Yun Wushuang looked at her son, his face pale and peaceful in his enchanted sleep, and a single tear traced a path down her cheek. She reached out a hand, her fingers trembling slightly as she gently brushed a strand of hair from his forehead.
"You did so well, my child," she whispered, her voice a soft lody that resonated with the birth of new stars. "I am so... so proud of you."
A bittersweet smile touched her lips. "You have carried this burden for far too long. Let Mother take care of things from now on."
She waved her hand, and the space in front of her twisted. A figure coalesced from the lingering strands of temporal energy—it was Nian Shi. But this was not the powerful, arrogant God of Ti. This was a weaker, spectral version, his form translucent and flickering.
This was the fragnt of Nian Shi that Yun Wushuang had managed to trap and hide within the profound mysteries of life itself, a failsafe against total victory for the traitor.
This Nian Shi looked around, his silver eyes wide with confusion and dawning horror. He saw the newborn stars, felt the vibrant, new laws of this fresh universe, and most of all, he felt the utter, absolute absence of his true self.
"YOU! What is this?! What have you done?!" he roared at Yun Wushuang, his voice thin and reedy. "Where is my true body?! What is this place?!"
Yun Wushuang looked at him, her previous tenderness replaced by a cold, pitiless gaze. "Your true self is gone, Nian Shi. Erased by my son. What you see around you is the new world, born from the ashes of the old. An era that will never know your na."
"LIES!" Nian Shi shrieked, his spectral form thrashing. "I CANNOT HAVE LOST! I AM THE GOD OF TI! I DEFY—"
"Your defiance is aningless here," Yun Wushuang interrupted, her voice flat. She then turned her attention to the simple interspatial ring on Yun Lintian's finger—the ring she had given him so long ago. With a gentle touch, she caused a single, unassuming object to materialize from it.
It was a simple copper coin. The Fate Inverted Coin. A treasure given to Yun Lintian by the maidservant of the God of Fate, Yun Tianming, an artifact of such profound and subtle power that he had forgotten its existence amidst his grand struggles.
Yun Wushuang picked up the coin, her fingers tracing its worn surface with a knowing touch. She then looked back at the raging, trapped soul of Nian Shi.
"It is ti to end this," she stated.
She pointed a single finger at him. A beam of pure, vibrant green light, the essence of Life itself, shot forth and pierced directly through Nian Shi's spectral brow.
"NO! I REFUSE! I—!" Nian Shi's struggles intensified for a mont, his screams echoing futilely in the newborn cosmos, and then his form dissolved, compressing into a single, swirling ball of silvery light—the pure, extracted power of Ti itself.
Yun Wushuang looked down at her son one last ti, her expression one of infinite love and profound regret.
"My son... I am a failed mother. I was never there for you when you needed most," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "This... this is the only thing I can do for you now. I hope... I hope you can live a good life from now on. A happy life."
With a final, resolute breath, she rged the swirling ball of Ti's power into the Fate Inverted Coin she held.
The mont the two forces rged, the entire newborn universe seed to freeze. The spinning galaxies halted. The light from the new stars hung motionless. The very flow of causality stuttered and stopped.
Then, from the center of the copper coin, a blinding, pure white light erupted.
It was not a light of destruction or creation. It was the light of possibility. The light of a rewritten fate.
It engulfed everything—the World Tree, the sleeping Yun Lintian, the frozen stars, the entire fabric of the new reality. It was the final, ultimate act of a mother's love, using the last vestiges of her power and the stolen authority of Ti to inscribe a new, hopeful beginning onto the blank slate of her son's creation.
***
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2025, Hangzhou, China
Inside the simple apartnt in Hangzhou, the evening sun cast long, warm shadows across the living room. The air was filled with the savory aroma of braised pork and stir-fried vegetables, a comforting scent that spoke of ho and family.
On the sofa, a handso young man nad Yun Lintian lay sprawled lazily. His attention was completely absorbed by the smartphone in his hand. On the screen, the words of a web novel scrolled by. The title at the top was "Myth Beyond Heaven."
A slight frown creased his brow. For a fleeting mont, a profound and inexplicable sense of loss tugged at his heart. It was a feeling so vast and deep it felt like staring into an endless abyss, yet it vanished as quickly as it ca, leaving no trace behind.
Shaking his head slightly, he muttered to himself, "Weird. Must be from reading too much."
Just then, a clear voice, laced with impatience, cut through his thoughts.
"Brother! Co over to bring the food to the dining table!"
He looked up. Standing in the kitchen doorway was a young girl of about fifteen. She was a budding beauty, with delicate features and bright, intelligent eyes. A simple apron was tied around her waist, and she held a spatula in one hand, which she now pointed at him accusingly. This was his younger sister, Yun Ningyue.
Yun Lintian responded lazily, not moving a muscle. "I'll be there in a while. Let finish this chapter first." His gaze was already drifting back to the captivating story on his phone.
Yun Ningyue pouted, her cheeks puffing out in frustration. "The national examination is about to co! Yet you're still reading this nonsense every day! Do you want to end up with no future?"
She shook her head in exasperation, her ponytail swishing behind her, and turned back into the kitchen, her small fra radiating disapproval.
A mont later, Yun Lintian finally put down his phone, but not because of his sister's scolding. A look of pure frustration crossed his face.
"This author updates so slowly! Is he trying to test my patience?" he complained to the empty room.
The cliffhanger at the end of the chapter was truly maddening…
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