Chapter 272 Jinjiang
Xie Jiaojiao, who had just disappeared, reappeared in front of Yan Shixun without him noticing.
He didn't even see how Xie Jiaojiao appeared here.
Ye Li also frowned slightly, and the look he gave Xie Jiaojiao was gloomier than ever before.
After the decline of the Great Dao, the power belonging to Heaven and Earth gradually declined. As one waxed and waned, humans slowly gained the absolute upper hand, and ghosts and gods could no longer be born between Heaven and Earth.
Ye Li knows this aspect better than any other exorcist.
No matter which path to ascend to the throne of a ghost or god, the weak avenues have done their best to block it, not allowing the already declining power to disperse again. Otherwise, the world will only collapse faster.
If we unite as one, there is still a glimmer of hope, even if it is slim, the Tao will never give up.
Therefore, Jing Xiaobao was born and Yan Shixun came into the world.
The Great Dao is exhausting all its accumulated strength in a final attempt to save itself from the dead end.
But even so, light gives birth to darkness, and the cycle of Tai Chi Yin and Yang continues.
When there is hope for life, there will also be a corresponding crisis that is far beyond the limits of human cognition, which wants to crush the last hope of life in death.
Just like Jing Xiaobao who eventually became a ghost.
He didn't make it out alive.
Therefore, the only one who survived with the evil ghost in his bones became the one that all the evil ghosts and monsters were eyeing and wanted to kill.
The miracle named Yan Shixun was the chance of survival that Li Chengyun had managed to obtain after he had exhausted the last bit of strength in his meridians.
More than ten years ago, in a remote and noisy market, when the ghost and the evil ghost looked at each other, the ghost chose to accept the candy handed to him by the evil ghost, and their cause and effect began to entangle.
The evil ghost was thus engulfed in bones and from then on was included in the protection sphere of the ghosts and gods. All the ghosts retreated when they saw him and dared not approach.
Even thousands of years ago, Fengdu was a mysterious place hidden in legends for all exorcists, and many people tried to explore it but died along the way.
No living person can accurately record the appearance of Fengdu, let alone the lord of Fengdu.
And...the alternation of the old and the new in Fengdu.
However, Ye Li, the lord of Fengdu, was well aware of the blood and death paved on his path to the gods and ghosts.
It is not an easy matter for ghosts and gods to ascend to the throne, not to mention that the great way is now in decline and the ghost baby wants to replace it with the ghost way.
Yan Shixun might not have noticed it, but when Ye Li saw Xie Jiaojiao again, he keenly realized that although the other party had become a ghost or god, he did not have a real name for it.
The heaven and earth have not yet recognized Xie Jiaojiao's identity as a ghost.
The Avenue...has not given up on saving itself.
The Great Dao still looked down at Yan Shixun, waiting for a miracle to bring life to the deadly situation.
Just like the 81 difficulties, without the last one, one can never become a god.
And if Xie Jiaojiao wants to force the approval of heaven and earth, there is only one way.
——Completely cut off the last hope of the Avenue.
Yan Shixun, who was possessed by an evil ghost, died in a ghost play.
Only in this way can Xie Jiaojiao be considered to have achieved perfection and become known as a ghost or god.
The yin and yang of the Tao contend with each other, but only one remains.
Ye Li's cold gaze fell on Xie Jiaojiao, his sharp eyebrows were like blades, his rage to the extreme was compressed into bone-chilling coldness, his pale lips were tightly pursed, the majestic aura around him was enough to hurt anyone, god or ghost.
Xie Jiaojiao also noticed this overly strong gaze.
She raised her rosy lips and looked extremely beautiful when she smiled, like a work that a craftsman had spent his entire life carving.
"Ah... I understand."
Xie Jiaojiao tilted her head and smiled sweetly at Ye Li: "You like this evil ghost, don't you? But what can I do? We are both ghosts and gods, you want to protect him, but I want him too."
"How about this? We each keep half of his, that would be fair."
The moment he heard what Xie Jiaojiao said, the ghostly aura in Ye Li suddenly surged.
The red lanterns hanging high in the theater began to shake violently. The crimson light and shadow flickered unclearly, projected on Ye Li's stern face, and looked particularly eerie and terrifying in the flickering light and dark.
If Yan Shixun had not been there at the moment, and considering the people in the program crew who were valued and protected by Yan Shixun, Ye Li would even want to directly overturn the theater and kill the ghost baby who was ignorant of the heaven and earth and dared to touch his beloved ghost exorcist in front of him, so that she would regret having the idea of targeting Yan Shixun.
Yan Shixun also felt Ye Li's terrifying aura, which was different from usual. He frowned slightly and looked sideways at Ye Li, but he didn't know why Xie Jiaojiao said such words to Ye Li.
To sow discord? Or something else.
Just by listening to the information revealed by Xie Jiaojiao's words, Yan Shixun knew that Xie Jiaojiao must have a real intention hidden behind her words that was not made clear.
He didn't think that the ghost baby really had any thoughts about him. He had never let down his guard, so his first reaction after hearing what Xie Jiaojiao said was -
Xie Jiaojiao wanted to stay in the ghost show.
And this is not just some wilful act of a little girl.
Now even Xie Lin is dead.
Yan Shixun knew very well that even if he left the ghost show immediately and returned to reality, he would not be able to save Xie Lin's dissipated soul even with all his magical powers.
From then on, there was no longer any person named Xie Lin in heaven or on earth. This soul could no longer enter the cycle of reincarnation and could only remain in the ghost play forever.
Just as he had hoped, he always stayed with Xie Jiaojiao.
If you don’t treat a person who wants to die, you can’t save his soul.
Yan Shixun was not worried about Xie Lin. He was just wondering why Xie Jiaojiao, who was able to see Ye Li's identity, would say such provocative words to Ye Li, and really wanted to keep him in the ghost show.
Is he the one that causes any changes?
Many speculations flashed through Yan Shixun's mind.
But Ye Li did not answer Yan Shixun's doubts.
A hurricane rose up from where he was standing, and in an instant it blew away all the surrounding bricks and stones, making a huge bang.
The broken stones and bricks were blown towards Xie Jiaojiao, but when they were still some distance away from her, they were blocked by an invisible force, hovering in the air, and then fell and hit the ground again.
Because of Ye Li's attack, Xie Jiaojiao's smiling face turned cold. She looked at Ye Li with resentment, and her hands that were hugging the little puppet gradually tightened.
The moment the little puppet raised its head in her arms and looked towards Ye Li, a human figure slowly emerged in the shadows surrounding the theater.
There was no warmth in Ye Li's gaze, it was as cold as a glacier.
But when he looked up at the darkness surrounding the theater, the wooden puppets whose figures were gradually revealed did not retreat in fear to Yeli like the ghosts in the past, but continued to move forward against the strong wind.
The limbs and torso of the wooden puppet were soon injured by the evil spirit from Yeli, and wood chips and blood flew everywhere along with the remaining limbs.
But the next second, their limbs grew back from the damaged parts, as if they were newly born.
When Ye Li saw this scene, his narrow eyes darkened.
Although the ghost baby was surrounded by ghost energy, what she felt was vitality. Life and death were integrated like the movement of the sun and the moon.
He can kill the ghost babies thousands or tens of thousands of times, but the ghost babies will rely on the power of perception to be reborn again, and even gain more powerful strength during their own cycle of life and death.
Far more difficult than normal.
What made Ye Li even more wary was the familiar feeling coming from Xie Jiaojiao.
He had sensed this feeling since he and Yan Shixun fell into the theater, but when Xie Jiaojiao used her power, this feeling became even more vivid.
During the thousand years he had traveled, he had also fought against this power.
This familiar feeling is...
The former master of Fengdu.
At this moment, Ye Li understood why the ghost baby was born and even grew up.
——Xie Jiaojiao’s power base comes from old Fengdu.
This power supported the revenge and killing in the early stage of the ghost baby's growth, like the core of the initial snowball. Then, in the alternation of death and rebirth, it kept getting bigger and bigger, until it became something that even the heaven and earth could not do anything about.
Ye Li slowly raised his eyes, his cold and indifferent gaze piercing through the flying blood and body parts in the sky, and looked at Xie Jiaojiao who was standing not far away.
The little girl was wearing a beautiful dress, her white and slender legs were straight, and she was holding the little puppet in her arms. She looked well-behaved and cute, just like an ordinary child in real life.
But when the smile disappeared from her face, it was as if the last bit of her humanity was taken away, leaving her cold and dead, like a delicate lifeless doll.
When Xie Jiaojiao saw Ye Li's expression, she first raised her eyebrows in surprise. She didn't expect that this ghost could see through her origins.
But soon, she started laughing again.
"What a bad guy, trying to bully Jiaojiao. But it doesn't matter."
Xie Jiaojiao smiled happily: "I have my brother to protect me. With my brother around, he will never let me get hurt again...right, brother?"
The little puppet in Xie Jiaojiao's arms made a "cluck" sound, as if responding to her words.
At the same time, the attacks from the wooden puppets from all directions became increasingly intense.
Ye Li's eyes became fierce, and he reacted quickly by stretching out his long arm and jumping up with Yan Shixun beside him.
At the same time, a loud "bang" sound came from where they were standing, and something tried to come out from under the broken bricks and stones.
Yan Shixun subconsciously placed one hand on Ye Li's arm. When he heard the sound, he looked over quickly. However, when he saw clearly what was buried under the bricks and stones, his pupils shrank.
——Under the hard bricks and stones, densely packed with highly decomposed corpses, there were also the remains of wood carvings scattered among them.
There are not only villagers from the Bai village, but also many unfamiliar faces.
Although the clothes worn by those people had been corroded by blood and moisture, it was still possible to see that they were obviously different from the bodies of the surrounding villagers, with a clear gap in time.
They are not from the village.
It could be a passerby, a tourist, or someone else passing by White Paper Lake.
And judging by the style of their clothes and the degree of decay, they must have died here recently.
In a flash, Yan Shixun looked at the corpse slowly sitting up from the soil, and suddenly understood what was going on in the theater they were in.
The female puppet sitting behind the curtain in the theater in the lake where Zhang Wubing dragged him before was Xie Jiaojiao's mother.
She was trapped here because of her resentment. She couldn't leave and didn't want to go. She could only take care of her two children, and witness with her own eyes the murderers who caused the death of her and her daughter, who were trapped in torment day after day.
Xie Jiaojiao's mother's resentment built her theater and performed her plays.
Xie Jiaojiao's own resentment and anger rebuilt a new theater in the ghost show.
After Yan Shixun failed in his attempt to attack the ghost baby, he was swallowed by the ghost baby along with the entire village and mountains around him. As a result, he also arrived at the core area of Xie Jiaojiao's soul.
The basis for the ghost baby's growth is resentment.
She died before she was born, and this resentment was supported by tremendous power when she drowned in the White Paper Lake. Therefore, her core, like her mother, was built in the White Paper Lake.
The theater is the embodiment of Xie Jiaojiao's soul. The resentment turns into lake water, protecting the theater, but also preventing all ghosts, including Xie Jiaojiao herself, from leaving.
Death and anger, the corpses of enemies, the lives that have been killed...all the tragedy and hatred in Xie Jiaojiao's life are condensed here.
And because Xie Jiaojiao wanted to put Xie Lin to a safe place, they who were with Xie Lin at the time did not fall into the lake, but woke up in the theater.
Yan Shixun also knew the reason why the ghost baby was able to grow.
Love from Xie Lin.
And Xie Jiaojiao's own slaughter of life.
Because Xie Lin truly regarded Xie Jiaojiao as an ordinary child, Xie Jiaojiao, who grew up in love, forgot all the death and anger in the past, responded to Xie Lin's expectations, and grew up innocently.
But the pain of being kidnapped made Xie Jiaojiao recall what happened before she met Xie Lin, and she turned back into the ghost baby she was back then, heading west from Binhai City to the southwest where she died.
Ghosts will gain extraordinary power at the place where they die and are buried, and their anger makes them even more terrifying.
The bodies of the villagers killed by Zheng Shumu became nutrients to raise his younger sister.
Guilt and self-blame made Zheng Shumu extremely pamper his lost and found sister. As he himself said, no matter what his sister said, he had to agree.
The ghost baby is growing.
But the deaths in the Bai village were soon not enough to support her, so she began to set her sights on passers-by.
Because the Southwest is vast and the terrain is rugged and changeable, many cyclists and backpackers who are attracted by the beauty of the Southwest have reported disappearance or death.
Those messages were treated as news reports, but they failed to make much of a splash and were soon forgotten, except for a few sympathetic or abusive comments.
Yan Shixun had seen the news and knew that some families of missing persons would seek out exorcists to try to figure out the whereabouts of the missing persons.
But because it is located in the southwest, few exorcists are willing to take on such tasks.
When Yan Shixun met his colleagues by chance before, he also heard them complain that it was a thankless job and there was no need to risk their lives in the southwest for a few dollars.
But he never thought that those travelers who disappeared in the southwest would also be related to Xie Jiaojiao.
Among the many disappearances, many of the disappearances that occurred around Baizhi Lake were murders committed by Xie Jiaojiao.
Yan Shixun guessed that Li Chengyun might have heard about it from Zheng Shumu or discovered the secret behind Xie Jiaojiao.
One of the functions of the ebony statue is to trap Xie Jiaojiao here, so that her power can no longer spread outward and hurt other people.
Li Chengyun couldn't kill Xie Jiaojiao for the time being, and he also needed to find the real ghosts and gods that could support the world, rather than new ghosts and gods like the ghost baby who had evil intentions. So, he chose to suppress Xie Jiaojiao.
Unfortunately, Li Chengyun's only way out of the dead end collapsed due to the loss of the ebony statue.
After the ebony idol was taken from young people on a trip, disappearances around White Paper Lake began to occur again.
In the theater belonging to Xie Jiaojiao, corpses covered the ground and formed the walls.
The ghost baby is powerful, but is forever trapped in the pain of childhood.
She was afraid that someone would hurt her, and she was afraid that the people around her would leave her and give bad people an opportunity to take advantage of her.
She wants to protect herself.
It is understandable that ordinary people have such thoughts.
But the one who came up with this idea now was a ghost baby with unusually powerful strength, who could put all her ideas into reality.
However, the method used to achieve it is far more cruel and malicious than that of ordinary people.
Regardless of whether it would harm other lives or whether it is not allowed by heaven and earth.
As long as she kills everyone before they can hurt her, won't anyone be able to bully her anymore?
As long as she turns the person she loves into a statue, won't the person never be able to leave her side again?
The ghost baby thought so and did so.
The piles of corpses that built up the theater were the best proof of that.
Yan Shixun lowered his head in Ye Li's arms at the rotten corpses that were rushing towards them. For a moment, he was stunned by the truth he had discovered.
Then, his brows were filled with cold anger.
The guilt towards Xie Jiaojiao engulfed the lives of three people.
Master Bai and Zheng Shumu stayed in Baizhi Lake forever, while Xie Lin died.
But Xie Jiaojiao was not satisfied.
She was like an insecure child, constantly trying to prove that she was safe. Anyone who approached her or Baizhi Lake would be considered by her as someone who wanted to hurt her, and would be killed first.
Thank you, Jiao, Jiao——!
Yan Shixun's eyes were as sharp as lightning, and he turned his head and looked straight at Xie Jiaojiao.
"You want me to stay in the ghost show?"
Yan Shixun's voice was very cold: "But what can I do? I don't want to stay here. Whenever I see you with murderous ghosts all over your body, I just feel sick."
"How about this?"
Yan Shixun slowly pushed away Ye Li who was protecting him in his arms, stepped firmly on the ground, and walked towards Xie Jiaojiao.
"I won't stay for the ghost show. Besides that, I will take away all the souls that don't belong here."
The shadow spread all the way from the foot of Yeli, wrapping up Yan Shixun's shadow.
Black fog swirled around Yan Shixun, and countless evil spirits were looming in it, roaring and screaming towards Xie Jiaojiao, shaking the heavens and the earth.
Just like the soldiers who are ordered to fight by the commander, they are willing to obey the commander's orders and guard the place even until death.
On the road where Yan Shixun was walking, the rotten corpses that rushed towards him were blown away by the black fog before they could get close to him.
His black coat was blown up by the strong wind, fluttering violently in the wind, with an astonishing momentum.
In the crimson darkness, only Yan Shixun's eyes were bright as a sword drawn from its sheath, sharp and unstoppable.
When Xie Jiaojiao saw Yan Shixun like this, she was stunned at first, and then her pretty face was stained with jealousy and hatred, and the gloomy and ghostly aura distorted her originally delicate facial features.
"As a ghost exorcist in the human world, you are naive and dreamy, thinking that the world is really as beautiful as what is written in your scriptures... I cannot understand why the Great Dao chose you. Why? Just because you have a good background and are born to be loved by the Great Dao?"
Xie Jiaojiao's voice was cold and venomous.
"A ghost exorcist like you who comes from a good family must have lived in praise and flowers all his life, right?"
"You haven't experienced what I've seen, so what qualifications do you have to accuse me from a high position?"
Xie Jiaojiao stared at Yan Shixun, her eyes gradually turning red. "Where were you when my mother and I drowned in the cold lake? I was kidnapped by bad guys, and watched a person like my mother being killed right in front of me...where were you?"
"No one has ever helped me, so why can't I take revenge on my own!"
Xie Jiaojiao's chest heaved violently, and her thin shoulders trembled. The injuries she had suffered in the past two times were so severe that she could not bear to mention them. Anger made her violent.
Her hysterical screams were deafening: "Damn them all! Everyone should die!"
All the perpetrators, all those who stood by and watched, all those who allowed the harm to develop... all of them should die!!!
On top of that, the ghost baby's path took shape.
Xie Jiaojiao's anger and violent strength stirred up the lake outside the theater. The waves hit the walls around the theater fiercely, making a huge sound. The shaking of the ground made people panic whether this place would be swallowed by the lake.
But with the support of the power from Yeli, Yan Shixun took every step very steadily, and the anger from the ghost baby could not affect him at all.
Even now he was in the midst of a ghost play, isolated from the heavens and earth and the four gods.
But as Ye Li once said to Yan Shixun——
“Call on my name, and I will be your God.”
Ye Li slowly raised his arm, and under his bony fingers, the ancient and mysterious Fengdu Seal gradually took shape and appeared in the air.
His cold eyes rarely showed any warmth when he looked at Yan Shixun's back.
The surging power flowed from where Ye Li was standing, continuously flowing towards Yan Shixun and pouring into his meridians.
The eerie ghostly energy entered his body, but Yan Shixun got used to it as if it was his own power and he did not feel uncomfortable at all.
As Yan Shixun walked, power accumulated layer by layer, and the ghost energy from Fengdu merged with his own body naturally, with astonishing power.
In Xie Jiaojiao's eyes, Yan Shixun gradually changed from a stranger to a ghost. His figure was as huge as a mountain, which made her widen her eyes in shock even in her mad rage. She looked up blankly at the majestic black shadow behind Yan Shixun that reached the sky.
That is... the Lord of Fengdu, the true body of ghosts and gods.
"Thank you Jiaojiao."
Yan Shixun called out the ghost baby's name when he was a living person: "I don't think I'm a pedantic person. I won't easily interfere with the karma of others, nor will I stop the victim from taking revenge personally."
"Rather, I am a rebellious exorcist who supports the revenge of ghosts."
As he spoke, Yan Shixun's lips curled up into a faint smile: "You probably don't believe it, but I was also ostracized by many of my peers and was criticized as an imperfect exorcist."
"He has a bad temper, a bad service attitude, doesn't share the worries of the rich and powerful, doesn't completely eradicate the ghosts he encounters, doesn't help people change their fortunes or tell fortunes, doesn't gently comfort his clients when they are sad, and even his exorcism doesn't seem impressive enough."
His smile was cold: "Look, I have so many shortcomings. I have never been praised by others, even..."
Yan Shixun paused.
Memories of his childhood many years ago came flooding back and flashed before Yan Shixun's eyes one by one.
Xiaoyan Shixun naively told the teacher that there was an old evil ghost on his back, but the teacher thought it was a prank and ignored it.
He tried to explain to children of his own age the scene of ghosts roaming around in front of him, but the children chased him and hit him with stones with laughter, and made up songs calling him a shameless liar.
Xiaoyan Shixun became increasingly silent in isolation and exclusion. He began to learn to make himself look like an ordinary person, but he still could not escape the crying and cursing from his parents.
They pointed at the tiny group of children and asked, crying hysterically, why they gave birth to such a monster.
They asked, why don't you just die.
The child's clear and innocent eyes gradually lost their brightness and became silent and indifferent.
No teacher would support him. Even if naughty peers pushed and hurt him, he could only shrink back into the small space of his home and heal his wounds by himself.
However, the next day, he went out again with that taciturn attitude.
Xiaoyan Shixun has never been defeated by the harm from the outside world, nor has he had any thoughts of giving up on himself or falling into depravity. He is trying hard to live.
Even though everyone wanted him to die soon.
He was still young at that time, but he had already seen all kinds of human situations with a cold eye.
The ghost exorcist who lived a life of luxury and glory as described by Xie Jiaojiao... was never him.
Yan Shixun is a ghost exorcist who walks the streets and lends a helping hand to people when they are in the most dangerous and need help. He helps people and also helps ghosts.
The young man walked on the gravel road in the alley with his Martin boots, his posture upright and his eyes cold.
But he never rejected anyone who asked for help in desperation.
Even when he was in a deadly situation, he was still able to grit his teeth and carve out a path out with blood and wounds all over his body.
Xie Jiaojiao didn’t understand Yan Shixun, and every word she said could not touch Yan Shixun’s soul.
And there is a soft heart buried deep under the cold shell.
But on the contrary -
Yan Shixun, who has been dealing with all kinds of people for many years, has seen all the strongest emotions in the world and understands people's hearts.
He also saw Xie Jiaojiao's weakness.
Yan Shixun lowered his eyelashes slightly, and the smile on his lips gradually widened.
"Xie Jiaojiao, whether in the human world or the underworld, there are no perfect ghost exorcists or victims."
"You want revenge, I am willing to turn a blind eye. Since the living world won't give you justice, let the ghosts kill your enemies, and Fengdu will judge you."
"But in order to protect yourself, you hurt everyone except yourself. Including... those who love you."
Yan Shixun sighed, and when he raised his head again, he did not look at Xie Jiaojiao, but looked straight at the thick darkness behind Xie Jiaojiao.
"Zheng Shumu, when you saw Xie Lin's death, didn't you remember anything?"
"I forgot to tell you."
Yan Shixun's smile did not reach his eyes: "You want me to save Master Bai? Sorry, I refuse."
As the words fell, something moved in the darkness.
Yan Shixun grinned and said, "If you want to save someone, then save him/herself. If you want to protect someone, then protect him/herself. You are not dead yet, Zheng Shumu, you are still alive - there are still too many things you can change."
"so."
Yan Shixun shrugged towards a certain direction in the darkness: "Don't worry, I will watch Master Bai being trapped here and suffering forever in his own hell."
"Zheng Shumu."
He asked softly, "Is there any difference between Xie Lin and you back then?"
"From now on, there will be countless you, countless Xie Lin, who will encounter the same thing. And the source of all this is because you stood aside and watched today."
"Zheng Shumu, you hated the villagers who refused to help you and your mother. But now, whether it's Xie Lin or the people who came with me, what's the difference between them and you back then? And what's the difference between you and those villagers you hate?"
From Yan Shixun's lips, a short, yet powerful, syllable uttered clearly and firmly: "Accomplice."
The figure in the darkness shuddered, shoulders slumped, and he raised his hands to cover his head as if in agony.
As Yan Shixun spoke word by word, Xie Jiaojiao's eyes slowly widened.
She suddenly realized something and quickly turned around to look at the darkness behind her, looking in the direction Yan Shixun was looking in disbelief.
"elder brother……"
Xie Jiaojiao's voice was a little dazed, and as light as a coquettish whisper, filled with disbelief and confusion, enough to break the heart of anyone who loved her.
Zheng Shumu wanted to answer, but as soon as he opened his mouth, warm tears slid down and seeped into his mouth.
So salty that it tastes bitter.
His throat choked, then he managed to calm himself down and walked out of the darkness, his figure shrouded in the dim, crimson light of the red lanterns.
Zheng Shumu looked haggard and old, completely different from how he looked when Yan Shixun first met him.
He stared absentmindedly at his sister who was looking at him, reluctantly yet greedily tracing the contours of her face with his eyes, wanting to reach out and take away all the sorrow and pain on her face.
Oh my God... no matter what it is, why does my sister have to bear it, why not him?
It wasn't him who died, and it wasn't him who was hurt, so why couldn't he take the blame for his sister?
Zheng Shumu's eyes were full of tenderness and pain.
Xie Jiaojiao never thought that Zheng Shumu would also follow her into her theater in the lake.
This can be said to be the core of her soul, and it is also the place where she wants to kill Yan Shixun in order to force him to retreat. Why is Zheng Shumu here?
"younger sister……"
Zheng Shumu closed his eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks, his voice hoarse and tired: "Enough, sister, enough... No matter what it is, it's enough."
"Out of hatred for my parents' death, I have killed everyone in the village, and both me and Xie Lin, who failed to protect you, are now in this situation."
Zheng Shumu's voice was trembling. When he opened his eyes, he looked at Xie Jiaojiao again with a look of pleading in his eyes: "Just let us live here together, okay? Just us, without anyone else, and live a happy and peaceful life from now on. We won't care about anything that happens outside, and we won't let people outside hurt us."
"Sweetheart, okay?"
Zheng Shumu's body couldn't stop shaking.
Every word Yan Shixun said hit Zheng Shumu's heart hard.
He couldn't help but think of Li Chengyun who came here many years ago, and the memories and experiences of Yan Shixun's life that he saw in the ghost play.
Zheng Shumu had never thought that there could be someone who could be so cold and yet so soft.
Yan Shixun's past experiences were projected onto the screen, flashing before Zheng Shumu's eyes. He was shocked by these scenes that were beyond his cognition.
Why didn't Yan Shixun kill those who hurt him when he was young? Why didn't he kill those who looked down on him? Why didn't the people around him fear him and dare not offend him again?
Even if, even if you were a little more like ordinary people, I wouldn't be shaken to this extent... Why do you have to go to this extent? What do those dangerous people have to do with you? You could just turn a blind eye to them!
Zheng Shumu's heart was roaring and wavering.
He had only followed in out of concern because he saw Xie Lin being killed by his sister.
Unexpectedly, the sister originally wanted to replace the real person with the wooden puppet, dig out the memories in Yan Shixun's soul and instill them into the wooden puppet.
But he saw the whole thing.
This made Zheng Shumu inevitably think of Li Chengyun who came here that year.
That lay Buddhist changed his life from then on.
Zheng Shumu had to admit that he and his sister were once exactly the same soul, full of hatred that they wanted to pour out on every life they saw.
However, Li Chengyun stopped him, saying that cause and effect have their own time, and now that a balance has been reached, it is time to stop.
Zheng Shumu didn't know why, but the words coming out of Li Chengyun's mouth naturally had a convincing power. Even seeing Li Chengyun's figure would make people unconsciously calm down and want to integrate into the clouds and mountains and forests, and become one with the heaven and earth.
When Li Chengyun was leaving, Zheng Shumu tried to persuade him to stay, and also asked him why he was still determined to move forward even though he knew he would die.
Li Chengyun's smile is like the gentle breeze and bright moon, illuminating the rivers and mountains, but it is also like a wild crane riding on a cloud, soaring into the blue sky, which is beyond the reach of mortals.
'Because this is my way.'
Zheng Shumu watched Li Chengyun walk towards death with his head raised and laughing.
At the moment of Li Chengyun's death, snow fell in spring, and the flower buds on the branches opened and fell, and then opened again.
Life and death cycled repeatedly, and petals fell one after another, covering all traces of Li Chengyun and falling all over him.
He was dressed in white and died in the snow with a smile on his face.
Only the Avenue witnessed his death.
At the moment of Li Chengyun's death, heaven and earth acknowledged his way through the cycle of life and death.
Zheng Shumu, who witnessed this scene, also felt the trembling and horror from his soul.
From that day on, Zheng Shumu never harmed a life again.
And now, Zheng Shumu once again witnessed Yan Shixun's life.
This master and disciple had different growth experiences, but both had a firm and unwavering path.
Reaching the sky.
Hot tears rolled down Zheng Shumu's eyes, he choked and reached out his hand to his sister.
"That's enough...it's time to stop, sister."
Xie Jiaojiao looked at Zheng Shumu with a look that changed from shock to anger. She asked in disbelief, "Brother, are you going to betray me now too?"
"Someone is hurting me, and you want to side with them?"
Zheng Shumu shook his head with tears in his eyes and walked slowly towards his sister.
He opened his arms and embraced his sister: "No...sister, I will always stand by you."
Just as Xie Jiaojiao felt relieved, she heard Zheng Shumu continue, "But, as Mr. Yan said, there can't be another me, or another Xie Lin."
"Our original purpose was just revenge. We agreed to live happily together, but sister, I don't think the way we are now is happy, neither you nor I."
Zheng Shumu's arms around Xie Jiaojiao gradually tightened, even causing the little puppet in Xie Jiaojiao's arms to pierce his skin, causing blood to seep out.
But he seemed to feel no pain, and just whispered in Xie Jiaojiao's ear: "I will be a good brother."
"…If, there is a next life."
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