Chapter 50: Space-Time Rift
When consciousness returned, the first thing Wei Wuxian felt was a bone-chilling chill, as if he were submerged in icy water. He snapped his eyes open and found himself suspended in a hazy chaos, surrounded by distorted light and shadow. Familiar images flashed by—the cold springs of the Cloud Recesses, the lotus ponds of the Lotus Pier, the mists of the mass graves—and even something he had never seen before: towering palaces looming in the clouds, figures in ancient robes kneeling before an altar, holding a jade pendant identical to the one he held in his arms.
"Lan Zhan! Si Zhui!" He struggled to grab onto something, but found his body so light that he couldn't even muster a muscle. The jade pendant in his arms was incredibly hot, and its light penetrated through his clothes, tearing a tiny crack in the chaos. From within the crack came Lan Wangji's anxious voice, "Wei Ying! Don't move!"
Wei Wuxian followed the sound and saw, in the shadows not far away, Lan Wangji tightly hugging Si Zhui. The two of them were surrounded by the light of Bichen's sword, as if trapped in a transparent cocoon. Si Zhui's eyes were closed, his face pale, clearly still unconscious. However, the wooden kite in his arms was unusually bright, and the red string wrapped around their wrists was slowly closing the distance between them.
"Where is this?" Wei Wuxian shouted, his voice spreading through the chaos, attracting more fragments of light and shadow. He saw a little girl with twin buns sitting under a peach tree, clutching half a jade pendant, her eyes curved in a smile—the girl's features bore a striking resemblance to the profile of his mother in his memory.
"A rift in spacetime," Lan Wangji's voice echoed again. The sword's light suddenly surged, shaking away the approaching fragments of light and shadow. "The vortex just now tore apart spacetime. We are now trapped between different time nodes." He glanced at the jade pendant in Wei Wuxian's arms. "Your jade pendant is drawing us closer. Don't resist its power."
Wei Wuxian glanced down at the jade pendant in his arms. The red and white lights at the edges of the fragments intertwined, forming a faint traction line, one end connected to him, the other extending in the direction of Lan Wangji. He tried to relax his body, and indeed, he felt a gentle force supporting him, slowly approaching the sword light.
The fragments of light and shadow grew denser and denser, and Wei Wuxian took in more of the scene: the little girl beneath the peach tree had grown up, a woman in white, standing on the summit of Junwu Mountain with a young man bearing a sword. The jade pendant in the woman's hand shone brightly in the sunlight, and a jade pendant of the same material was tied to the tassel of the young man's sword. Later, the woman ran through a sea of fire, holding a baby, and the jade pendant shattered in her arms, half falling to the ground, the other half tightly clutched in her hand. Later still, the baby grew into a young man, dozing in the library of the Cloud Recesses. Beside him sat a young man in white, quietly slipping lotus seeds into his hand...
"That's... Mom and my dad?" Wei Wuxian's voice trembled. Looking at the young man with a sword in the picture, he suddenly remembered what Lan Qiren said, that his father Wei Changze once traveled the martial arts world with Cangse Sanren. "Did they also come to Junwu Mountain?"
Lan Wangji followed his gaze, frowning: "These images are fragments of Jun's memories. The jade pendant is helping us piece together the truth." His fingertips gently touched Si Zhui's eyebrows, and a stream of spiritual power was injected into him. Si Zhui's eyelashes trembled, and he slowly opened his eyes.
"Daddy..." Si Zhui began to speak, but was stunned by the scene before him. Fragments of light and shadow spun in the chaos like a revolving lantern. There were cries, laughter, and the crisp sound of weapons clashing. "Where...is this place?"
“Don’t be afraid.” Wei Wuxian finally approached the sword’s range. Lan Wangji immediately reached out and grabbed his wrist. The two forces merged, and the jade pendant’s light instantly surged, enveloping the three of them. “We’ll be out soon.”
In the light, the last fragment of memory slowly unfolded: In the palace of Wuyong Kingdom, a man in a dragon robe threw the jade pendant to the ground, sending shards flying. One of the fragments bounced into a corner and was quietly collected by a man in a silver mask. The man roared, "Since the Jun family refuses to sacrifice, let them be buried with them!"
The scene abruptly ended here, the jade pendant's light suddenly fading. All three of them felt a flash of white before their eyes, their bodies thrust forward by a tremendous force, and the sharp sound of spacetime ripping through their ears. Wei Wuxian subconsciously embraced Lan Wangji tightly, protecting Sizhui between them. The jade pendant's light formed a ball of light around them, crashing into the ripped spacetime.
"Hold on tight!" Lan Wangji's voice was close to Wei Wuxian's ear, with an unquestionable firmness.
The moment the ball of light passed through the crack, Wei Wuxian saw a figure in white standing on the other side of the crack, holding the familiar divine weapon in his hand, quietly watching them. This time, he saw clearly that the man's facial features beneath the mask bore a striking resemblance to his father, Wei Changze, in his memory.
"The time... has come." The voice of the man in white came before the light ball disappeared, as light as a sigh.
The next second, the feeling of weightlessness came again, and the three of them fell heavily to the ground, with a familiar sound of wind in their ears - they were back to the ruins of Junwu Mountain, the sun was shining, the dark clouds and whirlpools disappeared without a trace, as if everything just now was just a dream.
Si Zhui was the first to react. He climbed up from the ground holding the wooden kite and pointed at Wei Wuxian's arms: "Daddy! The jade pendant!"
Wei WuXian looked down and saw that a third fragment had appeared between the two pieces of the jade pendant, perfectly completing the "Jun" character. The complete jade pendant radiated a warm luster, the blood-red stains at the break completely gone. A tiny line of words was engraved on the back: "My son, Ah Xian, be safe and sound."
It's my mother's handwriting.
Wei Wuxian's fingertips traced the words, his eyes instantly reddening. It turned out the vortex wasn't a trap, the rift in time and space wasn't accidental. All of this was guided by the jade pendant, his mother's protection across time and space, allowing him to see clearly the past he hadn't participated in.
Lan Wangji held his hand, the warmth in his palm was steady and reassuring: "It's all over."
Lan Jingyi's cries could be heard in the distance, as well as Nie Huaisang's figure waving a folding fan. He was clearly worried about them and had followed their trail. Wei Wuxian clenched the jade pendant in his arms, looked up at Lan Wangji, and suddenly smiled: "Well, it's all over."
Sunlight pierced through the clouds, illuminating the three of them and the tender shoots quietly sprouting from the ruins. The images from the cracks in time and space still echoed in his mind, no longer burdened by a heavy secret, but a gift from his mother—those memories of love and protection that would eventually overlap with the warmth before him, becoming the most solid source of strength for the years to come.
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