Hengsheng felt dizzy and had a slight headache, similar to someone who had just gotten off a roller coaster.
'What the hell just happened?' Hengsheng thought.
He felt like his mind was a jumbled mess; the memory of being frozen in time earlier had disappeared, only to resurface a moment later. This confusion happened over and over until it finally faded away.
"Meow?" Yunsu, who was in Hengsheng's arms, meowed in concern when she saw that his expression didn't look good.
"The mess... Did you feel it?" Hengsheng asked her.
"Meow?" Yunsu tilted her head in puzzlement, not knowing what he meant.
Hengsheng was shocked by her response. He was about to ask Yunsu about the sudden time-frozen event that had unfolded earlier, but before he had the chance to do so, another person in the chamber spoke.
"Pardon? Are the results of the process alright?" Xia Zhenxue asked both Hengsheng and Yunsu. From her perspective, they had seemed to be celebrating at first, but moments later, Hengsheng began acting strangely.
Hengsheng's eyes narrowed.
From Xia Zhenxue's expression and words, she didn't seem to be aware that she had just been possessed by the Snow Phoenix Ancestor a moment ago. To confirm this, Hengsheng asked her in return.
"You don't know what you just did?" Hengsheng asked.
"Did I do something wrong?" Xia Zhenxue replied in confusion. She had done everything the Chairman had instructed her to do. If something went wrong, it shouldn't be her fault.
"No. Nothing…" Hengsheng said. He was deep in thought. Then he continued his words, wanting to return to his mansion quickly.
"Thank you for going along with our agreement. It's time for me to fulfill it. Go prepare yourself—we will leave for the Snow Fortress in three days," Hengsheng said.
After that, he had a brief talk with her about what would happen in the next three days before leaving the chamber, disappearing into the dimensional vortex to return to his mansion.
…
When Hengsheng arrived at the Maker Mansion, the first thing he did was question Yunsu, asking her about her experience during the time freeze.
Her answer shocked him. It appeared that Yunsu didn't seem to have any memory of what happened—no recollection of time being frozen or of being examined by the Snow Phoenix Ancestor.
What she remembered was that after she successfully acquired a new Divine Grade Bloodline, she showed off her newly acquired pair of wings to him before celebrating in her human's arms. Then, her human began acting strange—this was her perception of what happened in the chamber.
"The Snow—" He had almost spoken the Snow Phoenix Ancestor's name aloud, lost in his absent-mindedness.
"It seems like she erased Yunsu and Xia Zhenxue's memories. Why didn't she erase mine? No… she did try, but my memories resurfaced for some reason…" Hengsheng murmured while thinking.
"Master…" Blue's avatar appeared before Hengsheng and bowed in greeting.
"Blue, do you remember what happened a moment ago?" Hengsheng asked.
"I do, Master. I believe what happened to you and Lady Yunsu wasn't memory erasure—but time regression," Blue replied, having observed everything from the System World.
"Explain why you think that," Hengsheng said.
"The time synchronization between the inside and outside of the System World was disturbed; time on the outside—your side—stopped and rewound by 3 minutes before the sync returned to normal," Blue explained.
"So, this is clearly time regression without doubt. But why is everyone else's memory lost but not mine? Is it because I'm connected to the System World?" Hengsheng asked for Blue's opinion.
"I think that was one of the reasons. Another possible reason is that the [Traveler Perk] function of the Dimensional Traveler System shields your memory from the effects of time regression. So, Chrono-Amnesia has little to no effect on you, unlike others," Blue expressed her opinion on what might have happened to her Master.
"Chrono-Amnesia, huh…" Hengsheng liked the word.
"Blue, thank you for charitying me," Hengsheng said.
"You're welcome, Master," Blue replied, and her avatar disappeared, her attention returned to the System World.
"Meowww!" Yunsu meowed. After hearing Hengsheng and Blue's exchange, she realized she had just forgotten about the mysterious event she couldn't remember and wanted to find out what had happened.
"You don't want to remember it, trust me…" Hengsheng said to the cat.
"Meow…" Yunsu used her ultimate technique—her pupils grew big as she stared at him with pitiful eyes.
Hengsheng's heart ached. This cat did not give up and insisted on knowing what had happened.
"You will regret it…" Hengsheng said.
Yunsu, even more curious, brought her head closer to his, making her big eyes appear even more pitiful.
"Alright, but if you regret it, you can't blame me!" Hengsheng finally gave in. Using the soul connection they shared, Hengsheng channeled the [Traveler Perk]'s power to her. He also wanted to see if this function was truly what shielded him from Chrono-Amnesia.
Yunsu sensed that something had happened inside her when her human's power flowed through her, and suddenly her eyes widened as she began to remember what had happened within Xia Zhenxue's chamber.
"Meoooow!!" Yunsu screamed!
…
Three Days Later.
Hengsheng steps out of the dimensional vortex. In his arms, the cat presses her head against his chest, hidden from the world, not wanting to know anything. She is depressed.
Hengsheng petted her back, and she let out a small meow to express her misery. Hengsheng felt sorry for her, but life must go on. He considered crafting something that could erase memory to solve Yunsu's situation, but that was for later.
Hengsheng slightly raised his head.
Before him was a cultivator army consisting of 800 cultivators; their cultivation realm was high, even the weakest among them was at the True Body Realm. All dressed the same in a black robe with gold patterns similar to his own. This was the Dark Gold Army.
Then, two figures stepped forward to greet him.
"Greetings, Chairman…" the two bowed.
One of them was Xia Zhenxue, and the other was a man named Zhang Minghao, a former loose cultivator who pledged allegiance to Hengsheng after he saved his wife's life from a fatal injury many years ago.
These two were the strongest cultivators in the Dark Gold Army—the Vice Commanders of the Dark Gold Army.
"Rise," Hengsheng said. Then he continued.
"I don't like too much ceremony, so let's get started." After his words ended, he opened the large dimensional vortex, swallowing the entire army and bringing them straight to the northern part of the Myriad Dynasty Continent.
…
A cold wind blew past him, sending his black robe fluttering.
"So this is your home?" Hengsheng asked. His eyes gazed at a place far away.
"Yes, Chairman. I haven't been back here in a hundred years." Xia Zhenxue said with nostalgia.
Hengsheng was currently standing atop a snowy mountain, gazing at the gigantic fortress.
This fortress had been carved directly into the mountain itself, part of a vast, snow-covered range that stretched endlessly in both directions, cutting off much of the northern region from the rest of the continent.
This is the Snow Fortress—the north wall that protects the Myriad Dynasty Continent from the Blood Fiend Palace's domination.
"Do you think your clan will be convinced?" Hengsheng asked.
"I don't think so…" Xia Zhenxue said in a small voice.
"That's alright. I will not be too violent with them," Hengsheng said.
"Thank you, Chairman…" Xia Zhenxue said, sighing. She knew how arrogant her people were.
Even after losing most of their territory to the Blood Fiend Palace, they still maintained the same attitude, the same one as when they still ruled the whole empire. They look down on everyone, especially someone not of royal blood.
"Let's move," Hengsheng said. Then he cast a concealment veil on himself and Xia Zhenxue. After that, he teleported directly into the Snow Fortress.
"Go lead the way," Hengsheng said.
"Follow me," Xia Zhenxue replied. She began to walk through the street, leading Hengsheng to the place where she had made an appointment with her clan.
On the way, Hengsheng looked around the fortress to see how things were going. This was not the first time he had come to this place; he had been here a few times in the past whenever he wanted to hunt demonic cultivators.
This place was a fortress, but it was more like a city of cultivators.
The ruler of this place was the Xia Clan, but they did not rule it alone. The other three dynasties from the three directions also had a presence here, since they didn't want the Xia Clan to fall to the Blood Fiend Palace—if that happened, they would be next.
There were no ordinary mortals living here since the environment outside the fortress was too harsh. Even low-rank cultivators like those in the Qi Gathering Realm could not survive in the cold of the mountain, let alone ordinary mortals.
However, this didn't mean there were no mortals at all. The mortals who lived in the fortress were all from cultivator clans.
They could only live inside the fortress, protected by the numerous formations that kept the environment inside the fortress livable for mortals or the young who had yet to start cultivating.