“Ying Lin!”

Hui pulled with all his might, yanking Ying Lin out of the gap in the barrier. Ying Lin leaped at him, throwing herself forward at the same time. Hui fell backward, pulling Ying Lin with him. The barrier slammed shut.

They struck the ground. Hui bounced, holding Ying Lin close so she wouldn’t hit the floor. He let out a relieved sigh. She’s safe! Hui craned his neck. “Ying Lin?”

Ying Lin laughed aloud, fear echoing in her laughter. She pushed off Hui and stood, then offered him a hand up. “Master! Thank you for freeing me.”

“Of course, of course,” Hui said, nodding. “Ah, I’m sorry for taking so long to free you. I shouldn’t have left you locked up there.”

“Mmm. What’s a few thousand years for a cultivator?” Ying Lin asked, beaming.

“A few thousand…” Hui whispered to himself. A few thousand. Wait, hold on. Was the mortal world progressing at the same speed the whole time? My children… they’d be either dead or ascended by now! But I haven’t seen them. Neither has the Golden Immortal taunted me about them, and why not hold my children hostage if you can?

Is time running faster than the mortal world? Is time looping in the mortal world, too? Or… Hui bit his lip. Is the Immortal world fully decoupled from the mortal world? Is it no longer possible to ascend?

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any new ascenders lately. After Song Wei… that is, after I realized it was all a loop, I haven’t seen anyone else ascend. I wonder… after I ascended, and the Golden Immortal locked on to me, did he decouple the worlds? Or maybe it’s more like, the worlds decoupled as a result of him aggressively looping the Immortal world. Either way, it’s not a good sign for the status of the world.

The worlds were already breaking down before the Immortal Realm decoupled from the mortal realm. Now that the Immortal and mortal realms are broken apart, I wonder how damage the mortal realm has become?

I can’t let this continue. For my children. For my friends. For the mortal realm and the Immortal Realm. I must end this.

He looked at Ying Lin. “You remained aware of the loops, the whole time?”

Ying Lin tilted her head. “Loops?”

“Time is looping over and over, Elder Sister,” Hui explained.

She shook her head. “Time is progressing.”

Hui furrowed his brows. “Huh?”

“Ah, maybe it is. Yes, looping. Definitely looping.”

Hui squinted at her. What does that mean? Why did she say that? Unless… is there something I’m failing to comprehend?

Time is progressing. I knew that. But the Immortal Realm’s time is looping. Right? Or… Hui put a hand on his chin. Is it that the Golden Immortal is just replaying the same events over and over? If that’s the case, why are people getting sucked into the loop?

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No, that’s the wrong question. Why should people get sucked into the loop in the first place? If it’s a loop, we should all start absorbed into the loop and slowly fall out of it, right? Being stuck in the loop would be the default. Instead, we fall into the loop. It’s more as if there’s some kind of corrosive force, eating at our minds until we give in and become part of the loop.

But if that’s the case, why did it absorb me so easily? I’m typically mentally resilient. I…

No, no. Perhaps I’m only being too full of myself. I shouldn’t consider myself so highly! To think, I thought I had a strong point. Today, the reality revealed itself so clearly! I couldn’t have strong points. My own foolishness led to me letting my guard down!

Hui frowned. That… doesn’t feel right, either.

How much did I forget? How long did I lose between ascending and meeting Song Wei? If time progresses normally, five hundred years… which isn’t that much, for a cultivator.

But all Ying Lin said is that ‘time is progressing.’ Not that it’s progressing normally. Let’s assume for the moment that the Golden Immortal can’t truly loop time. In which case, to run the Immortal Realm over and over again from whatever point in the ancient era, he would have to compress time.

Time shall compress… all reality denie—

Ahem. In any case, if he isn’t truly looping time, then he’s running time faster than it should be, so that we can rerun the Immortal Realm’s entire history multiple times in the space of much less time. Then, in that case, we might be only a little past five hundred years passing in the mortal realm since I ascended. Maybe a thousand years, since I’ve lost quite a few loops again. My children still should have ascended, but if the Immortal Realm decoupled shortly after Song Wei—

Wait. Is that it? Are we completely decoupled from the mortal realm’s time, now? Could infinite time pass in this deranged Immortal Realm before a single second passes in the mortal realm?

Ying Lin’s eyes sparkled. She tilted her head. “Whoops. I said too much.”

Hui narrowed his eyes at her. She definitely did that intentionally.

Oh, well. I’m not going to complain. Thank you for the tip, Elder Sister!

He pressed his fingertips together, thinking. I have Zhubi. I haven’t fixed his problem yet, but he’s here. I have Bai Xue and Li Xiang, and Li Xiang is going to find the White Tiger’s energy. I still count as the Vermillion Bird. As for the Black Dragon-Turtle and the Azure Dragon… He looked down at his neck and arm.

As soon as Li Xiang returns, I’ll have all four cardinal beasts. Once I achieve that, I can’t wait. I’ll have to immediately attack the Golden Immortal before he fully realizes my plan. I don’t expect to get the jump on him, but as long as he isn’t completely prepared, I might have a chance.

I don’t want to die. I know I’m just a clone, but given that I won’t remember this loop if we move to the next, I’m faced with a more true death than almost any other time I’ve faced death. I need to end it here. Maybe it’s greedy, maybe it’s selfish, but I want to end this. This is my victory. I refuse to lose by default yet again.

Let’s do it. I’ll believe in this loop, too.

How many times have we tried to defeat the Golden Immortal?

…

Not good, huh?

You’ve tried a few times before. Er, maybe a few dozen. It’s never gone well.

Oh.

But… but you’ve never done it with Li Xiang and all four cardinal beasts before! I mean, honestly, I thought we were off to a bad start with the imprisonment thing, but since then, it’s been a total speedrun. I mean, top tier splits, here. The first split was rough, but you’ve really made up an insane amount of time since then. Who knows? Maybe this is the run?

…Have you been keeping a speedrun leaderboard for the loops?

You’re third place.

Hui pursed his lips. I don’t know what I expected. I am me, so it’s not like I’m that surprised, and yet…

Light burst through one of the windows. Hui whipped around, stumbling back in preparation to fake death. Did the Golden Immortal come after me already?