On the return journey of the human race's million-strong army, aboard the sole Mo-purging vessel, the ninth-rank experts gathered together.
Compared to their peak numbers, the current count of human ninth-ranks had undoubtedly decreased greatly. Many newly advanced ninth-ranks had perished and their Dao dissolved in that final battle.
The surviving ninth-ranks now numbered only around twenty.
Besides the human ninth-ranks, Dragon Clan's Fu Guang had also come as invited.
Everyone took their seats. Many had weak auras, all carrying injuries. The great battle had ended only recently, and even with the ninth-ranks' recovery capabilities, they couldn't heal in such a short time—especially now that the humans' various supplies had run dry, with hardly any healing spirit pills remaining.
The arriving ninth-ranks quickly sensed the gravity of the atmosphere. Though they didn't know what had prompted Commander Mi to summon all ninth-ranks for a meeting, one look at his expression told them it had to be bad news.
After the last ninth-rank took his seat, Mi Jinglun spoke up: "I've gathered you all today because there's something I need to confirm with everyone."
He surveyed the room, paused briefly, then recounted his earlier conversation with Xiang Shan in detail.
The ninth-ranks listened, some completely bewildered, some lost in deep thought, and a few who already knew about the matter furrowed their brows.
Ouyang Lie blustered: "What's wrong with your conversation with Big Head Xiang?"
He couldn't see what the problem was—nothing more than normal small talk.
"The problem is enormous!" Mi Jinglun looked at him, expression grim, which immediately made Ouyang Lie realize that this really was a major issue—even though he still hadn't figured out where the problem lay.
Xiang Shan said: "The agreement we signed with the Mo Clan back then was critically important—it could be said to be the turning point in the human race's rise. Something of that magnitude, Brother Mi and I could never forget. If one of us had a momentary lapse of memory, that would be understandable. The key issue is that both of us experienced the same thing. When we discussed that agreement, neither of us could recall its specific contents immediately. This should be absolutely impossible."
Ouyang Lie frowned: "Could it be from the exhaustion of the recent battle?"
Xiang Shan turned to look at him: "Do you remember what it was like when you first met Yang Kai?"
"Of course I remember," Ouyang Lie answered automatically. "How could I forget something like that? Back then he..."
He slowly trailed off, obviously realizing something as well. His expression shifted and his brow furrowed deeply.
Xiang Shan looked at the other ninth-ranks: "Why don't you all think about some of your past encounters with Yang Kai, or shared experiences!"
The ninth-ranks did as instructed.
Before long, each person's expression began to look somewhat off.
Watching their expressions shift, Ouyang Lie immediately knew they were experiencing the same thing he was. He couldn't help but ask: "How can this be?"
Following Xiang Shan's words, he had tried to recall the scene of his first meeting with Yang Kai, but couldn't bring it to mind at first—as if that layer of memory were blocked by an invisible barrier. The scene in his memory was clearly right before his eyes, yet he simply couldn't see it clearly.
After struggling for several breaths, he finally remembered. His first meeting with Yang Kai was outside Great Profound Pass. At the time, he had been leading his disciples on a surveillance mission outside Great Profound Pass, monitoring enemy movements, when Yang Kai arrived on Xiang Shan's orders to make contact.
Yang Kai at that time had been only a seventh-rank cultivator!
Mi Jinglun's voice rang out: "It's not just you. After Brother Xiang and I identified the problem, we sent people to question many soldiers and officers. They experienced the same thing as you—anything related to Yang Kai, whether they had personal contact with him or had merely heard about him, none of them could recall specific details right away."
"What caused this phenomenon?" Wu Qing asked in a deep voice. He had just tried recalling as well, and the situation was indeed as Mi Jinglun described.
"The exact cause is unknown, but what we can be certain of is that it's related to that Shadow Technique," Mi Jinglun began. "You should all remember—Yang Kai previously said that those eight silhouettes were summoned from eight future millennium-long segments of spacetime. The shattering of all eight silhouettes means that for the next eight thousand years, he does not exist."
Everyone nodded. They had all been present when Mi Jinglun spoke with Yang Kai, and those had been his exact words.
"Yang Kai said this was the price the Shadow Technique demanded. But it now seems that Yang Kai himself may have underestimated how severe this price truly was. He believed the cost was simply that he couldn't exist in the next eight thousand years, but in reality, some invisible and tremendous force may be slowly erasing all traces of his existence in this world! That's why anything related to him has suddenly become vague in everyone's memories."
"Is such an inconceivable thing truly possible?" Ouyang Lie could hardly believe it.
Erasing all traces of a person's existence—the most straightforward interpretation would naturally be to kill them. But the kind of erasure they were now experiencing went far beyond simply killing someone. It included other people's memories of them too.
Mi Jinglun said: "Before Yang Kai unleashed the Shadow Technique, I never would have imagined such an extraordinary secret technique existed."
Ouyang Lie fell silent immediately.
The Shadow Technique's profundity was beyond comprehension, and the price of casting such a technique must have been beyond imagination as well. So no matter how difficult Mi Jinglun's deduction was to accept, the facts spoke for themselves.
"And this is only the beginning. What I worry about is—will we eventually forget Yang Kai entirely as time goes on?"