Chapter 79: A Matter of Time p1
After Weisheng Xuanzhu left, Li Yu sat on the floor and pulled the little wolf into her arms.
The little creature, its tail drooping dejectedly, whimpered and snuggled against her.
“This is my fault; I forgot that things are different here, but it’s not that different, really,” she said, picking up a twig and patiently explaining the complex characters to the little wolf, breaking them down into simpler strokes.
Her voice was gentle and patient.
The little wolf blinked its large, sad eyes, staring at the characters in the snow, trying to understand.
As Li Yu taught, a thought suddenly occurred to her.
She tentatively wrote two characters in the snow.
The little wolf, its eyes filled with confusion, looked up at her, as if asking—why are you writing characters I’ve never seen before?
“This is ‘Li,’ from dawn,” Li Yu said, pointing the twig at the second character, “and this is ‘Yu,’ from lush and vibrant.”
The little wolf tilted its head, its confusion deepening.
“This is…” Li Yu hesitated, then chuckled softly, gently pressing the pads of the little wolf’s paws. “I’m teaching you two new characters, do you want to learn?”
The little wolf stared at the characters for a moment, then jumped down from her lap.
Its small, gray paws clumsily copied the characters in the snow.
Then, it hesitated, wrote “Li Yu” in the snow, and looked up at her, its eyes questioning.
Li Yu: “They sound the same, right?”
The little wolf nodded.
Li Yu smiled faintly. “Many things in this world seem the same, but they’re actually different. Characters are the same, they might sound alike, but they can be written differently and have different meanings…”
“These two characters…they’re our secret. Just remember them, don’t write them for Xuanzhu to see,” she said, rubbing the little wolf’s ears. “Okay?”
The little wolf stared at the characters, then, after a moment of confusion, nodded and practiced writing them again.
Li Yu watched as her real name, clumsily written by those small paws, filled the ground, a strange feeling rising within her.
She knew that Mu Tao, four thousand years in the future, wouldn’t remember anything that happened in the North Sea.
The wind and snow here could easily erase everything.
The countless “whys” and the repeatedly written name would be swept away by the wind after a brief respite, leaving no trace.
The answer someone sought, probably also long gone, scattered by the endless wind and snow of this eternal night.
Perhaps that was why she could briefly be herself here.
She liked it here.
Here, she was just…an injured person.
Even though her arrival was unexplained, her injuries unusual, her heart filled with secrets—no one questioned her presence or her motives.
She didn’t have to worry about character compatibility or any responsibilities.
The little wolf, understanding nothing, just wanted to be close to her.
Weisheng Xuanzhu didn’t seem to care, always focused on the present.
And Qing Nü, an ancient god nearing the end of her lifespan, the guardian of the Upper Spirit Lamp, hidden in this desolate place for over three thousand years, must also have secrets she couldn’t share.
Such a person wouldn’t pry into her affairs.
So, the North Sea four thousand years ago wasn’t so bad.
Even in this cold, eternal night, there was still the moon, a quiet, clean world—and even with their hidden burdens, no one was truly alone.
But these memories would soon belong only to her.
Li Yu thought this, then paused, lost in thought.
Perhaps she had made a mistake.
Wanting to maintain some semblance of cause and effect, she had given the little wolf the name Mu Tao.
But she had forgotten one thing: Weisheng Xuanzhu remembered everything.
She had initially assumed that the theft of the Upper Spirit Lamp was targeted at “Li Yu,” its guardian, and that Mu Tao’s Demon Bone was accidentally exposed in Lingzhou.
But now, she remembered more details.
If she brought the name Mu Tao back to the North Sea four thousand years ago, then Weisheng Xuanzhu, four thousand years in the future, couldn’t possibly be indifferent to Mu Tao’s appearance.
But the age didn’t match, the appearance didn’t match, and the Demon Bone and the seal within her drastically altered the little wolf’s aura.
Even if he suspected something, he wouldn’t have any proof that Mu Tao was the little wolf from the past.
But he might have never stopped suspecting.
Li Yu almost forgot, the first time they entered the City of the Undying, a force had knocked Mu Tao unconscious and placed her in the core of the summoning formation.
The little black bird couldn’t do that, and Qin Ruoheng, her consciousness scattered, wouldn’t have either.
It must have been Weisheng Xuanzhu.
He suspected that Mu Tao was the little wolf from his past, that his inability to recognize her was somehow related to the Heavenly Demon incident.
So, he threw Mu Tao into the heart of the resentment-filled formation.
Perhaps, from that moment on, he had already been certain about Mu Tao’s Demon Bone.
As for how the Demon Bone ended up in Mu Tao, and why it appeared on Mount Chao Yao four thousand years after the Heavenly Demon’s death, that was the truth he sought.
After destroying the Heavenly Gate, Weisheng Xuanzhu had also mentioned Mu Tao.
He felt deceived, he found it ironic.
He had found so many clues suggesting a hidden truth.
Yet, the person most likely to know the truth, the one who had even secretly raised the little wolf with the Demon Bone, refused to tell him.
No wonder he resorted to such drastic measures to revive the Heavenly Demon.
There were too many unanswered questions, enough to become an obsession…
Li Yu wondered, what would she do if she were him?
She couldn’t find an answer, a heavy weight settling in her heart. She picked up the little wolf, who was still diligently practicing its writing, and held it close, as if its warmth could quell the turmoil within her.
The little fluffball, sensing her troubled mood, tilted its head and licked her cheek comfortingly.
This simple gesture always calmed her.
Life continued its peaceful rhythm.
The little wolf’s vocabulary expanded, and it could now communicate effectively through writing.
Li Yu’s spiritual energy also gradually returned.
She could now conjure butterfly messages and fly for short periods.
On the day she finally regained her ability to fly, Li Yu excitedly took the little wolf to the edge of the island.
This was the first time she saw the true North Sea beyond the island.
It was a floating island.
And beneath it, a vast, dark ocean, thousands of feet below.
This was the true North Sea, a deep, lightless abyss.
Yet, a full moon hung in the sky.
The falling snow swirled in the wind, as if yearning to be swallowed by the sea.
The black surface of the ocean was restless, the waves churning, their crests catching the moonlight, fleeting glimpses of silver.
The vast emptiness was terrifying.
Li Yu held her breath, then quickly returned to the small house, no longer daring to look at the dark abyss.
The little wolf, sensing her fear, looked at her with surprise, and within that surprise, a hint of…joy.
Without a second thought, it jumped from her arms and ran into the swirling snow.
Li Yu, stunned, watched it go, then quickly followed.
The little wolf ran to Weisheng Xuanzhu’s residence, barked and howled until he emerged, then ran towards Qing Nü’s courtyard.
Li Yu followed, confused, and just as she reached the courtyard, she saw Qing Nü emerge from the house and the little wolf writing four clumsy characters in the snow.
—Li Yu fears the sea!
“Mu Tao!!!”
Li Yu rushed forward and grabbed the little wolf by the scruff of its neck.
Her grip was gentle; all her anger was in her shout.
The little wolf easily wriggled free, ran to Qing Nü, and quickly wrote another sentence in the snow.
—Even she’s afraid, so it was normal for me to be scared, right?
Li Yu: “…”
So it was just trying to prove that she wasn’t the only scaredy-cat in the North Sea!
Li Yu took a deep breath.
She had never imagined this little wolf cub could be so…devious!
Her spiritual energy had just barely recovered, she kindly took it for a flight, and this was how it repaid her, revealing her embarrassing secret!
Fortunately, the audience was small; she could handle this.
Besides her and the little wolf, there were only Qing Nü and Weisheng Xuanzhu in the entire North Sea.
She had already been mistaken for an illiterate; a little fear of heights wasn’t a big deal…
Qing Nü chuckled, looking at Li Yu with amusement. “A god from the West Sea, afraid of the sea?”
“Well…” Li Yu frowned and retorted, “Is the West Sea the same as the North Sea?”
The little wolf tilted its head and wrote four characters in the snow.
—Aren’t they the same?
“Of course not!” Li Yu crouched down, poked the little wolf’s nose, and said seriously, “The sea outside is blue, and the sky is blue, not like the North Sea, a dark, terrifying abyss!”
“Blue?” The little wolf wrote, disbelief in its eyes.
During those early years after gaining awareness, she had lived in the human realm. Although she had never seen the sea, she had seen the sky.
—The sky outside the North Sea is clearly dark red!
The little wolf wrote this with conviction.
“Dark red?” Li Yu frowned.
Was the human realm four thousand years ago already enveloped in a sea of resentment, just like the City of the Undying?
She thought for a moment. “That wasn’t the sky, that was…resentment.”
