Chapter 052

Chapter 52: Is it the Dream Realm or the Past Life

Even while hiding inside the Violet Cloud Ring, Ye Wan Wan could feel a violent shaking. The tremor reached in from the outside and rattled her within the ring.

Even Star Marsh hurriedly slipped out of the stone and steadied the Star Marsh Realm.

The gray robed elder stepped into the space and then noticed the Star Marsh Spirit Lake.

He blurted out: “You actually absorbed the Star Marsh Secret Realm?!”

Ye Wan Wan answered in a calm voice: “I thought once you heard that Little One’s voice, you had already guessed.”

The gray robed elder drew a deep breath, then sighed with feeling: “I really have good judgment. I chose the right person this time.”

Ye Wan Wan frowned and said: “This is the first time anyone has entered the Cloud Mountain Cave, right?”

The gray robed elder stayed silent.

Ye Wan Wan asked: “Did you even have another choice?”

The elder fell silent again.

Ye Wan Wan gave a soft laugh: “Heh.”

The gray robed elder wiped his face. He did not argue; he knew her words were cutting. He also knew what she was mocking. He had used the inheritance to pour his own memories into her. It was not exactly decent.

But the Illusory Dream Elder also knew that if he had not done it, Ye Wan Wan would never have agreed to accept the inheritance. In theory, the Illusory Dream Elder could have picked someone else. After all, whoever hears the insights of a Great Ascension Stage cultivator would want them, no matter what was inside.

Yet the kind of person who wants everything is exactly the kind of person the Illusory Dream Elder no longer trusted. Ye Wan Wan’s one line of “I don’t want it” was the correct answer. Because she did not want it, he needed her to want it.

All at once, the secret realm began to spin fast. Strong dizziness swept through the Violet Cloud Ring, as if something outside had grabbed the ring itself.

Star Marsh shouted: “Something out there is sucking spiritual energy. I can’t hold it much longer!”

Ye Wan Wan asked: “Can I see what’s happening outside?”

Star Marsh said: “I’ll open a water mirror for you.”

As soon as it spoke, a water mirror opened ahead.

Ye Wan Wan saw the collapsed passage, and at the far end a huge whirlpool. Its range was growing, pulling in the dust the Violet Cloud Ring had become.

It was even swallowing the Seven Star Maze Array she had set, along with the nearby stone rooms. The pull kept expanding.

In the swirl of suction, Ye Wan Wan also saw Bai Jian and Fang He An at the cave entrance trying to resist the pull. But the power of the collapsing space was too strong.

The three of them were dragged in anyway, together with Ji Chang Huai and the others.

Ye Wan Wan’s pupils tightened.

But she had no time to save anyone, because Star Marsh cried: “No good, I can’t keep it steady. Grab onto whatever is near you!”

In a breath, the whole inside of the Violet Cloud Ring flipped end over end. Ye Wan Wan rolled as if trapped inside a ball, but she quickly grabbed the Pill Tree and steadied herself.

Perched on a branch, Star Marsh sounded guilty: “Sorry. I’m still too weak.”

It was a Companion Spirit, but it had only been born after the Illusory Dream Elder fell. By Companion Spirit age, it was still just a baby spirit.

Ye Wan Wan glanced at the messy space and said: “If I go out, will it be better?”

Star Marsh nodded, then shook its head: “But if you go out, you’ll have to bear all the pressure outside.”

Ye Wan Wan said: “I’m going out.”

As soon as she spoke, the girl stepped out of the Violet Cloud Ring.

The Violet Cloud Ring slipped back onto her hand. Star Marsh’s voice sounded: “Be careful!”

Ye Wan Wan answered: “Mm.”

She let the suction pull her straight into the vortex. It was pitch black inside, but she did not resist and let herself be drawn to the end.

The dark passage was silent.

No sound, no figures.

Even the people she had seen before, like Bai Jian and Fang He An, were gone now.

Ye Wan Wan did not act rashly. She listened to the quiet.

Until-

There was a sharp clang: it was the sound of a blade leaving its sheath.

A voice roared: “Kill!”

Ye Wan Wan snapped her eyes wide open and stared at the scene ahead. A mansion covered in bright lanterns and colored ribbons stood there, but a group of cultivators filled with killing intent rushed straight in.

They shouted: “Kill the Devil Fetus and save the common people!” and: “The Shen Clan hid the Devil Fetus. They must be punished!”

The cultivators stormed into the compound and killed everyone they saw. If not for their proper cultivator robes, one could have mistaken them for the Devil Clan.

The scene shifted to a mansion gone dark, its candles out.

A three year old boy climbed up from a well. He looked at the bodies covering the ground and wandered forward, lost and helpless, calling: “Mother, Father… aunt…” But no matter how he called, no one would rise.

The front gate creaked open. The boy trembled all over, but he did not dodge. He stared straight ahead.

From this angle, she could not see who stood outside the door.

But Ye Wan Wan heard a quiet line: “That was too much.”

With a soft sigh, a wisp of smoke curled around the boy and carried him away.

When the memory reformed, it was still a mountain where a sect had been wiped out.

Voices raged: “The Heavenly One Sect took in the Devil Fetus. Do they mean to oppose the righteous path of the world?”

“Good and evil cannot stand together. Since the Heavenly One Sect shields that beast, they can die together!”

Flowing fire covered the mountaintop.

Deep in the range, a teenage boy screamed himself hoarse: “Come at me! If you want to kill me, come at me!”

But the elders in their Daoist robes stood in front of him all the same. Their faces were gentle. With pity for the people, they walked calmly to their deaths.

The boy cried, “Come back!”

An elder in fluttering immortal robes spoke softly: “This world is hard. How could a child like you carry it?”

“Master!”

“Hey, you never would call me Master. Now you finally did. For that one word, child, your master will surely protect you.”

The picture jumped again.

Two people dug up bodies in the mountain. The broken, collapsing sob made Ye Wan Wan’s body go rigid. It was Li Wan Zhi.

He cried: “Senior sister! Senior brother, master!”

While the weeping shattered the air, another youth stayed cold and still. He said in a low voice: “I will take revenge.”

“We will take revenge!”

The scene shifted once more. Ye Wan Wan saw the Immortals and Devil war from her last life. In the Devil Clan, a man raised his hand and casually took the lives of tens of thousands of cultivators.

That was the Devil Lord Heavenly Abyss.

He had the same face as Shen Nan Zhou.

She also saw, outside the crowd, herself being run through by Yan Ding and the others with the Seven Swords.

Her eyes went blood red.

Her killing intent surged.

But the Heart Questioning Sword quivered. Its cold sword intent poured into her mind, and Ye Wan Wan woke up. She flung her eyes open, her gaze like an arrow, and pierced the illusion in front of her.

The picture shattered.

Ye Wan Wan saw the person standing behind the dream.

A blue robed boy stood quietly there. His eyes held none of the crushing pressure of the man who had taken lives with a lift of his hand. He only looked at Ye Wan Wan with a calm gaze. His tone, too, was cold as he said: “How could you enter my dream?”

Ye Wan Wan’s face was pale. Their eyes met, and she wondered: [Was my past life really only a dream?] She answered herself: [No. It was not.]

She stepped toward Shen Nan Zhou and looked straight into his eyes: “Who are you?”