Chapter 171 Intersection

"...So you like Yu Qingzhou too?"

Pipa stared at the face that was almost identical to Li Xiao's and asked again.

Then she saw the boy's surprised expression, mixed with a little shame and panic.

"What did you say?!" The stunned boy asked in astonishment, as if he hadn't heard clearly.

His body involuntarily arched backward in an exaggerated manner.

Pipa watched as the boy was about to fall into the darkness below, but at the last second, she managed to steady him.

Then he sat back down in his original seat as if nothing had happened.

On the contrary, Pipa, who had been watching the whole thing from the sidelines, couldn't help but feel a chill for the other person upon seeing this.

It's like...

The one who nearly fell was not the nonchalant-looking boy in front of her, but Pipa herself.

He still lacked strength; his limbs were limp and powerless, so he was unable to make any obvious or timely response.

Only a gasp escaped its throat, stuck there, unable to escape.

Even so, the boy was still able to discern the other person's thoughts from their expression and subtle changes in their movements.

Perhaps... that's when the habit started.

—Old habits die hard.

Even though so much time has passed.

Whenever the boy sees that face from his memory, he subconsciously tries to figure out what the other person is thinking.

"Were you worried I'd fall just now?" the boy asked again, a mischievous smirk playing on his lips.

Although he used a question, his eyes and brows revealed absolute certainty, and even a hint of smugness.

"Yes," Pipa answered in a hoarse voice, but her voice had gradually calmed down.

This time, it was the boy's turn to lose his composure. He seemed surprised that the other party had admitted it so readily. He was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter as if he were overjoyed. He laughed so hard that his shoulders shook uncontrollably.

If it were a few years ago, Pipa would probably have blushed with embarrassment at the other party's inexplicable behavior.

Even now, he just quietly looks at the other person.

Pipa didn't think there was anything laughable about frankly admitting to caring about or worrying about another person.

On the contrary, the boy in front of them seemed to be acting too exaggeratedly, as if he was trying to cover something up with this sudden burst of laughter.

What could it be?

Pipa couldn't help but think back to the time when the two of them first met.

All of the boy's emotional shifts revolve around his so-called former self—that is, Yu Qingzhou.

The most recent instance was when Pipa asked the other party if they liked Yu Qingzhou.

Is such a simple question... really that hard to answer, whether it is or isn't?

There was only one possibility that Pipa could guess—the boy wasn't unwilling to answer, but rather he simply didn't want to.

In this way, the answer seems obvious.

Whether it was the young master Li they knew, or the half-demon boy they glimpsed in fragments of their past lives, they were never stingy in expressing their hatred... except when it came to the people they liked, they would stammer.

They were afraid of easily revealing the soft inner self hidden beneath their proud exterior, as if it were a life-or-death adventure.

Pipa thought that, by the same logic, the boy in front of her was probably no exception.

Of course, the major premise for making this judgment is—

The Li Xiao that Pipa knew, the half-demon who always accompanied Yu Qingzhou, and the boy in front of her should all be the same person in essence.

—Is that possible?

The boy emphasized from the very beginning that he was the half-demon that Yu Qingzhou first met in the Asura Domain.

According to Yu Qingzhou's account, Li Xiao, who followed Yu Qingzhou to cultivate and study in the Hidden Immortal Sect, seemed to have had his soul replaced as soon as he arrived at the Hidden Immortal Sect.

However, when referring to the latter, the vague term "another me" is used, rather than directly referring to it as a counterfeit.

The boy also did not acknowledge the Li Xiao that Pipa knew, but he did not deny that the latter was the reincarnation of the demon that Master Yu used to despise the most.

Assuming the boy's words did not contain any lies, how then can we explain these seemingly contradictory statements?

Perhaps it's because they are all part of the being that makes up Li Xiao...

Pipa knew that such an explanation seemed quite absurd.

—But, if you think about it carefully, it's not impossible.

Because the half-demon boy who returned to the Hidden Immortal Sect with Yu Qingzhou at that time was not actually whole.

The latter had one eye gouged out, and it was the eye that stored most of the demonic power.

The boy's memory of the strange feeling he suddenly had after Yu Qingzhou read the inscription on the jade pendant actually overlaps with a short period of time immediately after his eyes were gouged out.

In other words, the boy may not have heard his own name, but rather experienced some kind of illusion as the demonic power gradually left his body.

From that moment on, the boy developed a vague sense of detachment.

It's as if, through the 'eyes' of an observer, one is 'watching' another version of themselves make foolish mistakes and how they displease him.

—But what if this "seem" never existed in the first place?

It wasn't just a feeling; he truly saw it with his own eyes.

There shouldn't be two people in the world who are exactly the same at the same time.

Unless, they are the same person... or more accurately, different parts of the same person.

The night in the cave serves as particularly strong evidence.

According to the boy, he was pulled back into his original body by a powerful gravitational force... This actually hints at the truth from another perspective that the boy was separated from that 'original body'.

Furthermore, the boy's memories after meeting Yu Qingzhou abruptly ended on the first day they arrived at the Hidden Immortal Sect.

From then on, there were long blank spaces.

When the boy awoke again, a considerable amount of time had passed since he lost consciousness.

During that blank period for the boy, the one who stayed by Yu Qingzhou's side was a boy who was called a half-demon, but in reality, he was infinitely close to a human because he had lost his demonic power.

Regarding the latter, Pipa had the good fortune to have seen it a few times in Yu Qingzhou's memory.

The other person, like the boy in front of him, had lost an eye, except that the missing eyeball was in the same position as the one Li Xiao, whom Pipa knew, had lost... and was exactly the opposite of the boy in front of him.

— Alternatively, it can be put as perfectly complementary.

Looking back now, it seems clearer what happened between the boy's sudden loss of consciousness at the Hidden Immortal Sect and the stable appearance of Li Xiao, who is almost human.

So, it was resolutely abandoned from the very beginning...

It is indeed a part of what makes up Li Xiao's existence...

However, precisely because they are an anomaly...

Noticing the change in emotion in the other person's gaze, the boy gradually stopped laughing.

"You know what? I really don't like that look on your face."

When it comes to expressing their displeasure, the boy is indeed much more direct.

As he spoke, he casually pinched the soft flesh between the loquat's jawbone and cheek, giving it a light pinch. Seeing the latter slightly furrow her brows, his expression softened a little.

"It's as if the world is so boring and the other people trying to live in it are so pathetic."

"..."

"We are all just ants, fighting desperately to survive, so why can you stand aside?"

The boy pinched the loquat's chin and moved it closer to him.

Seeing her lips, which had been bright and beautiful from being moisturized, gradually return to their original dull appearance, she couldn't help but feel a little dissatisfied.

"The kind of thing you're talking about... I... haven't been thinking about it."

Pipa, whose cheeks were being pinched, was speaking somewhat indistinctly. The boy's shadow looming over him again made him uneasy, perhaps even a little embarrassed.

Because he remembered what the boy had done to him not long ago.

The harder you try to forget, the more you will inadvertently recall the burning heat of your lips and tongues entwined.

"Just because I don't think about it now doesn't mean I haven't thought about it before."

The boy spoke lazily, and seeing that Pipa remained silent for a moment, he couldn't help but let out a soft snort through his nose. Then he raised his chin slightly, narrowed his eyes, and revealed a contemptuous smile that said, "I knew it."

"What, you're speechless now? I knew it."

The boy spoke softly, his fingertips seemingly unintentionally tracing the edge of the loquat's lower lip, gently caressing it.

Hearing this and seeing the boy's expression as he said it, Pipa was slightly taken aback.

—This unreasonable way of speaking is exactly like the eldest son of the Li family that I know.

In a daze, it felt as if I had returned to the day we first met.

At that time, Li Xiao also looked herself up and down in the same way, then raised the corners of her mouth and gave the bewildered Pipa a beautiful but mocking smile.

Recalling the contemptuous yet pure look in the other person's eyes at that time, Pipa couldn't help but smile bitterly to herself.

—Who is truly the ant in whose eyes?

But the loquat remembers too.

That year, he supported his shattered corpse, hanging precariously in mid-air, his head unable to bend to its limit, the last thing he vaguely saw in this world.

It was the edge of the high platform, where the boy exuded an aura of sorrow.

He saw that the other person's originally light-colored hair had suddenly turned into a clean, snow-white color.

That beautiful face, once proud, domineering, and arrogant, later also gave me a fawning smile, sometimes smug, sometimes feigning grievance...

He had seen many expressions on that face... but never before had he felt so genuinely saddened as he had this time.

Perhaps, she even felt a tiny bit of attraction.

—If he really cares.

"Why are you crying for no reason?"

Hearing the boy's voice, Pipa realized that she was crying again.

Or more precisely, it was the part of his body belonging to Yu Qingzhou that was crying.

Pipa blinked, his eyes filled with a hazy heat that made it hard for him to breathe.

He opened his mouth, but what he really wanted was to breathe.

But then, as if suddenly out of control, he blurted out, "...So, how exactly did you die?"

"..."

As soon as she finished speaking, Pipa belatedly realized what she had just said. Asking someone about the cause of death so directly was undeniably abrupt.

If it were a regular loquat, she certainly wouldn't have asked such a direct question.

Maybe……

Pipa thought that the sentence she just said was actually the work of a part of Yu Qingzhou's soul from her previous life.

However, what's done is done, and there's no going back on what's already said.

Besides, this is something that loquat is also curious about.

So they decided to just go with the flow...

On the other side, upon hearing this, the boy's gaze toward the loquat changed, becoming somewhat eerie.

Pipa originally thought that upon hearing such a question, the other party might feel momentarily lost, or even become angry and embarrassed, or might even frown and throw her off the tree...

Unexpectedly, the boy laughed—

After an initial pause, the boy suddenly revealed a seductive smile.

"Want to know?" he asked in a soft, gentle voice, as if someone were sleepwalking.

The loquat sensed a dangerous aura emanating from it.

In that instant, countless images flashed through his mind.

Past life... present life...

His... Yu Qingzhou's...

The images were like shattered fragments of a mirror, chaotically mixed and overlapping, becoming indistinguishable and blurry—

Then, Pipa's head started to ache again.

Not only his head, but also his hands, feet, throat, and internal organs all felt a burning pain, as if raging fire was rising within him.

Large beads of cold sweat slid down his forehead, then seeped into the boy's palms through the gap between his cheek and fingers.

"...Want to know?" The boy changed from pinching to cupping, gently stroking the loquat's cheek, and repeated the previous question, his voice suddenly becoming light and cool.

Whether it was a misperception caused by the pain or not, for a moment Pipa felt as if she couldn't recognize the voice.

In that brief moment of hesitation, those vast fragments of memory swept over him like a tidal wave, crashing down on his head like a giant wave.

Drifting in this unfathomable sea of ​​memories.

All I could see in all directions was the undulating surface of water.

Aside from the boy who gently cupped his face and whispered in his ear... or perhaps the young man?

Now, he seemed genuinely confused... except for one thing that was absolutely certain.

In the uneasy and turbulent world in which Pipa found himself, amidst his chaotic vision and senses, only the person before him and the colossal creature behind them existed so steadily and clearly—

It's as if, in a dreamscape interwoven with endless nothingness and illusion, His existence is the only certainty and the unchanging truth.

When the same question was received for the third time from her chaotic consciousness, Pipa no longer hesitated and nodded in affirmation.

Because he knew that the other person was the only lifeline. Once missed, there might be no more chances.

He was destined to be unable to refuse Him.

Just like he did before...