Chapter 484 485: Liu Ling

Chen Dong had lost all track of time. A darkness within darkness, a silence within silence, with no sensation of a physical body. 'I suppose I considered this a possibility when I made that decision.'

Chen Dong smiled bitterly, but it was a smile in his mind alone. In a world devoid of everything, even a bitter smile could not exist.

'Perhaps it will stay like this forever,' Chen Dong thought, coming to accept his state. And yet, in that very state...

TAP, TAP, TAP! The sound was jarringly abrupt. It sounded like high heels, but no, the sound changed. It grew soft and light, like a pair of delicate slippers. Then, the sound in his consciousness changed again, becoming more like the silent approach of bare feet.

Yet in this endless darkness, Chen Dong saw a red umbrella, casting its light before him—or where his body would have been.

The eighteen bells on the umbrella chimed rhythmically. Then Chen Dong saw a figure—blurry and indistinct, yet it felt deeply familiar.

Suddenly, Chen Dong opened his eyes. Before him was the colossal Demon Refining Pot, and he himself was still just an ethereal soul.

The Demon Refining Pot looked different from how he'd seen it before. It radiated a divine charm, its Dao Essence flowing freely as it rested silently in the deep water. The lakebed below was also uncannily clear and serene. There were no bleached bones, only sand, stone, and a few Spirit Plants.

A pure white soul materialized from the Demon Refining Pot. It looked exactly like Liu Ling, but Chen Dong could sense it wasn't her. This soul was more mature, more powerful.

Chen Dong frowned and drifted around the soul, but it paid him no mind. 'We're both souls, how is this possible? It should be able to sense me,' he thought. Yet the soul continued to ignore him, even passing right through his own spiritual form.

Greatly puzzled, Chen Dong trailed after the soul.

The soul seemed unable to stray too far from the Demon Refining Pot, confined to its immediate vicinity. She was gentle and benevolent, treating every physical object with incredible tenderness, stroking even the smallest of stones with affection.

As if witnessing the flow of time and the changing of ages, Chen Dong saw the soul, over a vast expanse of years, grow exceedingly fond of a crystal-clear pebble. Unlike the freely swimming fish, this quiet little stone was more like her—serene, transparent, present in the world yet set apart from it.

After another eternity passed, the soul decided to grant the small stone a spirit, to create a companion for herself.

With a touch of creation, a spirit was born. A ball of pure white light emerged from the stone, and the soul gave this light a name: Liu Ling!

The newborn Liu Ling was very weak and could only remain by the soul's side. She was as quiet as she had been in her original form, disliking commotion and never thinking of venturing out to see the world. For the nascent Liu Ling, this was her entire universe—deep beneath the water, accompanying the soul, just as she had when she was still a stone.

An unknown amount of time passed again, and Liu Ling slowly grew, taking on the appearance of the little girl Chen Dong had met in Lexian City.

Like her creator, she was filled with compassion for the world, even one as small as her own at the bottom of the lake.

But as this tranquil time flowed on, the Celestial Dao suddenly descended. Primordial chaos veiled the world, the font of creation was severed, and even the divine charm of the gourd vanished without a trace.

The soul knew the time had come to say goodbye. The great calamity was here, an event that not even a Hongmeng Dao Artifact could escape. She had to fall into a deep slumber within the Dao Artifact and await the next cycle. But in this era, with all Spirit Techniques withered, the stone she had brought to life would revert to being just a stone.

After saying her farewells, the soul returned to the gourd. Outside, Liu Ling grew weaker by the day, destined to one day fade away completely.

Unable to bear it, the soul materialized from the gourd once more. She began to transfer her own power to Liu Ling. If they could just survive this epoch, they could be together again once Spirit Techniques were restored.

However, the soul grew ever weaker, yet she persisted, day after day... After a very long time, the soul kissed Liu Ling's forehead and finally vanished from the world.

Thus began a long epoch. Liu Ling cried and searched, firm in her belief that the soul was still there. 'The gourd is still here,' she thought, 'so she must be here, too.'

After a long time, however, she reasoned that the soul had given its energy to her and now had none left. So she caught a small fish and tried to sacrifice its soul to the gourd...

The first time she took a life, Liu Ling wailed inconsolably. But to see the soul again, she caught more small fish, then large fish, and then demonic beasts...

She cried ceaselessly after every life she took, but she held fast to the belief that one day she would see the soul again. She went on to capture more demonic beasts, then Cultivators, and even primordial behemoths...

But the soul still did not reappear. Instead, she was met with the tides of Spiritual Qi. When the Spiritual Qi was exhausted, she would sleep by the gourd's side. When the Qi surged once more, she would awaken, but her memory had begun to fade. The only thing she could remember was using souls to activate the giant gourd.

The cycle repeated. Another Spiritual Qi tide came and went, and she lost more of her memories. A fresh, thick layer of bleached bones blanketed the lakebed...

After countless Spiritual Qi tides, all she could remember was her name and the need to activate the gourd. Though her own cultivation level ebbed and flowed with the tides, she always managed to procure better souls, forever pursuing those that were somehow special...

Eons passed. After an exceptionally long period of Spiritual Qi depletion, she slept for ages. When she awoke, she searched for a long, long time, but none of the souls she captured could satisfy her. Until, one day, Chen Dong saw her capture... himself.