Tang Minghao seemed deeply stirred by an unpleasant past, growing curt with everyone except me, his words dripping with sarcasm. "Isn't eternal life what all of you seek?" he muttered to himself, letting out a cold chuckle after a few sentences. "How absurd..." At that moment, switching to Classical Tibetan, it was the same speech Dolma Yangchen directed at the local Tibetans who had nearly fought us: "This boy (referring to me) may not have that much ability; even if you brought the King of Guge, it wouldn't matter."

Of all those present, only Dolma Yangchen and I could understand this Classical Tibetan—the vital bond between the people of Guge. After speaking, he cast a sidelong, suspicious glance at Dolma Yangchen, murmuring quietly, "How can such a young girl possess the aura of royalty..."

Dolma Yangchen regarded Tang Minghao calmly, showing neither anger nor haste.

I guessed he was largely projecting his feelings onto the object before him, making him irritable, and that his true nature wasn't so ill-intentioned. Clearing my throat, I addressed him gently, "See, I'm out now too. It must be the will of the spirits that we two come back to tell the descendants what happened back then. Wouldn't you agree?"

Tang Minghao hesitated, then looked toward Dolma Yangchen again. At some point, in her hand appeared an extremely familiar golden plaque, inlaid with turquoise and rubies, no larger than an infant's palm. On closer inspection, the red and green gems faintly formed the image of a wrathful deity, one hand raised high holding a skull, its feet firmly planted upon a corpse. Most importantly, it emitted an incredibly familiar scent—the royal aura Tang Minghao had mentioned.

In my memory, only the crown princes of Guge possessed such an item; no one other than the King and his children had the right to hold one.

After a moment, Dolma Yangchen smiled and asked me and Tang Minghao, "You two should recognize this, right?"

I nodded to Tang Minghao. He hesitated, then suddenly became docile again, bowing respectfully to Dolma Yangchen and asking uncertainly, "Princess?"

I quickly corrected him, "No, she is the King."

Hearing this, Tang Minghao's face grew stern, and he immediately begged forgiveness, addressing her as "Your Majesty, please forgive me."

They were always submissive and absolutely obedient to their King, no matter the circumstances. As for me, perhaps due to my comparatively higher status, or perhaps because the original me and Dolma Yangchen were closer, I didn't feel that master-servant dynamic toward her?

Once these formalities were complete, Dolma Yangchen put away the golden plaque and instructed Tang Minghao to follow me as I led the group forward. "I also need to know the truth," she stated. "Why did hundreds of thousands of subjects vanish without cause?"

A thought struck me, and I blurted out, "That's wrong, they didn't vanish!"

At my words, almost everyone turned to look at me, expecting an explanation, but I suddenly felt lost again. The answer provided by the memory only went this far. I looked pleadingly at Tang Minghao, hoping he could help, but he was merely a minor clerk in charge of livestock; he couldn't possibly know about matters of such high secrecy.

This development made Eighty-Seven regard the two of us even more seriously. He strictly ordered Forty-Three and Thirty-Eight to ensure our absolute safety, while he and Old Li were responsible for the security of Dolma Yangchen and Wangmu.

I still led the way, followed by Tang Minghao, Forty-Three, and Thirty-Eight. Next came Dolma Yangchen and Wangmu, with Old Li and Eighty-Seven bringing up the rear.

For some unknown reason, faint daylight seemed to filter into this cave; it wasn't completely dark, allowing us to vaguely make out more scattered bones and animal hides on the ground. It felt like revisiting a familiar place; I wasn't afraid at all, even sighing with pity for the animals that had died in failed experiments.

But even now, I didn't know what these experiments were; the person with the foreign memory (the 'me' from then?) was only in charge of one segment of the process.

After walking for a while, Tang Minghao suddenly stopped me with a look of deep concern, "Luo Lian, I’m afraid I can't control that person. I watched just now as he inexplicably flared up at everyone, and I was helpless. Plus, he said strange things I couldn't understand..."

Before I could reply, Eighty-Seven comforted and encouraged him from behind, "Luo Lian has strong willpower, which is why he can utilize the memory of that old Guge person. Don't be afraid. Just remember who you are; he is relying on your body because he needs your help, so he wouldn't dare harbor any malicious intent."

Tang Minghao let out an "Oh," seeming somewhat reassured.

I felt no fear; I had been to these places before (or rather, the owner of my foreign memory had). So, I naturally began explaining to the group, "These failed animals, monks perform rites for them after death."

As soon as I finished speaking, Tang Minghao naturally picked up right behind me, "That's proper; they made contributions to the entire kingdom."

Eighty-Seven was delighted to hear us speaking in unison, clapping his hands and laughing heartily, "Haha, this is good, this is very good. This time, it will surely work out."

Just as I was about to tell him not to celebrate too soon, my foot caught on something, and I nearly fell. Looking down, it was a yak, its brow furrowed in anger, its horns jammed into the cave wall as if struggling to pull free.

I was startled, thinking it was alive, and yelped, jumping back immediately. The others recoiled in alarm.

After a few seconds, seeing that the yak remained motionless, we regained our composure. I mocked myself, "Sigh... my nerves are shot; I actually thought it was alive. Let's go, let's go. There might be more things like this ahead, so everyone be careful." Saying this, I suddenly recalled Wangmu fighting the snow demons; she only had a dagger, yet she managed to drive back so many of them. I then instructed her, "Wangmu, take out that dagger. Protecting the princess is the priority... and be careful yourself."

Wangmu no longer argued with me, obediently drawing her dagger and complying.

After the yak, there were indeed more animals preserved in their final moments, all lifelike. I started to complain to Tang Minghao, "Why didn't you clean up better back then? In this tiny area, there are so many corpses, truly..."

Tang Minghao coldly snorted twice. "You’ll understand the gravity of it when you see more."

What followed was merely the corpse of a white snake, as thick as a child's arm, lying rigidly across the path. I thought to myself, What's so scary about that? I saw a white python feasting on corpses on Mount Qiangbake.

So, without changing my expression, I strode confidently over it. Tang Minghao called out, "Look closer at this snake; is there anything strange about it?"

I turned and glanced back a couple of times, shaking my head.

Tang Minghao squatted down by himself, wrapped his hand in cloth, and pried the snake's mouth open for everyone to see.

I was greatly intrigued, stared intently, and saw that the dead snake had no fangs left in its mouth; only a long, needle-like tongue stretched straight out.

"This is...?"

Tang Minghao stood up, dusted off his hands, and looked around at us, rather smugly declaring, "This... you didn't know about this one, did you? This is a Spider Snake, one of our creations. Haha."

A Spider Snake? I seemed to recall something about this. "It’s a mutated species bred by your subordinates, right? It has the body of a snake but the hunting habits of a spider?" I asked uncertainly.

"We aren't simple folk either, are we?" Tang Minghao laughed heartily. "Let's go, let's go. It’s nothing too formidable."

But Dolma Yangchen gasped, "I've seen this before!"

I hadn't quite processed it yet, thinking to myself, What other strange things could there be?

"On Mount Qiangbake, that white python, it injected its venom into that Japanese man. After his flesh and bones dissolved into fluid, it then sucked it dry..." Dolma Yangchen's voice began to tremble. "Luo Lian, Li Zeng, you both saw it..."

Her words instantly brought back the memory of the pinkish fluid oozing from the Japanese corpse, sucked dry by the white python, leaving nothing but an empty skin. Thinking of it sent a wave of goosebumps crawling across my skin.

"Let's go, let's go..." This snake looked too much like it was alive. I felt profoundly uneasy, terrified it might suddenly spring back to life, and rushed everyone to hurry along.

Eighty-Seven, however, showed no fear at all. He excitedly clapped my shoulder and Tang Minghao's, grinning, "We've finally found the right path now. You two have worked hard."

I remained silent, trying hard to recall what happened to those animals whose experiments had failed, and what the nature of this mutated snake truly was.

This made my pace naturally slow. Tang Minghao, still basking in his pride, asked me somewhat arrogantly, "Well? Were you shocked by my masterpiece?"

I remained unmoved and retorted flatly, "Based on your own efforts alone?"

Tang Minghao seemed to have hit a sore spot. He let out two short, dry laughs and mumbled, "No... no... don't tell the King, this has nothing to do with me."

Seeing that he understood the hint, I didn't press him further and continued to lead the way.

By this time, the animal carcasses on the path began to increase—mostly yaks, but also goats, snakes, rats, cats, and dogs. They were so densely packed that for one stretch, there was no clear ground to step on. As I forged ahead, my scalp prickled constantly.

Eighty-Seven jokingly chided Tang Minghao from behind, "Why didn't you clean up all these things back then? Leaving them scattered everywhere."

Tang Minghao replied, "Do you think it was that simple? We still had to look out for ourselves, to have something to look forward to. Otherwise, if everyone achieved immortality, the ones who put in the most effort would end up dead—is that fair?"

Eighty-Seven teased back, "That's true, that's true... so you spent some effort doing other things, cultivating animals similar to the Spider Snake?"

Tang Minghao hurriedly denied it, "No, no, no, that has nothing to do with me. Don't say such things in front of the King." It seemed he was truly being controlled by the 'person' inside his body, unable to distinguish between reality and the past.

At this moment, Dolma Yangchen said softly, "I won't blame you."

Tang Minghao asked, "Really?"

Dolma Yangchen confirmed, "Of course."

Tang Minghao instantly let out a long sigh of relief, as if a great weight had been lifted. "That's good then. I was afraid the King would blame me for breeding such aberrations and punish me, which is why I stayed under the priests and dared not act on my own accord. In fact, they made mistakes several times..."