A year passed quickly, and the scene before Lu Yin's eyes changed as he returned to Yehai.
Only an instant had passed in reality.
Startled Shangyu had just seen Lu Yin smash the stone wall and disappear when he reappeared. She looked at him deeply and was about to leave when Lu Yin's voice rang out, "Senior, please bring Xiang Siyu here."
Startled Shangyu nodded, and a door appeared as she disappeared. The next moment, Xiang Siyu arrived, looking confused.
Lu Yin looked at her, "Sorry to trouble you, I need to borrow your luck again."
Xiang Siyu smiled, "Feel free to use it."
Holding her hand, Lu Yin tapped the die and it spun slowly. Four pips, four pips, four pips. He rarely looked forward to rolling four pips.
He didn't want to wait another ten days.
Even a day later could have disastrous consequences.
The die stopped spinning at four pips. Lu Yin was excited and entered the Time Stop Space once more, along with the stone wall.
This was the second year. There was no need for him to calm his mind. He simply sat in front of the stone wall and stared at it. It was as if he had put all of his attention into the stone wall, looking at the lines on the stone wall. Gradually, everything around him lost its color. His consciousness seemed to have drifted through the starry sky for countless years before finally arriving at a battlefield.
Blood and fire intertwined, and the sounds of killing covered the cries of despair.
The youth shuttled through the battlefield, carrying one person after another as they fled. Some were saved, while others died before they could leave.
Blood stained the youth's clothes, but he didn't feel tired.
He clearly had the strength to dominate the battlefield, but he only knew how to hide and never attack. The people fighting on both sides ignored him, and he became an anomaly on the battlefield.
Outside the battlefield, a young girl was constantly saving people, bandaging them, feeding them medicine, and shouting. She cooperated with the youth, forming a strange corner of the battlefield.
Compared to the battlefield, the youth's smile was even more abrupt.
"How can you still smile?" the girl reproached him, glaring at him.
The youth smiled happily, "We saved people."
"But many died," the girl said sadly.
The youth shook his head, "Without us, they would have died. We saved people, so shouldn't we be happy?"
The girl sighed and wiped the sweat and blood off the youth's body, "Silly boy."
The youth smiled even more happily and ran back to the battlefield, his eyes bright.
No one could understand this young man. He was still able to laugh in this cruel and bloody grindstone of flesh and blood.
If he wanted to save people, why not stop the war?
That way, more people could have been saved.
Many people had asked the youth this question, but the youth did not answer. His smile was the same as before.
Lu Yin had seen this smile before in the Heavenly Palace, in the memories of an Eternal Life Realm creature or the universe. This youth was none other than Azure Lotus Protector, who had created the Karmic Phenomenon.
At this moment, Qinglian Shangyu was just an ordinary cultivator who could only influence the war between mortals.
War was an endless theme. The young man's smile didn't stop because of the war, but because of the mottled bloodstains and the gloomy face of the young girl, his smile stopped.
He hugged the girl and cried his heart out.
The girl looked at him with heartache. She raised her hand and touched his face. "I'm sorry. I can't accompany you."
The young man's tears dripped onto the young girl's face. He cried so helplessly, like a little bird curled up on the dry land in winter, trying to hide himself.
"You have to … be happy." The young girl's arm drooped down weakly.
From then on, the youth's life was only left with darkness. He lost his smile and would never smile again.
As usual, he saved people on the battlefield, carrying them on his back one after another. However, without the young girl's healing, the number of people he saved was very few.
He didn't know what he was doing. He numbly shuttled through battlefield after battlefield, leaving behind a lonely figure that had become a legend.
When the land returned to normal, the youth had disappeared.
Nobody knew where he had gone.
He was carrying stones on his back and building a city wall.
"Quick, you over there. Carry the stones over here. Stop pretending. If you don't want to carry them, then die."
The youth numbly carried the stones on his back, his clothes tattered. He carried them on his back for ten years, but the city wall was still not finished. It was still very, very far away.
The scene in front of Lu Yin changed, and he returned to Yehai.
In front of him was a curious Xiang Siyu.
Lu Yin was silent for a moment before he took her hand and rolled the die again.
Four pips. This luck was unique.
Lu Yin sat in front of the stone wall again. Time flowed, and he saw the youth again. This time, there was a smile on the youth's face. It was a familiar smile from a young girl. She saw his tattered clothes and gave him a bowl of rice. Her eyes were filled with heartache, just like the beautiful girl from before. That was decades ago.
From then on, the youth followed the girl, not bothering her. He only wanted to see her gaze.
The path she walked, he turned into a tree.
The river she crossed, he became a stone.
The girl dressed and looked at the red mirror, and he lit an oil lamp.
He did not appear even once until the girl got married. He watched as the girl happily married her sweetheart, and his smile grew even brighter.
From then on, he constantly searched for that gaze. He searched and protected it time and time again. He only returned when he encountered difficulties. He had long since given up on building the city wall. He carried the stones on his back and walked through the barren land, enduring the cold wind until a smile returned to his face.
After an unknown period of time, karma jumped in his hand, accompanied by a smile. It was very happy, very happy.
This smile overlapped with the one Lu Yin had seen in Yi Tian Que.
In that moment, the consciousness in Yi Tian Que was also happy, as if it had seen a companion. That pure smile was something that the consciousness hoped to maintain.
But in the end, that smile disappeared.
He could not find that familiar gaze. His cultivation was clearly higher, and he could see through countless people with a single thought, but he just could not find that gaze.
He carried the stones on his back every day as he built the city wall. He endured the cold wind every day, hoping to see that gaze again.
It was gone. It was gone. There was no longer anyone who looked at him with heartache. There was no one else who could make him happy.
His smile disappeared. The mutual deception of the cultivation world made him suffer. Every time he overcame a tribulation, he would build a city wall. It was a city wall that would never be finished. It was unknown how far it would extend, as if it was endless.
The youth was now middle-aged, and his eyes were dark and bottomless.
Yi Tian Que's consciousness was disappointed. When it saw him release the Karma Phenomenon, it wanted to stop him. It wanted to see that smile again, but it did not.
"Who? Who's obstructing me?"
"What a pity, what a pity."
"Who are you?
What's a pity? "
"Your path has gone astray. What a pity. I thought that I could give birth to a companion through that beauty. What a pity, what a pity."
"Who?"
The middle-aged man unleashed a shocking attack that shocked even Lu Yin. However, Yi Tianque's consciousness was unable to utter a single word after that attack.
The scene in front of Lu Yin changed again, and he returned to Yehai.
Xiang Siyu's curious gaze had not changed, but it had only lasted for an instant.
Lu Yin sighed and stretched out his hand. "Sorry to trouble you."
Xiang Siyu smiled and took his hand.
This time, it wasn't four pointers, but three.
He looked at the two layers of light and tapped out once more. This was the fifth time.
At four, Lu Yin entered the Time Stop Space again and sat in front of the stone wall. The Karma Phenomenon had been created by the middle-aged Azure Lotus Emperor, but for some reason, Lu Yin wanted to see that youth again. That pure smile was like Yi Tian Que's consciousness. That smile was nostalgic and unforgettable.
He looked at the stone wall and the imprints on it. Time flowed and Lu Yin heard a shout. "Hurry up, you over there. Carry the stone over here. Stop pretending. If you don't want to carry it, then die."
The heavy stone on his back and the heavy burden in his heart made it hard for him to breathe.
Lu Yin did not know why he was the one here. He only knew that there was an uncontrollable sorrow in his heart. He had seen Ming Yan die in his arms, and he had seen the heartache in her eyes.
Thunder rumbled, and heavy rain began to fall.
The people working on the wall had all left, leaving only the youth with the stone on his back. He walked on as usual until he collapsed in the rain. He was fine, but he was lost.
"Are you hungry?"
The youth looked up and saw a girl. She was beautiful and flawless. Her familiar gaze stunned him, and her face stunned him as well. Yan 'er?
The girl took out a lunchbox and handed him a bowl of rice. She gestured for him to keep quiet. "Don't say anything. Eat."
She held an umbrella for him, and in the heavy rain, his vision was obscured.
The youth finished his meal one mouthful at a time, and the girl smiled at him. At that moment, the rain stopped and the sun shone down on the girl's face. She was so beautiful and comfortable.
The youth's eyes turned red, and endless sorrow transformed into a pair of hands that caressed his face. "You have to be happy."
The young girl left, taking the food box with her, happily leaving.
The youth followed after her, silently protecting her. He was both Qinglian and Lu Yin.
Lu Yin repeated the youth's life, and he also experienced the youth's pain. He made the same choice as the youth, carrying the stone on his back as he built the wall. Day after day passed, and after an unknown amount of time, karma appeared in the youth's hand. In an instant, the world spun. Lu Yin was both the youth and Yi Tianque's consciousness.
He did not know who he really was.
It was as if he was observing himself.
One person was observing another, and the other person was that person. What kind of feeling was this?
Lu Yin carried the stone on his back and smiled innocently. He knew that Yi Tianque's consciousness liked to watch.
At the same time, Yi Tianque's consciousness, which was also Lu Yin's consciousness, was satisfied when he saw this smile.
Did this count as him tricking himself?
If he could trick himself into being Qinglian Yu and Yi Tianque's consciousness, then wouldn't that mean that they could verify each other's identities?
Karma was the only bridge between two people. Then, he would use karma to see.
Below the wall, the youth raised his hand, and karma jumped as he walked along the wall. "I want to protect. I want karma to build the wall and protect everyone important to me."