The headache was so painful that he could hardly open his eyes. Breathing was a chore and Shi Yue gingerly touched his head to make sure there wasn’t actually someone hitting him with a hammer.
He broke his eyelashes open in confusion, hardly aware where he was at all. He had been sleeping, but now he was sitting somewhere.
The more the light hit his eyes, the more the headache lessened until it was a constant dull but endurable pain.
Shi Yue blinked and opened his eyes fully, turning to look at the light. There was nothing that was emitting light around him, but it came from somewhere above the centre of the round table standing in the middle of nothing anyway.
Frozen stiff, Shi Yue looked at the three people who were sitting at the table as well, each of them on one side.
“I don’t understand”, the one to Shi Yue’s right said evenly but with a hint of exhausted irritation.
Shi Yue looked into the narrowed violet eyes that were staring at himself.
“It’s not as simple as trying to understand”, the one opposite of Shi Yue said in a serene tone as he looked down at the cup in his hands.
“What is your opinion?”, the one on the left asked Shi Yue with a tired but amused gaze. It was oddly hazy when looking at him, as if there was a fog surrounding him.
The mirror images were exactly like Shi Yue. The same looks, the same clothes, the same hairstyle. At the same time, they were all so different. Shi Yue looked at the three apparitions of himself, surrounding the table.
“I don’t understand”, Shi Yue whispered, overwhelmed with confusion. Where was he? What was this empty room?
“See? He does not understand, either”, the one to the right declared.
“I think he does”, the one opposite rejected with a raised eyebrow and a glance at Shi Yue.
“I agree”, the one to the left nodded.
“I don’t”, the angry one said again.
“Where am I?”, Shi Yue asked, tense. Was this an illusion array?
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Indeed”, the one opposite sighed and looked into nowhere. “Where are we? Are we anywhere at all, in this vast universe…”
“P vbc’a atlcx atja atlr lr ktja tf wfjcr”, atf bcf ab atf ifoa mtemxifv klat jwerfwfca yea kjr lucbgfv ys atf bcf bc atf bqqbrlaf rlvf.
“Pr atlr atf alwf obg atlr?”, atf jcugs bcf jrxfv.
“Qts kbeivc’a la yf?”, atf mjiw bcf gfrqbcvfv.
“Gbfr la fnfc wjaafg?”, atf gfijzfv ifoa kbcvfgfv, ibbxlcu ja Vtl Tef. “Gbfr la?”
“Of course”, Shi Yue heard himself say.
“Why?”, he heard from his left.
“Why?”, he heard from his opposite.
“Of course”, the one to his right echoed.
“And this is how it is”, the relaxed one to the left said with a soft smile as he spread his fingers.
“Is how?”, the one to the right questioned, calming down a bit.
Shi Yue watched blankly. If he had to guess, then the one opposite of him and the one to his left seemed to be in control of the situation. Especially the one opposite of him hardly felt like himself – he was incredibly controlled, every movement deliberate. Compared to that, the angry one on his right was… weary.
“I don’t understand it”, the serene one said with the hint of a smile, sipping his tea.
“Good”, the friendly left one said.
“None of this is making any sense”, Shi Yue whispered, trying to stand up. Instantly, all three pairs of eyes were looking at him cooly.
“This is a bad idea”, the one to the left chided.
“Don’t leave”, the one to the right ordered. “It’s… not good, I think.”
The one opposite was quiet for a moment. “There is always a choice. Even if it had horrible results, it is a choice. Even if one path means death, it is a choice. There is no such thing as forcing someone. It is merely giving a choice where one has a very bad end. Is this your choice, no matter the result? You cannot say that there was none.”
The apparition paused. He huffed out a breath and Shi Yue felt a cold shiver on his back.
“But… if I had to say it, it’s not yet your turn to leave.”
Shi Yue sat down again. The stares vanished.
“Who are you and what are we doing here?”, Shi Yue tried to ask calmly, looking at them one by one.
The one to the right gave an exhausted sigh. “I don’t know.”
The one to the left smiled. “Hmmm, I don’t know.”
The one opposite chuckled lowly. “I do not know.”
And yet, despite the three answers being the same, Shi Yue felt they were all saying different things.
He looked at the him to the right. “What do you mean by, you don’t know?”
The one to the right rubbed his eyes. “I have no idea what’s going on.”
He repeated the question to the one on the left.
“Suspicions based on pure feeling are not knowledge”, the amused left one said.
They all looked at the one opposite, who tilted his head. “Is there ever something you can truly know?”
The headache was coming back. The conversation was draining him. It felt like nothing was being said, or to be more specific, as if he couldn’t tell what was being said behind the few empty words that were actually being spoken.
All of a sudden, the one opposite stood up and gave a low bow. His voice was like Shi Yue’s, but then again, it seemed completely different. “If you will excuse me, I shall be leaving then.”
“Why?”, the angry one asked in surprise. The standing one ignored him.
“Didn’t you just tell me not to go? How come you are leaving?”, Shi Yue asked through his headache, trying to keep his wits. What was different about that one?
The one to the left frowned deeply. “Is… that correct?”
“It is”, the calm one said with a flutter of his eyelashes as his eyes closed momentarily. He leaned forward, stretching a hand out to lightly touch Shi Yue’s head. It felt cool on his skin. “I think you can handle it by yourself from now on. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?”
‘Shi Yue’ walked away from the table and vanished. Where he had left his place, there wasn’t even a chair, and the cup he had placed down had disappeared at some point in time – as if it hadn’t been there in the first place.
The one to his left sighed softly and hummed to himself, while the one to his right looked around in unhidden confusion. Exhaustion was written on all of their identical faces.
Shi Yue stared into the direction of the vanished him in wonder, feeling his eyes and consciousness blur.
By the time he opened them again, he was at home. The blankets around him were too warm and he felt his hair stick to his body with sweat. He seemed to have had a nightmare.
“Are you alright?”, he heard a female voice ask. Looking over, he found Ying Hua leaning over him. Her lips were pursed thoughtfully but not with worry, as she could tell he was alright now.
She had grown into such a pretty young woman. The thought randomly came into his mind.
“I have a headache”, Shi Yue said with a deep sigh. “I had a… very weird dream.”
“What was it about?”, she asked, almost curiously.
Shi Yue said up and rubbed his forehead with a blank gaze.“I don’t remember.”
Author’s Note
I have a huge kink for cryptic chapters. I like it when there’s places that don’t necessarily make sense the first time you’re reading them, but maybe then the second time, after completing the novel.
Actually, you can already tell what’s going on if you read closely enough~
Adding a little hint: Consider this matter from a similar perspective as Xie Yi’s situation. If Xie Yi’s original timeline Immortal-self can affect him a bit… What about Shi Yue, who had also been an Immortal? Who could these apparitions be, one half translucent, one that leaves, and one exhausted and angry?
No idea what just happened but I think it was interesting and I like it
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Its my second time reading the story and I still dont get it 😖
I can tell who the angry one is. But who is the other 2?
One is the immortal one, but I don’t know the third one.
Is it his future? Cause when he becomes super powerful, time doesn’t mean as much? And since it’s his future self, he can’t see him completely
OMG I CANT TAKE IT – THE CLIFFHANGER
I can get the calm one opposite – that would be the immortal, the angry one on the right would be the one from the “past” where Xie Yi became Demonic Sect leader. But who is the friendly one on the left?? Transcendent Shi Yue, not yet immortal?
Actually i somehow understand it but its hard to explain.. it is like they are Shi Yue of different timelines… But why four?
I would understand if there’s 3: one for each timeline, but 4????
I hate this. This is crazy. I am stupid. This is too much for me. 😭😭😭
If the on the left is fading then would he be the original SY in this timeline being overwrote by the currect SY that was caused by the ripples XY made when he regressed? Or is there a fourth timeline?