Dust Was Coming to an End

Just as Shi Yan hesitated, Xi Yun, who had been engrossed in studying the Rhino Emperor Game, suddenly turned around. Their gazes met in midair.

"Xiao Yan? Why aren't you coming in? What are you waiting for out there?" Xi Yun hurried over, took Shi Yan by the hand, and led him into the temple.

As they walked, she kept talking. "I was just wondering why you seemed late today. Turns out you were standing at the entrance. You could've just called me as soon as you arrived..."

A familiar feeling welled up in him, and Shi Yan smiled without thinking. "I understand, Sister Yun."

The two of them reached the stone table in the Old Temple. Shi Yan opened the food box and took out all the dishes the Past Self had prepared.

Xi Yun studied him, a trace of suspicion crossing her face. "Why do I feel like something's a little off about you today?"

Of course something was off.

The Past Self was Shi Yan, but Shi Yan wasn't the Past Self. Even with all his memories, there were bound to be differences.

At the very least, he didn't feel the same pure, passionate emotions the Past Self had felt.

What Shi Yan felt for Xi Yun now was more like something between the affection of siblings and the love of a couple. That was the source of his uncertainty.

For now, though, Shi Yan didn't want to tell Sister Yun all that. He grinned and said, "Sister Yun, have you been cultivating so hard you've gone silly? I'm still me, aren't I? What's different about me?"

Those were the words the Past Self had once said to Xi Yun when he came to live in Bauhinia Village in Shi Yan's place.

Back when the Past Self had replaced Shi Yan, he hadn't even had the other man's memories, unlike Shi Yan now. Naturally, there had been more flaws in his act.

Hearing Shi Yan's words, Xi Yun immediately laughed, casting her vague unease to the winds. But she put on a domineering air and said, "How dare you talk to your big sister like that? You're asking for a beating!"

As she spoke, Xi Yun swung her chopsticks at him. Shi Yan grinned and parried with his own. They were only playing around, of course.

The two of them took nearly an hour to finish their meal.

Afterward, Shi Yan waved a hand and cleaned the grease from the bowls and chopsticks. The utensils then stacked themselves neatly in the food box.

As he tidied up, an idea gradually took shape in Shi Yan's mind. "The Future Self has my power. Defeating him will take a lot of preparation, and I need to solve as much of the Rhino Emperor Game as possible, too... In that case, I'll stay in Bauhinia Village for now."

As for the Celestial Master Palace, Shi Yan wasn't worried. He now had complete control over his Past Self, so having him take his place and oversee the Celestial Master Palace was ideal.

Once he'd made up his mind, Shi Yan quickly put his plan into action.

The Past Self set out under cover of darkness. A few days later, he reached the Celestial Master Palace. After making some arrangements, he left again.

This time, Shi Yan planned to travel the world and set up arrays across the land, resonating with the World Origin.

The Future Self had given him the idea. If the Future Self could resonate with the World Origin through arrays and try to escape its suppression, why couldn't Shi Yan do the opposite?

Among the memories the Past Self had given him was the complete process of the Future Self teaching him arrays. Although it only covered the Light Origin, the part the Past Self had handled, Shi Yan could use it as a reference to work out arrays that resonated with the other Origins.

Once those arrays were in place, he could try to develop them in reverse and ultimately suppress and reclaim the Future Self for good.

Shi Yan thought the plan ought to work.

Of course, he planned to leave all this to his Past Self. As for his Main Self, he would stay in Bauhinia Village and focus on solving the Rhino Emperor Game. With the World Authority and the World Array working together, he would have a double safeguard.

I refuse to believe I still can't take down the Future Self after all that.

Of course, there was another reason for doing this: Shi Yan wanted to use the time to slowly figure out his feelings for Xi Yun.

Time passed, and life after the Past Self's return was as calm as still water.

Ten years later, the force from Jing Kingdom finally finished clearing out the monsters entrenched in the most remote part of the land, Yan Kingdom.

It was the last nation in the world to complete the monster purge. At last, peace returned to the land.

Humanity celebrated as one. Several Celestial Masters even proposed changing the calendar and designating that year as the first year of a new era, to mark the end of the old and the beginning of the new.

The proposal won the support of the vast majority. After discussion, the Celestial Master Palace named the new calendar the "Phoenix Calendar," symbolizing humanity's rebirth from the ashes and commemorating Jing Kingdom, where birds had once been held in the highest regard.

After all, humanity's rebirth had begun in Jing Kingdom.

Of course, there were no longer any separate kingdoms. The entire world had been unified under the rule of the Celestial Master Palace.

The Celestial Master Palace expanded rapidly as a result. In addition to its original Celestial Master system, it recruited many ordinary people with administrative talent and established a reasonably sound civil service.

Shi Yan, meanwhile, became the spiritual leader of the entire world and the true ruler of human society.

But this spiritual leader spent most of his time traveling the land, appearing and disappearing without a trace. He was rarely seen in public.

Shi Yan's main reason for traveling was to survey the land and find suitable sites for setting up arrays.

After surveying the world, Shi Yan discovered that the capitals of the eight kingdoms chosen by the Future Self really were the best places to set up arrays. Those eight sites resonated most strongly with the eight great Origins: metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, light, and lightning.

At the same time, however, he felt that setting up arrays only in the eight capitals would leave the whole arrangement too fragile.

Perhaps that was why the Future Self's array had caused such a commotion when it was first set up, and why it had been so fragile that Shi Yan had destroyed it with ease.

In fact, after surveying the land, Shi Yan realized that if he set up auxiliary arrays in advance across the world, then used the eight capitals as the core and linked everything together, the arrays could naturally connect with the World Origin.

As the core of the array, the eight capitals wouldn't suffer any harm. In fact, the local inhabitants would benefit from the power released by the Origin.

The grand array would also be much more stable and efficient. It wouldn't need time to resonate with the World Origin, nor would it be as easy to destroy as the array the Future Self had set up.

The Future Self probably had no other choice. He's suppressed at the World Origin, so interfering with the outside world must come at a high price. And even after paying that price, he still needs help from the Past Self. He must have had no choice but to set up such a crude array. Shi Yan quietly speculated.

Unlike the heavily constrained Future Self, Shi Yan had enough time and energy to make preparations, even though his power was nowhere near as great.

So Shi Yan was patient and put stability above all else.

But that meant the changes to the array were far more extensive than he'd initially expected, and setting it up was much more troublesome.

As the days passed, the Past Self gradually set up arrays across the land, while the Main Self steadily progressed in solving the Rhino Emperor Game.

The return of the complete Past Self had benefited him in every way. Shi Yan felt that even before reclaiming the Future Self, his comprehension had already surpassed what it had been before he entered this world.

If he could reclaim the Future Self, bringing all three selves back together and making the Main Self the only one, his comprehension might advance by leaps and bounds. His grasp of the Law of Time would probably improve considerably, too.

Shi Yan eagerly looked forward to it.

In the fifteenth year of the Phoenix Calendar, twenty-five years after the Past Self's return, a major event took place in Bauhinia Village.

Shi Yan and Xi Yun were getting married.

To the elders and youngsters of Bauhinia Village, they had been a couple for ages. No one understood why they'd taken so long to finally tie the knot.

In truth, the two of them had been very close for a long time. But Shi Yan had always had one nagging concern: he didn't know how to explain the Past Self to Xi Yun, much less how to tell her that this world was actually an illusion.

It wasn't until a few days earlier, after the two of them had given in to a moment of passion, that Shi Yan told Xi Yun everything, his heart full of nervousness and conflicting feelings.

But her reaction was far calmer than he'd expected.

"I'd guessed as much a long time ago. Maybe this world is a dream to you, but to me, it's the place where I've lived since I was a child. We grew up together. How could I not notice such an obvious change?" Xi Yun gently stroked Shi Yan's face and smiled.

"But..." Shi Yan took her hand, his expression still troubled.

Xi Yun cut him off without hesitation. "There's nothing to agonize over. The you from the past was you, and the you now is you, too. You're the only one I've ever loved."

Xi Yun looked completely at ease. "As for whether this world is false, a person's life lasts a hundred years. If I can spend a lifetime with you, how could it not be real to us? Besides..."

She turned to him and smiled. "You said that cultivation in your world grants limitless power, didn't you? Xiao Yan, you'll make sure we meet again in the real world, won't you?"

Hearing her words, Shi Yan's gaze grew resolute. He gently embraced Xi Yun and whispered in her ear, "Of course. We definitely will."

With that knot untied, the two quickly began making wedding preparations.

The villagers thought they were both getting on in years, but Shi Yan and Xi Yun had each accomplished a great deal in the Rhino Emperor Game.

Shi Yan needed no explanation. After more than twenty years, he had solved 5,999 levels of the Rhino Emperor Game—just one away from the 6,000-level mark.

Xi Yun couldn't match the wisdom and comprehension of a True God like Shi Yan, but with Shi Yan's subtle hints and guidance, she had solved more than eight hundred levels. At the Celestial Master Palace, she would have been considered a capable disciple.

With the World Authority improving their physiques, the two of them were around fifty, yet Shi Yan still looked like a young man. Xi Yun looked a little more mature, but had a charm all her own.

That was how the World Authority's enhancements worked. People generally didn't start to look old until after eighty-five. They might live to the age of ninety, but rarely beyond it; in any case, no one could live past a hundred. That was the lifespan limit this world had set for humanity.

That day, Bauhinia Village rang with gongs and drums and bustled with celebration.