Chapter 148

"Swallowing you would be such a terrible waste. Instead of me swallowing you, how about you swallow me instead?"

Xie Yu's words echoed endlessly in my ears.

What shocked me even more was the meaning behind what he had said earlier.

A born vessel, a prearranged destiny?

Could it be that what the Funeral Director Liu had done simply fell right into another elaborate scheme?

"Do not hesitate. Once you swallow me, you will understand everything. This is my destiny, and every single person born in this Hundred-Household Village shares one of these destinies."

My pupils constricted slightly. "What do you mean?" I asked.

The corners of Xie Yu's mouth curled into a bitter smile as he sighed and said, "The concept of fate is indescribable. In every one of my rebirths, I was either a stillborn infant, a beast in a dog kennel or a chicken coop, or a fish in a lotus pond."

"I would awaken very quickly. I knew I was waiting for his arrival. Every single time, I knew that none of this could be reversed. I have waited for him dozens of times, been manipulated dozens of times. I initially thought I was destined to be a part of him. But gradually, I realized things weren't that way. The more I awakened, the clearer I understood who I really am and what I need to do."

"Swallow me, and you will not regret it, because there is still a presence lingering within you that is very familiar to me."

"Perhaps, that presence belongs to me as well."

As Xie Yu spoke, he suddenly raised his hand and pressed it against my shoulder.

I had a very distinct sensation: I could enter his body. His soul was right before me, and I could consume it effortlessly.

The Array to Guard the Mortal Body from Deities could bind all ghosts, but it could not bind the living.

This was why the Three Corpses Gods had to wait until they found my mother's corpse before triggering the array.

My mother must have discovered the secret of Hundred-Household Village while she was alive. That array might very well be the final protection she left behind for us.

"During this time, living alongside Mom and Dad, I experienced a sense of being alive like never before."

"In the past, after my memories awakened and before my time ran out, no one ever cared for me, no one ever looked out for me, no one ever protected me."

"I felt the fate of my parents. Even though I was the one who caused their deaths, they still did not give up on me."

"I do not wish to give up my own life either, but such is my destiny. You are my brother, and we flow with the same blood—at least in this lifetime, our blood is the same."

"I have one condition: Mom and Dad, you must take them out of here. I believe you won't see my mother as an enemy."

Xie Yu's eyes were filled with reluctance as he turned his head to glance at my father and Aunt Hui.

"A ten-day lifespan means nothing to me anymore. If you hadn't come, our minds would have been taken over by those yin-monkeys anyway. Take it, and use this body of mine to open a path out of here! Consider it helping me take my revenge!"

A sudden suction force emanated from Xie Yu's body.

This suction force made my mind violently quake! Because that was also the ability to devour souls!

He was not using his full strength to devour me.

It was just a tiny trace.

Yet that very trace instantly ignited the bloodthirst and hunger deep within my soul!

The blood-ginseng had absorbed too much of my soul-blood, leaving me extremely weak.

Xie Yu's action instantly triggered my instinctive urges.

Uncontrollable! My consciousness was entirely powerless against the primal instincts of my soul.

Devour. Madly devour!

Xie Yu's soul was very peculiar. As I consumed him, a massive flood of memories poured in continuously.

On a night of torrential rain, a mother cat cowered in the woods, giving birth to a litter of kittens.

Among the mottled kittens, only one was pitch black.

While all the other kittens kept their eyes closed, this one opened its eyes, and its pupils were pitch black as well.

In a dilapidated little village made entirely of mud-brick houses with thatched roofs and aged tiles, amidst the agonizing screams of a woman, a joyful voice rang out, "A son! It's a son!"

Immediately afterward came a terrified cry, "This child isn't breathing! But how can he open his eyes? A monster, she's given birth to a monster!"

...

Scenes kept shifting, and memories kept fusing together.

Dozens of births, dozens of deaths.

Hundred-Household Village was no longer the Hundred-Household Village of my memory.

Many names flashed constantly through my mind.

Finally, the memory stopped on another scene.

"Vile beast, do you think that by fleeing here—by fleeing to the Fengshui grand array that corresponds to the reincarnation portal of the netherworld—you can escape? Your physical body has already been destroyed by me. Even though your soul endlessly cycles through reincarnation, endlessly seeking the supreme yin of the world that you desire, one day, you will return!"

"I shall forge a soul with your heart's blood, and enter the soul-body with my own destiny-soul! After generations of reincarnation, you will certainly return. I have prepared a new physical vessel for you, and I am right here, waiting to take your life!"

I snapped my eyes open.

With a hoarse, raspy voice, I uttered a single name: "Shi Changsheng!"

The final scene I had witnessed was precisely Shi Changsheng clad in Daoist robes!

In his hands, he clutched a massive, ceaselessly beating heart.

Blood dripped from it, yet it seemed connected by an invisible thread, never hitting the ground.

With every beat of the heart, the blood was continually absorbed back into it.

Only to drip down once more, repeating in an endless cycle.

I clenched my fists tightly, lowering my gaze to look at my own body.

At this moment, I was no longer a soul possessing a mortal shell, but rather occupying Xie Yu's physical body!

A body forged by Shi Changsheng using the heart's blood of *that thing*, infused with his own destiny-soul!

This body would never truly perish. Upon every death, it would dissolve into yin qi and reincarnate once more into Hundred-Household Village.

The memories did not stop there.

All of Shi Changsheng's memories...

Up until the moment he arrived at Hundred-Household Village, everything prior to that was now completely known to me.

In the dark stillness of my mind, I also possessed a premonition.

Shi Changsheng was nearby.

Having swallowed his primary soul and his destiny-soul, his lingering remnant of a soul had practically become an appendage of mine, allowing me to sense his existence.

And I had another feeling as well.

I could erase him!

The existence of the destiny-soul meant suppression right from the source!

In other words, at this moment, I was more real than Shi Changsheng himself!

Through a twist of fate, I possessed everything of his, while he himself was reduced to nothing more than a remnant soul with memories.

I looked up at the sky.

A sky devoid of sun and moon, which filled me with even greater hatred.

Not just Shi Changsheng's rage toward *that thing*...

But my own deep resentment.

And the truth behind the entire Hundred-Household Village!

Hundred-Household Village had never originally been a village.

This place was once a barren wasteland.

Furthermore, it was the only perilous Fengshui geomantic eye in the entire world that pointed directly to the reincarnation portal of the netherworld!

That monster was none of other than the supremely malevolent mythical beast of the world.

Qiongqi!

Qiongqi underwent endless reincarnations, multiplying with each cycle.

Wherever it passed, it left devastation and desolation in its wake.

The reason it provoked Shi Changsheng was simply because the location of its latest reincarnation happened to be the mortal village where Shi Changsheng's parents lived.

True to Qiongqi's nature, not a single soul in the village was left alive; every last person was devoured.

Shi Changsheng pursued it relentlessly, tracking it all the way to this very place.

By the time he found it, Qiongqi had already forged a path leading to the netherworld, abandoned its physical body, and dispersed a wisp of its soul using its immense power.

The remainder of its soul plunged into the cycle of reincarnation.

The wisp of soul it had scattered had devoured countless humans over time, rapidly transforming into the villagers residing here.

Every single yin-monkey was either a fragmented piece of a soul that had failed to transform into a human...

Or something inherently carried within those souls.

The yin-monkeys would patiently wait for its return.

At the same time, they served as guardians of this vessel.

Shi Changsheng had gouged out Qiongqi's heart, using that heart and his own destiny-soul to forge a being that would endlessly reincarnate and never leave this village!

A vessel—a vessel waiting for Qiongqi to return!

I could clearly feel that I was unable to leave this place.

My lifespan was also limited to just ten days.

A thought was calling out to me, summoning me to go to a specific place.

I knew that this thought belonged to Qiongqi.

Turning my gaze toward my father and Aunt Hui, I hesitated for a moment before gathering their souls and placing them close to my body.

Having integrated Shi Changsheng's memories, I had mastered numerous talismans; all of his knowledge now flowed through me seamlessly.

The blood-ginseng beneath the earth was protected by the array, and I could neither destroy it nor wished to do so at this moment. Allowing the Three Corpses Gods to revive first would leave me a way to save my mother later.

Walking to the courtyard entrance, I pushed the door open.

This time, the world before my eyes had completely transformed!