WLWM Finale: That White Lotus Pure and Resplendent as the Moon, Ch. 1

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Bai Lianhua pauses, unable to respond properly, “what?”

The system rubs its hands in glee, “just asking who your favourite antagonist is.”

Bai Lianhua shakes his head, “I can’t make a decision; they’re all amazing.”

The system goes ‘oh’ in disappointment, then asks, “then if… you could see an antagonist again, who would you rather see, host? Which of the antagonist moved your heart the most?”

Bai Lianhua seems somewhat dazed, and says his honest opinion, “I don’t know… I think my heart was moved greatly in every world, or I wouldn’t have felt this lost every single time you sealed up my emotional fluctuations.”

Like Gu Ronghang’s world that was just over. Even sealing up emotions couldn’t stop Bai Lianhua from feeling warm when recalling him… Though when he thinks about how he and the antagonist are separated forever, there is sorrow mixed within as well.

Then he looks at the system oddly, “why are you asking?”

It doesn’t seem to be his hallucination that the system looks satisfied with the answer either… Which alerts Bai Lianhua slightly, worried he might be led into yet another trap.

The system smiles awkwardly as it waves its hands, “oh, nothing, just asking, hehe.”

…

After a few days of rest, Bai Lianhua who’s holding onto his pillow completely addicted to lying down like salted fish reluctantly goes to the next world when the system kept buzzing next to him.

He sighs in nervousness as he tries to imagine what kind of antagonist it will be this time, but he becomes dumbfounded as he is waiting for his body to materialise.

——This isn’t how it should feel when materialising the body. He who’s been through so many worlds could never mistake it. It’s instead more like… returning to his own body with his soul?

Bai Lianhua opens his eyes in shock. What he sees is the nostalgic room in his memories that appeared slightly unfamiliar because of his long time away… So he’s been transported back to his own world? If the system isn’t still floating in front of him, he’d think he was dreaming.

While surprised, he can’t help but feel anxious, “eh? System, I thought you said you’d send me through all the worlds I’ve been through and finish all the missions before you’d let me back…”

Is all of this real? This better not be some mirage or some other messed up thing, or he would definitely be unable to hold back from beating the crap out of the system.

The system says in a mysterious tone, “oh, that’s no longer the case… who would have known that you, the host, would say such a thing in the last world.”

Bai Lianhua looks completely stupefied. He doesn’t recall anything odd he’s said before.

“What did I say in the last world? I don’t know anything.”

The system raises its brows, “emm… host, see for yourself?”

So Bai Lianhua sees that there’s actually a mirage in front of him after the system works itself for a bit. It’s a blooming white lotus in the middle of a pond so clear you could make out the bottom.

Before he could ask “what do you mean,” memories are suddenly unblocked within Bai Lianhua’s brain… Then the system itself also adds its own perspective of events from the angle of an outsider in it. Time seems to have slowed down at this moment as Bai Lianhua is forced into a deep sleep at this point.

Yet when he finishes examining the memories from both angles, he blinks nonchalantly before looking at the system in disbelief. The system just nods with a serious expression, “yeah, like you thought, that ‘Bai Lianhua’ is you.”

Bai Lianhua takes a deep breath and tries to reason it out, “but if it really were my experience, then why didn’t you just let me keep my memories all along but had to do this instead?” Making him into a moviegoer in some sense.

“Of course that’s so that the host can make a critical decision to come soon without being strayed by anything else but your true feelings… Also, seeing something from another angle and reconsidering is also quite the fresh experience, no?”

Bai Lianhua can’t say anything in response. He’s still in shock… So he really was a literal white lotus?!

Yes, a literal white lotus that has attained sentience… He was actually a supernatural cultivator, apparently?

And looking at the system’s mirage of his true white lotus body——that white lotus floating in the water in the middle of his room, Bai Lianhua can’t help but feel a sense of closeness to it, but he is also really bitter at this point.

If he wasn’t told this was he himself, he might have genuinely praised it for being a beautiful flower. But now…

As for why the whole thing turned out like this, another supernatural cultivator is involed, which is Chi Tang.

——At this point, Bai Lianhua realises already that what the system meant earlier must have been the dialogue between he and Gu Ronghang about the white lotus and the pond.

The memories indicate that he, as Bai Lianhua, is a white lotus that has cultivated and achieved human form, while Chi Tang is the pond he was living in that has cultivated and achieved human form… The two of them have been companions for many years and have experienced a lot of things together.

For Bai Lianhua, Chi Tang is the one that is most familiar and most trusted to him. When the two of them achieved sentience but before they achieved human form, it was Chi Tang who decided to pump his cultivation power into him through the waters of the pond to enable him to achieve human form before him.

——Right, don’t worry, but they’re both supernatural cultivators that have achieved human forms for countless years already before the nation was founded. They’re properly registered in the Sentience Beings Registry and are legal entities… Speaking of which, they’re also true elders among supernatural cultivators at this point.

And because they did walk the most righteous path without getting involved in any karmatic incidents involving the harming of creatures, when they reach the end of the road of cultivation they are definitely candidates for successful ascensions.

Bai Lianhua never thought about anything else but cultivation and his cultivation amount rose gradually over time without so much as a hurdle. Yet, starting from a certain point Chi Tang’s understanding of the Tao was damaged and his cultivation amount became stuck for a very long time.

Bai Lianhua who’s already used to doing everything with Chi Tang together is of course quite worried for Chi Tang, but he didn’t know what he could do. When sometimes he would return to his original form his petals would also curl up in dejection, looking really pitiful.

When he sees Bai Lianhua so worried about him and being so open about it, Chi Tang decides to tell him the truth, and he tells him with a bitter laughter, “… I like you.”

——That’s right. Chi Tang’s understanding of the Tao was damaged because of his fixation on Bai Lianhua and the lack of reciprocity for that feeling.

Then Bai Lianhua says in all earnestness without so much of a thought, “mm, I like you too.”

Chi Tang himself understands very clearly though that Bai Lianhua’s ‘like’ is definitely not his. He is of course close to him, but this closeness exists without a single shred of romance or love. It’s simply familiarity and a habit at this point. Perhaps Bai Lianhua doesn’t want it to remain that either, but he is naturally quite shy and will not open up his heart easily to anyone. He also knows nothing about the things related to love and belonging.

He also realises that how he usually behaves in front of Bai Lianhua is not the real him as well… He has these intense emotions hidden inside that if ignited would blow up in such a way even he himself cannot control, nor has he always been a person who hid all their sharp outer shell away so that it would never harm Bai Lianhua no matter how he approaches him. He has always been trying to hide his possessive and irrational side, so that Bai Lianhua couldn’t see it.

So, Chi Tang rubs Bai Lianhua’s head and sighs lightly, “this like is not enough.”

Bai Lianhua doesn’t understand, “then what kind of like will it take? I knew you for the longest time in this world, and you are the one that is always by my side, so you are the most important to me, is that still not enough?”

Chi Tang nods, “mm, not enough… It’s my fault. I’m too greedy.”

Bai Lianhua looks down, and murmurs, “but I still want to help you.”

Chi Tang chuckles, “even if it isn’t necessarily a good thing for you to try?”

Bai Lianhua nods firmly.

Chi Tang stops smiling. After a deep thought, he says, “then we can try it in a special way… And see if you are finally able to switch into the like that I want, is that alright?”

While Bai Lianhua is curious, but he suspects nothing and agrees immediately, since Chi Tang would never harm him no matter what.

So Chi Tang requested for Bai Lianhua to temporarily seal up his own cultivation power and memories, and live anew as if he was a mortal human. Chi Tang himself made a ‘system’ like in the novels that are popular among the mortal humans, and grants it a certain amount of intelligence before letting it evolve on its own. Then, he sends his own conscience into the system, waiting for when the system would decide it was appropriate to finally bind itself to Bai Lianhua.

Therefore, the world and these timelines are all artificially generated by the system. Only Bai Lianhua and Chi Tang’s consciences existed in reality among them.

——Speaking of which, Chi Tang knew about these only because Bai Lianhua liked novels and when he saw the new interpretation of the word ‘white lotus’ in the mortal realm he would complain to him about how he is different from those white lotuses.

Of course, Chi Tang is mildly amused at that, but he’s also disappointed that Bai Lianhua only preferred to read these classic ‘growing stronger’ tales without much romantic subplot in it, or it might have helped him realise love.

So, for Chi Tang, in any case, this was his last gamble. See if in the system’s generated worlds, if he no longer suppressed his obsessive and possessive side, nor his burning feelings for him, not bound by the worry that he might push Bai Lianhua away because of this, if he could romantically move Bai Lianhua and for Bai Lianhua to accept him as is.

If not, then even if it were only for Bai Lianhua’s earnestness to him, he should let it go without causing him any more trouble than this. If it succeeded… Then, a standard happy ending the tales of the mortals liked to end with.

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TL’s notes: Finally, everything is revealed, and you finally see why the system was so annoying – it had to evolve on its own thinking about how to make the two people fall in love, so of course it’s gone wrong like that.