Wanxi Rebirth - Chapter 97

【Do you want to go with Yue Tingxi?】

While Yue Tingxi was having a private conversation with Qingyu Shanren, the voice of the 7364 System suddenly echoed in Qin Suoliu’s mind.

【If you wish, I will transfer the system privileges to you. Even if she loses her spirit or exhausts her divine power, with the energy I have accumulated over the years, you will still be able to bring her soul back intact.】

“…What do I need to do?” Qin Suoliu asked. “And what’s the cost?”

【Nothing at all. No cost is required. This is a debt that Xi Sheng and I owe you.】

— She agreed immediately.

Setting aside the seventy-nine cycles of reincarnation she hadn’t yet been informed of, focusing only on the previous life, she owed Yue Tingxi her life.

The “Death-Bond Wedge” was a forbidden technique she had practiced multiple times, but it still belonged to the methods of demons and monsters. Even if Yue Tingxi trusted her, she would still fear making a mistake.

Regardless of 7364 System’s motives, at least now she had the confidence to bring Yue Tingxi home.

— The tea gathering was brief, perhaps because Qingyu Shanren was in a bad mood. The White Jade Flying Boat soon reached Xishan.

Ro Yanzha hadn’t even finished recounting the events of the past three years.

Seeing Yue Tingxi about to leave the flying boat and realizing they would soon depart from the current timeline, she bit her lip but called out to her old friend.

“Can I keep my memories?” she asked. “If all the causality is altered from the very beginning, I want to remember everything that happened in this life.”

She still wished to preserve the bonds she had with all important people and beasts: Yue Tingxi and Miss Qin had saved her from Hongchen Hall, the Qin family had treated her well, and the Xishan beasts regarded her as family.

Chan Ying had helped her cleanse and refine her body, and the great beasts of the mountains had taught her more and more powerful techniques, enabling her to walk further on the Dao.

If given a chance to start over, she still wanted to meet them. If her strength allowed, she even wished to personally retrieve the Bifang egg from the Xuan Shui secret realm, nurture it until it hatched, and name it, keeping it by her side.

She did not want these bonds to be severed simply because of a restart.

“Of course,” Yue Tingxi nodded, easily backing up her memories.

She had always been hesitant to interfere with memories, so until now, she had only backed up the memories of friends and family who voluntarily asked her to do so.

Bifang swallowed the shrimp in its mouth, obediently hopping beside her and bowing its head, allowing her to preserve its memories.

Once the White Jade Flying Boat landed, Qingyu Shanren immediately performed a teleportation, bringing everyone to the place where Ba She was sealed.

Deep within Xishan, the prison chamber was empty. The chains that had once bound Ba She still rattled in the breeze.

“This should be the area with the deepest causal connection to Ba She,” Qingyu Shanren said, casually tossing the golden scale onto the ground and watching it transform into human form.

Xie Zhi did not rise, instead laying out a dark golden array on the ground.

The flowing colors and exquisite symbols on the array stirred Yue Tingxi and Qin Suoliu, both feeling moved.

“Go in, I will send you to that period,” Xie Zhi said. “However, my consciousness cannot accompany you. If you return and still wish for me to live and atone, remember to reforged me.”

As expected, she earned a disdainful glance from Qingyu Shanren.

Qin Suoliu did not enter the array, but she knew that her soul, in the form of the system, would follow Yue Tingxi.

Unaware of this, Yue Tingxi looked once more at her beloved before entering the array.

“You… quickly go home and report to Aunty Lan,” she said.

“Mm, I’ll go back after sending you off,” Qin Suoliu lied, borrowing words once spoken by Lin Fengqing.

Yue Tingxi sensed something.

She felt that if they were parting at this moment, what Miss Qin would say shouldn’t be this sentence.

But the array had already formed. Considering she herself was about to depart, she decided not to dwell on the details and just nodded: “Then I’ll go… I will definitely come back.”

A dark golden pillar of light rose from the array, surrounding Yue Tingxi with innumerable arcane characters, exactly as she had seen after her death in her previous life.

Xie Zhi stood outside the array, continuously performing seals with her hands.

Her body gradually became semi-transparent, and when the array was complete, the only visible part of her was a single hand still performing a seal.

Even though she had long prepared for death, knowing that she was destined to die due to the World Consciousness—whether in battle or for atonement—when death truly arrived, she realized that, like ordinary beasts and humans, fleeting memories flashed before her eyes.

She could not hold onto the deities she cared for, nor approach her cherished companions.

The word “ordinary” felt wonderful.

If she had the chance to restart, she only wanted to exist as an ordinary scale-shaped magical tool, eventually nurturing a spirit and becoming human…

Never to have any connection with the origin of the world again.

…

…

Several thousand years ago, in an unknown place.

Yue Tingxi felt herself submerged in boundless darkness for a long, long time, as if all her spiritual and physical strength had been drained.

At some point, she vaguely heard someone calling her.

【…Ting…Yue…Xi…!】

She even suspected she was hallucinating. Otherwise, how could she hear Qin Suoliu’s voice in the past?

Soon, she felt a familiar softness touch her.

…There seemed to be a furry sensation wrapping around her hand.

This made her uneasy, and she struggled to pull herself out of the chaotic state, instinctively shouting in her mind: “Qin Suoliu?!”

【Yes, I’m here.】

“…Why are you here?!” Yue Tingxi panicked. “I told you not to follow! You’ll get caught up in causality that has nothing to do with you!”

【I am now the system, and am not bound by the causality rules of this world.】

“You’re the system? Then where is 7364 System?” Yue Tingxi asked.

【After transferring the system privileges to me, ‘she died’.】

Yue Tingxi fell silent.

She should have realized long ago that 7364 System, like Xie Zhi, harbored a will to die.

If they wanted to die, fine. But why, at the very end, did they have to manipulate Miss Qin as well?!

Even Lin Fengqing doesn’t try to stop them!!

But the person had already arrived. She could no longer return to the original time, and besides… Qin Suoliu probably wanted this anyway. Yue Tingxi annoyed herself briefly before forcing calm and opening her eyes to observe her surroundings.

At the same time, Qin Suoliu removed the isolation barrier.

A strong stench of blood filled Yue Tingxi’s nose. She frowned, spreading her divine senses, quickly taking in the surrounding devastation.

It was a ritual that sacrificed lives to summon otherworldly evil entities.

【81 dead, including 49 beasts.】

“…So that’s why they summoned beasts?” Yue Tingxi muttered, moving toward the summoning array.

Before she could get close, a filthy spiritual force shot toward her.

【Mainly composed of water spiritual energy, but seems corrupted, with corrosive and toxic effects.】 Qin Suoliu analyzed in time.

Yue Tingxi became more cautious, raising a barrier of intense fire in front of her. The dark water spiritual energy immediately evaporated upon contact, disappearing without a trace.

“So you are the so-called ‘powerful enemy’ they spoke of?”

Next, she heard a voice almost identical to hers.

However, this person’s tone was deathly and exhausted, like someone crawling out of a mountain of corpses.

“I’m not. I came looking for you,” Yue Tingxi said. “If you mind being forcibly bound by the sacrifices, I can sever it.”

“I can’t see through your cultivation. If you can sever the bond, could you be the incarnation of the World Consciousness?” The other’s thoughts were surprisingly clear.

“Come with me, and I’ll tell you everything,” Yue Tingxi said, deliberately turning.

【Beware of attack!】

The other herself did not obey. With Qin Suoliu’s warning and guidance, countless water-energy blades formed instantly, attacking Yue Tingxi from all directions.

【That is Qin family instrument mastery!】 Qin Suoliu said sternly. 【If she still has a bond with me… Tingxi, try using Qin family sword techniques; I will teach you the patterns!】

With system assistance, it was truly a wonderful feeling. Yue Tingxi had just blocked three projectiles when she had already mastered Qin family sword techniques.

She immediately condensed the twin blades commonly used by Qin Suoliu, cloaked in fire, and swung at the other herself!

Perhaps recognizing the Qin family techniques or the origin of the blade, the other’s movements lagged slightly.

This half-step delay allowed Yue Tingxi to strike her in the stomach, mentally conjuring layers of silver-gray chains that bound her tightly.

“Why do you know my late wife’s sword techniques?!”

She heard the other’s annoyed, unwilling, yet slightly tearful question. “The Qin family has long fallen. Where did you learn this?!”

Even knowing this was a possible timeline, the words “late wife” pierced Yue Tingxi’s heart painfully.

Whether it was a side effect of rewinding time or Xie Zhi doing extra work when activating the array, her “Heartless Dao” seemed to have unlocked on its own.

Heartbroken, she did not immediately answer. She burned all the corpses inside the cave, destroying the evil array, and carried the other herself outside.

For now, the area was empty, though the sky was gloomy, and the air damp.

“Miss really dislikes this kind of weather,” Yue Tingxi sighed, then asked, “I’m Yue Tingxi. What should I call you?”

“…Ba She.”

“Not ‘Ling Jian’?” Yue Tingxi was surprised.

“Doesn’t matter. Whatever the summoner wants to call me, call me that.” The other seemed slightly impatient.

“Then Ling Jian it is,” Yue Tingxi said. “It’s about to rain. This isn’t the place to talk. I’ll look for a cave nearby.”

She likely wanted to find a place with rich spiritual energy for the ritual. The area was deserted, and inns or tea houses were out of the question.

Ling Jian was sensible and didn’t resist, only asking as Yue Tingxi carried her: “Who are you? You look and dress just like the World Consciousness’s human form… How could you…”

She did not mention the “Qin family sword technique,” perhaps feeling emphasizing it again would make her seem obsessed.

“Qin Suoliu is my Dao partner,” Yue Tingxi said. “She’s alive.”

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