Chapter 647 - Hope and Despair

Disclaimer: The plot, characters, and opinions presented in this novel solely belong to the author and do not represent the views of Wuxiaworld, our translators, or our licensed partners. This is a work of fiction, and we strongly advise against emulating any of the actions in this chapter.

***

Han Wu was elated and quickly answered, “Yes, it’s me. I’m here!”

Jing Jing spoke quickly. “Qin Shuang was attacked. I followed her to protect her soul. We are currently stuck in the evil God’s body.”

“Where are you? Which civilization? What region?” Han Wu asked.

“I don’t know.” Her consciousness flickered, and her voice weakened. “But I can sense the sliver of soul in my body. As long as it's close enough, I can tell you where I am.”

Han Wu was at a loss. This huge universe held countless civilizations, each divided into multiple regions. Finding one evil God among them would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Still, he refused to give up. This was his only chance to rescue Qin Shuang and Jing Jing. He had to try. “Hold on. I will find you. I promise.”

“My faith in my God is eternal,” Jing Jing said piously.

Clinging to that clue, Han Wu sought out Xu Hai. They immediately abandoned their first plan to dispatch numerous troops to every civilization for a search-and-rescue operation. The cost would be staggering, and the effort would take too long. Worse, it was dangerous since many civilizations were openly hostile. They could even suffer heavy losses before they rescued Qin Shuang and Jing Jing.

Han Wu found another solution: the Transmigrate Helmet. It could consume Divine Essence to project a part of the user’s consciousness, or soul, into another civilization. Through transmigration, one could gain the powers of numerous civilizations and strengthen their divine realm. He could use it to search for Jing Jing’s soul.

Unfortunately, there was only one helmet. Checking each civilization one by one would take too long. Han Wu felt powerless.

Xu Hai used his intellect and proposed a solution. The helmet was technically mechanical in design. If they approached it as an engineering challenge rather than a mystical artifact, Han Wu would find a way to overcome the problem.

Han Wu immediately thought of Kerry. She was a genius in mechanical engineering, and if anyone could solve this, it was her. He quickly sought her out. After she learned what had happened, she agreed without hesitation. She wanted to save the students’ snatched souls, and the helmet itself intrigued her.

Han Wu invited her to his divine realm and handed the helmet over for study. He also had the Machine God Avatar to assist Kerry in analyzing the helmet’s internal structure. Together, they would attempt to modify it.

After expending a lot of Divine Essence and materials, they succeeded. The new, modified Transmigrate Helmet no longer functioned as single-user equipment. It became a server that 500 people could access simultaneously.

However, time constraints forced them to work without fully understanding the helmet’s core principles. The rushed modification produced a deadly side effect. Even though 500 users could transmigrate at once, their memories would merge during the process. In severe cases, the resulting mental overload would cause schizophrenia and lead to death.

In practical terms, the server was useless. Unfortunately, they were strapped for time, and the mission outweighed any technical shortcomings. This was the best they could achieve within ten days.

Han Wu refused to accept defeat. In fact, he had an idea on how to refine it further. His Avatar Creation allowed him to divide himself into multiple avatars. Since each avatar remained an extension of his true self, the risk of merging memories wouldn’t harm him at all.

He deployed every Divine Power, Divine Aspect, Divine Authority, and even his Divine Jurisdictions, splitting them into 300 avatars that operated the server in sync.

Every time an avatar transmigrated into a new civilization, Han Wu would ask the sliver of Jing Jing’s soul, “Are you here?”

Han Wu had no idea how many times he had repeated that question. When Jing Jing failed to answer, he would end that life and exit the civilization. Ask. Wait. Die. It was as if he were stuck in a loop of reincarnations. He had to endure the torment thousands of times each day. His spirit deteriorated, and his body felt heavy. Only his iron will kept him moving forward.

The pattern continued until the twenty-ninth day. As usual, he arrived in a new civilization and asked the sliver of Jing Jing’s soul that was linked to the server, “Are you there?”

While waiting, he scanned his surroundings for a suitable place to kill himself. He found a cliff and decided to leap this time.

“I’ve always wanted to try bungee jumping, and it will be good to relax a little this time,” he joked, standing at the edge of the cliff.

He was about to jump when Jing Jing’s voice exploded in his mind. “God, I am here!”

Han Wu's eyes grew wide with joy. She was there, which meant she was in the same region as he was, within that very civilization. As long as he could locate the evil God, he could rescue them both.

“Wait for me. I will find you soon!” Han Wu shouted happily before plummeting to his death.

He had to admit that bungee jumping without a rope was exhilarating. After his life ended there, his avatar sprang from the pod with excitement. “I found her! I finally found her!”

Kerry rushed to the database and pulled up the logs to trace the avatar’s destination. The logs showed that it had transmigrated to the Giant Shadow Civilization, Region 789645.

A listed region number meant that someone from the Divine Civilization had traveled there before. That detail offered a glimmer of hope. Yet when Han Wu and Kerry calculated the distance, both fell silent.

It was 460,000 light-years away from the Divine Civilization. Even with access to various wormholes and established teleportation stations, the journey would require at least two years in Divine Civilization time.

Two years within the Divine Civilization meant 730 years would pass outside it. It was unlikely that Jing Jing and Qin Shuang’s souls would last that long. Han Wu had reached another dead end. He had located the evil God, only to find that the clue had led him to despair.

“Han Wu, don’t give up hope. The Divine Civilization’s reach extends far. Someone has traveled there before. I remember a merchant group that passed through that region to purchase Giant Protectors. Don’t give up hope,” Kerry said.

She spoke of a small possibility, but her words suddenly filled Han Wu with hope. “Giant Protectors! I need to find Commerce!”

He recalled that the Supreme Merchant Group under Commerce had those Giant Protectors.