CHAPTER 766: FUTURE DECIDING THE PAST?

"Who... who are you?!"

For a moment, silence filled the room. Then he smirked faintly. "Don’t you already know my name?"

"...!"

Her lips trembled. She shook her head like she could refuse the thought.

But then he was in front of her. His hand clamped around her chin, tilting her head back, and before she could gasp he shoved his tongue into her sweet mouth. His tongue fucking hers like she wasn’t even allowed to breathe.

"Mmmf!" She shoved weakly at his chest, nails scraping, but his body didn’t even flinch.

When he pulled back, a thread of spit snapped between them. Her chest heaved.

And then her vision snapped. The room blurred, and she saw it, Icevale. The shadow in the sky. The crushing, god-like pressure that once blanketed the earth.

His lips brushed hers again as he whispered, voice dripping mockery.

"Ohhh... so my pretty sister had a little crush on that figure, huh? The one who covered the sky? Thought about him while lying alone at night?"

Her heart jumped into her throat. "!!"

He chuckled, squeezing her cheeks until her lips puckered like a doll’s. "Don’t worry. I won’t punish you for liking me. It’d be pointless."

"!!"

Her blood ran cold. She stared at him, wide-eyed, the words crawling through her like frozen.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought of it. The whole internet said the hints already. But believing it? That was absurd.

After sending Jiarong off to sleep alone, Wang Xiao found himself on the rooftop. Night wind tugged at his robe, the city lights crawling faint below.

But he wasn’t alone.

A figure stood beside him, white hair cascading like silk, her face sculpted in sadness, skin pale as moon. Her eyes, gems of blue, were the only things that seemed to glow in the dark. A loose white cloth wrapped around her body like it belonged there.

On her shoulder, a raven perched silently, its head tilted at the moon as if it, too, was brooding.

Wang Xiao’s gaze drifted lower, then back up. The lines across her skin caught his eye, ink-like swirls etched on her hands, legs, her shoulder.... Intricate... almost alive.

He smiled faintly. "Are those... tattoos?"

Velkhara’s lashes lowered. She shook her head, lips pressed together, hands folded in front of her as if trying to be smaller than she was.... Reserved tonight.

"...It’s my armor," she murmured at last, voice almost swallowed by the wind.

"Oh?" Wang Xiao leaned closer, curiosity lighting his eyes. "How does it work? Looks cool."

Without waiting for permission, he reached out and poked her bare shoulder where the ink shone.

Like liquid shadow hardening in an instant, the pale skin was consumed by an obsidian plate, crawling outwards in jagged veins until her shoulder gleamed with black armor.

Velkhara surprised, her whole body stiffening at his touch, eyes darting sideways.

"...Don’t," she whispered, It was unclear if she meant the armor or his finger.

Wang Xiao added. "Don’t? Haven’t you grown up? Let me see how much you’ve really changed..."

In a swift tug, he stripped the loose cloth from her body.

"!" She gasped, clutching her arms across her chest, face blazing. "You... you can’t just!"

"Can’t?" He leaned closer, the word mocking. "I told you I’d meet you again. And here we are. Or is it that time itself weighs heavier on you than me?"

Velkhara bit her lip. "Do you know... how long I waited?" Her eyes flicked up to his, wet and furious. "A hundred million years of silence, and you think you can just walk back, like this?"

"Mm," he hummed, tilting his head, eyes sliding down her pale skin. "Sounds like you counted every day. Must mean I’m unforgettable."

"I-I want an apology!" she hissed, giving his chest a weak shove.

But when his hand cupped her breast, thumb rolling over the peak until it hardened, her body trembled and leaned into him despite her words.

He grinned. "By the way... all these years, did you ever imagine surpassing me? In those dreams of yours... did you win?"

Velkhara shook her head, trembling. "I... I shouldn’t be weak."

"Shouldn’t be? Dare test it?" Wang Xiao’s voice dropped as his fingers twisted her flushed pink nipple until her body jolted. "Maybe if you try, you could defeat me now. Want to?"

Velkhara bit her lip hard, shaking her head. "...No. I don’t want to."

"Don’t want to? Or don’t dare?"

Her eyes flickered, shame and stubbornness battling. "...What difference does it make? In my mind, you’ve never been someone I could reach. Even when I lift my head, you’re always... above me."

Wang Xiao smiled. "So you’ve been looking up all this time?"

Her cheeks flared red. "Don’t twist my words."

He slid his palm down her waist, grabbing her ass, kneading it slowly until her breath caught. She tried to keep her voice steady. "You ruined my student... and now you’re harassing me... can’t you at least pretend to have a conscience?"

"Oh? You mean Ningning?"

Her eyes widened. "You! You knew?"

"Of course." His tone was lazy, mocking. "Did you think I was blind?"

Velkhara’s face darkened, tears burning at the corners of her eyes. "I thought... you didn’t know. That maybe you’d forgotten I even existed... But you do. You always knew. And you just watch, don’t you? Always taking whatever you want, whenever you want."

Wang Xiao leaned closer, "I didn’t know you were still waiting for me."

Her hand trembled as she pushed his chest weakly. "...Because I didn’t know better! Because... because you left me nothing else!"

Silence.

Her lip quivered before she whispered, "Do you even know... how many years I counted? Alone. No voices. No warmth. I told myself you were fighting battles too great to return... that you had a reason. That you weren’t just cruel."

He chuckled softly. "You built me up like some tragic hero? That’s on you, Vel."

She grit her teeth, voice breaking. "Cruel... no, worse. You’re timeless rot... sweet to the tongue, poison to the soul."

When his hand roamed higher on her thigh, she grabbed his wrist desperately. "Stop... Hold your hands still for once, just give me words, not chains... Why come back now? Why me? I should hate you."

"You should," he agreed easily, brushing his thumb over her trembling lips. "But you don’t, it’s on you."

Her chest heaved. "You! You’re unbearable..." She shoved him again, but this time only ended up leaning against him, her forehead against his chest. "... If you trick me again, I won’t forgive you..."

Not far away, another figure’s breath froze.

Ning Xue.

She had followed Velkhara’s trail, expecting indifference, that same cold woman who never cared for anyone or anything. Yet what she saw shattered that belief. Naked, flushed, leaning into a man like a trembling maiden, Velkhara, the one she had always thought an indifferent Nomad.

Her lips parted soundlessly. How... how do they even know each other?

And above, cloaked under moonlight...

Like her sneaky daughter, the mother was staring.

Aurora’s jaw tightened, eyes narrowing. "It’s not her fault. He got to her long ago. Went back, rewrote her, carved himself into her mind when she was still soft enough to bend. This isn’t love, it’s...It’s..."

Her words stuck in her throat. Did he rewrite the past, or had it always been written this way, just waiting for its artist to paint it? Were the ridges already carved, only needing his brush?

Velkhara had always lived distant from others, like she couldn’t stand the company of any living being. Always carrying that shadow of loss.

Aurora judged she must’ve liked Aegis once. His death scarred her.

But... could that really explain all of this?

The thought twisted. Could the future decide the past? Which came first? If a man grew stronger and wiser, could he go back and rebuild his own story? Or was it always meant to be rebuilt, like the past existed only to be rewritten?

Coincidence, or inevitability?

Aurora’s own memories had been sealed until he returned. For her, nothing had changed. But Velkhara... Velkhara had lived every damn day of the reality he created. And when the timelines merged, nothing broke, no cracks, just a perfect seam.

From her eyes, he had always been there. Always. She had kept waiting, isolating herself, because in her reality, the memory of him never left.

And so, was it really different from her original fate? Or had she always been his?

At this moment, everything looked like coincidence. But no one could truly grasp what was happening.