Chapter 2045: The Lanterns Grow Dim, Suddenly I Look Back (Conclusion)

Chapter 2045: The Lanterns Grow Dim, Suddenly I Look Back (Conclusion)

Within the Primordial God Realm, at the very center of that circular land, on the mountain where seven-colored snowflakes drifted, two figures stood.

They were Wang Lin and Li Muwan.

They stood there, looking at a bridge not far away, speaking softly.

Wang Lin's gaze held tenderness as he looked at the softness in Li Muwan's expression. This scene, he had waited for a very, very long time, waited for thousands of years, for it to finally reappear.

The drifting seven-colored snow no longer held a meaning of sorrow. It was completely different from the scene Wang Lin had witnessed within the Divided Soul in the Ancient Ancestor's temple.

"It's a long story, Wan'er. After we leave, let's find an ordinary place, and I'll spend a lifetime telling you this story, alright… And Ping'er, and his wife Qing Yi, you will surely like them," Wang Lin said softly.

Li Muwan nodded gently. She looked at the man before her. His face was the same as before, yet, in her eyes, it now held traces of vicissitudes and the hidden marks of time.

She could imagine how much hardship, how much price Wang Lin had paid to awaken her.

"Now, let me take you, together, to tread the heavens…" Wang Lin raised his head, looking at the bridge not far away. His eyes shone with the brightest light they had held in thousands of years, a gaze now devoid of sorrow.

He held Li Muwan's hand. Since she awoke, he had never let go, afraid that if he did, he might not find her again.

Their figures gradually moved forward, stepping onto that Bridge of Treading Heaven, walking step by step toward its end, toward the illusory expanse connecting with the firmament.

Li Muwan also held Wang Lin's hand, wishing never to let go for a lifetime. She could feel the warmth transmitted from his palm, bringing to her heart a sense of warmth and peace she had not known for thousands of years.

Their figures gradually walked on, reaching the end of the bridge. Just as they were about to step into the illusory expanse, Wang Lin's footsteps paused. He raised his left hand and swept it toward the vast land behind them.

With this sweep, three long rainbows suddenly appeared out of thin air, shooting toward the land.

Within the first long rainbow was half a Compass. It fused with the land, causing the circular land to rumble. The previously illusory other half instantly became real, causing the countless Rift mountains transformed into gradations and runes on the land to erupt with a blinding light. As it became complete, it faintly seemed to begin operating.

Within the second long rainbow was a giant pointer. It floated up, then rapidly descended, merging with the mountain where seven-colored snowflakes drifted. The pointer swept in a circle across the circular land.

A vast, majestic power spread out from within this land, its rumbling shaking the heavens.

Within the third long rainbow was a bead, a white bead—the Heaven Defying Bead!

It floated within this heaven and earth, emitting a soft glow. Its appearance instantly made this entire land, this Boundary-Defining Compass, seem complete.

"Return!" Wang Lin uttered softly.

As his words echoed, the vast land, amidst its rumbling, visibly shrank at an astonishing speed. A great amount of mist swirled around it. Moments later, the entire land vanished, the mountain where seven-colored snowflakes drifted vanished. All existence within this heaven and earth, except for the bridge where Wang Lin and Li Muwan stood, dissipated, transforming into a palm-sized Compass!

The Compass hummed, floating above Wang Lin's left hand. As it spun continuously, it shrank once more. Finally, what appeared in Wang Lin's palm was still that Heaven Defying Bead!

The Heaven Defying Bead was the most crucial part of the Boundary-Defining Compass. Similarly, it was also the form the Compass took after becoming complete, indistinguishable from it.

Holding the bead, Wang Lin looked back. He could not see the heavens, could not see the earth. All he saw was a vast nothingness. At the end of that nothingness, he also saw a figure.

It was the Ancient Dao.

The Ancient Dao stared blankly at all of this. He too saw the only thing existing within this nothingness—a single bridge, and the two figures upon it.

"So this is the answer…" the Ancient Dao murmured, a complex expression appearing on his face.

Wang Lin smiled faintly. With a wave of his right hand, a massive Vortex appeared behind the Ancient Dao. Within the Vortex was the Immortal Astral Continent. The Ancient Dao was silent for a moment, then bowed deeply toward Wang Lin before stepping into the Vortex and disappearing without a trace.

After he left, Wang Lin, holding the hand of Li Muwan who had also seen the figure but had not inquired, walked into the end of the bridge and vanished into the illusory expanse.

As Wang Lin departed, the bridge also gradually transformed into crystalline light, scattering and merging with the nothingness here, disappearing.

This was a place like a peach garden. In the distance was a pavilion containing a stone table and two stone chairs. On one of the stone chairs beside the table, a person sat with their back to Wang Lin. This person wore gray robes, had gray hair, and their face could not be seen.

Behind this person stood another, seemingly a servant.

Wang Lin, holding Li Muwan's hand, stepped out from the nothingness into this peach garden-like place. The moment he and Li Muwan emerged, the servant turned around, looked at Wang Lin, and revealed a smile.

Wang Lin looked at this servant. The other's appearance was somewhat aged, but Wang Lin recognized him at a glance.

"Sovereign Ling Tian," Wang Lin said slowly.

"Yes, and no," the elderly servant shook his head, not speaking. The one who spoke was the gray-robed man with his back turned. He turned around, looking at Wang Lin with a smile.

"This must be Lady Wang. Indeed, you and Fellow Daoist Wang seem very well-matched," the gray-robed man said, looking at Wang Lin with a smile.

Li Muwan's expression was calm. She did not speak, standing beside Wang Lin, quietly watching the gray-robed man.

Wang Lin looked at the speaking gray-robed man and suddenly laughed. He led Li Muwan forward and, facing the old man, flicked his sleeve. Instantly, the single remaining stone chair overlapped, becoming two. He sat down with Li Muwan.

On the stone table between him and the gray-robed man lay a Go board. Black and white stones were scattered upon it, clearly a game in progress.

"Your Clone left halfway through playing with me back then. I've waited all these years and finally waited for you. Let's continue," the gray-robed man said with a smile, picking up a black stone and placing it on a spot on the board.

"Are you the guardian?" Wang Lin asked, glancing at the board before looking at the gray-robed man.

"I am, and so are you," the gray-robed man raised his head and replied with a smile.

"The Heavenly Fate Child is the artifact spirit. Naturally, I left a trace of Divine Thought upon it—the Gray-robed Tian Yunzi you saw." The gray-robed man's appearance was exactly the same as the Heavenly Fate Child's, yet the feeling he gave Wang Lin was different. As he said, this was the Gray-robed Tian Yunzi.

"Just as the Seven-Colored Realm was first created by your Clone, later discovered and used by that artifact spirit. I was also curious, and only now have I come to understand that Reincarnation, in your view, is so simple.

Those imitation Heaven Defying Beads within the Seven-Colored Realm—were they not precisely your Slaughter Clone's attempts to guess and repeatedly test what the missing element was? Those inscriptions, whether the Dao Sutras or the Tribulation Sutras—were they not the experiences of your life?

"Feng Zhi cultivates the true path… This character for 'true' represents the true self within Reincarnation. The meaning of this phrase is to henceforth allow all living beings in the world to seek the path of their true selves within Reincarnation, to step out of Reincarnation." The gray-robed man's eyes held admiration as he spoke slowly.

"I have no name. If I am the first to reach the Treading Heaven Realm in this Dust Defying World, then you are the second. Between you and me, no other living being has been able to tread the heavens and come here.

Except for your Clone…" the gray-robed man said with a smile.

"The Boundary-Defining Compass, did you create it? That artifact spirit, did you Seal it within?" Wang Lin was silent for a moment, his hand holding Li Muwan's never letting go. He looked at the gray-robed man and asked.

"The fourth step is Treading Heaven, the Peak of the Dust Defying World. However, within the four great realms of the Universe, there are still those who have reached the fifth step… or perhaps the sixth… Before I came here, this Go board already existed.

Let's play. It's your turn…" the gray-robed man said softly.

Wang Lin was silent for a short while, then smiled faintly. He raised his left hand. In his palm, there was already a white bead. Taking this white stone, he placed it on a spot on the board.

The moment this white stone landed, the entire board suddenly changed. The white and black stones began placing themselves, as if deducing something. Finally, when Li Muwan also focused her gaze, all the black and white stones on the board merged together, transforming into only two stones.

One black, one white.

The white stone was on Wang Lin's side, the black stone on the gray-robed man's side.

"Do you understand?" Wang Lin raised his head, looking at the gray-robed man.

"…I understand," the gray-robed man pondered for a moment, sighed lightly, and nodded.

Wang Lin smiled, stood up, and took Li Muwan's hand. Without looking back at the two men or the board, he took a step forward and vanished from that place with Li Muwan.

As he disappeared, the white stone on the board also gradually grew illusory, finally vanishing, as if following Wang Lin.

Wang Lin had left, taking Li Muwan with him.

On the Immortal Astral Continent, aside from the Ancient Dao, no one else knew of everything within the Primordial God Realm.

On a peaceful mountain Peak within the Ancient Clan's lands, Wang Lin sat cross-legged. Li Muwan stood behind him, gazing at him tenderly. Wang Lin had sat here for several days.

He seemed to be waiting for something. Li Muwan did not know, nor did she wish to know. As long as Wang Lin was by her side, she was content. Yet, in her heart, there was still a question. She wanted to ask Wang Lin when he awoke.

Another three days passed. At dusk on this day, as the sky grew dim, Wang Lin opened his eyes and looked at the sky.

In the sky, outside the Immortal Astral Continent, a man dressed in black with long, flowing black hair appeared. Upon him was an aura of slaughter and destruction. He stood outside the Immortal Astral Continent, his gaze cold, looking at the gaze directed at him from within the Ancient Clan's lands on the continent.

His appearance was exactly the same as Wang Lin's!

After a moment of silence, the black-clad man's figure flickered. He rushed into the Immortal Astral Continent, transforming into a streak of black light that shot directly toward the Ancient Clan's lands. He arrived at the mountain Peak where Wang Lin was, standing before Wang Lin.

He saw Li Muwan, and the coldness in his gaze softened.

"You didn't have to come," Wang Lin said, looking at this black-clad Slaughter Clone before him.

The black-clad man was silent. He raised his right hand, severed a strand of his black hair, and let it go. The black hair drifted up, gradually turning white.

The moment this white hair appeared, Wang Lin raised his right hand. In his hand also appeared a white hair, but this white hair gradually dissipated after appearing.

The black-clad man looked at Li Muwan once more, closed his eyes, transformed into a mass of black Qi, erased his own consciousness, and merged into Wang Lin's body.

Wang Lin absorbed all the black Qi, and the Slaughter True Body reformed within him. He looked back at Li Muwan and suddenly understood why this Lu Mo, even after gaining consciousness, still chose to dissipate and re-Fuse with him.

"For me, it was five hundred years… For him, it was countless cycles of Reincarnation…"

"Why are you looking at me?" Li Muwan smiled.

"Did you see him?" Wang Lin suddenly asked.

"Who?" Li Muwan was startled. She hadn't seen anything just now.

"It's nothing. Let's go. Don't you want to see Wang Ping and his wife? Let's go to a place where no one knows us and start an ordinary life…" Wang Lin stood up and laughed.

"No more cultivation?" Li Muwan blinked, standing up beside Wang Lin.

"Cultivation lies in the heart. Having found my true self, everywhere is the same," Wang Lin laughed heartily, embraced Li Muwan, and the two transformed into a long rainbow, flying toward the sky that had darkened after dusk.

"Wang Lin, after the game ended, what did you two mean by 'understand'… I didn't quite follow… What exactly did you understand?" Li Muwan's voice, soft and gentle, echoed.

The two gradually grew distant, slowly vanishing at the horizon.

They did not see that at this moment, not far from the foot of the mountain, in a corner of the Blackstone City, a woman dressed in white stood with her back to the myriad lantern lights. She raised her head, gazing at the distant long rainbow in the sky. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes, tracing her cheeks and dripping onto her clothes.

"Forget it, forget everything… In a previous life, the fish in the water watched the bird fly away just like this…" the woman murmured, her eyes growing misty. The fish in the water wept, but its tears melted into the water, unseen by the bird.

"In a previous life, we were the bird and the fish. But in this life, we are not…" Behind the woman, a gentle voice suddenly sounded.

The woman's delicate frame trembled. Suddenly, she looked back and saw, where the lanterns grew dim, a figure smiling as it looked at her…

The End.

As I type these three words, my heart is filled with melancholy. In a few days, I will write an afterword.

I can tell you in advance that the release date for the new book will be on February 20th, at the usual time, on schedule!

The new book is still Xianxia. I have prepared for nearly a year. It is a story different from renegade immortal, a life that excites me every time I think of it.

At that time, we shall stir up the winds and clouds once more!

On the evening of the 10th, Acquired, at 8 PM, I will gather with everyone on YY. If you have time, be sure to come.