Chapter 340: Chapter 338: Missing Memories
Jiang Chen’s physical body began to shatter on the nine hundred and ninety-ninth step.
Shreds of flesh were crushed by the pressure and fell onto the steps.
Blood gushed from Jiang Chen’s body as if squeezed out, streaming down the steps.
CRACK... CRUNCH...
The sound of shattering was incessant. The flesh was torn from Jiang Chen’s limbs, his bones fracturing.
His body began to disintegrate.
His skull began to crack, slowly at first, until it was reduced to a bloody pulp.
Of course, it didn’t stop there.
His entire body was slowly disappearing.
Like a shattered crystal, he was crushed to powder.
SPLAT!
Flame Dragon was resting and recuperating when he saw shredded flesh and blood begin to roll down the steps.
A violent tremor ran through him.
He stared in disbelief as, on the steps above, Jiang Chen’s body slowly vanished.
’Big Brother... Big Brother failed.’
’His body shattered... He’s completely done for.’
He shook his head with a bitter smile, a sense of sorrow washing over him.
They were all climbing the same steps. Jiang Chen’s death was undoubtedly a huge blow to them all.
It was a stark reminder that these steps were simply impossible to overcome.
He watched the blood from the steps above gather into a small stream.
It flowed past him, continuing on its way down.
It was all Jiang Chen’s blood.
The sight was horrifying.
Jiang Chen’s body was completely obliterated; he was nowhere to be seen.
Only the drying blood on the steps remained.
Jiang Chen’s body had long since been crushed to dust, scattered across every step. Bits of his flesh and bone had even fallen as far down as the first step.
However, even at this moment, Jiang Chen’s soul still existed.
He struggled, arduously crawling upward.
He was utterly helpless, like a kite in the wind, its string threatening to snap at any moment.
’Pain is only fleeting.’
’Despair grips me, but I won’t give up.’
After his body shattered, only Jiang Chen’s soul remained—a lonely soul, filled with a sense of utter desolation.
Yet, he continued to crawl slowly toward the final step.
The pressure on his soul was in no way weaker than it had been on his physical body.
The only advantage was that the soul, not being a physical entity, had an easier time climbing the steps than a body of flesh and blood.
But no matter how he crawled, his soul could not surmount that final step.
The final step was like hell itself, slowly grinding Jiang Chen’s soul into nothingness.
Bit by bit, he vanished at the edge of the step.
POOF...
His arm vanished, his head vanished, and his body vanished too.
His entire soul was slowly dissolving and disintegrating.
"No...!"
With a final, unwilling roar, Jiang Chen’s soul was crushed by the last step, vanishing from the world.
In the end, he had failed. He had not reached the summit.
"Big Brother..."
Flame Dragon was completely dumbfounded, staring blankly as Jiang Chen’s soul finally disappeared.
His body trembled slightly.
’Big Brother failed.’
’Only I, Flame Dragon, am left.’
’I have to succeed. I absolutely must succeed.’
’I’ll honor my fallen Big Brother with my success!’
By now, Flame Dragon had accepted Jiang Chen as his Big Brother from the bottom of his heart.
Jiang Chen’s strength lay not in his powerful Cultivation, but in the spirit that radiated from within him, a spirit that had completely won Flame Dragon over.
Farther back, Wen Shixuan, Lord Wangu, and the others were all stunned.
Watching Jiang Chen die, they felt no joy—only helplessness and despair.
If Jiang Chen couldn’t overcome these steps, they had even less confidence in their own chances.
Only One-Eyed Wolf suddenly stood up.
"Hahahaha! Good! It’s good that he’s dead!"
He laughed. He hated Jiang Chen’s guts, and seeing him die made him ecstatic.
Genuinely delighted.
"Shut up! You’re courting death!"
Flame Dragon’s fury erupted in an instant as he glared at One-Eyed Wolf.
He bared his fangs.
He pointed at a Demon Beast climbing the steps behind him. "Go down and kill him."
"Yes, my King!"
A Demon Beast at Peak Martial King Cultivation suddenly rushed down from the five hundredth step.
"Flame Dragon, what are you doing?"
One-Eyed Wolf was shocked to hear that Flame Dragon actually wanted to kill him.
"I’m going to shut you up for good."
Flame Dragon was furious, his eyes turning red.
His Big Brother had died, yet someone dared to laugh. This was a grave insult to Flame Dragon.
The Demon Beast descended quickly, arriving beside the panicking One-Eyed Wolf.
"Our King wants you dead."
A vicious strike followed. After a bloodcurdling scream, One-Eyed Wolf was slain on the spot, right there on the steps.
To his dying breath, One-Eyed Wolf couldn’t believe that their Blood Light Mercenary Corps would be completely wiped out on this mission.
And he himself had died on the steps of the sixth level.
Lord Wangu was visibly shaken.
But with Flame Dragon’s subordinate making a move, he didn’t dare utter a single complaint.
He might be from Guyue City, but Flame Dragon was powerful enough to massacre the entire city with ease.
"Serves him right. He was asking for it."
After killing One-Eyed Wolf, the Demon Beast resumed its climb up the steps.
The scene left Wen Shixuan and the others utterly shocked.
They couldn’t understand why One-Eyed Wolf’s mockery had brought about his own death.
Of course, they had also just witnessed firsthand Flame Dragon’s explosive temper.
Jiang Chen knew he was dead.
But, to his astonishment, he found that his consciousness still existed.
However, it was a chaotic mess.
’Where is this?’
His consciousness slowly cleared.
He found himself in what seemed to be a vast, empty space.
When he looked around, he discovered the space was densely packed with countless people.
What horrified him even more was that every single person here was him, Jiang Chen.
It was utterly bizarre.
’How is this possible? How can they all be me?’
Stunned, he stood amidst the crowd, watching as every version of himself around him offered a friendly smile.
"Who are you?"
Jiang Chen asked, amazed.
The next moment, every single Jiang Chen spoke.
"We are you."
"We are your missing memories."
"You lost us, and we hope you will find us again."
Every Jiang Chen spoke with the exact same voice.
Jiang Chen was stunned.
Missing memories.
Jiang Chen found it hard to believe that he had missing memories.
Ever since his rebirth, he had never felt that anything was amiss. All his memories seemed complete and intact.
They stretched from his earliest recollections to the moment he was killed by the mysterious Pill Furnace’s explosion.
There had never been any gaps in his memory.
But now, these other versions of him were telling him that they were his missing memories.
’How is that possible?’
Jiang Chen grabbed one of the other him and asked, "Which one of my memories are you?"
That Jiang Chen smiled. "Beneath the thunder, amidst a great calamity, you sealed away a memory. I am that memory."
A violent tremor ran through Jiang Chen.
He couldn’t remember it at all. As far as he knew, that memory simply didn’t exist.
But the other Jiang Chen spoke with such conviction that it left him bewildered.
’Could it be? Am I really missing memories?’
This was a bombshell dropped on the post-rebirth Jiang Chen, making him doubt whether he was a complete version of himself.
He just didn’t understand how he had ended up in this place to begin with.
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