A Thousand-Year Past Reconstructed as a Dream

Luo Xiaoxi rouse from her slumber.

Upon forcing her eyes open, the sight that greeted her vision was entirely divorced from the stark, sterile confines of a hospital room. Instead, she found herself situated within a quaint, elegantly ancient courtyard.

“Miaoming, once I have finally pacified this chaotic realm under heaven, I shall return to take you as my formal wife.”

Amidst a vibrant expanse of blooming flowers, a man and a young woman were strolling side by side. The man ground to an abrupt halt, locking his gaze onto the girl’s features. Extending his solitary remaining arm, he gently cradled the cheek of the beautiful person standing before him. His words possessed absolutely no grand or flowery rhetoric, yet they carried a profound sense of absolute security.

“Mmh, I shall await your return.”

Though a trace of deep, agonizing worry flickered between the girl’s brows, she nevertheless forced her lips into a radiant smile.

Gazing intently at the girl, Xiaoxi couldn’t shake an inexplicable, intense wave of familiarity washing over her consciousness… This… isn’t this exactly Sister Long? A much younger, adolescent version of Sister Long.

However, the two individuals standing right before her appeared completely oblivious to her presence. Xiaoxi knitted her brows, extending her palm in a tentative attempt to test whether they truly failed to perceive her.

Yet, her palm passed cleanly through their figures without encountering the slightest shred of resistance. Xiaoxi parted her lips in astonishment. This is rather peculiar.

But before she could even initiate a proper thought process, her vision abruptly went pitch black, and she lost all consciousness once more.

“Miaoming, when exactly shall I be granted the grace of beholding you again?”

It was the exact same man from before, yet his features now appeared significantly weathered by age. He stood firmly upon the riverbank, staring blankly out at the torrential, rushing waters stretching before him as he murmured to himself.

Xiaoxi stood directly beside him, observing his form closely. “My, is he not still a thoroughly handsome older uncle?” Xiaoxi leaned in exceptionally close, staring directly into the man’s face despite knowing perfectly well that he possessed no way of seeing her.

For some entirely inexplicable reason, a sudden, sharp pang of profound sorrow gripped Xiaoxi’s heart.

Coincidentally, a local fisherman approached at that exact moment, carrying a massive carp weighing roughly two catties within his hands. The creature’s scales were a stunning kaleidoscope of interwoven red and white, exceptionally pleasing to the eye.

The man froze for a beat, before taking two or three swift strides to close the distance to the fisherman. “This elder brother.”

The fisherman spun around, beholding the man. “M-Master Luo?! Is that truly you?!” The expression dominating the fisherman’s features instantly shifted into one of absolute, boundless reverence.

Xiaoxi scrutinized the scene meticulously; judging by the fisherman’s submissive demeanor, the handsome older uncle was likely a figure of immense renown and authority within the local region.

“Would you be willing to sell this fish to me?” the man inquired softly.

A look of immediate reluctance surfaced across the fisherman’s face. “What manners of words are those, Master Luo?! If this creature pleases your eye, you may simply take it as a gift!”

The man paused, observing the thoroughly stubborn, earnest expression written across the fisherman’s weathered face. In the end, he merely nodded his head, offering no further argument.

Soon after, the beautiful carp was gently released back into the absolute depths of the rushing river by the man’s own hands.

“Little fish, oh little fish… if only you could truly comprehend the words I speak. Then you could seamlessly carry the absolute weight of my boundless pining to her…”

Reaching this juncture, both the man and Xiaoxi couldn’t help but let out a soft, amused chuckle. Truly, how could a mere fish ever hope to comprehend the complex speech of human beings?

Yet, displaying a remarkable flash of spiritual intent, the carp actually turned back toward the man, blowing a pair of crystalline bubbles before swiftly diving into the deeper currents.

Xiaoxi’s gaze trailed the trajectory of the fish as it swam downstream. In a fleeting, ethereal blur of perception, she actually caught sight of the creature swimming directly back into the waiting hands of the girl who bore an absolute resemblance to Sister Long. The girl was currently tilting her head, listening intently as though receiving a secret message.

The imagery violently shifted once more, and everything transformed into a radical alternative.

The winding, peaceful river waters and the handsome older uncle upon the bank vanished entirely, replaced by the absolute brutality of an active battlefield. Cold steel clashed relentlessly, and a torrential downpour of arrows completely blanketed the heavens.

Xiaoxi cowered in a remote corner, her entire frame trembling with pure terror. She thoroughly loathed the sight of death, even though she knew perfectly well that these phantom weapons possessed absolutely no capability to inflict a single scratch upon her vessel.

The handsome older uncle stood right upon the edge of the river bank.

“General! Our paths of retreat are entirely severed!” a soldier bellowed at the top of his lungs.

Yet, the handsome older uncle remained entirely unperturbed, calmly issuing decrees to command his subordinates to maintain their defensive formation. The enemy forces pressed their assault with immense, frantic desperation; they desperately yearned to utterly crush the forces before them, to violently shatter their myth of absolute invincibility.

However, the more frantic their desires grew, the more impossible it became for them to breach the defensive lines.

The opposing factions remained locked in a brutal stalemate for an indeterminate duration. Finally, a massive reinforcement army abruptly materialized at the enemy’s rear. The handsome older uncle unsheathed his blade, and his soldiers charged forward with boundless heroism, completely scattering the opposing ranks into a thoroughly disorganized, routing mass.

The older uncle returned home in absolute, triumphant glory, gaining an audience with the Son of Heaven who sat perched upon the high imperial throne.

“Your Majesty.”

“Eldest Brother, there is absolutely no need for such rigid pleasantries!” The majestic figure presiding over the throne actually didn’t dare to receive a formal kowtow from the handsome older uncle, hastily raising his voice to halt his movements.

The sovereign proclaimed his desire to bestow immense official titles and boundless wealth upon him, yet the older uncle flatly declined the generosity.

Standing off to the side, Xiaoxi was practically stomping her feet in absolute frustration. That is pure gold we are talking about! A solitary chunk extracted from a fortune of that magnitude would easily suffice to sustain her for the remainder of her natural life!

The imagery violently shifted yet again.

The handsome older uncle had vanished entirely from existence. In his place, a withered, white-haired grandfather remained guarding the riverbank, staring out across the expanse of the water day after day, year after year.

“Mother, why does that old fellow constantly remain perched there every single day?” a passing brat inquired of his mother, only to receive a harsh, immediate scolding in return.

“Shut your mouth! That is the Venerable Immortal Luo! If it weren’t for his profound protection, half the living citizens of our Baijiang City wouldn’t even be drawing breath today!”

Hearing the exchange, the grandfather merely let out a soft smile, uttering absolutely no words of self-justification. On occasion, some innocent children would actively sprint over to his side.

“Grandfather, grandfather! Are you truly a legendary immortal entity?”

Gazing down into the pure, innocent eyes of the young child, the grandfather smiled warmly, gently patting his small head. “Silly child, how could I possibly be an immortal?”

“But my mother explicitly stated that you are!”

The smile gradually faded from the old man’s face, his clouded eyes staring out toward the immensely distant horizon of the river. “Then perhaps… I am indeed…”

It was a desolate day completely devoid of a single ray of sunlight. The girl who bore an absolute resemblance to Sister Long stood silently before a plain wooden memorial tablet. Behind her form knelt the vast multitude of the city’s inhabitants, all having gathered to see the grandfather off on his final journey.

A remarkably small, unassuming burial mound, yet it neatly contained the entirety of a legendary figure’s magnificent lifetime.

The girl was weeping bitterly. For some inexplicable reason, witnessing her grief inflicted a profound sorrow upon Xiaoxi as well, prompting her to step forward in a desperate bid to offer comfort.

Yet, the exact millisecond her fingers brushed against the girl’s form, the entirety of existence was violently pulled back into the absolute depths of cold darkness.

A sudden realization struck Xiaoxi’s consciousness like a bolt of lightning: She herself… was that very man.

“Xiaoxi? Xiaoxi, what is happening to you?”

Xiaoxi could faintly hear someone desperately calling out her name, yet her eyelids felt as though they had been filled with molten lead, incredibly heavy. Still, she managed to force open a minuscule sliver of vision.

The scenery was correct this time; she was indeed resting within a hospital ward.

Miaoming was cradling her frame with a frantic, terrified expression, her palm pressed firmly against Xiaoxi’s forehead. It was significantly hotter than it had been yesterday.

Hua Qianluo’s brows were knitted into a tight, severe scowl. “Blast it all… why on earth did the Spiritual Vision manifest ahead of schedule?”

In a sector completely hidden from Xiaoxi’s line of sight, Qianluo’s hands were rapidly executing complex esoteric hand seals, channeling dense streams of pure True Qi directly into Xiaoxi’s vulnerable vessel to stabilize her.

“Sister Long…” Xiaoxi’s thoroughly weakened, raspy voice drifted through the room.

“I am here, Xiaoxi! I am right here!” Miaoming replied frantically, her voice trembling.

“I… I dreamed of you.”

Miaoming froze in absolute shock.

“My name was… Luo Bai…”

Though Xiaoxi’s voice was barely a whisper, the utterance unleashed a wave of absolute, deathly silence that completely blanketed the entire room.

Miaoming stood entirely paralyzed, a flash of pure, unadulterated ecstasy and intense emotion instantly erupting within her eyes. She had waited for eight hundred long years—eight hundred agonizingly long years. Was today not the exact moment she had been desperately yearning for?

Miaoming instinctively whipped her gaze toward Hua Qianluo.

However, what greeted her eyes was Qianluo, who was staring directly back at her as she slowly, deliberately shook her head.

A metaphorical bucket of freezing water was violently dumped over Miaoming’s ecstatic heart, instantly extinguishing the chaotic surge of emotion and forcing her mind back into absolute, cold rationality.

The present life and the past incarnation are entirely distinct entities that possess no mutual crossover. Furthermore, Xiaoxi is currently still actively mired within the cycle of reincarnation… Is forcing her to recall the fragments of her past existence truly a blessing?