In Ling Ke's impression, the name "Kali" was something special.
Its "specialness" came from some ancient Indian myths he had come across before his time travel.
According to legend, "Shiva," one of the three great gods, the so-called "Great Self-Heaven," had a consort: the Goddess of the Snow Mountain—Parvati.
One day, a demon appeared in the world. Each time a drop of his blood fell to the earth, it would give rise to a thousand incarnations like him, bringing disaster upon the world.
After learning of this, the Goddess of the Snow Mountain transformed into the goddess "Kali" and set out to attack and destroy the demon.
But she feared that, while fighting him, the demon's blood might spill onto the ground, creating an even greater hidden danger.
Thus, the goddess Kali first drained all the blood from his body without letting a single drop fall, and then succeeded in destroying him.
However, it did not come without a cost.
The goddess Kali, in her rage, trampled the earth uncontrollably, and her terrifying "war dance" nearly destroyed the world.
In the end, it was Shiva (the Great Self-Heaven) who lay beneath her feet, allowing her to trample on him to extinguish her wrath—and so the world was saved.
Of course, myths always know everything.
It's common for multiple versions to conflict (a true "book feast").
In short, the version Ling Ke learned was the one above.
And the goddess Kali in this version was the black Mother Earth, the conqueror of time, the goddess of fertility.
Her complexion was sky blue, yet it symbolized the white of frailty.
She had a fierce gaze and long hair like serpents.
Her worshipers associated her with skulls, graveyards, and blood.
She ruled over death and rebirth, and was the bloody ocean symbolizing the beginning and end of the world.
So, look.
"The Law of Blood-Kali."
In the Domination Theater, Ling Ke sat alone on the magnificent throne, gazing at one of the many "omniscient" light curtains before him and chuckling: "At first, I simply couldn't stand Otto, so I just made a casual move."
"Unexpectedly, you've grown to this point."
Ling Ke nodded. "That 'plan' you envisioned is quite interesting."
"So, let me, the 'grand player of world destruction,' look forward to the day you begin the 'Dance of World Destruction'!"
"And before that—"
His gaze shifted to two other light curtains at the side. "I have a side show."
There, two young maidens were shown choosing to live in seclusion, their faces wearing joyful smiles.
Ling Ke rose from his throne with a wicked grin.
"Traveling to this collapsed world, it's rare to embark on such a journey, and there must be more surprises and scares to make it all the more interesting."
Speaking of which, ever since Ling Ke had deliberately limited his "omniscience" and nearly taken the initiative to "predict the future," several things that surprised him had appeared frequently of late.
The growth of Kali was one.
The other—
"I really didn't expect you to survive long enough for me to 'forgive' you."
Saying this, Ling Ke stepped forward.
A spatial gate opened before him.
With a single step, from that pure white hall, he arrived in a dimly lit secret chamber.
The air here was thick with all kinds of pungent scents.
Of course, unlike the dimness of Twilight Street, nothing here was tied to lust.
But—
The smell of blood, and the stench left by incontinence.
In the entire room, only one spot was illuminated.
That was between two candlesticks, where a group photograph was displayed.
In the photo, a woman claiming to be their "mother" gathered five teenagers.
Some of them laughed innocently, others were mischievous; some had expressionless faces, some crossed their arms with apparent disgust, unwilling to get along with certain others at all.
And there was another person.
Before this photo lay a dagger.
This was the place where Ling Ke took revenge on one of his enemies.
The latter's name—
"Madam Cocoa, congratulations."
Ling Ke stood not far from the secret chamber and spoke with a smile: "The pain you once inflicted upon me, I have returned to you intact."
"Not a penny more, not a penny less."
He clapped his hands as if truly celebrating something. "You managed to endure until the end—until now."
"From today... you are free."
With that, he simply waved his hand.
All the strange smells and objects in the secret room dissipated, discharged directly from the Domination Theater.
The room became once again impeccably clean.
Hopefully, it would never be used again in the future.
At this moment—
Lying on the torture table in the middle of the secret chamber, Cocoa—whose body had never been bound by any physical restraints from start to finish—remained silent.
If one looked closely, one would see that her eyes had been vacant for a long time.
She also seemed utterly bored.
Her once-beautiful golden curls were now gray... most of them had even fallen out.
She had grown thinner and thinner, her material nutrition steadily declining.
Her lips were cracked, her face gaunt. She no longer looked like a woman under forty, but an old person on the brink of death.
Looking at her now—
"Did I look like this back then?"
Ling Ke's thoughts wandered for a moment.
But then he smirked again without a second thought.
Listen—
"Madam Cocoa, although the 'debt' between you and me has been settled, I am still a little more 'soft-hearted' than you."
Ling Ke walked to the side of the torture table, picked up the photograph, and brought it to Cocoa. "I won't throw you into a state of current danger like you did to me."
"So—"
He raised the photo and pointed to one person in it. "I'll send you to your dear daughter, how about that?"
"I think she'll be happy to take good care of her 'mother.'"
With those words, Ling Ke snapped his fingers.
Bang~
A wheelchair appeared beside the torture table.
Cocoa, whose pupils had not the slightest focal point, was moved into the wheelchair.
Another spatial shift, and she was dressed in a completely new outfit—
It was the military uniform she used to wear when she traveled.
Only now, the uniform no longer suited her in the least.
Ling Ke paid it no mind.
In that instant, he hooked his hand around the back of the wheelchair.
Like a calm caretaker, he slowly pushed her out of the backroom.
The spatial gate to the outside world opened.
On the other side was the unknown "world" that had changed drastically.