The royal tent on the grassland is far taller and more open than the average dome.

The walls are made of thick wood dozens of feet high, and the roof is a huge curtain made of animal fur that can be used to protect from the wind and rain.

Gu Xu closed his eyes and cultivated in the prohibition he had laid down to restore his true yuan.

In the compartment next to him, the previous Khan, who had been mortally wounded, lay unconscious on a straw mat, occasionally hearing his heavy breathing and low moans of pain.

In Gu Xu's view, the wolf people on the grassland are a people who are extremely eager and like the new and hate the old.

The strong will be respected and revered by all, but the weak will not receive the slightest sympathy.

The name of the previous khan was "Altan", which means "high and steep mountain". At the peak of his strength, he led the grassland warriors to the east and west, not only killing many powerful monsters and ghosts, but also causing a lot of trouble to the border army of the Great Qi Dynasty.

But at this moment, when he was injured and unconscious, and became a cripple, the steppe barbarians all gathered around the new leader, and seemed to have completely forgotten his existence.

His previous great exploits have become ethereal clouds of smoke, quietly blown away by the wind.

By the time the true yuan in Gu Xu's meridians became full again, night had already fallen. The cold moonlight shone through the cracks in the walls, staining the ground silvery white.

At this time, Gu Xu noticed that the spirit of the Jinghong pen had grown from a newborn baby girl to a little girl who looked like two or three years old, standing on tiptoe, staggering around in front of him.

This girl is very similar to Lu Shiyao.

The delicate skin is as pale as snow, and the dark eyes are like a quiet deep pool. Long eyelashes, thin and curved eyebrows, and pale lips are like a carefully sketched ink painting.

A strong point is too much, and a light point is not enough.

When Gu Xu's gaze fell on her, she immediately turned her head and said awkwardly in a voice as crisp as an ice cube: "Childe." ”

This voice made Gu Xu's mind dazed for a moment.

In this short moment, he actually thought that the Snow Maiden had not melted away in the battle with the Kongxuansan people, but was still by his side, being his cheap bodyguard.

"Can you speak?" Gu Xu took a deep breath, looked at the little girl in front of him, and asked softly.

The machine spirit stared at him with wide eyes and a blank expression.

"What do you want me to call you?" Gu Xu thought about it and asked again.

The machine spirit opened its mouth slightly, but did not say a word.

"So you can only say one word now!"

A complicated smile appeared on Gu Xu's face.

The first time other babies speak, they call "Mommy".

But the child he raised shouted "Childe".

Why is that?

Could it be that it proves that he is a successful dad?

"There are traces of cause and effect left in Lu Shiyao's pen," the white-haired boy in his mind quickly gave the answer, "and it has been affected by your strong desire to resurrect her in the last few days, so this machine spirit will naturally become very similar to her." ”

"But it's different from her after all." Gu Xu sighed softly.

As he spoke, he took out the paper from the "Xianyunju", and continued to deduce the "Forbidden Technique" that transformed the ghost into a human by the moonlight.

At this time, the white-haired young man interjected again: "Actually, I'm curious now, what kind of feelings do you have for Lu Shiyao, which can prompt you to go to such great lengths to deduce spells for her?" Is it guilt, gratitude, or love? ”

Gu Xu pondered for a long time, lowered his head and said:

"I don't know."

"You've been thinking about her more often lately than anyone else," the white-haired boy continued to joke, "is this what the saying goes, in a man's heart, the position of the dead is irreplaceable?" ”

Gu Xu ignored him, continued to frown, and scribbled on the paper.

After a long silence, he finally felt a little tired.

But he didn't plan to rest for the time being, so he took out a notebook left by the empty Xuansan people from the "Xianyun House" and began to read it casually.

As soon as he opened it, he saw two sentences on the page:

"Man is the aggregate of all its causes and effects.

"If you want to completely replace a person, you must first replace his cause and effect."

After these two sentences, the Kongxuansan people explain in detail that everyone in the world does not exist in isolation, but is closely connected with other people through the thread of cause and effect, weaving into a vast and complex web.

Everyone's relatives, friends, colleagues, and even enemies can be understood as the "anchor" or "fulcrum" of this person's existence in the world.

The more "anchors" there are, the more traces they leave in the world, the stronger the thread of cause and effect, and the more difficult it is to be erased or replaced by magic.

For example, Kong Xuansan gave the example of a man who borrowed the name of his neighbor Wu Qilang to spend the Spring Festival with Wu Qilang's wife.

Because Wu Qilang was a taciturn ceramic craftsman, his parents were dead, he had few relatives, and he worked until late at night every day, rarely interacting with people.

Therefore, for the people of Kongxuansan, it is almost impossible to replace such a person with few threads of cause and effect.

However, although Wu Qilang's anchor points are few, they are not useless.

These anchors continue to repair the perceptions of those around him, and repel the Void Mystery Man, who tries to tamper with cause and effect.

As a result, the spell of the Void Xuansan lasted only one night.

He had to sneak away from the neighbor's house before Wu Qilang's wife's cognition recovered.

"This is what Taishang Haotian is doing."

When Gu Xu finished reading this explanation, the white-haired young man in his mind suddenly spoke. His voice sounded cold, but it was brewing with rage, like an undercurrent surging beneath a glacier.

"He wants to replace you by replacing your cause and effect, and then coming to replace you?" Gu Xu asked.

"It's not to replace 'me,' it's to replace 'we,'" the white-haired boy corrected word by word, "don't forget who you are." ”

"For the power of incense?"

"That's just one aspect of the story."

"And on the other hand?"

"He wants us to die, to let us die completely."

"Aren't you dead in His eyes?"

"He's afraid that I've touched the threshold of the 'Returning to Ruins' realm," the white-haired young man sneered, "You may not know that when a cultivator enters the ninth realm, he is almost immortal.

"He exists not only in the material world, but also in the minds of the world.

"He will be freed from the shackles of the mortal body of the flesh and become one with the avenue of heaven and earth, becoming a concept, a symbol, a symbol of the spirit.

"As long as there is one person in the world who remembers him, he will never die."

(End of chapter)