Chapter 22: Memories

After a strong dizziness, Wang Rui found himself in an extraordinarily dilapidated courtyard.

It was about dusk; the sun had already set, and the sky presented a gloomy iron-gray hue.

Right in front of him was a long-abandoned house. There were no windows on its walls, the door was missing a corner, and cracks in the walls had sprouted weeds and moss—such a place would undoubtedly be cold in winter and hot in summer.

A few dirty wooden basins were stacked by the doorway of the house. In the courtyard, a clothesline was strung between two trees, with many adult-sized clothes hanging on it. A well stood in the corner of the yard, next to a rusted iron bucket. Sparse fences surrounded the yard, with some parts broken and others leaning askew.

With a creak, the door of the house opened, and a small figure came out, bending down to lift the wooden basin on the ground.

In the dim evening light, it was none other than Huo Yuqing. She looked much the same as she did now—slim and petite, dressed in coarse linen clothes. The only difference was her long hair, casually tied in a low ponytail at the back of her head.

It was as if she didn't see the large lion standing in the courtyard. She went straight to the clothesline, touched the clothes to check if they were dry, and then carefully took them down, placing them in the large wooden basin.

"So Huo Yuqing used to have long hair before she left the Duke's mansion, huh!" Wang Rui murmured to himself.

It wasn't that he couldn't recognize the truth even if it was laid out in front of him—just look at Di Tian, with his black hair flowing down to his heels. Wang Rui had long learned not to judge gender based on hair length alone.

This was Huo Yuqing's memory.

At the end of the resonance, part of their consciousness had entered each other's spiritual sea, and they were now seeing each other's memories.

Wang Rui definitely couldn't allow himself to end up like Huo Yuhao and Miss Jin Ni in the original novel, completely swapping memories.

He had too many secrets—many that couldn't be seen by Huo Hang in her current state.

Fortunately, Wang Rui's spiritual power was far superior to Huo Hang's, and this time the resonance was gentler than in the original story. Neither side resisted, which gave him more room to maneuver and terminate the memory exchange process.

Wang Rui also employed some methods to hide his memories, ensuring that Huo Yuqing might not see anything too sensitive.

But now he was a little curious.

Based on his research on the spiritual worlds of sentient beings, the memories that float to the surface of a spiritual sea are either recent or particularly significant to the person. Trivial and unimportant memories are often buried deep within the spiritual world and rarely come to mind.

Theoretically, during a memory exchange, they would first see the other person's frequently recalled or important memories, followed by daily mundane events.

Thus, Wang Rui had thought he might see Huo Hang kneeling by her mother's sickbed or Huo Yuner being bullied by people in the Duke's mansion.

But in this memory, Huo Hang wasn't much different from how she appeared now, which meant it must have occurred shortly before she left the Duke's mansion. There was no sign of anyone else in the house, so Huo Yun'er was likely already deceased by this point.

This intrigued Wang Rui.

So, instead of immediately leaving the memory, he chose to follow Huo Yuqing as she walked toward a relatively clean and tidy house—likely the residence of higher-ranking servants in the Duke's mansion.

She knocked on the door, and an elderly woman opened it, taking the clothes from Huo Yuqing's basin before handing her a copper soul coin and a steamed bun.

Wang Rui recalled that in the original story, Huo Yun'er earned meager living funds by washing clothes for other servants in the Duke's mansion. This memory didn't seem particularly noteworthy…

He continued following Huo Yuqing back to the firewood room where she and her mother had lived—

A burly young man was standing at the door of the firewood room. In the dim light, he revealed a malicious smile and reached out to grab Huo Yuqing's wrist.

Wang Rui suddenly remembered seeing yellowing bruises on Huo Hang's wrist before. He had assumed they were just ordinary bumps and scrapes but didn't expect something like this.

The golden lion's feline face wrinkled in disgust.

But this was only a memory. Wang Rui couldn't touch anything or intervene; all he could do was irritably flick his tail and dig his claws into the ground.

He wasn't sure if Huo Hang had such an experience in the original story—most likely not. Could this be part of the changes in the world?

Meanwhile, Wang Rui felt a rare pang of guilt.

Perhaps he shouldn't have merely sent a few low-intelligence soul beasts to monitor the Duke's mansion. He should have stationed a few human disciples from the Beast Sect undercover there… That way, he could have provided more care for Huo Yuhao and his mother.

But doing so might have altered the chosen one's initial personality. Without early suffering, the Huo Yuhao of the original story might never have reached the same heights.

Wang Rui watched Huo Yuqing struggle as the man gripped her wrist, feeling more agitated than he had in millennia.

Still, he knew that whatever happened, Huo Yuqing had clearly survived the ordeal since she was now here near the Star Dou Forest.

Most likely, something had happened to the assailant instead.

Perhaps Wang Rui could make amends later, but that wouldn't change the fact that this disgusting encounter had happened—

Just then, Huo Yuqing, in her struggle, pulled out an ancient-looking dagger from her waist and, with a frantic yet precise motion, slashed at her attacker.

The blade emitted a burst of white light, cutting the man's abdomen almost in two.

Blood spilled out.

The smell of blood mixed with something indescribable lingered in Wang Rui's nostrils.

The man's face, full of coarse features, was contorted in disbelief before it twisted in pain. His eyes bulged as if they would pop out from the severe pain.

Huo Yuqing's pale face was also splattered with blood, her delicate features filled with fear.

Her hand trembled violently, nearly dropping the dagger, but she immediately forced herself to grip the weapon tightly and aimed it at her attacker.

The man, like an enraged bull, charged at Huo Yuqing with his last ounce of strength.

However, it seemed the wound on his abdomen had drained his final vitality.

After only a couple of steps, he collapsed heavily in a pool of his own blood, as if wanting to say something, but only emitted meaningless gurgling sounds.

His blood-covered hand, full of resentment, reached for Huo Yuqing but fell lifelessly.

He was dead.

Huo Yuqing stumbled back a few steps before falling to the ground.

The dark red blood flowed across the floor, quickly soaking into her coarse linen clothes. She turned her head to the side and began retching but, with an empty stomach, couldn't vomit anything out.

However, after a while, she propped herself up and got to her feet.

Using her sleeve to wipe the half-dried blood off her face, she went to inspect the man's body.

His still-warm body was exceptionally heavy. Huo Yuqing tried dragging it aside, but the dark red blood left a wide smear on the ground.

She immediately gave up.

After glancing around, she fetched water from the well and used the White Tiger Dagger to completely sever the nearly bisected corpse.

In silence, Huo Yuqing collected the mess into the wooden basin, carried it to the well, and dumped it all in.

Wang Rui was almost dumbfounded as he watched her quickly calm down, efficiently dispose of the mess, and even clean the scene by pouring water over it…

His mind was left with only one thought: So… so the Wind Baboon was in the Duke's mansion all along!

Wang Rui shook his head and dismissed this ridiculous thought.

Now, he understood why he had ended up in this memory. This was probably the first time Huo Gua had ever fought back, and it happened in such a situation...

Wang Rui truly felt a bit sorry for Huo Gua going through this, and he was a bit concerned that such an experience might leave psychological scars.

But then he remembered that Douluo Continent was not a safe world, and in the original story, Huo Yuhao had also killed people. Being a little ruthless was ultimately a good thing.

But it had to be said, she truly deserved to be the destined one—her psychological resilience was outstanding.

In a crisis, she could calmly retaliate, quickly regain control, and then deal with the aftermath—what was crucial was that Huo Gua wasn't even that old!

At this moment, Wang Rui found himself appreciating Huo Yuqing far beyond the original story, breaking his previous thin impression of her.

If one can remain calm in the face of danger and has this level of mental fortitude, even if they aren't the protagonist of a novel, their final achievements won't be much less.

Wang Rui thought about what he had been doing when he was the same age as Huo Gua—last life, he was still running around on the elementary school playground, and this life, he was play-fighting with his adopted sister in the same den.

He then thought about his own reaction the first time he killed someone. Hmm... let's forget about that, as the species and race were different, so it wasn't really comparable.

Huo Yuqing had almost cleaned up the scene when she returned to the small hut.

Wang Rui craned his neck to look at her. While he was curious about how Huo Yuqing would react next—whether she might quietly cry, for example—he knew he couldn't stay in her memory any longer. He had to terminate the memory exchange as soon as possible... his secrets were just too many.

But he was also a bit curious. What memory would Huo Yuqing see from his mind?

Could it be the time he had shaped his face and spirit soul? Wang Rui muttered in his mind.

If the connection between the Three-Eyed Golden Lion and "Wang Rui" was exposed, what could he do afterward? Huo Gua's cultivation plan would probably need to change to Plan B.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion leaped into the sky.

It seemed to break free from the constraints of heaven and earth, leaping out of the sky, leaving a black hole in the spot it had just vacated.

The dark blue sky started to collapse and dissolve from the edge of that black hole, eventually returning to a void.

...

Huo Yuqing felt herself falling.

She remembered the Emperor Spirit Beast had said it would help her improve her aptitude, and she remembered being pulled by some unseen force to touch the spirit beast's forehead, feeling a new power surging into her body.

But now, what was happening?

Huo Yuqing felt alert, but there was no fear in her heart.

She didn't know how long it had been, but eventually, she landed on solid ground.

Huo Yuqing opened her eyes.

She found herself standing beside the Emperor Spirit Beast.

Just as she was about to ask what was going on, she realized the golden soul beast seemed to not notice her at all, staring straight ahead.

Without thinking, the girl reached out to touch the Spirit Beast, but her fingers passed right through its body.

Was this a dream or some kind of illusion...?

But she couldn't shake the feeling that the soul beast, like the blazing sun, was sad.

The girl followed the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's gaze.

She was standing on a small mountain covered in greenery, surrounded by lush plants. However, below was a rocky valley, its stones scorched and blackened, with gnarled branches reaching toward the sky, as if they had desperately struggled in a sea of fire.

The entire valley was suffused with a sense of destruction.

No, this terrifying aura filled the entire space.

The girl looked up at the sky.

The sky was filled with swirling black clouds, and from time to time, bright purple lightning flashed, illuminating half the sky with a doomsday-like purple hue.

In addition to the Emperor Spirit Beast, there were others here, both soul beasts and humans.

Standing beside the spirit beast was a black tiger, its body size comparable to the Emperor Spirit Beast's. Its dark purple fur had markings, and like the spirit beast, it had golden eyes. Strangely, this black tiger also bore dragon-like features, with sharp horns on its head, dragon claws for paws, and purple spines along its back.

There were five humans present, but Huo Yuqing didn't think they were human.

A middle-aged man in a black robe with black long hair and a cold expression; a beautiful woman with green hair and matching green wings; and a graceful, imposing woman covered in purple-black scales, exuding an air of dominance—each of them had some distinctive, non-human trait.

Huo Yuqing had no idea that these three were among the most terrifying beasts in the Star Dou Forest.

Standing next to the black tiger was a middle-aged man with silver hair and a handsome face. He didn't appear to have any traits that set him apart from humans.

But the faces of all four of them carried some form of sorrow, whether obvious or hidden.

The final person, the one standing at the front, was a woman dressed in fur-trimmed shorts and short-sleeved clothes, with tiger ears and a tail, and short purple hair. She was the only one with a smile on her face, which stood in stark contrast to the mournful atmosphere.

It felt like a solemn funeral where everyone was saying goodbye to the deceased with sorrow, except for this woman, who was smiling.

Huo Yuqing couldn't help but feel curious.

Were these people standing with the Emperor Spirit Beast all soul beasts? She had once heard that the top-tier Hundred-thousand-year soul beasts could transform into human forms. Were these beast-like individuals the spirit beast's relatives or friends?

At that moment, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion spoke: "Can you delay the great calamity for a while longer? At most, two hundred years... just two hundred years, and I will have a way to help you survive the catastrophe."