08:00-

Yue looked down at the Lich. He had practically won already. One of the cons of having no skin and being a skeleton was that the Lich’s core was clearly visible. And even worse, that core was essentially the Lich’s heart. And at this very moment, Yue’s sword was millimeters away from piercing it.

“Hundun’s motive….you’ll learn about it if you enter a dungeon. You’ll understand. And you’ll want to help us.” The Lich said, not bothering to try and make in last attempts to move. 

“I won’t. I definitely won’t.” Yue spat and pierced through the Lich’s core, watching as the Lich’s bones turned to ash.

He wanted to take a break for a few minutes but as his wind disappeared he found that Hundun mages were surrounding the area. He sighed and pulled himself along and began fighting again.

8:30-

‘I wonder if he’s eaten...I’m sure Anya gave him food to put in his storage item…’ 

Viktor frowned as he looked over at the city. He was bored out of his mind and that only led to him worrying about Yue.

“Mr.Ivanov.” Mr. Wagner suddenly called out as he and Mr. Anderson got to the barrier.

Viktor made way for them to enter. They were being followed by civilians, most of them had already been healed

“Good work,” Viktor said and smiled a little.

“Those Hundun mages really aren’t very strong. They just have a lot of members. We’ve brought some of them back for interrogation but they likely won’t be of much help, they don’t seem to be very high ranking.” Mr. Wagner explained and motioned for some of Mr. Anderson’s zombies to come over with the unconscious mages they were carrying.

“Ah that's good...it seems everyone else forgot about it,” Viktor murmured, glancing at Mr.Anderson’s zombies with a bit of confusion.

‘...why do they listen to Mr. Wagner too?’

“Ah I’ve been wondering this for a while now, where’s Miss Xia?” Mr. Anderson suddenly asked.

“Off doing something reckless I bet. She’s probably fine though, she does best when she doesn’t have to worry about people holding her back. She’s probably killed more Hundun mages than everyone else combined.” Viktor said with a half-smile.

“Haha, I don’t doubt that.” Mr. Anderson laughed, “You must be jealous, you’re stuck here while everyone else is out there fighting.”

Viktor nodded with a helpless smile.

“Sir, it’s time to expand the barrier.” 

Viktor waved to the two professors and left to go expand.

“He must be tired. He looks pale.” Mr. Anderson murmured. Mr. Wagner just nodded in response.

12:00-

“Sir! Two people just flew over the barrier! Around a kilometer back!” A mage called out to Viktor. Viktor had been in the middle of healing someone so he hadn’t noticed the presences at all. He handed off his job to someone else and went out of the healing tents in the barrier, drawing his sword.

Just as he rushed out of the tent he saw the two people jumping across the barrier and using it as force to glide over the edge.

“Huh…?”

The two people were wearing familiar clothes, one was wearing a white hanfu and the other wore a dark green hanfu in a more masculine style.

“Who…?” 

The person in the white hanfu turned their head and ended up locking eyes with Viktor.

“Is that Lian Bai?” Viktor could remember her face from when he saw her in Yue’s memories.

‘Then that must be...Fei Xiang…’ 

-

“Master...Black Tortoise’s son is down there.” Lian Bai murmured.

“...That’s peculiar...I thought she’d bring him with her.” Fei Xiang murmured and looked down at Viktor.

“His mana...is much more fearsome than I had heard. If he and Yue are close that might be a problem.” Fei Xiang mumbled.

-

“You don’t have to worry about them. They’re on our side.” Viktor explained and made everyone drop their weapons and go back to what they were doing beforehand.

14:00-

Yue finally took a break. He hid himself in a shadowy place inside a destroyed building and just rested for a while. His wound had yet to heal and fighting had made it worse. He was tempted to go toward the barrier to heal up properly but he had a strange feeling that he wasn’t supposed to go in that direction. He used magic on his wounds but nothing seemed to work. It had closed up and he wasn’t actively losing blood so he decided to leave it alone. The pain was bearable at least.

He couldn’t stomach any actual food so he satiated his hunger by eating mana. He had struggled to just absorb the mana as he usually would and instead used his wind magic to condense it into a ball that he could eat.

‘Yue. Come to our home with master and Shijie, Your niece misses you.’

Yue stopped eating upon remembering the last letter he ever received from Xia Guiren. Fei Xiang’s last letter also came to mind as he thought of what he had to do.

‘Free yourself’

‘My only freedom will come from Li Chaoxiang’s death. I hope you understand this Master.’ Yue thought to himself and finished eating and stood.

“Li ChaoXiang. It’s your turn.”

18:00-

“Ugh!” Elena groaned, the dungeon this time was particularly annoying. Not only was it full of Hundun mages, but it was also full of monsters. It took a long long time to get to the boss room and the boss room turned out to be even more annoying!

“I’m so tired…I’m glad we decided to come here alone,” Aylin said and attacked. She had fully transformed so she could eat the mana in the dungeon for sustenance. Elena just kept fighting without eating anything at all.

The dungeon boss could control hundreds of golems that even with Aylin’s strength wouldn’t break. Elena managed to whittle them down quite a bit but not nearly enough and not nearly fast enough for her liking. Her impatience was starting to get to her.

Meanwhile in the other dungeon-

Natasha and Alexei’s group had finally stumbled upon the boss room and decided to take another much-needed break. The dungeon had barely any monsters but it had very strong ones.

“Eat well and be prepared for whatever could be behind this door. It could all be an ambush.” Alexei instructed the group.

19:00-

The sun had set and Yue stumbled upon another group of Hundun mages. He didn’t feel like fighting them though. He wanted to try something new.

The mages immediately felt overwhelmed as Yue started releasing some of his power.

“Hey, you. You seem like the leader...Sit.” Yur said to a man who sat in front of the other students. The man involuntarily dropped to the floor and looked shocked.

“Hand,” Yue said and laughed a little as he watched the man trying to hold his hand back and failing.

“Go to the white-haired man at the barrier and tell him everything you know about Hundun,” Yue said and pointed in the direction of the barrier.

“Also, tell me where Li ChaoXiang is.” Yue ordered and carved a ‘Y’ into the leader’s hand with his sword.

“He’s in the dungeon beside the church.” The man said quickly before beginning to walk in the direction Yue had pointed in.

“If you hurt him, I’ll make sure you won’t rest even in hell,” Yue warned with a smile as he watched them leave.

“I didn’t think the influence skill would work that well…” He mumbled to himself.

He made it to the dungeon and wasted no time in going into the one that was just left of the church. He didn’t know which team had gone into this dungeon but he hoped that it wasn’t Elena’s team, they might’ve already killed him if that was the case. Luckily the smell he picked up in the dungeon wasn’t Elena’s scent or Aylin’s scent. He could distinctly make out the scent of the man he hated more than anything else in the entire world.

He followed it, he hoped that Natasha’s team was alright but as he rushed through the halls he could only think of how this was exactly like that March day. It would soon be one whole year since then and the memory was still fresh in his head. As he rushed through the dungeon halls, he was reminded of running through the halls of the Xia manor that day. And as he opened the doors to the boss room he was blinded by the memory of Xia Guiren and his wife and daughter, dead.

He almost let out a breath of relief as he saw that Natasha and Alexei were fine but the breath of relief disappeared immediately as he looked at the man that was facing away from him in the center of the room. The rage he felt wasn’t unfamiliar. It wasn’t unfamiliar at all. It was the same thing he felt last year. And it only intensified as he turned around.

“QingLong! You’re finally here!” Li ChaoXiang said with a bright and sadistic smile.

“Come on! Let’s play!”  He exclaimed and pulled out his sword.

“This isn’t a game. I’m really going to kill you this time.”

21:45-

Viktor broke away from the group for a bit, the rest of the group was helping civilians and taking their turns sleeping so he slipped away without a trace. He wanted to see if he could quickly find Yue and check on him for a bit. He didn’t get to go far, he suddenly felt an unfamiliar presence and quickly turned and saw a group of people walking toward him, looking lifeless and like they had given up. One of them raised their hand toward Viktor so the ‘Y’ on their palm could be seen.

“Oh...I guess he remembered...Or figured it out.” Viktor murmured and started to walk over to them. Before he could do anything, however, a person in a black hanfu jumped down in front of the group and slashed their sword at them, quickly killing them all in one go.

Viktor immediately unsheathed his sword, “Who—?!”

Viktor immediately felt like he recognized this man. And his eyes seemed to recognize him as well. He was confused though, whose side was he on?

“Mr.Zhao…?” Viktor asked, lowering his sword.  This was Viktor’s cultivation teacher from when he was young. A usually very respectable and kind man had just killed people without blinking and with uncertain motives.

“Viktor Ivanov…” The man turned around and Viktor was revealed to be correct.

“You… Why are you here?" Viktor mumbled, wanting to give Zhao ZhiHao the benefit of the doubt. He wanted to hope that his mentor wasn’t related to Hundun. He didn’t even like Zhao ZhiHao that much put it was devastating to think

that he might’ve joined Hundun.

Zhao ZhiHao had always been a serious man. He was quiet but he was never a bad person. He also was someone with a powerful core and he was an immortal so it made no sense for him to join Hundun.

Zhao ZhiHao silently flicked his sleeve over and revealed the Hundun marking on his Hanfu.

“You’re...a part of Hundun?” Viktor asked, frowning deeply as he stared at the red Hundun marking.

“I am.” Zhao ZhiHao answered dryly.

Viktor’s expression was blank as he watched Zhao ZhiHao. 

“For how long?" 

“I founded Hundun." Zhao ZhiHao responded with a slight smirk. 

If Viktor didn't know Yue, the reason for his anger right now would be the look Zhao ZhiHao was giving him. Zhao ZhiHao was looking down on him. Just that would be enough to start their fight, maybe not enough to garner the words that came out of Viktor’s mouth though. 

‘Do you understand me now?’

Viktor’s head was full of every moment he'd seen Yue’s facade break. From when he first saw the symbol of Hundun in Wolfsstadt, to when he begged him to stay away from Li Chaoxiang and the Lich.

Yue’s tears always seem to lead back to Hundun and something they did.

‘Yeah, I understand now.’

Viktor’s chuckle caught Zhao Zhihao off guard.

“I’m going to kill you,”  Viktor said in Russian. He had laughed but his eyes looked murderous.

22:00-

The first thing Yue did upon processing the scene was attack. Tears streaked his face and his power activated all on its own. This was despair. He was an orphan. He had been abandoned countless times. But this was the first time he had experienced such despair.

That was almost his family. He had finally stopped thinking that family was just about blood, he had finally gotten the courage to consider Xia Guiren his family and now it was all gone. Li Chaoxiang had been giving a monologue about the power of his new core and about how he was glad  Xia Guiren was finally dead but Yue cut it short. He didn’t give Li ChaoXiang the luxury to finish or even say his final words.

Their fight lasted seconds. Yue cut him in half and quickly turned to see if he could save them but it was too late, Fei Xiang and Lian Bai were already checking them. Lian Bai was crying and Fei Xiang was silently placing them in a more peaceful-looking position.

Yue felt empty after killing Li Chaoxiang the first time. But as he fought Li Chaoxiang again, this time in a longer fight, he could already feel the relief starting to build up. He was going to be free. After almost an entire year, he was finally going to be free.

Li Chaoxiang was weak. Even with a legendary core, he was still weak. Yue was only taking so long because of his injury.

“Qinglong do you know whose core I’m using?”

Yue ignored Li Chaoxiang’s words, he was running out of mana really quickly all of a sudden so he just wanted to get things over with. 

Li Chaoxiang didn’t just let Yue ignore him though. He grabbed on to Yue’s hood, pulling his head and subsequently causing his hood to fall down. Yue quickly changed to his normal appearance as he recalled that there were other mages who didn’t know him in the boss room. Not many of them were paying attention but he was cautious anyway. He was going to take the chance to stab Li ChaoXiang in the stomach but he was caught off guard.

“What was that kid’s name? Xia Meixiu? It was her core.” Li ChaoXiang said and smirked.

His life didn’t even get the chance to flash before his eyes. Just like last time. 

Yue chopped his head off with one clean slash. His body pulsed with anger and despite immediately using fire magic to incinerate the body so it could never be revived, Yue still felt anger. 

Natasha stared at him with a worried expression but Alexei held her back so she wouldn’t go to him. He had just killed the dungeon boss and he was still on high alert so the terrifying aura of danger that covered Yue made it impossible for him to let go of her hand.

Yue’s aura completely disappeared when he saw the core rolling on the floor. He had burned Li ChaoXiang’s body so much that not even his ashes were left so Xia Meixiu’s small core rolled around the floor of the boss room. He picked it up before it could roll too far and fell to his knees, he wanted to cry but he didn’t want to cry in front of these people. Maybe he’d cry in front of Natasha and Alexei but the rest of these people didn’t need to see him in such a state.

Alexei reluctantly let Natasha go up to Yue and she immediately began to heal Yue. Alexei examined Yue’s expression and tried to talk to him.

“Yue?” 

Yue’s expression was bordering on blank but he nodded a little, he was disheveled and his hair was undone and his clothes were ripped at some places. But he seemed at peace. He had freed himself. He was no longer living just for revenge. He had finally let the Xia family rest peacefully and now he was free.

“Are you oka--huh…?” Natasha looked at her hands for a second and then she looked more carefully at Yue.

“This...” Natasha murmured, watching the white section of Yue’s hair expand. She didn’t finish her sentence and used her storage item to get out a small vial with a gold liquid. She made Yue drink it and watched his complexion get better quickly.

“Healing magic didn’t work...But this did...Thank you.” Yue mumbled, he suddenly felt a little better. He was still incredibly tired though.

“Hmm...Come to the Ivanov manor when my father is home, he should be able to tell you about your hair and why healing magic didn’t work.” Natasha said and helped Yue up.

The group made their way to the treasure room. Natasha and Alexei ordered for them to take everything and explained that it would be distributed among all the mages later. Alexei handed out some storage items to fill with the treasure and Yue and Natasha just waited near the exit.

“I wonder if we’ll find something good...The dungeon was quite difficult to clear even without Hundun’s interference.” Natasha murmured.

“You’ll probably at least find a storage ite…” Yue cut himself off as he suddenly had a prophecy.

“Y-Yue?!” Natasha exclaimed as Yue wordlessly ran out of the dungeon.

No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No.

This can’t be happening.

 22:25-

Zhao Zhihao was shocked. Viktor Ivanov was not supposed to be this exemplary. He had no idea what core type Viktor had but it was irrelevant at the moment, what mattered was that Viktor was showcasing a level of mastery that he shouldn’t have reached, especially not after he stopped teaching him.

This was no longer the 13-year-old boy he knew.

“This style...How do you know Fei Xiang?” Zhao Zhihao asked as he wiped his blood off a light cut that Viktor had made on his arm.

“Doesn’t matter,” Viktor said and rushed forward. Yue’s swordsmanship style had rubbed off on him and it was giving him an advantage against Zhao ZhiHao.

Zhao Zhihao almost loses his footing and is about to get stabbed when suddenly Viktor was kicked in the stomach enough to create a bit of a distance. He wasn’t kicked by Zhao Zhihao though. He was kicked by another man in a black hanfu, someone who looked to be around Yue’s age.

“His skin... Is tough…” The man spoke Chinese and his voice sent shivers down Viktor’s spine. He turned to face Viktor and Viktor was even more unsettled. The man looked just like what Viktor imagined a younger Zhao ZhiHao would look like but he had pitch-black scleras and demonic-looking red eyes.

“Father I’ll kill him now.”  The man said and didn’t even let Zhao ZhiHao respond before he rushed over and started attacking Viktor with his sword. 

They matched each other for a while before Viktor felt a gross feeling filling him. It made him feel weak and caused him to stagger. The man took this opportunity to stab him in the side. Viktor groaned a little and planned on fighting through the pain but the man suddenly pulled away and rushed to Zhao ZhiHao’s side.

“Qinglong. Qinglong is here. He’s coming here.”

Zhao Zhihao didn’t waste a second in pulling the man along and disappearing with him, he didn’t want to stay here and wait for Qinglong to arrive and he didn’t want Viktor to start casting spells either.

Viktor cursed and slammed his fist into the ground, he couldn’t move.

“...I’ll kill him. I’ll kill him for you, Yue.”  He mumbled as he laid on his back, he didn’t have the energy to heal himself or even protect himself from the monsters that were eyeing him now that they could smell the blood gushing from his wound.

Meanwhile-

Yue hated his power. It never told him when the prophecy was going to come true. It killed him to have to run through the city knowing he was so likely to have already failed to save Viktor. But he couldn’t just give up. He needed to run. Because it wasn’t set in stone yet.

Everyone’s future is static. Everyone’s except Yue’s. 

Fate has already determined whether or not Viktor would die but whether or not Viktor would die if Yue got to him soon enough was still uncertain. Usually, in such a situation Yue would be using his eyes to analyze every possible future that could happen if he got involved but he just couldn’t.

He had made that mistake once.

He had used his eyes and given himself false hope. The outcome where he arrived at the Xia Manor early and managed to save Xia Guiren and his family, he had focused on such an outcome but he didn’t make it in time regardless. That made it all the more painful for him.

He really couldn’t take that this time around. 

If Viktor died… 

Yue wasn’t quite sure what he’d do then.

Yue transformed, covering his head with his hood as he ran. He was as transformed as he could be while still keeping a humanoid shape. He used all of his power and all of the wind to propel himself forward. He needed to get to Viktor.

--

Elena felt an odd pang of anxiety as she fought the dungeon boss with Elena. She tried to ignore it but it felt like it was consuming her and her impatience coupled with her sudden nervousness made her lash out.

“Just die already!” She yelled at the pesky dungeon boss and swung her sword after filling it with as much mana as she could.

All of the golems and the dungeon boss were destroyed all at once but that wasn’t it. The ceiling of the boss room cracked partially fell. Elena and Aylin avoided the rubble and looked at each other with shocked expressions. This had never happened before. No matter how much the walls, floors, and ceilings of the boss room looked like they were breaking, they never broke. Until today.

What was more shocking was what they saw now that the ceiling was destroyed. It was the night sky but not the night sky they knew. A completely different night sky.

22:39-

Yue saw Viktor and immediately ran even faster to him and fell to his knees.

“Viktor! Viktor!” Yue asked, quickly shaking Viktor’s body. His eyes were closed and he was lying in a pool of his own blood just like in Yue’s prophecy. Yue shook him and called him but Viktor didn’t respond or wake up. Yue began hyperventilating as the minutes passed and nothing managed to wake Viktor. 

He used healing magic on him non-stop, tears streaming down his face, he couldn’t accept this. This couldn’t be happening.

He pressed his ear to Viktor’s chest, he was terrified of not being able to hear anything. Terrified enough to forget that even if Viktor was fine, his heartbeat would be weak.

“Yue…” 

Yue was shocked, he quickly lifted his head up and saw Viktor’s half-lidded golden eyes staring back at him.

“Sorry...I was cultivating to help my wound so I couldn’t hear y…” Viktor was cut off by Yue’s sobs.

Yue had already been crying but he got even louder as he saw that Viktor was actually okay. Viktor hugged Yue to his chest and stroked his hair quietly.

“I’m okay. Don’t worry. Just cry if you want to cry.” Viktor said and smiled.

“D-Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me.” Yue begged and hugged Viktor tightly, unable to stop crying.

“I won’t ever leave you, Yue. I love you.” Viktor said and kissed Yue’s forehead. They stayed in their position for a while, just quietly watching the night pass.

5:00-

Yue was still crying and Viktor was starting to worry that he’d get super dehydrated.

“Do you remember how I wanted you to choose a date so we could celebrate your birthday?” Viktor asked.

Yue quickly nodded, his face still buried in Viktor’s chest.

“Can it be today?”

Yue lifted his head a little, looking up at the sky to try and count what day it was now. He nodded after seeing the rising sun. His tears still flowed despite his calm-looking expression. He was going to go back to resting his head on Viktor’s chest but he stopped him.

“Happy birthday Yue,” Viktor said and held out a box in front of Yue.

“Will you marry me?” Viktor asked with a bright smile.

Yue didn’t even know what to say as he stared at the gold engagement ring in the box that Viktor was presenting to him. He just cried more and hugged Viktor tightly.

“Y-Yes!” Yue exclaimed.

--

“What are they doing…? They had me so worried…” Elena murmured as she watched them. She and Aylin finally got out of the dungeon and stumbled upon them while jumping through buildings. She was going to jump down to them but she happened to come at the perfect time and witnessed Viktor’s proposal and she and Aylin froze.

“Oh my…” Aylin murmured with a smile as she watched.

“Hehe...That’s my boy.” Elena chuckled, she had been holding her breath for the second that Yue didn’t seem to answer. She and Aylin decided not to interrupt and went around them, giggling to each other.