Wang Lin spoke, his voice a measured whisper, not looking at the Heavenly Fortune Child, but towards the bridge behind him. “I hesitated to believe it all until, within the ancient halls of the First Ancestral Shrine, I witnessed, for the second time, the figure embracing a corpse upon the snow-swept peak where iridescent flakes danced. A sense of dread arose within me, alongside a mad, burgeoning notion! I feared that vision was truth, feared the failure of Wan’er’s resurrection. I dreaded the notion that this was all an echo of a prior life, where I knew Wan’er and yet failed to restore her, until I was submerged within the Path of Dreams, yearning to alter the cycle, to make my dreams a reality! But… was it truly a past life? I refuse to believe it! I fear this becoming the truth, and so, I must verify, I must change it!”

Wang Lin’s eyes flashed, revealing a brilliant, defiant light. “Within the Celestial Bead, I once heard a voice, repeating incessantly that something was ‘lacking… lacking…’ I never understood what it was that was missing. In the Realm of Caves, I saw a phantom scene where the Immortal Emperor Bai Fan pointed madly at the sky. Later, I understood that he had inadvertently seen his own world was but a cave dwelling. He could not accept it, and thus went mad, like the Scattering Spirit Ancestor, but without the Scattering Spirit’s courage and resolve. That sight gave me insight and deeper fear. And in that Realm of Caves, when I pushed towards the Third Step, the Ancient Gate of Emptiness appeared, and the voice from behind it. That voice, I later realized, bore a striking similarity to the one within the Celestial Bead, the one that spoke of something ‘lacking.’ ”

“Until I embraced this mad notion, until I saw the severed head of Ji Qiong in the Realm of Caves, a divine wisp of thought lingered there.” Wang Lin raised his right hand, grasping emptiness, and in his hand materialized Ji Qiong’s skull. “Runes flickered across the bone’s surface, emitting a chilling, spectral glow and an aura of slaughter. A-xie, I have my answer!” Wang Lin gazed upon the skull, a complex emotion clouding his eyes. “Within the Celestial Bead, what was lacking was you! You are not a mere guardian, but the very spirit of this World-Defining Compass!”

Wang Lin lifted his gaze, his eyes burning with intensity. His gaze caused a tremor to run through the Heavenly Fortune Child. “Originally, the method to resurrect Wan’er was but a blurred notion. I didn’t know how to achieve it until your arrival on the Desolate Mountains of the Dao-Ancient. Your words then were etched into my memory, and as my experiences accumulated, until within the First Ancestral Shrine, when I saw that wailing figure, I finally conceived a method! Even as I formed that notion, even as I planned the method, doubt lingered. Was my existence real? Was it but a dream? Was the Immortal Astral Continent itself a true reality? Until I saw this skull…” Wang Lin murmured.

“You… what method have you conceived?” The Heavenly Fortune Child’s immense form writhed with swirling black miasma. He stared at the calm Wang Lin, listening to his composed words, and a fear began to infest his heart. He realized that all he knew was now drastically different. He felt a dread of an oncoming disaster regarding Wang Lin’s mad notion and the associated method.

Wang Lin glanced at the Heavenly Fortune Child, his expression unchanged. “My method is simple. I know the Flowing Moon Art, as you are well aware. After my Killing Avatar reached its apex, I will reverse the Flowing Moon and use my cultivation power to send the Killing Avatar into the past, as though reversing time itself! I will send him back countless ages to mimic this life and embark on his own Path of Dreams. In that bygone era, he will derive and execute everything that has occurred in my present life! I granted him independent consciousness, I gave the avatar complete freedom! After doing so, everything became clear. A past life, you say? This Immortal Astral Continent, a mere illusion? I can tell you now, the Immortal Astral Continent is not a dream, not an illusion! I, Wang Lin, am not a reincarnation. I was born on the Vermillion Bird Planet, I have journeyed to this place. I am I!”

“The reason you and others believe as such is because my Killing Avatar, in the bygone era, successfully altered something. I know not what my Killing Avatar did in the past, nor where he is now. But when I saw this skull of Ji Qiong, I saw his killing divine sense, saw that he left me, as I requested, a method to awaken Li Muwan! Within that divine sense, it was clearly revealed that the Killing Avatar reversed heaven and earth in the bygone era and borrowed a compass. This compass is the key to resurrecting Wan’er. He placed that compass on the Immortal Astral Continent and entered it numerous times, but each time, he soon faded, until his last arrival into this Ancient God Realm, like the turning of the wheel of reincarnation. Before his dispersal, he completed my will, shattering the compass. This left it incomplete and released the spirit of the World-Defining Compass! That is you.”

Wang Lin stared at the Heavenly Fortune Child, who trembled violently at these words, his eyes filled with disbelief and unimaginable terror. “Impossible! This is impossible!”

“This, then, is my method: to release you and use your inherent power as the World-Defining Compass to resurrect my wife. Reincarnation is there. If you comprehend it, it will move according to your will. If you cannot, you will say it is a past life. It is a circle, it exists, you can see it, you can feel it, like the words of Mo Zhi, like the memories of Red Butterfly, like when you recognized Lu Mo on the Desolate Mountains of the Dao-Ancient. The Ancient Ancestor and the Immortal Ancestor, they could not comprehend reincarnation and thought this was an…”
“Illusion, a falsity. They sought the Dao, and died…” Wang Lin paused, then continued, “That is reincarnation…”

He added, “Comprehended, it is just a circle. One can walk around as they please, choose any point as they like, and grasp it effortlessly.” Wang Lin shook his head, looking calmly at the Heavenly Fortune Child. “You sought to scheme against me, yet you were unaware that, in the end, I am the one scheming against you…”

It was “like a sudden realization in a dimly lit place.”

“Impossible! This cannot be!” the Heavenly Fortune Child exclaimed. “I saw your past lives! I saw you borrow my compass! Saw you with the compass sink into the Path of Dreams!! I saw you reincarnate time and time again, reaching this point, entering the compass and dissipating!!!” The Heavenly Fortune Child seemed mad. He had schemed his whole existence, yet in the final moment, he was still wrong. From the moment the compass was shattered and he was released, he thought it was an accident, but he never suspected that it was Wang Lin’s plan.

“Impossible! I don’t believe it!” The Heavenly Fortune Child roared, his immense body transforming into a black mist that obscured the sky, savagely rushing towards Wang Lin, as if to devour him!

“What you see with your eyes is not necessarily the truth…” Wang Lin stated. “Because you cannot see reincarnation. It is there. If you understand, you understand. If you don’t, you will never understand.” He shook his head.