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"Yu! Wake up, stupid Yu! Father's going to scold us again if we are late for breakfast..."

The distant yet familiar voice fell into Lin Yu's ears, pulling him from the depths of darkness. A low groan left his throat as Lin Yu realized that not only was he breathing, but that he could also feel his limbs. Together with a weight lightly pressing down on his chest and something squishing his face into various shapes from both sides, it wasn't hard for Lin Yu to guess that he wasn't dead.

And as his cloudy mind slowly roused from sleep and his thought process began clearing up, Lin Yu weakly opened his eyes to welcome the bright rays of the sun… and shut them back at a speed many times faster after the bright light pierced his light receptors.

"Stupid Yu, I saw that! Don't you dare pretend to sleep still..."

The very next moment, the familiar voice that had woken him up fell into his ears again, far louder and clearer than before. At the same time, Lin Yu felt a pair of pincers tightly pinch his cheeks and pull outward with great force. The pain of having his face forcefully deformed helped clear Lin Yu's mind faster and his eyes snapped open at once and looked ahead, meeting a pair of smiling amethyst pupils.

A deep feeling of melancholy hit Lin Yu as a multitude of emotions washed over his heart. Before he knew it, his body had involuntarily moved forward, tightly wrapping his arms around the person who had just been sitting atop his chest. His sudden actions garnered him a surprised yelp from the person who had not imagined for there to be such a swift assault.

"Stupid Yu, what-"

"XUE'ER, DON'T LEAVE ME!"

Before the person Lin Yu had caught could say something, Lin Yu's shout fell into her ears, forcing her to hold back the words at the tip of her tongue. In the next moment, Lin Yu felt a pair of arms gently wrap around his back as a soothing voice fell into his ears.

"Mm, Xue'er will never leave her little Yu!"

Not only did the voice instantaneously calm down Lin Yu's anxiously beating heart, but it also made him loosen the strength in his arms that were tightly clamping around Lin Xue'er. Lin Xue'er, on the other hand, gently rubbed Lin Yu's back with one hand and caressed his head with another to further calm him down and said, "Little Yu, don't be afraid; it must have been a nightmare. Xue'er is here with you and will never leave you to be alone."

As Lin Yu felt Lin Xue'er's gentle actions and breathed in the fragrant air around him, a rush of memories hit his head and he recalled what had happened.

...

Ice Saint Lin Yu, who had finally reached the rank of a peak Saint Magus and become the twelfth Saint Ruler of the Sacred Dynasty, had discovered the tracks of the fallen Demon King in the depths of the Ancient Holy Land during his pilgrimage to the Temple of the Frost God.

Believing that the injured Demon King had to be dealt with at all cost, Lin Yu had stealthily tracked him down to a hidden cave in the depths of the Endless Mountains. Swiftly giving up on his pilgrimage to the Frost God's temple, Lin Yu left a clone of his behind to keep an eye on the Demon King's movements as he, himself, returned to the Sacred Dynasty to inform the other Saint Rulers of the Demon King's whereabouts.

It was all because Lin Yu didn't want to take any chances. The Demon King was a terrifying being who had battled against the other eleven Saint Rulers many decades before he, Lin Yu, had become the twelfth, and managed to escape even after he, the Demon King, had been gravely injured. And although the Demon King had suffered heavy losses and hadn't recovered to his peak, Lin Yu knew he wouldn't be able to take him down all by himself.

Hence, Lin Yu wished to join forces with all the other Saint Rulers to take down the Demon King in one fell swoop, so as to rid the Sacred Dynasty of such a major hidden threat. As long as the Demon King lived, the threat of an invasion from the Demon Race would keep looming over the Sacred Dynasty's neck like a blade ready to fall at any moment.

Without any hesitation, all of the Saint Rulers had agreed with Lin Yu and all of them prepared an inescapable net of death for the Demon King. After two months of preparations, the twelve Saint Rulers of the Sacred Dynasty had entered the depths of the Endless Mountains and successfully besieged the Demon King. And in just a few hours, the already injured Demon King had been pushed to the brink of death… or so thought Lin Yu.

Just when the Demon King reached the end of his road, the Five Elements Saint Elders, the eldest Saint Rulers of the Sacred Dynasty, betrayed them. Immediately, the battle had been reversed, and the other Saint Rulers fell one after the other in front of Lin Yu's eyes as the trap they had prepared for the Demon King was used to exterminate them instead.

Lin Yu clearly remembered the emotions of hatred, confusion, indignation, rage, serenity, and apathy he saw in the eyes of the other Saint Rulers as they died before him. And finally, the wind of death extinguished his flickering flame of life. At the final moment of his life, an incomprehensible feeling of relaxation washed over him as his head flew into the air… with a content smile.

'Everyone, I will be meeting you soon...' was the last thought that crossed Lin Yu's mind before his consciousness fell into darkness, and the embrace of death led him to eternal rest... or so he believed until he woke up.