Shi Tian wasn’t aware of his future self’s meeting with Aha, nor did he know of the ‘cartridge’ he gifted to their Emanator. Still, he could sense the ‘anticipation’ brewing from the said Aeon.
They weren’t that subtle, after all.
“Hold hands! Hold hands! Hold hands!!!”
The mask tied to her waist shouted over and over again. The atmosphere surrounding the three, no, the four of them turned awkward.
“They shouldn’t have been able to speak…”
Kiana murmured as she pointed out her right hand towards it.
Flick-!
The power she used to silence the mask for countless times failed at this moment. Her eyes widened in surprise, looking at Vita with nothing but surprise.
“Like a soap opera! Thieving cat! Affairs! I want to see it…”
The voice coming from the mask was a cacophony of countless voices—male and female, young and old.
“I’ll deal with them.” Shi Tian gently squeezed Kiana’s hand. “They shouldn’t mean harm.”
“Be careful.”
“Mn.”
He nodded towards Vita, who seemed unaffected by the mask’s chaotic noise. Shi Tian no longer made her wait as he held her hand. The contact between their true bodies created a path between their minds, and surprisingly, Shi Tian smoothly entered inside hers. It was just as ‘smooth’ as the time with Leylah.
‘These words feel so wrong…’
He shook these thoughts out of his head, focusing on the matter at hand. He looked around Vita’s mind. The exact same situation as Leylah’s occurred. Her mental world was nothing but pitch darkness, with the mirror-like surface reflecting his face when he looked down.
Every mind looks like this. If it was different, one faces countless risks—being possessed, shattered mind, cultivation backdoors, and so on. As the saying in every cultivation world goes, it is best to keep it pristine.
One characteristic of a mutation, however, is that it would be very obvious. No matter how hard it tries to hide itself, it would be visible to the capable—especially to someone with an eighth-level Tao Heart.
Across ‘countless’ distances, there lay a familiar feathered eye mask. Shi Tian roused his Tao Heart, the World Rendering Sword emerging in his grasp, but he did not rush to confront it.
There was a reason he left Aha behind. For once, they did not show a trace of ‘hostility’ towards the solar system. They were a literal ‘shit-stirrer’, existing for the fun of it. Shi Tian was proven right when they agreed to become the ‘bait’ during the Aeon confrontation, trapping one of the Aeons in their stead.
“You didn’t even bother to hide yourself.”
“Those words feel hurtful, you know?”
“..!”
He instinctively directed the tip of his sword behind his right shoulder, slanting it downwards. It pointed directly at the swan-like neck of the person behind him. A single push was all it takes for reality to be altered, obliterating her existence.
“That familiar power… No wonder those ropes you made in the past are unbreakable.”
Shi Tian’s expression did not change. He turned around and saw Vita in a pure white dress. Part of its bottom was sewed with gray cloth, forming a set of engravings. Her white-gray scarf held several diamond-like accessories, with a gemstone the same color as her ruby-like eyes.
‘She’s not Vita. It’s all the power of Elation…’
He saw nothing but the heavy concept of ‘Elation’. There wasn’t a trace of immortal cultivation, nor there was the traces of a ‘future projection’.
Just as he was about to ask her a question, Shi Tian was caught off guard with a hug. Vita playfully let the tip of his sword touch her throat. Dark gray mist emerged from her wounds. Lines of crack appeared on her throat, though it stopped after it spread across her entire neck.
Seeing her ‘suicidal’ behavior, he was forced to withdraw the World Rendering Sword. The cracks receded back to his sword’s tip, akin to an ink. The meter-long dao dissipated along the wind as it turned into gray ashes.
“You are as soft-hearted as always.” She spoke softly, burying her face on his back. “I can’t understand why you won’t…”
Rumble-!
The entire mental landscape shook intensely, forcing Vita to halt her words. Shi Tian, on the other hand, caught a trace of that chaotic tribulation energy emerging from nowhere. His eyes widened as he realized who she was.
‘She’s the future Vita, but how?’ His thoughts paused momentarily as he looked at her. ‘How is she Aha at the same time?’
The disturbance soon died down. The ‘Vita’ hugging him from behind reverted back to showing the concept of Elation. It was as if the future Vita never existed in the first place.
“...You are Vita, right?” He asked.
“Yes, but I am not the Vita you know.”
Knowing the combined strength of tribulation power and the present would strike her down, he understood her plight. She couldn’t explain things as freely as the future Leylah did. The moment that ‘suppression’ came down, her time was numbered.
‘She’s hiding to do something.’
“I will explain everything, but not now. We still have one more thing left to do.” She paused, lifting her face up from his back, before meeting his gaze. “The last of our future shall disappear with us eight.”
“Eight…”
The number of Pseudo True Immortals Shi Tian knew was seven. Leylah’s specialty as the first Supreme of this world to fall allowed her to interfere with the present as much as the other Pseudo True Immortals, making her the eighth.
The future Vita’s words confirmed his suspicion—
They have one last trump card saved for the future!
Shi Tian sighed deeply, a heavy feeling choking his throat. Momentarily, he did not know the words to say to the wife who lost her husband—who lost him.
Just then, the four characters engraved on his dao came to his mind:
Timeless Heaven, Everlasting Will.
It was his ‘true self’ engraved upon his Tao Heart. If there was one thing Shi Tian was certain, it would be that—
‘I will fulfill these words.’
All this time, he swore not to let that bad future to happen—that everyone’s sacrifices won’t be in vain. However, what about the pages where that bad ending was written on.
Was he supposed to tear it down and pretend it never happened?
Not at all!
He would engrave it to his very being, remembering this bad story for the eternity to come. At this moment, Shi Tian was not an author, but simply a reader who strangely cherished a story, no matter how bad it had become.
Unbeknownst to him, the golden orb that always hid deeply inside him trembled for the first time. Its light grew brighter, shattering its former quiet state.
All of it lasted for an instant, as if nothing had changed…