Abyss Prison Realm.
Time passed after the trio of Nie Li, Ye Ziyun, and Xiao Ning'er fell unconscious, forcing their group to stop and take shelter inside the Sacred Jade Room.
In one of the rooms, Xiao Ning'er lay sleeping on a bed. Beside her, Ye Ziyun was equally fast asleep. The two girls had been unconscious for hours.
Fortunately, aside from the intense reactions they had experienced before losing consciousness, both girls showed no signs of distress. They slept peacefully, their expressions calm.
Chen Linlin bit her lower lip as she remembered how she had felt when she saw Xiao Ning'er's limp body being carried by Mei Lin. The sight had frightened her deeply.
Since the two of them shared the same man, Chen Linlin and Xiao Ning'er had to learn to accommodate one another, making sure their relationship would not cause any problems, especially for Xue Hui.
Fortunately for Chen Linlin, Xiao Ning'er was such a lovely person that she could easily get along with her. More importantly, Xiao Ning'er shared the same love for Xue Hui.
Those were the reasons Chen Linlin had easily accepted Xiao Ning'er.
While Chen Linlin was lost in her thoughts, Xiao Ning'er began to stir in her bed. Startled, Chen Linlin hurriedly used her spiritual energy to envelop Xiao Ning'er in a pure, soothing aura.
"Ning'er! Wake up. It's okay. You're not in danger. Just wake up," Chen Linlin called in a reassuring voice as she watched Xiao Ning'er's expression shift through various emotions, as if she were trapped in a nightmare.
Her words seemed to do the trick.
Xiao Ning'er's eyelids shot open. She blinked repeatedly, seemingly trying to figure out where she was. Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized that everything had been nothing more than a dream.
Her glistening eyes then widened as they landed on Chen Linlin's face.
Chen Linlin's heart sank when she saw the fear and desperate longing in Xiao Ning'er's eyes.
Before Chen Linlin could ask what was wrong, Xiao Ning'er sprang from the bed and lunged at her, wrapping her in a tight, desperate embrace.
Sobbing, Xiao Ning'er buried her face in Chen Linlin's shoulder, crying her heart out until Chen Linlin's clothes were drenched with tears.
"Ning'er, what's going on? Speak to me. It was just a dream. You're awake now," Chen Linlin reassured her as she gently patted the crying girl's back.
Usually, Xiao Ning'er carried an air of composure around her, only showing her softer side to Chen Linlin and Xue Hui. But the current Xiao Ning'er looked extremely vulnerable. She clung to the other girl as though she were afraid that Chen Linlin would disappear if she let go.
Eventually, her sobs began to subside, and it seemed that Xiao Ning'er had finally calmed down. Chen Linlin gently pulled her out of the embrace and reached up to cup Xiao Ning'er's face, wanting to check on her condition.
As she did so, a wave of pity washed over Chen Linlin. Xiao Ning'er looked exhausted, her eyes red from crying.
"What happened, Ning'er? Tell me," Chen Linlin inquired as she wiped the tears from the other girl's cheeks with her thumb.
"I-I thought none of this was real, like I had just woken up from a dream. I-I thought you and Xue Hui were completely different people. I tried to search for both of you. I went to the Divine Family to see you both, b-but what I saw was different." Xiao Ning'er paused, looking at Chen Linlin with a hint of pain in her eyes. "I saw both of you. You two looked completely different. Linlin, I saw you. Your poisoning wasn't cured, and you were trapped in your bed, looking very sick and frail... And Xue Hui, he-he didn't remember me at all."
The words came out in a choked voice, and Xiao Ning'er's entire body trembled as she remembered the moment when Xue Hui had looked at her with an unfamiliar gaze.
At the same time, Chen Linlin's heart ached as she listened to Xiao Ning'er's words, as if she were listening to a reality where Xue Hui had never awakened from his soulless state.
"I tried to help both of you. I tried to tell your parents everything about your poisoning, but no one believed me. Worse, the Sacred Family got wind of everything I said about them, and... and..."
This time, however, Xiao Ning'er didn't have a chance to finish her words, as Chen Linlin hurriedly pulled her back into her embrace.
"Ning'er, none of that was real. I'm holding you. This is the real me. Please, calm down. Everything was just a nightmare."
Xiao Ning'er's body gradually relaxed, feeling the warmth of Chen Linlin's embrace around her. Little by little, the panic in her heart dissipated as she pushed the horrible dream out of her mind.
'Linlin was right. None of that was real. This is real. Glory City is safe, the Sacred Family is defeated, I'm with Linlin and my friends, and, more importantly, Xue Hui would never look at me like he didn't know me. The Xue Hui I'm with would always look at me with fondness and care. That's the real Xue Hui. Not the one in the dream.' Xiao Ning'er reassured herself.
A moment later, the two girls pulled apart once again and stared at each other. Chen Linlin breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the shadows in Xiao Ning'er's eyes had disappeared, leaving her looking much more like her normal self.
"Linlin, I have a favor to ask. I want you to help remove something my grandfather placed in my body a long time ago," Xiao Ning'er asked.
Chen Linlin knitted her eyebrows in confusion but nodded nonetheless.
While the two worked to remove something from Xiao Ning'er's back, on the other side of the bed, Ye Ziyun lay with her back facing the two girls.
Tears streamed down her beautiful face.
She had been awake for quite some time and had heard Chen Linlin and Xiao Ning'er's entire conversation. She felt extremely shaken, as she herself had experienced the same dream.
And she dreaded every single moment she had been trapped there.
The dream had been like an unending nightmare.
It all started when she never met Xue Hui, which resulted in her losing her mother and younger brother. Then, her father began distancing himself from her as he devoted all his time to taking care of Glory City.
Feeling isolated, she grew up longing for any connection.
Then Glory City was destroyed by the demon beast horde, and everyone she knew died. She and the others escaped to the outside world, but that became a torment in itself, as she had to watch the surviving people of Glory City die one after another.
Then, everything ended with her fatally injured by a demon beast, dying in Nie Li's arms.
'I-I need to talk to Nie Li,' Ye Ziyun thought.
She had a feeling that those were not simple dreams and that Nie Li knew something about them.
If there was one thing Ye Ziyun was very familiar with in her dream, it was the fond, loving look Nie Li always gave her.
But in that dream, that look never passed through her like it usually did.
Instead, it was aimed directly at her.
That was when it finally dawned on her.
It was that version of her in the dream whom Nie Li truly loved.
Outside the Sacred Jade Room, after waking up, Nie Li hurriedly took off and left, confusing all his friends.
His clothes were drenched from the rain, and Nie Li's chest heaved uncontrollably. The expression on his ashen face conveyed a mixture of bewilderment and fear.
It happened again.
He had awakened at the moment when he was in the middle of a fight against the Sage Emperor and his Deity-ranked beast all by himself. Things played out exactly as before. He was heavily outnumbered and eventually killed.
But unlike before, something different happened.
He met Emperor Kong Ming himself.
The latter had a look of worry and confusion on his face as he stared at Nie Li.
"Someone broke the cycle. I'm afraid everything is now dependent on your own efforts."
Then everything went black before he woke up surrounded by his friends.
Nie Li had no idea what it was or what it meant for him. But one thing was certain: someone out there had broken this so-called cycle, and Nie Li had a good idea who it was.
Slowly, his gaze fell to the object in his hand, and a look of confusion and unease washed over him.
He didn't know how this object returned to him.
What Nie Li was sure of was that something significant was about to happen.
"Especially now that the Temporal Demon Book is back in my hands."
End of Chapter 132
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