Reunion in the Cracks of Time

The embers of the great battle had yet to die out. Chaotic energy currents tore through the clouds, staining heaven and earth a bleak, somber gray.

I was no longer the boy who had once run down Shrek's tree-lined paths with the Golden Dragon Claw clenched in my hand. Golden dragon might slumbered within my bloodline; the Golden Dragon King and Sea God's Power had long since fused as one. The majestic aura of a golden dragon lingered around me. My brows and eyes bore the weathering carved by life and death, partings and reunions. Standing alone amid the ruins, I was filled with bone-deep loneliness.

I had lost too much.

Xie Xie's Light Dragon Dagger and Shadow Dragon Dagger would never again streak across the sky. Ye Xinglan's Star God Sword had been sealed away by time. Xu Xiaoyan's Star Staff would never again light up the night. Yuanen Yehui's Titan Giant Ape and Fallen Angel Martial Soul had fallen silent. Le Zhengyu's Divine Angel would no longer spread its wings, and Xu Lizhi's Food Martial Soul would never bloom again. My companions, Shrek's Six Monsters, had remained forever within that catastrophe, vanishing into the river of time.

And she, bound to me by blood and haunting my every dream, had left behind only a wisp of her remnant soul, forcing me to guard endless regret.

My fingers brushed over the mottled bloodstains on the Golden Dragon Spear when a cool, pure presence suddenly struck my senses. It carried the Silver Dragon's unique gentleness and liveliness—the familiar scent engraved into my bones and blood.

I spun around sharply.

Within the faint glow of a rift in time and space stood a girl with silver-blue hair. Her star-silver eyes were clear and bright, her features still youthful. She was exactly the face I had called for countless times. She looked at me with unfamiliarity in her eyes, yet there was an instinctive closeness to her. The tips of her ears were faintly red, and her fingers lightly tugged at my sleeve as she spoke in a voice as soft as crumbled starlight:

"Y-you, carry me on your back a little longer. I'm having trouble standing."

Those words were like a key, instantly breaking through every one of my defenses.

I had carried her on my back countless times along Shrek's stone paths, through the thorny undergrowth of Star Dou Forest, through those bright, burning days before fate had come crashing down upon us. Back then, Xie Xie's noisy chatter was still at our side, as were Xu Xiaoyan's laughter and Yuanen Yehui's retreating figure. The laughter of seven people could drown out the wind sweeping across the entire Douluo Continent.

But the girl before me had none of the later farewell in her eyes, none of the smoke and flames of the battlefield. There was only pure dependence and shyness. She did not know the weathered me standing before her, yet instinctively felt safe around me.

My Adam's apple bobbed. My voice was terribly hoarse, yet gentle enough to drown someone in it:

"Okay."

I crouched down, my back straight as a mountain that would never fall. The girl carefully climbed onto my back, wrapping her arms around my neck and pressing her cheek against the warmth of my nape. She muttered softly:

"You... seem much taller than the Tang Wulin I know. And much sturdier, too."

I turned my head slightly and caught the faint scent of grass and leaves in her hair. It was the scent of her purest years. Step by steady step, I walked forward over shattered rubble and fragments of chaotic energy currents, as though I were walking through the cracks of time, heading back—

Back to the days when we could still act spoiled without restraint, when we could still stand side by side and see all of Douluo Continent.

"I've always been here."

I said it in a low, resolute voice.

And in my heart, another voice roared:

I will not only keep her by my side—I will also pull those companions stolen from me back from the river of time, one by one.

The Shrek Seven Monsters had to reunite.

!?

At "The Shrek Seven Monsters had to reunite."

I would make them stand beside me once more, shoulder to shoulder, to see these vast lands and rivers together, never to part again.

"I've always been here."

I said it in a low, resolute voice.

The Shrek Seven Monsters had to reunite. I would make them stand beside me once more, shoulder to shoulder, to see these vast lands and rivers together, never to part again.