After Swapping Identities With My Archenemy - Chapter 87

Chapter 87: The Grand Finale

Jiang Huaiyi instinctively reached into her pocket for the silk paper, wanting to tell Shen Wensi about the encounter immediately.

But her hand met only ash. The silk paper had disintegrated, lingering for a mere second before drifting away like dust in the wind. Huaiyi stared at her empty palm, stunned. This was the last thing her Master had left her, and it was gone.

Tears fell silently. Sometimes, grief is so profound that the face goes numb, forgetting even how to form an expression. Shen Wensi reached out, cupping Huaiyi’s face and gently brushing away the tears with her thumb. The warmth of the contact allowed Huaiyi a brief moment to breathe. She hurriedly wiped her eyes and stared at the floor, struggling to regain her composure.

They sat down, and Shen Wensi began to reveal the truth.

She had known about Xiao Die being the Nian Beast for a while it was the final task of the silk paper. Now that the task was complete, the paper had fulfilled its purpose and vanished. As for the woman in red who had appeared earlier, she was indeed the Kitchen God (Zao Jun).

Huaiyi was shocked. No wonder she had been powerless; the gap between human and divine was an unbridgeable chasm.

Xiao Die had been discovered by the Kitchen God centuries ago. Unlike other malevolent beasts, Xiao Die wasn’t inherently cruel, so the deity had allowed her to be “fostered” by temple wardens. But as the years passed, the beast’s power grew too difficult to contain in the mortal realm without ancient arrays. The Kitchen God had come to take her back to her side.

“Wait,” Huaiyi said, her voice unusually calm. “You’re leaving something out.”

Shen Wensi remained silent, sipping her tea repeatedly.

“Who are you, exactly?” Huaiyi asked. A ghost cultivator shouldn’t be on speaking terms with high deities. The level of detail in Wensi’s explanation suggested she wasn’t just an observer.

Huaiyi looked at the person she had come to love the person she had relied on, but also the person she now realized she knew nothing about. The fear of what Wensi might say warred with the need to know.

Shen Wensi looked into her eyes and asked softly, “Have you really not remembered yet?”

“Remembered what?”

Suddenly, a cold wind swept through the room. Du Xiaoxin appeared, looking frantic. She didn’t even notice Huaiyi as she blurted out to Shen Wensi: “Great Emperor! We have a situation—”

Shen Wensi waved a hand, and the ghost messenger vanished instantly, along with the words she had been about to say.

But it was too late. The name “Great Emperor” acted like a thunderclap in Huaiyi’s mind, shattering the fog. Memories flooded back like a tidal wave.

The True Origin

Huaiyi’s consciousness drifted beyond the mortal plane. She saw a vast, celestial library—the true Library of the Underworld. She wasn’t a person there; she was a book. Specifically, she was a thin slip of silk paper tucked inside an ancient tome.

She had been a nameless object that, over eons, had accidentally developed a spiritual consciousness. She had lain dormant on a shelf until a Taoist priestess—her Master—found her.

Her Master had realized that Huaiyi’s spiritual energy was fading. To save her soul from dissipating, the Master had pleaded with the highest powers of the Underworld. She had petitioned the Great Emperor of the Underworld Shen Wensi’s true identity.

The world Huaiyi had been living in was a “Trial Realm” created by Shen Wensi. Everything the fears, the ghosts, the childhood traumas was a construct designed to help Huaiyi overcome her inner darkness and solidify her soul so she could truly become “human.” Her knowledge of the world came from the neighboring books she had “read” while on the shelf and her Master’s teachings.

Awakening

The scenery of the villa began to blur and fracture like a broken mirror. The “Trial” was ending.

“Master?” Huaiyi looked around desperately as the world dissolved. “If I leave this place, will I see her?”

Shen Wensi, no longer the cold ghost she pretended to be, reached out and took Huaiyi’s hand. With one step, they crossed the threshold of worlds.

They stood in the real Library of the Underworld. Huaiyi now had a physical body, a soul forged in the fires of her own trials. She ran through the endless shelves, searching for the old woman who had raised her.

But the library was silent. Her Master was gone. The price for Huaiyi’s life had been her Master’s own transcendence; she had moved on to a cycle where they could no longer meet.

“She chose to leave,” Shen Wensi said softly, standing behind her. “She stayed only until you were ready. You should be happy for her.”

Huaiyi wept her first tears as a truly living being. The Nian Beast’s interference had broken the trial’s equilibrium earlier than expected, but Huaiyi had succeeded. She had faced her fears and earned her existence.

Shen Wensi reached into her robes and pulled out a weathered, ancient scroll. Huaiyi felt a hum of recognition. It was the book she had spent an eternity tucked inside.

On the cover were three ancient characters: Shan Hai Jing (The Classic of Mountains and Seas).

The dream was over, but for Jiang Huaiyi, life had finally begun.

THE END

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