CHAPTER 13
The River of Time Within
The light swallowed Zheng Wen Te whole.
For a moment, he could not breathe.
He could not hear.
He could not feel the cold floor beneath his feet.
Only pressure—
like the heavens themselves pressing down on his skull.
Then—
everything shattered.
The Trial Chamber vanished.
The elders vanished.
The sect vanished.
Zheng Wen Te was falling.
Not through air.
Through memory.
Through time.
A roaring sound surrounded him, like an endless river.
And he realized—
this was not metaphor.
This was real.
The River of Time.
His soul was being dragged into it.
He tried to scream, but no sound came.
Then…
he saw it.
A world.
Not Earth.
The sky was violet, filled with twin moons.
Mountains floated above oceans like islands of jade.
Immortal palaces hung in the heavens, connected by bridges of light.
Cultivators flew on swords, leaving trails of fire.
It was beautiful.
Mythic.
Unreachable.
And yet…
it felt familiar.
Zheng Wen Te's heart trembled.
"This is…"
The ancient elder's voice echoed, distant but present.
"Your karma."
The vision shifted.
Zheng Wen Te was no longer floating.
He was standing.
In a courtyard of white stone.
He looked down—
his hands were different.
Older.
Stronger.
Calloused from battle.
A sword hung at his waist.
His robes were bloodstained.
In front of him stood a woman.
Her hair was long as night.
Her eyes were bright, furious, wet with unshed tears.
"Why?" she demanded.
Her voice shook.
"Why do you always leave?"
Zheng Wen Te froze.
His mouth opened.
But the words that came were not his own—
they belonged to the man he had been.
"I have no choice."
The woman laughed bitterly.
"No choice?"
"You chose cultivation over me."
"You chose immortality over us."
Her hands trembled.
"I waited for you at the Heart Pavilion for three hundred years."
Three hundred…
Zheng Wen Te's soul shook.
This was not a normal life.
This was an immortal era.
The woman stepped closer, tears finally falling.
"I would have followed you to hell."
"But you never even looked back."
The man's voice—his past self—was cold.
"Feelings are chains."
"I will sever them."
The woman's face broke.
"…Then sever me too."
The vision blurred violently.
The River of Time roared louder.
Zheng Wen Te stumbled.
"No…"
He whispered.
"That wasn't me."
But deep down…
he knew.
It was.
The elder's voice returned, sharper.
"This was your sin."
"You abandoned the matter of the heart."
"You left karma unfinished."
The scene changed again.
A battlefield.
Immortals clashing like gods.
Lightning splitting the heavens.
The woman was there—
wounded.
Bleeding.
Still searching.
Still waiting.
She screamed his name—
but he was already flying away.
Leaving.
Always leaving.
Then—
darkness.
A final glimpse:
The woman kneeling alone beneath a dead tree.
Her voice hollow.
"If Heaven gives me another life…"
"I will never love again."
The vision cracked.
Zheng Wen Te's soul convulsed.
"No!"
His scream finally tore out.
The River of Time collapsed.
Reality slammed back.
He fell to his knees in the Trial Chamber, gasping like a drowning man.
The elders stared down at him.
Disciple Liu looked shaken, sweat on his brow.
The frost-haired elder whispered:
"…So it is true."
The ancient elder's gaze was heavy.
"Zheng Wen Te."
"You were not chosen randomly."
"You are carrying an ancient heartbreak across worlds."
Zheng Wen Te's eyes burned.
His voice was broken.
"…That's why…"
"That's why my wife left."
"That's why my children…"
The elder nodded.
"Karma repeats."
"Until resolved."
Zheng Wen Te clenched his fists.
His whole body trembled.
"…Then what must I do?"
The ancient elder's voice was quiet.
Almost merciful.
"You must return to that world."
"And finish what you abandoned."
The orb in Zheng Wen Te's palm pulsed softly.
Like a path opening.
Like fate waiting.