The smile on Xie Mengquan's face slowly faded. He stared at Chen Kuang, as if trying to confirm something.
But he saw nothing.
Yet even if Chen Kuang had truly remembered everything, it was already far too late to change the outcome.
Xie Mengquan shed all pretenses of kindness, placing his hands behind his back, speaking calmly:
"If you had understood earlier, perhaps you might have stood a chance.
But now, all Nine Strands of Heavenly Fate have been revealed."
"After this battle, if they all die on the battlefield, Heaven's Mandate will be mine, completely."
"And those few Daos you still possess... once you die, no matter how you die, Su Yu will take them for himself."
"I only came to advise you: stop struggling pointlessly. You could spend your last days in peace. Otherwise, you'll only bring pain upon yourself."
Chen Kuang burst out laughing, full of mocking derision:
"All this planning, your game of Go really is something else."
"You shouldn't be called the Saint of Music. You're the Saint of Strategy."
Xie Mengquan looked at him calmly, eyes tinged with nostalgia, as if through Chen Kuang he saw an old friend:
"Indeed, I've always seen this as a match between you and me.
From thirty thousand years ago... until today."
"After the War to Hunt the Heavens, in order to hide yourself, you buried the tree in the forest, dispersed your cultivation and Dao, split your soul in two, and cast yourself into the reincarnation of both worlds. Eventually, you forgot everything."
"But even so, I spent thirty thousand years and finally found a single thread of karmic residue."
"I plucked the sound of the heavens and used it to guide those fragments of the Heavenly Dao, gathering them one by one.
And today, thirty thousand years later, they have all come together... in this one era."
"I let you find me, so I could finally confirm your position."
Chen Kuang sneered coldly:
"So even my encounter with you in the River of Time was part of your design?"
Xie Mengquan nodded:
"Naturally."
"From start to finish, I only needed to do three things."
He raised two fingers:
"Find you.
Guide you.
And let you find the fragments of your Dao that you had hidden."
He smiled again:
"Since all the cards are on the table now, why don't you ask yourself, do you have any remaining aces to play?"
Chen Kuang considered it seriously:
"Once these hundreds of 'Heavenly Demons' descend, the great war will ignite, and the boundary between the two realms will be torn apart. There's no stopping it."
"Even if I don't die now, once the realms merge... facing hundreds of Celestial Vastness Realm cultivators who all take you as their supreme, I'll still die."
He shook his head.
"I truly have no way out."
Chen Kuang's straightforward surrender actually left Xie Mengquan momentarily stunned.
But only for a moment.
The next second, he laughed. A deep, long laugh, his shoulders shaking with mirth as he clapped Chen Kuang on the back, laughing until he almost doubled over.
Truthfully, when Chen Kuang had earlier exposed the truth, Xie Mengquan had felt a brief moment of panic.
After all, he and that Human Emperor were once both friends and bitter rivals.
He had plotted for thirty millennia, exercising utmost caution, and only when he was absolutely certain of victory did he finally reveal himself.
Xie Mengquan had sensed that Chen Kuang's lifespan was nearly at its end, and when he heard Chen Kuang say with his own mouth that he was about to die, he chose this moment to show his true self.
Yet he still harbored a sliver of suspicion, wondering if Chen Kuang had hidden some final trump card.
But now, finally, his heart was at ease.
The Chen Kuang who had once defied the heavens was no more.
At last, Xie Mengquan calmed down. He looked at Chen Kuang and said:
"Since that's the case, I won't trouble you further. Shen Xiengzhu is only being restrained, I'll let her return."
He gave Chen Kuang a long, deep look:
"I hope you'll live to witness the rebirth of this world."
It seemed...
Even though his true identity was the demonic Buddha known as Māra, his temperament was largely consistent with the Xie Mengquan that Chen Kuang once knew.
He wasn't the type to indulge in excessive pride or flamboyant declarations.
But that was also because he was absolutely certain of his victory.
Chen Kuang smiled faintly:
"Of course I'll witness it."
Xie Mengquan slowly turned and left.
Chen Kuang lowered the pistol in his hand and exhaled softly, muttering to himself:
"The Nine Strands of Heavenly Fate..."
He had more or less figured out who or what they were:
Chen Kuang himself.
The EliXier of Immortality and national fate, possessed by Su Yu.
Jiang Yunqing, unaffected by Dao Domains.
Shen Meinan and Shen Xiengzhu, two in one.
Xieuzhu, fused with a "Heavenly Demon," with good and evil separated.
The Three-Foot Sword, burdened with karmic threads of time.
The Wujian Demon Sword, capable of creating form from nothing, housing a world within.
Su Huaiying, trapped in the cycle of reincarnation for centuries, now prescient of what is to come.
Each of these people or items had transcended the rules of this world.
And finally..
Chen Kuang's gaze fell on the ever-present Status Bar.
There was one more entity that had always stood outside the rules:
His "golden finger", the cheat-like passive system.
According to Xie Mengquan, the Heavenly Dao had shattered and scattered across different places and timelines in this world.
They were supposed to be deeply hidden...
But because of the karmic pull of Chen Kuang, they had all converged around him.
In other words, everything Chen Kuang had experienced over the past half year, was the result of thirty thousand years of Xie Mengquan's calculations.
He had been used to attract the remaining pieces of the Heavenly Dao, one by one.
At this point, five of the Nine Strands were already in Chen Kuang's possession!
To control Chen Kuang, was to control the board.
Chen Kuang looked into the distance and smiled faintly.
The "Status bar" no longer updated.
...
Midnight arrived quickly.
Chen Kuang immediately felt his Divine Sense begin to weaken at an alarming rate.
In moments, the sense that had once covered thirty meters shrank to ten... to one meter...
And then, even his spirit sea itself began to shrink and dry out.
Until nothing was left.
At this moment, Chen Kuang had no Spiritual Energy, and no Divine Sense.
He was, truly, completely, an ordinary person.
No, even less than that.
Because ordinary people still had a Divine Sense,
they just couldn't wield it like a cultivator could.
But Chen Kuang now had none at all.
If it were anyone else, they'd already be comatose, a vegetable.
This "Celestial Five Decays" was, for any ordinary cultivator, a true death trial.
But Chen Kuang was different.
His passive abilities were still working.
While his Spiritual Energy and Divine Sense continuously declined, they were also very slowly regenerating, maintaining a delicate, barely stable equilibrium.
When Shen Xiengzhu returned, she saw Chen Kuang sitting calmly on the rooftop, facing the dawn.
At first glance, he looked no different from usual.
But upon closer inspection..
His eyes were hollow.
His body trembled subtly.
"Help me sit up."
Chen Kuang said slowly, deliberately, every syllable squeezed out like it weighed a ton.
No one could imagine what it felt like to lose Divine Sense to such a degree.
Divine Sense... is the seat of perception.
It governs the senses.
Whether Yang God projection, or spiritual perception, it's all an extension of that faculty.
And now, Chen Kuang was losing his ability to perceive.
Hearing, touch, sight, smell, taste... all faded, approaching nothingness.
The fact that he could still sit up, even speak, was already a miracle.
But this was his limit.
Even the smallest motion felt insurmountable,
Like trying to run or climb stairs in a dream, either limbs weighed down, or steps vanished underfoot.
Shen Xiengzhu paused, then stepped forward and waved a hand before his eyes.
Chen Kuang's gaze remained hollow.
There was no reaction.
She stood silently in front of him, then suddenly chuckled:
"The first time we met, you were pretending to be blind in the sky prison.
You fooled Li Hongling, but not me."
"Who would've thought... in the end, you really went blind."
At this moment, Shen Xiengzhu's voice was softer than ever before. A smile bloomed on her exquisitely beautiful face, more radiant than the moonlight above.
Unfortunately, Chen Kuang could neither see it nor hear it.
Smiling, Shen Xiengzhu slowly drew her long sword.
"Shing-"
As the blade was unsheathed, its clear radiance scattered gently in the air.
The sword edge was already resting at Chen Kuang's throat.
He had no awareness of it, perhaps he vaguely heard some sound close to him, and turned his head.
As his neck brushed against the edge, blood trickled out.
Shen Xiengzhu narrowed her eyes, not withdrawing her blade. She whispered softly:
"Your plan has failed. The 'Heavenly Demons' have already begun their march to Cangyuan, and the two of us can only remain here, waiting to die."
She leaned down, her voice barely audible:
"Wouldn't it be better if I killed you now? At least it would spare you more suffering before death..."
Chen Kuang slowly turned his head toward her voice.
After a long moment, he seemed to register what was happening and asked:
"Are you going to kill me?"
Shen Xiengzhu did not respond.
Chen Kuang tried to stand, but lost his balance, toppling to the side, straight toward the blade.
One more inch, and he would be dead.
In that instant, Shen Xiengzhu's hand trembled violently. She jerked the sword back, then stood there, momentarily stunned, staring at her own blade in a daze.
Chen Kuang wobbled, barely steadying himself, and sat back down.
He slowly raised his hand and touched the wet blood on the side of his neck, muttering in confusion:
"Not going to kill me?"
He curled his lips into a crooked grin, even managing a joke:
"Reluctant now, are you?"
Shen Xiengzhu bit her lip.
She placed her hand over her chest, wondering if it was Shen Meinan's emotions influencing her again.
But this time, nothing.
Shen Meinan was currently on the battlefield in Cangyuan, feeling only sorrow, worry, and fear.
There was no hesitation.
This... this was her own emotion.
And with that realization, a thousand other overlooked details flooded her mind.
For instance...
Why had Shen Meinan fallen in love with Chen Kuang?
She grew up in the Shen family, surrounded by the strongest cultivators in the world, and had seen countless exceptional men.
In terms of appearance, Chen Kuang wasn't peerlessly handsome, not to the point of love at first sight.
Why had Meinan fallen for him so deeply, so utterly?
Where did this infatuation even come from?
Now, Shen Xiengzhu finally understood.
That love did not originate solely from Shen Meinan.
Or rather, her innocent crush was not enough to justify this level of obsession.
The one who first began to harbor strange feelings for Chen Kuang, was Shen Xiengzhu herself.
Maybe it began when he pierced her Dao Heart with a single remark back in the heavenly prison...
Maybe it was outside the imperial capital, when he used the lives of one city's people, and the fate of the world, as leverage against her...
Beneath her fury, she had overlooked her own peculiar attachment to him.
And that subtle attachment had unconsciously passed to Shen Meinan..
So that when Meinan first saw him, she immediately fell for him.
From there, it only escalated.
The two sisters had been affecting each other, all without even realizing it.
Shen Xiengzhu stared at Chen Kuang for a long time.
She inhaled deeply, biting her lip... but no matter how she tried, she couldn't lift the sword again.
Annoyed, she sheathed it, then went over to help him up, letting him lean against her.
Chen Kuang's sense of touch was nearly gone, but he could still vaguely feel someone supporting him.
He raised his brow in surprise.
Then thought about it, and suddenly understood:
"Meinan?"
Shen Xiengzhu's steps froze.
Chen Kuang thought he had figured it out.
Surely Shen Xiengzhu hadn't killed him because this wasn't Shen Xiengzhu, it was Shen Meinan!
He said:
"Meinan, you switched back with your sister? Good thing you came just in time, or I would've been a goner."
Shen Xiengzhu walked on, expressionless, her tone cold:
"If you don't know how to shut up, then don't speak at all."
Chen Kuang smiled, then forced it back, coughing twice. He put on a miserable face and sighed:
"Meinan, I'm dying."
He pitifully leaned closer to her cheek:
"Little Meinan, I promised you before, I'd come for you in three years."
"At the time I thought, if you still liked me after three years... I'd marry you."
"But now... I don't have that kind of time anymore."
At the ward's door, Shen Xiengzhu unconsciously slowed her steps.
And then she heard him say:
"Do you still like me?"
Chen Kuang spoke softly:
"If you do... we'll marry.
Come to my place, my home, here."
He didn't know how long he waited.
He only knew that, just when he was certain she would reject him, the person holding him suddenly shoved him against the wall and in what seemed like anger..
Bit down on his lips.
...
By the time Chen Kuang arrived back at his childhood home, it was the third day.
"Meridian Decay" had arrived right on time.
As the source of all cultivation, the Nine Qi Meridians withered one by one.
Even his physical body regressed to a primitive state.
The bodily cultivation from "Mud-Forged Gold Body Technique", it was completely gone.
Chen Kuang had truly become a mortal.
Shen Xiengzhu could now easily kill him.
Thankfully, she and Shen Meinan had switched back.
Chen Kuang wasn't completely sure at first..
But after what happened last night... if that had been Shen Xiengzhu, he'd already be a corpse.
He babbled on, explaining his current state over and over, trying to comfort the girl so she wouldn't worry.
Shen Xiengzhu surveyed the worn-down house, listening as Chen Kuang gently ran his fingers over the walls, telling the story of his real past.
...
Day Four.
Chen Kuang entered the phase of "Body Decay."
His physical form began to fail, visibly aging, weakening and his organs started to falter and deteriorate.
It should have been excruciating, but by now, he had no sensation at all.
To him, it just felt like lying on a bed, unable to move.
Shen Xiengzhu said nothing. She held his hand tightly, feeling the subtle tremors racking his body.
After a long time, she took a deep breath, released his hand, and walked out of the old house.
When she returned, she was holding two ice creams.
She hesitated... then handed him one, her voice strained and low:
"Here. Will this... make you feel a little happier?"
Chen Kuang used all his strength to lift his hand.
He grabbed the ice cream, took a bite, then suddenly laughed.
He closed his eyes, his voice was hoarse:
"The 'Heavenly Demons'... should have arrived at Cangyuan by now."
Shen Xiengzhu nodded.
Even though she knew he couldn't see her or hear her, she still spoke solemnly:
"They have. The war... has already begun."
...
Day Five.
Above the Earth, a colossal rift appeared, like a chasm splitting the sky.
This was the barrier between the two realms.
With the mass incursion of Heavenly Demons into Cangyuan, aided by Xie Mengquan's interference and fueled by warfare that birthed even more Night Barbarians, this barrier could no longer withstand the strain.
It began to rupture.
To Earth's inhabitants, unfamiliar with such phenomena, it incited overwhelming panic.
At the same time, as Spiritual Energy poured in from Cangyuan, Earth began to undergo immense transformation.
Creatures mutated into monsters.
Even among regular humans, some began to sense and interact with Spiritual Energy.
Order began to crumble.
...
Inside the old Chen Family estate,
Shen Xiengzhu sat quietly beside the bed, her cultivation fully restored, long sword resting on her knees.
Her expression was serene, neither joyful nor sorrowful.
Before her, Chen Kuang lay motionless.
His breath grew weaker by the second, his vitality ebbing away.
The final stage of the Celestial Five Decays had begun, Decline of Consciousness.
Once Chen Kuang lost his consciousness, it would mean his true death.
The room was deathly silent.
Suddenly, Shen Xiengzhu raised her head.
Xie Mengquan stepped slowly through the door.
He smiled:
"He can't stop me. And neither can you."
Shen Xiengzhu said nothing.
Xie Mengquan continued, seemingly talking to himself:
"I've calculated it precisely.
In just one incense's time, he'll be dead."
He lifted his hand.
The Glazed Image-Freezing Lamp materialized from Chen Kuang's body and flew into his palm.
There were already three shadows within it.
Shen Xiengzhu's heart sank.
She knew the situation on the Cangyuan battlefield was dire.
Many had perished.
Those three shadows represented three of Chen Kuang's close acquaintances.
Shen Meinan wasn't dead yet, but her circumstances weren't good...
Had Chen Kuang truly resigned himself to fate?
Shen Xiengzhu couldn't help but wonder.
But glancing again at Chen Kuang's current state, even if he hadn't given up, there was truly nothing he could do now.
What could he do like this?
Xie Mengquan knew this as well.
He was in no rush.
He leisurely dragged a stool over, sat down with the Glazed Lamp in hand, seemingly prepared to witness Chen Kuang's death firsthand.
Very soon, Chen Kuang's aura weakened to its absolute limit.
Xie Mengquan suddenly stood up, his face lit with a gleeful, barely-restrained anticipation.
He raised his arms and laughed loudly:
"Su Yu, come forth!"
"Destiny is now in my hands!"
The Glazed Image-Freezing Lamp shone with a blinding light, illuminating the entire room.
Everything in the room cast no shadow, except for Chen Kuang and Shen Xiengzhu.
But Chen Kuang had two shadows.
One of them, wore a twelve-beaded imperial crown: the shadow of an emperor.
That pitch-black shadow began to swell, rising from the floor into a human-shaped silhouette of darkness.
A greedy, eager voice echoed from the silhouette:
"Chen Kuang, you've made us wait long enough!"
Finally, Chen Kuang's last breath dissipated.
That pitch-black figure instantly transformed into a giant serpent, opening its maw and swallowing the emperor-shadow whole!
"Chen Kuang!"
Shen Xiengzhu shouted through clenched teeth and drew her sword, unleashing her Dao Domain to stabilize the crumbling Heavenly Dao.
But Xie Mengquan merely snorted coldly, and she was instantly suppressed, immobilized on the spot.
The Chen Family estate collapsed with a thunderous roar, dust and rubble flying.
The world opened up.
Shen Xiengzhu looked up..
Overhead, the stars had split open.
The rift now stretched into a portal connecting to another world.
"Hahahahaha..."
Xie Mengquan laughed wildly.
With a gesture, the giant serpent returned, swallowing the three shadows within the lamp, and coiled around his arm.
He stroked its head, walking slowly toward the immobilized Shen Xiengzhu:
"Eight threads of Heavenly Fate... all mine.
Only you remain-"
Suddenly, Xie Mengquan froze, hid face going pale.
"Impossible... this is impossible!"
"Why is there only seven and a half?! Where's the last one?!"
Frantic, he swept his divine sense across all dimensions, trying to trace the missing thread of fate.
But no matter how hard he searched, it was gone.
It should have been five threads from Chen Kuang.
But only four remained!
Without a complete Heavenly Dao, Xie Mengquan could not seize true control of the world.
And worst of all, he didn't understand how the thread had vanished.
"What's missing?! What did I overlook?!"
Like a madman, Xie Mengquan repeated the question again and again, then suddenly turned into a streak of divine light and shot into outer space.
Now, Earth was completely surrounded by dimensional fractures.
And from those cracks oozed a formless, flowing substance..
Anything it touched would be devoured.
The entire world was being corroded.
Xie Mengquan had sensed this material before, whenever the barrier cracked.
But he'd always believed that once he seized the Heavenly Dao, he'd be able to suppress it.
Now he lacked that half-thread of Heaven.
His face darkened.
Desperately, he tried to remember, what had he overlooked?
And then it struck him.
"Chen Kuang... changed bodies in Cangyuan!"
He'd always known Chen Kuang's soul was itself a thread of Heavenly Fate, so he'd never paid much attention to his body.
But now..
"Where did that body go?"
"Wasn't it taken by Chu Wenruo...? But then, where is Chu Wenruo?"
Xie Mengquan had assumed Chu Wenruo had returned to the demon clan.
But now he realized, he couldn't sense a single trace of her aura!
"Of course you can't."
A familiar voice echoed.
Xie Mengquan's expression turned to horror.
He froze, cold sweat beading down his back:
"Chen Kuang!"
"Can you sense me now?"
Xie Mengquan could not.
But Chen Kuang's voice came from every direction.
Xie Mengquan shook his head violently:
"Impossible! I clearly sensed five threads of fate, how could it only be four?!"
Chen Kuang replied:
"I sent one thread out of this world long ago.
I only ever had four on me.
You sensed wrong."
"That's not possible! I don't make mistakes-!"
Chen Kuang chuckled:
"Of course you made a mistake."
"You weren't sensing the Heavenly Dao at all."
"What you sensed... was my Dao."
"My path."
Xie Mengquan trembled, muttering:
"Your Dao? That's absurd. Are you saying... you are the Heavenly Dao? Ridiculous! Absurd!"
Chen Kuang clicked his tongue:
"Don't believe me?
Look up."
Xie Mengquan looked up.
And saw, across the starry void, a colossal, boundless eye, pressing close as if studying what lay beneath a pane of glass.
In that eye's view, everything below was nothing more than ants.
...
Chen Kuang leaned forward, gazing into a black-and-white bead in his hand.
It spun slowly, like a Taiji, two realms intertwined.
At the center was a speck,
a spot so small it looked like a smudge.
That black speck suddenly exploded, dissolving into the vast darkness.
"Stop staring.
If you keep looking, both worlds will unravel."
Beside him, Chu Wenruo spoke in a lightly scolding tone.
Chen Kuang returned to himself and looked at the snowy-white Moon Demon beside him, smiling wryly:
"I need to get used to it, don't I?"
He now sat within an ancient cave-dwelling, upon a central lotus throne.
Around him, galaXiees spiraled. All things flowed.
He wore a Daoist robe, held the Taiji Pearl, and rested a Zither beside him.
From the moment he awoke, his memories had returned.
He was the master of this cave.
He had spent over a thousand years, using this Mysterious Taiji Pearl to simulate Dao patterns and construct a pocket world.
The moment he detached from this world would mark his mastery of the Dao.
And Chu Wenruo... was the demon slave he had contracted.
Chen Kuang rubbed his temple.
From the moment he had touched that sliver of moonlight, he'd known where his true body was.
Chu Wenruo had long since returned it to his original body, taking with her that one missing thread of fate.
Xie Mengquan mistook Chen Kuang's personal Dao as part of the Heavenly Dao.
But the reason Chen Kuang could set such a plan in motion, was because:
He had already failed once.
Human Emperor Shuo, was that first failure.
But he'd left behind contingencies.
Even back when he and Xie Mengquan were rivals, he had instilled in the man a habit:
To over-plan.
To believe himself forever locked in a game of wits with the Human Emperor.
Chen Kuang possessed a passive ability called "Grandmaster of the Nation"
[In chess, you can easily read your opponent's next move.]
At the end of heaven, take one more step.
Chen Kuang had always been one step ahead.
And Xie Mengquan...
had only ever been one of his pieces.
The two realms inside the Mysterious Taiji Pearl were still divided. Only by merging them could true evolution occur.
And everything Xie Mengquan had done... was to that end.
Chen Kuang leaned back against Chu Wenruo, toying with the pearl, slowly closing his eyes.
"This time... I might need to go into seclusion for a bit longer."
Chu Wenruo gently caressed his cheek and murmured:
"Got it. Just don't forget to bring my daughter back out."
Chen Kuang twitched:
"Now that you mention it...
Shen Xiengzhu and Shen Meinan really do remind me of the Star Lord of Zhongtian Cavern Abyss's two daughters..."
"Don't tell me... they were incarnated into my Mysterious Taiji Pearl for their tribulation?"
Chu Wenruo blinked:
"That's... actually quite likely."
Chen Kuang sighed deeply.
Resigned, he once again sent his consciousness into the pearl.
One thought births a flower.
One thought determines life or death.
In a single thought, within the Mysterious Taiji Pearl.. time rewound.
Only one thing was erased: Xie Mengquan.
The pocket world was still incomplete.
If he wanted those familiar to him to emerge from it... he still had a long road ahead.
This little world was still far from perfect.
(The End)
Author's Note: Because the cheat code is too abnormal and too powerful, the combat power has actually collapsed a long time ago. I can only try my best to fill the main holes and finish it according to the outline... Congratulations on the completion!
...
TL Note: Well, with that we're done! It's a shame how rushed things got, but it's still among my favorites for the genre at least, tell me your thoughts, have a good one.
On that note, there's another tl I've started publishing, the novel's plot isn't all that similar but the style often feels quite alike, if you're interested, you can find it via my profile or by searching for 'Mirror in the Dust'