Chapter 2180: An Unexplainable Doubt
Before the kingdom-protecting barrier of the Weaving Dream Divine Kingdom, Shen Wuyi's figure slowly descended. Her moon-like eyes wandered, gazing at the strange palaces and the sky-reflecting divine light, sensing the vast and endless, ethereal soul breath unique to Weaving Dream.
As a fellow divine kingdom, this world was not dim at all, but instead bright to the point of being blinding. The aura here also lacked that suffocating oppression, instead soothing the heart and soul, nearly making one want to close their eyes and fall into a deep sleep.
"As a Divine Successor of a divine kingdom, you should be personally guided by the Divine Venerable to travel through the various kingdoms and see the complete picture of the Abyss World."
Shen Wumingque's voice sounded in her ear, carrying deep melancholy and regret: "And yet, this is your first time setting foot in the territory of another divine kingdom..."
Becoming a Divine Successor of another divine kingdom is a supreme honor, but becoming the Divine Maiden of the current Eternal Night Divine Kingdom is no different from being nailed with a cruel and vicious curse... How unfair, how pitiful.
Shen Wuyi gently shook her head, a soothing faint smile still on her lips. She stepped forward, and facing the clearly dazed gaze of the barrier guards, she spoke coldly: "Please inform the Abyss Divine Son that Shen Wuyi of Eternal Night seeks an audience."
When he received the news, Meng Jianxi was in the Divine Son Palace. He muttered in surprise: "Not only did she agree, but so quickly..."
He looked at Yun Che, and his expression suddenly turned serious: "Abyss Brother, this undoubtedly shows that the Coiled Dragon Seven Mysterious Crystal is no ordinary exotic Abyss Crystal. The power hidden within is likely far greater than we imagined. As such... we absolutely should not let it go to the Eternal Night Divine Kingdom."
Yun Che looked thoughtful, then smiled and said: "Whether an object is valuable depends on whose hands it is in. Just like the water in a pond: for a swimming fish, it is the dew of life; for a sand worm, it is vile slime. Our Weaving Dream focuses on cultivating the soul, while Eternal Night focuses on cultivating the Xuan Seal. This Coiled Dragon Seven Mysterious Crystal may become a crystal that steps into the heavens in Eternal Night, but in Weaving Dream, perhaps this is the greatest effect it can release."
Although he still felt it wiser to keep the Coiled Dragon Seven Mysterious Crystal, Meng Jianxi did not refute, but nodded slightly: "Reasonable words. Since Abyss Brother has made up his mind, I will not say more."
He stepped forward, carefully took out the "Coiled Dragon Seven Mysterious Crystal", and placed it before Yun Che: "This Coiled Dragon Seven Mysterious Crystal, I will return to Abyss Brother intact. As for this Eternal Night Divine Maiden, how does Abyss Brother intend to meet her?"
Yun Che narrowed his eyes, and in his faint smile seemed to hide an unfathomable malice: "Right here. By the way, also invite her attendants along, lest it be said that our Weaving Dream bullies others with the advantage of being the host."
After seemingly casually instructing, Yun Che turned his back, his face full of leisurely composure, without revealing the slightest ripple in his heart.
The Eternal Night Divine Maiden personally arriving, and for the first time at that—this matter could not be concealed. But as it concerned Meng Jianyuan, no one interfered, no one inquired. From Meng Kongchan to the various Dream Halls, all were completely still, pretending not to know.
The short wait seemed extraordinarily long.
Until a certain moment, as if a ray of rosy light entered the Divine Son Palace, spread through the halls, reaching deep into Yun Che's heart.
Shen Wuyi stepped in slowly, and instantly the dusty atmosphere fell silent, and the countless auras around seemed to hold their breath for her.
She was in black clothes with plain sleeves, unstained by a speck of dust. Her figure was pure and transcendent like a cold jade under the moon, her brows lightly covered with frost and snow, exuding a distant, ethereal, cold elegance. Her beautiful eyes were deep and cold, and between glances, they contained a majestic divine nature, noble and proud... just like the bright moon in memory, or a cold star born alone in the distant night.
Yun Che silently gazed at her, and all the bright lights in the world lost their luster at this moment.
Not far away, Shangguan Helu, Liu Zhanyi, and Meng Zhiyuan, who had been full of excitement and curiosity, were all stunned and lost their souls.
Regarding the Eternal Night Divine Maiden, they had only heard occasional rumors but had never truly seen her. They never even knew that such a stunningly beautiful countenance and such a pure, lofty aura could exist in the world.
She seemed like a cold moon and solitary star that had mistakenly entered the mortal world from the Eternal Night Cold Abyss, breathtakingly beautiful and chilling, making one dare not look directly, until they felt overshadowed and ashamed.
Their gazes met from a distance, but were separated and mingled with emotions that others could never fathom. The corners of Yun Che's mouth moved slightly, and he slowly smiled: "Who in the Abyss World doesn't know that the Eternal Night Divine Kingdom hides its jade in the night, unwilling to even let the sky's light touch it. Today, it actually honors my humble little palace with its presence—truly an honor that makes me feel overwhelmed and flattered."
Facing this undisguised sarcastic remark, Shen Wuyi's expression was completely calm. To others, it seemed she had already prepared herself fully for humiliation. She met Yun Che's gaze directly, and her lips parted slightly: "Wuyi came as invited, and now stands before the Abyss Divine Son. I ask the Abyss Divine Son to keep his promise."
Her voice was gentle and elegant, yet also like jade shattering and ice clinking. It lacked the icy heart and cold soul from the time at the Eden Cloud Summit, but was in no way weaker than the awe-inspiring divine posture of that time. She was clearly at a disadvantage, yet she made the gazes of the Weaving Dream people dare not carry even a hint of contempt or desecration.
"Oh?" Yun Che's mouth curled slightly, and he said unhurriedly: "As I recall, the price I asked for was not just simply coming as invited."
As he spoke, he raised his hand, and a profound light shimmered. The dragon-shaped crystal, a full two feet long with seven openings embedded in its body, appeared before him. The somewhat eerie dark light illuminated his malicious face: "This is the object your Eternal Night so desires. It seems to be called... Coiled Dragon Seven Mysterious Crystal? As for how to make me willingly part with it, that will depend on the sincerity of the Eternal Night Divine Maiden."
Standing behind Shen Wuyi, Shen Wumingque's fingertips trembled slightly for several moments.
If she were not currently in the Weaving Dream Divine Kingdom, she would surely disregard dignity and forcefully seize it.
Even at this moment and place, she had several impulses... not for herself, not for the Wuming Divine Venerable, but because she absolutely did not want to see Shen Wuyi humiliated, even if Shen Wuyi herself was willing.
Facing the "Coiled Dragon Seven Mysterious Crystal", Shen Wuyi lightly furrowed her brows, her gaze still clear and indifferent: "Since I have come here, I will naturally fulfill the Abyss Divine Son's wishes. Regarding the matter at Godsleep Forbidden Zone, I was in the wrong first. It is reasonable for the Abyss Divine Son to seek recompense. Even if I were to repay three times the injury, I would have no complaints."
"But..." Her voice suddenly turned cold, like frost and snow forming sharp thorns, chilling to the bone: "I have words to say beforehand."
"Oh? Let's hear it." Yun Che looked intrigued.
"As the Eternal Night Divine Maiden, the honor and disgrace of this body is tied to the entire Eternal Night Divine Kingdom. I can retreat, I can be injured, I can be humiliated, but I absolutely cannot be humiliated beyond the boundary! And as for where the boundary lies, the Abyss Divine Son should know clearly."
As she spoke, her body seemed to be surrounded by a faint, secluded cold aura, untouched by joy or anger, unaffected by sorrow or happiness.
"And?" Yun Che still looked at her leisurely.
Shen Wuyi continued: "The reason I came here today is to respond only to the Abyss Divine Son alone."
This short sentence made its meaning clear... She could apologize, she could bear humiliation, but only in front of Yun Che alone.
To anyone, this was indeed the best way to preserve the dignity of the Eternal Night Divine Maiden, and even the entire Eternal Night Divine Kingdom, in this situation.
Yun Che half-closed his eyes, then nodded quite generously: "Fine, since it is the Eternal Night Divine Maiden's personal request, if I were to refuse mercilessly, wouldn't that be too much of a loss of grace, too much of a mood killer?"
He closed his hand, and the "Coiled Dragon Seven Mysterious Crystal" disappeared between his fingers. The smile on his lips became even more dangerous: "Then, how will the Eternal Night Divine Maiden make me willing to hand over this Coiled Dragon Seven Mysterious Crystal next... I look forward to it."
He raised his hand and gave an order: "Everyone, withdraw."
"Abyss Brother!"
"Wuyi!"
Meng Jianxi and Shen Wumingque both spoke out, both with worried expressions.
In Meng Jianxi's eyes, Yun Che was definitely no match for Shen Wuyi. If Shen Wuyi was angered, or if she harbored malicious intentions, without anyone to protect him, Yun Che would be in danger... after all, there was a precedent.
In Shen Wumingque's eyes, this was Weaving Dream territory. If Yun Che harbored ill intentions, and she was not by her side, it would be equivalent to pushing Shen Wuyi into an uncontrollable dangerous situation.
Yun Che had no reaction, his gaze only on Shen Wuyi... Meng Jianxi's forward step was thus withdrawn, and he stopped speaking.
Shen Wuyi turned to face Shen Wumingque and said softly: "I know Aunt is most concerned about me, but there is truly no need to worry. Setting aside his identity tied to the honor of the Weaving Dream Divine Kingdom, a person who is willing to endure double the punishment of Wild Devouring for the woman he loves could never be extremely evil."
Yun Che: "..."
"Moreover, I have never been weak."
Shen Wumingque gradually withdrew the worry in her eyes and slowly nodded.
After a brief thought, Shen Wuyi added: "After a quarter of an hour, if I still haven't come out, then Aunt may break in."
"Alright." Shen Wumingque responded. With a quarter-hour limit, she was instead a bit more at ease.
Her figure moved back, retreating outside the Divine Son Palace. Meng Jianxi also led the others to withdraw. With the closing of the palace doors, this space was left with only the two of them.
Taking a dark breath, Yun Che turned around and said indifferently: "Since you want so much to avoid prying eyes, I have a safe place here. If you have the courage, follow me."
Yun Che walked straight to his exclusive cultivation space, waved open the barrier that no one else could break, and stepped in with his head held high.
Shen Wuyi did not speak again, following closely behind. As the barrier closed, their auras also completely disappeared from everyone's perception.
An empty and quiet world, where only the sound of their own gradually disordered heartbeats could be heard.
Yun Che stopped, turned to face Shen Wuyi. His gaze no longer held deep playfulness, and his voice was no longer leisurely: "The barrier here was personally set by the Dreamless Divine Venerable. Even he cannot enter without permission. You can rest assured."
As he spoke, his eyes stared at her without blinking, as if he was happily and greedily confirming once again that the figure before him was the real her, not a distant dream of illusion.
At the same time, he did not forget to take out the "Coiled Dragon Seven Mysterious Crystal" and gently push it in front of Shen Wuyi.
Shen Wuyi looked at this so-called "Coiled Dragon Seven Mysterious Crystal", and a very faint, but long-lasting, unusual glint reflected in the depths of her eyes...
If she were to forge a "Coiled Dragon Seven Mysterious Crystal" that matched the "records", it would be absolutely impossible to achieve such perfection as the one before her, whether in dragon breath, abyssal light, or the overflowing abyssal corrosion aura.
This undoubtedly proved that Yun Che's ability to control Abyssal Dust far surpassed hers.
If she didn't know everything, perhaps even she would not believe that this was a man-made Abyssal Crystal.
Putting away the "Coiled Dragon Seven Mysterious Crystal", Shen Wuyi opened her lips and spoke: "Your abilities far exceed my expectations. As for the momentary distant lip language, you actually completely understood it in just two short months and even perfectly replicated it. Should I praise you... as befits an emperor of the Eternal Pure Land."
Yun Che grinned, his voice warm like mist: "A more fitting praise would be... befitting of your husband."
Shen Wuyi slanted her eyes faintly: "Smooth talk is also a kind of emperor's art? So that Heaven-Breaking Divine Maiden fell for this technique of yours?"
Yun Che subconsciously wanted to deny it, but then shook his head with a laugh, sighing: "If only it could be useful to you."
Shen Wuyi scoffed faintly, too lazy to respond, her voice slightly cold and heavy: "Besides your glib tongue, you are indeed smart enough. Using the Coiled Dragon Seven Mysterious Crystal as a lure, and using the pretext of settling old grievances to force me to come personally—this is indeed the choice with the fewest variables."
"Husband and wife should naturally have a telepathic connection." Yun Che's expression remained unchanged, his faint smile unchanged. Shen Wuyi's step towards him was too precious for him. The steps he took in return allowed no trace of flaw.
"You have a quarter of an hour. Say what you want to say."
Yun Che's gentle gaze and intimate words did not stir the slightest ripple in her. She maintained a distance of ten steps from him. In the same space, the two were close at hand, once husband and wife, yet as if separated by a misty galaxy, ethereal and unreachable.
Yun Che suppressed his chaotic thoughts and spoke softly: "When you left the Pure Land, the response you gave me... means you believed my words, right?"
Her arrival was already the answer, but he still wanted to hear her admit it personally.
Shen Wuyi slowly said: "Cang Feng, Liu Yun, Xiao Che, Xia Qingyue... I saw that marriage contract, and our fingerprints."
Yun Che's vision suddenly became misty.
This was an answer he had never expected... or rather, dared not hope for, a thousand times more beautiful than the most resolute response he had imagined.
"It actually... really still exists... and is still... intact..."
He murmured, his eyes slightly out of focus due to mistiness. Shen Wuyi wanted to say that the marriage contract was not intact, but when her eyes touched his expression at this moment, she inexplicably could not speak.
"Huff..."
Yun Che let out a long breath, and when his eyes turned, they were clear: "So, you are also willing to fight side by side with me? Even if the fate ahead is destined to be a narrow escape from death."
"Narrow escape from death?" She seemed to let out a faint sneer: "Then you think too highly of the two of us. Since you have set foot in the Pure Land, you should know what kind of existence the Abyss Emperor is. A mere forty-some years, a mere two rootless duckweeds—let alone overturning the entire Abyss, even resisting the Abyss Emperor alone is a delusional dream."
Yun Che laughed, even more relieved than before: "But you still decided to stand with me..."
Although her words were mocking and sharp, she did not say "you" but "the two of us."
Shen Wuyi looked away, gazing at the empty space, her voice becoming especially slow and deep: "Although I believed your words, it is only belief. Because I am ultimately not Xia Qingyue now, but Shen Wuyi."
"This 'belief' absolutely does not mean I will blindly follow you. On the contrary, I, Shen Wuyi, have considered myself a rational and cold-blooded person since the beginning of my memory. People like me would never lose their senses and choose a path of certain death with no chance of survival."
"But..."
Her eyelashes fell, and she slowly closed her eyes: "After leaving the Godsleep Forbidden Zone, I slept for a long time, but there was not a moment of peace in my dreams. Countless voices kept pricking me, urging me to make a choice."
"Perhaps it was the instinct buried deep in my consciousness, or perhaps it was my sealed past..."
Yun Che: "..."
"And in the Godsleep Forbidden Zone, there was also a sentence from you that deeply moved me."
She slowly extended her right hand, her five fingers sparkling like carved ice, her wrist lightly wrapped in a faint flowing light. Every inch of her skin seemed to carry a divine charm bestowed by heaven, yet she could never perceive even half a trace of warmth or affinity from this world.
"My body, my soul, everything about me... is silently rejecting this world."
"Very early on, I suspected... until I was certain that I am definitely not a person of this world."
Her jade fingers closed, and she turned her gaze back to the man who had suddenly burst into her life: "So this time, I choose to trust the intuition of my body and soul... even if the road ahead is a hopeless dead end."
"That is not a dead end, absolutely not." Yun Che's eyes seemed to gain thousands of stars, and his voice carried a confidence and determination he had never had since stepping into the Abyss: "When I was alone, I never thought of failure. Now with you by my side, as husband and wife united, there is absolutely no possibility of failure."
"Moreover," Yun Che's voice gradually became passionate: "Being able to see you again after you fell into the Abyss, seeing you appear intact in my life again, I know that this world has endless hope and possibilities, and there is never a true dead end."
"So..." Shen Wuyi suddenly said: "What exactly caused me to fall into this world?"
Without evasion, without concealment, Yun Che looked straight at her, his words blunt: "You fought a death battle with me, were severely injured and defeated, forced into a dead end. Unwilling to die by my hand, you chose... to fall into the Abyss."
"...!?" Shen Wuyi's moon-like brows suddenly furrowed, and she was speechless for a long time.
Yun Che still looked directly into her eyes, allowing her to see his flawless honesty and endless guilt: "The grudges and causes and effects in this cannot be fully explained in a quarter of an hour, nor in a day and night. But at least please believe that I absolutely..."
"Wait!"
Shen Wuyi suddenly interrupted him. Her brows were deeply furrowed, and strange light flowed. The gaze she cast at Yun Che, for the first time, carried sharp, piercing doubt:
"You mean that when I fell into the Abyss back then, I was already heavily injured and on the verge of death?"
In an instant, Yun Che knew what she was questioning.
He spoke frankly: "Yes. At that time, you couldn't even stand. Throwing yourself into the Abyss was almost your last strength."
"That is strange indeed."
Shen Wuyi's moon-like eyes turned several degrees colder: "In the records of the Abyss, there are many who fell from the Eternal Pure Land, but most died and had their souls extinguished during the fall. Those who could fall alive into this world are few and far between in the entire history of the Abyss."
"And these survivors all had cultivation at the tenth level of the Divine Lord Realm, which is the limit of cultivation that Xuan adepts in the Eternal Pure Land can reach, and undoubtedly the pinnacle existence of that world."
"And even at such a powerful realm, they only had a slim chance of surviving the fall. Moreover, those who barely survived in the records were all covered in wounds, with shattered internal organs and barely a thread of breath. In the descriptions they left, during the fall they encountered terrifyingly long spatial turbulence with no escape or avoidance. For them to survive with their cultivation was nothing short of a heavenly blessing."
"And when I woke up, my cultivation was also at the tenth level of the Divine Lord Realm."
Her voice paused, and her tone was subtle: "So, what you mean is... with the cultivation of the Divine Lord Realm, in a state of severe injury and near death, I actually passed through that terrifying and lengthy spatial turbulence unscathed, and fell alive from the Eternal Pure Land into this Abyss World?"
"Even that marriage contract, so fragile that it would tear with a single brush, is intact and unharmed?"
"————"