Ninety: Memories

The untouched, naturally formed dead sea lay silent and still, as though no turbulence of any kind could ever arise there. It seemed utterly lifeless, as if all things had existed since the beginning of time and would never know decay or renewal.

"Come out. I know it’s you, and I know you’re here, Confucian cultivator Yu Yicong. Or should I call you—Awakened Wisdom?" Rong Ling stood with his hands behind his back, facing a stretch of rock.

The stone was no different from the others: the same heavy black color, the same huge and awkward shape. Yet after his words fell, ripples gradually began to stir upon its surface, spreading in widening circles like water. The boulder slowly vanished, and where it had been stood a tall, elegant man with refined features and a handsome face.

He looked as though he were merely on an outing and had run into an acquaintance, carrying himself with the same effortless ease and grace, showing not the slightest shame or panic at being discovered.

"So I underestimated you after all. Or rather, I underestimated the one who awakened you... Tan Su?"

"Uh... it’s Han Su." In a contest between masters of this level, Han Su had no intention of interrupting, but since he had mispronounced her name... she felt it only proper to correct him.

Though Yu Yicong was praising her and repeating her name, his gaze never once rested on her. He had no interest in whether she was Tan Su, Han Su, or Lan Su; a mere bystander could never draw his attention.

Yet after she corrected him, he turned and examined her properly. "Not bad. I couldn’t even remember your name—looks like my defeat was inevitable."

"What happened to the Nether Empress?"

"Heh." Yu Yicong shook his head with a smile, his tone tinged with mockery. "So you all have been completely bewitched by her. She’s perfectly fine, better off than either of us."

"Where did you take her? Hand her over." Rong Ling stepped forward, his expression calm and composed, looking at Yu Yicong as though certain the man would comply.

"What do you know?" Yu Yicong made no move at all, as if he had not heard him. Tilting his head, he smiled with amused curiosity and asked instead.

"Rong Ling! Why waste words with him? Awakened Wisdom! Return the Nether Empress to me at once!"

Xuan Ting’s voice came from afar. Huai Yin and Suo Yun, having also received the message, were racing over with all their speed. Once the gate of memory had been opened, Xuan Ting’s cultivation seemed utterly unrestrained; in just a short while, he had already reached perfect Golden Core stage.

In only moments, he had closed in before Yu Yicong. In his hand was a staff-like magical treasure, one he had forged himself when he was still Ji Yanzhi, imbued with lightning. It was deep violet-black throughout, faintly glowing with cold white light that drifted over its surface like a vicious, venomous snake, ready to strike and bite at any moment.

The treasure extended to Yu Yicong’s chest, close enough to touch. Yet he showed no reaction whatsoever, still as calm as drifting clouds and light breeze. It was as though what threatened to bore through him the next instant was not a tool that could leave a scorched hole in his body, but a tender green willow branch in spring, or the first plum blossom of Jiangnan.

Rong Ling likewise made no move, merely watching silently as Xuan Ting turned his weapon against Awakened Wisdom.

But in the end, Xuan Ting’s staff did not thrust forward. After holding out for a moment, he finally let it fall in defeat.

"Return the Nether Empress. For the sake of your hard-won cultivation, I will not pursue what came before. Otherwise..."

Hearing him, Awakened Wisdom’s expression grew even colder. Then, sweeping his gaze over the others, he burst out laughing.

"Will you swear it upon your inner demon? If I return the Nether Empress to you unharmed, will all that came before be reduced to dust?"

Xuan Ting hesitated, glancing around at Rong Ling and Huai Yin before saying, "I swear it upon my inner demon."

Yu Yicong seemed entirely unconcerned. With a casual flick of his hand, a figure appeared upon the ground: the Nether Empress. Then, with a look at them all full of hidden meaning, he drifted away like willow catkins in the wind.

"Nether Empress!" Xuan Ting was the first to rush over, and Huai Yin quickly gathered beside her as well.

This was Han Su’s first time seeing her.

Though that name had appeared in her life for a very, very long time, and though she had once secretly tried to imagine her appearance, she had to admit that even after layering upon her all the most beautiful elements she could think of, she still could not capture even a tenth of the real woman’s radiance.

What a body of exquisite allure, what a face.

Huai Yin was already the most delicate and beautiful person she had ever seen, yet he could still not compare with his mother.

Though she lay on the ground with her eyes closed and her form faint and weakened, and though Yu Yicong had not deliberately posed her when bringing her out, even this simple posture, which might have seemed somewhat bedraggled to ordinary eyes, displayed her splendor to the fullest.

So beautiful was she that to add even one inch would be too much, and to subtract one inch too little; no words could adequately describe her charm. Even Han Su, as a girl herself, felt that this was a face she had drawn countless times in her imagination, and yet one she could never truly draw no matter how hard she tried.

No wonder such an extraordinary woman had caused so many realm lords to lose themselves over her.

It took quite some time before Han Su could tear her gaze away from that face. She stole a glance at the others. Huai Yin looked filled with filial longing, admiration, and nervousness; Xuan Ting’s eyes were full of anguish and devotion; even Suo Yun seemed stunned by her beauty, her expression dazed, unable to recover herself for a long while.

And Rong Ling? Han Su looked toward him almost unconsciously, only to find that his gaze had already caught hers, and he was looking back at her. Han Su felt as though she had been caught in the act, and her face flushed red at once.

"It seems her condition is similar to mine before: her primordial spirit has been excessively depleted, and she can only awaken after long-term accumulation of spiritual energy and repair through medicinal elixirs. This is not a place for discussion. We should return to her palace first."

The father and son, still immersed in sorrow, at last heeded Rong Ling’s words. Carefully lifting the Nether Empress, the group returned once more to that magnificent palace.

Since Huai Yin was both the Nether Empress’s bloodline and a wood spirit root endowed with powerful restorative and regenerative abilities, he was the most suitable one to help her recover. Xuan Ting taught him several methods, and he immediately began treating his mother.

Only then did Rong Ling have the time to ask in detail about what had happened back then.

Although they had finally found the Nether Empress, as long as she remained unconscious, none of them could truly relax. So though a burden of worry had been temporarily lifted from their hearts, no one felt like celebrating with wine. They simply sat down in haste and began to speak.

Xuan Ting glanced at Han Su and Suo Yun. Rong Ling nodded and said, "They are not outsiders. They are both closely connected to this whole matter, so speak plainly."

Only then did Xuan Ting recount everything one by one.

"Back then, because I loved drink, I would often drink myself into utter darkness. The Nether Empress and I quarreled over it, and she returned on her own to the Mansion Sea Realm. I was happy to enjoy a few days of ease, so I did not go after her. Who knew that one day Awakened Wisdom would call me to the Bodhi Realm, saying he had obtained a jar of fine wine buried beneath Bodhi by the Buddha himself in ages past, called ‘No Thing.’"

"So you went?"

"Yes." Xuan Ting’s voice grew dim. "I went to the Bodhi Realm without telling the Nether Empress. That wine truly was no ordinary thing. I monopolized that full jar and felt that life could only be truly unrestrained if lived this way."

He let out a faint, long sigh and stopped there.

"And then?" Suo Yun could not help asking.

"And then? At dusk I rode home drunk, knowing nothing at all. After one great drunken stupor, when I awoke, a thousand years had already passed in the world."

"While you were drunk, the Nether Empress was busy making preparations to endure her tribulation."

"Yes. I never imagined that wine could make me sleep through a thousand years. Just as the Nether Empress’s five-hundred-year thunder tribulation drew near, Huai Yin was also nearly due to be born. If the child was born at that time, the thunder tribulation would multiply severalfold, far beyond anything the Nether Empress could withstand."

"So Cangyun stole the Heaven-Piercing Mirror for her."

"Yes. Later, when I saw the Nether Empress, I learned that that bastard Awakened Wisdom had also gone looking for her. Not only did he fail to tell her where I was, he even told Cangyun that if the Heaven-Piercing Mirror were hidden away for a period of time, it could deceive the heavenly law. Once the child was safely delivered and the Nether Empress had recovered, the mirror could be returned, and she would need only endure a single thunder tribulation.

After that, you know the rest."

"Later, Cangyun truly stole the Heaven-Piercing Mirror and brought it to the Nether Empress. Who would have thought he accidentally awakened the mirror’s spirit? Disturbed by the spirit, he went mad with ferocity. While chasing after the Nether Empress, he was stopped by me. But by then he was already nearly at the strength of a Golden Immortal, and I was no match for him. I was severely wounded."

"Then the Nether Empress hid you first, and while your Rohsing Realm’s Hexi secret realm was opening, she gave birth to the child and concealed him there. She lured Cangyun into the Bodhi Realm. That bastard Awakened Wisdom then took the opportunity to guide the nearly demonic Cangyun back from the brink, collecting enough merit for himself that he was on the verge of ascending."

"But without the Heaven-Piercing Mirror, he could not open the path of ascent..."

"Exactly. Fortunately, while the Nether Empress was helping Cangyun under those conditions, when neither of them could move, she took the Heaven-Piercing Mirror away first and hid it securely. Otherwise, would the rest of us not have merely worked for that bastard’s benefit?!"

Recalling what had happened, Xuan Ting was still filled with indignation, cursing Awakened Wisdom without pause.

"Then... if Cangyun was guided back from the brink, does that mean..." Perhaps because she had once personally opened Cangyun’s sealed heart, Han Su had always felt a kind of pity for him. Hearing this, she could not help asking after his fate.

"As an earth immortal, one is given one chance of reincarnation. Cangyun was reborn." Rong Ling glanced meaningfully at Suo Yun and said.

"Reincarnation..." Since seeing the Nether Empress, Suo Yun had been somewhat absent-minded; hearing this, she too slipped into that same strange state Xuan Ting had once fallen into.

Aside from Rong Ling, the others looked at her in astonishment.

"No wonder she always felt so familiar, and yet somehow not quite right." Xuan Ting stared with wide eyes and murmured to himself.

"She is... Cang, Cangyun? But wasn’t Cangyun a man?" Han Su stared blankly at the reborn Suo Yun, then stiffly turned her neck to look at Rong Ling.

Seeing her expression, Rong Ling smiled with satisfaction and nodded.

"After reincarnation into a mortal body, one need not necessarily remain the same as in the previous life."

Suo Yun had already absorbed all of her memories. Her entire bearing had changed greatly, and more importantly, unlike Xuan Ting, she was somewhat conflicted.

On one side was the goddess she had deeply loved in her past life; on the other, the son of that goddess, whom she had inexplicably come to love in this life...

To love him, perhaps, was only because of transference of feeling...

...