"What do you mean, fellow Daoist?"
Fang Qing's heart stirred slightly.
"A person dies twice. The first is when they fall; the second is when everyone who knew them forgets them..."
Sanmu True Person sighed faintly. "That is so for mortals, but what about cultivators? True Lords? [Year Guardians]?"
"If a cultivator reaches the Purple Mansion realm, or joins an orthodoxy such as an Esoteric Treasury, they naturally have a chance at reincarnation... but that rests on the True Spirit still existing."
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"When a True Lord dies, their True Spirit should be utterly extinguished... but so long as even a wisp of Golden Nature remains, there is a chance to begin anew. Like that 'Kitchen Lord.'"
Fang Qing answered after some deliberation.
"Correct. After Primordial Antiquity, all [Year Guardians] fell... their True Spirits were gone, their Golden Natures utterly erased... Do not underestimate those True Lords of High Antiquity. Their terror of the [Year Guardians] is beyond your imagination. They cleaned up everything without leaving a trace."
Sanmu True Person sneered.
Fang Qing suddenly recalled the head of the Metal Virtue True Lord within the Earth-Submerging Blessed Land. Even in death, it had feared the [Year Guardians].
"But so what? The [Year Guardians] left too deep an imprint upon heaven and earth. The symbols of the twelve [Year Guardians] have never vanished... heaven and earth have never forgotten them. They have always remembered."
"For instance, the Metal Virtue [Year Guardian]... It is every object of gold and iron in this world; it is also blades and swords, jewelry, raw ore, weapons of war, Metal Virtue spells, Divine Abilities... even abstract concepts such as 'generals,' 'sacrifice,' and 'sword duels'..."
"Not only heaven and earth—even if not a shred of Golden Nature remains, its Fruit Seat still remembers it...