Chapter 55: If someone calls you in the future…
“Crack—”
A pebble was thrown into the stream, shattering the thin ice on its surface and making a clear, crisp sound.
The temperature in the village was also gradually dropping with the arrival of winter. Every morning, a thin layer of white frost would fall on the roofs, the ground, and the trees.
This was the seventh day that Liao Chen had disappeared from his sight.
Yan Jingyu could still feel his presence. For example, when he was sleeping at night, he felt that someone was spying on him. For example, at mealtimes, a food box would appear in the room on time. And for example, the room in the small house had clearly been reinforced with a barrier in the past two days, making it warm and cozy.
However, Yan Jingyu just couldn’t see him, and even Yin Shi had disappeared.
In the Suixing Hall, Liao Chen’s fingers were gently stroking a lotus leaf. His expression was calm, but his eyes were a little dazed. He was clearly immersed in some kind of thought, or rather, his brain was having difficulty functioning because of something, and only his limbs still retained the appearance of a normal person…
Not that normal either…
The lotus spirit’s whole body stiffened. Liao Chen’s fingers were very gentle. This gentleness was not so terrible on anyone else, but on Liao Chen, it was incomparably terrible… It was not sure what he was thinking. Anyway, he had been very abnormal recently. He was either wandering around in the Suixing Hall, or he would suddenly have his spiritual energy stagnate while meditating, and then the spiritual light would disappear, and he would sit motionless and dazed.
As his hand slowly stroked its leaf stem, the lotus spirit finally spoke with a tremor. “Is, is there any other problem…”
Liao Chen came back to his senses, his empty eyes focusing slightly. He looked at the transparent human-shaped spiritual body inside the blooming lotus flower, and belatedly withdrew his hand. He reacted for a moment. “Will he really forget me?”
“…?” The lotus spirit was also dazed for a moment. “Didn’t I make it very clear to you?”
Liao Chen lowered his head and murmured, “I was hid…” He changed his wording. “After I am forgotten, can I still do anything?”
“You can’t do anything.” The lotus spirit said, “You will be directly erased from all existence. Your spiritual energy will have no effect in that situation… You didn’t think before that you could rely on your peak Taiqing strength to resist… hmm, hmm, right?”
He didn’t dare to directly mention the rules, for fear of attracting attention. It didn’t matter if Liao Chen was killed by lightning, but it would be a big deal if the lotus was implicated.
“You’re just a little lotus flower that has just transformed. Why do you know so much?”
Liao Chen had wanted to ask for a long time, but he had always felt that it wasn’t important before. At this moment, his brain was stuck, and his thoughts were scattered like broken beads. The only boring question that came to his lips was this.
The lotus spirit looked at the sky and met his gaze silently.
Liao Chen raised his hand and threw up a mist talisman. This was given to him by the Grand Ancestor of Hutian in those years. If it weren’t for the fact that he had actively and positively saved Yan Jingyu, Liao Chen would even have thought that the one who had hidden Yan Jingyu’s Heavenly Mandate Eyes back then and made him unable to see everything was the Grand Ancestor himself.
It turned out that he also had an authority comparable to the hidden effect, but it just couldn’t contend with the real hidden one.
When the surroundings were enveloped by the power of the mist, the lotus spirit finally spoke. “The reason why the thirty-six rules began to restrict mortals from becoming immortals is because a rule was once beaten down, which made them doubt their own status.”
Liao Chen gazed at it. The lotus spirit sighed. “It was none other than myself… Of course, even if I tell you this, you won’t know who I am, because even the current me has also been hidden. I have disappeared for a very, very long time, and I can no longer find anything in the world that is related to me, so I have now been forgotten by everyone. Even if an old friend really comes to me, I am still just a person who is unrelated to the person in his heart. He will not have any sense of familiarity with me, and I cannot express any sense of familiarity with him. This is the power of being hidden.”
“How long have you been hidden?”
“Tens of millions of years.” The lotus spirit sighed. “Of course, this is just my own time, and has nothing to do with the outside world. Not until I myself forgot who I was did I feel that I had a connection with the world again… Little demon god, you believe me, you don’t want to be hidden. That feeling of not being able to see the sky above, not being able to see the ground below, and all four directions being nothingness… you will be like you have lost your five senses, trapped in a void prison. In this prison, there is only you. You absolutely don’t want to experience that feeling.”
“But, you remember everything…”
“I only started to remember recently, for some reason.” The lotus spirit paused. “But even if I remember, I am no longer that me. The me of that year, in the world, in history, in all existing things, does not exist.”
Liao Chen was silent for a while. “If I can make Yan Jingyu remember me…”
“Not until you yourself completely forget yourself will he remember you.” The lotus spirit said, “Maybe at that time, he will have already grasped fate. Perhaps his humanity will have long since been erased in the long passage of time. You forget yourself, and he also forgets you… what is left between you?”
Not until this moment did Liao Chen’s heart feel panic for the first time.
“Is there no other way…”
The lotus spirit shook its head. Liao Chen said, “After I am erased, everything about me in the world will disappear. Will all the cause and effect that arose because of me also disappear?”
“Of course.” The lotus spirit said, “Just like everything that is happening to Yan Jingyu in the Demon Palace now is because of you. If you disappear, all the people in the Demon Palace will also not recognize him, and he will not remember anything about you. Even if they sometimes find that their memories may be a little wrong, human memories always have problems. No one will pay attention.”
“…If that’s the case.” Liao Chen said in a low voice, “Then what’s the importance of my answer?”
“Actually, you’ve also seen it. The rules fear mortals. In the end, they fear that a certain mortal will have the ability to subvert the rules. But among these people, not even one appears in ten thousand years… But if you can connect all the mortals as your anchor in the world… forget it. If it were Yan Jingyu, it might still be possible. After all, he is the famous Immortal Lord Dufang… As for you…”
The lotus spirit did not continue. The power of the mist disappeared.
Liao Chen sat on the jade bed, the Heaven-Scrutinizing Mirror floating in the air. He saw Yan Jingyu, who was walking in the market. He seemed to have become familiar with the villagers during this time and was greeting people with a smile, skillfully sitting down at a certain noodle stall and throwing two copper coins.
He seemed to be able to live well wherever he went, and seemed to be able to please people wherever he went…
“Do you, like me, or not?”
…Like, him? Liao Chen looked at his hand. There shouldn’t be this kind of feeling between him and Yan Jingyu. Yan Jingyu was his enemy, the biggest stumbling block in his life. The thing he hated most in his life was this kind of person who was full of sweet words, full of treacherous schemes, and was always so gentle to everyone…
Yan Jingyu and he were not from the same world. Everything in Jiuyi Mountain was just an accident, a mistake. Although his demonic nature cared about him, his humanity knew very well that Yan Jingyu was not that important…
They were arch-nemesis. From the age of fourteen, everyone knew that he and Yan Jingyu were arch-nemesis. Even when he was in seclusion cultivating, and at the same time following Yan Jingyu for those one hundred and thirty-three years, even people who had never seen them knew that one of them must kill the other…
Like… what a joke?
If this matter were to get out, that the Demon Lord Liao Chen liked the Immortal Lord Dufang Yan Qi, I’m afraid the whole world would laugh its head off…
His gaze suddenly fell on the lotus spirit.
…The whole world, all cultivators, no one would believe it.
He suddenly looked up, his figure instantly disappearing from the Suixing Hall. A jade talisman was activated from his body, suddenly rushing towards all the tribes of the entire Demonic Domain—
“The immortal sects are rampant and have repeatedly invaded my realm. I intend to raise an army, capture their cultivators, and imprison them in purgatory. Today, I order all the tribal chiefs and elites to quickly come to the Shishen Hall to discuss the great plan of conquest. Those who are late will be killed.”
A startling thunder suddenly flashed across the sky. Yan Jingyu looked up at the gloomy sky, a little stunned. A startling thunder on a clear day, is something big about to happen…
He subconsciously wanted to cast a divination, but then suddenly stopped.
Forget it. No matter what else is happening in the world, it has nothing to do with him anymore.
In the final moments, even Liao Chen had not come to disturb him. He should enjoy this rare… now there were only seven months left.
The stall owner had put up a rain shelter. A torrential rain soon fell. The rain fell intermittently for many days. The village was muddy everywhere. And above the dark clouds were one after another group of unlucky cultivators who had been tied up tightly, their eyes and mouths covered, and were speeding towards the Demonic Domain.
When the rain finally stopped, the sky began to snow intermittently again. Yan Jingyu sat on a small couch by the window of the small house, seriously writing down all the thoughts in his mind.
Liao Chen still hadn’t come to find him. From the beginning, he had been unconsciously waiting for a response. Gradually, he began to realize that he might never be able to wait for the other’s answer in this life.
Even though he would still occasionally stop his brush and unconsciously think of the last time he saw him, think of his unanswered question…
But he would soon get the answer.
Liao Chen did not like him.
At least, not to the point where he could let go of the thought of killing him.
In Liao Chen’s heart, he still hoped that they could maintain their relationship as arch-nemesis.
He would also occasionally go to Lingyun City, buy clothes alone, and pick out small furniture alone. Recently, he had even bought a few useless but very beautiful pillows. Every time he went to Lingyun City, he felt that something was spying on him. The atmosphere in Lingyun City was also a little strange. The mortals were fine, but the cultivators who came and went seemed to be tight-lipped.
He realized that Liao Chen was still watching him, and was intentionally isolating him from some of the information around him.
The occasional torrential rain during this time was indeed unusual.
But Yan Jingyu also knew very well that he had no right to inquire about anything. Just as Liao Chen had said, he wanted to save him, and he had no choice. He wanted to kill him, and he also had no choice. At this moment, he wanted to isolate himself and this world, and he also had no choice.
Liao Chen was not anything to him. He often told himself this. He had no standing to demand an explanation for everything. If he had any dissatisfaction with him… he had no right to be dissatisfied with him, unless he could pick up the Du Fang Sword and have the strength to fight the other.
Otherwise, don’t meddle in other people’s business.
Below the pillar of the Heavenly Dao, the only throne that was not shackled was still constantly being engraved with inscriptions. Its whole body was jade-white, and it seemed that only one armrest was still blank, while the rest was already covered with runes.
A faint sound of chains came from the thirty-six rule thrones that were bound, as if the people above were moving restlessly. Whispers sounded from below the pillar of the Heavenly Dao.
“What is he comprehending now?!”
“Nothing good ever comes from him using his brain!”
“But doesn’t he only have less than four months left to live?”
“What is that little demon god who was beaten down doing?”
“He seems to want to dominate the immortal sects recently and has already captured hundreds of sects, but he hasn’t killed anyone…”
“Is he still thinking of saving Yan Jingyu?”
“No, he hasn’t contacted Yan Jingyu for a long time. It seems he has already given up on saving him…”
“That’s more like it. He should be properly expanding his own hegemony. What’s the point of having a deep love for his arch-nemesis… As long as Yan Jingyu can’t ascend to immortality, and there is no one on the throne of fate, the rules of the world will always be in our hands.”
“Keep an eye on Liao Chen. If he breaks through to the demonic stage again, don’t be polite. Directly switch to the divine tribulation and let him die without a whole corpse!”
The pillar of the Heavenly Dao flashed with an endless power, surging along the chains into the thirty-six rules. The rules all fell silent.
“Bang—!” Yan Jingyu’s heart jumped. The brush in his hand suddenly fell, and his whole body trembled.
The runes on the throne of fate stopped engraving. Yan Jingyu came back to his senses and looked at the formation classics in front of him, dazed for a while again.
He found that he had been in a state of self-forgetfulness recently… But this secret manual was something he had used long ago. It shouldn’t have taken much brainpower at all.
He scratched his forehead, bent down to pick up the brush, and then heard a “bang” from outside, accompanied by a girl’s shout: “Don’t you guys set them off here!”
“It’s too noisy! Go play over there!”
“You stinky brats, get lost! We’re frying things in the house. If you startle the kitchen god, can you bear the responsibility?!”
The noisy sound got a little closer. It seemed that the children had moved their position. Yan Jingyu stood up from the couch and took a bag of dried fruit from a bamboo basket hanging on the side.
A layer of snow had already fallen in the courtyard. He wrapped himself in a cloak and walked all the way to the door. As expected, he saw the little ones had stopped not far from his door. Seeing him suddenly, the children all stopped a little shyly and called out crisply, “Uncle Yan.”
“It’s the new year.” Yan Jingyu opened the dried fruit and squatted down. The children’s eyes immediately lit up. They came up one by one like little dogs, and looked at him timidly.
Yan Jingyu’s eyes curved. “I see you’ve brought the big dragon roar. Can you let me set off two?”
Finding that he also had a demand, everyone immediately became less polite. While taking the dried fruit from his hand, they said, “Alright, alright. I still have three here.”
“Let’s set them off together!”
Yan Jingyu quickly finished distributing the dried fruit in his hand, clapped his hands and stood up, and said with a straight face, “What’s the point of setting them off on the ground? Let’s go set them off in the water. Maybe we can even blow up a few fish.”
The children stared at him, their eyes slightly widened.
It was clear that they hadn’t expected him to be so playful.
The river was already frozen. Yan Jingyu first stretched out his foot to test it. It wasn’t very thick, at least not enough to stand on. He first warned the children to stay far away, then very ungracefully assumed a posture of preparing to run away, stretched his two hands far out, and used a fire starter to light it. “Everyone, run faster. I won’t be responsible if you get wet later.”
The fire starter quickly lit the dragon roar in his hand. Amidst the sizzling sound, he quickly threw it onto the river surface and turned his face to run—
“Bang—!”
The dragon roar’s fuse was too short, and it exploded too quickly. Yan Jingyu’s retreating foot was suddenly tripped by a stone on the ground. His body fell downwards. Seeing all the broken ice and water splashing towards him, he subconsciously raised his hand to block it.
A figure appeared out of thin air.
The splashing water refracted a dazzling halo in the sunlight.
The man in black had his back to the light. He grabbed his wrist. Yan Jingyu’s falling body was pulled up again. As his line of sight rose, the man’s back-lit figure was finally seen clearly. Yan Jingyu barely stood firm and reacted for a moment.
“You’ll teach them bad habits like this.”
Yan Jingyu came back to his senses and immediately pulled his hand back. Clearly, they hadn’t seen each other for only a few months, yet they seemed to have become strangers in an instant. Yan Jingyu took a step back, his brow furrowing slightly, and gently moved his slightly twisted foot.
The children stared with wide eyes at the person who had appeared out of thin air. Not until Liao Chen had used a little trick did they seem to have just come back to their senses and happily went to the other side.
Liao Chen subconsciously found a relatively familiar sentence. “You’re so old, how come you’re still the same? What if the ice blocks hurt you?”
Yan Jingyu turned and walked to the other side. Liao Chen took a step to follow, glanced at his unnatural foot, and said, “Did you sprain it?”
“…” If he had only disappeared for a day, two days, three days, Yan Jingyu wouldn’t have felt so strange. But in these few months, he had already sorted out his emotions more than once. The impulse to ask him at that time was long gone, and he was no longer obsessed with that answer. To be precise, he had already completely let go of this matter, this person, in his heart.
For him to suddenly appear like this, Yan Jingyu simply didn’t know what attitude to face him with.
Liao Chen supported his arm. “Does it hurt?”
“It’s fine.” Yan Jingyu responded stiffly. As he continued to walk forward, Liao Chen suddenly picked him up. His heart tightened, and his brow furrowed. He stared at him uncontrollably. “What are you trying to do now?”
“To give you an explanation.”
“…” Yan Jingyu’s mind was a little empty. He pursed his lips. Liao Chen, while holding him and walking back, glanced at him again. “And also to celebrate the new year with you.”
Yan Jingyu’s hand clutched the corner of his clothes, his eyes lowered. “Who cares…”
Liao Chen placed him on the bed of the small house, took off his socks, and held his somewhat swollen foot.
Yan Jingyu’s foot was icy cold. When his palm touched it, it was like touching a block of ice.
“You haven’t been eating the medicinal food Mo Xia made for you recently.”
“…I’ll eat whatever I want to eat.”
“I’ve been watching you.” Liao Chen took out some spiritual medicine wine and gently rubbed it on his ankle. “I just didn’t know how to tell you.”
“…” Yan Jingyu’s fingers pinched his sleeve. His breathing lightened slightly, then he took a deep breath and said coldly, “Just say what you have to say. It’s not like I’ll pester you.”
“The medicinal wine has been rubbed in, but it will probably take a night to fully recover.” Liao Chen put the socks back on for him and supported the sole of his foot with his palm. Yan Jingyu soon felt a wave of heat rising from the sole of his foot. Liao Chen’s eyes were lowered, his expression a little focused. After a long while, he put his foot down, looked up, and said, “I saw many people go to buy new year’s goods. Shall we go tomorrow too?”
Yan Jingyu pulled his foot onto the bed, pulled the quilt over himself, and said, “I’ve already bought most of what I want to eat myself. You don’t have to worry about it.”
Liao Chen followed and sat on the bed, his gaze fixed on him without blinking.
Yan Jingyu lowered his eyes, unconsciously fiddling with his fingers, and heard him say, “Yan Jingyu.”
“I have found a way to save you, but I have not yet found a way to save myself.”
“Wha…” Yan Jingyu suddenly looked up. Liao Chen’s two fingers were suddenly pressed against his glabella. He stared blankly at the other’s deep eyes. The latter said slowly, “I once thought that the worst result between us was nothing more than you die, I live. But I never thought that one day, being forgotten by you would also be a very bad thing.”
Yan Jingyu’s expression was full of confusion.
“These words I’m saying to you, you will forget. It’s not that I want you to forget, but that your status is not high enough, and the rules will make you forget… Maybe, there is a part that you could have heard, but I don’t want you to know now.”
“But no matter what I say to you today, as long as you can ascend to immortality… if, if I can save myself, you will surely remember these words… I originally didn’t care. As long as you are still alive, so what if you forget me? As long as I am still alive, I will always have a way to save myself. But in the end, I don’t know enough about being hidden… I don’t know how I’m going to save myself, and I don’t know how you’re going to find me…”
“If the way to save you is to let me die, I will definitely not agree. But now I have discovered that perhaps disappearing is really more terrible than death.”
“You will forget me… Yan Jingyu, no matter what answer I give you, the moment you are reborn, you will completely forget me… I will be able to hear you, but I will never be able to touch you again. I will watch you in a world without me, without any trace of my existence, talking and laughing with others…”
“You are very selfish, and I am also very selfish. I can give you an answer… but I don’t want to let you off so easily. On what grounds? I have to bear the pain of about to disappear and selflessly create a few months of beautiful memories for you… just to make you happy now?”
“When did I become such a selfless person… Yan Jingyu, if you want to hear me say that sentence to you, if you want to get my answer, then come and find me. Find me, and you will get thousands upon thousands of sentences. If you can’t find me… you are a complete waste, and I…”
“…am a complete fool.”
“Remember my next words… if someone calls you in the future and says they want to tell you something, that’s me talking to you…”
“…”
Yan Jingyu stared blankly at his lips, his eyes wide.
