Chapter 2394

Jiang Ding slowly opened his eyes, and in his pupils no longer reflected the cosmos and the vicissitudes of the Dao, but were filled with an indescribable sorrow and melancholy.

He stared blankly, like a wooden puppet.

The Empress and Gong Caiyu accompanied the Ancient Emperor by his side, experiencing this rare display of tenderness and weakness from the Ancient Emperor.

"Let's go———"

Jiang Ding took a deep breath.

The surrounding heaven and earth transformed, the sun and moon turned.

When space stabilized once more, the three were already in their home in the Fulin Residential Area on the mother planet, the surroundings arranged warmly, without a speck of dust.

On the dining table, various steaming hot dishes.

Faintly, it seemed to be the dishes his grandparents liked, often having Jiang Ding make them during his Foundation Establishment days; now, after enduring four million years of mortal world reincarnation, they were still the same.

"Dingding?"

Mother Lin Wanqiu waved her hand in front of Jiang Ding.

In her view, her son, who had always been by her side, suddenly stared blankly for a long time, his eyes holding an emotion that made her heart feel as if pricked by needles.

A being invincible in the mortal realm, destined to overlook the endless starry sky for ninety million years, at this moment was so weak.

"Mm, mmmm."

Jiang Ding suddenly came to his senses and continued eating.

But it tasted like chewing wax.

Finally, after a few bites, he stopped eating, put down his chopsticks, did nothing more, merely gazing at his mother, at her appearance and smile, as if wanting to imprint it deeply in his heart.

"You're already the Ancient Emperor, how can you still be this weak?"

Lin Wanqiu lovingly stroked his head.

Her lifespan still had three hours, twenty-three minutes, and forty-seven seconds; she had a clear awareness of this, which was as natural as breathing for an Eight Tribulation Supreme.

In this world, her son would merely be a person.

This feeling she had experienced many years ago when her father and mother passed, and her younger brother passed; now, as time flowed, her son would also experience this pain—truly, no being in the mortal realm can escape such fate, the cruelty of cosmic reincarnation is merciless.

"Good brother,"

"Don't be afraid, there's still sister-in-law and Sister Caiyu accompanying you."

Jiang Yuan said with a chuckle.

They seemed very detached, not too concerned, and compared to the Ancient Emperor, they had greater endurance.

"Mm."

"Mmm.

""

Jiang Ding said nothing, lowered his head, and slightly closed his eyes.

The family chatted casually, talking about everything, recalling the past, recalling embarrassing incidents from elementary school and kindergarten, saying Jiang Ding always liked to carry a wooden sword and wander everywhere, taking it wherever he went, saying during his Qi Refining period he boastfully claimed he was the Heavenly Monarch, saying he was extremely mischievous as a child———

Lin Wanqiu occasionally rose to wash dishes, clean the house, tidy up household chores, while chatting with family members.

Gong Caiyu's heart suddenly clenched.

This scene truly resembled an ordinary day; who could have imagined today would be the final farewell?

Time flowed, minute by minute, second by second.

The Ancient Emperor had never felt time pass so swiftly; clearly, past thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years were but trivial to him, utterly indifferent—he was a youthful Ancient Emperor of the Forbidden Zone, having not even reached one-tenth of his lifespan; to him, a hundred thousand years was merely a small experiment, a contemplation of deducing the heavenly Dao.

But now, he clung to each second, desperately trying to make time stand still, yet could not.

Even as an Ancient Emperor of time, in the face of birth, aging, sickness, and death, he was powerless.

Eternal youth and immortality belong solely and exclusively to immortals.

No one can escape.

The Solar Ancient Emperor, the Qingfeng Qingfeng Beidou Ancient Emperor, the Ji Yan Ancient Emperor———all Ancient Emperors have once bid farewell to their mothers, and now the Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang similarly experiences this scene.

Drip.

Drip, drip.

The second hand ticked step by step, having passed over three hours, approaching the moment of its end.

At this time, the deathly aura on Lin Wanqiu and Jiang Yuan could no longer be suppressed; strands of white hair appeared on their heads, their smooth skin quickly became wrinkled, their figures grew stooped, a scent unique to the elderly emanated from them, as they experienced the Five Declines of Heaven and Man that all life undergoes, walking toward their destined death.

"Mom———"

"Jiang Yuan, you lazy mischievous ghost———"

Jiang Ding's voice was somewhat hoarse.

"Don't cry."

"Don't be sad, my Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang, future immortal." Lin Wanqiu extended her weak, powerless hand, gently wiping the tears on the blue-clad youth's cheeks: "You are destined to be invincible under heaven and earth, to survey all emperors in the Golden Great Age, to behold all heavenly talents and outstanding figures in endless time, to fulfill all your dreams."

"Go fulfill all your dreams, do not live a life with regrets."

"Mom———first———rest———for a while."

Her life force dissipated bit by bit, finally vanishing completely, not a trace of life remaining; from this moment on, this body possessed only physical properties and could no longer be called life.

"Brother, hold———"

Jiang Yuan likewise reached the end of her life; she feared loneliness and solitude, hoped to walk the Yellow Spring Road with her mother, companionship in walking, and actively gave up over twenty years of her brief lifespan.

The girl leaned into her brother's embrace, her body gradually turning cold.

Time seemed to have frozen at this moment.

The Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang seemed to have become a stone carving, motionless, without even breath.

For a very long time, it remained so.

Motionless.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty—"

"Young Master—"

The empress and the palace consort Gong Caiyu softly called out the name of the ancient emperor.

It seemed that from this moment on, people began to unconsciously avoid the name Jiang Ding, and it would not be long before the characters given by these two mothers would completely dissipate in time, just as people had never known what the names of the Solar Ancient Emperor and the Qingfeng Qingfeng Beidou Ancient Emperor were.

People only knew that the Solar Ancient Emperor was the Solar Ancient Emperor, and the Qingfeng Qingfeng Beidou Ancient Emperor was the Qingfeng Qingfeng Beidou Ancient Emperor.

It was as if they had been born as the sun, born as the Qingfeng Qingfeng Beidou, and no one ever mentioned the name their mothers had called out again—there was no Jiang Ding, only Tai Shang Da Ri remained.

The Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang who was born as Tai Shang Da Ri.

The two women called out for a long time, but received no response.

Then they fell silent.

The two women silently accompanied the ancient emperor.

Time passed.

Ten thousand years, a hundred thousand years, a million years—

How many years had passed, unknown, but the ancient emperor remained in his own home, forever staying at the moment when his mother and sister passed away; during that time, someone had once come, accompanied him for a while, and then departed again.

The ancient emperor had changed nothing.

Only from this day forward, the ancient emperor was no longer anyone's son, could no longer naturally call out to his mother, return home to see familiar faces, or harbor the expectations he had grown accustomed to since childhood.

Between heaven and earth, no one would shout "Ding Ding" anymore, no one would grab his ear and warn him with words.

Only Tai Shang Da Ri remained, seated atop the endless starry sky as the Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang.

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