Chapter 3073: The Road To Redemption (2)
Ning Yue looked at him, her gaze softening with an affection that transcended time and space. "Big Brother Yun," she said, her voice gentle. "I managed to escape at the last moment."
"Escape? Escape to where?" Yun Lintian’s attention then shifted to the majestic figure by the tree. "Senior Long Yi! You... you also survived?"
Long Yi gave a slow, solemn nod, his powerful aura radiating a calm, steadying strength.
Ning Yue smiled, a gesture that seemed to make the light around them brighter. "This place," she explained, gesturing to the serene, light-filled space around the World Tree, "is called the Land of Nowhere."
"The Land of Nowhere?" Yun Lintian repeated the name, a sense of strange familiarity tugging at the deepest parts of his memory. It seemed he had heard it not long ago.
As he pondered the name, a realization dawned on him, shocking him to his very core. His eyes widened as he looked from Ning Yue to the World Tree, then to Long Yi.
Ning Yue saw the dawning understanding in his expression and nodded. "Yes. This is the place where the Creator rested after her great labors. It is the source of all things, the point before existence. And..."
She paused, her gaze holding his, filled with a profound and ancient secret. "...It is also the place where I was born."
The words landed with the force of a universe being created. The Land of Nowhere. The Creator’s resting place. The birthplace of Ning Yue.
The fragments of information, the clues he had gathered over a lifetime, the unique nature of Ning Yue’s existence, and her deep connection to the World Tree—all of it suddenly clicked into a staggering, unbelievable picture.
Ning Yue was not just a spirit of the World Tree. She was something far more fundamental, far more ancient. She was intrinsically linked to the very origin of all creation.
He had been searching for a way, a place, a means to counter the primordials. And all along, the greatest secret, the greatest hope, had been with the one who had called him "Big Brother Yun" from the very beginning. She had not been erased; she had returned home.
Yun Lintian could only stare, his consciousness reeling from the implications. The Land of Nowhere. The Creator’s sanctuary. Ning Yue’s birthplace. Each concept was monumental on its own; together, they formed a truth so vast it was difficult to grasp.
"Ning Yue..." he began, his voice a whisper of pure astonishment. "What... what do you mean? How can this be your birthplace? What are you?"
Ning Yue’s expression was serene, yet held a depth of ancient knowledge that seemed out of place on her youthful features.
"The Creator, in her infinite foresight, knew that one day, a betrayal would come," she explained, her tone calm and measured, as if recounting a story written in the stars. "She knew Nian Shi would eventually succeed in ending her. But she also understood that the true, ultimate threat to the balance was not the God of Time, but Yin—Uncreation itself."
Yun Lintian listened attentively.
"She prepared many countermeasures for that distant day," Ning Yue continued. "The most obvious one, the one she left in the care of Yun Tianming, was the Profound Vein of All Creation. A seed of her own power, meant to find a worthy vessel."
Yun Lintian nodded slowly. This much, he had pieced together. His own body, his unique constitution, was the first and most direct line of the Creator’s defense.
Ning Yue then turned slightly, gesturing with a graceful hand towards the magnificent, reality-spanning tree behind her. "The World Tree was another. A conduit of life, a anchor of reality, designed to sustain the universe and resist the erosion of the void."
Yun Lintian nodded again. He had witnessed the World Tree’s power firsthand, had even communed with it.
"But," Ning Yue said, her voice dropping to a more intimate, significant tone, her gaze returning to lock with Yun Lintian’s, "I am her final arrangement. The last preparation she made before her departure."
Yun Lintian’s spiritual form flickered with surprise. "You? The final arrangement?"
He knew Ning Yue was special, connected to the World Tree. He had always thought of her as a unique spirit, a second World Tree in the making. But this... this was something else entirely.
Ning Yue offered a small, knowing smile. "I know what you thought, Big Brother Yun. That I was a sapling, a offshoot. But it is more than that. The Creator used the essence of the World Tree as my foundation, yes. But she did not just use the tree..."
She paused, letting the weight of her next words build. "...She used a fragment of her own soul."
Yun Lintian felt a jolt that seemed to shake the very core of his consciousness. "The Creator’s... soul?" he breathed out, the concept almost too sacred and terrifying to voice.
"A sliver of it," Ning Yue confirmed, her expression solemn. "Woven into the essence of the World Tree, given a new form, a new consciousness. That is what I am. I am not a copy or a creation in the usual sense. I am a new being, born from the union of the Creator’s soul and the World Tree’s essence. I am her legacy, and her final will."
The revelation was staggering. Ning Yue wasn’t just a guardian or a tool; she was a direct extension of the Creator herself, a living testament to her foresight and power.
"Then... our meeting..." Yun Lintian murmured, fragments of a distant memory surfacing from the depths of his mind.
Ning Yue’s smile turned tender, touched with nostalgia. "Do you remember how we met, Big Brother Yun?"
How could he forget? The memory, though from a lifetime ago, was etched into his soul with perfect clarity.
He had just broken through to the Divine Realm, his power unstable, his spirit soaring with newfound strength. And in that moment of vulnerability, Nian Shi had struck. A temporal ambush that left him grievously wounded, his body broken, his nascent divine power running wild.
He had fallen through a rift in space, tumbling through chaos until he crashed into a shallow, muddy river in an unknown world.
He had been half-drowned, his consciousness fading, certain that was his end...