Reincarnation was gone.

Pangu was dead.

The deities had retreated.

The brief night had also passed.

The entire universe seemed no different from before the night, yet in some ineffable way, everything had changed.

There were too many rumors about the Desolate Domain.

Such as the Ziwei Holy Lord Xie Buchen, whose monument was erected by Great Venerable Jian Chou herself; such as the mysterious Elder Tianmu Meng who excelled at dream-weaving; and such as Great Venerable Jian Chou herself, whose righteousness or evil was hard to judge, whose reputation was mixed with both destruction and honor…

“Destruction” because rumors spread through the Upper Void that she had destroyed reincarnation throughout all realms, and even Great Venerable Pangu’s true demise was inextricably linked to her, earning countless curses. “Honor” because of her transcendent battle prowess—though the deities were powerful, firstly reincarnation was already destroyed, secondly Pangu was already dead, and thirdly they couldn’t defeat Jian Chou, so they abandoned their ambitions to rule the universe again.

Of course, it was mainly because they couldn’t defeat her.

Zhang Tang understood this very clearly in his heart.

At this moment, he stood behind this universe’s newest Great Venerable, watching her gradually brush away the dust covering the tombstone.

The four characters “Jian Chou’s Grave” appeared on the monument.

Turning his gaze to look around, he could see that behind this tombstone stood countless similar graves, each monument carved with the same name.

After reincarnation’s destruction, that batch of ghost cultivators in the Origin Realm’s Extreme Domain became true “last generation ghost cultivators.” But the great battle in the Desolate Domain had also broken the restrictions between the Upper Void and lower realm. Even “ascension” no longer existed, since so-called “immortals” were merely cultivators with higher cultivation levels. So ghost cultivators simply became one type among myriad cultivators, no different from any other.

“Even now when I think back, I’m very curious.” Jian Chou gazed at the tombstone without turning back to ask Zhang Tang behind her, “Minister Zhang, you say I clearly asked you to immediately destroy the ghost axe when the Desolate Domain descended, so why was it delayed so much in the end?”

Zhang Tang kept both hands in his sleeves, too lazy to even lift his eyelids, saying with unruffled calm: “Delayed is delayed. This official has always acted slowly, but properly.”

Properly…

Jian Chou was truly about to laugh from anger, only saying: “Is it really not that you only decided to act after hearing me claim I would replace Pangu and become the new Great Venerable?”

Zhang Tang wasn’t the least bit guilty: “Naturally not. Your becoming Great Venerable has nothing to do with this official.”

Jian Chou finally didn’t want to deal with this dead-faced person anymore.

Anyway, though her reputation was mixed, the “I” Way was spreading, and she was ultimately considered a Great Venerable. Zhang Tang, this former cruel official of Great Xia and King of Hell of the Extreme Domain, though he no longer held office, had gained a position of one below, ten thousand above in the Upper Void due to his past relationship with her.

And this was called “nothing to do with it”!

“After Great Venerable Pangu fell into slumber, the nine-headed bird still racked its brains trying to resurrect Him.” She sighed, pausing before continuing, “I reckon that if I fell into Pangu’s situation one day, Minister Zhang would probably just build a tribunal in my grave mound to try criminals.”

Zhang Tang’s indifferent gaze lifted to sweep around this desolate star covered with tombs, shook his head, and actually said: “Gives me the creeps.”

“…”

Jian Chou finally couldn’t help turning around to stare at him steadily for quite a while.

“This is the first time I’ve heard anyone complain about my graveyard, and it’s even a skin-flaying cruel official.”

Zhang Tang lowered his gaze to look at her, saying only flatly: “Dig up any grave and inside lies the same person—isn’t that creepy? Actually, since you could comprehend all possibilities from the chaotic current, you should have been able to find the you who could truly kill Pangu. In other words, every you currently lying under these graves could have been spared death. As long as you had that you act first. But now standing here is only one you.”

“So what?” Jian Chou shook her head. “Killing Pangu was only one part. What I needed more was that drop of heart fire. One drop of heart fire, one drop of starfire. Without it, how could I reignite the universe? Those deities aren’t fools.”

As she spoke, she actually laughed once.

She only thought of that stone from years ago that wanted to become a star in the sky.

Her gaze became distant as she looked up at the firmament.

In the starry sky, everything was brilliant.

“When all me became one me, all of my memories fused together. Not only did I possess all of my memories, but all me possessed all of my memories. Every me was identical, all stagnant pools of water…”

“What joy is there in a known life?”

“The world doesn’t need so many identical, boring versions of me, or rather, I don’t want that.”

Zhang Tang frowned slightly: “But lying here is also one who was killed early by you, one whose future even you don’t know.”

Without him stating the rest explicitly, Jian Chou already knew what he actually wanted to say: Since there was still one unknown possibility, all these dead versions of her weren’t necessarily stagnant pools. In other words, they didn’t necessarily have to die.

But Jian Chou didn’t explain a single sentence.

She only smiled and asked Zhang Tang in return: “Then does Minister Zhang think that standing before you now is me, or any one of them?”

Zhang Tang was stunned, finally understanding.

A faint smile rarely appeared on his usually indifferent, stern face.

Not “me,” and not any one of them either.

Memory is life.

Standing before him now was one Jian Chou and also all Jian Chou; one “I” and also all “I.”

Looking at him, Jian Chou couldn’t help saying: “When Minister Zhang smiles, he’s quite handsome too.”

Zhang Tang’s slight smile immediately vanished.

He looked coldly at Jian Chou, returning to his dead-faced expression, dropping a message before leaving: “Yashan has something to find you about. Go take a look before you leave.”

Jian Chou’s eyebrow arched slightly, too lazy to argue with him.

After he left, she stood in place for a long time, gazing at this earliest erected tombstone. The her lying inside had never merged with her even once, so her already dispersed memories became her only unknown.

But she could think of many, many more unknowns.

Did this mean a completely new possibility?

Perhaps stepping out of this universe, she would encounter a completely new world outside that exceeded all her knowledge, capable of overturning all existing rules, turning this sole unknown into infinite possibilities?

Another year of the Left Three Thousand Assembly.

Ever since the restrictions between the Upper Void and lower realm broke, powerful cultivators who had ascended from the Origin Realm would occasionally return to visit.

Fudao Shanren, Zheng Yao, Bajidao Daozun…

That was already enough.

What was more terrifying was that Luye Laozu also returned to visit, occasionally bringing Daidai like a burden.

On her way back to Yashan, Jian Chou saw many familiar faces from the past: Wang Que, Wu Duan, Xia Houshe, Lu Xiangleng…

Some people’s cultivation had increased, others remained the same.

Some had healed their wounds, others had acquired new ones.

She merely swept over the Nineteen Continents’ sky and landed on Yashan’s path, following the most familiar route from the past toward Lanyue Hall.

Fudao Shanren rarely returned now. Former sect leader Zheng Yao always complained that somehow he had gotten mixed up with the monks.

But Jian Chou didn’t care much.

When she reached Lanyue Hall, it was exactly midnight.

Only Fang Xiaoxie was in the hall. Seeing her return, he jumped down from the window sill that overlooked Nine-Head River and called: “Master Uncle Jian Chou.”

Jian Chou asked: “What’s the matter?”

Fang Xiaoxie flipped his hand, and a small box appeared in his palm. He said nothing, only showing it to Jian Chou.

When opened, it was completely empty.

What had originally been placed inside was actually gone!

“How could this be…”

Even after walking out of Lanyue Hall, Jian Chou couldn’t quite figure it out. She spread all her senses around but couldn’t find a trace of that object.

Standing silently in the stone pavilion halfway up the mountain for a long time, she thought that since she was leaving, she should go up to see.

So her figure rode the wind, ascending under the moon.

Atop Huanqiao Peak, Yashan’s sword remained.

After Qu Zhengfeng, it had been too long since anyone could draw this sword.

She landed on this flattened mountain peak, using a low stone as a table, bringing out a pot of wine and setting out two cups, sitting down facing this Yashan great sword that only showed its scabbard.

She filled her own cup with wine.

She also filled the cup placed across from her.

Jian Chou picked up her cup and drank.

The position across from her remained empty. The filled wine cup sat there, only reflecting the mountain moon’s clear radiance.

She thought this should be the last time she drank with the Sword Emperor.

Cup after cup.

The wine’s fragrance carried far.

A wine lover in the night caught the scent. With an extremely sensitive wine-detecting nose, he followed the smell. It was a red-faced old man with crane-white hair and a child’s face. Seeing Jian Chou, he was absolutely delighted: “The Great Venerable is drinking alone here?”

Jian Chou recognized him immediately—this old man was the frighteningly long-lived one known as nearly omniscient, the retard—no, cough, Zhilin Sou.

Qu Zhengfeng had a very good relationship with him when alive.

Though she rarely appeared these years, Zhilin Sou often came looking for her, claiming to write her biography. She didn’t care about biographies, only talking with him a few sentences for Qu Zhengfeng’s sake. However, this fellow always took the opportunity to shamelessly swipe some wine from Yashan to take back.

Coming and going, they became familiar.

Without any invitation, Zhilin Sou sat down beside Jian Chou, very carefully not sitting across from her, immediately inquiring: “This old man heard your Yashan had something strange happen, lost something—and it was your thing?”

Jian Chou said: “A heart kept in a box, gone missing.”

A heart?

Though Zhilin Sou was speaking, his eyes were already staring straight at the wine cup in Jian Chou’s fingers. Without thinking, he continued: “Perfectly fine, how could it go missing? Could someone actually dare steal the Great Venerable’s heart?”

That way of putting it…

Jian Chou’s heart had just held some melancholy, but Zhilin Sou’s words actually made her laugh.

She was just too lazy to correct whose heart it actually was, continuing to drink.

Watching her like this, Zhilin Sou couldn’t help remembering that scene above Kunwu’s sea of clouds years ago. For a moment he forgot to ask for wine, only thinking of what she had done in these nearly thousand years.

Extinguishing reincarnation, after becoming Great Venerable, she devoted herself to spreading the Way.

The “I” Way had now become a manifest path, often debating with those cultivators clamoring to rebuild reincarnation. When encountering the stubborn, truly no one could convince anyone.

As for the deity clan, she paid them no attention at all.

Whether deities and humans had disputes, or humans had disputes among themselves, she was never seen intervening.

Others inevitably questioned Jian Chou for this.

Jian Chou only answered: They’re all disputes, what’s the difference? You can suppress one, but not everything.

But recently, when drinking with several old friends from Yashan, he had heard that she might leave.

Zhilin Sou didn’t quite understand what this “leave” meant.

After pondering for a long time, he suddenly said: “Speaking of which, last time this old man asked about destroying reincarnation, the Great Venerable still hasn’t answered.”

Jian Chou had something of a headache, thinking her decision to leave this realm was indeed wise. It wasn’t entirely for her agreement with Fu Chaosheng—Zhilin Sou’s chatter could definitely be a primary reason.

She sighed inwardly.

After thinking, she finally answered him: “Times make heroes, heroes make times. Sometimes people are changed by the world, but sometimes people can also change the world. The strong have things they do and don’t do—I simply chose the former. Victory justifies everything—if you succeed, even wrong becomes right; if you fail, even right becomes wrong. So rather than asking me if I’m right or wrong, ask the long time ahead. Everything will have answers.”

As for others, let them criticize if they want.

“Then… then Pangu…”

Zhilin Sou remembered the rumors everyone spread in secret, such as how Jian Chou had said things like “kill Pangu.”

He thought since he was writing Jian Chou’s biography, he should understand these matters clearly, right?

Jian Chou’s expression became somewhat silent: “The one who killed Pangu—I can count as half. He led the human race to migrate to this realm, protected the entire race’s safety, and all people regarded Him as divine. But He was originally just a mortal. Today He is divine, but a moment’s difference in thought could make Him demonic. Today I sent Him to his demise, but how do I know that someday I won’t be another Pangu?”

People all change.

No one dares say they’re forever correct.

All things in the world ebb and flow like tides. Now she had replaced Pangu, establishing the “I” Way after reincarnation. In the future, someone would definitely replace her, creating other paths beyond the “I” Way. Such cycles repeat endlessly. As long as the beings in this world aren’t destroyed, such succession will never cease.

The old is always replaced by the new.

What was once right also becomes today’s wrong.

Jian Chou saw these matters very clearly, just as in all these past years, she had always maintained the stance of a neutral arbiter, never truly participating in disputes after the great battle in the Desolate Domain.

Zhilin Sou understood only half of what he heard.

But none of this actually mattered.

His thoughts finally returned to the wine. After watching hopefully for a long time without seeing Jian Chou invite him to drink as usual, he could only shamelessly edge closer: “Cough, the wine you’re drinking today smells quite fragrant! The wine cups look quite distinctive too!”

By appearance, the wine was ordinary wine, the liquid a deep ink green; the wine cups were ordinary cups too, showing a hint of dark red.

Jian Chou didn’t need to hear the rest of Zhilin Sou’s words—just hearing that cough, she knew what he wanted to say.

In the past, she would have poured for him long ago.

But today, she shook her head, put down her already empty wine cup, and said: “You can’t handle today’s wine.”

Zhilin Sou immediately glared angrily: “Nonsense! This old man’s drinking capacity needs to be measured by ocean water! There’s nothing I can’t handle! Really, becoming Great Venerable has made you increasingly arrogant. I—I at least ranked you in the assembly back then!”

Here came the rely-on-old-age act.

Seeing he really wanted to drink, and thinking he probably wouldn’t believe her explanation anyway, Jian Chou extended her hand into the void, grasped, and conjured a dark red wine cup from thin air.

Zhilin Sou couldn’t even see clearly what kind of technique this was.

Next, Jian Chou had already picked up the wine pot beside her and filled it for him.

Smelling that wine fragrance, Zhilin Sou took a deep breath, utterly intoxicated, truly unable to wait even a moment. He hurriedly reached out to take it.

“Eh?”

Reaching out to take the wine cup, he couldn’t lift it.

The entire wine cup seemed to have grown into the stone table!

He immediately looked at Jian Chou with an understanding expression: “Oh, specifically targeting old people, is that it?”

This time Zhilin Sou used both hands: “I’ll lift it!”

Couldn’t lift it.

The atmosphere suddenly became somewhat awkward.

He even used the spiritual power from his body, holding his breath until his already very red face was about to drip blood, but the wine cup remained completely motionless!

Zhilin Sou got angry: “You’re upset that I swindled too much wine from your Yashan and now deliberately won’t let me drink, right? Believe it or not, if you provoke me, I’ll—I’ll go back and write complete nonsense about you, making you infamous for ten thousand years!”

Jian Chou paid no attention to this threat, only lowering her gaze to pick up this wine cup that Zhilin Sou absolutely couldn’t lift, saying lightly: “Solitude brews wine, sincerity makes the cup…”

Only those with the world’s greatest courage can drink it.

Though the cup of sincerity is light, the wine of solitude is heavy.

That Zhilin Sou couldn’t lift it was perfectly normal.

She raised her hand and head back, already drinking the wine in the cup dry.

When the wine cup was set down again, her eyes filled with moonlight added a few traces of loneliness.

Jian Chou rose, her figure about to disappear into the night.

Zhilin Sou remembered the rumors he’d heard earlier. Looking at her back, he blurted out: “Where is the Great Venerable going?”

Jian Chou didn’t turn back, saying carefreely: “I don’t know.”

Zhilin Sou was stunned, then couldn’t help looking toward the stone table. Across from where Jian Chou had been sitting, there was still a full cup of wine. He asked again: “If you’re gone, what about this cup of wine?”

Jian Chou answered: “Leave it for those who come after.”

When her voice fell, she was already beyond the starry sky.

Like Fu Chaosheng who had once set his mind on going to the universe’s edge, Jian Chou now also stepped on this brilliant galaxy, heading toward the unknown.

Perhaps stepping out would be Pangu’s homeland, or perhaps a completely new world;

Perhaps she could see Fu Chaosheng again, or perhaps she would be lost forever in the unknown.

The unknown always means danger.

But for Jian Chou at this moment, all uncertainty meant new possibilities, meant an adventure she couldn’t predict.

Yashan’s wind and moon were all left behind.

Including Huanqiao Peak and Yashan’s sword.

In the very distant future, countless mediocre or genius cultivators would come to Yashan, climb Huanqiao Peak, and try to pick up this cup of wine.

But just like Yashan’s sword standing firm on Huanqiao Peak.

For an extremely long period, no one could pick up this cup of wine.

Later generations thus called Great Venerable Jian Chou’s final drinking place “Sorrow-Pouring Platform,” and that cup of wine no one could pick up was called “Jian Chou Wine.”

Just as Jian Chou said when departing—

Forever awaiting those who come after.

This day, Zhilin Sou angrily returned to his pavilion, hating that he couldn’t pick up that cup of wine, so he opened all the wine he’d recently swiped from Yashan to drink.

He drank his fill.

In his drunkenness, he swore to severely slander Jian Chou in that “Records of Great Venerable Jian Chou”!

The small boy serving as his scribe below was scared and trembling, but still couldn’t suppress his curiosity, carefully asking: “Master, they all say the Great Venerable has left and is no longer in this realm. Is it true?”

“Nonsense!”

Zhilin Sou swayed unsteadily, snatching the brush from the boy’s hand and standing before the spread paper on the desk, still chattering loudly.

“She didn’t leave, she’s still here!”

The boy was dumbfounded.

Zhilin Sou belched with wine breath, already heavily intoxicated, only raising the ink-dipped brush, half-reciting half-chanting some words, scribbling wildly on the paper with flowing strokes like dragons and snakes.

Then with a “snap” he threw down the brush, leaving it on the desk.

Still holding the wine jar, he raised his hand and pointed: “Look, there she is!”

The boy blankly came closer to see. The book spread on the desk was already half-written, topped with the six characters “Records of Great Venerable Jian Chou.”

The several lines on the paper carried traces of drunkenness.

He carefully made them out:

In this realm, in that realm, in the dusty world, in legends, in all hearts throughout the world that tread on thin ice with brave and diligent progress!

(The End)