Chapter 830: Her Way Home

Chapter 830: Chapter 830: Her Way Home

"Don’t cry," his voice softened, chiming like a gentle bell. "Come... I’ll show you around the rest of my home."

Yue Yue sniffed, her little throat tight. She didn’t care about looking at a silly cave anymore, but she had nowhere else to go. She slowly slithered after his glowing tail.

The spirit led her down another winding passage. He showed her a crystal-clear underground pool, then pointed out strange, glowing mushrooms clinging to the rock.

He showed her faded carvings etched into the walls and several stone ledges where he had painstakingly planted glowing medicinal herbs over the centuries.

Normally, Yue Yue would have been fascinated by all the magical plants and pretty lights. But now, she barely glanced at them. Her mind was consumed by a single, desperate plea: I want to go home.

After slithering for a while, the spirit suddenly halted in mid-air. Yue Yue almost bumped her snout right into his glowing tail.

"What’s wrong?" she asked softly.

The spirit didn’t answer. He was staring straight ahead, his eyes wide.

A faint green light was glowing in the darkness ahead. It was the same mysterious glow. Yue Yue had noticed in the cavern. Before, it had been weak and distant, but now... it was radiating with incredible warmth and power.

Together, the tiny white snake and the winged spirit slowly glided towards it. The deeper they went into the passage, the brighter the light became, casting long, dancing shadows across the stone. ℴ

Soon, the narrow tunnel opened into a breathtaking, gigantic chamber.

Yue Yue’s jaw dropped. The cavern was monumental. Towering stone pillars reached up to a vaulted ceiling, covered in majestic, ancient serpent carvings.

And directly in the very centre of the chamber... something was floating in mid-air.

Yue Yue stared at it, her gemstone blue eyes wide with awe. "What is that?"

The little spirit suddenly broke into a bright, joyful smile. Looking unusually proud, he hovered over to the strange object and began zipping around it in happy circles.

"My heart," he announced happily.

Yue Yue froze, her tongue flicking nervously. "Your... heart?"

"Yes!" The spirit pointed his translucent tail at it proudly. "Look how beautiful it is!"

Yue Yue stared closely at the floating object. It was a massive, brilliant green crystal, shaped remarkably like a beating heart. With every slow, heavy pulse of light it emitted, the entire mountain seemed to vibrate softly.

Radiant lines of light spread out from the crystal, running through the floor and stone walls like glowing veins of blood.

Yue Yue swallowed hard. "That... that is your real heart?"

The spirit nodded happily. "Yes. I have kept it here for a very, very long time. It keeps this entire place alive!"

The spirit fell silent. He turned his head and looked at the glowing, beating crystal, and then looked back at the terrified little snake cub.

For a moment, his ghostly expression became strangely distant and confused.

Suddenly, words spilt from his mouth, sounding almost like an echo from an ancient past:

"If you take this out... maybe you can leave this place."

Yue Yue stared at him in complete shock.

The spirit stared at his own heart, his translucent eyes wide with confusion. Those words had come out of him so naturally, almost as if an invisible thread of destiny had whispered them into his soul.

He had lived in this chamber for thousands of years. He had never tried to move his heart. He had never offered it to anyone. He had never even conceived the idea of leaving it behind!

So why... why had he just told this tiny cub to take it?

The spirit frowned, tapping his glowing temple with his tail. "I don’t know why I said that..."

He looked back down at Yue Yue. The little snake cub was trembling, her gemstone blue eyes brimming with fresh tears. She looked so tiny, so fragile, and so utterly heartbroken.

A profound, swelling wave of love and protection bloomed inside his chest.

He couldn’t let her stay here.

He couldn’t watch this innocent little descendant wither away in the dark, trapped forever in an eternal prison... just like he had.

But if she takes the heart, you will fade away forever, a quiet voice echoed in his mind. You will die.

The spirit’s expression shifted into one of deep complexity. He looked at the brilliant crystal glowing before him.

This crystal was not just his heart...it was the core anchor of the entire mountain. The massive cavern was alive because of its energy.

The little spirit slowly lowered his glowing tail. His translucent form flickered as he looked at Yue Yue, then at the heart, and back to Yue Yue.

For the very first time since she had met him, the fearless, forgetful ancient spirit looked truly afraid.

He was not afraid of dying. He was afraid of the tragic choice laid out before them.

He had forgotten his name. He had forgotten the face of his beloved mate. He had forgotten his precious son. He had lost every single memory that made him who he was.

Yet, looking at this crying, helpless little cub, a boundless, unconditional love filled his fading soul.

He did not want her to be trapped in the dark. He wanted her to run in the warm sunlight, to be held by her mother, and to grow up loved and safe.

Even if giving her his heart meant he would fade into nothingness...

Even if it meant no one in the world would ever be left to remember he had ever existed...

The spirit slowly clenched his jaw, his eyes filling with a bittersweet, solemn resolve.

THUMP.

Deep inside the cavern, the green heart gave another mighty, reverberating pulse. The entire mountain trembled softly, sending waves of warm light cascading through the dark stone walls.

Yue Yue watched the light pulse nervously, her little heart pounding in her chest.

She had no idea that the glowing, beautiful crystal floating before her was the only thing keeping the massive mountain from crushing them both.

And she certainly did not know that her ticket home... was built upon the ultimate, selfless love of an ancient ancestor willing to sacrifice his very existence just so she could see the light of day once more.