Zu An widened his eyes. That’s right. Somehow, I kept thinking of reuniting with them in my timeline, but that would be extremely difficult in any case. I should be thinking of ways to return to their timeline instead.
Time travel was no easy feat, but it wasn't impossible either. Some dungeons and artifacts were capable of time travel, such as the Nature Jade Plate. That artifact had turned back into stone, but there could be other ways to do it.
The thought of that lifted his morale and dissipated his gloominess, though that immediately evoked exclamations from the two sisters...
The following day, Zu An made his way to the Tomb of Ten Thousand Dragons with Shang Hongyu accompanying him.
Shang Liuyu had been swept away by the atmosphere yesterday and didn’t think much into it, but once the deed was done, she felt so embarrassed that she wanted to bury herself. She refused to meet Zu An no matter what he said.
“Under her carefree exterior is an innocent heart. Don’t mind it too much. She’ll get over her awkwardness in a few days’ time,” Shang Hongyu replied with a gleeful smile. She was happy that she had succeeded in teasing her little sister yesterday.
Zu An also smiled gently when he thought about Shang Liuyu’s clumsiness yesterday. It felt as if the veil dividing them had finally been ripped apart then, but their progress was so fast that it seemed to have scared her off.
“How do you intend to thank...” Shang Hongyu cried out before she could finish her sentence. Zu An had swept her into his arms to kiss her.
Her body quickly relaxed, and her enchanting eyes glimmered as if dabbed with water. “You bullied me a lot yesterday. Is that not enough?”
Shang Liuyu had been the one stroking the zither yesterday, but as the melody played to its climax, her inexperienced self had failed to dodge in time. In the end, she'd run off out of embarrassment to clean herself up and never returned.
Shang Hongyu had needed to clean up the situation. Thinking about what happened afterward made her heart beat quickly.
This temptress, Zu An thought. She cosplayed Xihe and switched between characters yesterday. How am I supposed to endure that?
Unfortunately, they were in the Ocean races’ most sacred Tomb of Ten Thousand Dragons. Some of the Mermaid race’s ancestors were buried here. It wouldn’t be right for them to fool around here.
While advancing, Zu An went up to the statue of the founding Mermaid Queen. He had always wondered why the latter resembled Shang Liuyu so much, but he now had the answer—the statue was sculpted in her likeness. Not to mention he was the one who had supervised this project in the ancient era.
He gently stroked the Mermaid Queen statue. It had been battered by time, but she still looked as beautiful as ever.
Shang Hongyu got jealous. “Oh hoh! You sculpted a statue for my little sister’s previous incarnation to remember her by. Why didn’t you do the same for my previous incarnation?”
Zu An sweated profusely. He awkwardly replied, “You were the Sun Goddess and the Celestial Empress in that era. It wouldn’t have been good if our relationship became known.”
“Isn’t it just a human spouse? My sister and I are descendants of the Ocean races, but I don’t see you having any reservations about that.” Shang Hongyu was just joking at the start, but she got emotional halfway through.
It’s a story of three people, but only I am unworthy of being commemorated.
Zu An also realized how inappropriate his actions were, so he pulled her into his arms to console her.
“Forget it. You can walk by yourself. I won’t be accompanying you.” Shang Hongyu gently pushed him away and headed off. A trail of gleaming pearls were left in the dark palace.
Zu An wanted to stop her, but he didn’t know what to say. She seemed truly upset.
Even though he and Xihe had shared an intimate relationship, they'd been more like enemies instead of lovers. He'd been nowhere as close to her as Shang Hongyu in this life. But speaking those thoughts aloud would likely only upset her further. He would rather she blame him instead.
Zu An sighed before advancing deeper into the Tomb of Ten Thousand Dragons. The time loop had been closed, and the World Law Beacon had returned to his hands. However, he had come here today to verify something. When he sensed the aura of the Divine Dragon Immortal Medicine lingering in the atmosphere, he frowned.
He had entrusted the Divine Dragon Immortal Medicine’s seed to the Mermaid Queen in the Celestial Court world. However, she'd eaten it to prevent Feng Meng from gaining possession of it, which resulted in her ascending to the Frost Palace.
When he constructed the Tomb of Ten Thousand Dragons with the Ocean races, there had been no substitute for the immortal medicine there. Back then, he'd even worried that the disappearance of the Divine Dragon Immortal Medicine would affect history.
But somehow, he'd still managed to obtain the Divine Dragon Immortal Medicine in this timeline.
There can only be two possibilities. One, there are two Divine Dragon Immortal Medicines. However, immortal medicines are primordial substances, and each of them is unique.
That leaves only the second possibility. Gong Suyin was here. She probably remembered me talking about that, so she intentionally planted the Divine Dragon Immortal Medicine’s seed here to close the time loop.
The thought that Gong Suyin had visited this place and seen her statue excited Zu An. Does this mean that she broke free of the Frost Palace’s restraints? Did Mo Xi grow strong enough to use ‘Farewell, Nanchao’ on her contract?
Zu An’s excitement heightened. He began searching the area, but in the end, he didn’t find anything. This confused him. If the Mermaid Queen was here, why didn’t she leave anything behind? Was she unable to leave anything here?
He continued advancing with a heavy heart. Soon, he passed through the abyss and entered the Netherworld. He first made his way under the Oblivion Bridge and saw Chu Chuyan still in her cultivation. He briefly hesitated, but decided against disturbing her.
The Oblivion River was highly damaging to souls. Even with him, the Netherworld’s master, making a special exception for her, Chuyan still needed to remain in a state of hibernation to endure the relentless flow of time. If she woke up, she would experience the real world’s flow of time, and that would only put her in greater pain.
Zu An quickly made his way to the Reincarnation Platform. He had instructed the Ox Head and Horse Face in the spacetime fragment to leave a message here if anything happened to the Netherworld in the future.
They should have at least left something behind, right?
Zu An nervously made his way to the discreet corner on the Reincarnation Platform that he had pointed out to them. A second later, his body trembled.
There was an extremely small word written in the Shaman language. It was inscribed messily, as if it had been done in a hurry.
‘Betrayal’.