Chapter 357 The Old Man
Inside the stone house, the light was dim, with only a waning lamp flickering with a weak glow.
Lin Wan pushed the door open and was immediately greeted by a scent of old wood mixed with a faint sandalwood fragrance. The furnishings inside were extremely simple: a short wooden table, two rattan chairs, and a few yellowed bamboo scrolls stacked in the corner. Several faded landscape paintings hung on the walls, their ink long since blurred beyond recognition.
Her gaze was quickly drawn to the figure in the center of the room.
An old man with white hair and beard sat cross-legged, hands clasped on his knees, head bowed low, motionless.
Lin Wan frowned slightly and stepped forward slowly. The old man was covered in dust, his robes long faded, and his exposed skin took on an unnatural grayish-white hue, like a stone carving. There was no breathing, no heartbeat, not even a trace of warmth.
"A corpse?"
She looked around and saw an oil lamp that had long since gone out on the wooden table, its charred wick curled up, as if it had burned out years ago. A thick layer of dust covered the table surface, except for the spot before the old man, where someone had drawn several strange symbols with their finger, resembling some ancient formation.
Just as Lin Wan was about to turn and leave, suddenly.
"Hoo..."
A faint sound of breathing echoed in the silent room.
She turned sharply back, only to see the old man's grayish-white skin rapidly regaining its color at a visible speed, and his dry hair gradually acquiring a luster. His chest began to rise and fall slowly, as if awakening from a long slumber.
The old man slowly raised his head, and his turbid eyes suddenly lit up the moment he saw Lin Wan.
"Saint Master!" The old man's voice trembled. "How did you become a woman?"
Saint Master, that title again?
And to hear it in this place?
Lin Wan frowned: "You have mistaken me for someone else."
But the old man shook his head, insisting: "The Saint Master said that if one day this old one were trapped, the first to come seeking would be the Saint Master."
His eyes flashed with certainty. "Moreover, in this Eye of the Guixu Sea, apart from the Saint Master, no one can find it."
Lin Wan stared at the old man before her, her gaze sharp as a knife: "Then who are you? And why were you inside the belly of that giant whale?"
The old man looked up in confusion, a trace of bewilderment flashing through his turbid eyes.
He opened his mouth, as if wanting to say something, but then stopped. His withered fingers unconsciously rubbed the corner of his robe, his brows tightly furrowed, as if desperately trying to recall something.
"I..." The old man's voice was hoarse. "I cannot remember clearly..."
Lin Wan let out a cold sneer, a trace of mockery flashing in her eyes: "The amnesia routine again."
"Sorry, someone has already played that card before."
The old man froze at these words, and a sudden clarity flashed through his turbid eyes.
He stood up abruptly, but staggered due to having sat for too long, supporting himself on the wooden table to barely stand steady.
"Wait!" he shouted eagerly, his voice carrying a long-lost excitement. "That person you mentioned—who is it?"
"What person?"
"The person you said lost their memory just like me."
Lin Wan's heart stirred: "Do you know... the Heavenly Demon Lord?"
"Heavenly Demon Lord..."
The old man paused, then revealed a relieved smile: "So the Third has already found you. Indeed, among us three brothers, he has always had the best luck."
Lin Wan recalled the story she had heard earlier about the Heavenly Demon Lord's experience of "man adding to man," and couldn't help but say: "He has good luck?"
"Naturally." The old man stroked his beard and smiled. "To be the first to see the Saint Master again, isn't that a tremendous opportunity?"
Inside the stone house, the halo of the green lamp swayed slightly.
Lin Wan narrowed her eyes: "You don't even know who you are, yet you remember the Heavenly Demon Lord?"
The old man's withered fingers unconsciously rubbed his knee, fine grains of sand embedded in the wrinkles of his joints.
He looked up toward the non-existent ceiling—where only the azure blue light cast by the wall of the whale's abdominal cavity could be seen.
"This is the Guixu..." The old man's voice sounded like it had been rubbed with sandpaper. "The eternal place of abandonment."
A drop of water slid down from the cavity wall and fell onto the stone slab with a crisp sound.
The old man stared at the puddle, his gaze unfocused: "Stay here long enough, and even memories will slowly be abandoned. So... those unimportant fragments..." He pointed at his temples. "Long ago flowed out through the seven orifices."
Lin Wan noticed a few crooked marks carved near his feet, as if they had been gouged out of the stone slab with fingernails.
At the very top, the characters "Heavenly Demon" could be faintly distinguished, with several lines beneath that had been repeatedly worn away.
"As for who I am..." The old man suddenly laughed, revealing his remaining three yellow teeth. "Compared to those very important things one tries desperately to remember, I suppose it's not that important."
The flame of the green lamp suddenly shot up, illuminating the fleeting loss in his eyes.
This moved Lin Wan slightly.
"Alright, then tell me, who exactly is the Saint Master?" She asked, her gaze burning, staring straight at the old man before her, as if wanting to see through his turbid eyes to the true thoughts deep in his heart.
The old man fell silent for a moment, then slowly spoke: "The Saint Master... is the most powerful existence in this world. His power is unmatched, and his wisdom is unfathomable."
Lin Wan frowned slightly and pursued the question: "But what does this have to do with me? Why are you convinced that I am the Saint Master?"
The old man gazed at her. After a long while, he suddenly let out a deep sigh, as if lamenting something, or perhaps helplessly accepting reality.
"True, the Saint Master has even changed gender; the dissipation of memory is only normal." The old man murmured to himself.
Hearing this, Lin Wan's face instantly turned gloomy, and the knuckles of her fingers made cracking sounds from excessive force.
"What do you mean by this?" Her voice carried a trace of anger. "Can you speak properly or not?"
"However," the old man changed the subject, a trace of cunning flashing in his turbid eyes. "Since you have come, Sir, even if you do not admit your identity as the Saint Master, why not first listen to the story of the Saint Master?"
Lin Wan remained silent for a moment, finally sitting down opposite the old man.
Although she did not feel that she was the Saint Master they spoke of, she vaguely sensed that there was a connection with her involving a thousand threads and a thousand links behind this.
"Speak." She said indifferently. "Tell me, who exactly is this Saint Master you speak of."
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