Daoyi returned to the imperial palace, unknowing of the conversation between her father and grandfather. She met her master and Tianyi upon returning, but after a few polite words, Daoyi returned to her room. At this moment, she just wanted to be alone.
Taking out her mother's coffin, Daoyi rested her head atop the lip, much like a child would rest her head atop her mother's lap. Drop after drop, tears splattered atop the lacquered wood lid. She hadn't cried the day her mother died, not even secretly. Perhaps the shock had been too large. The only person in the whole duke estate who wholeheartedly loved her had died. All the memories came rushing back through her as she reminisced about her times with her mother.
Daoyi recalled one time when she had asked her mother if she hated her father. It was one of the few times she had cried, not because she had been mistreated but because she had a close brush near death. She could still recall her mother's words back then. "Hate? Why would I bother to hate him? It's not worth it. Compared to when the Xu Clan still existed, your father would not have been qualified to be my boy toy."
Those words had brought Daoyi to tears with laughter. At the same time, it made Daoyi aware of how pitiful her mother was. She was a dishonest woman who clung to the glory days of her past, unable to accept how low she had fallen. But now, it was a pleasant memory.
Tianyi sighed as he put away the jade slip into his spatial ring. He hadn't been reading any information from the jade slip. Instead, Tianyi had been inputting everything he could recall from his time on Earth, from the first time he started to be cognizant of the world to the time before he had awoken in the Huang Realm.
He wasn't just inputting his memories but all his knowledge concerning Earth, such as society, technology, and science. Although Tianyi didn't think he was losing his knowledge, it was harder for him to detect such a thing compared to his memories. He frowned. Instead of his memories of becoming sharper and sharper with his increasing cultivation, it seemed to regress instead.
Tianyi wanted to know why. Was it because the world was rejecting him? It had become increasingly harder to absorb the natural spiritual qi in the environment. But that didn't matter to Tianyi much. His speed in absorbing spiritual qi was still enormous. But this did make him worried for the future. Tianyi recalled information concerning the Lotus Ascension Soul Art.
According to what he could recall, the practitioner's soul would slowly mutate into that of a lotus's the more he cultivated the soul technique. Eventually, the practitioner would lose all sense of thoughts and perish due to the incompatible body and soul. But there was no record of a flaw that erased memories, and ones of the previous life at that! The memories of his current life were as sharp as day.
After ruminating through all his techniques, Tianyi could only think of one that would affect his memories. Unless it was a soul technique, none of his techniques should be able to affect his memories. Since the biggest suspect, the Lotus Ascension Soul Art, was out, that left only the Three Pure True Self Visualization Technique.
Sweat dripped down Tianyi's forehead as the implication sunk in. The Three Pure True Self Visualization Technique was the one that accompanied him the longest. To be exact, the technique only revealed itself to Tianyi the moment he entered the first stage of the Qi Gathering Realm as if he had fulfilled the criteria.
Tianyi placed his hand over his mouth as he felt a chill envelope his body. There was no such thing as a free meal in the world. If the Three Pure True Self Visualization Technique wasn't something that he carried into this world, then it must have originated from somewhere. Thinking of the Three Pure Ones, the Lord of Primordial Beginnings was the founder of the Immortal Court, and Buzhou Immortal Sect was descended from the fallen Immortal Court.
Buzhou Immortal Sect was the greatest suspect.
However, before Tianyi worried about finding who had secretly placed the technique in his mind, he had to discover the reason why. He felt his heart calm down as he began to analyze the situation. Aside from wiping his memories of his previous life, it only brought benefits. But his memories of his life on Earth were not something Tianyi wanted to trade as if it was some cheap currency.
Taking a few breaths, he narrowed his eyes. The Three Pure True Self Visualization wasn't directly harming him. The person who imparted the technique didn't want his life and even seemed to be aiding him secretly. Tianyi recalled how he received the Spring Autumn Scripture and the Lotus Ascension Soul Art. Both of them originated from the Ten Heavenly Scripture. Both of them came to him within a short time frame of each other. While Tianyi was unsure if him gaining the Spring Autumn Scripture was someone's design, but if the mysterious person who aided him was from the Buzhou Immortal Sect, then the Lotus Ascension Soul Art was undoubtedly his work. Sect Master Xia hadn't told him anything about the case, after all.
How much of his actions were through his own choices?
Tianyi's thoughts drifted towards his mother. Did she know about this? Thinking about the times they spent together as well as the words spoken by her when he hinted at having an innate technique, Tianyi's heart calmed down. His mother wasn't the type able to deploy deception beyond silence.
With Mengfei no longer a suspect, that left two other suspects. As the ones with the greatest standing among the Buzhou Immortal Sect, the three grand elders were the greatest suspect. It was possible for Grand Elder Zhang to know in Tianyi's opinion. But the one with the greatest likelihood to have done the act was Buhzou Immortal Sect's most mysterious and oldest Immortal Emperor, the Concealed Emperor!
But the question remained. Why?
What did the mysterious person hope to accomplish aiding him while erasing his past identity at the same time, greater loyalty towards the Buzhou Immortal Sect? Or perhaps the Three Pure True Self Visualization's ultimate end was perfect control over him? That didn't seem likely from the technique's name unless it was a false name.
Forget it. He had already reaped enough benefits from the Three Pure True Self Visualization Technique. It didn't matter if he stopped cultivating it. Although Tianyi felt it was a waste. He could discern that there was far more to the technique than it was revealed to him. Although Tianyi cannot promise that his memories won't degenerate any further, at the very least, the speed should be slowed, which was why it was even more crucial for him to store all his memories from Earth.
It still all came down to a simple issue. He was too weak. He was too weak to discover why he reincarnated. And now, he was too weak to discover who had implanted the Three Pure True Self Visualization Technique into him.
Of course, Tianyi could be overthinking all this, and it could simply be a side effect of reincarnating into another world. Most souls lost their memories after drinking Granny Meng's soup of forgetfulness. Perhaps souls would naturally undergo such progress with or without the soup. But Tianyi didn't dare to bet on it.
It took everything Tianyi had to stop himself from returning to the Buzhou Immortal Sect and searching the Immortal Scripture Repository for every soul cultivation method he could find. But that would obviously tip his hand. Previously after learning the Lotus Ascension Soul Art, Tianyi had not sought out many soul techniques, much less soul cultivation methods. Compared to all other branches, Tianyi found soul techniques the most esoteric and difficult to comprehend.
Tianyi would have to slowly increase his rate of accessing soul cultivation techniques. If he could read through the visualization techniques of the sect, that would be even better. But those are something that can only be accessed from the seventh floor and up. Tianyi's eyes gleamed as he thought of another method.
When he experienced Xi Longyi's life, Tianyi recalled numerous inheritances that Xi Longyi razed through. Among them, there was an inheritance of a True Immortal known as Immortal Museleech that was adept at controlling the souls of others. It wouldn't be en route towards the Lei Clan, but not too far either. In fact, Xi Longyi had obtained the inheritance while he was in the Core Formation Realm.
Tianyi's eyes gleamed. He would create another clone by using the remnant Dragon Emperor's blood within his body, a Dragon Emperor Clone. Tianyi's forehead creased at the confusing thought, okay, maybe just Dragon Clone. But he wasn't just creating a clone for the sole purpose of gaining the inheritance but as a failsafe. His clone won't cultivate the Three Pure True Self Visualization Technique. He hoped that that would be enough to preserve his memories of Earth. Compared to placing it all in a jade slip, Tianyi would rather his clone store the memories.
Feeling greater urgency than before, Tianyi immediately asked his mother for aid in creating his new clone.
Daoyi arrived at the location Tianyi would be creating his clone. In the distance, the imperial capital of the Xi Dynasty could still be seen.
"Disciple, observe closely. Your technique hasn't stabilized yet, but in the future, if you plan on creating a clone, this will be very beneficial to you." Mengfei said. She was currently standing a fair distance away from Tianyi, who was once again in the middle of several formations.
Daoyi smiled helplessly as she watched tribulation lightning suddenly descend her senior brother in the middle of separating his nascent souls. But due to the formation personally set up by Mengfei, the pain Tianyi felt was greatly mitigated so he could react to the external world. In addition, he had already experienced the process once before, so it was even faster and superior to when he created Juedai Fenghua.
The residents of the imperial capital watched the thundering lightning continuously crashed down in the distance with fretful hearts. It wasn't until an official announcement that the legendary Sword Empress Xi's son was the one who invited the lightning that the residents calmed down. If it was Sword Empress Xi's son, then the residents had complete confidence. That was how much they revered Xi Mengfei from the Xi Emperor's years of deliberate propaganda.
Tianyi's new clone was created without much trouble. The clone's appearance was that of a man in his late teens. Tianyi had been half tempted to create the clone in the Dragon Emperor's image but thought better of it. In the end, the clone's appearance was extremely average, if only slightly above average if you squinted hard enough. But there was obviously something unordinary about him with his bold and manly aura.
Holding his chin, Tianyi began to ponder what to name his clone. Unlike the instance with Fenghua, the clone didn't sass him at all. Tianyi planned to have the clone focus on martial cultivation since it was created with the Dragon Emperor's blood at its core. Tianyi wanted to him name him Longyi, but one look at Daoyi dispelled that notion.
The other option was Long Aotian, but that was the Dragon Emperor's name. He had confirmed from his mother. Tianyi guessed that the Dragon Emperor changed his name later in life because his original name was too dull. What parent would give their child such a tasteless name?
Tianyi never realized his name was just as tasteless compared to Long Aotian, courtesy of his mother.
In the end, Tianyi settled on naming his clone Donghai Longzi, or dragon child of the East Sea. But Tianyi wasn't done yet. He planned on having his clone ascend to the Core Formation Realm before he let him loose, or at least the Acupoint Opening Realm. As with Juedai Fenghua, Donghai Longzi was created in the Foundation Establishment Realm. But that would need more time.
Tianyi walked over to his mother, who congratulated him. Daoyi smiled mischievously. "Greetings Senior Brother Xi, greetings Junior Brother Xi."
Tianyi laughed and played along. But it was apparent to him that it was more of a forced act on Daoyi's part than any actual attempt at humor. When the quartet returned, Donghai Longzi returned to Tianyi's room to cultivate while Tianyi, Mengfei, and Daoyi had tea together.
"Daoyi, did you receive something unusual recently?" Mengfei asked. Her gaze was on Daoyi's spatial ring.
Daoyi instantly thought of the artifact fragment she had and nodded. She explained the history of her mother's clan and brought out the jewel shard. "The clan was exterminated because of this. I heard that the original Artifact was of the Immortal Realm, but only this is left now."
Mengfei took it and inspected it. Her eyes narrowed. "This shard contains the mysteries of the Dao of Death. Although incomplete, the concept within is beyond the Immortal Realm. This isn't a fragment of an Immortal Realm Artifact. It's a shard of a Divine Realm Artifact."
"Divine shard?" Daoyi repeated. "How could it be?"
According to her mother, the assailants were venerables at most. How could they shatter a Divine Artifact?
Mengfei picked up the shard in Daoyi's hand and observed it. "To be more exact, it should be a shard of a shard. According to your explanation, the Spectral Rising Jewel of your clan should be an incomplete Divine Artifact. Your clan was too reckless in using it to ascend to the Huang Realm and drained the remnant divine energy, causing the Spectral Rising Jewel to lose most of its power."
She placed the shard back in Daoyi's hand. "The Buzhou Immortal Sect also has several broken Divine Artifacts. You should keep it. Although, it has lost most of its power. It will bring you many benefits if you cultivate with it. There is a faint connection to you and the divine shard. Your clan must have mutated under constant exposure to the divine shard. As for your clan's enemies, do you want master to help you?"
Daoyi contemplated as she clasped the divine shard. "I would like to ask master to help disciple investigate the truth of the matter that year. As for the divine shard, I want to contribute it to the sect."
Mengfei revealed a slight smile, so quick that Daoyi thought she had hallucinated. "Disciple, the Buzhou Immortal Sect won't covet that little shard in your hand. At the very least, they won't covet my disciple's belongings. Keep it, I told you it would aid your cultivation. As for the matter of your clan's enemies, wait till we return to the sect."