Thus, the World is Impermanent

Chen Xia and his inner demon were now staring at each other, stuck in a standstill.

"Your memories have started to surface, haven’t they? Any thoughts?" the inner demon asked.

Chen Xia hesitated for a moment, furrowing his brow. "It feels like they’re coming back, but also like they’re stuck. I can’t quite piece it together, as if I’ve hit a wall."

The inner demon sighed and said, "It seems I’ll have to show you something more intense."

As soon as he finished speaking, he lightly tapped the air in front of him. Ripples spread through the void, gradually forming the image of an elderly man.

"This is your close friend, someone you could call a lifelong companion. His name is Zhang DaoMing. Your friendship spans tens of thousands of years."

The short, elderly figure didn’t move, simply smiling at Chen Xia, just as he had in the past.

Chen Xia was stunned. His mind churned like raging waves, crashing and colliding. He knocked on his head and asked, "Where is he now?"

The inner demon tapped the air again, and Zhang DaoMing’s figure vanished, replaced by a small grave shaded by a phoenix tree.

"What does this mean?" Chen Xia pointed at the grave, dumbfounded.

"He passed away peacefully. In other words, he’s dead," the inner demon replied flatly, without a hint of emotion.

Hearing this, Chen Xia froze. His eyes flickered with what seemed like sorrow, but he couldn’t quite summon the emotion. In the end, all he could manage was a sigh. He frowned at the inner demon and said, "Are you messing with me?"

"Sadness always leaves a deep impression," the inner demon shrugged. "Well, let’s keep going."

He placed his hand on the fabric of the world, and his figure disappeared. Slowly, other figures began to materialize in the sky.

Pan Dadao, Old Fisherman, Little Chan Er, Cao Gao…

One by one, they appeared, not speaking, only smiling at Chen Xia before quickly fading away, replaced by others.

Chen Xia wasn’t the sentimental type, so even as he saw these figures, he only stood there, stunned. Something seemed on the verge of surfacing in his mind, but it remained stuck.

He couldn’t remember. He just couldn’t.

Then, a voice rang out. It belonged to a short-haired woman who seemed shy, her head slightly lowered as she avoided his gaze. She asked softly,

"Chen… Chen Xia, do you still remember me?"

A surge of sword energy erupted from Chen Xia’s heart, and a small crimson sword hovered beside him, trembling slightly.

Memories flooded his mind like a tidal wave.

Chen Xia stood there, dazed.

He began to understand, murmuring to himself,

"I am Chen Xia."

Call my true name.

As these words left his lips, the entire world suddenly brightened, countless rays of light piercing through.

Chen Xia opened his eyes.

The inner demon stood before him, hands clasped behind his back, and explained,

"This was all a grand dream I crafted to wake you up. You didn’t lose your memories; I simply used the dream to rouse you. Everything you just saw was part of that dream."

"..." Chen Xia remained silent for a while before nodding softly. "I see."

Though he had awakened, his mood wasn’t particularly good. He shook his head at the inner demon and said, "Cut back on the nostalgia trips in the future. My heart is as cold as the sword in my hand. It’s useless."

"Then next time, I’ll hit you with something even harder," the inner demon replied.

"Thanks a lot," Chen Xia said sarcastically, raising his left hand. The Ancestral Dragon, which had encircled the entire Great Death Realm, instantly shrank and coiled around his arm, becoming a pure white dragon tattoo.

His cultivation at the Quasi-Emperor level had stabilized, and over the tens of thousands of years of slumber, he had even made progress.

The inner demon stood with his hands behind his back, his crimson eyes gleaming as he chuckled,

"Now that you’re awake, the next steps are simpler. I represent the Great Death Realm, and you represent the World Realm. Together, we’re one entity. Once we enter the Immortal Realm, we’ll be unstoppable. The day we conquer East Jia State isn’t far off."

The inner demon briefly outlined his plan to take over East Jia State and shared their next steps.

"We’ll use the Ten Thousand Mountains as our base and expand outward. I’ll hold down the Great Death Realm, keeping an eye on the situation at all times. You, as the World Will and someone without fate, can freely traverse the Immortal Realm. With the Time Dao to protect you, we’ll first conquer East Jia State. After that, the entire Immortal Realm will bear the name Chen."

Chen Xia had a question. "Have you run into Xu Zhen in the Immortal Realm?"

"I have. She recognized me as your inner demon and seemed quite concerned about you. Right now, the Immortal Realm is at war with the Divine Realm. We might as well consider taking over the Divine Realm too, aiming to unify the All Heavens World as soon as possible."

"Sure, sure," Chen Xia replied, though he didn’t particularly care about unifying the All Heavens World. However, to control the Way of Heaven, it was a necessary step.

Chen Xia hesitated for a moment before asking, "Can I still return to the Blue Sky Sword Sea?"

"Probably not," the inner demon shook his head. "The Way of Heaven has separated the Great Heaven from the rest of the realms. You can’t enter the Great Heaven, so you can’t return to the Blue Sky Sword Sea. My idea is to conquer more realms so that, even without the Way of Heaven’s permission, we can forcefully break through the barrier."

"Understood," Chen Xia nodded softly, gazing at the now vibrant Great Death Realm. Who could have imagined that tens of thousands of years ago, this place was a lifeless wasteland?

Truly, the world is full of uncertainties.