After Becoming the Hero’s Ex-fiancée

The Transient Realm (3.2)

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“Alright, look again.”

Zheng Wan opened her eyes wide and found, to her surprise, that the thick inky darkness had disappeared.
The entire tunnel was flooded with light, and it was bright and visible.

She could see Cui Wang’s snow-white robes, and the flash of a smile on the corners of his lips.

“Mister Cui, are you smiling?”

Zheng Wan looked up at him ‘dazedly’, “You look really good when you smile.”

Cui Wang said with a stern face:

“You saw wrong.”

“But——”

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“Let’s go.”

With a swoosh of his sleeves, Cui Wang strode out.
Zheng Wan followed with a smile; if her confidence was only one point before, it had increased to three points——

No, four points, or five points.

Not long after, Cui Wang stopped walking.

“We’re here.”

Zheng Wan also stopped and looked ahead.
They had reached the end of what had felt like a never-ending tunnel.
It looked rather like… the mouth of a cave?

Large swaths of light came through the gaping hole, and she squinted from the piercing brightness.

She followed Cui Wang out of the cave; it felt like penetrating a film of water.
On the other side, she stood still, and a gasp of wonder escaped from her.

A thousand mountains, and no sign of a bird in flight;

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Ten thousand paths, and no trace of a human footprint in sight.1

The land beneath their feet seemed to be a mountain.
Just a dozen steps ahead was a cliff, and beyond the cliff was a chasm.
Opposite to that, there were strange peaks and peculiar rocks.
Clouds and mists blotted out the sky and blocked out the sun.
Ignoring the desolation, it was like being in a celestial realm.

Zheng Wan had never seen such a scene before—after all, she had lived all her life in the bustling capital.
Now, with her feet in the clouds and facing strange peaks, she couldn’t help but take a deep breath.
If she didn’t come here, she would have never known that vast mountains and beautiful rivers could fuel her determination like this——

“Ahh!”

She was about to move closer to have a better look, when unexpectedly, her forehead was struck with pain.
Zheng Wan clutched her head, turned and said in a somewhat annoyed and reproachful tone, “Mister Cui!”

Cui Wang glanced at her and motioned to her to look at her feet.

When Zheng Wan looked, she broke out in a cold sweat.

At some point, she had let go of the life-saving sleeve and walked straight to the edge of the cliff.
If she had taken another step forward, she would have fallen into the abyss and been lost to the world.

“Something feels off.”

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The white silk from Cui Wang’s sleeve suddenly flew out and wrapped around Zheng Wan’s waist—he held the other end firmly in his hand.
“Calm your mind and pay attention.
If you fall off the cliff again, I won’t save you.”

Zheng Wan looked at his expression and suddenly understood that Cui Wang wasn’t lying.
If necessary, he would abandon her.

She nodded obediently.

“Alright.”

Just then, a wind suddenly rose from the edge of the cliff.
Before Zheng Wan could react, a faceless monster appeared right in front of her.
It had a head of extremely beautiful hair that danced in the wind, and its features were painted on with a brush.

The corners of its lips were curved into a grin, utterly horrifying.

There was nothing like this in this part of the book! In the dream, Cui Wang had clearly killed everything in his path…

As Zheng Wan’s mind raced, she suddenly found herself behind Cui Wang.

“What an affectionate pair of shameless lovebirds!”

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The faceless monster’s voice was harsh and shrill.
Zheng Wan found it familiar, but at that moment, she couldn’t recall where she had heard it.

“Unfortunately, my ‘Flying Bird Crossing’ has a rule—One person can cross, but two people…… will die! Hehehehehehehehe” A penetrating laugh came out of its mouth as it gloated.
“So…… you two, who is going to cross?

“The person who stays behind will have to be my partner forever and ever~”

Another burst of spine-chilling laughter; Zheng Wan finally remembered that the smoke that arose from the Puppet Mirror had laughed in exactly the same manner.

“Noisy.”

“Close your eyes.”.

Footnotes:

1 These are the first two lines of a poem, “江雪” (Jiangxue) by a Tang Dynasty writer, politician, and poet, Liu Zhongyuan.
It is one of his most famous poems, and served as an inspiration for many paintings.
These first two lines describe the emptiness and solitude of a cold winter scene.
More about the poem and the poet can be read here: https://inf.news/en/culture/7f9d9b57a31dab4b91d69b54b561089d.html