The waters of the Guixu flowed backward.

  Lin Mo watched as droplets of water rose from the surface of the rocks, his fingertips touching the waves that carried the warmth of past memories. The Shark Queen cut a strand of her hair and tied it around his wrist; the blue hair transformed into a chain-like tattoo as it entered the water. "Remember, when you see your reflection in the inverted ice mountain, never make eye contact with it."

  Zhu Yan was pounding the rock wall with its severed arm, sparks flying as bronze patterns revealed themselves in the rock layers—it was the remains of the Tianji warship embedded in the mountain. The Xuan Gui suddenly sprayed water to push it back: "Foolish monkey! There are still live soul-eating insects in the ship's core!"

  Before the words finished, a thick black liquid surged from the ship's cracks. The liquid coalesced into a form resembling Xiao Han, but this time his left eye was a bottomless whirlpool. "Good disciple, do you know why the Guixu can reverse life and death?"

  Lin Mo's tattoo suddenly burned. The Shark Queen's voice echoed in his mind: "Don't look into his eyes! That is..."

  "Because it is buried with the true Heavenly Dao." The false Xiao Han's fingertips sprouted bone spikes, effortlessly tearing through space. "The evil thoughts severed by the first sect master were merely the old shell shed by the Heavenly Dao. And the reincarnation well you are desperately searching for—" The ice mountain behind him suddenly collapsed, revealing a hundred zhang-wide bronze well, "is merely the umbilical cord of the Heavenly Dao."

  Su Wan'er's ice coffin suddenly shook. The lid slid open with a thunderous sound, and the girl's silver eyes reflected the swirling gray mist at the well's mouth. "Brother Lin, the well water is crying."

  It was then Lin Mo heard it; deep within the seemingly tranquil well, the cries of countless beings echoed. The weeping materialized, forming countless pale arms at the well's mouth, each hand grasping fragments of broken memories—he saw his three-year-old self playing by the well, while the supposed-to-be-dead Qing Li hung clothes not far away.

  "An illusion." He gritted his teeth and swung the sword, but the Zhan Yuan sword merely passed through the illusion and struck the well's edge. The shards that splintered from the bronze wall mixed with bone dust.

  The false Xiao Han suddenly appeared at the edge of the well. He tore open his robe, revealing a writhing half of a soul-eating insect at his heart: "Did you think you killed the true body at the Qingyun Sect? That was merely one of the many incarnations of the Heavenly Dao." The insect suddenly exploded, and the blood mist unveiled a suffocating truth—

  Twelve years ago, Qing Li had rushed into the Guixu holding a baby. As she embedded the jade pendant into the well’s edge, the well water spiraled back, swallowing the seven pursuing elders. But at the moment she turned, a pitch-black claw emerged from the swaddling, piercing through her dantian.

  "You are the layer of skin shed by the Heavenly Dao." The false Xiao Han's laughter quickened the collapse of the ice mountain. "The evil thoughts sealed by Qing Li are those of her own son!"

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  A storm erupted in Lin Mo's consciousness. Fragments of the Beast Pearl screamed within him as he saw himself at three, stabbing ants with a branch at the well’s edge, golden blood seeping from the ground; on his seventh birthday, the first time Xiao Hui hunted a Flame Tiger, the reflection in its eyes was of his own dragon horns.

  "Ah—!" The Zhan Yuan sword slipped from his grasp and fell into the well. Lin Mo knelt on the ground, his tattoo splitting under the swelling dragon scales. The Shark Queen gasped in horror as she noticed his hair tips fading from black to a frost-white identical to the well water.

  Su Wan'er’s ice coffin suddenly crashed toward him. The remnants of her soul transformed into a silver butterfly, fluttering toward the mist at the well’s mouth. "Quick, remember! That night in the Sword Tomb..."

  Memories erupted like a geyser. Lin Mo saw himself three days prior, stabbing the Zhan Yuan sword into Su Wan'er’s heart, her blood flowing back into the sword; he saw an earlier rainy night when Qing Li placed the crying baby into the well water, allowing the whirlpool to consume half of his soul.

  "So I am the vessel..." He raised his hand to gaze at his palm, where writhing not blood vessels but countless soul-eating insects squirmed beneath his skin. "The Heavenly Dao uses my flesh to nurture evil thoughts, and you—" His dragon-like slitted pupils swept over the Shark Queen and the Xuan Gui, "the so-called ancient clans are merely the jailers of the vessels!"

  Zhu Yan suddenly surged, white bone blades sprouting from its severed arm. "Stop wasting words with him! Just throw him into the well..."

  Its voice cut off abruptly. Lin Mo's dragon claw pierced through Zhu Yan's chest, revealing a heart inscribed with the ancient character for "prison." The water arrows sprayed by the Xuan Gui froze mid-air, while the Shark Queen’s long hair was ignited by dragon breath, and the waters of the Guixu boiled and rolled under dragon might.

  "Such pity." The false Xiao Han's figure swayed at the well's mouth. "These fools will never know that the so-called Beast Immortal Sect is merely the Heavenly Dao's broom for cleaning up garbage."

  Suddenly, Su Wan'er in the ice coffin opened her eyes. Silver tears flowed from her eyes, but her voice held Qing Li's tenderness: "Mo'er, look at the bottom of the well!"

  Instinctively, Lin Mo looked down. The well water had inexplicably become crystal clear, reflecting not his own image—but countless Su Wan'ers building snowmen at the bottom of the well, each snowman’s face representing a different age of him. The girls suddenly sang in unison, their voices shattering the gray mist at the well's mouth and revealing a rotating star map at the bottom.

  "This is..." The false Xiao Han showed genuine fear for the first time, "How can the core of the reincarnation well have Qing Li's..."

  Su Wan'er’s soul burned in the melodies. She glanced back at the dragon-formed Lin Mo before leaping into the star map: "Make sure to check out the osmanthus in Chang'an for me."

  The well water erupted into a towering pillar of light. Lin Mo's dragon scales shed in the brilliance, revealing a humanoid body flowing with golden blood beneath. The false Xiao Han dissolved in the light, his final scream echoing among the collapsing ice mountains: "You can't escape! The Heavenly Dao has long since..."

  The Guixu began to crumble. The Shark Queen used her last strength to push Lin Mo back down the path he had come, while she and the Xuan Gui sank into the well: "Tell my daughters, Mother..."

  Lin Mo fell through the chaotic currents of time and space. He saw his younger self building snowmen by the well, Su Wan'er squatting beside him to warm her hands; he saw another version of Qing Li holding the Zhan Yuan sword, its tip pointing toward the enormous vertical pupil outside the firmament; and finally, he saw a future day in Chang'an, streets fragrant with osmanthus, a silver-haired girl leaning against the railing of a teahouse, gazing into the distance.

  The tattoo on his wrist suddenly burned. The Shark Queen's voice echoed from a distant time: "Remember, you are both the prisoner and the key..."