Xiao Zilan was taken aback. Having been trapped for thousands of years, her interactions with people had become somewhat rusty.
After a long while, she tentatively asked, "Fellow Daoist is..."
"I am a cultivator of the Xuanqing Sect."
"Oh..." Xiao Zilan nodded. "Fellow Daoist is so young, you must have recently formed your Nascent Soul, right? I have never heard of such a young Nascent Soul fellow Daoist in the Xuanqing Sect before."
This Xiao Zilan remained calm in demeanor throughout. Even as a mere soul, her grace and bearing were still extraordinary. Mo Tiange inwardly praised, no wonder Ziwei Sanren still remembered her to this day.
"Senior Xiao does not know, five thousand years have already passed. The world today is not the world Senior is familiar with."
Xiao Zilan was stunned, unable to regain her composure for a long time. "You mean..."
"Senior has been trapped within this Soul Pearl for five thousand years."
"Five thousand years," Xiao Zilan murmured. "Five thousand years..."
Seeing her expression, Mo Tiange frowned. "Senior..." She feared that upon learning of the immense changes, Xiao Zilan might lose control.
Xiao Zilan quickly suppressed her sorrow. "Thank you, Fellow Daoist, for saving me. May I ask how my Xuanji Sect fares now?"
Mo Tiange paused before saying, "The Xuanji Sect... declined not long after Senior's fall."
"..." This time, Xiao Zilan merely closed her eyes and sighed. Knowing five thousand years had passed, she had already guessed the Xuanji Sect no longer existed. The Xuanji Sect's foundation was too shallow. Once she fell, even if not destroyed by others, it would have ended in internal strife.
Quickly gathering her emotions, Xiao Zilan asked, "May I ask, Fellow Daoist, how did you come to know of my origins?"
Mo Tiange smiled and stated directly, "We came specifically to find you."
"Ah..." Xiao Zilan was surprised once again.
Then she heard an even more astonishing sentence: "Senior Xiao, do you remember the name Xu Zhiwei?"
Xiao Zilan seemed as if struck by a heavy blow, momentarily unable to speak.
Seeing her thus, Mo Tiange knew her feelings for Ziwei Sanren were also deep and profound, but fate had played them a cruel hand...
She sighed softly and said, "I was entrusted by Ziwei Sanren to come and find Senior Xiao."
After a while, Xiao Zilan's expression gradually calmed. She gave a bitter smile. "Ziwei Sanren... does he think that by betraying his sect and calling himself a 'Sanren', he truly becomes one? Xu Zhiwei, Xu Zhiwei, just because you don't face it, can you pretend it never happened? There is no medicine for regret in this world, nor can time flow backwards..."
She spoke each word calmly, yet both of them heard the profound sorrow in her words. In this world, there are many heartbreaking things, but none more soul-crushing than a separation without farewell, knowing that person still lives in the world, knowing you love each other, yet being unable to be together.
Mo Tiange and Qin Xi did not interrupt until she asked again, "Xu Zhiwei... with five thousand years past, it's impossible he's still alive. Could he have advanced to God Transformation?"
Mo Tiange smiled. "How likely does Senior Xiao think it is for Senior Ziwei to have advanced to God Transformation?"
Xiao Zilan answered without hesitation, "Given his talent and temperament, if he reached God Transformation, it wouldn't be strange at all. However, if he truly reached God Transformation, he should have come to find me himself."
"..." Mo Tiange sighed with emotion. "Senior understands Senior Ziwei very well. He indeed did not reach God Transformation."
Xiao Zilan smiled bitterly. "We were husband and wife for two hundred years. How could I not know his nature? Since he entrusted you to find me, he must have encountered something he himself was powerless to handle."
"Yes... Senior Ziwei once stepped onto the threshold of God Transformation, but unfortunately failed in the end. After his fall, he sealed his divine sense..." Mo Tiange briefly recounted the events, of course omitting the matter of the restriction placed on her.
After listening, Xiao Zilan fell silent.
Although she could forcibly bring her soul back, Mo Tiange did not wish to force her.
She said, "Senior Xiao, whatever grievances existed between you, they are matters of your past lives. Now, one of you has only divine sense left, the other only a soul. Soon, both will dissipate. What hatred cannot be resolved then? Once memories fade, you will be strangers in the next life."
Xiao Zilan seemed struck by lightning, murmuring, "Strangers..."
Mo Tiange said no more. Though being unable to be together was painful, at least they knew the person they loved still existed in the world, knew the other also held them in their heart. So, even if they could never be together, they still had their own solitary happiness to cling to. But if they became strangers, even that last bit of warmth in their hearts would be gone.
For people like them, who held a beloved in their hearts, this was the most unbearable thing.
Xiao Zilan remained silent. In this short time, she recalled many, many things.
Within the Soul Pearl, although there were thousands upon thousands of souls, most were wandering spirits. Those souls that retained memories were mostly cultivators from their lifetimes. But whether cultivator or mortal, those who could preserve memories all harbored obsessions, unwilling to have their memories erased. As time passed, some souls' intelligence slowly dissipated until they became wandering spirits—obsessions were not immutable either; with the passage of time, obsessions could also gradually fade.
Only she, over five thousand years, had always maintained her intelligence without the slightest dissipation. Because her obsession was engraved into her soul, deeper than anyone else's. Forget five thousand years, even ten thousand, a hundred thousand years, she was clear she would absolutely never forget.
The tragedy of her family's destruction in her youth, a century of bitter cultivation, meeting him...
He was not a good man. She knew that when she met him. But she never imagined he would be one of the perpetrators behind the Tianliang Sect's extermination. Those hands had once been stained with the blood of the entire Tianliang Sect, including her own kin.
If she had been within the sect that day, perhaps she too would have perished by his hand, but...
This suffering, she would absolutely never forget, nor could she accept that the enemy who destroyed her sect was the man who shared her pillow. So, she could only leave, return to the Xuanji Sect, and never see him again for all eternity.
Sometimes she wondered, why did she have to meet him? Why did he have to be the one who destroyed her sect? If she had no connection to the Tianliang Sect, she could have ignored whatever evils he had committed. But there is no medicine for regret in this world, nor can time flow backwards...
When forming her Nascent Soul, she nearly failed to escape her inner demons. In the end, she succeeded only because of one belief. Even if they couldn't be together, at least they still lived under the same sky, looked upon the same mountains, breathed the same air, walked the same paths. A thousand years later, they would both pass away, and all grievances would vanish with the wind.
But she did not wait for such an ending. He betrayed his sect, sent word that he would wait for her forever at Fengxi Valley in the Jiuling Mountains, even if it took a hundred years, a thousand years, until his death. And she? She died an unnatural death.
Such an ending, she could not accept. How could she accept it? Unable to love him, also unable to kill him. This life, caught between a rock and a hard place, every step fraught with difficulty. This obsession had taken root in her heart the moment the truth came to light, sprouting and growing day by day until it completely filled her heart.
And now, five thousand years later, the calamity that once befell the Tianliang Sect was remembered by few. What people saw were merely a few short lines in the records. Even the Xuanji Sect they had rebuilt was gone. He had steadfastly kept his promise, waiting for her at Fengxi Valley until his death. And she? She had become a wisp of a ghost, trapped within the Soul Pearl for millennia.
Perhaps she could preserve her memories forever, become a ghost cultivator. But what of him? His divine sense would dissipate sooner or later, and there would be no more Xu Zhiwei in this world...
Mo Tiange heard Xiao Zilan's calm voice. "Take me to him."
Mo Tiange breathed a sigh of relief, reopened the Soul Pearl, and released all the souls within. "Senior, please enter the Soul Pearl."
Xiao Zilan did not hesitate. Her intangible form transformed into a wisp of smoke and drifted into the Soul Pearl.
Mo Tiange put away the Soul Pearl, relieved, and looked at Qin Xi. "Fortunately. Let's go."
Qin Xi nodded, retracting his sword light into his body.
The two transformed into streaks of light and flew towards the Jin Kingdom.
Two days later, Mo Tiange and Qin Xi descended on a cliff outside Fengxi Valley.
Compared to a hundred years ago, the mist in Fengxi Valley seemed denser. Standing on the cliff, they saw turbulent mist at their feet, like waves.
Mo Tiange frowned slightly. "Something's odd."
Qin Xi nodded. "Yes, this mist doesn't seem naturally formed."
Just as he said this, the two exchanged a glance, simultaneously looked up, their expressions turning strange.
As they thought this, a streak of sword light appeared in their field of vision, circled a few times in the sky above, and then descended.
The light dissipated, revealing the person's true appearance. All three were startled and exclaimed, "Why is it you (all)?"
The one who had descended on the sword light was actually Jing Xingzhi.
The three stared at each other for a long moment before Qin Xi asked, "What are you doing here?"
Jing Xingzhi said, "I'm here seeking an opportunity. What about you?" Suddenly, he warily took a step back. "Don't tell me you also know about..."
Before he could finish, Mo Tiange had already rolled her eyes at him. "If we wanted to rob you, there'd have been plenty of chances."
Jing Xingzhi thought about it and found it reasonable. Opportunities for sword cultivators weren't of much use to them. "Then what are you doing here?"
Qin Xi said, "If I'm not mistaken, our goal is the same."
Jing Xingzhi was stunned and took another step back.
Qin Xi was also annoyed. "Do you really think we'd rob you?"
"..."
Mo Tiange also understood. She said in surprise, "What a coincidence. Has Sword Sovereign Yuan Ying also been here?"
Sword Sovereign Yuan Ying had said he once promised an elder of the Ancient Sword Sect something. In return, that elder gave his descendant an opportunity. For Sword Sovereign Yuan Ying to address someone as 'elder', that person must at least be a Nascent Soul cultivator and older than Sword Sovereign Yuan Ying. Wasn't Ziwei Sanren exactly such a figure? He was an Ancient Sword Sect cultivator from five thousand years ago, with astonishing abilities, absolutely worthy of Sword Sovereign Yuan Ying addressing him as 'elder'.
It seemed that in the past hundred years, Sword Sovereign Yuan Ying had also come here and promised Ziwei Sanren to help find Xiao Zilan. Out of their shared origin in the Ancient Sword Sect, Ziwei Sanren gave him his token, promising to give his descendant an opportunity.
"What's going on?" Jing Xingzhi was bewildered.
"We're here to find someone, an elder of the Ancient Sword Sect," Mo Tiange said. "The important matter I mentioned a few days ago is this very thing."
"Ah?" Jing Xingzhi was puzzled.
Just as Mo Tiange was about to explain in detail, she suddenly saw the mist within Fengxi Valley part to both sides.
Someone was coming up.