Beastmaster of the Ages

Mu Qingqing could sense how vexed he felt. She smiled and said, ”Tianming, we have already died once. We’re not alive, strictly speaking. Being able to wake up once more to help you is like dreaming a pleasant dream. Do not mourn for us.”

She stretched her hand out and pointed at a spot within the green heart. ”Father and Mother are there. Go see them.”

Tianming turned his head where she pointed and felt a strong premonition that this would be the last time he saw Mu Qingqing. He recalled the hate he felt for the girl who shared the same name, but this wasn’t the same person. She was Comma Girl, the one who was willing to give her life to illuminate his path even in the most dire of situations.

Tianming asked in a pained voice, ”Can I see you ever again?”

Mu Qingqing shook her head, her tears falling like rain onto the painting in her embrace. ”The you that I love was the you in your past life. You are not the same person. I have persisted in this world far past my welcome to protect his reincarnation. Now that my mission is over, it’s time for me to go back to be with him.”

Tianming couldn’t quite explain how he felt in words. She had been there, growing in size with him progressively as he broke through, only for him to learn that she had died just like Li Muyang and all the rest long ago. They would die once more along with Dao San. ”I am me, whether in this life or the last. The person you love is right before you. There’s no need to go to the nonexistent afterlife to search for him.”

She shook her head. ”No. You two are not the same.”

She hugged the rolled up painting that seemed much larger than her own body. Looking at it gave her a feeling or release. She smiled as green cracks suddenly appeared across her body, fracturing her being. Even then, she hugged the painting tightly.

With a calm smile, she waved at him and said, ”Tianming, go see your parents. They are waiting. If you don’t, you might miss your chance to see them one last time.”

Tianming felt like his heart was being shredded to pieces. He had a feeling that Li Muyang was the one who dealt the final blow to Dao San, putting an end to the reanimated corpses as well.

”Come, let’s go together!” He couldn’t bear to see her vanish just like that. This outcome wasn’t acceptable to him.

But before his outstretched hand reached her, a green crack appeared on her hand and began to spread in a weblike pattern. Eventually, her whole hand glowed bright green. All Tianming grasped was a crumbling green light. It didn’t feel like there was anything to hold.

”Tianming, please let go,” Mu Qingqing said, looking at him tearfully. ”I have died long ago. The me now is but a lingering ember left behind from when I was still alive. There will come a time when I fade away. Nobody will be able to grasp it.”

”Impossible!” Tianming’s tears flowed uncontrollably as more and more cracks appeared on her. She had been with him in the Realm of Chaos the whole time, ever smiling without complaining. There was no way he wouldn’t mind her disappearance at all.

Even if he had his prejudices against her in the beginning, he had long gotten used to her presence after so long. He never expected her to be nothing but a transient reflection of the moon in water.

He tried to carry her with him, only to notice that nothing but the green light was left behind. The painting, just like her, scattered into nothingness once she did. Mu Qingqing was no more. All that was left in Tianming’s heart was an agonizing feeling of being torn apart. He looked at the lingering glow that looked like fading stars. He could still see her smile in his mind’s eye, but she was gone in an instant. The comma had become the period.

”No...” He agonized over the outcome he couldn’t bring himself to accept. Either way, he couldn’t linger, for he could feel the entire green heart begin to tremble more violently. Something was happening to Dao San, and if Tianming didn’t rush to his parents soon, he might lose his chance to see them one final time.

”Let’s go.” He forced the pain down as best he could. Witnessing the end of Li Tianzi and Mu Qingqing back-to-back brought him unimaginable pain, but he had to tough it through. There was even more pain to come. Reanimated as they were, Tianming had come to accept Li Muyang and Wei Jing of the Realm of Chaos as his parents.

He thought back at what his parents had experienced once more. Mu Yang was the tenth reincarnation all the way back at the Vermillion Bird Kingdom. There was also Li Muyang’s ninth reincarnation, a member of the Ancient Qilin Clan. The eighth reincarnation was Lin Mu of the Swordgod Lin Clan. The one in the Realm of Chaos was the first reincarnation of Li Muyang, reincarnated.

All of them were the reincarnations of the chief of the sky plunderers! To avoid his pursuers, he reincarnated time and again, hiding himself deep. His first reincarnation was hunted down and killed by Dao San, only to be reanimated. Even after that, he still managed to break free of Dao San’s control and sacrificed his life to help Tianming overcome one tribulation after another.

”Even after ten reincarnations, you’ll always be my father! Please be alive!”

Tianming advanced to the depths of the green heart that began to disintegrate right after Mu Qingqing vanished. Cracks began to spread across the capillaries and walls within the heart. He sped up as much as he could, the world around him collapsing as he did so.