Chapter 3074: The Road To Redemption (3)
It was at that moment, a small, thin figure had appeared. A mute little girl, her eyes too old for her face, dressed in the rough robes of a low-level disciple from a minor sect called the Profound Pill Sect.
She had seen him, a bloody and terrifying stranger, and instead of running, she had struggled with all her might to drag his heavy body from the water.
She had no reason to help him. They were strangers. She was weak, overlooked, and mistreated within her own sect. Yet, she had used her meager knowledge of herbs to tend to his wounds, sharing her pitifully small portions of food and water with him, guarding him while he was unconscious.
When he finally awoke and recovered enough to use his power, the first thing he did was heal her. He discovered the muteness was caused by a blocked meridian, a simple fix for someone of his ability.
The first sound she ever made was a gasp of shock when she realized she could speak, and the first word she spoke was a hesitant "...Thank you."
From that day on, he had stayed, protecting her from the bullies in her sect, teaching her little things, treating her like the little sister he never had. She had always called him ’Big Brother Yun’.
"It was no coincidence," Ning Yue’s voice pulled him from the vivid memory. "The fragment of the Creator’s soul within me... it guided me. It called to me."
She looked into the distance, as if seeing that riverbank again. "I would often go to that river. I didn’t know why. I felt... compelled. A pull I couldn’t explain. Now I understand. It was because I knew, on a level deeper than consciousness, that you would be there. That I needed to be there. The Creator’s will within me was ensuring our paths would cross."
Yun Lintian was speechless. All of it... every step of their friendship, their bond... it had been orchestrated by a will that spanned eons. The Creator had not just left a power behind; she had left a guide, a anchor, a sister for the one who would inherit her power.
Despite knowing that he had always been a part of the greater plan arranged by the Creator, Yun Lintian was still awed by the revelation.
The despair of his defeat began to recede, not because the situation was less dire, but because he now understood he was never meant to fight this war alone.
Ning Yue watched the shift in his aura, the fading confusion replaced by a dawning, steely resolve. A soft smile touched her lips, one of pride and ancient sorrow.
"After I fully integrated with the World Tree here, returning to my source," she continued, her voice gaining a new layer of gravity, "the final seals on my memories were lifted. I remember everything now. My early birth, my purpose... I finally know what my final duty is."
She turned her gaze fully upon him, her eyes, once those of a mute, pitiful girl, now holding the depth of the cosmos itself. "Big Brother Yun," she said, her tone shifting, becoming solemn and momentous. "This is the moment."
Yun Lintian, though steadied, was still puzzled. "The moment? What moment, Ning Yue?"
Ning Yue did not answer directly. Instead, she posed a question that struck at the very heart of his current existence. "Big Brother Yun, have you wondered... how you can be here? How your consciousness can exist in this space, speaking with me?"
The question jolted him. In the overwhelming rush of revelations, he had neglected this fundamental paradox.
"I... I assumed my soul had somehow survived the erasure... that a fragment had escaped..." Even as he said it, it sounded weak. Against Nian Shi’s full power, augmented by the Creator’s own chains, such an escape should have been impossible.
Ning Yue shook her head slowly, her expression knowing. "No. You haven’t gone anywhere. Your consciousness, the core of ’you’, is still right there. It is still trapped within your body, in the Land of Beyond Heaven, bound by the Chains of Primordial Order. Nian Shi believes he has you completely suppressed, and in a way, he does."
Yun Lintian’s spirit form flickered in confusion. "Then... how? What is this place? Is this an illusion? A final dream?"
"This is real," Ning Yue stated with absolute certainty. "But it is not a separate location. Big Brother Yun, the Land of Beyond Heaven... it is, in fact, a part of the Land of Nowhere."
Yun Lintian stared at her, trying to process the impossible geography. "What? How can that be? The Land of Beyond Heaven is a separate realm, a pocket space created by Senior Yun Tian..."
"It is a facade," Ning Yue interrupted gently but firmly. "A magnificent, powerful, and incredibly convincing facade. But a facade nonetheless. The Creator, in her wisdom, did not hide her resting place in some distant, unknown corner of the universe. She hid it in plain sight. She took a fragment of the Land of Nowhere, the very source, and she... veiled it. She transformed it, creating the Land of Beyond Heaven as its outer shell, its manifested trial ground."
The implications exploded in Yun Lintian’s mind. The unique laws, the incredible energy density, the connection to the Beyond Heaven King’s Crown—it all made a terrifying, perfect sense. The Land of Beyond Heaven wasn’t just a realm; it was the outer layer of the universe’s most sacred heart.
"The relics you gathered," Ning Yue went on, "the Moon, the Sun,... they were not just keys to power. They were anchors. Each one you collected resonated with the hidden core of this land. When you gathered them all, you didn’t just unlock the Land of Beyond Heaven’s secrets; you completed the circuit that allowed the true Land of Nowhere to begin its awakening from its long slumber."
She gestured to the serene, light-filled space around them, the majestic World Tree, the silent, powerful presence of Long Yi. "This has always been here, hidden within the shell of the Land of Beyond Heaven. But it was hidden from everyone. Including you, its destined master."
Yun Lintian was utterly stunned. He had no idea about it, all the while standing right on top of it. He had been ruling a kingdom while its true palace lay buried beneath his feet.
"But... if it was hidden from me, how can I be here now?" he asked, the core of the paradox still puzzling him.