Volume 4: Immeasurable
I am willing to save her.
The scene within the Picture Realm1 shifted again. When their vision cleared, everyone had followed Chao Yun’s memory to a completely unfamiliar mountain forest.
She was trapped inside a small formation, unable to escape no matter what she tried. All she could do was wait.
And in that agonizing wait, the person she longed for finally appeared, but she was covered in wounds, a picture of utter misery.
“You…”
“I don’t need your concern,” Yusu said, leaning against a tree beside her.
“Who hurt you?”
Yusu let out a cold laugh and shot back, “Why don’t you ask who I hurt?”
Chao Yun frowned. Her gaze wavered for a moment, but she asked a question similar to her first. “How did you get so badly injured…?”
Perhaps, on that day, the fact that Chao Yun didn’t ask who Yusu had hurt was the greatest tenderness the goddess had shown her in a thousand years.
Yusu was likely the easiest person in the world to please. Even after being cast out long ago, even after a millennium of watching from afar earned her not a single glance in return.
But at that moment, her heart—long ago scorched to ash by the fires of jealousy—couldn’t help but tremble, beginning to beat once more from within those cold cinders.
And so, Chao Yun saw the look in Yusu’s eyes change.
The near-maniacal desperation was gone. For a moment, it was as if everything had returned to how it was all those years ago.
Yusu asked softly, “Can you cast everything aside and come back with me?”
Chao Yun hesitated. “If I stay with you, I will surely bring you disaster…”
But Yusu seemed not to hear, pressing on. “Can you do it?”
Silence. After a silence that stretched for dozens of seconds, Chao Yun’s eyes reddened. Mustering courage from some unknown place, she gave a small nod.
“If you are not afraid,” she said, “then neither am I.”
Yusu paused, looking as if she wanted to move closer, but in the end, she kept her distance.
Her mouth opened, but the words wouldn’t come.
Seeing the growing haze in Yusu’s eyes, Chao Yun felt a surge of worry but didn’t know how to offer comfort.
After another long silence, Yusu lowered her gaze and said softly, “Can I trust you?”
Trust between them had been lost long ago.
How could a wicked demon believe that this goddess, who held all living beings in her heart, could ever truly belong to someone as filthy and lowly as herself?
What’s fake can never be real. Unworthy is unworthy.
Once the Golden Crow and Fusang successfully passed their tribulation, if Chao Yun wanted to leave, how could she possibly stop her?
Chao Yun quietly gazed at the bleeding wounds on the person before her, her own reddened eyes hardening inch by inch with resolve.
After what felt like an eternity, she suddenly looked up and said softly, “If you don’t believe me, perhaps you can alter my memory.”
You can make me, in this fragment of memory, be deeply in love with you, she said.
This is my own choice, she said. If one day I remember everything, I will not blame you, nor will I forget… that in a time I could not speak of, I deeply, truly loved you.
Whether it was real or fake, if Yusu couldn’t obtain the power of a Heavenly Demon,2 this was their only chance to be together.
On that day, as if possessed, Yusu did exactly as Chao Yun said. Right in front of her, she wove a beautiful, hollow reality that had only ever existed in her dreams.
She would hide her, imprison her, until the day she could no longer force her to stay.
It was a final indulgence before the apocalypse.
They both knew this was an unforgivable sin, yet they smiled as they flew into the flame like moths.
Even so, Yusu never truly claimed the goddess she adored.
During their brief time together on Snake Mountain, she never stopped cradling her in the palm of her hand, not daring to so much as touch her more than necessary.
She was afraid. Afraid that when Chao Yun awoke, she would regret it.
She was afraid. Afraid that her own blood-stained hands were not clean.
She had her, and yet she never truly had her.
If it weren’t for this, she wouldn’t have understood until this very moment that she truly was unworthy.
But what did being unworthy matter? The obsession in her life had already run too deep. She feared she could not take a single step back before her life met its end.
All the images, along with the Picture Realm itself, blurred at that moment.
Finally, it dissolved into a wisp of inky spiritual light, then vanished like smoke.
Everyone was still seated around the round table, and Chao Yun was still sitting quietly on the edge of the bed.
There were no more interrogations in the room. Every single person was silent.
The first sound to break the silence was the clink of You Yan’s teapot against a cup, followed by the soft splash of tea being poured.
She nonchalantly took a sip, and without even finishing, passed the cup to a stunned Yi Qiu beside her.
Yi Qiu accepted it dazedly. She glanced down and, without thinking, drank the rest of the tea, her lips tracing a faint rouge mark on the rim.
Then, clutching the cup, she felt a wave of confusion and helplessness.
“I think it’s almost dawn. Yue Zhuo and I will go prepare some breakfast for everyone,” Jian Li said, gently tugging on Yue Zhuo’s sleeve. The two of them scurried out of the incredibly awkward room.
Xun Chi, sitting to the side, frowned. He was clearly uncomfortable but remained firmly in his seat.
This matter concerned both the Heavenly and Mortal Realms. Though he was a Scattered God3 hiding among mortals, he couldn’t just ignore it completely.
After an unknown amount of time, You Yan asked softly, “Wood God, what are your plans from now on?”
Listening nearby, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but scream 6664 in her heart. The bird woman is truly the bird woman, not a single word of bullshit.5 She gets right to it, opening the door to see the mountain.6
You Yan wasn’t like Xun Chi, full of excessive benevolence. Nor was she like Luo Mingyuan and Jiang Yuyao, torn between their own hatred and Chao Yun’s choice.
She only wanted to know what Chao Yun would choose, and how that choice would affect her little alpaca’s mission.
As for things like saving face, she couldn’t be bothered to leave even a shred of it.
She had asked the question everyone wanted to ask but didn’t dare. Now, it was all up to the one being asked.
In an instant, all eyes focused on Chao Yun once more.
This time, Chao Yun’s expression finally showed a flicker of change.
Her fingers clenched the blanket on her lap, her brow, beaded with cold sweat, furrowed tightly. A struggle raged in her eyes.
But she didn’t remain silent for long before she spoke, her voice hoarse.
“I am willing to save her.” Her voice was a mere whisper.
“At any cost?” You Yan pressed.
“I’ve said it before. This all began because of me.” Chao Yun looked down with a bitter smile. “If I hadn’t been so self-righteously convinced I was doing what was best for her, never once considering her own thoughts and feelings, she would never have become what she is today.”
“So?”
“I am willing to bear all of it, together with her.” As Chao Yun spoke, an unbreakable resolve filled her eyes. “If she is the one most beyond saving among all living beings, if her sins are unforgivable, then I am an accomplice, a sinner as well.”
She said that because she had desperately tried to have it all, she had already hurt her too much. This time, she had to make a choice.
She would go and save her, even if the path ahead is a mountain of knives and a sea of fire,7 or a Boundless Purgatory.
If she could not be saved, then she would die with her, an apology to all living beings.8
“If you make this choice, perhaps the next time we meet, we will no longer be friends,” Jiang Yuyao said softly.
“Then you need not show me any mercy,” Chao Yun replied, the corners of her pale lips lifting into a slight smile. “Not just in the future. You can start today.”
A single tear slid from her eye and down her cheek. When it was gone, only resolve remained.
She couldn’t forgive Yusu on anyone’s behalf. The only thing she could do, perhaps, was just as Yusu had done for her: turn her back on everyone and stand firmly by her side.
She couldn’t help but look toward Yi Qiu, her eyes curving into a gentle smile.
“Thank you. You are the one who made me believe that no one in this world is beyond saving.”
“Me?”
Yi Qiu froze, wishing she could write a giant “WRONGED!” across her forehead, which already felt covered in question marks. She was terrified that in the next second, that little pig trotter9 and Jiang Yuyao would pin the blame for Chao Yun’s “betrayal” squarely on her.
But when she thought about it, it was true.
The novel’s biggest villain was, at this very moment, sitting right beside them…
“But, but…” Yi Qiu stammered.
If the Wood God really abandons all living beings for one person, just like in the novel, then the world will be plunged into endless suffering, and all sorts of strange Ferocious Beasts will be resurrected in the chaos…
【Ding—】
At a time like this, what is this treasure suddenly dinging for?
【Congratulations to the Host for successfully reaching the final node. Having achieved all objectives, you may now take the generous reward promised by this System at the very beginning back to the modern world!】
Yi Qiu: ???
What’s going on? Could it be that the Wood God falling to the demonic path was also one of the unavoidable nodes?
【Mhm.】
It even had the audacity to ‘mhm’ at her…
Well, I’ll be damned. No wonder I’ve been so directionless this whole time. So after all this, this damn main storyline was waiting for me right here!
The author has something to say:
End of Volume Four. Good night, everyone.
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