Hengyue Sect, bamboo forest in the back mountain.
Luo Chuan leaned back in his chair, looking at the soul in his hand, and exhaled a deep breath, saying, "I'm sorry... Xue'er... I couldn't bring you back to life."
"Your lifespan is not inherently severed; you can be directly reincarnated... but at that time, you will no longer be the Yao Xixue you are today."
"To preserve your cultivation and your physical body... I had no choice but to do this... but I never imagined that in the years since I left, the Heavenly Dao has continued to suppress your soul, causing a soul to regenerate within Lin Junwan's body."
"If I had kept you by my side back then, perhaps things wouldn't have turned out this way."
Luo Chuan gently stroked Yao Xixue's Nascent Soul Realm, feeling the warmth from his fingertips, tears streaming down his face and falling to the ground.
He had cultivated alone for a thousand years, never shedding a tear even when facing life and death, yet now he was filled with grief.
" Lin Mu... brother."
Just as Luo Chuan was immersed in grief, Lin Junwan ran to the bamboo forest with tears streaming down her face. She looked at Luo Chuan's location, her eyes filled with endless pain.
Luo Chuan wasn't surprised to see Lin Junwan appear, after all, he was the person she relied on the most when she was young.
Now that she knows the truth, she probably hates herself.
Luo Chuan sat down in the chair, withdrew Yao Xixue's nascent Nascent Soul Realm, and looked at Lin Junwan, saying, "I know you hate me... but I have no choice. If it were anyone else, I would have done the same."
Lin Junwan staggered to a stop, tears blurring her vision, but she shook her head vigorously, her choked voice echoing softly in the silent bamboo forest, filled with grievance and confusion.
"I don't hate you... Brother Lin Mu, I've never hated you."
Lin Junwan clenched her slightly trembling hands, her knuckles turning white, and slowly approached step by step, her clear eyes filled with confusion and sadness.
Every word seemed to be squeezed out from his heart. "I just don't understand... why are you doing this to me?"
"From childhood to adulthood, you've given me the best elixirs and the most powerful cultivation techniques, protected me as I grew up, and helped me cultivate. I always thought... in your heart, I was different."
"But only today did I realize that I was just a vessel, a vessel used to hold Sister Yao Xixue's soul... right?"
Lin Junwan raised her tear-streaked face and looked at the man she had relied on for eight years. Her voice was so soft it was almost blown away by the wind, yet it held a heart-wrenching longing.
"I just want to ask you one question... In your heart, has I, Lin Junwan, ever held even the slightest place? Not even... not even the tiniest bit of care?"
The wind rustled through the bamboo forest. Luo Chuan looked at the tearful, heartbroken girl before him, and his fingertips trembled. The unyielding obsession in his heart, as hard as iron, inexplicably loosened a little at this moment.
Luo Chuan looked at Lin Junwan before him, slowly stood up, put one hand behind his back, and gazed at the star-studded sky, "In my heart..."
At this point, Luo Chuan didn't continue, and even he himself didn't know if he had thought about Lin Junwan.
Even the slightest bit.
After all, in his heart, Lin Junwan was always Yao Xixue, and Yao Xixue was always Lin Junwan.
Lin Junwan watched Lin Mu Mu's retreating figure and smiled bitterly, "I understand... Jun Wan understands Lin Mu Mu's feelings."
"You might be wondering how I came to know you... Actually, you have a unique scent, a scent that comes from the sachet I gave you in person... It's a testament that I haven't forgotten you."
Lin Junwan forcefully wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, glanced at Luo Chuan, and left without looking back, leaving only the peculiar scent lingering in the air.
Luo Chuan naturally sensed that Lin Junwan had left. After taking a deep breath, he retrieved Yao Xixue's soul again, " Xue'er..."
"Brother... let her go."
Li Muwan then came to Luo Chuan's side, and looking at the Nascent Soul Realm in his hand, a hint of pain flashed in her eyes.
"Sister Xue'er has already suffered enough in this life. Let her be reincarnated. Perhaps in her next life, she can cultivate again."
"You still have a chance to Reincarnation Continuation."
Li Muwan's voice was as light as dew on bamboo leaves, shattering as soon as it fell, yet every word struck Luo Chuan's softest heart.
Luo Chuan held Yao Xixue's Nascent Soul Realm, his knuckles turning white. The turmoil and despair that had been surging within him for so long finally subsided at this moment. The starry sky fell on his pale face, reflecting an exhaustion he hadn't felt in a thousand years.
" Reincarnation Continuation..."
Luo Chuan repeated these four words in a low voice, as if asking Li Muwan, or perhaps asking himself.
"In that case, she wouldn't be my Xue'er anymore. Her past, her cultivation memories, all of it would be gone."
"I defied fate, orchestrating a grand scheme for eighteen years, only to have it all abandoned by my own hands in the end..."
Luo Chuan laughed, a hoarse laugh filled with endless sorrow and resentment.
Li Muwan gently raised her hand, her fingertips hovering over his shoulder, before finally letting it fall gently, patting him reassuringly.
" Luo Chuan, you've protected her for so long, that's enough. Xue'er truly understood you, she wouldn't want to see you tormenting yourself like this, much less... drag an innocent girl down with her, making her suffer a lifetime for her rebirth."
Luo Chuan closed his eyes, and two lines of tears slid down his cheeks again. He could shatter stars and break mountains, reverse yin and yang, and make heaven and earth submit, yet he couldn't keep the person he wanted to protect.
After a long while, Luo Chuan slowly opened his eyes. The overwhelming obsession in his eyes gradually subsided, replaced by a quiet sense of relief.
"You're right..."
Luo Chuan lowered his head, gazing at Yao Xixue Nascent Soul Realm sleeping peacefully in his palm, his voice so gentle it was almost broken. " Xue'er, it was my obsession that ran too deep, trapping you for eighteen years, and trapping myself for eighteen years as well."
" Xue'er... In this life, I won't force you to be reborn. In your next life, I wish you to be born into an ordinary family, free from disaster and hardship, peaceful and joyful, and never have to step onto this cruel path of cultivation again..."
As soon as he finished speaking, a soft white light emanated from Luo Chuan's palm. He carefully lifted the wisp of divine soul and sent it into the void.
A flash of white light, and it transformed into a streak of light, piercing the sky and plunging into the depths of reincarnation, without any further entanglement.
Eighteen years of waiting, eighteen years of obsession, all vanished in a single day.
The bamboo grove has returned to silence.
Luo Chuan stood still for a long time, his lonely figure seemingly blending into the bamboo forest.
Li Muwan quietly stayed by his side without saying a word. She knew that some pain could only be endured slowly on one's own.
Reincarnation Continuation is the best way to continue the predestined relationship, and it is also the best way for Yao Xixue to survive and become a cultivator.