"Qinglan Gege, you're amazing! Your name is lovely too!" a cheerful voice chimed from within the white jade.
Qingwu said shyly, "Lingyu, I can name you too! Let me think... How about Bai Yi? Pure and flawless, may all your wishes come true!"
"Okay! I love it!" The white jade trembled with excitement, clearly pleased with the name.
Bai Shengyi's hand was suddenly gripped tightly by Qin Si.
Qin Si's gaze darkened. "Ayi, so you knew Martial Uncle even before me."
No wonder Martial Uncle always looked at Ayi with that kind of gaze, as if looking at an old acquaintance, yet also as if offering comfort, which was deeply unsettling.
Qin Si admitted he was jealous.
He resented Qinglan for sharing a past with Bai Shengyi that he couldn't be a part of.
"But I also have a future with you, unrelated to our masters," Bai Shengyi said helplessly. "A Si, if you're truly uncomfortable, let's not look further. Let's find a way to go back."
"No! Let's continue looking."
Qin Si said, then proactively pulled Bai Shengyi into the next fragment.
In the subsequent fragments of time, all they saw was Bai Yu and Qingwu interacting, joyful, bickering, and causing a ruckus... until one day, Qingwu suddenly transformed into human form.
Clad in blue robes, he was a picture of ethereal beauty. His slightly boyish features were like stars and the moon, and every movement was filled with vitality and youthful energy.
"Bai Yi! I've transformed! I'm going out to explore. Don't wander off! I'll tell you about the outside world when I get back."
The young man in blue walked out happily. As his vision shifted with his movements, Bai Shengyi and Qin Si realized they were in an empty Heavenly Dao ravine.
The next instant, the scene changed.
A considerably more mature young man in blue stepped into the Heavenly Dao ravine, only to see the hard blue stones within.
"Bai Yi! Bai Yi?"
The young man in blue dropped his grace and elegance, roaring as he searched the entire Heavenly Dao ravine top to bottom, but he couldn't find that piece of white jade.
He transformed into a blue mist, searching everywhere, but couldn't find the white jade that called him "Qinglan Gege." He waited until he rushed out of the realm's boundary and entered an unfamiliar place.
"Have you seen Bai Yi?"
The young man in blue grabbed a man with sharp, star-like eyes and asked with desperation.
The man was dressed in fiery red armor, with a red cape. Just standing there, an endless killing intent radiated from him, not to mention the sword in his hand was stained with crimson blood.
Within the memory fragments, Bai Shengyi looked at the man who bore an eight-tenths resemblance to Qin Si and widened her eyes in astonishment.
"Who is Bai Yi?"
The young man in blue showed him the scene in the ravine. "It's her, my sister."
"Whoa! This white stone, I really have seen it." A flicker of interest crossed the man's phoenix-like eyes. "It's actually gained sentience? But I didn't see any reaction from it back then!"
"What do you mean?" Qinglan asked, confused.
The man suddenly shouted, "Jiming! Jiming! Get over here! The white stone you used to suppress Shenqi's evil intentions has a problem!"
From not far away, another person ran over. He was wiping a sword of clear blue and asked coldly, "What problem? Could it have an owner? I found that stone."
"That's my sister!" Qinglan was displeased and immediately began fighting with Jiming.
In the end, the man named Lou Chong carried Qinglan to the Shenqi minor world.
"Jiming didn't mean it. The entire Shenqi minor world is on the verge of collapse, with evil intentions proliferating and countless demons. He tried every means to suppress those demons and evil intentions, and by chance, he found such a pure, flawless white jade and used it as the eye of the formation."
"Now the spiritual essence on the jade has dissipated... Hey! Don't worry, don't worry, I'll calculate for you..." Lou Chong pinched his fingers and chuckled, "A portion of its spiritual essence has fallen into time and space. Your fate with it is not yet severed, and you will meet again in Shenqi!"
With that, Lou Chong got up hastily. "I can't talk to you any longer, those demons are here again, and I have to go fight with Jiming! Little Qingwu, if you find your sister, let me know, hahaha..."
Lou Chong laughed and departed. Qinglan transformed into a wisp of blue mist and began searching for Bai Yi throughout the entire Shenqi minor world. He learned cultivation, made friends, studied alchemy, talismans, and formation deductions... In the long passage of time, life was not lonely, apart from searching for Bai Yi.
However, familiar friends gradually perished due to insufficient cultivation, and he eventually became alone. Until one day, he habitually pinched his fingers to calculate and was suddenly startled.
"There will be news of Bai Yi at Shenqi Academy?"
Bai Shengyi and Qin Si did not continue watching. The time channel also seemed to have no intention of letting them watch further, and abruptly threw them out.
"Rebellious son! Rebellious son! None of you are worry-free!"
As soon as they emerged, Bai Shengyi was berated profusely.
"Who?" Qin Si shielded Bai Shengyi, scanning their surroundings warily.
Bai Shengyi realized their current location was somewhat familiar and tugged at Qin Si. "We seem to be in the Heavenly Dao ravine where Master was before?"
"Hmph! You don't even recognize your own father? Good thing your father retained some of your spiritual essence back then. I should have just sent you back to continue being a stone!"
"The Heavenly Dao of the Great Divine Spirit World?" Qin Si couldn't help but be astonished.
Bai Shengyi was even more so. The sense of familiarity and naturalness was impossible to hide.
"Hmph! Consider yourself perceptive, this old father won't bother with you."
Qin Si twitched his lips, not refuting. In terms of seniority, it was not wrong for the Heavenly Dao of the Great Divine Spirit World to consider himself Ayi's father and want to be her father.
"Never mind, seeing you two dumbfounded, this old father won't waste any more words. Bai Yuer, a portion of your brother's spiritual essence is still in the Universe. Remember to go find him later."
"Then you..."
Bai Shengyi suddenly recalled Qinglan mentioning that the Heavenly Dao had been in a deep slumber.
"After the Universe Secret Realm disappeared, all the power transformed into countless medium and small worlds, and even the generated great world was merely an empty shell. As the Heavenly Dao, there was nothing else in the world besides you and Little Qingwu. I was merely clinging to life. Now that my time has come, I must also return to the Universe."
The Heavenly Dao of the Great Divine Spirit World became angry as he spoke.
"It's all you two troublesome rebellious sons! None of you came back to see your old father, making your old father wait endlessly. Have your wings grown so strong that you don't care about your old father anymore?"
"It's not like that..."
Just as Bai Shengyi was about to retort, she saw a faint white light flash, and she and Qin Si had already left the Great Divine Spirit World. From afar, a voice could be heard.
"Your old father said so, so it is. Don't talk back..."
The voice gradually faded.
At the same time, in Bai Shengyi's eyes, the Great Divine Spirit World resembled the collapsed Universe Secret Realm of the past, annihilating inch by inch. Fragmented world shards turned into a nebula, slowly flowing around the Universe World.
All of this happened so suddenly, catching everyone off guard.
Long Zining, Qiao Yi, and the Saint Realm cultivators who rushed from all directions stared in shock.
"How could this happen?"
The senior sister, unseen for tens of thousands of years, annihilated upon her appearance?
Everyone couldn't help but look at Bai Shengyi and Qin Si, who had emerged from the Great Divine Spirit World. Just then, they saw Bai Shengyi holding a shard of world in her palm.
It was the memory that the Great Divine Spirit World had preserved for her—her time with Daojun Qinglan in the Heavenly Dao ravine.
If Bai Shengyi wished to remember the past, she only needed to fuse this shard. If she didn't want to, she could choose not to.
In the Great Divine Spirit World, no sentient beings had been born for millennia. Bai Yu and Qingwu, as the only two spiritual beings born from the Great Divine Spirit World, were truly considered its children by the Heavenly Dao.
Bai Shengyi looked at Qin Si, then opened her palm, allowing the shard to surge towards the brilliant nebula.
"What's past is past. I am not Bai Yu, I am just Bai Shengyi."
Bai Shengyi ignored the Saint Realm cultivators constantly approaching her and pulled Qin Si towards the Universe World.
In the depths of her being, she seemed to sense something and finally understood what the Universe World was missing.
"Black Mist."
Bai Shengyi called out softly, and a mist shaped like a small black beast ran out from the Universe World.
As if it had also anticipated something, it circled Bai Shengyi affectionately. The black mist cautiously touched Bai Shengyi's finger, leaving a warmth that quickly disappeared.
"Little Samsara, Hongmeng Paper, you already knew, didn't you?" Bai Shengyi asked.
Hongmeng Paper remained silent.
Samsara Brush whispered, "We only guessed a little bit."
Back then, Marquis Jiming used the white jade to suppress the evil intentions of the Shenqi world. He did not anticipate that the Heavenly Dao of the Shenqi world would split into two, its heavenly luck plundered and greatly depleted. Thus, the suppressed evil and darkness, Evil and Dark, made a comeback, parasitizing within countless soul-thread worms.
"The soul-thread worms devoured all spiritual energy, but the spiritual energy they absorbed was not used for their own development. Instead, under certain conditions, it condensed into a new life form, becoming Dark Spirits. Dark Spirits carry spiritual essence and malice, and are a part of the heavenly luck."
Samsara Brush paused and looked at Bai Shengyi.
Bai Shengyi looked at the Black Mist, "But why has the Black Mist become the missing heavenly luck of the Universe World?"
Bai Shengyi's question was less about confusion and more about trying to find a new path for the Black Mist.
Only now did she realize that the Black Mist had followed her for so long without ever truly harming her; in fact, it had helped her quite a bit. Yet, she had never acknowledged its existence, not even given it a name, always calling it "Black Mist," "Black Mist."
"Because Shenqi owes the Universe!" Samsara Brush said faintly. "If Marquis Jiming hadn't intervened, Shenqi would have long ago become a handful of stardust in the primordial universe."
Bai Shengyi remained silent, looking at the Black Mist, unable to bring herself to act.
"...Go... have to go..."
The Black Mist seemed to sense her hesitation. After circling her fingertips, it suddenly transformed into a black and gold beam of light and rushed towards the Universe World.
"No, wait!"
Bai Shengyi instinctively stepped forward to stop it, only to see the beam of light instantly change direction and collide with the Heavenly Mechanism Sword in her hand.
Divine light radiated, stinging Bai Shengyi's eyes.
The Heavenly Mechanism Sword in her hand loosened unconsciously and fell into the Universe World.
"The Heavenly Mechanism Sword carries the heavenly secrets and moves the spiritual foundation. For the Dark Spirit to return to heavenly luck, only the Heavenly Mechanism Sword can achieve it..."
Samsara Brush watched Bai Shengyi's stunned face and gritted its teeth to finish the rest.
"Master, don't be sad. This was all the Dark Spirit's choice."
It could be said that the Dark Spirit had calculated Bai Shengyi.
But Bai Shengyi remained dejected. "Why is this happening?"
She had clearly saved Shenqi, become a demigod, and reached unprecedented heights in cultivation, yet she had never felt as helpless as she did now!
"Ayi, look forward." Qin Si's gentle voice came from beside her.
Bai Shengyi instinctively looked up.
Dazzling spiritual light erupted from the Universe World. Heavenly rules automatically completed themselves within the world, thunder roared fiercely, bringing down countless sweet rains, and new flowers and trees flourished within the world...
The Universe Secret Realm had completely become a brand new world.
"Let's go! We'll go together and see what's so different about this Universe World!" Qin Si held Bai Shengyi's hand. "Don't be afraid, I will always, always accompany you on this journey."
The path of cultivation is truly long. Some join, and some leave.
But I will always hold your hand and accompany you forward.
Qin Si turned his head, his phoenix-like eyes reflecting Bai Shengyi's figure.
(End of main text)