Inside the Illusory Realm.
Chen Kuang and Su Huaiying, whom he held in his arms, stared wide-eyed at the empty fishing boat in front of them.
The little princess looked the old, battered vessel up and down with suspicion.
The hull was damaged, the deck had a gaping hole, and several fishing nets were haphazardly draped across warped oars. Near the waterline, a thick layer of moss covered the boat's surface.
The boat sat docked by a pier at the southern wharf, unattended and unmoored, clearly abandoned for years.
"Are you sure that Tie Baiyuan fished here?" the little princess asked, unable to hold back. "Could you have misremembered the location? Or maybe... this isn't the right boat?"
Chen Kuang's voice was firm. "This isn't the kind of thing I would forget."
He set Su Huaiying down and stepped to the boat, squatting beside it to pull up one of the nets.
Splash!
The net was overgrown with water plants and even covered in clinging shells. It had clearly been underwater for years.
Chen Kuang cleared it off slightly and, sure enough, found a repaired hole in the mesh.
He narrowed his eyes.
On the fishing boat where Tie Baiyuan and Hong Xueshao lived in the real world, the fishing net had had a hole in the same place.
It was the same net. Which meant, it was the same boat.
But within the Illusory Realm, there was no trace of the old fisherman and the little red-haired girl who got by fishing on the Eastern Court Lake.
"Hong Xueshao not existing makes sense. She was a phantom, derived from this realm, never truly real. Her absence would naturally create a bug."
"Just like how the Illusory Realm cannot process my transmigrator identity, anything that exceeds the Great Void Illusion Realm's computing capacity can cause abnormality."
Chen Kuang's expression grew grim. "But why isn't Tie Baiyuan here?"
He turned to Qi Sibai, who had brought them to this spot.
"Brother Qi, are you sure you saw Tie Baiyuan's destiny?"
Even the Qi Sibai within the illusion looked bewildered. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and then reopened them slowly:
"I definitely saw it..."
'From where fate begins, fate is revealed.'
He murmured as he looked at the rickety fishing boat. "Tie Baiyuan definitely left the Illusory Realm. He's alive. He lives here but he isn't here... Why isn't he here?! How can he not be here?! It's impossible! Impossible!"
Qi Sibai began shaking his head forcefully, his tone growing increasingly erratic.
Seeing the signs of mania on his face, Chen Kuang grew worried. As someone from the Heavenly Observatory Division, Qi Sibai was already a bit eccentric, this spiraling could drag him in too.
He quickly comforted him: "Brother Qi, maybe there's another explanation. Actually-"
Qi Sibai held up a hand, interrupting him. Then he calmed down again and said, "No. Let me look once more. Don't panic yet, Brother Chen!"
Chen Kuang: "..."
Who's the one panicking here again?
After speaking, Qi Sibai looked to the sky and began calculating with his fingers. Soon, beads of cold sweat appeared on his brow.
Chen Kuang didn't stop him. In fact, he was curious, what could Qi Sibai even divine from this?
Was the Heavenly Observatory Division's so-called destiny an unchangeable truth?
If the fate he saw didn't match reality, then how would he reconcile the contradiction?
Could he, perhaps, glean something deeper?
Though the man before him was just an illusionary version of Qi Sibai, the Great Void Illusion Realm simulated reality so closely that his reactions would probably mirror those of the real person.
After a long while, Qi Sibai suddenly stopped his calculations. He lowered his head and looked straight at Chen Kuang.
"No matter how I calculate it, it's identical to the fate I saw. Destiny does not lie, so... Tie Baiyuan really did leave the Illusory Realm and is living here. There is no second possibility."
That conclusion didn't sound particularly special-
No. Wait..
Chen Kuang froze and said in a deep voice, "But... he isn't here now."
Tie Baiyuan may have exited the illusion and begun living in this place in reality, but the problem was... this place was still within another illusion.
Illusions reflect reality. But if they can't reflect something, it means that thing never existed in reality at all.
So he wasn't here.
Because, like Hong Xueshao, Tie Baiyuan was never real to begin with!
He must've died back then.
But a fragment of the Langhuan Sword had activated and preserved his remaining consciousness, just as it had done for Hong Xueshao, manifesting him into pseudo-existence..
And Tie Baiyuan himself had never realized it. He believed he had escaped the Illusory Realm and survived.
In a sense... he wasn't wrong.
But this meant that Chen Kuang had made a fatal mistake.
His original plan was to use another fragment of the Langhuan Sword within the Illusory Realm to bridge the gap between illusion and reality, extracting their consciousnesses back into the real world.
But now, Tie Baiyuan didn't even exist, and neither did the fragment on him.
Which meant the entire plan was dead.
He would now have to devise a new plan to escape the illusion. Otherwise, thanks to his passive One Split Mind, Chen Kuang himself would suffer no loss, but the little princess, Su Huaiying, would be trapped in the illusion forever.
Chen Kuang felt emotionally numb..
This high-cultivation world was truly ruthless. One misstep and you fell into a pit.
Qi Sibai noted his expression and tone and seemed to understand as he said quietly:
"What I saw... might not be the truth, is that it? Tie Baiyuan really left the illusion and returned to the real world, but here, he's missing... so this must still be part of the illusion."
"And I..."
He pointed at himself, speaking calmly: "I'm also just the me from within the illusion, right, Brother Chen?"
The Heavenly Observatory Division might be mysterious, but Qi Sibai himself clearly had real capability.
No wonder they used him as the public face.
Even after realizing the truth, he was still this calm, less shaken than when he first saw fate conflicting with reality.
Chen Kuang nodded. "Exactly."
Then he explained the discrepancies between this illusion and reality, including where the Demon Sword was located.
After dozens of cycles, some intentional, some accidental, this time, Chen Kuang had finally found a nearly flawless route to take.
But at the final moment, it had all unraveled due to something so unforeseen.
Still, the fact that Tie Baiyuan and Hong Xueshao had lived thirteen years in Jishao Prefecture, interacting with countless others without suspicion, proved just how convincingly the Great Void Illusion Realm could simulate reality.
Not even Chen Kuang had noticed.
Even Shen Xingzhu wouldn't have.
Qi Sibai digested all this and nodded:
"I see. Your original idea would've worked, but now..."
He thought for a moment. "If we need a Langhuan Sword fragment, we could try the Sword Furnace Pavilion. They might still have sample prototypes forged by Jie Kun."
"Even if they don't, after the Demon Sword incident, the Sword Furnace Pavilion studied the blueprints and forging concepts Jie Kun left behind. If we can get their sword-forging Grandmaster to act, it may be possible to reproduce one."
"But that would take time, and impact many people's memories... the consequences could be unpredictable."
Qi Sibai's weighing of pros and cons echoed the difficulty of Chen Kuang's decision.
In this Illusory Realm, any solution that wasn't instant... could become meaningless.
At the moment, the priority was Su Huaiying's safety, and breaking out of the Great Void Illusion Realm.
Affected individuals, as long as memory deviations weren't too severe, could be explained.
It was better than waiting endlessly...
Chen Kuang might be tough, but after so many loops inside this illusion, even he couldn't remain totally unaffected.
Maybe you stay sane for decades. Maybe even for centuries.
But thousands of years?
In such a grinding eternity, who would you even be at the end?
What's worse, the Demon Sword had formed this illusion and its influence was surely subliminal.
Just as Qi Sibai prepared to persuade Chen Kuang..
Su Huaiying, who had been silent until now, suddenly took a deep breath and said:
"If..."
She spoke calmly:
"I mean, if there really is no way to get me out... then just kill me."
She pressed her lips together, lifted her head, and her eyes shone with firm determination.
"If what you say is true, then even if I'm saved, we still can't do anything about the Demon Sword, once I awaken, it will just find a new host."
"I'm the fourth host. After me, there'll be a fifth... a sixth... as long as the Demon Sword's true form remains hidden, it will keep repeating this same tragedy."
"More people, maybe more than me, will be affected. It'll keep possessing them, turning them into pawns.. until the world is overrun, until it truly becomes a living hell."
"When I was at Liberty Mountain, I saw all kinds of people. They all planted peach trees, just like I did. But the scenery each person saw in the end was vastly different."
"My teacher said... that was the Dao he wanted to see. That every student find their own path, like peach blossoms on the mountain, each blooming in their own way."
Su Huaiying paused.
"When I first entered the cycle of reincarnation, I kept wondering who I would become. What kind of face I would wear, the day I met old friends again."
"I made many choices, rejoiced in some, regretted others... but now I realize, it was all fake."
"The real me... has never made any choice at all. I'm still just a child, clinging to my mother, watching her cry. The vast world has nothing to do with me.. if all the possibilities I've seen are just illusions..."
"Then at the very least, there is still one thing I can do. One thing only I can do. Let it be my peach tree. Let the real world remember that I once lived."
Su Huaiying looked up. "I'm willing to try, to see if killing the host while the Demon Sword is still inside... will force it to reveal its true form!"
Qi Sibai was shaken. He hadn't expected this little girl to speak such solemn, selfless words.
But on second thought, in this illusion, she may have lived hundreds of years and her mind had long matured.
Still, it was moving.
Not everyone could remain calm when facing their own death.
Many people, when drowning, would even drag rescuers down in desperation.
That's human nature,the survival instinct.
To override such instincts took monumental will.
Su Huaiying's words showed that she understood what it would cost others to save her.
And she chose to sacrifice herself instead.
What's more, her method was actually feasible..
The reason the Demon Sword had remained unsealed for so long was because it had become formless.
Like a ghost, it couldn't even be touched.
It only manifested when it possessed a host.
But what if the host died mid-possession?
Then it would have to briefly reveal itself, to seek a new host!
Qi Sibai was deeply moved, tried to adjust his mindset, to no longer see her as a mere child and once stilled, he said:
"The Great Void Illusion Realm won't fully explode for seven days. If we can find another way by then, there's still hope-"
Su Huaiying remained calm: "But my method... is still the best, isn't it?"
Chen Kuang, who had been silent all this time, suddenly blinked, then raised an eyebrow.
"You can do that?" he asked.
Qi Sibai looked confused. "Do what?"
Chen Kuang suddenly laughed.
"I've got a better idea."
Su Huaiying, who had already mentally prepared to sacrifice herself, was stunned. "What idea?"
Chen Kuang smiled, crouched, and patted the princess's shoulder.
"No need for Your Highness to sacrifice yourself."
She felt a brief wave of relief, after all, if there was a chance.. she didn't want to die yet.
Then she heard Chen Kuang say:
"I'll do the sacrificing."
Su Huaiying froze. "Sacrifice... you?"
Chen Kuang nodded. "Let me become the Demon Sword's host."
...
In the ruins of the Chen Estate.
Wen Si spoke: "When you touch the Demon Sword, the illusion won't restart right away, but it will instantly kill you and in that moment, the Demon Sword will fully manifest."
"At that moment, I'll redirect the Demon Sword into your body."
"All you have to do, is just one thing. With your alternate consciousness, trap the Demon Sword inside your mind!"