This was the first time in so many battles that I had defeated an opponent without facing death.
I forcibly suppressed the excitement in my heart. Although the past five hours had been incredibly difficult, tasting the fruits of victory now made me even more thrilled.
"You are too kind!" I said slowly, sheathing my short sword, preparing to return to the room to chat with Lin Chun.
But to my surprise, Chen Feifei did not disappear.
I frowned.
In my memory, everyone I fought against vanished inexplicably after the battle, and I would return to that room.
What was going on now?
However, I didn't overthink it and simply sat down on the spot.
"Your progress has surprised me greatly!" a voice called out, startling me.
At first, I thought it was Lin Chun's voice, but the voice clearly belonged to a woman.
I stood up warily, looking around, and finally focused on Chen Feifei.
I had tried to communicate with my opponents before, but none had answered my questions. Yet now, Chen Feifei was speaking!
"You... you can talk? Are you... human or ghost?" My voice even started to distort.
"Not human... and certainly not a ghost..." Chen Feifei said with a smile, floating gently to my side and sitting down. "You can think of my existence as... a consciousness..."
"Consciousness?" I frowned, but I immediately realized that I couldn't let such a precious opportunity pass. I needed the answers to the questions I had. "I don't care what you are, all I want to know now is if there's a way for me to leave here..."
"Leave here? Of course, you can," Chen Feifei replied with a smile.
Upon hearing this, my body jolted.
Honestly, this was the best news I had heard in such a long time.
Although I had been comforting Lin Chun every time we talked, telling him that we could leave this place, I truly didn't have an answer in my heart.
Now, having received an answer from Chen Feifei, the joy I felt was probably something no one else could comprehend.
"Are there any other questions you'd like to ask? You can ask them all at once..." Chen Feifei offered.
I slowly let out a breath.
I actually had another question in my heart, but I was afraid to ask. After a long period of internal struggle, I finally decided to voice it.
"How long have we been in this place?" I asked.
Hearing this, Chen Feifei gave a mysterious smile. "I'll answer that question at the very end. For now, you can ask something else..."
I forcibly steadied my nerves. "Can you tell me what this place is?"
"The Land of Trials..." Chen Feifei explained. "When we foresaw that the Heavenly Dao would destroy all cultivators, we selected a group of powerful practitioners with diverse strengths, and then we divided their consciousnesses, storing a portion of it here..."
"Why do this?" I asked.
"It seems that staying here for so long has made your mind a bit sluggish..." Chen Feifei chuckled. "It's very simple. We need to leave behind some sparks of hope..."
"We don't know what kind of situation we will face next, but we must prepare for the worst... Although we hope this place will never be needed, it is clear that..." Chen Feifei paused, not finishing her sentence.
"So, by coming here, I am essentially receiving a legacy?" I asked.
"Sort of, and sort of not..." Chen Feifei smiled. "We cultivators only believe in one thing: destiny..."
"Your arrival in this place was destined, the extent of what you can achieve is also destined, what you will encounter in your future life, what you will face, and the choices you will make, are all destined..." Chen Feifei continued with a smile. "And those things are beyond our control..."
I had heard this way of speaking from Elder Yu before, but I found it somewhat difficult to grasp.
Now, I was beginning to understand.
Many things were destined, just like my being stranded on the island, and just like my arrival in this place.
As for what I would do afterward and what I would face, they couldn't control it, but in reality, it was also the trajectory of my destiny.
I couldn't change this trajectory, nor could I influence it. Even if I desperately tried to deviate from this path, I ultimately wouldn't be able to.
The experiences were destined, but the outcomes were not necessarily so.
I might have been stranded on a deserted island; that was destined. But if I had died on that island, then today's outcome would not have occurred.
There's a saying I find quite fitting: everyone is given a pencil and a blank sheet of paper, but what picture is ultimately drawn depends on you...