CHAPTER 634: CHAPTER 634: GOD

With that thought, Long Yifan looked at Gu Jin with an even more intense gaze.

His deep blue eyes followed every small movement she made. Gu Jin, sensing that gaze, frowned slightly and turned to look at him.

"What are you staring at?" she asked, her tone calm but her red eyes sharp.

Long Yifan only grinned and winked.

"Nothing. Just appreciating the view," he said playfully.

Gu Jin sighed and looked away. "Focus on the work, idiot."

If she had known the thoughts running inside Long Yifan’s mind, she would have probably thrown a fireball at him.

He was not just looking at her. He was thinking about holding her close, about not letting her go, no matter how many lives they had lived before.

He was even thinking about sneaking more kisses.

Lady Ling said calmly. "Pour your energy into the crack. It will help weaken the curses holding this place together."

Gu Jin and Long Yifan both nodded seriously.

They walked toward the center and placed their hands above the dark crack. Immediately, energy began to flow out of their bodies, glowing bright gold from Long Yifan and dark black from Gu Jin.

The moment their energy touched the crack, it sizzled and hissed like water on fire.

Lady Ling watched them for a few moments, then nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Keep it steady."

She turned and left the place.

Soon she used the portal to teleport to white mansion. She walked through a long hallway back to the White Mansion. Her calm steps did not stop until she entered a small, plain room and closed the door behind her.

Sitting on the edge of a white bed, she closed her eyes and spoke softly into the air, as if someone invisible was listening.

"I have brought Gu Jin to the Cursed Domain," she whispered.

There was silence for a few seconds. Then, with a colder tone, she added, "She will serve her purpose. You do not need to worry."

Her words were strange and almost chilling, but Lady Ling said no more. She simply sat there quietly, lost in thought.

Meanwhile, Gu Jin and Long Yifan were still pouring their energy into the crack.

At first, both of them worked with focus and determination. But after several hours, the task began to feel boring.

"Is this all we have to do?" Long Yifan’s deep voice cut through the air. "Just keep pouring energy forever?"

"Pretty much," Gu Jin said, her eyes still fixed on the crack. "This is a test of patience and endurance. If we give up, the crack will close again."

Long Yifan sighed. "This is worse than watching paint dry."

They continued in silence for a while until Gu Jin suddenly turned to him with a thoughtful look.

"Yifan," she said quietly, "do you ever have dreams where we’re together? Not like... here. But somewhere else. Maybe in another world or another life."

Long Yifan blinked, surprised by the question. Then he smiled. "I dream of being with you every single day in every single other universe."

Gu Jin: "..." Wow... so you can say that too?

’Long Yifan truly doesn’t leave a single chance to flirt with me.’ She thought in her heart, an itch rising in her heart.

Gu Jin rolled her eyes.

"That’s not what I meant. I mean... dreams where we’re not human. Maybe mermaids or spirits. Something different."

Long Yifan thought for a while, scratching the back of his neck.

"Hmm... I don’t think so. But there was one dream where you chose me over Luo Meng and mentioned being regretful for choosing him over me."

At that name, Gu Jin froze.

A flash of a memory appeared in her mind, a dream she had seen too, where she was with Long Yifan and had indeed chosen him over Luo Meng.

But in this life, no such events happened.

"Strange..." she murmured. "I saw that dream too."

She looked at him with a soft, almost sad expression. "I wonder if that was our past life or maybe a parallel one."

Long Yifan’s eyes widened. "Wait... you saw the same thing?"

Gu Jin didn’t hide it. She told him about the dream she had the previous night, about the goddess of justice, the punishments, the 999 lives, and everything in between. She didn’t leave out a single detail.

By the time she finished, Long Yifan’s expression had turned grim. His fists were clenched tightly.

"Gu Jin..." he said softly. "You suffered so much. But listen to me. You don’t have to face any of this alone. Even if you are a goddess, I will become a god too. I’ll protect you."

Gu Jin smiled faintly and shook her head.

"I don’t need you to protect me. And I don’t even want to go back there. If their idea of justice is so flawed, then I want no part of it."

Long Yifan felt a wave of relief wash over him.

He had always feared she might leave this world and return to the realm of the gods.

But now, hearing her say she didn’t want to go back eased his heart.

Not once did he doubt her explanation. Why? Because of her contracted beast’s words from earlier and the events he experinced after trying to forcefully know about Gu Jin’s past life.

"It makes sense now," he said quietly. "Your contracted beast wasn’t lying. You’ve lived more lives than you can remember. The mafia world must have been the most traumatic one, so you remembered it first."

"Wait... how do you know I have ever lived in a mafia world?" This time, Gu Jin was surprised after all; in her entire explanation, there was no mention.

"Your contracted beast told me, and as I tried to pry more from them, I incurred heaven’s wrath and fell into the spatial rift. At that time, I was in your garden."

"I see..." Gu Jin murmured. The cause and effect couldn’t be any clearer.

To think that a strange spatial rift will suddenly appear in the garden of the Gu Mansion, even though a strong magic barrier was placed around the Gu Mansion... was enough to show the anomaly.

A hint of guilt crept in her heart knowing that Long Yifan suffered because of her.

He paused and then looked at her seriously. "If you want, I can help you recover all your past life memories."

Gu Jin stared at him in surprise. "I’m not interested."

"What?" Long Yifan blinked. "Why?"

"Because I know how most of those lives must have ended," she said calmly. "With pain. With betrayal. With death. Why would I want to relive that?"

Her words hit Long Yifan hard. His heart ached as he imagined her suffering over and over again.

After a long silence, he suddenly said, "Then I’ll go to that place. Where the gods and goddesses live."

Gu Jin looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "What, you’ve suddenly awakened some ambition? You want to be a god now?"

"Yes," Long Yifan said seriously. "I want to become a god."

Gu Jin chuckled softly. "You’re really strange."

"You’ll understand my reason one day," he replied with a small smile.

Time passed slowly. Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months.

Gu Jin and Long Yifan continued their work, pouring their energy into the cracks.

They took turns, sometimes chatting, sometimes falling into comfortable silence.

Lady Ling would visit occasionally to give them breaks, but most of their time was spent inside the white palace.

The work was exhausting. By the seventh day of their first cycle, both of them were so tired that when Lady Ling finally offered them a break, they returned to the White Mansion and fell asleep almost instantly.

This routine continued for three to four months. And during those months, something changed between them.

They became closer, not just in a physical sense but emotionally too. They knew each other’s habits, fears, and dreams.

Long Yifan realized something important: Gu Jin was too strong-headed to ever forgive people who had wronged her.

He stopped hoping for forgiveness for his past mistakes.

Instead, he decided that if he could not earn her forgiveness, he would spend his life trying to make up for it.

"If I can just have a small place in her heart," he thought one night while watching her sleep, "that will be enough."

Lady Ling sometimes gave them cultivation resources to help them grow stronger.

Gu Jin’s power grew from Transcendental Stage 7 to Transcendental Stage 10. Long Yifan’s cultivation broke through the most difficult barrier, from Transcendental Stage 10 to Saint Stage 1.

Though it was only one stage, it was one of the hardest leaps in cultivation, something most mages never achieved.

But then, something strange happened.

After Long Yifan’s breakthrough, Lady Ling stopped providing them with resources. Months passed with nothing.

"That’s odd," Gu Jin said one day, frowning. "Mighty mage couples usually get resources every month."

"Maybe we’re not considered a real mighty couple," Long Yifan said with a shrug.

"Maybe," Gu Jin replied softly.