At this moment, somewhere in a Holy Spirit Cult stronghold.
As one of the hidden strongholds guarded by the Four Dark Heavenly Kings, this place could be called both quiet and dangerous.
Yet at this moment, Dark Phoenix Leng Yulai, who was stationed at this stronghold,
was fast asleep in her room.
"N-no, sister, could it be that you too? No, could you have forgotten what A-Yue said?"
"Liar. You big liar. A-Yue promised we'd be together forever and ever. A-Yue, sob. Sister, sob, A-Yue..."
Faint, broken sobs came intermittently from the bed. As if she had reached some sort of breaking point, Leng Yulai suddenly opened her tear-filled eyes and sat up.
"A-Yue...?" she murmured instinctively, rubbing her eyes without thinking. "These are... tears?"
"I think I was crying. Was that... a dream?"
It was almost as if she had experienced another life of her own from a first-person perspective.
Happiness, anger, sorrow, joy; love, hate, resentment, longing! Everything, every last thing, had felt so real. Sister, A-Yue, Ming Yue?
Together forever...?
Her unfocused eyes drifted along with her wandering thoughts. Leng Yulai sat there blankly on the bed, legs splayed to either side.
Two lives, two sets of memories began to intertwine and collide in her mind!
Then, beep beep beep!!!
A familiar yet unfamiliar electronic sound rang beside her ear, and Leng Yulai's wandering thoughts and gaze snapped back into focus.
"Finality!?"
Following the sound, she saw where it had come from: a bracelet, at once familiar and unfamiliar, had suddenly appeared on her fair, jade-like hand!
She instinctively connected the call with a thought, and sure enough, Leng Yaozhu's voice came from beside her ear. "Yulai, can you hear me?"
"Sister...?" She answered instinctively, and her heart began to tremble violently!
"Yulai... You had that dream too, didn't you?"
Her voice trembled with the question. At the Spirit Pagoda Headquarters, Leng Yaozhu was both thrilled and shaken.
She was thrilled to be able to speak with her younger sister again. What shook her was that this Origin Bracelet really was exactly like the one in the dream!
That meant it might not have been a dream at all!
It would be more accurate to say that it was another life for her and her sister, together with Ming Yue!
At the thought, Leng Yaozhu's breathing grew rapid. But remembering the younger sister on the other end of the call, she managed to steady herself:
"My Origin is exactly the same as the one from that life. I've already tried the armor! And all the data A-Yue transmitted is recorded inside!"
Her older sister's words were like a sudden revelation. Leng Yulai, who had still been a little muddled, finally calmed down completely.
The thought of equipping the armor flashed through her mind, and silvery-white light tinged with a deep purple glow began to spread from the bracelet.
In the blink of an eye, that familiar feeling enveloped her once again!
"Sister, my Finality is the same too...!" She clenched and unclenched her fist in disbelief.
As soon as she had first equipped Finality, the memory of Ming Yue watching her with a gentle smile had flashed back through her mind.
"So it really wasn't a dream at all!" Hearing Leng Yulai's answer,
Leng Yaozhu gazed at the Origin Bracelet on her end with even greater warmth.
"It was another life for us. One with regrets, but one that was also perfect!"
"Compared to this failed life, A-Yue and you, Yulai, are the ones I truly want to stay by!"
Her voice grew emotional as the scene suddenly came back to her: she had taken her own life at the place where Ming Yue had vanished, and Leng Yulai had followed right after, weeping on her knees with the Plane Spirit.
"A-Yue... But A-Yue..." The longing and attachment in her sister's voice brought Leng Yulai back from the shock of Finality.
Having accepted that it was another life for herself, her sister, and Ming Yue,
Leng Yulai now gently stroked the Finality Bracelet.
"Dummy. Since that was another life for us and A-Yue, then A-Yue must exist in this world too!"
"After all, with a Martial Soul that special, I don't believe the so-called Martial Soul mutation in the Qiangu Family could turn it into something like that!"
Leng Yaozhu spoke with firm conviction, unconsciously clenching her jade-like hand into a fist.
"Then how do we find A-Yue, sister?" Hearing her younger sister's silly question on the other end of the call,
Leng Yaozhu couldn't help but cover her forehead and chuckle. "Yulai, have you forgotten the influence we have?"
"I wouldn't say we control the whole continent, but apart from a few reclusive major families, the Spirit Pagoda is responsible for awakening and registering nearly everyone's Martial Soul."
"And A-Yue's Martial Soul is so unusual. Since there's no one like him in the Qiangu Family now, finding him is only a matter of time!"
As she spoke, she considered how to make a plan to find Ming Yue. Hearing her younger sister answer excitedly over the call,
Leng Yaozhu suddenly paused. "By the way, Yulai, do you like Yun Ming from Shrek?"
"...No. Why are you asking that all of a sudden, sister?" Her delighted expression stiffened a little.
Leng Yulai's mouth twitched involuntarily.
Just thinking that she had once secretly loved someone who had never even given her a proper look,
and had resented her own sister because of him, run away from home to join an evil cult, and even risen to become one of its higher-ups,
made Leng Yulai suddenly want to give her past self a good beating, a few hard slaps across the face.
"I see... Then where have you been all these years, Yulai? You were out of touch the whole time. If it weren't for A-Yue, were you planning to hide from your sister for the rest of your life?"
Sure enough, hearing the relief and anger in her older sister's voice, Leng Yulai felt warmth well up inside her.
But then she thought of her current status as one of the Holy Spirit Cult's leaders, and all the stupid and wicked things she had done over the years. A nameless fear suddenly surged into her heart.
"Yulai! Yulai! Say something! What's wrong? Yulai!"
Meanwhile, when she still hadn't heard a reply from her younger sister, Leng Yaozhu began to panic.
As she wondered if she had said something too harsh, she called out to her younger sister with growing worry and urgency.
"...Sister, I'm fine. I just... I just..." Leng Yaozhu's calls pulled Leng Yulai out of her unfounded thoughts, and she quickly answered.
"Just what?" Leng Yaozhu asked urgently.
"Sister, do you know about the Holy Spirit Cult?" Leng Yulai asked nervously and cautiously, staring at the Finality Bracelet.
"That evil cult? I know about them. Why are you suddenly asking...?"
Leng Yaozhu nodded instinctively as she answered, but halfway through her words, she suddenly stopped.
"Phew. Sister, it's just what you think. I joined the Holy Spirit Cult. All these years, not only did I join them, I also helped them do a lot of terrible, evil things!"
"Sister, if A-Yue knew I'd become like this, would he... would he still like me?"
Her voice gradually fell, and by the end, Leng Yulai was both frightened and full of self-reproach.
"...You, honestly. What am I supposed to do with you?"
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