VAP - Chapter 167
Chapter 167: Xuan Yin (End)
Yue Du had noticed earlier that while the Five Talisman God Monarch was speaking, her host had been unusually quiet.
The Wushuang Venerable had always been a woman of few words, but when Yue Du was talking to outsiders, she never minded speaking up to announce her presence. Of course, even if Yun Yijiu sat beside her without saying a word, her extraordinary beauty and her grand, chilling aura would never allow her to be ignored.
But this time, Yun Yijiu hadn't uttered a single word the entire time. Her eyelashes were half-lowered, concealing the expression in her eyes, making it impossible for anyone to know what she was thinking.
Yet Yue Du felt that beneath her silence were words left unsaid, carefully hidden away without a trace.
It was like a fish just half a finger's length from the lake's surface, turning away just before it broke through. With a silent, gentle flick of its tail fin, it sank back to the bottom, leaving only a small ripple on the surface that vanished in the blink of an eye.
“Ah Jiu, what did you want to say?”
Upon hearing the question, the light in Yun Yijiu's eyes couldn't help but soften, yet it quickly grew heavy and was withdrawn. She seemed to intend to avoid the topic. Closing her eyes, she said in a low voice, “I was just remembering some things.”
The shift in her host's emotions did not escape Yue Du's notice. She thought for a moment, then asked gently, “Is it about the past, from beyond the worlds?”
“Some of it is,” the Wushuang Venerable paused, an imperceptible trace of pain flashing in her eyes, but she ultimately didn't let it show. She continued, “Most of it is memories from that small world, concerning you and me. The Five Elements Continent—that's what they called it, and that is also how they addressed you.”
Yue Du thought to herself, Of course.
No matter which facet of the host it was, she felt a fated sense of familiarity, as if the feelings were innate. And she herself, upon their first meeting, had also felt that the host was somewhat familiar.
Yue Du had considered this question. The most likely scenarios were either a connection from a past life or something from her current one. The latter was unlikely; Yue Du didn't believe she had lost any memories in this life, so it naturally had to be the so-called “past life.”
They had met before, and perhaps had even been in love, though she hadn't remembered it until now.
“Tell me about it,” Yue Du said softly.
Yun Yijiu seemed dazed for a moment. “Mm.”
The Wushuang Sword Venerable was not a very good storyteller. The fragments she chose to recount were not epic, tear-jerking sagas. On the contrary, they were all small, everyday matters.
For example, one time she cooked a pot of mushroom soup under Yue Du's guidance. Although the instructor's skills were average, the one holding the ladle was astonishingly talented. The soup was delicious and looked appealing, and the two of them ate it happily.
For example, another time she found a cluster of grape-like fruits. She tasted one and found it acceptable, and before Yue Du could say anything, she tossed them into the oven. The oven immediately exploded with a bang. Though no one was hurt, a whole batch of good ingredients was ruined. It turned out to be a type of fire-attribute spirit fruit that exploded when exposed to high temperatures.
And for example, a day when they walked side-by-side through a bustling mortal market, carrying silk bags filled with snacks and novelties. They would turn their faces toward each other, whispering and smiling softly, surrounded by the bustling crowd, yet no one ever truly got close to them…
The focus of her stories was mostly on Yue Du's reactions—the things she had said, her expressions and actions at the time. Beyond that, every incident was trivial and mundane. Coupled with the concise, monotonous narration and a tone devoid of inflection, if a group of children were listening, nine out of ten would have fallen asleep halfway through.
But Yue Du listened, mesmerized. She could almost see the scenes her host described, imagine Ah Jiu's actions and mannerisms, and also picture what the “Unique God” of the Five Elements Continent was like back then.
It wasn't just a past life; the World Consciousness of the Five Elements Continent was also her. She could tell this just from listening.
Yun Yijiu spoke for the better part of the day. As she talked, the light outside the Wushuang Hall gradually dimmed, and the sun sank in the west.
This was probably the first time she had ever been so talkative.
Listening intently, Yue Du naturally noticed that Ah Jiu hadn't mentioned her own identity at all throughout the narrative, and had even intentionally or unintentionally avoided parts that might touch upon it.
This kind of behavior wasn't unprecedented. Yue Du thought back to the previous times and couldn't help but suspect that her host's “I'm-hiding-something-from-you-but-I-won't-tell-you-because-I'm-afraid-you'll-stop-loving-me” syndrome was acting up again.
Usually, these kinds of secrets were related to the more brutal aspects of her nature. The more bloody and cruel it was, the more the host tried to hide it.
Since she was hiding her identity this time, and from the looks of it, hiding it quite determinedly, it meant that her host's true identity was very problematic.
Yue Du frowned slightly, suddenly recalling her own line from the image shown by the Five Talisman God Monarch: “I will never name another person again.” The meaning of this sentence was obvious. She had named someone, perhaps at their request or for her own selfish reasons. Regardless of the details, it subtly implied an exclusivity that outsiders could not partake in.
Could it be that I was the one who gave Ah Jiu her name?
Yue Du continued down this line of thought, guessing: could Ah Jiu have been a creature that grew up on the Five Elements Continent, taught or even raised by her past self?
But on the other hand, the upper limit of the host's abilities didn't seem like something a creature from a small world could possess. Just think of the World Consciousness of Qianhong Divine Province—it was as scared of the host as a little mouse meeting a big cat, utterly without dignity.
In her past life, as the World Consciousness of the Five Elements Continent, Yue Du was revered by the continent's creatures as the Unique God. But in the grand scheme of the entire plane, among the countless small worlds, her status and power were only on par with that of the Qianhong small world.
The Qianhong consciousness saw the host as its natural enemy; there was no reason the Five Elements consciousness could have ranked above Ah Jiu.
Could it be that Ah Jiu only grew to her current level later on? If so, was the destruction of the Five Elements Continent related to her?
This seemed to be the only possibility that could explain Yun Yijiu's silence.
Yue Du didn't dwell on it further. She believed that even if this matter was truly related to Ah Jiu, it wouldn't have been something Ah Jiu subjectively pushed for. That was enough.
That night, the lights in Wushuang Hall were all extinguished, save for a single jade candle lamp lit by the double bed, its soft glow encircling this tranquil space.
Yun Yijiu slowly opened her eyes. She first gazed silently at Yue Du for a long while before draping on her clothes and rising, taking a step without a sound.
Suddenly, she stopped.
Behind her, Yue Du had sat up at some point and asked unhurriedly, “Can't sleep, Ah Jiu?”
“…” Yun Yijiu wasn't particularly surprised. After a moment of silence, she sighed softly. “Yes.”
Yue Du smiled. “What a coincidence, me too. Why don't we go for a walk to clear our minds?”
Yun Yijiu turned back, her gaze lowered to look at her. An expression weaving helplessness and tenderness flashed through her eyes, and she finally gave a light nod.
Yun Yijiu's late-night escape was naturally not for a walk to clear her mind.
The area around Wushuang Hall was entirely under her control. During the day, there was no trace of other living creatures; now, it seemed even more empty, desolate, and cold. As the two walked through the woods, their shadows in the moonlight clung together almost without a gap.
They arrived at the Return to Immortal Platform, shrouded in the night.
Yue Du raised an eyebrow as she saw Yun Yijiu place her fingertips on the “gate” of the Return to Immortal Platform and say in a flat tone, “Open the world barrier.”
She was speaking to the World Consciousness of the Xuan Yin Realm. Those six short words seemed to have frightened it badly; it was unwilling, yet it didn't dare to refuse.
Feeling the trembling and terror of the Xuan Yin consciousness, Yue Du suddenly found it a bit strange. This counts as one of my own kind from my past life?
Perhaps taking this into consideration, Yun Yijiu didn't utter any more flat threats or warnings. She relied solely on her oppressive aura and gaze. The Xuan Yin consciousness didn't hold out for long—probably because it figured out that getting this terrifying being to leave as quickly as possible was for the best.
And so, it opened a breach in the world barrier. A fissure of bizarre colors, like constantly flowing, irregular ripples, appeared before the two of them.
Yue Du had crossed world barriers several times, but this was the first time she had seen the true appearance of the space beyond the worlds, unshielded by the power of the Main God's space.
It was like a starry sky, and also like the deep sea. Within the endless, eternal darkness, countless motes of light of all colors floated and sank, existing since time immemorial.
Each mote of light was a small world.
Yue Du turned her gaze back to Ah Jiu and found her standing silently with her eyes closed, as if sensing something, as still as a statue.
What Yue Du didn't know was that at this very moment, in this very place, free from the fragile small world, the memories, power, and consciousness of the unknown being beside her finally began to fully reawaken.
They were memories spanning hundreds of millions of years.
At the same moment.
In Yue Du's original world, in her home, the Word Spirit user who was catching up on sleep in her lover's bed suddenly awoke. As if sensing something, Qi Jiu's deep black pupils shifted slightly, looking in a certain direction.
On the top floor of a high, magnificent castle, the pale, silver-haired half-blood bloomed into a decadent smile. As if she had been waiting for a long time, Nai Yin raised the wine glass filled with blood in her hand and clinked it against the air.
In the Spiral Star Empire's central Baicheer Palace, the blonde empress, still firmly seated as the top Sentinel, sat on her throne. Sheng Xuejiu was looking down at the image of her lover on the light-brain projection, the left armrest occupied by a small, long-haired cat. Suddenly, they both looked up.
In a wilderness covered with bizarre, twisted vegetation, a girl in a white dress walked aimlessly, as if on a stroll, a path of Scarlet Beast corpses laid out behind her. Abruptly, Jealousy turned her head to gaze into the distance, while Gluttony let out a sigh of joy in their mental space. The Ji Yous simultaneously curled their lips into a smile.
In the thick, terrifying darkness, the aura of a certain being suddenly stirred, but it fell silent again in an instant. Two transparent tentacles slowly extended from the darkness, crossing over each other. A faint light flashed and vanished, illuminating the eldritch, unseeable body to which the tentacles were connected.
She impatiently sealed off her connection to her main body.
Except for that last, unnamed being, all the “Ah Jius” closed their eyes with a light smile, allowing themselves to dematerialize like bubbles and vanish on the spot.
Yun Yijiu did the same.
Yue Du only felt her vision suddenly darken, then return in an instant. But she was no longer outside the Xuan Yin Realm where she had just been; instead, she had appeared in the depths of this endless void.
There were almost no motes of light representing worlds around them; the few scattered ones were very far apart. There was only a massive, pure black palace, floating stably here without any support, like a ghost.
It looked somewhat familiar.
Yue Du quickly recalled from her memory the building she had once seen in the Wushuang Venerable's deep subconscious—a place where ethereality and magnificence coexisted, where the sacred and the bizarre intertwined.
But at that time, she had only seen a corner of it, the rest hidden from view. Now, Yue Du could finally see the palace in its entirety.
It was so, so big—so big it was almost like a small world itself. The front had no doors, only a round archway as tall as a mountain. But even with such a wide “gate,” it was impossible to see the scene inside, as if it were cut off by darkness.
But Yue Du could feel that someone was walking out from within the archway, step by step, unhurriedly.
Without a doubt, this person was Ah Jiu.
It was still a familiar face, but it seemed more perfect than any of her fragments, and also less like a real person, possessing the quality of a designed, inanimate object. Her jet-black hair was slightly wavy, trailing down elegantly. Along with the train of her long skirt, made of an unknown material, it dragged far behind her in the void, extending into the deep darkness of the archway. The front of her skirt, however, only reached her ankles, revealing her bare, pale feet.
A small, round, multicolored stone hung from her chest by a silver thread. Along with her crimson lips, it constituted the only two spots of color on this woman of black clothes, ink-black hair, and cold, white skin.
Ah Jiu smiled.
“This is the first time I've met you in this state, Xiao Du.”
Yue Du noticed her eyes. They weren't the usual pure black, but a kind of empty void that was difficult to describe in words—like the emptiness one's closed eye perceives when it's covered by a palm.
“It's also the first time I've seen you like this.” After a brief daze, Yue Du naturally walked to her lover's side and asked, “Have your consciousnesses merged?”
Ah Jiu smiled. “About six-sevenths have gathered here. There's still one-seventh that's a bit disobedient. It's no matter. I'll go find her after I deal with my sister.”
Ah Jiu's sister?
It sounds like their relationship isn't very good.
But to bring her up specifically here… could this sister be…?
Ah Jiu said nonchalantly, “The one behind your Main God. You've seen her fragment. She's just as annoying as the main body.”
Yue Du: “…” So it really is her.
In that instant, all the minor details clicked into place.
Xiao Yi's expressionless face in the group chat space as she listed how rebellious her sister was; Han Li, who unknowingly served as Dai Mi's assistant in the Scarlet Beast world; the Main God's attitude in the system's restricted area, clearly needing to ask someone for permission before making a decision; and those missions with their inscrutable intentions.
Yue Du had almost reached a conclusion in her heart, but she still asked, “Those missions were for…?”
Ah Jiu lowered her eyes. “To destroy worlds, I suppose. Other than that, I can't think of any other reason she would bother me.”
When she said the words “destroy worlds,” Ah Jiu's tone involuntarily softened. She raised a hand to stroke the multicolored crystal hanging on her chest.
Noticing Yue Du's gaze, she chuckled lightly. “Does it look familiar?”
Yue Du nodded. Something five-colored that could make her feel such warmth and familiarity had to be from the Five Elements Continent.
Sure enough, Ah Jiu fiddled with the crystal and said with a hint of nostalgia, “It was yours to begin with. I'll return it to you when the time comes.”
“Mm,” Yue Du thought for a moment, then suddenly spoke. “So your name really is Ah Jiu.”
Ah Jiu beamed. “And you were the one who gave it to me.”
One question was answered, but new ones popped up. Yue Du tried to sort them out. “But…”
“You will know,” Ah Jiu said, letting the crystal wrap around her fingertip once before intimately wrapping her arm around Yue Du's slender waist. “As for now, do you want to come with me to settle the score with The One?”
“The One?”
“That annoying sister of mine. A workaholic, obsessive-compulsive. In human myths and legends, they usually call this one the Creator God.”
Yue Du: “…”
A Creator God who was constantly trying to destroy worlds in the system missions?
The Main God's Space.
The Boss—or perhaps we should call her “The One”—was swiping left and right on a light screen as black as night. From time to time, she would stop to observe the star-like points of light on the screen, tap one, and contemplate it quietly, as if she could see the corresponding small world through the point of light.
Suddenly, her blank, silver pupils widened slightly. She only had time to whisper, “She's awake,” before waving open a door of nothingness, throwing herself through it, and vanishing on the spot.
Although her movements were as smooth and composed as flowing water, the series of actions was so fast it looked a bit like she was fleeing for her life.
Just two seconds later, the figures of Ah Jiu and Yue Du materialized from thin air, but The One was no longer there.
Only a certain Main God with an innocent, bewildered expression and the air of a perpetually overworked office worker was sitting nearby. Seeing the two suddenly appear, she nearly dropped her glasses in fright.
Ah Jiu clicked her tongue. “She runs fast.”
Yue Du looked around and noticed the corporate-slave Main God was still stunned. Such an image seemed more suited to a modern office than the mysterious, unfathomable lair of a Creator God.
Yes, a lair.
On the way here, Ah Jiu had told her that the so-called Main God's Space was, in fact, just like her own deep black palace. They were “lairs” that the two of them had possessed since birth, floating and wandering in the endless void beyond the worlds.
Yue Du didn't ask what kind of beings these two sisters were, but she had probably already guessed.
Just then, the Main God came to her senses. Very astutely, she dropped everything in her hands, raised both hands, and spread them open—a gesture that meant surrender in most civilizations.
However, Ah Jiu paid her no mind.
Her earlier complaint seemed to be just that—a complaint, like someone casually grumbling when they find that what they're looking for isn't where it should be, but knowing they can still find it with a little effort.
She extended a hand, long, slender, and pale. As easily as tearing a piece of paper, she ripped open space and closed her eyes with an impatient expression.
Suddenly, she muttered to herself, “Found her.”
Her arm decisively reached into the rift. A black shadow seemed to stretch out infinitely and quickly grabbed its target.
A figure in a silver-gray robe was dragged back and slammed viciously onto the ground.
Shoulder-length, fine, straight silver hair, and white eyes that seemed perpetually filled with mist. This Creator God had a face similar to Xiao Yi's, only even less human, lacking that dazed, sleepwalking expression.
She quickly broke free from Ah Jiu's grasp and flashed to the other side, the price being that one of her arms was torn off completely. A silvery liquid with a metallic sheen, like mercury, flowed from the stump.
“Destruction,” she said, looking at Ah Jiu, her voice ice-cold, completely unconcerned about her severed arm.
Yue Du's first reaction was to wonder if this Creator God was too fragile. Then she realized that the word “Destruction” wasn't meant as a counterattack, but as a name for Ah Jiu.
Destruction, the deity of world-ending, the opposite of Creation…
Ah Jiu returned with a sneer, “I have a name. Don't just call me whatever.”
The Boss said, “It's a habit.”
Her arm grew back, perfectly intact.
“You go back and watch over the current mission situation,” the Boss said to the Main God behind her with a jerk of her chin.
The Main God understood this was a dismissal. She nodded with a solemn expression and said, “Yes.”
The response confirmed her identity for Yue Du—it was the messenger Main God who had concealed her form.
Ah Jiu clearly had no intention of making things difficult for her and allowed the Main God to close the door and leave.
Yue Du and Ah Jiu exchanged a look. She squeezed Ah Jiu's fingertips and retreated to the edge of the room herself.
The Boss's gaze swept over her once, then she suddenly said, “The collapse of the Five Elements small world was a natural process. I had nothing to do with it.”
Ah Jiu: “I know.”
The Boss: “Then why did you attack to kill the moment you arrived?”
Ah Jiu sneered, “Think about all the things you did while I was asleep. It's enough for me to kill you a few hundred times over.”
The Boss was silent for a moment. Thinking about it, she supposed that was true. Probably unwilling to waste any more words, she was the first to make a move.
And then she was killed instantly.
Just a single beam of deep black starlight flashed past. Yue Du watched the Creator God disintegrate into scattered silver sand, blinking in bewilderment.
Is the Creator God really that fragile?
Ah Jiu retracted her hand. “She is, after all, the one who holds the authority of creation and life. Her combat power is very weak.”
Yue Du said thoughtfully, “Will she revive, or was that not her main body?”
“It was her main body. She's dead, but not annihilated. Immortality is a trait we both share.” Ah Jiu's gaze shifted to a certain spot, as if searching for something through the spatial barrier.
“She's different from me. No matter how I split, I can only divide into seven consciousnesses that symbolize aspects of my true self. But The One can create hundreds of millions of fragments with only a basic consciousness. Each one is her eyes and ears in the small worlds, and also a tool for her rebirth. I kill her main body once, and she just reforms in some small world. It's boring.”
Yue Du: “Then Han Li in the Scarlet Beast world…”
“Generally speaking, in any small world where one of my fragments is present, hers can only go on strike,” Ah Jiu replied, then suddenly smiled. “So as soon as Qi Jiu arrived in your world, The One's fragment there became useless.”
As she was speaking, Ah Jiu's gaze sharpened. She raised her hand and snapped her fingers, a faint light flashing at her fingertips.
Meeting Yue Du's questioning gaze, she narrowed her eyes, her expression calm and ruthless. “I said I'd kill her a few hundred times, so I'll kill her a few hundred times.”
In some unknown small world, a young girl with a face similar to the Creator God's stopped in a deserted place. A light had just begun to shine in her dull, lifeless eyes when, before she could do anything, she silently disintegrated.
The One: “…”
She's relentless.
So, during her second reformation, sensing the impending destructive attack, the Creator God spoke first. “Targeting me right now is meaningless. You'd be better off thinking about how to get your little World Consciousness to accept you!”
In the Main God's Space, Ah Jiu, who hadn't left yet, felt her gaze darken.
Seeing she had a chance, the Creator God continued, “My fragment once observed her growth. I know her mind is that of a complete and utter human. Can she really accept you? Accept you, who was born to destroy worlds and holds the authority over the destruction of all things?”
The moment her voice fell, the power of Destruction crushed her newly formed body. In her final moment, the Creator God heard Ah Jiu's chilling tone: “Don't trouble yourself.”
Ah Jiu brought Yue Du back to her deep black palace.
Inside the palace, it was not as dark and desolate as Yue Du had imagined. Tens of thousands of small, silver-blue spheres of light were distributed irregularly throughout the space, hanging and swaying gently. Their light illuminated the empty, obsidian-like floor, as well as the jet-black divine throne at the far end of the hall, which was almost as tall as the dome itself.
“Before, this is where I slept,” Ah Jiu whispered. “I thought I would never see you again. I thought that even if we met again, you wouldn't be the you I loved.”
“But I was wrong.”
She pulled Yue Du onto the divine throne. Compared to the enormous throne, their two figures were incredibly small, almost like the contrast between a mountain and an ant.
But the image of them embracing on the throne was so timeless.
Ah Jiu said, “Xiao Du, let's play a game.”
Yue Du: “A game?”
“Yes, a game with no rules and no winner or loser. After it's over, you will know everything.”
Her lowered voice was almost bewitching.
After a long moment, Yue Du said, “Alright.”
“Then, a goodnight kiss.”
In their embrace and kiss, Yue Du's eyelashes drooped, and she became as peaceful as if she were asleep.
Ah Jiu adjusted her into a different position. Beneath her was the throne's soft cushion, like night-black brocade, and her head rested on Ah Jiu's lap.
Glancing at the black, star-shaped system mark on Yue Du's wrist, Ah Jiu frowned slightly and gently wiped it away. In its place appeared a scarlet crescent moon.
It was identical to the red moon summoning brand on her own chest that had once belonged to Nai Yin, the two shining in concert.
“Good night,” Ah Jiu said with satisfaction, and also closed her eyes. Her thick, dark lashes concealed her void-like pupils, and her whole being was like a divine statue sealed within the throne.
For you and me, there will be no winner or loser.
But for me and “me,” there will be.
Enjoy the game, my dear.
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