"Perhaps, this is a unique kind of reincarnation, an ability exclusive to my elder brother."
"In different worlds, the same flower blooms. Whether it's you or me, we both know the same person."
Xu Moli came to this final conclusion.
Her tone was complex.
For her, this was a good thing—it meant her elder brother remembered her completely.
But as she looked at the witch standing right in front of her, the witch she had personally sent to her brother's side, Xu Moli couldn't bring herself to feel happy.
She was the one who came first...
She was the first...
If only she had been more decisive back then...
Xu Moli suddenly fell silent.
There was guilt for what had happened in the past, as well as unease about how things were unfolding now.
She wasn't sure whether to stick to the original plan and wait until her true form descended before reuniting with her brother.
She wavered in hesitation.
She hesitated in indecision.
In the end, Xu Moli's figure slowly dissipated in front of Krisha, her consciousness returning to her true form as she sank into prolonged contemplation.
Krisha's sudden appearance had successfully disrupted the celestial maiden's original plans.
"A strange person..."
"But indeed a kind-hearted one."
Having stood in the cosmos for a long time,
the witch gave such an evaluation.
She was an emotionally detached witch, a shadow that could not survive without the sun. She could neither understand nor agree with Xu Moli's attitude of clearly caring yet hesitating to meet.
Now,
with her mentor's troubles resolved, the witch decided to continue staying by her mentor's side.
"Hum—" The space trembled.
Krisha, holding her staff, took a step forward. The surrounding time and space shifted, and by the time it stabilized again, she had returned from the vast cosmos to Xu Xi's room.
On the bed, Xu Xi was protected within a magical barrier, sleeping soundly.
The witch gazed at that face for a long time.
As if engraving it in her memory, as if reminiscing.
It wasn't until the sun showed signs of rising in the east that she picked up her small wooden chair and calmly disappeared into the ripples of space, returning to the room Xu Xi had chosen for her.
The witch didn't want to leave a bad impression on Xu Xi.
She didn't want Xu Xi to see that she had sneaked into his room despite being told not to.
"May you be well, Mentor..."
Her ethereal farewell echoed and dissipated in the air.
Dreams are silent, like a soundless abyss.
Dreams are magnificent, filled with colorful fantasies.
After lying down on the soft bed, Xu Xi's consciousness quickly sank, descending layer by layer in a blurry state until it fell into a hazy, illusory dream world.
Pale and boundless, like a massive, tilted white cloud.
Was this really a dream?
Xu Xi hesitated. He felt his consciousness was very clear. It felt less like a dream and more like the state of his primordial spirit leaving his body, meditating to connect with the world.
"What is this..."
Just as Xu Xi was puzzled,
the blank world, vast as a sea of stars, quietly began to fill with color.
A dream both vibrant and mysterious reflected the truth of his heart, revealing a figure Xu Xi was all too familiar with.
Snow fell heavily.
The cold pierced to the bone.
It was winter in Blackstone City.
The pure white snowflakes, so beautiful in the mouths of the rich, became a heavy burden when they landed on the shoulders of the poor.
"Elder brother, why aren't you back yet..."
A small figure curled up at the door of a wooden hut.
Her tiny hands cupped her mouth as she kept blowing warm air onto them. From time to time, she would glance toward the end of the road, as if waiting for something.
Even though her nose was numb from the cold.
Xu Xi was stunned: "Moli?"
He instinctively reached out, wanting to brush the snowflakes off the petite figure.
But this action
caused the dream to change.
As his hand moved, the five-year-old girl quickly grew up, transforming into a frail thirteen or fourteen-year-old, lying alone on a bed in a cave dwelling.
Her eyes were lifeless, filled with tears, as if she had lost all hope.
"I'm sorry, elder brother..."
"It's my fault for holding you back..."
The scene before him
seemed to be a perspective from within the simulated world, one that Xu Xi hadn't known about—a moment seen through Xu Moli's eyes.
At that time, Xu Xi was still out searching for medicine, while the frail girl woke up alone in the cave dwelling. Faced with the cold, empty room and the weakness in her body, she fell into deep self-blame.
She felt she had burdened Xu Xi.
"It's alright," Xu Xi softly responded, even though he knew this was just a dream with no real feedback.
Then, the dream continued to change.
The clouds churned, transforming the heavens and earth.
This time, it wasn't Xu Moli's image that appeared, but the story of the silver-haired witch, Krisha, walking alone through the world after Xu Xi's life had ended.
She walked through the corners of the world, and the corners of the world stored her stories.
Like a ghost.
Forgotten.
Walking alone toward the unknown.
"Mentor, what should I do..." The confused witch looked up at the sky. The sun was blazing, but it wasn't her sun.
She was lost, unsure of where to go.
As Xu Xi remained silent, the Krisha in the dream began to relive the memories she shared with him.
She had once dominated the world's dragon species, cultivating a patch of multicolored dragonblood grass.
She had once wandered alone across the sea, watching a phantom rainbow descend, yet unable to touch it.
She had once briefly settled in a small town, filling a house that only she inhabited with Xu Xi's belongings, creating the illusion that he was still alive.
And she tried to do things that might earn Xu Xi's praise.
"Mentor, look."
"I can use chopsticks well now..."
"I don't drop them like I used to..."
At the quiet dining table,
the witch's fingers were no longer clumsy. She skillfully used chopsticks to pick up a piece of beast meat and place it in the bowl across from her, where no one sat.
The sunlight carelessly poured down,
but it brought no warmth to the witch.
She could only deceive herself in this way, numbing her emotions to keep moving forward.
"Moli, Krisha..."
The dream projected the past.
In the real world, Xu Xi had already reunited with the witch and was confident in his sister's safety.
But faced with these images, his heart was still deeply moved.
The simulation was real.
The experiences existed.
The stories between people created unique emotions.
These were hard to forget.
However, just as Xu Xi was feeling emotional, the dream shifted again, showing images of both Xu Moli and Krisha.
Not from their childhood, nor from the time of the simulation.
But entirely from
the powerful forms they took after the two simulations had ended.
"Huh?" Xu Xi was stunned. In the dream, he saw his sister and his student engaged in a fierce battle, causing stars to explode and space to collapse.
The more they fought, the more intense it became, almost as if they were on the verge of destroying the entire universe.
"Stop fighting, both of you, stop!"
Xu Xi in the dream tried to intervene.
But the shockwaves from the battle were too overwhelming, swallowing him whole.
The scene shattered.
Dizziness washed over him.
In the slightly piercing morning sunlight, Xu Xi opened his eyes, his face showing a hint of exhaustion:
"Was it really just a dream?"
"But at my current level of cultivation, I shouldn't be having such strange dreams. Could it be some kind of omen?"