Chapter 1927: The Beginning
"..." Yun Che did not answer, nor could he answer.
"You still have one last chance. I can erase all these painful memories for you," she said slowly. "Whether you choose complete oblivion, or only to retain your indifference and hatred toward her."
"This is also Xia Qingyue's wish."
"..." In response, there was only Yun Che's continuously shrinking body, and the sound of tears constantly dripping onto his clothes and the ground.
So painful...
Heart... soul... faith... riddled with holes... a thousand cuts...
Agony, endless and without respite...
Far above, four female figures silently watched him. Their expressions varied—some heavy, some complex, some sorrowful.
He was curled up, trembling, every part of his body spasming in unbearable agony... yet he could not even let out a single howl.
Now the Emperor of all heavens... this was a sight they had never imagined they would see.
Yun Che had been lying there in a stupor for over ten days, and the pain had not ceased for even a single moment.
They did not know what Yun Che was going through. They could only silently watch him from afar, accompanying him.
"Xia Qingyue..." Chi Wuyue sighed softly and looked up at the sky. "Her arrangements were already perfect enough. If anything truly pierced through all of this, it was less about flaws and destiny, but rather the obsession buried deep in Yun Che's heart... He never forgot Xia Qingyue, and he always longed for everything to be false. Thus, the slightest clue would be seized by him and magnified, pursued..."
"The words I said to him over the years—he seemed casual, but in truth... he engraved every single one in his heart."
Shui Meiyin lay on Mu Xuanyin's shoulder. The sight of Yun Che in such pain made her heart ache so much she could not stop crying.
The secret could no longer be kept; she had no choice but to confess everything to them.
Qianye Ying'er, who had been silent for a very long time, suddenly moved forward... but immediately, she was firmly grabbed by a snow-white hand.
"Don't disturb him." Behind her ear came Mu Xuanyin's low, cold voice.
"..." Qianye Ying'er closed her eyes, and the aura around her gradually subsided entirely.
She turned around, no longer looking at Yun Che's current state. Between her lips, a faint murmur that seemed like self-talk: "Why isn't the one who died me instead?"
Chi Wuyue glanced sideways. She reached out and grasped Qianye Ying'er's hand... an icy coldness pierced straight to the bottom of her heart.
"The fact that you think this way is already proof that you are long no longer the evil-filled Fandi Shennü of those years. The past cannot be changed, but the future can."
Qianye Ying'er: "..."
Her soft fingers gently brushed against Qianye Ying'er's cold palm. Chi Wuyue whispered, "As long as you live, one day you will find a way to forgive yourself... no matter how long it takes, no matter how much effort and atonement it requires."
"You accompanied him through the darkest moments of his life. Now, and in the future, his life absolutely cannot lack your presence... I am very certain of this, and you must believe it enough yourself."
Qianye Ying'er shook off her hand, her figure moving forward without turning around. Her voice carried a hint of difficulty: "Who do you think I am... How could I be as fragile as you imagine?"
"My sins—ten thousand deaths would not be enough to atone. How could I dwell on just one person... Ridiculous!"
Chi Wuyue watched her back, a faint smile blooming at the corner of her lips. Then her gaze dropped, and a long sigh echoed in her heart.
Let the pain come.
This is what you must bear...
Everything she gave, her salvation for you...
Even if the pain is like ten thousand swords piercing the soul, I still would rather you never remain ignorant of all this forever.
...
How long the void recollection lasted, Yun Che did not know.
It was like a long dream, yet real and cruel.
How long he had convulsed in the vortex of pain, he also did not know. When his mind finally regained some clarity, he uttered a trembling but utterly resolute word:
"No..."
He was responding to the question of whether to erase his memories of Xia Qingyue.
"As expected, still this answer." The woman's voice, which had been utterly devoid of emotion, now carried a faint trace of a sigh.
Yun Che adjusted his breathing and slowly opened his eyes.
His eyes were covered with ruptured blood vessels, as if stained with blood.
His thoughts gradually became clear, and from his throat came an extremely hoarse voice: "You said you would tell me everything."
"The fate that was interfered with on her... the reason she chose to end herself... what exactly is it? Tell me... Tell me!!"
"As you wish."
Without any hesitation or delay, the woman's voice gave him the most direct consent.
The light vanished, and the space before Yun Che's eyes quickly darkened. His consciousness once again entered that gray, endless world.
In his sea of soul, her voice grew more distant and ethereal:
"In a time and space far, far away, Chaos was originally a turbid unity. Only after a long evolution did it gradually divide into Yin and Yang polarities."
Yun Che: "??"
"After an unimaginably long period of time and spatial evolution, the center of the divided Chaos gave birth to the first living being."
"That was the beginning of all life in Chaos. Later generations called it—the Primordial Divine."
"Wait!" Yun Che interrupted. "What I want to know is what happened to Qingyue, not the beginning of Chaos!"
"Her existence and destiny must be traced back to the beginning of Chaos."
"..." Yun Che was stunned. The thoughts that had just begun to clear fell into chaos once more.
The fate of Qingyue...
The beginning of Chaos!?
He heard every word clearly. Yet he could not understand a single one.
He did not speak again. Yun Che concentrated his spirit and silently listened to the voice within his sea of soul.
"The being later known as the Primordial Divine gradually gained complete consciousness and wisdom. She created language, created profound force and profound arts... But the more complete her consciousness became, the more she felt endless loneliness."
"She was born in Chaos. Her power and energy were all connected to the two poles of Chaos. As long as she existed, all the energy of Chaos would converge upon her, making it impossible for any other life to ever be born."
"Finally, one day, she decided to annihilate her own existence, allowing Chaos to become a world for all living beings. So she reconstructed the structure of Chaos and established the laws of its operation."
"After completing everything, she dissipated herself, scattering her life and power energy into Chaos... Before her complete dissipation, she engraved part of her memory and power onto eight special life fragments."
"From then on, Chaos entered a new era. Countless living beings began to be born. The first gods and demons were born from those eight life fragments. The four that fell into the Northern Chaos gave birth to the Four Demon Emperors, and the four that fell into the Southern Chaos gave birth to the Four Creation Gods."
"With them as the beginning, the Age of Gods began."
These ancient secrets were recorded in detail in the God Realm. Yun Che had heard them long ago in the lower realm from the Golden Crow Soul Spirit.
But the next words overturned Yun Che's understanding completely.
"Although the life and power of the Primordial Divine dissipated, her consciousness did not collapse with it. Instead, it remained intact between heaven and earth."
Yun Che: "!!?"
"Because she wanted to witness with her own eyes what kind of world this world—to which she had given life, power, and rules—would eventually become."
"Time flowed... a hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years, a hundred million years..."
"Within Chaos, countless living beings and countless races were born. One planet after another was created, star regions gradually took shape, and countless races went extinct, countless planets collapsed..."
"Under the laws she established, the world continuously derived and perfected many other rules and laws, further maintaining and balancing the world."
"Above mortal spirits, the higher beings that governed Chaos divided into two races that repelled each other based on the poles of Yin and Yang: one was the Divine Race, the other the Demon Race."
"Her consciousness wandered through the world, witnessing every step of the Age of Gods completely, every change, whether small or enormous."
"Unknowingly, an extremely long time had passed. Yet she still did not extinguish her consciousness. Because through her long observation, she had developed a special affection and attachment to this world."
"She wanted to continue watching, to appreciate the myriad scenes of mortal life, to witness the unpredictable changes of time."
"Until one day, the fuse for the end of the Age of Gods was lit."
"Heaven-Slaying God Emperor Mo E discovered the forbidden union between Element Creation God Ni Xuan and Heaven's Calamity Demon Emperor Jie Yuan. Using the Ancestral Heaven-Slaying Sword, he drove Heaven's Calamity Demon Emperor out of Chaos... and thus, the seeds of hatred were sown in the Demon Race."
"Mo E exhausted his life prematurely due to overuse of the Ancestral Heaven-Slaying Sword. Not long after his death, the long-planted war between the two races finally erupted..."
"Unlike the endless small and large conflicts before, this eruption ignited a complete and utter brutality and loss of control..."
"The power of the gods erupted wildly between heaven and earth, afflicting countless innocent mortals, destroying countless spaces, and, imperceptibly, gradually twisting and collapsing the energy and laws of Chaos."
"Throughout this war, the Primordial Divine remained indifferent and looked on. The great change, end, and replacement of an era were to her nothing but the result of the choices and actions of the living beings of the time. She did not sigh over it, but instead looked forward to what kind of era Chaos would usher in after the war."
"Then, at a certain moment near the end of the war, she suddenly sensed an abnormal disturbance in the energy of Chaos."
"The Primordial Chaos energy, the divine path energy, the dark demonic breath... in the constantly turbulent space of Chaos, they began to silently flow toward the same direction..."
"The Abyss."
"It was only then that she discovered that the laws she had bestowed upon the Abyss had, at some unknown time, developed gaps and fissures."
"Ab...yss?" Yun Che unconsciously murmured.
"The foundation of existence is balance," the woman's voice came slowly. "Where there is birth, there will be destruction."
"The Chaos you know now is only half of the original Chaos."
"The space of Chaos you live in is the world of life. The other half of Chaos, which you do not know, is the world of destruction."
"The Primordial Divine named it—the Abyss."
(End of chapter)