Fleeting Dream Across Three Lifetimes - Chapter 21

Su Zining immediately mounted her flying sword and retreated swiftly, twisting her body to dodge the spirit swords shooting at her from all directions. The entire narrow passage began to warp, dense strands of spiritual power surging toward her like a storm. Guarding her vital points, Su Zining gritted her teeth and charged ahead. When faced with a swarm of corpse children rushing at her, she instantly unleashed the thunder talisman given by Luo Yuan. In an instant, the area exploded into ruins, shattered limbs and mangled remains scattered everywhere.

The reason she dared to break into the Su family estate, aside from her familiarity with the place, was because of Luo Yuan’s thunder talismans, which gave her a sliver of hope for escape. If they could not catch her back then, they still could not now.

Just as Su Zining abruptly shot straight into the sky, a crushing pressure laced with spiritual force slammed toward her. She retreated at full speed but was still struck off her flying sword.

The white-haired old patriarch of the Su family, his voice like rolling thunder, roared, “What petty thief dares trespass in my Su family to steal the Soul-Gathering Lamp?! Hand it over!” At that moment she was covered in blood, her original appearance long unrecognizable.

Though his talent was not remarkable, after centuries of cultivation he had reached the peak of Golden Core. Dealing with Su Zining was a trivial task for him.

Seeing the Su clansmen closing in with fierce momentum, Su Zining hardened her resolve and swallowed a handful of spirit pills. Surging spiritual power erupted through her body, forcing back anyone who drew near.

Su Zhou saw clearly—she had swallowed all sorts of pills, from Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, even up to fourth-rank elixirs. His heart ached so much it trembled; his Su family didn’t even have that many treasures to squander! A mere brat who hadn’t even formed a Foundation, gulping down so much, wasn’t she afraid of bursting to death?

But while his beard quivered from pain at the loss, Su Zining let out a long howl and directly summoned the Qiankun Fan. The surging spiritual power that was about to rupture her meridians suddenly found an outlet, and with a violent sweep of the fan, it poured forth.

A torrent of spiritual force stirred a raging storm, sending low-level disciples of the Su family flying. Some were torn apart on the spot. Even Su Zhou and Su Yue were shocked pale, scrambling to defend themselves.

The power of a Celestial-grade artifact was beyond doubt. If Su Zining could have fully wielded it, even Golden Core early-stage cultivators like Su Yue would have been slain instantly.

Su Zhou stared at the fallen bodies, even Su Yue coughing blood, and after the initial shock, wild ecstasy nearly made him tremble. His blood-red eyes locked onto Su Zining’s fan, his whole body shuddering. He had lived nearly a thousand years yet never once seen a Celestial artifact—never!

“Ha ha ha!” His crazed laughter echoed through the Su estate, then he suddenly bellowed, “Leave the fan!”

Su Zining forced herself to stand, blood staining her lips, staring at Su Zhou as he advanced madly toward the fan in her hand. She remained motionless, as if drained of strength, but as his frenzied old face loomed larger, she suddenly curled her lips into a bewitching smile. With blood at the corner of her mouth, the smile radiated a deadly allure, carrying an ominous threat.

Startled by her smile, Su Zhou hesitated, unease pricking his heart. In the next moment, two thunder talismans streaked with lightning cut through the air in uncanny arcs, striking from front and back! Su Zhou was no fool. The power within them made even him tremble. He immediately halted and tried to flee, but as he turned, a third thunder talisman was already upon him.

He roared in shock and fury, “Who are you?! Ah—” Why were there thunder talismans crafted by a Divided Spirit cultivator!

Three thunderclaps and a shriek tore through the air. All three talismans detonated together. Luo Yuan’s talismans were more than enough to deal with Golden Core cultivators, and at such close range, Su Zhou was obliterated without even ash remaining.

Out of six talismans, Su Zining had now used four. Her heart ached at the loss, but without Su Zhou’s death, she would never have been able to escape in her current state.

The grisly sight of Su Zhou’s death chilled the hearts of Su Yue and the others. For a moment, grief was forgotten, replaced only by fear. The longer one lived, the greater the fear of death—such was their nature.

Seizing their shock, Su Zining gritted her teeth, mounted her sword, and fled at full speed. Watching her vanish, Su Yue trembled all over, then after a long silence his eyes turned blood-red. “Spread the order, the Su family shall muster all its strength to kill! Inform all clans in Ying City, that woman carries a Celestial artifact!”

“Yes!”

Su Zining knew the Su family hadn’t recognized her and would not suspect it was her, but the Lin family knew. It wouldn’t be long before she became the target of pursuit by all of Ying City.

Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but cough, spitting out a mouthful of blood. Overuse of pills—if not for her rare five spiritual roots, her body would have exploded on the spot. Even so, the damage was severe. Yet… as Su Zining felt the increasingly lively fluctuation of a soul in her arms, her eyes softened with a faint smile. It was working—it was happy.

Though the city outside was in uproar, with greedy eyes searching everywhere for the Celestial artifact, she stubbornly remained in Ying City. As long as there was a chance, she would light the Soul-Gathering Lamp, carefully placing Qin Mohan’s human soul upon it, watching as faint fragments of soul slowly converged. 

However, as Qin Mohan’s human soul grew more complete and stable, Su Zining’s initial joy turned to despair.

Once the human soul stabilized, no more fragments gathered. What did this mean? Su Zining could not understand, until her heart was utterly exhausted. The fragmented soul and scattered soul had returned, but the rest was gone, completely dissipated, or… Had it been refined by someone? Su Zining shook her head violently. Impossible. At the time Qin Mohan’s soul had already scattered, no one could have found it.

With the danger outside growing, Su Zining knew she could delay no longer, yet she refused to accept it. She would not believe Qin Mohan was dead. If the Soul-Gathering Lamp had failed, there must be another reason. Stroking the lamp lightly with trembling fingers, her eyes reddened. She sniffled and whispered, “Mohan, I can’t save you now, and I must take you to a dreadful place.” Her face paled, and after a pause she added, “But don’t be afraid. I’ve been there before. I’ll protect you.”

After speaking, she stood up, holding the lamp tightly to her chest, and step by step walked toward the northern part of Ying City, the place no one dared set foot in, no matter how greedy they were.

The Burial Grounds, a place she had never wished to approach in her entire life, she stepped into once again.

Behind her, Lin Zong, Lin Cuiyan, Su Yue, the many pursuers, and Luo Yuan, all watched as her slender figure disappeared completely into the pitch-black mist that allowed no light.

Luo Yuan clenched his fists, murmuring in his heart, Be safe, girl.

***

Far away, a thousand miles from there, stood Shangyong City, the wealthiest city of the entire cultivation continent. Even though it bordered the far northern lands and was half-covered by glaciers, this did nothing to diminish the fervor of cultivators flocking there in an endless stream.

The first- and third-ranked of the Great Three Clans of the cultivation world—the Qin and Luo families—and three of the Five Great Sects—the Hundred Veins Sect, the Thousand Mechanisms Pavilion, and the Wangxian Sect—were all located in Shangyong. Half of the ruling power of the cultivation world was gathered here, proof enough that Shangyong was a blessed land where spiritual veins converged and fortune flourished.

The Qin family, recognized as the undisputed leader of the cultivation world, was also the most low-profile and mysterious among all noble families. For countless millennia, they had lived alone in the coldest reaches of the far north, occupying the Beichuan Snow Mountains. The entire Qin clan was built within the ice, hidden in a vast frozen expanse spanning thousands of miles, unseen by the outside world. But unseen did not mean forgotten—those from Beichuan’s Qin clan commanded respect in Shangyong, and few dared show them disrespect.

In the great war long ago between the cultivation world and the devil race, the commander had been the Qin Patriach. After she fell, it was her younger brother who managed to step into the Tribulation Crossing realm. And through the millennia since, nearly every generation of the Qin family produced a brilliant successor. Even in their quiet obscurity, none dared provoke them. Who could say if someone among them had already reached Great Ascension? If Qin Zhaomo had not perished back then, she might well have ascended long ago.

For the past thousand years, the Qin clan had almost vanished from public view, yet their status was hardly questioned. Even if they had declined, the might of a once-great clan could not be toppled in a single stroke. With such vast resources and a bloodline of extraordinary purity, the cultivation world preferred that the Qin clan simply remain aloof.

Deep within Beichuan, across snow-covered peaks and icy ridges, hidden by a chilling mist, lay an immense barrier. Within it, ancient and elegant buildings stretched endlessly through the frozen landscape, safeguarded within the snowbound mountains.

At the very center stood a great hall, surrounded by houses. Behind the hall, white jade steps rose like carved ice sculptures, etched with ancient markings, leading back toward a loft. The frigid air seemed to halt outside its walls, never intruding on those within.

On the second floor of the loft, in a finely appointed chamber, everything radiated care and luxury. Behind a row of folding screens stood a bed, its curtains drawn aside to reveal the figure resting upon it. Her black hair spilled across the pillow, smooth and lustrous, her eyes closed, concealing their brilliance, highlighting instead the long shadow of her lashes. Her pale face was as cold as blood on snow, her fine lips drained of color, as if she had never once felt the warmth of sunlight.

Yet, undeniably, her perfect features, even as she lay in silence, could not hide her beauty. She looked serene and elegant.

After a while, a gentle female voice, heavy with worry, broke the silence. “Zhiting, why has she not awakened yet, it has been almost ten days. You said she would be fine.”

The man in black, called Qin Zhiting, walked slowly to the bedside and sighed. “Grandfather said she is missing part of her human soul, so she will take longer. I don’t know what she will be like when she wakes.”

The woman’s eyes brimmed with tears, her voice breaking down. “Why her? Why our child? For more than twenty years I have watched her lie there. Twenty years! When I gave birth to her, I never heard her cry, never heard her laugh, never once heard her call me mother, only… only this empty body! Weren’t we told the time had come? A mistake before, and now again? Heaven is unjust, why treat the Qin family like this, why curse our Han-er so?”

Qin Zhiting ached to see his wife like this. They had been married more than three centuries before finally conceiving a child with endless effort. Who could have imagined that the fate of the Qin clan would fall upon their child…

While the two were consumed in grief, the one lying quietly on the bed suddenly drew in a deep breath, as if suffocating for too long and finally able to breathe again. A moment later, her nostrils flared, her chest began to rise and fall, and though her face was still pale, it was no longer so ghastly.

Qin Zhiting stiffened at once, having caught the sound. The woman also noticed. Both their eyes widened with disbelief and fear, locked firmly on the girl lying on the bed. A moment later, a pair of dark eyes suddenly opened, then turned toward the weeping, trembling couple. A flash of confusion flickered across her gaze.

Yan Qing clutched her husband’s sleeve, whispering in trembling excitement, “Zhiting, Zhiting, Han-er has awakened! She’s awake!”

Even the always-calm and composed Qin Zhiting was unable to restrain his joy. He leaned forward, crying out, “Han-er, Han-er, how do you feel?”

The girl on the bed stared at the excited couple before her, bewildered. She did not reply, but instead carefully observed her surroundings, then glanced at her own attire. Only then did she calmly speak. “Where is this?”

The two were stunned, then quickly answered, “Han-er, don’t be afraid. This is your home, the Qin family. You are our daughter, your name is Qin Mohan. I know you must be full of questions, your mom and I will tell you everything slowly, don’t be anxious.”

“Qin family? Qin Mohan?” Qin Mohan’s brows furrowed at their words. She studied their expressions closely, and found no trace of deceit, yet…