Chapter 597: The Epilogue: Those Stolen Years

My words left Yu Nian slightly stunned.

She then said, "Perhaps, but his original intention was only for Wang Fuchen's future, after all, he had painstakingly cultivated this disciple for over a hundred years, and no one would want Wang Fuchen to ruin his prospects over romantic entanglements."

I put myself in his shoes; if Liu Junyan one day ascends to the heavenly court to become an upper realm immortal, I would certainly not use our feelings to shackle him.

Even if he is unwilling to sever the love threads, I would still, like Yu Nian did at first, give him a push.

"Xiao Jiu, even to this day, I still don't feel I was wrong back then." Yu Nian said firmly, "No one has the obligation to accompany me in endless torment in the abyss, and Wang Fuchen is no exception."

This is great love.

Only when love reaches its depths does one unwilling to burden the other.

One only hopes the other will go higher, even if one becomes his stepping stone.

It must be said, the old Daoist is well versed in these principles, so he sought out Yu Nian, acting from her side rather than forcing his disciple.

Yu Nian indeed was as he had thought.

"We have bowed to heaven and earth." A soft light appeared in Yu Nian's eyes, "When he was happily preparing to press his handprint on that marriage document, I flipped the Yuānyāng Tóngxīn Suǒ, personally pushing him onto that golden, broad road; for a moment thunder and lightning flashed, and I only felt something being pulled out of my body..."

Indeed, that is how it was.

I asked, "The Yuānyāng Tóngxīn Suǒ turned into the Líxīn Suǒ, and your and Wang Fuchen's emotions and desires from the Seven Emotions and Six Desires were simultaneously drawn from your souls, locked within the Líxīn Suǒ, thereby achieving the effect of severing love and affection."

Yu Nian grew somewhat bewildered, she shook her head and said, "Back then I fainted, and when I woke up I found myself lying on the bed in my own room at Yin Dang Hang; I only felt as if I had had a long and bizarre dream, but I cannot recall the dream's scenes—I don't remember Wang Fuchen, nor the old Daoist, not even the bird, and I also don't remember it."

My life seemed to return to before that bloody rain; each day I ran Yin Dang Hang, and when my father ferried past Yin Dang Hang, we would briefly meet, then part again, and so we quietly passed a few more years.

I exclaimed, "Among the staff of Yin Dang Hang, your father, and your mutual friends from before, has no one mentioned Wang Fuchen to you?"

"No." Yu Nian said, "Perhaps my father had instructed me not to bring it up, so no one dared to speak nonsense in front of me; I completely forgot Wang Fuchen and have never seen him again."

I pondered, how could this be?

Is this truly severing love and affection, or merely memory deletion?

"Until a few years later, when my father encountered the bird again, I recall my final moment was by the Wangchuan River, where a huge black bird with only a tuft of white hair on its head pressed me to the ground, its long beak thrust into my mouth as if to suck away my soul; later someone came running from afar, that silhouette… seemed like Wang Fuchen, but I was already at death's door and truly could not remember."

This is Yu Nian's first life.

By the end of her first life, she had completely forgotten Wang Fuchen.

She lost many memories; her life seemed to retain only Yin Dang Hang and her father.

This situation persisted.

Yu Nian lowered her head, firmly pinching her brow, as she struggled to piece together her memories, recalling everything from before.

"When I regained my memory, I found myself again at Yin Dang Hang; the master of Yin Dang Hang was called Fuchen, who told me he was formed from a speck of dust in the abyss before Yin Dang Hang, enlightened and given a name by the City God."

"He cared for me in every way, personally teaching me how to run Yin Dang Hang, taking me along in cultivation; I regarded him as my own older brother, my sole kin on whom I depended."

It appears Yu Nian is the one who truly severed the love threads in this 'severing love and affection' scenario.

"But as time passed, Fuchen showed an obvious sense of disconnection; most of the time his gaze at me was clear, that of a qualified older brother.

"But each month there are a few days when he becomes strange, always staying alone in a corner silently watching me, his eyes deep and silky, as if he wanted to devour me; after that period he returns to normal."

"In this life my memory is extremely brief, limited to those few years I spent with Fuchen; I have no recollection of how I was born or how I died, those years feel like stolen time."

Yu Nian was puzzled, and I was even more at a loss.

Yu Nian's second life is the one in which Fuchen was subjected to lingchi and had his Cinnabar Spirit Bone dug out.

When I first came into contact with the Cinnabar Spirit Bone, I did not know that Yu Nian had once belonged to Yin Dang Hang, and in my altered memory there was never any trace of her appearance.

I am unsure whether the tampered memory deliberately concealed Yu Nian's existence, or whether at that time she truly was no longer at Yin Dang Hang.

Even Yu Nian herself is unsure how long her second life lasted or how it ended.

"When I regained memory again, I was already in Huicheng; my mother doted on me, and Aunt Yu devotedly guided me, they kept me well protected……"

Saying this, Yu Nian took my hand and apologetically said, "I have a secret I have never told anyone, including you, Xiao Jiu."

My brow twitched as I said, "If you don't want to speak, don't force yourself to confess; I understand."

Yu Nian, however, said, "By now there's nothing left to conceal; I am actually someone Yu Nian's aunt picked up, and my mother is not my biological mother."

I was stunned.

If Yu Nian does not reveal this secret, no one will ever know it in her lifetime.

"Yu Nian's aunt said that when she found me, I was clutching that Thousand Soul Banner in my arms, but I actually don't believe that."

"I also find it far-fetched; that is a Thousand Soul Banner—let alone cultivators, even solitary ghosts and wild spirits seeing it would covet it, how could they leave you alive? If you truly aren't biologically related, it's more likely a case of entrusting an orphan."

"Yeah, but no matter how I press, Yu Nian's aunt insists I was picked up by her, and my mother need not be mentioned—she only listens to the aunt; I asked a few times then stopped, because they treat me so well, whether I'm biologically related is, in my view, utterly unimportant."

Indeed, children are the most sensitive; whoever treats them well, they will favor.

This is nature.

Yu Nian's aunt and mother have no need to deceive Yu Nian.

I pondered, "Sister, doesn't it feel like from your second life onward your origins have become mysterious? Or is it that saying, I always sense an invisible hand pulling the strings behind your life?"

Yu Nian clearly also realized this.

I continued asking, "Now pushing the issue back to the start, why must you definitely take that stone from me?"