Slay

Fate plays tricks on people; destiny is a cruel joke.

He found her in the next life, after nearly sixty years; he first married and had a wife and daughters, all of whom he loved.

His taut nerves felt like tiny needles pricking him. Lai Yuan raised his hand, pressing the base of his thumb against his temple. He buried his face in his hands, and a painful moan escaped his throat, "Why...why..."

"There aren't that many whys in this world. Do you want to stay with me?" Xiuya seemed to have no interest in reminiscing about the past. She ended the previous topic and asked a question accompanied by her sharp gaze. She stared intently into his eyes.

Lai Wenyi, standing not far away, had just escaped this information bombardment. She tried to accept the fact that her father and the female ghost before her were lovers from a past life, but the moment she came back to reality, she heard the ghost's question. Courage snapped out of her daze, and she ran over to grab Lai Yuan's arm, straightening up to stand before him. "How could you ask such a question? My father has never wronged you, neither in this life nor the last. Did he want what happened in the past life to happen? You yourself said that even if you could do it all over again, you couldn't be together. You can't just let him irresponsibly let his loved ones die, can you? Is love greater than family?"

Unfortunately, Xiuya didn't give her any attention, her gaze was fixed on Laiyuan's eyes, and she asked again, "Do you want to stay and keep me company?"

Her dark pupils made it impossible to discern her thoughts; perhaps there was no standard answer to this question. In this deepest basement, the light came from the flashlights of the other three people's cell phones, while Xiuya, standing in front of Laiyuan, received no light or shadow, appearing deathly pale.

“…I’m sorry.” Lai Yuan lowered his head, his usually stern face now etched with sorrow, large tears streaming down his face. He clutched his chest, the fabric creased and twisted, his sobs mingling with his explanation: “I’m sorry, I can’t, I really can’t. I can’t abandon my wife and my daughter…I’m sorry, if you’re still willing to wait for me, could you wait until my wife passes away and my daughter gets married, then I’ll come back to be with you, okay?”

Instead of being told whether it was possible or not, she was met with Xiuya's sarcastic laughter, which seemed to mock her own actions. She held her round fan and fanned herself repeatedly, even though there was no wind.

She looked up, her almond-shaped eyes darting away, unsure of where Xiuya was looking. She tilted her head slightly, a smile playing on her lips, as if frozen in place. "How pathetic, how pathetic—look, you actually thought about starting over; now I've put the choice in your hands, and you still didn't choose me; no matter how many times we start over, we can't be together. I've waited for you for too long, and I don't want to wait any longer."

Noticing the red light flashing rapidly in Xiuya's dark eyes, Wen Dai placed the urn back on the altar and instantly rushed over to pounce on Lai Yuan. However, her own arm was attacked by Xiuya again, and it was still her soul that was scratched. The burning pain spread, and her features inevitably distorted. Yet, she still had the audacity to bark and bargain, saying, "You're so ruthless! Can you be a little gentler? Have some compassion for this poor soul who has already had a piece of their soul torn away by you!"

Her arm was suddenly grabbed by a hand. Wen Dai instinctively turned around and saw Chen Sizhe hurrying forward. The man's expression was anything but pleasant; displeasure was suppressed in the corners of his face. He pulled her arm and pulled her behind him. "Knowing you were injured, you still rushed in to shield others from further wounds; what, did you actually want to stay and be with her? Or are you interested in being reduced to ashes? Or perhaps you also want to become like Wang Kun and the others, tearing your soul to pieces first, then becoming a spider with a human face. Wen Dai, don't be stubborn when you shouldn't be. I'm not dead."

With one hand pressed against her heaving chest, Wen Dai gasped for breath. Her lips, which had been pale white, were now faintly purple, and goosebumps rose on her skin. But this time, she could take the cold. She tried to suppress the clenching of her teeth. "I'm just doing my duty. Even though the customer hasn't paid yet, I still have to protect their safety. I don't care if I die or not, but the customer can't, and I can't ruin my own reputation."

"Once you die, your reputation will disappear on its own without you even having to smash it." Chen Sizhe was too lazy to waste any more words with Wen Dai. Having figured out this guy's temperament, he cast a spell to seal her acupoint in front of her, and then created a golden light shield to push her and the Lai family father and daughter into it together. Unable to move, Wen Dai wanted to curse him, but she didn't have the strength.

Compared to Wen Dai's usual appeasement policy, Chen Sizhe was much more brutal—

Xiuya manipulated the fan in her hand, unleashing countless fine needles. If someone were hit by these, their soul would be riddled with holes and likely destroyed on the spot. But Chen Sizhe was not to be underestimated. He quickly formed hand seals and chanted incantations that were difficult to understand, but the lightning sphere that suddenly appeared in this space was enough to show what kind of incantation he was chanting.

The fine needle that flew swiftly toward Chen Sizhe changed position after entering the lightning ball. Although it was bound by iron chains, Xiuya split into two and teleported to the corners of the walls on both sides. The scattered black mist regrouped, but before Xiuya could activate her magic again, five bolts of lightning struck her mercilessly.

In the brief moment of teleporting to avoid the lightning strike, Xiuya flicked her wrist a few times with her fan, and tens of thousands of human-faced spiders gradually crawled out from the five walls, attacking Chen Sizhe. Fortunately, no spiders emerged from the ground beneath his feet, otherwise he would have truly been doomed.

Wen Dai, watching from the sidelines, felt her scalp tingle. Even though she was inside the golden light barrier, she couldn't help but want to retreat. There were too many of them, one after another, each the size of a palm, with eight legs covered in fine, bristly hairs. Their heads even had human faces that were clearly visible—two pairs of eyes laid horizontally across their faces, and spider-like claws growing from their mouths.

From a distance, the wall appears completely black, with only faint, dense, light-colored dots. Even the diamond pattern that should be there is absent—a gap should appear when a spider's legs cross, but the blackness is because even that gap is occupied by a spider. The light-colored dots are human faces.

However, even the incredibly fast-moving spider couldn't get close to Chen Sizhe. Xiuya probably didn't expect that he not only knew lightning magic but also fire magic.

The true energy of thunder and fire spread outward from Chen Sizhe as the center, and the burst of thunder and fire energy burned out a vast area with overwhelming force. Crackling and popping sounds rose and fell. With the help of the fire, the lightning that struck Xiuya did not diminish, and the resulting flashes of light deprived the three people inside the golden light shield of their ability to see.

Trapped by his memories of his past life, Lai Yuan tugged at Wen Dai's arm, who was unable to move. His face was pleading, and his lips moved as he hesitated to utter a request that was difficult to say: "Could you... show mercy? I beg you, I beg you, could you please ask your partner to show mercy, not to kill her, not to kill her again?"

Lai Wenyi, her brows furrowed, glanced at Lai Yuan with a complex expression, a hint of disappointment prevailing. She stamped her foot, clenched her fist, and shouted, "Dad! Although she's suffered and been miserable, that's no excuse for her to hurt us! Did she show any mercy? She clearly intended to kill us! Wen Dai's 'heart' is still in her hands, and you're already pleading for her!"

Knowing he was in the wrong, Lai Yuan let go of his hand, his head slumped, and he stared silently at the ground.

A sharp cry of pain drew their attention, and all the spiders perished. The injured Xiuya was unable to avoid the dense lightning that descended. She was struck and first turned into scattered black mist, from which Wen Dai's 'heart' was scattered. Without Xiuya's restraint, the 'heart' spontaneously returned to Wen Dai's body.

The dispersed black mist gradually condensed again, but at a much slower pace than before. Unfortunately, Chen Sizhe was not the kind of person who would wait for his opponent to recover. Adhering to the principle of "strike while the iron is hot," he did not hesitate to bind her, unleashing the Ghost Binding Curse, and the extra lightning sword hovered above Xiuya's head as she slumped in mid-air.

"No!" Seeing that the sword was about to kill Xiuya, Laiyuan rushed out of the range protected by the golden light shield in desperation. Knowing that she was about to die, Xiuya glanced at the fan that had fallen not far from her. She endured the pain of being tightly bound by the ghost-binding curse, moved her fingers, and used her remaining strength to gather wind needles to stab towards Laiyuan.

Fortunately, Lai Yuan's forward momentum caused him to stumble a few steps forward, injuring only his arm. However, the pain of a wounded soul is incomparable to a physical injury.

The killing was abruptly halted by this unexpected turn of events. Chen Sizhe clicked his tongue, turned around, and went to help Lai Yuan. His displeased tone was sharp as it was said: "What are you doing running out here? You're the only one whose life is in danger this time. Wen Dai took the fall for you while she was injured, and now you've delivered yourself to her doorstep. How can you face her? If you're so indifferent to your own life, what have Wen Dai and I done? We should have abandoned you in the first place. Do you think Wen Dai and I would have been so stingy with such a small amount of money?"

Lai Yuan, who was in so much pain that he was sweating profusely, truly understood what Wen Dai was going through. A sense of guilt welled up inside him, and he lowered his head, his face deathly pale, and said, "I'm sorry..."

He glanced at Xiuya, who was suspended in mid-air. She calmly met his gaze, her beautiful almond-shaped eyes filled with indifference and mockery.

Stung by her gaze, Lai Yuan turned his head away, clenching his fists. He kept his head down, not daring to look at Chen Sizhe's expression. He stammered, "Can you not kill her? I know she did something wrong, but... aren't we all fine now? I know my request is unreasonable, but really—please, I'm begging you." He bent his knees forward, but he couldn't kneel down because Chen Sizhe held him back.

The man, his eyelids drooping, looked at Lai Yuan with a mocking gaze. He scoffed, "I didn't realize you were such a saint at heart. Why don't you ask her yourself whether she wants to be killed or sent back to the underworld? The hardships she endured while she was alive are real, but the evil deeds she committed after death are also real. These need to be settled, and after that, she'll have to wait for her next reincarnation. Why don't you ask her yourself whether she wants to be killed, have everything erased from her past and have her consciousness rebuilt, or whether she wants to continue to suffer in the underworld with her memories intact?"

Lai Yuan, unable to speak, murmured, turning his head to look at Xiuya again, but Xiuya was no longer looking at him.

Wen Dai, who was trapped inside the golden light barrier and could only be dragged by Lai Wenyi, was finally pulled over. She stood in front of Xiuya, with Lai Wenyi half-blocking in front of her.

Wen Dai stared intently into Xiuya's eyes, then suddenly smiled, her lips curving upwards. "Xiuya, haven't you noticed? You seem to have a hard time speaking your true feelings, especially to people you care about. Even though Li Yuan became Lai Yuan, even though you waited for him for a hundred years only to see him get married—you weren't planning to kill him just now, were you? Otherwise, that would have been too slow. You clearly wanted to wait for him to pass by first before hurting him. Is proving your hatred easier than proving your love? But the person you hate isn't even him."

"I asked you this in the illusion you created: was all you wanted just relief? You shook your head. I think you might just want an answer to a question, but you can't bring yourself to ask Li Yuan right now, can you?"

Even though Wen Dai was incapacitated, her expression was enough to break down Xiu Ya's defenses. Her unwavering gaze and resolute tone said, "You've never hurt Lai Wen Yi from beginning to end. She's a child you watched grow up. You even fulfilled her wishes. The disaster that followed was beyond your control, wasn't it? It's a chain of cause and effect, you couldn't really do anything about it, but you've always tried to avoid hurting her. You're clearly a very kind person, with the courage to tarnish your own image, but not the courage to reveal your true feelings?"

Xiuya lowered her head and turned her face to the other side, avoiding Wen Dai's gaze, her tightly pursed lips remaining still.

“Xiuya…” Lai Yuan gazed at her and called out softly.

Perhaps realizing that silence wouldn't bring her an end, Xiuya turned her head again. Her gaze passed over Laiyuan and landed on Wendai, a slight smile playing on her lips. "She really is an interesting little girl. Some truths are useless to reveal; some questions, what's the point of asking them? The answers you get might change with time, who knows if the answers he gives are true or false."

Wen Dai winked at Chen Sizhe, her tone somewhat displeased: "Quickly untie me." After Chen Sizhe finally loosened her lip, she reached out and pulled Lai Yuan to her side.

With her hand on Lai Yuan's shoulder, Wen Dai looked down at Xiu Ya and guided her, "You trust him in your heart, there's no need to let your own trust in him be blinded. You're really stubborn—maybe it's because of your pride that you don't ask? You know Lai Yuan, or rather Li Yuan, better than we do. You know his soul very well. The question is already on the tip of your tongue, so just let it come out. If you're determined to be killed, then there's no point in having pride, right? You might as well ask the question and leave without regrets."

Wen Dai's words contained a double standard, and she stared into Xiu Ya's eyes.

The voice of the immortal, who had always maintained an observer's stance, appeared in my mind: "Sometimes I really don't know why you have to meddle in so many other people's business. Someone is about to be killed and you interfere, trying to dispel her resentment and send her back into the cycle of reincarnation? She herself probably doesn't want to."