Chapter 636: The Final Chapter: The Path of Reincarnation (Part 2)

Chapter 636: The Final Chapter: The Path of Reincarnation (Part 2)

Countless memories once again flooded into his mind.

He seemed to see a cheerful blacksmith, tirelessly working the forge every day, sparks flying, and always grinning widely.

His life was mundane, and his favorite pastime was fishing.

Each time he went fishing, he felt a sense of satisfaction.

He lived in his little world, and his wife often complained about his lack of ambition, believing he was destined to be a blacksmith in this small town for the rest of his life.

Later... an invasion of demonic forces from beyond the realm occurred.

As a Jinzu of the Divine Court, he fought on the front lines.

Unfortunately, the power of the Divine Court giants paled in comparison to those otherworldly demons.

A fishing line descended from above, with a gleaming hook, and he was caught.

It was just like the fish he usually caught.

He died, leaving behind only a lifeless husk.

That husk was a metallic vessel.

This time, his wife wept inconsolably, never again complaining about his lack of ambition.

"This is his story."

"When you delve into the stories of each person... they are all so captivating."

Qi Yuan sighed.

It was as if he had stumbled upon a kicked dog on the roadside, and upon exploring its heart, it too had its own tale, its own joys and sorrows.

Unfortunately, people are different from each other, and species differ, entangled in interests, competing for survival, and all living beings engage in struggles.

"Now, it's the story of the Fire Ancestor..."

"Now, it's the story of the Earth Ancestor..."

"Feather..."

...

"Little Green..."

He stood by the shore of July Lake, reflecting on the pasts and lives of these people.

After an unknown amount of time, he opened his eyes, his gaze clear and lucid.

The nearby Dragon Judge, who had been standing there all along, straightened up, as if wanting to ask something but hesitating.

"There's no rush. Once I return to the mortal world, they will naturally revive and live again."

"They can choose to live in the present or in the future."

"If they complain that I brought them back to suffer in this world, they don't need to find me. They can just return to nothingness."

Upon hearing this, the Dragon Judge's expression was filled with uncertainty.

After all, not having witnessed the revival of the Five Ancestors and the return of old acquaintances, he couldn't help but feel unsure.

Qi Yuan didn't pay much attention to these concerns.

Just then, a gentle female voice echoed.

A woman in a blue robe with a slender figure approached.

"I don't know where you came from, nor your name, but what brings you to the Moon Emperor Dynasty?"

Her voice carried a hint of apprehension.

Qi Yuan glanced at the woman and said softly, "A guest from above."

As his words fell, his figure vanished, leaving behind only the blue-robed woman, who was shocked, and the dazed Dragon Judge.

It was as if all of this had been a dream.

"In the mortal world, the wood attribute is revered, and Gu Qi is honored. You... should also be a part of the Master's lineage, or perhaps... a coordinate. It's because of you... that Xiao Jia came to my side?"

Qi Yuan lay on a branch of the ancient Gu Qi cypress, his hand reaching up as if he could grasp the sun, moon, and stars.

"Holding the sun and moon, plucking the stars, there's no one in the world like me."

Qi Yuan murmured.

With a wave of his hand, a faint, pleasant fragrance wafted through the air.

Jin Li sat in Qi Yuan's embrace, her bewilderment vanishing, replaced by a gentle moonlight-like warmth in her eyes.

"Actually... does this count as us meeting many times before our first face-to-face encounter?" Qi Yuan asked.

"In all timelines, I want to be the first."

The woman in his arms turned her head, and her soft lips met his.

...

In the vast desert, there was a river, but no setting sun.

"Indeed, this world, hidden from the sun and moon, lacks a Jindan like me."

"Your sun has arrived."

Qi Yuan muttered to himself.

Ahead lay the City of No Return.

In the past, Qi Yuan had stood here alone, facing off against demonic forces.

No, he had Xiao Jia by his side.

Now, Qi Yuan stood there, gazing at the city walls from a distance.

The walls were empty, not a soul in sight.

He looked into the distance, where two figures were trudging through the dust and sand.

One carried a military flag, and the other cradled a bottle of wine.

They had to stop and rest frequently as they walked.

In the future, they would head to the City of No Return's garrison and eventually die from their injuries.

Qi Yuan glanced at the two figures, and his figure vanished.

He reappeared on a battlefield.

Bloodstains were everywhere, along with severed limbs.

This was the site where the soldiers of Song Zaiying had fallen.

"I once said that I was destined to become a Daluo Jinxian, and I would remember them."

"Even though my memory isn't the best, I still remember them."

"Not only that..."

"I not only remember these NPCs with their stories, but I also remember those... without names, those who only appeared as background characters, mere numbers on a screen."

"I remember you all."

He looked at the corpses, some old and frail, others young and naive.

They were someone's father, child, husband... or perhaps themselves.

Qi Yuan observed them carefully, committing them to memory, along with the sand beneath his feet.

After an unknown amount of time, his figure flickered again.

In a dilapidated village, a pig was eating pig feed in a pen.

This pig didn't seem to be well-fed, and it was thin and pale.

"Is this the uncastrated pig that Chen Jiao keeps talking about?" Jin Si Que's crisp voice rang out, clear and pleasant.

"My dear, although my body and heart belong to you, I'd rather you do the castration yourself," said Ning Tao, taking a step back in her black skirt, her petite figure hiding behind Qi Yuan.

"Oh?" Jin Si Que realized something and clutched Qi Yuan's hand tightly, "I'm the most beautiful woman in Jiupanshan. My body is precious, and I won't let anyone castrate a pig for me!"

Obviously, this was not something she could do.

Jin Si Que was still as proud and willful as ever.

"You two..." Qi Yuan hesitated, "Shouldn't you ask the pig's opinion before castrating it? Does it want to be castrated?"

"Won't it taste bad if it's not castrated?"

"It doesn't seem to want to be eaten either?"

"But if you don't eat it, people will starve."

"How complicated."

Jin Sique and Ning Tao whispered to each other.

"Oh right, ask Chen Jiao. This was his pig."

"Is he dead?"

"On this timeline, there's still a bit of his True Spirit that hasn't dissipated."

Qi Yuan waved his hand, and it seemed as if a thread of consciousness was added to Chen Jiao's muddled True Spirit.

He immediately saw Qi Yuan, as well as Jin Sique and Ning Tao.

"Am I not dead?"

"Does that mean... it's true that after death, people go to the Netherworld?"

He looked at Qi Yuan, feeling extremely apprehensive.

In his eyes, this person should be the ruler of the Netherworld, a revered deity.

However, he felt that this person somewhat resembled the guardian of the City of No Return.

Unfortunately, he couldn't see clearly.

Facing such an existence, he didn't know what to say.

"Chen Jiao, do you still want to castrate your pig?"

"If you want to castrate it, you do it!"

"Huh??" Chen Jiao.

...

The Mortal Heart Realm.

Qi Yuan stretched lazily.

"No wonder the Blood Sun Grand Sage had a double Yang Shen. It turns out he had good luck and obtained a portion of the South Branch's inheritance."

This time, he arrived at the Mortal Heart Realm.

Here, he met many people and also discovered things he had overlooked before.

"Wu Shi came from the Netherworld, a world created by the South Branch, a collapsed universe.

No wonder the creatures that chased after her here were so weak. Was it because... this was also a dream of the South Branch?"

"As for the Ancestral Land... it's a product of the Yang Plane. When there's time, I can go and visit the old home in the Ancestral Land.

They helped me so much back then, so I should repay them in some way, right?"

Qi Yuan valued repaying kindness.

"Here, I realized that all sentient beings are me. In fact... this was also a preparation for my reincarnation."

Qi Yuan's resistance to the reincarnation of the Void Land was based on knowing all things and everything in the world.

All sentient beings being him was also part of this.

"It's a pity that there's a flaw in the concept of all sentient beings being me. I was still very weak back then."

"In that battle, everyone sacrificed themselves, like buying low-cost cards in the Cloud Summit, just to chase after me, a three-star five-cost card."

"Although I revived them using the power of all sentient beings being me and turned them into my Divine Baby, only the memories of the Heaven's Treasure Venerable were revived in my Divine Baby."

"Now... I can truly remember him, and also... many others, many NPCs."

Back then, in the group, the Heaven's Treasure Venerable knew he was in danger and his time was limited.

He wanted to give Qi Yuan the treasures that would help him break through to the True God realm.

Qi Yuan and the Heaven's Treasure Venerable had never met, and this was their only connection.

Later, the sky lit up brightly, and a pillar of light illuminated the night sky. Qi Yuan also learned of the Heaven's Treasure Venerable's death and met his granddaughter, Wang Wenqi, who brought the treasures for breaking through to the True God realm.

After an unknown period, Qi Yuan seemed to be deep in thought.

"Should I go and meet... Gu Shen Yuan? Could she be the original goddess of my hometown?"

After some thought, Qi Yuan decided not to meet her.

He looked up, through the passage of time, and seemed to see the swaying Celestial Pillar.

The Celestial Pillar was the backbone of the Mortal Heart Realm.

"I should... go and see her."

Qi Yuan recalled his three encounters with the Foodless Holy Mother.

He sighed inwardly.

On Wu Shi's timeline, the first time he met Little Wu Shi, she was weak and pitiful.

The second time he saw Wu Shi, she discovered the truth. She understood why she, as the Devouring Original Body and the Primordial Original Body, could eat fish. It turned out that she was eating Qi Yuan's blood.

At that time, with her Devouring Original Body's characteristics and her strength, if she had made a move, she might have been able to swallow a part of Qi Yuan through time and space. But in the end, she endured it.

This type of innate desire was not something ordinary people could suppress or control.

Even during their last meeting, she had a meal with Qi Yuan, eating ordinary fish.

At that time, Qi Yuan didn't know why she chewed so slowly. Was she afraid of fish bones?

Now he understood that she was enduring immense pain.

She was also telling Qi Yuan that her strength didn't solely rely on her physique; she had overcome the desires brought about by her physique.

She didn't eat him.

"I should go and see her too."

Thinking of Wu Shi, Qi Yuan also recalled the white-robed, snow-like, and cold woman in the Cloud Dream Palace, as well as the quirky girl Wu Shi in the Great Universe Realm.

Half a breath later, a graceful figure appeared behind Qi Yuan.

The woman was as cold as frost, as lonely as snow, and there was a hint of turbidity in her eyes, as if she had stayed in the Abandoned Land for too long, enduring the chaos of time and the descent curse.

Or perhaps her eyes were stained with hatred.

She stared at Qi Yuan, her voice hoarse.

"Should I call you Master, or should I call you my disciple?"

"Or should I call you... Master?"

Her sneer carried a hint of grievance.

...

Arching Star.

Robot Ling Yi stood beside Qi Yuan, holding a cat.

"The Ten Thousand Paths are composed of zero and one. Ling Yi, you're absolutely right."

"Games are made up of zeroes and ones, and the present world is just a large-scale game."

"If the Void Land is zero, representing nothingness, then my reincarnation is one, representing existence."

"Master, how many levels of computer exams have you passed?"

"Cough, this topic isn't important. Do those programmers understand zero and one better than me? Do they understand games better than me? Or do they understand creating worlds better than me?"

"Probably not as well as you." Ling Yi's voice remained mechanical. He turned his head and looked at the black-clothed man in front of him, "Do you think that if the Luo and Chen families hadn't been destroyed, he still would have been so determined to seek death?"

"Probably not. Back then... he was probably more sorrowful than dead."

"Should I help the master pack up this world and send it to you?"

"Forget it, no. I still need to respect their privacy!"

"Sigh, reincarnation is too difficult."

"The myriad realms... should implement family planning. Otherwise, when can I travel through them all, know everything, and create reincarnation?"

"Hey, should this stone be included in my reincarnation? But before it enters my reincarnation, your privacy might be slightly exposed, and I might see you bathing naked."

"Hey, why aren't you speaking? Are you shy?"

"Don't worry, I'm a humane person. I'll erase your memories!"

"Otherwise, with so many memories, my storage is insufficient, and I'd be miserable if my system crashed."

"This stone doesn't understand human words. Little Junior Sister is better, rich and beautiful."

"Right, I'll ask about Junior Sister's wealth. Is she willing to enter my reincarnation?"

"Junior Sister's wealth is probably very obedient."

...

In the Shenmu Universe.

"Heitian exists in the past and future, but not in the present."

"Am I... in the past now?"

In the vast Shenmu Universe, Qi Yuan walked for a very long time.

Different timelines, different time nodes.

Unfortunately, he met many people, and he also met Chen Kangbao.

However, Shen Lingxuan, the blind girl, and his master, Ruan Yixi, remained elusive.

He understood that Shen Lingxuan was a Heaven's Mandate Holder, a manifestation of an ancient oath from the Gu Qichun Wood.

In a sense, she was a part of his master.

"Yang Four exists in the past and future, and even the current me... can't see him?"

Qi Yuan felt a bit lost.

Back then, when he fought Heitian, it was, in fact, a battle across time and space.

The two had never met face to face.

And his master, Ruan Yixi, was a living being born from the oath of Yang Four, the Gu Qichun Wood.

Her existence was different from that of a typical Yang Four.

A typical Yang Four lacked a true spirit and existed in the past and future. Only when they reached the second stage of solidification would they exist in the present.

But she was born from a Yang Four who existed in the past and future.

This was the only such case in the myriad realms.

If not for Qi Yuan's special ability, she wouldn't have gained spiritual intelligence.

Therefore, she could only exist in the past and future.

"The reincarnation I seek is one without regrets, a perfect pursuit that remains unattainable."

"The current me is still too weak."

Qi Yuan sighed.

To see his master, first, his understanding of 'Dun' must surpass that of Dun itself.

Secondly, he needed to make significant progress on the path of reincarnation.

"The Shenmu Universe was born from you. Every blade of grass and every tree, their growth and decay, are all traces of your existence."

"Know all things, enter reincarnation."

At this moment, Qi Yuan became a traveler.

He traversed the Shenmu Universe across different timelines.

He seemed to hear his own murmurs, narrating the stories of 'Journey to the West' and 'Romance of the Eastern Chamber.'

He seemed to see a solitary Gu Qichun Wood standing in the vastness of the universe.

The clouds drifted, and the rain fell, but she couldn't hear the pattering sounds. Instead, she heard a single voice.

In the wilderness, the lone qin huang stood, and no one shared this with her, but someone told her about many beautiful sights.

The thunder in the sky remained silent, as if unwilling to speak to her. Fortunately, she had someone to confide in.

In the marshland, the white wormwood and cocklebur thrived and bloomed, but she couldn't appreciate them. It seemed like she was waiting for something.

"Know all things, understand sentient beings, and control reincarnation."

"Master, I know too little about you."

He had walked through the entire Shenmu Universe.

He had seen flowers, trees, insects, fish, birds, and beasts, as well as clouds, thunder, rocks, and iron.

Yet, his understanding of his master remained limited.

He possessed stillness and reincarnation, and although he could travel through time and space, he couldn't touch any traces of his master.

He could only occasionally glimpse fragments of scenes and hear disjointed words.

"Hey, who are you? What's your name?"

"Qi Yuan?"

"Then should I be called Yuan Qi?"

"Hmm... no, Yuan Qi?"

"Ruan Yixi."

"I want to open the seven apertures."

"Who am I?"

"Who are you? What's your name?"

"Don't remember?"

"No name?"

"Then I'll call you..."

"Little Blood?"

"Little Robe?"

"Blood Robe!"

"Let's get a divorce!"

"Stick together."

...

"Hey... did you give me my eyes?"

Countless whispers, murmurs, and fragmented scenes filled his vision and hearing.

Qi Yuan felt like he could reach out and touch them.

But he couldn't.

"Reincarnation... what's missing?"

Qi Yuan murmured.

He didn't know how long he had walked, and he had forgotten about time. He left the Shenmu Universe.

He seemed like a madman, a lunatic, or a forgetful cultivator.

He traveled through the past and future and existed in the present.

He knew all things and understood them, perfecting his path of reincarnation step by step.

"I forgot, I still need a sword."

"The Sword of Forgetfulness."

The Sword of Forgetfulness, transformed from his Yang Four, was forged by the Wealthy Dao Deity, a sword disciple.

This sword could sever the descent curse.

It could cut away unnecessary memories.

There were too many things in the world, and in different timelines, there were too many possibilities.

"The Great Mind of Forgetting can't erase it."

"What about the Sword of Forgetfulness?"

"I don't exist in the present, nor do I come from it. I exist in the past and future."

"Temporarily sever all chaotic memories, leaving only those related to the master?"

He seemed to have discovered something.

"It's purer."

"So... this is the path of Dun."

"Is this the past and future of Dun?"

"Can the current me be considered Yang Six?"

"Keep walking?"

As the path of reincarnation expanded, Qi Yuan continued his solitary journey.

His strength and realm constantly improved.

He knew no fatigue or weariness, constantly wandering outside of time.

His strength and realm continued to soar.

He surpassed Dun, then the Heavenly Emperor, and finally, Stillness.

More and more Yang Sixes were left behind.

He seemed to be getting closer and closer to the Void.

One day, he grew tired from walking, his legs ached, and he felt lonely.

After all, he was an ordinary person, and it was normal to feel lonely when walking and avoiding ants.

"Together, we are as one."

At this moment, a small bride in a red wedding dress appeared and said, "Qi Yuan, I'm Xiao Jie!"

"Stick together."

This time, it wasn't a wooden plaque.

[The End]



(End of Chapter)

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