She was there.
She had always been there.
Right by his side, never having left.
"Ninth Junior Brother."
A hazy voice crossed the void and fell into Xu Changqing's Sea of Consciousness.
It was like a circle of ripples suddenly spreading across the water's surface.
"You must remember me!"
"You must... remember me!"
"My name is Luo Qing..."
Before she could finish, her voice grew indistinct, drifting farther and farther away.
Xu Changqing reached out instinctively, trying to seize her. "Wait!"
Yet the instant his fingertips touched her, the entire world froze.
The stars filling the sky ceased to flicker.
In the distance, the platinum radiance of the White Tiger Western Continent stopped surging.
The crimson layers of the Vermilion Bird Southern Continent froze into motionless flames.
The deep-blue halo of the Black Tortoise Northern Continent seemed to have been frozen at the end of time.
Then, time began to flow backward.
Xu Changqing went from a young man to a youth, then to a child, and finally became an infant.
His consciousness was forced into a head-on collision with a barrier of laws he had never touched before.
The two forces clashed violently, and the aftershocks made the entire starry sky tremble.
Far away on Celestial Pivot Star, the Great Dao Venerable seemed to sense something. He opened his eyes and shook his head. "He still failed to evade this karmic entanglement!"
When Xu Changqing regained consciousness, there was a hint of sweet-and-sour juice in his mouth.
"Where is this?"
He was somewhat dazed.
It seemed he had not died, and his consciousness had not dissipated either.
Even the seventh realm of the Origin Dao Heavenly Scripture was still operating.
But his body was no longer his former body. He had become someone else.
Xu Changqing lowered