Zhang Yong suddenly froze.
"Brother...?" he whispered, his voice hoarse.
"Would you still call me that if you knew what I've done? I killed my family. Does someone like that still deserve to be called brother? Look at them—everyone I killed!..."
He then turned and pointed toward the corpses on the ground.
Yet Su Ming looked to where Zhang Yong was pointing, his expression unchanged.
"Zhang Yong, there are no corpses here. It's just you and me."
Zhang Yong's eyes trembled for a moment. "What?" He turned his head and stared at the place where the bodies had been lying just moments ago.
The ground was empty. No blood, no corpses. Nothing at all.
Zhang Yong immediately walked over and bent down to the ground. "No... that's impossible..." he whispered, touching the earth with trembling hands, searching for traces of the blood he had just seen. "They were here... I saw them... I killed them!"
Su Ming took another step closer, his voice calm. "Zhang Yong, none of this exists. This place creates images from your mind"
Su Ming approached Zhang Yong and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry. Rest a moment. I'll finish the path and then bring you with me."
Zhang Yong could not speak. His expression was one of shock, as if on the verge of breaking apart.
Su Ming stood up, looked at the Heart Path before him, and walked forward.
With his first step deeper into the path, he heard a voice.
"Still a great disappointment."
Su Ming stopped abruptly at the sound. It was a voice he knew well—one that had cut through years of his life like a rusted blade.
"Father...?" He turned slowly, but what he saw made him freeze in place.
His father stood there, in his formal military uniform, his cold eyes gazing at Su Ming with the same old contempt, but this time the gaze was even harsher.
"After all these years, you're still that weak boy who ran away," Su Tian said with a venomous tone.
"You're right," Su Ming replied, his voice steady. "I was weak. I never lived up to your expectations."
Su Ming walked calmly toward his father.
"I used to look up to you, hoping you would be proud of me. Perhaps if this were the past, you would have affected me. But... I simply no longer care."
A faint smile appeared on Su Ming's face before he bowed toward his father.
"Father, thank you for raising me all these years. But this bird is leaving its nest now."
As he spoke those words, his father's image vanished like smoke.
The Heart Path reveals a person's deepest knots and burdens. Some may be as tragic as Zhang Yong's, and some may be like Su Ming's.
But what was certain was that when you passed through, it meant your knot had been untied.
Su Ming walked the path to the end, reached the other side, and then turned back toward Zhang Yong.
Zhang Yong was still kneeling on the ground, his fingers digging into the soil.
"Zhang Yong," Su Ming called out, his voice quiet but firm.
Zhang Yong slowly raised his head, his eyes meeting Su Ming's. In that moment, he realized something he had not noticed before. The distance between them was now great.
While he had been suffering alone in silence, Su Ming had grown to be more mature than him.
"Come on, brother. Let's leave this place... together," Su Ming said, extending his hand across the distance between them.
Zhang Yong looked at the outstretched hand, then at his own hands stained with dirt. In the moment he let go of his past, that would be the only time he could find peace, yet he could not do so.
But now was not the time to wallow in self-pity. To reach that level of confidence, to rise to it, he had to stand up now.
Zhang Yong extended his trembling hand. Su Ming grasped it firmly, and in that moment, he rose to his feet.
Zhang Yong felt something new—an old feeling he had mocked time and again. It was hope.
When they crossed the path, two entrances to different routes appeared before them.
Zhang Yong stared for a moment before speaking. "At the start, it divided us into pairs. Now there are two paths. It seems each of us must go alone."
Su Ming smiled weakly. "I must say, this place is strange. I wonder how the others are faring."
Zhang Yong walked toward the left entrance. "There's no guarantee they faced the same trial, so I see no reason to worry."
Zhang Yong reached his hand into the entrance, but it stopped halfway, blocked by a barrier. "Yes, it seems each path is meant for each of us."
Su Ming walked to Zhang Yong's side and reached out to touch the barrier, but his hand passed through. "Yes, it seems you're right. Then I'll see you later."
Zhang Yong nodded and stepped quietly into his path, the sound of his footsteps echoing softly through the place.
'I wonder how Ruyan and Yuliang are doing. Wait, why do I even care how they're doing?' Zhang Yong thought with slight annoyance at himself before sighing.
When Zhang Yong reached the end, he emerged into a vast open space. Before him was a pool of shimmering pink water.
Immediately, his spirit trembled violently. The Source of Heaven bottle was shaking intensely at this moment.
"What the?!" Zhang Yong gripped his head tightly, unable to control it. The Source of Heaven bottle appeared in the air and began to absorb fiercely.
After about five minutes, the bottle stopped absorbing and descended gently onto Zhang Yong's palm.
Zhang Yong looked inside the bottle and was stunned.
"Two fused laws... the Laws of Life and Death? In a land of soul law, that's impossible. Wait... does this place itself belong to the law of soul?"
Yet Zhang Yong stared at the bottle for a moment before concluding: 'It's the Law of Reincarnation.'
When two laws merge, a new form of law may emerge. In this case, the law that matched these specifications was the Law of Reincarnation.
And for this law to appear in this pool, it left Zhang Yong with only one conclusion.
The Spring of Reincarnation!
He had heard of it from Master Gu, but he never truly believed he would see it.
But did he not say it was located at the center? If so, was this the center of the law of soul?
No matter how Zhang Yong thought about it, there was no explanation for any of this at the moment.
Zhang Yong let out a deep breath. Additional questions arose in his mind, but he suppressed everything for now.
'Let's take advantage of this opportunity. It's once in a lifetime.'
Zhang Yong stepped into the pool, sat in the lotus position, and quietly closed his eyes.
The pink water slowly enveloped Zhang Yong's body, surrounding him with a shroud of brilliant starlight.
With each drop that touched his skin, he felt as though the particles of his existence were being dismantled and then reassembled anew.
"Ah...!" His back suddenly arched as his fingers dug tightly into his knees. His veins bulged, and unable to bear it any longer, he opened his eyes.
The space around him was completely white—no beginning, no end, only a vast expanse.
Zhang Yong looked up, and it appeared as though a massive screen stood before him.
On the giant screen, images began to appear. The form of a crying infant surrounded by light emerged.
This child had just been born.
"What shall we name him?"
"His name will be... Naoto. Higai Naoto."
At that, Zhang Yong's eyes widened immediately. An image appeared of a man with short black hair and black eyes, holding the baby beside the bed of a woman who appeared to be in her late twenties.
Hearing the voice, Zhang Yong recognized it. Those were his parents from the main world.
So much time had passed since he had heard their voices or even seen them that all Zhang Yong had left were vague memories.
But now he could see them. His eyes remained fixed on that image, etching their features deep into his memory, so he would never forget them again.
Then the child grew little by little, and Zhang Yong could see his memories.
His first steps, his happy moments with his parents, his time with his grandparents.
Then came the day of tragedy.
That fateful day when he lost both parents.
A rainy day, the gray sky weeping over the cemetery.
As Naoto stood in mourning clothes, for an eight-year-old boy, watching his parents' coffins lowered into the grave would certainly be a severe psychological blow.
Or so it should have been, but it wasn't that bad, thanks to one person—his grandfather.
Because of that, the gratitude Naoto felt was immense. He gave him hope and confidence, and Naoto wanted to give that to others, just as it had been given to him.
Thus began his desire to become like him.
He wanted to be that light, that symbol for someone else.
But the winds did not blow as the ships wished, and you all know the outcome.
After that scene appeared, the image suddenly vanished and became distorted before returning to clarity, and then another scene that affected his life appeared.
After that day, his suffering began—beatings, injuries, bullying. He endured it all severely, for years.
A feeling of being shattered like glass.
Unlike his current self, his body was fragile and weak, barely struggling to survive. And to be honest, his personality was stubborn back then, but the similar thing was wearing a mask.
Then he watched himself moving into an alley with three people, and there he saw someone emerge from the shadows. That person beat the three severely, then approached and touched him. After that, Naoto woke up and connected.
Zhang Yong remembered this clearly. That was the day he obtained the system!
In that moment, he could hardly believe it. That shadow... could it have been the creator of his system?!
Zhang Yong thought for a moment. That was the only logical explanation.
After that scene, everything began to accelerate on the screen—his defeat of his bullies, his grandparents' deaths, his revenge, even his transition to the Douluo world.
He still carried his own regrets from that world. At this moment, he was watching. As he grew older, he met Tang San and Xiao Wu, when he obtained his rings, his contract signing with Empress Bing Di.
His joining of a team, team battles, the Douluo Continent tournament, the catastrophe. Then a scene appeared that he had not expected.
The cavalry attack on the village.
They threw torches onto the houses.
"Go! He will certainly not hide if he sees his village in danger!" the cavalry commander shouted.
As the villagers ran for their lives, screams filled the air.
Blood was spilled on the ground.
"Stop," Zhang Yong whispered.
Yet the scene did not stop. It was not displaying things according to his will. It seemed as though it was something he had to watch instead.
The catastrophe continued. Young children's bodies burned, some charred.
"Stop!" he shouted, his voice louder.
Then the final scene appeared. His parents burned inside their collapsing home, holding his little brother.
"I said stop!" Zhang Yong screamed at the top of his lungs, to no avail.
Zhang Yong exploded from his position, his hands clawing at the air as if trying to tear the screen apart with his eyes. Veins bulged clearly on his forehead.
As the scene continued and changed, his breathing gradually calmed. He had no choice but to quietly watch the scene unfold.
But what happened next was not strange to Zhang Yong, as it showed him in this world, meeting the Zhang Yong family, then meeting Su Ming, and their journey and adventures beginning.
Until the screen reached the end, where an image of Zhang Yong's face appeared before him in that white space.
"The Spring of Reincarnation connects the past, present, and future. I have watched my past and present. What remains is..." Zhang Yong said quietly, reaching a conclusion.
"If this is how I was in the past, it makes me feel nostalgic," an old man's voice suddenly sounded in the space.