Chapter 715: Another Cycle of Reincarnation (Please Refresh)

"A talent." Su Lin closed his eyes and opened them again, and after confirming he had not misread, let out a sigh.

Not for any other reason, but because the All-Heavens Golden List had brought him an immense shock—above it described the bitter life of a Heavenly Emperor.

【This parting may well be a parting unto death; can we still meet again in this world?

At the final moment, Illya finally turned her head, looking back at them, gazing at those familiar faces one after another—with reluctance, with emotion, with helplessness.

How could she be willing to leave? Yet in the end, she could not turn back, and had to depart resolutely.】

Sayetsuki Rin wiped her tears; she felt that person's experience was very similar to her own, but even more bitter.

Born into a happy family, she stumbled into the magical world, became a magical girl, was forced to part from her brother Emiya Shirou who was a sword cultivator, and the forbidden love in her heart was buried as well. Fortunately, along the way she had a friend named Setsuka Miyu by her side, and the atmosphere between the two also became somewhat subtle.

Yet the Heavenly Dao was unjust; the fate-tormented her was born with the body of the Ancient Holy Grail that could grant any wish, and it was precisely because of this ability that she was drawn into Darius's conspiracy.

During that time, to rescue her, her brother did not hesitate to employ a forbidden art, paying the price of not entering reincarnation, to borrow the power of his past-life self.

【Sword! Come!】

Accompanying that cry of "Sword, come," every Noble Phantasm within Unlimited Blade Works unsheathed in turn, flying in mighty procession toward the Einzbern of the foreign realm.

On that day, sword-light shattered the void, smashed the dark cage, and the Sword God Emiya once more entered the realm of Land Immortal.

But the dense black mud substance annihilated countless world-lines, and all living beings had already been transformed into dark creatures.

Facing such a situation, she glanced back at the crowd, then resolutely stepped into the river of time, heading toward the source where the black mud substance was born.

【Emperor Yi alone severed all of eternity, her back to all beings, striking down enemies of past, present, and future, suppressing the dark creatures, until in the universe and spacetime her peerless figure was no more.】

"I finally saw it—born in this life, you are more difficult, more bitter than anyone, needing a single person to sever all of eternity alone." Su Lin said with melancholy.

"These hardships were not arranged by you?" Kaguya asked.

"You can't put it that way." Su Lin said righteously: "Worlds and living beings each have their own destiny; I cannot interfere at will."

"Sounds nice~" Kaguya covered her face and laughed softly: "But isn't the Emiya Shirou of that world-line the harem king from a yuri show? When did he become a sword cultivator?"

"Previously, in order to reach the Root, I had Emiya Shirou's soul merge with the Harem Shirou."

Su Lin said: "The related influences and history were deleted; to let the world run normally, naturally some adjustments had to be made."

So he merely made fine-tuning and minor detail modifications within a reasonable range, ensuring that world-line could still be preserved and continue to run.

At most, a little more—

adding a tiny bit of element as personal preference.

He had underestimated the All-Heavens Golden List; he hadn't expected it could even find this world-line he had kept as his trump card, a custom-made one to pass the time at work.

That's right—

the content being reviewed was not fabricated history.

"I was still saying the other day I'd get a real Supreme Bone to try." Su Lin said regretfully.

"I don't understand what you two are talking about." Sayetsuki Rin swallowed instinctively: "But if all of this is real, in the previous reviews, wasn't there someone very similar to you?"

"Don't worry about those details—would I, Gu Yue Fang Yuan, possibly harm you?"

Su Lin opened the car door and said: "I'm going down to take a look; you all stay in the car and don't move around."

"Neet, keep it down with your snacks and games; even if you feel like doing something rash, don't get blood and brains on the car—it's a hassle to clean up."

"Don't worry, I've changed my mind for now." Houraisan Kaguya lay on Sayetsuki Rin's lap, drinking cola and playing a game: "Have a safe trip~"

Bang—

The car door closed. Sayetsuki Rin watched Su Lin's figure in the rearview mirror gradually recede, then glanced at Kaguya, who was using her thighs as a pillow and had the Fire-Rat Robe draped over her like a blanket.

"Kaguya."

"Hm? What's wrong, Aka Rin? You're not going to ask me for gossip, are you?"

Kaguya smiled, her fingers rapidly tapping the buttons on the handheld console.

"Just call me A-Rin."

Sayetsuki Rin felt weary at heart, always feeling that the name Aka Rin carried a strong ill omen—that kind of thing where one suddenly disappears and nobody notices.

"Can you turn your voice down a little."

【Yamete! Even if you get my body, you won't get my heart!】

"This is a kusoge, ahhh~ I've lost interest in playing too."

Kaguya got up, quit the game, tossed the console aside, and smiled disdainfully: "True NTR naturally means gripping both body and heart in hand."

"."

Even more incomprehensible.

Sayetsuki Rin felt that along this entire journey, just trying to understand the two of them's conversation had been utterly exhausting; the Kaguya in her memories would never play obscene games in public either.

She heard it was an endless cycle of reincarnation, but now what had Gensokyo and everyone become?

"The wording that Kaguya used earlier, though archaic, should be something a wife says to welcome her husband home."

"."

Kaguya twitched the corners of her mouth, straightened her back and sat upright, let out an ambiguous sound, then shifted her gaze outward.

"You weren't silenced because you knew too much, were you?"

Sayetsuki Rin felt somewhat broken, as if struck by petrification.

"Actually, according to logic and the current situation, with a little—

analysis, I can understand why my past self would adopt that attitude." Kaguya waved her hand.

At first, returning to the long days on end, like the endless August in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

That self back then should have been more sensitive, before certain senses and ways of thinking had been worn away.

If viewed from that perspective, "the Hourai Elixir that conceals the power of eternity, the five treasures that bear a moment, and the treasure of the new dilemma"

it was simply like an examiner, for personal purposes, secretly slipping cheat answers to the examinee.

"This is troublesome."

An inexplicable sense of irritation.

It was just a casual remark, but once she realized Su Lin had met the requirement and let her imagination run in that direction, a strange irritation began to sprout.

The trouble is that there's no way to calm down by reviving a few times now.

Thinking it over carefully,

Kaguya rolled down the car window; a cool breeze threaded through the trees, leaves rustling, and the dappled light that fell down made her eyes ache uncomfortably.

But it was precisely this light that felt déjà vu, as if her thoughts had drifted back to a long time ago, with someone whispering by her ear,

—"When forever begins to flow, a moment shall become the new forever."

"It failed."

The Moon King's face was hidden in darkness, her divine-luminous eyes gazing at herself with a complex look: "You are not the sun that brings light."

The 'Sun God' slain by her descendant, the Moon King who missed her sister.

After establishing the Capital of the Moon, she used the lingering radiance of 'Amaterasu' to create a humanoid whose appearance was completely identical to her sister's.

It's just that the end of light is darkness; when this phenomenon began to flow, the departed deity vanished entirely, and along with it, the authority within the vessel underwent a change.

Born in the Capital of the Moon, the Princess who governs 'Forever' and 'the Moment,' the Moon King's third "daughter."

Kaguya.

Precisely because of this, she had found it somewhat interesting at first.

That deity who wielded authority similar to her own, yet truly symbolized light.

"It's been so long already, aren't you leaving yet?"

A false star map, towering halls of pale grey.

Beneath a molten-gold sunset, a few egrets stood perfectly still, but with a single thought from the Creator, a silver-satin waterfall descended from all directions once more—every droplet likewise frozen in place.

A warm yellow radiance bathed the land, and a melodious tune, transcending transmission through any physical medium, slowly played.

But no matter how beautiful the scenery, once you've seen it long enough, the initial wonder fades into something taken for granted—let alone when it's a slideshow-like scene like this.

In the entire world, apart from the clattering that never ceases for a single moment, there was only the sound of the game.

"The other Lu Mingfei gave me a ton of games, I plan to

clear all of them, and finish every anime I haven't watched too."

"How many more?"

"He said it's the entire collection of a million-year life."

"I'm begging you, can you please get the hell out of Touhou already?"

Like an imprint, engraved with mottled years and dim cyan in three dimensions, a thing called the Eternal Furnace Core turned ceaselessly, operating without a moment's pause.

The power from the Great Will became the energy source driving its unceasing pulsation.

But right now, the apprentice Creator floating in midair couldn't even move a finger, and even her voice was born of will.

"Don't you get bored? Wouldn't it be nice to go back to Gensokyo and stir up a few incidents? If that won't work, go back to the Moon—have you heard of Chang'e flying to the moon?"

"It's the same wherever I go. Be quiet, this level is really hard."

She was speaking the truth—whether in Gensokyo or in the Capital of the Moon, the essence was the same: one day after another.

When she was in the Capital of the Moon, it was slightly better—she could watch Earth's climate change from within the palace, and Yuyin Yonglin would educate her about creatures like dinosaurs that she had seen before her birth.

But those things had all gone extinct; the only thing she could watch was the gradual fading of the Ice Age.

Until later, when things became slightly more interesting.

Some deities, immortals, and the like resumed their activities on the still-filthy surface; the filth wasn't that severe back then, and many things happened.

"Then wouldn't you be a super old lady?"

"This one has specially stayed here to keep you company—is such rudeness really appropriate?"

Raising her gaze to the chaotic mists above the clouds, one could see dozens of fragments, large and small, streaking like meteors with long tails, falling slowly yet resolutely toward this tranquil spacetime.

Those soul fragments of the Great Will were the very symbol that brought the passage of time.

If counted by quantity,

"It's been less than ten years."

"You've already died over two hundred times playing eroge right beside me."

"So if you could move, would you be consumed by lust and assault this one? Well, after all, you're a man in the prime of youth—after watching so long, would you like this one to give you a little treat?"

She slid the collar slightly down off her right shoulder, revealing a delicate, snow-white shoulder and neck, with a faintly seductive smile on her face.

"I'm not interested in old women."

Not much to it—unlike the patients who came to Eientei, those eyes held not a trace of desire, yet still brimmed with rich humanity.

However, as long as time keeps wearing things down like this,

sooner or later he'll become just like me.

No—being human at his core, he might just go mad, it's hard to say; that would be a bit of a pity, so I'll guide him along a little.

"You're really not leaving?"

"It's all the same."

Anyway, staying here is no different from being in Gensokyo.

Kaguya came back to her senses; at this point, the Heavenly Golden List in the sky was already broadcasting new content,

【"I pray to the Holy Grail."】

【"May countless ages from now, we be able to bloom a... similar flower."】

Countless swords, stars falling like rain, thrust into every corner of the world.

A white-haired, red-eyed girl, her wide sleeves billowing, fixed her hollow, emotionless dim eyes on the red-haired youth.

Looks like the Emiya siblings' back-to-back domination of the charts.

【I'm about to steal your man away, you know?】

【Really? Then you'd better try your best.】

Yi Leina replied.

To be fair, although it was more with the intention of teasing, Kaguya felt that not only was her current self a bit off, but Yi Leina's reaction was also a bit off.

Rather say,

Even if it was on a whim, it used to be her side that was more dominant.

Like during the Imaginary Tree period, when she said such things, whether it was a sharp tongue or nervousness, that kind of reaction was normal.

It was just a blink of an eye for a long-lived species, so how did it change all at once?

"Crap."

Somehow she felt even more irritated.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

"Stop banging your head!" Saeguki Rinchi grabbed Kaguya: "Blood! You're bleeding! You wouldn't really want to forfeit the match, would you?!"

"Forfeit?"

Kaguya blankly turned her head, blood flowing down her forehead, she looked at the panicked Saeguki Rinchi and smiled: "Ah, no, this one suddenly feels like participating."

"What on earth have you been through all these years?!"

The other girls in Gensokyo wouldn't have changed like this too, would they.

Weigong Shilang: "What exactly does the All Heavens Golden List inventory have to do with the Ten Major Incidents of Gensokyo?"

Xiao Yan: "+1"

Ge Xiaolun: "The first chapter's magical girl and the last chapter's severing the ancient past are the same thing? @Weigong Shilang, is sister-in-law really that amazing?!"

Shi Hao: "Severing the ancient past, suppressing the dark beings, are you and Yi Tian Di safe in the other realm?"

Meng Qi: "Subtracting to seek emptiness, ultimately bearing the Dao Fruit, Yi Tianzun may enter my Jade Void."

Ye Zhetian: "@Meng Qi, poaching from my Ye Zhetian Chamber of Commerce?"

Meng Qi: "The employee's family members didn't sign a contract with you."

Weigong Shilang: "Gentlemen. The contents in there don't match up, the Illya from the other world line is still an elementary schooler, she wouldn't say lines like that either."

Su Lin: "It matches, that's the inner world line I hid in the trunk of the multiverse,"

"the lines were also the celestial insights I designed."

Meng Qi: "?"

Shi Hao: "?"

Weigong Shilang: "?"

So it was you?!!!

Every time he was about to forget that Su Lin was the creator god of his own universe, Su Lin would always remind him inadvertently.

Weigong Shilang's eyelid twitched, and after setting the chat group interface aside.

He looked at Illya, who had changed into a white dress, feet hovering in the air, a faint smile on her lips, having summoned 129,600 fragments with the Great Wish Heaven as the core, each fragment reflecting the scenery of a different world.

"That's right, this is my and Shilang's past life."

Illya's voice was ethereal, one hand placed on her chest, she said to Toosaka Rin and the others: "After that, we headed to the myriad heavens and worlds, and went through reincarnation."

Weigong Shilang glanced at the movie scene being inventoried, and his vision went black.

Forget it, as long as she's happy.