"Ji Buwang, you are me, and I am you. You don't need to harbor malice towards me."
Ji Buwang looked at his counterpart across from him, frowning slightly, speaking in a calm and composed tone.
He suddenly understood why the other person was so different from him.
Their experiences differed, their masters were different, thus shaping their distinct personalities.
His own reserved and assertive nature, coupled with his inherent wariness towards everyone, stemmed from his early environment of insecurity and loneliness.
Although he had Liu Jinghong's guidance, aside from cultivation, Liu Jinghong would not communicate anything else with him.
As for Old Ancestor Fengjian, to prevent the young him from slipping up, he also prohibited him from having too much contact with anyone.
By the time Old Ancestor Fengjian stopped restricting his actions, his personality had already been formed, and he was no longer able to trust anyone without reservation.
However, the other him had followed Xu Yi.
He might not understand Xu Yi's personality perfectly, but he had grasped at least seventy to eighty percent of it. Being by her side, he felt no pressure, only warmth and encouragement.
It turned out they had embarked on different paths from the very beginning.
"I did not take Xu Yi as my master. My master is the one who just joined the sect. Her name is Liu Jinghong."
Ji Buwang tried his best to say this in the most casual tone possible.
"Impossible! I've never met her! And my grandmaster never had a disciple named Liu Jinghong!"
The other Ji Buwang looked incredulous, his expression filled with disbelief.
"I want to know everything you've experienced. Perhaps we can find the reason."
Ji Buwang glanced towards the room of Xu Yi and Liu Jinghong, his eyes flickering with an unreadable darkness.
"I was found by my master and Ji Xiu, so they named me Ji Buwang."
"Ji Xiu? That number one swordsman of Xuan Qing Sect, Ji Xiu?"
Ji Buwang's brow twitched.
So this was the origin of his name.
But what was Xu Yi's relationship with that Ji Xiu?
Wasn't Ji Xiu Liu Jinghong's confidant?
"You don't know? Then what's your name now? Surely you aren't called Ji Buwang?"
"No, I am Ji Buwang, and also the Sect Master of Xuan Ji Sect."
Ji Buwang said indifferently, more and more questions swirling in his mind.
His experiences were completely different from the other Ji Buwang, yet they had coincidentally walked a similar path.
Was it a coincidence?
No, it felt more like someone had orchestrated it.
Intentionally guiding him in that direction, all to ensure he and that Ji Buwang ended up with the same outcome.
Ji Buwang harbored a vague suspicion, but it was fragmented, lacking a crucial clue to connect everything. He couldn't help but urge, "Continue."
"That year was the year the demon race was completely annihilated. After Master and Ji Xiu joined forces to kill the Demon King and win, they found me. My name was given by Ji Xiu, but Master, seeing my excellent talent, brought me back to Xuan Ji Sect and accepted me as her disciple."
After finishing his statement, the other Ji Buwang calmly watched his counterpart.
As expected, Ji Buwang's expression turned extremely grim, even more so than before.
"What else is different?" the other Ji Buwang asked calmly.
"The demon race, the demon race was not annihilated, and the Demon King did not die."
Not only did he not die, but he ascended with Liu Jinghong.
"What!"
The other Ji Buwang thought he was already sufficiently calm and could face any situation, but upon hearing this news, his mind was still greatly shaken.
The demon race, with their greedy and brutal nature, were the great enemies of the human race. Countless righteous cultivators had sacrificed themselves to utterly defeat the demon race, bringing peace to the Nine Provinces Continent.
"Are you still fighting the demon race then? Where is Master? Did she not kill the Demon King? She once said she would never ascend until the demon race was destroyed."
"Never ascend until the demon race is destroyed…" Ji Buwang murmured the phrase silently, but then recalled Liu Jinghong's peace treaty with the demon and monster races, feeling a sense of irony.
After a while, under the other's increasingly impatient gaze, he replied, "Although the demon race was not defeated, they were trapped in Zhuzhou and forbidden to leave. As for Xu Yi, she disappeared before Liu Jinghong joined the sect. She reappeared only after two thousand years."
"How could this be? How could this be…"
The other Ji Buwang mumbled distractedly.
He suddenly looked at Ji Buwang with a suspicious gaze.
At this moment, he too suspected that this was his inner demon.
"Liu Jinghong also established the peace treaty. I suspect there's something wrong with her," Ji Buwang said slowly.
According to the other, Xu Yi was undoubtedly an extremely powerful cultivator, as evidenced by her ability to kill the Demon King.
However, in his current life, Xu Yi had disappeared without a trace and remained unknown, while Liu Jinghong, who had never appeared before, shone brilliantly.
It was as if Liu Jinghong had usurped Xu Yi's existence.
Now, seeing Liu Jinghong again, and Liu Jinghong as she was in his youth, unsophisticated and innocent, he realized this was the perfect opportunity to uncover Liu Jinghong's secret.
"Liu Jinghong! It must be her! Where did she come from? There was no such person in my world!"
The other Ji Buwang's emotions were on the verge of collapse.
He had believed that Xu Yi would shine brightly in any world.
Because he harbored impure thoughts towards his master, he had used the law of time reincarnation to peek into Xu Yi's next life, only to get this outcome.
He could not accept it no matter what.
Ji Buwang and the now-calm counterpart cross-referenced all the information they possessed, arriving at a conclusion that left them both outrageously angry.
Liu Jinghong had stolen Xu Yi's life.
Or rather, Liu Jinghong had replicated Xu Yi's life.
The opportunities Liu Jinghong obtained in the Nine Provinces Continent, the treasures she acquired, and the achievements she accomplished were about eighty percent similar to Xu Yi's experiences in the other Ji Buwang's world.
The remaining twenty percent difference seemed more like Liu Jinghong altering the process according to her own personality.
For instance, one aspect that made Liu Jinghong the envy of countless female cultivators in the Nine Provinces Continent was her having seven confidants, each with a different personality yet all charismatic. In the end, they ascended together to the upper realm, leaving behind countless myths that sparked the imagination.
However, in the other world, Xu Yi's mind was solely focused on killing the demon race. The only person she interacted closely with was Ji Xiu, with whom she cooperated perfectly. Yet, when Xu Yi ascended, she did so alone.
Then there was Liu Jinghong's equal treaty with the demon and monster races.
Xu Yi never harbored any thoughts of peaceful coexistence with the two races.
She chose a method of defeating them one by one, first leading the righteous cultivators to attack the monster race's stronghold, sparing those who surrendered, and killing the resisting monsters to be used as refining materials.
After subjugating the monster race, she then engaged in a centuries-long war with the demon race, ultimately annihilating all demon heads, leaving none behind.
"My master has a resounding title in the Nine Provinces Continent: Ancestor Who Slays Demons. She once complained that this name was too bloody and violent, not fitting her demeanor at all."
The other Ji Buwang spoke with a nostalgic look in his eyes, recalling his beautiful memories with Xu Yi.
On the other side, Ji Buwang's eyes burned with envy. He suppressed all self-control, restraining himself from unleashing a palm strike to wake up his counterpart.