Yan Qing turned around, and when she saw who it was, she couldn't help but be startled.
Is this person still Chu Jiang?
In just a short while, this person seemed to have aged prematurely overnight. Not only was his hair gray and his skin wrinkled, but he also had difficulty walking.
Is this still the spirited Chu Jiang she knew? The handsome man who could captivate anyone with just a glance?
"Chu Jiang, what happened to you?"
As she spoke, the changes in Chu Jiang's body continued. His skin began to be covered with bluish-black spots, and his fingernails fell off one by one, revealing strands of bluish-black flesh mixed with bright red blood, making him look extremely miserable.
Chu Jiang raised his arm; he barely had the strength to walk anymore.
Yan Qing quickly ran over to help him up, "Are you alright?"
Chu Jiang grabbed her arm tightly with his other hand, using almost all his strength, and asked, word by word,
"What—what—did you—do?!"
His gaze fell on the stone bed, where the woman in red was no longer present.
"You...you killed her?"
Yan Qing suddenly realized that this person's transformation was definitely related to the woman in red.
"I--"
Just as she was about to speak, it suddenly started raining in the Heavenly Palace.
Tick-tock, tick-tock...
The raindrops landed on Yan Qing's palm, effectively silencing the words she was about to utter. She then realized that the raindrops on her palm were actually golden.
"Golden rain?"
The next moment, she clearly felt that the wounds, large and small, on her body were healing rapidly. Before long, Yan Qing had fully recovered.
In stark contrast to her was Chu Jiang standing beside her.
Golden raindrops fell on him, each drop feeling as if it were scorching his soul. He was in excruciating pain, but he couldn't even muster the strength to open his mouth. He could only use his last bit of strength to curl himself up.
Seeing his pained expression, Yan Qing felt a pang of sorrow in her heart for some reason.
"You—" She reached out her hand to Chu Jiang's side, unable to continue.
Tick-tock, tick-tock...
The golden rain fell for a full fifteen minutes before finally stopping.
Yan Qing looked up, and in the pitch-black night, a rainbow faintly appeared. However, this rainbow seemed somewhat different from the ones she usually saw; in terms of shape, it even resembled the legendary Seven Treasures of Buddhism.
Gold, silver, lapis lazuli, coral, giant clam shell, red pearl, agate... seven distinctly shaped precious lights swirled above my head before slowly dissipating.
After a while, Chu Jiang seemed to finally feel a little better. He raised his head, looked at the remaining Cao Guang above him, and a bitter smile appeared on his lips.
"This old monk ultimately chose this path..."
"You mean, Master Yijing? What happened to him?" Yan Qing suddenly had a bad feeling. She had already sensed something was wrong when the old monk spoke first; could it be—?
Chu Jiang raised his head, and Yan Qing discovered that his appearance had somehow returned to normal, still as handsome as ever, making her dizzy. However, the swelling from his neck down seemed to have worsened.
"Alas—it seems I have indeed been cursed by the Cave God. My only wish in this life has ultimately failed. Qingqing—she is destined to be a hopeless dream for me."
Chu Jiang's gaze passed over Yan Qing's face, seemingly fixed on somewhere else.
Yan Qing subconsciously touched her face. She knew that the girl named "Qingqing" looked exactly like her.
He didn't utter a single word of sorrow, but Yan Qing clearly sensed it. She wanted to comfort Chu Jiang, but couldn't utter a single word.
"you--"
"Thank you, Yan Qing."
Chu Jiang's sudden gratitude left her somewhat flustered, and for a moment, she didn't know where to put her hands.
Chu Jiang smiled, this time without a trace of malice. He tried his best to raise his arm, as if he wanted to touch Yan Qing's hair, but then pressed it down halfway.
"Yan Qing, close your eyes, I have something to tell you—"
After her vision went completely black, Chu Jiang's voice became the only warmth she heard.
"Yan Qing, more than a hundred years ago, you saved me, didn't you?"
Yan Qing opened her mouth, but someone covered it.
"You don't need to answer me. I already know some of the answers."
“You and Qingqing are completely different personalities. Qingqing is very stubborn, and sometimes she won’t even listen to me. After meeting you, I often think that compared to you, she is so much worse, but why can’t I fall in love with you? Even though you two have the exact same face.”
At this point, he sighed, "I was originally a disciple of the Xuanmen sect who was wholeheartedly dedicated to upholding justice. When I was about to leave the mountain after completing my studies, my sect forced me to separate my soul from my body, otherwise they would never allow me to leave. Looking back now, I realize that I was part of the old monk's scheme from the very beginning."
"All the disciples of Tianxuan Sect who went down the mountain were people with incomplete souls. It seems that old ghost Yi Jing was planning a collective net, determined that we had to go to Cangyun Mountain."
His tone was somewhat self-deprecating, "After I went down the mountain, my strength declined a lot. A sudden cold almost killed me. It was around that time that I met Qingqing—she took care of me tirelessly for three days and three nights, finally snatching me back from the clutches of death."
“From that day on, I vowed that I would never let her down in this lifetime. We were very happy traveling together. But not long after we got engaged, Qingqing suddenly left a note and disappeared. For a whole year, I didn’t know where she went.”
"A year later, the old monk actually asked someone to tell me that he had found Qingqing's whereabouts in Cangyun Mountain. But when I went there, I found that she had become the Fallen Flower Cave Maiden. You probably already know the rest of the story."
Chu Jiang suddenly stopped. Yan Qing had her eyes closed, but she could clearly feel him scrutinizing her closely. However, his eyes remained covered.
"So—" she spoke up, "you went to find the Azure Dragon carrying the coffin in order to resurrect her?"
“Yes.” Chu Jiang paused, then continued, “When I first saw you, I thought she had come back to find me. But later, I realized that you are not her. However, I want her to come back, so you must die.”
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