Bizarre and fantastical visions flickered ceaselessly before his eyes. The name Qu Huashang seemed to possess some kind of magical power, echoing through his mind over and over again as he lay unconscious, hammering against his sealed memories.
At last, in one fleeting moment, the seal shattered. Life after life of experience replayed within his dreams.
That hazy figure who had appeared only in his dreams for so long finally became clear. When he turned his head suddenly, a face—equally suited to joy and reproach—burned itself into his sight.
Yang Kai's eyes snapped open.
His body was still weak. After all, he had suffered a sword wound and been poisoned. Even with his formidable strength, it was impossible to recover fully the moment he woke up.
The scene before him was familiar—he must be in his own chambers within Haqi Hall.
A person sat beside the bed. The only one who could come and go freely from his chambers and who would keep watch over him throughout his unconsciousness was Luo Tinghe.
At this moment, Luo Tinghe regarded him with a peculiar expression, as though she had sensed something. Once again, she asked the question she had posed countless times before: "Do you remember now?"
Yang Kai nodded.
Luo Tinghe's expression brightened, and she pressed further: "What do you remember?"
"A great deal." Yang Kai struggled to sit up but lacked the strength. Seeing this, Luo Tinghe quickly helped him upright and propped a pillow behind his back.
Then she gazed at him eagerly, her face full of anticipation. "Tell me about it."
Yang Kai shook his head. Instead, he looked at her with a peculiar expression of his own and asked in return: "Do you remember?"
Luo Tinghe was immediately confused. "What am I supposed to remember?"
"I don't know."
In his dreams, he had finally broken through the dust of his sealed memories. He remembered who he was, recalled what this place truly was, and why he had come here.
A chill of lingering fear ran through him. The Reincarnation Pavilion was truly an eerie place. This was already his ninth cycle of reincarnation, and after living in this world for so many years, he had actually forgotten who he was—let alone that he had originally come here to help Qu Huashang overcome her heart barrier.
The more cycles of reincarnation one endured, the greater the impact on one's own memories. That much was now confirmed.
If not for the serendipitous encounter with Qu Huashang this time, Yang Kai reckoned he might never have recovered his memories. He would have continued believing himself to be the master of Haqi Hall, fighting and striving for the righteous path under heaven.
But the difficulty of this particular reincarnation cycle was extraordinary.
His current identity was the master of Haqi Hall, while Qu Huashang was actually a follower of their mortal enemy, the White Lotus Sect. The two were fundamentally opposed—oil and water, fire and ice.
The moment they met, Qu Huashang had driven a sword straight into his chest, nearly killing him!
This was no good omen. If he wanted to win Qu Huashang's heart and break through her heart barrier under these circumstances, he would truly need to plan things out very carefully.
What concerned him even more, however, was Luo Tinghe beside him.
After recovering his own memories, Yang Kai realized that this personal bodyguard of his was no ordinary person.
Because from the sixth cycle onward, Luo Tinghe had always been by his side!
In the sixth cycle, Yang Kai had saved a starving beggar—and that beggar was Luo Tinghe, identical in both name and appearance to the person beside him now.
He had dismissed it at the time as merely an illusion of the Reincarnation Realm and hadn't thought much of it.
But in the seventh cycle, Luo Tinghe had appeared beside him once again. This time she was no beggar but a valorous female general who defended her nation, galloping across the battlefield on horseback—while his own identity had been that of the realm's sovereign.
By the eighth cycle, she had become the leader of a sect, and Yang Kai had joined that sect to cultivate.
After so many cycles of reincarnation, Yang Kai had begun to figure out how the Reincarnation Realm worked.
These Reincarnation Realms were born entirely from the foundation of Qu Huashang's heart barrier. In other words, Qu Huashang's will was the key to all these Reincarnation Realms.
The reason Yang Kai always managed to appear in these Reincarnation Realms was that Qu Huashang's heart barrier was connected to him—their fates were intertwined. So no matter how many times he reincarnated, Yang Kai would always find his way into whichever Reincarnation Realm Qu Huashang inhabited.
That made sense for him. But what about Xiao He? The fact that she had appeared in every Reincarnation Realm born from Qu Huashang's heart barrier since the sixth cycle meant there was definitely some connection between her and Qu Huashang.
Was she someone important in Qu Huashang's life? Was that why she appeared in every cycle of reincarnation?
Yet Yang Kai had never once heard Qu Huashang mention this person.
Moreover, every time Xiao He appeared, she was always right beside him! Yang Kai couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried.
Now he couldn't even determine whether Xiao He, like himself, had entered the Reincarnation Pavilion and fallen into the Reincarnation Realm—or whether she was simply an illusory existence conjured within these Reincarnation Realms.