Chapter 606: Finale: Love Drives People Mad

Duàn Qíng Jué Ài, not just empty talk; after being pushed onto that Golden Light Avenue, I already had no distracting thoughts, solely intent on ascending to heaven, and in the end I also got my wish, becoming the new City God, in charge of the Chenghuang Temple.

Perhaps you've heard of my reputation in the Nether Realm; they all say I don't joke around, I'm impartial and stern—indeed, as one who has severed love and affection, where would all these emotions come from?

I couldn't help but ask: "Did you really just forget Yu Nian completely clean?"

He nodded: "Those years, I never even for a second thought of Yu Nian; my master was wandering outside, my senior brothers were busy, I lived like a lonely widower, my mind full of how to manage the Chenghuang Temple well, until that year, when that large bird that cried caused trouble on the Wangchuan River, by the time I arrived, I just happened to see that large bird trampling a girl..."

Speaking of this, his emotions fluctuated greatly; he struggled to calm himself before speaking again.

"Just as I fell for her at first sight back then, with just one glance I recognized her, I rushed over and held her in my arms, but she... was already hovering on the edge of life and death."

I frowned: "Hovering on the edge of life and death? Could it be that Yu Nian didn't actually die?"

What Wang Fànchén said earlier matches what Yu Nian and I said, but at the juncture where the first life ended, a divergence appeared.

Yu Nian said she died at that time.

"No, I forcibly extended her life." Wang Fànchén said, "I gave her three extensions of life."

"The first time I directly gave her a hundred years of life, but as soon as it was done, she suffered a severe backlash, unable to open her eyes before struggling again on the brink of death."

"I thought it was because I gave too much at once, her life was thin and she couldn't bear it; the second time I gave her only ten years, planning to give more after a few years, but she still suffered a backlash."

I said sadly: "It's not that her life was too weak to bear it, but because of the Líxīn Suǒ."

The Yuānyāng Tóngxīn Suǒ binds the fates of a couple, never parting in this life or the next.

One who reverses the Tóngxīn Suǒ will suffer a strong backlash, and the couple will thereafter step onto completely different paths of fate.

One achieves Yībù Dēngtiān, the other falls into the abyss.

Actually, thinking deeper, isn't it the one who fell into the abyss, using his own fortune to lift up the one who achieved Yībù Dēngtiān?

Yu Nian is the one who reversed the Yuānyāng Tóngxīn Suǒ, so she is the one who fell into the abyss, using her own fortune to lift up that person, Wang Fànchén.

Such lifting is irreversible.

So, Wang Fànchén, no matter how hard he tries, cannot possibly succeed in extending Yu Nian's life with his own life.

"But the key is, I only know the Yuānyāng Tóngxīn Suǒ, and I don't know the Líxīn Suǒ."

Wang Fànchén's words reminded me.

Back then his master only told him about the Yuānyāng Tóngxīn Suǒ, while his master only told Yu Nian about the Líxīn Suǒ.

It is exactly this information gap that caused the tragedy between them.

Wang Fànchén continued, "Back then I only vaguely realized that using my own life to extend Yu Nian's life was impossible, and as the City God, the parent official of the people of both yin and yang realms, I could not allow myself to use another's life to extend Yu Nian's life; I had to find another way, so I fashioned Fànchén."

Fànchén... actually came about like this!

If it weren't for Wang Fànchén saying it himself, I could never have imagined this!

I unconsciously straightened my body, pricked up my ears, waiting for what comes next.

"A speck of dust, the most insignificant existence in the three realms and six paths, it originally had no life, but I selected it, refined and enlightened it, shaped it into form, gave it flesh and blood, transferred my life to it, and then through it extended Yu Nian's life."

So that's how it is!

Fànchén, in short, is merely an intermediate medium fashioned by Wang Fànchén to extend Yu Nian's life.

"I raised it in the Yin Dang Hang, waiting for the process of Yu Nian's life extension success and awakening; I suddenly realized that at the moment Yu Nian truly awoke, I actually didn't know what identity to take to stand beside her."

I didn't understand: "What's the problem?"

"If I want to continue fate with Yu Nian, it's impossible to let Fànchén forever stand between us, right?"

Fànchén is the intermediate medium for extending Yu Nian's life; he must always exist.

So, even if we continue fate, in this relationship it could never be only Wang Fànchén and Yu Nian.

"I admit, I am a greedy person; I not only want Yu Nian, I also want her to belong solely to me, so my only choice is to merge with Fànchén."

My heart gave a thump.

I thought of those words Yu Nian said.

Yu Nian said that for a period of time, she always felt Fànchén was weird.

He stood silently in the corner, staring at Yu Nian with a deep, entrancing gaze, feeling as if he wanted to swallow her whole.

Again, they locked eyes!

Yu Nian's feeling was not wrong; when she sensed Fànchén was off, it should have been the moment Wang Fànchén briefly merged with Fànchén.

One cannot deny, love truly drives people mad.

Wang Fànchén, for love, fashioned Fànchén.

But he then came to feel Fànchén was in the way, wanting to replace Fànchén.

This... left me, as an onlooker, somewhat speechless.

Yet I also inexplicably felt that everything was perfectly reasonable.

"All I didn't expect was that, just as I was gradually able to briefly merge with Fànchén, Yu Nian suffered another backlash."

Wang Fànchén intervened with the intermediate medium; in the dark, did it still affect Fànchén?

What Yu Nian thought was her second life was nothing more than the few years Wang Fànchén successfully extended her life.

So Yu Nian saying her second life was like a few stolen years is still quite fitting.

"I racked my brains but couldn't figure out where the problem lay, until I went against the flow on the Tiěsuǒ Qiáo, reversed from the Dēngtiān Diàn into the Sānshēng Diàn, discovered the secret of the Líxīn Suǒ, I pressed my master for how to open the Líxīn Suǒ; my master said it was impossible, so I wanted to forcefully drill open the Líxīn Suǒ and destroy it..."

I listened silently, even my breathing slowed.

The emotional entanglement between Wang Fànchén and Yu Nian truly surpassed my imagination.

They had both once risked everything for this relationship, for each other.

But why does heaven have to torment them so?

"During that time, I let go of all affairs big and small of the Chenghuang Temple; in my subconscious I also abandoned Fànchén, I focused single-mindedly on the Líxīn Suǒ, and as effort never betrays the earnest, I finally found the method to open the lock."

"This is the origin of that key, right?" I asked.

"Yes." Wang Fànchén said, "The Líxīn Suǒ has no keyhole, so I made one for it; I collected the debris from opening the keyhole, forged it with the Chenghuang Temple's incense-ash flood, just as I had originally refined Fànchén; no matter how hard the Líxīn Suǒ is to open, it is merely a specially forged stone, ordinary fire cannot melt it, but the high temperature of the incense-ash flood can."

I have to say, Wang Fanchen really has both heart and brains.

"What I never expected was that, while I was drilling holes in the Heart-Seeking Lock and damaging it, the lock's Mana was also affected, and I suffered a huge backlash..."