64 Mirage Mirror (IV)
◎ "Why is your face red?"◎
"Senior Brother, Atang..."
Every call was lost in the air. The girl wrapped her clothes tightly and walked forward step by step against the strong wind.
She didn't know why, she just wanted to go out to look for someone, but when she opened the door, she was outside the house. There was an endless desert around her, and the hut was no longer visible.
"Brothers—where are you—" Qiu Yan cupped her hands into a cylinder shape and shouted in a drawn-out voice, but the only response she got was the wind blowing from all directions.
"Where have all the people gone?" she murmured to herself. Suddenly, she heard a few subtle noises and saw a stone rolling to her feet, as if thrown by someone from behind.
She turned around immediately, but before she could utter the word "Senior Brother", her vision suddenly went dark, as if she had fallen into a bottomless black hole.
Qiuyan was so frightened that she stepped back repeatedly, but found that the soft touch of the sand under her feet was no longer there. She looked up and was surprised to find that the person walking towards her was a person who looked exactly like her.
"Who... are you?" She asked with a trembling voice, but found that the other person's every move was completely synchronized with hers.
It was not a living person, but just a mirror.
Before she could let out a sigh of relief, she turned her head and saw another face of her own.
“…”
What the hell is this place?! Is she surrounded by mirrors?
Qiuyan clenched her sleeves tightly, not daring to shout out loud like she did just now.
The thought of countless "selves" shouting along made her skin crawl with goose bumps.
"Yan'er, what are you doing here?"
The old man in white appeared at some point, and then several mirrors shattered one after another. She saw her face gradually distorted in the sound of the mirrors breaking one after another.
Qiuyan's eyes lit up, and she immediately ran forward, happily asking, "Master?"
Immortal Xuande looked at her and said, "I ordered the two of you to go down the mountain to exorcise the evil spirit. Why did you end up here? Where's Lingfei? He's not with you."
He peppered her with three questions, yet Qiuyan showed no sign of panic. She had encountered many strange things along the way, nearly losing her life each time. Now, separated from the others and alone in this terrifying place, she was overjoyed to encounter her master. She immediately recounted everything that had happened.
"Master, why did you come here?" She said it in one breath and asked this question casually. However, she was not really concerned about the answer. She just hoped that the master could take her out of here, rescue her senior brother and other fellow Taoists, leave here and never set foot in the demon world again.
Xuande Immortal Venerable's face darkened, and he asked quietly, "Did you lose the things that Master gave you?"
Qiuyan raised her eyes and noticed that her master's expression was not right. She hurriedly explained, "Master, please forgive us. We... my senior brother and I had no choice but to protect the safety of others..."
She thought, it was just a talisman, and her master would definitely not bother with her.
Unexpectedly, the next moment, she felt her neck tighten and her legs were pinched off the ground.
Qiuyan opened her eyes wide and said in astonishment, "Master, what are you doing..."
The force on her neck suddenly increased, and she could hardly breathe. She could no longer utter the rest of the words, and could only weakly try to push the hand down.
"Save people? Humph, do you know what that thing is? How can it be compared with their worthless lives?!" Immortal Xuande's eyes were filled with anger, and the veins on the back of his hands bulged, as if he wanted to strangle her to death on the spot.
"I..." She could no longer utter a complete sentence, and her heart felt cold.
Master...how could he say such a thing?
How could the word "worthless life" come out of Master's mouth?
But the spiritual power that was threatening her life right now was indeed created by her master...
The scene in front of her eyes became increasingly blurry. A second before she lost consciousness, the hand that was pinching her neck suddenly disappeared. She fell down, staggering and half-kneeling on the ground.
"Junior sister..."
A hand reached out to hold her arm, and Qiuyan's body tilted as she was half-dragged and half-pulled up.
Her eyelashes couldn't stop trembling, "Brother?"
Qu Lingfei supported her with both hands. Seeing her dazed look, his heart ached. "Junior sister, you...what happened to you just now?"
"I..." Qiuyan was stunned for a moment, then, as if she had made up her mind, she spoke in a trembling voice, "I saw Master..."
"Master?" Before she could finish, Qu Lingfei's eyes lit up and he immediately asked, "That's great! Where is he? Let's go now..."
Halfway through his words, his gaze fell on Qiuyan's face, and he immediately changed the subject: "Junior Sister, why... do you look like that? Shouldn't you be happy to see Master?"
"I want to be happy too. I was happy at first, too. I thought I would never see Master again." Qiu Yan brushed off his hand and squatted down again, burying her head in her arms. Her shoulders twitched uncontrollably. "But...but he wants to kill me..."
"Kill you? How is that possible..." Qu Lingfei was shocked and was about to refute when he suddenly realized that this place was too weird. He was afraid that what his junior sister saw just now was just an illusion, not the real master.
He squatted down beside her, gently patted her shoulder to comfort her, "Junior Sister, that's not true. Master is so kind and cares about us so much, how could he... want to kill you?"
Yes, the sudden appearance of so many mirrors just now was probably just an illusion created by the "Master." She raised her head slowly, her voice choking with sobs: "I... I shouldn't have doubted the Master, but, just now..."
"It's not your fault," Qu Lingfei consoled her. He then stood up and glanced around. Everywhere he looked, there were faces like each other. It seemed as if there was no right path to take. He sighed softly and said, "If only Master were here right now, it would be great."
Qiu Yan calmed her breathing, held on to his arm and slowly stood up. Looking around, the mirror that had just been shattered on the ground had disappeared, and the familiar desert came into view.
"If I had known this would happen, I should have fought those monsters to the death today. It would be better than dying here." She said dejectedly, and suddenly raised her head. A familiar figure appeared in front of her.
The girl was smiling at her with her head tilted.
"Atang?!"
She rubbed her eyes in disbelief, then ran quickly, but suddenly her back felt tight and she was pulled back.
Qu Lingfei pulled her behind him, raised his arms to protect her, his brows furrowed.
"Be careful, she's not Atang!"
*
There was silence all around, and the only sound that could be heard was the slightly accelerating heartbeat in the chest.
Take him... home?
The boy took a half step back and turned his face away stiffly. "I don't understand what you are saying."
The bloody bandage appeared in his peripheral vision. He glanced at the fragments reflecting the light, his eyes changed slightly, and he raised his hand and swung it casually. An arc of light immediately shattered it.
Hearing the sound of the mirror breaking, Li Jintang turned around to look, but he pinched her jaw and forced her to look straight at him.
His voice was somewhat obscure: "What did you just see?"
"I……"
Xie Changyan lowered his eyes and waited quietly for her answer.
However, she did not answer the question directly. Instead, she turned around stubbornly, picked up the shattered pieces one by one, held them in the palm of her hand, and gently covered them with her other hand.
He was puzzled: "What?"
Li Jintang raised his head slightly and smiled, then moved his hand away and stretched his palm in front of him.
It was a complete lens, almost the same as it was before it was broken, and the reflected light flickered slightly in his eyes.
"The mirror can be repaired, and so can other things." She blinked her eyes, her voice extremely serious. "Xie An, even though Brother Qu and the others hate people from the Demon Realm, they should be able to distinguish right from wrong. You didn't do anything, so we can't just deal with you as well. If you don't want them to know, I will definitely keep it a secret for you, but you don't have to be so secretive with me in the future."
"If you'd like, I can try to repair your jade pendant."
She...knows everything?
His eyelids twitched a few times, and his drooping eyelashes hid the rare panic in his eyes. "What else did you see?"
"It's...about your childhood." She lowered her voice, still determined to keep his life story secret.
Xie An is already so pitiful. If he knew that he had witnessed the death of his clansmen, he would probably be even more unbearable, right?
"You..." He frowned slightly, as if thinking about something difficult to say, "Didn't you see anyone?"
Li Jintang answered truthfully, "Besides you, there were only those who bullied you." After she finished speaking, she worried about bringing back bad memories for him, so she hurriedly said, "It's all in the past, Xie An. If they dare to come again, I... I'll fight them off for you."
"I will protect you."
His expression softened slightly, and upon hearing this, his eyebrows raised slightly, his lips curled into a sneer: "What makes you think I'm a good person?" After saying this, he pointed a finger at her palm and said, "Even if it is repaired, it will never shine as brightly as it did before. The same goes for other things."
Li Jintang was stunned by the question, then smiled and said, "We've been together for so long, I can't possibly not know what kind of person you are. Some people don't need solid evidence to be trusted."
The boy's pupils shrank slightly, and the corners of his lips lowered a little bit. The coldness that had just gathered in his eyes disappeared in an instant.
She didn't notice the change in his expression, and continued to talk to herself, "Although it can't shine for the time being, as long as it returns to its original state, everything will be possible."
"Naive." He shook his body and turned away from her. Suddenly, a golden light flashed and a cluster of flames jumped out from his palm.
She looked at him strangely: "Xie An, what are you going to do?"
"Mirage Mirror, burn it before you can leave."
The flames grew stronger and stronger. His hand hanging by his side trembled. He said calmly, "If you don't want to get burned, you'd better not stay too far away from me."
This time she understood. Li Jintang hesitated for a moment, picked up the fortune book with one hand, and slowly moved towards him. Finally, her whole body was almost pressed against him, and the end of her hair brushed the side of his face.
The fire surrounded them, and there were bursts of crackling sounds in her ears. She suddenly felt the temperature of her palms getting hot. She looked up and asked in surprise, "Xie An, why is your face red?"
It would have been better if he hadn't asked this question. As soon as he asked it, the tips of his ears seemed to turn red.
Xie Changyan turned his head, his eyelashes trembling slightly, casting a fine shadow in the firelight.
"What do you think?" he asked in a stiff voice.
She immediately understood - she was really stupid. The temperature was so high right now, wasn't it normal to blush from the heat?
After an unknown amount of time, the fire gradually died down, and her palms suddenly felt empty. She raised her eyes and saw that there was nothing around her, and she was the only one there.
Her heartbeat suddenly accelerated, and she called out anxiously, "Xie An?"
"Kid, look over there!" Mingshu reminded urgently.
Li Jintang turned his head and saw several people standing on each side.
"Tang'er, you've worked hard these days." The girl stood in the light, smiling slightly and opening her arms towards her. "Come, I'll take you home."
"Sister?!"
Li Jintang was slightly startled, but he heeded the reminder from the Book of Destiny: "What you are seeing now is all an illusion. It is up to you to decide who to follow."
Who are you going with? Is there anyone else here?
Suddenly, a faint cry was heard. She turned around hesitantly and saw the young man who had just appeared in the debris half-kneeling, his body covered with scars, his eyes black, and he looked very pitiful.
"I……"
If this is an illusion...
Li Jintang did not hesitate too much. She glanced at her elder sister, then turned and walked towards Xiao Xie An.
The moment she turned her back, her sister's figure disappeared silently into the air.
She walked forward without looking back, thinking to herself: After all, I'll have more time to spend with my sister when I get home, but what about Xie An? No one has ever helped him, he's always been alone. After all these years, he must feel lonely and scared, right?
Even if it was an illusion, she wanted to give him some warmth.
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