Lingluo Heavenly Domain, Plum Blossom Immortal Realm.
This was an immortal realm blooming with plum blossoms. As far as the eye could see, plum blossoms were everywhere—countless, endless, like a sea of blooming flowers. The pink plum blossoms, draped in soft moonlight, appeared exceptionally graceful under the night sky.
Within the plum grove.
A woman stood quietly.
The woman wore a white garment.
The garment was white, but not a white that surpassed snow, nor a holy white, nor a bright white. It was a kind of faint, deep lunar white—a white that was solitary, cold, and tranquil.
Her black hair drifted gently in the night breeze, like dark flames smoldering faintly in the darkness.
Her countenance was beautiful.
However.
This beauty was neither a charming beauty nor a dignified beauty. It was a beauty of sorrowful grace, a beauty of melancholy—like the most beautiful flower between heaven and earth, frozen for countless ages, retaining only a beautiful exterior but long bereft of a soul.
She stood.
Just stood like that.
Giving a feeling of utter unreality, ethereal and elusive, as if she did not belong to this world at all and might vanish at any moment.
Suddenly.
A figure appeared in the Plum Blossom Immortal Realm.
It was a man in white.
The man walked through the air as if treading upon the sea of flowers, advancing slowly. The plum grove did not stir; only the plum blossoms fell. It was none other.
Than Gu Qingfeng.
He had come.
Only because he had sensed Jun Xuanji.
Yet upon seeing Jun Xuanji, he halted his steps. His ordinary, unremarkable face bore a complex expression as he gazed at Jun Xuanji in the plum grove, not speaking a single word.
And Jun Xuanji did not turn around. She remained standing quietly beneath a plum tree, watching the slowly falling blossoms. Her eyes held a sense of bewilderment and hesitation.
She slowly raised her arm, gently catching a plum blossom. After a long while, she finally spoke: "Do…
you know?
I…
once planted a very, very beautiful flower…" Jun Xuanji's voice was still as elusive as ever, as if drifting intermittently from a place far, far away.
Gazing at the plum blossom petal in her palm, she said without any emotional color: "But…
I've forgotten. I don't remember where I planted it, nor…
what kind of flower I planted. I even…
don't remember why I planted that flower…" Since Jun Xuanji had lost herself, Gu Qingfeng had never understood her words. This time was no exception. He had no idea what Jun Xuanji was talking about, nor why she was saying these things to him.
Earlier, Gu Qingfeng had heard from the Plum Blossom Old Daoist here that someone intended harm against Jun Xuanji, and might even prevent her from awakening. Moreover, these people were likely the mysterious clansmen they sought.
Now that Jun Xuanji had awakened, Gu Qingfeng found no suspicious presences here. Had he arrived too late? Had those mysterious ancient clansmen already left?
Jun Xuanji seemed to know what Gu Qingfeng was thinking, saying: "They…
did not appear."
"I heard they want to kill you?"
"They…
don't want to kill me…
They…
just don't want me to find myself again."
"I heard that back in the Primordial Era, you buried your own soul within the Ancestral Realm."
Jun Xuanji shook her head slightly, responding intermittently: "I said…
I once planted a very, very beautiful flower…
But I've forgotten. Forgotten where I planted it, forgotten what flower I planted, and forgotten why I planted that flower…" This time, Gu Qingfeng seemed to understand. He realized that the so-called 'flower' in Jun Xuanji's words was likely the soul she had buried.
"An old senior in this immortal realm said you buried your soul in the Ancestral Realm."
"That is merely what he believes…" Jun Xuanji said: "Not just him. Many, many existences believe I buried my soul in the Ancestral Realm of the Lingluo Heavenly Domain…
Including those ancient clansmen. But…
the Ancestral Realm does not contain my soul. That is why…
they did not appear."
Gu Qingfeng pondered that when Jun Xuanji buried her soul back then, she likely knew those ancient clansmen would covet it. Therefore, she had laid many deceptive traps, both real and illusory, and this Lingluo Ancestral Realm was probably one of them.
However.
He truly could not understand why Jun Xuanji had buried her own soul. When he asked, unsurprisingly, Jun Xuanji's answer was as he had guessed: she had forgotten…
"Don't you want to retrieve the soul you buried?"
"No…
I don't."
Jun Xuanji said: "I only want…
to end…
all of this…" "End all of this again…" Gu Qingfeng said helplessly: "What exactly do you want to end?"
"I don't know…
Forgotten…" "You don't even know how to end all of this, right?"
Gu Qingfeng sighed: "Look at you. You don't know what you want to end, nor how to end it…
Just rushing around like a headless fly. Why not retrieve the soul you buried first and clarify matters?"
"You don't understand."
At this moment, Jun Xuanji seemed to have lost her soul, appearing utterly bewildered. "At least, you…
don't understand now."
"I truly don't understand."
"You…
will understand in the future."
"Why do you say that?"
Jun Xuanji did not answer Gu Qingfeng's question, and Gu Qingfeng did not press further. What could one ask of a Jun Xuanji who had buried her own soul and lost herself? He then took out a token and offered it to her, saying: "This is the Ancestral Realm Token. The Plum Blossom Old Senior asked me to give it to you."
"You…" Jun Xuanji had not once turned to look at Gu Qingfeng from beginning to end. She remained standing quietly beneath the plum tree, watching the petals fall with the wind. "You keep it."
"I keep it?
What use do I have for this thing?"
"Haven't you…
already decided to seek the Wu Dao Age?"
"So?"
Gu Qingfeng examined the Ancestral Realm Token in his hand. "Does this Ancestral Realm Token have something to do with the Wu Dao Age?"
Suddenly.
Gu Qingfeng's heart stirred. When the Ancestral Realm's light had flickered earlier, he had tried to search for it. Yet, despite scouring the entire Lingluo Heavenly Domain, he had found no trace of the so-called Ancestral Realm. He had been puzzled then. But if this Ancestral Realm Token was related to the Wu Dao Age, then that meant…
The so-called Ancestral Realm was not in the Lingluo Heavenly Domain at all, but in the Wu Dao Age?
Considering this, Gu Qingfeng asked: "Is the Ancestral Realm a relic of the Wu Dao Age?"
"Yes…
it is…" Gu Qingfeng stared at the Ancestral Realm Token in his palm. Probing it with his divine sense revealed nothing—it was completely empty. Then, Jun Xuanji's voice came again: "When I emerged…
the Ancestral Realm…
had already vanished…
It will reappear only after a thousand years…" "Another thousand years to wait!"
"Is a thousand years… long?"
"Isn't it?"
"Heh…
You will grow accustomed…
You will grow numb…
Everyone will…
No one is an exception…" "One more thing. Are the origins of the Primordial World and the Lingluo Heavenly Domain also hidden within the Ancestral Realm?"
"Forgotten…
I don't remember…"