With the ring in hand, Li Andy once again breathed a sigh of relief, feeling the weariness of a parent cleaning up after a naughty child.
Fortunately, he wasn't doing this alone.
Li Andy walked towards Sophia and Youxi, rubbing the heads of the two girls. "You've worked hard."
Though the android Sophia remained expressionless, her tail instinctively wagged.
Youxi let out a soft "mm" before grabbing Li Andy's hand, her gaze unfriendly as she stared at the two Jasmine rings.
She decided that after this was over, she would definitely "educate" Jasmine thoroughly!
The two rings felt a chill under her gaze, shivered, their flowing light receding as they silently feigned death.
Without the support of the Heart Source, this space began to fade and virtualize, and the warship beneath their feet gradually filled with water and sank.
Li Andy put his arms around his two younger sisters and jumped into the swirling vortex below.
As the sensation of weightlessness quickly receded, the three found themselves in a corridor resembling a palace.
It seemed to have just experienced a disturbance.
Scattered swords, broken walls, and widespread bloodstains.
And most striking was Jasmine, dressed in black, standing at the half-open door at the end of the corridor.
Li Andy looked at the girl's blood-stained, vacant small face, and his heart couldn't help but skip a beat.
Heavens, no matter how he looked at it, she didn't seem like a normal person...
Seemingly sensing Li Andy's arrival, the black-clad Jasmine slightly raised her eyes.
The next instant, she appeared before him.
"!!"
Li Andy's pupils contracted sharply; he hadn't seen any trace of her movement!
Sophia, beside him, instantly bristled and hissed, entering a combat stance along with Youxi.
Unexpectedly, the black-clad Jasmine surrendered directly, offering her small hand with the ring to him. "The ring, for you."
Seeing Li Andy stunned and bewildered, she asked again, "Aren't you going to take it off?"
"You... don't want to be the dominant one?" Li Andy swallowed, his muscles tensed, ready to defend or attack at any moment.
"No," the black-clad Jasmine shook her head. "My memories are very boring."
"Then why did you oppose us?!" The military uniform Jasmine and witch Jasmine rings couldn't help but speak up.
The black-clad Jasmine glanced at them and replied indifferently, "My opposition to you and my unwillingness to be dominant are not contradictory."
This rendered the two of them silent.
Li Andy frowned slightly, his gaze moving past the black-clad Jasmine's head to a chilling scene.
It was a small mountain made of piled-up corpses; some wore formal dresses, some servant's uniforms, and some armor... The only commonality was that they all had faces identical to the girl in front of Li Andy!
"It's a trace of the loop," Jasmine explained, without turning her head. Her eyes were fixed on Li Andy, not blinking once, like a soulless puppet.
"You... aren't affected by the whispers?" Li Andy asked somewhat stiffly.
"There's an effect, but after dying a few times, I became clear-headed," the black-clad Jasmine replied calmly.
"Die a few times?"
Li Andy re-examined the bizarre mountain of corpses, noticing several bodies dressed identically to the Jasmine before him.
The black-clad Jasmine looked at him silently, seemingly unwilling to explain anything.
Li Andy was silent for a few seconds, then asked, "Then, do you... have any requests?"
"None," Jasmine shook her head. "Bad memories don't need to be remembered."
Li Andy hesitated for a few seconds, but finally took the girl's small hand, observing carefully as he cautiously removed her ring.
The girl looked at him indifferently, her eyes like stagnant water, as if she cared about nothing.
It wasn't until Li Andy had completely removed the ring that she revealed a relieved smile and dissipated into the air.
Compared to the other two rings, the black-clad Jasmine's ring's flowing light was clearly much dimmer.
Even its weight... was much lighter.
"Hmph, what's so great about that?" The military uniform Jasmine scoffed, desperately protecting her flowing light, not letting it easily dissipate.
Li Andy then realized that her ring was the heaviest.
The surrounding space began to collapse.
Before Li Andy and the two could react, they, along with the falling floor, were submerged in the void of darkness.
When they opened their eyes again, they found themselves back in the palace corridor.
However, compared to before, it was complete and beautiful here.
It was as if time had flowed backward, returning to before all the turmoil.
Li Andy frowned and pushed open the large door at the end.
Jasmine, in a luxurious long dress, sat at a small white round tea table, smiling like a flower: "Good morning~ Would you like some floral tea? Brother, and sisters~"
"You're not affected by the whispers either?" Youxi frowned slightly, asking before Li Andy could speak.
"Hmm..." Jasmine tapped her small mouth with her finger, pondering for half a second.
"Perhaps my castle is very quiet, so I can't hear them clearly for now?"
Saying this, she couldn't help but smile again, getting up and trotting over to the three, taking Li Andy's and Youxi's hands.
"Brother, will you dance with me? After we dance, I'll give you the ring, how about it?"
Li Andy and Youxi couldn't help but exchange glances, frowning slightly.
"A dance for four?"
"Yes!" Jasmine smiled, pulling the two, and began to spin.
This childlike dance had no artistic merit.
But for some reason, Li Andy always felt as if he had seen it before.
Compared to Li Andy and Youxi's confusion, Jasmine was smiling very happily, as if she had been looking forward to this for a long time.
As they spun, Li Andy vaguely saw the prosperity and decline of a classical city.
From its initial pioneering to its expansion and construction.
From peaceful development to resisting foreign invasion.
All the trials and tribulations were imprinted in the memory of the land.
"Brother!" Jasmine's voice echoed with her fluttering skirt.
"Compared to memories and personalities, we are actually more like... a wisp of obsession."
Li Andy suddenly came back to his senses, only to find himself back in the long corridor.
The four people who were holding hands had become three.
In his and Youxi's clasped hands, there was a warm ring.
"Go find Little Six, she might be crying again."
As the gown-clad Jasmine's ring trembled slightly, the red carpet on the ground twisted, leading to a wall.
On that wall hung a portrait of a young girl, with small text below it: "Duchess Jasmine..."
"Brother and sisters, do you want to hear a story?" The gown-clad Jasmine's voice sounded.
"After we get out, I can tell you one~ If... I haven't been forgotten by then...."
Li Andy and Youxi paused slightly, silent for half a second, then walked together into the painting, arriving in the space where Little Six was.
Compared to the first four Jasmines, Little Six's side was incredibly chaotic.
Various spatial dislocations, as if countless different possible passages, converged at a single node.
Although the three could see the crying Jasmine hugging her knees ahead, they could never find a path that led directly to her.
Even more terrifying, Li Andy had only taken two steps when he realized that Youxi and Sophia beside him were suddenly a great distance away from him.
"Brother?!" Youxi's voice was ethereal, and she pulled the dazed Sophia forward, chasing, but they moved further and further away.
Even the downward gravity gradually shifted towards the sky.
"You two, stop first!" Li Andy called out loudly, and Youxi finally stopped.
It seemed that they had to deal with Little Six before they could safely leave.
Li Andy gripped the rings in his hand and looked at the crying Little Six.
In this chaotic space, he felt the annoying deep-sea whispers becoming increasingly shrill.