I frowned slightly. So Dongfang Jin was not Dongfang Gu's bloodline. Then Dongfang Nian really was shameless beyond belief. When I had encountered Dongfo Bunian on Immortal Island, I had heard that Dongfang Nian was the eldest son of the Dongfang family, which meant Dongfang Jin should have called him her granduncle. Yet hardly anyone seemed to have contradicted that.
Now, Dongfang Gu was clearly older than Dongfang Nian, yet he claimed here that Dongfang Nian was younger than him. When I had asked elsewhere about the Dongfang family's patriarch, I had learned that he was the eldest son of the family. So which account was right and which was wrong?
This made me think of the side effects of devouring memories, and I said, "Dongfo Bunian took your memories, Old Patriarch. Wouldn't that mean his memories became confused as well? After all, the memories of two close relatives should be even more prone to crossing over and becoming muddled, right?"
"That's only natural! Say the elder brother was doing something while the younger brother watched. Once their memories became confused, neither of them would notice much at first. But what about after some time? What if they encountered trouble or obstacles? He would then believe that he had been the one who did it!" Dongfang Yu said.
Seeing me nod in agreement, he continued, "That's why our Dongfang family's control over the Returning Child Method was practically draconian. We feared not only relatives devouring one another, but also that others might exploit it. Still, accidents could never be completely avoided. Some predecessors even deliberately refined the Returning Child Method, developing a way to preserve only major events while disregarding minor ones, thereby strengthening the technique. Such cases were all recorded, of course. But even if accidents occurred, none of