An ancient verse speaks of a glance that could launch a thousand ships, a smile that could bloom with a hundred charms. Though meant for the fairer sex, the phrase echoed in Wang Lin’s mind as he watched the white-robed woman turn. Yet, there was no smile, and the absence thereof subtly altered the very essence of that gaze.

It was a look of utter unfamiliarity.

Her eyes, the color of glacial ice, swept over Wang Lin, devoid of recognition, as though he were a stranger met upon the road. She offered no glimmer of the past, no echo of shared history.

Without a pause, the woman turned and, as light as thistledown on a summer breeze, drifted away.

Wang Lin stood transfixed, watching her retreat until her form dissolved into the horizon.

*A backward glance, a lost remembrance…*

He closed his eyes, a long sigh escaping his lips. “All those I’ve encountered in dreams have felt a strange, undeniable kinship with me…Zhou Rui, Xu Fei, Liu Mei…all the dream-touched cultivators I’ve met since leaving Zhao nineteen years ago…all but her. Only she…”

The lines on his face deepened, etched with a sudden weariness. He leaned against a withered tree, his ancient eyes filled with a profound understanding, yet shrouded in a veil of bewilderment.

A bitter taste rose in his throat as Wang Lin stumbled onward, lost in the fog of his thoughts.

He knew not how far he walked, oblivious to the sun’s fiery rise and gentle descent. Upon the scorched earth of the Fire Fen Nation, he left no trail, yet his spirit journeyed far indeed.

Days bled into weeks, and weeks into months…

The complexity within Wang Lin’s gaze intensified, yet he masked it with the same practiced confusion, obscuring a truth he almost dared to acknowledge. He desperately clung to a sliver of hope, however faint, however improbable.

Until, one fateful day, a mountain loomed before him.

A dead volcano. Perhaps, in a bygone age, it had roared to life, spewing forth molten fury and ash-black smoke. But now, it was silent, inert.

The ground was pockmarked with ancient craters, strewn with jagged, obsidian shards. An aura of desolation clung to the air, suffocating life within a hundred leagues.

At the foot of this desolate peak, Wang Lin halted, staring in blank incomprehension. Then, with agonizing slowness, the veil of delusion shattered. He trembled, recoiling as if struck.

“It is…it…” This mountain, he knew. It was the same phantom peak he had witnessed erupting in the ethereal realm within the Great Sea!

The twin fissures upon its slopes, twisting like intertwined serpents, were like brands of destiny, an eternal mark that screamed of its true nature.

Gazing upon this mountain, Wang Lin could no longer deny the truth he had long suppressed. The echoes of the Great Sea and the stark reality before him coalesced into an overwhelming force. It surged through his veins, shattering the walls of deception he had built over decades. For the first time in many years, he faced himself, and faced the terrifying scope of his reality.

“I should have known it then…” *But I refused to believe it.* “Wang Lin, I have been as guilty of self-deception as you. But do not forget: I, too, understand the Dao of Illusion… Can you truly fool yourself?” He pointed a trembling finger at the lifeless volcano, a hollow laugh echoing across the barren landscape.

“Only she…she felt no connection to me, her gaze so cold and distant…Wang Lin, if I am merely a fragment of my past self, and if the future holds Li Muwan, is my purpose here to sever the ties that bind us? If this present is but a cycle in an endless reincarnation, am I destined to erase Li Muwan from my very being, making us forever strangers?”

“If I am trapped within a dream, and my life as a cultivator is the only truth, does the sleeping me, consumed by sorrow and love for Li Muwan, seek to make her forget me within this dreamscape…is all of this to spare her the pain of endless waiting, the despair of a life cruelly cut short, the torment of two thousand years spent among the living dead?”

“To allow her to live as she did before our meeting: happily, peacefully. Perhaps she will find another love, another path. Her life untainted by a man named Wang Lin who forced her to wait, leaving her lost and alone.”

“Is this it…?” Wang Lin’s laughter dissolved into sobs.

The more he understood, the more he glimpsed the nature of this reality, the mysteries of life and death, truth and illusion. While such knowledge might bring enlightenment, it now brought only a deep, soul-searing agony.

“Wang Lin, are you truly willing to do this? Can you bear to erase her memory? To let another you sever the ties that have bound you for two millennia?!” A wrenching cry tore from Wang Lin’s throat. “My entire life has been defined by karma. Karma… Karma… Wang Lin, you still do not understand! Despite your cultivation, your power, your rise to the title of Seal the Heavens… you fail to grasp the true meaning of karma!”

“You swallowed three Dao Fruits. You used the Dream Dao to return to the past. You wove this world from your own thoughts, the chaotic threads of the Dao Fruits, the power of the Dream Dao, and the tapestry of your own memories!” Wang Lin stumbled to a nearby rock, collapsing upon it in disarray, his hair wild, his eyes mirroring madness.

“You created this reality! Everything here is of your own making. Do you truly believe I could not see it? That I am blind to your machinations?!” Wang Lin’s laughter grew more desolate, filled with an unspeakable sorrow.
“You wove a tapestry of such perfect illusion, you spun a reality so convincing, that even within this dreamscape, you learned the treacherous arts of Liu Jinbiao, deceiving yourself completely. You forgot everything, erased all memory, convinced yourself this was not a dream… but you underestimated me, and more importantly, you underestimated yourself!”

“You are Wang Lin, the Sovereign of the Sealed Realm, a cultivator whose power reaches the heavens. Even before achieving the Third Step, you could vanquish mighty beings of that realm. You have weathered the tribulation of life and death, and now stand on the precipice of the Unsurpassed Heavenly Dao, poised to enter the Empty Realm, a domain reserved for Third Step cultivators since the dawn of time!”

“But I, too, am Wang Lin. Though I have not walked the path of cultivation, I have communed with the heavens, understood the profound truths of existence. A spirit of righteousness flows through me, enough to terrify even the gods themselves. What threat do you pose before me?”

“You delude yourself, immersing yourself in this fabricated world. You believe you can harness the power of those three Dao Fruits, creating your own realm, your own cycle of reincarnation, and weaving what you deem to be threads of cause and effect within it! Do you think I am blind to your machinations?”

“You desired to encounter a wise scholar, someone who could ultimately enlighten you to the truths of the universe, and thus, Su Dao appeared… you sought to sever your ties with Liu Mei, and so you orchestrated our two encounters, arranged for her to bestow upon me a medicinal elixir!”

“Before entering this dream realm, you heard tales of Hong Die, and so you wove her story into your dreamscape, attempting to complete a cycle of karma within your fabricated reality. You were also aware of the events surrounding Nian Tian of the Soul Refining Sect, and thus, you presumptuously attempted to replicate their karma as well. Did you think I was unaware? At first, I confess, I was lost and confused. But from the moment I met the Madman, at the instant the fire was extinguished, when I saw the mark upon his wrist, I understood everything!”

“I deceived myself, refusing to dwell on these thoughts. For over fifty years, I have lied to myself, but today, I refuse to continue the charade!”

“You believe this is true cause and effect… but I tell you, you are mistaken! Utterly mistaken! Other matters I could perhaps ignore, but your attempts to sever your connection with Li Muwan – that I cannot abide! You believe this is for her own good, to spare her further pain, to grant her a complete life, but it is all a fabrication, a lie! You do not understand truth and falsehood as I do! Will you not awaken? Will you not see the truth?”

“Can you truly sever it? Can you sever it?!” Wang Lin’s aged voice roared, shaking the very heavens.

With his roar, the world trembled, endless thunder echoed, and lightning intertwined, blanketing the sky as if in divine wrath. In that moment of heavenly fury, a colossal vortex appeared in the sky, spinning wildly as if tearing the fabric of reality itself. Within the vortex, a realm of infinite darkness opened, and within that darkness, a crimson glow emerged. Within that glow, two corpses lay, their eyes closed. One of the corpses, its hair white as snow, showed signs of struggle behind its closed eyelids, as if Wang Lin’s roars and cries were shaking its very soul, stirring it towards awakening.

“You cannot sever it!” Wang Lin pointed a finger at the swirling vortex above, his snow-white hair dancing in the wind. A wave of righteous energy erupted from his being, surging into the heavens.

“Since you cannot sever it, then do not interfere with me! Your so-called karma is nothing more than a childish game to me!” With a flick of Wang Lin’s sleeve, the thunder in the sky intensified, the colossal vortex spun faster and faster, until it diminished into a tiny white dot – a white bird flapping its wings, circling in the sky for a long moment, before finally flying away.

Wang Lin had understood everything for a long time. As a great scholar of this world, how could he not understand!

“What is cause and effect? What is life and death? What is truth and falsehood? I have come seeking answers to these three questions, and no one in this world understands them better than I do. From this moment forth, whether it be Dao Fruits, memories, or this false world, do not dare to interfere with me!”