A moment of silence passed, then Qin Luoyi suddenly seized Qin Junyin’s hands, the veins bulging on her slender arms.
“What do you mean by that? Qin Junyin, even if you are my father, it doesn’t mean you can joke with me like this. You know full well that Mother is already dead, that not even a body remained, and her soul wasn’t whole. Now you’re suddenly talking about resurrection? Are you out of your mind?”
She called him by his full name, her words tinged with insult.
The more she spoke, the more agitated she became.
If Yun Mu hadn’t almost completely drained her overflowing power, she probably would have lost control again.
The word “Mother” was always a sacred term in the girl’s heart, not to be defiled.
“This isn’t a joke, Luoyi.”
Seeing that she was about to say even harsher things, Qin Junyin had no choice but to push her arm away, then turned to look at Lu Qi not far off, beckoning with his finger.
The white-robed elder, who had been standing there in a daze, obediently walked over at his signal.
“Luoyi, I know you insisted on leaving the imperial capital before, and to be honest, part of the reason was your resentment towards me. As your father, I admit, I was indeed at fault in what happened to your mother all those years ago. If I hadn’t arrived late, greedy for military merit, your mother wouldn’t have ended up in such a fate, unable even to leave behind a complete soul.”
The more he spoke, the quieter he became.
By the end, his voice was gone altogether.
This matter was like a blade lodged in his heart, a pain he could never escape.
On this continent, there had always been a saying about the world after death—Reincarnation.
And after reincarnation, whether one’s next life was good or bad depended on an unwritten consensus: the more good deeds one performed in the previous life, the more merit one accumulated, and the better one’s rebirth would be—perhaps into a wealthy family, a clan of cultivators, a royal house, or even entry into the Dao of Heaven.
Conversely, the more evil deeds committed, the more bad karma accumulated, and the worse the rebirth would be—perhaps into the realm of beasts, hungry ghosts, or even, in the worst case, the hell realm where one could not reincarnate at all.
But all of this had one prerequisite: the soul must be whole, possessing the Three Hun and Seven Po.
Whether to believe this or not was a matter of personal faith, but for those of high status like Qin Junyin—who wielded tremendous power and had witnessed the profound mysteries of cultivation—it was generally accepted as true.
So, in his eyes, his beloved wife had suffered so much and performed so many good deeds, yet could not reincarnate and enjoy the fruits of her virtue.
As her husband, he had been powerless all these years.
How tragic was that?
After a long silence, the emperor finally collected himself and continued, “…Luoyi, you know very well how much I loved your mother. In fact, even more than you…”
He let slip something inexplicable.
“More than me? Qin Junyin, if your love for Mother was based on some sort of comparison, that’s laughable.”
The girl detested the idea of love being measured and compared.
“I… I’m sorry… I got too emotional, I just wanted to talk things through with you.”
“But I don’t want to talk. Can you just cut the nonsense and tell me what you’re trying to say? And what do you mean about resurrecting Mother?”
“…Fine. Then I’ll get straight to the point.”
Qin Junyin set aside his earlier confessions and took a deep breath before continuing:
“Luoyi, you should know that back then, I used a secret method to preserve what few fragments remained of your mother’s soul. But you probably didn’t know, I’ve actually been searching all these years for a way to bring her back.”
“I said, less nonsense.”
“Luoyi, I found it! There’s a chance—it’s only a chance—but I found it!”
All of a sudden, Qin Junyin’s expression grew feverish as he pressed his hands onto her shoulders, his voice soaring, the previous gloom swept away.
The abrupt shift left Qin Luoyi momentarily unable to react.
“Hey, can you—”
“Luoyi! Do you know? In the legends of Xiyun Kingdom, there was someone—a predecessor who, after death… No, a predecessor who was favored by all the stars of both Nandou and Beidou. Luoyi, you know this! Nandou rules life, Beidou rules death. When the two are joined, they become life and death, the cycle of reincarnation. Yes, that’s it! If we can find this predecessor’s inheritance site and gain the divine ability linked to reincarnation, we could—!”
“Enough! Can you calm down?”
Now it was her turn to be the calm one.
She gazed at her father, whose eyes were now tinged with a bloody red, trembling all over in agitation, her elegant brows furrowed.
“Qin Junyin, you do realize that what you’re talking about is just a legend, right? And it’s from Xiyun, no less. Do you really believe in something like this?”
“Why shouldn’t I believe!? I—!”
“Even if there is such a divine ability, reincarnation still requires Mother’s soul to be complete, doesn’t it? Even if she does reincarnate, would she still be Mother? Would she still remember us? Tell me!”
“I! Sorry… I lost control.”
A tightness seized Qin Junyin’s heart as he realized he’d gotten carried away.
He raised a hand to his forehead, forcing a bitter smile.
“But Luoyi, isn’t this better than doing nothing? We have to try, don’t we? What if it turns out reincarnation doesn’t actually require a whole soul? Even if she doesn’t remember us… it’s still better than keeping her sealed in a puppet, never able to be reborn, don’t you think?”
“Even so, you have to show me some evidence, don’t you? If you’re just making things up, I won’t believe you—even if you’re my father. I’m not a child anymore, I’m not so easily fooled.”
“There’s evidence, of course there is. I’m not that brainless. Lu Qi, tell her.”
“As you command, Your Majesty.”
The white-haired elder, who hadn’t spoken since before, stepped forward at the order, approaching until he stood before the girl.
“Princess Luoyi, a century ago during my travels, I accidentally wandered into a secret realm on the borders of Xiyun and obtained a stone stele. Although it’s only a fragment, I’m certain the inscriptions on it are about the predecessor His Majesty just spoke of—the one who mastered the power of reincarnation.”
As he spoke, he pulled a stone fragment from his spatial pouch and presented it with both hands.
Lu Qi was certainly acting out of character.
Qin Luoyi glanced at the elder before her, reached out to take the weathered fragment, then turned her gaze to the broken inscriptions, which immediately caught her attention.
She squinted at them for a long time, and finally could vaguely make out most of the text—she had studied Xiyun’s ancient script, so it wasn’t difficult for her.
“Soul, Nether River, ferry, reincarnation…” she murmured.
Suddenly, a primal tremor rippled through her heart.
The fragment, which had originally shown no luster at all, now emanated a profound and mysterious aura, gently stirring the power of the Six Stars of Nandou within her.
She looked up.
This resonance of power convinced her more than any of Qin Junyin or Lu Qi’s words.
After all, she knew that until now, aside from Shangguan Gouyi and Yun Mu, no one else had been able to resonate with her power.
The former was a life-and-death enemy; the latter, an inexplicable suppressor.
“Alright, tell me—what do you want me to do?”
She decided to grasp this unreliable-seeming lifeline and give it a try.