The night wind was still pinned midair by that invisible great force, pine needles frozen like iron.

Hao Yuan stared at the ring and was silent for a long time; there was no doubt—this was the Shen Family’s soul-preserving array.

He stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the ring, and spoke in an extremely calm voice that nevertheless carried the weight of many years:

“Come out?”

The tone wasn’t harsh, but it carried an invitation that could not be refused—not an order.

This was his respect for the “Shen Family’s remnant.”

Inside the ring, Lin Yu’s soul body trembled.

He knew he could no longer hide.

At the same time, a thought flashed through his mind: Could this be that Grand Elder? The one the sect leader used to vouch for Su Ming? He… really came?

Three breaths of silence.

Then, a phantom slowly drifted out from the ring.

It was not “Mysterious Dust Master”—not the white-bearded, transcendent old man image.

It was simply himself: a blurred, somewhat disheveled translucent soul body. Facial features were indistinct, only a human silhouette and those eyes that always looked a little sleepy and a little ready to be punched.

He floated in front of Su Ming, using his soul body to shield him—an instinctive protective motion.

Only then did he look at Hao Yuan, his face showing a relaxed, resigned air as if to say “what will be, will be.”

He spoke, his voice a bit dry, but still carrying that familiar irritable tone:

“Senior, your entrance… must have been costly in spiritual energy, huh?”

Hao Yuan was slightly taken aback—clearly he hadn’t expected this remnant soul to have such an attitude.

But he did not get angry. He only watched Lin Yu, watched that action—unstable as the soul body was, it still planted itself firmly in front of the youth—and a complex emotion flickered in his gaze.

It was a kind of haze formed from centuries of time collapsing into a single moment, seeing a familiar shadow in a descendant of an old acquaintance.

Hao Yuan looked at Lin Yu for a long time.

Then he asked, his voice very soft:

“Do you… know me?”

Lin Yu did not answer immediately. Genuine confusion flashed across his eyes—that confusion was real, because he truly did not recognize him. Before crossing over he had been a corporate drone; after crossing over he had always been stuck inside the ring.

Then he shook his head, voice lowered:

“No.”

A faint understanding passed through Hao Yuan’s eyes. Not disappointment, but a sigh of “as expected.”

Lin Yu was silent.

He knew he should say something now. Since he had already been stripped of the “master” persona, the only option left was to play the victim.

But playing the victim required technique—you can’t lie, not in a cultivation world where you never know whether some big shot will secretly use a truth-detecting stone or some other device. He could only let this elder fill in the blanks himself.

After all, reading comprehension was a thing he had never lost in exams.

Then he spoke, his tone as flat as if recounting someone else’s matter:

“When I woke up, my memories were fragmented.”

True—his pre-crossing memory was indeed fuzzy, and after waking he was inside the ring.

“I only know I was inside a ring, and a damaged Spirit Gathering Array was keeping my soul body from dispersing.”

True—the array existed and sustained him.

“As for where I came from, and why I’m in the ring… it’s blank.”

True—he didn’t know why he crossed over.

Hao Yuan could sense it: this remnant soul was not lying.

Soul fluctuations could not be faked, especially before someone with a Core-Form attainment; even the smallest disguise would be exposed under divine sense.

His understanding was that the soul body had been too badly damaged in that brutal battle back then, its memories nearly ground away.

Hao Yuan’s gaze shifted from the ring to that vague soul shadow, his voice very quiet:

“Then… about the Shen Family matters, do you remember anything?”

The moment Hao Yuan asked this, a flash of thought shot through Lin Yu’s mind like lightning.

Hao Yuan. Grand Elder. Core-Form True Lord.

That name—the sect leader had used it on the Heart-Questioning Platform to vouch for the “Survivor of the Shen Family.”

At the time Lin Yu had assumed—this was just the sect leader fabricating an excuse to protect Su Ming. Talk of “old ties with the Shen Family ancestor,” “life-and-death comrades,”—just rhetoric. High-level politicking often involved waving a tiger skin as a banner.

But now, this person stood before him.

Lin Yu’s soul body quivered slightly as he fought to control his emotions. The sect leader’s words might actually be true? Could such a coincidence really exist in this world?

Yet on his blurred facial outline there was no sign of shock—only a fitting blankness and puzzlement.

He quickly calculated in his mind: This True Lord believed him to be of the Shen Family. Fine—let him continue to believe that. After all, he truly did “have amnesia” and truly did “not remember” his past. That wasn’t lying.

As long as he didn’t lie, his soul fluctuations would show no crack.

Lin Yu shook his head, the movement natural, his voice carrying the emptiness washed by long years:

“I don’t remember.”

Hao Yuan was silent.

For an instant, the air that had already stiffened seemed to thicken further. A faint, nearly imperceptible dimness passed through the old man’s eyes, like wind blowing out a candle.

Lin Yu added, his tone plain as if stating a trivial fact unrelated to himself:

“All I know is that inside this ring there is a very strong Spirit Gathering Array, and I survived because of it.”

That was absolute truth. Without that array, this stray soul from another world would have dissolved into the void long ago after crossing over.

Hao Yuan slightly nodded, his gaze falling on the ring’s darkened patterns, his eyes growing distant: “That is the Shen Family’s core inheritance.”

He paused, then looked at Lin Yu and said with certainty: “That you can sense its presence and use the array to survive indicates you were at least… part of the Shen Family’s core. Only a core bloodline could trigger this array in a soul state.”

Lin Yu said nothing. He simply stayed there in silence, maintaining the posture of “I don’t understand what you’re saying, but I am deeply shaken.”

This was the crucial step of the misrecognition—Hao Yuan used his own logic to fill the blank left by Lin Yu’s amnesia.

Hao Yuan looked at Lin Yu and suddenly asked a question that seemed simple but hid subtlety:

“How long have you been inside this ring?”