Yun Lintian’s body erupted with silver light as the Seed of Time awakened fully within him. The Heaven Sunderer trembled violently in his grasp, its blade glowing like molten moonlight.
“Break.”
A single word, carrying the weight of temporal law itself.
BOOOOOOM!
The silver light detonated outward, shattering the blackened walls like glass. The corrosive liquid evaporated instantly, the very fabric of the trap unraveling under the Seed’s supreme authority.
For a moment, everything turned white—
Then—
Silence.
Long Chen blinked rapidly as his vision cleared. His jaw dropped.
They stood at the palace entrance, the massive gates looming before them as if they’d never entered. The ruins stretched behind them, unchanged. Even the sky held the same eerie glow as when they’d first arrived.
“What…?” Xiong Ba stumbled back, his face pale.
Nie Tong’s frost energy flickered erratically. “We’ve been… returned to the beginning?”
Yun Lintian’s expression darkened. He examined his palm—the Seed of Time pulsed faintly beneath his skin. “Not returned. Rewound.”
Long Chen’s blood ran cold. “You mean… we never actually entered?”
“No.” Yun Lintian’s eyes narrowed. “We did. The palace just erased that timeline.”
A heavy silence fell.
Linlin’s tail puffed up. “Then… Qian Jinglei..?”
“Master? Do you hear me?” Long Chen tried to contact his master again but there was no response in return.
Yun Lintian frowned slightly. His gaze fixed on the palace gates, now radiating an ominous crimson light they hadn’t seen before.
“Looks like we have entered the trap from the beginning.” he said with a frown.
Xiong Yu’s grip tightened on his axe. “You’re saying everything we just experienced—the traps, the phantoms, even Qian Jinglei—”
“Was an illusion?” Long Chen interrupted desperately. “Where is my master then?”
Yun Lintian shook his head. “Not illusion. Reality—then undone.”
Before anyone could process this, the palace gates groaned open on their own, revealing the same grand hallway they’d entered before.
Only now, standing at its threshold was a figure—
Qian Jinglei.
Her eyes glowed an unnatural gold, her movements stiff as a puppet’s. When she spoke, her voice echoed with layers of something ancient:
“The worthy may proceed. The failed… perish.”
Long Chen’s heart stopped. “Master…?”
Her head tilted at an impossible angle. “Come, disciples. Your second trial awaits.”
Yun Lintian stepped forward, the Heaven Sunderer igniting with silver flames. “What are you?”
Qian Jinglei’s lips stretched into a smile too wide for her face.
“The Palace’s Will.”
The possessed Qian Jinglei turned and walked stiffly into the hallway, not checking if they followed.
“Wait, Master!” Long Chen made to rush after her—
Yun Lintian’s arm barred his path. “That’s not your master.”
“But—!”
“He’s right,” Nie Tong said grimly. “That thing is using her form as a lure.”
“Then what? We just leave her?” Ling Xuan asked anxiously. Qian Jinglei had been kind to her. She didn’t want anything to happen to her.
“Let’s go.” Yun LIntian said indifferently and strode forward, followed closely by Long Qingxuan and Yue Zhihe.
On the side, Tang Wei’s form rippled as he spoke. “It seems that something is controlling this place. We will see about that.”
He looked at Long Chen and said. “As for your master, I think she’s safe for now.”
“Really?” Long Chen responded anxiously.
“Who knows for sure?” Tang Wei shrugged. “But from the look of it, the one who appeared earlier wasn’t your master but something else. This means that your master is probably alive somewhere.”
“Let’s follow Senior Yun.” Ling Xuan tugged Long Chen’s sleeve.
“Oh, right.” Long Chen hurriedly chased after Yun Lintian.
Nie Tong and the others also strode forward.
Tang Wei didn’t follow immediately. He looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar hall again and muttered to himself. “Don’t tell me that I was right?”
Shaking his head, Tang Wei quickly moved forward.
The hallway had changed. Where before it pulsed with chaotic energy, now it was perfectly still—too still, like a held breath.
Qian Jinglei’s possessed form led them to a familiar sight—the reception chamber’s door.
“Enter,” she intoned, stepping aside.
Yun Lintian didn’t hesitate. He pushed the door open—
And froze.
The chamber was identical to before—same table, same chairs, same glowing map.
Except for one difference.
Five figures sat around the table, their faces hidden in shadow.
As one, they looked up.
Long Chen’s blood turned to ice.
They were all Qian Jinglei.
Each wore different expressions—one smiling, one weeping, one furious, one blank, one…
The fifth’s mouth opened, and the voice of the palace itself boomed:
“Choose the real one. You have three breaths.”
“Master!” Long Chen shouted instinctively.
None reacted.
The walls began closing in.
Yun Lintian’s eyes darted between the five Qian Jingleis. His divine sense probed each—identical down to the slightest energy fluctuation.
“One breath passed,” the walls intoned.
Nie Tong’s frost energy lashed out, wrapping around the weeping version—
Who dissolved into mist. “Wrong.”
The remaining four smiled wider.
Xiong Yu roared, swinging his axe at the furious one—
“Two breaths.”
That version too vanished. Wrong again.
Long Chen’s hands shook. Three left—smiling, blank, and…
The fifth.
The one whose gaze had followed him since entering.
“Master…” he whispered.
“Three breaths.”
The walls slammed inward—
Yun Lintian moved.
Not toward any Qian Jinglei.
He smashed the table.
“ENOUGH!”
BANG!
The world shattered like glass.
The fake Qian Jingleis screamed as they unraveled. The real one collapsed from where she’d been embedded in the ceiling, unconscious but alive.
The palace’s voice howled in frustration—
Then silenced as the reception chamber’s door burst open, revealing the true path forward.
Long Chen hurriedly stepped forward to catch the falling Qian Jinglei.
“Master, wake up.” he channeled his divine energy into her body.
“Not bad,” Suddenly, the fake Qian Jinglei who led them to this place emerged from the wall.
Her body convulsed unnaturally as it cracked into an eerie smile. Its golden eyes locked onto Yun Lintian’s cold expression, and a laugh like shattering glass erupted from its throat.
“Hehehe! Yun Lintian… oh Yun Lintian,” the thing wearing Qian Jinglei’s face crooned. “No matter how strong you become, you’ll always be that reckless youth—letting emotions cloud your judgment.”
Its head tilted toward Long Qingxuan, the smile stretching wider. “Did you like my gift? A million years trapped beneath Mirror Lake… her memories rewritten so beautifully?”
Yun Lintian’s pupils contracted. His grip on the Heaven Sunderer turned bone-white.
“So, it’s Nian Shi’s arrangement again.”
The statement hung in the air like drawn steel.
For a heartbeat, everything froze.
Then—
The possessed Qian Jinglei threw back its head and laughed—a wild, unhinged sound that shook the chamber.
“Hahahaha! Oh, this is priceless! You still think this is about Nian Shi?”
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