Extra 4: In Fact, Time Has Never Passed

Years passed in a blur, like water flowing away.

Time flew by in the blink of an eye. Ye Shu, the Lord of the World, no longer had any worries. He had wives aplenty and children and grandchildren filling the household. Aside from a few with fiery tempers who occasionally liked to spar with him, there seemed to be very little left to complain about.

But was reality really as perfect as it seemed?

Beneath the drifting white clouds, Ye Shu sat on a slightly raised patch of grassland, gazing into the distance at the children laughing and playing, and at the people beside them, each busy with their own affairs.

Suddenly, a childish voice rang out.

“Hey, what are you doing sitting here?”

Ye Shu turned around.

There stood Xiaobai in a little white dress, her brows knitted tightly and her arms folded across her chest. She glared at him unhappily. “When are you finally going to turn me back? You perverted lolicon! Give me my luck back!”

“Aren’t you pretty good like this?”

Looking at the one-meter-thirty-tall Xiaobai, Ye Shu smiled. “You’re so cute, like a little girl. Once you grow up, you’ll just look old.”

“I’ll have you know, you’re the one who’s a—”

Xiaobai cursed him without the slightest hesitation.

She gnashed her teeth, her large eyes blazing with fury. “You’re a big liar and a huge jerk! You moved everything from my place into your own, and then you even turned the owner of the house into your star slave!”

“Do you know that I used to be a mature, sophisticated woman?”

“And what am I now?”

“What am I now?”

She darted right in front of Ye Shu, shoved her small round face close to his, and stared him straight in the eye, her nose nearly touching his. Baring two little tiger fangs, she waved her arms wildly.

“You big bully! When I go outside now, people think I’m your daughter. No—your granddaughter!”

“They even say I have no shame!”

“They say I was willing to cast aside all ethics and seduce my own great-grandfather just to rise in status!”

“Tell me—isn’t this all your fault?!”

Xiaobai loudly berated him, her little cheeks puffed up with anger.

Watching her throw a tantrum like an angry pufferfish bristling with spines, Ye Shu couldn’t help bursting into laughter. He gloated, “Isn’t that great? Don’t girls like it when people think they’re younger?”

“Younger?!”

Xiaobai was so furious that her nose nearly twisted out of shape.

“That’s no way to be younger! You’ve made me look like I’m from the granddaughter generation! If this keeps up, I won’t even be able to be anyone’s granddaughter anymore. I’ll have to join everyone else in calling you Great-Grandfather!”

“I don’t care! Hurry up and turn me back!”

“Heh…”

As Xiaobai huffed and puffed, rolling around on the ground in a fit of pique, Ye Shu suddenly chuckled, as though a thought had just occurred to him.

“Xiaobai, do you still remember your sisters?”

“ S...sisters?”

Xiaobai looked at him blankly.

Then she tilted her little head and scratched it, her tiny brows drawing together. “I-I think there was something like that, but... but I can’t seem to remember.”

She thought for a long while, then simply gave up.

If she couldn’t remember them, they probably weren’t important.

“Why are you asking about that?”

She covered her little dress and eyed Ye Shu warily. “You heartless womanizer! You already have Lin Qingxue and the others, and they still aren’t enough for you? Don’t tell me you’re thinking about my sisters too!”

“Of course not.”

Ye Shu shook his head, then suddenly asked her a question.

“Xiaobai, suppose that one day you were locked inside an iron room, and the air outside was filled with poisonous gas. The moment you stepped outside, you would most likely die.”

“And suppose you were dreaming at that moment.”

“A dream so beautiful beyond compare that you would never want to wake up. Would you choose to push open the door and leave the room, or continue dreaming inside?”

“Hmm... That’s a really profound question.”

Xiaobai’s brows drew together even more tightly.

She folded her arms and adopted a thoughtful pose, her little face scrunched up. Making Xiaobai, whose intelligence quotient was as high as 220, ponder over a question like this was quite a challenge for her.

But Ye Shu wasn’t in a hurry.

He had plenty of time.

“I would...”

After hesitating for a while, Xiaobai seemed to have finally made up her mind. She planted her hands on her hips and said with absolute certainty, “Of course I’d sleep until I’d had my fill, then open the door and go outside to take a look!”

“That way, I get the best of both worlds, don’t I?”

Having said this, Xiaobai couldn’t help admiring her own wisdom. She looked at him smugly.

“Well? Aren’t I clever?”

“Not bad.”

Ye Shu stared at her in astonishment. He pulled her into his arms and examined her little head from one side, then the other, as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“To think that someone with your intelligence could come up with such a perfect solution.”

“Hmph, hmph!”

Xiaobai snorted proudly. She turned over in his arms and narrowed her eyes in comfort.

“Honestly, you’re making a fuss over nothing. With my intelligence, coming up with a solution that gives me the best of both worlds is only natural.”

“By the way, why did you suddenly ask me that?”

“You’re being so sentimental. It doesn’t suit you at all.”

Ye Shu fell silent for a while before slowly answering, his voice carrying the weight of a sigh.

“Because time has never passed...”

“Never passed?”

Lin Qingxue’s brows furrowed slightly as she looked at him in confusion. “What on earth are you talking about?”

“Nothing. Heh.”

Ye Shu came back to himself, picked her up, and headed toward the outside.

“Come on. I’ll take you into town for a stroll. Since those few are all busy looking after the children, we can sneak off and have some fun.”

“Yay! We’re going out!”

At the mention of going out to play, Xiaobai immediately began clapping. Her large eyes shone brightly, her face full of anticipation, and she had already forgotten what she had asked him moments ago.

“Come on! Let’s go have fun!”

With a single step, Ye Shu set off, laughing as he carried her away.

............

Time passed, and the years turned.

The snow fell and fell upon the mountains. The grasslands turned yellow, then green again. Travelers who had departed returned through several cycles of life, were buried deep beneath the earth, and passed away. The only things that never changed were the people who had been there from the beginning.

The frost of time could not touch them, and someone always remained by the riverbank.

When every beautiful thing in this world, along with all its noise and bustle, had finally fallen silent, Ye Shu was still sitting on that same stretch of grassland.

“Do you want to leave?”

Just as he was gazing up at the stars, a gentle voice came from beside him.

Ye Shu turned around and saw that it was Lin Qingxue.

She approached in a flowing pink dress. The years had not left a single mark upon her face, but they had worn down her formerly willful and spoiled nature, making her much calmer.

By now, she had become the mother of an entire clan.

“You could tell?”

Ye Shu glanced back at her and gave a bitter smile.

Lin Qingxue took a step forward, sat down beside him, stretched languidly, and lay back on the grass to gaze at the starry sky.

“As if I couldn’t. Don’t forget, I know you better than anyone, you heartless man.”

“You’re the Lord of the World, yet you’ve never ascended.”

“Does that make any sense at all?”

“But if I ascend, I can’t take you with me.”

Ye Shu remained silent for a long time before finally speaking.

“You always ramble on and on.”

Lin Qingxue turned her head and shot him a scornful look. “I’ll ask you one thing: do you want to ascend or not?”

Ye Shu froze. He hadn’t expected her to be so direct.

“Maybe... just a little.”

“Then fly!” Before he could finish, Lin Qingxue said decisively, “I’ve had enough of looking at you anyway. Out of sight, out of mind.”

“Then I’ll leave?”

“Go.”

................

When the World Lord withdrew his gaze, only a fleeting moment had passed in the parallel timeline.

Alone in the void, Ye Shu raised his head. Before him stood a magnificent World Tree, its radiance spanning the entire expanse beyond the universe.