Sitting in the Disordered Hell, Mo Yi nodded with all seriousness.
Lu Yun: ……
He had no idea what to say to that.
“Wait, you called Mo Yi little sister? And that she traveled through space and time?” he questioned with surprise.
“Didn’t she tell you about that?” Ah Zhi looked strangely at him. “Mo Yi… Well, since she hasn’t told you, I won’t tell you.”
Ah Zhi seemed about to say something, but cut herself off. Mo Yi sat quietly in the Disordered Hell.
“So, someone’s modified your memories?” Ah Zhi suddenly asked.
Lu Yun nodded, unsurprised by the question. He’d probably been under her surveillance the moment he set foot into sect grounds.
“That means you have the potential to access sequence.” A rare moment of lucidity seemed to grip her and Ah Zhi jumped down from the enormous spider web. She came up to Lu Yun and patted his shoulder.
“I can’t see your destiny,” she said quietly. “Not only can I not see it, but I also can’t see the fates of those who’ve come in contact with you—Xing Wuliang and Xing Shenzuo.”
“Destiny?” Lu Yun blinked. Cultivators gave up believing in fate early on in their journey. The path of cultivation was to defy the heavens and rebel against life, to reign supreme as their own master. Who would believe in destiny, given that?
…wait!
His expression shifted, thinking of the countless reincarnation loops. Were those the destiny that Ah Zhi spoke of?
He’d broken free of the cycle and seen it for what it was. His future was completely different from before and he was now an anomaly in the repeats. Endless reincarnation with everything already set in stone—that seemed to be destiny. Ah Zhi could see it, but she couldn’t see Lu Yun’s.
For Lu Yun, every step he took now was the future.
“It looks like Fuxi was right to choose you and I can leave the Star Sect in your hands.” A merry Ah Zhi yawned hugely. “I can’t be bothered to run such a massive place, it cuts into my sleep time.”
Lu Yun: ……
“There was a Mount Buzhou in the original Hongmeng as well, is it this one?”
“Yes, this is the one. I’m not a creature of the original Hongmeng though, but one under the new order. However, I can see that order is dissipating from the Boundless Planes, which is why I’m helping them,” Ah Zhi said seriously. “Your modified memories have something to do with that missing order.”
When Lu Yun asked Xing Shenzuo about Ah Zhi’s identity, she’d been the one answering through him. How would Xing Shenzuo know what epoch these august personages came from?
“And you call Mo Yi your little sister,” Lu Yun mumbled.
Mo Yi: ……
“That I can’t tell you why. Mo Yi… heh heh, she’s not alone, she has a senior sister in the world of immortals. But that senior sister has been… hehehe,” Ah Zhi giggled.
Lu Yun was suddenly reminded of a person—a nun that Mo Yi had indeed called senior sister. She’d disappeared mysteriously at some point; it looked like she’d perished.
“She was hauled back because she revealed the reason why I call Mo Yi my little sister.” Ah Zhi smiled mysteriously.
“She was… hauled back? So she’s still alive.” Lu Yun was becoming extremely confused.
“She’s as good as dead,” Mo Yi finally said in the Disordered Hell. “She was hauled back to the original Hongmeng and most likely died in that great battle.”
Lu Yun: ……
“So who modified my memories?” He changed the subject. Mo Yi’s response had answered all of his questions for now.
She wasn’t someone from the original Hongmeng who’d survived its demise—she was a time traveler, just like Fuxi, the little fox, Ah Zhi, and God had traveled from the great wilderness to the world of immortals.
Life always finds a way. Since she’d conducted herself with care in the world of immortals and followed its rules, never setting a single toe out of bounds, she’d successfully assimilated into the world and become a being under the immortal dao.
Her senior sister hadn’t done the same and had been retrieved by the guardians.
“I don’t know, sigh. Fuxi and the others had to repair my modified memories before I could access sequence.” Ah Zhi stretched lazily and hopped back onto the web. “Then I leave the Star Sect to you…”
“Wait!” Lu Yun hastily stopped her. “Don’t give it to me! I have something bad on me that will probably bring down disaster on the sect! It might even spell the end of the Star Sect!”
Ah Zhi lifted her head to look at Lu Yun, her eyes a glittering expanse of the night sky.
He took the opportunity to closely study them as well—they weren’t the ones in Xing Wuliang’s eyes. His curiosity satisfied, Lu Yun brought out the withered wood with a flip of his hand.
“Jinx.” Ah Zhi cursed when she saw the wood and sat up in a huff.
“Um… Yun Zhongzi’s broken free of the Tomb of the Hallowed Emperor, he can do the job?” Lu Yun offered quietly.
“Yun Zhongzi? He can’t.” Ah Zhi curled her lip. “He’s so indecisive and thinks too much. When he’s done thinking, the opportunity will have passed him by. If it wasn’t for him being so wishy-washy, the Hallowed Emperor would’ve taken out the Imperial Seal long ago. None of the other troubles would’ve resulted.
“Ah forget it, I’ll just have to work a bit harder and keep looking after the Star Sect,” she yawned mightily. “Why is my life so difficult? But… heh, this is just as well. It seems that my destiny has undergone some changes as well.
“That jinx… Hurry up and get rid of that wood or you’ll be the death of me.” Ah Zhi leveled a glare at Lu Yun.
He grinned ruefully back. “I have to keep it for a little while longer. It’ll be useful one day. …so am I your disciple now?”
“Psht, you’re Fuxi’s disciple. You can have everything he left here.” Ah Zhi pointed a large sum of books into existence; they promptly buried Lu Yun.
These were the secrets of the original Hongmeng that Yun Zhongzi had mentioned, including the numerous ways of using the Dragonquake Scripture.
Down in the Disordered Hell, Mo Yi frowned at the books. She didn’t want Lu Yun to obtain them too early. There were many in the fourth realm who wanted the Dragonquake Scripture and they’d be able to glean certain clues from Lu Yun if he practiced these.
That was why she hadn’t told him as much as people thought she would.
As for Yun Zhongzi, he wasn’t in the same camp as Lu Yun. Though they were all from the original Hongmeng, he had his own plans and preparations. While their goals were the same, their methods were different.
Taking the Jade Pure One for his master in the great wilderness had been outside their expectations, and he didn’t know that Ah Zhi of the Star Sect had allied with Fuxi long ago.
etvolare's Thoughts
Aha, I wonder how many of the layout within a layout and tomb within a tomb is a result of them crossing paths? I could've sworn there were a few occasions in which someone's plans got messed up by someone else, but neither really had evil intent.
