Chapter 402 Chang'an Awakens

This time, the fortune teller did not give any answer to my question, but his ambiguous attitude seemed to express some of his true thoughts.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who questions the history of the world we live in, nor am I the only one who asks questions. Many perceptive people, including other great impermanent beings, probably share similar feelings.

However, there are simply too many forces and phenomena in this strange world that can alter history. From the distant past, there's the Mountain of Two Elements, capable of reincarnation into the past and future; more recently, the Silver Moon possesses the power to change history, and it demonstrated this to me at Moonshadow Mountain. The history of our world could never have been pure; countless hands must have intervened within it.

Perhaps those who made wishes to the divine seal in the past also interfered with history. This might be the reason why our history feels so fragmented. However, I lack the specific clues to speculate further about the motives behind these actions, and can only change direction for now.

I left the fortune teller's residence and continued to ponder questions related to King Yama on the way.

I hope to figure out whether King Yama is friend or foe to me. Although it's very likely that he was the one who gave Ying Lingyun a large amount of White Tiger's killing power, even if that's proven, it doesn't really mean anything. He merely supported Ying Lingyun; Fa Zheng is even a supporter of the Humanitarian Department.

At least on the standpoint of being enemies of the Two Elements of the Mountain, King Yama and I should be of the same mind. However, the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my ally. If King Yama has the same thoughts as the Water Master Genbu, wanting to seize the power seeds from other Two Elements successors to strengthen his own power, then I might have to settle things with him first.

The same applies to the Lord of Peach Blossom Village. Although we had some brief hostile contact before, he probably lacked sufficient motive for hostility towards me. Assuming he is indeed a descendant of the Azure Dragon, it's not impossible for him to turn from enemy to friend regarding the issue of the Two Elements of the Mountain.

However, he seems to have a fairly deep understanding of the power seeds of the Two Elements of the Mountain, and might even be developing similar ideas to the Water Master Genbu. Besides, I can't forget how he overwhelmed me with his power not long ago. Rather than turning enemies into friends, I actually prefer to challenge him as a newcomer; whether or not we should cooperate is something we can discuss later.

The lineage of the Yin-Yang masters of the Xuanwu era (the naval commander) achieved unity on the issue of Yin-Yang in the mountains, a feat that our generation may not be able to match.

Speaking of the naval Xuanwu, there is actually an important thing that hasn't been mentioned yet.

The naval commander Xuanwu may still be alive.

To be precise, it may have been resurrected.

When I first heard this news, I doubted my own eyes. I saw it in documents that others had seized from the Humanitarian Affairs Department's headquarters.

The vast amount of data at the Humanitarian Division's headquarters was collected by Mingzhuo's troops. Mingzhuo and Shenzhao had an agreement to fully share this data. Because I haven't forgotten one of my long-standing goals—to investigate clues about the apocalypse using the Humanitarian Division as a case study—I also desperately want this data.

If I went directly to Mingzhuo to ask, he would probably refuse without hesitation, or even if I got it, I would only get scraps. So I asked Shenzhao instead, and the result was very smooth. From Shenzhao's perspective, he only wanted Ying Lingyun's research data on the Divine Seal fragments to use against the Lord of the Divine Seal later. In his view, I was also an enemy of the Lord of the Divine Seal, so he was very willing to share the data on the Divine Seal fragment technology with me.

Unfortunately, I couldn't understand that part of the information at all. Ying Lingyun analyzed the fragments of the Divine Seal from the perspective of cutting-edge science and technology, which I lack; surprisingly, I could understand the Divine Illumination.

Since he gave me even the most valuable part, he naturally wouldn't be stingy with the other information either. It was in the latter that I found records related to the naval force, Xuanwu.

To put it simply, Ying Lingyun made quite thorough preparations before his death in order to resurrect the true Silver Moon, including testing the resurrection technology he had mastered. Just like medicines cannot be put on the market immediately, but must undergo extensive animal and even human trials, it seems that before applying the resurrection technology to the resurrection of Silver Moon, Ying Lingyun first used the Water Master Xuanwu as a test subject.

Reviving the water master Xuanwu is no less difficult than reviving Yinyue. Both are at the Great Completion level, and reviving them requires a living sacrifice equivalent to the original and at least ten times the power of the Great Impermanence.

Regardless of how the former is achieved, regarding the latter, according to the records, Ying Lingyun does not seem to intend to expend such a huge amount of resources. Therefore, this resurrection may not have been aimed at success at all, but only at collecting some test data.

As a result, for some unknown reason, the Water Master Xuanwu seemed to have been successfully resurrected during the ritual—as for whether the resurrected being was the original person from the previous life or a new individual with memories of the previous life, that remains unknown.

After his resurrection, he was in an extremely weak state and was placed in another Humanitarian Division stronghold to recuperate. Now all of the Humanitarian Division's strongholds have been destroyed, and he seems to have escaped the destruction, after which he went missing.

I am very interested in this naval Xuanwu, whose authenticity is unknown.

It's not just because I admire the character of Suishi Genbu, who keeps his word, that I admire him so much. Another reason is that, regardless of whether this "Suishi Genbu" is the real deal or not, at least judging from the information, he must have inherited the memories of Suishi Genbu from his previous life.

He clearly possesses a great deal of knowledge and information related to the concepts of the Two Elements of Mountain and its successors, which may well contain some of the knowledge I will need to deal with the Two Elements of Mountain in the future.

Furthermore, the reasons why the naval commander Xuanwu cooperated with Ying Lingyun during his lifetime, and what exactly the favor he owed Ying Lingyun, are mysteries that remained unsolved until the moment of his death. I also have the idea of ​​finding this "naval commander Xuanwu" to find out the truth.

While deep in thought, I returned to my residence at the Luoshan headquarters and then, as usual, went to the room where Chang'an was sleeping.

A week has passed now, and judging from Ma Zao's recovery report, Chang'an should be waking up soon. Zhu Shi seems to have timed it perfectly, saying that she plans to stay by her brother's side all day to wait for him to wake up, so that Chang'an won't feel neglected by his family.

Chang'an never outwardly reveals this to those around him, but he always feels that his sister harbors resentment towards him. He mentioned this to me in a dream. I also talked to Zhu Shi about it afterward. Perhaps Zhu Shi wanted to show her affection through her actions. I also hope that Chang'an can resolve his inner conflict and realize the warmth of his family who are so close to him.

Thinking about all this, I casually pushed open the door to the room, and then I saw a scene that shocked me.

Chang'an vanished from the bed, replaced by a girl with long white hair and golden beast-like eyes, whose beauty seemed inhuman. She stood on the bed, wearing a blue cotton nightgown, hands on her hips, barefoot, and smugly.

Zhu Shi stood not far away, staring dumbfounded at the white-haired, golden-eyed girl on the bed, who was nervously wielding the Yama Sword in her hand; Ma Zao sat on the stool next to her, watching all of this without any emotion.

Who else could be standing there but Silver Moon?

Has Chang'an been replaced by Silver Moon once again?

The white-haired, golden-eyed girl heard the door being pushed open, and she quickly turned to look at me, then her face froze.

I instinctively tried to summon flames, but just then, "Silver Moon" suddenly let out a strange cry, quickly raised both arms above her head in a big X shape, and shouted, "It's me! It's me... It's me, Cheng!"

As she spoke, a cloud of white smoke inexplicably exploded around her body, and then the white smoke instantly dissipated, revealing a figure inside.

The image of Yinyue disappeared, and what appeared there was Chang'an wearing blue cotton pajamas.

Actually, the moment I saw that "Silver Moon" and Mazao sitting calmly beside her, I realized that things probably wouldn't turn out the way I feared. It's just that I'm so used to burning Silver Moon's image that seeing her face makes me want to light a fire involuntarily.

"So... what's going on?"

I lowered my hand and carefully observed Chang'an, while also deeply analyzing the slight fluctuations of residual magical power in the air.

Without the feeling of the silver moon, what stands there now is undoubtedly the Chang'an I know.

I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"I just woke up... As soon as my sister saw me, she asked me if there was anything wrong with my brain, how I was feeling, and if I could try to stand up by myself..."

Chang'an obediently sat down on the bed and explained, "As she asked me questions, she started asking if the demonic power inside my body was in disarray, and whether I could control it... I was a little curious, so I stood up and tried it out..."

"In other words, you're just testing your power," I said. "What you possess is probably an illusionary power, which is why you can transform into other people's appearances."

"Yes, yes." Chang'an nodded vigorously.

"Then why did you have to transform into that shape of all things?" I asked.

Chang'an chuckled sheepishly, "I just wanted to give my little sister a surprise..."

"Where did this surprise come from? It's a complete shock with no joy!" Zhu Shi complained loudly.

I'm more concerned about something else now. In the past, just in case, I had Zhu Shi memorize Yin Yue's image by reading aloud from a photograph, which is why Zhu Shi knows what Yin Yue looks like. His posture just now was probably a stress reaction.

So how did Chang'an know what Yin Yue looked like?

"Chang'an...do you have memories of Silver Moon?" I asked.

(End of this chapter)