Chapter 1145: Forgetting
Jin Caiwei had never imagined that after going in circles for so long, they would discover that the culprit was one of her tribesmen.
This is so embarrassing.
“Behave yourself! If I ever hear another legend in the black market about ghosts in recording orbs bringing misfortune, you’ll have to answer to me!” Jin Caiwei shot a vicious glare at Lord Shi.
Our Qiongqi Tribe doesn’t have a good reputation to begin with. We’re already branded one of the Four Perils and are nicknamed “Qiongxiong”—Extreme Peril.[1] Now that our recording orb business is just taking off and flourishing across the cultivation world, if word of his antics gets out, who knows what kind of malicious speculations the outside world would make about us?
“Alright, alright, Senior Caiwei, calm down.” Lu Yang hurried forward to placate Jin Caiwei. He could see that the little tiger was genuinely incensed and might even take a swipe at Lord Shi.
Lord Shi is merely at the Basic Golden Core Stage. He certainly wouldn’t survive a hit from her claw.
“Look on the bright side. At the very least, no one was using the recording orbs to cast curse arts, right?”
The recording orb idea was Lu Yang’s brainchild. Putting aside his identity as Young Creed Leader and Pillar Minister, Lu Yang had done the entire Qiongqi Tribe a great favor, so his words still carried weight with Jin Caiwei.
Lord Shi offered an ingratiating smile. “Please quell your anger. I guarantee there will be no next time!” He cast a grateful look at Lu Yang.
“Fine, forget it. Let’s go.” Jin Caiwei left Lord Shi’s residence in a huff, once again transforming back into a Qiongqi totem.
The other women struggled to suppress their laughter. They wanted to laugh but dared not, fearing it would provoke the little tiger into scratching them.
~~~
Xitian Temple, Mahavira Hall.
The slumbering Buddha opened his eyes, surprise crossing his features.
“It seems something has been altered?”
He extended a golden Buddha hand and grasped at the air. A Dao Fruit that appeared to be condensed from golden river water materialized in his palm.
He activated the Epoch Dao Fruit and stepped into the torrent of time alone. Endless currents of time swirled around him, making it feel as though it was both an instant and an eternity.
“Strange. Time has not flowed backward. Was it just my imagination?”
The Epoch Immortal paced the Mahavira Hall with his hands clasped behind his back, somewhat perplexed. Although his intuition was not as accurate as the Everlasting Immortal Fairy’s, it was rarely wrong.
“The Everlasting Immortal should be at the Dao-Seeking Sect, and there’s also Fellow Daoist Yun Zhi. I’ll go ask them.”
The Epoch Immortal rose and flew toward the Dao-Seeking Sect.
This was the first time in three hundred thousand years that he had stepped out of the Mahavira Hall.
~~~
Great Dou Dynasty’s ancestral temple...
“Senior Caiwei, what do you think about filling the gaps in the ancestral temple walls with biscuits and then glazing them with a layer of syrup?” Yun Mengmeng grinned as she crouched in the corner alongside Jin Caiwei.
Jin Caiwei had been feeling dejected, but Yun Mengmeng’s suggestion temporarily shifted her focus, and she began mulling it over seriously. “That’s actually a great idea. Constantly using nothing but syrup to patch the holes in the wall is making it a bit too sweet. Let’s go look into what kind of biscuits would work best.”
“Immortal Fairy, is something on your mind?” Lu Yang noticed that the Everlasting Immortal Fairy had been spacing out frequently since they returned from Jin’an City.
She was sitting cross-legged on the bed, hands tucked into her sleeves, head tilted, and brows furrowed.
“Xiao Yangzi, this immortal is still so young, but why is my memory so poor? I keep feeling like I’ve forgotten something.”
“What have you forgotten?”
“You’re so silly, Xiao Yangzi. If I knew what I’d forgotten, how could it still count as forgetting?”
“Actually, I’ve also been feeling like I’ve forgotten something,” Lu Yang admitted sheepishly.
“Immortal Fairy, Little Junior Brother, you also feel like you’ve forgotten something?” A cool voice rang out beside Lu Yang and the Everlasting Immortal Fairy, causing Lu Yang to jolt in fright.
“Big Senior Sister!” Lu Yang called out. Big Senior Sister, could you please give a warning before you show up? That’s really frightening.
“Wait, ‘also?’” He noticed Yun Zhi’s choice of words. “Is that to say that you’ve forgotten something too?”
“As I thought, my intuition rarely fails me.” The Epoch Immortal appeared within the mental space. After arriving at the Dao-Seeking Sect, he had found only Yun Zhi.
Yun Zhi also sensed that something was amiss, so she had brought the Epoch Immortal back to the Buddhist Kingdom with her.
“Did something happen?” Lu Yang set aside his lighthearted demeanor, his expression turning solemn. Since all four of them sensed that something was off, this was likely no longer something that could simply be dismissed as an “illusion.”
“Have a seat first.” The Everlasting Immortal Fairy was mindful of etiquette; guests visiting one’s home mustn’t be left standing. She conjured two beds for Yun Zhi and the Epoch Immortal, then patted her own bed, signaling Lu Yang to sit with her.
The Epoch Immortal initiated the conversation. “Just now, I was dozing off in the Mahavira Hall when a thought suddenly arose in my mind. I couldn’t help but feel that time had undergone some unknown change.”
“Did time flow backward?” Lu Yang guessed.
The Epoch Immortal shook his head. “No. I activated the Epoch Dao Fruit with full power to inspect the river of time. It surged forward, with no signs of reversal. That means no time reversal had occurred.
“Moreover, only the Epoch Dao Fruit can rewind time; not even an incipient version can. If time reversal had truly occurred, it could only have been my doing.
“At first, I thought it was an illusion, but something still felt amiss, so I visited Fellow Daoist Yun Zhi. She mentioned she seemed to have lost a period of memory, yet upon careful recollection, she found no gaps in her memories.”
Yun Zhi elaborated, “I’ve asked the Heaven Mandate Immortal, Jiang Ping’an, and Meng Junzi. None of them detected anything unusual.”
“In other words, only you three seniors and I sense something wrong?” Lu Yang was astonished. Even the Heaven Mandate Immortal and the others haven’t noticed anything. This matter is far more serious than I’d thought.
Although I’m an immortal now, I’ll still be somewhat weaker in a real battle with true immortals. My ability to perceive this anomaly is likely due to the Immortal Fairy residing in my mental space.
“Has the mastermind behind the scenes acted?” Lu Yang frowned. At present, this was the only plausible explanation.
“This is the first time the mastermind has truly acted.” Although the mastermind had once reached out to the Midheaven Emperor-Lord, that didn’t seem like the mastermind’s true methods.
What exactly had forced the mastermind behind the scenes to make a move?
~~~
Under the dark veil of the night, two plundering cultivators concealed their auras and stealthily approached a damp cavern.
“Big Brother, maybe we should just call it off,” one of the plundering cultivators whispered. He couldn’t help but feel uneasy.
“What’s there to be scared of? I’ve already asked around. This Devotee Bone is only at the Basic Divine Transfiguration Stage and has no notable accomplishments. He spends all his time skulking about, tinkering with who-knows-what. With preparation against the unprepared, we, Divine Transfiguration cultivators, can handle him with ease.”
The timid plundering cultivator gritted his teeth. I’ll listen to Big Brother then!
They crept toward the damp cavern and produced their respective life-bound treasures—a bell and a cauldron. They madly channeled spirit energy into them, and the bell and cauldron were immediately activated.
Charging into the cave simultaneously, faces twisted with menace, they bellowed, “Devotee Bone, prepare to die!”
“There’s no one?”
The two plundering cultivators exchanged bewildered glances. The cave was spotless, with no signs that anyone had ever lived here.
1. The “qiong” in qiongqi can mean impoverished, but it can also mean something like extreme. ☜
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