In the distance, he could still see the beautiful glow of dawn. But Ning Cheng felt worried in his heart. He feared that Shen Qinyu might not have made it to this place. Although Shen Qinyu had come here once with him, it was mainly due to his help. If not for him, could Shen Qinyu walk into the depths of the Sea of Twilight and pa.s.s through the sunset alone?
If Shen Qinyu could not reach this place, finding Shen Qinyu in the endless Sea of Twilight might come impossible, especially with the restrictions over his spiritual consciousness.
Ning Cheng turned around and looked at the endless icy plains in front of him. Ning Cheng had once taken Shen Qinyu through this ice plain.
A Time Wheel pa.s.sed by in the distance, slicking across the icy plains, turning it even flatter than what it was initially. In this place, Time Wheels would wipe out anything raised out of existence.
Ning Cheng quickly walked past the icy plains and reached the edge of the ice crystal forest, which exuded even more chill than the icy plains. Ning Cheng’s heart started to sink as he felt the biting cold, which tried to suppress him.
For the current him, even if he did not operate any cultivation method, the chill here could not hurt him at all. However, if Shen Qinyu came here, she would surely die.
Ning Cheng sighed; he really couldn’t understand Shen Qinyu’s thoughts, especially her decision to return to this place to find him. It felt incomprehensible to him. Besides, were he and Shen Qinyu even familiar with each other? Ning Cheng suddenly frowned. He quickly realised that he and Shen Qinyu might actually be more familiar with each other than what he initially thought.
Even though he didn’t talk much with Shen Qinyu, he did walk around within the Sea of Twilight while holding her hand for several months. He had even carried Shen Qinyu on his back for several years. Shen Qinyu’s aura, he can’t imprint it any more clearly than that. Whether the sensation of her body, her appearance, or even her breathing, he felt familiar to all of it.
After entering the ice forest, a strong feeling of sadness came crashing down, forcing Ning Cheng to stop subconsciously. His spiritual consciousness swept out and quickly saw a collapsed ice cave about a dozen or so meters in front of him.
Ning Cheng took a deep breath and let his spiritual consciousness sweep in. However, he found only walls of ice inside. He breathed in a sigh of relief, on not see Shen Qinyu inside. If Shen Qinyu fell in such a cold place, she would have died even if she had ten lives.
Just when he was about to move away, his spiritual consciousness swept across one of the ice walls and found some words etched onto it. With a lousy premonition, Ning Cheng immediately shot towards this collapsed ice cave.
A row of precise and elegant handwriting appeared in front of his eyes, but the familiar aura coming from it made Ning Cheng 100% sure that Shen Qinyu had carved these words.
Ning Cheng stopped before the first ice wall, “I don’t think I can get out, but I never thought I could get this far. Just a little bit closer. Unfortunately, that little bit seems too far. But I don’t regret it. If I hadn’t come here again, my heart would never be at peace.”
Moving to the second wall of ice, “When he asked me why advancing to the Celestial Shatterer Realm didn’t invoke a thunder tribulation, it truly caught me off-guard for a moment. Compared to him, I felt like I cultivated while soaking in honey. I never thought there would be cultivators out there who didn’t know that advancing to the Celestial Shatterer Realm would not invoke thunder tribulations. But he truly didn’t know.”
“At that moment, I felt pity for him. No, something even harder to say. Even my nose turned a little sour. I never thought that I would ever get to experience such a tender feeling. Maybe the reason I let him see my face was to plant a seed for this moment.”
The third ice wall, “He didn’t know that one cannot fly in the Sea of Twilight. As a result, the Whirlpool of Time dragged us into the depths of the Sea of Twilight. But I don’t blame him. He pulled me along for many months. If not for him, I would have definitely died in the Sea of Twilight. But despite encouraging me repeatedly, there came a time when I couldn’t walk anymore. So I let him see my face, thinking that I would die anyway. Truthfully, some of me really wanted him to stay with me for the last few years of my life. But he kept thinking of someone else. She must be someone significant to him.”
“I told him, I’m sorry you will need to walk alone from now. But in my heart, I kept thinking about the woman he kept thinking about while looking at me, something I believed would never happen to me in the past. I vaguely remembered his words, something about not having any hope if we stayed here, but if we continued to move forward, maybe one day we can get out. He always seemed to have hope in him, but today I’m the only one here.”
The fourth ice wall, “That day, I thought I had finally died. But when I opened my eyes, I was on his back. Even after all that, he didn’t give up on me. Even it was c.u.mbersome, he still carried me in the Sea of Twilight on his back. That shoulder truly felt wide and his back warm. I now long for it in my heart. If I could just lean on those shoulders once again at this time, I could die in satisfaction.”
“I regret that I got immersed in an epiphany while on his back. If not for that epiphany, I could have continued to experience that warm and broad back that brought me peace. To understand the Laws of Time, I lost the most precious thing. If I had to do it again, I would never have bothered with that epiphany. I’d rather be a simple woman and let him carry me on his back.”
On the fifth wall of ice, “Today, I went through the Sea of Twilight again, I just want to find him. When I first came in, I didn’t think much about it. I didn’t even think about what would happen after I found him. But after I came here, I knew, I knew that I would never be able to live happily without him.”
“I’ll never forget standing beside him at the edge of the glimmering dawn, watching the distant twilight of the sunset… Maybe, that was the happiest day of my life. We went through dusk and stood at the glimmers of dawn. That kind of happiness, I wish it could have lasted for a moment more.”
The sixth wall of ice, “I felt really excited when I found my first Time Stone. Perhaps it was something that he ignored among those around him, but he was the one who gave me that first Time Stone. I felt happy back then, but I still lost the best thing. If I could do it again, I would never choose the Time Stone, I would instead choose to stand by him for all eternity. Even if that eternity was only for a moment.”
“I hated myself when he said, ‘Man’s life between heaven and earth is like a white colt pa.s.sing a crevice, and suddenly disappearing…..[1]’ At that time, I couldn’t see through it, but when I finally saw through it, he was no longer there. Life truly was like a white colt pa.s.sing through; if you missed it, you missed it. It would never come back.”
“Now I understand that he intentionally left those Time Stones for me. Even the rest of the Time Stones that I picked up later were things he intentionally left for me. He was a wanderer I couldn’t understand, someone who never possessed the greed typical to starry sky cultivators. He followed his own heart and had a mind of his own. He saved me but asked nothing in return. Even if I could stay alive for another thousand years, I probably would never meet such a person again in my life.”
The seventh wall of ice, “The first time I came here, I felt cold. But carried on his back, it made me feel comfortable. This time when I returned to the ice crystal forest, I still felt cold, but there was no warm broad shoulder to help me block the ice. I was the only person here.”
“Maybe I’m destined to die here. But if I could move past this place, I could perhaps reach a point closer to him. It’s a pity that I still cannot move past that short distance; if I could, I’d rather move in a little further and then jump into that canyon to die beside him.”
The eighth wall of ice, “The moment I saw the transfer formation back then, I only felt joy in my heart. Maybe I shouldn’t have been too happy, as a deep glacial valley cracked open between the transfer array and us, kicking up a huge storm. Relatively speaking, I was just a casual collaborator. But he still threw me onto the transfer formation while falling down the glacial canyon. I think it was at that moment that everything brewing in my heart burst out, and I could no longer think of Time Stones.”
“I always had thought of myself as a rational person, but at that moment, I felt an impulse. I wanted to rush down and save him immediately. I didn’t leave through the transfer formation; instead, I dug ice-steps one after another leading down the glacial valley. I kept thinking that maybe one day, I could finally dig enough steps to reach the bottom of the valley to find him.”
“But it was just too difficult to dig those ice-steps. It was already time to get out, but I was still far from reaching the bottom of the valley. I had to go out and send those Time Stones out first. I don’t like to owe others, not even to my family. After sending the Time Stones, I chose to come back here again and came with a calm heart. Even if I had to die, my heart would also fall here. I no longer had anything to do on the outside, nor did anything outside had to do with me. There really was no other way. Nothing and no one can now stop my impulse.”
The ninth ice wall, “I can’t last any longer. It’s freezing here, and I’m cold. I’m dying, but it looks like I can’t die with him after all. Fortunately, I finally got to a place closer to him. Maybe that could give my soul some relief.”
“If there is an afterlife, I’ll tell him. Tell him to hold me for a few months, carry me for a few years, and save my life as Wanderer once again. My name is Yu Qing, from Culmination Starland’s Yu Clan Corner City. My name is the h.o.m.onym of the last two words of Shen Qinyu. Maybe I do have something to be proud about, having accompanied by someone until the seas ran dry and the stones went soft. Within the Sea of Twilight, accompanying him till the oil lamp finally ran dry…”
The tenth ice wall, the surface looked bare without a single etch.
An impulse emerged in Ning Cheng’s mind, to use all his Essence Blood and life span to take control of the cycle of time and reverse it to the point when Yu Qing got here. Or maybe to the point that allowed him to meet Yu Qing on the way to the Culmination Starland, and let her know about everything.
Ning Cheng found that he could no longer control his emotions anymore; Ning Cheng just wanted to do what he thought he should do.
Yu Qing, where did Yu Qing go?
No, Ning Cheng immediately sobered up from the panic. He suddenly felt something wrong with the tenth ice wall. Sure enough, after careful observation, he found a hidden Array Disc inside. Taking out the array disc, a small s.p.a.ce then opened up in front of him.
The mask on Yu Qing’s face had disappeared long ago. She wore a beautiful cyan robe and sat there leaning against an ice sculpture. Her unparalleled beautiful face pale, almost white.
Ning Cheng’s heart immediately sank at this sight. Yu Qing showed no signs of vitality, and he could not tell how long ago she had fallen into such a state. Some ice flowers bloomed on one side of Yu Qing’s black hair, looking just like a white pearl hair clip, creating an even more mournful yet touching appearance.
Ning Cheng felt his heart tremble, something he had never experienced for a long time. It felt like a huge ice stone stirring in the depths of his heart, making him depressed and sad. It was as if the softest part of his heart had frozen over and then shattered apart.
His gaze then turned to the simple ice sculpture behind her. Although one could only see the outline through the simple ice sculpture, he immediately recognised it as his appearance as Wanderer.
“I’m sorry….” Ning Cheng’s eyes turned blurry as he carefully stepped forward to pick up Yu Qing.
[1] The full phrase is “人生天地之间，若驹之过郤，忽然而已。注然勃然，莫不出焉；油然漻然，莫不入焉。已化而生，又化而死，生物哀之，人类悲之。解其天弢，堕其天?，纷乎宛乎，魂魄将往，乃身从之，乃大归乎！”
‘Man’s life between heaven and earth is like a white colt’s pa.s.sing a crevice, and suddenly disappearing. As with a plunge and an effort, they all come forth; easily and quietly they all enter again. By a transformation, they live, and by another transformation, they die. Living things are made sad (by death), and humankind grieves for it, but it is (only) the removal of the bow from its sheath, and then emptying the natural satchel of its contents. There may be some confusion amidst the yielding to the change, but the intellectual and animal souls are taking their leave, and the body will follow them: This is the Great Returning home.