The entire sect is obsessed with love, but I'm the only one who's truly insane.

The water in Luoze is extremely cold, and the waterfall flows swiftly. When you go up, it's like being hit by a 10,000-pound blast of cold wind, as if thousands of nannies are stabbing you all over with ice needles.

Lin Du had long been used to it, but he still hadn't been able to reach the top.

This suffocating, chilling pain is damnably fascinating.

Immersed in Luoze, I couldn't think about any of those messy things anymore. Only one thought remained in my mind: upward, forward, and to live.

Lin Du exhausted his last bit of strength, climbed onto a rock at the mouth of the waterfall with one hand, and then, completely powerless, was swept away by the rushing water as if giving up on himself.

By the time she climbed out of the still pool and used the last bit of her spiritual energy to dry herself off, Yan Ye had already made up his mind.

"Have you been a little lax in your cultivation today? Thinking so much is useless. I have a collection of formations from a master of formations from thousands of years ago. Many things in it are no longer available. Go and figure out how to restore them."

Lin Du took the tattered book and didn't rush to leave. Having spent the past few years with Yan Ye, she had discovered that he seemed to be someone who was forever detached from the world, and he never interfered in certain matters.

Just like this Luoze, even though there are turbulent waves inside, the outside is always a solid sheet of ice, silent and cold, making it impossible for anyone to pry it open.

But that doesn't stop her from forcing him to reveal a few truths.

"My second senior brother said that I am just as smart as Wenfu, and that we are the same kind of person."

As expected, Yan Ye uttered a vulgar remark, "He's talking nonsense!"

Lin Du chuckled, "But judging from what Second Senior Brother means... I am..."

"That's bullshit." Yan Ye, who had been sitting, was about to stand up and knock Lin Du's head when he heard this. "If it were you, you would never do that!"

Lin Du let out a long "Oh," and asked, "So what would I do? What did he do? What's the difference between him and me?"

Yan Ye: ...

If he still can't figure out that Lin Du is tricking him into revealing information, then he's lived for hundreds of years in vain.

"You little devil, do I even need to tell you? At least you don't live like this, neither human nor ghost, like a rat in a sewer."

After Yan Ye finished speaking, he turned his back and went to meditate again.

Lin Du's mocking voice came from behind, "Master, how do you know that if I were in that situation, I would really be better off than Wen Fu?"

Seeing that he couldn't get away with this today, Yan Ye silently turned back to him and asked, "Then let me ask you, if you saw your own death in the Eight Mirrors, what would you do?"

Lin Du said, "I'll do my best. I'll live as long as I can. I'll try to find a way around. My fate is in my own hands, not in the hands of heaven. I hope that fate will also go my way."

"Don't you resent fate? Don't you want to defy destiny and change your fate?"

Lin Du laughed upon hearing this, "Master is getting old and forgetful. Didn't I already say that my very existence is defying the heavens?"

Yan Ye: ...Get out of here, right now!

"If fate leaves me no room to maneuver, I will certainly feel resentment before I die."

"But destiny is never fixed, nor is it a square grid that cannot be crossed."

"Perhaps my background, talent, and circumstances limit my ability to defy fate, but if I climb to the top that I can reach, even if there are still many sights I cannot reach, I will have surpassed many people and my original starting point, and then I have gained something."

"Who says taking half a step up a flight of stairs isn't changing your destiny?"

Yan Ye paused for a moment, then lowered his eyes and muttered, "Well, you're quite proactive. I didn't realize that."

Lin Du grinned. "So, on that day, you and Wen Fu both saw your own deaths reflected in the Eight Mirrors?"

Yan Ye shook his head. "No."

Lin Du raised an eyebrow. "Could it be...?"

"Just like you said, destiny isn't a square box. The way of Heaven is to take from the excess and give to the deficiency. So-called gifted people may have already exceeded that box."

"Heavenly secrets cannot be revealed. You are already destined for misfortune. If you continue to listen, even if your master is unharmed by the heavenly lightning, you will perish. Hurry up and leave." Yan Ye gestured for Lin Du to leave as if shooing away a mosquito.

Lin Du: ...I'll throw you into Luoze sooner or later to cleanse your brain.

Lin Du stormed off, and when he returned to the entrance of his cave, he looked up and saw eyes that seemed to sink into an icy pool.

Yan Ye said that if you don't see your own death, then it's someone else's.

Why do we deeply resent fate, yet are unable to defy it? Because we can still escape, but others have no way to stop us.

Perhaps Yan Ye saw her dying.

So you asked her if she hated it?

He was uneasy.

He was uneasy, yet he had no choice but to submit to fate.

Therefore, when they first met, Yan Ye's attitude towards her was quite playful and rebellious.

Lin Du suddenly laughed. See? The protagonist's halo will still fall on her head.

She had already told Yan Ye that she was going against the will of Heaven.

"Aren't you coming out yet?"

Inside the snow cave-like house, Lin Du poured out a pile of array materials from her storage ring. These were the remnants of the disintegration of the secret realm during the last Central Continent Grand Competition, which Cang Li had picked up and given to her. She only took a portion of them and sorted them neatly.

Lin Du calculated for a while, then began setting up the formation. After placing the last piece of material, she straightened up and asked, "Aren't you coming out yet?"

[The pills are in my storage ring. Besides the Snow Essence Pill, which is a reward for completing the side quest, there's also a bottle of Divine Thought and Vitality Pill, which strengthens the mind, a bottle of Golden Crow Profound Essence Pill, which replenishes the weakened essence, and a Deep Sea True Spirit, which heals the heart. You can decide for yourself what their specific effects are.]

"Is it really necessary to be so perfunctory?" Lin Du sighed. "Not even bothering to pretend anymore. My 'ding'—where's the mission progress?"

[Aren't you childish?]

"It's your own naivety. I never expected you to be such a spirit. You actually wrote novels online while I was living a hard life in the modern world, and you even used your real name. Readers who read your novels traveled through time, allowing Zhang Jue to see Cui Yujun's memories."

"Then you became part of the system yourself, which means you became one of the masterminds behind the Tianwu massacre."

This is a closed loop.

There's no need to berate yourself.

[Even you use roundabout ways to adapt things in your stories, let alone me? Zhang Jue must have altered Cui Yujun's memories. I wouldn't be so careless. Besides, my stories lack a system; that kid reads too many books. Zhang Jue is just good at studying.]

"...Alright, alright." Lin Du sat within the formation. "Shall we have an open and honest discussion?"

Now is not the time.

Lin Du unleashed his spiritual power, saying, "Then I'm sorry."

[You actually used "Retracing My Life" on yourself? Are you crazy?]

"Not to me, but to you." Lin Du's spiritual power continued to flow outwards, and the array patterns gradually took shape. "No wonder you didn't see it at first. I guess I didn't learn it in my past life. I learned it from that pile of trash in the Central Plains Secret Realm. I don't know if it's even right, but it'll do."

Tracing one's life, the mental barrier of the Central Plains Secret Realm is a formation that allows one to trace the life of the person within it. However, a person's life has so many barriers, and if one cannot break through them in time, it becomes a trap.

Since one's own spirit appears in the form of a system, many things are vague and may be hidden, and it may not be able to tell one's own thoughts openly.

So Lin Du had thought of this method long ago. Since they wouldn't talk about it, he would take the spirit with him and trace back the timeline himself.

The only one crazier than Lin Du himself is Lin Du himself.