Soul Realm：Fate Change

Chapter 9 - The Hidden Mountain and the White Void

I grew up with my grandmother in Lianxia Village.

Lianxia Village was a damp place, often shrouded in rain and mist. The village's layout was peculiar, like a giant maze. Yet, the native villagers never got lost—only I did.

Now I understand it was because, to the village, I was an outsider.

But back then, I simply thought I was unlucky. Every day, I would find myself lost, unable to find my way home, and end up standing in some alleyway, crying loudly until my grandmother followed the sound and led me back.

That day was no different. My grandmother found me through my sobs, but instead of immediately taking my hand, she first wiped away my tears, crouched down, and looked into my eyes.

"Yulan, let me teach you how to find your way home."

"Just let go of all your thoughts and focus on one thing: 'I want to go home.' Then, you'll see the door."

"Concentrate, Yulan, focus your mind."

Why am I remembering this now? I wondered hazily in the darkness. Perhaps it's because I'm really about to die.

They say that before death, people see the most important moments of their lives, a phenomenon called a "life flashback." So, the moment I first found my way home on my own must-have been very important to me.

In this half-dream, half-awake state, my thoughts jumped between bizarre and disjointed scenes. One moment, I was becoming best friends with Ning Qianqian; the next, I was meeting Celeste under the moonlight. The cacophony of voices around me—some old, some young, some slow, some urgent—eventually merged into my grandmother's voice: "Yulan, focus your mind. Only then can you find your way home."

Home, home.

My present self overlapped with my younger self from twenty years ago, desperately trying to gather all my thoughts into this single idea.

In the darkness, a door suddenly appeared. It grew closer and closer until it was right under my palm. With a push, I was transported back to a summer night when I was twelve.

I looked around in confusion: I was standing on a w**d-covered mountain path, with towering cliffs on either side of the valley seemingly pressing down on me as dusk fell. Not far away, at the entrance of the valley, a tilted wooden sign read, "No Entry."

The words on the sign looked familiar. I wanted to get closer to see it, but I realized my body wasn't under my control.

A familiar voice came from behind, and "I" turned to look.

"Shen Yulan!" A teenage Ning Qianqian ran up to me, out of breath, and grabbed my hand. "How did you disappear in the blink of an eye? You promised to come with me. No backing out now!"

I stared at Ning Qianqian in shock, then at our clasped hands: my hand was smaller, clearly that of an eleven- or twelve-year-old.

"What's with that look? Are you dumbstruck?" Ning Qianqian leaned in to examine my face. "This is the first time I've seen you look so surprised. It makes you seem more... alive."

"Anyway, we can't chat anymore. We need to hurry. I'm already scared, and it'll be even scarier once it gets dark."

Ning Qianqian dragged me along the mountain path, but my thoughts gradually returned. This was something that happened when Ning Qianqian and I were in middle school. Back then, we weren't close—we were just from the same village and school.

She had confessed to a boy she liked, and he said he would agree to date her if she could find a rare type of firefly.

Legend has it that these fireflies only appeared in the back mountains of Lianxia Village.

And the back mountains were f*******n territory.

Now, I was like an observer, watching my teenage self and Ning Qianqian embark on this f*******n adventure.

"I've heard that if you follow this path all the way in, there's a pond. Those fireflies appear near the pond. They're easy to find," Ning Qianqian said, gripping my hand tightly. Her sweaty palms betrayed her nervousness, despite her calm tone.

Did we ever find those fireflies? I searched my memory for an answer but found nothing. If it weren't for this accidental journey back, I would have completely forgotten about this incident.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Ning Qianqian glanced back at me, filling the silence with her chatter to mask her fear. "You're always like this—silent and expressionless. I can never tell if you're scared. Even though you always seem so hopeful, it makes me feel like I can rely on you."

Hopeful...?

"Do you think that's strange?" She nervously looked around, as if expecting some monster to jump out of the bushes. "It's just a feeling... If I were in your shoes, with all the trouble you've had, being the laughingstock of the whole school, I would have jumped off a building by now."

Yes, I've always been unlucky. Because of my bad luck, I often made a fool of myself in front of others, and over time, I became the school's infamous "jinx."

We had reached the depths of the valley, and Ning Qianqian's grip on my hand tightened. "But you never seem discouraged. It's like nothing can bring you down. Some people, when they're unlucky in certain areas, obsess over it—the more they can't have something, the more they want it. But you're not like that."

"Shen Yulan, you're special. When I look at you, I feel like my problems aren't that big of a deal."

"That's why I asked you to come with me to find the fireflies. I thought you had some kind of ability to turn bad luck into good, so that you could help me."

"But this indifferent attitude of yours... I don't know if it's a good thing or not."

Is that so? I looked at my younger self, thinking we must have felt the same way back then: unsure how to respond to Ning Qianqian's words. I wasn't pessimistic about my misfortunes, but my hope seemed innate—it didn't arise from anything, nor did it disappear because of anything.

It wasn't until I grew up that I slowly learned to have expectations: finding a good job, having a stable income, living an ordinary life... Sometimes, I might even get greedy and hope to strike it rich with a lottery win.

Isn't that how everyone is? As children, we have few desires; they come as we grow up and enter society. It's a kind of learning.

But now, if Ning Qianqian believed in me, of course I'd be happy to help her. But clearly, all I brought her was bad luck.

At the depths of the valley, we ran out of the path. Ahead was a tunnel with no end in sight. Pushing aside the ivy at the entrance, we found faded talismans and a "No Entry" sign.

Ning Qianqian swallowed hard and hesitated before taking a step forward.

"Let's not." Both Ning Qianqian and I were startled by "my" words. I had almost forgotten what my teenage voice sounded like—clear, emotionless, detached, almost inhuman.

"Is a successful confession really that important?" If it were now, I wouldn't have said such a thing. I would have analyzed the pros and cons of Ning Qianqian, telling her that the boy was just toying with her and wasn't worth her risk and effort.

But back then, I was blunt, unable to understand a young girl's feelings.

"O-of course it's important!" Ning Qianqian's face turned red. "You've never liked anyone, so you don't know what it feels like to want your feelings to be reciprocated. You've probably never felt that kind of expectation."

"I" didn't understand—and even now, I still don't. My feelings about everything have always been muted. Perhaps it was this indifference that gave Ning Qianqian the illusion that I was always in control.

In the end, we still entered the dark, damp tunnel, heading toward the heart of the f*******n back mountain. Surprisingly, no crisis appeared in this illusion. We made it through the tunnel and saw the "pond" Ning Qianqian had mentioned.

It was a vast, endless lake, its surface like jade under the moonlight.

Ning Qianqian was captivated by the fireflies near the shore. She gasped and quickly took out the glass jar she had prepared.

But I couldn't take my eyes off the lake. Beneath the calm surface, something seemed to be churning and boiling, like water gradually coming to a boil. Bubbles grew larger and more numerous until the entire lake erupted, and a waterspout resembling a dragon rose from the center.

At that moment, I finally remembered the outcome of that back mountain adventure: I was engulfed by the water, lost consciousness, and woke up three days later with a high fever at my grandmother's house.

But now, I could only watch as my younger self was swept up by the waterspout. Ning Qianqian's cries were drowned out by the roaring water. When a new wave crashed toward me, I instinctively raised my hand to block it and realized I had regained control of my body.

The air in my lungs was being compressed, and the suffocating sensation gripped my stomach. My thoughts aligned with those of my younger self, all converging into one single idea: I need to get out.

Suddenly, the door appeared again in the distance, its outline shimmering in the water. Summoning the last of my strength, I swam toward it and pushed it open.

The scene changed again. The water, the lake, Ning Qianqian, and the back mountain all disappeared. The world ceased to exist, and I was surrounded by pure, silent whiteness.

It seemed I had truly escaped that terrifying waterspout, but it also felt like I had entered a new, white prison.

In the center of this whiteness lay a person. I couldn't discern their gender and didn't dare approach recklessly.

From a distance, I could see their silver-gray hair spread out behind them, their closed eyes with slightly reddened corners. They were bound to the ground by dark chains, and beneath them was a pattern of light and shadow, resembling a flower.

The person's facial features looked familiar, so I cautiously moved closer.

Perhaps I had stared too long, or perhaps my movements had alerted them. Their red-tinged eyes flickered open, and a flood of Dark Twilight spilled out from their bodies.

Before I could scream, the space rapidly contracted, as if being vacuum-sealed by some powerful machine. Under the pressure, I was irresistibly pulled toward the figure. Their faces grew clearer, their breath almost brushing against my skin. But just as I was about to touch them, a tremendous force erupted, hurling me outward.

In the next second, I was falling into darkness. The white space grew smaller and smaller until it vanished into the void.

The terrifying sensation of freefall made me scream, flailing my limbs to grab onto something. But there was only darkness around me, as if I had been sucked into a massive black hole. The only thing I could feel was the relentless pull of gravity. Even light had disappeared.

After what felt like days of falling, I suddenly saw colors other than black.

Collapsed houses, eerie flames, and Dark Twilight swirling in the fire—this was Yuka's living room!

The surrounding Dark Twilight seemed to notice my sudden appearance. Breaking free from the flames, it gathered into a whirlwind and shot straight into my spine.

The expected pain never came. Instead, everything around me became more vivid. It felt like I had truly awakened from the dream and returned to reality.

Before I could rejoice at being back in the world of the living, I tried to stand up, but the pain throughout my body felt like it was tearing my organs apart. The suffocating sensation from the fire and the foreign object in my throat made me cough violently.

A metallic taste rose in my throat. After suppressing the urge to vomit from coughing, I slowly straightened up and moved my limbs. The stiffness and near-death feeling from before my coma had strangely disappeared.

The surroundings were almost unrecognizable. I couldn't even pinpoint my location. Strange white flames licked at the remnants of Dark Twilight, burning in shades of purple and blue. Ash floated in the air, and the room was filled with thick smoke, making it impossible to see more than three steps ahead. There was no sound of life.

"Celeste?" I called his name softly but received no response. Unable to see him and wary of the silent Yuka, I moved slowly.

The altar in the living room gradually became visible through the smoke, helping me orient myself. I vaguely remember being near here before losing consciousness, struggling to support the weakened Celeste.

"Rustle."

The sound of fabric rubbing came from the direction of the altar, clear in the silence.

"Rustle—rustle—"

"Celeste? Is that you?" I mustered my courage and walked toward the sound. The rustling grew louder, and a sudden gust of wind tousled my hair. The black smoke thinned, and a figure slowly came into view.

I prayed it was Celeste, but the figure stood unnaturally still, its shape bloated and grotesque. My scalp tingled, and my steps slowed.

Suddenly, the wind grew stronger, dispersing the smoke like the final act of a play. On the altar, three figures were frozen in place. Two of them—Yuka and his son—were slumped on the ground, motionless. The Dark Twilight around them swirled upward, gathering around the figure with its back to me.

Their faces seemed to have melted away, leaving only a thin layer of skin stretched over their skeletal frames.

"Celeste!" I recognized the figure but recoiled at the horrifying appearance of the father and son. "Are they... dead?"

Just like that... they died?

"Ha ha ha ha!" Suddenly, Yuka, whom I thought was dead, spoke. His voice was like a desperate raven's, hoarse and mad. "See, I didn't lie to you. She won't die so easily."

She? Was Yuka talking about me? I stood there, bewildered. Celeste didn't turn at my call but tilted his head slightly, as if listening intently to Yuka.

"Now you believe me, don't you? She's the Divine Chosen, the one the Guardian has been searching for. Everything we've done is because of her!"

"It's a pity I wasted so much time before realizing it. If I had found her sooner, Yumoya wouldn't have ended up like this..."

He sighed, his tone filled with both regret and hope. "But it's fine, it's fine! As long as our god has her, everything can start anew!"

He laughed maniacally, the Dark Twilight around him surging one last time before being consumed by a strange, eerie flame.

"No need for you to do anything. We'll take care of it ourselves!" Yuka's face twisted grotesquely in the flames until it turned to ash, leaving only his voice echoing in the air. "Don't forget what I said."

"Obsession grants us eternal life!"