"I... want to go to Mount Hua."
Hearing these words, Nathan Young suddenly felt something indescribable. The Clara Heart before him seemed like a different person—her previous arrogance and willfulness had vanished completely.
Could it be because of her injuries?
"You want to go to Mount Hua?"
Clara did not answer; she simply closed her eyes.
"Why do you want to go to Mount Hua? That place... belongs to Second Brother. Even with my South Heaven Gate token, it's not somewhere you can just walk into. It's harder to enter than Guanjian Pass."
Clara still did not respond, her eyes tightly shut as if she were asleep.
Nathan swallowed nervously and continued, "There's really nothing worth going to Mount Hua for. It's hard to get in, and there's nothing inside. Are you sure—"
Nathan abruptly stopped speaking, because he saw tears glimmering at the corner of Clara's eyes.
For a moment, he was stunned, his mouth slightly open, unsure what to say.
Suddenly, the atmosphere in the entire room became unbearably heavy.
After hesitating for a while, he could only say in a low voice, "You should rest. If you want to go to Mount Hua, you need to heal first. I'll leave you alone now."
With that, he nodded quietly and turned to leave.
Only after stepping outside and closing the door did he finally let out a slow breath and wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.
For some reason, he felt that the Clara Heart before him was no longer the same Clara Heart as before.
Peering through the cracks in the window lattice, he saw Clara still lying motionless, as if truly asleep. Tears slid down from the corners of her eyes, dripping onto the pillow.
"What... what's going on?" Nathan furrowed his brows, hesitating for a long time, unsure what to do. He could only mutter to himself, "Maybe I should ask Master Taiyi."
In the courtyard, Nathan turned and hurried toward the main hall of Goldlight Cave.
Above the clouds, two old men still watched in silence.
Lord Lao lifted his head, eyes half-closed, and after a while sighed helplessly, "One heart-knot is finally untied, but the troubles are far from over."
"She wants to go to Mount Hua. Tell me... why do you think she wants to go there?"
"Most likely to see Anna Yang. We old men shouldn't show ourselves right now. When she wants to see us, she'll come back on her own."
"What does she want to see Anna Yang for?"
Lord Lao turned to glance at Master Sage Subhuti, stroking his beard. "It's hard to say. When a person suddenly inherits the memories of three lifetimes, with three entirely different personalities, who knows what changes might occur? It's unprecedented."
"Even you can't say for sure?"
"If the Heavenly Dao Stone were still intact, maybe we could measure it. But now, I doubt anyone can predict what will happen."
Master Sage Subhuti gazed down at the courtyard, sighing softly. "She already knows who she is. Even if it's not love, whether that monkey is a god or a demon now depends entirely on her."
"Heh heh, so, do you want him to be a god or a demon?" Lord Lao looked at Master Sage Subhuti with deep meaning. "I knew you didn't resurrect her just to repay your debt. You're a sly old fox."
Master Sage Subhuti gave Lord Lao a faint glance, stroking his beard. "That monkey is too wild—undying and uncontainable. Nothing in this world can hold him. Even the Buddha's seals are just a matter of time. The Heavenly Dao is limitless. Six hundred and fifty years ago, if that monkey had figured it out under Five Elements Mountain, not even the Right Dharma Tathagata, not even Shakyamuni himself, could have kept him trapped. What worries me is, if Tripitaka cannot redeem him, then this knife will need a sheath. Otherwise, it will bring disaster upon the world. Clara is the perfect sheath for this knife."
Upon hearing this, Lord Lao suddenly chuckled, nodding quietly, his laughter full of helplessness.
After a while, Lord Lao sighed, "Why was it I who cultivated non-action, and not you? No matter how I look at it, you seem more suited to it than I am."
With that, Lord Lao turned to look at Master Sage Subhuti.
Master Sage Subhuti said nothing, staring silently at the courtyard below, lost in thought—or perhaps simply unwilling to respond to Lord Lao's remark.
"Clara is suited to be the sheath... but isn't Anna Yang right there, ready-made?"
Master Sage Subhuti slowly shook his head. "Anna Yang is calculating, ambitious, and skilled. Someone like her can't be a sheath. Put them together, and it might even make things worse."
"Heh heh, if that's the case, the only real sheath was Belle, not the Clara of today. The beast you freed from its cage can't be locked up again—it's too late now." Lord Lao stroked his beard and said slowly, "I don't know what Clara will become, but I can tell you this: she absolutely won't follow your script. The fact that her first choice is to find Anna Yang, not the monkey, proves it. Ha ha ha. With things so chaotic, I'll just return to Tusita Palace and live as a carefree immortal."
With that, Lord Lao swept his sleeve and departed. In an instant, he vanished into the sky, leaving Master Sage Subhuti still gazing quietly down at the courtyard, his brows tightly furrowed.
Days passed—three days in the blink of an eye.
During those three days, Nathan Young brought meals and elixirs, but Clara didn't touch them. She only used her own medicines to heal and refused to speak to Nathan or contact her sect, sitting in silence on her bed.
Her face grew more and more haggard.
During this time, Master Taiyi also came to check on her once. His diagnosis was that her body had already recovered, but with such prolonged convalescence, she might be left with lingering ailments.
Clara didn't respond to this at all. No matter what Nathan said, from start to finish, she didn't even glance at Master Taiyi.
It was as if she had closed her eyes and ears, completely immersed in her own world, untouched by anything outside.
On the morning of the fourth day, Nathan delivered breakfast as usual. Though he knew Clara wouldn't eat, he felt it was his duty. If anything happened later, at least he could say he had done his part.
Irrelevant system message about chapter ending, skip translation.
But as soon as he opened the door, his mind went blank and he nearly fainted from shock. The tray in his hands crashed to the floor, scattering food everywhere.
He saw Clara had shattered a bowl and was pressing the broken porcelain against her wrist.
The two of them simply sat there in silence.
Nathan stared at Clara in horror, while she gazed impassively at her own wrist. The shard had cut her skin, and bright red blood dripped from her fingers, blooming on the floor like plum blossoms.
Nathan was stunned, frozen in place, unable to utter a word for a long time.
Swallowing hard, Nathan said cautiously, "Don't do anything foolish. If you want to die, at least wait until you're back in the Heavenly Court. No—I mean, life is beautiful, isn't it? Why throw it away?"
After a long moment, Clara loosened her grip and the shard fell to the floor with a sharp clatter.
Nathan stared at the wound from a distance. Only when he saw it wasn't deep did he finally relax a little.
Clara sat quietly at the edge of the bed, motionless, as if her soul had left her body.
After a while, Nathan slowly stepped forward. Seeing Clara didn't react, he quickly moved to her side and reached out to tend to her wound.
But before Nathan could touch her wrist, Clara pulled her hand away. Nathan was left reaching for nothing, momentarily stunned.
"I'm fine," Clara said. "You're right, life is beautiful."
As she spoke, the corners of Clara's lips lifted slightly, showing her first smile in days.
That smile made Nathan's heart tighten.
At that moment, Nathan felt as if he were dying inside.
What did I do to deserve this? Why would someone who was fine before suddenly change so much after a few days of unconsciousness?
Nathan hadn't liked Clara's former arrogance, but this sudden transformation... He'd agreed to cooperate and protect her, but what if something happened?
Clara stared at the bright red blood on the floor and said softly, "My wounds are nearly healed. We'll set out at dawn tomorrow. You should leave now—I want to sleep."
"Alright, we'll leave tomorrow," Nathan replied, wiping his sweat and forcing a laugh. He quickly gathered all the porcelain shards onto his tray to take away.
Still uneasy, he swiftly collected every vase, pair of scissors, and similar object from the room, even using a spell to round off the sharp corners of the few pieces of furniture.
Even then, he couldn't relax.
He'd dealt with everything in the room, but who knew what Clara kept on her person? Maybe she had a dagger hidden among her artifacts. Or perhaps her medicine bottles contained poison...
Stepping outside, Nathan dumped everything in his hands into the courtyard, then turned and went back into the room.
"Didn't I tell you to leave?"
"How about... we have a chat?" Nathan said, grinning.
Clara looked at Nathan with no expression.
"Alright, fine, we don't have to talk. You sleep, I'll just sit here and keep you company." With that, Nathan sat down in a chair and stared at Clara.
Clara continued to look at Nathan without any expression.
"Okay, I get it. I'm leaving."
With a helpless shake of his head, Nathan left the room and closed the door. But then, he tiptoed over to the window, peeking inside and keeping a close watch on Clara's every move.
Inside, Clara sat quietly, completely still. Her empty gaze was unsettling.
At that moment, everything around her seemed utterly meaningless.
Time passed slowly. One sat inside, one kept watch outside—the two of them like statues, unmoving.
Early the next morning, before sunrise, Clara opened the door and said to Nathan, who had kept vigil all night, "Let's go. We're leaving for Mount Hua."