Yaoguang: You'll find me, won't you?

"Synchronic Displacement..." Jingxing recalled the scene when he first met Yaoguang. So this was the reason why she kept jumping around in the timeline.

In other words, if her illness can be cured, the future Lord Ravager probably won't be able to kick Yaoguang out of the "present."

"Simply put, there's a chance I'll disappear at any given moment, but when it happens isn't up to me." Just as Jingxing was pondering this, Yaoguang gripped the Jade Knot in his palm. "And this Heavenly Wisdom Jade Knot has only one use—to maintain observation of me as much as possible, keeping me in the 'present'."

"I see, so this is something you used to save your life." Jingxing stared at the Jade Knot.

"Yes," Yaoguang admitted, "Without it, I would disappear from the current point in time without even realizing it."

After saying that, she flipped her hand and stuffed the Jade Knot into Jingxing's hand. "So now please keep it safe for me."

"Huh?" Jingxing looked down at the Jade Knot, then looked up at Yaoguang. "What does this mean?"

"Once I remove it, I can relinquish my self-observation and use the Synchronic Displacement of the illness to leave my current point in time," Yaoguang said casually. "As long as I successfully develop the illness, you don't need to worry about the overflowing Beauty Energy harming me."

At this point, Yaoguang smiled, as if this were just a trivial little experiment. "Although I've been troubled by this illness, now it seems that misfortune may indeed be a blessing in disguise?"

Jingxing clutched the Jade Knot. It wasn't big, smaller than a Strale, and it still carried the warmth of his body and the Yaoguang.

Hearing Yaoguang's arrangements, Jingxing felt a little flustered.

"Are we really going to try such a risky method?" Jingxing stared at Yaoguang and continued, "Disappearing now sounds easy, but what if you don't come back?"

However, Yaoguang had already taken a step back. She raised her hand and made a light sweeping motion in mid-air.

"Then I'll have to trouble you to use the Jade Knot to find me back from the lost timeline." Yaoguang's smile was incredibly bright. "As a follower of Idrila, you can definitely do it, right?"

"I..." Jingxing watched helplessly as her figure began to fade from the edge.

A faint blue-gold light rose from her silhouette, and Yaoguang gradually became more and more ethereal. Finally, she turned into sand, blown away by the winds of time to some unknown place.

Jingxing instinctively reached out his hand, but the golden sand slipped through his fingers.

The last time he watched her disappear from his sight was in the forest of Vesna IV. That time, just like he was now, she reached out her hand, and just like that, she stopped in mid-air.

Yaoguang said it was "a little habit he had developed in the past." He didn't understand it at the time, but now Jingxing seems to have figured it out.

"Could it be that there's a time loop between us?" he muttered to himself.

The Yaoguang dissipated from the current point in time, leaving only Jingxing by the pit, and the Jade Knot in his palm that still carried the warmth of the Yaoguang.

A night breeze blew across the open space, carrying that cloyingly sweet fragrance. The layer of bluish-gold radiance on the horizon continued to ripple, like a dam being slowly eroded away.

He stood there for a long time before carefully putting the Jade Knot away from his body, then turned to the still glowing branch at the bottom of the pit.

"We cannot betray Yaoguang's sacrifice." Jingxing closed his eyes, reached out his hand towards the branches of Qiong Sang, and focused his mind, gathering all the Imaginary Energy around him into his palm. "For the peace of the universe, I cannot allow your resurrection."

"So, please disappear, Qiong Sang."

This time, Jingxing didn't let himself sink into that boundless white expanse. He closed his eyes, first sketching a plan in his mind, encircling the branches, and then pouring his Path Energy into it without regard to the cost.

Only at this moment did he truly understand the saying, "What you want to happen, Path will respond according to your understanding."

Jingxing opened his eyes, his gaze falling on the bottom of the pit.

The light on that branch suddenly trembled, and then the feather-like patterns began to fade away layer by layer.

The branches struggled to rise—they wanted to revive, to grow, to take deep roots into the rock strata, and to extend their roots along the earth's veins to the entire planet.

Jingxing could even feel the branches pushing outwards, trying to breach the boundary he had drawn.

He gritted his teeth, repeatedly pressing the words "This is the end" into the energy he was radiating.

This is Jingxing's will, his decree upon the Path Energy.

Each Path Energy that struck the branches of the Qiong Sang dimmed its light slightly. Jingxing could almost hear it begging for mercy, wailing, and cursing him.

The principle of selfless Abundance is certainly not sinful. Qiong Sang, which draws on Imaginary Energy and transforms it into the power of the Path of Abundance, is also not sinful. However, the power generated was used by the Wingweavers to wreak havoc on the universe, and that is the sin.

Jingxing convinced himself in his heart and more resolutely poured out the Path Energy, constantly eroding the vitality of the branches.

After an unknown amount of time, the light at the bottom of the pit went out completely. The last section of the branch vanished from the world like an erased pencil line.

The depths of the pit were now empty, so quiet that Jingxing could hear his own heartbeat.

Jingxing knelt by the pit, unable to stand up. His nose started bleeding again, his ears were ringing in waves, and his fingers were trembling so badly he couldn't hold anything. He could only press the Jade Knot against his chest with his entire palm.

Just then, the sky brightened.

But it wasn't sunrise.

Three enormous beams of light descended straight down from the clouds, illuminating the entire forest.

Jingxing looked up and saw the outlines of one, two, three... an entire fleet slowly emerging from the light.

The Jade Abacus Xianzhou fleet has arrived.

Jingxing looked up for a long time, slowly clenching the Jade Knot in his arms. He didn't even have the strength to stand up, so he could only kneel on this land and look up.

In the cockpit of the Chasing the Moon Chaser, the channel lights that had been gray all night were now lighting up one by one.

The communication station rang once, then a second, then a third. The first voice to break through was urgent, yet carried a businesslike tone; it was a call from Yuque: "Hello, this is Jade Abacus Xianzhou. Please state your identity."

After waiting for a while without receiving a reply, the Jade Abacus Xianzhou simply started broadcasting its announcements over the loudspeaker.

Upon hearing the question, Jingxing simply rolled over, lay on the ground, and waved at them—though he didn't know if the Cloud Knights of the Jade Abacus Xianzhou could see his greeting from so far away.

"Next, I need to figure out how to explain to them that their general has disappeared here." Jingxing lowered his head and pressed the Jade Knot against his chest. "Then we'll work together to find Yaoguang."