Moon-Venerable was a bit unconvinced. "I really think that's what it means! You're not truly Shepherd Heavenly Venerable, so how do you know I'm overthinking it?"
Quinn Shepherd shook his head and didn’t bother to explain further.
The name Muqing was taken from Quinn Shepherd and Qin Fenix Greenwood. Back then, he thought he was Qin Fenix Greenwood, but now he no longer believes that.
Moon-Venerable watched him, her gaze flickering, thinking to herself, "He probably isn't Cloud-Venerable, probably not..."
They returned to Sky-River Heaven Court. Moon-Venerable immediately ordered the human gods to head for God-Emperor Jadecrest’s domain and relocate the humans there. She went to find Venerable Skysoar, only to see her still by the Celestial River, engrossed in her research on the so-called Invariant Divine Art.
"Sister Ling, Shepherd Heavenly Venerable has come to an agreement with God-Emperor Jadecrest. The humans in Jadecrest’s domain can now be relocated, and we’ll need your help... Did you find your hairpin?" Moon-Venerable looked at the hairpin on Venerable Skysoar’s head, surprised.
Venerable Skysoar snapped out of her reverie, raised her hand to touch her head, and sure enough, felt her hairpin. Puzzled, she said, "I was sure I’d lost it—how did it turn up again?"
She took the peach-wood hairpin off, examined it over and over, and grew even more confused. The peach-wood hairpin had clearly disappeared, and no amount of searching could find it, yet now it had inexplicably appeared again, leaving her bewildered.
She put the peach-wood hairpin in her mouth and bit it, freed up her hands to coil her hair, and then stuck the hairpin back in place. "Moon, what did you just say? I didn’t catch that."
Moon-Venerable had to repeat herself. Venerable Skysoar was somewhat unwilling, but since this was official business, she reluctantly put aside her research and went along.
Quinn Shepherd hurriedly stashed the hairpin back into the Qin-character continent. Venerable Skysoar found herself still biting down on the hairpin, stunned for a moment. Suddenly, something dawned on her and she muttered, "Matter is not easy, matter is not easy... Could it be that another identical object appeared and replaced my hairpin? I should be able to calculate the principle behind this!"
She crouched down, using the hairpin as a pen to scribble equations and diagrams on the ground.
Moon-Venerable was startled too, glancing around nervously. Quinn quickly hid behind Dragon-Qilin.
Moon-Venerable failed to spot whoever was stealing and returning the hairpin. Venerable Skysoar had slipped back into her mad scientist trance, ignoring her completely, so Moon-Venerable had no choice but to look for someone else.
Quinn Shepherd's expression was odd as he thought, "When two identical objects exist in the same world, one will replace the other. In other words, if I return to an era where another me exists, that other me will vanish. Only after I leave does the other me reappear."
He was lost in thought. The vertical eye at his brow was effectively an independent spacetime, containing the Qin-character continent, the Taichu Primal Stone, and the Heavenly Emperor eggshell—forming another world altogether.
If he put the hairpin inside, it would be isolated from the Dragon-Han era's world, so Venerable Skysoar's hairpin would reappear. As soon as Quinn took the hairpin out, hers would vanish.
"My vertical eye also hides the corpses of Cloud-Venerable and Madam Yuanmu. If I were to take out Cloud-Venerable's body, would the Cloud-Venerable of this era disappear?"
Quinn blinked, thinking, "If I just take it out for a moment, it shouldn't matter, right? Should I give it a try?"
Thinking of this, he grew excited and hurried to the Lingxiao Hall in the Sky-Han Heavenly Court, telling Yan'er and Dragon-Qilin to guard the doors and keep outsiders from entering.