[...]
Standing in place Ye Gui Feng draws in a breath of air prior to reopening his eyes in the physical world.
[.........]
Waking up to find the side of his head pressed against the ground Ye Gui Feng slowly pushes his body back up to come to a seated posture.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!* spreading his spirit senses outwards Ye Gui Feng can hear the faint sound of Xuan Nuo and the Vermilion Bird's clash in the far distance.
Considering how that battle is still ongoing without a sign of it ending not a lot of time must have passed during the instance in which Ye Gui Feng had fainted and slipped into a dream like state.
[...]
Retracting his spirit senses and looking to the skeleton that is leaning its back against the wall Ye Gui Feng constricts his eyes. Even now the sight of this corpse felt as if it is the mirror image of himself after death.
Although Ye Gui Feng's decision has been made he still has a difficult time making sense of this situation that he is faced with.
Prior to interrupting that replay of old memories Ye Gui Feng had felt the presence of a mysterious power in his body.
The nature of this power is rather strange.
It didn't cause any kind of physical pain to Ye Gui Feng. But what it was capable of is something that had caused him to panic. In a painless manner that power had been attempting to erase his memories while replacing it with the memories of another person.
Throughout the replay of those memories Ye Gui Feng felt as if he was experiencing a dream in which he was living the life of another person while gradually becoming them in the manners of an actor slipping into their role.
[...]
The memories of a stranger...
No, perhaps calling these the memories of a stranger isn't perfectly appropriate.
There is something about the sceneries in these memories that sparked a sense of familiarity in Ye Gui Feng's heart.
Towards the sceneries that these memories had shown Ye Gui Feng felt almost as if he had truly been there in the distant past during an unknown time period.
Instinctively Ye Gui Feng can tell that this feeling of familiarity isn't something that had been fabricated by that mysterious power.
[This corpse... Should be the corpse of my original self...]
In the end Ye Gui Feng can only come to this conclusion. The reason as to why this corpse felt like a mirror image of himself after death is most likely also because of this.
[I am... ** *** ***'s clone...]
Despite his unwillingness to accept the reality of the situation Ye Gui Feng can only choose to swallow it like a bitter pill of medicine.
Many things didn't make too much sense to Ye Gui Feng right now but one thing is certain; he is the clone of ** *** *** that was created as a means of accomplishing a certain goal of theirs.
[Heh...]
Inwardly Ye Gui Feng feels a funny sense of irony towards all of this. It is as if history had repeated itself as he intends to disregard the intentions of his original self in the same manner as the demonic self had done to him.
[Exactly what was it that you had planned?]
Looking to the corpse that is in front of him Ye Gui Feng presses his eyebrows together with a light of thoughtfulness in his eyes.
Had the entirety of his original self's life been played out to him Ye Gui Feng would have most likely assimilated with these memories and became the person who had formerly went by the name ** *** ***. At that point his conscience as an individual would have surely been wiped away.
[...]
Looking down at the stone that is held in his right hand Ye Gui Feng clenches it tightly.
*Kaka!* the crack that is on the white stone widens in size in response to the crushing strength that is exerted upon it.
As a stream of cultivation essence breaks out of the stone and enters his body Ye Gui Feng felt a comforting chill that spreads from his right hand to gradually cover the rest of his body.
[** *** ***...]
This person who is Ye Gui Feng's original self can only be described as calculative.
[...]
The incident in which Ye Gui Feng had seen the early days of Xuan Nuo as a nomadic practitioner can only be described as a strange occurrence.
Obviously Xuan Nuo hadn't been in control of this world at the time considering how he himself had been clueless about why that had happened.
That incident in Ye Gui Feng's eyes can only be connected to his original self.
Having been given this white stone that contains a vast amount of cultivation essence when he needed it the most Ye Gui Feng felt that all of this is far too coincidental.
Once or twice can readily be dismissed as a coincidence but this matter cannot possibly fall into that category.
The only explanation for this is to say that ** *** *** had planned everything out ahead of time to ultimately bring about a desired outcome.
[...]
Having sent him this stone ** *** *** had most likely taken into account that Ye Gui Feng would feel a sense of suspicion in his heart upon the receival of it.
Throwing the development of suspicion into the equation ** *** *** had led Ye Gui Feng to this cavern using a trail of cultivation essence.
[...]
*Kakakaka!* as the white stone continues to break Ye Gui Feng frowns.
The way in which ** *** *** is capable of predicting the actions that he would take under the circumstances causes an unpleasant feeling to well up in Ye Gui Feng's heart. It would be correct to assume that ** *** *** had even gone as far as to take his curiosity into consideration when planning everything out.
In the end it is most probably this sense of curiosity that Ye Gui Feng held towards the circumstances that ultimately made him want to interact with their corpse to trigger this memory replay that had been a conscience wiping trap.
So far everything had gone just as according to ** *** ***'s intentions but they probably never expected Ye Gui Feng to break out of their trap on his own and interrupt the conscience wiping process. If they did anticipate this as well...
[...............]
The possibilities of this is also high considering how everything had gone their way up until now but towards the thought of this Ye Gui Feng can only choose to sigh.
Viewing those memories might help Ye Gui Feng to understand the situation better but now is clearly not the time for him to delve into them. At the same time he has no intentions of allowing his conscience to be wiped away for such meaningless gains.
Even if these memories are the memories of his original self what meaning is there for Ye Gui Feng to see them as a bystander to all of this?
Although he had been created by ** *** *** for a plan of theirs Ye Gui Feng doesn't have any intentions to involve himself in it when there are people for him to return to.
*Kaka!!!* as the white stone shatters completely Ye Gui Feng rises to a stand and walks over to the corpse.
(...I finally know where my place is within the dream that your grandfather had seen.)
As he reaches his hand out for the skull the words that the demonic self had said reappears in Ye Gui Feng's head.
(Within that dream I am the dark moon. I can only choose to look upon the eternity that is beneath me from a distance away. Regardless of how radiant I shine the night that is my shroud shall always obscure me from their eyes. But even so... I love everything, yet there isn't a thing out there that can truly love me back. Hence I shall destroy everything and recreate everything until they can come to love me back!)
[...]
Thinking of these words it becomes difficult for Ye Gui Feng to say if these words are the demonic self's alone. He might very well just become another dark moon that can only choose to look upon the eternity that is beneath his feet from a distance away when he thought about the unpredictable future that is ahead of him.
[...I can't predict everything in the same manner as ** *** ***. But even so...]
Grabbing the skull a powerful force of suction comes from Ye Gui Feng's right hand as he drains the corpse of its cultivation essence.
[I have confidence in myself to create my desired future using my own means.]
With a determined expression on his face the cultivation essence that is rampantly pouring into his body melts quickly and becomes a part of a Ye Gui Feng's being.