SQLJBFDTW Chapter 110

The black panther raised its tail, nimbly darting through the various pavilions of the Wuwu Sect. Yu Wei followed leisurely, reaching out and scooping the little panther into his arms.

Chao Jianxue looked at the building before him, his goal achieved. He yawned, his tail patting Yu Wei.

Yu Wei held him, his palm sliding from the cat’s ears to the back of its neck. Hearing the comfortable purring, he smiled contentedly and said, “Why run so fast? Do you want to go in here?”

Yes, yes! Chao Jianxue blinked his eyes earnestly, nuzzling Yu Wei’s chin affectionately.

Yu Wei chuckled, raising his eyes to the ancient building before him, bearing a stone plaque that read “Immortal Echo Pavilion.” It was the Wuwu Sect’s memorial to ascended immortals and departed disciples of the past.

Yu Wei said nothing, carrying Chao Jianxue up the steps and entering this long-sealed Immortal Echo Pavilion.

As soon as they entered the pavilion’s main doors, Chao Jianxue couldn’t wait to jump down. He landed on the floor, even echoing. He looked up. The ceiling of the Immortal Echo Pavilion was incredibly high, adorned with intricate images, well-preserved.

Chao Jianxue didn’t know the reason for the Wuwu Sect’s decline; anything could have happened in the past thousand years.

Inside the pavilion stood several stone statues, the portraits of the Wuwu Sect’s past sect leaders, elders, and ascended immortals. Chao Jianxue was short at the moment, and all the statues looked incredibly large.

He spotted the familiar figures of Lord Qishan and Lord Mu Yuan at a glance. He ran over, squatting down beneath the statues, trying hard to look up.

Yu Wei walked to his side, his tone calm. “This is my teacher. By today’s reckoning, it’s been over eight hundred years…”

Chao Jianxue felt very sad. He hoped everyone around him would be well, but eventually, there would be a day of parting.

Yu Wei stroked his head, as if sensing his feelings, and said, “Don’t be sad. All things have a day of dissolution.”

Chao Jianxue rubbed against the hem of his robe and didn’t look again, instead going to the other side.

He stopped in front of another familiar statue, glancing back at Yu Wei, who had also walked over.

It was Yu Wei’s jade immortal statue.

In the immortal statue, Yu Wei stood with his sword, his immortal bearing remarkably beautiful. He wore the most solemn formal attire, with a sash and crown, one hand holding his sword, the other holding a jade lotus, quietly bowing his head, like a Guanyin Bodhisattva from mythology, but incomparably dignified.

Chao Jianxue stared blankly, deeply captivated.

Yu Wei said, “It was erected after my ascension. My senior sisters dressed me up at the time; it was too extravagant.”

Not extravagant at all! Chao Jianxue protested. That’s exactly how he should dress!

If everything went smoothly later, he wanted to dress Yu Wei like this too.

Chao Jianxue looked at Yu Wei, then at the immortal statue, let out a “woof,” and rushed headfirst into the inner chamber on the other side.

He knew this place was where the belongings of deceased disciples were stored.

This world’s Chao Jianxue had no connection to the Dream Butterfly Manor, and Lord Qishan had already passed away. His belongings would naturally be stored here according to the rules.

Yu Wei didn’t have time to stop him. Chao Jianxue rushed into the inner chamber, where he saw rows of wooden cabinets, each labeled with a disciple’s name.

Chao Jianxue scanned quickly and finally spotted his name on one of the rows of cabinets.

He leaped up, displaying amazing climbing ability, his four paws frantically waving at the cabinet. Finally, with a “bang,” he pushed down the belongings that belonged to Chao Jianxue.

Yu Wei heard the commotion and came over. Chao Jianxue had already jumped down, sniffing at the fallen package, then sneezing from the rising dust.

He shook his head and tore open the package with his mouth.

Under the ravages of time, the cloth became fragile. Soon, the contents fell out, including a jade pendant engraved with Chao Jianxue’s name, a few gold rings, and something wrapped in another piece of cloth.

Yu Wei squatted down, picked up the jade pendant, and raised an eyebrow. “‘Chao Jianxue’?”

Chao Jianxue’s eyes lit up. Could it be that he still remembered him?

Then he heard Yu Wei say, “I remember him. He was considered my fellow disciple, but…”

He paused. Chao Jianxue anxiously “woofed,” almost able to speak human words.

“After his death, Lord Qishan actually became demonized, causing no small amount of trouble,” Yu Wei said, placing the jade pendant back.

Chao Jianxue’s whole body stiffened. Yu Wei didn’t seem to care about “Chao Jianxue.” He stood up and said to him, “Let’s go. We’re going back.”

Chao Jianxue didn’t give up. He shook the gold rings in his mouth, trying to attract Yu Wei’s attention. But Yu Wei only thought he liked playing with shiny things, and said gently, “I have a lot of things like this there. I’ll find them for you when we get back. Put it down.”

What an infuriating panther! They were fellow disciples, but Yu Wei was so indifferent.

Chao Jianxue let go of the gold rings and, in a fit of pique, went to bite the piece of cloth wrapping something, but his teeth collided with something hard, bringing tears to his eyes.

Yu Wei noticed and picked up the item, unfolding it. For some reason, he was somewhat dazed.

Since Chao Jianxue was below, he couldn’t see what it was, and repeated jumps only showed him a color, suspected to be a piece of jade.

Suddenly, he saw Yu Wei strangely reveal a smile, but it looked more like he was crying, his face extremely pale.

Chao Jianxue was panicked and quietly lowered his tail.

With a “clatter,” the thing fell to the ground. Yu Wei left the Immortal Echo Pavilion without looking back.

His movements were too fast; Chao Jianxue couldn’t keep up with how he was thinking. He stepped forward, trying to see what it was.

He pawed open the torn cloth and was stunned.

It was a jade pendant.

He was very familiar with it.

It was the jade pendant Yu Wei always wore, shaped like a lotus, with silver tassels hanging from it.

Past memories broke through the fog, and everything overlapped. Chao Jianxue remembered that when he first met Yu Wei, the reason he stared at the jade lotus pendant on his waist was that it felt familiar.

It turned out he had one too, which had been placed with his soul since he was a child, but later, as he grew up, he had forgotten it in some unknown box.

On the tattered cloth, faintly, was a marriage agreement.

The marriage agreement between the Yu family and the Ying family, which due to magic, clearly showed the names of the two: Chao Jianxue and Yu Wei—if two hearts are in accord, those of the same gender shall form a bond of gold and jade, bearing witness to the sincerity of friendship; those of different genders shall forge a bond of zither and lute, forming a partnership for eternity. With one heart, we embark on the path ahead, living up to this love, and never changing this agreement.

Yes, Madam Ying had mentioned this relationship at the Dream Butterfly Manor.

Chao Jianxue steadied himself and quickly ran out.

Yu Wei was indeed under the pear tree outside the Qingxue Abode.

Chao Jianxue came close to him, but didn’t approach, stopping in place.

Yu Wei stroked the rough tree trunk, and when he saw him coming, he chuckled softly, “I just didn’t expect that I was supposed to have such a relationship. When my senior brother saw my jade pendant, I should have paid more attention, but I didn’t do anything.”

“When I first saw him, I actually thought he was very beautiful, but he was too timid, like a porcelain doll,” he murmured, his voice as thin as silk, “It turns out that he was supposed to be my confidant, my… Dao companion…”

He was supposed to be the last connection of the Yu family, the closest person given by fate.

But the person was dead, dead when they were both ignorant, and there was no chance to make amends.

“Tell me,” Yu Wei’s gaze was empty, looking at the little panther, yet seeming to see nothing, “What did I cultivate immortality for in my life? What did I get?”

Was it to see the profound truth realm full of malice, to be all alone?

Chao Jianxue was startled.

A trace of demonic energy had begun to gather around Yu Wei.

After ascending to immortality, no one from ancient times to the present could resist the erosion of time; the long years would infinitely stretch out the loneliness until it was swallowed whole.

Chao Jianxue approached him and was picked up. A faint, cool fragrance surrounded him as he heard him murmur, “Will you be with me?”

“…”

Yu Wei understood and laughed at himself, “You will die one day too…”

Speaking of this, he suddenly stopped.

A violent shock to his mind cleared Yu Wei’s mind from the repetitive erosion of the days. He stroked the silky fur in his hand, narrowing his eyes.

“…Why haven’t you changed after all these years?”

He finally realized something was wrong!

Chao Jianxue abruptly looked up.

Yu Wei watched the little panther’s mouth open and close, clearly speaking human words.

“Yu Wei—wake up!”

Wake up—

Yu Wei released his hand, his mind shaken.

He stared blankly as the little panther lightly landed back on the ground, under the pear tree, as snowflakes fluttered down, blurring his vision.

The black fur transformed into cloud-like dark hair, and his clothes trailed on the ground. Those dark beast pupils also transformed into human eyes, like two black pearls submerged in water.

Wake up—

He held his sword in his right hand, and the Bright Thousand Miles bloomed with a brilliant light, striking at the demonic shadows around Yu Wei with one blow.

Sword light, snow flying, and cold surged towards Yu Wei in an instant, but he only raised his hand blankly, grabbing the hand Chao Jianxue extended, tightly clasping his fingers.

In that instant, Chao Jianxue saw many things in their shared gaze.

That was the ending of the original world.

Yu Wei, who had ascended to become a true immortal, witnessed the repeated decline of the Profound Truth Realm in the long years.

It turned out that the path he had taken was wrong, that the Profound Truth Realm needed the existence of demonic energy to maintain balance with all things and the immortal path. The current Profound Truth Realm was beyond saving and could no longer be restored.

Why did he walk to this day step by step?

As if there was a pusher behind him, making him follow the steps on this road.

Why did the immortal sects quickly decline after his ascension, leaving only him?

It was like the end of a story, with everyone instantly exiting.

If that person named “Chao Jianxue” hadn’t died in the first place, would everything have been different?

——”System error, detected 《Seeking Immortality Online》world protagonist Yu Wei’s consciousness awakening, the system is attempting to correct…”

——”Correction failed, an important component of the world, “Profound Truth Realm,” is destroyed, opening a parallel branch…”

——”Important characters have been corrected… the branch is experiencing turbulence… the individual “Li Zhenzhen”, the individual “Chao Jianxue” is in error… correction failed…”

——”System error, unable to correct, the world has broken free of control…”

A large segment of cold, mechanical voices flowed through Chao Jianxue’s sea of consciousness. He was stunned. If he didn’t have half of his soul from a technological world different from this one, he wouldn’t have understood what this meant.

The ice shattered inch by inch. He looked at Yu Wei, and Yu Wei looked at him. Entering the Dream Butterfly transformed into light points between them, dissipating into the converging gazes.

While Chao Jianxue was stunned, Yu Wei reached out, and the overlapping ice lotus petals shattered. He pulled Chao Jianxue into his arms, trembling, burying his head in his neck, and calling, “Shixiong… I thought… I thought you were dead… dead a hundred years ago…”

Chao Jianxue was still fairly calm. He cupped Yu Wei’s face and looked at it, far less inviolable than the true immortal in his dreams, and finally confirmed that he had woken up, and they had both woken up from the dream.

He understood many things in a short moment. If Li Zhenzhen had strayed into this world in the turbulence, then he had returned to this world under the traction of Yu Wei’s will.

Then the beginning of everything had an answer.

“I understand. The demonic energy wants you to become demonized like you in the previous parallel world, so there is such a nightmare,” Chao Jianxue said. “It was you in the previous world who became demonized and slaughtered the Profound Truth Realm, not you in this world, so it can be changed! It can definitely be changed!”

Yu Wei didn’t understand what he meant by “parallel world.” He only looked at Chao Jianxue’s non-stop moving lips, and another demonic voice sounded, this time Chao Jianxue heard it too.

“Do you really think he likes you? He will only become your Dao companion in order to survive! When everything settles down, he will leave you…”

Before the demonic voice could finish its last-ditch effort, Chao Jianxue suddenly went berserk, and Bright Thousand Miles transformed into a curved scythe, smashing the surrounding black qi that wouldn’t dissipate.

He grabbed Yu Wei’s collar and said, gnashing his teeth, “Yu Wei, listen to me! The reason I, Chao Jianxue, like you now is not because you are the protagonist, not in order to survive, I just like you! You’re good in every way! I like everything you do! The reason I want to kiss you and sleep with you and do everything a Dao companion should do is because I like you! I admit I lied to you before, but I super-duper like you now! Do you remember!”

Yu Wei’s mouth was slightly open in surprise, his eyes like stars. Chao Jianxue saw his own drenched and embarrassed appearance in them, but it was contained in the eyes of his lover, unparalleled.

At the same time, outside the cave.

The crowd who had exhausted all their efforts were silent. Half of the cave door had been pried open, and cold air whistled out, freezing them stiff.

Nan Shan chuckled drily, “Did I hear wrong again? Haha… my ears really haven’t been working lately…”

Qiu Shui said calmly, “No, you didn’t hear wrong.”

Mu Yuan pondered, “Mm…”

Li Zhenzhen: “…”

Li Zhenzhen really wanted to kneel down to the two unrestrained people inside.