Chapter 208 - 100: I Deserve This Bitter Fruit; The Future in the River of Time Is Explained

The vast mountains were endless, and a strange mist churned within them.

At the mouth of the Abyss of Despair, a woman in white stood quietly. Beneath her veiled bamboo hat, her fairy-like face was frozen in a daze.

She remained silent. After a long while, a bitter smile touched the corners of her lips.

On her journey from No Return Island to the Celestial Central Province, she had been constantly wondering how she would face Jiang Lan and how she could explain the past.

All these thoughts flowed through her mind every moment like a river, ultimately turning into a heart-piercing pain and melancholy.

In her past life, at this point in the timeline, there were many things she had never known, nor had she ever tried to find out.

Her mind was filled with nothing but pain and hatred.

Her paranoid obsession with revenge became the sole motivation for her cultivation.

So in this life, upon entering the borders of Great Xia, she began to deliberately collect information and investigate Jiang Lan’s various actions and rumors from all these years.

But no matter what she heard, no matter what piece of news she received, it only made her heart ache more, leaving her feeling even more helpless and lost.

The foremost young noble of Great Xia—a man who indulged in debauchery, committed every evil, acted with arrogant impunity, and bullied men while preying on women... No matter who heard his name, they were filled with disgust, avoiding him like the plague.

Even more people cursed him out loud without restraint, bluntly calling him a useless second-generation heir who only knew how to rely on the Prime Minister’s power.

Without the Prime Minister’s Mansion to protect him, he would have died countless times already.

Every time she heard these curses and expressions of disgust, waves of sharp pain pierced her heart.

Even though she had reached the pinnacle of all worlds and looked down upon all living beings in her past life, the profound helplessness, regret, and self-blame still made her vision blur, nearly causing her to lose her footing.

In his youth, he was the object of many a young girl’s first crush, admired for being humble, courteous, and gentle as jade.

Even a simple, polite smile from him would make the girls who secretly watched him blush and their hearts race, leaving them tossing and turning, unable to sleep at night.

All the maids in the Prime Minister’s Mansion affectionately called him Young Master Lan. He was polite to everyone and would never punish anyone.

Sometimes, when faced with the secret teasing of some of the bolder maids, he would become shy and bashful. Then, worried his parents might punish the maids, he would secretly cover for them.

’And with me, he was even more obedient and well-behaved...’

If nothing had gone wrong, he would have been the husband every woman in the world dreamed of: handsome as a jade statue, gentle and humble, from a prominent family, prodigiously talented, and with a profound cultivation base.

She herself would have married him as promised, and they would have lived a harmonious life, showering each other with love and kindness.

But... there are no ’what ifs’ in this world.

Even though she had found a Time Cicada, which could traverse the river of time, she still couldn’t return to that past and change that moment.

’In my past life, why didn’t I ever stop to think about why he had been reduced to a cripple?’

’Back then, he was still a brilliant and dazzling Celestial Pride. How could he have willingly degenerated to a point where everyone cursed him, despised him, and shied away from him?’

’No, that’s not right. I did think about it in my past life. But my cowardice, my fear of facing the truth, made me choose to turn a blind eye.’

’All this backlash and pain... it’s what I deserve.’

"If you were like me, reborn into this life from the future, you would come find me for revenge, wouldn’t you..."

"This bitter fruit is my just deserts."

"No matter what, I’m willing to accept it. I don’t dare hope for your forgiveness, but you shouldn’t fall so low into the mundane world of Red Dust, and you certainly shouldn’t have abandoned and crippled yourself because of me..."

The woman in white murmured softly, then transformed into a streak of light and vanished into the vast mountain range.

Although she suspected Jiang Lan might have been reborn from the future like her, she still needed to verify it.

There are many profound mysteries and abstruse causes in the myriad worlds. Sometimes, a so-called rebirth might just be an accidental glimpse of a fragment of the future.

Take her, for instance, who chose to traverse the river of time to return to the past.

Without the fortitude to bear the immense Cause and Effect, one would be crushed to dust by that boundless, magnificent power the instant they stepped into the river of time.

’In his past life, Jiang Lan didn’t have my level of cultivation and strength, nor did he possess any Heaven and Earth Wonders or heaven-defying opportunities. How could he possibly have been reborn into the past?’

Therefore, she guessed that Jiang Lan must have accidentally glimpsed a shard of the future due to some unknown reason.

By stepping back into this era from the future, she had, in a sense, already disrupted the original timeline.

Thus, from the moment she entered the river of time, it was destined that the original timeline would vanish and be altered.

The flap of a butterfly’s wings can cause a tsunami, and in her previous life, she was a being who was, in the truest sense, near-immortal.

From the moment she returned to the past, this world had already undergone heaven-and-earth-shattering changes.

The corrective force of the original timeline would try to right the deviations, pulling events back toward their predetermined path.

Therefore, she could completely understand why the fates of many people had undergone unexpected changes.

...

「Half a month later.」

The Great Xia Imperial Capital, Jingyang City.

A painted boat shrouded in rosy mist descended swiftly from the sky, followed by a vast retinue of Knights who also landed quickly.

Many of the cultivators and other beings who witnessed this scene couldn’t help but curse under their breath, knowing that the scourge of the Prime Minister’s Mansion had returned.

Within the Prime Minister’s Mansion, on the upper floor of a lakeside pavilion, a thin mist drifted and rosy light shimmered.

The jade table before them was laden with all sorts of Spiritual Delicacies and rare treasures, their enticing aroma enough to make one’s mouth water.

Prime Minister Jiang Lintian and the Prime Minister’s Wife, Li Qingshu, had long been waiting there.

Rows of maids stood in attendance on both sides, their heads bowed and expressions deferential. Even those responsible only for serving wine and food possessed remarkable cultivation.