Having finished eating, they stand up to leave. "Are we going by horse?" Zhang Wei inquires.

"I don't mind either," Yueting responds.

"I see. Well, it will be hard going on foot," Zhang Wei remarks as he walks to the stall to get his horse.

"If you say so," Yueting acknowledges.

"Will yo-" Zhang Wei begins speaking before he gets interrupted.

"I will be right back," Yueting assures as she walks away.

Having walked to a small street with no people around, Yueting begins to communicate with the system. "The horse."

⌞System message: You've been getting less talkative by the day.⌝

"Mhm," Yueting acknowledges as she takes the horse's leash and puts it on the horse the system had just spawned. Leading the horse back to Zhang Wei and Meiyang, she announces, "I'm back."

"You have quite a good horse. Are you sure you're not of high status?" Zhang Wei asks.

"No, I'm sure," Yueting replies. Sighing, Zhang Wei mounts his horse, with Meiyang following suit on hers. For some reason, the system provided noble-like materials, making it hard for Yueting to go unnoticed. Following them on her horse, Yueting begins to ponder the demon realm. If their emperor is really that bad, how could she stop him? She had trained in the forbidden method and improved herself, but she still had no thoughts about defeating someone like him. So far, she hadn't defeated anyone strong. Yueting was exceptionally good at ignoring her issues, yet for some reason, she couldn't shake the feeling that even if the Meiyangs were different in every world, there must be something connecting them, something beyond their name.

By now, she even started talking about Meiyang as if it were more than one person, probably because she knew more than one Meiyang. Even if she hadn't traveled through the multiverse for long, she still knew more than one Meiyang. Lifting her head, she saw Meiyang next to her again.

"You seem like someone died. Did something happen?" Meiyang remarks, her tone lacking concern.

Chuckling, Yueting responds, "Are you sure you wanna know? It's not that important," her voice softer than when speaking to other people.

"Tsk, why did I even bother asking you if you're not going to tell me!" Meiyang grumbles in annoyance, though she maintains a look of interest on her face.

"It was my ex-lover's death day not too long ago," Yueting shares, causing both Meiyang and Zhang Wei's faces to pale.

"How can you say that so casually?" Zhang Wei exclaims, clearly shocked.

Yueting wasn't expecting him to listen in on the two of them, but she still calmly responds to his question. "It was only my ex-lover, after all," she remarks, her tone visibly changing. Quickly remembering she was talking to people right now, she begins speaking again, her tone returning to normal. "It's been years since I last met her anyways," Yueting says, trying to change the mood. What she said wasn't true; it had only been a few days since she last saw Meiyang, though it had been years since she saw the real Meiyang.

Yueting despised getting emotional. When she was younger, she used to be a crybaby, but nowadays, she rarely revealed her emotions. Even just now, her facial expression remained unchanged. Typically, her tone was the only thing that showed any effect from events.

"It's getting dark; we should set up camp," Zhang Wei suggests as he scans the surroundings for a suitable spot. Just a few minutes later, he points towards a small spot on the side of the forest path. After setting up a fire and spreading out a few blanket-like items to lay on, they all sit down near the fire. It doesn't take much longer for Meiyang to fall sound asleep, leaving only Zhang Wei and Yueting awake.

"You're not as innocent as you pretend to be, are you?" Zhang Wei interrupts the silence. It's true, Yueting wasn't an innocent child, but even so, she only did what she had to in the past world. Moreover, Zhang Wei wouldn't have any way of knowing that, so he must be referring to something else.

"Why do you say that?" Yueting inquires.

"It's your aura," Zhang Wei explains.

"Please elaborate," Yueting prompts.

"It's darker than the void itself," Zhang Wei remarks. What did that even mean? Yueting had absolutely no knowledge about auras at all.

"What does that imply?" Yueting asks.

"With that kind of aura, you might be the descendant of the God of Darkness himself," Zhang Wei suggests, his assertions sounding absurd. Yueting might have killed one person and hurt a few others, but even so, she couldn't have such a dark aura if darkness represented the level of sins.

"You might have committed a sin worse than pride," Zhang Wei continues.

This conversation starts to grate on Yueting's nerves. Zhang Wei keeps talking about sins and such as if he knows a lot. "What do you know about sins?" Yueting demands, causing the conversation to come to a halt as Zhang Wei falls silent. It seems he doesn't want to answer that question.

"I'm going to sleep now," Yueting declares as she lies down.

It didn't take much longer until Yueting fell into a deep sleep. The next morning, she woke up, but unlike usual, the sun wasn't gently grazing her face, and she couldn't hear the silence of the forest. Instead, it was loud, very loud. It seemed like children were screaming, but not in a playful way; they were screaming in distress. Opening her eyes, Yueting found herself in front of a small city. It was very dark outside and foggy. Standing up to look around, she noticed that the city appeared overall very dark, maybe even gloomy. Walking inside the city, she could see many people walking past her, none of them with a discernible face. At first, she thought she was dreaming, but it felt too real to be a dream.

Still looking around, Yueting focused on catching more details of whatever this was. Suddenly, a small family walked past her, the only people she had seen with detailed faces so far. Turning around, she saw the family looking at her, standing right in front of her, their gazes disappointed. These people were her parents, though it didn't quite seem like they were directly looking at Yueting. Turning around again, she found herself in a different room. It was her childhood room, and now she was looking at her younger self. Taking a step to the side, Yueting remembered this; it was one of the memories she was trying to shoo away.

"Please don't—! Mommy, Daddy, I'm sorry, I swear!" Yueting could hear the younger her plead. After that, her father slapped her, and Yueting quickly drew her sword and slashed against her parents. With just one slash, they turned into nothingness. Feeling an aching pain inside her, Yueting fell to her knees out of nowhere. After a few seconds, she could hear someone talking again. "She thought too highly of herself. I just did what had to be done," the stranger remarked, the voice too familiar. Opening her eyes, Yueting saw the Meiyang she had known first, the one who broke her heart. "But miss, she really loved you," another person mentioned. It was Yueting's old assistant. Yueting could've never guessed her assistant would end up defending her.

"So? She kept on blabbering about meeting me in our next life. It was getting on my nerves," Meiyang grumbles. Yueting had always known Meiyang harbored resentment toward her, but she hadn't expected her to not even show a little bit of sadness. For some reason, Yueting couldn't stand up. It was as if someone was compelling her to remain in this position. "I hate her," Meiyang mutters. With that, Yueting's eyes flew open, and out of reflex, she dispelled the illusion of Meiyang. Like earlier, she began feeling an aching pain inside her body. Looking up, she saw her assistant gazing directly at her. Feeling a little startled, Yueting took a step away, her assistant's eyes tracking her every move. Falling back, Yueting glanced at her old assistant, feeling the floor beneath her crumble as she began soaring through the sky once again. Landing on a bed, it was her childhood room once more. She could see her younger self sitting at her table, writing something. Standing up to take a look at it, Yueting noticed a letter, though it wasn't as she remembered it.

͔̳̮̪͎ͤͬͤW̙̰͍̻̹̋ͩ͐ͪ̚Ä̤̝͉͉͖͔́̂̉̚K̮͈̤̭͎̽̈́̌̋E̺̭͆̈͋̈́ͅ ̳̭̖̦̀͑̾U̱̬̙̠̗̭ͩ̃͑̏̿P̳͈̲͙̋̑̂̅̈́

"Wake up," it said in a creepy font. After reading that, everything around Yueting crumbled into glass-like pieces, and she found herself again in a completely black place, similar to the 'in-between' the system often brings her to. "Yueting," she heard someone saying in Meiyang's tone. Turning around, her assistant stood behind her. "You finally came," the person had her old assistant's looks and Meiyang's tone, yet it was neither of those people. The person's appearance seemed to be 'glitching'. Crouching down in front of Yueting, the person began to speak again, "I am—"

After that, Yueting woke up, with Zhang Wei and the Meiyang of this world shaking her. "Finally, you're awake!" Zhang Wei said. Sitting up, Yueting looked around. She was back in the forest. "You wouldn't wake up, so we thought something had happened," Zhang Wei finished saying.

❝In the symphony of silence, questions linger like echoes, seeking answers in the depths of the unknown.❝