“A Huangliang Dream?”
At the edge of Yacheng, Tong Ting was frozen in a daze.
He could hardly believe the words coming from his own father’s mouth.
“Wait, what on earth?” Tong Ting asked, utterly bewildered. “You mean the Paradise of Myriad Phenomena? Didn’t that collapse long ago? Huaxu is dead.”
“I did say the Paradise of Myriad Phenomena disappeared, yes. But when did I ever say Lord Huaxu was dead?”
The old man retorted without looking up. Holding his teacup in one hand, smacking his lips over his classic concentrate, his eyes fell upon the ground where scattered yarrow stalks crisscrossed, forming a chaotic hexagram that shifted unpredictably in the gentle breeze.
The Path of Aether lay in observing and scrutinizing. Everyone possessed a degree of curiosity; the only difference lay in their skill and audacity.
At the level of a Celestial-Human, observing the entire world without stepping out the door was trivial.
Acting on a sudden whim, Tong Yuan had been maintaining his tracing and surveillance of the Dreamloss Syndrome incident, merely refraining from direct intervention for prudence’s sake.
Divination by yarrow stalks was much like watching a fire from across a river—merely listening passively to information without actively prying.
He had thought that even if he couldn't see clearly, watching the spectacle unfold would still be entertaining.
Yet, in an unguarded moment… he had witnessed towering waves surging up from stagnant waters!
Through a fleeting glimpse of the perturbation in destiny, he caught sight of the massive reflection that had abruptly manifested.
Hidden like a mustard seed, moving like a soaring dragon.
It cared nothing for prying eyes, never bothering to conceal its existence… descending brazenly upon the mundane world.
“The Kings of Chaos indeed,” Tong Yuan murmured over his tea, sighing with genuine awe. “What staggering grandeur.”
“N-No… this…” Tong Ting remained stunned, struggling to process it. “How many years has it been? Does that make any sense? He's actually still alive?”
“In the Age of Chaos before Supreme Goodness arose, could anyone who carved out an achievement truly be an unworthy mediocrity? In a hell devoid of order or rules, anyone insufficiently powerful or lucky couldn't even control their own life or death. Yet the Kings stood supreme, treating the mortal realm as a chessboard, laying the foundations of a new world amidst their strife. How could their accomplishments and karma be ordinary?”
Tong Yuan sighed softly and countered, “The Lord of Huaxu exists alongside Huaxu, and the Lord of Huangliang endures with Huangliang. To beings like that, the distinction between life and death is utterly meaningless. Tell me, how do you kill a dream?”
“…”
Tong Ting fell silent, at a loss for words, only to hear his father’s leisurely voice continue: “Among the Kings of the Age of Chaos, it is certain that at least three have survived to this day. He can be considered half of one.”
For Heaven's Choice of Aether, observation was power, and secrets were trump cards.
Likewise, secrets could bring death—or fates far worse than death!
Even between master and disciple or father and son, certain secrets could never be passed on lightly.
This was not out of dread or suspicion, but because those secrets were simply too dangerous. Even the most secretive communication between Aethers—unwritten, unspoken, passed purely mind to mind—would still trigger ripples, invite perception, and bring about unforeseen disasters. It might even backfire upon themselves.
Only by seizing this moment, when the Lord of Huangliang’s return caused disturbances across all related destinies and observations, could an opportunity be found to convey such profound secrets.
The ripples stirred by the Lord of Huangliang were still spreading; the timing was critical, and not a second could be wasted.
Hearing this, Tong Ting dropped to his knees immediately and shuffled forward on his knees, listening, pondering, and analyzing with utmost reverence.
Even within the shielding range of Tong Yuan’s chronowedge, he remained cautious, striving to perceive the whole picture from the hints as quickly and steadily as possible with the minimal amount of information and disturbance.
“Does Father mean there is another half?”
“More or less.” Tong Yuan nodded and answered placidly, “Inside the belly of the fish. What else could be left but half?”
*The fish?*
Tong Ting was jolted by sudden realization, cold sweat instantly soaking his back.
The Sin of the White Manor!
As the Great Sin counterpart to the Vortex, the White Manor possessed only a single Great Sin: that Immortal Fish. It was a terrifying monstrosity born of boundless corruptive life to achieve immortality, regarding all living beings in the world as food.
The reason there was only one was that before any other Sin of the White Manor could even fully gestate, this fish would track it down and swallow it whole!
It was unbelievable that someone could be swallowed into that fish’s belly and remain alive, not thoroughly digested even after thousands of years.
Truly worthy of the Kings.
Yet what was even more unbelievable—was the fish itself a product of the Age of Chaos? No, wait… his father meant…
In that instant, trembling, comprehension dawned upon him.
Of the three confirmed survivors: half was the Lord of Huangliang who had dissolved into nothingness, half was the being trapped inside the fish's belly. What about the fish itself?
A fish capable of swallowing one of the Kings was undeniably one of the two whole ones!
Then…
“It cannot be spoken of, nor explained clearly.”
Tong Yuan already knew what he was about to ask before the question left his mouth. He shook his head slowly, keeping his lips sealed.
Even with countless speculations, guesses remained mere guesses, incapable of serving as hard proof. Besides, what did it matter whether one guessed right or wrong? Bringing such matters past one's lips was simply inviting trouble.
The brief ripple had now subsided.
Tong Yuan waved his hand, signaling Tong Ting to stand. Everything that needed to be said had been said; what remained unsaid was best left untouched.
Might as well just watch the show.
He scattered another handful of yarrow stalks and continued observing in secret.
***
At this moment, with the re-emergence of the Paradise of Myriad Phenomena, ripples of phenomena once again surged across the mortal realm, like a giant boulder suddenly cast into a pond.
Amidst the expanding ripples, countless individuals sensed the disturbance and launched their prying eyes through every trick in the book.
Crystal balls, counting rods, pendulums, haruspicy, spirit writing, séances…
Aethers lurking beneath the deep waters poked their heads out one after another.
Their methods ranged from brutal to delicate, their techniques from crude to exquisite. Yet no matter how they pried and observed, aside from the reappearance of the Huangliang Dream, all other intelligence remained cloaked in dense fog, impossible to perceive.
The Lord of Huangliang ignored them entirely, caring not in the least.
The dream existed, but how could anyone know what truly lay within that void of dreams?
Life and death held no boundary, like a dream, like an illusion. Even if the Paradise of Myriad Phenomena of the past had vanished into smoke, it had merely returned to nothingness.
And did the existence of dreams not belong to nothingness to begin with?
In the superposition of nothingness upon nothingness, who could say whether the dream still endured?
Rather than calling it the destruction of paradise, it was more accurate to say it had simply returned to its original state.
The disappearance of the Paradise of Myriad Phenomena long ago was not the collapse of an arrogant fool’s ambition; it was the Lord of Huaxu abandoning the mortal world alongside the followers who chased after that phantasy!
Now, from the void, boundless sweet dreams re-emerged. Waking from ages of slumber, the Nation of Huaxu once again answered the call of souls and the invitation of the fragment.
Opening anew.
Right before Ji Jue’s eyes.
Compared to that magnificent and colossal existence, the phantasm forged by the Huangliang Relic was like a fragile bubble, drawn effortlessly back to its source beneath the pull of gravity.
Everything Wen Sheng had once manipulated at will ceased to respond. All the souls fell into slumber and long sleep, and the collapsing world recombined.
Meanwhile, the true sovereign of the fragment licked its paw pad and delivered its final judgment.
The victor was decided.
“I haven't lost! I haven't!”
Wen Sheng roared, eyes bloodshot. Amidst the madness of total defeat, he did not even care to ponder the other party's identity: “What bullshit rule-breaking! Weren't you the one meddling behind the scenes?!”
“Mm, indeed.”
The black cat nodded placidly. “If I hadn't meddled, wouldn't you have vanished into smoke long ago? Looking at it that way, you were the one who got the better deal, weren't you?”
Wen Sheng froze, stiffening completely.
His approaching steps halted where he stood.
“The Paradise of Myriad Phenomena acknowledges all desires, and the Paradise of Myriad Phenomena recognizes all dreams,” the black cat spoke in a calm voice. “You may realize your own dream, no matter how absurd; you may also steal another's dream, no matter how cruel. Tampering, twisting, purifying, or corrupting—none of it matters. If you cannot keep your own dream and it falls into someone else's hands, that is only natural. Dreams are boundless, and dreams are free. Dreams permit all things, and dreams encompass everything. But there is one exception—
“—You must never deny your own dream.”
The Lord of Huangliang lowered his gaze, shaking his head in regret. “The moment such a thought crossed your mind, you were destined to be abandoned by the fragment in your grasp. No, even before that, hadn't your dream already been stolen by someone else? Just as you stole the dreams of others… Being of Ascension, why can you still not see through this trivial attachment to distinction?”
“Nonsense!”
Wen Sheng shrieked. Unable to contain himself, he reached out and grabbed the black cat, shaking it violently as he demanded, “What meaning does such an illusory thing have?!”
“Yet didn't you rely on this very illusory thing to climb all the way to where you are today? Why can you still not understand the meaning of a dream?”
The black cat chuckled, allowing its avatar to be shaken in Wen Sheng’s grip like a rag doll, completely unbothered. Only a soft, gentle voice echoed from every direction:
“Dreams are inclusive, and dreams are generous. Ascension or Heart Pivot, Abyssal Void or Weiyang, Aether or Defilement, even Desolate Ruins, even Embers—none of it matters, and none of it is an issue. Anyone who harbors fleeting dreams and chases phantasies may come here. Regardless of good or evil, all may act as their heart desires; this is the fundamental law of the Paradise of Myriad Phenomena.”
“No, no, this is wrong!”
Wen Sheng gripped the black cat tightly, his eyes glazed. “Everything was arranged. I had already succeeded! It's you! You plotted against me!”
“What was born of dreams shall also be lost to foam. What is wrong with that? If you arose from it, why should you not perish by it?”
The black cat tilted its head in feigned bewilderment, asking, “Besides, was the one who plotted against you truly me?”
With that, the cat lightly raised a paw.
It gave him a gentle tap.
Immediately, a pocket watch burned to wreckage in flames fell from his soul, dropping to the ground and rolling, riddled with fractures.
“Truth be told, whether you cheated or not means nothing to me. Your game is yours to direct, and how you wish to play is entirely up to you.”
The black cat cast a careless glance at it and suddenly let out a soft laugh. “However, did the person who gave you this thing truly have your best interests at heart?”
Wen Sheng stared blankly, as if petrified.
He froze in place.
Cold sweat drenched his back.
“Endless repetition, endless loops. Ha, for Heart Pivot, this is indeed an exquisite treasure. Yet what you focused on was Ascension!”
The black cat remarked with a sigh, “The moment regret and wavering arose in your obsession, the moment you conceived the desire to start over, your forward path was severed. From then on, no matter how many times you repeated it, it was nothing more than sinking deeper into the mire. In fact, every single repeat served only to catalyze your opponent.”
“…Heh, hahahaha! I see, how fascinating! Truly fascinating!”
Before Wen Sheng could react, the black cat burst into laughter, thoroughly amused. “Among modern mortals, there are still people so utterly deranged? They certainly rival the generation I once lived in.”
“You… you…”
Wen Sheng’s face turned ghastly pale. Trembling, his dilated pupils struggled to focus, his breath catching in his throat. “What on earth do you mean?”
“Hm? Did I not make myself clear?”
The corners of the black cat’s mouth curled upward in a malicious smile, savoring his pathetic display.
Then, with its own claws, it popped the final bubble:
“From the very beginning, you were merely consumable fodder!”
“SHUT UP!!!!”
Wen Sheng felt as though struck by lightning. He screamed instinctively, his bloodshot eyes bulging so violently they seemed ready to pop from their sockets, his expression twisted in agony. “I'm not! I… I was the one who was supposed to… Only me…”
The black cat kept smiling, admiring his state.
Just like that, it bore witness to the wailing light of a shattered dream…
Such a delightful spectacle.
Though he did not know the exact backstory, at his level, wouldn't a single glance reveal the whole picture?
The person orchestrating this behind the scenes was truly formidable in their methods.
They had even calculated an illusory dream into the equation.
This dream of the Holy God appeared on the surface to be a metamorphosis from death to rebirth. In reality, a far more cruel and malicious purpose was hidden behind it.
Wen Sheng and Wen Wen: Ascension and Desolate Ruins, spirit and matter.
Two existences as incompatible as fire and water were, within this phantasm, mutual fodder, mutual catalysts, mutually fulfilling each other while destroying each other.
In this ceaseless cycle, whichever died would only make the survivor stronger!
Either Wen Sheng would become the Holy God, advancing further with Celestial-Human in sight and the realms of Sage and Dragon no longer distant; or Wen Wen would accept her true nature, thoroughly discarding the shackles of reason and sentiment, creating a miracle before setting foot upon the path of draconification…
What a truly exquisite calculation.
Even his own relic had been made part of the scheme.
The Lord of Huangliang did not care. Presumably, the mastermind knew that not only would he not care, he would gladly welcome a fine show delivered straight to his doorstep.
Indeed, it was so—and indeed, it was a fine show.
Unfortunately, who could have foreseen that through a freak combination of factors, an Ember possessing authority and positioned right between Ascension and Desolate Ruins would mix into the fray?
As a result of this variable’s disruption, the bedrock remained unmoved, while the obsession shattered within the dream.
Having realized Wen Zheng’s design and understood his own true role, Wen Sheng was utterly crushed. He fell to his knees on the ground, roaring in despair, sobbing and choking with grief.
And yet…
“Proclaiming yourself a god, why do you kneel to beg for mercy?”
The black cat shook its head. “Looking like this, you seem far more like a believer.”
Worshiping an idol, lost in fanaticism, yet unable to see what he was truly chasing. Charging toward imaginary bubbles and delirium, he clung only to unrealistic flowers in a mirror and moons in the water.
Precisely because of this, he was a perfect match for this phantasm.
“Since you have lost in the mortal realm, why not return to the foam?”
The black cat’s voice drifted out eerily. “Dreams are generous; the Paradise of Myriad Phenomena turns no one away. Even those who possess nothing will always find a sweet dream and peaceful rest.”
In that instant, the weeping Wen Sheng froze.
His face, streaked with cracks, blood, and tears, was illuminated by the phantasmal light behind that doorway.
The Paradise of Myriad Phenomena!
A world of void gathered from infinite dreams and illusions!
At this moment, it genuinely materialized before him.
Within that doorway manifested from thin air, rainbow hues shifted unceasingly, surging and flowing like spring water.
In just an instant, one could glimpse boundless inverted dreams.
Countless phantoms surfaced before his eyes; innumerable voices resonated in his ears.
*I want to eat my fill… I want new clothes… I want this world to never look down on me again… I want money, I want money… rest, end it, women, give up, eat… I want more money! Please give me money…*
*I want the world to be free of hunger and pain… I want everyone to understand each other… I want war to disappear… I want to be with her forever… I want to die…*
*I want…*
The rainbow light acted like a mirror, reflecting one’s deepest desires and fantasies.
At that exact moment, Ji Jue made a slight movement.
Regrettably, it was not his feet that moved, but his hand gripping his sword. He lowered his gaze toward Wen Sheng on the ground, a fleeting impulse rising within him. Yet very quickly, he noticed the gaze the black cat cast in his direction.
Thus, he remained motionless.
Nor was there any need to move anymore.
Only Wen Sheng remained on the ground, staring vacantly at that phantasmal light. His hollow eyes were illuminated by the illusions, brimming with a sudden, ecstatic brilliance.
Captivated.
Amidst agony and despair, he propped himself up, crawling forward on hands and knees. Inch by inch, expending every ounce of his strength, he reached out a hand, wanting to touch the light behind the door.
Yet he could never cross that final thread of distance.
It was too far.
He was too exhausted.
He had long since run out of strength to press forward.
From his shattered wounds, silver flames rose once more, incinerating the last remnant of his soul and rapidly reducing it to flying ash.
The moment he became obsessed with the foam and abandoned his single-minded drive, the final thread of power sustaining him dissipated without a sound. The moth perished in the flame; the obsession turned to ash within the blaze.
The last dry bones shattered silently before the great gates.
Meeting their end.
Yet right until his consciousness was completely eradicated, Wen Sheng’s gaze remained fixed on the phantoms behind the door.
What had those eyes truly seen in the end?
“What a pity,” the black cat said, shaking its head. “Just a hair’s breadth away.”
*Was it really just a hair's breadth?*
Ji Jue wanted to ask, but some questions were better left unsaid.
Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, he took a quiet step backward, then another, trying to put distance between them. Unfortunately, those amber eyes had already turned toward him.
A faint, knowing smile danced within them.
“It seems you won this struggle, Ji Jue.”
The black cat tilted its head, admiring his expression. “To think that on a doorstep as deserted as this, an uninvited guest would still come calling… Do I need to introduce myself?”
Chapter 547