Bo Qing stood in front of a large building made of pristine white stone decorated with red roses and green thorns. He sighed and opened the door.

When Lü He left, he did not tell him where to meet, so he simply assumed that he would be waiting in the stadium. But to his frustration, the man was nowhere to be seen. He had to ask around for his whereabouts, and was finally pointed towards this building.

Upon noticing his entry, a young lady hurried to receive him: "Esteemed guest, the boss has been expecting you, please follow me."

He was led to the upper floor into a large office space. The young lady closed the door behind him and left. And there stood a tall, handsome man in a green robe. Lü He smiled: "Took you a while, I've been waiting for quite some time."

Bo Qing's eye twitched: "And whose fault is that, idiot? The mighty River Lord had to ask for directions."

Lü He erupted into loud laughter: "Hahaha, how I wish I could've seen that! You really haven't changed. How have you been, Blue?"

Bo Qing let out a sigh of relief, his last doubts were washed away. He allowed a rare, genuine smile to appear on his face: "Just fine, I see you're not doing so bad either, Green."

He had already suspected it from the moment he saw him in the arena. This man was the Green Shield, one of his companions in his previous life.

Lü He gestured around him: "Ah, this? I was quite lucky and happened to possess someone in a rather well off family. But where have you been? I've been keeping close tabs on the masters of Sword Continent, but you popped out of nowhere!"

"Just here and there, I took the shortest route to becoming a master."

Lü He had a look of realization: "I see now, the massacre of Blessed Spring clan was your doing! But wait, that was merely a couple days ago, what have you been doing before that, all this time?"

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Bo Qing tensed: "What do you mean, I did that immediately after waking up. Wait." He looked at Lü He: "How long have you been reborn?

Lü He's smile slightly faltered: "Today marks the third time I've participated in the Twin Tournament in hopes of encountering you."

Bo Qing had a look of horror: "That means... At least three years. But how, we were supposed to be reborn at the same time. Was there a mistake? Wait, have you also forgotten most of your memories?"

Lü He smiled weakly: "One question at the time, Blue. I was wondering why I hadn't found any sign of you during the last five years, but this explains it. My memories were also incomplete when I woke up, but they've been gradually recovering. Tell me, how much do you remember?"

Bo Qing shut his eyes: "The five of us were attempting the ascension to rank five, when something went wrong. We then used the back up plan and transferred our souls to random bodies in our respective continents."

"You got it mostly right," Lü He nodded, "but things already went awry before that. We were attacked, and had to attempt ascension before everything was ready. This caused us to fail and suffer immense backlash. The soul transfer method was also unfinished, which caused the memory loss and most likely the difference in time. "

Bo Qing memories of the ascension were foggy, but were now starting to become clearer. He looked towards Lü He: "Who attacked us? And what about the others?"

Lü He shook his head: "I don't know. I only remember it being a single person, but the figure is blank, like it has been erased. As for the others, I have some clues about Red, Yellow is too far and nothing about Purple."

It was quiet for a while, as both were deep in thought. Finally, Bo Qing broke the silence: "Why stay here? One year should've been enough to conclude I wasn't around these parts."

"I can't leave," said Lü He, "My body was stationed here and Yao Guang won't let me go." He smiled weakly: "I guess I'm just that handsome."

Bo Qing frowned. Yao Guang was an obstacle, a very though one at that. Beating him in a fight was out of the question, going against a grandmaster with just two masters was insanity. Escape was only marginally easier, hiding from the gaze of such a superior existence was extremely difficult. Perhaps he could use his request?

He turned to Lü He: "Why is he so insistent on keeping you here anyway? We are like ants in front of him."

"We aren't the only ones," said Lü He, "He has been slowly gathering masters around him, even before I was reborn. He has sped up around a year ago, he now is a lot less subtle. Pretty much every master in the region has been converted to his side, either willingly or by force. The only exceptions are the Bloodstained Knight, and now you."

Bo Qing felt a headache approaching, things got a lot more complicated than he wanted. He had never been good at this stuff, vastly preferring a simple target that he could cut down. He sighed: "I need some time to process this. Yao Guang gave me an errand, I can use that to meet him again and negotiate."

Lü He's eyes lighted up: "You don't mind me tagging along right?"

Bo Qing stared flatly at him: "Don't you have work to do, 'boss' ?"

"It's fine, it's fine, the main event is over," laughed Lü He, "We became best buddies after our life and death battle and I simply wanted to help my dear friend."

"Right," said Bo Qing, "Let's go then."