145: Chapter 145 Conspiracy

He stood up, about to look around—

His gaze fell to the ground.

There, two beads lay quietly.

One was light gray, the other light brown.

They were the two beads obtained from the Ten Thousand Gu Sect Cultivator.

When he had just absorbed the memory of the thirty-year-old Dragon Slaying True Person from the pale golden bead, these two beads had slipped out of his sumeru pouch, and now they were lying quietly on the ice, their surface glow much dimmer than before.

Jiang Hanzhou bent down and picked them up.

He did not rush to put them back into his sumeru pouch, but instead held the two beads and probed them with his Divine Sense.

A memory flooded in.

It was the perspective of a stranger Cultivator.

He saw that person, after entering this Small World, land in a dense forest.

There were flickering points of light in the forest, and the person followed the light, encountering a memory fragment in the shape of a Essence Spirit.

It was a huge black bear, its body wreathed in earthy yellow light, its aura as heavy and steady as a mountain.

A bitter battle ensued.

The Cultivator fought with all his might and finally killed the black bear.

The black bear turned into points of light and dissipated, leaving behind a light gray bead.

The Cultivator was overjoyed, clutching the bead, ready to absorb it—

Then, a sword light slashed from behind him.

The sword light was too fast, too sudden; the Cultivator did not even have time to turn around before he was beheaded by a single strike.

His last consciousness before death was seeing the sword-wielding figure behind him—

It was a young man.

Just over thirty, with a thin face, wearing a washed-out blue cloth robe.

Dragon Slaying True Person.

The thirty-year-old Dragon Slaying True Person.

The memory stopped abruptly there.

Jiang Hanzhou's brows furrowed slightly.

He held the light brown bead and probed it again with his Divine Sense.

The second memory flooded in.

The perspective of another Cultivator.

That person landed on a Gobi desert and encountered a young figure.

The youth was about fourteen or fifteen, wearing coarse short garments, barefoot, holding a wooden sword in his hand.

The Dragon Slaying True Person in his youth.

The Cultivator was overjoyed, thinking he had encountered a pushover, and charged forward with his sword.

Then he was killed by a single strike from that wooden sword.

Before dying, he saw that the youth's expression remained calm, his eyes gentle, as if he hadn't killed a Cultivator of the same rank, but merely an ant blocking his way.

The youth's figure seemed to have become slightly more solid than before.

The memory ended.

Jiang Hanzhou held the two beads, remaining motionless for a long time.

His brows furrowed tighter, and a trace of imperceptible coldness flashed in his eyes.

What had he just seen?

Those two Cultivators, one died at the hands of another Cultivator—no, that's not right, the Cultivator who was beheaded saw the thirty-year-old Dragon Slaying True Person before he died.

How could the thirty-year-old Dragon Slaying True Person have appeared there?

That was clearly another Cultivator's memory fragment, so how could it record the scene of the Dragon Slaying True Person killing someone?

Unless—

Jiang Hanzhou's pupils suddenly contracted.

Unless, that was not the memory fragment of "another Cultivator."

That black bear, that youth, that thirty-year-old young man—

They were all the Dragon Slaying True Person.

They were all memory fragments left behind by the Dragon Slaying True Person.

And those two Cultivators, one was killed by the black bear, and one was killed by the youth.

After they died—

After they died, what did they become?

Jiang Hanzhou recalled the light gray bead.

That was left behind after the black bear died.

That black bear was a memory fragment of the Dragon Slaying True Person.

The Cultivator killed the black bear and obtained that bead.

But before the Cultivator could absorb the bead, he was killed by another Dragon Slaying True Person.

That Dragon Slaying True Person was another memory fragment.

After he killed that Cultivator—

What did that Cultivator's corpse turn into?

Jiang Hanzhou closed his eyes and searched carefully through his memories.

He saw it.

After the Cultivator was beheaded, his corpse did not fall but began to disintegrate.

Like a sandcastle meeting water, it silently turned into countless tiny points of light, drifting away from his clothes.

Those points of light did not drift toward the sky, but like hundreds of rivers returning to the sea, they all surged into the mouth and nose of the sword-wielding Dragon Slaying True Person.

Then, the Dragon Slaying True Person's figure became slightly more solid than before.

Jiang Hanzhou opened his eyes.

His expression became somewhat ugly.

In the second memory, after the youth killed the Cultivator, he likewise absorbed all the points of light the Cultivator had turned into.

The youth's figure likewise became slightly more solid.

So—

Would the people killed by the memory fragments become nutrients for this Small World?

Would they become nourishment for those memory fragments of the Dragon Slaying True Person?

And after those memory fragments absorbed enough nourishment—

What would they become?

Would they become stronger?

Would they solidify into real entities?

Would they...

Would they "come alive"?

Jiang Hanzhou felt a chill rise from his spine, rushing straight to his crown.

He recalled the seven or eight-year-old child he had met when he first entered this Small World.

That child was too weak.

So weak that he could kill him with one palm strike.

But after the child died, he left behind a bead.

Inside that bead was the memory of the Dragon Slaying True Person at seven or eight years old.

He had absorbed that memory and hadn't felt anything wrong.

Later, he met the seventeen-year-old Dragon Slaying True Person, fought a bitter battle, won, and obtained the second bead.

Later on, he met the thirty-year-old Dragon Slaying True Person but did not engage him in battle.

That thirty-year-old Dragon Slaying True Person was killed by that Heavenly Evil Cult True Disciple.

And after Yi Qianfan killed the Dragon Slaying True Person—

Jiang Hanzhou suddenly remembered something.

The moment Yi Qianfan killed the thirty-year-old Dragon Slaying True Person, he had been lying in the shadow of a rock hundreds of zhang away, witnessing that battle with his own eyes.

He saw that short sword pierce into the Dragon Slaying True Person's lower abdomen.

He saw the Dragon Slaying True Person's figure begin to fade, turning into points of light and drifting away.

He saw a pale golden bead fall.

But he did not see—

Where did the points of light that the Dragon Slaying True Person turned into go?

At that time, all his attention was on Yi Qianfan, on that bead about to fall, and he had not paid any attention to those drifting points of light at all.

Now that he thought about it—

Could those points of light have also been absorbed by something?

By Yi Qianfan?

No, that's impossible.

Yi Qianfan was at the end of his rope at that time, unable to even stand, and had absolutely no time to absorb those points of light.

By...

By this Small World itself?

Jiang Hanzhou stood in place, letting the cold wind, carrying ice crystals, hit his face, motionless.

In his mind, countless thoughts spun rapidly.

The Dragon Slaying True Person left behind this Immortal Cave, set the threshold of "only those in the Primal Form Realm may enter," and lured countless Cultivators into this Small World.

Then, he left behind countless memory fragments of himself in the Small World.

Those memory fragments, some strong, some weak, were distributed in every corner.

The Cultivators who entered would go to find these memory fragments, fight them, and attempt to obtain the essence of martial arts within them.

But those memory fragments would also kill the Cultivators.

And those killed Cultivators—

Would become nutrients.

Become nourishment to nurture those memory fragments.

After those memory fragments absorbed enough nourishment, they would become stronger, solidify into more real entities, would...

What would happen?

Would they resurrect?