The pleasing curve of her brow did not last long.
In the next moment, Qian Yu, who had just been blinking gently, returned to her previous coldness.
“A dream? Senior Sister Nalan, perhaps something has gone wrong with your cultivation?”
She shook her head and, in a daze, even let out a small laugh.
“Dreams require a basis in reality. The ‘Dream Derivation Heavenly Secret Wheel’ you mentioned is merely a Venerable artifact. No matter how realistic the Illusionary Realm it constructs may be, it cannot surpass the Venerable Realm. But I…”
Qian Yu paused, the vast, abyss-like aura of a Semi-Saint naturally circulating around her.
“I am currently a Semi-Saint.”
As a fox who had tasted untold hardships and bitterness, Qian Yu could not help but suspect that obtaining such formidable power so suddenly was all a dream.
Long before entering the Ancient Saint Crater, You Suqi had warned her about the terrifying power of the illusions within this Secret Realm.
However, whether it was an illusion or a dream, it had to originate from reality; it could not be fabricated from nothing.
A Venerable is one who has condensed their own Dao, gained the recognition of heaven and earth, and carved a unique mark upon the long river of the Great Dao.
From then on, their lifespan is vast; they can establish sects and overlook the winds and clouds of an entire region.
Though their power is great, it still falls within the scope of ‘utilizing’ the laws of heaven and earth.
It remains at the level of ‘understanding’ and ‘harnessing’ them—a qualitative difference from the Saint Realm, which has already understood and even defined the rules.
In the next moment, Nalan Yunyan clearly saw an almost absurd scene unfold within the square inch of Qian Yu’s palm.
Swaying ice crystals were illusory and scorching, while bone-chilling flames condensed into frost.
Plants cast from gold took root, sprouted, and nodded in greeting.
After thick earth condensed into an infinitesimally small point, it was simultaneously infinitely heavy and infinitely light.
Looking inside, one could even see ten of oneself.
The past, the present, and the future—all manner of time seemed to manifest within that single palm of Qian Yu’s.
Even more incredible was that although Qian Yu was clearly in front of her, Nalan Yunyan felt as though the other woman was behind her as well.
Upon careful perception, she realized the other could be at any point in the world; without the authority of observation, it was impossible to determine her location.
“Do you see? This is what it means to be a Saint. Even if it is only half, one is still omnipresent and omnipotent,” Qian Yu said, closing her palm.
Once she became a true Saint, she would be unique across all worlds and all timelines.
Whether in the past, present, or future, she could exist simultaneously and always be the current Qian Yu.
How could this absurd authority be simulated by the Dream Derivation Heavenly Secret Wheel, a mere Venerable Realm artifact?
Even if it could, it could not possibly be this real.
Had the person who created it ever reached the Saint Realm?
“But…”
Seeing that Nalan Yunyan still had more to say, Qian Yu sighed helplessly. Realizing that the other was truly and sincerely worried about her, her expression softened considerably.
“Senior Sister Nalan, do you want to say it is because of the Secret Realm?”
“Yes! Exactly!”
Nalan Yunyan nodded hurriedly.
“It is because the Ancient Saint Crater is blessed with the Laws of the Dao of a Saint. That is why your Saint Law can be so realistic, Qian Yu.”
“However, according to my deductions, I could also say that the previous world we experienced—both you and I—was the true false dream.”
Qian Yu paused and sighed once more.
“Senior Sister Nalan, since you claim to come from another real world alongside me, you should have noticed that the ‘me’ in that world could not break through to the Second Realm no matter what.”
“Why is that?”
“Because the ‘me’ in this current real world never broke through to the Second Realm before the Great Dream.”
“Therefore, I couldn’t imagine it. I suspected this point very early on, and now it has been verified.”
As her voice fell, snowflakes drifted between heaven and earth.
Nalan Yunyan felt as if she had been struck by lightning.
‘That’s right…’
‘How could cultivation be such a difficult thing?’
In her memory, in that “real” world she so firmly believed in, Qian Yu had indeed been stuck at the peak of the First Realm, unable to advance even a hair’s breadth.
In the past, one could say it was because Qian Yu’s talent was too poor or her resources too scarce.
But during the time when the other had revealed her Sacred Body and intended to sever it to gift it to her, the guilt-ridden Nalan Yunyan had showered her with resources.
Even though Qian Yu remained stuck at the peak of the First Realm, the consumption during that period was so terrifying that it even prompted her mother to inquire about it.
How could anyone fail to break through even the measly First Realm?
Aside from the Sacred Body, Nalan Yunyan could see that Qian Yu possessed a potent bloodline.
Combined with those horrifying resources, even if only one percent was effective—even if Qian Yu were a “cultivation genius” seen only once in ten million years—it should have been enough to forcibly push her into the Second Realm dozens of times.
Nalan Yunyan, unable to resolve the issue, had even specifically invited a Venerable from her family to perform a power transfer!
Under those circumstances, Qian Yu still failed to break through.
At the time, Nalan Yunyan simply thought the other had ruined her foundation by severing her Sacred Body, and that her talent was truly, truly, truly too outrageous.
But thinking about it now, after discarding all the impossibilities, the only remaining explanation—however absurd—might indeed be the truth.
Just as Qian Yu said — the true reason was that as the master of the dream, she had never reached the Second Realm.
Cultivation is an extremely private matter.
Every bit of Spiritual Power absorbed and every circulation of a technique must have actually existed.
Even the most realistic dream would find it difficult to simulate them perfectly if they hadn’t.
The breakthrough of a major realm was even more so.
How much would one’s strength increase after a breakthrough?
How much would the meridians and dantian expand?
How many breaths or milliseconds faster would the Spiritual Power circulate?
Even one’s height and the fairness of one’s skin would change due to the breakthrough of a major realm.
Not to mention, the breakthrough from the First Realm to the Second Realm is called the Mortal Shedding Realm, the true beginning of the cultivation path.
The changes formed therein are second only to becoming a Venerable.
These minute details, down to every inch and every point, are difficult to simulate in a dream without real experience.
The result of failing to simulate them was that Qian Yu could not break through, thereby keeping the dream stable.
“No… impossible… That side is clearly reality. I came here after accepting a mission from my mother.”
Qian Yu’s words were like a key, turning some solid shackles of perception in Nalan Yunyan’s heart, producing an unsettling creak.
She denied it subconsciously but could not find any decent words to support her claim.
She wanted to say she had many authorities in this world, but after recalling Qian Yu’s miraculous Saint Realm methods, she had to wonder if those authorities stemmed from her own uniqueness in the dream or the methods of a Saint in this current world.
Perhaps they did not want Qian Yu to become a Saint, so they used some means to manipulate her into disturbing Qian Yu’s Dao Heart.
“Forget it, arguing about this is meaningless. Since you insist that this world is a dream created by the legacy of a Saint, and your words have indeed wavered me slightly…”
“The solution is quite simple. I shall simply break through to the Saint Realm, then.”
Unlike Nalan Yunyan’s confusion and struggle, the current Qian Yu was extremely free and easy.
Even if it were proven that this was an Illusionary Realm and she would lose all her current cultivation, being cast back down to a Half-Yao whom anyone could bully, she did not care.
The ‘her’ in that world was doing well enough now.
As for this cultivation, she would treat it as if she had never possessed it.
The corners of her lips curled into a faint arc.
Though she was dressed in pure white, she currently radiated a confidence and indifference that made even Nalan Yunyan look askance.
“No matter how vast a dream is, it has boundaries. No matter how real an illusion seems, it has limits. No matter how realistically cultivation is simulated, it is still only born from the Laws of the Dao of that Ancient Saint.”
“As long as I become a Saint, as long as I continuously push my cultivation to the limit, if this is a dream, there will surely be a day when it shatters.”
Nalan Yunyan was stunned.
Break through to the Saint Realm?
Could such words be said so nonchalantly?
It was as if she were saying the weather was nice today.
Furthermore, if this world truly were a dream, the other’s current Semi-Saint cultivation might vanish like Flowers in the Mirror and Moon in the Water.
Could Qian Yu really bear to part with it?
Nalan Yunyan was highly skeptical.
Yet, looking at Qian Yu standing with her hands behind her back amidst the wind and snow, her fur and white hair fluttering together, Nalan Yunyan’s heart felt wave after wave of uncontrollable ripples.
She, who was used to being high and mighty and looking down on others, now had a question.
‘Why… is Qian Yu so… dazzling right now?’
It was not the deterrent of power, but an ultimate indifference and confidence born from the depths of her soul—a lack of concern for gain, loss, or even existence itself.
Nalan Yunyan often assumed such a haughty stance and, deep down, she actually liked it.
But behind that stance was the natural assurance granted by the Nalan Family’s illustrious lineage and her own peerless talent.
Qian Yu’s indifference was different.
It was the near-cruel open-mindedness shown by someone who had truly experienced having nothing and struggling in the dust when suddenly faced with the prospect of “losing everything.”
‘Because she never truly owned it, she can be completely indifferent.’
Nalan Yunyan understood this logic.
But if it were her, and she suddenly learned that her world-shattering cultivation—attained after bitter struggle—might just be a bubble, she could not be as calm as Qian Yu.
She would feel fear and resentment; she would desperately grasp at even a sliver of an illusion that might be real.
She could not bring herself to actively “verify” its unreality.
But Qian Yu did it.
At this moment, the white figure in the wind and snow seemed to shed all labels of “Half-Yao,” “pawn,” and “variable,” revealing a pure and powerful soul-texture that Nalan Yunyan had never before witnessed.
She looked on, somewhat entranced.
The panic and confusion in her heart caused by her wavering “dream theory” were strangely overwritten by another more surging, unfamiliar emotion.
It was a complex feeling of heartfelt shock, admiration, and a flutter of excitement that even she had not yet realized.
It turned out that after stripping away the calculations, disguises, and the thorns forced by survival, the inside of this fox was actually this… radiant.