Chapter 1567: Dominating the Inner Realm, A Fair Maiden

Chapter 1567: Dominating the Inner Realm, A Fair Maiden (Third Update)

Li Muwan's voice held a tenderness, a gentleness as deep as the ocean, that reached Wang Lin's ears, filling his heart with a quiet softness. His aged face seemed to grow slightly younger in that moment as he looked at Li Muwan, forgetting the passage of time.

Li Muwan's words, that entire life Wang Lin had lived in his dream, were etched into his bones. He could not forget them, or perhaps they had overlapped with his life in the dream, for before his eyes appeared the valley where he and she had lived for many years.

In that valley, as flowers bloomed and withered, year after year, their two eternal figures remained, accompanied by the lingering sounds of a zither that left one intoxicated, unwilling to wake.

Wang Lin did not wish to wake.

In that valley, he watched as Li Muwan's youthful beauty turned into white hair and then withered bones. Those cruel scenes seemed to tear his heart apart, filling him with sorrow amidst the pain.

He remembered holding Li Muwan's corpse and letting out the most piercing cry of his life toward the sky.

"Even if Heaven commands you to die, I will snatch you back!"

That voice echoed in Wang Lin's mind at every moment; it came from the dream, infused with all of Wang Lin's strength.

"In this dream, let me accompany you until the end of time…" Li Muwan held Wang Lin tightly, as if afraid he would leave, tears streaming down her face as she murmured these words again, and again, and again…

She could not tell how many times she had said it.

Wang Lin raised his withered hands to gently stroke Li Muwan's dark hair, his expression soft as he nodded.

After this woman died, her shadow grew deeper and deeper within Wang Lin during his thousand years of loneliness and memories, until she became Wang Lin's everything.

Whether it was Liu Mei, Li Qianmei, or any other fair maiden Wang Lin met later, none could replace her shadow or truly enter Wang Lin's heart.

Wang Lin knew that his heart had already died on that year, that month, that day, at the moment he held Li Muwan and roared at the sky in inconsolable grief.

The seven colors of the sky were missing one, and I will spend my whole life searching for her…

"Are you willing to sever it… Can you even sever it…" Wang Lin looked up at the sky, at the end of the sky where a white bird seemed to be circling, and asked himself softly.

In the thirty-first year after leaving the State of Zhao, Wang Lin and Li Muwan sat upon a blue stone. Countless Cultivators sat cross-legged for thousands of miles around the mountain below. Wang Lin held Li Muwan, smiling as they contemplated the world together.

Gradually, Wang Lin's words became fewer and fewer, from speaking once a year to only uttering a single word every few years.

"Causes arise from emptiness; this is Karma. If you understand this, you may attain the Dao…" In the winter of the thirty-second year after he left the State of Zhao, amidst falling snowflakes, Wang Lin stood up from the blue stone. His body was very weak; he could feel that his life had reached its final moments. With only the last leg of his journey remaining, he would have to die even if he did not want to.

This dream was very real, so very real. In this dream, he was a Mortal.

Death was an end, the conclusion of a dream, but it was also the beginning of everything.

Li Muwan was still very young. She gently supported Wang Lin, standing with him on that blue stone, never leaving his side.

Liu Mei was in the distance, silently watching Wang Lin and Li Muwan. The confusion in her eyes had deepened over the years, until eventually, it became an indescribable pain, causing her to lower her head.

"Do you still remember where home is…" Wang Lin's voice grew increasingly weathered as he spoke softly.

Tears welled up in Li Muwan's eyes as she nodded.

"Take me there." Wang Lin stroked Li Muwan's beautiful hair, his aged face revealing two thousand years of longing.

Li Muwan bit her lower lip, supported Wang Lin, and leaped into the air. Carrying him, she tore through the Void Realm, leaving into the distance under the gaze of countless Cultivators for thousands of miles around.

They vanished at the edge of the sky, disappearing from everyone's sight, as if they had never appeared, never arrived.

The wind blew past Wang Lin, lifting his gray hair and making it dance behind his head. The gray strands fell onto Li Muwan's face as they danced, entangling with her dark hair. The intertwining of black and white seemed as though it never wished to be separated.

Li Muwan's gaze was gentle. As they moved forward, she occasionally looked at Wang Lin, her face filled with warmth and attachment.

Wang Lin watched the earth beneath his feet flash by in the whistling wind. He saw volcanoes, plains, and forests one after another; he even saw Mortal cities and individual Mortals who looked almost like black dots.

He did not know how much time had passed until the earth beneath his feet gradually turned a verdant green, and a continuous range of mountains appeared. Hidden within those mountains was a valley.

That valley was his second home in the dream, besides the State of Zhao.

That was his and her home.

A long rainbow descended to the ground. Countless trees and plants below moved in unison, their leaves rustling and swaying before soon calming down. When Li Muwan supported Wang Lin and appeared, they had already arrived at that valley.

The valley was vast and empty, with weeds everywhere. Amidst the grass were a few wildflowers, emitting faint fragrances.

"We're home…" Wang Lin's expression was dazed. He looked at everything in the valley, a sense of longing and sorrow rising from his soul. As he watched, while that sorrow filled the air, his gaze fell upon Li Muwan.

Li Muwan also looked around. After a long while, a happy smile appeared on her face.

"Wang Lin, let's not think about whether this is a dream. Let's live here, shall we?"

"Alright."

Time passed slowly like this. The weeds in the valley had all disappeared, and a simple wooden house appeared. Day after day, year after year, beautiful zither music swirled in the sky of the valley.

Amidst the zither music, Wang Lin sat to the side, leaning on a cane. He looked even older, his face full of wrinkles, and brown age spots dotted his skin.

Those were age spots. Within each spot, like the growth rings of a tree, the marks of time were imprinted.

He was still wearing that white robe, smiling as he listened to Li Muwan's zither music and watched the woman sitting before him, playing the zither with both hands.

This woman's face was no longer as young as when she had first arrived here; instead, like him, she had become an old woman.

This was caused by Li Muwan's Spell and Divine Ability. She did not want Wang Lin to watch her remain young while he grew old; instead, she wanted to be with him, like a Mortal, counting each other's white hairs as they walked through the rest of their lives.

How could Wang Lin not know her intentions? He did not stop her, but instead looked at his wife with tenderness.

His wife.

There is a kind of love that does not care about each other's age, does not care about each other's appearance; what it cares about is only that soul-stirring moment of the first glance.

There is a kind of love that does not care about the passage of time, does not care about the barrier between Yin and Yang; what it cares about is only the longing of that one dream.

There is a kind of love that is just like this: amidst the zither music, under the setting sun, two old people in the valley looked at each other silently. The old man's smile was the old woman's smile.

He watched her, and she played the zither. It was as if in this world, they had nothing but each other. Let the heavens collapse and the earth crack, let the sun and moon alternate, let the clouds and winds change; everything was insignificant before these two aged lovers.

Year after year.

That white bird never appeared again, as if it had departed from the dream.

Under each other's gaze, amidst the zither music, Wang Lin and Li Muwan experienced the spring when all things recovered, the summer when willow catkins flew and the scorching sun covered the earth, and the autumn when leaves rustled, sweeping away their shadows as they walked.

They even watched the rain and snow together, passing through one winter after another that did not feel cold.

This year was the thirty-fifth year since Wang Lin left the State of Zhao.

This year, Wang Lin felt the call of death. He understood that perhaps one day, as soon as he closed his eyes, he would never be able to open them again, and he would walk out of this dream world. This day was getting closer and closer.

In the autumn of this year, withered yellow leaves danced in the sky. Those leaves blew into the valley, rolling slowly on the ground. One of them was blocked by Wang Lin's body as he sat.

Wang Lin leaned down and, with great effort, took the leaf into his hand, which was covered in age spots.

"Fallen leaves return to their roots… Wan'er, I am going to leave… See me off on my final journey, accompany me to the State of Zhao, take Da Fu, and let's go to Su City. Let's go there to complete the final appointment with myself in this life within the dream. Back then, he did not come, but this time, he will definitely come."

Li Muwan, with her white hair, filled with reluctance and attachment, supported Wang Lin as they walked out of their home. In the world, they transformed into a long rainbow and headed toward the far distance, toward the other side of the ocean, the continent where the State of Zhao existed.

This was a dream, yet it was not a dream. It was caused by Wang Lin's Spell and Divine Ability borrowing from the Dao Fruit. The decades in the dream were the same as the time outside the dream.

Outside the dream was the Cultivation Alliance, the four great Star Domains, and the final battle between the Inner Realm and the Outer Realm!

Over these decades, the war between the Inner Realm and the Outer Realm had reached a desperate state. The Outer Realm army spread the news of the Seal Venerable's death and poured all their strength into a mad invasion of the Inner Realm.

The barrier of ancient power borrowed by Qing Lin had collapsed more than thirty years ago. As countless Cultivators from the Outer Realm rushed in, both sides suffered heavy casualties in battle after battle. Blood filled the starry sky, and the scent of blood was unimaginably thick. The four great Star Domains of the Inner Realm became a world that resembled Hell.

Amidst this increasingly cruel life-and-death struggle, many great beings of the Inner Realm abandoned the Cloud Sea and the Zhao River, concentrating all their power in the Luotian and Kunxu domains, making a final desperate struggle.

In those repeated despairs, the rumors about the Seal Venerable's death had already taken root in people's hearts. Even though Qing Shui had disguised himself as Wang Lin to hold the fort, during a great battle more than a decade ago, Qing Shui was heavily injured by the Void God Heavenly Venerable and nearly died.

Consequently, the news of the Seal Venerable's death could no longer be contained, dealing an irreparable blow to the minds of the Cultivators in the Inner Realm.

A month ago, the Kunxu Star Domain also faced a difficult choice: whether to abandon the domain and go to Luotian to defend to the death, or to fight the enemy of the Outer Realm to the death in the Seal Venerable's hometown, outside the Vermilion Bird Star!

Third update, end.