Chapter 66: Self-Confrontation
——(POV Li Huang)——
"I'm…" I wanted to say that I'm not Li Huang but the words wouldn't come out of my mouth.
Saying it this way is not fair to me because I have been Li Huang from the moment that I have woken up in this world, and I have lived through his memories from the beginning to the last moments before my arrival. So I can't convince myself to say that I'm not Li Huang.
The problem is that I have no idea what was the reason for my arrival in this body and don't know if Li Huang was killed or even died for that matter. Everything was fine before he went to sleep the night before, but I woke up instead of him.
I couldn't accept the look that the double was giving me and I answered him with what I believed to be true.
"I'm Li Huang, as much as you are." I have gone through all of Li Huang's memories as him so there is nothing that I don't know about him at this point. Even my actions are not that different from the past, I just have some scattered knowledge about some things from my past life.
The double in front of me raised an eyebrow at my words. Tilting his head, the double spoke again.
"You are not just Li Huang, you are a little… more." The double said with a smile that was aimed to irritate me.
But to me, those words carried what I wanted to hear and I accepted it with open arms.
"Wouldn't that make me the superior Li Huang?" I asked the double while showing him a smile of my own.
Without knowing it, my smile was exactly the same smile that the double had on his face.
The double looked at me for a few seconds and then nodded in confirmation.
"That is true." He said.
For the next minute or so we just kept on looking at each other.
Knowing myself and consequently, the double's personality, I know that this staring contest would be a long one if one of us do not relent first.
Before I could say anything, the double spoke again.
"Why do you think I am in front of you and not 'your past self'?" The double asked me.
I was taken aback by this question. I haven't thought about it until he asked about it now.
From all that I have seen from this test so far, I know that what I'm facing is my fear or a flaw in my mentality but why don't I see my past self here? Why do I have to face a double of 'Li Huang'.
At that time, I didn't know the name of the mirror, or else it could have helped me in knowing the reason behind it.
Just as I was in deep thoughts, the double's voice resounded again.
"What was your name before you were Li Huang?" the double asked again. The way that he was asking me the question was as if he was giving me a hint despite this being a test.
This intrigued me but I focused on the questions for now.
For this type of basic question I don't need to think and as the double clearly knows what I know, there is no reason to hide anything.
"In my past life, I was called…" I started answering but halfway in the answer, I found out that I couldn't remember my name in my last life.
I thought that this news would shock me and create a sense of loss in my heart but to my shock, I didn't feel anything like that.
I was struggling to understand this but the double clicked his tongue in irritation.
"*tsk* Why do you think that you have transmigrated?" The double asked. Before I could comprehend what he said, he continued.
"If you don't get it with this, you deserve to perish here." The double said with annoyance evident in his tone.
It was at that moment that something clicked in my mind and an old memory of Li Huang and grandpa Long resurfaced in my mind.
In the memory, grandpa Long was telling Huang a story about the 12th patriarch of the sect who was said to be the reincarnation of the sect's founder. From what grandpa explained, the 12th patriarch one day recalled his past life as the sect founder of the heavenly sword sect. Grandpa said that this happens very rarely when someone can remember their past lives, but it is not impossible.
"…" I was stunned.
Why didn't I think of it until now? Li Huang didn't die before I woke up in 'his' body so there is no way that his soul got out of his body and two souls can't coexist in a body so that option is also not possible.
If somehow I throw his soul out of his body, his brain would be dead and there was no fancy cultivation way that I could access his memories with neither his brain nor soul accessible. So the fact that I have his memories denies this possibility.
The only explanation left is that I didn't transmigrate, I was reincarnated and that day remembered my past life.
'There is no usurper here, I was Li Huang from the beginning.' I couldn't help but laugh. I was really blinded by all those 'novel' knowledge and didn't see this simple fact.
But there is one thing yet unanswered, why did I need to go through memories of my current life?
What I think happened is that the 12th patriarch of the sect remembered his past life when he was at high levels of cultivation but I remembered them at the beginning of my cultivation road. This had to be too much for my mind to handle so I have experienced it in a way that my mind could handle it easier.
I think the fact that I can't remember my own name in my past life is that I have been subconsciously deleting useless memories to ease the burden on my mind.
When I first thought I was transmigrated, I was shocked by the fact that 'my' personality got mixed with Li Huang's but now I get that what happened was my past life having some small effects on my mentality and nothing more…
All these thoughts happened in a few seconds. Looking at the double, I saw that he was also looking at me intently.
"Don't worry, we won't perish here." I grinned and told him.
The double grinned back at me.
"So you finally know who I am?" the double said.
"You are me and I am you." I told my double and we both laughed.
After a few seconds, we looked at each other and spoke.
""Thank you."" We both said at the same time.
I thanked him for the hint and he probably thanked me for not being that stupid to let us die here.
Soon, the room that I was in shattered in countless pieces and I was back on the chair in front of the mirror.
Taking a deep breath, I stood up from the chair. Now that the test was done, A double door was revealed at the end of the room.
I walked toward it, and seconds later, I was in front of it.
Taking a last look at the room, I opened the door and stepped in.
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