Chapter 358: First Time in Eight Hundred Years
Tian Yongheng quietly stood beneath the rain for a very long time.
The ruined Tian Family estate stretched silently before him like the remnants of a forgotten era.
The once glorious Immortal Cultivation family of Jiangnan Region had long become nothing more than ruins buried under dust.
The rain softly dripped across the ruins.
At this moment, countless memories gradually surfaced within Tian Yongheng’s mind one after another.
All those clan brothers and sisters, the playmates who never looked down upon him for possessing Five-Elemental Spiritual Roots.
The bustling atmosphere during festivals, the warm smile of his mother and the steady figure of his father.
Everything seemed incomparably distant now.
Yet at the same time, it felt as though it had only happened yesterday.
Tian Yongheng silently lowered his gaze.
Although he had already become an existence feared even by Immortals, at this moment, standing before these ruins once more, he suddenly felt as though he had returned to that powerless sixteen year old youth from eight hundred years ago.
Back then, he could only helplessly watch as everything he loved was destroyed before his eyes.
The overwhelming pressure of those great cultivators, just a faint leak of an aura could destroy him in body and soul, even a Qi Condensation Realm cultivator could tap him to death with one finger.
That despair, that hatred, it all seemed to have vanished into nothingness now.
Yet even then, those memories still remained deeply engraved within his soul.
The rain gradually intensified.
Tian Yongheng slowly stepped forward.
He did not use Divine Sense, nor did he use any other profound method.
Instead, he simply walked quietly through the ruined estate like an ordinary person returning home after countless years.
His footsteps softly echoed through the silence.
Soon afterward, he arrived before a collapsed ancient building.
It was the library pavilion, the same library pavilion he used to frequent before regaining his past life memories.
Back then, this had been one of his favorite places within the Tian Family.
As the young master of the Tian Family, he possessed access to countless cultivation manuals and ancient records despite only having Five-Elemental Spiritual Roots at the time.
It was here that he first learned about the vastness of the cultivation world.
The Nine Great Mortal Worlds, the Upper Realm, the Myriad Worlds, Immortals and Gods.
Back then, he once believed becoming a Golden Core Realm cultivator was already the peak of existence.
But now...
Tian Yongheng quietly looked at the ruined library before him.
Even the shelves had long collapsed into dust, with only fragments of weathered jade slips remaining scattered throughout the ground.
Time had erased nearly everything.
After remaining silent for a moment, Tian Yongheng slowly turned and continued walking deeper into the estate.
Eventually, he arrived before another familiar place.
A quiet garden hidden behind what was once his mother’s cultivation quarters.
The surrounding formations had long shattered.
Most of the spirit flowers and spirit herbs planted here had already withered centuries ago.
Only faint traces of their existence still remained.
At the center of the garden stood a small pond.
The water within it had already become murky and stagnant over the years.
Beside the pond stood an ancient tree leaning crookedly toward the water, appearing as though it might collapse at any moment.
Tian Yongheng suddenly stopped walking, his movements stilling.
Back then, his mother often brought him here when he was still a child.
At that time, even after knowing that he couldn’t achieve much by cultivating, he wasn’t sad and rather preferred listening to stories about the outside world while lazily lying beside the pond.
At that time, he actually liked the Martial Path more than Immortal Cultivation.
Wandering the jianghu, upholding justice, doing heroic deeds, how could it compare to cultivating in seclusion for years and even centuries?
No one could have imagined that such a child would spend most of his time in secluded cultivation in the future, preferring to stay out of trouble and be cautious to the point of being paranoid.
The rain softly rippled across the murky water.
Tian Yongheng slowly raised his gaze.
With a thought, the stagnant pond water instantly trembled slightly, and all the filth and decay within it silently vanished.
The murky water rapidly became crystal clear once more.
Even the extremely thin Spirit Qi beneath the pond faintly stirred for an instant.
Soon afterward, the pond once again resembled its appearance from hundreds of years ago.
The rainwater gently rippled across its pristine surface.
Tian Yongheng quietly looked at it for a moment.
Then, he slowly sat down beside the ancient tree.
After leaning against the tree trunk briefly, he eventually laid down quietly beneath the rain.
The surrounding world gradually became silent, and only the faint sound of rainwater remained.
At this moment, Tian Yongheng suddenly felt as though he had once again returned to his childhood.
Back then, he often laid here while resting his head upon his mother’s lap.
She would lightly pinch his cheek while telling him stories of the outside world, sometimes scolding him for idling around all day long.
Yet despite her words, her eyes always carried warmth and helpless indulgence.
The memories within Tian Yongheng’s mind gradually became increasingly vivid.
For a brief moment, it almost seemed as though a phantom figure quietly appeared beside him once more.
A beautiful woman wearing plain white robes gently smiled while lowering her head toward him.
That familiar warmth, that familiar gaze...
Everything felt incomparably real.
Tian Yongheng quietly looked at her.
His eyes faintly trembled slightly for the first time in centuries.
The woman softly smiled, yet within that smile, there also seemed to exist a trace of bitterness and sorrow impossible to conceal, as if she already understood long ago that everything before her would eventually disappear.
Then, like scattered rain beneath the wind, the phantom gradually disappeared.
The surrounding world instantly returned to silence once more.
At this moment, Tian Yongheng suddenly came back to his senses slightly.
A strange wet sensation quietly spread across his cheek.
He remained silent briefly before slowly sitting upright.
The rain continued falling around him.
Tian Yongheng quietly raised his hand toward his face.
At that moment, his movements faintly paused.
For a moment, Tian Yongheng silently looked at his hand.
Then he slowly lowered his gaze toward the clear pond before him.
Ripples continuously spread across the water surface.
Within the reflection of the pond, a white robed, extremely handsome young man quietly stared back at him.
And from the corners of that young man’s eyes, tears were silently falling.
At this moment, Tian Yongheng quietly looked at his own reflection for a very long time.
His expression had finally changed.
It was no longer calm, no longer indifferent, no longer carrying that transcendent, detached air like an ethereal Immortal God, but instead carried genuine sorrow.
For the first time in nearly eight hundred years, it finally changed.
