That evening, upon returning home, everything returned to normal. Nie Shiyun treated the morning’s incident as a minor episode and didn't dwell on it. The two of them sat together to look at train tickets and finalized their travel plans.
In the days leading up to the holiday, Nie Shiyun and Zhai Bairong lived as they always did.
They went to work, came home, ate together, occasionally went out on weekends, and lay beside each other at night... Both had grown accustomed to such a stable and warm life, certain that it would continue indefinitely.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the restriction, Meiqiu was as frantic as an ant on a hot griddle, yet utterly helpless.
"How many hours has it been? Is it enough to have been several days already...?"
At first, it had been extremely anxious, shouting their names at the top of its lungs. After calling out for so long, Meiqiu’s already raspy voice grew even hoarser, yet neither of their expressions shifted in the slightest. Defeated by reality, Meiqiu stopped its futile efforts and sat to one side, dejectedly resting to conserve its strength.
The secret chamber was deep underground, dim and lightless, with no distinction between day and night. Meiqiu waited in a daze, gradually losing track of how much time had passed.
It stared longingly across the barrier it could not cross, watching Nie Shiyun and Zhai Bairong, who had been unconscious on the ground for a long time. The two in the center of the formation were sleeping soundly with peaceful expressions. If Meiqiu couldn't still feel the contractual bond with Nie Shiyun, it would have suspected they had already...
*I shouldn't think such unlucky thoughts.* Meiqiu shook its head vigorously like a rattle.
It was all the fault of that Immortal Artifact. If ascending was so dangerous and difficult, they might as well just not go to the Upper Realm. Meiqiu couldn't help but think that this place wasn't so bad either. The more it thought about it, the more sense it made, completely forgetting how it had boasted at birth about attaining the Dao and ascending in the future to make its deadbeat father look at it with new respect.
Suddenly, Meiqiu’s sharp eyes caught a slight twitch in Nie Shiyun’s brow. It leaped up instantly, staring intently at the two of them, terrified of missing even the slightest movement.
"...What’s wrong?"
That night, Zhai Bairong felt Nie Shiyun toss and turn for the umpteenth time. Finally, quite worried, he sat up and turned on the bedside lamp to ask.
"Did I wake you?" Nie Shiyun let out a low grunt.
"I wasn't sleeping deeply anyway. You were moving around beside me."
"Sorry, I just suddenly felt some anxiety and couldn't sleep. I think I'll look at my phone for a bit," Nie Shiyun said.
"It’s not the first time you’ve been to my house; is it really worth all this?" Zhai Bairong frowned with a wry smile. Seeing that Nie Shiyun wasn't unwell, he felt much more at ease, turned off the lamp, and lay back under the covers.
The Lunar New Year was approaching, and it was currently the coldest time of the year. Tomorrow afternoon was their scheduled time to head home.
Was it because he hadn't seen the other's parents in a long time? Nie Shiyun couldn't quite explain the source of this anxiety. Just thinking about the other's family made him vaguely nostalgic for his own. His parents had passed away early, so he had grown up with his uncle’s family, though he had moved out to live on his own since high school. Nie Shiyun had quite enjoyed that early independence; while his relationship with them remained good, they weren't particularly close.
This feeling of nostalgia was a first. During the day, Nie Shiyun had made a point to call and check in on them, learning that the whole family was healthy and his cousin was doing well in his studies—there wasn't a single thing for him to worry about. Yet, Nie Shiyun still couldn't shake the anxiety. He thought it over and felt the reason didn't lie with them.
Nie Shiyun stared blankly at the ceiling in the darkness. Beside him came the steady sound of Zhai Bairong’s breathing after falling asleep. Everything was so stable. Who was he worrying about?
He remained awake for a long time. Though physically exhausted, his mind was not sleepy. He felt that now was not the time to sleep. If he stopped thinking and drifted into dreams now, he might forget something when he woke up.
He picked up his phone, deciding to find something to pass the time.
He opened a reading app. Late at night, it was difficult for a tired brain to process new things, and Nie Shiyun didn't feel like browsing for something new, so he casually opened a web novel he had read several times before.
To be honest, he had basically stopped reading novels since meeting Zhai Bairong. Now, flipping through the familiar words, he actually felt a sense of novelty.
Right, this story wasn't particularly special, but there was a minor cannon fodder character in it with the exact same name as him.
As Nie Shiyun read, he suddenly realized something—setting aside the minor characters, wasn't there a major character with the exact same name as Zhai Bairong?
His spirit suddenly jolted. He found it hard to believe he hadn't noticed this before.
He thought about telling the person beside him about this coincidence when it got light, but as the plot progressed, the relaxed expression on Nie Shiyun’s face gradually vanished.
"..."
Nie Shiyun wasn't the type of reader to get worked up just because a character with the same name was killed off by the author. On the contrary, he used to have a good laugh when he read that part, but today felt different.
Watching the character named Nie Shiyun be easily counter-killed by the protagonist’s side, Nie Shiyun frowned, unable to laugh it off as he once had. Because this plot... clearly should have changed.
The moment this thought appeared, he was startled. What had changed?
Anxious, Nie Shiyun hurriedly read on, but the supposedly familiar plot felt strange at every turn. When Qi Miaohan and Du Zhi appeared in the later stages, the name Qi Xuan'er surfaced in his mind. The text clearly didn't mention Qi Miaohan having any relatives, yet Nie Shiyun was certain that this was her younger sister’s name.
Nie Li, Nie Xing'an... one after another, more names that had never appeared in the original text flooded his mind. For a moment, Nie Shiyun had a splitting headache as he tried to remember who these people actually were.
Skimming through the text, the plot reached the stage where Duan Mingyu’s group was on the run. Seeing him pick up a phoenix egg and name the bird that hatched from it 'Mo Jia,' Nie Shiyun froze.
It should be called Meiqiu.
"But at least get rid of the 'Little' part of the name! In the future, I'm going to grow as big as a phoenix, very majestic!"
It was as if a voice like a cracked gong was clamoring in his ear. Nie Shiyun didn't find it annoying; instead, he felt a deep sense of nostalgia.
Immediately after, many familiar voices echoed in his ears, not quite real, blurry as if separated by a pane of glass.
"Bairong, Bairong. Wake up."
Nie Shiyun reached out and shook the person beside him.
"Mm...?" Zhai Bairong’s eyes were bleary with sleep. He thought he had overslept, but looking closely, it was still dark outside with only a faint glimmer of light, likely around five in the morning.
"Do you have that metal pendant you always wear on you? The one I gave you..." Nie Shiyun’s tone grew increasingly urgent as he spoke, and he simply pulled back the quilt to feel around Zhai Bairong’s neck.
Seeing Nie Shiyun’s vacant stare and abnormal demeanor, Zhai Bairong quickly fully woke up. "Wait, wait, I'm not wearing it. It’s in the nightstand."
Seeing that something was wrong with Nie Shiyun, he hurriedly sat up and took the carefully preserved necklace from the nightstand.
"What’s wrong?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, even though Zhai Bairong was the one asking Nie Shiyun, he felt an indescribable throb in his own heart the moment the pendant touched his palm.
"You made this and gave it to me."
"I did make it, but what was it made of? And how did I make it...?"
Without thinking, Zhai Bairong blurted out, "The cauldron body was cast from Gold-Purple Copper, along with Agarwood and Two-Polarity Orbs. After all, I watched you make it with my own eyes, I could never forget..."
His words came to an abrupt halt. He stared blankly at the object in his hand.
For a moment, Zhai Bairong was in complete turmoil because he had spoken of things that simply did not exist in this world. But hearing his answer, Nie Shiyun experienced a sudden epiphany.
"That’s right. It was at the Cultivation Conference... I..." Nie Shiyun murmured, a blank area in his heart being filled by a tide of memories.
As his cognition returned to his mind, the surrounding environment became as blurry as if it had fallen into a fog. Nie Shiyun reached out his palm and lightly touched the wall behind the headboard. Instantly, the solid white wall cracked like a fragile object, as if it would shatter and scatter in the next second.
*Isn't this good?*
Nie Shiyun heard a weary voice appear in his heart.
*It is good. How could it not be?* Nie Shiyun thought. These days spent living with Zhai Bairong in a stable and familiar world were wonderful. Perhaps it was all fake, but this hallucination was too real—so real it was difficult to strip away.
Ever since transmigrating into the book, Nie Shiyun had taken things as they came. After investigating for only a few days, he had stopped trying to find a way back to the real world. He thought that after nearly ten years, he had long since forgotten his original world entirely.
It turned out he still remembered, and he remembered every detail with perfect clarity.
Unfortunately, no matter what, it was all in the past. To Nie Shiyun, the cultivation world was no longer just a novel; it was a place where he had truly lived. His friends and family at the Cloud Clear Sect, and Meiqiu, were all still outside waiting for him.
"Bairong, do you remember? We have more important things to do."
"So this place is... your..."
Looking at Zhai Bairong, Nie Shiyun saw an identical reaction. Perhaps because the concepts of the two worlds had suddenly merged and clashed, Zhai Bairong was still struggling to digest the information in his mind amidst his shock.
Turning to look at the gradually disintegrating environment, the two were slowly surrounded by white light. Before the surroundings became so bright they could barely see each other, Nie Shiyun lightly touched Zhai Bairong’s hand. "I'll tell you more when we wake up..."
Zhai Bairong gradually vanished before him. In the blur, Nie Shiyun felt as if he were about to fall into a deep sleep.
However, he did not fall into a total coma as he had when he first succumbed to the illusion; instead, he seemed to be in a state between sleep and wakefulness.
"I don't want to go back to the Upper Realm."
"But the Heavenly Yin Physique is far too rare; many in the cultivation world covet it. You were born in the Upper Realm, but you might not be a match for a group of cultivators from the lower realms."
"Can't we just hide from them?"
"I haven't reached the Soul Transformation stage yet. You go back to your parents first; only they can keep you safe. When I attain the Dao and ascend in the future, I'll find you and we'll be reunited, alright?"
"That will take hundreds of years. But I just want to stay here with you..."
Nie Shiyun vaguely heard a conversation between a young woman and a young man. The scene before him turned into a frozen wasteland buffeted by wind and snow.
"We shouldn't be discovered here, right?"
"I specifically built the cave dwelling to be so hidden, and in such a sparsely populated ice plain, nothing should go wrong."
Nie Shiyun could barely open his eyes. He vaguely recognized the quiet courtyard the two walked through and the winding passages of the cave dwelling—it was precisely this precious site in the Cold Heaven Secret Realm where he and Zhai Bairong had arrived.
Was it... the memories of the cave dwelling's owner remaining in the formation they had set?
While Nie Shiyun was in a daze, the scene changed once more.
A woman dressed in purple celestial robes sat quietly in the courtyard flipping through a book, with a vast field of beautiful ice lotuses behind her. A young man sat opposite her, holding a brush and meticulously recording this scene into a scroll.
That was exactly the face depicted on the scroll that had been carefully preserved in the room.
"Are you drawing me again?"
The young man smiled slightly, not stopping even though he had been caught.
Compared to the freezing cold above ground, the warm and quiet underground cave dwelling felt like another world where the flow of time slowed down.
Life in the cave dwelling seemed exceptionally monotonous. Only occasionally would the young man walk out to gather some spiritual herbs nearby or go to a town settlement a few kilometers away to purchase some pills and cultivation supplies.
"Fellow Daoist, this hairpin looks quite nice, doesn't it? How about I give it to you for a bit cheaper?"
"It is indeed very beautiful." The young man thought of how it would look on his lover’s head and couldn't help but smile.
"Every time I see you, you come alone. Do you already have a Dao companion?" the shopkeeper asked with a smile.
The young man paused, then smiled. "Ah... no. It’s for a family member."
The shopkeeper knew the truth but didn't poke at it. Without further questioning, he briskly wrapped it up for him.
The things before his eyes grew blurry. Nie Shiyun frowned, and when he could see clearly again, the scene had returned to the cave dwelling.
"Are you drawing me again?"
The woman flipping through the book turned and asked the young man.
Nie Shiyun was truly curious now about what happened afterward. Unfortunately, the memories presented before him did not continue. Instead, they cycled repeatedly through this moment, perhaps endlessly.
"Shiyun? Shiyun, can you hear me?"
Finally, Nie Shiyun heard a call by his ear that did not belong to the illusion.
"Nie Shiyun, wake up! Oh! Oh oh oh—his finger moved! Do you think giving him a slap right now would work?"
"...Don't."
The scenery before Nie Shiyun that did not belong to his memories finally faded away.
It was time to wake up.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 煤球 | Meiqiu | Literally "Coal Ball." Nie Shiyun's bird companion. |
| 禁制 | Restriction | A magical barrier or seal. |
| 仙器 | Immortal Artifact | A high-level magical tool or weapon. |
| 上天界 | Upper Realm | A higher plane of existence for powerful cultivators. |
| 天阴之体 | Heavenly Yin Physique | A rare and often coveted physical constitution in cultivation novels. |
| 金紫铜 | Gold-Purple Copper | A fictional magical metal used for crafting. |
| 两仪宝珠 | Two-Polarity Orbs | Magical orbs representing Yin and Yang. |
| 寒天秘境 | Cold Heaven Secret Realm | The specific hidden dimension/location the characters are exploring. |
| 墨葭 | Mo Jia | The name given to the bird in the "original" novel plot. |
| 化神 | Soul Transformation | A high stage of cultivation (often the stage before or during ascension). |
| 灵草 | Spiritual Herbs | Plants used for alchemy or cultivation. |
| 丹药 | Pills / Elixirs | Medicinal or cultivation-boosting pellets. |
| 道侣 | Dao Companion | A spouse or partner in the cultivation world. |
