Chapter 774: You Were Born Before Me

The Ghost Gate opened in the very center of Longchang. That irresistible attraction—a force not even the giant beast could withstand—pulled at every monster in this ghost domain, dragging them down into the depths of the Earth Abyss!

The Security Guard stood surrounded by the Red Building Obsessions, black threads coiling all around him. Upon closer inspection, these threads—condensed from resentment and anger—wove the obsessions together into a single entity.

He was sliding backward too, but unlike the defenseless original residents of Longchang, the Security Guard retreated at a crawl.

"Decades of planning, ruined in an instant, all because of you..." His gaze skipped past Junsheng and landed on Uncle Xu. I could clearly sense that the Security Guard was speaking to me. "I curse you! Even if I plunge into a lightless abyss, I will curse you with the most vicious words imaginable!"

His cold face gradually shifted, twisting into a chilling, eerie smile. "I have a feeling you will die a miserable death. I'll be waiting for you in hell! I know you'll come join me!"

"A desperate dog leaps over a wall?" I paid his threats no mind.

His mouth tore open at the corners, and countless black threads erupted from his body, each one carved with a human face. "With the Earth Abyss opening in Longchang, the cage imprisoning us will also break open. The Pig Cage Apartments will cease to exist, and the final backup plan we left behind will successfully escape."

"Are you talking about Zhu Li?" I manipulated Uncle Xu's body to make a throat-slitting gesture at the Security Guard. "I managed to turn the tables in the Animal Realm. Once we return to the Yang Realm, your obsessions will be nothing more than my food. Drag me to hell? You're not qualified!"

"You're tainted with the aura of reincarnation. In the eyes of heaven, you're a hundred times more dangerous than we are!" The Security Guard let out a hideous, manic laugh as his black threads whipped wildly through the air. "I can already see that day! I'll be waiting for you in hell! I'll wait for you in hell!"

The final black thread snapped. The Security Guard and the Room Four monsters entangled in his threads were all sucked into the bottomless rift.

'This lunatic still had to disgust me one last time at death's door,' I thought, keeping a close eye on the battlefield. The Yellow Springs Token had opened the Ghost Gate, and even though it was only a narrow slit, not even the sky-obscuring giant beast could resist it.

Longchang was completely destroyed. All the original residents—aside from Uncle Xu and the girl standing behind Junsheng—were sucked into the Ghost Gate.

Every trace of the obsessions' existence in the Animal Realm was erased. The entirety of Longchang had been cleared out.

The mirror surface overhead began to distort, and the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment in Junsheng's pocket trembled slightly. The powerful suction created by the Ghost Gate had caused irreparable damage to the Longchang Grand Formation. Cracks crisscrossed the night sky, and the massive mirrored reflection was not far from shattering.

Only that giant beast remained struggling within Longchang. Its body was simply too massive; half of it had been swallowed into the Earth Abyss, while the other half clung desperately to the earth of the Animal Realm.

The beast's roars shook the heavens, but compared to before, they lacked their previous strength.

The endlessly spreading rifts finally slowed down. After the last original resident of Longchang was swallowed by the Ghost Gate, Junsheng—who had kept his back to the girl and me this entire time—swayed slightly.

His raised hand trembled, as if holding up a thousand pounds.

"Junsheng?" I was the first to realize something was wrong. Forcibly using the Yellow Springs Token before a full year had passed consumed the user's very being. The last person this token would devour was the caster himself.

The crashing waves of the Yellow Springs slowly subsided. That ancient, eternal river churned above life and death.

Perhaps hearing the noise behind him, Junsheng slowly turned around.

"Hss!"

Seeing Junsheng's current state, I gasped. His remnant soul was nearly transparent, and large, unhealing holes riddled his body. He looked like a snowman standing under a blazing sun, his form melting away bit by bit.

Seeing him like this, the girl froze. She staggered forward unconsciously, every step seeming to drain the last ounce of her strength.

Junsheng slowly lowered the hand holding the Yellow Springs Token. He was exactly as he had been decades ago—lean and reticent. The gentleness in his eyes hadn't changed, not even through endless days and nights of reincarnation.

The cleansing Yellow Springs Water flowed quietly beneath the Earth Abyss.

On the shores of reincarnation, the former lovers stood facing each other.

Holding the Yellow Springs Token, the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment in his pocket giving off the only glimmer of light in the Animal Realm, his body continuously shattered. Yet, a long-lost smile blossomed on his face.

"Junsheng..."

Those few short steps seemed like the longest journey the girl had walked in her life. A deep, weary sorrow—one that absolutely did not belong to someone her age—filled the depths of her eyes.

She stopped, and they embraced.

Their gazes seemed to cross through reincarnation itself. Neither spoke. It wasn't until the surging Yellow Springs faded away and the Ghost Gate deep within the Earth Abyss slowly swung shut that the Yellow Springs Token in Junsheng's hand finished devouring the very last shred of his memories.

Right there in the girl's arms, Junsheng's remnant soul quietly dissipated, like a breeze that had never blown past.

"Junsheng?"

The girl's hands were still suspended in midair. She reached out her fingers toward the emptiness, as if trying to hold onto something.

Her trembling fingertips failed to grasp anything. Her movements grew more frantic as she desperately hugged the empty air. Her heartbreaking wail made even me—an outsider—feel a deep pang of sorrow.

"Junsheng! Gu Junsheng!!"

...

The gashes in the earth were shocking. The giant beast was stuck in the fissures, deeply trapped within the Longchang Grand Formation.

With the Ghost Gate closed, the giant beast's mind grew active again. It was looking right at my position.

Standing on the top floor of the Longchang Main Building, I helped the kneeling girl up, picked up the bamboo basket tossed to the side, and wiped the dust off the Embroidered Ball.

I didn't say a word. Picking up the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment and the White Bone Jade Box, I silently looked out the window at the boundless wasteland.

Birth, old age, sickness, and death—separation was inevitable. Just like the Six Paths and Yin and Yang, this was the iron law of heaven.

Time after time, Junsheng's reincarnations had failed to change this destined conclusion. For some reason, I seemed to see my own reflection in him.

'The Blood Fox once said my willpower surpasses that of ordinary people,' I thought, my fingers brushing against the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment as a fragmented line of thought slowly clarified in my mind. 'Junsheng managed to force my consciousness out of this body at the very last moment, proving his willpower could rival mine before my Dao Lock was opened. He never consumed Dream-Entangling Grass, the Flower of the Dream Realm, or anything like that, yet his willpower was so incredibly formidable. The only explanation is that with every cycle of reincarnation, as long as his will doesn't scatter, it grows stronger. If I think about it that way...'

'I can't say for sure just yet. The young man living on the top floor of the Red Building knows the other streamer. Once I leave the Animal Realm, as long as I can find him, I can prove my theory!'

There seemed to be nothing but eternal night in the Animal Realm. Time moved so sluggishly that it blurred the line between reality and illusion. I didn't know how much time had passed before the Copper Mirror on the door lintel reflected a faint glimmer of light.

That light was completely different from any light in the Animal Realm. It carried a touch of warmth.

"Finally," I muttered. Supporting the girl, I stood beneath the Copper Mirror, tucked the White Bone Jade Box and the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment into my pocket, and cradled the Embroidered Ball she had meant to give Junsheng.

The warm light shone into my eyes. At the end of the light seemed to lie another world...

By the time I opened my eyes again, the scent of earth filled my nose, and I could hear the chirping of insects a dozen meters away. The icy Good and Evil Asura Mask rested snugly against my face. Everything seemed to have changed. Looking down, I inadvertently caught sight of the faded Embroidered Ball in my palm.

The Embroidered Ball was still here, but the short, shadowy figure who was supposed to be standing in front of me was gone forever.

I softly exhaled a breath of stale air. The Fate Ghost carrying the Live Show Phone melted into my shadow. It was already suffering from unhealed severe injuries, and after persisting through the entire night and being exposed to the morning sun, its spectral body had sustained heavy damage.

Slipping both hands into my pockets, I found that the Black Jade Pixiu, the White Bone Jade Box, and the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment were not only still there, but their positions hadn't even shifted.

I took them out and examined them repeatedly. The White Bone Jade Box containing the Yellow Springs Token seemed to have something attached to it, making it look even more sinister.

The Reincarnation Mirror Fragment had undergone an even greater change. Its edges were no longer sharp. What surprised me even more was that the mirror's surface now held not only a black thread covered in human faces, but also the faint phantom of a beast. Its appearance was strikingly similar to the giant beast from the Animal Realm.

'Is this a projection? Or has it been refined into the Longchang Grand Formation?' I wondered. After experiencing everything in the Animal Realm, I no longer dared to underestimate this mirror.

Carefully putting it away, I channeled my ghost art, suddenly realizing that another bead on my Ghost Ring had lit up. It seemed to be imprisoning something inside.

'It should be Uncle Xu,' I thought. I didn't linger. I still had many things to take care of, so I dashed downstairs, clutching the Embroidered Ball.

Upon reaching the first floor, I recalled my three ghosts. I found that the young man who lived on the top floor had passed out from excessive blood loss, while Bai Ya'er, who had been sitting across from him, was long gone.

'She probably ran off with Zhu Li,' I thought. A surge of murderous intent boiled up at the thought of Zhu Li, and it took a long time to suppress it.

Leaving the Longchang Ancient Buildings, I sprinted toward the Red Building. Before I even arrived, I could see a blind old woman leading a short child out of the stairwell in the distance.

"Granny!"

I called out and ran up to her. Just as I was about to speak, she grabbed my arm and hastily asked, "Did you find Junsheng? Did you see him in the ancient building last night?"

Looking at the Old Granny in front of me, the words I wanted to say instantly caught in my throat.

Passing through reincarnation would seal one's memories. I only remembered everything because I had used the souls of Junsheng and Uncle Xu as a ferry, merely sending my own will into the cycle of reincarnation.

"I... didn't find him. It was too chaotic last night..." I didn't know why I was lying to the old woman, my hands clenching tightly. "Maybe because of the obsessions, the child was frightened. He probably won't come to the Red Building ever again."

"That's good too, that's good," the Old Granny mumbled repeatedly. "I'm old. When I'm gone, there won't be anyone to open the door for him anymore. Better to sever ties early."

The wrinkles on the old woman's face deepened. Leading the little boy from the sixth floor by the hand, she tottered shakily back toward the stairwell. Just as they turned around, the White Bone Jade Box in my pocket trembled slightly. It felt as if something slipped out of the box and flew right into the little boy's body.

At that exact moment, this foolish, slow-witted boy—who never spoke and never cried—suddenly sat down on the ground, pointed in the direction of Longchang, and began to bawl his eyes out.

Watching the retreating figures of the old and the young, I suddenly felt incredibly powerless.

'You were born before me, but I was born after you grew old,' I thought. 'Having missed this cycle of reincarnation, who knows when they'll meet again.' Standing beneath the morning sun, I picked up the Live Show Phone, unconsciously reading the barrage of messages from the livestream viewers as my thoughts drifted far away.

When first we met in the alley years ago, a graceful maiden of only thirteen, riding bareback on a bamboo horse, the green plum branches full, in whispered vows we promised to grow old together.