The volcanic wasteland vanished.
The frozen tundra dissolved.
Mountains.
Forests.
Deserts.
Rivers.
Every battlefield that had existed throughout the past year slowly crumbled into countless motes of white light.
Within moments—
only the endless white expanse remained.
Ling Wei and Ling Yue found themselves standing side by side once more.
For a long moment—
neither of them spoke.
The countless battles.
The endless training.
The years spent within the dream...
Everything already felt strangely distant.
Yet their bodies remembered.
Their instincts remembered.
High above—
the small white-scaled lizard slowly descended.
His golden eyes swept calmly over the siblings.
Both immediately cupped their fists and bowed.
"Greetings, Senior."
Lizarius gave a slight nod.
His calm voice broke the silence.
"...We are leaving."
Ling Yue blinked.
"...Already?"
Lizarius answered without emotion.
"It has been six hundred and eleven days."
"Your current training has reached a satisfactory point."
His gaze shifted briefly toward the empty white horizon.
Then he continued.
"Outside..."
"One day."
"Eight hours."
"Sixteen minutes have elapsed."
Neither sibling could help but feel astonished.
More than a year.
Nearly two years within the dream...
Yet barely over a day had passed in the outside world.
The disparity still felt impossible to comprehend.
Lizarius looked at them once more.
"...I am finished."
There were no grand speeches.
No final lesson.
No words of encouragement.
Only a simple statement of fact.
Then—
without waiting for either of them to respond—
he raised a claw.
The dream shattered.
CRACK—
The endless white world fractured like glass.
Countless cracks spread across reality itself.
The sky dissolved.
The ground disappeared.
Light swallowed everything.
Neither Ling Wei nor Ling Yue resisted.
Darkness embraced them.
...
...
...
The hidden chamber beneath the Ling Residence remained perfectly still.
A pair of siblings lay motionless upon the stone floor.
Then—
their eyelids trembled.
Both opened their eyes almost simultaneously.
"..."
For several moments—
neither moved.
Their minds instinctively expected another battlefield.
Another spirit beast.
Another impossible trial.
Instead—
they found themselves staring at the familiar stone ceiling of the hidden chamber.
Reality.
Ling Yue slowly sat upright.
"...We're back..."
Her voice sounded almost unfamiliar to her own ears.
Ling Wei also pushed himself into a sitting position.
His expression was unusually quiet.
Almost absent-minded.
Nearly two years.
Reduced to little more than a day.
It was difficult to reconcile the two.
A faint shadow drifted overhead.
Both siblings instinctively looked up.
The small white-scaled lizard hovered silently above them.
Golden eyes calmly observing.
Exactly as he had before they entered the dream.
As though nothing at all had happened.
Ling Yue stared at him.
Then lowered her gaze to her own hands.
She slowly clenched her fists.
Although every wound had vanished...
Although her spiritual energy had fully recovered...
She could still remember every battle.
Every victory.
Every defeat.
Every painful lesson.
Those experiences remained engraved into her instincts.
Ling Wei silently drew his sword a few inches.
SHING.
The motion was smoother than ever before.
Even he noticed it immediately.
His movements had changed.
Not because his cultivation had increased—
it hadn't.
But because every action had been refined through hundreds upon hundreds of days of relentless combat.
He slowly returned the sword to its sheath.
Both siblings looked toward the hovering lizard once more.
Neither spoke.
Neither knew what to say.
Lizarius simply looked back at them.
His expression remained as unreadable as ever.
The hidden chamber fell silent once again.
After a brief moment—
Lizarius drifted downward.
Ling Yue instinctively stiffened.
"...Senior?"
The small white-scaled lizard landed lightly atop her head.
She froze.
Before she could react—
his body gradually faded from sight.
The white scales disappeared.
His presence became invisible once again.
Only a faint, familiar weight remained.
Ling Yue stood motionless for several seconds.
Then she sighed.
"...Right."
A helpless smile appeared on her face.
"You did tell me before."
"I'll just pretend you aren't sitting on my head."
No reply came.
Only silence.
Ling Yue rolled her eyes.
"...I know you're listening."
Still—
nothing.
She laughed quietly.
"...You're impossible."
Ling Wei watched the exchange with an increasingly complicated expression.
Even now...
He still couldn't understand how his sister had become so accustomed to treating an ancient monster so casually.
Or perhaps—
how that ancient monster had become accustomed to her.
He slowly stood.
His joints cracked faintly.
"...Strange."
Ling Yue looked over.
"Hm?"
"I know only a little over a day has passed outside..."
He flexed his fingers thoughtfully.
"...But it truly feels as though we've lived another life."
Ling Yue nodded slowly.
"...Six hundred and eleven days."
She stretched both arms above her head.
Her body suddenly paused.
Then—
her stomach growled loudly.
...
Silence filled the chamber.
Ling Yue lowered her arms with an embarrassed smile.
"...Now I really feel it."
She rubbed her stomach.
"I haven't eaten for..."
She paused to think.
"...An entire day."
Another pause.
"...Or nearly two years."
She burst into laughter.
"I don't even know which one feels more real."
Ling Wei couldn't help smiling as well.
"...Me too."
He placed a hand over his own stomach.
"Now that we're awake..."
"I suddenly feel starving."
Ling Yue nodded vigorously.
"I want something good."
"Something hot."
"And a lot of it."
She turned toward the stone door.
"I'm eating enough to make up for the past six hundred days."
Ling Wei chuckled.
"I don't think that's how it works."
"We can certainly try."
The ancient formation responded to their approach.
Rumble...
The massive stone door slowly slid open.
Warm evening air drifted into the chamber.
Compared to the endless dream...
The scent of the real world felt astonishingly vivid.
Fresh earth.
Flowing air.
The faint fragrance of flowers carried on the evening breeze.
The siblings stepped outside together.
Neither noticed—
or perhaps both had already grown accustomed to—
the invisible white-scaled lizard resting quietly atop Ling Yue's head.
For Lizarius—
the dream experiment had ended.
For Ling Wei and Ling Yue—
another chapter of reality had just begun.
The evening sky glowed with warm shades of orange and crimson.
Throughout the Ling Estate, servants began lighting lanterns one after another, their gentle glow illuminating the stone pathways.
Ling Yue walked with noticeably lighter steps.
Ling Wei walked beside her.
Neither of them mentioned cultivation.
For the first time in what felt like nearly two years—
they simply wanted to eat.
Ling Yue rubbed her stomach again.
"...Brother."
"Hm?"
"I've decided."
Ling Wei glanced at her.
"...About what?"
She nodded with complete seriousness.
"We're going out."
"...Where?"
"...To eat."
Ling Wei blinked.
Then laughed softly.
"...Yeah."
"I don't think we've earned anything more than that."
Ling Yue smiled brightly.
"I want real food."
"Actual food."
She paused dramatically.
"And lots of it."
Ling Wei nodded in complete agreement.
"...I couldn't agree more."
The two siblings walked through the estate gates together.
Above Ling Yue—
the invisible white-scaled lizard remained quietly resting atop her head.
Completely motionless.
Completely silent.
As though he had truly become nothing more than an ordinary ornament.
Ling Yue resisted the urge to glance upward.
"...Senior."
Silence.
"...We're going to eat."
No reply.
She smiled helplessly.
"I'll take that as permission."
Still—
nothing.
Ling Wei shook his head with an amused smile.
"...You really do speak to Senior differently now."
Ling Yue shrugged.
"I've had nearly two years to get used to him."
She laughed.
"Besides..."
"I don't think he minds."
Perched atop her head—
Lizarius remained perfectly still.
Invisible.
Silent.
Below—
Ling Yue suddenly clapped her hands together.
"I know exactly where we're going."
Ling Wei looked over.
"...Already?"
She nodded enthusiastically.
"The best restaurant in Lotus City."
"If we're finally eating after all this time..."
"We're doing it properly."
Ling Wei smiled.
"...Lead the way."
The siblings disappeared into the bustling evening streets.
For the first time since entering the dream—
they walked not toward another battlefield...
But toward dinner.