Reincarnation was like a book, and the karma within it and the people in its pages bore connections that could not be put into words...
Take Phoenix Woman, for instance!
If there were no Calamity of the Nine Heavens in the new reincarnation, Su Jingyan would never go to the Immortal Domain, nor would he travel through "reincarnation" to the era of Phoenix Woman's parents.
And would Phoenix Woman, born nearly ten thousand years earlier, still be the same Phoenix Woman?
"Reincarnation is like a book. The people within it are born under predetermined karma. Only under the destiny that once unfolded... are they truly themselves!"
"Just like... the Divine Race lost within the Long River. Once they forgot their memories, they were no longer themselves!"
"The people they once were... have all died."
"And if you change everything in the new reincarnation, making 'destiny' different from before, then the people you sent across the River of Forgetfulness will no longer be themselves either. They will be other people."
"Some people will never even appear again..."
The white-robed Scholar tilted his head toward the vast firmament of the Nine Heavens, seemingly seeing Su Mo of the Divine Race beneath the Realm Gate, listening to their conversation as well!
The white-robed Scholar bore a loneliness and weariness Su Mo could not understand, and a light beyond the world's "destiny" flashed in his eyes...
"So are we... the ones writing the book, or the people within it?"
Su Jingyan gazed dazedly at the white-robed Scholar before him. A cool breeze swept past, stirring his head of white hair.
That white hair dancing in the wind seemed to speak of something else.
Su Jingyan dimly recalled the words he had spoken long ago on Mount Sumeru, and they slipped from his lips unbidden.