Chapter 82
Many things often just lack the first person to take the lead. As soon as the first person spoke up, others gradually began to speak as well.
“That’s right, I’m not interested in opening the Heavenly Capital City either.”
“I just wanted to see if the legends of the Heavenly Capital were true, but I don’t want to awaken the Lord of the Heavenly Capital.”
“…I think our current situation is quite good.”
The City Lord of Daliang’s guess had indeed come true.
Li Fufeng worriedly observed the scene as it quickly descended into chaos. On the question of whether to awaken the Lord of the Heavenly Capital, the two factions argued endlessly. It seemed that those with fiery tempers were about to come to blows.
At this moment, he realized how weak the power of these “transmigrators” was. Even though he had found fellow countrymen among the other teams and they had briefly “acknowledged kinship” – the fact that these city lords trusted them so much indicated that these people were the most capable elites even among the “transmigrators”. Now, the number of “transmigrators” was almost surpassing that of the natives.
Yet they still couldn’t interfere in this “war”.
The city lords, accustomed to their ruling positions, didn’t necessarily have ill intentions towards the Lord of the Heavenly Capital. However, it was evident that they didn’t want a higher authority suddenly appearing above them.
Even the city lords who leaned towards opening the Heavenly Capital City and awakening its Lord probably felt the same way. They might have been more inclined to awaken the person and then sideline them – raising them up high and placing them on a pedestal, but never truly following their orders or allowing them to take control.Of course, the most important reason was probably…
“What if the Lord of the Heavenly Capital insists on returning to their so-called homeland after awakening? Are we really willing to give up everything in the Sword Realm to follow a group of descendants separated by countless years, starting over in a newly revived land of weak magic?”
“No matter what, I can’t do that!”
In fact, this was the fundamental issue.
The Lord of the Heavenly Capital had shown great kindness to all twelve cities. Even with their own agendas, they wouldn’t be so ungrateful as to forget this debt. The problem was that once they awakened the Lord of the Heavenly Capital, many feared they would have to abandon everything they had and leave the Sword Realm to return to the Land of the Rising Sun – although this had been the unchanging goal of their ancestors and the Lord of Heavenly Capital for hundreds of years, for these descendants who cared nothing for the Land of the Rising Sun, it would be an unmitigated disaster.
When this point was bluntly raised, even those inclined to awaken the Lord of the Heavenly Capital fell silent.
Undeniably, time was the most terrifying weapon in this world. Regarding the return to Blue Star, perhaps only the sleeping Lord of the Heavenly Capital still persisted in this goal throughout the entire Sword Realm… Watching the confrontation before him, a sense of desolation rose in Li Fufeng’s heart.
If he continued to stay in this world, would his longing for Blue Star eventually fade with the passage of time? In ten years, twenty years, would he one day become one of these people?
This thought terrified him.
No, I must find a way back as soon as possible!
I absolutely cannot be trapped here for life!
Looking at the crowd that had fallen into silence and hesitation, Li Fufeng stepped forward. Although he hadn’t yet figured out what to do, he knew he couldn’t allow these people to reach an unfavorable consensus-
“Hey, haven’t we got something wrong here?”
Before Li Fufeng could take another step, someone else moved even faster, instantly appearing in the center of the crowd. Her pitying gaze fell on those who had been shouting the loudest.
“You don’t really think that as long as you do nothing, you can maintain your current way of life indefinitely, do you?”
The girl who suddenly appeared looked no older than fifteen, possibly even younger. Her face still retained some baby fat, and she wore a faint, cold smile, her eyes nearly rolling to the heavens.
Her appearance and these words were clearly something the others hadn’t anticipated, leaving everyone stunned for a moment.
This allowed her to smoothly finish her thought. “Well, I suppose that’s not wrong. If you do nothing, you might indeed maintain the status quo, repeating it many times over. After all, if you start over, you wouldn’t know any different, would you?”
It seems she’s said something quite extraordinary… Li Fufeng stared in astonishment at Qing Fei, whose presence had suddenly become overwhelmingly strong, as a dazed thought floated through his mind.
Everyone here was intelligent. Unintelligent “transmigrators” wouldn’t have had the chance to appear on this journey, and unintelligent martial artists couldn’t have reached the highest levels of cultivation. Those who could firmly hold the position of city lord certainly couldn’t be fools… The implications hidden in Qing Fei’s few words were too terrifying to believe.
No one was tactless enough to ask irrelevant questions like “Who are you? What right do you have to speak?” Though the girl before them was young, the aura she exuded was terrifyingly powerful. Nearly everyone present was subdued by it. Only a handful of people could match her aura. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have tolerated a young girl suddenly interjecting.
In terms of martial prowess, she was undoubtedly among the top tier here.
And words spoken by such a person, no matter how outlandish they sounded, surely couldn’t be complete nonsense?
“W-what do you mean?”
The City Lord of Quanshou City, who had been the first to express resistance to awakening the Lord of the Heavenly Capital and was now the first to be swept by Qing Fei’s pitying gaze, spoke up reflexively. His eyes darted to the City Lord of Daliang City, remembering that this girl had come with him. “Don’t joke around! You think you can fool me like this…”
“I have no interest in talking to fools who can’t see the situation clearly,” Qing Fei interrupted him mercilessly.
Unlike her usual sweet and innocent demeanor befitting a child, or her typically serious manner, her face now showed astonishing coldness, exuding an aura that made people afraid to disturb her.
“You…” The person who had been bluntly called a fool grew furious.
But his anger was once again interrupted by another person-
“I believe you,” said the oldest and most respected person present, the City Lord of Shouxing City, whose martial arts cultivation was said to be only one step away from reaching the Heavenly Realm.
This old man stroked his beard and spoke amidst the bewildered gazes of the others. “If this old man hasn’t misjudged, young friend… you must be approaching that realm, aren’t you?”
“What do you mean?” The others listened in confusion.
The City Lord of Shouxing explained calmly. “In terms of realm, this young girl is probably the strongest among us. If I’m not mistaken, she’s at the limit of ‘Seeing Heaven and Earth’. She’s about to approach… the legendary realm of ‘Seeing All Living Beings’, isn’t she?”
This statement was like a thunderbolt thrown into the crowd. It stunned everyone present.
Even the “transmigrators” had heard of the three realms of martial arts, especially the difficulty of reaching ‘Seeing All Living Beings’. Even those who had reached ‘Seeing Heaven and Earth’ were few and far between.
But now wasn’t the time to dwell on why such a young girl had reached such a profound realm. The focus was on the words spoken by someone of such a realm…
“I see!” Seeing Qing Fei nod, confirming his guess, the City Lord of Shouxing showed no joy on his face. Instead, he let out a long sigh and smiled bitterly, “Although I too have reached the realm of Seeing Heaven and Earth, I’m not as profound as you, young friend. Occasionally, I’ve vaguely suspected something was amiss with this world, but I dared not delve deeper. I dismissed it as a deviation in cultivation, an illusion caused by inner demons… Now it seems I was only deceiving myself!”
“Self-deception is not without its merits,” Qing Fei smiled. “In the past, wasn’t I the same? If not for this variable, I wouldn’t have had the chance to uncover the truth.”
The native inhabitants of the Sword Realm seemed lost in thought, as if they had understood something from the dialogue between the two. Their expressions changed dramatically.
The “transmigrators,” however, were confused.
Although they had mastered much of this world’s martial arts knowledge and could discuss meridians and acupoints with ease, the content these two were mentioning was clearly beyond their scope. For them, it was like having learned elementary school math and then overhearing two university students discussing advanced calculus. They understood each word individually, but put together, it was incomprehensible yet impressive.
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t speak in riddles!” While people like Li Fufeng, who were more perceptive, might have grasped some meaning, Liu Ningshuang was exasperated. “Can you explain clearly what you mean?”
Her eyes, full of curiosity and thirst for knowledge, fell on Qing Fei.
Qing Fei raised her eyes, meeting Liu Ningshuang’s gaze, and explained. “I don’t know about others, whether they’ve noticed or not, but for me, time in this world has been cycling repeatedly. Since I became conscious, I’ve been in Shili Village, never having a chance to leave. The villagers repeat the same actions every day, but they’ve never realized their abnormality — only I knew.”
Everyone listened quietly, the atmosphere suddenly falling into silence.
Having spoken such terrifying words in a calm tone, Qing Fei paused, then continued. “Perhaps I was once like them, each day a brand new start, unconsciously repeating the daily routine of martial arts practice, until one cycle, I finally noticed the anomaly—”
“Wait a moment,” someone suddenly raised a question. “According to what you’re saying, if you were always trapped in the cycle, how could you suddenly become aware of the anomaly? Without any variables or external factors interfering, shouldn’t you have remained oblivious like everyone else?”
“That’s exactly what I was about to address,” Qing Fei replied, her tone lifting slightly. “Although we were constantly cycling, repeating the previous day’s experiences with nothing changing, I later discovered that one thing was changing: the realm of martial arts. Through the cycles, my cultivation didn’t change, but my martial realm didn’t reset with each restart. It kept accumulating. So, after one restart, when I reached the limit of Seeing Heaven and Earth, I suddenly penetrated the truth of this world.”
“But I couldn’t resist. Everything around me kept restarting. On my own, I couldn’t break through the time loop. I couldn’t even leave the small Shili Village. Everyone in this world had no future!”
She paused briefly to compose herself, then concluded, “If not for this variable that appeared, the Sword Realm returning to the Land of the Rising Sun, we’d still be repeating endlessly in the time loop.” As she mentioned the variable, her gaze subtly swept over Li Fufeng and the others, then across the other “transmigrators”.
Li Fufeng and the others immediately understood who she was referring to.
Many of their previous puzzles were solved at this moment. For instance, why Qing Fei helped them, these mysterious outsiders; why she stayed in Daliang City; why she insisted on coming along this time to search for the Heavenly Capital and its Lord…
Because only that person could resolve the predicament, right? Although now, it seemed the cycling time loop had been broken. It appeared there was no need to find the Lord of the Heavenly Capital?
Someone voiced the doubt first. “But now that the cycle is broken – assuming what you say is true – isn’t it good for this world to move forward like this?” As long as they didn’t awaken the Lord of the Heavenly Capital, forcing everyone to return to the Land of the Rising Sun and start over.
“Hehe. Is that what you think?”
Someone in the crowd chuckled softly.
All eyes turned to Li Fufeng, who had suddenly spoken up. They seemed surprised that he dared to speak in such a situation.
Li Fufeng spoke up under the intense gazes, seizing the opportunity he had been waiting for.
“Have you considered why the time loop broke this time? If the Sword Realm had been shattered and precarious since that destructive storm years ago, and the Lord of the Heavenly Capital used some power to maintain the world through constant cycles… then now, this world might only have a bit of energy left.”
In truth, Li Fufeng wasn’t sure if his guess was correct. He just needed others to believe this guess, to believe that awakening the Lord of the Heavenly Capital and returning to the Land of the Rising Sun was currently the only way out. Then his goal would be achieved.
So, he spoke with certainty and composure, successfully making everyone look skeptical yet considering.
“The time has come. This world no longer needs to repeat cycles to maintain itself. As long as everyone returns to the Land of the Rising Sun, it doesn’t matter if this world shatters.”
“This broken world has no future. Our future – all of us – lies in the Land of the Rising Sun.”
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