The Past I Don't Want to Recall

The moment he was struck by the black beam of light, Gu Changyuan felt his vision abruptly go pitch black.

The surrounding space instantly collapsed and distorted, as if he had been violently dragged into an endless abyss of darkness. Even his divine soul trembled in response.

The darkness lasted for only a single breath before Gu Changyuan felt the solid touch of the ground beneath his feet. He slowly steadied himself and found that he was standing on a flat expanse.

His surroundings were still shrouded in a darkness so thick it felt impenetrable.

Only faint, eerie blue streaks of light slowly flowed through the gloom, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

The ground he stood upon was nothing more than the massive wreckage of a fallen meteorite.

Its surface was uneven and covered in cracks, with patches of dark red bloodstains that had dried up countless ages ago.

This was... the Ruins of Disorder.

Gu Changyuan was all too familiar with this place.

A crevice between the myriad heavens and realms, a corner forgotten by all living beings.

The creatures lucky enough to survive here had no choice but to use these exposed meteorite fragments as their makeshift dwellings.

And right now, Gu Changyuan was standing on exactly such a fragment.

His gaze fell upon himself.

And then, he saw it.

In his hand, he was gripping a broken sword.

Only half of the blade remained, its edge riddled with chips, and dried blood clung to the hilt.

His hands were also covered in blood. Some of it had already coagulated into dark red scabs, while some was still fresh, dripping slowly from his fingertips.

Around him lay seven corpses.

The farthest one had been severed at the waist, its upper and lower halves separated by several yards.

Closer to him were two bodies split perfectly down the middle, their halves lying on either side.

Even closer was a corpse with its chest completely pierced through; a fist-sized bloody hole went from front to back, the surrounding skin charred and curled.

As for the remaining three, one was decapitated, another had its bones completely shattered, and the last was covered head to toe in sword gashes...

Shattered weapons and torn scraps of clothing were embedded in the surrounding meteorite wreckage. The air was thick with the heavy stench of blood and death—a scent so familiar it made his heart clench.

And lying right in front of him was a woman.

Her clothes were in tatters, and her body was riddled with a dense cluster of puncture wounds. Even her face had not been spared. The hideous injuries made it obvious she had been repeatedly stabbed with a sharp weapon in an act of extreme, vengeful fury.

Embedded in her left eye was the broken half of a sword blade.

The shape of that broken blade perfectly matched the jagged edge of the severed sword in Gu Changyuan's hand.

It was glaringly obvious that he was the owner of that broken sword.

Looking at this suffocatingly familiar scene, a powerful wave of nausea instantly swept through Gu Changyuan's entire body.

Closely following it was a bone-deep loathing, a sense of bitter unwillingness, and self-mockery that drowned him like a tidal wave.

Those past memories he had deliberately buried deep and refused to touch, the betrayals and slaughters he thought he had long forgotten, were all forcibly dredged up in this moment. They were displayed vividly before his eyes, every single detail blindingly harsh.

Gu Changyuan instantly clenched his jaw, his knuckles turning white. The grip of his right hand on the sword suddenly intensified, and with a sharp crack, he crushed the broken sword to pieces with sheer force.

The shards slipped from his hand, mixing with the blood dripping from his fingertips, and hit the ground with a crisp clatter.

...

In the outside world, the large-eyed mutated beast at the bottom of the cliff saw Gu Changyuan hovering in the air above, his eyes vacant and his body stiff. It was clear he had fallen into the mental illusion it had created. A flash of smugness crossed its eyes as it instantly launched a lethal attack.

Countless white laser beams shot out from the small eyes on its tentacles. Densely packed like a torrential downpour, they surged toward the sky, seemingly intent on turning Gu Changyuan into a sieve and annihilating him completely.

"Hee hee hee... hee hee hee..."

The cold, mocking laughter echoed once more. The beast acted as if victory was already in its grasp, certain that Gu Changyuan was doomed to die.

However, the moment those lasers were about to strike Gu Changyuan, a defensive secret art planted within his body automatically activated.

A golden barrier instantly materialized around him, blocking every single laser beam.

"Ahhh—!!!"

Seeing that its fatal strike had actually been blocked, the beast instantly grew agitated, letting out an angry roar.

It flailed its countless tentacles once more, firing even more and thicker laser beams. Like a raging flood, they blasted toward Gu Changyuan, determined to shatter the barrier and kill him.

Just as the lasers struck the barrier again, Gu Changyuan suddenly snapped back to clarity. The vacancy in his eyes completely faded, replaced by an extreme, ruthless coldness.

He raised his right hand toward the incoming lasers and clenched it fiercely. Those violent beams instantly shattered, turning into nothingness and dissipating into the air.

He slowly raised his head and closed his eyes. His left hand gently rested over his face, his fingertips trembling slightly as if suppressing surging emotions.

The next second, he abruptly opened his eyes, and the emotions hidden in their depths completely erupted—

"Heh heh heh... Hahahaha!!!"

A low sneer gradually morphed into maniacal laughter. The sound, laced with fury and killing intent, echoed across the sky above the cliff.

It shook the surrounding air until it trembled, even causing the black pool below to ripple.

His eyes held an absolute ruthlessness.

An almost crazed expression surfaced on his face.

"I truly never expected this," Gu Changyuan's voice was piercingly cold.

"To think you actually possess the ability to completely bypass all mental defenses, create a spiritual illusion space, and cast someone directly into their heart's darkest moment."

He lowered his head, his gaze falling upon the mutated beast.

That gaze was as freezing as ten-thousand-year-old ice.

"How many years has it been," he muttered.

"How many years has it been since I thought of that event."

"How many years has it been since I felt such absolute rage."

Step by step, he walked down through the void toward the beast.

With every step he took, the oppressive aura surrounding him surged exponentially.

The mutated beast cowered on the ground. Its countless tentacles thrashed wildly, yet it did not dare to get any closer.

"To think that the memories buried in the deepest depths could be dredged up by you."

Gu Changyuan stopped in his tracks.

He looked down at the beast from above, a cold smirk curling the corners of his lips.

"Well then—"

His voice was terrifyingly calm.

"Are you ready to face the torture that comes next?"

In that instant, the large-eyed beast felt as though it were being targeted by a terrifying entity from the primordial era.

Just that gaze alone felt as if it had already torn it into pieces.

Extreme terror simultaneously surfaced in its myriad eyes.

Flee! Run away!

The beast instantly felt countless thoughts screaming in its mind; every cell was howling, and its entire soul was telling it:

Run! Run! Run!

Its tentacles violently braced against the ground. Hundreds of them exerted force all at once, launching its massive body off the earth.

It wanted to dive back into the black pool, sink into the deepest mire, and never come out again.

But in the very moment its body leaped up and was still suspended in midair—

Gu Changyuan spoke.

"Nine Tribulations Sword Array, Third Tribulation—Divine Sealing Domain."