Fu Hua: Oh no, I was caught peeping.

"Susu, would you like some osmanthus cake?"

"Eat."

"Where's the perilla paste?"

"Eat."

Li Shishi then took out a porcelain bowl from a small wooden bucket filled with ice. Looking at the contents, her eyes instantly brightened. She pursed her rosy lips, clearly her appetite was starting to whet her appetite, and said earnestly:

"There's also some ice cream here, delivered by a servant. It's a truly delicious combination of Western Region cheese and natural frost, probably a rare find from a time-honored brand like Fengxiang Pavilion. It's quite a treat to be able to enjoy it in early spring."

The girl's slender fingers traced the surface of the porcelain bowl. She picked it up and spoke eloquently:

"Here, Susu, eat this first, and your Senior Sister Shishi will feed you."

The boy stared at the ice cream in the wooden spoon, his indifferent expression unwavering.

Although he had slept for several days and only woke up now, he didn't seem to feel much hunger, seemingly because the few drops of blood from the Immortal Chi Yuan contained energy far exceeding that of ordinary food.

After staring at him for a while, he obediently opened his lips and let the other person do as they pleased.

Looking at his obedient appearance, Li Shishi couldn't help but sigh and began to lecture him:

"Susu, how could you go and fight with the Immortal Chi Yuan the moment you saw him?"

"Do you know that normal people would bow deeply to her? Even if you beat up the current emperor, you wouldn't do that in front of an immortal."

"Look, the immortals have left something mysterious on me to keep an eye on you and prevent you from causing trouble."

Su Qing'an felt the coolness melt and disappear on his tongue, the rich sweetness and milky flavor intertwined, allowing his human desires, revived by the large amount of [chips] contributed by Fu Hua, to fully appreciate the wonder of the food. Looking into the girl's eyes, he explained:

"This is hunger driven by bodily instinct, just as humans, when pushed to their limits, cannot resist their innate will to survive."

Li Shishi was somewhat unhappy, and she said seriously:

"No matter how hungry you are, you can't steal food from immortals!"

Su Qing'an corrected:

I didn't steal her food.

She thought about it, breathed a sigh of relief, and felt that her parenting hadn't really failed to that extent.

"That's good."

Su Qing'an revealed the truth:

"I just want to eat her; my bodily instincts tell me she has extremely high value, enough to serve as perfect nourishment."

???

This statement contained a lot of information, and the young girl, who had grown up in a brothel, couldn't help but have a momentary lapse in judgment, but she quickly steered her thoughts back on track.

But if you think about it carefully, the literal physical meaning is even more terrifying, isn't it?

Li Shishi pondered the feather in her head, and then recalled the way the immortal returned, looking rather disheveled yet still showing a gentle smile to the person in his arms. Suddenly, she felt a mix of emotions.

Before Su Su lost her memory, she definitely had a thing with the Immortal Chi Yuan, right?

Otherwise, how could he have been delivered home unharmed by the immortal himself after such an attack?

It turns out that what I picked up wasn't the Immortal Chi Yuan, but rather the Immortal Chi Yuan's "good friend."

On the other hand, the little girl, unaware of the true situation, only felt that her parenting had been a complete failure.

Su Su doesn't understand anything, so what bad intentions could he possibly have?

It must be because he was so excited after witnessing his photographic memory last time that he mixed some strange, evil books into the several boxes of books he crammed in.

That's terrible, we must correct this.

She made up her mind, reached out her fingertip and gently poked his forehead, saying:

"That's even more unacceptable!"

"How could you eat immortals? Forget about taking any action, can't you even think about it?"

Su Qing'an thought for a moment, realizing he hadn't lost his memories of the time before he fell unconscious, and explained:

"Yes, I won't eat her."

The young man recalled the cage and shackles that had suddenly appeared within the Soul Hall, and said calmly:

"Because the complete [Su Qing'an] knew Chi Yuan, and even made a vow in their souls beforehand."

Li Shishi's eyes brightened for a moment. She stared guiltily at the feathers on the other's head for a while, and only after noticing the other was quiet did she feed it another bite of ice cream before quietly asking:

"Hey, you two really knew each other before? What vow? Can I hear it?"

The feeling of listening to the gossip of immortals is not only subtle but also very exciting.

Su Qing'an sipped his flower-shaped ice cream, his eyes fixed on the other abundant desserts on the table. Since Awakened, his emotions had been able to positively influence his sense of taste, so the food possessed an allure he hadn't had before. He murmured:

"Never hurt Fu Hua."

Li Shishi could sense a profound power in those simple words. The fluctuations in her Manas consciousness seemed to change with the utterance of those words, causing her initially excited emotions to dampen slightly. She thought for a moment and asked:

"Is this the name of the Immortal Chi Yuan?"

Su Qing'an said:

"Yeah, otherwise I won't be able to control myself."

"Seeing her fills me with an uncontrollable, soul-crushing hunger; if it weren't for the oath, one of us would surely have died."

Li Shishi remained silent; what an outrageous and heart-wrenching love story!

She instantly combined various myths and histories about the Immortal Chi Yuan and conjured up thousands upon thousands of words of strange plots in her mind. Suddenly, she felt that the imaginations of the novels on the market were too narrow, and the stories she had heard from others before began to seem dull and tasteless.

The romances between immortals are so much more exciting than those between ordinary people! Mortals simply don't have the ability to pull off so many elaborate and unconventional things.

The girl put herself in Chi Yuan's shoes; how could she have imagined being reduced to ashes by Su Su's initial attack? It was incredibly dangerous!

Even if one makes a vow to restrain oneself, how can one be bound by a vow to completely forget the other party or even unleash an attack unconsciously?

The worst possible outcome for Li Shishi in her dealings with powerful figures—her complete destruction—is merely a subtle metaphor. However, Su Su's attack, which unleashed a miniature storm across the entire courtyard, is clearly a physical description.

The reason why the Immortal Chi Yuan could crush it so easily was entirely because she was an immortal.

Of the countless warriors in the world, who could withstand the dazzling silver light that flowed like a mighty river?

At least at that Martial Arts Gathering, there must have been very few participants.

In reality, everyone inside except Jiang Rongyue was indeed doomed to die.

However, Jiang Rongyue's special case requires searching through thousands of years of history across Shenzhou to find someone who is no more than a handful.

If Su Muxi possessed the most comprehensive record of what happened, were still awake, she would clearly know a strange fact.

The timeline began shifting in an extremely unknown direction the moment the Immortal Chi Yuan accepted Jiang Rongyue as his disciple.

The immortal, who was originally extremely indifferent to the development of his own power and almost completely unconcerned—which indirectly led to his betrayal and death—has now undergone a drastic change in personality compared to his initial state.

The Taixu Sect, which should have collapsed in modern times, has been established hundreds of years earlier than expected. What changes will it undergo now?

Whether taking on apprentices early will uncover more abnormal individuals like Cheng Ling Shuang, and how much change it will cause, are all things worth looking forward to.

While it may be difficult to become an organization as large as the World Serpent, spreading across the world, establishing itself as an ancient sect that protects the land of Shenzhou and has been passed down to the present day is not necessarily a pipe dream.

Unfortunately, the poor Little Feather is still forced to sleep.

Furthermore, because the argument between her parents before bed hurt her emotionally, she may still be having nightmares.

Li Shishi put the last bite of ice cream into her lips. Watching the other person open their lips, she suddenly felt a little guilty and quickly used a wooden spoon to scoop out a piece of perilla paste and feed it to him before changing the subject:

"So you still haven't remembered who she is?"

Su Qing'an chewed her food, trying to find the answer from the extra memories she had.

The [bargaining chips] given by Fu Hua did indeed revive some fragmented memories, but the return was done in a forward direction, following the order of burning.

As for those feelings and memories, the boy chose to save them for the very last moment before burning them completely.

This also means that the things that are recalled first are necessarily the outermost ones. He is still far from complete, with a large gap in his memory, so he naturally still cannot recall any memories or feelings about the other person.

The boy said honestly:

"I don't know him."

"But I know she is the Immortal Chi Yuan, I know her name is Fu Hua, and I understand that I knew her before."

He gazed at the inscription within the Soul Hall and said softly:

"But without any real-world experience, for Su Qing'an right now, it's like a game character being implanted with certain settings. You know it's like this, and you should be like this, but you still know nothing about the origins and details of these settings, and you can't generate any extra emotions or feelings."

Su Qing'an lowered his eyes, and the resurrected emotional mechanisms and scattered memories made him feel confused about the matter.

How should we treat her?

He asked:

"Senior Sister Shishi, what do you think constitutes the human self?"

"When a person loses all memories and emotions about the past, their personality suffers unprecedented damage, leaving only the same appearance and name. But can the core of that person still be considered their original self?"

After hesitating for a moment, Li Shishi cautiously said:

"Is it really appropriate for you to ask such a complex and profound question to a beautiful young woman who spends her Tiāntiān in brothels, playing music, appreciating flowers, and writing poetry?"

Su Qing'an said to himself:

"People who haven't experienced it probably can't understand. To me, wanting to know about my past self is as ridiculous as trying to piece together the original object from [Ashes]."

"My memories tell me about the concept of the soul; I still possess the same soul as that other me, but the soul itself does not represent personality."

"Am I now a personality reborn from the [Ashes] using the name [Su Qing'an], or am I the original me?"

Li Shishi stared at the feathers slowly glowing inside her head, feeling utterly panicked.

What's going on? I've already avoided this terrifying question, so why is Su Su starting to talk to herself?

Damn it, it was supposed to be a good thing that the child seemed more intelligent after Awakened, but now it seems that the previously silly and cute "Safe" is not as good.

As the little girl sensed the Udu-dust manifesting spontaneously in her Sea of consciousness, her limited imagination began to run wild.

She always felt that this thing was a punishment left behind by the immortals, a retribution for the wrong education she had given herself. If she were to corrupt Su Su again, this feather might explode, which would be terrifying.

Moreover, considering how the immortal brought Su Su back, the more serious issue is the question of whether to continue their previous relationship, rather than Su Su attacking her.

As Li Shishi watched the halo of light slowly spreading from the feather, she decided to give it a try:

"It's definitely all your fault, what's there to think about? Hurry up and eat your ice cream, look there's still some left in the bucket."

Su Qing'an frowned and said softly:

"I know of some similar cases and incidents, but they are too ambiguous, as if separated by an impenetrable Sea of Mist."

"I seem to have faced similar choices before, but in those cases, the focus was on other individuals, while I was experiencing the hardship from an outsider's perspective."

"Perhaps Senior Sister Shishi is right, this is not a question that can be answered simply by thinking about it."

"But for those who have known me before, this question is very important, and I need to consider how to deal with it based on the answer to this question."

Li Shishi couldn't help but pat his head and whisper:

"It's alright. I believe that no matter what Su Su thinks, to that immortal, you are undoubtedly someone she knows."

"Besides, you've clearly forgotten everything about the immortals, yet you're still bound by that oath. Doesn't that just prove that you're still the same person you were before, Su Su? You've just temporarily developed Alzheimer's. Once you get better, you won't have to worry about it anymore."

Su Qing'an was slightly taken aback upon hearing this. He had indirectly recognized the name of the Immortal Chi Yuan only because he was bound by the oath. However, given that he had lost all feelings and memories about the other party, this indirect recognition of his existence was itself a subtle paradox.

A vow to oneself is merely a constraint on the self. But when the concept of "self" itself becomes blurred, what kind of profound and unforgettable experience can overcome this barrier and achieve its original effect?

This metaphysical definition doesn't fit my current situation at all.

Even though the relevant memories were burned away, Su Qing'an understood that her former self probably really didn't want to live anymore, leaving herself no room for maneuver. It was even unexpected that she could still leave behind an empty shell.

Therefore, such metaphysical elements will probably be used as bargaining chips by the scales in one's own Sea of consciousness and burned to [Ashes].

Etc...

Chips, [Ashes], what to exchange?

When did I find out about all this?

Isn't my mind filled only with fragmented memories, and endless nothingness and emptiness?

The boy sensed the memories that occasionally surfaced from his Sea of consciousness with the fluctuations of his thoughts, and suddenly realized that he was beginning to change a lot from when he first gained consciousness.

However, due to the numerous deficiencies in consciousness, even realizing this is extremely slow.

He recalled his earlier words and realized that his understanding of information reception was characterized by two strangely distinct phases and a gradual progression of cognition.

If this rate of filling and the emotional mechanism continue to change towards completeness, similar situations will likely not occur again in the future.

So, is this why vows are effective?

In fact, I already had a concept of Fu Hua, or the revival of other memories was accompanied by some peripheral information, which made this oath have a new direction, thus enabling it to activate its specific effects.

Su Qing'an tried hard to recall memories of Fu Hua, but could only find futile emptiness.

When the accumulation of [chips] allows this empty shell to regain the ability to think and make judgments independently, he will naturally have countless doubts and contradictions about himself in his current state.

The young man knew that some thoughts were meaningless, but giving them up was an even worse thing.

He continued to think along the same lines he had been following.

First, the existence of a vow must itself contain profound meaning; otherwise, it would be a self-contradictory false proposition.

Li Shishi reminded him of something.

The existence and effectiveness of an oath depend on one's own conviction that the other party is Fu Hua.

But with all his memories gone and his emotions vanished, clearly just an empty shell, why would he stop at the most crucial moment?

After regaining some of his [Ego Fragment], the boy had a good understanding of his own state at that time. His willpower was completely incapable of resisting his instincts; it was purely due to the constraints of the oath that he was forced to stay on the edge of the forbidden valve.

This proves that the oath undoubtedly exists and is effective, so the only question is why it is effective.

Hypothesis 1: The existence of the oath itself is alive; its essence is the consumption of fragments of my soul at that time. Therefore, even if I no longer recognize the other person now, the oath itself can still remember the other person and thus play its role.

Hypothesis 2: As mentioned above, I have actually recovered some of my memories that are enough to make the other person recognize me as Fu Hua, but due to my fragmented consciousness, there is a subtle deviation in my acceptance, which has led to the current entanglement.

After sorting out his thoughts, Su Qing'an began to use the words left behind in the oath to reverse-engineer the first possibility, which was actually more likely.

First, the oath only states that Fu Hua must never be harmed, but deliberately omits a subject, the meaning of which is worth exploring.

Could he then conclude that his past self had actually experienced a similar state?

However, Su Qing'an could still remember Fu Hua at that time, but she began to worry that she might experience even more terrifying and irreversible damage in the future.

Therefore, in order to prevent himself from surviving by subverting his previous self-definition, he chose to inscribe the oath without a subject, so that even if Su Qing'an would no longer be Su Qing'an, as long as this soul still existed in the world, it would not violate this will.

Since Su Qing'an had already planned ahead, it doesn't seem difficult for him to choose to make the oath itself have the ability to recognize itself at some cost.

Although there are still some illogical points to this logic, such as the fact that the fragmented memories clearly tell you that the entire Soul Hall burned down at that time, how could there be something like a vow left behind?

But the fact that one is still alive is itself a matter that does not conform to the logic of memory, so delving into this is meaningless.

In short, regardless of which of the speculations is true about why the oath could work, it seems that Su Qing'an is currently in a state of amnesia, just as the other party said.

Rather than emerging from the [Ashes] themselves into a completely new void, otherwise these memories shouldn't resurface so smoothly and silently.

So here's the question.

After regaining his thinking ability, Su Qing'an finally began to actively think about a very crucial question.

That is, the reason for memory recovery.

This is a very complex problem, which seems to be so simple that it can be explained by time evolution.

The girl tilted her head slightly, her slender fingertips brushing through her hair and forehead, and said with concern:

"Susu, what are you worrying about?"

"Just eat dessert. Kids who think about so many gloomy things won't grow tall."

At the same time, the feathers within the Sea of consciousness also emitted a subtle halo.

Su Qing'an responded:

"Logically speaking, I should be an adult by now, I should be..."

Li Shishi didn't seem to mind what the other person was saying halfway through.

Rather, she was somewhat unaccustomed to Su Su talking so much.

The immediate response was one of righteous indignation:

"I don't care what Susu was like before, she's just a tiny little thing now, so adorable!"

The boy sensed the slightly burning emotion and temperature spreading in his chest, and seemed to understand the worries, relationship and troubles of the two. This pure feeling turned into a round bead on the scales of his Sea of consciousness and fell into the plate with a crisp sound.

And there he found the real answer.

After Su Qing'an began to preliminarily screen out the commonalities of a large amount of memory recovery and significant changes in emotional mechanisms and initiative, he thoroughly understood a phenomenon based on the scene he had just witnessed.

When the Manas consciousness replicates the perceived warmth into its own chest cavity and slowly dissipates it, one or even several round beads will inexplicably appear on the scales, eventually dissipating into the [thought], and only then will the above-mentioned changes occur.

Simply put, one is stimulating oneself through the positive emotions others have towards them, thereby reversing the actions that initially Soul Scale, and gradually tracing back everything that had been burned away to [Nian], like slowly piecing together a jigsaw puzzle to restore the concept of [Su Qing'an].

The answer has been found.

But why would two people attribute positive emotions to this?

Isn't it just Senior Sister Shishi here?

After some rational analysis, the boy concluded that, apart from Li Shishi, only the Immortal Chi Yuan possessed the motivation and ability to give him positive emotions.

It can be said that the reason I was able to recover to the point where I could think normally was almost entirely due to the gift given to me by this familiar stranger.

Su Qing'an thought for a moment, and the colorful interplay within his pupils revealed that he had glimpsed another existence within Li Shishi's Sea of consciousness.

A feather that felt strangely familiar.