Yunxi's eyes flashed. "You underestimated how far those in power will go for longevity and authority. The reincarnation technology had already been refined step by step into a full Reincarnation System. You could not completely destroy it. To delay the collapse and wait for a 'savior' to appear, you had no choice but to make yourself the head of the Reincarnation System, at least to ensure it would not become the exclusive tool of the ruling class."
At last, light returned to Elder Nan's eyes. He nodded. "Miss Ran Xi is correct. Since I was sent to this node in time, my body has aged at twice the normal rate. I have done everything I can to extend my life. The day I saw Mr. Yun Chen, I knew all my efforts had not been in vain."
Yun Chen and Han Lian traded a glance and suddenly realized their arrival on Azure Star was destined. Even without Ran Xi and Xun Kun, the two of them would have been sent here in another way.
Yunxi, however, knew that perhaps in the previous timeline she and Xun Kun had never appeared at all. Following the thread of time, she should have died long ago in Haoran Sect's dungeon, and Xun Kun would very likely have been trapped by Jin Can's schemes, in no mood to join the Five Region Grand Tournament. He would not have fought side by side with Han Lian and Yun Chen, much less gone to the Misty Snow Domain. Everything afterward would have been impossible.
As for Yun Chen and Han Lian, accidentally transmitted to Azure Star back then, their cultivation likely had not reached Divine Transformation yet. A Nascent Soul cultivator enjoys a lifespan of fifteen hundred years, but even if the two of them were prodigies, they would have been around two hundred, and the resources they carried were limited. Once those were exhausted, would they not have died here?
Given Yun Chen's nature, he would never watch Azure Star turn into a ghost realm. He would use Buddhist methods to cleanse the filth on souls. But he alone, even with Han Lian, made only two people. If they poured in all their cultivation, holding out five hundred years would already be the limit.
Without their intervention, Azure Star would have become a ghost realm in only a hundred years. It would never have lasted long enough to research a time-space transmitter and seize the laws of time with technology, which is an act that already goes against Heaven.
A mortal body cannot compare to a cultivator's. Passing through time would certainly exact a toll, hence Elder Nan's rapid aging.
Although Elder Nan did his utmost to eliminate the scientist surnamed Xie and his wife, he unwittingly accelerated research into the Reincarnation System. Sometimes the tiniest change creates an irreversible future.
Elder Nan must have realized this, so he chose to step into the game himself, delaying the System's collapse as long as possible and waiting for the return of the two "saviors," Yun Chen and Han Lian.
He likely feared that the flap of his butterfly wings might erase even the saviors. He lived with that dread until the day he saw Yun Chen and knew events had not strayed from the original track, and only then did he finally breathe easier.
Yet people can be this way. While a breath is held in the chest, one grits one's teeth and perseveres. Once that breath is released, the body collapses faster. Elder Nan was now in that state.
Yunxi sighed and shared her deductions. She did not speak of her own role as a "variable." She only said that if she had not entered the secret realm of Baohua Mountain and found an opportunity to break through Nascent Soul, she would not have joined the Five Region Grand Tournament, and everything after would not have happened.
Xun Kun added that before the tournament, the junior of Wu Tong Zūnzhě, Jin Can, had tried to set him up. If Ran Xi had not happened to see through it, he would never have been drawn into the Shanhe Scroll, never fought alongside the others, and would not have reached Divine Transformation so quickly.
Yun Chen knew himself best and found his thoughts matched Ran Xi's closely. If not for that ten-year battle against an evil soul allowing him to advance to Divine Transformation, and if he had not entered this place accompanied by three close friends, he might indeed have ended up exactly as Elder Nan described, burning out his lifetime of cultivation only to briefly slow Azure Star's destruction.
Han Lian took a deep breath. "If only Yun Chen and I had been sent to Azure Star, the two of us would not have had the cultivation to activate the Five Elements Reincarnation Formation. Without Ran Xi to hold the line, without Baifeng as a spirit beast, we would likely have died trapped here."
Han Lian spoke euphemistically, but everyone understood, and could not help feeling fortunate.
Yunxi looked at Elder Nan, whose complexion was gradually growing rosier. "After you were transmitted to this point in time, has anyone else been sent to assist you?"
Elder Nan gave a bitter smile and shook his head. "Miss Ran Xi, when I stepped onto the transmission platform, I had already prepared to be shredded by spatial force. The remaining energy on Azure Star was only enough to power the time-space transmitter once. We went all-in. No one else would be sent here, unless I could change the current situation."
Yunxi nodded. An entire world on the brink of collapse would indeed lack the strength to organize a second transmission.
The four already had a firm grasp of the situation. With Elder Nan's authorization, they entered the core area of the Reincarnation Department to see the System in full.
Yunxi glanced at the artificial gestation pods soaking in nutrient fluid and the monitoring devices beside them. She only frowned slightly. The pods were nurturing new bodies, while the machines monitored the vitals of each life, ensuring that the soul would be inserted at the optimal moment.
The other three were stunned. So there was such a method for bearing descendants. It was not something they would ever adopt.
In the cultivation world, conceiving is already difficult, and the higher the cultivation, the harder it is. But once a pregnancy occurs, the child in the womb is nourished by the qi of Heaven and Earth, ensuring a perfected body, not this cold, mechanical method.
When they saw ghosts being purified by the purification crystals, the four wore looks of disbelief. Yun Chen's brows knit tight even as he murmured "Amitabha."
Yunxi watched a blackened purification crystal. In the next instant it shattered into powder. A robotic arm immediately replaced it with a new crystal, clear and transparent. Evidently the blackening was the process of extracting filth from souls.
Han Lian said coldly, "Why not purify the souls completely?"
Yunxi answered directly, "The purification crystals are running out. They can only barely sustain the current level of cleansing."
Xun Kun's voice was cold. "No wonder the supernatural incidents on Azure Star are increasing, and more people go mad by the day. Benjamin, whom I saved earlier, was a reincarnated soul incompletely purified. The memories of his past life scrambled his mind. He was on the verge of collapse and even considered taking his own life."
Yunxi followed his thought. "I remember the Sack family is a powerful clan. If even their reincarnations are going wrong, the situation is worse than we estimated."
"I have not asked Daphne about it, and she likely does not know. Her father is very guarded with me. So the moment I saw you on the star-net, I left the Sack manor at once."
Han Lian watched the soul-purification apparatus continue its mechanical routine and asked abruptly, "Should we destroy these things now?"