empty phase
The wind brought the foul smell from the river surface, and it felt sticky and cold when it hit my face.
Yunxiu was suspended in the air, his eyes fixed on the muddy river water below. The cloth shoes embroidered with fish patterns were still swaying gently, as if telling something silently.
She slowly turned her head and looked behind her at Yan Xiu and Ying Tang. Their silhouettes stretched out in the twilight, both silent, not one of them contradicting her words.
So, Yunxiu asked again. His voice was very soft, but it was like a stone hitting the empty ruins.
"Actually... you didn't go back to the past, did you?"
Yingtang's shoulders trembled violently, and her fingertips unconsciously dug into her palms, leaving deep red marks. She opened her mouth, as if to argue, but the words turned into a faint sigh that dissipated in the wind.
There was a hint of red in Yunxiu's eyes, but she didn't cry, only her voice trembled slightly.
"Tell me, why does Luoxia Town look exactly like the 'previous life' in Wu Yi's memory? Why are there only ruins left in every village I fly over? Why... you never tell me what happened in my previous life?"
Yan Xiu's Adam's apple moved, but he didn't say a word in the end.
Yunxiu took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
"From the time I came down the mountain..." Yunxiu's gaze drifted into the distance, as if he was seeing the past through the twilight.
"That's all in your calculations, right?"
She remembered it clearly. That day, carrying the sycamore leaf talisman given by Wu Yi, she sneaked out of the secret passage and landed in an unfamiliar forest. Later, she followed the crowd to the market and saw the shop owner selling steamed buns, the young woman eating melon seeds, and the old woman selling clay figurines.
"What a lively market... What a pity it's fake." Yunxiu's voice was filled with self-mockery, "I thought it was set up by Zhihuan... But those peanuts..."
Yunxiu looked directly at Yan Xiu: "Right, Senior Brother. Are you trying to get me to go find Zhi Huan, or are you trying to keep the current situation in the human world a secret?"
She remembered the coolness of the clay figurine when she touched it, and the old lady's unchanging smile...
Where was the human world then? It was a carefully woven cage, a fantasy world that belonged only to her.
Yunxiu's gaze fell on Yan Xiu. "You said the black-robed man had created an illusion, but I later realized it wasn't Zhi Huan's idea. Zhi Huan wanted the divine essence within me; there was no need to go to such lengths to create a harmless human market. Only someone familiar with my preferences could create such an illusion."
Yan Xiu's fingertips trembled, and the scabbard of the Broken Water Sword gently knocked against the stone slab, making a slight sound.
"I... don't want you to take any risks."
"You don't want me to take any risks?"
Yunxiu smiled.
"So you used illusions to trick me? You made me think I was truly seeing the human world, that the world below the mountain was still peaceful? But do you know how ridiculous I was when I saw the real Luoxia Town? In the end, you discovered that I was just living in a dream you wove, deceiving myself?"
She paused, and recalled the scene at Qinglan Sect: those Baicao Valley disciples wearing green medicine bags, those distant sect monks, and Zhi Huan who called himself Huanqing.
"And the Qinglan Sect."
Yunxiu's voice became deeper.
"I've always felt something was amiss. The Baicao Valley disciples clearly came down the mountain together, yet they stood so far apart, as if they didn't know each other. A taller person stepped on a smaller one's foot, but the smaller one didn't react at all, continuing to talk to himself. At the time, I thought it was because the rules down there were different, but now I think it wasn't a rule at all; it was a loophole in the illusion. Those 'people' had no consciousness of their own; they were simply following a predetermined trajectory."
She remembered the Qinglan Sect disciple she met when she registered, the strange voice that asked her why she was so humble, and the strange scene when all the Baicao Valley disciples turned to look at her.
Those people were not real at all, but illusions created to trap her.
"And then there's the old lady who sold the little white bird clay figurine," Yunxiu added. "I kept the clay figurine she gave me, but after the Qinglan Sect illusion was broken, it disappeared. I thought I'd lost it at the time, but now I understand it wasn't real at all. It was just a phantom in the illusion, and once the illusion was broken, it naturally dissipated."
Yingtang couldn't help but shed tears.
Yan Xiu didn't deny it, but whispered, "I thought... that would protect you."
"I remember one more thing."
Yunxiu's gaze fell on the white jade statue on his heart, and his fingertips gently touched the cold jade.
"Actually, as soon as I woke up, I could hear your voices and feel your emotions. But after I came down the mountain, at the market, and in the Qinglan Sect, I couldn't hear the voices of any strangers. At the time, I thought there was something wrong with my ability, but now I understand that it's not a problem with my ability, but that those people are simply not real. Shadows in an illusion have no consciousness of their own, so naturally they can't have voices."
Yan Xiu remained silent.
Her question just now was like a stone thrown into a deep pool, only splashing two silent ripples.
Yan Xiu lowered his eyes, the tassel of the Broken Water Sword swaying gently in the wind, but he never raised his eyes to meet hers; Yingtang moved his lips several times, but finally swallowed his words.
No one answered.
Yunxiu suddenly felt a little ridiculous. From the illusion of the Qinglan Sect to the ruins of Luoxia Town, from Wu Yi disappearing on the mountain path to the silence before her eyes, she was like a puppet, following their "plan" all the way, but not getting a single word of truth.
She looked down at the muddy river water beneath her feet. The cloth shoes embroidered with fish patterns still swayed with the waves, the silk thread at the toe long since soaked in black mud, its original color no longer visible. The scene was exactly the same as Wu Yi's memory, even the angle of the river breeze was exactly the same.
It turns out that the so-called "rebirth" and the so-called "change of ending" are nothing but a self-deceiving lie.
The world had long been destroyed. Those lives she thought she could save, those tragedies she thought she could avert, had already become traces on the scorched earth long before she knew it.
Then what's the point of her doing all this?
Zhi Huan wants to revive the ancient god, Yan Xiu and Ying Tang want to "protect" her, and Wu Yi disappears to cover her retreat.
They are all struggling for a world that has long been broken.
Yunxiu raised his hand and touched the corner of his eyes. There were no tears. Even the tears seemed to have been frozen by the coldness in his chest.
It was really strange that she was thinking of the short and leisurely days in the bamboo house at this moment, the banyan saplings planted by Yingtang, the pheasant roasted by Wuyi, and the way Yan Xiu taught her to practice sword. Those scenes were like ice-hardened needles, piercing her heart and making it ache.
It turns out that the stability was just another illusion they wove.
"Let's go."
Yunxiu stopped looking at Yan Xiu and Ying Tang and flew towards Yaoxi Mountain. Divine power spread from her fingertips, condensing into a thin film of light around her body, completely blocking out the wind's resistance.
She flew fast, faster than ever before. Pine needles rustled past her ears, creating a rustling sound. The trees below her retreated rapidly, gradually transforming from the charred black of the ruins into the deep green of the mountain forest. In the distance, the outline of Yaoxi Mountain grew clearer and clearer, the halo of its summit like a dying star, looming through the clouds.
Yan Xiu and Yingtang followed closely behind.
Yan Xiu's flying skills were already superb, but at this moment he deliberately slowed down his speed, always keeping a distance of two meters behind Yun Xiu.
He looked at Yunxiu's resolute back, and at the unstable fluctuations of divine power that occasionally leaked out from the cold white light film around her. His Adam's apple moved, and he tried to speak several times, but was blocked by the bitterness on the tip of his tongue.
What should he say? That the destruction of the previous life was even more tragic? That they didn't know how to salvage it? That he had fabricated the lie of "rebirth" just to give her the courage to live?
These words were so pale, so pale that even he himself found them ridiculous.
Yingtang's condition was even worse. She wasn't good at flying to begin with, and having already expended most of her energy chasing Yunxiu, she could only muster the pale green energy to support her body. Cold sweat oozed from her forehead, trickling down her cheeks and onto her robe, leaving a small, dark, wet mark.
People are like this, when the words are on the tip of their tongue, they just can't say them.
Three people, one in front and two behind, silently shuttled through the mountains and forests.
The wind is getting stronger and stronger.
Just as Yunxiu was about to reach the gate of Yaoxi Mountain, she suddenly felt a faint, pleading breath coming from behind her.
It’s Yingtang.
She paused, without looking back, but could clearly "hear" the voice in Yingtang's heart, like a thin string trembling gently:
"Xiaoyou, wait for me... I'll tell you everything... I'm sorry..."
Yunxiu's fingertips trembled. She actually wanted to wait. She wanted to know what happened in her previous life, to know if Wu Yi could really come back, to know if they still had a chance...
If she could be resurrected, what about the frozen human world? What about those who died?
But at this moment, a biting chill suddenly came from behind.
Yunxiu was the first to react. The moment she reacted, she had already flown out—
It was not the cold wind from the mountains, but the cold white divine power that belonged to Zhihuan, carrying a bitter smell of sulfur!
The force came too fast and too suddenly, like a flash of lightning that streaked across the sky and headed straight for Yingtang's back!
"Senior Sister!"
Yingtang was a bit slow to react. She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but before she could do anything, she felt a sharp pain in her back.
A long sword emitting a cold white light pierced straight through her chest from the back!
“Puff—”
The sound of a blade piercing flesh was remarkably clear in the empty forest. Blood gushed from Yingtang's chest like a fountain, splashing onto Yunxiu's plain robe in front of him, leaving a glaring dark red.
"Senior Sister!"
Yunxiu had never flown so fast before, like lightning - but he only managed to hug Yingtang.
Just like Yingtang had hugged her countless times before.
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