"The sky was lofty and the earth vast; I sensed the universe's boundless expanse."
Perhaps Xu Xing hadn't answered, because the voice repeated itself.
"My joy waned, and sorrow came; I knew that fullness and emptiness were governed by fate."
He had forgotten these words for a time, but as his cultivation gradually advanced, he remembered them again.
At last, the faint ripples stirring through the void came to a halt. The wisp of red radiance grew a little brighter.
"I'm glad to meet you this way, fellow countryman."
The clear voice sounded pure, without a trace of noise.
"If I'm not mistaken, you must be the one from the Sword Sect."
"The method I used to leave this message was decent. You're probably the only one who could see through it within a hundred years."
This message would exist for only a hundred years.
"Even if another fellow countryman comes along after that, they probably won't be able to reach the level needed to see through my method in such a short time."
"Don't get me wrong. I'm not stingy; it's just that what I've hidden here isn't anything good. It's better not to come into contact with it if your cultivation is too low."
Xu Xing listened quietly, without replying.
The next instant, light and shadow swirled in his eyes, and everything in this space seemed to run backward before him.
Ten years ago, twenty years ago, thirty years ago...
Thirty-seven years ago, Confusion's figure appeared. He, too, noticed something unusual here.
After trying several times and failing to answer, he didn't force his way through. Instead, he simply left.
Farther back.
Forty, fifty...
He rewound all the way to eighty-three years ago.
The layout of the space was much like it was now, except there were more