After summoning the skeleton army, fleeting fragments of images flashed rapidly through Ning Li’s mind.
It was as if something was awakening.
That feeling of absolute control over power was so familiar.
So familiar, it was as if she had done this countless times before.
Those scattered fragments were like the wind, quickly dissipating into the air, leaving only a vague shadow behind.
The hybrid abominations were suppressed by the skeletons; Qisi Gui, his adjutant, and the captain of his personal guard—none of the three had any power to resist in front of Yin Que.
Qisi Gui kept his face cold and composed.
“Why can you use the power of the Lord of Storms?”
At last, the secret of the past finally had an answer.
Perhaps Ran Fo had never been resurrected.
Perhaps that person was mistaken.
From beginning to end, it was always Yin Que.
But damn it, it might as well have been Ran Fo himself resurrected!
He glanced at Pei Yujiu nearby, his tone growing more and more inscrutable.
“Did someone awaken some incredible talent?”
Whether it was Yin Que or Pei Yujiu, they had both been thoroughly dead back then.
And yet, at this very moment, both of them had appeared together.
Something must have happened behind the scenes.
Knowing full well that nothing good would come of falling into Yin Que’s hands, Qisi Gui simply stopped pretending.
“You really are lucky.”
“Dead, and yet you still get revived.”
“If you weren’t my stepbrother, if I wasn’t so familiar with you, maybe I wouldn’t be so jealous of you.”
But as fate would have it, they lived under the same roof.
Day in and day out together.
So the difference between them was endlessly magnified.
He too had once been the favored child of heaven, proud and self-assured.
Unfortunately, after Yin Que appeared, he faded into darkness, never again able to let his brilliance shine.
“What kind of spirit form and ability is it?”
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Is it that you can’t say?”
“Our former commander wasn’t he the most selfless, most compassionate person?”
“With an ability like this, think how many people it could benefit! Once put to use at the frontlines, maybe tragedies of families broken and destroyed would never happen again.”
“You love the world so much, surely you wouldn’t keep this a secret, would you?”
“Still not talking?”
“Yin Que, this isn’t like you.”
A probing look flashed in Qisi Gui’s eyes.
Yin Que hadn’t spoken from start to finish.
He took Qisi Gui’s bracelet, easily used his access to retrieve the information he wanted.
They didn’t even need to discuss the plan in detail or visit the Senior Research Institute.
Qisi Gui simply handed everything to them.
Ting Rui gave Qisi Gui, who was tied up, a few vicious kicks.
Pei Yujiu had died before, so he didn’t know that after his own death, Qisi Gui had tormented him for a long time.
Ting Rui growled, “Commander, how should we deal with him?”
Yin Que said, “Leave him to the Judgement Hall.”
At the mention of the Judgement Hall, Qisi Gui breathed a sigh of relief.
At least he wouldn’t face private punishment.
But he still couldn’t help being resentful.
“Yin Que, you’re still so upright. After all I’ve done to your people, you can still turn me over to the Judgement Hall and let everything go by the book?”
Yin Que ignored Qisi Gui and let Ting Rui do as he pleased.
The matter of the experiments wasn’t suitable to make public.
Qisi Gui would be judged only for having a flawed spirit form, unfit to serve as commander.
But being dismissed was, to Qisi Gui, likely more serious than death.
Once Qisi Gui’s matter was settled, Yin Que searched for a while before finding Ning Li by the riverside.
She’d plucked a foxtail grass from somewhere and was playing with it absentmindedly, her mind wandering.
She stood there like a gust of wind, as if she might leave at any moment, impossible to grasp.
Yin Que frowned slightly, feeling for no reason that something was changing.
He stepped forward, pulled Ning Li close, cupped her face with his other hand, and pressed down the uneasiness in his heart.
“Ning Li, we’re together now, aren’t we?”
Are we together now?
That conversation before was indeed akin to a confession.
“Can we travel together?”
“If you need me.”
“I want you to need me.”
“Mm.”
Picio.
Is that right.
Though she couldn’t recall those vague flashes of memory, they seemed to affect Ning Li, more or less. She minded those images.
While her thoughts continued to drift, Yin Que leaned down and kissed her lips.
The kiss was light and gentle, yet somehow carried an irresistible allure.
Like a spring breeze and gentle rain—never intense, but all at once, Ning Li’s wandering mind focused completely on the feeling of lips and tongue.
He kissed slowly from the corner of her lips to the center, his thumb pressing on her lower lip and gently parting them.
It wasn’t at all aggressive, but Ning Li felt a current rush across her scalp.
Instinctively, her hands rested on his neck.
“Yin Que.”
“Mm.”
“Yin Que.”
“I’m here.”
Ning Li didn’t know why she was calling his name.
Maybe she just wanted to say it, or maybe she just wanted to hear his reply.
By the time the two returned to the team, an hour had passed.
The next stage of the journey was already clear: escort Qisi Gui to the Judgement Hall.
The trip wasn’t short—about half a month.
Back in the group, Ting Rui made exaggerated faces at Yin Que, as if to ask with his eyes, “Commander, what were you up to?”
Yin Que held Ning Li’s wrist.
“Let me introduce you both again. This is my girlfriend, Ning Li.”
Ting Rui:
“!!!”
Teammate and girlfriend?
Pei Yujiu wasn’t surprised.
Ever since his resurrection, he’d sensed there was something different between the commander and the new teammate.
“Congratulations.”
Ting Rui followed with a congratulation as well.
Ning Li looked at Yin Que in surprise.
Just as Qisi Gui had said, he was indeed too forthright.
Compared to her, his openness was almost excessive.
Such transparency—she might never learn it herself.
On the road to the Judgement Hall, Ning Li dreamed every night.
Her dreams were filled with all kinds of fragments.
After using
[Skeleton Intimidation]
Once, it was as if something in her mental sea had awakened.
At first, after waking, she couldn’t remember any of the scattered pieces, but as time passed, she recalled more and more memories.
On the night before they reached Sky Island, Yin Que entered Ning Li’s tent.
Under her startled gaze, he sat beside her, smiling as he tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
“Has my girlfriend been troubled by something lately?”
“No.”
The moment the words left her mouth, even Ning Li was startled.
The tone was damn cold, and laced with a touch of impatience.
Yin Que was stunned as well.
He grew more serious.
“Ning Li, whatever it is, you can tell me. Anything at all.”
Her reply was a long, drawn-out silence.
“It’s all right.”
Yin Que sighed and pulled her into his arms, his lips brushing her cheek.
On her cheek, close to her ear, there was a small red mole—very cute.
Even her awkwardness at this moment was adorable.
He’d kissed this mole countless times these days, but still cherished it every time.
“We still have plenty of time.”
Ning Li felt Yin Que’s warm breath.
“If…”
“Hmm?”
“Never mind. It’s nothing.”
Yin Que sensed her change in attitude but couldn’t figure out why.
It felt awful—not knowing what she was thinking, but seeing her reject communication.
She was growing more and more unpredictable.
When had the change started?
Was it the day they met Qisi Gui?
Or was it from the moment she controlled the skeletons?
Yin Que took out a small velvet box from his pocket.
He had personally picked it out today.
The area around Sky Island was commercially vibrant; you could buy anything. Inside the box was a ring, set with a tiny chestnut in the center.
It wasn’t an engagement ring—he simply wanted to give her a present.
The moment he saw it, he felt it suited her perfectly.
He slipped the ring onto the middle finger of her right hand; the size was just right.
“It looks great.”
Ning Li glanced down at it.
Yin Que had good taste and a sharp eye; his pick matched her preferences exactly.
Although everything else was false, at least her name was real.
The Judgement Hall stood tall and imposing, its entire structure built from stone, about a hundred meters high, with sentinels everywhere.
As soon as they approached, a cold and oppressive aura hit them, like the most high and mighty, emotionless and desireless judge, judging every person who entered.
Ning Li really disliked the Judgement Hall.
No matter how many years had passed, the Judgement Hall never changed, always that same disgusting look.
At last, she understood the scene she had seen back in District 199.
There was nothing wrong with the vision.
That was her truest self.
In the future where she existed, Yin Que was never there, because that was an era two hundred years later.
It was the god-given “Ring of Reminiscence” that had acted on its own, sending her back to the year 1357, the fifth year after Yin Que’s death.
And it was also the “Ring of Reminiscence” that had tampered with her memory without permission.
All that about Ning Ke, all that betrayal—it was all false.
She never had a brother named Ning Ke.
She didn’t have friends who ate, drank, and played with her.
She had always been alone.
Maybe even Xiao Hei picking up the Eye of Amber, her encounter with Yin Que at the mass grave—those were all deliberately arranged by the
“Ring of Reminiscence.”
What did this count as?
Ning Li felt a deep frustration at being fooled.
Indeed, her original wish to completely destroy the god-given relic was absolutely correct.
Too bad, when she tried to destroy the “Ring of Reminiscence,” she accidentally triggered its activation mechanism.
What did it say back then?
[Transferring you to the era where Yin Que exists.]
Yin Que.
Why did it have to be Yin Que?
Why did it have to be the year 1357?
What was the Ring of Reminiscence thinking?
Ning Li turned her head to look at the young man beside her.
He immediately noticed her gaze, the corners of his lips curling up slightly.
“Once we settle the Qisi Gui affair, I’ll go back to District 191 with you.”
“You’re going to accompany me to school?”
“Mm.”
Qisi Gui’s abilities were lacking; he clearly couldn’t continue as commander.
Most likely, a new election would be held.
Did Yin Que mean to give up the election?
Ning Li looked away.
“As you wish.”
The Ning Li from before her memories awoke would never have said those words, but as more and more memories came back, the imprint of the “Ning Li” of old grew fainter and fainter.
And this was only the beginning.
Once she remembered everything, perhaps she would become exactly like the person in that District 199 scene.
A person even she herself despised.
Inside, the Judgement Hall was no different from two hundred years later.
Oppressive, dark, cold.
In the center was a huge judgement platform.
She couldn’t be more familiar with this place.
After all, she had been here more than once.
Her jaw tightened, a storm of thoughts brewing within.
“Don’t like it here?”
Yin Que’s breath brushed past her ear.
She turned her head away, saying nothing.
As her memories continued to awaken, she was less and less comfortable with Yin Que’s closeness.
Very few people dared approach her so closely.
Even k didn’t dare.
He would only stand at her side, just like in that vision.
“I don’t like it either.”
The words suddenly entered Ning Li’s ears.
She turned her head back again.
The word “judgement” itself was already laced with coldness.
Judgement Hall—Judging the crimes of sentinels/guides.
“This place is too dark.”
Wickedness, yet some crimes weren’t worth judgement.
Yin Que’s voice, low and cool, reached her ears.
“Maybe one day, this place will be abolished.”
Will it?
Ning Li thought idly.
At least, two hundred years later, it was still here.