Love Travels through Time (My father who traveled through time and space to cultivate immortality came back to pick me up) - Chapter 90
Chapter 90: Conjecture
The Emperor mistakenly believed the divine artifact was meant to annihilate the entire Celestial Clan.
So Yin Changli allowed him to go on believing it—that way, the Emperor wouldn’t dare lightly deal him a fatal blow.
Meanwhile, Yin Changli stayed hidden and went on hiding, all along waiting.
Waiting for Bai Xingxian to grow into an adult.
Waiting to see whether the Heavenly Martial Divine Arrow would ultimately return.
“A matter of such gravity… why does it sound so casual?” Xiang Haikui said in a daze.
It didn’t seem all that different from rolling dice or flipping a coin.
She leaned forward, slumping across the table, and extended her head closer to him, asking in confusion, “Can artifact spirits reincarnate as well?”
According to Xiang Haikui’s knowledge, artifact spirits were unable to reincarnate—if the “vessel” was destroyed, the spirit within would disperse.
Yin Changli corrected her, “It isn’t an artifact spirit—it is the divine artifact itself directly reincarnating.”
Xiang Haikui was even more bewildered.
“A divine artifact can reincarnate?”
She knew that flowers, plants, and trees could reincarnate because they possessed life force.
Yin Changli shook his head. “Other divine weapons and sharp blades might not be able to—they would basically be destroyed the moment they were thrown into the Reincarnation Realm. However, the Heavenly Martial Divine Stone used to forge the divine arrow was condensed from the flesh, blood, and vital energy of countless Heavenly Martial, giving it a life force of its own…”
Seeing Xiang Haikui’s completely blank expression, Yin Changli paused to ponder before switching to a different way of explaining, “Put it this way—if the Heavenly Martial hadn’t mined the Stone King to turn it into a weapon and instead continued to dissolve themselves to nourish it, it would have been very likely to develop bones and meridians, becoming a brand-new Heavenly Martial… Can you understand that?”
Oh, sounds a bit like asexual fission, Xiang Haikui mused to herself.
Yin Changli tried his best to explain in popular, simple terms, “Of course, the divine stone used to forge the divine arrow was still far from reaching the standard of taking human form, so it was also possible that it would be destroyed after entering the Reincarnation Realm.”
If that happened, it would mean Heavenly Dao did not grant permission and refused to offer even a single chance, rendering all the hard work he and Shuluoye put into this completely wasted.
Fortunately, while the Heavenly Martial Divine Arrow initially showed signs of being destroyed, it ultimately succeeded in reincarnating as a soul form after all.
“There’s one more thing…” Xiang Haikui opened her mouth, intending to ask a question, before suddenly realizing that she wasn’t having a late-night candlelit chat with Yin Changli just to pass the time listening to stories.
Tonight’s main topic was about her father.
So…
Xiang Haikui froze for a moment.
Slowly, several clues began to fall into place in her mind.
She sat up straight, her back stiffening, and looked directly into the depths of Yin Changli’s eyes.
“Did the divine arrow return?”
The arrow’s great divine power was its ability to pierce through world barriers and create spatial tunnels.
Her father was able to see visions of the other world, and after his death, his soul crossed over to this realm.
Pressing his lip gently with his thumb, Yin Changli lowered his head slightly, seeming to fall into deep thought, remaining silent for a long while.
“No way…”
Seeing this, Xiang Haikui felt even more convinced that her guess was right, her voice stammering, “Is… is it really my dad?”
Was her dad not human?
No, was he an arrow-man?
No, wait—Xiang Haikui’s head spun; she couldn’t make heads or tails of what was happening.
It wasn’t that she looked down on her father, but titles like “Heavenly Martial Divine Stone King” and “Divine Arrow Shattering the Void” sounded overwhelmingly badass.
Nothing about her dad reflected any of that at all, did it?
“I suspected him earlier,” Yin Changli finally spoke up.
“When he found me and begged me to fetch you from his hometown, hearing about his experiences made me suspect whether he might be the reincarnation of the divine arrow.”
That was why he had used the Destiny Brush to pry into his fate, foreseeing that both father and daughter would die.
“However, when I sensed his soul force, it was entirely ordinary without a trace of special power. After bringing you over, I sensed your power as well, and you were likewise an ordinary person. Thus, I dismissed my suspicions regarding your father.”
After all, starting from the smelting of the divine stone, Yin Changli had been involved in crafting the divine arrow every step of the way.
Under the heavens, he understood the divine arrow best.
Xiang Haikui patted her chest.
“I knew it! My dad…”
Unexpectedly, Yin Changli shifted the topic, “However, ever since you told me at the ice spring about your father’s anomalies prior to transmigration, as well as your ability to see those two people inside the mirage realm, my thoughts began to waver.”
Xiang Haikui’s heart leaped into her throat once again.
Yin Changli stared at her intently.
“Your father could merely see them. You can not only see them, but also hear them, and even touch them. Your abilities surpass your father’s. I suspect…”
“Suspect what?” Xiang Haikui held her breath.
“Once day breaks, I need to confirm it with your father once more.”
Yin Changli did not continue further.
If Xiang Heng truly were the reincarnation of the Heavenly Martial Divine Arrow, then his innate divine ability might have been extracted by someone.
The reason Xiang Heng couldn’t see the other world at first was because after reincarnating, his power had been sealed inside a “chest” within his body.
After his wife passed away, he began experiencing “hallucinations” and could view the otherworldly realm with his eyes—the “chest” had been opened.
Yet the power inside the chest couldn’t possibly be just that tiny bit—being able only to see but not hear, making him even inferior to Xiang Haikui.
According to Yin Changli’s conjecture, the “chest” had likely been forcibly pried open by someone.
That person had not only pried open the “chest,” but had also silently stolen away Xiang Heng’s sealed innate divine ability without anyone noticing.
Some lingering power inevitably remained on the walls of the “chest.”
It was precisely this tiny bit of remaining power that allowed Xiang Heng to continuously see “illusions” over several years.
Subsequently, the soul transmigration completely exhausted all the residual power left inside Xiang Heng.
After coming to this world, he completely turned into an ordinary person.
Thus, the most crucial figure in all this was Xiang Haikui’s mother, a woman named Shen Yun.
The time of her sudden death coincided exactly with the time when the “chest” inside Xiang Heng was opened and his divine ability was stolen.
Based on all current information, Yin Changli formulated several hypotheses.
First, a cultivator discovered Xiang Heng’s hidden power and desired to seize it, but lacked the proper means.
Thus, they harmed his wife, subjecting him to a severe blow and plunging him into overwhelming grief, making him easier to plunder.
However, one thing didn’t make sense: when Xiang Heng’s wife died, she was together with Xiang Haikui.
Why did the culprit only kill the mother and spare the daughter?
If the goal was to drive Xiang Heng to a mental breakdown, wouldn’t it have been better to kill both mother and daughter together?
Second, that culprit was none other than Xiang Haikui’s mother.
She had set her eyes on Xiang Heng ever since he was in the orphanage, lurking for many years until she finally pried open the “Chest,” stole Xiang Heng’s divine power, and then faked her death to escape.
Because Xiang Haikui was an ordinary human.
It was only after having Xiang Haikui as a daughter that Xiang Heng’s power was stolen, turning him into an ordinary human.
Xiang Haikui ought to have inherited at least a little bit of Heavenly Martial power.
Yet, while she possessed the warlike nature and thick-skinned temperament characteristic of the Heavenly Martials, she didn’t possess an ounce of the powerful Heavenly Martial bloodline. From her physical body to her soul, she was a completely ordinary human, lacking even a single spiritual root—otherwise, she wouldn’t have cultivated the demonic sword, Tian Kuang.
This indicated that her mother might hail from a rather special race—one that, upon combining with a Heavenly Martial, could only give birth to ordinary humans.
To be capable of neutralizing the bloodline of a Heavenly Martial, her mother was definitely not to be understated, and might even be a natural demon.
However, judging from how she quietly slipped away without harming the innocent, and even held Xiang Haikui in her arms as she slept on the night of her departure, perhaps she had her own secret troubles.
