Chapter 2131: The Girl Who Forgot Herself
The final resonance point pulsed once—then fell silent.
Yun Che and Jasmine stood before a rift deeper than the others. Not a path, but a threshold.
There was no light. No sound.
And then…
A whisper.
> "I remember this place…"
Not spoken aloud. Not even through divine sense.
It was a memory, caught in the void.
Jasmine's eyes narrowed. "That's her."
Yun Che stepped forward—and the void did not reject him. Instead, it opened, like it had been waiting for this very moment.
They passed through.
---
Beyond the Void
They stood in a realm that looked like a dream painted in ruins.
Floating islands of petrified starlight hovered in slow motion, while rivers of frozen flame arced through the air like broken thoughts. There was no sky—only a horizon of dusk that never shifted.
At the center stood a figure.
She wore no armor. No divine cloak. Just a flowing robe of black and white that shimmered like water touched by a dying sun. Her hair was longer, wilder. Her eyes…
Her eyes were not Caizhi's.
Not fully.
But they turned.
And for a moment, they were.
> "Yun Che," she said. Her voice was soft. But it echoed wrong. Like too many voices trying to say the same name.
He stepped forward. "Caizhi…"
Jasmine stayed behind. Watching. Silent.
Caizhi tilted her head.
> "Is that still my name?"
Yun Che froze.
> "What?"
She smiled—not cruelly. But like someone hearing a lullaby they no longer recognized.
> "I don't remember how I died. I don't remember how I got here. But I remember everything before that. Things that aren't mine. A wolf that howled at gods. A throne that tried to listen."
She raised a hand. In her palm spun a shard of pure resonance—something older than the Ancestral Era. A piece of what precedes fate.
> "I'm not Caizhi anymore."
> "I'm what happens when a god dies… and keeps dreaming."
Jasmine finally spoke.
> "You're still you."
Caizhi looked at her. Slowly. The mask cracked—for just a heartbeat—and a real girl stared back.
> "Jie Jie…"
A tremor. Pain.
Then it passed.
> "You shouldn't have come. The Thrones are watching."
Yun Che stepped forward again.
> "We're not leaving without you."
She looked at him.
And for the first time… her eyes shook.
> "Then you'll have to choose."
The air tensed.
> "If you stay… you fight what I'm becoming."
"If you leave… I'll hold them off. Alone."
She closed her eyes. Her hair floated around her like stardust.
> "Either way… I'll remember you."
The void trembled.
And something else stirred.
Not nearby.
But watching.