Meanwhile, within the Holy Flood Empire, Lin Diyu stood behind the royal palace.
A large graveyard occupied the land there.
The former Emperors and Empresses of the empire had been buried inside it, along with several important members of the imperial family. Most of the tombstones remained clean. Fresh fruit, incense, flowers, and other offerings had been placed before them.
Not even a small crack could be seen across their surfaces.
The tombstone in front of Lin Diyu was different.
Several sword marks covered it.
The characters forming his mother's name had been cut repeatedly until portions could no longer be read. Dirt covered the lower half, while one corner had already broken away.
Someone had desecrated it again.
Lin Diyu clenched one hand.
He had spent five years repairing the tomb whenever the followers of the current Crown Prince damaged it. Every time he restored the characters, they returned several days later and destroyed them again.
At first, Lin Diyu reported the matter.
No one investigated it.
He later attempted to apprehend the perpetrators, but the palace guards warned him against causing trouble near the imperial family's graves.
Eventually, he stopped asking for help.
He returned whenever he could and cleaned the tomb himself.
Lin Diyu crouched before it.
He removed the dirt using the edge of his sleeve, then carefully placed several small offerings in front of the damaged stone.
"Mother."
His voice trembled.
"I am… I'm sorry."
The wind passed through the graveyard.
No answer came.
"I could not save you from that woman."
Lin Diyu lowered his head. "I could not even protect your grave."
His mother had once been the Empress of the Holy Flood Empire.
Lin Diyu had also been the Crown Prince.
He was the Emperor's eldest son, and for most of his childhood, everyone believed he would eventually inherit the throne.
That changed five years ago.
His younger brother, Lin Fan, began displaying an ability no child should have possessed.
Lin Fan understood the imperial court.
He knew when to speak, when to remain silent, and which words would influence their Imperial Father. Whenever Lin Diyu made a mistake, Lin Fan somehow appeared afterward with a solution.
To the officials, Lin Fan became the responsible younger brother who repeatedly protected his reckless elder sibling.
Lin Diyu became the opposite.
Every attempt to prove himself ended in failure. Every argument he made appeared childish after Lin Fan calmly answered it.
Eventually, Lin Fan replaced him as Crown Prince.
Lin Diyu lost his authority.
The servants who once bowed to him began avoiding him. Several officials who had supported his mother changed sides, while those who remained loyal gradually disappeared from the palace.
His mother became ill not long afterward.
Lin Diyu still did not know whether the illness had been natural. He suspected the woman who replaced her as Empress, but he had never found proof.
His mother died before he could do anything.
"If I had not been the Crown Prince, perhaps they would not have targeted you," Lin Diyu said.
His fingers moved across the damaged characters.
"Perhaps we could have left this place."
His voice became weaker.
"We might have lived somewhere quieter. You would still be alive, and I would not have spent every day trying to recover a title that caused us nothing but suffering."
He closed his eyes. "If I possessed the ability to rewrite Reality, I would change everything."
The words reminded him of the stranger inside the destroyed Trial Ground.
Yang Lujia.
The man had appeared before him when the pillar was about to fall. He claimed that Lin Diyu's ending had not yet arrived, then disappeared from his sight after the entire world became still.
Lin Diyu remembered all of it.
All the explosions, the children screaming for their lives, and several others who died without even knowing how their lives ended.
Then, without understanding how it happened, he returned to the Holy Flood Empire.
He appeared behind the royal palace, only several steps away from his mother's tomb. Nothing inside the palace had changed.
No one knew he had attended the Trial of Ink.
Even the guards who had previously seen him leave acted as though he had never gone anywhere. Lin Diyu did not understand what Yang Lujia had done.
However, he knew the experience had been real.
His body still remembered the pressure of the pillar above him.
He could still recall the memory of accepting that he would die.
Most importantly, he remembered the stranger asking whether he still intended to help his mother if he survived.
Lin Diyu opened his eyes. "I said yes."
He looked toward the damaged tombstone.
"But you are already gone."
His hands trembled again. "I survived, yet I still returned too late."
He had not realized the trap prepared for him until after he left the palace five years ago.
At the time, the Holy Flood Empire had prepared a campaign against a nearby force. Lin Diyu believed leading the soldiers would allow him to prove that he still deserved his father's trust.
Lin Fan had known that.
His younger brother had never directly encouraged him to lead the campaign. He did something more effective.
He allowed Lin Diyu to believe the idea belonged entirely to him.
Lin Fan spoke about the importance of the campaign to several officials. He mentioned that success would bring great honor to whoever commanded the soldiers.
Then he expressed concern that Lin Diyu might place himself in danger if he attempted to participate.
As expected, Lin Diyu became angry.
He entered the imperial court and requested command.
He believed refusing to act would allow Lin Fan to gain another achievement. He also believed victory might restore some of the respect he had lost.
Their Imperial Father rejected the request at first.
Lin Diyu continued insisting.
Then Lin Fan stepped forward and offered to lead the campaign in his place.
He claimed he wanted to protect his elder brother.
The officials praised him for his concern.
Lin Diyu interpreted the offer as another attempt to humiliate him and demanded the opportunity again.
Their Imperial Father eventually agreed.
The campaign failed.
Several important military reports had been altered before reaching Lin Diyu. The expected enemy forces were different from those waiting for him, while the supplies promised by the court arrived too late.
Lin Diyu returned in defeat.
No one investigated why the information was wrong.
Lin Fan met him outside the capital and took responsibility for reorganizing the surviving soldiers. He comforted Lin Diyu in front of the officials and asked their father not to punish him too severely.
The court saw a compassionate younger brother. Lin Diyu saw the person who had arranged everything.
He simply could not prove it.
After that failure, the palace stopped treating him as a possible heir. The servants no longer concealed their contempt.
Several guards laughed whenever he attempted to give an order. Officials openly compared him with Lin Fan, while his Imperial Father stopped inviting him to important discussions.
Most people believed Lin Diyu opposed the Crown Prince because he was jealous.
They did not understand why he continued fighting even after losing almost everything.
Only one person remained beside him.
"You are crying again."
A hand struck Lin Diyu's shoulder. The force nearly pushed him against the tombstone.
He turned.
A boy around his age stood beside him.
Qin Tou wore simple clothes that did not belong inside the imperial palace. His hair remained disorganized, while the smile upon his face appeared completely inappropriate for a graveyard.
"Instead of spending the entire day thinking about the past, why do we not do something in the present?" Qin Tou asked.
Lin Diyu wiped his face. "You always say that."
"Because you always return here and cry."
"This is my mother's grave."
"I know."
"Then allow me to mourn properly."
"You have been mourning properly for five years." Qin Tou crouched beside him.
"If your enemies learn that you spend every day crying here, they will enjoy it."
"That is not a good reason to stop."
"Then pretend you are unaffected."
"That sounds dishonest."
"It is useful."
Lin Diyu looked toward his friend.
Qin Tou continued smiling.
The boy had experienced a life even more difficult than Lin Diyu's.
He grew up on the streets outside the imperial district. He accepted whatever work he could find, stole food when no one hired him, and slept beneath abandoned market stalls whenever it rained.
The few people who cared for him eventually died.
Despite that, Qin Tou continued smiling as though nothing had happened.
Lin Diyu never understood how.
"You suffered more than I did, based on your story," Lin Diyu said. "Yet you speak as though everything can be solved by walking somewhere else."
"Not everything."
"Then why do you continue smiling?"
Qin Tou thought about the question.
"Because being sad does not provide food."
"That is your answer?"
"It also makes people less willing to hire me."
Lin Diyu released a quiet laugh. "As if they can see you…"
Qin Tou pointed at him. "There. That is better."
Lin Diyu shook his head. "I still cannot understand how you survived after losing everyone who cared for you."
"They say a person should not become too happy because something will eventually ruin it," Qin Tou replied. "But becoming too sad is also useless because something worse may still happen."
"That is a terrible philosophy."
"It kept me alive." Qin Tou stood and held out one hand. "Come."
"Where?"
"I found somewhere interesting."
Lin Diyu looked at the offered hand.
"What kind of place?"
"A haven for travelers."
"Who told you that?"
"My friends."
"Which friends?"
"The ones living on the streets."
"That does not make the information reliable."
"They visited it."
"Are you certain?"
"I asked them twice."
Lin Diyu sighed.
He accepted Qin Tou's hand and stood. "Fine."
Qin Tou smiled.
"I knew you would agree."
"You were going to drag me there even if I refused."
"That is also true."
The two left the royal graveyard.
Lin Diyu looked back at his mother's tombstone before passing through the gate.
He did not notice anything unusual.
He also failed to realize that the moment the palace disappeared behind them, the trap Lin Fan had prepared had already begun closing.
Qin Tou led him beyond the capital. They traveled for several hours before reaching the place described by the street children.
Fresh green leaves moved through the air.
They continued falling from somewhere above, but none touched the ground. Whenever one descended too far, a gentle current lifted it again and carried it between the trees.
The trees themselves had no leaves.
Their branches remained completely bare.
Clear pools surrounded each trunk.
The water did not overflow or enter the soil. It simply remained there, reflecting the leaves that would never land.
Lin Diyu stopped.
"This place exists near the capital?"
"Yes."
"How did I never hear about it?"
"You rarely leave the palace."
"That is not entirely my choice."
"I know."
Several children sat upon the lower branches of the trees.
Some talked among themselves. Others read old manuscripts describing the Holy Flood Region and the neighboring lands.
No imperial guards followed them. None of the children bowed or treated him differently because of his former title.
For the first time in years, Lin Diyu felt as though the palace walls were no longer surrounding him.
Qin Tou walked toward one of the pools.
"See? I told you it was worth visiting."
Lin Diyu watched the green leaves move above them. "Thank you."
Qin Tou turned.
"Huh?"
"Thank you for bringing me here."
The boy scratched the back of his head. "There is no need to thank me. We are friends."
Lin Diyu smiled.
Then he laughed.
The sound surprised even him.
He could no longer remember the last time he had laughed without forcing it. For several moments, the anger, humiliation, and grief surrounding his life became less important.
Qin Tou laughed with him despite not knowing what was funny.
Lin Diyu looked at his friend.
The smile gradually disappeared from his face. His chest tightened.
Qin Tou continued standing beside the pool, looking exactly as Lin Diyu remembered him.
The same disorganized hair.
The same simple clothes.
The same expression that always appeared whenever he successfully pulled Lin Diyu away from his grief.
Lin Diyu's eyes became empty.
'If only you were still alive.'