

With this resigned belief, Lin Ning remained unmarried and childless throughout her life. After her parents passed away in her later years, she even moved in with the Yan Family, taking care of each other and living together with Yan Yu and Su Yunjin.

After Yan Yu and Su Yunjin successively passed away, Lin Ning continued living in their house for several years, finally reaching the limit of her lifespan.

She lay on the hospital bed, looking at Yan Yuanjia who rushed back to visit, suddenly mustering the last bit of strength in her frail body and tearing off the oxygen mask.

"Bury me..." Lin Ning struggled to say, "with your parents..."

"Together."

Seeing Yan Yuanjia nodding with tears streaming down his face, she slowly closed her eyes.

As her consciousness was fading, a strong thought suddenly emerged in her mind:

If only I had met him earlier.

——————————————

In Lin Ning's third life, she was born into an ordinary middle-class family.

Her personality was unremarkable, neither extroverted nor introverted, with grades in the middle range, neither outstanding nor mediocre. She was the type of person who left no strong impression on her teachers, just another name on the class list.

Only because she was pretty and had a good personality, she never lacked admirers, but she didn't fancy any of them at all.

Lin Ning had a childhood friend named Yan Yu.

Compared to Lin Ning, Yan Yu was much more outstanding.

Cheerful, sunny, and articulate, with top-notch grades, even her parents often hinted for her to seize the opportunity, lest she regret it in the future.

But Lin Ning couldn't do it.

The two were too familiar with each other; if she rashly took that step, it might destroy their original relationship—something Lin Ning absolutely wasn't willing to risk.

After high school graduation, Yan Yu went to Jianghai City, while Lin Ning stayed in Minyue Province, and they maintained long-distance contact.

Yan Yu would often share interesting stories from his life with Lin Ning, including girls pursuing him, and would ask Lin Ning if she had a love interest.

Somehow, the thought of Yan Yu being pursued in Jianghai City filled Lin Ning with vague anxiety and fear.

The safest course of action would be to make the first move and confirm her relationship with Yan Yu, but...

What if he wasn't willing?

Hesitant and anxious, this was the current Lin Ning, conflicted and contradictory. She longed to get closer, yet feared scaring him away, thus remaining rooted in place, overwhelmed with indecision.

After much hesitation, she finally told Yan Yu that she was determined to pursue graduate studies at his university.

The implied message was "you need to wait for me," but she wasn't sure if Yan Yu understood; he quickly replied with two words.

Alright.

Followed by a smiley face.

Lin Ning stared at the screen blankly, silently for a while, and couldn't help but let out a sorrowful sigh.

In the dark side of the consciousness world, Jing Zhongxian couldn't help but want to rush in and play for Lin Ning when seeing her ridiculous moves.

Of course, what he had told Lin Ning earlier wasn't a lie.

This was Lin Ning's world of consciousness, and all the plot was constructed from her subconscious fantasies. She was immersed in the dream, unable to extricate herself, but it didn't mean the dream could be interfered with or altered by the outside world.

In fact, the "little bit of help" Jing Zhongxian mentioned earlier was actually to induce Lin Ning to think about Yan Yu.

In the consciousness world, "thinking is obtaining, and imagining is manifesting." A woman using her beloved man as her anchor and using her deepest emotions as the key to awaken her true self is naturally the safest approach.

It's considered a way to lower the difficulty for her a little.

The dream entering technique is a particularly perilous dharma method. If one gets lost in the dream, the consequence would be the scattering of their three souls and seven spirits, with no hope for reincarnation. Even with Jing Zhongxian providing Lin Ning a hint, trying to find herself within ten reincarnations is still an extremely difficult test.

The memory seal placed on Lin Ning was without a hint of leniency; otherwise, it would be the judge participating personally, making the test meaningless.

To win my approval, you must try to struggle out from the endless cycles of dream reincarnation.

————————————

The American continent is already doomed.

The population wasn't completely wiped out; after all, the serpents of light were not Trisolarans. Most population centers were completely destroyed, leaving only the scattered villages outside city clusters intact.

The premise of modern industrial chains is the gathering of industrial populations. With the depredations of the serpents of light, the industrial system is essentially finished, the national power plummeting, with little hope of resurgence in the future.

The serpents of light, not continuing their hunt, submerged into the water at the ruins of the East Coast, starting their crossing over the Atlantic Ocean.

The apparent target was Europe on the other side.

Compared to the globally watched serpents of light, the serpents of darkness rampaging in South America received significantly less attention.

Its body was cloaked in endless dark mist. As it passed through streets and drifted through neighborhoods, any life engulfed by the black mist, whether humans, birds, beasts, insects, or vermin, would completely vanish.

After consuming a large population in South America, it was expected to imitate the serpents of light and cross the Atlantic to Africa.

The two giant serpents, like apocalyptic horsemen, were pushing the tide of destruction onto the world, while humanity remained powerless.

Lu Country and Europe had reached an agreement to send several Golden Core True Men to help kill the ice serpents.

Once the ice serpents were dealt with, Europe could focus on preparing against the serpents of light coming from afar—whether success or failure, it would buy Lu Country more time.

In Australia, after the serpents of thunder destroyed the coastal metropolis clusters, it recently began turning northwest, seemingly rerouting to attack the many islands in Oceania.

In Lu Country, the population migration was being carried out in an orderly manner.

The population entering the Mysterious Realm was officially participating in the "Talent Awakening Experiment," with most resigning from their previous jobs to try their luck, therefore being assigned roles by the state.

Whether in agricultural cultivation or industrial production, every Mysterious Realm needed to achieve self-sufficiency, with no need for material exchanges with the outside world in the future, so the employment market gap was still quite large.

As discussions around the "National Exams" gradually waned, a new topic slowly came to the fore:

Homesickness.

The entry and exit passages to the Mysterious Realms were heavily guarded, preventing any movement between the two worlds. So for many, if their family and friends entered the Mysterious Realms, it essentially meant they wouldn't hear from them for the foreseeable future.

This mutual isolation and inability to communicate drew attention to and concern for the experimenters in the Mysterious Realm, with an underlying worry quietly growing in society.

The media worked together to direct public opinion towards the "pioneering of new worlds," engaging in grand narrative praises from all angles, claiming that "the Western World's Age of Exploration brought it centuries of prosperity and leadership," and "now, as Lu Country colonizes extensively within the Mysterious Realm and conducts Talent Awakening experiments, it is paving the way for the possibility of National Immortal Cultivation for humanity."

National Immortal Cultivation, what a wonderful term!

Thus, mainstream opinion temporarily set aside its worries and began advocating for the "release of more experimental slots."