The boy looked at her. He did not look hurt. He did not look angry. He looked at her the way a parent looks at a child who does not yet understand.
He said: Mother. I am Wen De. I am also not Wen De. I am the same boy who buried you. I am the same boy who carried your head to the grave. I am the same boy who walked away. But I am also something else. Something that has been waiting since the beginning.
He paused.
The grandfather stepped closer slowly. The pain of his broken leg, he did not even feel it. His eyes were on the boy.
The boy looked at him. His eyes softened. Something passed between them. The blood.
He said: Long story short, Mother. I am Wen De. I am Pangu. But Pangu is not me.
He smiled. The smile was gentle. It was the smile of a child.
He said: Do you remember the story you told me since I was a baby? That one divine being that created the world? That Pangu? Yeah, He is inside me now. Not alive, but as a memory. Don't ask me how I remember all of this. I guess this is because of those Pangu powers. But please do not worry. I am still your son.
He turned to the grandfather.
He said: Grandfather.
The grandfather reached out his hand. His old hand. The hand that had held the knife. The hand that had held his wrist to his grandson's mouth.
He walked slowly. His leg was broken. He walked anyway. He reached the boy. He placed his hand on the boy's head.
He said: Wen De.
The boy looked up at him. His eyes were the eyes of a child. They were the eyes of something older than the world. They were both. They were his grandson's eyes.
He said: Grandfather. I am here.
The grandfather pulled him close. He held him. The boy was small. He was warm. He was real.
The grandfather said: I do not care what else you are. You are my grandson. You are Wen De. You are the boy who drank my blood. You are the boy who lived. That is all that matters.
The boy did not pull away. He let his grandfather hold him.
He said: I know, Grandfather. I know.
The mother watched. Her hand was still at her mouth. Her eyes were still wide. The chill in her tailbone had not gone away. It would never go away. She knew. Her son was there. Her son was not there. Something else was in him. Something that would never leave.
But her son was there too. She could see him. In the smile. In the eyes. In the way he let his grandfather hold him.
She stepped forward. She reached out her hand. She touched his face.
She said: Wen De.
He looked at her. His eyes were her son's eyes. They were something else's eyes.
He said: Mother. I am here.
She pulled him from his grandfather's arms. She held him. She held him the way she had held him when he was born. The way she had wanted to hold him when he walked away from the grave.
She said: I do not care. I do not care what you are. You are my son. You are my Wen De. That is all that matters.
He did not pull away. He let his mother hold him.
He said: I know, Mother. I know.
The father watched. He stepped forward. He put his arms around both of them. He held his son. He held his wife. He held his father. They were together.
He said nothing.
He pulled back slightly. Still holding his mother's hand. He looked at the three of them. His grandfather. His mother. His father.
He said: Grandfather, Mother, Father. Please do not worry. I will right all the wrongs that happened to our family. Every injustice. Everything that happened. Whoever and whatever they are — they will regret messing with our family.
He looked at each of them. His eyes were calm. The calm of something that had already seen the end.
He said: Now, please let me take that black flag. Let me handle this.
The flag appeared in his hand. He did not reach for it. It simply came. The dark and light that wove through it recognized him. It had been waiting.
He said: Grandfather, Mother, Father. I know what you three want to do. To take revenge. But if you do that, there is no turning back. You three will face something worse in hell.
He paused.
He said: That coward Jade Emperor. Every deity. Every god. I guess even after they ascended, they still think like mortals.
He smiled faintly.
He said: When Pangu created this world, this is not what he envisioned in his mind.
He looked around the void. The nothing that was not nothing. The place that had held him for nine hundred and twenty-six years.
He said: Now, rest easy here. This space is in my control. It has been since the beginning of creation. No one can enter. You three can sleep here. When everything is alright, I will wake you up. For now — just sleep.
The grandfather's eyes grew heavy. The mother's hand slackened. The father's arms loosened. They did not fight it. They were tired. They had been tired for nine hundred and twenty-six years.
They floated. Not falling. Not rising. Just still. Their bodies relaxed. Their eyes closed. Their breathing slowed. They slept.
Wen De raised his small hand. He flicked his fingers. Not hard. A gesture. Like brushing dust from a table.
Three coffins appeared. Dark wood. Smooth. No nails. No hinges. No markings. They floated in the void. Waiting.
He flicked again.
The grandfather's body floated into the first coffin. The mother's body into the second. The father's body into the third. The lids closed. No sound. No ceremony. Just the quiet of something done correctly.
Wen De looked at the three coffins.
He said nothing.
He turned. The black flag was in his hand. He looked at it. He looked at the void. He looked at the place where heaven would be, if heaven existed here.
He said: Now. Let me see who erased the fingerprints.
---
He looked at the black flag. Dark. Light. Both. Neither. The thing that the Jade Emperor had granted. The thing that had waited at the grave. The thing that had drunk their blood.
He did not know how to use it.
He flicked his hand.
The flag moved. Not falling. Not flying. It began to merge with him. At first, lightly. The dark and light touched his skin. They did not hurt. They did not warm. They simply touched.
Then stronger.
The flag pushed against him. It resisted. Not lightly now. Strongly. It did not want to merge. It was testing him.
Wen De's eyes narrowed.
He said: How dare you. A mere flag. You dare resist my will?
His voice was not loud. It did not need to be loud.
He said: MERGE WITH ME.
The flag stopped resisting.
It folded into him. Not into his skin. Into his soul. The dark and light poured through his chest. Through the place where Pangu's heart had merged. Through the place where Pangu's brain had awakened.
Then something happened. Something unthinkable.
His soul and his body separated.
Not painfully. Not violently. Cleanly. Like a knife through water. Like a breath leaving the lungs. One moment he was one. The next moment he was two.
The body stood on one side. The soul stood on the other. They looked at each other.
The body was a child. Five years old. Thin. The hands that had buried his parents. The feet that had walked away from the grave.
The soul was not a child. It was him. But older. The age he would have been. The age he should have been. A man. Thirty. Forty. The body did not know. The soul was simply... grown.
The body looked at the soul. He chuckled lightly.
He said: Haha. So I am that handsome when I grow up.
The soul did not laugh. The soul was still. Waiting.
The body raised his small hand. He pointed one finger at the soul.
He said: Good.
He transferred everything.
Not just memories. Everything. Every lesson from Pangu's brain. Every pulse from Pangu's heart. Every piece of the primordial soul that had merged with him in the clearing. He split a portion of it. Cleanly. Like the separation of body and soul. Like a gift given without regret.
The soul convulsed. Its body shook. Its eyes opened wide. Then closed. Then opened again. The knowledge poured in. The power poured in. The memory of creation itself poured into the soul that had been empty a moment before.
Then the soul stopped convulsing.
It smiled. Lightly. Thinly. The smile of something that now knew what it was.
The soul said: So, main body. What should we do?
The body did not answer immediately. He closed his eyes. He was calculating. Not with a mortal mind. With Pangu's mind. With the brain that had split the sky.
After a moment, he opened his eyes.
He said: I am going to send you to the future. Exactly nine hundred and twenty-six years from now.
The soul waited.
The body said: There is a family of two. A mother and her son. You must occupy his body. Without any interference. Do not suggest anything to him. Do not do anything. Just watch. As a bystander.
He paused.
He said: The moment something happens that will rewrite history — that will be the time you help him.
He smiled.
He said: And the coincidence is — his name is Wen De. Like mine. Like us. And he is Yanluo Wang's reincarnation.
The soul's eyes widened. Its mouth opened. For a moment, it could not speak.
Then it yelled: Main body, are you crazy? That is the King of Hell. What are you going to do? Asking me to inhabit Yanluo Wang's body?
The body did not raise his voice. He said softly: Second soul. We have to do what we have to do. Do you forget the way our grandfather died? The way our parents died? Are you not going to do anything?
The soul was silent.
The body waited.
END OF CHAPTER SIX