Chapter 220 : Chapter 220 Is it a dream...?
She couldn't see the man's face clearly, nor did she know what name he was using now.
But that voice and that form of address made her heart tremble.
If it really was Mu, why would he appear in the rebel camp?
No one could give her an answer.
The spaceship quickly turned around and rushed toward the distress signal coordinates at full speed.
Currently, Herta could only watch everything as a bystander, her body unable to move and her perspective unchangeable.
She was now desperately eager to see the pilot's face clearly.
She only wanted to confirm if he was Brother Mu, who had died in the Labyrinth Zone years ago.
Just as the spaceship was about to enter the Subspace world where the Wraiths were, it suddenly descended vertically to the ground.
The man took off his helmet, unbuckled his safety harness, stood up, and turned his head.
At this moment, Herta finally got a clear look at his face and instinctively covered her mouth.
That face... that face...
Who else could it be but Qi Zhimu?!
Until this moment, all her missing Remembrances returned to their places, and she finally remembered parts of her forgotten youth.
After her parents passed away, Brother Mu, with whom she had relied on for survival... his full name was indeed Qi Zhimu!
"...How could I forget, how could I forget..."
"But... why..."
Why did the same name belong to a completely different species and possess such different abilities?
The Qi Zhimu before her eyes, who had killed the rebels and was piloting the ship to the distress coordinates, was clearly an Original Human.
Yet the Mage Qi Zhimu, who had made a promise with her, was an out-and-out Virtual Substance Lifeform.
"What exactly happened during that time...?"
Qi Zhimu quickly took off his specialized protective suit, activated the ship's Spatial Camouflage Shield, and left a Coordinate Transmitter as a positioning anchor.
Then, without hesitation, he left the ship and charged alone into the Subspace entrance ahead.
Herta's perspective could not follow him, and she could only watch as his figure disappeared.
Right then, her expression turned grim.
A Subspace Turbulence had erupted in this Labyrinth Zone.
This phenomenon wasn't directly life-threatening, but it would disrupt the connections between different Subspaces.
It was like putting numbered slips from 1 to 100 in order into a cardboard box and then reaching in to stir them continuously.
Once the stirring stopped, the numerical order of the hundred slips would be completely jumbled.
If Qi Zhimu hadn't left the Coordinate Transmitter before leaving, it would have been nearly impossible to find this spaceship again later.
Finally, the scene before her eyes shifted once more.
Herta found her feet off the ground, floating in the air like a ghost.
Hurried footsteps came from behind, and a figure running frantically passed right through her body, charging forward recklessly.
"Brother Mu..."
Herta instinctively thought of following, and her form actually floated forward in sync, quickly catching up to Qi Zhimu.
But that was all.
He couldn't hear her calls.
He couldn't feel her touch.
To her surprise, this following lasted for over two hours, and Qi Zhimu never stopped.
On the way, Herta even saw the Wraith that had destroyed the spaceship floating across the sky, though it couldn't sense her presence.
Qi Zhimu, moving on the ground, was also ignored by the Wraith.
Clearly, it only held a grudge against things flying in the sky.
Herta had no time to ponder who had created the Wraith; she already had a guess about the scene she might see next.
After several more hours, Qi Zhimu finally found his target.
—The severely damaged spaceship crashed on the ground.
What happened next left Herta completely frozen in place, her mind going blank.
Qi Zhimu struggled into the heavily damaged cabin, carried out her blood-covered self, and quickly checked her injuries.
"...Internal organs damaged, seventy percent of bones broken..."
He held the young girl tightly in his arms, and a dense green light enveloped her.
An incredible scene unfolded: bathed in the green light, the dying girl's furrowed brows slowly relaxed, and her injuries actually healed by more than half at a speed visible to the naked eye.
When the green light dissipated, Qi Zhimu's face was pale, devoid of much color.
Clearly, using such an ability came with an enormous toll.
"Not a Virtual Substance Lifeform... but this special power... could he have become a rare Pathstrider?"
Herta had only heard bits of related information from book records and elders; her understanding was limited, so she didn't dare to be certain.
Confirming the girl's injuries had stabilized significantly, Qi Zhimu immediately carried her away.
Just as they moved away from the spaceship wreckage, a cold aura approached, and an ordinary Wraith wandering nearby suddenly attacked.
By the time he noticed, there was no room to evade the attack; to protect the girl, Qi Zhimu could only turn around while holding her, bearing the Wraith's attack in her stead, which resulted in his eyes being injured.
He kicked back, striking the Wraith's chest; a sharp blade extended from the tip of his boot, stabbing into its brain and churning rapidly.
The Wraith let out a shrill scream before turning into gray mist and dissipating.
It was at this moment that the girl in his arms woke up.
A familiar warmth and scent flooded her heart; she froze for a moment, then let out an incredulous, weak voice.
"...Mu, Brother Mu? Is it you... is it really you?!!"
However, she did not see the man with blood seeping from his eyes, who was doing his best to endure the pain.
A palm emitting a faint green light wiped across his eyes, and the miraculous healing power took effect, barely managing to erase some of the injuries.
But—
Herta, looking back at the past from the future, saw the entire process clearly.
Although the bleeding from Qi Zhimu's bloody eyes had stopped, no matter how much he blinked, his pupils remained vacant and out of focus.
The green light covered his eyes again, but it was still to no avail.
Meeting his unfocused gaze, how could Herta not understand that his vision was severely damaged?
"...Is it a dream..."
Herta murmured weakly.
Was that omnipotent Mage Qi Zhimu just a dream of hers?
But if it were a dream, how could every detail be so vividly clear?
But if it wasn't a dream, then what was this reality before her, where the outcome was the same but the truth was so different?
Or perhaps, she was the one in a dream right now?
No... it wasn't...
If she had to choose one experience to belong to a dream, the Mage Qi Zhimu seemed more like it.
"It's me, Little Ta. I'm sorry... I haven't been by your side all these years, but now, you don't have to be afraid anymore. I'll take you home."
Qi Zhimu's voice was filled with intense longing and lingering fear, as well as deep guilt.
"Brother Mu, where have you been all these years? I missed you so much...!"
The Herta of the past hugged him tightly, fearing he would disappear the next second, and even more afraid that this sudden reunion was just a dream.
Fortunately, the warmth from his body gradually put her at ease, and she didn't even notice her injuries and pain were quietly vanishing.
There was also a faint scent of blood from Qi Zhimu lingering around her nose.
But she didn't care, thinking he had been stained with her own blood.
Qi Zhimu: "To make a long story short, I got lost in a certain Memory-Substance World. By the time I managed to get out after several years, I was severely injured and had lost my Remembrances."
"It was the rebels who found me. They took me back to train me and infiltrate the United Government... I have to say, it was a twist of fate. Perhaps we were destined to reunite."
Hearing the truth, the girl's eyes welled up: "...Brother Mu, when did you get your Remembrances back?"
"Not long ago."
Qi Zhimu pulled her tightly into his arms.
"I heard someone calling me in a daze. It was your voice... it was you who awakened my forgotten Remembrances."