Ling Luo Yi watched them leave one by one, until only Ling Luo Chen remained.
"Brother, aren't you going too?"
"I won't. Luo'er, you've been acting strangely lately, has something happened?" Ling Luo Chen noticed her low spirits these past few days and asked.
Ling Luo Yi thought for a moment, then cautiously asked, "Brother, have you ever hated yourself for a moment?"
"Hated myself?" Ling Luo Chen fell into a memory, and after a long while, he said, "I have."
Ling Luo Yi was a little surprised and asked, "Even someone as good as you, Brother, has hated yourself?"
Ling Luo Yi could list a dictionary of Ling Luo Chen's virtues. Could such a good person have hated himself?
"Luo'er, when Father and Mother were killed, I hated the Wei family head, because he was the one who killed Father and Mother! I also hated Uncle, because Father and Mother were killed trying to save him, yet he gave up on himself! I also hated Grandfather, for being able to save Second Uncle, Third Uncle, and Fourth Uncle, but not my parents! During that time, I hated many people, but the one I hated the most was myself. I hated myself for being too weak, for not being able to protect Father and Mother, for not being able to protect my sister."
Speaking of his sister, Ling Luo Chen looked at Ling Luo Yi seriously.
As Ling Luo Yi met Ling Luo Chen's gaze, she felt like a clown, as if what she was desperately hiding, others already knew.
"When I first met you, I even hated you."
Ling Luo Chen didn't explain why, but Ling Luo Yi dared not look into his eyes anymore.
"That day, I lost many relatives, relatives connected to me by blood! I could never face that day, face myself being so weak. I always felt that if I were a little stronger, fewer people would have died that day, at least I could have protected my sister."
Ling Luo Yi suddenly couldn't bear to listen further. She was afraid, afraid that Ling Luo Chen would expose everything she had hidden, then everything she had now would shatter like a reflection in water, broken by a single pebble.
Yes, she was afraid. She was actually afraid!
The moment she realized this, Ling Luo Yi felt as if she was meeting herself for the first time.
Someone who had never been afraid was now genuinely afraid in front of someone younger than herself.
Ling Luo Yi's body trembled; she couldn't control it.
Whose feeling was this? Fear or excitement?
She didn't know.
Ling Luo Chen, as if not noticing Ling Luo Yi's abnormality, suddenly asked, "Actually, you haven't had it easy either, have you?"
Ling Luo Yi's mouth opened, wanting to speak, but no sound came out, as if she had lost the ability to speak.
Ling Luo Chen suddenly took out a barrier sphere, injected spiritual energy into it, and the sphere enveloped them both.
Ling Luo Yi recognized the barrier sphere; she had given it to him. Its purpose was to block sound, so that sounds within the barrier could not be heard from outside, no matter how close.
Did he want to tell her something?
Before Ling Luo Yi could wonder for too long, Ling Luo Chen spoke. Hearing his words, Ling Luo Yi didn't know whether she should be nervous or relieved.
Ling Luo Chen said, "I know you are not her."
She opened her mouth and finally asked, "When did you know?"
Her voice was steady, as if Ling Luo Chen's words had no effect on her. Only she knew that she felt like a thief right now.
"I knew from the beginning. After all, she and I are brother and sister connected by blood."
"You knew, then they?"
As if sensing her worry, Ling Luo Chen said, "I haven't told them."
"You are..." She swallowed, trying to relax, and said, "Did you find out ten years ago?"
Ling Luo Chen suddenly smiled and said, "You might not believe it, but on that night ten years ago, half an hour after Father and Mother were killed, I inexplicably fainted from pain. That day, I had a strange dream. In the dream, she told me she would see me again in the next life, that she was happy to have me as a brother, and that she had prepared a gift for me. But I didn't understand it then. I only woke up from the pain that day. My head felt like it had been severely struck, but Grandfather examined me and found nothing wrong, it was just pain, and the pain lasted until the next morning."
Listening to Ling Luo Chen's description, she guessed that it might be because the original host had fallen off a cliff and injured her head. She only got better the next day, possibly because Xiao Feng Xi had overused her spiritual energy to forcibly heal her physical injuries.
"I was very scared at the time, but I didn't know what I was afraid of. I just instinctively went to the ancestral hall to check the life tablets. A crack suddenly appeared on her life tablet. I don't know the reason, but it was very strange. Life tablets are either completely intact or broken into pieces, but hers only had a crack. I think this has something to do with you, right?"
Before she could answer, Ling Luo Chen continued on his own. "Even if you don't say it, I know. The moment I saw you a month and a half ago, I did feel for a moment that she had returned. But as you got closer, I didn't feel the same way towards you as I did towards her, so I knew you weren't her, you weren't the sister with whom I shared the same blood."
Seeing that he had opened up, she also calmed down and said, "I'm sorry to have disappointed you. You must have hoped to see her more, right?"
"No." To her surprise, Ling Luo Chen said, "Perhaps this is not good for you to hear, but I must say it. Although I don't know what you've been through all these years, you haven't had it easy, have you? I know what kind of place the Luoxia Forest is."
Ling Luo Yi looked at Ling Luo Chen's earnest eyes and chuckled, "It was indeed difficult at first, and later I was always on the verge of death."
"So, if it were her, I would hope she could die peacefully, not go through what you have."
She suddenly laughed, a self-deprecating laugh.
Listening to her self-mocking laughter, Ling Luo Chen suddenly felt a great distance between them. He wanted to speak, but she spoke first.
"Yes, you are all her relatives, you all care about her so much, and pity her so much, naturally you can't bear to see her suffer."
Ling Luo Chen looked at her, but couldn't explain anything.
She continued, "Actually, your way of thinking is not wrong. Rather than her suffering continuously, it's better to hope she dies peacefully."
After she said this, she fell silent, and Ling Luo Chen didn't speak either. The barrier sphere became quiet.
After a long while, just as she thought Ling Luo Chen wouldn't speak again, he suddenly asked, "Can you tell me about some of your matters?"
"Ah?"
"She said she had prepared a gift for me. I think that gift is you. So I want to know what she looked like before she died, and what you said to her."
She thought about it. Since Ling Luo Chen already knew her biggest secret, there was nothing left to hide, and besides, he was her biological brother.
"When I met her, she was already on the verge of death after falling off the cliff. I was a soul at the time and couldn't save her. I communicated with her after she died. She asked me to be reborn in her body and made me promise her two things: first, to avenge her, and second, to take care of you all."
"You agreed?"
"Since I took her body, I should do something for her. So I agreed to help her get revenge, but I didn't want to agree to the second one, so I told her that I would decide after I met you all."
"So, you decided to take care of us."
"How could that be?" she said with a faint smile. "Everything I'm doing for you now is just to help you get revenge yourselves. I can't stay here forever. As I said before, I only have two years. After two years, I have to leave this continent."
"Where are you going?"
"You are not worthy to know!"