No one escaped the rain.
Jing Yuan's face was carved with sorrow, yet the heavier weight was helplessness. He could not step forward to comfort his master. He was not allowed to. In that moment any word of consolation would have been pale and cruel.
Baiheng, gravely wounded, lay in Dan Feng's arms. Her ears were soaked by the rain, drooping without strength. Her vision blurred. She could no longer hold on and slipped into unconsciousness.
It was not only the sight of a dear friend's grief. It was also the mourning of a respected senior's end in such a manner. Even the usually aloof Dan Feng, stirred by the atmosphere, felt a similar ache in his heart.
Suddenly a faint, almost imperceptible glow appeared across the surface of Kanzaki's long-cold body.
Everyone's gaze snapped toward the change. Two figures slowly separated from within him. From their appearance they were the missing Mianxue and Qinghan.
Their eyelashes fluttered lightly. They opened their eyes. Like puppets they rose straight up, then knelt beside Kanzaki and bowed their heads deeply.
"Liar…"
"Liar…"
They spoke in unison, voices heavy with desolation.
It was true that embracing the abyss with him would have meant complete death. Yet in the instant before the end he had instead used Shuhu's power to strip away, restore, and protect the last proof of their existence in this world. They had witnessed everything, yet could not speak a single word to stop him. They could do nothing.
They had already resolved to offer everything for Lord Kanzaki. They had nestled in his arms before setting out, agreeing to journey into the underworld together.
Yet he left them behind and departed alone.
Even though they had also become monsters, even though they were unworthy of any salvation, even though that ending would have been enough… Lord Kanzaki still deceived them.
Just as he had deceived Jingliu.
In that moment their weight in Lord Kanzaki's heart was nearly equal to that of his most cherished disciple. And it was precisely that equality that drove him to choose selfishly, to decide for them.
He was unwilling. He could not bear for those he deeply loved to share his death.
He slew Shuhu, but no trace of Kanzaki remained in the world.
What meaning was there in living like this?
Four figures arrived from different directions. Their gazes fell together upon the man surrounded by three women, a man who no longer showed any sign of life.
Hua closed her eyes and let out a silent sigh.
The fate you claimed you had no choice in has, just as you wished, finally become reality. And in the end it has left others with wounds that will never heal.
Betraying The Hunt, turning to Abundance, becoming a monster no different from those Abominations of Abundance, completing his revenge with that resolve… Hua had long foreseen this day. Yet she never imagined the blade Kanzaki left for himself would be so cruel.
But just as he had said back then—
He had no choice.
From the moment he stepped onto the path of Abundance, he had chosen his own grave.
Unlike Hua, who did not reveal her presence, the three other women who had arrived all froze in place.
Before they could react further, Kanzaki's body began an irreversible disintegration. It rapidly transformed into golden branches and ginkgo leaves, then turned to dust in an instant.
The curtain of rain washed over everything, dissolving and scattering even the shattered jade pendant until nothing remained.
Clang—
The sound of shattering metal rang out.
The longsword in Jingliu's hand broke into several pieces, just like her shattered heart.
Her dead, dark-crimson pupils stared at the broken blade. Unable to maintain what little consciousness remained, she plunged completely into darkness.
"Mr. Kanzaki…"
"Little guy…"
"A-Kan…"
The faces of the three women—Black Swan and the others—were filled with disbelief. They could almost not trust their own eyes.
Though his appearance differed from their memories, from such a close and fleeting glimpse they were one hundred percent certain.
It was him. Absolutely him.
Yet after a lifetime apart, after a separation of over a thousand years, their reunion had in the end turned into another farewell with no end in sight.
They had not had time to recognize him. They had not had time to ask whether he still remembered them. And they had even less time to tell him of the emotions and longing that had settled across more than a dozen Amber Eras—longings that had not faded, but grown richer and more profound.
Black Swan surveyed the scarred and battered world.
Even as her brain throbbed with splitting pain she did not stop, straining to search for traces of lingering memories… and also the memories Mr. Kanzaki had left behind.
But this time she could not find what she sought.
She could only barely piece together some fragmented causality from the remnants of this monumental battle to the death.
Yu Qingtu's figure flickered lightly as she arrived beside the Mianxue sisters, then glanced at the unconscious Jingliu.
She could sense that in this life Kanzaki had forged deep bonds with them that even death could not sever.
"You… who are you to him…?"
Mianxue and Qinghan subconsciously lifted their gazes and met Yu Qingtu's complex look. They did not answer. They only slowly closed their eyes.
But Yu Qingtu understood, and sighed helplessly in her heart.
Black Swan ceased her memory search. She took repeated deep breaths to digest those past events that stirred her emotions.
Once again regret and sorrow did not completely consume her reason, though her heart remained heavy with grief.
She began to ponder whether Kanzaki truly, as Yu Qingtu had said years ago, would have an afterlife after death.
As for the speculation that The End had reversed time for him, it now seemed that was not the case.
She had realized this possibility. But what about Yu Qingtu and Ruan Mei?
Perhaps they had also considered it. But right now…
Black Swan looked at Ruan Mei, understanding flashing in her eyes.
At this moment Ruan Mei's expression and gaze were no better than those of the Mianxue sisters—perhaps even more turbulent.
"A-Kan… my A-Kan…"
"Your teacher searched for you for so many years, and found you, yet again you did not wait for me…"
Ruan Mei murmured softly. The oil-paper umbrella in her hand slipped, falling with the heavy rain into the churning magma below.
Black Swan paid her no mind and continued to ponder a crucial question—
If Mr. Kanzaki still had a next life, how could they find him in time?
Rely on the Plum Blossom Wine he made as a clue?
Not very realistic.
The universe is vast and boundless, with countless civilizations. Even if Plum Blossom Wine appeared on the IPC's auction lists, they might not notice it in time. Moreover, it might not even get listed.
In Mr. Kanzaki's first life the brew was simply called Plum Blossom Wine. In his second life it gained the prefix "Worry-Forgetting."
If there were a third life, and he brewed it again, it might not bear that name.
There existed an unverifiable paradox: whether Mr. Kanzaki's new life would possess memories of past lives.
The galaxy is filled with countless people of similar appearance but vastly different experiences and personalities.
Mr. Kanzaki's ability to brew the Worry-Forgetting Plum Blossom Wine did not necessarily prove he relied on past-life memories. Perhaps it stemmed from the unique imprint of his existence sequence within the universe.
If he had memories of his previous life, why had he never searched for them in this one?
Born into a major faction like the Xianzhou Alliance, with its advanced civilization, finding that small planet where the IPC had left its mark should not have been difficult.
With Xianzhou technology, traveling to the old place on his own would have been more than sufficient.
But Mr. Kanzaki did not.
All those years passed, and he never did.
Thinking this far, Black Swan temporarily reined in her thoughts, suppressed her sorrow, and looked toward the three unfamiliar women over there.
To clarify these questions, further contact with them was indispensable.
T/N: I'm crying rn (╥﹏╥)