437: Chapter 437 First Life: The Heartless Scholar

Su Ning opened her eyes, her voice steady.

"The first life, the Reincarnation of the heartless scholar, is in a small town in the central region. He is a schoolteacher, over fifty years old, never married, living a life of poverty."

"The second life, the Reincarnation of the gambler husband, is in the northern grasslands. He is a herdsman, in his early thirties, burdened with heavy debts, his wife and children separated from him."

"The third life, the Reincarnation of the empress, is in an eastern coastal fishing village. She is an old woman, over seventy, lonely and helpless."

"The fourth life, the Reincarnation of the scholar swindler, is in the Jiangnan water towns. He is a merchant, over forty, flashy on the outside, empty on the inside."

"The fifth life, the Reincarnation of the alcoholic husband, is in the southwestern mountains. He is a hunter, in the prime of his life, living alone in the deep mountains, isolated from the world."

"The sixth life, the Reincarnation of the fiancé, is in the northwest borderlands. He is a soldier, in his early twenties, taciturn."

"The seventh life..." Su Ning paused.

Liu Ruyan's body trembled slightly: "The seventh life is unnecessary. He never betrayed me; I do not need his apology."

Su Ning continued: "The seventh life, the Reincarnation of that soldier, is in a town at the foot of the Wuxiang Sect. He is a twelve-year-old child, still in school."

Liu Ruyan's phantom froze. A twelve-year-old child, still in school, not yet grown up, not yet on the battlefield... She clenched her fist and then relaxed it.

"It is unnecessary." Her voice was very soft. "I will not disturb him."

Chu Lan asked with reddened eyes: "Do you not want to see him? Even if it's just from afar?"

Liu Ruyan was silent for a long time, finally shaking her head: "What would be the point of seeing him? He does not remember me. I should not disturb him further. I owe him a lifetime; I will repay it in the next."

Su Ning said: "I can open a temporary passage for your remnant soul to enter the Human Realm, but it cannot be for long—seven days at most. After seven days, you must return to the Void Realm, otherwise your remnant soul will not be able to withstand the spiritual environment of the Human Realm and will dissipate on its own. Are you sure you want to go?"

Liu Ruyan did not hesitate: "I am sure. Seven days is enough."

Seven segments of ill-fated Karma, seven hundred years of waiting, seven days of farewell. She did not want their lives, did not want their atonement; she only wanted to hear them say "I'm sorry" in person.

Chu Lan crouched at Liu Ruyan's feet, looking up at her phantom: "Do you... not hate them anymore?"

Liu Ruyan looked down at Chu Lan's young face. Hating for seven hundred years was enough. Hatred could not set her free; it only kept her trapped here. She did not want revenge; she wanted an end.

"It is time to end."

Tianxin walked to Gao Feng's side: "Shall we accompany her?"

Gao Feng did not hesitate: "We will. As long as her obsession remains, the leader's power will not diminish. Helping her is also helping ourselves."

They assigned the routes. Luo Li, Su Ning, and Chu Lan were responsible for the eastern route: the fishing village and the water towns. Gao Feng, with Tianxin, Yaoguang, and Lin Yue, was responsible for the western route: the grasslands, the small town, and the mountains. Tianxin was responsible for the southern route alone, dealing with the merchant and the soldier; with her Spirit Fox teleportation, she was the fastest when acting alone. As for that twelve-year-old child, everyone tacitly bypassed him.

Liu Ruyan's phantom stood to the side, watching these eight people assign tasks and plan routes for her without interrupting. It had been a very, very long time since anyone had treated her this way—not out of use, not out of pity, but out of a genuine desire to help her.

She bowed her head and bowed deeply to the eight of them.

"Thank you, my benefactors."

"Don't thank us yet." Gao Feng waved his hand. "Wait until your obsession has completely dissipated, then you can thank us."

A silver-white light slowly lit up in the Void Realm, and Su Ning began to construct the temporary passage back to the Human Realm. Liu Ruyan took one last look at the floating graveyard, where those broken Magical Artifacts and bones were faintly visible in the gray-white mist. She had been trapped there for who knows how many years—crying there, hating there, resenting there, and occasionally being clear-headed there.

Now it was time to leave. She withdrew her gaze and turned to step into the light gate. The silver-white light swallowed her phantom.

Early morning, in the central small town.

The city was not large, with only two main streets running east and west. The shops on the street were just taking down their door panels, and the breakfast stalls were steaming. In the east of the city, there was a private school with three tiled rooms, a courtyard, and an old locust tree planted in the yard. The schoolteacher's surname was Chen, given name Mingyuan, over fifty years old, never married, and had taught in this small town for thirty years.

Gao Feng, with Tianxin, Yaoguang, and Lin Yue, stood at the alley entrance opposite the private school. Liu Ruyan's phantom was hidden in the morning light; ordinary people could not see her, and only those with cultivation could perceive that faint ball of silver-white light.

"That's him." Tianxin whispered, holding a positioning Talisman in her hand. The patterns on the paper were glowing slightly, pointing toward the private school.

Lin Yue poked his head out to look and shook his head: "He just looks like an ordinary old man; who would have thought that in his past life, he was a heartless man."

Yaoguang sighed softly: "The affairs of a past life—how could one remember them in this life?"

Liu Ruyan's phantom did not speak. She stood in the shadows of the alley, looking toward the private school, motionless. The branches and leaves of the old locust tree reached out over the courtyard wall, swaying gently in the morning breeze. She remembered that the scholar in her first life also liked to plant trees in the courtyard, but he had planted osmanthus, not locust trees.

"Let's go in." Gao Feng's voice was very soft. He led the way across the street toward the private school.

The door of the private school was ajar, and the sound of children reciting lessons came from inside. Gao Feng pushed the door open. The courtyard was not large, paved with blue bricks, with moss growing along the base of the walls. A few seven or eight-year-old children sat under the veranda, holding books and swaying their heads as they read. An old man in a gray long gown stood with his back to the door, holding a ruler, pacing among the children.

Chen Mingyuan turned around. His face was gaunt, his hair and beard gray, his eye sockets sunken, and his brows carried a kind of long-standing exhaustion. His gaze swept over Gao Feng and the others, and a trace of confusion flashed in his eyes: "Who are you..."

Gao Feng did not beat around the bush: "Sir, we have something to discuss with you regarding a piece of Karma from a past life."

Chen Mingyuan's brows furrowed. He did not know these people, but their words made him feel inexplicably panicked. He told the children to go home first and return to their studies tomorrow. The children hugged their books and skipped out. The courtyard fell silent, with only the rustling of the old locust tree's leaves.

Liu Ruyan's phantom drifted out from behind Gao Feng. Chen Mingyuan's body jolted violently; he saw the ball of silver-white light and the faint, shimmering figure of a woman within it.

"Who... who are you?" His voice trembled, and his fingers subconsciously tightened around the ruler.

Liu Ruyan stood before him, saying nothing, just watching him quietly—this strange face, this stranger. Seven hundred years later, seeing him again, things were no longer what they used to be.

"Let him sleep." Tianxin took a Talisman from her sleeve. "A Dream-Entry Talisman to let him see the memories of his past life in his dream. This is more direct than us trying to explain for a long time."

The paper burned, and blue smoke curled up. Chen Mingyuan's eyelids grew heavy, his body swayed, and he sat on the stone bench in the courtyard, closing his eyes.

In the dream, he returned to seven hundred years ago.

He was no longer Chen Mingyuan, but Shen Yizhi. A scholar from a neighboring county, from a poor family, but incredibly talented. While enjoying the spring scenery outside the city, he met a woman. She was standing under a peach tree, with petals falling into her hair. He was stunned and said to her: "Miss, you are even more beautiful than the peach blossoms of this spring day."

The scenes in the dream switched rapidly. He and Liu Ruyan pledged themselves to each other. Although Liu Ruyan's father was reluctant, he could not refuse his daughter. He passed the imperial examination and was spotted by a high-ranking official in the imperial court, who wanted to take him as a son-in-law. He looked at the letter of betrothal annulment in his hand, hesitated for a long time, but finally wrote it. It was not that he felt no guilt, but with wealth before him, he chose wealth. Liu Ruyan's father was so angry that he fell ill and died not long after. Liu Ruyan was driven out of her home and threw herself into the river to commit suicide.

In the dream, Chen Mingyuan saw himself standing by the river, watching the white clothes floating in the water, sinking slowly. He wanted to reach out and pull, but found he could not move. He wanted to shout, but could not make a sound. He could only watch it happen, over and over again.

Chen Mingyuan woke up with a start, covered in cold sweat, his expression twisted, tears streaming from his eyes. He slipped from the stone bench and fell to his knees on the ground, his forehead almost touching the blue bricks.

"It was I who betrayed you... It was I who betrayed you..."

His voice was hoarse, and he wept, his body trembling. "I am sorry to you, I am sorry to your father. I should not have written that letter of betrothal annulment. I should not have coveted wealth..."

Liu Ruyan stood before him, looking down at the white-haired old man. The Shen Yizhi of seven hundred years ago promised her a lifetime of deep love, but eventually forced her father to death and her to jump into the river with a letter of annulment. The Chen Mingyuan of seven hundred years later knelt before her, weeping bitterly.

There were tears in Liu Ruyan's eyes, but there was no relief on her face. She shook her head, her voice very soft, yet like a blunt knife cutting into Chen Mingyuan's heart again and again: "Not enough. It is not painful enough. You do not know how unwilling my father was when he died, nor do you know how cold the water was when I jumped into the river."

Chen Mingyuan wept even harder, prostrate on the ground, his shoulders shaking violently. Gao Feng walked to his side, looking at the old man who was much older than himself, and was silent for a moment: "He has lived a life of poverty and loneliness, never married, with no children to call his own. This is already retribution. If you do not let go of your obsession, you will never be free. You have waited for seven hundred years; do you still want to keep waiting?"

Liu Ruyan's phantom froze. She looked at Chen Mingyuan's turbid eyes, seeing his remorse and his old age. This once high-spirited scholar was now on the verge of death. Even if she continued to hate him, he would not live much longer.

Her phantom gradually retracted.

"Let's go." She turned away, no longer looking at Chen Mingyuan. The black mist behind her faded slightly.

Tianxin took a Calming Talisman from her sleeve. The blue smoke from the burning Talisman drifted toward Chen Mingyuan. His crying gradually subsided, and his body slumped softly against the leg of the stone bench, falling into a deep sleep. When he woke up again, he would not remember the details of the dream; he would only remember that he had had a very, very long dream, and in the dream, someone was waiting for his apology.

The group walked out of the private school, and the sun was shining on the street. Liu Ruyan's phantom was more transparent in the sunlight than in the Void Realm, and her silhouette was almost invisible.