Chapter 101 The Grand Finale
One night, something knocked on the window. Su Yunyu was startled awake and subconsciously glanced to her side.
Xiao Shuying was not there, but he heard the sound of flapping wings outside the window. He went over and opened the window, and a crow handed him what it had been carrying.
Upon receiving it, the small package slowly opened, revealing something the size of a sparrow's egg, brimming with demonic energy. Su Yunyu guessed this must be the Demon Heart, and as expected, a note inside read:
“I was happy when you said you didn’t hate me after I agreed to your request.”
Su Yunyu finished reading the short line of text. Holding the demonic heart, she felt inexplicably uneasy. Such a powerful demonic heart, whose life was it...?
The crows flew away, and a vast darkness spread outside the window. The faint moonlight seemed lost and wandered aimlessly. As Su Yunyu held the Demon Heart, somewhat bewildered, Xiao Shuying returned, bringing a chill with her. She embraced him and said softly:
"This is Feng Mingye's demonic heart."
"What?" Su Yunyu's hand trembled slightly. Although he had sensed something, he hadn't believed until just now that Feng Mingye would really die.
Xiao Shuying kissed the back of his ear, her tone enigmatic:
"Master is heartbroken."
"..." Su Yunyu was speechless. Although he didn't dislike Feng Mingye, he didn't have any good feelings towards him either. Now that he knew that Feng Mingye had given his heart to him, he felt conflicted and struggling.
A life lost because of her was bound to cause some sadness. Su Yunyu closed her eyes, suppressing the complex emotions in her heart, and looked at Xiao Shuying:
Why haven't you been around me these past few days?
A soft laugh came from above. Xiao Shuying pulled him onto her lap, pinched his cheek, and whispered:
"I've been busy with something."
"What"
As soon as she finished speaking, Xiao Shuying waved her spiritual energy in her palm. In an instant, pure white spiritual energy continuously steamed in the room and was absorbed by the earth. As the spiritual energy gradually dissipated, a huge magic array revealed its patterns.
Multiple irregular shapes were tightly interlocked and rotating, forming a pattern. Only the center of the array was visible in the room; its extent was unclear. Startled, Su Yunyu climbed out of Xiao Shuying's arms and stood on the floor, somewhat stunned.
"This is... a teleportation array."
The book mentioned that drawing it required immense spiritual energy and superb skills, and I never expected that Xiao Shuying had already done it.
“Yes,” Xiao Shuying walked behind him, reached out and circled him, then grasped the Demon Heart in his hand. As she slowly tightened her fingers, she gradually transformed the Demon Heart into the formation.
The formation spun faster and faster, with wisps of spiritual energy rising continuously. Seeing this, Su Yunyu became somewhat worried. Could this formation really, as the book described, take the two of them back to another world?
"Master, don't be afraid, I'm always here..."
Xiao Shuying tightened her grip on his hand and soothed him in his ear:
"The formation should initially create an illusion; once you get past the illusion, everything will be fine."
Soon the demonic heart was completely fused, and the magic array seemed to have reached its peak. The scenery in front of her melted away in waves. Just as Su Yunyu was about to turn around and look for Xiao Shuying, everything around her had changed.
The deep mansion revealed its pointed eaves in the darkness. Just as he was wondering where the illusion had led him, a commotion arose from the secluded path before him:
"You little bastard, I don't think you're even a member of the Xiao family!"
"Exactly, exactly. You're just wasting the Xiao family's air by living here. And you think you can eat our Xiao family's food?"
Wait, the Xiao residence! Su Yunyu hadn't quite grasped the details yet, but anger surged through him faster than reason. He ran towards the sound and saw a thin, frail child in tattered clothes coldly saying:
Give it back to me.
Before him stood two boys, well-fed and warmly dressed, who at first glance seemed more like masters than their master. They were now laughing heartily, each holding a steamed bun in their hand.
"We're acting like we're something special over this lousy steamed bun."
"Too bad we don't want it and won't give it back to you, hahaha!"
Upon seeing this, Su Yunyu realized that this was Xiao Shuying's childhood experience. He rolled up his sleeves and quickly walked over to stop him, only to find that the three people couldn't see him at all.
Su Yunyu was stunned. Yes, this was an illusion, and he couldn't change anything. But was the illusion just meant for him to witness these things? If he couldn't change them, why did it have to let him see them?
The two bullies were enraged when they saw Xiao Shuying staring at them. They were about to throw their fists at her when Su Yunyu's heart tightened. She saw a stone on the ground and, disregarding whether she could interfere with the illusion, silently blew the stone away with her spiritual energy.
The wind blew right at one of the people's feet, and just as that person was about to punch him, he tripped and fell flat on his face in front of Xiao Shuying.
For a moment, all that could be heard was a series of howls of pain. Xiao Shuying's eyes flashed, she snatched the steamed bun that had fallen to the ground and ran away, leaving the two people behind, one badly injured and the other stamping his feet in frustration.
Su Yunyu had just breathed a sigh of relief when the scene before her eyes shifted, and she found herself on a vast plain overgrown with ancient trees and weeds. Before she could even process where she was, a familiar voice rang out:
“Junior brother, go ahead and scout ahead. You have no cultivation, but you should at least help us with something.”
"..."
Su Yunyu looked in the direction of the voice and saw that it was Xiao Qingran who was speaking. Behind him were several disciples of the Tianxuan Sect, who were behaving arrogantly towards Xiao Shuying. The direction he was pointing was clearly the place where the Mirror Demon was located in the Divine Herb Secret Realm.
In an instant, Su Yunyu recalled some scenes from the original novel. Back then, Xiao Qingran brought Xiao Shuying into that illusion because of their camaraderie. Now, judging from his current state, he probably wanted Xiao Shuying to die in the secret realm.
Seeing Xiao Shuying walk away in silence, the Mirror Demon's rustling laughter could be heard faintly. As his gaze suddenly fell into the emptiness of the illusion, Su Yunyu saw Xiao Qingran and her group swagger away.
Damn it, even knowing it was just an illusion, Su Yunyu felt an overwhelming pain in his heart. He knew how much Xiao Shuying had suffered in her first life; in order to reach the final summit, she had almost reached the bottom of despair in the early stages. He had been just an observer then, so he didn't care, but how could he remain indifferent now?
Recalling his previous move, Su Yunyu looked around and saw some slightly sharp stones by the river. He used his spiritual energy to control them and thrust them at Xiao Shuying, who was sinking deeper and deeper into the illusion.
"hiss……"
As he slowly regained consciousness, the stone fell to the ground, blending into the earth and becoming indistinguishable. Su Yunyu glanced at the fork in the road not far away, remembering which path led to the divine herb, and quickly piled up a stack of pebbles there.
Seeing Xiao Shuying take the medicine to heal her wounds and head towards the fork in the road as expected, Su Yunyu breathed a sigh of relief. Not long after, the world began to spin again, but this time, the heavens and earth trembled, and a familiar voice came from beyond the sky, cold and painful:
"That's enough, that's enough!"
As soon as the words fell, the pure white spiritual energy of the Three Realms filled the illusion, and the world began to peel away piece by piece.
After all the colors faded, she returned to the warm and bright room. A few steps away, Xiao Shuying was kneeling in the center of the formation, holding the hilt of the knife that was stuck in her heart, her face extremely pale.
Su Yunyu exclaimed in surprise, rushed over, staggered, and knelt before him, her hand trembling slightly as she reached out: "What are you doing!"
Xiao Shuying still gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, blood trickling down his chest and into the formation. He curled his lips in a gesture of reassurance:
“Master, don’t worry. This formation requires the power of the Heavenly Dao, and my heart’s blood can just make up for it.”
"No, you don't need to do that..." Looking at his pale lips and weak figure, Su Yunyu felt a pang of pain in her heart. She couldn't help but recall what she had experienced in the illusion, and tears streamed down her face.
Xiao Shuying slowly raised her hand to embrace him, the hilt of her sword pressed between them, against their hearts. He spoke each word with utmost care:
“Master, after seeing the illusion, I realized that I am not favored by the Heavenly Dao. You are my Heavenly Dao, and I am only favored by you…”
As her heart's blood flowed into the formation, and the folding technique was operating at high speed, light spots flickered before her eyes. Before Su Yunyu could recover from his words, she looked up and saw all the scenes melting away. Her mind was shaken, and she subconsciously wanted to hold Xiao Shuying's hand.
"What's going on? Why is everything disappearing...?"
But he didn't manage to snuggle into Xiao Shuying's hand; he only felt a cold tear fall onto the back of his hand. In his dazed state, he fainted, so much so that he didn't hear Xiao Shuying's last words:
"wait for me--"
*
It felt like an eternity had passed, longer than the lifespan of the universe itself.
Su Yunyu opened her eyes from the darkness, sat up abruptly, and gasped for breath as if she had been drowning for a long time and had just been given a breath.
My mind went blank for a long time. What I saw was both strange and familiar: a pure white ceiling, wooden tables and chairs, the flickering light of a computer, and the constant beeping of message notifications.
Su Yunyu raised her hand in a daze, looking at the back of her hand, where there was a wet spot. It wasn't a dream, it wasn't a hallucination.
He suddenly got up and searched around the house, oblivious to the furniture he bumped into or the occasional stumbles he made, numbly turning over his entire living space.
Once wasn't enough, so she did it twice, three times, until she had no strength left, until she collapsed onto the floor. Su Yunyu lay down, raising her hand to try and cover her sobs, crying and cursing between sobs:
"You promised that both of us could teleport over, where are you...?"
Suddenly, a torrential downpour began outside the window. Su Yunyu was exhausted from crying, both physically and mentally, and fell asleep without even realizing it. When he woke up from his drowsy sleep, he got up and turned on the TV. Only when the noisy sounds from the TV came on did he feel less empty.
Mumu listened for a while and realized that the sound of the rain outside was almost drowning out the sound of the TV. Su Yunyu looked outside and saw that the clouds were all black. The torrential rain seemed to be washing away the world, and the darkness between heaven and earth was frightening.
The television broadcast a warning of heavy rainfall for the next three days, urging people to take precautions. Su Yunyu stared blankly at the extreme weather, her mind still lingering in that time and space.
The phone rang. He hadn't paid any attention to message notifications since last night, and now he was too lazy to answer it, until a gust of wind suddenly blew by, scattering papers all over the floor.
Su Yunyu bent down to pick it up, but then belatedly realized that there couldn't possibly be any draft in her room. For some reason, her hand reaching for the paper suddenly trembled.
The wind grew stronger and stronger, accompanied by a tearing sound, as if space itself was being torn apart. Su Yunyu could only hear her own heart pounding violently in her empty chest, shattering herself with each blow.
The sound of toes hitting the ground came from behind him, and a gust of wind brushed a piece of paper onto Su Yunyu's cheek. He didn't have time to brush it off; he simply stood up like a robot, turned around mechanically, and then looked up—
Dressed in black with black hair, the flame pattern was the only bright spot in the dark world, and although his face was pale, the smile on his lips was exceptionally dazzling.
In an instant, tears welled up in Su Yunyu's eyes. Before he could even vent his frustration with a few curses, Xiao Shuying rushed over and pulled him into a tight embrace. The force of her embrace, almost as if she were holding him to the bone, left Su Yunyu speechless for a moment, only able to keep crying.
"Don't cry," Xiao Shuying wiped away his tears, kissed the corner of his eye, her eyes shimmering with deep love, her tone solemn:
"This time, we will be together for all eternity."
—End of text
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Author's Note: It's finished! Just a little extra chapter to explain: it revisited the foreshadowing from Chapter 22 on the timeline. Borges said time has countless series, it can be linear, circular, or perhaps a series of forking paths. I set it as circular. There are some inconsistencies, and it's not strictly logical, so just take a look. [Applause]
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