Chapter 297: Skyfall city 9.

Mo Yuxin saw a city burning.

Su Yubing saw a mountain collapsing.

Another lantern showed the ocean under a blood-red moon.

Another showed a battlefield filled with corpses.

Another showed two women standing beneath a tree while snow fell around them.

Some scenes looked ancient.

Some looked almost familiar.

Some were completely impossible.

Su Yubing stared at the lanterns.

"Are these memories?"

Mo Yuxin shook her head.

"Maybe possibilities."

One lantern floated closer.

Inside it, a young Su Yubing was sitting alone beneath a tree.

She looked much younger.

She was crying.

A young Mo Yuxin was walking toward her.

Mo Yuxin in the lantern stopped.

She looked at Su Yubing.

Then she turned away.

Su Yubing’s expression changed.

"That did not happen."

Mo Yuxin nodded.

"I know."

Another lantern appeared.

This time, the scene showed Mo Yuxin walking away while Su Yubing chased after her.

Another showed Su Yubing dying.

Another showed Mo Yuxin alone.

Another showed both of them standing on opposite sides of an enormous battlefield.

Su Yubing reached toward one lantern.

Mo Yuxin caught her hand.

"Do not touch them."

"Why?"

"Because they want you to."

Su Yubing smiled.

"Good point."

The lanterns began moving around them.

The scenes changed faster.

Hundreds became thousands.

Thousands became tens of thousands.

Every possible life.

Every possible ending.

Every possible version of the two of them.

Mo Yuxin suddenly understood.

This was not a trial of strength.

It was a trial of choice.

The ancient presence had said seven lives.

Seven gates.

One final choice.

It wanted them to doubt their own history.

To wonder whether the love they had now was real or merely another repeated pattern.

Su Yubing seemed to realize it too.

She turned toward Mo Yuxin.

"Yuxin."

"Yes?"

"No matter how many lives they show us..."

She stepped closer.

"...I am still choosing you."

Mo Yuxin looked at her.

For a moment, the darkness seemed less dark.

She smiled.

"Then I am choosing you too."

Every blue lantern went dark.

Silence returned.

Then a door appeared.

An ordinary wooden door.

It stood in the middle of the darkness.

Su Yubing looked at it.

"That looks almost normal."

Mo Yuxin frowned.

"Which means it is probably the most dangerous thing here."

Su Yubing laughed.

"Then open it."

Mo Yuxin placed her hand on the door.

Before she could push it open, another hand appeared on the other side.

A woman’s hand.

It pressed against the wood.

Mo Yuxin stopped.

Su Yubing moved closer.

The other woman spoke.

"Do you really want to know who you were?"

Mo Yuxin’s eyes narrowed.

"No."

Silence.

Then the woman laughed.

"Interesting."

Mo Yuxin answered, "Whatever we were before, we are what we are now."

Su Yubing smiled.

The woman on the other side went quiet.

Then she asked, "And if your past selves were enemies?"

Su Yubing answered this time.

"Then they were wrong."

"If one of you betrayed the other?"

Mo Yuxin replied, "Then that life ended."

"If one killed the other?"

Neither woman hesitated.

Su Yubing said, "Then this life is different."

The door opened.

There was no room behind it.

There was a city.

An enormous city under a violet sky.

Mo Yuxin stared.

It looked exactly like Skyfall City.

But the buildings were different.

Older.

Taller.

And in the center stood a giant black tower that did not exist in the current city.

At the bottom of the tower stood seven figures.

The first six were faceless.

The seventh was wearing the face of Mo Yuxin.

Beside her stood a woman wearing the face of Su Yubing.

The two figures were holding hands.

Then the black tower opened.

A wave of darkness spread through the city.

The scene stopped.

A voice whispered.

"The first gate remembers."

The door disappeared.

Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing landed on stone.

They were no longer in the darkness.

They stood inside a massive underground hall.

Thousands of blue lamps lined the walls.

In front of them was a staircase descending deeper underground.

At the bottom stood seven enormous doors.

The first six were closed.

The seventh was open.

Su Yubing stared at it.

"Why is the seventh open?"

Mo Yuxin did not answer immediately.

She felt something behind that door.

Something she had sensed before.

Something she had tried very hard not to think about.

The spiritual energy of the seventh door was similar to the Soul Reaper’s power she had once encountered long ago.

Not identical.

But close enough to make her entire body tense.

She stepped in front of Su Yubing.

Su Yubing immediately moved beside her instead.

"Do not stand in front of me."

"I am protecting you."

"And I am protecting you."

"You are stubborn."

"You married me."

Mo Yuxin laughed softly.

"Unfortunately."

Su Yubing pinched her waist.

Mo Yuxin smiled.

For one brief moment, they were simply themselves again.

Then footsteps came from behind the seventh door.

One.

Two.

Three.

Slow.

Measured.

Someone was walking toward them.

A woman’s voice drifted through the doorway.

"You really are still the same."

Mo Yuxin’s smile disappeared.

Su Yubing looked at her.

"Who is that?"

Mo Yuxin stared at the dark doorway.

She did not recognize the voice.

But she recognized the feeling.

The same feeling from the Soul Reaper.

The same feeling from the ruined sect.

The same feeling from the black shard.

The same feeling from the seven blue lanterns.

Something had followed them across the Southern Continent.

Something had been watching them since Bluewave City.

Something had finally stopped hiding.

A figure stepped into the light.

It was a woman dressed in white.

Her long hair was black.

Her face was beautiful.

Her cultivation could not be sensed at all.

She looked at Mo Yuxin.

Then at Su Yubing.

And smiled.

"I have been waiting for the two of you for a very long time."

Mo Yuxin took one step forward.

The woman smiled wider.

"Come."

She looked past them, toward the seven doors.

"The first gate has opened."

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TO BE CONTINUED.