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Translator: Fate
Translation Checker: Silavin
The village was illuminated by the flames. All the dogs had stopped howling, and all the villagers were frozen still as if they had been immobilised.
They could only stare in horror at the two silhouettes who appeared out of nowhere.
To them, this was something that would only happen in legends. These beings had come from the sky and were able to incapacitate them with a flick of their hands.
“You seem quite interested in this infant girl.” The Grand Palace Master looked like a figure carved out of pure moonlight. She was too beautiful to be real. She spoke up with her melodic voice as her eyes rested on the baby Gu Changge was holding.
“It just feels like we were destined to meet. Unfortunately, she’s a pitiful one…” Gu Changge shook his head and with a flick of his hand, a hazy glow fell across the village. All of the villagers felt as if something had been wiped from their memories.
The fear and unease on their faces were replaced by a glassy-eyed expression. Soon, they walked back into their houses as if they were in a trance.
The infant girl’s parents seemed to have forgotten everything as well. Their eyes were glazed over as they turned around and went back into their house.
“Even if you wiped their memories, that doesn’t solve the root of the problem. Their foolishness is etched in their bones. Sooner or later, it will surface once again,” the Grand Palace Master said.
“If there comes a time when that happens, she should be the one who gets to decide whether they have acted wickedly and foolishly.” Gu Changge simply shook his head and responded lightly.
“Let’s go.” He put the baby girl back inside the house and went back to the Grand Palace Master. They soon left on a rainbow and their silhouettes disappeared into the horizon.
The memory of this night’s events had been wiped from the heads of all the villagers. Even the girl’s parents forgot about it.
The so-called omen of bloodshed and calamity had been wiped from the villagers’ minds.
“Master… I should be the one who decides whether they were wicked and foolish?” After staring at all of this in a daze, Chan Hongyi murmured to herself. She somewhat understood what Gu Changge meant.
[Did he want me to make my own conclusion after understanding the events that took place?] She stood in silence for a long time. Then, she composed herself and entered the house. She stared at the sleeping infant.
She was sleeping soundly. The wounds and bruises caused by the rocks thrown at her had healed completely. Her skin was even glowing slightly, making her look like a baby carved out of jade.
If Gu Changge had not appeared and rescued her… She would have been treated like an omen of calamity, stoned by the villagers, and set on fire by her parents.
She would have died that night.
Everything else would not have happened.
Yet, Gu Changge never told her about this. It was as if none of this had ever happened.
“Why, Master? Why didn’t you tell me about this… Why didn’t you even try to explain? Just what were you trying to do?” Chan Hongyi murmured to herself. She knew that Gu Changge was someone who had a reason for everything he did. He must have a reason why he would rather be misunderstood by her than tell her the truth.
“Why did you hide all of this from me, Master…” Chan Hongyi’s heart trembled. Her eyes grew misty as she thought about what Tao Yao said to her.
Why would Gu Changge leave her sealed up in the Demon-Burying Abyss if he wanted to kill her after he had fallen out with the Immortal Palace and destroyed the world?
Knowing how powerful Gu Changge was, she would not even have the slimmest of possibly if he truly wanted to kill her.
All along, Chan Hongyi thought that it had merely been a fleeting moment of soft-heartedness on Gu Changge’s part and that he could not bring himself to kill her. She kept telling herself that all this time.
However, after witnessing everything, Chan Hongyi realised that she had misunderstood him. She had interpreted many situations with the idea of Gu Changge as her enemy and ended up missing a lot of the finer details.
He was the one who personally set her free from the Demon-Burying Abyss when he was reincarnated.
Even during the ambush and battle at the Divine City, he did not attack her. Instead, he lured over many experts and allowed her to devour their Sources to replenish her strength.
When they were at the Boundary Marker Sea, she feigned a state of confusion and pretended to have lost her memories while attempting to poison him.
Even so, he took it all in stride. Even though he knew it was a vicious poison, he did not reject swallowing it.
…
Too many things came flooding back into Chan Hongyi’s mind. She froze in a daze.
She finally realised that she had been the one who kept trying to take revenge against Gu Changge. Even though he now ruled the Upper Realm and had regained his formidable power, he never did anything to harm her.
“All along, I kept trying to get my revenge against him, but he kept helping me in secret. He never showed any anger about my misunderstandings of him. He accepted everything I did to him. I’m the one who kept trying to cause trouble for him…” Chan Hongyi said quietly with teary eyes. Her hair danced behind her as she stood in the void.
The broken Fragment of Time had become even more unstable. It was on the verge of crumbling apart.
In just moments, she came to understand many things.
Why had the River of Time turned stormy all of a sudden? It was probably because Gu Changge sensed that she and Tao Yao risked their lives to enter the River of Time and knew they could very well die there. Without a choice, he entered the river to try and stop them.
When her body sank towards the bottom of the water, it was Gu Changge who showed up and brought her out.
As for why Gu Changge never explained these things to her and allowed her to misunderstand him, thereby resenting him deeply…
Chan Hongyi guessed that it was because he was setting up a grand scheme and had his own considerations to make.
“It does seem possible that Master arranged for those bandits to attack over a decade later… But, my instincts are telling me that Master would not have done such a thing.” Chan Hongyi was certain about that.
Gu Changge and the Grand Palace Master, Qingyi, were extremely close. They were each other’s confidants, so why did they suddenly turn against each other?
It had led to the eradication of the Immortal Palace with the rest of the world as collateral. The epoch descended into darkness and became a forbidden part of history.
The entire situation seemed implausible. It was hard to find a reasonable explanation.
Chan Hongyi felt doubtful. She was certain there had to be a secret hidden among this. Perhaps she did not know the full truth, just like what she had found out today.
*Whoosh!*
The flow of time grew hazy. This time, she did not go back in time. Instead, she carried on like a bystander and witnessed the many events that happened over the next few decades.
Due to Gu Changge’s mighty unfathomable power, even in this timeline, she could only see a hazy silhouette of him.
He was shrouded in mist. She could not see his face.
Nevertheless, he was extremely familiar to Chan Hongyi, so she could easily recognise him.
If some other powerful being was lucky enough to enter the River of Time and come to this point in time, they would not be able to figure out who Gu Changge was.
Fortunately for Chan Hongyi, she had a special relationship with him that allowed her to get a clearer view of many things.
She stood in the distance and watched as the infant girl grew up and lived the life she recalled. Eventually, the little girl took Gu Changge as her Master and started her cultivation journey.
However, as time went by, Chan Hongyi noticed something strange.
Due to her, conflicts had emerged between Qingyi and Gu Changge.
In the beginning, it seemed to be merely teasing remarks, but later on, Chan Hongyi could sense that Qingyi was displeased by her existence.
However, Gu Changge did not seem to take it seriously.
“Could this be the reason…” Chan Hongyi’s eyes widened in disbelief.
She was reminded of something else. [Could it be that the Grand Palace Master was the one who arranged for the bandits to massacre my village? Was it just to drive a wedge between me and Master? Is this the reason for the conflict between them?]
Chan Hongyi did not think it was likely. She thought it was unlike the Grand Palace Master she knew.
“The Grand Palace Master is someone detached from such worldliness. She would not be this petty. It feels like she would have a reason for doing this.”
“Did she do it on purpose?”
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Is that really it? Well, after knowing about her bias, I don’t doubt anything anymore.