Here Is Ten Thousand Years Later

"You can tell me now."

Qian Renxue's voice was several degrees colder than before, carrying a faint detachment, as though invisible thorns had risen around her.

Lu Chen did not mind her coldness. With both hands behind his head, he leaned against the same thick tree trunk beside her.

A breeze passed through the forest, making the branches and leaves rustle. Lu Chen fell silent for several seconds before slowly speaking. His voice was soft, yet it landed like a boulder crashing into a still lake. "Qian Renxue, have you never suspected that this is no longer the Douluo Continent we knew?"

Lu Chen turned to look at her, his gaze calm.

As expected, Qian Renxue froze. Her delicate brows drew tighter together, and her violet eyes filled with confusion and incomprehension. She did not respond, merely stared at Lu Chen and waited for him to continue—she did not believe he would say such madness for no reason.

"That spatial turbulence did more than move us somewhere else." Lu Chen withdrew his gaze and looked at the mottled shadows of the trees in the distance, his tone growing grave. "It also sent us ten thousand years into the future. This place is ten thousand years removed from our era."

The air fell silent at once.

Qian Renxue's fingers abruptly clenched her clothes, her knuckles turning white. She stared at Lu Chen's profile for a long time before forcing out two tight words. "Why?"

After spending two days together, she knew Lu Chen could be unpredictable, but he would not joke about something like this.

But crossing ten thousand years of time was simply too inconceivable.

She needed evidence that could convince her.

"I don't know how to explain it clearly." Lu Chen sighed softly. "You can treat it as a special ability of my Martial Soul, one that lets me glimpse certain secrets within the threads of fate."

Lu Chen paused, speaking slowly. Every word struck Qian Renxue's heart. "For example, why your mother killed your father. For example, how you took the name Xue Qinghe at the age of nine and infiltrated the Tiantou imperial palace, wearing a mask for all these years. Or for example—"

Lu Chen turned his head and met Qian Renxue's suddenly contracted pupils. "That boy called Huo Yuhao is a chosen child of destiny who will not be born until ten thousand years from now."

"And Spirit Hall was destroyed ten thousand years ago. Your grandfather, your mother, everyone you knew—they have all long since become dust in history."

As though venting, Lu Chen spilled everything out in one breath and attributed it all to his Martial Soul's abilities.

Qian Renxue would learn these things sooner or later. It was better to make her accept reality sooner.

After his words fell, only the sound of the wind remained in the forest.

Qian Renxue's entire body stiffened.

Infiltrating Tiantou and posing as Xue Qinghe—this was the deepest secret buried in her heart. Aside from her mother, grandfather, and the few people in Elder Hall, absolutely no outsider knew of it.

The fact that Lu Chen could state it word for word could only mean that what he said... was true.

That realization was like an icy blade plunging viciously into her chest.

Qian Renxue's hand against the tree trunk trembled slightly. Her once-bright violet eyes gradually dimmed, like dying sparks that instantly lost all their light.

Qian Renxue lowered her head. Her long lashes concealed the emotions in her eyes, and even her back seemed to slump for an instant.

For all these years, she had endured humiliation and hardship, hidden her true nature, and carefully maneuvered through the Tiantou imperial palace, living unlike herself.

She had thought that if she simply endured, if she completed the great undertaking, she would earn her mother's approval, live up to her grandfather's expectations, and spread Spirit Hall's glory across the continent.

But now, someone was telling her that all of it was gone.

The goal she had endured for so many years, the faith she had guarded for so long, had already vanished into smoke across ten thousand years.

Resentment, grievance, confusion, weightlessness... countless emotions surged up and clogged her throat, making even breathing hurt.

Qian Renxue bit her lip hard and closed her eyes. She pressed so forcefully that her lips turned pale, unwilling to let a single tear fall.

Just then, a pair of warm arms gently wrapped around her shoulders.

The young man's palm was steady. His grip was not strong, yet it was like a pillar holding up her crumbling mind.

"Cry if you want to." Lu Chen's voice sounded beside her ear, far more serious than usual. "No one will laugh at you."

"I'll stay with you, until the day you become a god."

"Perhaps once you stand upon a godly throne, we'll find a way to return."

This was not Qian Renxue's era, and it did not belong to him either.

But he was alone, with no ties or attachments. He could survive anywhere.

Qian Renxue was different. Her roots, her obsessions, all her bonds, had been left ten thousand years in the past.

At a time like this, she desperately needed someone to lean on.

Those words were like a floodgate, completely releasing the taut string within Qian Renxue.

Qian Renxue could no longer hold herself together. She turned slightly and buried her face in Lu Chen's shoulder. There was no sound of crying, only the uncontrollable trembling of her shoulders.

Warm tears soaked through the fabric on Lu Chen's shoulder, silently releasing all her grievance and confusion.

Proud as she was, she refused to make a sound even as she broke down, hiding all her vulnerability within this unseen embrace.

No one knew how long passed. Perhaps she had cried herself tired, or perhaps reality had to be faced in the end.

Qian Renxue slowly raised her head and moved away from Lu Chen's shoulder. Her eyes were still slightly red, but the confusion and shattered fragility in them had faded, replaced by a cold, resilient determination. Her youthful face now carried a maturity beyond her years.

"Lu Chen, tell me about this era."

Qian Renxue's voice was still slightly hoarse from having just calmed down. The redness around her eyes had faded, leaving only the lingering gloom in their depths.

She raised her eyes toward the three people chatting and laughing in the distance. Her tone was calm, as though she had finally accepted this absurdity spanning ten thousand years.

Lu Chen began telling Qian Renxue what he knew.

For instance, Spirit Hall's destruction, the Seven Monsters becoming gods, and Shrek Academy's rise.

As well as Huo Yuhao, the child of destiny.

When Qian Renxue learned that the boy named Huo Yuhao possessed a million-year first Soul Ring, she was utterly shocked as well.

After hearing Lu Chen's account, Qian Renxue fell silent for a moment before shifting her gaze back to Tang Ya in the distance. "She is the master of this generation's Tang Sect."

There was no hatred in her tone, only the detached indifference of a changed world.

Spirit Hall's destruction was indeed inseparably linked to the founding Tang Sect.

But those were grudges from ten thousand years ago. Her pride would not allow her to vent her anger on the descendants of the Tang Sect before her, a sect that had already fallen into decline and had only a handful of people left.

Taking one's anger out on the weak had never been her way.

"Yes, and she's also a pitiful person swept along by fate."

Lu Chen sighed.

While chatting with Beibei and Tang Ya earlier, he had only then learned that Tang Ya was the master of this generation's Tang Sect.

It was simply that the current Tang Sect had already declined, with only a couple of strays left.

Its members consisted of only Tang Ya, Beibei, and Huo Yuhao.

"But she is fortunate too."

Qian Renxue looked at Beibei, who stood by Tang Ya's side and watched her with a constant smile, and spoke softly.

When her words fell, Qian Renxue instinctively turned her head and glanced at Lu Chen beside her, quietly adding in her heart—I am fortunate too.

At least in this utterly unfamiliar era, she was not alone.

Once that thought settled, Qian Renxue said no more. She gathered all her outward emotions and walked directly toward Tang Ya and the other two.

When she reached them, Qian Renxue gave a slight nod. Her brows and eyes carried just the right amount of apology and shyness, and her tone softened somewhat. "Senior Tang Ya, my name is Qian Renxue. This is our first time leaving our hometown, and after being away for so long, we've begun to miss home. I lost control of my emotions earlier. Please forgive me."

The explanation came effortlessly. Years of disguise and etiquette within the Tiantou Imperial Family had been carved into her bones, making truth and falsehood impossible to distinguish, every measure perfectly judged.

"It's fine, it's fine! Missing home when you're away is only natural!" Tang Ya hurriedly waved her hand, smiling brightly without taking it to heart in the slightest. She even raised her fist. "If Lu Chen ever dares bully you, just tell me. Your senior will teach him a lesson!"

"Hey, hey, Senior, you ate my grilled fish, so you can't take her side!"

Lu Chen had just walked over and happened to hear that. He immediately spoke with a helpless laugh, making the atmosphere among them even more harmonious.