Chapter 758: Disappearing Memories

I pushed open the rough door, and it was as if a thick fog had parted. A ray of light caught my eye, making my pupils twitch.

Moonlight slipped down the tips of her hair like water. In the cold, silent room, a girl sat all alone by the window.

She sat in profile toward me. Her ethereal aura felt entirely out of place in this cycle of reincarnation.

Hearing the door open, she turned to look back at me, her eyelashes fluttering.

Her features weren't exceptionally striking, but she possessed a classical Eastern beauty—as clear as morning dew and as pure as a tranquil pool.

She was different from every woman I had ever met. Hers wasn't an aggressive beauty that instantly dominated your gaze, dazzling like a diamond. Instead, she was like jade: warm, gentle, yet resilient. It was incredibly rare to find a girl like her in our modern, materialistic society.

"Junsheng?" Surprised by my entrance, she spoke with a voice like pearls dropping onto a jade plate—crisp and pleasant to the ear.

I stared at her face for a long time. The Old Granny seemed to have forgotten everything about the Yang Realm, and I couldn't be certain if the girl before me was truly the person I was looking for.

Seeing my silence, the girl broke into a smile. "Can't sleep either?"

From start to finish, she showed no signs of anxiety or unease. Only her eyes harbored a trace of complex emotion she couldn't quite conceal.

Looking at the girl in front of me, I simply couldn't bring myself to pull the cloth strip out of my pocket. My fingers tightened into a fist, then slowly relaxed. I took a deep breath, my gaze turning resolute.

I turned and closed the door, then walked up to her and lowered my voice. "Tonight, you're leaving Longchang with me."

My tone was low but left no room for argument. Perhaps she never expected the younger brother who had always needed her care to suddenly become so forceful. She didn't speak for a moment. After a long pause, she reached out and rested her hand on my shoulder. "Did they say something to you?"

My fingers gripping the cloth strip suddenly tightened. This girl was far smarter than I had imagined; the moment I opened my mouth, she almost entirely understood what I meant.

"I'm the one who was chosen, right?" Facing the cruel fate that awaited her, the girl paid it no mind. She moved the bamboo basket off her lap, set the silk and needlework aside, and stood up to pinch my cheek. "This day has finally come, after all."

"You're coming with me tonight. We're leaving this place." I brushed her hand away. When my fingers brushed her skin, I actually felt a rare trace of warmth. Her body wasn't completely freezing cold like a corpse; she still retained some body heat!

The girl blinked and stubbornly shook her head.

"Why?" As far as I was concerned, even dying on the border and being blown to pieces by artillery fire was far better than becoming food for others to devour.

"The tide of war changes in an instant. Artillery fire has been raging these past few days, and the fighting is intense. The blockade outside should be lifted soon. Haven't we been scraping by in Longchang all these years just to wait for this very moment?"

"You're going to be eaten tomorrow! You're going to die! Why are you still thinking about that?!" Even if the tide of war shifted, breaking through the border blockade wouldn't happen in a day or two.

"Yes, I'm going to be eaten." The girl raised the arm I had just brushed aside and gently cradled my cheek. "But you're different..."

Silence filled the room. I could hear her shallow breathing.

"How am I any different? After you're eaten, I'll be next. Staying in Longchang is nothing but waiting to die." I pushed her hand away again. "Our only chance of survival is to escape this place. No matter what you say, you have to come with me tonight."

Despite being rejected twice in a row, the girl didn't get angry. Her personality was like a gently babbling brook; she made it impossible for anyone to get mad at her, and she herself took everything in stride, never losing her temper.

Her clear smile couldn't hide the complexity in her eyes. I knew she had countless things she wanted to say to Junsheng, but she just didn't know where to begin. She quietly gazed at me, as if trying to engrave this face into her mind.

"Starting half a year ago, there have been fewer and fewer children in the Red Building. Do you know why?" Instead of answering me, the girl brought up a seemingly unrelated matter.

"In times of war and chaos, when people are starving and freezing, children's bodies are weak. It's perfectly normal for their numbers to dwindle."

"You're wrong," the girl said, shaking her head. "We are nothing more than food in their eyes. There is no order here, no morality. In this place, only the strongest survive."

She looked at me, and only now did I slowly begin to understand that complex look in her eyes. "Our lives aren't in our own hands. The only reason we haven't been killed yet is because they treat us like captive livestock, slaughtering us only when needed."

She saw things even more clearly than I did. For someone her age, that was simply unbelievable.

"Everyone in this building lives like a beast. Or rather, everyone is just livestock waiting for the slaughter. No one can escape. From the moment they ate that first piece of 'meat,' this fate was sealed." She paused for a moment, her voice shifting. "No one allows captive livestock to escape. The area around this building is entirely surrounded by guards. If we leave without permission and get caught, both of us will be eaten."

Staying behind meant waiting to die, and escaping only offered a one percent chance of survival. The girl wasn't willing to drag Junsheng down with her just for a one percent chance at life.

In her heart—and in the heart of practically everyone living in Longchang—there still remained a shred of wishful thinking: the war might end "tomorrow."

This must have been the Old Granny's true mindset at the time. Now that she had lost her memories, she voiced it all completely naturally.

At this thought, I didn't rush to persuade her, but instead realized another issue.

After seeing those two "pigs" just now, I realized that the Longchang Apartments within the Animal Realm seemed to be constantly looping that terrifying past experience. The return of the Old Granny and the Red Building Tenants was like tossing a pebble into a deep pool—it caused a few ripples, but things quickly returned to calm. Their appearance hadn't disturbed this side of reincarnation; everything in the Pig Cage Apartments was still playing out according to the original script.

That group had schemed for so many years, and their fundamental goal in returning to the Animal Realm was to be reborn. Yet, after coming back, they didn't seem to have caused much of a stir.

I stole a glance at the girl. If this child was indeed the Old Granny, it defied all logic that she—a key figure—hadn't been taken away by an obsession, and that there wasn't a single obsession standing guard around her.

'Unless the obsessions, just like the Old Granny, had their memories temporarily sealed after returning to the Animal Realm and couldn't recall anything...' A flash of realization crossed my mind. 'Junsheng appears in the Red Building every night and leaves during the day; his memories only ever last for a single night. Could the reason for this be tied to reincarnation? Does entering and exiting reincarnation inevitably seal away one's memories?'

'No wonder Junsheng insisted on merging the Embroidered Balls from both shores of reincarnation and absorbing my will before entering the Copper Mirror. Having entered and exited reincarnation so many times, he must have known that crossing through that door would make him forget everything! He was terrified of forgetting his mission to save the Old Granny, which was why he willingly offered his body and memories as a boat to ferry my consciousness across reincarnation. He forgot everything once again, but I managed to retain the memories!'

He knew full well that every time he passed through the Copper Mirror he would lose all his memories, yet he still entered that mirror every single day, repeating the process of forgetting the exact same thing. Perhaps only an emotion like that could transcend reincarnation and remain immortal through time.

At this thought, my sympathy for the little guy only deepened. Having lost my own memories before, I could completely understand the feeling. To have clearly experienced something yet be entirely unable to recall it felt like having your entire life ripped apart.

"Junsheng?"

The girl's voice drifted into my ears. Seeing the faint worry in her eyes, I reached out and firmly gripped her shoulders. "I will definitely get you out of here."

"What's suddenly gotten into you? You're acting a bit strange today. You absolutely mustn't do anything foolish."

She grabbed my hands. The warmth of her palms was utterly unique in this world.

She might be the only person on this side of reincarnation whose yang qi hadn't been completely severed.

I gently pulled my hands back without saying a word, though my mind was rapidly calculating. 'Everyone who enters reincarnation has their memories sealed, and the Red Building Tenants are no exception. However, having schemed for decades to achieve this, they must have left a backup plan. The corpse of that Phantom Pig should be the key. Sooner or later, those demons will awaken their memories, and when that happens, the situation will completely deteriorate.'

The obsessions originally spawned within Longchang. If they remembered everything, it was highly likely they would mobilize all the "pigs" in Longchang to hunt us down. Even with my three trump cards, it probably wouldn't be nearly enough.

'This is the Animal Realm, so fleeing outside the building is completely unviable. There is only one way back, and that is to wait until dawn and return to the Yang Realm the exact instant the Copper Mirror activates.' Not being able to escape outside limited my options. I needed to take the girl and evade all the monsters until then.

'This will be extremely difficult.' Acting through Junsheng's remnant soul, most of my own abilities were completely useless, and the three items I had brought with me all had various issues.

To this day, I still had no idea what the Mirror Fragment was used for. The Black Jade Pixiu hadn't triggered any protective phenomena when that "pig" grabbed my neck. And as for this final item, the Yellow Springs Token—as powerful as it was, it could only be used once a year, and it was nowhere near time to use it.

'This is going to be a bit troublesome.' I weighed the strength of both sides. My only advantage was that I had retained my memories, giving me the upper hand. 'We have to leave before the Red Building Tenants awaken their memories and hide somewhere no one can find us. Moreover, that place can't be too far from the Copper Mirror on the top floor.'

In the Yang Realm, the sun would rise in another hour or two. I absolutely had to seize that exact instant. If I missed it, let alone the Old Granny, even my own consciousness would be trapped in this place.

Having made my decision, I didn't hesitate any longer. I grabbed the girl by the wrist, giving her absolutely no chance to refuse. "Come with me!"