Vivienne finally smiled with pleasure upon hearing this.
She elegantly put on her black lace gloves and said slowly, “Then Su Fu… leave her to me.”
She would take her revenge personally and tear Su Fu to pieces.
Weipuer glanced at her. “Don’t fail this time.”
Vivienne chuckled softly, her figure gradually dissolving into a silver shadow, leaving only one sentence behind:
“How could a person… fall into the same trap twice?”
—
Eden, Tree of Life.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves. The Tree of Life radiated vigorous vitality, having clearly undergone another upgrade and evolution.
At the same time, Su Fu herself gained enormous benefits.
First, her life essence had been greatly elevated. Her Divine Power storage had expanded tenfold—now she could finally use her Heavenly Techniques recklessly without fear of running out of mana.
So rich!
Besides that, her comprehension speed for concepts related to life had multiplied several times, and her healing and recovery techniques had significantly improved.
Also, her perception ability had been greatly enhanced.
Su Fu mused that perhaps her previous physical constitution hadn’t been able to keep up, and now its full power was finally being unleashed.
The Tree of Life happily shook its branches and leaves. “I feel like I could take down those old foes in under a minute now!”
Su Fu smiled and encouraged it. “Good. Remember to visit them from time to time!”
“Hehe.” The Tree gave a knowing laugh. “Don’t worry, I get it!”
With the business finally done, Su Fu turned her gaze to the young knight not far away.
A breeze blew, the tree shadows swaying—a beautiful scene.
“Houchu!” She waved at him.
Houchu turned his head at the sound and walked toward her. “Done?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Su Fu patted the Tree of Life’s trunk and laughed. “It’s really capable now.”
“Thank you, and thank His Holiness the Pope for his generosity.”
Houchu chuckled, his gaze warm. “Then I’ll take you back to the dungeon.”
“Sure.”
“Oh, by the way, I’ve taken a liking to a tree in Eden. Could you put in a word with Elder Olivia for me?”
“A tree? What tree?”
“The one by the vacation villa last time—a really beautiful ginkgo tree…”
—
A few days after Su Fu returned to the dungeon, the prompt from Shen Yan finally sounded.
[Ding!]
[Announcement: The dungeon Foggy Orphan City has been successfully conquered by Test Takers including Huangfu Yunjian Xiao, Dr. Zero… and 120 others.]
[Announcement: The dungeon Winter Is Coming has been successfully conquered by Test Takers including Elvira, Rose, Victor Blackblade… and 120 others.]
[Announcement: All Blazing Trials dungeons have been successfully conquered!]
[Generating the “Blazing Path” trial review footage based on the comprehensive performance of Test Takers in each region…]
[All Test Takers, please prepare.]
[In three minutes, you will be uniformly teleported to the Blazing Cinema to review the splendid journey of this trial together!]
As soon as this announcement was made, the already lively multiplayer channel erupted even more.
Soon after, Su Fu felt a flash of light before her eyes, and the next second, she arrived at a massive holographic cinema.
Countless seats floated in the air. Test Takers’ figures appeared one after another, and the clamor exploded instantly.
“Oh my god, we’re watching a movie together?!”
“Ah! I finally snatched a piece of meat but didn’t even get a bite!”
“Wait… is it over? I wanted to repair the Great Wall for another five hundred years!”
“I can’t believe we’re all watching a review video together!”
“Whoa, then the embarrassing stuff I did in the dungeon is going to be publicly executed?”
“No way? Are they going to edit everything in?”
“What else is there! Be confident! A straight foot is not afraid of a crooked shoe!”
“Hehe, let everyone see it. Our technological path in Foggy Orphan City will definitely blow your minds!”
“Nonsense! When it comes to excitement, our Winter Is Coming dungeon is definitely the best!”
“Whoa, putting all the review videos together—whoever is lame will be the most awkward now…”
The noise continued for a while, until the holographic projection before them suddenly lit up.
The first image was the map [The Winter Is Coming] .
A biting wind, an endless icefield, crumbling ruins of steel, and the ragged, struggling humans trying to survive within it…
Even through the screen, all the test takers felt as though they could sense that bone-piercing cold.
Then, the scene shifted, and the figure of Rose appeared.
She led the survivors, and after countless failures, finally found the energy source buried deep beneath the ice, restarting the shelter’s power supply.
Next came Victor, the Black Blade General of the Expeditionary Force. Time and again, he organized hunting teams, braving the blizzard to venture deep into the perilous icefield, scavenging for food and survival supplies.
Just as the shelter began to get back on track, misfortune struck.
A massive blizzard sweeping across the entire icefield suddenly erupted.
It was overwhelming—doomsday had arrived.
Just when everyone thought they would be devoured by the endless snow and ice, Elvira stood alone before the crowd and unleashed her divine power—
[Absolute Zero: Heat Death]!
The ultimate skill capable of halting everything—the blizzard abruptly stopped.
But how could the power of one person stand against a natural disaster?
Just as she was about to give in, countless people stood behind her, pouring their divine power into her wildly.
Finally, the vast expanse of snow and ice fell silent.
The destructive force of nature, under the resistance of all, was forcibly brought to a standstill.
“Oh my god!!!”
“That’s amazing! You guys are way too strong!”
“That was really not easy!”
The crowd burst into exclamations and cheers. Soon, the scene shifted again.
The raging blizzard had passed. The survivors sat around a blazing campfire.
Flames dancing, hard-won food—a warm and peaceful moment.
Elvira sat in a corner and seemed to say something to Rose, but the footage had no audio.
Su Fu stared at the final scene.
She carefully discerned the lip movements. It seemed to say… looking for someone?
Looking for who?
Just then, the screen switched to the map [Foggy Orphan City] .
A dilapidated industrial city, smoke blotting out the sun. Hungry children huddled on street corners.
In stark contrast, the capitalists lived brightly and indulged themselves.
Soon, the screen flashed through the failed experiences of the [Foggy Orphan City] dungeon test takers in the first three cycles.
Their first attempt was to assassinate the capitalists, but new capitalists emerged, and the dungeon reset.
Their second attempt was to rob the rich to help the poor, pursuing absolute equality of wealth. But that led to the collapse of social order, the economy going down the drain, and everyone becoming poor—failure again.
Their third attempt was to support a new regime, but before long, the new regime bred new oppressors—failure yet again.
Finally, fast-forward to the fourth cycle. The test takers finally learned from their pain and took the straight path of technology!
Huangfu Yun and Dr. Zero appeared frequently. All test takers switched to researching black technology.
Improvement and spread of the steam engine, the arrival of the electric age, the initial construction of information networks…
Ultimately, the rapid advancement of technology finally solved the problems of hunger and poverty for the common people.
And most of the foggy orphans received proper placement and education.
Technological progress solved hunger, disease, illiteracy…
But did society achieve absolute fairness?
No.
New technology gave rise to new monopoly giants.
The gap between rich and poor, though superficially alleviated, still existed as clearly as an unbridgeable chasm.
“This… this strategy… is it considered a clear?”
“The class conflict hasn’t been resolved at all!”
“There’s no way around it. It’s too hard. Just managing to have no orphans is already the limit.”
“Yeah! At least, with our efforts, the orphans disappeared. From that perspective, it fits the theme, right?”
“I feel like technology alone can’t fundamentally solve institutional problems.”
“Not necessarily. If we take technology to its extreme, maybe we really can create a utopian ideal society!”
“The person above is talking nonsense. The more advanced technology is, the more hidden exploitation becomes.”
Just as the crowd was heatedly debating, the screen showed the Great Wall Vigil.
In that instant, the entire viewing hall fell silent.
If [The Winter Is Coming] focused on human survival in extreme environments, and [Foggy Orphan City] focused on the contradictions arising from internal social development…
Then the [Great Wall Vigil] dungeon pointed directly to the fundamental problem of civilization’s survival when facing external enemies.
The very first image showed that massive wall winding through the vast land, scarred and broken.
The test takers immediately began to murmur:
“Is this… the Great Wall that needs to be repaired?”
“Oh my god, it’s so ruined. Repairing it… will it really be useful?”
Then came the famous scene of Lin Zhao provoking Huo Qubing, only to be one-shotted and sent back cleanly to the respawn point.
A flash of sword light, and Lin Zhao fell, staining the yellow sand with blood.
The entire hall of test takers: “???”
“Whoa there! Lin Zhao, you straight up gave first blood?!”
“How can you not even beat an NPC?”
“That young general is way too strong!”
Lin Zhao: “…”
The scene shifted again. Sunset, a lonely village.
Lin Zhao, having just respawned with a hint of excitement on his face, strode out of the camp triumphantly.
And then, he saw the elderly woman with poor eyesight, waiting for her son’s return.
When the old woman mistakenly recognized Lin Zhao, and Su Fu finally read out the casualty notice, the old woman’s heart-wrenching, grief-stricken wails echoed—
“My son! You promised your mother you’d come back!”
The test takers fell silent instantly, their faces showing reluctance to watch.
“Is this dungeon going this hard?”
“I can’t bear to watch.”
The footage didn’t stop.
More test takers who died were “entrusted” by Su Fu with the task of delivering casualty notices to the loved ones.
They witnessed the collapse of a family after losing its pillar.
They witnessed the piercing pain of the gray-haired sending off the black-haired.
They witnessed hungry infants losing their only support…
The test takers: “…”
“Wow, that’s brutal!”
“Su Fu is absolutely a devil!”
“No wonder the Great Wall dungeon people said to cherish life…”
“This is psychological warfare!”
As the video progressed, the Great Wall gradually got repaired. Bricks were stacked, beacons were relit.
It also meant the final battle had arrived.
When the test takers saw the overwhelming Black Tide that devoured the entire world, they all gasped.
This was even more insane than the avalanche earlier!
At least an avalanche was a natural disaster, without consciousness.
But Anomaly was different—it came with the intent to consume and destroy!
“Oh my god… how did you guys overcome this?”
“This last wave of Anomaly is way too broken?!”
In the footage, they saw Huo Qubing leading the cavalry in a fearless charge.
They saw the garrison soldiers using their flesh and blood to fill the gaps in the wall without flinching.
They saw Su Fu unleashing the Great Compassion Divine Power, single-handedly forcing the terrifying disaster to a halt.
And finally, they saw specks of starlight gradually rising on that tragic battlefield!
The spiritual will of countless people awakened the Great Wall.
“That’s…”
“Oh my god! Did the Great Wall come to life?!”
“No! That’s… the materialization of willpower!”
The entire hall of test takers got excited.
Then, they saw the phantom of Qin Shi Huang behind Su Fu!
In the smoke of war, the true phantom of the Great Wall of Ten Thousand Li descended from the sky, merging with the Great Wall of Will, utterly crushing the Black Tide!
BOOM—!
Only then did everyone wake as if from a dream, letting out a long, relieved breath.
“How is this a dungeon strategy! This is a war!”
“Unbelievable. Spiritual will condensed into a Great Wall. This is nothing short of a miracle!”
“And this is a Chinese instance?”
What kind of magnificent, earth-shaking Chinese civilization did that final Divine Dragon Great Wall represent?
Now they finally understood why the test takers of [Great Wall Vigil] wouldn’t allow anyone to speak ill of that wall.
The Great Wall in the footage stood towering. The Black Tide receded. The beacons gradually died out.
Because Su Fu was there, this war didn’t become a tragedy—it became a tragic victory.
Yet many fell into silence.
“So… what about the real great war?”
“In the end… did they win or lose?”
Beyond the screen, countless sighs echoed.
In that distant river of history, those true ancestors of Chinese civilization…
Could they also create miracles like this and achieve final victory?
Silence spread until the voice of Shen Yan rang out:
[Ding!]
[The Torch Trial, retrospective footage has concluded.]
[Current Torch Dungeon·Core Choice— “Barrier of United Will” has been completed.]
Only then did everyone notice that on the final prompt interface of the Shen Yan System, there were actually two options.
[“Epic of Heroes” (Solo Dungeon): One person becomes a god, single-handedly turning the tide.]
[“Barrier of United Will” (Group Dungeon): The combined strength of the masses, a single spark starts a prairie fire.]
Someone suddenly understood: “So Su Fu chose the second one?”
Indeed, the Chinese Great Wall itself was Su Fu’s answer.
The light curtain of Shen Yan continued to unfold:
[The prairie fire’s spark begins in the trivial; the great poem is sung by the chorus of all. ]
[When disaster strikes, the power of an individual may be small. ]
[But when billions of wills unite, they can forge an iron Great Wall to withstand all currents. ]
[Congratulations to all test takers who participated in this Torch Trial for clearing it! ]
[Title Unlocked: The Time When Stars of Humanity Shone. ]
[When countless faint lights converge, they become the stars that illuminate the long night. ]
[Effect: When you execute a mission or face a crisis with at least two companions, the effect of “Unity of Will” will automatically activate. ]
[Greatly enhances the mental resilience and willpower of all participants. ]
[When facing Anomaly enemies, this effect receives additional amplification! ]
[You are not fighting alone. ]
Just as everyone thought it was over, a reminder appeared before their eyes:
[The Torch Dungeon was a prerequisite condition. Congratulations, all of you have successfully unlocked it. ]
[The fate of human civilization has once again reached a critical crossroads of survival. ]
[The Trial of Life and Death is now officially open. ]
[Though the long night stretches endless, we shall march forth with torch in hand! ]