The bright moon hung high, its clear light as cold as frost.
Qingdi Divine Palace.
Memories of the past surged like a tide, consciousness gradually returning. The confusion in Su Bai’s eyes faded, replaced by clarity and determination.
Su Bai tried to sit up, but the stone needles—one hundred and eight in total, crafted from Absolving Immortal Stone—locked her meridians, suppressing her power. From a perfected Nascent Soul cultivator, she was reduced in an instant to a mere mortal, unable to muster the slightest bit of strength.
At that moment, a slender, well-defined hand appeared before her. Su Bai looked up, meeting Zhou Xuan’s deep, obsidian eyes, filled with hope and longing.
“Master, I won.”
“According to the wager, your heart is mine.”
The man’s words fell, but it was like a stone sinking into the sea—no response at all. The air around them instantly froze, a silence so stifling it felt like the oppressive prelude before a storm.
“Heh heh…”
Who knows how much time passed before the woman emperor, draped in verdant imperial robes, parted her crimson lips and let out a soft laugh. Yet the smile never reached her eyes; her voice was as cold as snow atop a frozen mountain, each word slicing through the heart.
“You think that’s all I’ve got?”
Her tone lifted, laced with mockery. “You really think that’s the extent of my methods?”
Zhou Xuan’s brows furrowed as he subconsciously gripped his long spear, eyes alertly scanning his surroundings.
Yet, after a long while, nothing happened. His brows knitted deeper, and he demanded, “Master, is this your last resort? Are you planning to break the agreement?”
“No, I haven’t lost yet.”
Su Bai smiled faintly, shaking her head. She braced her frail body and staggered toward the throne. Once seated, she leaned against its back, one hand elegantly supporting her forehead. A few strands of hair slipped down, perfectly concealing half her face.
“Our final contest is not in this moment, but in the far future.”
As her words ended, the Chronolight Seed in Zhou Xuan’s palm suddenly grew scorching hot, breaking free from his grasp. It soared into the air, erupting in dazzling radiance. Waves of unprecedented power rippled outward, enveloping the entire great hall.
“What’s this…?”
Zhou Xuan’s gaze flickered as he stared at the glowing Chronolight Seed. His expression shifted, and suddenly, countless memories—both familiar and strange—flooded his mind. Memories of gnawing peaches atop a tree, sharing peach blossom soup with his mother, sleeping in his master’s bed… all of them were him, all of them that youth who had been shackled all his life by what he could never attain.
Su Bai said nothing. She merely closed her eyes, letting herself be immersed in the flood of memories, silently digesting them.
From the very start, she had never expected to defeat Zhou Xuan by turning back time. Even with a part of her memory sealed, she would still whip Zhou Xuan, still walk the same old path, her ambition and desire burning ever fiercely.
Minor currents could be changed; the great tide could not.
She would inevitably face her adopted son and disciple, blade against blade.
Her only advantage lay in the simulator—or rather, her understanding and control of a one-time simulation experience card within it.
The Chronolight Seed returning to a past point in time was only the first stage. Its second stage was the fusion of two different timelines—the merging of the first cycle’s past and the second cycle’s future!
Time held a beguiling magic. Even the smallest probability, when set adrift in the endless river of time, would inevitably become reality.
She had already sown the seeds of hope. All that remained was to wait for them to sprout, grow, blossom, and bear fruit.
[Outside Qingdi Divine Palace, day and night entwined, the passage of time sped by, landscapes and rivers shifted, seas turned to fields. Centuries of change flashed by in an instant. Because you interfered with time, the two timelines merged into a single, brand-new time. It can be called the third cycle, or the second-and-a-half cycle.]
[Minor currents can be changed; the great tide cannot.]
[The Lunar Immortal Lord fell into devilry, the Divine Transformation Heavenly Lord disappeared, the five realms lost their pinnacle powers, the White Bone Yaksha outbreak across the five domains, the founding of Qingdi Divine Palace, the campaign against the five domains… all these preordained events unfolded one by one.]
[However, the various preparations you planted also began to take effect. Gu Wanqing’s leadership of the Sun Extinguishers, the broken jade flute in the cave of Northern Plains, a certain female cultivator in Central Continent awakening a sliver of her divine soul through mind-bewitching arts, the white phantom at the border of Black and White Heavens…]
[Your memories, each of you holding half the seed, will not be affected by the merging of timelines. This will be your new life, your new cycle, the second-and-a-half cycle.]
[Second-and-a-half cycle, simulate for one thousand years.]
“Huh? How did I end up here?”
A crisp, pleasant yet confused female voice rang out. Xue Ji’s gaze first landed on the woman emperor on the throne—her eyes closed, heroic and elegant—then moved to the man in dark robes below the throne, sitting on the steps, clutching a black spear.
“You two aren’t gambling anymore?”
Xue Ji was bewildered. Just a moment ago, she’d been agonizing over the dangerous wager between her true body and Zhou Xuan; the next, she was inside Qingdi Divine Palace, her mind bubbling with familiar, repetitive memories—endless dull years soaking in a sea of blood beneath the Northern Plains.
On the throne, Su Bai slowly opened her eyes, seeing familiar people, familiar surroundings, and those many familiar… sealing formations.
“Why haven’t you lost your memory?” Su Bai frowned at Xue Ji below the steps. By rights, aside from her and Zhou Xuan, everyone else should have been affected by the timeline merger, forgetting everything from before and remembering only this new timeline.
“Maybe because I’m also ‘Su Bai’, under the protection of the Chronolight Seed…” As she spoke, Xue Ji’s face suddenly twisted in horror. She fell hard to the ground, hands wildly grabbing at her hair, then curled up, burying her head in her arms. Her emotions spiraled out of control in an instant.
“No, I’m not ‘Su Bai’. I’m a failure, utterly defeated. I don’t deserve to be a man.”
“I don’t want to bear all this. I want to be protected, too. I…”
Seeing Xue Ji suddenly collapse in such pain, Su Bai frowned slightly, instinctively trying to connect to her mind to see what had happened.
Yet for some reason, the channel to Xue Ji’s consciousness remained shut, as if she were evading, or perhaps unwilling to face it.
Su Bai chalked it up to some fiend’s bewitching technique cast on her other self.
As Su Bai pondered, Zhou Xuan gently helped Xue Ji up, whispering softly in her ear until her trembling subsided and her emotions calmed.
He raised his eyes to Su Bai on the throne, then stepped forward, ascending the jade stairs until he stood before her. His tall figure cast a shadow over the woman emperor’s graceful form.
“Master, I…”
“You little fiend… What are you trying to do to me… to ‘Gu’?” Su Bai swallowed nervously. Recalling the second cycle, she remembered how this little fiend had staged her defeat on the throne. Now, could it be…
No, not again!
Losing on the throne was just too humiliating!
And another version of herself was watching, too.
The imposing figure drew nearer and nearer. Su Bai’s heartbeat raced. Instinctively, she gripped the throne’s armrests. In the next moment, the world spun. She found herself wrapped in a broad, warm embrace. By her ear came the man’s voice, choked with joy and tears.
“So, you did love me, after all.”