The night seemed endless. I squatted alone beside the Stone of Three Lives. I had no idea how long I'd been there. The painful wails from the River of Forgetfulness were so terrifying that I didn't dare to feel the slightest bit sleepy. I was afraid that if I dozed off, something might crawl out of the river in the middle of the night and take my soul away. Just thinking about it gave me goosebumps all over.
I hugged my knees and leaned against the Stone of Three Lives. In a daze, I felt countless ghosts wandering around me. Some stared at me from afar, while others were right next to me.
I remembered what Guyuan had said and squeezed my eyes shut, afraid to look. I was scared that if I saw something terrifying, it would shatter my will to stay.
Just like this, people kept shoving me. I curled up on the ground with my eyes closed, letting them do as they pleased.
It wasn't until the wails gradually faded away and I could no longer sense the presence of the wandering souls that I slowly opened my eyes.
When I did, I pressed my back tightly against the Stone of Three Lives, nearly scared out of my wits.
The person in front of me was covered in blood. Half of his face was sunken, and the eyeball on the other half was hanging out.
That eye was right above my head. I had no idea how long he'd been standing there watching me. When I opened my eyes, his mouth twitched, and he stretched out his twisted hands and lunged at me.
I let out a scream. Just as I was about to flee, Granny Meng blocked my way and picked up her shoe to hit him.
"Get out of here..." With the swing of Granny Meng's shoe, that dirty thing with the half - face was knocked flying by the sole.
I sat there on the ground. My heart, tortured by fear to the extreme, almost drove me crazy.
This kind of horror was definitely not the same as the visual shock of darkness in the human world.
It was the kind of fear that tore at your heart and soul, the kind that tortured you from the inside.
I didn't dare to look at Granny Meng. I hugged my knees and sat on the ground, trembling all over with fear.
All I could think about was Guyuan. If he were by my side, I wouldn't be so scared.
Granny Meng turned to look at me but didn't say a word. She just shook her head at me helplessly.
Then she turned around and started her day's work again. I sat there pitifully watching her as she served the soup of forgetfulness bowl by bowl to the people on the other side, and they drank it one bowl after another.
It wasn't until the last person finished drinking that Granny Meng disappeared again on the Naihe Bridge.
At this moment, I was alone again, and that indescribable fear welled up inside me once more.
I dragged my weak body and sat beside the Stone of Three Lives again, waiting for Granny Meng to come the next day.
Just like this, I kept experiencing the things I feared and dreaded the most. I saw my parents die in our old house, saw Guyuan being pierced by a thousand arrows by the Heavenly Emperor, saw Bai Qi reduced to just a fox pelt, and saw Jun He's body hanging above the city gate of the City of Eternal Night.
I witnessed all of these things with my own eyes but was powerless to do anything. In this way, I endured for five days. My heart was already on the verge of collapse, and I was so exhausted that I even thought about killing myself.
But I knew in my heart that if I didn't take the soup of forgetfulness, it might really be too late.
On this day, she was dispensing the soup of forgetfulness to the souls as usual. I just stared blankly until I saw the last soul step onto the Terrace of Remembrance.
Finally, I couldn't hold back anymore. I struggled to get up from the ground and looked at the soup of forgetfulness in front of her. Without caring whether she would give it to me or not, I just reached out to grab it.
At this moment, my mind had completely stopped working. I didn't want to think about anything. When I saw the soup of forgetfulness, I was like a hungry wolf seeing food and pounced on it.
However, after these days of soul - crushing experiences, my soul had become unstable and too weak.
I couldn't hold anything with my hands. My hands slipped, and I didn't grab it firmly. The bowl of soup of forgetfulness fell to the ground, and the porcelain bowl shattered.
I looked at the soup of forgetfulness spilled all over the ground, and finally, I couldn't hold back anymore.
I let out a wail, but there were no tears. Right, how could a soul have tears?
I didn't even have time to think. I knelt on the ground in a panic and kept moving my hands on the ground, trying to scoop up the spilled soup of forgetfulness with my hands.
But it was no use. The water had already been spilled. How could it be collected again?
No matter what I did, the water had already seeped into the soil and disappeared.
I knelt on the ground, filled with remorse. I pounded the ground weakly with my hands and begged Granny Meng to help me.
Granny Meng looked at me like this, and the wrinkles on her face became even deeper.
"Look what you've done! This person was supposed to drink the soup of forgetfulness on time, but you've changed his fate. Do you know that?" Granny Meng looked down at me. Her tone was reproachful, but not really.
I knelt on the ground, my body twitching violently. When I heard Granny Meng talking to me,
I managed to look up at her for a moment, then at the person whose soup of forgetfulness I had snatched.
At this moment, I finally regained some sense. I had really been too rash.
The soup of forgetfulness was given in a set amount. If I took it without permission, wouldn't I be cutting off someone else's path of reincarnation?
I slowly lowered my head, bowed respectfully to the person in front of me, and then said to Granny Meng, "Is there any way to make up for it? I'm willing to take all the responsibility."
Granny Meng looked down at my weak soul and let out a heavy sigh.
"Forget it. Come with me."
After she said that, she waved her long sleeve at the soul, and the soul was led onto the Naihe Bridge and started on the path of reincarnation.
"Let him be reborn with the memories of his past life then."
I struggled to get up from the ground and followed Granny Meng towards the Stone of Three Lives.
As we walked, I turned to look at the person. He stood on the Naihe Bridge, gave me a gentle smile, and said, "Thank you."
Actually, I really wanted to return a smile, but I'm sure my smile would have looked worse than crying, so I just nodded at him.
Then I quickly turned back and followed Granny Meng to the Stone of Three Lives.
Granny Meng put her hands behind her back and looked up and down at the Stone of Three Lives.
"Back then, when Nuwa created humans out of clay, for each person she created, she took a grain of sand as a count. Over time, these grains of sand piled up into a huge stone. Since there was nowhere to put it, Nuwa placed it on the spiritual riverbank in the Western Heaven. This stone originated from the beginning of the world and absorbed the essence of the sun and the moon, gradually gaining spirituality."
"As years passed, no one knew how many winters and summers had gone by. Suddenly, there was a loud noise in the sky. This stone seemed to be shooting straight up into the clouds, about to break through the sky. When Nuwa saw this, she looked around and found that two divine lines had appeared on the stone, dividing it into three sections. If left alone, it might have the intention of devouring the three realms of heaven, earth, and man."
"Nuwa used the Soul - Sealing Talisman to seal the stone. Then she thought that since she created humans, there was a lack of a divine position for the cycle of marriage. So she named this stone the Stone of Three Lives, bestowed on it the Art of Three Lives, named its three sections as the past life, the present life, and the future life, and added a line of marriage to it. If two people were in love and their names were on the Stone of Three Lives, this marriage could continue from the present life to the future life. To better restrain the demonic nature of the Stone of Three Lives, Nuwa placed it beside the River of Forgetfulness at the Ghost Gate, in charge of the cycle of marriage for three lives. From then on, I've been guarding this divine stone."
After Granny Meng finished speaking, she turned to look at me and slowly said, "Do you know why I'm telling you this?"
I looked up at the huge Stone of Three Lives and shook my head at Granny Meng in confusion.