Chapter 110

"... Who are you calling?” Fan Wu She said in a hoarse voice.

Xie Bi An's face was full of tears. His heart was aching like it was wrung. His mind was in chaos and he spoke incoherently, "Xiao Jiu, Xiao Jiu bled so much. Xiao Jiu was my younger brother, then he grew up, he ..." He froze, his eyes looked ahead vacantly for a long time, before he whispered. "He said that he hated me."

Fan Wu She gasped. His body shuddered uncontrollably, and a terrible thought struck him ---- Xie Bi An might have remembered his past life!

He looked at the pale, fragile, dazed person in his arms, and could no longer tell whether the soul curled up inside this shell at this moment was his big brother from the previous life or his senior brother from the present life. Does such a pained, bewildered, and disoriented expression belong only to Zong Zi Heng who was forced to submit to him?

If this person really remembered his past life, what should he do? What should they do?

Xie Bi An unconsciously gripped Fan Wu She's lapels, "He also said, said something about the throne, about me sitting on the throne?" He shook his head, "Is he fake or real? Who is Xiao Jiu, and who am I?"

At these words, Fan Wu She sighed in relief, "Senior brother, we've been caught in an illusion, you need to come to your senses."

"... Why does he hate me?"

Fan Wu She shook Xie Bi An's shoulder hard and said in a loud voice, "Senior brother, wake up!"

Seeing that Xie Bi An was still dazed and confused, Fan Wu She simply took out a water bottle from his Qiankun bag and poured cold water on his face.

Xie Bi An was quivering from head to toe and his eyes flashed clear and bright. His dark pupils gradually gathered light. He looked at Fan Wu She with astonishment, with a strange look as if he had met him for the first time, and then his expression changed and he became significantly wary.

Fan Wu She's heart beat like a drum. Although Xie Bi An said nothing, he guessed that Xie Bi An had seen his own face in the illusion, and had seen - Xiao Jiu. Only the illusion was so indistinguishable from reality that Xie Bi An would have thought that his memory had been confused.

"Senior brother, what's wrong?" Fan Wu She pretended to ask in disbelief.

Xie Bi An took a deep breath, "Wu She?"

"What's wrong, can't you recognize me?"

Xie Bi An reached out his hand and slowly caressed Fan Wu She's face. His fingertips lightly touching the end of his hooked eyes and his tone still confused: "You are Wu She?"

"Of course I am Wu She." Fan Wu She said, "Senior brother, look around you, we are under an illusion. Whatever you saw in the illusion, don't take it seriously. Take a good look at me, I'm the real thing."

As Xie Bi An looked around, he realized that they were in an abandoned temple, and his memory slowly returned. He then remembered that they were tired of rushing and had come across an abandoned temple, so they decided to sleep here tonight. They cooked their usual meal over a fire, slept on the ground, and set up a protective barrier.

His memory stopped before he fell asleep, and they never entered any town from the start to the end.

Xie Bi An stood up from the ground and spun nervously, "Who put the spell on us?"

"I don't know, it's likely the same person who manipulated the snow demon to attack us."

"Are you alright?" Xie Bi An looked at Fan Wu She up and down.

"I'm fine."

"Luckily you are awake ..." Xie Bi An was frightened and broke into a cold sweat after regaining consciousness. If both of them were in the illusion and unable to extricate themselves, wouldn't they be taken advantage of by others? "But you are not under the illusion?"

Naturally, Fan Wu She could not tell him that it was Wuya in the Soul Token who had sensed the danger and woke him up: "I was not asleep, so I was the first to sense that something was wrong."

"Did you catch the other party’s trail this time?"

Fan Wu She's gaze condensed, "I saw a person outside the abandoned temple. I couldn’t see whether it was a man or a woman. I didn't dare leave you here alone, so I didn't chase after them. The Cangyu Sect's magic is so evil. I don’t know how the other party hid. They most likely followed us all the way here."

"Bastard." Xie Bi An gritted his teeth, "That illusion spell made me see so many real and fake things. If it wasn't for you, I would have drowned in it and not have been able to wake up."

"The illusion is just that. It confuses, distorts and adds fuel to your memories, making it difficult for you to distinguish between them." Fan Wu She said in a confident tone, "Whatever you saw in the illusion, don't believe it."

"But ..." Xie Bi An was full of sorrow, "I saw memories of my past life, people I had seen in my dreams, and things I hadn't dreamed of before." He didn't dare to say that Xiao Jiu in his dream had the face of Fan Wu She. It must be an illusion that was making him lie to himself. But that inn, the digging of Xiao Jiu's core, and the "throne", were all created by him after he had fallen under the illusion? Is it possible that the illusion brought out his deepest, buried memories of his past life? After all, whenever his spirit weakened, the memories of his past life would invade him. That time he fainted at the Eight Trigrams Platform, was injured at Diancang Peak, and was affected by Qi Meng Sheng’s immense spiritual pressure at Fenglin Continent, the memories of his past life were like a fragmented jigsaw puzzle that he was being forced to recover piece by piece.

"What is it?"

"Xiao Jiu said that I stepped on him to sit on the throne."

Fan Wu She narrowed his eyes and did not speak.

"When I couldn't see my past and present lives on the Three Life Stones, I guessed that I might be a reincarnation of a celestial being and perhaps have been an emperor, but that was only a guess after all. I couldn't confirm it and didn't want to, so I didn't take it seriously."

"Even if you had been an emperor, so what? For millions of years, there have been endless emperors and kings, and you said so yourself that you didn't want to be bothered by what happened in your previous life."

"I don't want to, but the memories of my past life won't leave me alone." Xie Bi An's face could be described as gloomy like dark clouds, "Those who can't let go of the past have deep obsessions, and to break them, they have to solve their karma. I have never wanted to pay any attention to it and don’t want to be bothered, but perhaps, only by solving the obsessions of my past life will those memories let me go."

Fan Wu She's expression couldn't stop sinking and his gaze became gloomy and cold. He slightly tilted his head to prevent Xie Bi An from seeing his true emotions, "Then what exactly did you see?"

Xie Bi An thought back for a moment, and the name of that inn appeared before his eyes ---- Gutuo Inn.

How odd. Usually, ordinary inns will have some peaceful and auspicious name. If the owner had ink in his belly*, he would inevitably have to pose as a culture lover. The two words "Gutuo" made people unable to think of any meaning behind it, unless it was a place name. Whether the inn had a name or not was irrelevant, so it probably wasn't an illusion, but a part of his past life. An insignificant part, yet it’s one of the only clues he had at the moment.

He read out the name of the inn.

Fan Wu She's heart shook, "What did you say?"

"The Gutuo Inn." Xie Bi An said, "According to Xiao Jiu, I was the one who took him out to have fun and stayed at this Gutuo Inn, and then a group of men in black rushed in and killed him and dug up his core." He added, "At this time Xiao Jiu was still a child."

Gutuo Inn was a name Fan Wu She could not possibly forget in two lifetimes. It was an inn where he had stayed on his first trip out of the palace with Zong Zi Heng, and there they had been ambushed by the Lion Alliance. Zong Zi Heng had been seriously injured, and the two of them almost had their core dug out. He calmed his mind and asked in reply, "Xiao Jiu died? But then you said he had grown up."

"Yes, this is the place where contradiction happens. Xiao Jiu had grown up and come back to seek revenge on me." Xie Bi An said gloomily, "He said that I had harmed him and his mother. We seemed very close when we were young, and I don’t know why we had turned against each other after growing up." Although those were events from a life he did not know, the feelings in the dream were so real. He felt that he really had a younger brother before, and the loss of his younger brother had hurt him to the core, and what that younger brother had done to him when he grew up had humiliated him so much that he knew he could no longer stay out of it. Even if, regardless of everything else, that man had taken the liberty to "put on" Fan Wu She’s face. He could not allow such a psychological implication. He had to find out the truth.

Fan Wu She's tone grew colder: "Then you should ask yourself what you have done."

Xie Bi An was stunned, a little puzzled by Fan Wu She's attitude.

Fan Wu She lowered his head to cover up: "What you see in the illusion is hard to distinguish from the truth. Do you really want to rely on these falsehoods to find the karma of your past life?"

"You are right, but I believe that what I just saw must have been true." He gazed at Fan Wu She and said calmly, "Previously, I wanted to go to Meng Po after I returned to the Underworld and ask her to help me strip away the memories of my past lives and be free from them, but I've changed my mind now. I want to find out, I want to know what happened in my past life and what other obsessions I can't solve and can’t let go of even after I've been reincarnated. If I don't do that, I may never be able to gain peace."

Fan Wu She pondered for a moment, stretched out his arms and hugged him, "Senior brother, I don't want you to find out. The truth may cause you pain."

"I know, I already expected it, but ..." Xie Bi An buried his face into Fan Wu She's neck, smelling the warm, familiar scent, and his frightened heart was soothed, "Even though it was my past life, I felt that I had a younger brother, and I care so much about him that I want to know what happened to him."

"You don't want to know." Fan Wu She said deeply. The reason why he had treated the person in his arms with affection and love is because he had convinced himself that this person was Xie Bi An, who had never let him down, but if Zong Zi Heng's memories returned, how should he deal with himself, and what should he do with this person? The love and hatred from the previous life, not to mention hundreds and thousands of years, he could never let it go forever and ever.

Yet, there was another voice at the bottom of his heart, which was suppressed and imprisoned, which also kept saying that he wanted to see his big brother.

He wanted the memories he and Zong Zi Heng shared, and he wanted the harmonious love he had with Xie Bi An, but this matter was not destined to go both ways. The day Xie Bi An remembered everything, not only would Zong Zi Heng be awakened, but also Zong Zi Xiao.

Oblivious to the perilous situation in Fan Wu She’s heart, Xie Bi An closed his eyes and snuggled into his arms with a tired look on his face.

Afterwards, the two of them packed their bags and continued on their way. This time, they did not dare to rest any longer, and ran to Mount Tai in one go.

 

 ----

ink in his belly*[肚子里有墨水]--- have some culture

 

Edited on 17 Apr. 21 (Emzie)

 

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