The vast mountain forest finally came to an end.

Not far away, cooking smoke slowly rose, and the sounds of chickens and ducks calling never ceased. At the end of large stretches of farmland, a small village was nestled among the scenery.

This village wasn’t as orderly and clean as those in Siyou Kingdom, but it was filled with thick human warmth. Every mud house had stacks of chopped firewood piled in front. Chickens and ducks were penned behind fences. By a small pond in the distance, someone was fishing. Farmers worked the fields while children tended cattle. From afar, it looked like a paradise, a scene of peaceful years.

Zanxing and Gu Baiying exchanged glances, both sensing the confusion in the other’s heart.

There were no traces of demonic qi or yuanli fluctuations here – it looked just like an ordinary village where common people lived. Why would the Two-Life Buddha Wheel bring them to this place? Was this a corner of Duzhou’s past?

Gu Baiying turned his head and said in a low voice: “Let’s go take a look.”

Zanxing nodded.

The two walked forward, and just then, a farmer wearing a bamboo hat walked past ahead of them. Zanxing stepped forward with a smile: “This elder brother…”

But the farmer seemed not to see her at all, walking straight past Zanxing. Zanxing was stunned.

Seeing this, Gu Baiying’s eyes flickered. He extended his embroidered bone spear, the spear tip passing through the carrying pole in the farmer’s hands like a breeze, easily penetrating through it.

“An illusion?” Zanxing stopped. Others couldn’t see them, and they couldn’t affect others either – it was like an illusion. No, wait – in Wufan City’s illusion, the master who created the illusion could live and laugh within it. This looked more like a memory, just like the memories she had seen in the Wuyou Sword at the treasure site.

Whose memory was this? Gui Yansheng’s?

“We seem unable to affect them.” Zanxing looked toward Gu Baiying: “Master Ming Jing said that turning the Two-Life Buddha Wheel can return to the past, but if the past can’t be changed, then what’s the point of the Buddha wheel’s existence?”

“Don’t forget, the one who turned the wheel was Gui Yansheng.” Gu Baiying reminded her: “Just because you and I can’t change the past doesn’t mean Gui Yansheng can’t.”

Zanxing lowered her eyes – that was true too. Gui Yansheng was the first person to pass the Five-Ring Pagoda trials, and the Buddha wheel was the pagoda’s reward to him. Gui Yansheng had actively turned the Buddha wheel, while she and Gu Baiying had been forcibly pulled into it. In this memory, Gui Yansheng was the master.

They couldn’t do anything about Gui Yansheng’s past.

The two stood on the village’s small path, thinking about what to do next, when suddenly a thunderclap interrupted their thoughts.

Without them noticing, heavy, dark clouds had gathered above the village in the long sky. Wild winds arose, and it looked like a sudden rain was about to fall. Villagers scattered to take shelter from the rain, children herding cattle hurriedly drove their yellow oxen home, and the previously lively small village was empty in an instant.

Bean-sized raindrops began falling from the sky.

This sudden rain came strangely, though this was a memory, and the villagers couldn’t see Zanxing and Gu Baiying; the rainwater could still fall on them both, soaking their clothes. Zanxing looked around and saw a house not far away with a flickering lamplight in the window. She pointed in that direction and said to Gu Baiying, “Standing here like this isn’t a solution. Let’s go take shelter from the rain.”

Gu Baiying had no objections. The two went over and took shelter under the mud house’s eaves. Clear rainwater pounded down from the eaves into mud puddles at their feet, forming clusters of hanging water curtains that splashed toward them with the wind.

Zanxing couldn’t help but shiver from the cold.

Gu Baiying glanced at her: “Why don’t you use a warming technique?”

Zanxing’s expression was frank: “I don’t know how.” When she was on Gufeng Mountain, she had always worn extra layers to resist the harsh cold. Most of the time, she preferred using mortal methods to keep warm, to remember who she truly was and where she came from.

Gu Baiying was first surprised, then disdainful, scoffing: “Aren’t you the Demon Lord’s daughter? You can’t even use warming techniques.” Having said this, he raised one hand and was about to act when he suddenly heard Zanxing speak: “Something’s wrong.”

His movement froze in mid-air: “What?”

“Don’t you feel it?” Zanxing looked at him in surprise: “Such thick demonic qi.”

“Demonic qi?” Gu Baiying’s brow furrowed as he shook his head: “I don’t sense any demonic qi nearby.”

Even Gu Baiying hadn’t noticed? Zanxing was even more surprised. She thought for a moment, then extended her left hand palm up, and immediately a ball of azure flame ignited from her palm. This flame quickly swayed and elongated like an azure snake, floating and swaying as it slithered into the house.

It’s inside this house? Zanxing’s heart stirred as she followed into the house. The next moment, a suppressed voice came from within: “It hurts so much—”

Rainwater came pouring down from the sky with a “crash,” and lightning illuminated the face of someone crying out in pain inside the house – it was a woman.

A woman amid childbirth.

The flame in the oil lamp on the table seemed to sense the wind and rain outside the window, flickering as if it might be extinguished at any moment. The woman gripped her fists tightly, trying hard to steady her breathing. The bedding beside her pillow was nearly torn by her grasping hands, and by the bed were placed silver scissors and a water basin.

This woman was alone in the house – there wasn’t even a midwife. This woman was giving birth alone here, and she seemed very afraid of others knowing about this matter, desperately suppressing her moans. The sounds were firmly covered by the wind and rain outside the window, and the entire village knew nothing.

The thick demonic qi was emanating from this woman’s belly.

Zanxing was stunned, and a thought immediately floated up in her mind. Before she could react, Gu Baiying saw that she hadn’t come out and followed her in. Upon entering the house, he was shocked by the scene inside: “How is she alone…”

When mortal women gave birth, most faced nine chances of death out of ten. If not parents and relatives waiting outside, at least there should be a midwife watching over them. Yet this woman was all alone – how pitiful. Where were her husband and family?

The woman was still struggling with all her strength, veins bulging on her forehead. Her eyes were wide open, tears and sweat mixed, soaking the bedding.

Suddenly, with a “wah—” sound, a baby’s cry rang out in the house. The woman’s body suddenly relaxed as if unloading a thousand-pound burden, and she collapsed weakly.

“Rumble—”

The thunder outside the window continued. The woman on the bed was extremely weak but still struggled to sit up. Every movement required her to stop and gasp for a long time. After an unknown amount of time, seeming to have recovered some strength, the woman gritted her teeth and lifted the newborn baby from the crimson and sticky mess. At first glance, she froze.

Then a bitter smile appeared on her face, but sobs of grief spilled from her throat. These sobs were also suppressed, like a kitten’s thin whimpers, hiding helplessness and pitifulness that she dared not tell others.

This newborn baby was different from other babies – he was born with his eyes already open, looking at the woman holding him and breaking into an innocent smile.

He had a pair of golden pupils.