Chapter 310

Q: What is it like to suddenly hear news of your impending death?

A: Thanks for the invitation. I’m in the desert, just got off the flying vine.

As someone who’s experienced this firsthand, I only have one thing to say: I already knew it was coming, surprise, surprise, haha!

Ning Ning stood in a snow-white room, silently meeting the gaze of a strange woman who was close enough to touch.

The woman’s eyes were made of condensed white mist, making it impossible to discern her expression.

When Ning Ning heard the cryptic statement about death, only one thought flashed through her mind—

According to the deal she had made with the system, she would indeed fake her death to escape once the mission was completed.

That was the most straightforward thought, but just a bit more reflection made it clear things couldn’t be that simple.

Setting aside the inexplicable image of a young man that had appeared in her mind, the words the woman spoke were enough to give her a headache.

“What do you mean,” Ning Ning asked, focusing her gaze and trying to calm her rapidly beating heart, “Every time I come here… I don’t forget?”

The woman stared at her in silence for a long moment, then gave a chuckle, answering with something completely unrelated: “I see now, there’s something else inside your body.”

Ning Ning pressed her lips together without responding, her mind racing.

Something else?

Was she talking about the system?

How could she know about its existence?

“You want to use that thing to escape death, don’t you?”

The woman’s body trembled slightly as she laughed, the mist around her swirling with her movements.

She continued speaking, seemingly to herself: “You’ve failed over and over again. Anyone else would’ve given up by now, but not you. Who are you doing this for? Yourself? Doesn’t seem like it.”

“Wait, wait, can we pause for a moment?”

The amount of information was overwhelming, and Ning Ning couldn’t process it all at once.

She rubbed her temples and frowned as she asked, “Sister, can we start from the beginning? Where is this place, who are you, and what do you mean by failing over and over again?”

The surrounding atmosphere subtly shifted.

The woman laughed even more wildly than before, the mist swirling chaotically until her facial features became blurred.

“Sister? You called me sister—now that’s a surprise. You’re not as serious as I thought, it’s throwing me off a bit.”

As she spoke, she reformed her body and floated upward, crossing her arms as she looked down at the young girl in front of her.

“I’ve been here for a very long time. So long that I’ve forgotten many things.”

The woman’s voice was soft, tinged with uncertainty, as if she was on the verge of forgetting everything: “I used to be a sword. Back in the great war between immortals and demons, I followed my master into the desert… then there was a huge explosion and blood everywhere. When I regained consciousness, I found myself here, in this form.”

She was a sword spirit that had been separated from its blade.

To become a conscious sword spirit, the sword must have been extraordinary, and her “master” must have been a powerful figure.

Curious, Ning Ning asked, “Do you remember your name?”

Seeing the mist shake its head, she changed the topic: “Then do you know what this place is?”

“I didn’t know at first. You’re the one who told me.”

At this, the woman let out a light laugh and twirled in the air: “You told me that a sword spirit like me should have vanished after being separated from the blade, but I was protected by a powerful spiritual energy, which is why I didn’t die. As for this place, it’s a peerless magical artifact called the Ziwei Realm. Once inside, it’s completely cut off from the outside world, unaffected by external forces.”

“I told you that?”

Ning Ning’s eyelid twitched.

Her thoughts felt like a tangled ball of yarn, impossible to unravel, but one thread seemed to slowly be pulling free, allowing her to glimpse some truth.

Ning Ning asked, “Have I been here many times before?”

“Yes.”

The white mist stared at her motionlessly.

“The first time was by accident—you fell in. After all, you said this secret realm is located beneath a steep cliff, and if you’re not careful, you can easily fall in.”

The woman tilted her head slightly, as if trying hard to recall: “After that, you would come by occasionally to talk with me. Actually, besides you, several other people have fallen in as well, but they always seem to forget, never remembering that they’ve met me before.”

Ning Ning listened quietly, not speaking for a long time.

The story’s outline was beginning to take shape in her mind.

According to the white mist, the Ziwei Realm was unaffected by external forces and existed outside of the greater world.

In other words, no matter what happened in the outside world—whether it was a cataclysm or even the apocalypse—this place would remain an unchanging white void.

So, if the outside world had been reset and rewound multiple times—

For the sword spirit dwelling here, time must have flowed in its usual, irreversible way.

That’s why the mist saw her come and go repeatedly, each time with the same aura of death clinging to her.

That’s why, even though the great war between immortals and demons had only been a few decades ago, the mist said it had been “too long,” unable to remember the past.

That’s why those who accidentally fell into this realm never remembered the mist, each meeting feeling like their first.

Because in the endlessly looping outside world, for them, it really was their first time.

So what about Ning Ning?

If she was the only one who retained her memory in each cycle… could she be the reason for the time resets?

Her head throbbed painfully.

Ning Ning took a deep breath, trying to calm her thoughts.

The white mist had said her body was filled with death energy, and that she wouldn’t live much longer.

Then it had laughed and said there was something inside her body—something that might help her escape death.

If that “something” was the system, then could it be that she had used some kind of spell to reset time over and over in order to avoid death?

And after countless failures, she was now trying to use the system to change her fate?

But why had she lost her memory?

Losing it would only make it harder to alter her destiny. And how exactly did the system work?

Most importantly, was it really in her nature to keep resetting time just to escape death?

Ning Ning didn’t think so.

Endless cycles of death would be unbearable—she hated pain too much to willingly endure that.

Even the white mist had mentioned that it didn’t seem like she was doing it for herself.

So, what exactly was she trying to prevent?