“Impossible…!”
Gu Mang shook his head. “Mo Xi, the Reversal Stone does not possess the power to change fate. The ancient texts say that it ‘does no harm to the mortal world, for destiny has already been decreed.’ That is precisely what it means.”
“…”
“There is no past that can be easily changed. The reason the Three Forbidden Arts are called forbidden arts is precisely because once a true change occurs, the consequences could very likely overturn the entire mortal world. And the Reversal Stone can alter the life and death of so many people without requiring any price to be paid—do you think that makes sense?”
Those words pierced his heart like ice. Even Mo Xi’s fingertips were trembling.
“How could this be…”
“Before I saw you, I also thought that perhaps the prophetic dream had been wrong,” Gu Mang said. “But now, it seems that it was not wrong at all.”
Mo Xi suddenly raised his head. Light and shadows trembled in his eyes, like demons and spirits flashing past one after another. He looked as though he were overcome with grief, yet also as though he were nearly driven mad.
“Then why did Jiang Fuli give me the stone?! He has already recovered Shen Tang’s memories. Doesn’t he know what this stone does?!”
“Mo Xi, Pharmacist Jiang knew very well what the result would be when he gave you the Reversal Stone. But if he had honestly told you that by taking this stone back to the past, you would have to personally fulfill your own mission and tear out my soul, forging it into the key—would you have been willing?”
“…”
Yes. He could never have done it. He could never have agreed to it.
Gu Mang smiled, but there was a great deal of sorrow in that smile. “The Reversal Stone’s true name is the Heaven’s Mandate Stone. When Heaven and Earth were created, the course of fate was decreed, and thus the cycle of Heaven’s law came into existence. But the act of creation was too vast—even the gods made mistakes sometimes. And so they left the Reversal Stones behind in this world. These stones can take people back into the past, allowing the users to perform certain actions they believe can change the future. In reality, it is nothing more than a deception.”
“Those who returned to the past merely followed the destiny that had already been determined, going back to repair the things they should have done at that time but did not. So you are the same, Mo Xi—you returned from the future to this day, seemingly to change the past. But within the destiny already decreed by Heaven’s law, you were always destined to complete the great task Jiang Fuli entrusted to you and forge the key from my soul. That is the destiny this stone needs to repair.”
His blood ran cold as frost.
Mo Xi’s lips trembled slightly. He wanted to say that Gu Mang must have gotten something wrong, that it absolutely could not be like this. It was Gu Mang’s understanding of the Reversal Stone that was mistaken, not that Jiang Fuli had deceived him.
But when he looked into Gu Mang’s eyes, he knew, deep down, that everything Gu Mang said was true.
Yes… If a stone really could change the world and reverse the course of fate, why would divination still be necessary? Why would they need to follow the divination and hand the stone to the person destined to possess it, at the moment destined for them?
It could not change fate at all.
It merely followed some unseen will, repairing the mistakes of the past along a loop in time.
Mo Xi wanted to say something, but he had truly been tormented by too many emotions. He had endured until this moment, and finally he could no longer hold himself together. Almost completely broken by grief, he asked, “So after you returned to the city, when you lost two of your souls and your reason was destroyed… I always thought the people who harmed you were the people of Liao, and that the people who dug out your soul were also from Liao… but it turns out… it turns out…”
Tears streamed down his face. He looked as miserable as an abandoned dog, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at Gu Mang.
Almost crazed, he threw back his head and laughed.
“But it turns out it was me?!”
“…” Gu Mang closed his eyes.
“This is my destiny?”
“Tonight, Murong Lian is going to come looking for you. Back in our time, he said that he saw you covered in blood, barely clinging to life. He said he thought the people interrogating you had tortured you too severely—but that wasn’t it at all! It was because I was the one who did it. Because when he arrived, I had just gouged out your soul! I had completed the destiny this stone had given us! Isn’t that right?!”
“Mo Xi…”
“What do you people take me for?! What does Heaven and Earth take me for?! You can see the future. You have had prophetic dreams. Then have you ever dreamed of how I would feel after you sacrificed yourself to destroy the demon and died?! I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t lose my composure. I couldn’t grieve. I couldn’t even collect your body!” Mo Xi choked out. He held Gu Mang’s hand and pressed it against his own chest. “Gu Mang! I’m a living person too! Have you ever foreseen what this would feel like for me…?”
After Mo Xi finished speaking, he suddenly lowered his head, already crying uncontrollably.
Gu Mang had known him for so many years. His Junior Brother, never, ever before had he cried with such grief, as though every ounce of pain he had endured had finally poured out all at once.
Gu Mang’s heart was filled with conflicting emotions, yet he did not know how to cross the gulf of fate and erase all this suffering.
In the end, they could not change any of this.
If he could, he also wished it were not Mo Xi. He even wished that he himself could complete the forging of the key and lock—but his spiritual core was completely damaged. He could no longer do it.
All he could do was walk over and embrace Mo Xi, who had returned from the battlefield six years later, already having lost his Gu Mang-gege.
He held him, feeling the exhaustion, despair, bloodshed, and helplessness in that man’s body. The Imperial Marshal Mo, in his eyes, had always been that kind boy from the Academy—the youth who had been beaten with a staff simply because he wanted to give a meal’s worth of money to a poor slave brother and sister, sitting alone beneath the pine and cypress trees.
He had originally wanted to protect him for his entire life.
But it turned out that in the end, he, Gu Mang, had protected everyone under Heaven, yet had been the one person to let him down.
“Senior Brother…”
After a long while, he heard that Mo Xi was no longer so violently emotional, yet his voice had become much heavier than before, as though a raging fire had burned to its utmost limit before suddenly becoming utterly extinguished.
Mo Xi was almost hollow as he murmured, “I came back… not to fulfill Heaven’s mandate and hurt you…”
“I know.”
“I already lost you in the future.”
“…”
Mo Xi suddenly choked. His tall body bent forward and slumped down, like the helpless boy he had once been after losing every source of support. Almost unable to make a sound, he said, “I don’t want to lose you once again in the past…”
“I know, Mo Xi. I’m sorry…”
“Why did it have to be me…?”
Hearing his sobs like those of a trapped beast, Gu Mang’s own tears fell. He held his Junior Brother Mo tightly, his tears silently soaking through Mo Xi’s clothes.
Why had fate chosen Mo Xi?
In truth, both of them knew the answer all too well.
Because the person Gu Mang trusted most was Mo Xi. Because the only person who could listen to Gu Mang and carry out this final act of cruelty was Mo Xi. Because without the key and lock, shortly after the soul container was handed over to Junshang, Junshang would be able to obtain the power of the blood demon beast. There would be no way to delay it for three or five years, and the Nine Provinces would soon fall into chaos.
Because in this world, the person who understood Gu Mang best, and the person most similar to Gu Mang, was Mo Xi.
Gu Mang had once said that some things always had to be done by someone, and some sacrifices always had to be made. When fate came looking for you, if you did not want to be a coward, then you were destined to face it.
We all have our own paths to walk.
And now, this was the path they had to walk.
The final journey.
Resentment, unwillingness, pain—none of them could overcome the clarity carved into their bones. From the moment they had joined the military and taken up arms to become marshals, they could no longer escape their responsibilities.
Marshal Gu was Marshal Gu, not a traitor.
Marshal Mo was not a coward either.
Those who became commanders—where was there any glory of commanding armies, any swaggering display of power? There were only the burdens placed before them. No matter how much pain they endured, even if it shattered them to pieces, they would still carry those burdens on their backs.
That was what it meant to be a general.
“…Do what the Reversal Stone has arranged, Mo Xi.” At last, Gu Mang spoke softly. “I know that the place you came from has already become a sea of blood. But I believe that is not the final outcome. If the mortal world were destined to be destroyed here, then why would the Stone of Destiny bring you back here to complete this repair of the past?”
He paused, comforting him just as he had when they had marched together toward the battlefield in the past. Even knowing that the road ahead was unpredictable, he had still comforted and encouraged him.
Wherever Marshal Gu was, there was fire. There was light.
He made people feel that this was not the end.
“There is still a chance.”
Mo Xi’s gaze was almost vacant as he murmured quietly, “But are you still there in that chance?”
Gu Mang fell silent.
His voice was hoarse. “Have you foreseen it?”
“…” Gu Mang released his embrace of Mo Xi. He stood before him, utterly serious and solemn. “There is one dream I have had many times. But just as I could not be certain that the dream was prophetic before I saw you today, at this moment I also cannot be certain whether this dream I have repeatedly had is a prophecy, or because I… I simply miss you too much.”
When Gu Mang reached this point, he took a deep breath, doing his utmost as though he wanted to entrust all the love and light of his entire life to Mo Xi, covering his scarred heart with it.
A moist, gentle light shimmered in his blue eyes as he said, “I have dreamed that the war was over, and it rained. In the rain, I found you.”
Perhaps it was because of that faint, fragile hope.
Or perhaps he simply craved a little comfort.
Like someone speaking in a dream, Mo Xi looked into those clear blue eyes and asked, “And then?”
“Then I told you, ‘Let’s go home.’”
“…” Mo Xi’s lips moved soundlessly. His eyes grew even wetter as he silently lowered his gaze and blinked lightly.
“And afterward, the rain stopped, and we went home.”
Neither of them dared to believe that this most beautiful dream was a prophecy.
Gu Mang had clearly already sacrificed himself in the future.
Yet even so, a tiny bit of courage had returned to his heart. He loved him so deeply that as long as there was even the smallest spark of hope, he was willing to let it spread into a blazing fire.
Mo Xi asked almost longingly, yet sorrowfully and pleadingly, “And in the end?”
“In the end, you and I stayed together.”
A warm smile appeared on Gu Mang’s lean face.
He raised his hand and intertwined his fingers with Mo Xi’s.
“As long as we haven’t reached the end, there is always hope for everything. After I sacrificed myself, didn’t you also never imagine that I could still be standing here like this, speaking to you and holding your hand?”
“…”
“Mo Xi, no matter what the outcome is, you have never been one to admit defeat, and neither have I. I know that you also carry compassion for all living beings in your heart, and that you place your homeland and country above all else. We have always been on the same path. So, follow the Reversal Stone’s instructions.”
As he spoke, he rose onto his toes and gently kissed Mo Xi’s lips.
“Whether we live or die, I will love you forever, and I will always be proud of you.”