CHAPTER 63: A DREAM OF KE'S BUTTERFLY, OR THE BUTTERFLY DREAM OF NANKE?

One had a withered face, while the other was still in the prime of his life.

Only then did Lu Chen truly grasp the vast gulf between the lifespan of ordinary humans and cultivators.

He began a desperate search for anything that could extend Nantian Wan'er's life, but nothing worked.

As Nantian Wan'er neared death, Lu Chen held her tightly in his arms. He neither cried nor laughed. Instead, he simply held on to her with all his strength.

He didn't understand what was happening to him. His heart ached, yet no tears would come. It even felt as if all of this had nothing to do with him.

"Lu-gege... do you think we'll still get to see the next chapter of the story?"

Without thinking, he replied, "We will. He's almost ready to write it."

Even as he said it, he couldn't bring himself to believe it.

Nantian Wan'er lay quietly in his arms, with her eyes slowly closing. Her voice had grown weak and frail. "Lu-gege... have you ever heard of A Dream of Nanke, Zhuangzi's Butterfly Dream, or Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai?"[1]

"Of course. Those are the storyteller's most beloved tales. You always loved listening to them. Just rest for now. Once you're feeling better, we'll go hear them again."

Lu Chen gently covered Nantian Wan'er with a blanket, while his mind drifted through memories of his life.

He had only done three things in all these years: farmed the land with his grandfather, cultivated alongside Little Pup, and waited with Nantian Wan'er for the next chapter of the story.

Over a century of cultivation had given Lu Chen deep insight and a calm heart. Yet whenever he looked back on the past, there was nothing else—no stray memories, no scattered fragments, just those three things.

Nantian Wan'er's voice pulled Lu Chen out of his thoughts. "Lu-gege... Lu-gege, are you listening?"

"Yes. Wan'er, I'm listening."

"Lu-gege, I once heard the storyteller say that those old tales inspired our story. Do you think... maybe we've always been characters inside the story?"

Her words struck something deep inside him.

A tremor passed through Lu Chen's heart. His memories stirred as he recalled how, in his youth, he had been obsessed with reading.

Back then, the story would update every day. When he finally woke from that so-called dream, where he had believed himself the protagonist of the script, the story had come to an indefinite halt.

Lu Chen forced himself to recall the past hundred years of his life. Aside from cultivation, it felt like he had experienced nothing at all. The deeper he dug, the more he realized that his memories were empty, and that everything from the past was blurred and vague.

Then, a girl's voice echoed in his mind. "Lu-gege... Lu-gege... hold on. All of this is just a trial, Lu-gege."

The voice kept calling him, then began to cry softly.

It was a voice he knew well, one that gave him warmth. "That voice... is it Wan'er? Nantian Wan'er, the one who would live and die with me?"

He held onto that voice and tried to remember. He recalled the girl who had endured hardships with him and shared the same cultivation talent—Nantian Wan'er.

Bit by bit, the sealed memories in his mind grew clearer. At that moment, Lu Chen realized that this was a trial, and that those buried memories... were his true life.

Just then, Little Pup sensed the change in Lu Chen. A faint smile curled at the corners of his mouth. "You woke up fast, but it's not time yet. The final step is just beginning."

Purple light flashed through Little Pup's eyes, and a surge of spirit qi shot straight into Lu Chen's eyes, forcibly suppressing the flow of qi within his body.

With that done, Little Pup soared away and headed toward the cliff above.

Lu Chen's spirit qi was suppressed again. The voice in his mind vanished. His thoughts grew dull, and his mind slipped into a daze.

"Cough, cough."

Nantian Wan'er suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood, and her gaze grew even more unfocused. "Lu-gege... I can't hold on any longer. From now on... you might have to wait alone."

Lu Chen quickly lowered his head and looked at Nantian Wan'er in his arms. He was already wary of the illusion and began carefully observing her expression and movements.

At that moment, his mind became a mess.

Gradually, the elderly Nantian Wan'er in front of him began to merge with the girl in his memories, the one who had called to him just now. Their expressions, their movements... everything began to align.

And then, the aged Nantian Wan'er let out her final breath. Her eyes closed for the last time.

Perhaps it was for her passing, or maybe it was for himself, a single tear slid from the corner of Lu Chen's eye.

At that moment, Little Pup could no longer suppress the spirit qi within his body.

The fabricated memories of a hundred years began to shatter. All the memories of Lu Chen's true past came back to him, and his mind slipped into a trance.

He looked down at the lifeless figure in his arms, not as the withered, elderly woman, but the young Nantian Wan'er, the one who had once stood with him through life and death.

And then, he broke.

He clutched her corpse tightly and let out a heart-wrenching cry, sobbing like a madman. "Wan'er, wake up! None of it is real! It's not real!"

He could no longer tell what was a dream and what was real.

Lu Chen was uncertain, but deep down, he instinctively hoped that all of this was nothing more than a dream, and just a trial.

It was then he realized... he couldn't bear to lose Nantian Wan'er. He couldn't live without the girl who always called him "Lu-gege."

Compared to the hundred years of empty memories, he much preferred those six months, filled with hardship and struggle. At least during that time, he could remember every single day.

But now he could no longer distinguish one from the other. His memories had blurred together, tangled into a chaotic mess. There was no evidence to tell him what was real and what was not.

And so, the Nantian Wan'er who had accompanied Lu Chen for a hundred years... passed away.

The storyteller of this generation also died around that time. No one knew how the tale of The Butterfly Dream of Nanke would truly end.

Lu Chen buried Nantian Wan'er and the storyteller. Along with them, he buried his hollow life. With his fragmented memories as his only companion, he wandered the land in search of the answer to who he truly was.

***

At the entrance to the trial.

Watching Lu Chen fall into the endless void, Nantian Wan'er could no longer hold back. She charged straight into the teleportation formation.

The Flame Demon didn't stop her. He simply watched as Nantian Wan'er left. This trial was no longer the one they had prepared.

He let out a sigh as he looked at the trial's mirror projection. He could sense the presence of high-level laws within it.

To them, only half an hour had passed in the real world, but inside, Lu Chen had truly lived an entire lifetime.

Water Lotus and Mountain God appeared behind Flame Demon and gazed at the mirror.

"Let's hope they make it through."

"To realize he's in an illusion purely by relying on his strength. That alone proves he's worthy of becoming the next Beast King."

Flame Demon sighed. "Let's hope so. Everything in there feels too real. If we go in, even with our strength, we might not realize it's an illusion."

***

Back in the trial, countless years had passed.

Lu Chen's mind had fallen into complete disarray. He could no longer distinguish reality from illusion. He wandered across the continent without aim, clothed in rags, his hair unkempt. Whenever he met someone, he would ask the same question, "How did The Butterfly Dream of Nanke end?"

Every time, people would drive him away. Still, Lu Chen never gave up. He continued wandering day after day, and place after place, asking the same question.

Nantian Wan'er had successfully entered the trial and began a relentless search for Lu Chen.

She searched through Jianghai, the Nantian Region, the Northern Mountain Sea, and even Deer Ridge. A hundred years passed, yet she found no trace of Lu Chen. It was as if he had vanished from the world.

Eventually, Nantian Wan'er became the new storyteller.

She turned the tale of Lu Chen's trial, and how he lost himself within it, into the latest chapter of The Butterfly Dream of Nanke.

Wherever she went, she would tell the story.

More and more people heard of it. Some traveled great distances just to listen to her continue the story. Slowly, familiar faces began to gather, and the tale of Lu Chen and Nantian Wan'er spread far and wide across the land.

She eventually returned to Greenheaven Village.

There, beneath the old parasol tree, she saw an elderly man, and in that instant, her heart trembled. He was the person she had searched for over a hundred years.

The old man, tending the earth beneath the tree, slowly lifted his head. It was Lu Chen—the Lu Chen who had been missing for more than a hundred years.

After so long without cultivating, his spirit qi had withered to almost nothing. It looked as if he could disappear at any moment.

Nantian Wan'er immediately summoned her spirit qi and rushed toward him, throwing herself into his arms.

"Lu-gege! Wake up! Please wake up!"

Lu Chen's heart had long gone numb. He remained dazed even after seeing Nantian Wan'er.

Hearing her cry out to him again and again, he slowly lowered his head. Their eyes met. His body began to tremble, and tears formed in the corners of his eyes.

Seeing how unresponsive he remained, tears streamed down her face. "Lu-gege, what's wrong? It's me, Wan'er. This is all part of the trial! You have to wake up!"

Scene after scene of a fragile girl struggling through the cultivation world, searching endlessly for him, poured into Lu Chen's mind. Each carried all the grievances and unwillingness buried in her heart.

Suddenly, his long-buried memories came flooding back.

His body trembled violently. His hands moved on their own, and he pulled Nantian Wan'er tightly into his arms.

He slowly reached out his wrinkled hand and wiped away her tears. "Wan'er... no... Wan'er is already gone. Little Pup's gone too, and Grandpa... they're all gone."

He gently pushed her away. "They're all dead. I'm the only one left. And now... it's my turn."

Nantian Wan'er collapsed to the ground and began crying helplessly, "Lu-gege, it's all just a trial. Please... think carefully. None of it's real!"

Her words sparked a faint glimmer of light within the dark fog clouding Lu Chen's mind. "Not real?"

Memories of the past began to resurface, but they remained hazy. Lu Chen clutched at his hair, yanking wildly, then screamed out loud, "No... you're lying again! It's all fake! These stories ruined my life! None of it's real! There's no story! There never was!"

1. Zhuangzi's Butterfly Dream is a story written around the 4th century BCE. It comes from the Daoist classic Zhuangzi. In the story, Zhuangzi dreams he is a carefree butterfly, but when he wakes, he questions whether he is Zhuangzi who dreamed of being a butterfly, or a butterfly now dreaming he is Zhuangzi. The story expresses the uncertainty between illusion and reality, and explores the fluid nature of identity. Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai is a traditional Chinese love story passed down for centuries, often compared to Romeo and Juliet. In the story, Zhu Yingtai disguises herself as a man to study and befriends Liang Shanbo. They grow close, but when her identity is revealed, he finds out Zhu has already been promised to another. Heartbroken, Liang dies. At his funeral, Zhu throws herself into his grave, and the two are transformed into butterflies. The story expresses the theme of love transcending social constraints, life, and death. ☜