441: Chapter 441 The Disappearance of Liu Ruyan

Liu Ruyan turned around and looked towards the Void Realm: "If you can find that seed and awaken it, his dark power will instantly collapse. Not weakened, not suppressed, but collapsed."

Tianxin asked: "How can we find it?"

Liu Ruyan did not speak. She raised her hand towards the sky, and a silver-white light condensed into a tiny dot of light in her palm. The light was very weak, as if it would go out with a gust of wind, yet it shone stubbornly.

"This is the mark he left for me. He was afraid I would get lost in the Void Realm, so he left it specifically to guide me. He can sense the location of this mark. When you get close to him, I can help you find where the core of his true body is." Liu Ruyan gently blew the dot of light into Tianxin's sleeve. "When you find him and awaken that seed of kindness, tell him... I do not hate him. I never did."

The morning mist was dispersing. The peddler's cries came from the foot of the mountain; the town had fully awakened.

Yang Tie-zhu walked out of his house with his book bag on his back, heading towards the private school. He walked to the old banyan tree at the entrance of the town, paused for a moment, looked back at what was behind him, but saw nothing. He shook his head and continued walking.

Liu Ruyan watched his back disappear into the alley. She had waited seven hundred years, hated for seven hundred years, obsessed with the apologies and liberation of seven lifetimes of karmic entanglements. In the end, she discovered that the only person she owed in those seven lifetimes was the one who had died in the dungeon while whispering her name.

And in this lifetime, he was just a child who did not need her apology, nor did he need any repayment from her. She could only stand among the branches of the old banyan tree before the moon set, watching him go to study, to grow up, and to live this life well.

On the third morning after the seventh lifetime concluded, everyone returned to the Wuxiang Sect.

Luo Li, Su Ning, and Chu Lan returned from the eastern front, covered in dust. As soon as Chu Lan reached the mountain gate, she headed straight for the Spirit Plant Garden to see how the batch of anti-poison Spirit Plant she had planted before leaving was growing. Luo Li sat on the stone steps outside the mountain gate, cradling the flowing sound zither, adjusting the strings that had loosened due to the rain on the journey. Su Ning stood beside her with her eyes closed, holding a Spatial Crystal in her hand, inputting the Void Realm coordinates collected over the past few days.

Gao Feng returned from the western front with Yao Guang and Lin Yue. One of Lin Yue's Formation Plate had shattered on the last leg of the journey, and he was squatting in the plaza repairing it. Yao Guang was carrying a medicine chest, which contained the remaining Medicinal Pill from the past few days, counting them as she walked. Tianxin returned alone from the last location on the southern front, the Spirit Fox perched on her shoulder, its silver markings glowing faintly in the morning light. Hidden in her sleeve was that silver-white mark—the connection between Liu Ruyan and the Lord, and also the key to their future entry into the Shadow Palace.

The seven of them gathered at the summit of Lingxiao Peak.

The morning mist still lingered in the mountains, and sunlight leaked through the gaps in the clouds, illuminating the stone floor of the peak in patches of light and shadow.

Tianxin placed the Spirit Fox into her shadow, and the Spirit Fox curled up and closed its eyes. Liu Ruyan's phantom drifted out from her sleeve, hovering above the peak. Her figure was more transparent than ever before, almost like a ray of light condensed from the morning mist itself. However, her face was clearer than before; the sorrow between her brows had dissipated, replaced by a calmness that comes from seeing through the ways of the world. The black Qi had completely dispersed, leaving only a silver-white light in the shape of a person, as if formed by moonlight.

Chu Lan ran up from the Spirit Plant Garden, still clutching a handful of seeds she hadn't had time to plant. She ran to Liu Ruyan, looked up at the light, opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out; her eyes just turned red.

Luo Li walked up to Liu Ruyan with the flowing sound zither in her arms. She didn't play, just stood there quietly, as if waiting for Liu Ruyan to speak. Su Ning unfolded a Void Realm star map, which she had drawn after repeatedly deducing the location of the Shadow Palace over the past few days. The map only had vague markings, not precise coordinates—that was the limit of what the Space-Time Deduction Technique could calculate; anything further required on-site exploration. She handed the star map to Gao Feng and whispered: "According to the information provided by Liu Ruyan and the coordinates of the Spirit Gathering Array left behind by General Zhao Wuji before he dissipated, the location of the Shadow Palace is roughly in this area. The margin of error won't be too large, but it won't be small either."

Liu Ruyan hovered above the peak, her gaze sweeping over everyone's face. She looked at Gao Feng's steady eyes, at Luo Li's fingers stroking the zither, at the Spatial Crystal in Su Ning's hand, at the yawning Spirit Fox on Tianxin's shoulder, at Chu Lan's reddened eyes, at the cyan light condensing in Yao Guang's palm, and at the shattered Formation Plate that Lin Yue was repairing.

She spoke softly: "Meeting you all is the greatest blessing of my thousand years of drifting in the Void Realm."

Chu Lan's tears finally fell. She wiped her face messily with the back of the hand holding the seeds, trying to hold them back, but the more she wiped, the more tears flowed. Yao Guang put an arm around her shoulder without saying a word.

"Don't cry." Liu Ruyan looked down at Chu Lan, her voice as light as the wind, "After I dissipate, I will return to the world. Perhaps I will be reincarnated, perhaps I will turn into grass or trees, or perhaps there will no longer be a person named Liu Ruyan. But I have existed, and someone remembers me; that is enough."

She drifted down slowly from mid-air, stood in front of Chu Lan, and reached out to touch her cheek. The silver-white light passed through Chu Lan's skin, touching nothing. Yet Chu Lan felt it—not temperature, not texture, but a sense of being watched with tenderness.

"Let's go." Liu Ruyan retracted her hand and turned to Gao Feng, "Take me to that place. I want to see the place where he lived one last time, and then I will dissipate."

Su Ning closed the star map. Tianxin summoned the Spirit Fox from her shadow, and the Spirit Fox carried Liu Ruyan's lingering soul, turning into a streak of silver light and darting into the Void Realm. Gao Feng ordered: "Everyone, entering the Void Realm for the last time. After this, Liu Ruyan's obsession will be gone, and we must also begin preparations to fight the Lord."

Chu Lan stuffed the handful of seeds into her sleeve, brushed the dirt off her robes, and took a deep breath. Luo Li checked the strings and slung the flowing sound zither on her back. Su Ning embedded the Spatial Crystal into the eye of the teleportation Formation, and the Formation patterns lit up one by one. Tianxin stuffed the last two Void Realm positioning talismans into her sleeve. Yao Guang distributed the Medicinal Pill bottles to everyone. Lin Yue patted the newly repaired Formation Plate, and the Rock Demon Phantom flickered behind him. Lin Jingyu and Situ Lan remained behind to guard the Sect in case of emergency.

A silver-white light gate slowly opened on the summit of Lingxiao Peak.

Su Ning stepped in first, Gao Feng second, and the rest followed one after another.

There is no direction in the Void Realm.

The Spirit Fox led the way, and Liu Ruyan's phantom hovered beside it. She didn't need to point the way; she simply sensed the mark left by the Lord with her body, leading the nine of them through the gray-white mist. The mist was sometimes thick and sometimes thin, and Shadow Beasts wandered in the distance, veering away as soon as they sensed the aura of the nine people.

I don't know how much time passed before a massive shadow appeared ahead. That shadow was vast, more expansive than any Void Realm region they had seen before, almost boundless. Within the shadow, the outlines of buildings were vaguely visible—tall towers, city walls, palaces, and a straight stone path extending from the edge of the shadow deep into the interior.

Liu Ruyan's phantom stopped.

"This is it." She looked at the shadow, her voice as calm as stagnant water, "The Shadow Palace."

She had lived there for who knows how many years. The boudoir the Lord had built for her was exactly the same as a boudoir in the human world—a rosewood bed, a dressing table with a bronze mirror, and bed curtains embroidered with mandarin ducks. The Lord did not come often; sometimes he came every few months, sometimes every few years. He never forced her to do anything; he just sat there, keeping her company. Occasionally he would say a few words, telling her about things he had seen in the depths of the Void Realm, or about his life before he died. As she listened, she would sometimes become immersed in some distant memory, falling into a frenzy of hatred. He accompanied her through countless moments of clarity and madness, keeping her company for who knows how many years.

Tianxin retrieved the Spirit Fox into her shadow, and Liu Ruyan's phantom shrank into a ball of light the size of a fist, hovering in Tianxin's palm. Su Ning took a Spatial Crystal from her sleeve and carefully placed the ball of light inside.

"Let's go." Gao Feng's voice was low, but it made everyone tense up.

The nine of them stepped into the territory of the Shadow Palace.

There was no alarm in the Void Realm, no Shadow Beasts pouncing, and no obstruction whatsoever. The Shadow Palace seemed to be asleep, without any precautions.

Su Ning's spatial perception was fully extended, and she thought to herself: "No traps, no Shadow Beasts, not even patrolling shadows. The Lord is not here, or he deliberately opened the door to let us in."

"It might be a trap." Lin Yue's voice came from the back of the team, the Rock Demon Phantom already appearing behind him.

"It might also be that he doesn't take us seriously at all." Gao Feng walked in the front, his vajra sword unsheathed, the golden sword light forcing back the shadows ahead.

Luo Li's fingers rested on the strings, the sound of the zither flowing through the Void Realm. She was using the music to detect the spiritual energy fluctuations in the Shadow Palace, providing early warning for the whole team.

Yao Guang walked in the center of the team, cyan light condensing in her palm. Chu Lan gripped the Iron Thorn seeds tightly and whispered to Tianxin walking beside her: "What do you think Liu Ruyan actually meant to the Lord?"

Tianxin was silent for a moment: "It wasn't her that he needed, but her hatred. But she was still the only light in his long, long life."

The outline of the palace became clearer and clearer. It was a massive black structure, formed entirely of condensed shadows; there were no bricks, no wood, only surging shadows. The main gate was wide open, and behind the gate was a long corridor. On both sides of the corridor, every few steps, there was a shadow lamp, the flames black, burning silently in the Void Realm. At the end of the corridor was a great hall; there was no furniture in the hall, only a throne, and on the throne lay a dark red cape.

Liu Ruyan's lingering soul drifted out from the Spatial Crystal. She drifted around the hall, stroking the armrests of the throne, touching the frayed edges of the cape.

Tianxin asked softly: "Where do you want to go to take a look?"

Liu Ruyan drifted towards the side hall of the great hall. The door to the side hall was ajar, and she pushed it open and entered. Inside was a boudoir, with a rosewood bed, a dressing table with a bronze mirror, and bed curtains embroidered with mandarin ducks.

Exactly the same as in the human world.

She had lived here for who knows how many years, and the dreams she had were all about the bitterness of the human world. At this moment, she stood by her own bed, and those dreams could no longer trap her.