ATAVID CH109

Unexpectedly, an accident occurred during Xuan Jin’s regression this time.

Perhaps because the number of times he regressed the cycle of reincarnation was too frequent, it had long since exhausted most of his divine power. After forcefully binding Jiang Qunyu’s destiny to Wei Xun’s, he could no longer spare any remaining energy to manipulate the subsequent trajectory of Wei Xun’s fate.

Fortunately, all the plot progression was set to begin ten years later when Wei Xun stepped into Jinghu City. Xuan Jin could temporarily return to the mortal world to find his lost soul and spirit, and then head to Jinghu City once that mortal body grew up.

When the time came, they would meet in Jinghu City.

He had originally planned it this way.

However, when his divine soul entered the body and took up residence inside Wen Xingyao this time, he did not wake up as smoothly as he had the last time.

He slept within Wen Xingyao’s body for another full ten years. By the time he opened his eyes again, Wen Xingyao had unexpectedly already become acquainted with Wei Xun and Jiang Qunyu.

At that time, he had not yet completely taken control of this body. He could only assume the posture of an onlooker, coldly watching Wen Xingyao—this completely oblivious idiot—sincerely befriending and interacting intimately with Jiang Qunyu.

He could never help but scoff lightly, thinking to himself how despondent Wen Xingyao would be when he fully woke up and discovered that the mastermind behind all of this was himself.

He highly anticipated Wen Xingyao’s reaction, yet he also forgot that he and Wen Xingyao were fundamentally the exact same person.

He possessed Wen Xingyao’s memories, and he also possessed his own memories. Therefore, when he saw Wen Xingyao being carefree and without worries, he would feel an extremely subtle emotion.

On what grounds could Wen Xingyao forget all past events, lightheartedly possessing close friends, a master, and the warmth of being accompanied by fellow disciples, only worrying about his cultivation progress each day and calculating where opening a shop would be most profitable? Meanwhile, he had to shoulder the memories of thousands of years, only able to seek a fleeting moment of respite within those memories.

However, this surging resentment and unwillingness was mostly a mere flash in the pan, suppressed into the depths of his divine soul in the next instant.

He still proceeded according to his established plan, unhurriedly pushing the chess game forward. The progress of the situation was even a few fractions smoother than he had anticipated.

Sure enough, an inner demon possessing independent consciousness was far more useful than the original inner demon Wei Xun had in the previous timeline.

Even before stepping into Jinghu City, Jiang Qunyu had already died three times.

As long as he died four more times, Wei Xun could become a Heavenly Demon Body just as he wished. But while getting along with the two of them in the identity of Wen Xingyao, Xuan Jin suddenly remembered one thing: it was fine for Wei Xun to care about Jiang Qunyu, but if Jiang Qunyu also came to care about Wei Xun, let alone the seventh soul dissipation, he probably wouldn’t even be able to manage the fifth time from the previous timeline.

In a flash of realization, he remembered the Bitter Ferry Parasite.

The sub-parasite of the Bitter Ferry Parasite could gnaw away at one person’s affection. One person having love while the other had none was the most suitable option to be used on the two of them.

His remaining divine power could no longer influence Wei Xun and Shen Peiqiu, but it could influence Cui Mingjin. He told Cui Mingjin that he could use the parasite to make a deal with Wei Xun to send his wife to the Wangchuan River. Cui Mingjin did exactly as he said, successfully delivering the parasite.

Everything should have returned to the right track, yet a variable descended once more without any warning.

This was already the fifth time he had forcefully regressed time. Five cycles of reincarnation joined end to end, with long periods of time superimposed, had already quietly spanned several thousand years.

Over these thousands of years, he had walked past the Heart-Interrogating Mirror outside Tiandu City countless times, reviewing every choice he had made along the way over and over again.

Avenging a blood feud, gathering souls for rebirth, and rebuilding the old capital—he walked every step with absolute determination and certainty. Interrogating his heart thousands of times, he had never wavered in the slightest, nor did he feel he was even half in the wrong.

He did it for the tens of thousands of dead souls of Tiandu, for his unjustly killed parents and clansmen—what wrong could there be?

But he never imagined that during that death trap inside the underground palace of Jinghu City, before he had completely fused with that lost soul and spirit, Wen Xingyao’s original consciousness would override his divine soul and take control of this body.

The moment Yun Shuangjian’s fatal strike pressed before his eyes, Jiang Qunyu had blocked in front of him without the slightest hesitation, protecting him with his own divine soul and saving Wen Xingyao.

In that instant, a very faint nuance surfaced in Xuan Jin’s heart. He told himself that the one Jiang Qunyu saved was Wen Xingyao, not Xuan Jin. The two had absolutely nothing to do with each other.

It was clearly a matter worth rejoicing over. After all, he hadn’t expected this idiot Wen Xingyao to be of some use; Jiang Qunyu had died a fourth time, leaving only three more times to achieve success.

Yet when he truly regained control of the body, he couldn’t help but imitate Wen Xingyao’s demeanor and tone when interacting with Jiang Qunyu.

It was truly laughable.

Fortunately, it was merely a thin, faint nuance, insufficient to make him alter his plan. Furthermore, in this round of regression, even without his covert and forceful intervention, Wei Xun’s trajectory of destiny actually overlapped perfectly with the previous timeline without the slightest deviation.

In order to forge a physical body for Jiang Qunyu, he became the new master of the Demon Realm and “kidnapped” Shen Peiqiu. Rumors mixed with truth and falsehood caused the conflict between the Cultivation World and the Demon Realm to grow increasingly intense.

In the eighty-seventh year of Xiping, Jiang Qunyu’s soul dissipated for the seventh time, and Wei Xun’s sword way achieved great success.

Everything went as smoothly as Xuan Jin had thought, and the Resurrection Grand Array began to operate.

But it was Wei Xun again.

For the first time, he regretted why he had chosen Wei Xun back then.

Wei Xun was just like him; all the people he cared about had died because of the Cultivation World, so he ought to be just like him, slaughtering every single cultivator. He was now the best sharp blade, immortal and indestructible. Wouldn’t it be good to use this power that rivaled a deity to kill all cultivators?

Yet Wei Xun stayed inside that broken tower of his for over a decade.

Idiot! A thorough and complete idiot! Jiang Qunyu isn’t coming back; no matter how long he waits in that broken tower, he will never wait out his return!

After finally managing to get him to come out of that tower, Wei Xun would rather believe in those vague and illusory rumors than act according to his imagination.

Even Qin Shiyue said, “My Lord, is he out of his mind?”

Xuan Jin remained silent without speaking, finally scoffing lightly: “Let him be. If that Heavenly Dao were truly useful, I wouldn’t have walked to this step today.”

Despite calculating everything, he hadn’t expected to end up with an ending similar to the previous timeline. Should he regress time once more?

But if he did it again, the variables in the next round would only be greater, and it might not be any smoother than this time. Moreover, his divine power might not necessarily sustain him through another regression of the timeline.

Fortunately, the grand array to resurrect Tiandu had already been activated, and the power of resentful spirits lacking this time was far less vast compared to the previous timeline. After thinking it over, Xuan Jin abandoned this plan.

Over the next hundred years, he claimed to the outside world that he was in secluded meditation, but in reality, he was collecting resentful spirits together with Qin Shiyue. Even Su Fuyao, whom he had long forgotten, was remembered by him.

Using the fragments of Lan Yuanzhou’s remnant soul as bait, he hoodwinked Su Fuyao into being used for his purposes, agreeing that every time a thousand resentful spirits were gathered, he would provide a clue regarding one soul or one spirit of Lan Yuanzhou.

In the ninety-eighth year of Changning, Xuan Jin sensed that the Deity’s Fall Ground would land within the Nine Serenities.

His divine power was diminishing. To be safe, he needed to find the second divine bone within the secret realm. With the divine bone supplementing his divine soul and stabilizing his divine power, even if this round of the Resurrection Grand Array fell through at the final step, he could once again destroy his divine core and regress the timeline anew.

He informed Qin Shiyue that the Deity’s Fall Ground would land in the Nine Serenities.

Qin Shiyue had originally only intended to go confirm the location, but he encountered Wei Xun there.

More than a thousand years ago, after Qin Shiyue ignited one of his souls to open the Deity’s Fall Ground, his divine soul became unstable. In addition, he was only at the Void Refinement Stage, possessing absolutely no chance of victory against Wei Xun, who was at the Integration Stage. Therefore, very quickly, Wei Xun pulled off a bait-and-switch, using his identity to stay in the Nine Serenities, waiting for the Deity’s Fall Ground to manifest in the world.

In the one hundred and twenty-fifth year of Changning, Xuan Jin finally gathered enough power from resentful spirits to drive the Resurrection Grand Array.

Using the excuse of arranging a wedding to bring good luck to Qin Shiyue, he entered the Nine Serenities and saw Qin Shiyue locked inside the幽幽殿 (Youyou Hall / Lock幽 Hall).

Qin Shiyue felt very guilty; over these twenty-seven years, he hadn’t done anything for Tiandu.

Xuan Jin said, “No matter. Facing Wei Xun, even I would have very few chances of victory.”

During the last regression, Wei Lan, whose cultivation had barely touched the Deity Transformation Stage, was still able to scatter one soul and one spirit of his during a fierce battle, causing him to plummet into the mortal world and sleep for a full twenty-two years. Let alone Wei Xun, whose cultivation had long since far surpassed the Wei Lan of back then, and whose temperament was cold, fierce, and unpredictable. If a conflict truly broke out, the outcome would be hard to predict.

“My Lord,” Qin Shiyue asked, “if that divine bone is truly snatched away by Wei Xun, will we still be able to regress time next time?”

Xuan Jin didn’t speak. Right at this moment, Jiang Qunyu appeared again.

Xuan Jin had seen the true appearance of Jiang Qunyu’s soul, so he naturally knew that the person who broke into the Lock幽 Hall was Jiang Qunyu. He was actually somewhat shocked because he had never thought that the vague and illusory rumor could actually be true.

He utilized Jiang Qunyu once again, making Wei Xun give up on entering the secret realm to look for that divine bone. Originally… he had intended to kill Jiang Qunyu within the secret realm.

On what grounds? Wei Xun truly got his wish? Without having to experience everything he had experienced, without having to regress time like him, and without having to shoulder a thousand years of hatred, he could resurrect the person he loved?

Their… their experiences were clearly almost identical.

Both of their parents died because of the Cultivation World, and both possessed the same obsession to resurrect their loved ones.

But this time, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. That thin, faint nuance ultimately acted like a pebble falling into a calm lake, rippling out one ring of waves after another.

He had already deceived Jiang Qunyu once and utilized him once. Could it be that now, he had to kill him again with his own hands?

Could he truly walk past the Heart-Interrogating Mirror with absolute composure again?

In the very brief instant before he was about to step into the Heart-Interrogating Mirror, when he had clearly already noticed that Jiang Qunyu was testing him, Xuan Jin regretted it.

At the very least, in front of Jiang Qunyu, he was still Wen Xingyao.

Regrettably, from the day Xuan Jin completely fused that soul and spirit, Wen Xingyao had already disappeared from this world.

From then on, within the five realms, there was only Xuan Jin.

No old friends, no softening of the heart—there was only a thousand-year unyielding obsession and a chess game where the spilt water could never be gathered back.

As this final trace of thought settled, the layers upon layers of illusion scenes before his eyes suddenly began to dissipate.

The dots of white fluorescence filling the sky bit by bit faded and vanished from view. The past memories, calculations, and struggles all collapsed and dissolved along with the illusion.

Within a mere breath of time, the surrounding scenery completely returned to its proper place, and everything changed back to how it looked before the few of them stepped into the ruins of Tiandu.

The broken walls and debris were dilapidated beyond repair. From the cracks between the bricks and stones, thick black resentment continuously seeped out, curling and rising in threads to shroud the entire dead city within. The grim wind kicked up sand and dust all over the ground, making a sound like wailing.

Jiang Qunyu blinked lightly, his mind still trapped within Xuan Jin’s lengthy and tragic memories, unable to pull himself out for a moment. His entire being carried a few fractions of blankness and daze, his head completely muddled.

The Heavenly Dao smiled: “Very shocked?”

Jiang Qunyu responded. It could no longer be described simply as shocked; he merely felt his brain was a chaotic mess at this moment. Countless pieces of information and images clashed together, his emotions churning restlessly to the point that even his scalp tingled in waves.

Even though he knew that Xuan Jin was the one manipulating everything behind the scenes, he hadn’t expected that the timeline could actually be pulled back to such a distant past.

Moreover, according to Xuan Jin’s memories, the cycles of reincarnation he experienced had actually appeared in the modern world in the form of novels. The third regression became that original book, while the fourth regression was precisely the fanfiction that Jiang Qunyu had read.

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Author’s Note:

Wei Xun: Apologies, I am a Qunyu-brained person.