Chapter 55 Ring Domain Allocation (4) Let's just snatch her away! ...

Looking at the smiling face in front of her, Xia Ying suddenly realized something.

No, we can't let the other party lead us by the nose.

She declared confidently, "Ultimately, everyone likes me because I'm cute, so it's not my fault!"

“Yes, you are well aware of how attractive you are to creatures of the abyss, and on many occasions, you even deliberately exploit that,” the reflection in the mirror said. “But do you truly understand the cost of doing so?”

"Lord of Demons, Taotie, and now you, everyone seems to think that what I'm doing is a reckless, moth-to-a-flame situation, but that's not actually the case."

Xia Ying sighed softly.

"But you're right about one thing. The greed of abyssal creatures is insatiable. If left unchecked, they will eventually be devoured by their bottomless desires... But don't you think this insatiable nature is similar to something else?"

“They are overly intoxicated by the omnipotence that power brings, while at the same time feeling deeply uneasy about things outside of their understanding. Although driven by primal emotions and physiological impulses, they also fear that desires will completely control them.” Xia Ying’s tone was almost full of pity. “It sounds clumsy, doesn’t it?”

The reflection in the mirror said, "Even so, abyssal creatures are still deadly to humans."

“You’re right, but even in this respect they’re very similar to babies.” Xia Ying readily agreed. “These poor creatures can barely understand ‘love,’ and even if they do experience that emotion, they find it difficult to distinguish it from desire…”

She paused slightly, a strange tenderness appearing in her expression: "But that's precisely why I can be their mother."

The reflection in the mirror raised its voice slightly in doubt at the end: "Mother?"

"Like a mother, I will teach them how to find themselves in chaotic desires and how to suppress immediate impulses for more sweetness. I will give them appropriate rewards, but punishment is equally necessary."

Xia Ying replied.

"Of course I use them sometimes, and they know it all too well, but so what? As long as they can get love and be loved from me, those children are willing to do anything."

“I fully understand your thoughts, but I still think I should warn you,” the reflection in the mirror said. “You have indeed found a dangerous balance, but this fragile stability cannot last forever. Once it is broken, you may find yourself in a very miserable situation.”

"Considering that you are actually a reflection of my consciousness, it seems I am not entirely without worries about this." Xia Ying smiled slightly. "Thank you for reminding me. I will try my best to postpone this day."

The reflection in the mirror said, "Alright, let's get back to the main topic and talk about the ring you should belong to..."

"Excuse me, but before that, I have one more question for you," Xia Ying interrupted her. "Since you originated from my subconscious, do you also possess all my memories?"

The other person affirmed, "Yes, including those you think you've forgotten."

She then asked, "Can you recreate a specific memory?"

"Of course." Without her having to say anything more, the woman in front of her already understood her wish.

The woman stepped forward and lightly touched Xia Ying's forehead with her fingertips. Xia Ying's figure shattered suddenly, like a reflection in water or a flower in a mirror, and the scene around her changed instantly.

Xia Ying was still in the same apartment, but the decorations and furniture had changed, and Xia Ying's perspective on these things had also subtly shifted.

She reached out and touched the photo frame hanging on the wall, confirming that her height had indeed shrunk considerably, and muttered to herself, "So this is how tall I was when I was ten years old."

When Xia Ying was ten years old, her life took a dramatic turn.

The memories she relived came from a day that turned her life upside down.

Xia Ying, who was in the middle of it, remained calm and did not show any tension or pain in recalling this experience. On the contrary, she was gazing at the photo frame on the wall with nostalgia.

At this time, this corner was still decorated by Xia Kaiyun herself, and most of them were photos of her and Xia Ying. Xia Ying looked at herself in the photos and gradually transformed from a small baby in her mother's arms into a lively girl who loved to laugh and move around.

She smiled knowingly at a candid photo of herself embarrassingly falling while skateboarding, then turned her gaze to a solo photo of Xia Kaiyun.

In the photo, Xia Kaiyun, with her long hair tied up, is wearing a black suit and stands in the spotlight, looking calmly at something outside the frame.

"This is a photo from the awards ceremony, right?" Xia Ying muttered to herself. "I can't find this photo anymore. Did my aunt take it?"

At that moment, someone opened the door, and the long-dormant memories were wiped clean and began to flow again.

Xia Kaiyun took off her coat more quickly than usual, hung it on the coat rack, and then tiptoed behind Xia Ying, covering her eyes.

"Ta-da! Guess what I've prepared?"

Xia Ying paused for a moment, and the correct answer immediately came to mind, but in the process of recalling the past, she could only give the same answer as before: "I can't guess, what is it?"

"You're right if you can't guess." Xia Kaiyun released Xia Ying, conjured a huge gift box from the cabinet, and said expectantly, "Open it, hurry up and open it!"

They sat on the ground like two little girls, excitedly unwrapping the colorful gift boxes tied with shimmering ribbons that you only see in foreign movies, taking out the gifts stuffed inside one by one.

While Xia Ying turned her head away, Xia Kaiyun secretly set off a confetti cannon. Xia Ying screamed with joy and reached out to catch the small pieces of paper that were falling down.

"Happy birthday, Xia Ying!" Xia Kaiyun said. "The cake won't arrive until tonight. Let's go out and play for a while, anywhere is fine."

She noticed her daughter glance at the photo frames on the wall again, and followed suit: "Let's hang up the photos we took today too. Where would you like to put them?"

Xia Ying pointed to the photo next to Xia Kaiyun's solo picture: "There!"

"good."

Xia Kaiyun smiled, and then the scene changed, showing the two of them traveling together to the beach.

It was a perfectly sunny, ordinary workday. Most cars were crammed into the city center, but Xia Kaiyun's car leisurely drove towards the outskirts. Under the blue sky and white clouds, Xia Ying, who had luxuriously taken a whole day off from school to celebrate her birthday, was so happy she felt like she was floating on air.

Looking back now, that phone call was the turning point of the day, or rather, the turning point of Xia Ying and Xia Kaiyun's peaceful life.

Xia Kaiyun hung up the phone. The soul of Xia Ying, hidden in the body of a ten-year-old, was now focused intently on her face, capturing every slightest detail.

Xia Kaiyun raised her head and smiled, but Xia Ying did not miss the fleeting moment of sadness and bitterness in her eyes.

A sudden pain struck Xia Ying's brain, and the scene before her eyes began to sway.

"Of all days, it has to be today." In the blurry, distorted image, she heard Xia Kaiyun say softly, "I'm sorry, Xia Ying."

Her vision suddenly went dark, and her memory was interrupted. When her consciousness cleared again, Xia Ying was already in the hospital.

Amidst the cold, sterile smell of disinfectant, only her aunt Xia Siyun stayed by her bedside, weeping as she brought her the news of her mother's death.

Xia Ying lost Xia Kaiyun on her tenth birthday.

Her memory shattered when she reached this point, and Xia Ying returned to Room 1008 of Building C. Her reflection reappeared in the mirror, and she recounted what happened afterward.

"Although it may be hard to believe, Xia Kaiyun's death is undeniable. The police investigated the scene and ultimately determined it to be an accidental death caused by a car accident."

The woman stated her story calmly yet cruelly.

"Because of Xia Kaiyun's scientific achievements, some media reported on the unfortunate passing of this young scholar, but people almost immediately forgot about it. To this day, even Xia Siyun probably rarely thinks of her anymore... Xia Ying, only you are still brooding over this accident."

“I’ve always felt that something was wrong with this,” Xia Ying murmured. “Why do I have no memory of what happened? Why did Mom apologize to me? Maybe it wasn’t an accident at all.”

The reflection in the mirror retorted, "Are you saying that Xia Kaiyun had a premonition that something bad was going to happen to her? Do you think she died by suicide?"

“I don’t know, but there are just too many unnatural things about it,” Xia Ying said. “Can’t you help me recover the part of my memory that I lost about the accident?”

The reflection sighed, "The absence of this memory may be due to a subconscious self-protection mechanism. Forcibly digging it up might damage your soul. Are you sure you want to do that?"

Xia Ying replied without hesitation, "Of course."

The reflection in the mirror stopped trying to persuade her; her figure disappeared again, and Xia Ying returned to the car from that day.

In this memory replay, both the images and sounds were unusually chaotic. Xia Ying heard the wind howling in her ears, and the screen flashed past her eyes in a chaotic manner with snow-like flashes and noise.

Amidst all this distraction, she struggled to open her eyes and looked ahead, vaguely seeing a blue and white horizon, and above that horizon, the clouds were split into a giant gape, as if an abyss was hanging down.

What's this?

Just as a vague guess began to form in her mind, a dazzling halo fell from the abyss into the human world, and countless eyeballs covering it rolled together, all looking at Xia Ying.

Xia Ying suddenly broke free from the scene and fell to the ground due to the intense pain. The reflection that looked very similar to her and Xia Kaiyun walked towards her.

“That’s right, that’s why you came to Cocytus,” she said. “After meeting Cerberus, you learned of the existence of the Demon Realm. Various clues led you to connect the Demon Realm with Xia Kaiyun’s death, so you devoted yourself to finding an entrance that could connect to it. In the end, you paid a huge price to find Cocytus…”

Xia Ying raised her face, panting, and smiled at her: "I did the right thing, didn't I?"

“I can’t refute that.” The woman crouched down, looking into Xia Ying’s eyes. “So, which ring domain do you belong to?”

"To achieve your goal, you are not afraid to take any risks. After entering Cocytus, you accepted the bloodshed and violence that are everywhere here at an extraordinary speed. Even the King of the Ring cannot deny your courage and radicalism. In this regard, you should be very suitable for the Crimson Crown Ring."

"However, your actions are not entirely reckless. You are thoughtful, patient, and know how to calculate your own value and that of other abyssal creatures. The Shadowscale Ring will not refuse you."

"On the other hand, can an ordinary human girl really have such drive and determination? Aren't you being a bit too stubborn and obsessive? This trait is quite compatible with the Tomb Ring."

"Of course, if you believe you should belong to the Feast Ring, the fact that you can coexist well with abyssal creatures is a sufficient reason."

Finally, the reflection in the mirror asked a question.

"How do you truly know yourself? Tell me which region you will be heading to, Xia Ying. The choice is entirely yours."

#####

Xia Ying's time in the mirror world was exceptionally long.

Cerberus gradually became agitated and began to suspect that Xia Ying might have encountered some kind of danger in the magical artifact. Just as he was about to lose his composure, Xia Ying finally reappeared.

Cerberus finally breathed a sigh of relief, then he noticed Xia Ying turn slightly to face him and subtly beckon him with her finger.

Upon closer inspection, it seemed she was mouthing something to herself.

"Prepare..." he unconsciously read aloud, "Prepare...to escape?"

At this moment, a commotion arose in the stands, and Qiongqi, standing next to Cerberus, asked in confusion, "Why is there no mark?"

Cerberus's gaze suddenly fell to Xia Ying's feet, only to find that the mirror surface, where the Ring Domain emblem should have appeared, was covered by mist, and nothing was there.

Fafnir was also watching the mirror, but unlike Fafnir, he immediately looked away after confirming that the ring domain allocation results had not appeared. He first glanced at the other stands, and then locked his gaze on Xia Ying in the auditorium.

Before the other ring-kings could react, the dragon flapped its membranous wings and took the initiative.

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Author's Note: There will be one more chapter today, but it may not be before midnight.