nonsense
These words were like a thunderclap, exploding in the cave.
Wu Yi took a sudden step back, crashing into the black stone behind him with a dull thud. He opened his mouth, but found himself speechless.
Yingtang's body swayed, and if she hadn't held on to the banyan leaves next to her, she would have almost fallen. She looked at Yunxiu, about to say something.
"yes."
Yunxiu's heart suddenly sank, as if something was gripping her, and even her breathing became stagnant. She looked at Yan Xiu, waiting for him to continue.
The sound of dripping water in the cave was like a slowed-down pendulum, and each drop hit the bluestone slabs, splashing tiny water droplets, and also hitting Yunxiu's tense nerves.
Yan Xiu's voice suddenly rang out, interrupting Ying Tang's words. He took two steps forward and stood in front of Yun Xiu:
"We did go back in time with our memories."
As soon as Yan Xiu finished speaking, Yingtang clenched his hand that was holding the banyan leaf.
She obviously hadn't expected Yan Xiu to admit it so straightforwardly, without even a hint of concealment. Wu Yizhe subconsciously looked towards Yan Xiu, then quickly looked away.
Yunxiu leaned against the cold rock wall. The first contact of her back with the rough stone caused a sharp pain in the wound, and cold sweat streamed down her temples. Her fingertips unconsciously stroked the pendant on her chest. The amulet, refined from the tail feathers, still had a faint warmth, as if echoing her surging emotions.
"Back in the past..."
She repeated these four words, her voice hoarse as if it had been sandpapered.
"Why can I...go back to the past?"
Yan Xiu took two steps forward, his dark-colored suit brushing against the gravel on the ground with a slight sound. When he stopped, he was standing exactly three feet in front of Yun Xiu, a distance that didn't seem oppressive, yet allowed his gaze to remain firmly locked with hers.
"yes."
He nodded, and a very faint wisp of cold white divine power gathered at his fingertips. The divine power swayed gently in his palm like a weak flame.
"At the end of your previous life, the divine essence within you resonated violently with the remnant soul of the Ancient God. The glowing bead you swallowed when you transformed was the last bit of the Ancient God's divine essence scattered within his spiritual veins, and it also served as the bond connecting you to Him."
"That divine essence has been dormant within you for several years... When it is activated, the ancient god will be resurrected."
Yan Xiu lowered his voice even more.
"Zhi Huan wanted it, the lives of all the people in the world, in exchange for the resurrection of the ancient god. We couldn't stop it... it was too late. When we opened our eyes again, we were back to the time before everything began."
"Why am I the only one who... has no memory?"
Yunxiu pressed on, the trembling in her fingertips becoming more and more noticeable. She couldn't tell if it was the excitement of getting closer to the truth or fear, but she recalled all sorts of unusual things.
The sudden collapse of immortal power during sword practice, the lingering cries in nightmares, the strange ability to hear people's voices, and the uncontrollable fluctuations of divine power in the body every time he approached Yan Xiu... If all these can be explained by "being impacted by the vortex and the memory is sealed", it seems that they can really be strung together into a thread.
Yan Xiu's Adam's apple rolled, and his eyes fell on Yun Xiu's pale face.
"You are the vessel of divine energy and the center of the vortex, and you have been impacted more severely than any of us. Perhaps it's because your spiritual veins not only retain the divine energy of the ancient gods, but also the residual energy of the vortex. These forces are entangled with each other, sealing away your memories of your past life. As for your ability to hear your inner voice..."
He paused, as if weighing his words. "Perhaps it's because the divine essence within you and our immortal power share the same origin, and our immortal power carries the obsessions of our past lives... Those obsessions are so profound that they can penetrate the immortal power and be captured by your divine essence."
"There's another possibility," Yan Xiu said after seeing her deep in thought, "Maybe you didn't go back to the past. In your previous life, maybe you didn't die in the end—of course, we couldn't see it then."
Yunxiu didn't say anything, just looked down at his palm.
There was still the warmth of Yan Xiu's grip just now, as well as the slight numbness from when it merged with his divine power.
The broken images she saw: the crimson lava, the surging tsunami, and the golden figure standing in front of all living beings... Could it be that those were not illusions, but fragments of memories from the destruction of the world in the previous life?
"Last time...we failed to protect you."
Yingtang's voice suddenly rang out. She wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, walked to Yunxiu, and the light green spiritual power at her fingertips gently brushed across her wound.
"By the time we discovered you were connected to the Ancient God, Zhi Huan had already gathered most of the scattered divine power, and the Ancient God's residual soul was about to condense into form. We wanted to take you away and find a way to sever your connection with Him, but it was too late..."
As she spoke, her voice began to tremble again.
"In that final catastrophe, the sky collapsed and the earth split, lava spread across half the continent, and the ocean waves swept away entire villages... All of us died in that apocalypse."
Yunxiu's heart suddenly sank. She could clearly sense the genuine fear churning in Yingtang's heart as he spoke these words.
Like ice-cold water, it flowed down her senses, chilling her fingertips. But she remembered what Yingtang had said in her heart just now -
"He should have been killed earlier."
"He" or "she"? Who is it? Is it Zhi Huan, or... Yan Xiu?
Wu Yi also stepped forward:
"Yes, in our last life, we always wanted to wait until you were older and your immortal power was more stable before telling you the truth, but we missed the best opportunity. This time, we came back to find a way to quickly break your connection with the Ancient God and prevent the destruction of the world from happening again."
Yunxiu raised his eyes and scanned the faces of the three people.
This seemed to be perfect, but she always felt that something was wrong.
Perhaps it was because she had been overloaded with information lately. Countless fragments of information were swirling in her mind, making it difficult for her to fully believe the words before her.
"If what you say is true, then in the previous life, when did the world end? How did Zhi Huan help the ancient gods gather divine power? And... was Senior Brother Yu Wei's eyes also blind in the previous life?"
Yan Xiu seemed to have anticipated her asking these questions. He answered directly without hesitation:
"The destruction of the world in the previous life took place seven days after June 22nd. Zhi Huan started from Yaoxi Mountain and killed all the immortals who relied on divine power to transform—including Senior Brother Yu Wei. Because he could sense the flow of divine power, Zhi Huan was afraid that he would do something bad, so he killed him from the beginning. Perhaps he still retained a trace of memory, which is why he reacted like that when he suddenly came here."
He paused, then added, "Zhi Huan's method of collecting divine energy is cruel. He extracts the energy from immortals, condenses it into a ball, and offers it to the Ancient God. Those creatures that fail to transform, such as the plants, birds, and beasts in the mountains, are not spared either. Although the spiritual energy within them is weak, it also derives from the divine essence. Zhi Huan uproots them and burns them to ashes, allowing the spiritual energy to disperse back into heaven and earth, where it will then be collected by the Ancient God."
Yunxiu's fingertips trembled slightly. She recalled the scene she had seen in the illusion: Senior Brother Yu Wei was injured by a dark shadow, shrouded in a cold white divine power, identical to Zhi Huan's. If Yu Wei had truly been injured by Zhi Huan in her previous life, then in this life, were his words at the cave entrance, "Don't trust anyone," a reminder that Zhi Huan was close by?
"Then why did the ancient gods... want to destroy the world?"
Yunxiu pressed on, "Didn't He use His divine body to block the calamity that occurred ten thousand years ago? Why would He turn around and kill the very beings He protected?"
Yan Xiu's face darkened. He raised his hand, and the cold white divine power in his palm glowed even brighter, illuminating the solemnity in his eyes.
"Because all living things possess divine power."
His voice was almost cold and calm.
"Ten thousand years ago, the ancient gods transformed their divine bodies into the earth, dispersing their divine power throughout the mountains, rivers, and streams. This divine power followed the spiritual veins, seeping into the roots of plants and trees, melting into the ripples of rivers, and even entering the bodies of mortals through grains. Living things grow nourished by heaven and earth, eating food imbued with divine power, drinking water imbued with divine energy, and naturally, their bodies are imbued with the aura of divine essence."
He took a step forward, and the bloodstains on the bluestone were blurred by the soles of his shoes.
"The ancient god's remaining soul relied on incense to nourish it, but when the incense stopped burning, his spirit began to dissipate bit by bit. He discovered that the divine power in all living beings was actually the power he had dispersed in the past. He wanted to reclaim this power and rebuild his divine body, but the only way to reclaim it was to make all living beings disappear completely. Because the divine power had merged with the flesh, blood, and souls of all living beings, only by killing them could the divine power be dispersed back into heaven and earth and absorbed by him."
"What is Zhihuan...?"
Yan Xiu glanced at her and seemed to realize something. But he remained calm:
"Zhi Huan is the darkest part of the Ancient God's soul, formed from his resentment, anger, and greed. Ten thousand years ago, when the Ancient God incarnated into the mortal world, this part of his soul failed to merge with the heaven and earth, and remained hidden in the spiritual veins of Yaoxi Mountain. It was not until his previous life that he sensed the Ancient God's remaining soul was about to dissipate, and he awoke to help the Ancient God gather divine power."
He paused and added, "Zhi Huan always believed he was fulfilling the will of the Ancient God, but in reality, he simply mistook his own paranoia for the gods' orders. The more people he killed, the more divine power he collected, and the stronger he became. In the end, even the Ancient God could barely control him."
Yunxiu's breathing became increasingly rapid. She could sense the cold white divine power within Yan Xiu's body fluctuating slightly as he spoke these words, creating a subtle resonance with the divine essence in her heart.
This resonance is faint but real, like two drops of water gently touching in a stream.
But she still didn't dare to believe it completely. She subconsciously touched the half jade pendant in her arms. It was Senior Sister Jing Er's thing.
"In the previous life, Senior Sister Jing Er... also died?"
Yan Xiu's gaze fell on the jade pendant in her hand, and a complex emotion flashed across his eyes, so fast that it was hard to catch.
His voice softened. "It happened even earlier than this. In a previous life, Jing Er followed her uncle down the mountain to help the world and encountered Zhi Huan. Zhi Huan discovered the pure immortal energy within her, so he killed her and drained it away. Later, when Yu Wei heard the news, he desperately went down the mountain to find her, but he too was injured by Zhi Huan, blinded, and ultimately died in the world-destroying tsunami."
Yingtang's tears fell again, and she raised her hand to cover her mouth to stop herself from crying out loud. Yunxiu could clearly feel that the sorrow surging in Yingtang's heart was even thicker than before, like ink that could not be dissolved.
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