"He's probably a regressor like me, right?" Yuen Zhou muttered to herself in a low voice as she watched Han Xuhan following Mu Ran to pay a visit to the non-existent Pine Town.
"But if he IS a regressor, that makes things even more confusing. I had never heard of any impressive cultivator with the name Han Xuhan or bearing his features when I traveled through the major higher-world factions for remnant survivors of this planet.
"If he was somebody who had died during the destruction of this planet, then perhaps it would be a more logical conclusion to his origins. But why would a random regressor know the personal details of Mu Ran's adventures and be able to take advantage of it to thwart the imminent chain of events?
"Even I, who had personally investigated Mu Ran's movements before the destruction of this planet, only managed to figure out some fractions of information about what went down in the land of laws.
"If Han Xuhan hadn’t teleported us out, then Mu Ran would definitely have been caught and thrown to the main body of the Abomination. But since that did not kill him or puppetize him the previous time, it means he somehow managed to evade its clutches...or, oh wait... Mu Ran's personality was said to have changed slightly after he returned from the land of laws, slowly revealing his true nature...
"Could it be that he was affected by the Abomination's purification? A large-scale transfer of corrupt soul shards, perhaps?
"But Han Xuhan has prevented that from happening this time, as if he is aware of the consequences. His explanation did not seem particularly credible, not to mention that he seemed to have an odd fixation with being Mu Ran's underling... Who was he in the previous timeline?"
She felt a headache coming up from trying to connect the dots. Back then, she had accidentally reached a higher-ranked civilization close to the developed Galaxies, ending up among the factions that leaned towards demonic practices. She didn’t have clear leads on exactly how to change the future that would lead to the doom of this planet. But she at least knew not to be overly meddlesome in case the future took a turn for worse...
At this point, she couldn't help but feel simply tired. Her last life had been rather fulfilling. Other than dying unexpectedly, leaving some small regrets behind, there were few things that she hadn’t liked about that life. Millions of disciples who revered her as their ancestral master, sects that she had founded from scratch, familial bonds and friends...she missed those days. It all felt pointless after her regression.
Leaving the exploration of the mystery behind her regression out, only pursuing the dao single-mindedly was perhaps the correct choice. Nothing else mattered in the face of the terrible, vast universe.
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The demonic faction does not have the right to sit upon the celestial thrones...yet. Joining the righteous faction to usurp a celestial throne would be a good target to stick to for now.
Now reliving the days of being weak and having to be careful to not cause too much of a ripple in the timeline was proving to be extremely difficult.
Even though she originally had decided to save the planet from being led to destruction, these days she often felt like just killing off Mu Ran and leaving the sect, away from the chaotic world of cultivation, and live like a hermit in a cave somewhere until she became powerful enough to travel to the upper worlds.
There wasn’t anything in particular she cherished on her birth planet. Her parents were long dead, to begin with. She didn’t consider her generally unpleasant relatives as her kin.
But she needed to stick with a righteous faction with deep roots in order to gain a foothold in the face of the oncoming changes. For that, the Crimson Snow Sect was a good choice...
While Yuen Zhou was entertaining these dangerous thoughts, sounds of footsteps came from behind her. Han Xuhan and Mu Ran had returned.
.............................
"An entire fucking town disappeared just like that? " Han Xuhan threw the rhetoric at the two of them after a long silence as they walked toward the nearest river branch, avoiding the main roads to hide from anyone who might recognize them.
"Look on the bright side, you won't need to explain to the poor townsfolk what a terrible death their family members got," Yuen Zhou lightly replied to him. Mu Ran stayed silent, something that clashed with his usual demeanor. It looked like the incident had affected him quite significantly. Although she couldn't be sure about whether the outcome would be good or bad compared to the previous time.
She did have a tiny guess about why or how the town had disappeared. Her memories told her that the Crimson Snow Sect might have directly or indirectly caused the incident...
According to what she remembered, there was a legend of some high-level experts of the Crimson Snow Sect cultivating a very odd type of technique. One of its by-products was a small illusory world that could integrate itself with reality and act like a part of it.
Seeing how this town was under the jurisdiction of the Crimson Snow sect, as well as combining the clue of the undead army disappearing from her control as if those zombified mortals had never existed in the first place, her guess was likely to be true. But that raised some questions...why did the sect send Mu Ran and Xuhan on a mission to a town that didn’t actually exist?
The sense of mystery surrounding this large sect had been born in her heart a long time ago, back during her previous life. It was one of the reasons why she had joined this sect in this timeline. The more days she spent in this sect, the more prominent her doubts grew.
"And that reminds me, martial sister Zhou, didn’t you head out on a mission close to the town? Why don’t we head over there and ask the locals if they know anything about it?" Han Xuhan suddenly suggested, pulling her out of her reverie.
"Sure, martial brother," she answered and led the way to a village nearby.
She wanted to confirm her suspicions as well. And she could also look for a chance to subtly interrogate her martial brother to see if he confesses something.