Chapter 307: The End Of The Trial

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The Mission was over, and the entire Trial was over as well. By completely stopping certain events from happening, we were able to complete this Trial, which was supposed to have five floors into two just floors. Both challenges were incredibly hard, though. The first challenge involved defeating both factions and simultaneously defeating both the Heavenly Demon and the Heavenly Empress.

Something nobody else would have thought about except me, I guess… None of my friends wanted to go that route and would have happily preferred to just choose the righteous faction. However, that sadly didn’t lead to the true ending, the one I desired with all my heart.

I knew from the very beginning what this entire Trial was all about; it was to show us the past, to show us what happened, the things we didn’t see. To teach us of the Empress’ mistakes and also to introduce us to her life and the secrets she had kept from everyone.

However, I ended up twisting this into something completely different; I defied the trial requirements, and together with my friends, we changed everything; the events became different; everything transformed.

Until finally…

We created a beautiful What If.

One where both factions slowly overcame their differences, where the love between the two Venerables was confessed, and where their child was known to the world.

A What If where little Song was no longer alone in his house, unable to see the outside world.

It was… too good to be true, huh?

“Thank you, Anna… Everyone…”

The Heavenly Empress, my dear master, appeared in front of us, breaking through the trial’s dimensional walls alongside the little helper.

She was crying, flying to my side, and then hugging me tightly. If I didn’t have my armor, she would have certainly broken a rib or two…

“Master…”

I felt her hug and also her tears falling over my shoulders. I hugged her back, feeling moved by what she said.

She was really sad and, at the same time, happy.

Perhaps she never expected we would create such an ending, but slowly, she started looking more and realizing that everything was going differently.

“This is everything I’ve always dreamed about… I can’t believe you did this for me… I know this is not real; I know it so well, yet…” she muttered. “I just can’t help but feel so moved. I wish… I wish this is how it ended. I wish you were there. I wish… you and your friends were there to stop us, to help us…”

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry I couldn’t come earlier…” I sighed. “I’m so sorry…”

“Ah! N-No… don’t apologize. Nothing of this is your fault,” she sighed, caressing my head. “It’s just my wishful thinking. I just… I never imagined you and your friends would change everything so much. It’s indeed… too good to be true, huh?”

Everyone else remained in silence, too moved after seeing the Heavenly Empress crying like this. I guess I couldn’t blame them for that; it was very surprising.

“But that doesn’t mean we can’t change the present now,” I said. “The past will remain as the past, and it can’t be changed… But the future is different, right? Let’s work together to save what remains of this world and help it flourish into something even bigger and more beautiful, master!”

I bowed to her, putting my hands together in the usual gesture of orthodox cultivators.

I had learned how to do this from her, which conveyed respect toward someone.

“My disciple…” she muttered. “Do you truly intend to do the impossible? What we were unable to do?”

“I will make this What If the real ending,” I said. “So yes, I intend to do that! First… About Song, he’s not dead, right?”

“…” she fell into silence for a bit. “No… The very reason why the machines remain active in this world is… because the Apocalypse never ended.”

A revelation that struck everyone’s hearts. I had half-guessed this, but even now, I was slightly surprised when I heard it coming from Master’s mouth.

“W-Wait, what?!” Wai Tian gasped. “Master! Is this true? The Apocalypse is not over yet? But… it has been so many years! And those portals are nowhere to be seen, right?”

“They’ve been sealed forcefully,” said the Venerable. “However… as long as the Demon King remains, the Apocalypse will never end. And our son… we… we could have never brought ourselves to kill him. Because we hesitated, because we couldn’t finish him off, so many people died… because of my weakness, because I…”

“N-Not even the Heavenly Demon could?” asked Yin Sheng. “But he’s someone ruthless; he would have definitely…!”

“No, that man… He hesitated even more than I did,” the Heavenly Empress smiled faintly. “He truly loved our son, more than anything. to kill him, even as a monster… we simply couldn’t bring ourselves to commit such a sin. We sealed him instead. In the largest mechanical tree, it is where he was sealed—that last piece of land, the longest mountain of the Continent of Bestia. The machines gathered around it, building the tree around it to protect him and to slowly attempt to unseal him…”

“S-So it was never over…” I muttered. “So the only way to end the Apocalypse is to defeat the Demon King it brought with it? Even if it’s an inhabitant of this world?”

“Yes… it does seem to be that way…” she sighed. “For all these years, I’ve been meditating, thinking about what I must do. My duty… the reason why we were injected with these nanomachines that ate away at our strength was because we couldn’t kill him. He attacked us and injected us with that. We lied to you when we told you it was just some powerful machine; it was him, my dear son…”

“Does he… does he have no recollection of his previous life after turning into the Demon King?” Fang Shuan asked.

“He screams, he cries…” muttered the heavenly empress. “Within him, I can still see it, my child… my son, crying, confused, in pain… he didn’t become a mindless monster with no mind of its own. His mind… is trapped within the monster.”

“…”

After hearing such a harsh truth, we remained in silence for quite a while. Nobody knew what to say, and I was thinking…

What can I do?

How can I separate a vessel from the demon king seed?

According to the novel, once the awakening happens, there’s no going back.

The demon king must be slain; it cannot be separated from the vessel.

Why? Because the demon king is born from the fusion of the vessel and the demon king seed.

But if what she says is true, then Song is there, a part of him, his mind.

Maybe his soul can be saved.

But his body…

It’s gone for good; I believe.

Dammit, I talked big when I didn’t have any idea how to do this!

This goes beyond my power already, separating a demon king from a vessel, it’s like…

Something only a Void Ruler directly intervening could ever accomplish!

And that’s never happening, not in a million years.

So, we have to be realistic.

The chance to save his soul…

We have to take it and gamble everything on it.

“Song’s body… is most likely gone forever,” I confessed.

The Heavenly Empress gasped a bit, lowering her head.

“However, his soul… maybe his soul can be saved,” I explained.

“What?!” she gasped. “T-That’s… truly?!”

“Yes, if you could hear his cries for help, the child within the demon king is still there. Perhaps all this time, your son has been fighting the demon king from completely taking over… Despite being so young, he’s strong,” I explained. “His potential… as you saw in the simulation. Maybe because of such power, as the Divine Child of Providence, it has somehow maintained his soul intact.”

“T-That’s…!” The Heavenly Empress eyes were filled with hope.

“But we don’t have much time,” I said. “If it has been years, there’s no saying the demon king had already begun corroding even the powers of the Child of Providence. After all, Song has such power because the Heavenly Will blessed his birth, right? But the Heavenly Will no longer exists; the heavens were utterly destroyed. And therefore, Song’s blessings might have begun to diminish over time…”

“Then… we have to hurry, to act fast! If there’s a chance…” she muttered. “I’m willing to bet everything into it, Anna!”

“Is that so?” I smiled. “I guess I couldn’t have expected any other response from my master! And I completely agree with you! Let’s gamble everything into this small chance! Screw everything else!”

I looked at my friends, and despite their expressions of surprise, they nodded.

We were a bit crazy; we had a few screws loose too…

But after what we lived, after what we went through in that Trial…

We all love Song, that child…

We’ll do anything to finally reunite him with his parents.

“It’s only a theory, but I recklessly… want to follow it until my end,” she sighed. “Once you go back to my ex-husband to train with him, tell him what I told you and everything else we’ve talked about. I will need his aid in this insane plan of mine.”

“Got it,” I nodded.

“And Anna…”

She walked to my side again, gently pecking my forehead with her beak.

I think that was a kiss.

“Thank you…” she smiled. “It’s ironic… I know. But for someone whose power was all about Hope. I had lost Hope long ago… But you appeared and changed my life. In just these few days… I’m truly grateful. And I want to say that… although our training is not over yet, you make your master very proud!”

I was in tears to be praised by someone so great, so incredible.

It moved my heart.

“T-Thank you, master!”

After all the crying and weeping came to an end, we left the trial, not before I glanced one last time at the people in there.

It was as if everything had stopped in time; they were still there, smiling and celebrating.

A picture of a beautiful ending.

Although I had given him my sponsorship, I guess I won’t be getting my reward any time soon.

I suppose it wasn’t wasted either; those Plot Points, even if used in a simulation, helped us achieve victory.

They were well spent…

And it made Song, even if this was just a simulation, that little Song…

Discover his true calling and have the best ending possible.

Now, it’s time for the real Song to be saved.

“Song… Your big sis is bringing you back, no matter what!”

And then we left, moving back to the Heavenly Empress Inner Realm.

There was a lot to do, and also a lot of goodies from the trial’s rewards.

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.

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As everyone moved back to the palace, Sara stuck around, right behind Anna, looking around, nervous and confused.

“W-What’s going on right now? Who are these animal people?”

She was too reserved to ask out loud, especially when she sensed the crane woman’s presence, so powerful it made her almost pass out.

“Why did Anna bring me here… and why are they crying?!”

Without realizing her own fear had turned her into a spectral shadow, hiding within Anna’s shadow until they had time alone.

“Anna… please introduce me to these people already!”

Unfortunately, Anna was too distracted.

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