Chapter 235: A Glimpse of the Future

The Primordial Blood Pact taught by Eternal Purity had an exceptionally perfect structure. Although it used Primordial Pureblood as its medium, what truly sustained it was the connection between one "life" and another. The relationship between the two sides was not one of mutual exploitation, but of growing stronger together and benefiting each other.

As the master of the blood pact, Yu Xian was essentially like the head of a family, maintaining the balance of power among all his "family members" while using his strength to support them. Once his family members grew stronger, he would become stronger as well.

In his state of enlightenment, Yu Xian used the Primordial Blood Pact as a reference and combined it with the spells he had learned in the past. He derived dozens of interesting minor secret arts such as Soul Exchange, Body Exchange, Blood Pact Sensing, Hunger Exchange, Long-Distance Summoning, and Ability Sharing.

As he comprehended more and more abilities, his originally hyperactive thoughts gradually returned to normal. The sensation of countless strange and ingenious ideas constantly bursting forth slowly faded, and his inspiration became like water in a pond that had finally run dry.

He was somewhat reluctant to leave this state, but it was like the tide's rise and fall. When the tide receded, no matter how unwilling he was, he could only watch helplessly as the seawater gradually withdrew.

The enlightenment had lasted only a few minutes, but to him, it felt as though an entire century had passed. It had been so long that even with Super Brain, he had to think for a moment before remembering where he was and why he was there.

He slowly opened his eyes and let out a long breath. After organizing what he had gained, he was about to thank Ni Man when he realized that she had already disappeared without a trace.

Yu Xian looked toward Eternal Purity. "Auntie, where did Shopkeeper Ni Man go?"

When Eternal Purity did not speak, her presence was astonishingly faint. Yu Xian would sometimes even forget that she was there, but Eternal Purity had always remained by his side and never strayed far from him.

Eternal Purity smiled. "She left."

Yu Xian stared at her, speechless. He knew Ni Man had left. That was precisely why he had asked Eternal Purity where she had gone.

Still, he wasn't in any hurry. The world Ni Man had created wasn't particularly large. If he wanted to leave, he could withdraw from it with a single thought.

Since Eternal Purity wasn't going to tell him where Ni Man had gone, he simply sat down on the grass and leisurely took in everything about this world. Every world was different. No matter how similar they appeared on the surface, countless tiny details revealed the differences.

The sunlight here was far gentler than that of a true sun, and the air was rich with moisture. Beneath his feet, the earth radiated a warm, gentle dampness. If one closed their eyes here, they would feel as though the entire world was kissing them.

At the thought of kissing, Yu Xian's expression immediately darkened. He had nearly forgotten that Ni Man had taken advantage of him. That was my first kiss!

He had already decided that after Nora graduated from university, he would consider whether to continue pursuing their relationship depending on how he felt at the time. Until then, he was willing to wait for Nora to move past the pain of losing her father and untangle the knot in her heart.

And yet, somehow, his first kiss was gone. Ni Man was beautiful, but he would still rather get affectionate with someone his own age.

***

Meanwhile, Nora rested beneath a tree. A little mushroom person sat on a branch above her, continuously releasing golden mist from its head. Nora had chosen a Future Mushroom, so she was currently experiencing a prophetic dream, observing one possible future from the perspective of an outsider.

She had troubles of her own. Her father's death had left her deeply heartbroken, so she chose to honor his wishes to attend university and fulfill the hopes he had placed on her. At the same time, she wanted to be able to help Yu Xian rather than remain nothing more than a pretty face.

The problem was that no matter how hard she trained or how seriously she studied what was taught at university, the gap between them not only failed to shrink but instead kept growing wider. It made her feel miserable, yet there was nothing she could do to change it.

At university, she often found herself missing the days when she and Yu Xian used to go to and from school together. But she didn't dare contact him, afraid that she would disturb him while he was dealing with more important matters.

After Yu Xian defeated Edward, his status had rapidly shot up. He was now a great hero. Some even regarded him as the guardian of the Blue Planet. She couldn't let her selfish desires interfere with what Yu Xian needed to do, so she had no choice but to suppress how much she missed him. Whenever she truly couldn't bear it anymore, she would look through the photos on her phone.

That was precisely why, when Yu Xian invited her to the Island Pocket Dimension for a break, she agreed without the slightest hesitation. Yet once they actually met again, the countless things she had wanted to say somehow dissolved into the simple desire to just be near him. Many of her feelings, and many of the words she had wanted to say, she could no longer bring to her lips.

Deep down, she was afraid, afraid that Yu Xian would keep moving farther and farther away, until one day even his receding figure would be beyond her reach. Just as the Tsuchinshan–ATLAS Comet would pass by the Blue Planet only once every sixty thousand years, she feared that Yu Xian would depart like a comet, leaving her all alone on the Blue Planet to wait and hope that he would return sixty thousand years later. That was why she wanted to see the future, even if it was only one of the many possible futures.

In the prophetic dream, everything unfolded exactly as she had feared. The distance between her and Yu Xian grew wider and wider, until the year she graduated from university, when Yu Xian left and never returned. No one knew where he had gone. No one knew whether he was alive or dead.

Nora inherited her mother's estate and worked day after day, year after year. Her wealth continued to grow, while her heart grew emptier with each passing day.

No one could ever know which meeting would be the last. Only after a very, very long time had passed would they look back and realize that the chance encounter that day, that afternoon, had been the final moment their paths ever crossed.

Not every story had an ending. More often, people simply faded away without resolution, leaving behind nothing but a heart full of wistful emptiness with nowhere to find closure.

A long while passed, and Nora woke up from the dream. She slowly sat up and leaned back against the tree. Everything around her was utterly still. There was only the sound of the wind, the rustling of leaves, and the beating of her own heart and the rhythm of her breathing.

The clouds drifted across the sky, and at that moment, time itself seemed to stand still. Nora gazed up at the sky. Suddenly sensing something, she instinctively wiped her cheek, and only then did she realize that tears were streaming down her face.

Although she had only been an observer in the prophetic dream, she seemed able to understand what her future self had felt, even sharing those emotions firsthand. It was a quiet, soundless kind of despair—neither dramatic nor intense, but something that had become part of everyday life, like air and sunlight—a plain, ordinary despair.

She didn't want that future. Nora's gaze gradually grew resolute. In the prophetic dream, more and more people had appeared by Yu Xian's side—Little Nora, Little Huang Quan, even the shopkeeper of this very store.

She knew she had to take the initiative. Otherwise, she would end up just like the version of herself in the dream, left with nothing but more money than she could ever spend and an endless emptiness.