After nine lifetimes of reincarnation, I returned to the desolate ancient continent.

The black fragment in the white porcelain bowl suddenly gleamed.

The dark red spot that had been frozen on the crack like a vertical pupil came to life almost instantly, like a drop of blood that had just been reawakened, and quickly traveled along the lines on the surface of the fragment.

Xia Zhiwei's eyes turned cold, and she pressed her fingers hard against the rim of the bowl.

Don't listen.

She didn't just say that to Gu Qingxuan alone.

It was more like simultaneously suppressing the voice on the other end of the phone, the fragments on the table, and some kind of invisible disturbance that had just begun to rise in the room.

But it was still a step too late.

The voice from the speaker, identical to Chen Ye's, suddenly chuckled softly.

"Found it."

The moment those three words were uttered, Gu Qingxuan's right eye suddenly burned.

It wasn't the same kind of burning sensation as before.

It was as if something scalding hot had exploded right in front of his eyes, causing his entire vision to sway violently. The white porcelain bowl on the table, Xia Zhiwei by the door, and the folding chair on the corner of the table all seemed to be lightly shrouded in a very faint bloody light in that instant, their edges becoming blurry.

What's even more terrifying is that the fragment suddenly no longer appears to him as just a black shard.

It's as if the surface layer of lifelessness has been peeled away, revealing what's inside.

—It was a small, extremely thin, curved section, like the edge of a torn page.

Gu Qingxuan's breath hitched.

Book pages?

No, not just the pages.

It resembles a corner that has crumbled off from an extremely old book.

The patterns on the fragments, which originally resembled bloodstains, slowly unfolded in the blood-red light, vaguely forming the outlines of two extremely indistinct ancient characters.

Gu Qingxuan shouldn't have recognized him.

But in that instant, he understood it perfectly.

--Negative.

--Positive.

His mind went blank for a moment, as if something had been violently struck by those two words.

Almost at the same time, the voice on the other end of the phone suddenly changed again.

No longer like Chen Ye.

They no longer whispered with feigned contempt like those outside the door.

Instead, it becomes extremely distant and faint, as if it slowly rises from a place that has been buried for too long, through countless layers of gray years.

"You finally saw it."

Gu Qingxuan felt his heart tighten suddenly.

The moment he heard that sound, his mind exploded into countless fragments.

It's not a complete memory.

Instead, they are fragments that are simply impossible to grasp—

Flipping black pages.

Blood trickling down my fingertips.

A voice kept repeating something in my ear.

Heaven and earth are divided into yin and yang, and life and death are subject to the cycle of reincarnation...

The following words were unclear.

It felt like it had been forcibly cut off.

Gu Qingxuan swayed and almost fell over.

"Gu Qingxuan!"

Xia Zhiwei rushed to his side, raised her hand to press down on his shoulder, and almost simultaneously placed her other hand on the white porcelain bowl.

A sudden burst of white light.

The fragment on the table trembled violently, struggling like a living thing. The fine salt at the bottom of the bowl instantly turned black in large patches, and the yellow paper surrounding it suddenly caught fire.

A sharp, piercing noise came from the speaker.

It was as if someone had been burned hard through a telephone line, and even the blurry smile twisted for a moment.

Xia Zhiwei's tone suddenly turned cold: "Hang up!"

Gu Qingxuan reached out almost instinctively and abruptly ended the call.

The screen went black.

The room fell silent instantly.

But this silence lasted for less than a second.

The next second, the "Qi-Inducing Technique" that Gu Qingxuan always carried with him on the table suddenly started moving without any wind.

Splash!

One page.

Two pages.

Three pages.

The sound of pages turning was exceptionally clear in the still night, almost eerily so.

Gu Qingxuan and Xia Zhiwei looked over at the same time.

The yellowed booklet, though untouched, seemed to be held down by some unseen hand, flipping through the pages until it reached the middle to the back before stopping with a "snap."

Gu Qingxuan's breathing became slightly sluggish.

Because that page was originally blank.

At least when he flipped through it before, it was blank.

But now, a line of very faint words slowly appeared on that page.

It's like invisible ink seeping out little by little from the depths of the paper.

The handwriting was old and light, carrying an indescribable sense of antiquity.

[When the spirit is scattered and the mind is adrift, the book draws its master away.]

Gu Qingxuan stared at the line of words, and his fingertips suddenly felt cold.

"What is this?"

Xia Zhiwei did not answer immediately.

She stared at the page, a near-dazed shock flashing across her eyes for the first time.

It's not because I can't understand it.

It's precisely because I understood it that it felt even more oppressive.

After a few seconds, she spoke in a low voice: "This is not the original content of the Qi Induction Technique."

"That piece of debris... it attracted something out."

Gu Qingxuan's throat tightened: "What is it?"

Xia Zhiwei's gaze remained fixed on the pages of the book, but her voice slowed considerably.

"Maybe it's not a 'thing'."

"It's more like some kind of...master-recognition reaction."

Recognize God.

As soon as those two words were uttered, Gu Qingxuan's heart skipped a beat.

"You mean, this book is aimed at me?"

"I don't know if it's the whole book." Xia Zhiwei finally looked up at him, "but that fragment was clearly connected to you, and when it lit up, words that weren't originally in this 'Qi-Inducing Technique' appeared."

She paused.

"This is no coincidence."

Gu Qingxuan fell silent.

He stared at that page, his mind a jumbled mess.

Xia Zhiwei had just said that these things were to confirm what was on his body and that he was starting to wake up.

Even the booklet he had been holding in his hand for the past few days started to act strangely.

This can no longer be explained by simply "bad luck and encountering a paranormal event".

It's as if there really is a line, following the dream, the fragments, the right eye, and this booklet, slowly pulling something out from deeper within.

"Don't stare for too long," Xia Zhiwei suddenly said.

Gu Qingxuan was startled and immediately looked away.

Almost at the same moment his gaze shifted away, the words that had surfaced began to fade slowly, as if they had only briefly slipped out of the paper at some opportune moment.

Before the two could even catch their breath, the next line of text appeared.

It's even lighter than before.

It is also more fractured.

[Yin... Wheel...]

The latter part is not shown.

It's like the strength isn't enough, or there's something missing to begin with.

But even those two broken words were enough to make the air in the bedroom suddenly feel heavy.

Gu Qingxuan stared intently at those three words, his chest feeling heavy.

It's not because I understood any complete answer.

Rather, it's because a feeling worse than the answer is rising within me—

He seemed to be gradually encountering something he should have known about but had completely forgotten.

Xia Zhiwei's fingertips tightened slightly on the edge of the table. After a long while, she spoke in a low voice, "Gu Qingxuan."

"Um?"

"What I gave you before was not just the 'Qi-Inducing Technique'."

Gu Qingxuan was taken aback.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, this booklet is probably more than just an introductory technique," Xia Zhiwei said. "I used to just think it was a bit old and a bit special, but I never expected it to show this kind of reaction tonight."

Gu Qingxuan frowned: "You didn't write this book?"

"I organized the first half," Xia Zhiwei replied, "but the original version wasn't mine."

"Whose is that?"

"I have no idea."

This time, when she said "I don't know," her tone was much more subdued than before.

"All I know is that it appeared when I was very young, along with that white carp jade pendant."

Gu Qingxuan's heart skipped a beat.

"With the jade pendant?"

Xia Zhiwei nodded.

"At that time, it looked like an old booklet with torn pages everywhere and incomplete content. The methods of guiding and gathering qi at the beginning were something I filled in and copied in little by little later. But I never figured out what the real foundation of this book was."

Her gaze returned to the page of the book.

"Until tonight."

Gu Qingxuan stared at her, then suddenly realized something.

He wasn't the only one being pushed forward.

Xia Zhiwei was the same.

She wasn't someone who stood on high and already knew everything.

She simply reached the door earlier than him and was better able to keep herself in place.

This realization made Gu Qingxuan feel slightly relieved of the frustration he had been feeling.

"So..." he began slowly, "this book, and that fragment, are from the same source?"

"At least for now, it seems so," Xia Zhiwei said.

"And what's even more troublesome is that they all recognize you."

Gu Qingxuan remained silent.

"The thing on the phone just now said 'We've found you'; the fragment lit up; words appeared on the pages." Xia Zhiwei sorted through the details word by word, "These didn't happen randomly."

"It's like someone followed this fragment and discovered the real hidden layer in the book."

Upon hearing this, Gu Qingxuan suddenly remembered something.

"You said that the eye behind the electronic screen at the street corner on the day we first met was watching me."

"Um."

"Now I feel..." His voice was slightly hoarse, "...that they're not just looking at me."

"It's more like they're using me to find something else."

Xia Zhiwei looked at him and remained silent for a few seconds.

"It's possible," she finally said.

These four words are even more chilling than "definitely".

Because that means Gu Qingxuan might not be the end yet.

He is just a kind of door.

A certain type of key.

Or some kind of "trigger" that has been targeted long ago.

The room was quiet for a while.

The words on the page on the table had faded so much that they were almost invisible, with only the broken words still hanging there faintly.

[Yin... Wheel...]

Gu Qingxuan stared at them, then suddenly asked in a low voice, "What do you think the next character will be?"

Xia Zhiwei did not answer.

But her eyes said it all.

Reincarnation.

This answer came to both of their minds almost simultaneously.

No one said it out loud.

Because once it's revealed, many things will immediately change.

Just then, the black fragment in the white porcelain bowl suddenly trembled slightly again.

This time, there was no more blood seeping out, nor did it exhale any black smoke.

Only the dark red spot on its surface, resembling a vertical pupil, slowly turned in a different direction.

It's like watching.

It's not about Xia Zhiwei.

It wasn't about looking at that booklet.

Instead, he aimed directly at Gu Qingxuan.

Gu Qingxuan felt a chill run down his spine.

The next second, a very faint thought flashed through his mind without warning.

It's not a sound.

It's more like something that was simply pasted on.

—A page is missing.

Gu Qingxuan suddenly looked up, his breathing becoming erratic.

"What's wrong?" Xia Zhiwei immediately noticed.

Gu Qingxuan stared at the fragment, his voice slightly strained: "It just... seemed to be telling me something."

"What is it?"

Gu Qingxuan's Adam's apple bobbed.

"This book is missing a page."

Xia Zhiwei's expression changed instantly.