Chapter 728: The End of the Happy Prince

When I arrived at the “Divine Dragon’s” venue, I noticed he wasn’t standing at the entrance. The massive swimming hall exuded a thick, peculiar odor.

It was as if a pot of exceptionally rich meat broth was simmering—I could even hear the bubbling *gurgle* of boiling liquid.

And at that moment, my heart suddenly began pounding violently.

Gasping for breath, I took step after step forward, pushing open the building’s door. A wave of intense heat rushed into my face, and the aroma of meat grew even stronger.

The inside was sweltering, like a giant bathhouse.

“Dragon…” Though all of us worshipped this “Divine Dragon” every day, none of us had ever entered his game before.

The place was saturated with the scent of meat and an icy aura of *death*. The entire swimming hall was filled with thick steam, making it impossible to see the path ahead. All I could perceive was a crimson haze inside, the smell stinging my nostrils.

Just a few steps ahead, through the mist, I caught the scent of my sister. Beside her was another person—someone who reeked of both foul rot and strange sweetness.

I waved away the fog before me and trudged step by step toward my sister’s scent. Her smell was bizarre… as though every scent in the world had tangled itself around her.

What about the others…? Were they all dead?

In this enormous building, I could only detect the scents of two living people.

“Is this alright?” an unfamiliar woman asked.

“Y-yes… thank you…” my sister’s trembling voice replied. “I’m sorry for the trouble…”

I trudged forward, stepping on something sticky beneath my feet. My heart was about to leap out of my throat—I had no idea what I was about to see.

When I was just a few steps away from them, the “Divine Dragon” noticed me.

“Hmm…?” She paused slightly, and only then did I realize—the “Divine Dragon” we worshipped day and night had the voice of a woman.

But what met my eyes next made them widen in shock.

My sister lay on the table before the “Divine Dragon” like a dead fish—drenched, flushed red. A sheet covered the chopping board, stained with blood everywhere, yet she bore no wounds.

The “Divine Dragon” was holding a knife, poised above her heart.

“Sis…” I croaked.

My sister, sprawled on the table, jolted in surprise and quickly sat up to look at me. “Y-Yingxiong?! What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing… What are *all* of you doing?” I asked. “Sis… are you abandoning me?”

I thought I would cry, but I didn’t. I couldn’t let my sister see me so weak.

“I—”

The scent around my sister instantly turned unbearably sorrowful. Her lips trembled slightly before she turned to the “Divine Dragon.” “Can you give me a moment?”

The “Divine Dragon” sighed. “Is he your *attachment*?”

“Yes.”

“Since you just won’t die no matter what, go deal with it,” the “Divine Dragon” said. “But remember to return and face death after letting go. Otherwise, when the *higher-ups* come, you’ll die even worse.”

“Alright… thank you…”

My sister rolled off the table and staggered toward me. Her face was deathly pale, and though I expected her hands to be cold, they scalded me the moment she touched me.

“Yingxiong… you shouldn’t have come,” she said, smoothing her hair. “I didn’t want you to see me like this…”

“Sis… why…?” I struggled to control my emotions, but all the words I had rehearsed in my mind vanished. “Are you planning to leave me here…?”

“Yes… Yingxiong, I’m leaving.” She smiled through tears. “I didn’t lie to you… remember? No matter how awful my scent gets, I’d never want to hurt you.”

She said she hadn’t hurt me, but my heart ached unbearably.

“But why can’t you just let those people die on their own…?” I asked, trembling. “Why do *you* have to go with them? Just make them die by themselves…”

“But I’m the *Divine Maiden*,” my sister said, pressing her burning palm against my head. “If I don’t personally take part in this *ascension*… no one would follow me willingly… It’s just that my *healing* keeps me from dying…”

Her voice cracked as she spoke.

“I’m sorry… Yingxiong… I didn’t realize I wanted to live this much…”

I didn’t understand—why was she apologizing? Was *wanting to live* wrong?

“Sis, come with me.” I tugged at her, my expression blank. “Let’s not stay here… let’s go back… we’ll have a meal… you still haven’t finished telling me that story… I won’t let you go…”

“Yingxiong, I can’t leave.” She shook her head with a faint smile. “I already promised her I’d stake my life. I just didn’t expect I wouldn’t die… otherwise, you wouldn’t have seen me like this.”

My throat felt stuffed with cotton—I couldn’t speak.

“Yingxiong, let me tell you the ending of *The Happy Prince*, okay?”

I froze for a long moment before nodding slowly.

After a pause, she began: “At the end of the story, when the Happy Prince saw the swallow die, he was in so much pain that even his leaden heart split in two.”

“And then…?”

“And then God sent an angel to take the Happy Prince’s lead heart and the swallow’s body to Heaven, where they lived forever…”

“Stop…” I muttered. “It’s all lies… even fairy tales…”

I had thought my heart was truly made of stone, but now I knew otherwise. My leaden heart was really about to split in two—it hurt too much.

“It’s not a lie…” She wiped the tears from my face. “Yingxiong, I told you I wouldn’t lie to you. If I die, an angel will take me to Heaven. I’ll always watch over you from above…”

“But there are no angels in this world…” I gritted my teeth.

“How can there not be? We just don’t know them…” She sniffled. “Maybe Zhang San or Li Si next to us… or some insignificant person is an angel… I wouldn’t lie to you…”

She said she wasn’t lying, but the scent of *falsehood* clung to her heavily. For the first time, I hesitated—should I expose her?

“Promise me…” She cupped my face. “I can’t bear to see you like this. I want you to always be a kind child… If you ever truly escape this place, love this world with all your heart.”

“But Sis…” I clutched her clothes desperately. “But… I can’t even take the swallow’s body with me… How will you get to Heaven…? The angel won’t find you…”

She froze for a second, then glanced around before standing up and pulling the blood-soaked sheet from the chopping board. Half-white, half-red, it carried her scent.

She lifted it high and draped it over my shoulders, tying it around my neck with a soft smile.

“Yingxiong… this has my blood on it… Carry it with you, and find our Heaven… okay?”