Stepping on the demon door, the witch becomes the strongest

Chapter 846 The Trial of the Mirror Fairy
The population of the Americas is rapidly declining, and the world's nations are powerless to stop it.

Europe somehow learned that the Lu Kingdom was relocating its citizens to a secret location for refuge, and immediately expressed its intention to purchase the relevant technology.

The fact that both of these entities were preparing for their own escape routes has undoubtedly sounded an alarm worldwide, making other smaller and medium-sized forces vaguely realize that humanity may no longer possess the strength to completely defeat the giant serpent.

Knowing this is one thing, but most forces have no way to solve it. Even without the Yamata no Orochi, they were already struggling with poverty, backwardness, hunger, and disease, and simply didn't have the resources to deal with future threats.

The administrative efficiency of the Lu Kingdom is second to none in the world, but it is still extremely difficult to carry out a large-scale population migration.

First, there needs to be a reason for sending a large number of people into the secret realm. It can't be explicitly stated as "for refuge," because publicly announcing this would inevitably cause strong unease among the people, making more people realize that the giant serpent is invincible. Otherwise, how do you explain your preparation for an escape route?

Secondly, not promoting it is also not an option, because people won't follow you for no reason. Thanks to long-cultivated historical traditions, most people will choose to subconsciously comply, but there will certainly be some clever people who try to figure out the reasons behind it and then promote it vigorously.

Finally, who will enter the secret realm first, and who will enter later? Once the news leaks out, what will those who haven't entered yet think? In severe cases, it could cause great social instability.

Fortunately, the Lu Kingdom also had a wealth of experience in this area, and quickly drew upon its historical resources to develop three key strategies:
First, rumors circulated within the system, claiming that "research shows that mortals who enter secret realms and receive spiritual nourishment have a chance to awaken their cultivation aptitude, and the government is recruiting test subjects."

Secondly, the aforementioned rumors are not acknowledged; instead, the organization publicly announces that it is "recruiting test subjects who can enter the secret realm from the public," and the first phase will allow interested individuals to apply freely.

Third, applicants must participate in a unified recruitment examination, and the best candidates will be selected.

The news caused a nationwide sensation. Due to the overwhelming number of applicants, a lottery system had to be implemented initially to limit entry; otherwise, the servers simply couldn't handle the sheer volume of applications.

Back at the villa, the girl received a call from home saying they were willing to go with her daughter to the secret realm they had mentioned before. Also, the recent news mentioned that going to the secret realm could awaken some kind of talent. All your aunts, uncles, cousins' sons, daughters, grandsons, and granddaughters said they also wanted to try going to the secret realm; they asked if you had any connections.

Everyone was speechless. They couldn't explain that "it was to trick you into voluntarily going into the secret realm for refuge," so they could only say that they would check with their superiors.

After finishing the call and putting down the phone, Yun Jin suddenly realized that Lin Ning didn't seem to be at home.

Where is Ningning?

"Didn't she come back with you? After the meeting in Pyeongjin last time."

"I don't know, I came back alone on my sword." Su Yunjin frowned, took out her phone again, and dialed Lin Ning's number.

No one answered; the signal was not in service area.

Everyone's phones have satellite phone functionality. If the signal is not in the service area, it's either blocked or they're in a secret realm, with the latter being more likely.

However, given Ningning's personality, she shouldn't have gone to the secret realm without saying anything, unless she was accidentally involved?

Ask Lingyun what's going on.

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Meanwhile, Lin Ning was teleported into the deep mountains, where she secretly checked her clothes and sword.

Both flying swords were gone, and his clothes had changed to coarse linen from ancient times, with the left and right sides of the garment tightly fastened with a belt.

"Fairy in the Mirror!" she cried out in alarm, "What are you doing!"

"Look around," the Mirror Fairy's voice whispered in my ear. "Can you recognize where this is?"

Lin Ning quickly looked around. She was currently on a high platform on a cliff. Looking back, she saw endless, rugged mountains, steep and devoid of trees. Looking down, she saw deep clouds and mist shrouding the valley below.

She suddenly frowned and asked:
"Golden Rooster Ridge?"

In order to help Chen Lingyun establish a mechanism for reincarnation, she and Li Minghu would take turns going to the underworld to exterminate evil spirits every once in a while, which is why they recognized each other at a glance.

"That's right, this is the underworld I conjured up based on your memories," the Mirror Immortal replied. "This is the end of Golden Rooster Ridge, the Reincarnation Platform."

“Every time you jump off the reincarnation platform, I will temporarily seal your memories and let you experience a new life from the state of a fetus—I call it the Ten Life Simulator.”

"As long as you can remember your true identity in any reincarnation, you've passed the test. Do you understand?"

Lin Ning stared in disbelief for a moment, then suddenly asked:

"You've sealed away my memories, how am I supposed to remember who I am?"

"This is your world of consciousness, my dear." The Mirror Fairy chuckled. "In this world, you possess the absolute power of idealism. What you think, you get; what you contemplate, you manifest. You are the omniscient and omnipotent god of this world. However, you have not yet mastered the ability to use it, just like an infant who has arms and muscles but does not know how to grasp what he wants."

"If your will is strong enough, you can accomplish anything. Of course, out of consideration for our past friendship, I will also give you a little guidance and help..."

Before she could finish speaking, Lin Ning felt as if she had been shoved hard from behind, and her body fell uncontrollably.

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In her first life, Lin Ning was born into an ordinary middle-class family.

Her primary, middle, and high school years were unremarkable; she was a typical test-taker, following the path laid out for her by her parents, studying hard, and striving for exams.

She met a boy when she was divided into arts and science classes in her second year of high school.

The boy's name was Yan Yu. He sat in the row behind her and always liked to poke her back with the end of his ballpoint pen. She would get angry and turn around to hit him with her book.

Yan Yu's science grades were better than Lin Ning's, which was a natural advantage for the test-taking girl. Lin Ning forgave his frequent pranks and often spent time with him discussing problems, and occasionally they would chat about other things.

In the second semester of their senior year, Yan Yu confessed his feelings to Lin Ning.

“I’m sorry, our priority right now is studying,” Lin Ning said bluntly. “I don’t want you to waste your time on other things. If this interferes with your college entrance exam, it won’t be good for either of us…”

She talked on and on for a full twenty minutes until Yan Yu couldn't take it anymore and raised his hands in surrender.

"Sorry," he said with a grin. "Okay, okay, I know. Now I need to focus on the college entrance exam. By the way, we're still friends, right?"

Lin Ning waited for him with a huff, not wanting to end her lecture, but she was soon amused by Yan Yu and couldn't help but laugh.

"Yan Yu," she said gently, "your grades are better than mine, you must get into a top university." "Thank you, you too," Yan Yu smiled. "Let's work hard together on the college entrance exam."

The two smiled at each other, then turned and left the classroom. Lin Ning walked half a step behind Yan Yu, quietly watching his retreating figure.

She suddenly had a feeling that she would remember this scene forever: the setting sun shining through the classroom window, casting a soft golden glow on the boy in his school uniform.

She could reach out and pull him back at any time, but the faint feelings in the girl's heart quickly turned into a silent blessing.

Good luck on the college entrance exam!

Time flies like an arrow. Both of them performed exceptionally well in the college entrance examination. Yan Yu ended up going to Beijing, while Lin Ning was admitted to Jiangnan University.

Throughout their four years of undergraduate studies, the two maintained occasional contact. Lin Ning had already decided to pursue a direct PhD program, while Yan Yu planned to start his own business after graduation—a software company with several senior students he knew.

Neither of them brought up the matter of confessing their feelings again.

Lin Ning sometimes felt that she was at least waiting for him, so why couldn't he bring it up a second time since he had mentioned it the first time?
But considering that he is already preparing to start his own business and will be extremely busy with his career in the next few years, it seems that if I were to distract him with something like a romantic relationship, it would violate the principles of friendship.

After all, we're friends now.

In the blink of an eye, several years have passed.

During her doctoral studies, Lin Ning achieved remarkable academic results. Her supervisor recommended that she pursue further studies at a foreign university, so that she could be recruited back to China through national research projects and thus successfully obtain a teaching position at a top-tier university in China.

She hesitated slightly, and subconsciously wanted to ask Yan Yu for his opinion.

Yan Yu's company has recently turned a profit, and his business is gradually getting back on track. When the two chat in their spare time, Lin Ning can clearly see that he has matured significantly and is becoming more and more like the "successful businessman" described in novels and TV dramas.

Lin Ning opened the chat software, edited the message, and was about to click send when a small program suddenly popped up in the chat window.

We got married.

A slight pang of pain shot through Lin Ning's heart. She clumsily opened the invitation and saw Yan Yu's fiancée: a petite girl, very beautiful and lovely, smiling sweetly as she held Yan Yu's arm. Her name was "Chen Lingyun".

She didn't know what to say, so she could only silently delete the message she had edited, word by word.

Yan Yu seemed to have anticipated her reaction and quickly sent another message explaining that his company had hit the market ceiling in its business and could not go any further.

The bride was introduced to him by a business partner. She was rumored to have an unfathomable background, being the daughter of a powerful, unspeakable figure, and capable of helping him break through his current career limits. The two spent a week together on their blind date and were both quite satisfied.

Of course, the other party is also a very nice girl. She even had someone investigate Yan Yu's past and learned that Lin Ning and her fiancé had a long-standing friendship, so she hoped that she could attend their wedding.

Lin Ning subconsciously bit her lip and explained that her supervisor had given her a very valuable opportunity to study abroad, and she would be going to Mitchell next month to continue her studies.

This is of course a lie, after all, it's not the start of the school year in other countries.

Yan Yu, on the other end, didn't ask any further questions and replied:

"Okay, then I wish you a smooth communication, great progress in your studies, and that you win the Nobel Prize soon."

"Thank you," Lin Ning replied. "I also wish you a happy marriage and many children."

After sending the message, she completely deleted Yan Yu from her friends list, then collapsed onto the bed, as if she had lost all her strength.

Using feeling unwell as an excuse, Lin Ning asked her supervisor for leave and stayed in her dormitory for the next few days, leaving all her takeout orders at the door and not wanting to see anyone.

She completely shut herself off, refusing to answer anyone's messages or calls. Occasionally, she would check her phone and watch short videos, but most of the time she would lie in bed, wrapped up in the blanket.

Sleeping all day long!
Unable to contact her, her parents, who lived far away in Fujian, finally arrived at the university. With the help of the dormitory manager, they opened the door and saw their daughter lying on the bed with lifeless eyes. The floor was piled with leftover takeout boxes, and the air conditioner above her was running at the lowest temperature of 18 degrees Celsius.

Lin Ning, who was hiding under the covers, was dragged out by her parents in a daze. She couldn't hear what her parents were saying; she seemed to have lost her soul and had lost all reaction to the outside world.

Her life took a sharp turn for the worse after that. Lin Ning withdrew from school and returned to her hometown to recuperate for almost a year, during which time her mental state gradually improved.

Thanks to her family's connections, she got a job as a teacher at a kindergarten run by her elders, living a leisurely life from nine to five.

Her parents were worried that it would trigger her heartbreak, so they never arranged blind dates for her or pressured her to get married. She also had no plans to start a new relationship; she simply continued to live with her parents, going to get off work, coming home, grocery shopping, and cooking every day.

She lived out her decades in this uneventful way. After her parents passed away, Lin Ning continued to live alone in the house they left behind, beginning to spend her later years in peace.

But something seems off.

She would often think of Yan Yu involuntarily, and every time his face appeared in her mind, she would immediately suppress it with the instinct to avoid the pain.

However, a strange sense of unease grew stronger and stronger in my heart.

Lin Ning had a subtle feeling that she shouldn't be the loser in the relationship; something was wrong.

Sometimes she couldn't help but wonder if she had never truly escaped that shadow, to the point that her mental state had begun to become distorted—fantasizing about the other life she experienced after Yan Yu confessed his love to her in high school, and endlessly embellishing and whitewashing it.

This is to cover up the sad reality that he is unwilling to face now, a reality he will have to live with for the rest of his life.

She tried to convince herself to reconcile with the past, but she could never truly accept reality.

This inexplicable torment almost drove her mad, to the point that she began to pray to gods and Buddhas all over the mountains and fields, going to any temple she heard was efficacious, hoping that the gods and bodhisattvas could give her spiritual comfort.

At the age of 91, Lin Ning suffered a heart attack on her way to a temple in a certain city and was rushed to the local hospital for emergency treatment.

In the emergency room, in her critical moment, Lin Ning, wearing an oxygen mask, had a strong thought in her mind:

If there is an afterlife.

I don't want to be a test-taker anymore.

(End of this chapter)