In the peaceful and serene farm, there stood a large tree.

There were many buildings on the farm, but this tree was exceptionally special.

"Just like I enjoy finding a spot to sit and space out in the cafe of the small town, your favorite place is here, isn’t it?"

"Otherwise, you wouldn’t have come here subconsciously."

Bai Yuan found himself wearing a hospital gown, everything seemed exactly as it had been seven hundred years ago.

The Ten of Spades shrugged:

"I can survive, but you will die. Let me out now, and there’s still time."

"I thought you would say ’thank you’ first?"

Bai Yuan did not lean against the large tree like the Ten of Spades did. Instead, he leaped onto the trunk, lying horizontally, watching the leaves in the canopy.

The sunlight filtered through the foliage, casting mottled shadows on the ground.

Bai Yuan had never dealt with the Ten of Spades like this seven hundred years ago.

Bai Yuan was very clear that someone like Jing Yi might allow for a harmonious relationship between two Ks, but would never permit all three to be harmonious.

"Thank what? Thank you, the parasite, for not killing me, your host?"

"Hey, don’t be like that, I’m not that heartless," Bai Yuan said with a smile.

"Everything has been according to your plan; since when have I been infested by a Parasitic Heart Demon? I’ve always been on guard against you."

When the Ten of Spades realized the surroundings had become the landscape of his Inner World, he understood everything.

It was an obvious fact; he had been infected with a Parasitic Heart Demon.

And the most powerful aspect of the Parasitic Heart Demon, Bai Yuan had never revealed.

Therefore, what people thought they knew about the Parasitic Heart Demon, everything they were aware of, was just a castrated version of the Parasitic Heart Demon.

The biggest doubt in this Sequence was that the word "parasitic" could not be explained.

But now, the Ten of Spades understood.

He was not suffering from split personality, no multiple personalities. Since he was in the Inner World, the one manipulating the body must be Bai Yuan.

Of course, Bai Yuan considerately left a "clone" in the Inner World, probably to answer all kinds of doubts.

Or rather, to prevent his own true soul from seizing control of the body.

"The last time we talked before I died, that’s when I used the Parasitic Heart Demon on you."

Bai Yuan came clean. At this point, there was no need for any more concealment.

"You don’t need to sigh. You didn’t lose to me. Our contest had no winner, but the confrontation between Sequence 8 and Sequence 23 did have a winner. You went to deceive the whole world to find a way back; I just needed to deceive you."

"Is that so, thank you for your consolation then," said the Ten of Spades with a touch of irritation.

However, he quickly became serious:

"What you’re doing is too dangerous. We’ve already done our utmost, defeated Jing Yi, and everything that belonged to our era should have come to an end. You shouldn’t have provoked Alpha."

The Ten of Spades stared at Bai Yuan. Although the Bai Yuan in front of him was a "question-and-answer clone," the real Bai Yuan was probably facing Alpha in some kind of confrontation.

But he believed that Bai Yuan would be aware of his questions, and that their conversation would be free of any irregularities.

From the farm came the melodious sound of a bell.

Bai Yuan sighed:

"My Little Bai, the Inner World for you is that small town. For you, the Inner World is this farm. You both left the town and the farm, yet you never really left. You did a lot for him. Sometimes, I feel you are more like his father than I am."

"Don’t change the subject," said the Ten of Spades, uninterested in the diversion.

Bai Yuan stuck out his tongue mischievously, saying:

"Ah, I was just thinking, if I finish the main topic too early, you might try to save me."

"So you know you’re on a path to death."

The Ten of Spades looked at Bai Yuan, puzzled. Bai Yuan indeed looked at life and death lightly, but that didn’t mean he sought death actively.

Indeed, in their confrontation, it was Bai Yuan who won.

He had seized the body of the Ten of Spades, a body endowed with the Causal Force, the power of Life and Death, the Temporal Power, and even the twist. With the always effective characteristic of Sequence Twenty-Three, his future prospects were boundless.

One could say that the current Ten of Spades was the strongest monster below Alpha and Jing Si.

The power that the Ten of Spades obtained by deceiving the world ended up serving as a wedding dress for Bai Yuan.

But did Bai Yuan really win?

The Ten of Spades believed their grudge was with Jing Yi.

By killing Jing Yi, everything should have ended.

As for Alpha, that was an entity not even the gods could kill.

The Ten of Spades had also considered battling Alpha, but only after truly experiencing Alpha’s terror in Denglin City did he realize it was an impossibility.

The reason he stayed was solely to look for an opportunity to save that unsightly First Generation.

"You will be facing an existence several ranks higher in strength than us. Run, Bai Yuan, that’s not an existence you can deal with."

"You’re not a hero either, so why bother doing such a thing?"

Bai Yuan nodded.

"Of course, I won’t do something as boring as being a hero, but everyone has their obsessions."

"Is your obsession with Alpha?"

"No, it’s with that apocalypse mentioned in the revelations, the foretold failure."

The Ten of Spades didn’t speak.

Bai Yuan sat up, looking into the distance, where tree branches gently swayed as if sunlight and wind were sugar and milk mixed together.

In such a beautiful scene, the two youths that resembled "K" did not seem at all like they were delivering their last words:

"I thought I had survived that predestined failure, but on closer consideration, have I really?"

"Bai Wu is my creation, he overcame one difficulty after another, and I used to think that as long as he kept improving along the trajectory, I would not fail."

"I presumptuously linked his fate with mine, but then I realized... the story he has to experience and the ending I wish to see won’t happen in the same place."

Is it to choose to go to the battlefield to see Alpha sealed, or to see humanity extinguished and twist arrive?

Or is it to go to the deepest part of the Well, to see the origin of the Sequence?

He wanted to see both, but unfortunately, this was undoubtedly a significant choice.

It was as if a video game presented two options before confronting the Great Demon King.

Either choice led to a different ending.

When it was certain that only one could be chosen, Bai Yuan still chose the "predestined failure."

For someone like him, a predestined success had no value whatsoever.

But a predestined failure was interesting. It was like playing hide and seek with Destiny.

Time and again, he thought he had evaded it, but in the end, he would find... Destiny never stopped searching for him.

He was a bit weary and suddenly very curious to know what that predestined failure was exactly.

Was it to be defeated by Alpha?

Or perhaps, they would ultimately defeat Alpha, only to encounter a greater crisis?

Or maybe it was something else; Bai Yuan didn’t know. His ignorance was what fascinated him.

Bai Wu’s life journey was from having no emotions to finding them again.

The life journey of the Ten of Spades was from starting with nothing to deceiving his way to having everything.

K’s life, on the other hand, was about protection from beginning to end.

So what about Bai Yuan? Bai Yuan’s life journey was from avoiding revelations to gradually facing them head-on.

"So my obsession is whether I will fail and how I will fail?"

Wearing a patient’s gown, Bai Yuan leaped from the trunk of the tree, stretching languidly:

"My Inner World also has farms and towns, but I’m not in the towns, not in the farms; I reside on the edge of every world."

"It seems that only at the edge do I feel safe. Unlike you who constantly try to break free but can never manage to, I was outside from the beginning."

This sudden declaration gave a sense of his loneliness.

Spade Ten even wondered, could someone like Bai Yuan be lonely?

Everyone liked him, everyone loved him; Bai Wu had been through so many people, his loneliness and despair eventually turning him into an Evil Fallen because no one loved them.

But Bai Yuan was different. Even his enemies did not harbor much hatred towards him.

Could such a person truly be lonely?

Watching Bai Yuan’s fading silhouette, Spade Ten found an answer.

"Yes... he can be lonely..."

"Where will you choose for your next journey? A person like you must have retained the power to make choices, right?" Spade Ten rushed to ask before Bai Yuan disappeared.

"You speak as though my death is certain. What if I end up killing Alpha? But if I fail, then there will be no more journeys for me. I hope that would be my end."

"But what if? What if you don’t die, what if you could choose a new journey?"

The question was, in fact, meaningless.

Spade Ten knew very well, if Alpha was the opponent, from any angle—hand-to-hand combat, domain battles, or spiritual power confrontation...

It would be a being without any blind spots, an all-around invincible existence.

But he still wanted to know, if death really was the beginning of the next journey, what choice Bai Yuan would make.

Bai Yuan smiled:

"I’d like to see what exactly happened on the fifth level of the Well World. I want to reload the save and go back to before I said goodbye to Bai Wu, and then choose a different ending."

"Should I say that’s just like you?"

Spade Ten wasn’t surprised by this answer.

Bai Yuan shrugged, making his final farewell:

"I’m sorry, if I die, you’ll die too. It seems we’re bound by life and death."

"If I survive, I’ll choose another host to parasitize. I won’t keep you waiting too long. Maybe we can have a drink together in reality."

Bai Yuan disappeared.

Spade Ten was isolated in the Inner World. At this moment, Heart K was going to use the body of Spade K to have the final confrontation with the world’s most fearsome Demon King.

Spade Ten turned to a certain page in Crime and Punishment, his gaze carrying a hint of sadness.

...

...

Inner World.

Numerous spherical buildings floated between heaven and earth, just like the small worlds described in fantasy novels.

The mountains and earth were suspended in the sky by some force.

Bai Yuan looked at these diversely styled buildings, at the creature not far away standing tall with a single red eye, and he didn’t move forward:

"Is this what the architecture of a previous high-dimensional civilization looked like?"

Sequence characters were inscribed on the exterior of the spherical buildings, as if capable of bringing some mystical power and protection.

Alpha said:

"I didn’t expect you could select the battleground. Your spiritual power is truly no easy foe."

Being able to select the battleground meant having the authority.

Just like in the spiritual power confrontation with Jing Si, Alpha could decide the scene Jing Si saw and the world he was in.

Now, in the spiritual power showdown with Bai Yuan, Alpha had surprisingly lost the initiative.

Alpha sighed:

"In the years I’ve been absent, humanity has indeed produced many talents. You have a Parasitic Heart Demon. Such a rare sequence, yet it could be controlled by a mortal. You have surprised me more than Jing Si did."

"What a pity there isn’t some sort of camera to record these thoughts. Otherwise, later on when I tell people that Alpha said I was more impressive than Jing Si, surely nobody would believe me."

Bai Yuan faced Alpha with no trace of fear, even managing to crack a joke.

Alpha said:

"But your spiritual power is merely enough for you to invade me."

"You chose this battlefield indeed, but you can’t change anything."

Parasitic Heart Demon can create a mind demon powerful enough to collapse the opponent’s Inner World without entering the opponent’s consciousness.

But that’s just an interpretation of the words heart demon, there’s also the aspect of parasitism.

Once one’s own consciousness enters the opponent’s Inner World and finds the opponent’s mental vulnerability, they can begin to parasitize.

The ultimate stage of parasitism, if I were to use the terms of a fantasy novel, would be called possession.

It’s as if at this moment, Bai Yuan has possessed the Ten of Spades.

"My Inner World without weaknesses, you can’t kill me. You want to alter my perspective on death through Parasitic Heart Demons within my heart? Impossible."

Bai Yuan didn’t deny it; although he entered this world, it seemed that there was no point in Alpha’s Inner World where he could exert parasitism.

This person’s heart is as strong as his flesh.

"The first stage of the Sequence is to possess it. Only very few geniuses can advance through the Sequence, and among them, only a fraction with the highest aptitude can advance to the second stage."

"This is an exploration of the Sequence."

Alpha stepped toward Bai Yuan, his gaze seemingly bringing an immense, heavy force upon him.

This force... was vast, rendering Bai Yuan immobile.

When a Parasitic Heart Demon enters the world of someone with stronger spiritual power, the parasite... gets killed by the host’s immune system.

The Alpha that Bai Yuan challenged was undoubtedly such a terrifying entity.

"But I am different, I stand above all others. My relationship with the Sequence 3 Immortal, it goes further beyond any Sequence advancement, to the ultimate form, the Sequence Fusion."

"I am immortal!"

These four words were domineering beyond measure, Alpha’s inverted Red Pupil seemed to nail Bai Yuan’s soul in place.

The disparity in this contest was undoubtedly vast.

Bai Yuan’s spiritual power could indeed invade Alpha, but once inside, there was only one possibility: annihilation.

Just as the Ten of Spades said, he would die.

However, as Alpha closed in step by step, bringing with him the oppressive feeling of death,

Bai Yuan, who should have been unable to move... suddenly did.

"Really intriguing, this suffocating pressure, truly befitting of the final Great Demon King."

Bai Yuan twisted his neck, standing his ground instead of retreating.

Alpha’s figure paused, looking incredulously at Bai Yuan.

He couldn’t understand how Bai Yuan, with his level of spiritual power, which invading his Inner World was already at its limit, could still resist his formidable pressure?

"You know, I have deceived more people than him. It’s just that I wasn’t The Deceiver before I took over this body, so deceiving people had no meaning to me."

"But what’s interesting is... now that I have taken over this body, among those lies I once told, there are a few... that have yet to be exposed."

Bai Yuan snapped his fingers.

At this moment, in the scene of Alpha’s Inner World behind him, a spherical building... suddenly turned into a cube.

Alpha couldn’t believe it. Not only had the opponent successfully invaded his Inner World, but he was also wielding immense spiritual power... able to "alter" his world?

"Having a talent that gains power from lying is really tailor-made for me. After all, when I am in a good mood, I can deceive both my son and my wife."

When the body of The Deceiver was matched with a new soul, as long as the lies of this soul had not been exposed, those lies were subject to a new judgment.

Among the many people Bai Yuan deceived, there was a girl with spiritual power that crushed Bai Yuan’s.

On his own, Bai Yuan could not contend with Alpha in a battle of spiritual powers, but now—

The scale of victory has already tipped. The human with the most formidable spiritual power has been born after the parasitism!

"Let’s reintroduce: Sequence 8—Parasitic Heart Demon, Sequence 5—Psychic Silhouette, these are the enemies you must face."