Chapter 173: This Is Your 127th Time Killing Me!

Everything that happened today has completely overturned Lin Yifan's worldview.

Even after he arrived in the Survival Realm, his tolerance for this chaotic world was already very high, but even now he still feels acceptance.

At this point, Lin Changsheng's pupils began to dilate, his voice grew lower, and he laughed oddly, saying:

"Isn't the meaning already clear? Your friend… might have always been just a… fictional character!"

"You! Don't take it too seriously…"

Before he finished speaking, his body completely disintegrated, turning into a pile of maggot corpses.

Lin Yifan at this moment had no mind to concern himself with whether Lin Changsheng was dead or alive.

He knelt on the ground, his mind constantly flashing every moment he spent with Ruan Qingtan.

Although they had only met once, it was undeniable that he still had a strong impression of Ruan Qingtan.

She was beautiful, had a good personality, and he trusted her 100%.

As a lowly man who had never been favored by any girl from childhood, to say Lin Yifan wasn't at all moved is false.

But now it tells him that all of this could be false?

How could he possibly accept that?!

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible, that person is clearly real, how could they be fake…" He clenched his fist, his nails digging deep into his palm, muttering continuously.

He stubbornly tried to convince himself!

But at that moment, the Pure Spirit Flower on his wrist suddenly trembled violently.

Lin Yifan looked down and saw, at the very center of the pristine white petals, a line of blood‑red characters appearing in the sky:

【Want to see the real her? Then come to the bottom of the abyss; I'm waiting here.】

Lin Yifan was stunned for a moment, and only then did he notice that somehow he was no longer at the bottom of the water!

No wonder he could just speak a moment ago; after all that time, he had unknowingly been transferred to a different location.

And the place he now found himself was beside a cliff.

The cliff was a barren stretch; in the distance, the endless mountain ranges were also barren, just like the cliff he stood on.

The whole land resembled a landscape ravaged by an all‑sky fire, leaving no life alive, only the ruins left after the flames.

Lin Yifan stared blankly at it all, and suddenly realized that these mountains looked very familiar!

Aren't these the same mountains where his Shelter is located?

How did they suddenly become like this?

However, before he could figure it out, the surrounding space began to warp and collapse, the ground cracking with countless fissures, and pitch‑black mist spewed from them.

Enveloped by the mist, Lin Yifan suddenly heard countless whispers at his ears:

"It seems he has discovered us, no, why is he awake…"

"Right! Isn't he the Lord's newly chosen vessel? How does he still have self‑awareness…"

"He seems to hate us and resist us; in that case, he certainly can't be honored by the Lord, we must re‑weave his memories…"

"Then who will re‑weave his memories? My divine power is limited; I can't craft them…"

"I can't edit them either…"

"Then let the Lord do it himself!"

…

"All shut up!" The chaotic voices sounded like thousands of ducks quacking.

Hearing that, Lin Yifan felt irritated and couldn't help letting out a roar.

And in his fury, the Pure Spirit Flower on his wrist also burst forth a dazzling light.

The light flared, and the black mist instantly dissipated.

Only then did Lin Yifan sigh in relief, stand up, and look at the deepest fissure beneath his feet—

The fissure wasn't particularly deep, at least not as deep as he imagined, perhaps only twenty or thirty meters.

At the dim bottom of the abyss, a massive pale throne could be faintly seen.

And atop that throne sat a human silhouette.

When Lin Yifan saw the silhouette, his breath nearly stopped.

The abyss's bottom was filled with thick fog, yet that figure was terrifyingly clear—slender outline, jet‑black long hair, pale fingers lightly resting on the throne's armrest.

It was Ruan Qingtan.

No, it bore Ruan Qingtan's looks and figure; whether it truly was Ruan Qingtan, Lin Yifan didn't know!

But undeniably, she looked completely different.

Her skin was almost transparent, and beneath the veins flowed not blood but a faint blue luminous fluid.

Her eyes were half‑closed, tiny lights shining through her lashes, as if stars were hidden deep in her pupils.

The most chilling part—her neck, wrists, and ankles were entwined with countless black chains as fine as hair, the other ends deeply embedded in the void, as if she were bound by the very rules of the world.

Lin Yifan's throat tightened, his heart hammered, instinctively wanting to retreat, but the ground beneath him suddenly collapsed!

"Ah—!"

He plummeted, a gale howling at his ears. Just as he was about to fall into the abyss, the vines of the Pure Spirit Flower on his wrist surged, tightly wrapping a protruding rock.

Lin Yifan hung in midair, looking up toward the throne.

Ruan Qingtan on the throne slowly opened her eyes, a perfect smile appearing at the corner of her mouth: "You finally came! I've been waiting for you for a long time."

The moment Lin Yifan locked eyes with Ruan Qingtan, a sharp pain pierced his skull, countless unfamiliar memories surged in like a flood, unfolding before him like one illustrated scroll after another.

Among those scrolls, one showed him standing amid ruins, cradling Ruan Qingtan's corpse in his arms.

And a dagger was lodged in her chest, its hilt engraved with the three characters Lin Yifan.

In another scroll, he saw himself kneeling in a pool of blood, before him the rotting corpse of Lin Changsheng, while he held a blood‑stained pure spirit flower in his hand.

But this Pure Spirit Flower is different from the one in his hand; it is actually a sharp sword!

The flower merely coils around the hilt, the blade is exceedingly sharp, covered with mysterious runes, and now emits a faint blue glow.

Obviously, the sword is saturated with evolutionary power!

There is even a scroll showing him seeing Ruan Qingtan seated on the throne, smiling and reaching out to him, while his own knife has already pierced her heart…

"These... what are they..." Lin Yifan painfully clutched his head, and the vines began to loosen due to his struggle.

"Do these images make you remember? They are all your memories." Ruan Qingtan smiled as she spoke, then patted her forehead, saying somewhat annoyed:

"By the way, what I just said was too vague; strictly speaking, these are things you have experienced before, you just can't recall them now."

Lin Yifan lifted his head with a face full of disbelief, his expression bewildered as he said, "Why are your words completely incomprehensible to me!"

Ruan Qingtan still sat on the throne, but her lips did not move. Her gaze was compassionate and gentle, as if looking at a moth trapped in a spiderweb.

The smile at the corner of her mouth finally faded at this moment, and she sighed softly, saying:

"You indeed forgot again! But it's okay, as long as I remember it."

Then she snapped her fingers again, and said very precisely:

"This is the 127th time you've killed me, and it's still so clean and swift!"