Xiao Zilan was stunned. She'd been trapped for thousands of years, so she was a bit unfamiliar with people.
After a while, she asked tentatively, "Fellow Daoist, you are …"
"I'm a cultivator from Xuanqing School."
"Oh …" Xiao Zilan nodded. "Fellow Daoist, you're so young. You must've formed your Nascent Soul recently, right?
I've never heard of such a young fellow Nascent Soul cultivator from Xuanqing School. "
Xiao Zilan's expression had always been calm. Although she was only a soul, her bearing was still extraordinary.
Mo Tiange praised him inwardly. No wonder Wanderer Ziwei still couldn't forget him.
"Senior Xiao, you don't know, but 5,000 years have passed. This world isn't the one you're familiar with."
Xiao Zilan was stunned and didn't regain her composure for a long time. "Then …"
"Senior has been trapped in this soul bead for 5,000 years."
"5,000 years," Xiao Zilan murmured, "5,000 years …"
Upon seeing her expression, Mo Tiange frowned. "Senior …" She was afraid Xiao Zilan would lose control after learning the world had changed.
Xiao Zilan quickly put away her sadness. "Thank you for saving me, Fellow Daoist. May I ask how Xuanji School is now?"
Mo Tiange paused for a moment then said, "Xuanji School … declined not long after Senior fell."
"…" This time, Xiao Zilan just closed her eyes and sighed.
Knowing that 5,000 years had passed, she already guessed that Xuanji School no longer existed.
Xuanji School's foundation was too shallow. Once she fell, even if they weren't destroyed by others, they would've ended up in internal strife.
Xiao Zilan quickly composed herself and asked, "Fellow Daoist, may I ask how you know about my origin?"
Mo Tiange smiled and said frankly, "We came to look for you."
"Ah …" Xiao Zilan was surprised again.
Then she heard an even more surprised sentence: "Senior Xiao, do you remember the name Xu Zhiwei?"
Xiao Zilan was speechless as if she had been hit by a heavy punch.
Seeing her like this, Mo Tiange knew she also had deep feelings for Wanderer Ziwei, but fate made fools of people …
She sighed softly and said, "I was entrusted by Wanderer Ziwei to look for Senior Xiao."
After a while, Xiao Zilan's expression slowly calmed down. She smiled bitterly and said, "Wanderer Ziwei … Does he really think he's an Wanderer just because he left the school?
Xu Zhiwei, Xu Zhiwei, can you pretend nothing happened just because you don't face it?
There is no medicine for regret in this world, and you can't turn back time … "
She spoke each word calmly, but both of them could hear the sorrow in her voice.
There were many sad things in this world, but the most sorrowful was the hopeless parting. Knowing that the other person was still alive in this world, knowing that they loved each other, yet they could not be together.
Neither Mo Tiange nor Qin Xi interrupted her until she asked again, "Xu Zhiwei … Five thousand years have passed, so he can't still be alive. Could he have advanced to the Deification realm?"
Mo Tiange smiled and said, "In Senior Xiao's opinion, how high is the possibility of Senior Ziwei advancing to the Deification realm?"
Xiao Zilan said without the slightest hesitation, "With his talent and temperament, it wouldn't be strange if he reached the Deification stage.
However, if he had really reached the Soul Formation stage, he would have personally come to find me. "
"…" Mo Tiange sighed. "Senior has a deep understanding of Senior Ziwei. He indeed hasn't reached the Deification realm."
Xiao Zilan smiled bitterly. "We've been husband and wife for two hundred years. How could I not know his temperament?
Since he asked Fellow Daoist to find me, he must've encountered something that he couldn't do anything about. "
"Yes … Senior Ziwei once took a step into the Deification realm, but unfortunately, he failed in the end. After he died, his divine sense was sealed …" Mo Tiange briefly explained what happened. Of course, she didn't mention the restriction placed on her.
Xiao Zilan was silent after listening to her story.
Although she could forcibly bring her soul back, Mo Tiange didn't want to force her.
She said, "Senior Xiao, no matter what grudges you had between the two of you, it's all in the past.
Now, one of you only has divine sense, and the other only has a soul. Before long, both of you will disappear, so what grudges can't be resolved?
Once your memories dissipate, you'll be strangers in your next life. "
Xiao Zilan felt like she was struck by lightning. She murmured, "Strangers …"
Mo Tiange didn't speak again.
Although it was painful not to be together, at least they knew that the person they loved still existed in this world and that the other person also missed them. Therefore, even if they could never be together, they still had the happiness of being alone.
But if they became strangers, the only warmth left in their hearts would also be gone.
For people like them who had love in their hearts, this was the most unbearable thing.
Xiao Zilan didn't say anything. In this short period of time, she remembered a lot of things.
Although there were thousands of souls inside the Soul Pearl, most of them were wandering souls. There were only a few souls that retained their memories.
The reason these souls could retain their memories was because they had obsessions and didn't want their memories to be erased.
Even so, as time passed, the souls' spiritual wisdom would slowly dissipate until they became wandering souls. Obsessions weren't unchanging. As time passed, obsessions would also slowly fade away.
She was the only one who retained her spiritual wisdom during these five thousand years and didn't dissipate at all.
Because her obsessions were engraved deeper than anyone else's. Not to mention fifty million years, even if it was ten thousand years or a hundred thousand years, she knew that she absolutely wouldn't forget it.
When she was young, her family was destroyed, she painstakingly cultivated for a hundred years, and then she met him …
He wasn't a good person. She knew it the moment she met him, but she never thought he would be one of the murderers who exterminated Tianliang School.
Those hands were once stained with the blood of Tianliang School, and among them were her relatives.
If she was in the school that day, she might have died in his hands, and there wouldn't be the rest of the story. But …
She definitely wouldn't forget this suffering, and she couldn't accept that the person who exterminated the school was the person who shared the same bed as her.
So, she could only leave, return to Xuanji School, and never see him again.
Sometimes she would think, why did she meet him?
Why was he the culprit who exterminated the school?
If she had nothing to do with Tianliang School, she could ignore all the evil he had done. But there was no medicine for regret in this world, and she couldn't turn back time …
When she was forming her Nascent Soul, she was almost trapped in her heart demon and couldn't get out. In the end, she succeeded because of a belief.
Even if they couldn't be together, at least they lived under the same sky, looked at the same mountains, breathed the same air, and walked the same path.
After a thousand years, they would all pass away, and all their grudges would be gone with the wind.
But she didn't wait for such an ending.
He betrayed the school and sent a message saying that he would wait for her in Nine Spirit Mountain's Wind Breath Valley forever, even if it was a hundred years, a thousand years, until he passed away.
And she died a violent death.
She wasn't willing to accept such an ending.
How could she accept it?
She couldn't love him, and she couldn't kill him. In this life, she was in a dilemma, and every step she took was difficult.
This obsession, from the moment the truth was revealed, sowed a seed in her heart. Day by day, it grew stronger until it completely filled her heart.
Now, five thousand years had passed. Only a few people remembered the disaster of Tianliang School's extermination. What they saw was only a few lines of words in ancient records. Even the Xuanji School they rebuilt also disappeared.
But he kept his promise and waited for her in Wind Breath Valley until he passed away.
She, on the other hand, became a ghost and was trapped in the Soul Bead for five thousand years.
Maybe she could keep her memories and become a ghost cultivator, but what about him?
His divine sense would dissipate sooner or later, and Xu Zhiwei would no longer exist in this world …
"Okay." Mo Tiange heard Xiao Zilan's calm voice. "Take me there."
Mo Tiange heaved a sigh of relief. She broke the Soul Bead again and released all the souls inside. "Senior, please enter the Soul Bead."
Xiao Zilan didn't hesitate. Her incorporeal body turned into light smoke and drilled into the Soul Bead.
Mo Tiange put the Soul Bead away and sighed with relief. She looked at Qin Xi. "Let's go."
Qin Xi nodded and took the sword light back into his body.
The two of them turned into Flight Lights and flew towards Jin.
* * *
Two days later, Mo Tiange and Qin Xi landed on a cliff outside Wind Breath Valley.
Compared to a hundred years ago, the fog in Wind Breath Valley seemed to be thicker. They stood on the cliff and saw the fog surging around their feet like waves.
Mo Tiange frowned and said, "It's a bit strange."
Qin Xi nodded. "En, this fog doesn't seem to be natural."
As soon as he finished speaking, the two of them looked at each other and looked up at the same time with strange expressions.
A sword light appeared in their field of vision. It hovered in the sky a few times then fell down.
The Flight Light dispersed. When they saw the person's face, the three of them were shocked and shouted, "It's you!"
The person who fell on the sword light was actually Jing Xingzhi!
The three of them looked at each other. After a long time, Qin Xi asked, "What are you doing here?"
Jing Xingzhi said, "I'm looking for fated chances. What about you?" He suddenly took a step back vigilantly. "Don't tell me you also know …"
Before he could finish, Mo Tiange rolled her eyes at him. "If I want to rob you, I'll have plenty of chances!"
Jing Xingzhi thought it was reasonable. Fated chances for sword cultivators weren't very useful to them. "Then what are you doing here?"
Qin Xi said, "If I'm not mistaken, our goals are the same."
Jing Xingzhi was stunned and stepped back again.
Qin Xi was also annoyed. "Do you really want us to rob you?"
"…"
Mo Tiange also understood. She said in surprise, "What a coincidence! Venerable Swordsman Yuanying also came here?"
Venerable Swordsman Yuanying said she once promised a senior of Gujian Sect something. In return, that senior gave his junior a fated chance.
Someone who could be called senior by Venerable Swordsman Yuanying had to be at least in the Nascent Soul realm and was older than Venerable Swordsman Yuanying.
Wasn't Wanderer Ziwei such a person?
He was a cultivator of Gujian Sect five thousand years ago with amazing divine powers. He was definitely worthy of being called senior by Venerable Swordsman Yuanying.
It seemed that Venerable Swordsman Yuanying also came here in the past hundred years and promised Wanderer Ziwei to help him find Xiao Zilan.
Wanderer Ziwei, on the other hand, gave his token and promised to give his junior a fated chance because they were both from Gujian Sect.
"What's going on?" Jing Xingzhi was bewildered.
"The person we're looking for is a senior of Gujian Sect," Mo Tiange said, "This is the important matter I mentioned a few days ago."
"Huh?" Jing Xingzhi was confused.
Mo Tiange was about to explain in detail when she suddenly saw the fog in Wind Rest Valley parting.
Someone came up.