"Aren't you coming into the city with us?"
Looking at the swallow that remained quietly on the branch, Chu Xi suddenly felt a pang of panic.
These past few days, the swallow had accompanied them, day in and day out.
And it had helped them multiple times.
She had grown accustomed to its presence.
"I can help you find food and build nests in the future."
"We can also play together and tend to the vegetable garden, really!"
Chu Xi looked at Jiang Lin, her heart full of expectation.
But no matter what she said, Jiang Lin just watched her quietly.
As if he had completed a mission, or as if his decision to leave was final.
"I can also help find food," Chu Niang stepped forward.
After these few days together, she had also come to consider the swallow a part of their family.
Moreover, it had saved their lives.
"Migration is in their nature, and it has already been delayed for too long because of us,"
Chu Die walked at the very back, sighing.
It now seemed that the birds' early migration was a premonition of something.
Perhaps there would be more fighting here later.
—Those horse bandits were too ostentatious; they didn't seem like mere looters.
For this swallow to migrate now, according to the normal migration schedule, it should still be on time.
He just felt a little regretful.
It was rare to encounter such an intelligent swallow…
After this parting, who knew if they would ever meet again.
After all, they would be going to opposite ends of the earth.
No one knew what the future held.
Would there be war, and would they have to move again?
Would the birds return to this place next year?
...
"Thank you, I hope we can meet again next year."
Chu Die stood under the tree and said to Jiang Lin.
This was also his own hope.
May they all remain safe and sound.
After speaking, Chu Die patted his daughter's head.
"Niannian, say a proper goodbye to it."
"Mmm…"
Chu Xi responded with a choked sob.
She lowered her head, her vision blurring, and her nose stung.
She understood what her father meant…
She was just reluctant to part.
What kind of feeling was this?
It was like a close family member, or a trusted friend, was leaving…
Next year, would they be able to meet again next year?
After this escape, Chu Xi had gained a deeper understanding of life, death, and separation.
Suddenly.
Chu Xi sniffled, wiped her eyes.
She raised her head, a bright smile appearing on her face.
"Goodbye, swallow."
She waved to Jiang Lin.
Just as she had watched Jiang Lin leave in the backyard every autumn in the past.
"See you next year, I'll come here to pick you up to visit my home."
"Even though we've moved, you'll definitely be able to find me here, right?"
"Jiji~"
The swallow, which had been quietly staying there, suddenly chirped twice.
As if in response.
Jiang Lin spread his wings and flew up from the branch.
"Jiji—!"
He circled twice in the air, then flew away into the distance without looking back.
"I'll wait for you here next year—!"
At the city gate.
Chu Xi subconsciously took two steps forward and shouted.
"Ji—!"
The bird's cry came from far away, gradually fading.
...
The subsequent memory scenes passed by two more years.
After bringing Chu Xi and the others to Youzhou, Jiang Lin seemed to have completed his mission.
In the following two years, like other birds, he built nests, reproduced, and raised his offspring.
Until finally, the scene disappeared, returning to darkness.
In the cultivation room, the ghost messenger Jiang Lin thought it was over.
Just as he was about to continue cultivating, he suddenly found some images flashing rapidly in his mind.
It was a snowy night.
Heavy snow was falling, a vast expanse of white.
He lay in the snow, his wounds already clotted.
The cold was bone-chilling.
But he didn't even have the strength to move.
Breathing in more than out.
He was probably dying.
No, he was going to die.
In this life.
He was a martial artist, and just as he was about to win a competition, he was ambushed.
He fled all the way here, but no longer had the strength to go on.
His eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
He struggled to look at the last vestiges of the world.
Suddenly, in his blurred vision, a different color appeared.
Four women in white, holding white umbrellas in one hand and carrying the corners of a sedan chair in the other.
They floated down from high above onto the snow, making no sound.
"Miss, there's someone lying ahead," said the woman on the right, in front of the sedan chair.
"Is he dead?" a clear, cold voice came from inside the sedan chair.
The woman holding the white umbrella glanced at Jiang Lin on the ground and replied:
"He's still breathing."
"Can he be saved?" the person in the sedan chair asked again.
"Unless the divine physician He Lao is here, it's difficult."
"Then forget it."
The voice in the sedan chair paused, then said:
"Leave the umbrella for him, lest someone with poor eyesight step on him."
"Yes, Miss."
A white umbrella was placed beside Jiang Lin, blocking some of the wind and snow.
Four women, with three holding umbrellas.
Carrying the sedan chair, they moved with lightness, floating forward.
As the sedan chair flew up, the curtain fluttered, revealing half of a fair, pale side profile.
The eyebrows and eyes bore a resemblance to Chu Xi's face.
But this side profile was more delicate.
Carrying an air of noble bearing.
In the snowy night, dialogue faded with the cold wind.
"Miss, this is the martial world."
"Mmm."
...
The sky grew colder and colder.
Before long, Jiang Lin closed his eyes and never opened them again.
The white umbrella accompanied him on his final journey.
All the images disappeared.
The long-sealed memory box closed again.
Jiang Lin opened his eyes, and his gaze fell upon the wall of the cultivation room.
"Swallow, martial artist… umbrella…"
Having worked in the underworld for so many years, Jiang Lin had a general understanding of reincarnation.
It seemed that Chu Xi was the reincarnation of the woman in the sedan chair.
She saw him off, and he saw her off.
This was the cycle of karma.
It was nothing more than this.
But…
Jiang Lin was somewhat perplexed.
Were the swallow and the martial artist his past reincarnations?
If so, then…
Meng Po's soup had a problem.
Including the memories recovered when he was in the Ghost King realm, these were already three reincarnated memories.
The beggar life could be excused, as it was at least the memory from before his current life.
But what was going on with those two lives just now?
...
The previous memory had surfaced in the early Ghost King realm.
This time, it was in the mid-Ghost King realm.
Could it be that every time he advanced, he would recall new reincarnated memories?
"…"
Jiang Lin fell into contemplation.
If recalling one reincarnated memory was considered a loophole in Meng Po's soup,
then if he recalled them all, wouldn't Meng Po's soup become like a sieve?
...