Re-birth: The Beginning after the End - Chapter 234

Chapter 234: FRIENDS OR FOES
Li Hua turned her attention to the nearby shelves, scanning for materials that might provide context. She carefully selected several ancient scrolls and began examining them. “What specific information are you hoping to find in these archives?”

“I want to determine if other souls from our original realms were sent to this world,” Mo Xing replied, his voice carefully neutral despite the profound implications of such a possibility.

Li Hua looked up from the ancient scroll, her mind immediately grasping the significance. “You think we might not be the only ones who crossed into this world? That others from our original existence might have found pathways here as well?”

He nodded, golden eyes revealing a wariness that had been honed across countless lifetimes. “Yes. Friends or foes, allies or adversaries—all possibilities exist. Though identifying such entities would be challenging, especially if they’ve undergone multiple reincarnations.”

Li Hua pursed her lips, fingers absently tracing the edge of the scroll as she considered the implications. She had now lived through three distinct incarnations—her original celestial existence, her modern Earth life, and her current cultivation world identity. Each had formed connections, created relationships, established networks of allies and enemies. The possibility that beings from these separate existences might have converged in this realm was both fascinating and unsettling.

“Is it possible,” she asked slowly, her gaze returning to the dimensional map, “that I might encounter souls I’ve met in both my previous lives? People who existed in my original celestial realm who also somehow appeared in my modern Earth incarnation?”

The question seemed absurd when voiced aloud—the statistical improbability of such convergence would be astronomical. Yet something in her spiritual core resonated with the possibility, as if certain threads of fate were too strong to be severed even by dimensional boundaries.

“It still unsettles me that you existed in a world where I couldn’t be by your side,” Mo Xing admitted, a shadow of possessiveness briefly darkening his features. “The thought of you living an entire lifetime beyond my reach…”

He left the sentiment unfinished, but Li Hua felt the weight of it.

“Though perhaps it’s better this way,” he continued with surprising gentleness. “Had I found a way to your Earth incarnation, the probability of actually finding you among billions would have been infinitesimal. And even if by some miracle we had met, neither of us would have recognized the other.” His lips curved into a smile that balanced between wonder and relief. “This world, with its cultivation paths that resonated with our original essences, provided the framework needed for our reunion.”

He stepped behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and drawing her against his chest. Li Hua leaned into his embrace, allowing herself this moment of physical connection amidst the weightier concerns. His lips found the sensitive curve where her neck met her shoulder, placing gentle kisses that sent pleasant shivers through her.

“I am thankful beyond words,” he murmured against her skin. “That among infinite possibilities and countless worlds, we found our way back to each other. The odds we’ve defied to be standing here together… it makes me believe that some connections truly transcend the laws of existence itself.”

The raw emotion in his voice—so different from the calculated control he typically maintained—touched something deep within Li Hua.

Placing the scroll back down, Li Hua turned around and looked into his eyes. “I am thankful as well,” she said softly, her words carrying the weight of multiple lifetimes’ experience.

Rising on her toes, she pressed her lips to his in a gentle kiss that spoke of connection beyond mere physical attraction. She felt his fingers thread through her silken strands, the gentle pressure making her heart flutter as he cradled the back of her head. She pulled back, slightly breathless, and said, “Come. Let’s see if our search bears fruit.”

Mo Xing chuckled and nodded, reluctantly releasing her from his embrace to turn his attention to a collection of ancient scrolls arranged on a nearby shelf. His fingers traced the indices with practiced familiarity, as if he had spent countless hours in similar archives across the centuries.

As she watched him, Li Hua couldn’t help but smile, even as she felt the internal tension of her fragmented identities seeking integration. The three distinct lives she had lived warred within her consciousness, each with its own perspective and emotional patterns.

In her first life, she had been a Celestial Princess—privileged, powerful, and protected. That incarnation had known the freedom that came with absolute security, the happiness of a being who had never questioned her place in the cosmic order until meeting a certain golden-eyed emperor from a forbidden realm. That original self had been both spoiled and generous, impulsive yet capable of profound spiritual insights that challenged even ancient immortals.

In her second life, she had experienced the opposite extreme—abandoned as a child and molded into an emotionless assassin who killed in cold blood, each mission reinforcing the walls around what remained of her heart. That incarnation had moved through the modern world like a ghost, leaving only corpses to mark her passage, until eventually transitioning her deadly efficiency to the corporate realm.

As a CEO, she had redirected her calculated precision from physical elimination to business domination, her ability to identify and exploit weaknesses making her as formidable in boardrooms as she had once been in shadow operations. That life had known neither true connection nor spiritual fulfillment, only the hollow satisfaction of perfect execution and accumulated power.

She turned back to her own research and realized that perhaps these weren’t competing personalities at all, but essential aspects of a complete being—compassion tempered by pragmatism, power guided by experience, ambition balanced by wisdom. The full restoration of her memories might not replace her current self but enhance it, creating something greater than any single incarnation could achieve alone.

Suddenly, Li Hua thought about Little Firefly. During her week of intimacy with Mo Xing, she had maintained a spiritual barrier between her consciousness and the spirit beast, deliberately keeping him at a distance. The thought of having the irreverent creature privy to such private moments had been too mortifying to contemplate—his tendency toward inappropriate commentary would have been most unwelcome during such vulnerable exchanges. She chuckled softly to herself as a blush crept onto her cheeks at the mere thought of what he might have said.

But now, standing amid ancient knowledge that might help restore her fragmented memories, she recognized that Little Firefly represented another piece of her cosmic puzzle. The spirit beast had been with her since her second life, yet clearly possessed knowledge of her original celestial existence. Perhaps with his insights combined with the fragments she had recovered during her reunion with Mo Xing, they could piece together more of their shared history.

With deliberate intent, Li Hua dissolved the spiritual barrier she had maintained around her thoughts, reopening the connection to her bound spirit companion.

The effect was immediate. Little Firefly’s presence rushed back into her consciousness with the enthusiasm of a neglected pet finally allowed back inside after being left in the rain.