"Am I dreaming? Or is this some kind of hallucination?" Rulu muttered to himself. Unable to believe what was happening before his eyes, he pinched his own cheek hard — and felt the pain clearly.
"Brother, why are you here? Did you come looking for me and Mom?" The little girl blinked her bright, wide eyes and gazed up at Rulu's face.
"I… I don't know." Rulu's mind was in complete chaos; he had no idea what to say to the girl.
"Lanlan, who are you talking to?"
A woman's voice came from inside the house, and a black-haired woman with delicate features walked out, appearing before Rulu. The moment he made out her face, his pupils dilated in an instant.
"M… Mom?!" Rulu said in a trembling voice.
"Is it really you, Rulu? I'm not dreaming, am I?" The woman's body trembled uncontrollably. When she saw his face clearly, overwhelming joy spread across hers. She walked briskly toward him and opened her arms wide, as if to embrace him.
But at that moment, Rulu stepped back. He stared at her with guarded, wary eyes and shook his head over and over, muttering almost feverishly: "No, this is impossible. My sister and mother are dead. They're dead. You are not my mother and sister…"
"What are you saying? Have you forgotten what your own mother looks like, Rulu?" The woman's expression shifted to one of confusion and grief, tears glistening in her eyes.
Rulu still refused to accept it as real. He looked at the woman, then at the little girl, and kept repeating: "No, something's wrong. Even if my sister were still alive, she wouldn't look like this. She wouldn't be completely unchanged. You are not my mother and sister — you're not, you're not!"
"There's no need to doubt. They really are your mother and sister."
A woman's voice came from behind him. Rulu turned his head and found that C.C. had appeared beside him at some point without his notice.
"C.C.?!"
"When did you get here?!"
Both Rulu and the woman who claimed to be his mother looked at C.C. in astonishment. C.C. wore a lonely smile on her face and said to the black-haired woman, "It's been a long time, Maria…"
"What is going on? C.C., how do you know my mother? Why have you never mentioned this to me before?" Rulu said, feeling that things had entirely slipped beyond his control.
C.C. let out a quiet sigh. "What difference would it make if I told you or didn't? Would it change anything?"
"Then how do you explain what's happening right now? My mother and sister are clearly dead — so how are they here?!" Rulu's eyes went wide as he shouted, and the little girl, seemingly frightened by his words and expression, buried her face in her hands and began to cry.
C.C. glanced at the sobbing girl, then at Maria's sorrowful face, and said quietly, "I'm sorry, Maria. Could you give me a moment alone with Rulu?"
"Alright…" the woman said softly. She drew the little girl inside and closed the door behind them.
C.C. and Rulu moved to a secluded corner away from everyone. Rulu looked around, and once he was sure no one else was nearby, he turned to C.C. with an accusing tone: "Now you can explain yourself. C.C."
"And what would you like to know?"
Rulu thought for a moment, then said, "I'll set aside how you know my mother for now. What I want to know right now is whether those two are actually my sister and mother."
"Didn't I just tell you? They really are your mother and sister."
"But they already…"
C.C. cut him off. "You were going to say they're dead, weren't you? They are indeed dead. Most likely, the Emperor used the power of this place to bring them back to life."
"Bring them back to life?" Rulu was taken aback, then pushed back: "That can't be right. My sister still looks exactly as she did seven years ago — not a single change. If they were truly resurrected, there's no way my sister would still look like that."
"You're right. They haven't truly been resurrected. They exist in a state between death and life."
"What does that even mean?!"
"It's a bit complicated to explain. Let me ask you something first — Rulu, do you know why the people and creatures here are able to come back to life even after being killed?"
"No, how would I know something like that?"
C.C. said, "Then I'll tell you. The reason they can revive is that their bodies and their spiritual consciousness are separated. Their bodies may be right in front of you, but their consciousness exists somewhere else entirely. You can destroy their flesh, but you cannot destroy their spiritual consciousness. As long as that consciousness persists, they can revive infinitely through the power of this place."
Something seemed to click for Rulu. He murmured, "I see… so that's why my Psionic power has no effect on them — because their spiritual consciousness isn't inside their bodies."
"Exactly," C.C. said. "My guess is that the Emperor brought your mother and sister here shortly after their deaths, separated their spiritual consciousness and preserved it within this place, then used its power to resurrect them."
"If that's the case," Rulu said, "then why does my sister still look exactly as she did before, without any change at all?"
"Because this kind of resurrection is flawed. It is not true resurrection."
"Why?"
"First of all, they cannot leave this area. Their spiritual consciousness is not within their bodies — it is stored somewhere else in this region. The moment they step outside, the connection between their body and consciousness will be severed, causing them to lose normal bodily function — in other words, death."
"Meaning they can only survive in this strange place," Rulu said.
"Yes. Beyond that," C.C. continued, "as their bodies grow and age, their spiritual consciousness does not grow in sync. Think of it like two interlocking gears — one gear keeps changing, while the other stays exactly the same. For a short while, there's no problem. But as time passes, the gap between the two grows wider and wider. Eventually, the day comes when the two gears can no longer stay connected, and at that point, the body loses its functions and moves toward death."
Rulu's body trembled. "You're saying that even though they've been brought back, they'll die again before long — on their own?"
"Yes."
"How long do they have?"
"Well… it varies by species. For humans, it's roughly around one year…"
"They only have one year to live?" Rulu's face went ashen. The thought of his mother and sister dying again in a year sent a sharp, unbearable ache through his chest.
C.C. went on: "However, since their spiritual consciousness is still intact and preserved here, they can be revived again even after they die. But their memories will be reset. Every so often they will die, lose all memory of what happened since their resurrection, then come back again — only to die again after a time, in an endless cycle. So while they are alive, they are not truly living."