The man looked towards Wuhe, and Wuhe froze instantly... the man had a smile on his face...
But for Wuhe, that smile was as terrifying as seeing a god... In front of him, the person was no one but himself only more mature, as he had seen himself in his dreams...
Wuhe gulped down his saliva as the person completely turned towards him... and chuckled, "Welcome! To your first memory..."
Wuhe stammered, "Who... who are you?"
The person tilted his head to the side, "Me? Hahaha... you don't know?"
Wuhe felt a chill run down his spine... when the person answered again, "I'm you. But you could say... I'm from a different time and space..."
Wuhe's fists turned cold as he clenched them hard... he was still looking at that person with wide eyes... as he thought, this person is him, but from a completely different time and with great power... because he couldn't sense a single bit of aura from him...
The person suddenly looked towards the sky and chuckled, then said, "He is as smart as always... let me hide us from him first..."
Before Wuhe could say anything, the mature Wuhe waved his hand, and a transparent barrier appeared above the whole forest... Wuhe looked towards the sky... now this place was completely detached from the Blue Star...
Wuhe asked the person, looking straight into his eyes, "Why did you hide us from Huai!"
The person chuckled, "My... my... you're even saying his name out loud like he is your..."
Wuhe nodded, "Yes, he is my boyfriend."
The person froze. His hands started shaking nonstop. He pointed a finger at Wuhe and asked, "What... what did you just say?"
On the other side, Wuhe smirked, "I said he is my boyfriend."
The person got annoyed this time, "Tsk tsk! The future me is really shameless... not even showing proper etiquette towards your elders."
Wuhe sneered, "What elders! You just said you are me from a different time... why should I show etiquette towards myself... am I crazy?"
The person also chuckled, then sighed, "Sigh! At least in this life, you two are together..." He remembered the last time, how Huai saved him and then sacrificed himself to fight against that being... his face turned gloomy.
Wuhe looked at the person and asked, "What are you... a soul... or..."
Before he could finish, the person shook his head... and then said, "No! I'm not a soul. If I was, I would have definitely possessed you..." He grinned at Wuhe, because who would let the chance go? In this life, Huai is his boyfriend. He would have definitely taken the chance...
He said again, a little sadly, "I'm just a little memory. You already know it... right?"
Wuhe remembered the reward — it was the location of the memory. So this person is a memory of him...
Wuhe looked at the person and said, "Then let me take my memories back... how do I get them back?"
The person chuckled, "You're really restless to take those memories back, aren't you..." Then he grinned at Wuhe.
Wuhe said, "I already saw some! I want to know more about it..."
The person shook his head and said while looking back at the clouds again,
"What you saw was the memories I sealed inside my soul... And these memories I left in the world are different, Wuhe."
"They are more important than the ones I sealed in the soul."
Wuhe gulped. More important? More important than the memories with Huai? How is this possible...
When he was thinking about it nonstop, the person looked at him straight in the eyes, "These memories can save Huai from sacrificing himself... don't you think they are more precious than the others..."
Wuhe looked at him with wide eyes... he clenched his fists hard. Yes! If these memories can save him from sacrificing himself again, then these memories are more important than the memories in his soul...
Wuhe said without any delay, "If they can save Huai from sacrificing himself, then yes! They are more important than those memories..."
The person stopped for a moment then suddenly grinned wide ... "Hahahaha! I was just teasing you... they are both important. How could the memories with Huai be inferior to these memories..."
Wuhe almost cursed out loud. If he could beat this past Wuhe, he'd definitely beat him hard... he said while gritting his teeth, "Before, when I saw you in my dreams you were grumpy... why are you laughing right now... can't you be more serious?"
The person sighed and said, "I was always like this, Wuhe. After Huai took that action, I lost my everything... my smile, my happiness... but why I'm like this now, actually you'll know it after you see the memory..."
The person raised his right hand and pointed a finger at Wuhe.
A silver stream of memory entered his soul from the finger...
Wuhe's eyes closed by themselves. He appeared in the distant past...
Wuhe's consciousness sank.
He saw himself.
Not the current him, but the older version wearing the same black imperial robe embroidered with gold, standing alone above the void of the Blue Star. The robe fluttered in the silent wind of space...
It was the day of the Ancient War. The day he had just saved those sixteen Galaxy Sovereigns from the lower realm.
The war was over. The sky was still stained with blood. And yet, he didn't return to his realm. Instead, he appeared here, above this small, insignificant blue star planet.
He hovered for a moment, his cold eyes scanning the world below. Then, as he passed over the western region, his entire body froze.
He felt it.
An aura he had been searching for across countless years, across countless reincarnations, across the river of time itself.
His lips parted, his voice trembling for the first time in an eternity.
"Found you... After all these countless years... I finally found you, Master..."
A real ,wide and boyish smile broke across his usually indifferent face. It was like the sun rising after a long night.
Without hesitation, he descended.
He landed silently in the heart of the Western Region, in the depths of the Forbidden Forest. The ancient trees bowed as his feet touched the moss.
He didn't look around. His eyes were fixed on a distant place. He walked forward, his steps light, and soon he was standing on top of a familiar, lonely mountain peak.
It was the exact same mountain where, in a future life, he and Huai would meet for the very first time.
He stood there for a long time, just breathing. Then his gaze fell to the side, to a small, fragile sapling growing stubbornly from a crack in the rock.
He knelt down, his imperial robe pooling around him, and gently touched one of its tender green leaves with his fingertip. His touch was impossibly soft.
"You'll witness our first encounter after this life," he whispered to the little tree, his voice full of a tenderness no one had ever heard from him. "Please... be safe until then."
He released a wisp of his own pure origin aura. The sapling shivered, and its leaves glowed faintly as it greedily sucked the energy inside, instantly becoming a spirit tree.
He stood up and walked to the edge of the cliff. Below, hidden in the mist and shielded by layers of ancient, crumbling formations, was a beautiful, slowly spinning vortex of silver and blue light.
He dropped down, landing gracefully in front of it.
The vortex was hidden perfectly, but to his eyes, it was as bright as a sun. He chuckled to himself, a low, happy sound.
"Found it!"
He could feel it clearly. This was a world-coordination formation leading directly to Earth. And more importantly, he could feel the faint, lingering, warm aura of Huai all around it. Huai was going to reincarnate there. Soon.
This soon could be a million years later, but for him to pinpoint the time is not different. He can go there at the exact time, if he wanted.
His smile was so wide now it couldn't be hidden anymore. His cold, golden eyes were shining. He was going to meet his Huai again after an unbearably long separation.
He took a deep breath to calm his racing heart. Then, he did something strange.
He raised his hand to his own temple and gently pulled. A wisp of silver light, a complete and sealed memory, was drawn out from his soul.
He looked at the memory which took the form of his own image and spoke to it, his voice serious.
"Stay here. Guard this place. In the future, I will come back to this place again, seeking this part of my memory... When I do, tell him. Tell the future me... about that person Huai fought against . He is on Earth !"
The memory nodded silently and merged into the mountain.
In the real world, watching this, Wuhe frowned immediately. That person Huai fought against?
The vision continued.
The older Wuhe turned back to the vortex. He placed his hand on it, and it began to spin faster.
"I'll try my best on Earth," he whispered, not to anyone, but to the universe itself. "But I can't exert my full power on that planet. The laws there are too weak. My existence is a threat to the ancient rules... maybe... maybe I'll die there..."
His voice cracked just a little.
"Please... protect Huai for me. Don't let him take that action again..."
He took one last look at the blue sky of this world, smiled one last time, and stepped forward.
His tall figure in the black and gold robe disappeared into the vortex, leaving the Forbidden Forest silent once more.