VAP - Chapter 166
Chapter 166: Xuan Yin (5)
But she couldn't let them run completely wild, otherwise the people from the Five Elements Continent would be showing up three times a day as if punching a clock, ready to talk by candlelight with their old acquaintance.
Despite the fact that none of them could provide much useful information.
The rules' gag order was strict. The moment they even thought of revealing something, they found themselves unable to speak. Under these restrictions, the immortals could only find various ways to reminisce about the past, telling stories in the hope of awakening some vague impression in Yue Du.
Yue Du felt not the slightest stirring in her heart. ""
The only thing that seemed to stir her emotions was the shared origin of the Five Elements immortals' auras. As for their pasts, whether tear-jerking or magnificent, Yue Du simply couldn't pretend to feel any resonance.
However, the painstaking efforts of the Five Elements immortals were not in vain. Based on their behavior, Yue Du eliminated a few untenable guesses and began to form an idea.
On this day, the Five Talisman God Monarch, holding his qin, leisurely knocked on the hall door.
Yun Yijiu, long since tired of these disturbances, immediately rose with a cold expression. Her Wushuang Sword was half-unsheathed, the exposed section of the blade glinting with a stern, cold light.
Just as a bloody incident was about to occur, Yue Du wrapped her arms around Yun Yijiu's waist from behind, placed a light kiss on her long, black hair, and then called out, "Come in."
The Wushuang Venerable was like a cat whose fur had been smoothed. Her aura instantly became harmless, and the sword was steadily returned to its sheath.
The door opened, and Fu Weifeng drifted in like a light breeze. His gaze swept, intentionally or not, over the hand of the Wushuang Sword's owner resting on the hilt. The corner of his eye twitched, but he nonchalantly sat down opposite Yue Du.
Yue Du said, "Five Talisman God Monarch, what part of the past have you come to tell me about today?"
Fu Weifeng placed the qin flat before him and smiled. "No need to be so formal. I am the fifth among my generation in the clan. You can call me Fu Five or Little Five, either is fine."
Yun Yijiu suddenly grew alert, but Yue Du's smile remained unchanged. "Alright, Five Talisman God Monarch. Please begin."
Five Talisman God Monarch: "" Sigh. His attempt to get closer was a failure.
The Wushuang Venerable was like a cat whose alarm had been disarmed. Her eyes half-lidded, she appeared somewhat harmless and continued to watch quietly.
It was called storytelling, but it was really about displaying past memories; the form was secondary. The Five Talisman God Monarch didn't say much. He placed his hands on the qin, and with his power, the music itself could create talismans. A talisman drifted and hovered in mid-air, and immediately, scenes like freehand ink wash paintings began to appear.
The first scene was of a young child in ragged clothes, hanging from a dead tree on the edge of a cliff. His body was suspended in the air as he struggled to hold onto a dead branch to keep from falling. On the cliff above, several children in fine clothes were peering over to watch the spectacle, the expressions on their faces vividly capturing the simple malice of childhood.
The second scene: the child's arms gave out and he plummeted downwards, only to suddenly stop in mid-air, as if held up by an invisible force. The view panned down to a woman in white with a blurred face, who had raised a hand in his direction. Beside her stood a woman in black with her arms crossed, a dark, light veil hanging from the brim of her conical hat, completely obscuring her face.
The third scene: the woman in white casually waved her hand, and the children who had been watching from the cliff's edge all fell backward onto their bottoms, each one scrambling to get up. The young child stood at the edge, watching blankly, as a five-colored mist—the only color in the image—rose around his body.
The fourth scene: the two women left together. The child, no longer in ragged, ill-fitting clothes, knelt on the ground and kowtowed deeply in the direction of their departure.
The image faded. The talisman created by the qin's music lost its spiritual power, fluttering to the ground like an ordinary piece of paper before turning into a puff of ash.
The Five Talisman God Monarch let out a breath and slowly withdrew his hands. The qin fell silent. He looked at Yue Du with expectant eyes, seeming to desperately hope she would remember something.
Yue Du paused, then said thoughtfully, "This woman in white... was that me?"
The Five Talisman God Monarch's face lit up. "You remember?"
Yue Du said with a deadpan expression, "Don't get excited. I was guessing."
The Five Talisman God Monarch visibly deflated.
Such a clichéd scene was naturally easy to guess. Besides, if it had nothing to do with her, why would Fu Weifeng have shown it? It was either the woman in white or the one in black. The one in black didn't seem right, so of course it had to be the one in white.
"Was that woman in black the Wushuang Venerable?" Yue Du asked again.
This time, Fu Weifeng shook his head. "At the time, I didn't see that person's face, but I can be certain she and the Wushuang Venerable are not the same person. Their temperaments are completely different, and their auras bear no similarity. Even a reincarnation wouldn't result in such a complete change."
Yue Du said pensively, "Is that so."
Yun Yijiu quietly squeezed her fingertips and said in a cold voice, "You've wasted tens of thousands of years and are still inferior to me. What gives you the confidence to declare that person was not me?"
Facing Yun Yijiu, Fu Weifeng's attitude was no longer so eager and deferential. He said slowly, "Wushuang Venerable, that's not quite right. My combat power is insufficient to defeat you, but we people of the Five Elements do not specialize in combat. When it comes to sensing auras, I am second to none in the Xuan Yin Realm."
After speaking, he proudly raised his head, his expression and posture all conveying a single message: You can insult my combat power, but I will not allow you to insult my ability to sense auras.
Yun Yijiu's expression darkened.
Yue Du, who had been silent until now, asked, "Your ability to sense auras is very strong?"
Fu Weifeng stated decisively, "It has never failed me."
"Good. Then examine this object and tell me if its aura matches the Wushuang Venerable's."
What Yue Du held in her hand was the necklace embedded with the Silent Watcher, the very one Qi Jiu had given her.
The Five Talisman God Monarch closed his eyes to sense it, somewhat puzzled. He felt a lazy, dark, unrestrained, and extremely dangerous aura, like a bottomless abyss that seemed to lure one into an eternal slumber. He was suddenly startled and hurriedly broke free from the perception, saying with lingering fear, "They are not the same person."
A hint of a smile touched Yue Du's lips. "Unfortunately, they are the same person."
Yun Yijiu and Fu Weifeng reacted at the same time.
The Five Talisman God Monarch said in disbelief, "What?"
The Wushuang Venerable's eyes sharpened. "It is me."
Before Fu Weifeng had time to express his shock, he was startled by Yun Yijiu's stern expression. So it's you, fine, it's you, he thought. What's with all the killing intent? Anyone who didn't know better would think you wanted to eat me alive.
He thought as much, and his expression said as much. The Wushuang Venerable's icy gaze turned to him, as if she were considering whether, before dealing with her own internal conflict, she should first slit this eyesore's throat.
Fu Weifeng was excellent at reading the room. Seeing things were going south, he turned to flee. "I just remembered I have something to do! I'll come visit you again next time!"
Yue Du: ""
"It is me," Yun Yijiu repeated. Her cool fingertips rested in the hollow of Yue Du's collarbone before slowly moving to the chain, which she gently toyed with.
Yue Du couldn't help but feel as if Yun Yijiu were caressing the delicate skin of her neck.
Yun Yijiu lowered her head slightly, and the faint warmth of her breath, so different from her usual temperament, brushed against the back of Yue Du's ear.
She said indifferently, "Speaking of which, it seems I've never asked about the other me's."
She indeed had never asked. She had only regained her awareness from beyond the world after ascending to the Upper Realm. The Wushuang Venerable had never even performed the usual host routine in front of Yue Du: getting jealous of herself.
Of course, now she had the chance.
Yue Du took direct action and physically soothed her host, with remarkable results. When Yun Yijiu saw the Five Talisman God Monarch again the next day, she surprisingly showed not a hint of displeasure. She held Yue Du completely encircled in her arms, her aura no longer so cold, looking for all the world like a large, sated cat.
The Five Talisman God Monarch hesitantly sat down opposite them. He glanced at Yun Yijiu's state, then glanced again, and finally couldn't help but ask suspiciously, "Has she been replaced?"
Yue Du: "Guaranteed genuine."
Fu Weifeng waved his hands repeatedly. "I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare."
Only then did he adopt a serious attitude and get down to business. "You summoned me today. For what reason?"
That was right. This time, the Five Talisman God Monarch had not come to visit on his own initiative; Yue Du had summoned him.
When the other immortals heard this, they turned green with envy, muttering that the God Monarch was quite capable to have actually gotten her to summon him, and wondering what tricks he had used.
To those who knew the situation, the description was innocent enough, but anyone who didn't might think it was like an emperor flipping a name tablet to choose a consort for the night.
But Yue Du's purpose was quite proper.
"Next, I'll have to trouble you to cooperate with me, Five Talisman God Monarch. I will ask, and you will answer. Is that acceptable?"
Fu Weifeng agreed at once. "Please, ask anything."
Yue Du asked, "God Monarch, you have seen me, but the others have not. Is it because I am not from the same era as them?"
Fu Weifeng answered, "No."
This answer was not blocked by the rules.
Yue Du said calmly, "God Monarch, you are now one of the supreme monarchs of the Xuan Yin Realm, yet you are still so respectful toward me. Is it because I was indeed a powerful cultivator when I was alive, or is it because I was not a cultivator at all?"
Fu Weifeng opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Clearly, this answer was restricted by the rules. Yue Du understood and said, "It's the latter."
This time, Fu Weifeng successfully spoke. "Yes."
Yue Du continued, "I was not a cultivator, nor was I a rogue immortal, a demon spirit, a mountain sprite, a wild monster, a lingering obsession, or a heart demon. Is that correct?"
Fu Weifeng's eyes grew brighter. "Yes."
"One last question," Yue Du paused, suddenly remembering something. She squeezed her host's hand before continuing, "On the Five Elements Continent, were there widespread, well-known legends of a god—one different from the true immortals and god monarchs of the Upper Realm, a deity that belonged solely to the continent itself?"
Fu Weifeng: "Yes."
Yue Du noticed that at some point, his posture had changed. He had gone from the leisurely pose of a qin master to leaning slightly forward, his hands clasped tightly before his abdomen.
In any world, such a posture could not possibly represent disrespect.
And indeed, that was the case. On the Five Elements Continent, this was an undeniable posture of reverence for a god. Those who adopted it were either priests or the god-favored; ordinary people had a different set of movements for worship.
Facing Fu Weifeng, Yue Du finally came to a conclusion about her past, speaking each word with deliberation.
"I was once the god of the Five Elements Continent, and I was the Five Elements Continent itself." And by extension, the World Consciousness of the Five Elements small world.
She was right.
From that moment on, the rules silently lifted all restrictions. For certain secrets not meant to be widely known, the rules forbade disclosure from the informed to the uninformed, but they did not forbid communication among the informed.
Before, the Five Talisman God Monarch could say anything to his companions, and the rules would not interfere, because they all knew.
And even if Yue Du had been eavesdropping outside the window of the god monarchs and true immortals, she wouldn't have been able to hear a single word. The rules forbade her from hearing, because she did not know.
But now, Yue Du had spoken of her own past with such certainty. She was one of the informed.
And so, the gate swung open.
The Five Talisman God Monarch let out a sigh of joy. He knelt on one knee, bent his back deeply, and pressed his forehead against his clasped hands. This was the most solemn ritual of worship on the Five Elements Continent.
"Thank you for your return, my God," he said.
For Yue Du, who knew the truth of what lay beyond the small worlds but knew nothing about herself, guessing the truth had not been difficult.
She just didn't understand.
She was Yue Du, a Yue Du who had grown up in an ordinary modern small world. At her core, she was human.
No matter how the Main God defined a "System," no matter how many small worlds she had traveled through or what she had experienced, that fundamental identity had never changed.
Yet this understanding had been shaken so easily the moment she considered another possibility.
Or perhaps it wasn't shaken. She could be human, and she could also have once been a world. The two were not in conflict.
And if she truly accepted this idea, her entire career as a System was worth careful consideration.
Yue Du had once been the World Consciousness of a small world, and that small world had been destroyed. Yet she, the World Consciousness, had not perished. Instead, she was "reincarnated" as a human, and after her death, she was recycled by the Main God's space to become a System.
So, the question was, what were the other Systems?
And what was the purpose of Systems and hosts completing missions together? Yue Du had talked with the other Systems in the Villain Awakening Project Group. Their hosts were different from Ah Jiu; they didn't have the cheat of a System Store. Those villain hosts were fundamentally incapable of completing the missions. In fact, anything they could do, the Systems could do just as well.
So, the question was, why was it necessary to bind a host at all?
And one last, most important point.
What was the ultimate goal of the missions Systems received? The first final mission the Main System had issued to her—to destroy the world—had it been issued with the knowledge that she herself had once been a World Consciousness?
When one secret comes to light, it often means more truths are silently waiting to be discovered. Yue Du had never had the patience for puzzle games, but when it came to a truth so closely related to her and her host, she could not let it go.
Yue Du suddenly thought of the fundamental nature of her host's ability, which had never changed from beginning to end. She silently pressed her lips together and held Yun Yijiu's hand even tighter.
Several thoughts spun through her mind, but in reality, it was only a pause too brief to be noticed. Before the Five Talisman God Monarch could sense the change in atmosphere, Yue Du had already asked him, "Now that I understand my past, will I still be restricted?"
The Five Talisman God Monarch was stunned for a moment. "I imagine not. Compared to the real you, those past events are minor details, not worth mentioning."
As he spoke, he suddenly glanced at Yun Yijiu. The venerable one had been silent this whole time and showed no intention of offering an opinion, but Fu Weifeng was still wary of her.
Yue Du said, "What I know, Ah Jiu also knows. You don't need to worry."
Fu Weifeng withdrew his gaze. "Yes."
The god of the Five Elements Continent had no name.
She was the incarnation of the World Consciousness, the one and only god of the continent, the true embodiment of the aggregated five elements.
All the talisman cultivators of the Five Elements Continent believed in her. During their formative years, they drew power from their faith in the god of the five elements. When they eventually became true talisman cultivators qualified to ascend, they would return the power they had received from the god, using this process to comprehend a version of the Five Elements that was uniquely their own.
The Unique God treated all cultivators fairly. She gave every talisman cultivator the same elemental power—all five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—and gave them the opportunity to cultivate with talismans, making the slight difference in physical strength between men and women almost negligible.
People built temples for the Unique God all across the continent. She would occasionally stay in them for a time, leaving her footprints within their halls.
People wrote dedications and poems for the Unique God. When wandering talisman couriers heard them, they would carry the verses with them, spreading them across the entire continent.
People held sacrificial rites for the Unique God. Priests and god-servants were respected professions, and many talisman cultivators even aimed for these roles.
She was the only deity, so all honors befitting a god could be offered to her.
Seeming to feel that words could not achieve the desired effect, the Five Talisman God Monarch once again chose to use his qin music to create a talisman and conjure an image.
The first sight was of a towering, pure white temple complex on a grassland, an ancient and enduring cluster of buildings, one connected to the next—the legendary dwelling place of the god in the mortal realm.
Yue Du was all too familiar with these temples. Weren't they the very same buildings that always stood in her host's mental space?
This was ironclad proof that she had known her host in the past.
The next image was even more familiar. Yue Du saw herself, dressed in white, her long hair styled in a solemn and intricate bun, sitting on the main seat of the temple and accepting offerings.
Unlike most World Consciousnesses, who preferred to remain hidden, the Unique God would occasionally appear in the mortal world. She was especially fond of revealing her true form to children, and any child who saw her would be called a god-favored one.
The Five Talisman God Monarch was one such god-favored one.
He had also seen the god in his youth. A beggar boy, homeless and with no way to awaken his Five Elements talent, had been forced to the edge of a cliff by young masters in fine clothes. He clung to a dead branch, his life hanging by a thread, simply because they wanted to know if the branch could bear a person's weight.
A beggar's life was cheap; anyone could trample on it, and no one would ask questions if he died. So he clung desperately to the dead branch with all his might, hoping that after those people left, he might still be able to climb back up.
But how long could a dead branch hold? The beggar boy fell.
Before he hit the ground, the god caught him.
There was another person beside the god, but that wasn't important. The beggar boy became the longest-staying god-favored one in recorded history, remaining by her side for half a month.
He once gathered the courage to ask the god for a name. The god said, "I will not name another person again, and you won't need me to. Little Five, you have your own name."
The Fu family found their long-lost youngest son. While the parents he had never met wept with joy, the newly named Fu Weifeng rushed out of the house and kowtowed in the direction the god had departed.
From the day he officially began cultivating, to becoming the continent's foremost expert, to his smooth ascension, the Five Talisman God Monarch never again saw the god who had saved him.
Until today.
The image ended. Fu Weifeng rose and once again bowed deeply to Yue Du.
"Will you leave again?" he asked.
Yue Du said seriously, "We will leave, but perhaps we might come back."
The Five Talisman God Monarch gave a bitter smile. "That is also very good."
At the very least, the god hadn't done what they had feared—that even after learning her former identity, she would carelessly say, "I am myself, not your god."
Factually speaking, of course, such a statement would not be wrong.
But for those like them, who had never given up on the past, it would have been too tragic.
The Five Talisman God Monarch took a deep breath and, somewhat discourteously, turned to leave, leaving only a single sentence behind: "Forgive my presumption, but we will come to pay our respects tomorrow."
Judging by his back, he almost seemed to be fleeing in disarray.
However, Yue Du's attention was not on her former god-favored one.
"Ah Jiu, what were you about to say just now?"
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