148: Chapter 147 Escape!

It was identical to the bead he had obtained on the Gobi Desert, which contained the memory of the Dragon Slaying True Person at age thirty.

Jasper had also obtained one.

Furthermore, it was the memory of the Dragon Slaying True Person from the same stage.

Jiang Hanzhou held the bead, silent for a moment.

He did not rush to absorb it.

He first stored all his items into his sumeru pouch, then stood up and scanned his surroundings.

The ice field remained silent, the cold wind still howling.

In the distance, several faint spots of light could be seen moving.

Those were other Cultivators who had entered this Small World, either hunting for memory fragments or being hunted by them.

Jiang Hanzhou withdrew his gaze and looked toward a low ice mound not far away.

There, a massive slab of ice rock had a natural depression beneath it, large enough to conceal a person.

He needed to rest.

He needed to recover his True Qi.

He also needed to—see what exactly was hidden inside this bead.

He strode toward the ice rock and crawled into the depression.

It was not large, but enough to conceal his figure.

He placed his tiger soul saber across his knees, sat down cross-legged, took out the pale gold bead, and held it between his hands.

He slowly closed his eyes.

His consciousness sank in.

It was still that feeling of "watching a movie."

He saw an ocean.

Not the North Sea, not the East Sea, but the West Sea.

Vast, azure waves stretched for miles, with high skies and light clouds.

A young man stood upon the sea.

The young man was in his early thirties, with a gaunt face, wearing a faded green cloth robe, holding an ordinary longsword in his hand.

It was the Dragon Slaying True Person.

The thirty-year-old Dragon Slaying True Person.

At this moment, he was gazing at the distant sea, his eyes distant, as if looking at something, yet as if seeing nothing at all.

Then, he spoke.

"You have come."

The voice was very soft, yet it exploded in Jiang Hanzhou's Sea of Consciousness like a thunderclap!

Jiang Hanzhou's pupils suddenly contracted!

Wrong!

This was not a memory!

The Dragon Slaying True Person in the memory could not possibly "see" him!

Much less speak to him!

He wanted to withdraw—but it was already too late.

The young man turned around, his gaze piercing through the vast, azure sea and the old days from thirty years ago, landing directly upon Jiang Hanzhou.

Those eyes.

Those eyes, as gentle as water, yet now so profound they were chilling.

"I have waited for you for a long time."

He spoke, his voice still very soft.

"Being able to reach this point means you have already obtained three of my memory fragments."

"Three segments."

He paused, and the corners of his lips slowly curled into a smile.

The smile was faint, yet it carried an indescribable meaning.

"That is enough."

Jiang Hanzhou felt a chill rise from his spine, straight to the top of his head!

He recalled the memories of those two Ten Thousand Gu Sect Cultivators.

He remembered the Cultivator who was beheaded by a sword, the figure holding the sword seen before death.

He remembered the Cultivator slain by the wooden sword, who turned into light spots after death and was absorbed by a youth.

He remembered those outsiders who, after being killed, became nutrients to nourish the memory fragments.

He remembered the beads he had hunted and absorbed since entering this Small World—the memory of the Dragon Slaying True Person at age seven or eight.

The memory of the Dragon Slaying True Person at age seventeen.

The memory of the Dragon Slaying True Person at age thirty.

Three segments of memory.

He had absorbed three segments of the Dragon Slaying True Person's memories.

And at this moment—inside that pale gold bead, in the fragment that should have been the "memory of the Dragon Slaying True Person at age thirty"—the young man was looking at him.

Speaking to him.

Jiang Hanzhou suddenly opened his eyes!

The depression remained dim, the ice rock remained silent, and the tiger soul saber remained across his knees.

The pale gold bead still lay quietly in his palm.

The luminescence on its surface was much dimmer than before.

But Jiang Hanzhou knew.

It was not dimming.

It was—the thing inside the bead had "awakened."

He stared fixedly at the bead; the warm sensation in his palm made him feel as if he were holding a piece of ice about to melt.

The Dragon Slaying True Person.

Still alive.

No, not alive.

It was a "residue."

His consciousness, his will, something of his, remained in these memory fragments.

Those slain Cultivators, those absorbed nutrients—all were nourishing him.

Making him "wake up."

Jiang Hanzhou took a deep breath and slowly stored the bead into his sumeru pouch.

He did not look at it again.

He stood up, walked out of the depression, and stood on the shattered ice surface.

The cold wind howled, and ice crystals struck his face.

He raised his head and looked toward this boundless ice field, toward the moving spots of light in the distance, and toward the gray-white sky of this Small World.

He suddenly understood.

This was not a trial.

This was a trap.

A trap set by the Dragon Slaying True Person.

Using his own memories as bait to lure countless Cultivators inside to kill and devour one another—ultimately, to nourish something.

Something that might have been waiting for thousands of years.

Jiang Hanzhou closed his eyes and opened them again.

There was no longer any ripple in his eyes.

He turned around and walked in the opposite direction of the ice field.

No more venturing deeper.

No more hunting.

No more competing.

He had to leave this place.

Immediately.