Chapter 412: Soul

"The past dust is no longer, frozen tears rain across the sky. Flowers bloom and wither year after year, time has withered the crimson visage. Fate comes and goes, fate is absent, memory is etched throughout the fleeting years. In an instant, you are no longer......"

In his mind, a sorrowful song repeats, drifting, faint, as if from beyond the nine heavens. When Zhang Xingyu leans to listen, he cannot hear it at all, as if it never existed.

Zhang Xingyu stands dumbfounded at the water's edge.

The sun rises and sets, the tides rise and fall.

A golden light flickers at his brow, and a bean‑sized flame sways with the wind. At the flame's center, a six‑sided crystal crackles with beeps and pops.

Boom!

A lightning‑like fissure bursts across the crystal's surface. Through the crack, faint glimmers of light and shadow flash continuously inside the crystal.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The exploding sound continues like frying beans, and the fissures on the crystal spread like a spider‑web.

As the cracks cover the crystal, its shape can no longer hold, and with a snap it shatters.

The flame is blown out, leaving only a spark floating in the golden light.

In front of the spark stands a translucent little figure. He holds the sun in his left hand and the moon in his right, runes on his body flashing like ten‑direction lightning. His left eye holds tears, his right eye shines, and a blue lotus repeatedly blooms and withers atop his lofty brow.

Finally, he leaves the spark, taking long steps, following the plaintive song toward the Divine Sea, gradually disappearing into the boundless Divine Sea.

At the same time.

A golden great ship steadily rests outside the storm.

The enchanting Hundred Flowers Palace Master gently leans on the wooden rail before the cabin door, quietly gazing at the towering waves ahead.

After a long while, she lightly waves to A Rou, who stands behind her.

Moments later, the large sail embroidered with a hundred flowers is furled on the mast. As the stern spouts two long columns of water, the great ship rides the wind, cutting through the storm.

After a incense stick's length of time, two more great ships rush in, trailing the Hundred Flowers Golden Ship into the storm.

Tang Yunxi had a long dream.

In the dream, she bathed in a sky of glowing sunrise light. The glow reddened the heavens, stained the hills red, and painted the plains crimson. Everything in the world seemed so beautiful.

She cheered in the glow, sang in the glow, and danced lightly in the glow. A white‑clothed youth stayed by her side at all times. The youth held a sword in his left hand, plucked strings with his right, and his brows were filled with love for her.

The glow gradually faded, and night devoured the world.

Suddenly, a blood‑red sword light slashed down from the sky toward her. The sword light came so fast that before she could dodge, she saw the white‑clothed youth's figure block her.

"Xiao Fan!"

She shouted, trying to grasp him, but could not catch the youth's vanishing silhouette.

Tang Yunxi opened her eyes and found herself lying on a golden beach, scattered around the shore were crystal‑clear human bones.

Zhang Xingyu also had a dream.

In the dream, he arrived at a sea glittering with rippling light.

A jagged reef‑lined shore held a three‑foot‑long small boat. The boat had no keel, only a tattered oar slanted against the gunwale.

Zhang Xingyu boarded the boat, pushed hard against a stone on the shore, causing the boat to spin in the water, then it began to drift.

At the horizon's edge, a clear, distant song floated: "The past dust is no longer, frozen tears rain across the sky......"

The song seemed to wield endless magic; Zhang Xingyu slid the bottomless boat, following the song farther from the coast, sailing toward the deep sea.

Stars hide, moons sink, the sun rises and sets.

Day after day passed; time turned days into years, and years into centuries.

Day after day, year after year, century after century.

He sat gaunt at the stern, dust covering his face, temples like frost, his withered‑branch hands could no longer move the tattered oar.

The little boat stopped.

The halted boat slowly sank.

Sea water flooded his ankles, soon his knees, and quickly rose to his chest.

He tried to reach out to paddle but found himself immobile.

"I'm going to die," he thought.

He weakly closed his eyes.

"The past dust is no longer, frozen tears rain across the sky......" faintly, a song kept coming from the horizon.

He opened his eyes, one familiar figure after another rose before him.

"You stinky kid, get up and review. Don't set your target at 985, 211; your target should be Northern Qing."

"Rogue, if you dare speak nonsense again, I'll throw you down."

"Brother Xingyu, my admiration for you flows like the endless river, and also like......"

"Xingyu, safety first, safety first......"

When the music ends, the crowd disperses.

He reached out to stop them, but those figures crumbled at his fingertips, turning into specks of golden light and vanished.

When the orange sun leapt from the golden sea, Zhang Xingyu finally woke up.

He rubbed his sleepy eyes, looking bewilderedly at everything before him.

"Who am I?"

"How did I end up here?"

"Where did I come from?"

"Where am I going?"

These strange thoughts surged into his mind all at once.

At that moment, far in the sky, a lingering song drifted with the wind.

"The past dust is no longer, frozen tears rain across the sky......"

He followed the sound. In the middle of the sea, a golden small boat was slowly sailing toward the shore.

The boat was empty; a wooden oar lay diagonally on the gunwale, gently rowing clockwise.

The boat reached the shore, passed through the invisible barrier between sand and sea, and steadied in front of Zhang Xingyu.

For some reason, seeing this boat made Zhang Xingyu feel as if he had seen a relative. He impatiently stepped onto the boat. Before he could sit down, the wooden oar on the boat moved gently again.

"Wah wah, wah wah."

Accompanied by the pleasant rowing sound, the boat lightly spun one hundred eighty degrees, then again moved without wind, slowly sailing back toward the golden sea.

After passing the barrier into the sea, the boat suddenly sank lower, and the golden seawater instantly flooded up to the bow.

What the heck?

As he was astonished, the water on both sides of the gunwale began to ripple lightly. Small golden splashes rose, forming cute beings in the air: golden luan fluttering, celestial cranes circling, fierce tigers roaring, jiao dragons thrashing.

The seawater turning into spirits—how marvelous!

He, as if compelled by a ghost, stretched out both hands.

Do not stretch out your hand; stretching will bring trouble.

When his fingers just touched the wing of a golden luan, the luan rose into the air and flew straight into his brow. Immediately, the crane, tiger, and dragon—a host of golden beings—also rose.

In an instant, Zhang Xingyu's divine courtyard became like a bustling market, crowded, chattering, very lively.

The golden luan said, "Ah, this little golden cauldron is nice; I will build a nest on it."

The celestial crane said, "Clack clack, this treasured sword looks good; I will stand on it and sleep."

The jiao dragon complained, "This divine sea is too small and shallow; it's not enough for me to swim."

The fierce tiger roared, "Aooo, this damned place has not even a single ridge; is it trying to suffocate me, your king?"

The beings fluttered about, yet all consciously avoided the swaying blue lotus at the center of the divine sea.

They seemed very fearful of that golden lotus; none dared climb onto the blue lotus to frolic.

Outside, the golden sea.

The boat stopped. The wooden oar that had been slowly moving was now covered with golden beings.

Zhang Xingyu reached out to drive them away, but those golden beings all flew toward his brow.

The divine sea was noisy; his head grew heavier, and a vexing feeling rose unbidden.

The boat gradually sank. He watched the seawater about to flood the gunwales.

"Get out! All of you, get out!" he shouted in his mind.

The more he shouted, the noisier the beings became.

He thought: I will become the first cultivator to be killed by noise.

I wish I had a fly swatter; I would swat them all dead.

The more he thought so, the louder the buzzing in his mind grew.

After a while, the boat sank further. Golden seawater had already covered the gunwales, rushing into the cabin with a "wah wah wah wah" sound.

The water reached his feet. The seawater beneath his left foot turned into a golden dragon, with a pair of golden horns on its head, two long whiskers hanging from its jaws, its body covered in golden scales, baring fangs and claws—very imposing. The water beneath his right foot became a golden phoenix, with three golden feathers atop its head, a pair of golden wings on its back, its feathers fluttering without wind, its sharp eyes glittering.

The golden dragon and golden phoenix hissed together, then spiraled and coiled, sinking into Zhang Xingyu's brow.

The boat sank, disappearing into the seawater.