After Bai Qianshuang finished speaking, the dining table fell completely silent. Even Lan Xiaoke stopped eating, still clutching the giant egg in her arms.
Luo Xi stood where she was, looking at Bai Qianshuang. She remained silent for a moment, then withdrew the hand she had raised to comfort her.
“Qian Shuang, how much did you see?”
Hearing this, Bai Qianshuang’s heart sank even further.
Luo Xi had not denied it outright, which meant she did have some recollection of that sword strike.
“When the old immortal realm was on the verge of destruction, you were standing behind me. I asked you to help me maintain the Imperial Formation and hold back those things from beyond the heavens.”
Bai Qianshuang spoke slowly, as if confirming each scene she had just witnessed.
“You pierced my body with the Imperial Sword, severed the Luo Xuan Imperial Seal, and took it away.”
After hearing this, Luo Xi’s expression gradually turned serious as well.
She closed her eyes and recalled the scene for a moment. A faint ripple soon appeared on the Imperial Seal between her brows.
“I remember that sword, and I remember standing behind you… As for the rest…”
Bai Qianshuang looked up at her. “You don’t remember why you wanted to kill me?”
“I don’t.”
Luo Xi answered directly. She did not try to find an excuse for herself, nor did she act aggrieved because Bai Qianshuang suspected her.
She simply pulled out the chair beside her and sat down, speaking softly. “But I believe I wouldn’t kill you without a reason.”
Bai Qianshuang said nothing.
She understood the Luo Xi of the present just as well, but the sword strike in her memory was simply too vivid.
Lan Xiaoke hugged the giant egg and shuffled a little toward the sofa, hoping to leave the two of them some space. But after only two steps, Fox Li caught her by the hem of her clothes.
“Lan Xiaoke, where are you going?”
“I think it’s not a good time to eat.”
“You haven’t finished the meat in your bowl.”
“Oh, come on… The mood is wrong.”
“…”
Lan Xiaoke lowered her head and glanced at the bowl. In the end, she silently sat back down, deciding to finish eating before judging whether the mood was suitable or not.
Ye Chuan paid no attention to their little exchange. He merely picked up the Silvermoon Token from the table and studied the dark-red ripples that had not yet completely faded from within it.
When Bai Qianshuang recovered her memories, the Silvermoon Token and the five ancient seals had reacted at the same time. This meant that those memories had not appeared out of nowhere. They had been awakened by some kind of aura with the same origin.
How strange. How could these seals awaken Qian Shuang’s memories from her previous life?
“Qian Shuang, describe the battlefield you saw again.” Ye Chuan looked at Bai Qianshuang.
Bai Qianshuang nodded lightly and soon began describing the scene she had just witnessed once more.
The old immortal realm had already collapsed. Enormous cracks had appeared in the sky, and dark-red mist was pouring in from beyond them. Ye Chuan stood beneath the firmament, holding back the Outer Gods.
She had been responsible for guarding the core of the immortal realm, while Luo Xi stood behind her, maintaining the Imperial Formation. Many other Emperors were fighting the Outer Gods nearby as well.
After hearing her out, Ye Chuan did not speak immediately. He only asked her to recall the scene one more time.
Although Bai Qianshuang did not understand why, she still closed her eyes and went over the memory again.
This time, she saw the same battlefield. However, a corpse that had originally been lying before the Immortal Palace suddenly appeared in the distance, continuing to fight.
Bai Qianshuang opened her eyes, her brows drawing together. “Someone had already died, but just now, they appeared on the battlefield again.”
“What else?”
Bai Qianshuang closed her eyes once more and carefully recalled the location of the immortal realm’s core.
She remembered guarding the core the entire time, but the Imperial Formation in her memory stretched across several Immortal Palaces. It was impossible for her alone to maintain it all at once.
Even stranger, when Ye Chuan stood beneath the firmament and held back the Outer Gods, he never moved from beginning to end.
No matter how the surrounding Immortal Palaces collapsed, his position, his movements—even the direction of his robes—never changed in the slightest.
Bai Qianshuang had never found this strange before.
Only after Ye Chuan asked her to recall the scene again did she realize that the person in her memory seemed more like a shadow forcibly inserted into the scene.
“I couldn’t see your face.”
Bai Qianshuang looked at Ye Chuan, and a trace of hesitation finally entered her voice.
“But I always felt that the person was you.”
Ye Chuan fell into thought as well. He had no memories of the event, yet he could not shake the feeling that something about Bai Qianshuang’s description was wrong.
Luo Xi also closed her eyes and searched through her memories. After a moment, she noticed the same problem.
She remembered standing behind Bai Qianshuang, but she could not recall where she had come from. She could not see what had happened before the sword pierced her.
The entire memory seemed to consist of only the middle portion.
It was as if someone had erased the cause that came before and the result that followed, leaving behind only the scene of Luo Xi thrusting her sword into Bai Qianshuang’s back.
How strange.
“Someone wanted Qian Shuang to remember only that I killed her.” Luo Xi opened her eyes, the smile completely gone from her face.
“As for why I attacked, that person didn’t want her to know.”
Bai Qianshuang was silent for a moment before asking in a low voice, “Could that sword strike have been false, too?”
“The sword was real.”
Ye Chuan did not deny the memory simply to ease the tension between them.
“But there are obvious inconsistencies in that battle, the people around you, and even me as I appeared in your memory.”
Ye Chuan placed the Silvermoon Token on the table, and the five ancient seals emerged along with it.
“Someone made you believe those errors were perfectly normal, so every time you recalled the scene, you never thought to question them.”
“I think—”
“Auntie Lilith, could you give me a hand?”
“…”
Auntie Lilith had not said a word since the beginning. When she heard Ye Chuan, she finally placed her hand on the Silvermoon Token. Pale violet source magic swiftly spread across the surface of the token.
The dark-red aura hidden deep within the moon pattern immediately reacted. It shrank inward as though it had encountered a natural enemy.
“Corruption. It’s those things.”
Lilith stared at the dark-red ripple, her tone noticeably colder.
“This kind of thing won’t directly create an entire memory for you. It only needs to alter a few key details, then make sure you never question them.”
Lan Xiaoke looked somewhat confused. “What does that mean? Those disgusting things tampered with her memories?”
“More or less.”
Bai Qianshuang paid no attention to them. She simply watched the Luo Xuan Imperial Seal gradually illuminate in her palm.
The sensation of being pierced through by the sword was still incredibly clear.
She could even remember the chill of the blade, as well as the sight of Luo Xi catching the Imperial Seal before she collapsed.
Those details were very likely real.
What had truly been altered was what happened before the sword strike.
“Why would the Outer Gods want me to hate her?”
Bai Qianshuang looked at Luo Xi. Her eyes were no longer as cold as before, but they still held confusion she could not resolve.
Luo Xi suddenly smiled, though her tone gradually returned to its usual lightness.
“Maybe they thought we were too close, so they decided to make you hate me first.”
Bai Qianshuang stared at her for a moment. “Luo Xi, you still feel like joking at a time like this?”
“We can’t stop eating just because I was stabbed in a past life.”
Luo Xi picked up the soup bowl in front of Bai Qianshuang and replaced it with another bowl that had cooled to a comfortable temperature.
“You can keep suspecting me. Once we recover the real memories, you can decide whether you want to be angry with me.”
Bai Qianshuang lowered her head and looked at the bowl of soup. Only after a moment did she softly respond.
“The Empress’s memories…”
“Interesting…”
Ye Chuan watched the two Empress marks slowly resonate with each other and soon sensed that another memory was hidden between them.
Strange. Could even the Outer Gods affect New Tianxuan’s mark?
Ye Chuan withdrew the five ancient seals into his body, then turned to Bai Qianshuang and Luo Xi.
“Get some rest tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll recover the true memories.”
Bai Qianshuang did not object.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
Cheng's father told him he was getting remarried—to a wealthy woman. Cao Cheng realized his time had finally come: he was about to become a second-generation rich kid. Sure, it might be a watered-down version, but hey, at least he'd have status now, right? The wealthy woman also had four daughters!! Which meant, starting today, Cao Cheng gained four stunning older sisters?? But that wasn't even the whole story... "My name is Cao Cheng—'Cheng' as in 'honest, smooth-talking gentleman'!"
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
