Before leaving the Cave Heaven, I did a swift divination. The bronze coin in my hand flipped over midair seven tis. Once it landed, it showed several sides of the coin, amounting to 11. It represented harmony amongst others.
Looks like their talks would result in a good outco.
Flutter-!
The sound of robes fluttering ca from behind. I looked back and saw Griseo. Unlike the mature form I am familiar with, she looked like a child. Her pure-white dress reached up to her ankles as its rustling ca to a halt. Several blue flowers could be seen across her dress. Her dark blue beret hung limply atop her head. Her dark purple pupils stared silently at .
“...It is our first ti eting each other… Little Griseo.”
“Hm. The world beca more colorful when you arrived.” She paused as her special eyes saw through all sorts of ‘colors’. “You are like an abstract painting that has everyone’s colors… a true Sun.”
The Griseo in front of is not the Griseo I knew—the one I accepted as my student. She is the Griseo who hasn’t experienced reliving the sa day for thousands of years. Gone is the part of her that ‘broke’ during that tornt… at least temporarily.
“Can I ask you for a favor, Big Brother?”
“Yes?”
“I want to paint you.”
*****
Immortal cultivation seeks to affirm one’s ntal state over and over again. Mistakes and wrongdoings that do not conform to one’s true self would continue to beco detrintal to oneself, birthing heart demons and the likes. Surpassing them grants a stronger ntal state; their progress on immortal cultivation going further. Otherwise, it becos the maggot gnawing away at their life.
Such was what happened with i. She only found aning in life after Shi Tian brought her back from near-death. His validations beca her comfort. From thereon, i reforged a stronger ntal state, all but with the highest priority of obtaining Shi Tian’s praises. She did not beco independent; she went all out and tied her life straight to his!
Griseo had it differently. Her obsessions stemd from her ntal state caused by Sa’s ‘Eternal Samsara’. It could no longer be described as ‘deteriorating’ due to its severity. Seeing Shi Tian’s unchanging nature was akin to light in the darkness. It was sothing that could never be found in the universe. Nobody could have the sa nature as him.
Nobody.
He was a masterpiece in Griseo’s eyes. A person, no matter how much she paints, could never be mimicked. The mont she t him, she wished to have him for herself. To have Shi Tian serve as her model all day long. To talk with him about trivial things. To know more about him. Only then could she understand the unique colors he brought to this world.
In terms of instability, she surpassed i by a large margin. Griseo seed to be the quiet one between the two, but her actions suggest otherwise. For once, she was the one who snooped around the private matters between Shi Tian’s wives. Griseo discovered the ‘Nine Yin Sealing Talisman’ used to nurture one’s innate yin. She also knew that it was the item that pushed Shi Tian into confirming Bronya’s position as his wife!
All it took was a simple leakage to provoke i into taking action. She went off and asked Sirin about it, leading to the physical confrontation between the two i’s.
Griseo knew herself how wrong her current state was, yet she cannot do much about it. Her restless mind could only calm down once she thought of Shi Tian.
Things would have been fine if she hadn’t t him. Griseo would have eventually fixed herself over ti. That was what happened in the original tiline. Shi Tian is a “bug” that prevented her from doing so… which was why she chose another way.
Griseo barely succeeded in her breakthrough in the Void Refinent Realm. She consud nurous spiritual materials to surpass her Heart Demon Tribulation. Compared to the rest, Griseo had the worst performance.
Hence, after she reached this realm, she “shed” the version of herself that experienced the ‘Eternal Samsara’. She placed a seal on her soul, reverting her mind back to the ti she was in the Previous Era. Atop that, Griseo used her ability to beco ‘others’ by understanding their ‘colors’. Only, she transford into her ‘younger self’.
Over the past decades, Griseo lived with curiosity and innocence. When she ca across Fu Hua, it felt as if she hadn’t changed one bit since Griseo left Earth. These experiences gradually nded her broken ntal state. Nonetheless, she could not fully recover. The one who was responsible for it was none other than Shi Tian.
“Hm..?”
From the mont Shi Tian made a ‘move’, all sorts of alarms and pre-arranged surveillance artifacts ca to life. Though puzzled, Griseo tracked down the presence responsible for her “forgotten” self’s arrangents, leading her right back to Shi Tian.
Her reaction towards his unchanging nature remained unchanged. Griseo was captivated by the ‘color’ Shi Tian gave off. It was akin to the Sun high up in the sky. Its brilliance was blinding enough for the eyes to begin hurting. Hence she did not hesitate to ask whether he could be a model.
‘Big Brother is very easy to talk to…’
After giving a few nods of approval, Griseo resud her work. She looked at the man beyond the canvas. He looked utterly serious, not moving even an inch. Days passed before it turned into a week.
Aside from posing as a model, he answered Griseo’s questions every now and then. Her questions were rather simple; things like “where do you live?”, “what’s your favorite food?”, “what’s your favorite hobby?”, and so on.
‘No wonder she pushed through with it.’
At this point, Shi Tian had realized what had happened to Griseo. It wasn’t exactly a secret as he had heard about it from Kiana.
‘I am an irresponsible teacher.’
Her situation was worse than i’s. Griseo was made to experience the sa day in an endless loop for at least a thousand years. Seele’s experience back in the Sea of Quanta could not compare with it. At least, she had “Shi Tian” to help her over and over again; Griseo had none.
As a teacher, he had failed to help his students’ plight.
‘Why did I even take up…’ He sighed inwardly. ‘This is no ti for regrets. I need to help her with the final push, too…’
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