Fairy Lingyue continued:
"The River of Time in the Sumeru Realm has only one stretch, and its end can never be reached."
"But the River of Time in the Shangqing Realm not only has countless tributaries, some of those tributaries also have ends."
"When I first came to the Shangqing Realm from the Sumeru Realm, this puzzled me for a long time. I even spent several hundred years trying to get to the bottom of it."
"But I never discovered anything amiss."
"To the upper ranks of the Cultivation World, the Spirit Bone Stele and the shape of the River of Time are as commonplace as the rain falling from our skies or the flowers blooming on the ground."
"Only later, when I had perfected my Dao Integration and was preparing to contend for a Half-Immortal seat, did an anomaly arise in one of the Spirit Bone Stele cultivation techniques I practiced. Only then did I once again begin to question the existence of the Spirit Bone Stele."
Xu Taiping immediately asked:
"What sort of anomaly?"
Fairy Lingyue recalled it carefully, then slowly said:
"That cultivation technique seemed to have developed a mind of its own."
Xu Taiping's heart trembled as he said:
"A cultivation technique developed a mind of its own?"
Fairy Lingyue nodded.
"Although it only gave rise to a single thought, I still remember it perfectly clearly."
Xu Taiping asked, "What thought?"
Fairy Lingyue answered, "Hunger."
"Hunger?" Her words left Xu Taiping feeling as though thorns were pricking his back. He immediately asked:
"What happened afterward?"
Fairy Lingyue shook her head.
"Afterward, while contending with others for a Half-Immortal seat, I was betrayed by that treacherous disciple. By a stroke of luck, I left a Divine Soul within an Earth Fruit, and then I met you, Taiping."