Chapter 2824: Complete Collapse
Chi Yao had never wanted to be a strong woman, much less an almighty empress. But she had no choice. Over so many years, she had grown accustomed to it.
Having grown accustomed to strength, nothing could knock her down.
When Zhang Ruochen mentioned the Lake of Fate, Chi Yao's unshakable heart finally wavered. The reason it wavered was that deep curiosity had been born within her.
Yes!
Everything had started with the Lake of Fate!
Everyone who reached the Lake of Fate could see the fate of the person they cared about most in its waters.
Zhang Ruochen added, "Don't you want to know who the person I care about most is?"
"What does that have to do with me?"
After a pause, Chi Yao said, "Say it if you want to."
Zhang Ruochen said, "You first tell me who you saw in the Lake of Fate and what scene you witnessed. Then I'll tell you."
Chi Yao was still immersed in her inner sorrow and grief. She shook her head and said, "Since feelings are as thin as water in your heart, why must you know these things?"
Having come this far, having hidden it for so many years, having endured so much suffering, in this final moment, there was actually no need to speak of it.
Let some secrets remain forever secrets!
Zhang Ruochen had no choice but to use his final tactic. "Actually, it doesn't matter much if you don't tell me. Because Bore has already told me everything."
Chi Yao said, "That's impossible."
"Why is it impossible?"
Zhang Ruochen spoke with a mocking tone. "Yanchen was sent to your side by me from the very beginning. Her becoming a Realm Son and being able to take you as her master were all with my help."
"Why did I do this?"
"Of course, because I needed to place someone of my own by your side. And this person had to be someone I trusted completely, someone who would never be turned by you. Besides my wife Yanchen, who else could be up to the task?"
"The day you became a god, in front of Ziyu Palace, I deliberately put on a bitter love scene with Yanchen—cutting robes to sever ties—all just to lull you into a false sense of security, so you would trust her completely."
"Impossible." Chi Yao's tone was firm.
Zhang Ruochen continued, "Of course you won't believe it, because our bitter love scene was too real. You know, Yanchen has always been good at disguising herself. After coming to the Hell Realm, she even fooled the gods of the Hell Realm and became the Goddess of the Destiny Temple."
"As for me, the reason I put on that act was because I knew well that my cultivation was too low, and I could never be your match. But I wanted to find out what happened back then, so naturally I had to let Yanchen earn your trust and have her investigate for me."
"I really didn't expect that you, having been an emperor for so many years and ruling the entire Kunlun Realm, would fail to see through our scheme."
"You certainly fell for the trap, taking Yanchen to the Lake of Fate and letting her see my fate. That's exactly why she resolutely entered the Ghost Gate and went to the Hell Realm, becoming Bore."
"She went to the Hell Realm and entered the Destiny Temple because she wanted to reverse my fate and change my destiny."
"In fact, after the Kunlun Realm Merit Battle broke out, the first time Bore entered the Kunlun Realm, she secretly contacted me and told me everything. Otherwise, how could I have known that Bore was Yanchen?"
"So, why was I able to know everything in advance? Why are you so passive now? It's all because of Bore—she betrayed you long ago."
"Why did you fail in the end? Because you actually trusted the wife of your fiancé. Don't you understand? The struggles between women are the darkest and most impossible to guard against."
Chi Yao could no longer say the words "impossible."
It wasn't that Zhang Ruochen's strategy was particularly brilliant, but that every word he spoke had reason and evidence, and he truly knew secrets he absolutely should not have known.
"Why would she..."
The strength and stubbornness on Chi Yao's face vanished, replaced by bitterness and pain—the loss of a plan that had fallen apart at the last moment.
She didn't hate Huang Yanchen. She just felt that her own life had been too ridiculous and too failed.
At this moment, she only wanted to ask herself, "Was it really worth it?"
Zhang Ruochen asked it for her. "Have you ever thought about what you've done all these years, and what it was all for? Was it really worth it?"
"Worth it. I don't regret anything I've done." Chi Yao's eyes became stubborn and firm again, but tears slid from the corners of her eyes.
This was a sight that cultivators of the Kunlun Realm would never see.
Empress Chi Yao actually had such a vulnerable side.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Then tell me, what exactly did you see in the Lake of Fate?"
"Don't you already know?" Chi Yao said.
"I only know part of it. I want to know everything—who killed me. You should know more than Yanchen, right?"
In truth, Zhang Ruochen knew nothing. Bore had told him nothing.
Everything was Zhang Ruochen's own speculation.
First, the reason Huang Yanchen went to the Hell Realm must have been related to the Lake of Fate. This point had been told to him by the mysterious voice when he and Xiao Hei went to the Lake of Fate.
With Huang Yanchen's cultivation at the time, how could she have reached the Lake of Fate?
There was no other possibility except that Chi Yao had taken her there.
Second, by the Santu River, when Bore learned that Zhang Ruochen had been struck by the Severing Dao Curse, in her despair, she told him many things. This made Zhang Ruochen realize that the person Bore had seen in the Lake of Fate was him, and that something very bad must have happened to him—most likely, he had been killed.
That was why Bore had resolutely entered the Hell Realm and the Destiny Temple, wanting to change Zhang Ruochen's fate.
Unfortunately, Bore was clearly standing firmly with Chi Yao and was unwilling to tell Zhang Ruochen the cruel truth. After all, if a person knew in advance that they would die, and how they would die, how cruel and painful would that be?
Every day, waiting to die.
Death might not be a terrible thing, but living while waiting to die was terrifying.
It would make a person completely negative and degenerate, until fate itself arrived, but they had already perished in their fall.
All Bore could do was try to change it, even if her power was insignificant, even if she couldn't change the outcome. But doing nothing would be more agonizing than waiting for death.
Zhang Ruochen could forgive Bore because he understood her suffering and knew that everything she did was for him.
She hadn't participated in the plan to rescue Yunshen Daozhu. She hadn't followed the Empress's orders to leave the Hell Realm. She still stayed in the Destiny Temple at great risk, all for him, Zhang Ruochen.
Many times, Zhang Ruochen truly felt he was unworthy, that he didn't deserve their sacrifices.
Chi Yao seemed to suddenly lose all her strength. She sat down on a massive boulder drifting through the dark void, her arm hanging limply as she held her sword. She laughed bitterly, "I never thought it would end like this. Everything has returned to square one. Yanchen, oh Yanchen, why are you so foolish?"
Unfortunately, Bore wasn't here to tell her the truth.
Chi Yao said, "Since you already know so much, telling you everything might actually be a good thing."
"Right. If I know who killed me, I can be more vigilant. Maybe I can change my own fate." Zhang Ruochen said.
Chi Yao shook her head. "Asking me is useless. I don't know who it was either. In the Lake of Fate, all I could see was an infinitely enormous hand. With one palm strike, who knows how many great worlds were destroyed, how many stars fell. It was utterly unstoppable."
Though she didn't say it explicitly, Zhang Ruochen understood that Chi Yao had seen him in the Lake of Fate.
It was his fate.
The person she cared about most in her heart had always been him, Zhang Ruochen.
Chi Yao continued, "Although I don't know who it was, I know more than Bore and can roughly guess."
Suddenly, she asked, "Do you know why Saint Monk chose you? And why he spared no effort to help you cultivate to the highest realm? You might think he did it all for the Kunlun Realm. If you really think that, then you've underestimated the vision and scope of a Buddha. Heavenly Mother was right—he entrusted this era to you."
Zhang Ruochen listened carefully, not interrupting.
Chi Yao's eyes were filled with boundless pain. "Do you think only you have no future? In truth, no one has a future. This all began three hundred thousand years ago. Or perhaps even earlier."
"There is a powerful and unknown force in this world that wants to destroy the entire universe. The Great Destruction has already arrived!"
Zhang Ruochen had long expected to hear earth-shattering secrets today, but when Chi Yao said these words, his heart still shook violently. He quickly asked, "Is this your speculation, or a vision Saint Monk saw in the future?"
Chi Yao said, "A thousand years ago, the path to the future was already severed."
A thousand years ago was clearly the past. Why was it the future?
Soon, Zhang Ruochen understood. The "thousand years ago" Chi Yao spoke of was from Xumi Saint Monk's time. Xumi Saint Monk had fallen a hundred thousand years ago, and when he traveled to the future, he could only reach a thousand years ago.
That was the point when the Ninth Prince of Yunwu Commandery had been revived.
Beyond that, the path to the future was severed.
Zhang Ruochen's heart suddenly became especially heavy.
He had thought that even though Xumi Saint Monk was dead, he had left countless footprints in the future, and perhaps he could still meet him there. If that were the case, what difference was there from being alive?
But now, the illusion in his heart was shattered.
After helping him be reborn, Xumi Saint Monk had completely vanished from the world. The future could not be seen. There was no longer a Future Buddha in the world.
Zhang Ruochen said, "So, everything you're saying now is just speculation?"
"It's not just speculation."
Chi Yao said, "The war between the Hell Realm and the Saint Realm began three hundred thousand years ago, right after the disastrous defeat of the Twenty-Four Heavens. What force in this world could make the twenty-four strongest beings go to battle, with only three returning alive? And then, the undead clans of the Hell Realm launched their war. What was their purpose in starting this war? Could it be that they were acting on someone's orders?"
"Undead and living beings have always been opposed. Three hundred thousand years ago, the undead clans of the Hell Realm took advantage of the Saint Realm's weakness to start a war—that's not strange." Zhang Ruochen felt that Chi Yao's reasoning was weak.
Chi Yao said, "But at that time, although the Saint Realm was weakened, it was still powerful. It wasn't something the undead clans of the Hell Realm could oppose alone. That's why, a hundred thousand years ago, the Destiny Temple, which had always remained neutral, suddenly had its two Divine Venerables, Life and Auspicious, killed. It was publicly claimed that they were slain by Wen Tianjun and Xumi Saint Monk. Then, the Destiny Temple declared war on the Heavenly Court Myriad Realms, officially shifting from neutrality to belligerence."
"Divine Venerables aren't so easily killed. Especially not in the Destiny Temple."
"To kill two Divine Venerables in the Destiny Temple, not even a few more Divine Venerable-level experts could do it, let alone Wen Tianjun and Xumi Saint Monk."
"Besides that, Yan Huanyu, the clan leader of the Yama Clan, who had been advocating for peace, was lured to the Abyss of Darkness and has been missing ever since. Subsequently, the Yama Clan also declared war on the Heavenly Court Myriad Realms."
"Life Divine Venerable, Auspicious Divine Venerable, and the Yama Clan leader—none of them were easy targets. Why did they all meet with disaster? Behind this, there must be a powerful and unknown force clearing away obstacles to war."
"The result of war is inevitably destruction, inevitably a loss for both sides. Who is driving all this, and what is their purpose?"
"It's not hard to guess. A hundred thousand years ago, the fate of the God-Defying Clan already told us the answer."