Chapter 162

It was like a long nightmare. After being chased by nightmares until the end of no return, he stepped into a void and fell into an abyss of ten thousand feet, losing speed, losing weight, and losing control. He kept falling, falling, falling into endless darkness----

He huffed hard and then snapped his eyes open.

A blurred figure appeared in his vision. That man's mouth was opening and closing while saying something, but he couldn't see or hear clearly, and his head swelled with pain.

Where was this place? What was he doing? Who was this person? He distinctly remembered that he had ... died.

Could it be that this was the Underworld?

"Senior brother, senior brother!" The call was anxious.

He struggled to blink his eyes, and the face before him gradually became clear in the swaying void, it was ...

Zong Zi Xiao!

The hand that reached out towards him sent chills down his spine, and he let out a low cry of terror, backing away with his hands and legs, shrinking all the way to the corner as if he had run into some flooded beast.

His heart sank as Fan Wu She watched the fear on Xie Bi An's face. Perhaps, the most feared thing has happened.

His eyes widened as he carefully identified this face, a face of great beauty, a pair of demonic, hanging fox eyes, only they’re cold but not gloomy and with a touch of youthfulness still intact.

Vague, fragmented memories were rattling around in his mind. He couldn't tell the difference between dream and reality, or even if he had woken up. He was cold, he was frightened, and it was as if he had glimpsed a mystery hidden in the fog, but a hurried glimpse had left only fragmentary fragments.

"Senior brother, are you ... senior brother?"

"’Senior brother?’ What? ’Senior brother?’"

Xie Bi An seemed to have just woken up. His muddled eyes became clear at this moment, and he stared blankly at Fan Wu She. His heart beating like a drum, which was heavy and loud, even faintly aching.

What had happened? He dreamt that he had died, but the him in that dream was him and wasn’t him. He saw the experiences that were ‘his’, which were confused, scattered, and disconnected. Those fragments of memories were clearly unfamiliar and did not belong to him, but all the pain and despair were cruelly etched on him like a branding iron. When "he" died, it was as if he had died along with him.

But he was Xie Bi An. He was not dead.

Fan Wu She's heart crumpled into a ball. When he saw Zong Zi Heng's expression appearing on Xie Bi An's face, answering Official Lord Cui's question in Zong Zi Heng's tone, he knew that his big brother had returned for an extremely short duration. It has been a hundred years. He had endured the endless cruel torture and the pain of longing, and he had crawled back to earth from the infernal hell of blood and tears at all costs, just to see his big brother again, just to rectify the mistakes he had made in his previous life. However, when the remnants of his big brother's spirit appeared, he was unable to do anything due to the presence of Cui Jue.

Xie Bi An looked at Fan Wu She in bewilderment. This face, how could this be? Why did this face appear so often in those nightmares, bringing him endless fear and pain? He muttered, "... Wu She?"

"I am Wu She." Fan Wu She secretly clenched his fist, "Are you okay? Do you remember what happened?"

Xie Bi An shook his head in confusion.

"Bi An." A warm and calm voice rang out from above his head.

Xie Bi An looked up and saw the dignified and prudent Cui Jue, who made people develop a heart of respect at first sight. The Judge of the Underworld, Official Lord Cui, and gradually remembered what had happened.

"Do you feel that your memory is in a mess, that you cannot distinguish between dreams and reality?" Cui Jue squatted down. He touched Xie Bi An's head and used his index finger to draw a Pure Mind Technique charm on that bare forehead. The spiritual talisman flickered a few times and then disappeared, "This is normal. I summoned the remnant soul of your previous life into your body. You are under his influence, so you will remember some of the things that happened in your previous life and will also be confused with the memories of this life. We had talked about this before, do you remember now?"

The Pure Mind Technique soon took effect and Xie Bi An appeared to be getting more and more clear-headed as he looked around: "My, my past self possessed my body? I felt like I had a long dream, and a lot of things happened in my dream, but I don't remember many of them."

"Actually, only a very short time has passed." Cui Jue gestured to the incense holder on the table.

Xie Bi An glanced at it. The soul-calming incense that Cui Jue had lit during the soul summoning hadn't even finished burning halfway. This proved that only a few moments had really passed, but to him, it seemed like a lifetime had gone by. His heart suddenly raced and he said in a trembling voice, "So, I am ..."

Cui Jue nodded gravely, "You are the reincarnation of Emperor Kong Hua, Zong Zi Heng."

Xie Bi An gasped and his face turned white.

Fan Wu She turned his face away to hide the excruciating pain that dug into his heart and lungs.

"I am really the reincarnation of the Human Emperor ..." Xie Bi An said puzzled, "but, but why did the Golden Trunk Jade Policy point to a person from Yuzhou?"

"There are two possibilities: that Yang Yu of Yuzhou was indeed also a Human Emperor in one of his lives, or someone messed with the Golden Trunk Jade Policy." Cui Jue said, "I think it's most likely the latter, because Qi Meng Sheng doesn't just want anyone who has been an emperor before. She wants Emperor Kong Hua, who is the only one who is certain to have the imperial destiny, so she couldn’t get it wrong in the Golden Trunk Jade Policy, as she can directly find the reincarnation of Emperor Kong Hua."

"Who is capable of tampering with the Golden Trunk Jade Policy?"

Cui Jue shook his head, clearly confused as well.

"The one who first got hold of the Golden Trunk Jade Policy was Yun Zhong Jun." Fan Wu She said in a deep voice, "And the person who was with Yun Zhong Jun is, I guess, Huang Dao Zi's disciple, so if these two people intended to hoodwink Qi Meng Sheng, it may not be impossible."

"Why would Yun Zhong Jun deceive Qi Meng Sheng?"

This question caused all three to fall silent.

"No matter what, we have to go and save our master." Xie Bi An said, "If I have what Qi Meng Sheng wants, then we have more leverage." He got up and was about to get out of bed.

Cui Jue pressed him back down and said solemnly, "Bi An, your body is weak now, and most importantly, your soul is still unstable. When Zong Zi Heng's remnant soul possessed you, you reacted very strongly. In fact, in that half incense burning time*, you have experienced his whole life, but you won't fully remember it for a while. These memories will torment you even more frequently than before. You should be prepared for all this. What you need to do now is to get a good night's rest."

Xie Bi An frowned tightly, "I am worried about Master ..."

"How would Heaven Master be so easily defeated? Besides, he is not alone. The entire immortal cultivation world will join together to crush Qi Meng Sheng."

Xie Bi An tried his best to relax his emotions. He lowered his head, and after a moment of silence, he slowly raised his head and looked at Fan Wu She, whom he had always been avoiding to look at.

This face, his junior brother Fan Wu She, shared the same face as Zong Zi Xiao in his dream. Although he had known for a long time that it was because he had previously fallen under Yun Zhong Jun's illusionary spell that his memories were confused, but the fragment in his dream was too real, so real that it was horrifying.

Fan Wu She maintained his calm appearance and gently held Xie Bi An's hand, "Senior brother, do you have something to say to me?"

Xie Bi An opened his mouth, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Wu She, you go out first, I want to talk to Official Lord Cui alone."

Fan Wu She frowned, "Senior brother treats me like an outsider?" He knew that Xie Bi An had begun to suspect him, and his mind was in turmoil, not knowing what to do. Should he really use the Five Flavors Bewitching Soup?

"It's not related to this. You go out first." It was rare for Xie Bi An to act like an elder brother and order Fan Wu She, but at this moment his attitude was assertive.

Fan Wu She gave him a deep look, got up and left.

Cui Jue looked at Xie Bi An calmly, "Bi An, what you want to say has something that has to do with Emperor Kong Hua?"

"Official Lord Cui, I ... Although I don’t have all of Emperor Kong Hua’s memories,  I have seen many fragments." Xie Bi An held his head and pressed hard on his swollen and painful temples, "He seems, different from what we read in the history books."

In the history books, Emperor Kong Hua was resentful because he was not favored. He framed his brothers, killed his father the emperor, usurped the throne, and finally killed himself in a big duel with Zong Zi Xiao. But in his dream, although those memories were fragmented and incomplete, they were clearly different from what was written in the history books. He felt Zong Zi Heng's helplessness, powerlessness, guilt, pain, and Zong Zi Heng's full of tenderness and love for Xiao Jiu. He did not believe that Zong Zi Heng was a cold and heartless man with a lust for profit.

"History books are written by people, and people can be manipulated." Cui Jue sighed softly, "It's only been a hundred years and the truth has already been whitewashed."

"Official Lord Cui, I want to ask you something. I know it's not in accordance with the laws of the Underworld, but I hope you can tell me. This is very important." Xie Bi An grabbed Cui Jue's sleeve, like he had done when he was a child, begging Official Lord Cui to tell him a story.

"…What do you want to ask?"

"I want to know what happened to Zong Zi Xiao in the end."

Cui Jue furrowed his brow, "What do you mean?"

"Did Zong Zi Xiao also reincarnate?"

"As an Underworld General yourself, why are you still asking the obvious? Based on the killings Zong Zi Xiao committed, the best ending he could have would be to finish his punishment in the Infernal Hell and be reincarnated in the Animal Path, never becoming a human being again. In reality, he had already been reincarnated in the hellish path and turned into a resentful soul who doesn't remember anything."

The lower three paths of the Six Paths of Reincarnation are divided according to the rank of sins committed in life and punished by karma after death. From top to bottom are the Animal Path, the Hungry Ghost Path and the Hell Path.

The Animal Path, as the name suggests, is the path of being reborn as an animal in the next life, suffering from slavery or slaughter.

In the Hungry Ghost Path, one is reborn as a ghost citizen in Jiuyou. Although one cannot be a human being, one has three immortal souls and seven mortal forms, but one is always hungry and has to feed on human beings, animals or other ghosts. But not every ghost can go to earth, so being reborn in the Hungry Ghost Path means from the moment you are born, you have to try to eat other ghosts by all means, like Jiang Qu Lian, who probably ate thousands of ghosts and crawled out of the pile of fierce ghosts to become a Ghost King in red. As an aboriginal of Jiuyou, even the Great Emperor Beiyin had fear to a certain extent towards the Ghost King.

And the Hell Path, is the cruelest of the six paths of reincarnation. One will no longer have a physical body after reincarnation, but only a wisp of a grieving soul with no memories, tumbling and sinking in unending agony forever, unable to even die.

Zong Zi Xiao is burdened with tens of millions of human lives. It’s a sin that cannot be repaid.

This was something Xie Bi An had known for a long time. The entire Underworld, even on earth, was aware of this unrivaled Supreme Demon’s ending. However, what lingered in his mind was Fan Wu She's face, and he had an extremely bad intuition.

Cui Jue saw him frowning: "Bi An, what's going on?"

"Could it be, could it be that there is no possibility at all that he will be reincarnated as a human?"

Cui Jue shook his head very firmly: "It's impossible. A hundred years ago, in order to revive Zong Zi Heng, he tore through the Fengdu boundary and attacked the Underworld, forcing the Emperor to come out of seclusion to suppress it. He absorbed thousands of ghosts’ spiritual power through Yin cultivation, and for a moment gained a power that even the Emperor and the five ghost emperors could not counter. But in the end, his flesh was unable to bear the weight. His chakra broke and he died. He was originally meant to have his soul scattered, but the Emperor preserved his soul only to have him be punished, and after he had served a hundred years in the Infernal Hell, it was the Qin Guang King who personally guided his human soul to reincarnate into the Hell Path, so that he could never be reincarnated as a human being."

Cui Jue's words were not to be disbelieved, and Xie Bi An finally sighed with relief. Indeed he had thought too much, and it was all because of Yun Zhong Jun's illusionary spell that his own subconsciousness had given Zong Zi Xiao a face he was familiar with, which happened to be Fan Wu She's. The illusion had been so abominable that he didn't know how to face his junior brother.

Cui Jue said, "Bi An, why are you asking this question?"

"I ... I am just worried. Zong Zi Xiao is so powerful that he can make the whole earth go up in smoke."

"Yeah, that’s why he became a nightmare on earth for a hundred years." Cui Jue looked at Xie Bi An worriedly, "Bi An, you've just woken up now, you might not feel it very strongly yet, but as time goes by, you might remember more of what happened in your past life. I'm afraid you won't be able to bear it. If it really comes to that one day, you'll probably have to turn to Meng Po for help, otherwise you'll lose your mind."

Xie Bi An forced a smile, "Official Lord Cui, you don't have to worry. I will recite the Pure Mind Technique every day. If it still doesn't work, then I will think of something else. Right now nothing is more important than Master."

Cui Jue patted Xie Bi An's shoulder, "Then you should rest properly."

When Cui Jue had just stepped outside, Fan Wu She came in hurriedly. He walked hesitantly to the side of Xie Bi An’s bed and his face was tense.

Xie Bi An also looked at Fan Wu She. He took a deep breath, gave a gentle smile, and held out his hand.

Fan Wu She hurriedly sat down on the edge of the bed, took Xie Bi An's hand and asked probingly, "Senior brother, do you recognize me?"

"What silly words are you saying? Of course I do. I was a bit confused when I woke up, but I'm better now." Xie Bi An said seriously, "You are Fan Wu She." These words were clear, as if effort has been put into engraving them into his perception.

"I am Fan Wu She." Fan Wu She stared at Xie Bi An and felt unsettled.

The two of them looked at each other for a moment, and Xie Bi An suddenly wrapped his arms around Fan Wu She's neck and kissed him clumsily yet with certainty on the lips.

Fan Wu She was stunned.

Xie Bi An smiled stiffly.

Fan Wu She fiercely hugged Xie Bi An into his embrace, as if he was holding a lost and found precious treasure. His body trembling slightly: "Senior Brother ..."

Big brother.

 

 ----

PS: ahhh XBA took the initiative to kiss him ♥

 

half incense burning time*[半炷香时间]----2.5 minutes

 

Edited on 8 May 21 (Emzie)

 

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