Inertia of Memories

An hour later, in the small hospital of Qianyue Town, a doctor was treating An Yesu's wounds. "You wait here for me. I've already paid for it. I'll go buy you some food," I said to him.

I went out and bought lunch and some fruit, and since An Yesu didn't have any clothes, I also bought him a set of clothes and shoes.

When I returned to the hospital, An Yesu's wound had been bandaged up. He was lying on the bed with an IV drip hanging from his arm while staring blankly at the ceiling.

He looked at me when he saw the clothes in my hand but didn't say anything despite wanting to speak.

"I bought them based on instinct; not sure if they fit or not. You can try them on later, and if they don't fit well enough, we can exchange them," I said as I placed the clothes by his bedside.

"Thank you," he replied with a choked voice after looking at me for a moment before asking why I was being so kind to him.

I did not answer his question but moved the table next to his bed and laid out our meal instead.

"Eat first; you will understand someday or maybe never understand at all."

An Yesu ate some food too while my mind became conflicted about what he had told me earlier - that he would be willing to identify Lu Dakun's crime but would inevitably face legal consequences himself as well.

Of course, what bothered me most now is that An Yesu has yet to recognize YunQingYue which remains my biggest concern.

After finishing our meal together, sitting beside him peeling apples for us both,I asked: "Do you want to know what your past life was like?"

"My past life?" He looked puzzled as he bit into an apple.

"Yes," nodding my head, I handed him the apple. "If you want, maybe I can help you."

"Is there something you're not telling me?" An Yesu asked as he noticed my hesitation.

I saw his cheeks split open when he bit into the apple and gave him two band-aids to cover it up before explaining that when I was practicing with my master, he introduced a method that could allow people to see their past lives.

"I don't know if it works or not because I've never tried it myself. But if you're willing, we can try tonight.

Is your method reliable?" he asked subconsciously.

"Rest assured, it's absolutely safe. It mainly involves hypnosis of the mind," I smiled.

"Okay, let's give it a try then. I don't know what your purpose is, but since you've helped me so much, I choose to trust you," An Yesu said.

"Alright then," I nodded and handed him the paper and pen that had been prepared in my arms. "Next, you need to do something."

"What?" he asked curiously.

"Write something like a diary in this book. Anything will do, starting from when you first remember things. Write whatever comes to mind in as much detail as possible. After writing it down, I'll use it tonight." I told him.

Hearing my words, he nodded and opened the diary to recall his past experiences.

I had nothing else to do but sit on a chair daydreaming until eventually feeling drowsy enough to lean against the bed and fall asleep.

When I woke up again later on at nightfall,

An Yesu handed me the diary which was already half full with thick handwriting detailing all of his past experiences.

His handwriting was very beautiful and his content was written carefully with great detail; this surprised me somewhat as it exceeded my expectations causing me to take another look at him.

"What should we do next?" He looked at me asking for guidance.

"You get up first and wash your face with warm water while trying your best to keep calm."I told him.

He nodded before getting out of bed slowly due to his injured leg following through with what i instructed him.

"Lie down now while keeping your breathing steady,"I continued directing him whereupon he followed suit without question or hesitation

"Now start reading what you wrote earlier.Remember: read backwards from end-to-start while slowly recalling everything again.When you feel tired just put this book under your pillow and go to sleep without worry." I told him.

He nodded, took the diary from me, and began flipping through it slowly from back-to-front.

Throughout this process, I sat quietly by his bedside watching him intently.

It didn't take long before he started yawning and feeling tired. It had been a while since he last slept so it was normal for him to feel this way now.

At this point, he put the diary under his pillow then pulled up his blanket before closing his eyes to sleep.

I turned off the light for him then sat down beside the bed reciting "Zhangdu Ming's Oath" softly:

"I serve Ziwei (the North Star), tasked with controlling Lingwen (spirits) of Beidi (North Pole). Under my command are six palaces in Fengdu (City of Ghosts)... Protecting Tianque Palace, recording names in Emperor's Palace... According to my will, chase souls urgently like following orders!"

This spell requires chanting more than 81 times during casting in order for it to be effective.

It is a method that an old man taught me on how to "return to past lives in dreams", but I don't know if it works or not.

Before this, I had carefully studied this method and finally discovered that the key to this method may not lie in the incantation, but rather in a form of self-hypnosis and reverse memory. Obviously, according to reincarnation theory, after each person is reborn, they do not have memories of their past life. However, in reality, our memories from our past lives do not completely disappear; they are hidden deep within our souls.

Therefore, if we want to remember things from our past lives at this point in time, we can only rely on our subconscious mind. According to the old man's method, he first has people read their diary backwards. This puts people's minds into a state of reverse memory recall. If we can maintain this state of reverse memory recall while sleeping or dreaming due to "memory inertia," then perhaps we can use our subconscious mind to open the gate of previous life memories and remember things from our past lives.

Of course, this method is actually very difficult to be effective most times it requires luck for it work properly especially when used by ordinary people.

Therefore,in order for this method to be effective ,we must recite an incantation which is actually a form of hypnosis aimed at maintaining the inertia of dreamers' memories so that they can smoothly open the door of their own memories.

I don't know if An Yesu will be able to remember his past life or even if he does whether it will have anything related with YunQingYue since hundreds years have passed since YunQingYue was with him during one lifetime and An Yesu might have been reincarnated more than once during these centuries.