There was an old saying that a glance back and a smile could charm a hundred women. However, when the woman in white looked back, she didn't smile. This caused her gaze to have a different meaning.
This limit was very unfamiliar.
The woman in white's gaze swept past Wang Lin. There was no sense of familiarity; it was as if she was looking at a complete stranger.
After withdrawing her gaze, the woman in white turned around and disappeared into the distance.
Wang Lin stared at the woman in a daze. He watched her gradually disappear until he couldn't see her anymore.
Looking back, yearning … Wang Lin closed his eyes. After a long time, he let out a soft sigh.
"In my life, all the people I met in my dreams felt an indescribable sense of familiarity … Zhou Rui was like this, Xu Fei was like this, Liu Mei was like this … In the 19 years I left Zhao, all the sects I went to and all the cultivators I met in my dreams were like this … Only she, only she …" Wang Lin's face became even older. He leaned against a withered tree and opened his ancient eyes.
As he silently pondered, his eyes were filled with confusion, but even more so was a complex sense of enlightenment.
Wang Lin felt bitter as he walked forward in a daze.
He didn't know how far he had walked. He couldn't see the sun rise or set. He didn't leave any footprints on the land of Hou Fen, but his body walked further and further away.
Day after day, month after month … The complex look in Wang Lin's eyes became even stronger. However, he still used that confusion to cover up the truth that he had almost completely understood.
It wasn't that he didn't want to believe it, it was just that he still had a sliver of hope. There was a sliver of hope that even he didn't believe.
On a certain day, a mountain appeared in front of him!
This was a dead volcano. Perhaps at some point in the past, it had erupted and spewed out endless magma. Countless rocks scattered in all directions and black smoke rose into the sky.
But now, it was dead.
The ground was filled with craters and the ground around it was covered in black rocks.
An aura of death filled the air. There was no one in a radius of hundreds of miles.
Under this dead volcano, Wang Lin's footsteps stopped. He stared blankly at the mountain, and after a long time, the confusion in his eyes collapsed. His entire body trembled, and he subconsciously took a few steps back.
"That's it …." Wang Lin was very familiar with the mountain. It was the same mountain he had seen exploding out in the illusory world above the sea!
The two fissures on the mountain that looked like entangled dragons and snakes were like a mark of life and death, a mark that would never be extinguished. It told Wang Lin its existence!
As he looked at the mountain, Wang Lin could no longer deceive himself. He could no longer hide what he already knew. Everything that had happened above the sea seemed to overlap with what was happening right now.
The illusory world above the sea and the real world above the sea fused together into an invisible power. This power rushed into Wang Lin's body, causing his mind to roar. This power was so strong that it washed away all the lies Wang Lin had endured over the past fifty years. For the first time, he was truly facing himself, facing the world!
"I should have understood it all those years ago …. It was just that I didn't want to believe it. Wang Lin, I was just like you, deceiving myself. But don't forget, I also know the Dao of deception …. Can you deceive yourself? Can you deceive yourself …?" Wang Lin pointed at the dead volcano, threw his head back, and laughed. His laughter was filled with sorrow.
"She's the only one …. She doesn't feel any sense of familiarity toward me. She looks at me like a stranger …. Wang Lin, oh, Wang Lin, if this is my previous life, if I will be together with Li Muwan in the future, does that mean I have to come back and sever the Karma between me and Li Muwan …? If this is my reincarnation, then at the end of the reincarnation cycle, does that mean I will erase Li Muwan's existence, and make her truly a stranger to me …? If this is my dream, if the dream of cultivating the Dao is real, then is it because of my sorrow, because of my love for Li Muwan, that I want her to forget me in this dream …? Is all of this so that in the future, or reincarnation, or in the world where she wakes up from this dream, she will no longer have to endure the long and painful wait, no longer have to endure the helpless end of her lifespan, no longer have to live like a living dead for two thousand years?
"I want her to be able to live her life happily and peacefully, just like before she met me. Perhaps she will have another marriage, or perhaps she will have another daoist companion. In her life, there will not be a cultivator named Wang Lin who she waits for, who makes her feel lost …. Is that how it is …?" Wang Lin laughed, and as he laughed, tears flowed down his cheeks.
The more he understood, the more he came to understand everything about the world. To see through life and death, true and false, might be confusing, but at this moment, what appeared in Wang Lin's heart was an indescribable, piercing pain.
"Wang Lin, do you really want to do this …? Do you really want her to forget you …? Do you really want the other you to sever the Karma that has accompanied you for more than two thousand years?!" Wang Lin's voice was shrill.
"I have experienced a lot in my life, and it all revolves around the word Karma. This Karma … Karma … Wang Lin, you can't see through it!
"Even if you have cultivated for your entire life, even if your cultivation is heaven-shaking, even if you are the Lord of the Sealed Realm, you still don't understand what Karma is!
"You swallowed three Dao Fruits and used the Dream Dao to return to 2,000 years ago. You used your own thoughts, the Dao Fruits, the power of the Dream Dao, and your own memories to weave this world!" Wang Lin staggered and sat down on a rock. His hair was disheveled, and he looked like he had gone crazy.
"You weaved this world, and everything here was imagined by you. Do you really think I don't know, that I can't see through it!?" Wang Lin's laughter became even more shrill.
"You made everything very real, you weaved everything too well. You even learned Liu Jinbiao's Dao of Deception in the Dream Dao and deceived yourself. You made yourself forget all of this, forget all of your memories, forget that this was the Dream Dao … But you underestimated me, underestimated yourself!
"You are Wang Lin, the Lord of the Sealed Realm. Your cultivation is heaven-piercing, and you can kill third step cultivators before reaching the third step. You have passed the life and death calamity and are about to enter the Void Realm of third step cultivators!
"However, I am also Wang Lin. Although I haven't cultivated, I understand the heavens and the earth. My righteous aura can shock ghosts and gods. Even if you are before me, so what?!
You deceived yourself, immersing yourself in the world you weaved. You thought you could use this method to borrow the power of the three Dao Fruits to dominate the world and form your own cycle of reincarnation. Within your own cycle of reincarnation, you weaved what you thought was Karma!
"Do you think I don't understand this?!
"You wanted to meet a great scholar, to meet someone who could help you comprehend the heavens and earth, so Su Dao appeared … You wanted to sever your karma with Liu Mei, so I met Liu Mei twice and Liu Mei gave me pills!
Before your dream dao, you heard about Red Butterfly's matter, so in your reincarnation dream dao, you brought Red Butterfly's matter in. In this dream you created, you completed a cycle of karma.
"You also knew about the past of the Soul Refining Sect's Nian Tian, so you also thought you could complete the Soul Refining Sect's karma.
"Did I not know? At first, I didn't know and was confused, but the moment I met the madman, the moment the fire was extinguished, and the moment I saw the handprint on the madman's right wrist, I understood!
"I deceived myself, I didn't let myself think too much, but after more than 50 years, I deceived myself for more than 50 years. Today, I don't want to deceive myself anymore!
"Do you think this is karma …? Let me tell you, you're wrong. You're completely anchored. I don't care about other things, but you want to sever your karma with Li Muwan. I can't accept this!
"You think this is for her own good, that you want Li Muwan to stop suffering, that you want to give her a complete life, but all of this was made up by you. It's all fake. What is real and what is fake, you don't understand it as well as I do!
"You still don't want to wake up!!!
You still don't want to wake up!!!
You think you can sever it? Sever it?!
Sever it?! Sever it?!
Wang Lin's ancient voice let out a roar at the sky.
As he roared, the world rumbled and endless Thunder echoed. Lightning intersected and filled the sky. This scene was like the wrath of the heavens.
At the instant the heavens were enraged, a gigantic vortex appeared in the sky. The vortex spun with loud rumbling sounds as if it wanted to tear the world apart. Within the vortex, an endless world of darkness appeared.
Within that world of darkness, a red glow appeared. Within that red glow were two corpses with their eyes closed. One of the corpses had a head of white hair, and its closed eyes showed signs of struggle. It was as if Wang Lin's roars had shaken its mind and attacked its soul, and it was showing signs of awakening.
"You can't sever it!"
Wang Lin pointed at the huge vortex in the sky. His white hair floated in the wind, and a righteous aura spread out from his body and shot into the sky.
"Since you can't sever it, then don't interfere with me. Your so-called karma is like child's play to me!"
Wang Lin waved his sleeve, and Thunder rumbled in the sky. The huge vortex rotated rapidly and became smaller and smaller until it disappeared. It turned into a white dot, which was the white bird. It flapped its wings and circled in the sky for a long time before flying off into the distance.
Wang Lin had long since understood all of this. As a great Confucian, how could he not understand?
"What is karma? What is life and death? What is true and false? I came here because of these three questions, and no one in the world understands them better than I do. From now on, Dao Fruits, memories, and this fake world, don't interfere with me!"