What did you see?

Upon hearing this question, Fùjiànshēng was startled for a moment, taking some time to react. When he looked at Jian Chou again, his gaze held several traces of hesitation and uncertainty.

He recalled what he had seen in the mirror just now.

It was a blood-red great river, with a white bone palace standing on the riverbank.

The Six Paths of Reincarnation opened like purple-gold lotus flowers.

A young man, clear as the breeze and bright as the moon, emerged from this radiance and called out to the female cultivator standing before him: “Mother…”

That female cultivator was none other than Jian Chou!

But the scene that followed left Fùjiànshēng somewhat bewildered: because at this moment, there seemed to be another opponent present, while Jian Chou’s gaze remained calm without a ripple. She struck out with a palm, hitting that opponent while simultaneously striking the young man.

The world instantly descended into chaos.

A dark gold scroll fell from mid-air, with the three characters “Book of Life and Death” engraved upon it.

A slender white hand caught it.

It was still Jian Chou.

But the surrounding scenery had already changed.

The water surface, floating with faint purple qi, was extremely broad, like a lake with gentle ripples. A giant axe continuously radiated brilliant light, suspended above the water surface. Even without being able to personally experience it, just seeing this lake and axe gave one a sense of mysterious and ancient presence.

Jian Chou sat cross-legged on one side.

The Book of Life and Death was held in her hands, which she looked at for a long time.

Footsteps sounded.

In the lake before her, another reflection appeared—someone had walked over and stood behind her.

It was a man wearing a purple-black official robe.

His facial features appeared handsome, but the expression between his brows and eyes carried a hint of cold indifference. Both hands were tucked into his wide sleeves, yet gave people a feeling of being completely at ease.

The two seemed to talk for a while, but the specific content of their conversation was not clear at all.

After a while, Jian Chou lowered her head again, her gaze falling on the book.

She asked: “Lord Zhang, when Lord Qin Guang was in charge, where did the Books of Life and Death used by the other Hell Kings come from?”

The man looked at her strangely and answered: “There is only one Book of Life and Death, but each Hell King has their own responsibilities, so Lord Qin Guang dismantled the Book of Life and Death into separate volumes. Each Hell King holds one volume, all able to borrow the power of reincarnation to rotate the Six Paths.”

Jian Chou fell silent.

She gazed at the Book of Life and Death in her hands, sitting by the poolside for a long time. Seeing her prolonged silence, the man stood for a while, then left with his hands tucked away.

The entire scene in the mirror gradually dimmed…

Regarding what he had inadvertently witnessed, Fùjiànshēng always felt it was somewhat intrusive. After explaining everything to Jian Chou, he spoke with some apology: “The affairs in this Desolate Domain are strange and unpredictable. I had no intention of looking, and I hope Fellow Daoist Jian Chou won’t take offense.”

“No matter.”

This dream was mutual, after all.

Jian Chou didn’t particularly care about this matter itself, but was somewhat surprised that Fùjiànshēng would see this particular scene.

She slowly lowered her eyes.

At this moment, Fùjiànshēng suddenly felt her expression was extremely similar to what he had seen in the mirror just now. His heart suddenly stirred, and after hesitating for a moment, he still asked: “Are these things that truly happened? That child, is he your…”

“No.”

Jian Chou shook her head. Without needing Fùjiànshēng to finish his sentence, she had already denied it.

“The events did happen, but he is not my child.”

Throughout Fùjiànshēng’s life, what he never betrayed was the sword.

His thoughts were pure, with extremely few distracting thoughts, so whether in intuition or perception, he was much more sensitive than ordinary cultivators.

Although he didn’t understand why, he vaguely felt that…

What he had just witnessed seemed to be not a good thing for Jian Chou.

He hesitated again: “Then did you kill him?”

Jian Chou slowly smiled, her expression becoming somewhat downcast, with indescribable complexity in her heart. She only said: “The Book of Life and Death is real, rotating reincarnation is real, and that conscious soul is real. The only false thing is his identity. Throughout my life, since I began cultivating the Dao, among those I have killed by my sword, there has never been a truly innocent person. This was the only one.”

That was during the battle with Lord Wu Guan at the Underworld Mortuary.

He had summoned a young man from reincarnation, and she thought it was all illusory. She reasoned that since he had already entered reincarnation, human memories would be cleansed by the Pool of Rebirth, becoming a blank slate. Even if it truly was an old soul, it absolutely could not call her “mother” again. That should have been a trap set by Lord Wu Guan to confuse her.

Only later, when she obtained the Book of Life and Death and understood its mysteries, did she realize—

It was not illusory.

The young man’s soul might have been manipulated by Lord Wu Guan, but the soul itself existed. It was just that Lord Wu Guan had forcibly extracted it from the spirit realm, and it ultimately perished under her sword.

After hearing her explanation, Fùjiànshēng suddenly felt extremely heavy.

He could not speak.

After Jian Chou finished speaking, she recalled the scene from that time. For some unknown reason, she raised her hand, her cool fingertip tracing across the red mark between her brows.

Only she herself could feel the existence of a certain dark qi within it.

But she said nothing more, stopping her words here. She slowly exhaled, as if wanting to calm some emotion within herself, then held her sword and turned around, saying: “Let’s go. This place is treacherous, but since you and I both encountered each other here, others should also be in this place. Let’s find them first, then make plans.”

Fùjiànshēng had no objections.

The two set off, following this absurdly wide street to explore the surroundings. But this place was truly too vast—searching this way, who knew when they would find anyone.

So after searching for only a short while, Jian Chou suggested they split up.

Fùjiànshēng had no suspicions whatsoever.

About two hours later, everyone finally regrouped.

Only two people were missing—

Fēixié Tiān Yìnghuǐ and Dàluó Tiān Yuèyǐng.

At the same time, almost everyone looked at Jian Chou, who had arrived with Xie Buchen, with strange gazes at the first moment.