Chapter 817: Nuwa (Finale) (II)
"Ah, I’m exhausted." The young lady raised her arm and stretched lazily. "But the final task is finally complete."
Wang Sheng raised a hand. "Um, could you at least explain things a little..."
"Explanations are tiring." Nuwa sighed as she slumped weakly across the counter before her. "Still, since you have worked so hard, I suppose I can reluctantly explain a bit.
"Things basically went like this, then this, then that, then that. The people who understand will naturally understand. As for those who don’t, I can’t say too much anyway."
Wang Sheng was rendered speechless.
Why is Lady Nuwa so cheeky all of a sudden?
"Look. She’s already returned to her original form."
Wang Sheng turned toward the pool again and saw a small sapling quietly floating on the water.
"To put it simply, Feng Jiu was never truly a living being. She was a kind of program. You could also see her as a treasure. When her original universe collapsed, the living beings there created her as a tool to escape disaster. In turn, she gathered all the wisdom of that universe.
"However, when her universe collapsed, and its laws broke apart, she turned against her creators and suppressed those spirits, becoming the sole intelligent entity instead. Unfortunately for her, she ran into me the moment she crossed over."
Nuwa clicked her tongue softly.
"I happened to be on vacation back then. I was wandering around the edge of the universe when I ran into her and discovered there were countless spirits inside her. I couldn’t decide how to handle it at first, so I simply kept her by my side."
Wang Sheng muttered, "She managed to deceive you?"
He had used the formal address again.
"You used honorifics again. Ah, such a cold and distant mother-son relationship."
Wang Sheng smiled. "That somehow sounds reasonable, but hearing it from you right now makes it feel like I’m being taken advantage of."
The young lady narrowed her eyes and giggled several times.
"Um, Mother," Wang Sheng asked as he looked around the hut, "didn't the Three Pure Ones eradicate me?"
"They dare claim they can kill my son?"
"Uh..."
"Fei Yu, what do you think the universe is made of?"
"Why are we suddenly talking about this?"
"Energy and consciousness." The young lady snapped her fingers and raised an eyebrow at Wang Sheng. "In other words, the unreal and the real. Your physical body was destroyed, but I pulled your consciousness over here. I did the same thing to that fella over there.
"Back then, I deliberately abandoned my own body and created a world of consciousness for myself. I then placed it within the gap between universes to avoid having the laws of those universes destroy it. Over countless years, my consciousness influenced whichever worlds I wished to influence. If transcendence truly exists, then this is probably it."
Wang Sheng slowly nodded. "I think I understand a little. It’s basically surpassing the current dimensional space?"
"Mmhmm. You can think of it that way. Achieving this took quite a lot of effort from me."
"I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore."
"You don’t need to understand it." Still resting across the counter, Nuwa looked at Wang Sheng. "So, what are your plans?"
Wang Sheng asked, "At this point, what plans could I still have? Being able to resolve the huge problem that is Feng Jiu is already good enough for me."
"It hasn’t been completely resolved yet," The young lady said softly as the sapling formed from Feng Jiu floated over to her side. A mass of seven-colored light wrapped around it. She muttered, "Carrying burdens while living is exhausting, isn’t it? You could use this chance to free yourself from them and simply do whatever you want."
Wang Sheng fell silent for a while before chuckling mockingly at himself. "If I could go back, that would already be the best outcome."
"That's exactly the answer I expected from you."
"Senior Sister is still waiting for me." Wang Sheng smiled. "If Feng Jiu dies and no other powerful enemies remain, then I’ll be able to grow old together with her on Earth."
"How could things possibly be that simple?" The young lady sighed. "There’s still a whole pile of matters waiting for you to handle afterward."
Wang Sheng sighed softly. "Sometimes, I also wonder. If I kill Feng Jiu and survive, then take her place as the representative of the Three Pure Ones and establish another Heavenly Court... Other than not wanting to recklessly mess everything up, what difference would there really be between Feng Jiu and me?"
"For the vast majority of living beings, order is still far better than chaos," the young lady replied. "The reasoning is actually very simple. The higher your position becomes, the more parts of yourself you have to give up. Otherwise, disorder will inevitably appear."
"Then can I choose to become a wandering hero instead? Travel the world together with my senior sister, uphold justice, and spread good morals."
The young lady smiled, her eyes narrowing. "If that’s what you want, then of course you can. But you probably won’t be able to let everything go. Chun Yangzi and the others have placed their hopes on you.
"Since you’ve already come this far to oppose Feng Jiu, you may as well restore order to the Immortal Saint Realm and the four great sky regions so the living beings can recover and rebuild. Then, before the next chaotic era begins, you can choose the path of retirement.
"The Three Pure Ones maintain balance between the laws of the Dao and living beings. They may seem somewhat cold, but there’s nothing wrong with their position itself. Besides, Earth also needs someone to protect it."
Wang Sheng thought for a moment. "Being a hands-off manager doesn’t sound too bad either."
"Come, let me show you something impressive!"
The young lady jumped down from her seat and walked lightly to the side before pushing open a narrow wooden door set into the wall.
Beyond the wooden door lay a vast green grassland.
Floating islands hovered in the sky. Clouds drifted around them, while waterfalls poured down from the distant skies. A rainbow stretched across the air as though decorating the world itself.
This seemed to be only one corner of a world, yet Wang Sheng could feel vibrant life everywhere within it.
"What’s this?"
"Feng Jiu’s original world," the young lady said as she placed her hands on her waist and raised her chin proudly. "Well? Impressive, isn’t it? I’ve spent so many years planting trees here that I've nearly exhausted myself!"
"No, I mean... your pursuit of transcendence was for..."
The young lady waved her hand dismissively. "That’s only part of the reason. Don’t think of me as someone so great. Most of the time, I’m simply searching for my own value and the truth behind all things in the world.
"If you want to talk about true greatness, then you should look at Houtu. For living beings to peacefully enter reincarnation after death, she has to remain forever beside the Six-Path Wheel of Reincarnation.
"Whenever I see a world die, I ask myself why it cannot be reborn. Now, only this final step remains!" She lifted the sapling formed from Feng Jiu. "Once I plant this at the edge of this newborn world and have the Three Pure Ones open a path, the spirits stranded on our side can return here and reincarnate.
"Though I’m still considering whether I should establish a reincarnation system in this world. How living beings can freely express their own forms is also an important issue that I’ll have to face next."
Wang Sheng stood outside the door and quietly admired the scene for some time. After uttering a few genuine praises, he asked, "What about you? What do you plan to do afterward?"
The young lady smiled. "I’ll wander all over. There are countless universes and dimensions. Since I’ve already stepped beyond all this, I naturally can’t waste the opportunity. Come on. The Three Pure Ones are already urging us along; it’s time for you to return. But before you go back, there’s still someone you should see. Look. Do you recognize who that is?"
Wang Sheng looked up as instructed. The scenery before him continuously transformed. Beneath a towering ancient tree sat a figure kneeling quietly before a stone sword.
At first glance, the figure seemed unfamiliar. However, after looking more carefully, he found her incomparably familiar.
"Yaoyun?"
"Mhm. Your sword spirit. Feng used the spirits of this world to create her. She was also an important piece in Feng's plan to replace you. However, Yaoyun herself knew nothing about it. She didn't have any real connection to Feng, either.
"Since she's a spiritual entity, she recovered here before the two of you did. She didn’t want to see you, though. Instead, she hid herself here and asked me to give her a place where she could atone. Do you want to go persuade her?"
Wang Sheng remained silent. He looked at Yaoyun’s back as his lips moved slightly. He then asked, "In this world, she’s no longer just a spiritual entity anymore, right?"
"That's right."
"Then... let her be."
Wang Sheng lowered his head and performed a Daoist salute as his eyes filled with emotion. After straightening up, he silently stared at Yaoyun's back for some time.
"Thank you," Wang Sheng murmured before taking half a step backward.
The young lady closed the door and walked several steps to the side. She then opened another narrow wooden door. Beyond it stretched a deep rift. Outside the crack, the dark skies of the Nether Realm could vaguely be seen.
Wang Sheng suddenly felt somewhat lost. "So... I’m going back no—"
Before he could even finish speaking, someone kicked him from behind. As he stumbled awkwardly into the abyss ahead, a gentle force wrapped around him and pulled him forward.
The abyss rapidly closed behind him. Wang Sheng turned his head to look back, barely managing to make out the wall and wooden door growing farther away.
It resembled a painting. Or perhaps it felt as though he himself had leaped into a painting from there.
Pure, white light enveloped him. It then flared brilliantly.
Wang Sheng suddenly heard his own heartbeat. Reality returned along with it. He slowly breathed a sigh of relief as streams of information simultaneously appeared in his mind and beside his ears, eventually forming into an aged voice.
"Sword Cultivator Wang Sheng sacrificed himself to repel the devil and protect the order of heaven and earth. From this day forth, he is hereby crowned the ruler of the Three Realms."
Immortal light shone everywhere. Countless figures surrounded him.
While still dazed, Wang Sheng found himself swallowed by the crowd. Mu Wanxuan rushed toward him. Though he still had not fully mentally recovered, he instinctively pulled her into his arms.
Spiritless condensed once more beside his hand, but the sword spirit within it was already gone.
The daughter of the Immortal Emperor had, by nature, also been a spirit from another world. Now, she had vanished from this world. There had not even been time for a farewell.
Before him stood Chun Yangzi, Wang Shan, Qinghua, Lishang, Erlang, and the others. Those with the highest cultivation had naturally arrived first.
Farther away, squeezed within the crowd and surrounded by experts, Huai Jing, Shi Qianzhang, Liu Yunzhi, and the others were desperately explaining that they had actually been undercover agents on their side all along.
Chun Yangzi muttered, "Fei Yu, what’s wrong?"
Wang Sheng suddenly returned to his senses. He tightly embraced his senior sister and smiled faintly at the people around him.
However, just as he was about to speak, he remembered something. He looked back toward the direction from which he had come.
The surrounding space had already returned to normal. Only the low, dark sky of the Nether Realm remained.
She‘s probably feeling rather lonely right now.
End.
***
Author’s Thoughts
I never wanted to face the ending of this novel, and I kept thinking about how I should end it.
There are no excuses for it. I simply failed to write it well enough.
I had a great time writing the first one and a half million words. After that, writing became painful. At the time, I lacked the ability to properly deal with the changes happening around me.
Since I relied on writing novels to make a living, I also did not dare let the story challenge the iron hooves of the "404 divine beast."[1] In the end, I could only force the story from Earth into space in an awkward way, and in doing so, the soul of this novel was lost.
At the end of the day, it all came down to my own lack of ability. Every time I open the document for World’s No.1 Swordsman, I feel regret and frustration. I always think I could have handled it better. Back then, if I had just taken a few days off to sort out my thoughts, things might have turned out differently.
I won’t dwell on it further.
This novel helped me grow a great deal. It also taught me many writing techniques and brought me many readers.
World's No.1 Swordsman was the work that helped me find the right direction. My Senior Brother is Too Steady was the result of everything I learned during that stage.
I sincerely bow my head and apologize to everyone.
I will preserve the themes and core spirit of World's No.1 Swordsman. If I get the chance in the future, I will write it again.
Looking back from where I stand now, World's No.1 Swordsman has many flaws in its writing techniques. But when I first began writing it, this novel was a dream. It was the dream of a newly married web novel author who desperately wanted to shoulder responsibility for his family and fight forward for both his dream and his home.
I’ve let this novel down, and I’ve let its readers down as well. Saying this may sound shameless, but I truly hope everyone can forgive me.
In the future, I’ll learn from these mistakes. I’ll also use a more mature style to write stories that are better and more meaningful.
I’m sorry, everyone. I failed to give World's No.1 Swordsman the highest level of completion that I was capable of.
I’m sorry that I failed to present the best Dao of the Sword to all of you.
Still, no matter what, thank you all for your companionship and support. Thank you for reading my novels and for reading the stories I wrote.
Writing isn't easy, to be honest.
At the beginning, I did not even dare tell others that I wanted to become a web novel author. Then came the criticism of everything I wrote. After that, night after night, I greedily drew inspiration from the night sky while slowly exhausting myself.
Still, every piece of feedback and praise I received from my readers gave me endless strength.
Thank you for being with me on this journey.
Now, it’s back to writing drafts for me.
My Senior Brother is Too Steady’s side stories and the opening of my new novel are both still waiting to pull my hair out.
When I suddenly look back and remember that chubby kid eagerly opening a document to make a submission profile for World's No.1 Swordsman, the nervousness and anticipation he felt back then still remain so clear.
Once again, I offer my sincerest apology to everyone for World's No.1 Swordsman failing to reach the level I had hoped for.
I won’t promote the new novel here in World's No.1 Swordsman. I don’t have the face for it.
—Back to the Main Story, 2nd of February, 2021.
1. The Chinese internet slang for the 404 page not found, usually due to bans, flags, or deletion. ☜
