Chapter 766 - The Truth - Part 2

"Li Yuan, the millet jar is almost empty."

That voice called to him, like a thread tugging on his soul. He followed it instinctively, dazed and unknowing, floating toward the surface of the sea.

And with it, a few long-lost memories began to rise.

He remembered drinking, drinking at a class reunion.

Many of his former classmates had made a life for themselves, climbing up the ladder of success, achieving milestone after milestone. Meanwhile, he as their old class president had ended up as a butcher, carving up pigs for a living.

So he chose to ignore reality by drowning his disappointment with booze. He kept his head low and gulped down glass after glass after glass... until everything went black.

"You know, if you don't go out hunting soon, we'll starve. Hardly anyone in the village needs any writing done lately, so I haven't earned anything. I'm sorry...."

Li Yuan turned his head and saw her: a slender, pretty village girl in a blue blouse with white flower prints, tightly wrapped in black pants, standing there speaking to him.

And with that, the memories began flooding back.

“Yan Yu...” he murmured, then wondered vaguely to himself whether he even knew how to hunt.

But deep within his mind, something else stirred. A few words remained, phrases he couldn’t yet understand.

They were from Ah Ting.

Words spoken by a Seeker of the Dao could never be erased. Not under any circumstances.

And those words...would become the variable.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Time slipped by in an instant. History began again.

But because of that one small variable—this time, everything would head in a different direction.

Three hundred thirty-six thousand years later, everything unfolded much like it had in the previous cycle.

Order was restored. Reincarnation rebuilt. Aside from the unsolvable Great Shattering, the world was once again trending toward prosperity.

Li Yuan’s beloved companions were still placed beyond the 33 Heavens.

But he himself had gone down to the Underworld. There, he found Yan Yu and told her everything he knew.

The Primordial Earth Mother listened in thoughtful silence. Slowly, though, it was clear she was beginning to believe.

Li Yuan, now the Sage of the Violet Heaven Palace, had taught countless Gods and Immortals. His words were not to be taken lightly.

“You and I fused before, became the Heavenly Dao, and we still couldn’t save this world. But if I can transcend, if I can become a Seeker of the Dao, then I’ll be able to perceive all the karmic threads of this universe.

“In the voidveil, the Deformed Sea becomes an ocean of falsehood. In such a place, cause and effect are reversed, and the truth is hidden. Only by seeing causality for what it is can we uncover the real truth, the world’s true face. That’s the only path left.”

Yan Yu looked at him for a long time, then finally nodded.

And so, a peaceful fusion began.

A dreamlike giant egg floated in the starry sky, glowing faintly like a cosmic embryo.

But this time, their fusion wasn’t meant to become the Heavenly Dao.

It was meant to birth a Seeker of the Dao.

The butterfly named Ah Ting had once fluttered its wings. And with that small motion, she had set the entire future of the universe on a different path. Now, after hundreds of thousands of years of quiet unfolding, that change had finally taken root. And it had begun to bear fruit.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A long time passed, then longer still.

Finally, the egg cracked open.

From it stepped Li Yuan, the Seeker of the Dao.

The world before him had already begun to shift.

He remembered this cycle of reincarnation, for reincarnation, too, was part of cause and effect.

Time could erase many things, but it could not erase causality, especially not high-order causality.

As long as high-order karma had been set in motion, then within that universe, no matter how the river of time shifted and twisted, it could never wash it away. Of course, if that universe were cast into a Greater Myriad Worlds, it would be another matter entirely.

For a first rank Seeker of the Dao, such karmic ties were invaluable, like gold in the hands of ordinary folk. In a word, they were enduring.

That was why Ah Ting had wanted to forge a good bond with Li Yuan. Because for someone on the level of a Seeker, good karma was almost impossibly rare.

If one couldn’t harvest a Dao Fruit, then making a friend who

could

was the next best thing.

Now, Li Yuan could no longer see time, but he

could

see karma. And it was a mess. It was a massive, tangled knot of causality wrapped around this universe like a cosmic snare.

He was a Seeker of the Dao in this universe. He had once been its Heavenly Dao.

He reached out a hand, slowly touching that knot of entangled cause and effect.

The drain on his power was unimaginable.

But the truth and a sliver of hope was right in front of him. How could he possibly stop now?

Bit by bit, the karmic threads began to loosen, and a crushing fatigue surged up to meet him again.

Even for a native-born Seeker of this universe, untying karma on this scale was anything but easy.

Still, Li Yuan held on.

The knot unraveled, little by little. The loop of time was coming undone.

And beneath it, something, someone, began to emerge.

“Zhao Yun! Zhao Yun! You’re awake?”

A woman’s voice, warm with concern, rang in his ears.

A wave of nausea surged up from his gut.

Li Yuan's body convulsed violently, jerking upright. Without thinking, he turned to the side of the bed and started vomiting.

The sudden movement yanked the IV line from his arm.

Clatter!

The IV stand toppled over with a crash.

A nearby nurse rushed forward to catch it.

But Li Yuan couldn’t stop. One heave wasn't enough. Another wave of vomit came. Everything he’d eaten at the reunion now reduced to sour, half-digested sludge splattered across the polished marble floor.

Someone was gently patting his back, trying to soothe him.

He didn’t have the strength to care who it was. He just curled back under the covers, trying to ride out the rolling waves of pain that wouldn’t let up.

“I’m sorry,” the woman said apologetically. “My son drank too much. I hope he isn’t causing too much trouble.”

The young nurse fetched a broom to clean up the mess. As she swept, she said kindly, “It’s alright, Auntie. Don’t worry.”

Then, a little baffled, she added, “Why’d he drink that much?”

The woman glanced at Li Yuan, a worried look in her eyes. She let out a sigh. “Who knows?”

The nurse asked, “Auntie, what does your son do for a living?”

The woman replied, “He’s in the meat supply business.”

The nurse took another look at Li Yuan. He had a soft, handsome face. Not bad-looking at all. She hesitated, then asked with a slight blush, “Is he...married?”

The woman blinked, then shook her head.

The young nurse had pulled Li Yuan’s mother aside and whispered with her for quite a while before the two finally returned, both wearing subtle, knowing expressions.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Several days passed.

Li Yuan had mostly recovered. Though his head still throbbed faintly when he bathed, there were no serious lingering issues.

He went home.

His mother, claiming that he’d only gotten drunk because no one was taking care of him, threw herself with fresh enthusiasm into arranging blind dates for him.

One day, in a hotel lobby, Li Yuan hurried in for yet another matchmaking appointment.

He sat down, only to freeze for a moment. The woman in the red dress sitting across from him looked oddly familiar.

She had a classic oval face, large expressive eyes, and a tall, graceful figure. Her features were gentle but not without presence. Every glance and smile carried a magnetic, almost regal charm. She looked a few years older than him, but that only added to the allure, a ripened peach at peak sweetness.

If this had happened back in the past, meeting a woman like her would’ve probably made him feel small, maybe even intimidated. But today, for reasons he couldn’t explain, she just felt...familiar.

Before he could speak, the woman gave him a bright, unbothered smile and asked, “Have we met before?”

Li Yuan suddenly relaxed. He grinned and replied, “Maybe you bought pork from me at the market.”

He didn’t just butcher pigs. He sometimes sold meat at the market too.

The woman laughed. “I’m Xue Ning. I work at Radiant Bank. My younger sister’s a nurse at Third Hospital. She met Auntie Wang there, and somehow ended up playing matchmaker. She told me,

You might just like someone like him.

So I came.”

Li Yuan scratched his head as it clicked into place. He smiled sheepishly and said, “So...do you?”

Xue Ning leaned in slightly, resting her chin in her hands. Her beautiful face carried a touch of teasing pressure.

“Want the honest truth?” she asked.

Li Yuan averted his gaze, pretended to focus on his food, and shoved a bite of meat into his mouth. He said casually, “We just met. What’s there to like or not like? Gotta spend time together to find out.”

Xue Ning said, “Then...”

She dragged out the word, her voice like a soft breeze just before a sudden rain.

Li Yuan’s chopsticks froze in mid-air.

Xue Ning smiled and said, “Then let’s spend time together.”

They chatted a bit more, though before long the conversation faded, and both of them turned to watch the television on the wall.

A breaking news segment interrupted the program, a piece on an archaeological discovery.

In Yanzhen, Yong City, a previously undiscovered tomb has been unearthed in Guaizi Village. Experts believe it may be the final resting place of the Yellow Emperor himself...

The screen cut to live footage of the dig site. Workers were bustling around a deep excavation pit. Someone lifted a newly unearthed bronze statue, carefully wrapped in gauze, and raised it high.

The lead archaeologist received the statue and, standing in front of the reporters, held it up for display.

As we can see, this bronze statue is incredibly lifelike, an exquisite example of craftsmanship. Clearly, even in ancient times, there were civilizations far more advanced than we might’ve imagined.”

“Professor Zhao, it looks like there are inscriptions here. Are these oracle bone characters? Or something else?

The man studied the markings closely, then smiled.

This is the script of an ancient dynasty that existed west of the Milky Way over three thousand years ago. This character here—

He paused for a long moment, eyes narrowing.

Yuan...

Author's Note

This isn’t the final chapter, more to come!