Chapter 641 – The End of Days - Part 2

Ying Zhuoyao let out a soft, silvery laugh, crisp and delighted like a child uncovering a secret. She laughed with genuine amusement, as if discovering the vulnerability of her greatest foe had brought her some final joy.

But the laughter was soon broken by a string of weak, rasping coughs.

Suddenly, she looked at him again, a flicker of mischief lighting her face. “What if I told you the Life Star Art wasn’t something I planted for you to find? That I merely went along with it when I saw it?”

Li Yuan stared at her, taken aback. His brow slowly furrowed. “Then who did?”

“That’s not my problem to solve.” Ying Zhuoyao grinned. She tilted her head back and began to hum a soft, wordless tune, like an old folk song from a village long forgotten.

“What did you mean when you told me not to answer the stars?” Li Yuan asked again.

But Ying Zhuoyao didn’t reply. Her song slowed, softened...and then faded into silence.

The girl, robbed of her power, withered beneath the scorching sun. In moments, she aged into an old woman. And moments later, that old woman crumbled into a heap of pale bones.

The bones, too, began to erode under the mountain winds, slowly breaking apart until no trace of her remained.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A month passed.

Li Yuan’s transmission of power was agonizingly slow. He hadn’t moved, sitting cross-legged in stillness, but all around him was ruin.

Late autumn had turned the forest to ash and shadow. Dead leaves rolled like waves of decay beneath the sea of clouds, churning in mournful silence.

He looked to the left, then to the right.

Not a single soul in sight.

And the winds atop the mountain were strong. The last remains of Ying Zhuoyao had long since been scattered, tossed off the cliff into places unknown.

But her words lingered in his mind.

If the Life Star Art hadn’t been a coincidence...then someone else was behind it, hiding in the shadows of time, still waiting.

Whether it was him or Ying Zhuoyao, in the end, they had both been pawns, pieces on a board pushed toward the inevitable kill. One final match, one final clash, and the outcome was decided.

So then...if there really was someone behind the curtain, wasn’t it about time they showed themselves?

Li Yuan waited. He had no other choice now. No more paths to retreat.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Another half-month passed in silence.

Then, all at once, crimson clouds gathered in the sky. Within the swelling gloom, white flakes began to appear. It was soft and light but spreading fast.

And then, the heavens opened. Snow poured down in torrents, like someone in the sky was burning endless reams of funeral paper, and casting the ash across the world.

But no hidden master emerged from the shadows.

Maybe there never had been one.

Maybe he’d simply stumbled upon the Life Star Art by chance, and the Northern Dipper had used it to set the stage for a grand scheme, nothing more.

HISS!

A sudden chill swept over him. Li Yuan flinched.

He turned his head. Just a snowflake, stuck to his bare skin.

And then, without warning, his power began to plummet.

The snow thickened, and the stronger the storm, the faster his strength drained away.

It wasn’t just the snow. Every breath of this air felt like swallowing poison, like something was corroding the core of his cultivation.

“So...the end times have come,” Li Yuan murmured.

Strangely, he thought of the

warm snow

.

The warm snow was a method of nourishing the sky and restoring the earth.

But Heaven and Earth...weren’t they just two ends of the same body? Shifting something from the left hand to the right didn’t change the whole.

Then what was this snow, falling now at the end of the world?

Could it be...not Heaven or Earth absorbing power, but Heaven stealing it from people?

His mind wandered briefly, thoughts like leaves in a storm. Then he let it go.

Li Yuan closed his eyes. He couldn’t stop this snow, couldn’t fight it. All he could do was focus every last ounce of his attention on keeping the Life Star Art running.

Almost there. Almost...

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

“No time...”

“There’s really no more time!”

“I can’t grasp it. I can’t figure it out!”

In the Hall of Life, before the reincarnation passage, many were clutching their heads in despair.

These weren’t ordinary people. They were former elites, people whose mere presence once shook entire regions.

But now, all those who remained...had no way out.

Over a month ago, after the final group departed the hall, those left behind felt the whole structure tremble, like an earthquake. Then came a terrible sensation, as if the entire place was falling.

Just now, the ones who had left returned. Half their number lost.

They said the exit had vanished.

Everyone understood. The hall had once again plunged into chaos. Even if they reached the gates now, they could no longer return to the outer world.

They were being carried toward an unknown realm.

“I can't. I can't do this anymore!” A hidden clan patriarch at the peak of third rank suddenly sprang to his feet, panic twisting his face. The pressure was too much, crushing him from the inside out.

Another elder nearby spoke calmly, “Patriarch Xie, if you give up now, what other path do you have? Best to sit quietly...and wait for the end.”

Patriarch Xie shot to his feet. “No! There’s still a way! Patriarch Chifeng, have you forgotten the Hall of Life’s most sacred treasure?”

Patriarch Chifeng’s eyes widened. “The Human Seed Fruit!”

A manic light burned in Patriarch Xie’s eyes, utterly out of character for someone of his seniority and composure. But in this moment, everyone was like ants on a hot pan. No one could afford dignity anymore.

“Yes, the Human Seed Fruit! A divine treasure born of heaven and earth, there’s no way it won’t work! Just a single bite, just one, and maybe...just maybe, we’ll break through this final shackle!”

He scanned the crowd, eyes gleaming with desperate hope. “We’re already at the far end of the Hall of Life. The fruit must be nearby!”

Patriarch Chifeng hesitated, but finally gave a slow nod.

Everyone knew the Human Seed Fruit was little more than legend, more illusion than promise. But at this point, what other choice did they have?

And so, the two elders led a group of desperate cultivators away.

These were the ones who had seen no other path forward, no light at the end. So they left.

In an instant, nearly half of those who had been gazing toward the reincarnation passage were gone.

But three remained, Ping’an, Bai Xinxuan, and Meng Xingxian.

All three sat cross-legged in deep meditation. It was Meng Xingxian who opened her eyes first, despair clouding her gaze. She already understood her fate.

All her schemes, all her plans, undone at the final moment.

Not long after, Bai Xinxuan opened her eyes as well. She stared at the towering Soul Furnace in the distance, its immense aura weighing heavy. With a quiet sigh, she let go.

Then both women turned their eyes to Ping’an.

He sat motionless, black-and-white stubble roughening his chin, the once-dark hair on his head now half-turned to gray. His sword rested on his back as he silently continued his meditation.

The three of them had cultivated long enough to understand that this wasn’t just about enlightenment. They were leveraging the Soul Furnace, the very concept of reincarnation, to elevate their soul. It was about transcending the lesser self, achieving the leap to the greater self.

The third rank was called Returning to True Self, escaping the cage of one’s own identity, taking a step beyond, and then looking back to glimpse the truth of who they really were.

The second rank, according to ancient texts, was known as the

Heavenly Realm

.

To reach it meant turning oneself into the ladder and climbing it, to step fully into the heavens.

But to escape the

self

...one needed a soul powerful enough to do so.

Suddenly, Ping'an opened his eyes.

Unlike Meng Xingxian and Bai Xinxuan, there was a spark of clarity in his gaze. He had gained insight.

“‘Realms,’” Ping'an said quietly. “That’s the essence of the second rank.”

He continued, “Father once told me about the flame gods. He said the flame god’s flames had no origin. But that’s not true. The flames

do

have a source. It’s just that the source isn’t in this human world. It exists within the flame god’s own

realm

. Only when soul and power combine to carve out a personal domain can something become eternal. That’s how the Radiant Treasure Buddha managed to last so long in this ancient hall.”

Bai Xinxuan’s eyes lit up with understanding. “The Buddha’s light illuminates 3,000 realms...”

Ping'an nodded. “Exactly. The Radiant Treasure Buddha claimed to possess 3,000 realms. That means he was an incredibly powerful second rank cultivator.”

Meng Xingxian muttered bitterly, “And so what? Even the Radiant Treasure Buddha, who ruled over 3,000 realms, is dead now. What chance do we have?”

Ping'an glanced around. No one else was nearby. He stepped closer to the two women.

One was his stepmother. The other was his younger brother’s wife.

He lowered his voice. “Father left me a miniature world, but it’s incredibly small, just big enough for one person to sit cross-legged. If it comes to it, if there’s no other way forward... Eighth Mother, Sister-in-law, you two go inside. After that, it’ll be up to fate.”

Bai Xinxuan looked at him. “What about you, Ping’an?”

Ping'an’s gaze was steady. “I don’t believe in fate. I’ll take death itself and use it to sharpen my soul. If I succeed, I’ll forge a world of my own, with will and power. But if I fail...then I guess that’s all I was ever meant to be.”

Meng Xingxian was at a loss for words. She’d heard a lot about her eldest brother-in-law from her husband, how he was talented, yes, but a bit of an idealist, a little too naïve.

She hadn’t interacted with him much back then. But when she started spending more time around him, she realized he wasn’t quite the daydreamer her husband had described.

Yet now...it seemed maybe he really was.

“Brother-in-law,” she asked, “what’s your cultivation right now?”

Ping'an drew his blade and laid it across his knees. His tone was calm. “Second stage of third rank.”

Meng Xingxian frowned. “Then why don’t you go inside the miniature world too? Don’t throw your life away out here.”

Ping'an slowly shook his head. Then, a strange light appeared in his eyes, a kind of excitement. “Chaos. Reincarnation. The Soul Furnace. This is a once-in-a-millennium chance. I told you... I’m going to surpass Father and reach the second rank faster than he ever did. True breakthroughs don’t take years. They happen in an instant. No need to try and talk me out of it.”

Seeing he had made up his mind, neither woman said anything more.