“I’m back, sister!”
“Eh?”
Shui Meiyin noticed that the atmosphere was off the second she descended outside the room.
Shui Yingyue was frowning deeply, and her aura exuded deep disturbance. Shui Qianheng was standing next to her with a serious expression on his face as well.
Yun Che was nowhere to be seen.
“What happened?” Shui Meiyin asked as a bad feeling rose in her heart.
“I’m the one who should be asking you that.” Shui Yingyue exhaled slowly. “What happened to Yun Che?”
Shui Meiyin strode forward and caught Shui Yingyue’s sleeve. “You first, sister! What happened?”
It was because Shui Yingyue’s expression was a mixture of puzzlement, worry and indignation.
“He… he used a most despicable method to confuse me before taking temporary control of my soul using a strange method. Then, he asked me a couple of questions.”
“… !!” Shui Meiyin’s heart sank.
“What… what question?” Her voice grew a tad weaker.
Shui Yingyue’s soul was powerful, so she was able to recall the short period she had lost her senses perfectly after calming down. “He asked me that question you repeatedly reminded us to prepare for in the past two years… about whether you had left his side while he was unconscious.”
Shui Meiyin’s lips quivered visibly.
“And… how… did you answer him?” Shui Meiyin asked a bit dazedly.
She knew about Yun Che’s Profound Handle Soul Search, and she knew that the affected person couldn’t lie while they were under the effect.
“The truth… that you never left,” Shui Yingyue replied. “He also asked if you told us how to answer in case he brought up that question, and I answered yes.”
Shui Meiyin: “…”
“He asked me the same question before,” Shui Qianheng said seriously. “I remembered what you said to me and told him that there was a time you had temporarily left his side… but it looks like he didn’t believe me.”
“Meiyin,” Shui Qianheng asked solemnly despite his daughter’s increasingly pale complexion, “Can you still not tell us what these questions are about? Yingyue had said that he looked like he had lost his soul when he left the room… and I can hardly believe there’s anything left in this world that can affect him like that.”
“…” Shui Meiyin moved her lips, but it took her a while to finally exhale her next question, “Did he… did he ask if I left before he was delivered to the Glazed Light Realm?”
“No,” Shui Yingyue answered without hesitation.
However, Shui Meiyin’s face grew even whiter.
“I understand… I’ll go look for him. Don’t come after us.”
Shui Meiyin left the room after those parting words. She looked exactly the same as Yun Che had.
For a long time, Shui Qianheng and Shui Yingyue could only exchange silent glances with each other.
…………
Beneath a tall, dry, ancient and wilted tree, Yun Che sat quietly while gazing into the distance.
A couple of dead leaves would occasionally fall on top of his head, but they were instantly blown away or crushed to pieces by his chaotic aura.
Shui Meiyin bit her lips as she slowly walked toward him. Her footsteps sounded unsettling on the thick, dead leaves.
After she arrived next to him, she stared at one side of his face and called out silently, “Big Brother… Yun Che.”
Yun Che didn’t turn his head to face her. He continued staring forward as he began in a hoarse voice, “You provided a proper explanation to all of my doubts and contradictions. You tried to make a vicious oath to convince me of your words, and your final explanation is something that I cannot refute even now.”
“But even so, I wasn’t able to convince myself… Do you know why?”
“It’s because everything we had talked about up to this point falls under suspicion or possibility… except one. I knew for certain that you lied to me about that one thing.”
“…” Shui Meiyin bit her lips even harder. She knew what Yun Che was talking about, and she had in fact worked to fix that flaw in her lie a long time ago. In the end though, it wasn’t…
Yun Che continued, “Back when you were explaining everything to me, you told me in no uncertain terms that you had teleported the Blue Pole Star to the Southern Divine Region after the news of my transformation into a devil person and the subsequent manhunt was spread throughout the Primal Chaos… after that, an unconscious me was delivered to the Glazed Light Realm.” [1]
“However, I knew that the Blue Pole Star couldn’t have been teleported to the Southern Divine Region during that time.”
“I… I…” Shui Meiyin sounded like she was about to cry, but she knew that no amount of explanation would be enough at this point.
“Wuxin had engraved that scene with the Eternal Imagery Stone at Floating Cloud City,” Yun Che said with absolute certainty. He couldn’t mistake his own hometown. “As the small city of a lower realm, Floating Cloud City follows an incredibly strict and rapid day-night cycle.”
“The Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor was the one who chose her own time to leave, and she informed me about it very quickly. If I were to translate that time to Profound Sky Continent time, it should be in the Zi Hours (between 11 pm to 1 am), in other words during the night at Floating Cloud City.”
“I was betrayed the moment the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor left the Primal Chaos. The Void Illusion Stone Qianying used to knock me out then teleported me to where Luo Changsheng and Huo Poyun were.”
“Thanks to Wuyao’s Soul Stealing, I was able to read the memories the Sword Sovereign had sealed away in Luo Changsheng’s mind. It was how I knew that I was saved by Huo Poyun. I also knew the exact time and star realm where they had encountered me.”
“At full speed, it would only take Huo Poyun two hours or so to deliver me from that star realm to the Glazed Light Realm.”
“The Profound Sky Continent would have just entered the Chou Hours (between 1 am to 3 am) by then. Even if Huo Poyun, for whatever reason, only traveled at half his top speed and took four whole hours to deliver me to Glazed Light Realm, it still wouldn’t be daytime at Floating Cloud City.”
“If you had teleported the Blue Pole Star before I was delivered to the Glazed Light Realm, then the phenomenon Wuxin engraved should’ve happened at night.”
“However, the Eternal Imagery Stone made it clear that it had happened… during the daytime.”
The purple flash, the soul-imbued barrier, the Illusory Glazed Light Jades… he could’ve hypnotized himself to believe all of her explanations…
But this one confirmed lie… was enough to destroy everything.
Shui Meiyin’s lip was almost bleeding at this point, but she still didn’t refute a single word. She couldn’t.
Even if she could convince herself to lie and say, “Who knows, maybe Huo Poyun did take four to six hours to make it to the Glazed Light Realm, and he took a nap somewhere in the middle?” it would only take Yun Che a bit of effort to confirm the time he was delivered to the Glazed Light Realm.
Shui Qianheng knew about it, Shui Yingyue knew about it, Huo Poyun knew about it… if Yun Che put his mind to it, he could even confirm the exact instant he had arrived in the Glazed Light Realm.
“On my way here, I told myself again and again it was just a slip of the tongue or a misremembered memory… that you had teleported the Blue Pole Star after I arrived in the Glazed Light Realm.”
“In order to prove that my impossibly flimsy theory was true, I even asked for confirmation from your father… and he gave me the answer I wanted. He told me that you had left for a short period when I was unconscious.”
“However…” Yun Che closed his eyes and slowed his voice. “My Meiyin is such an incredibly smart and scrupulous girl. You may not know a thing about the Profound Sky Continent back then, but you have visited it enough for the past two years to become familiar with its various characteristics and features. You would’ve found out that its day-night cycle, weather, seasonal changes and more were almost exactly identical to when it was still in the Eastern Divine Region.”
“You wouldn’t grow complacent either. That secret you buried in your heart would never allow you to do so.”
“It was a matter of time before a smart girl like you realized the flaw in your lie. When the phenomenon had happened, practically everyone in Floating Sky City could confirm that it had happened during the daytime… when you compared it to the time you had supposedly performed the feat though, you realized that it should’ve been nighttime in Floating Cloud City.”
“It would be difficult for you to explain yourself if one day for whatever reason, I found out about this.”
“The possibility was very low, but you’re not someone who would let something like this go without trying to fix it. You began thinking of a way to fix your lie. Perhaps you could say that you misspoke, and that you really teleported the Blue Pole Star while I was unconscious? Perhaps you even spoke with your father and your sister so that they would corroborate your lie?”
“That is why I didn’t believe your father’s answer immediately. When I was alone with your sister, I used the Profound Handle Soul Search to ensure that the answer I got would be the absolute truth.”
Shui Meiyin already knew what had happened after that.
When Shui Meiyin had told the “truth” to Yun Che, she had purposely mentioned that she had teleported the Blue Pole Star to the Southern Divine Region before he was delivered to the Glazed Light Realm to cover this up… it was because she knew that she hadn’t taken a single step away from Yun Che during the period he was unconscious. Both Shui Qianheng and Shui Yingyue could attest to that.
She never imagined that it would become the biggest flaw in her lie.
No, thanks to Yun Che’s Profound Handle Soul Search, even her attempts to fix that flaw had become ironclad proof that she had lied.
“The Blue Pole Star couldn’t possibly have been teleported before I was delivered to the Glaze Light Realm… but when I was unconscious in the Glazed Light Realm, you didn’t take a single step away from me… not only that, you expressly told your father and sister to lie in case I asked…”
Yun Che had to take a moment to calm his breathing. “As matters stand… are you still going to lie to me, Meiyin? ”
Shui Meiyin slowly sat down beside Yun Che and hugged his arm. From time to time, her thin shoulders would shake as if she was sobbing. She couldn’t say anything for a long time.
When she realized that the lie encompassing her older sister, her father and herself had been revealed, she knew then… that she could no longer even feign ignorance.
Yun Che finally turned toward her and placed both hands on her shoulders. “Tell me. The person whom the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor gave the World Piercer and the World-Defying Heaven Manual… it was Xia Qingyue… right? Tell me!”
Afraid to meet his eyes, Shui Meiyin shook her head strongly before saying in a near-begging voice, “Can you stop your questions here, Big Brother Yun Che? Please… just treat all of this as a dream… and believe that she is still that vile woman who wanted to hurt and kill you… please…”
“Kill me… hurt me…” Yun Che’s voice started shaking, his expression growing more and more painful. “But she’s Qingyue… how could she do either of those things…?”
He still remembered the two times Xia Qingyue had tried to kill him. The first time had happened in front of the Wall of Primal Chaos, and the second time had happened outside the “destroyed” Blue Pole Star. Both times, she had done something odd.
She had summoned the Purple Pylon Divine Sword and wreathed it in an extraordinary amount of Purple Pylon divine power.
Xia Qingyue was the almighty Moon God Emperor at the time, and he was just a lowly Divine King. If Xia Qingyue had really wanted to kill him, forget the Purple Pylon Divine Sword or the absurd amount of power she had summoned, she could’ve done it with the merest flick of a finger.
At the time, everyone thought that it was just Xia Qingyue showing everyone just how resolved she was at slaying a devil person and cutting ties with Yun Che.
All of them, including himself, believed that she wanted to kill him with the most ruthless power she was able to wield and leave not even a speck of him behind.
However…
If she was the master of the World Piercer…
If she had unleashed the terrific Purple Pylon divine power to hide the World Piercer’s crimson glow…
If she had planned to send him away with the World Piercer right before the purple power of the Purple Pylon Divine Sword struck…!
The World Piercer’s spatial teleportation was seamless and leaves no traces behind. With the Purple Pylon divine power as cover, no one would suspect that the vanished Yun Che had really been teleported to the Northern Divine Region.
While everyone thought that he was dead, he would be able to grow in secret and without hindrance.
He recalled the words she had said during the two times she had tried to “kill” him, and they now took on a completely different meaning:
…………
“Yun Che, I admit that I am partly responsible for this situation you’re in, but you are a devil person. You understand why I have to be merciless, don’t you? But don’t worry, we were husband and wife. I promise to annihilate you completely!”
“Think on what you should do after you’ve reached the underworld!”
…………
“Will you turn into a crying wraith, or a vengeful devil god in the hell of the afterlife?… I very much look forward to that day. Now… die!”
…………
At the time, he only felt pain and hatred toward her cold, ruthless words.
Moreover, both of her “murder” attempts had been thwarted right before they could be fulfilled.
The first time, the enslaved Qianye Ying’er had teleported him away with the Void Illusion Stone.
The second time, the concealed Mu Xuanyin had interrupted her.
“Tell me, tell me now… it was her, wasn’t it?” Yun Che’s tone was starting to turn hysterical. “She was the master of the World Piercer… She was the one who engraved the Illusory Glazed Light Jades… She was the one who teleported the Blue Pole Star… It was her… it was all her, right?”
“I…” Shui Meiyin shook her head repeatedly even as tears started falling off her cheeks. “Please… please don’t ask me any more… I can’t… I can’t say it… I…”
Why did this projection have to appear after the dust had settled… and why did it have to capture the Purple Pylon divine light of all things!?
For the longest time, Xia Qingyue had been a nightmare that Yun Che had refused to even think about.
In a twist of irony, the very same nightmare had given birth to an unprecedented level of obsession and the need to discover the truth when Yun Che saw the projection. It had exposed even the flaws that couldn’t be considered flaws in her lies completely, much less the actual flaw…
Worst of all, everything was collapsing faster, fiercer and more irreversibly than even the worst case scenario she had imagined.
1. Chapter 1818: The Truth
