This truth was indeed a bit hard to bear.
Even though Old Song was no spring chicken—a seasoned man who had lived through many hardships;
Even though Yinlin usually treated humans coldly and wouldn’t hesitate to fire a magic cannon to wipe out humans and demons alike—
Seeing the scene before her, Yinlin still couldn’t hold herself together.
“I wanted to grab the girl before me, to save her, only to realize she was nothing but an intangible illusion, impossible to grasp.
I tried to reach for the nutrient-sucking roots, but they too were mere illusions.
Finally, I attempted to touch the World Tree itself, but it was also intangible, untouchable.
That can’t be right—before, I could clearly touch the Fruit of the World Tree.”
“Thinking about the fruit? That’s still a secret for now; I can’t tell you yet,” the girl said, a playful smile curling on her lips.
Yinlin couldn’t smile back. At that moment, her hands and feet felt ice-cold, her whole body as if trapped inside a freezer, cold enough to chill her bones and hurt her flesh.
Her mind was nearly in chaos as she struggled to make sense of everything she was seeing.
“You’ve… completely messed everything up, I… I don’t even know what to ask anymore,” Yinlin tried to calm herself, her voice trembling.
They fell into silence for a full minute, just staring.
The girl waited too—there was nothing either of them could do.
Words caught in Yinlin’s throat, unable to be spoken despite being so close.
The scene before her was explicit, something that should stir desire, but Yinlin felt none of it.
Her heart was filled with desolation.
Yinlin asked, “So, are you really the Contract Goddess?”
The girl replied, “Without a doubt.”
Yinlin said, “You know exactly what I’m thinking, yet you claim it’s not mind reading. So, does that mean you are me?”
The girl smiled gently.
“Yes.”
“Stop laughing, damn it, don’t laugh.”
Yinlin shouted in anger, “This isn’t how I wanted the story to go. Why are you me? What exactly are you?”
The girl kept smiling, soft and kind.
A stark contrast to the anger written all over Yinlin’s face.
She explained, “You’ve guessed right, you just needed confirmation. I am the future you, so I know what you’re thinking.”
Yinlin still couldn’t calm down.
“If you’re me from the future, why did you become like this?”
The girl answered, “Because this is the choice we made in the future. It’s a path we had no choice but to take.”
Yinlin: “What if I don’t choose it?”
The girl continued, “No, you will choose it. That’s why the Diamond found you, and why we ultimately became the Contract Goddess.”
Yinlin: “You chose this willingly?”
The girl: “Yes.”
Yinlin: “I will never become like this. It’s hard to imagine myself doing something so foolish.”
The girl only smiled again, without answering.
Yinlin stepped back, moving outside the hollow of the World Tree, breathing in the fresh air.
Even though she was only a soul body, the suffocating feeling inside was unbearable.
That ever-smiling girl, those disgusting roots, and the whole scene terrified and disgusted Yinlin.
After a minute’s rest, she returned to the tree hollow.
She was much calmer now.
She continued her conversation with the girl who claimed to be the Contract Goddess.
Yinlin: “So everything we’re experiencing is scripted, right? Even the questions I’m asking you now, everything that has happened before—all my anger and sadness—are just part of this predetermined script. Nothing surprises you, does it?”
The girl nodded plainly, “Yes. Everything happening now has happened before. I once asked the same questions you’re asking now, and I got the same answers. Back then, I thought just like you—I wanted to break this linear path, to disrupt the story.”
That was indeed what Yinlin was thinking at the moment.
Looking at the girl who seemed to feed off the World Tree’s nutrients, it seemed to prove she never succeeded and eventually walked this path.
Yinlin: “If you knew how the future would unfold, why did you still take this path? Isn’t changing the future easy?”
The girl replied, “Because this is the optimal solution—a choice that’s right for everyone.”
Yinlin: “Less riddles, more truth. Either tell me what you can or say what you can’t.”
The girl smiled mischievously.
That smile irritated Yinlin.
The girl said, “The future me I met told me to say these things in this order. After we finish talking, you will leave with the only Fruit of the World Tree, and then you’ll find someone beside you—you won’t explain, and then…”
Yinlin cut her off, “You know I’m not interested in that. I want to know who fired the Orbital Cannon twice? Why did the future me become like you now? Is the World Tree truly good or evil? What exactly is the Contract Goddess? There are too many questions—you know what I want to ask.”
The girl refused, “Unfortunately, when I reached your point, I didn’t get the answers, so I can only tell you what I know now. I can’t reveal everything.”
Yinlin: “So you’re standing opposite me, right? I want to break the future, change it. You want this future to remain unchanged, ensuring I walk this unaltered path.”
The girl admitted, “Yes, but we’re not enemies. You will make the same choice I did.”
Yinlin: “Screw that! I will never become like this—this life is worse than death, less than human. You’re hideous now, like some kind of monster.”
She wasn’t talking about the body—no matter how many times she looked, that body was a beautiful treasure, with a face that inspired awe.
But what she saw now, and the person’s words and actions, made her seem like an incomprehensible monster.
Facing such curses, the girl still smiled gently, tinged with a hint of helplessness.
“Well then, let’s end this conversation. You need time to digest everything,” the girl said, dismissing her.
From a distance, the sound of a tentacle monster approached again. That bastard was back.
The World Tree bore a single fruit—only one, no second fruit yet.
The monster said the current state couldn’t condense a second fruit.
Yinlin tried to climb the tree but still couldn’t touch it.
The tentacle monster, however, could.
It reached out, plucked the fruit, and handed it to Yinlin.
She fought back the innate disgust magic girls have for tentacle monsters and couldn’t help but touch the creature.
It had no physical form; it was an illusion as well.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
Strangely though, the tentacle monster could touch the World Tree and the fruit.
Yinlin couldn’t touch the tree but could touch the fruit and even take it out.
Something about this didn’t add up.
She had no more questions.
The Contract Goddess forcibly ejected her from this false space.
Outside, the first thing she saw was Jinluan’s back by the window.
Another trouble waiting.
damn… yeah i guessed this might be the case. as with all timey-wimey stories, i wonder how they will handle the imminent chapters in this one.