Chapter Thirty-Eight: Who Will Awaken First from the Grand Dream?

The Great Freedom Demonic Sect
In the quiet chamber

"Ah, what a comfortable sleep that was~~" Chu Hanyu stretched with a blissful smile, arms reaching high above his head. His tall, slender form seemed even more striking as he extended his limbs, but this simple, ordinary gesture made Xing Qiluo instinctively retreat several steps.

Xing Qiluo stared at the familiar, slightly mischievous smile on Chu Hanyu's face, feeling as though an old nightmare was descending upon him anew. Yet, a sliver of hope remained in his heart—perhaps, just perhaps, things were not as they seemed...

"Who... who are you?!" Xing Qiluo had backed all the way to the edge of the chamber, his back pressed tightly against the wall, bracing himself as though facing a formidable foe.

Chu Hanyu looked at him with amusement, licking his lips—a gesture that, in Xing Qiluo’s eyes, was as menacing as a serpent flicking its tongue. "What’s wrong, Little Luo? Don’t you recognize me?"

Xing Qiluo shut his eyes tight.
It’s over! The worst has truly happened!

When Xing Qiluo woke Chu Hanyu earlier, he had immediately sensed something was wrong—the forces within Chu Hanyu were in chaos, surely rousing him like that had caused harm! But he had already resigned himself to the risk. With their formidable constitutions, and nearly all the resources of the Sky Azure Realm at their disposal, not to mention an abundance of healing pills—after all, Chu Hanyu was a grandmaster alchemist—no injury, not even to the mind, was beyond remedy.

He never expected it was the Law of Chronos wreaking havoc within Chu Hanyu!

Yes, Xing Qiluo knew his friend had some insight into the Way of Chronos.
The four directions make up the universe; past and future, the timeline. The Way of Chronos governs the laws of time itself.

And just now, everything about Chu Hanyu—the air, the expression, the demeanor—had set Xing Qiluo trembling, hinting at something gone deeply awry. Still, he clung to hope: what if his friend had merely been possessed by another? That would be a minor issue!

But the moment he heard that familiar "Little Luo," Xing Qiluo knew he was doomed. Chu Hanyu’s mind must have been muddled, his memories regressed to his youth.

In theory, given how they’d grown up together, this should have been nothing. Yet Xing Qiluo’s dread of young Chu Hanyu was well founded.
What was Chu Hanyu like in his youth? A consummate actor! A troublemaker! A master of disguise! A heartthief!

Every major tempest among the younger generation back then could be traced back to him! Chu Hanyu had never been raised as the heir to the Great Freedom Demonic Sect—he was the youngest disciple, doted on to an unimaginable degree by his master and senior brothers, who never bothered to restrain him. Thus, the endless task of cleaning up after Chu Hanyu’s mischief fell to the ever-attached Xing Qiluo.

Was he to relive all that again? What had he done to deserve this?

"By the way, Little Luo, why do you look so grown up? Oh, wait, you are grown up! …So I must be, too!" Chu Hanyu glanced at his outstretched limbs, a mischievous grin lighting his face. "How interesting! What on earth has happened?"

Aboard the Big-Belly Ark

The disciples from the Xuanming Palace, sent as exchange students, spent most of their days on the Big-Belly Ark, except Han Zun, who was often spirited away by Zhuge Yi for mysterious chats. The rest were left to their own devices.

The tasks assigned by Xuanming Palace were ambiguous at best, but to the disciples, it simply meant honing their skills: stealth, ambush, shadow jumping, and so forth. After all, Xuanming Palace was famed for its peerless agility techniques, and the most gifted even brushed upon the true essence of the Way of the Universe.

To the new disciples, it was little more than an assassination game! Each day, they would use the new disciples of the Great Freedom Demonic Sect as targets, practicing sudden kills, swift retreats, ambushes, and explosive speed—pure exhilaration!

But to the disciples of the Great Freedom Demonic Sect, it was more like a game of whack-a-mole—knocking the Xuanming Palace disciples flying whenever they popped up, using the Great Freedom Palm. After all, striking disciples of another sect was not a violation of their own rules!

Thus, to outsiders, the two sects appeared to be on close terms, and rumors of intermarriage between their elite families circulated with each generation. But for this cohort, such talk was flimsy as paper—there was no affection between them at all!

Both sides were locked in this peculiar standoff, unsure when it would end. But one day, the current heir of Xuanming Palace, Han Zun, stood before them. With his trademark mocking smile, he watched them silently for a long time. Just as the disciples wondered what he might say, he finally spoke: "Are you willing to die for me?"

Even years later, the disciples of this generation of Xuanming Palace would never forget that day. They would forever remember how they raised their arms and, with all their strength, cried out in a frenzy, "We are willing to die for our young master!"

Of course, the opponent in the coming battle was nothing like what they had imagined.

Great Freedom Demonic Sect
Quiet Chamber

Xing Qiluo had just informed Chu Hanyu of the deaths of his master and senior brothers, sneaking cautious glances at Chu Hanyu’s face, only to see him calmly sipping fruit juice from a luminous cup, raising his brow. "Oh, so they died... Why do you look like that?"

The words of comfort Xing Qiluo had been about to utter died in his throat, replaced by sudden understanding.

He had thought Chu Hanyu’s mind had regressed to when he was fourteen or fifteen, but now it seemed his memories were more like those of a seven or eight-year-old! That unconcerned demeanor—this was exactly how he’d acted back when he was still estranged from his sect!

In the beginning, Chu Hanyu had only been selected as an ornamental disciple for the Great Freedom Demonic Sect because even as a child, his beauty was obvious to all. Chosen through layers of selection, he was taken on by the sect master—his future master—as a nominal disciple, intended to be married off to this generation’s Xuanming Palace heir: Xing Qiluo’s generation.

But trouble arose with the heirs of Xuanming Palace—Xing Qiluo, as a child, was completely withdrawn from the world, what would now be called an autistic child on Water Blue Star. So the Xuanming Palace master, Xing Qiluo’s father, planned to take a junior sister for Xing Qiluo to marry.

Yet, Chu Hanyu’s brilliance soon became undeniable—his insight, adaptability, and dazzling talent won over every peer and subordinate. Even though his innate aptitude was not exceptional, his charm and character swayed all. Eventually, his master and senior brothers began to value his wishes, truly accepting him as their successor.

Yet at the outset, Chu Hanyu was far from happy with what seemed an enviable fate—he did not get along well with his peers.

Who could have foreseen that, in time, every member of that generation of the Great Freedom Demonic Sect would perish in the face of a catastrophic tribulation, leaving Chu Hanyu alone to shoulder the burden?

A sect of such renown, revived and expanded in the hands of a former ornamental disciple! In fact, after the previous sect master’s demise, the Great Freedom Demonic Sect had splintered, falling not only from the ranks of the Sacred Lands, but nearly out of the first-tier altogether. It was Chu Hanyu and his first disciple who brought it back from the brink, restoring it to its former glory.

For many years after, this story was a favorite among the people. Before Chu Hanyu’s rise, no one believed an ornamental disciple could achieve such feats—but once he had, everyone pretended as though they had never doubted him. Yet as their power and prestige grew, even reaching the very summit of the Sky Azure Realm, such old tales ceased to be mentioned by anyone.