In the world of memory, time went by.

Yue Yang watched the little girl slowly grow up. Her little sister, too, went from a baby who snored away all day to a lively, never-still little thing. The younger sister adored the older one and always followed close on her heels, her little bare feet running along behind, scattering laughter the whole way… And yet, right to the very end, their beautiful, loving mother never did bring them a little brother.

On a night when brilliant meteor showers kept streaking across the dark sky, that ever-smiling mother fell, forever.

“Why?” Unlike her little sister, who cried and sniffled and wanted her mother, she was strong. She only asked, uncomprehending, the little auntie who had brought back the terrible news: “Why? That wasn’t our task at all. It wasn’t our duty to bear. Why did Mother have to take it on all by herself? Didn’t Mother say she’d give us a little brother? She said that once we had a brother, he could restore the Sky Stairway and our home. Why did she break her word? Without a brother, how will we ever restore the Sky Stairway? How could she just leave us like that and slip away all by herself? Why? Why would she do that? I don’t understand. I don’t understand!”

“…” The little auntie with the scallion-pale fingers — the teacher who could normally answer any question she had — did not answer. She only sighed softly.

Then, on another night when meteors streaked across the long sky, the little auntie who had loved them so dearly went away too, and never came back.

The aunt who brought back that news slowly handed the little auntie’s keepsake — the jade spirit ring that had always been worn on those long, slender, scallion-pale fingers — to the girl, who stood there shaking all over. Then the aunt reached out, gently stroked the top of her head, and left without a sound.

She stood beneath the Tree of Life with the jade spirit ring clenched tight in her palm, biting hard on her lower lip. She was extraordinarily strong; she did not make a single sound of crying.

The blood from her bitten lip fell drop by drop onto the pure white front of her dress, red flowers brighter than fire.

Why?

She could never understand it… Why did it have to be like this?

A duty and a war that had never been ours — why throw ourselves into the fight without a thought for ourselves? For outsiders who once betrayed us or who never cared about us at all, for strangers we never knew who don’t even know the truth of what happened — why bleed like that, why give up our lives without a second thought? Why?

A demon escaped from its seal, and many people, for the sake of profit, didn’t drive it out but worshipped it as a lord and showered it with honors.

The ambitious even helped the tiger to its prey.

Why save people like that? Why fight at any cost? Why sacrifice yourself and use your own life to seal the demon? The ones who followed the demon into ruin were all bad people, all petty opportunists. Why care about fallen warriors and ant-lives like that?

To find an answer, she took her little sister to a place of slumber and sought out a sleeper of legend — one who had fallen into eternal sleep in order to guard the world — to settle her doubts.

“I already know why you have come.” The Sleeper’s voice was as gentle as a mother’s. “Everyone has a different answer. Perhaps my answer is not the one you are hoping for.”

“We just want to know why Mother left us!” The young sister was still grieving over the way their mother had quietly gone, all those years ago.

“The demon escaped from its ancient seal. If no one had sealed him again, then not only the strangers you call outsiders, but our own people too, would have been destroyed in the days to come. At such a time, someone had to stand up,” the Sleeper explained.

“Then why did it have to be Mother? The Sky Tower has so many powers — why was it only our mother who went to seal it? Why not someone else? Some of the powers didn’t fight the demon at all. They worked with it, and they even kicked us while we were down and attacked us. Why should we save people like that? Wouldn’t it be better to let them fall along with the demon?” Just thinking of what had happened back then filled the younger sister with grief and anger.

“That is true. But our sacrifice has nothing to do with those who fell. What matters most in what we do is that we protect our home, protect our people and our families. Your mother, for instance — when she stood up to do this and made such a sacrifice, it was not that she did not love you. On the contrary, your mother loved you too much. She was afraid that one day your power might lead you down a path like the demon’s, and so she decided to set an example for you, so that in the years to come you would not fall into darkness. That was her true, painstaking intention! When you are grown, and one day have children of your own, you will understand what such a sacrifice means, all of it.” The Sleeper’s words still could not fully soothe the stubborn younger sister. But to her ears, they carried a different kind of understanding.

“And Little Auntie — was it the same for her?” she asked softly. If that was so, why hadn’t Little Auntie explained it clearly to her back then?

“She was your first teacher, both of you. You do not understand yet, but one day you surely will: the eternity of a life lies not in its length but in its comprehension. Birth is not the same as beginning, and death is not the same as ending. Even though they have fallen, their will and their inheritance remain, and you have grown up under their protection all along, only in another form. What your first teacher gave you last of all was an enlightenment that leaves fear and pain behind — an awakening that can run through the whole world, all the way to eternity. If one day you can understand that, then you will truly have grown up.” The Sleeper said some things that left her puzzled at the time.

“I don’t understand.” She could neither make sense of it nor agree with it.

“Whatever you say, Mother and Little Auntie and everyone else are dead. They’re all gone and they’re never coming back. Mother abandoned us and went away by herself. She said she’d stay with us our whole lives, but she didn’t do it at all. Mother lied to us!” The younger sister began to cry, heartbroken and hurt.

“She wanted to stay with you too. But even gods have a day when they fall, let alone…” The Sleeper sighed softly.

“Is it because… she wasn’t strong enough?” A sudden flash of insight struck her, like a revelation poured straight into her head.

“Yes, and no,” the Sleeper answered, leaving it open.

“Without a little brother, what are we supposed to do?” She raised another worry.

“When the great tree that sheltered you from wind and rain falls, the sprouts on the ground grow fast in the sunlight. One day, a sprout will grow into another towering tree — perhaps taller, perhaps greater. Who can say! As for a little brother — even if there is none now, one day there will be. Your Bright Moon line has not given up, and our Still Night line will give up even less. And we are not the only ones working for it — the Hundred Flowers and Butterfly lines have been working toward it for thousands of years too! The Sky Stairway is the foundation of the Sky Tower, the bridge and the stairway to higher worlds. It cannot stay in decline forever…” The Sleeper did not know when the revival would come either, but believed the day would come, as long as they kept working toward it.

“What should we do?” she asked at last.

“Do what you want to do. Your lives are entirely in your own hands. Whether they are brilliant, whether they are happy, whether they are complete — all of it is governed by your own wisdom and will. Do not think about others. Do what you most want to do in your hearts, what you most love to do… only, always remember in your hearts your mother, and the many elders who watched over you — the sacrifices they made for you, and the enlightenment they gave you.” The Sleeper did not point out a road for her, but in her heart, she had made her decision.

Her little sister, too, had made her own decision in her heart.

Halfway home, the younger sister, who had always been so good and obedient, suddenly said goodbye, to her older sister’s utter astonishment.

The younger sister wanted to leave. She said she had long since stopped liking this kind of life, that she longed for freedom. Even if everything her older sister gave her was the best there was, and every cultivation method she arranged was the most suitable for improvement, she did not like any of it at all…

Since the Sleeper had said that everyone could do what they most wanted and most loved to do, and follow their own hearts, then the days ahead would be days of flying free, on her own.

The younger sister was very afraid of her older sister. Neither her strength nor her mind — nor the habits and temperament she had formed since she was small — were enough to let her stand up to her older sister, who had been born with an innate authority that surpassed even their mother’s and that of their teacher, the little auntie… Even so, for the first time in her life, the younger sister bravely said it out loud.

She said it weakly, her little head hanging low, but the will behind her words was absolutely firm.

The younger sister had a mind of her own too. She had only been too cowed by her older sister ever to show it.

“Really? So in the end, you’re leaving too?” She was very hurt, because she believed she had looked after her sister very well. And yet all her wholehearted care had not won her sister’s approval; her sister even saw it as a restraint, a bond that kept her from being free. This farewell was a heavy blow to her as she was then. At the very least, it destroyed the self-confidence she had worked so hard to build since her mother and her little auntie had gone.

“I’m sorry…” The younger sister burst into tears and suddenly screamed, out of control. “The person I hate most is you! Even though you’ve given me the best things, the best treasures, I know that no matter how much I get, no matter how good it is, I’ll never be as good as you! I hate it! Why don’t I have your talent? Why can’t I ever measure up to you no matter how hard I try? I don’t need pity, and I don’t need looking after either. You’ve given me the best of everything, but I’m not the least bit grateful to you! Boohoo… I hate Mother and Little Auntie most too… The way they looked at me was never the way they looked at you. Why? Why didn’t they trust me? I worked hard too! Why worry about me? I don’t need them to worry about me! I can do just fine! I can always be good! I’d never fall into the demon’s path! Why were they always so frightened? Even if they never said it, I knew — they were all afraid of me! Why did they have to plan my whole life for me? I’m — I’m not everyone’s game piece! I can prove it… All on my own, I can do really, really well!”

Hearing what her sister had kept deep in her heart shook her to the core.

She had never imagined her sister thought this way, and never imagined she had been under that kind of pressure.

Maybe freedom is what matters most… If that’s so, then let her go the way her heart wants. Everyone has a life of their own. Let my sister’s life be decided by her own will!

As her little sister wailed, the strong older sister drew a deep breath and regained her usual reason and calm.

She turned and walked away.

For the first time, she left her little sister behind, out in the world she did not trust to keep her safe.

Her lonely figure looked especially alone beneath the bright moon, but she was strong, and her steps stayed steady. She gently touched the jade spirit ring and the little white jade pendant that hung together on a chain around her neck. They were the keepsakes of her little auntie and her mother. As long as she carried them with her, she felt endless strength, as if her little auntie and her mother were right beside her, watching over her.

“Now, even if I’m left all alone — without my sister, and without a brother — I can still do it!”

She gently clenched her fist and raised her face to the clear night sky.

Beneath her long lashes, her Divine Sight shone, brighter by a thousand times than the brightest star in the sky. “Mother, Little Auntie — I won’t let you down. Even without a brother, I’ll become the greatest person in the world. I can still do it better than anyone!”

(End of Chapter 1274)