The Second Reincarnator

"Hm?"

The moment Hu Ma heard the sound, he jolted, instantly waking up.

Saying he woke up wasn't accurate; he was still asleep, just suddenly pulled from that hazy state into the dream with the strange little temple.

Looking up, he saw his incense burning in the censer before him.

In the distant dark red mist, an almost imperceptible wisp drifted through it, lightly circling him.

"White Wine calling from Old Yin Mountain..."

At this point, the other party was calling for the second time. It sounded like a hoarse voice with a touch of magnetism.

"Found someone again?"

Hu Ma steadied himself, confirming he wasn't hallucinating, and a surge of excitement rose within him.

He hadn't found anyone for a long time, and now he'd unexpectedly encountered the second Reincarnator he'd seen in this world?

"You..."

He immediately opened his mouth but stopped himself, his mind racing as he tentatively said, "Old Bai Gan received the call, may I ask who you are..."

The moment Hu Ma responded, the wisp of smoke that had entered from outside the blood mist seemed to have found its target and suddenly wrapped around his incense.

The voice that had just called fell silent for a moment, then spoke again, sounding somewhat surprised:

"You're that kid from the village?"

"..."

"?"

Hu Ma was suddenly startled and blurted out, "How did you know?"

"Your voice."

The hoarse voice paused, then whispered, "When you usually connect with people, you don't change your voice?"

This left Hu Ma bewildered: "How do you change your voice?"

The other party fell silent again, and after a long while said, "There are too many methods, I don't even know how to answer you."

"However, if you don't even know how to change your voice, that means you haven't connected with other Reincarnators many times before?"

"This..."

The other party's mind was too quick; they had already deduced so much information from just this exchange, even guessing his identity. Hu Ma was also secretly alarmed.

But having met the second Reincarnator in this world, Hu Ma was still somewhat excited. He didn't know how many questions he had accumulated for these fellow beings, and now they were all piled up in his throat. He decided to ask them all at once.

He paused slightly before hurriedly opening his mouth, "You... what was your identity in your past life?"

"..."

The hoarse voice was silent for a moment, then sighed, "Your opening is a bit unusual."

"We've already fallen into this world, what's the use of caring about that?"

"No matter what our identities were in our past lives, in this life, we are just pitiful wretches struggling to survive in this bizarre world."

"..."

"Are you pitiful?"

Hu Ma said, "I think your conditions are very good. You even had a sedan chair specifically to carry you into the forest."

The other party suddenly fell silent, and when they spoke again, they sounded quite surprised: "You guessed who I am too?"

"It wasn't hard to guess..."

Hu Ma also sighed softly, "There are very few Reincarnators in Old Yin Mountain. If one suddenly appears, it must be an outsider."

"A group of outsiders just arrived at the village today, and all the ones I could see were men."

"Although your voice tried hard to sound hoarse and unpleasant, it's clearly a woman's voice. How could I not guess who you are?"

"..."

"You could tell my voice is a woman's?"

The other party was taken aback for a moment, and then their voice suddenly became clear and pleasant as they changed it back, whispering:

"It seems my skill is still lacking. Logically, you shouldn't have been able to tell."

"..."

"This..."

Hearing her words, Hu Ma was also slightly stunned. He suddenly realized something.

Her voice just now was indeed hoarse and rough, making it difficult to discern its true nature. If one listened carefully, it sounded more like an old man speaking.

But for some reason, as soon as he heard her voice, he felt it was a woman.

It didn't feel like he had discerned it; it felt more like intuition.

Could it be...

He suddenly thought that his furnace burned very fiercely, and the fiercer it burned, the more it craved women.

Could this innate tendency be brought about by this characteristic?

Hiss...

How could it be a little...

"Forget it."

Although the woman was surprised when Hu Ma discovered her identity, she didn't say much, and said lightly, "It's nothing to have your identity discovered."

"You know who I am, and I know who you are, so exchanging information will be more reassuring."

"You look like you grew up in this Old Yin Mountain, so you must be familiar with it. Have you heard of the legend of the 'Hundred Corpse Mound'?"

"Hundred Corpse Mound?"

Hu Ma was stunned when he heard this, vaguely feeling that it was familiar, and then his heart suddenly lit up.

Didn't the first Reincarnator he spoke to mention the 'Hundred Corpse Mound'?

When he met this second Reincarnator, he already remembered the entrustment of that old fellow.

Even if she didn't ask, he had to tell her about this matter and beg her to save that person.

Unexpectedly, the thing she was looking for now was what that old fellow had found?

While reminiscing, the other party's voice continued:

"As a reward, you can also ask me for information of equal value, or three pieces of information of lower value in exchange."

"..."

"Exchange?"

Hu Ma was silent for a moment, his mind racing.

This was only his second conversation with a Reincarnator, and the first Reincarnator was in a desperate situation, so he didn't have time to say more.

Therefore, he was not only unfamiliar and confused about this world, but also unfamiliar with the circle of Reincarnators.

He vaguely felt from the woman's words that it seemed Reincarnators didn't help each other in times of crisis, and even information had to be exchanged?

"You are thinking, which means you do have information on this matter?"

But even as he remained silent, the woman's voice said lightly, "This saves me a lot of effort."

"If you have any questions or requests, you can ask first. After all, in terms of identity in this world, I have more advantages than you."

"If you want other rewards, you can also say so, but the way to give them to you needs to be discussed."

"..."

"...Okay!"

Hu Ma didn't expect that his silence could be interpreted into so much information by the other party.

But no matter what, it was a good thing that the other party was willing to exchange.

Since he came to this world, he didn't know how many questions he had accumulated. He had already prepared his answers and was just thinking of asking clearly when he met other Reincarnators.

He immediately said, "First question, what kind of world is this?"

A world of ferocity, a world of demons, a world of chaos.

The other party's voice was very light, but it carried a heavy sense of oppression. She said softly, "As for what specifically happened, the people of this world don't know, let alone us."

"We only know that this place was originally in an era called the Yi Dynasty, but we don't know when, Taisui suddenly descended upon the world, and since then the world has been in chaos, strange phenomena have appeared frequently, demons and monsters have appeared, and with dusk as the boundary, they have shared the world with the living."

"Now, it is a time of raging war, with dragons and snakes rising together. Although you are in this Old Yin Mountain, which is desolate and barren, you are still barely safe."

"Outside of Old Yin Mountain, it is already a land of war and chaos, where strange powers and gods run rampant. Seeking peace and survival has become a luxury."

"..."

Hu Ma listened, finding it hard to imagine what the world outside Old Yin Mountain was like.

He was silent for a while, digesting the information, and then slowly said, "Second question, what are we people...?"

"Heh heh..."

Unexpectedly, the other party chuckled lightly when she heard this question.

"You really wasted an opportunity on such a useless question, but it's also the most commonly wasted question."

"All I can tell you is that we don't know what's going on either."

"I suddenly understood the mystery of my womb when I was three years old and remembered my past life. I met a few Reincarnators, and they were the same as me."

"We all inexplicably reincarnated, and after discussing among ourselves, we only found that our common points were that we all reincarnated with the same name and the same eight characters as in our past lives, and we all had the ability to find and connect with each other through our Natal Spirit Temples."

"But why we came, and what will happen in the future, no one knows."

"Everyone is just guarding their own secrets, surviving cautiously, and when they meet other Reincarnators, they just exchange information to live better."

"..."

"Awakened at three years old?"

Hu Ma listened carefully to every word she spoke, but suddenly realized a crucial problem.

From her words, did they all come into this world at birth and grow up here?

But I'm different from them. My previous life is dead, and I came to this world because Old Woman mistook my soul...

Vaguely sensing something was wrong, he suddenly realized: "Listening to this sounds like..."

"...others just reincarnated, while I'm like a vengeful spirit possessing a body?"

"..."

This made him quite surprised, but he held back and didn't voice the question.

After just a brief exchange with this woman, he vaguely sensed that even among Reincarnators, everyone had their own secrets.

And from the moment he woke up, keeping his secret had become the most important thing, and it had now become a habit.

"It's time to ask the third question."

The woman's voice sounded faintly, "But I'll remind you, your first two questions were a waste of opportunities."

"I don't intend to take advantage of you. Think carefully about the third question."

"..."

"It's..."

Hu Ma understood in his heart that the first two questions he asked were very important to him, who had only woken up not long ago, but to these Reincarnators who had been living in this world for a long time, they were indeed like wasted opportunities.

He took a deep breath and slowly began to speak, "For the third question, I want to change it to a request. Is that okay?"

The other party was silent, then said, "Speak."

"I hope you can help me find someone."

Hu Ma immediately said, "She is very important to me. I only know she is also in this forest now, but I don't know if she's alive or dead."

"I need to find her as soon as possible..."

"..."

After speaking, he held his breath, waiting for the other party's answer.

The woman was clearly silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "The person you're looking for, is it your family in this world?"

Hu Ma thought for a moment and said, "You could say that. She was very good to me!"

"That's rare."

The other party answered very slowly, as if sighing about something, then said, "This favor isn't difficult for me. I can help you."