She left. She was afraid that staying would only make him hate her more.
But before leaving, she reactivated the formation. She didn’t believe Lin Luochen, with his cultivation sealed, would be able to break through it.
She also didn’t believe that Lin Luochen could walk out of the Cloudveil Sect in his current state.
Yet deep in her heart, there was still a sliver of hope—that maybe, one day, Lin Luochen would accept them again.
…
Late at night.
The Cloudveil Sect were surrounded by a vast chain of mountains, layers upon layers, shrouded in mist like the breath of immortals. It was a paradise untouched by the world.
A girl in a deep-purple dress limped through the quiet forest. Her body was drenched in blood, full of wounds and scars.
That cold and frosty face, usually flawless, now twisted in pain and loneliness, filled with guilt and self-blame.
“No… it’s not true… this can’t be real… it’s not… it’s not…”
Leng Qingqiu’s trembling voice sounded like celestial music, yet it carried bitter grief and endless solitude.
One memory after another surged forth, shattering into fragments, slicing through her soul, tearing her apart.
“How… how could I treat him like that…”
“He was the one who saved me… who gave me hope to live… who left me with his last trace of tenderness… Why… why did I treat him like that…”
Those memories were like splashes from the long river of her past life—moments from the past and glimpses of the future.
“Ah… no… stop… I don’t want to see it… don’t make me remember…”
Leng Qingqiu dropped the divine herb in her hand and crouched down, clutching her head as she broke down, trembling with pain and vulnerability.
In the shattered fragments of her sea of consciousness, she saw herself… personally digging out Lin Luochen’s Supreme Bone…
Saw herself carve out his heart with her own hands…
Saw herself destroy his cultivation, sever his meridians…
Saw herself snatch back the long flute she once gifted him, then suppress him beneath the Nine Nether Death Star…
She saw with her own eyes—Lin Luochen, now an ordinary mortal, climbing one mountain after another, drenched in blood as he knelt before the Dao ground of their master…
She saw his body buried in snow, his mortal form on the verge of death…
Her Junior Brother Lin… so humble, so lonely, so full of suffering…
Misunderstood by the world, distrusted by others, torn apart by those he loved most…
In the end… during the chaos of darkness, she saw it. Her future Lin Luochen—leaving this starry sky in solitude, holy blood staining the heavens.
“Pu…” Leng Qingqiu coughed up a mouthful of blood. Her eyes were bloodshot, her face deathly pale. “Hehe… haha… hahaha… hahahahaha…”
“It’s all my fault… all my fault… all… mine… ah…”
She curled up on the ground. Mud smeared her dress and face, once as flawless as fine jade.
“What have I done… what have I done… it hurts… so much…” Leng Qingqiu trembled on the ground, holding her abdomen, her breathtaking face contorted in agony.
She had always been cold as frost, like eternal ice—but now, she was fragile like porcelain… ready to shatter at a touch.
No one knew how much time passed. The cold seeped deep into her bones again. She curled up tighter, like the helpless child she once was…
She was an Immortal Platform Realm grand power, her body transcendent—how could she fear the cold? Why did she feel so helpless again?
“So this… is the memory of my past life… No wonder… no wonder he hates me so much… no wonder…”
“I’m sorry… Junior Brother… I’m sorry…”
She cried uncontrollably. Her messy black hair clung to her face, adding a shattered beauty to her broken expression.
“No… what right do I have to say sorry… what right do I have to ask for forgiveness…”
She staggered to her feet, picked up the divine herb from the ground, and stumbled forward again.
“If this is rebirth… if this is reincarnation… if this is karma…”
“Then I, Leng Qingqiu, swear to the Dao of Heaven—this life and the next… I will stay by his side. I won’t ask for status. I won’t ask for forgiveness. I only wish to atone… for the rest of my life…”
“If I break this vow, may the heavens strike me down, may I never reincarnate, may my soul fall into eternal damnation!”
Two trails of blood-tears rolled down her peerlessly beautiful face. Her black hair hung loose over her shoulders and chest, drenched in rain.
Dark clouds gathered above. The dim light from the sky narrowed—it was about to rain.
Drip.
Drip.
The drizzle began, pooling in the uneven ground. Leng Qingqiu stood like a lifeless puppet, as if her soul had been drained.
She stood in silence for a long, long time…
The rain soaked her hair, flowed past her brows and nose, dripping from her lips and chin in thin lines. She licked her lips. The rain was cold and salty.
Eventually, Leng Qingqiu vanished into the night…
…
Elsewhere.
[System notification—Myriad Dao Reincarnation System has been activated.]
[Host: Lin Luochen
Cultivation: Late-stage Dao Palace Realm
Physique: Ancient Desolate Sacred Body
Techniques: None
Talent: Top-grade]
Hearing the mechanical voice of the system, Lin Luochen’s pupils trembled.
It was finally happening!
[System notification—Congratulations, host has received a mysterious grand gift. Would you like to activate it?]
Without hesitation, Lin Luochen tapped the system panel before him. “Activate!”
[System notification—Activating mysterious grand gift…]
[System notification—Congratulations, host has reached the extreme limit of the Wheel Sea Realm and Dao Palace Realm.]
[System notification—Congratulations, host has obtained the Companion Dao Scripture: Immortal Treasury.]
“Extreme limit!?” Lin Luochen’s eyes widened.
This was a terrifying concept—an embodiment of Dao itself, the peak of the path, elusive and beyond comprehension. In his previous life, he had only barely touched a trace of it.
And even that trace, flickering and unstable, had already shocked the world!
It was said that ancient Emperors reached the pinnacle of the five major realms of the human body. Yet few ever reached the extreme limit. Even so, they could tear open the heavens and defy the world!
So if just one realm reached the extreme, that person would already be fearsome. But two?
[System notification—Host, don’t get too excited. What’s more powerful than the extreme limit is the Immortal Treasury.]
“Immortal Treasury? What is that?” Lin Luochen exclaimed. He never imagined something he had never even heard of could surpass the extreme limit.
[System notification—Claim your reward to find out. The system can’t describe how terrifying it is, or it’ll crash.]
With trembling fingers, Lin Luochen pressed the claim button on the system panel.
This life… he finally had his golden finger!
In that instant, mysterious and profound energy poured into his body. It was the evolution of Dao—its purest form!
Buzz—
The barrier sealing his cultivation shattered. Lin Luochen felt a wave of comfort as spiritual energy from the entire immortal mountain surged into him.
Boom—
In his sea of consciousness, the Wheel Sea roared, expanding to five times its original size, shining with golden brilliance. Divine beasts appeared—dragons roaring, phoenixes crying, clouds glowing.
Watching the majestic scene within his Wheel Sea, Lin Luochen’s eyes shone. He casually waved his hand, firing golden energy that pierced a divine stone.
That stone wasn’t ordinary—even a cultivator in the Four Extremities Realm would struggle to crack it.
“So powerful… this is the strength of the extreme limit… what the Emperors pursued.”
Clenching his glowing golden fist, Lin Luochen marveled at the familiar yet long-lost sensation of power.
As for the Dao Palace Realm, he was still at late-stage. He needed to reach its peak before stepping into the extreme limit.
Just thinking of it made Lin Luochen’s heart race. Two extreme-limit realms—enough to shake all of history!
As his excitement grew, an ancient chanting echoed in his sea of consciousness. The voice seemed to come from beyond time itself—mysterious, terrifying, profound.
“Even the ancient Emperors didn’t have this kind of power, right?”
The chanting felt terrifying, beyond anything he dared imagine even in his previous life.
Ancient runes lit up. Radiant light from immortal ascension swirled. Strange archaic characters fell into Lin Luochen’s sea of consciousness—mysterious yet perfectly clear to him.
“Immortal Treasury Five Techniques—corresponding to the five great realms of the human body.”
“Wheel Sea—Heaven Opening.”
“Dao Palace—Emotion Incineration.”
Perhaps because Lin Luochen’s realm was too low, he could only hear those two. The next—Four Extremities Realm—was beyond his reach, shrouded by some unknown taboo.
Digesting all this left Lin Luochen speechless. “Terrifying… this defies all worldly knowledge and comprehension.”
[System notification—Told you. The Immortal Treasury is far more terrifying than the extreme limit.]
“Hmph… my cultivation is restored… it’s all done now. In that case… let’s never meet again.”