Chapter 168 Total Defeat: A typo was corrected.
After saying this, Xiaozhi leaned back into the heart of the flower.
Layer upon layer of petals grew in the wind, quickly surrounding the twig and burying it among the crimson petals.
The mimosa flower demon let out a series of strange laughs, and several red lines stretched into the heart of the flower. White light spots slid upwards along the red lines, flowing like beads towards the back of the flower plate.
A sense of foreboding rose in Rong Xie's heart, and he called out, "Wait!"
"No, Xiaozhi, don't be fooled by it. It won't really be so kind as to take you away. It wants to absorb your spirit!" Rong Xie said anxiously.
"Indeed, monsters are cunning and treacherous; we mustn't fall for their schemes!" Shen Bingsi drew her Shengxie Sword and slashed at the Hehuan Flower Demon.
Shen Bingsi's sword strike was exquisite, striking right through the gap in the middle of the silver cage, avoiding the flower's center, and attacking the area where the red lines grew.
Of course, this was also partly because Lu Yingqi made way for him.
With a flash of golden light, red threads fell one after another. The mimosa flower demon cried out in pain, furious, "You dare to ruin my plans? You cultivators are the most hypocritical of all!"
The next moment, golden light burst forth from the heart of the mimosa flower, gradually forming a sphere of light that enveloped the mimosa flower demon. The dazzling light pierced through the cage, and the eerie, high-pitched chanting spread out. If anyone could still open their eyes under such intense light, they would see rows of tiny characters within the golden light, identical to the demonic script that had been lost after the war between gods and demons.
The intense light blasted Shen Bingsi away. Rong Xie, disregarding everything else, ran towards where Shen Bingsi had fallen.
At the edge of the cliff, only Lu Yingqi remained. He opened his eyes, facing the bright light, and clenched his five fingers in the air. Each knuckle twisted unnaturally due to excessive force, and his fingertips were pale and bloodless.
"laugh!"
Despite the impact of the golden light, the silver cage tightened inward relentlessly until the sharp thorns pierced the flower fairy's body.
One of the branches, carrying Lu Yingqi's consciousness, probed the small twig spirit hidden in the heart of the flower.
Xiao Zhi looked extremely tired, his eyes were tightly closed, and some golden lines ran through his body.
"Xiaozhi," Lu Yingqi whispered in his ear, "You can leave me, you can go anywhere, but don't go with it."
Xiaozhi didn't answer, but simply shook her head slightly.
Lu Yingqi gritted his teeth.
"It has no ability to preserve your spirit. The most important thing now is to return to your body."
"Don't be fooled by it, it's a demon. I don't know what it told you, but I can assure you that it will harm you as soon as we leave."
However, no matter what Lu Yingqi said, Xiaozhi didn't even lift her eyelids.
Lu Yingqi was silent for a moment, then said, "Junior Brother Rong said the same thing. If you don't believe me, you should believe him."
"..." Xiaozhi finally raised her eyelids and looked at Lu Yingqi indifferently, "Are you done talking? If you're done, then leave."
Lu Yingqi had never been ignored by Xiaozhi like this before. He remained silent for a moment, then said, "I'll take you away now."
Xiaozhi closed her eyes, seemingly thoroughly tired of Lu Yingqi talking.
Just then, the mimosa flower spirit regained its power.
The golden threads planted within the twig twisted and danced wildly like snakes, once again absorbing the twig's spiritual energy.
Lu Yingqi reached out to grab the golden threads wrapped around the little branch spirit, but they were repelled by the scorching demonic runes. He narrowed his eyes, gathered all his spiritual power, and tried again. This time, he successfully caught one of them and felt a strange sensation struggling in his palm.
"Young Master Qi, are you really going to break the demonic contract?" The voice of the mimosa flower fairy, transformed into a small branch, teased Lu Yingqi in a low voice. "Breaking the life-and-death contract will be severely recorded in the karmic ledger. You can forget about ascending. Is it really worth it to have cultivated for so long?"
"...A life-and-death contract?" Lu Yingqi stopped what he was doing.
The mimosa flower fairy laughed loudly: "That's right, this is the life-and-death contract. You can rest assured that Xiaozhi and I will live and die together. The day you betrayed him, he promised me."
Lu Yingqi said in a low voice, "So, you'll protect him?"
“Of course.” The mimosa flower fairy chuckled. “I will protect him as I would protect myself, until we are destroyed together. I am not human, and I will not be fickle like humans. As long as the contract exists, the vow will remain, for all eternity, and will never be changed.”
A barely perceptible crack appeared on Lu Yingqi's expression. He looked at Xiaozhi again, but Xiaozhi still kept her eyes closed, seemingly having nothing more to say to him.
“You won’t believe anything I say now,” Lu Yingqi said, looking at Xiaozhi. “Xiaozhi, I’m sorry.”
Having said that, he released his grip and flew out of the heart of the mimosa flower, propelled by the force of the golden light.
The silver cage exploded into pieces and disappeared in an instant.
Lu Yingqi's consciousness returned to his body, and he reopened his eyes. A tear fell from his left eye, landing on his chest, and evaporated instantly, as if it had never existed.
Rong Xie helped Shen Bingsi up, and the two sat not far away, looking over with concern.
Lu Yingqi turned around, his back to the flower fairy, and walked towards them step by step.
Rong Xie was full of doubt, not knowing what Lu Yingqi meant. Was he not going to save Xiaozhi?
The next moment, the flower demon let out a sharp laugh, and countless white lights burst out from the flower's center.
Lu Yingqi turned around abruptly and saw fragments of the spirit body scattered in the air, like a flurry of snowflakes falling on the blooming mimosa flower.
The mimosa petals eagerly absorbed the fragments of the spirit, using them as nourishment to grow vigorously, each petal turning a deep, blood-red hue.
The world seemed to lose its sound and color in an instant.
Lu Yingqi decided to stay in the local area.
That moment felt endless, a torrent of crazy thoughts exploding in my mind, and everything became illusory, just like the tests I saw in the illusion.
However, he knew perfectly well that it was true.
Lu Yingqi thought of the screams that echoed through the Lu family mansion at night, and the agonizing howls that suddenly erupted from the Heartless Dao Palace.
"Don't get distracted." "Those are none of your business." "They're just people with weak wills. On the path of cultivation, many people come and go, and then they disappear. You're different from them."
"You are destined to ascend."
Countless voices whispered in Lu Yingqi's ears: Elder Bai, Old Master Lu... Their voices formed a barrier, trapping Lu Yingqi inside.
Those were all fake, tests for him, and only those with weak wills would be affected.
Gradually, even real-life events become shrouded in a veil of illusion, and real-life changes appear unreal.
Since he began practicing the Path of Ruthlessness, he has never broken down. Even if the most tragic thing happens before his eyes, he will not lose his composure.
He won't... he won't.
He didn't know how to lose his composure, how to express his inner pain. It was as if there was a lock on his throat, and the key had long been thrown away. He couldn't make a sound, and he couldn't even scream like those people he had heard before.
It turns out that venting also requires practice; otherwise, when real pain arrives, one will be swallowed up by immense suffocation. A strong sense of disgust overwhelmed Lu Yingqi. He suddenly felt that everything was hateful: the Hehuan Flower Fairy deserved to die, Elder Bai deserved to die, Old Master Lu deserved to die, the Xuantian Sect Master deserved to die, the Three Sects deserved to die, the Heavenly Dao deserved to die, and of course, he, Lu Yingqi, deserved to die too.
The demonic runes flashed in Lu Yingqi's eyes. He slowly drew out his silver flying sword, and a surge of spiritual power poured out from the sword's edge. The flying sword instantly grew to tens of feet tall, like a giant tree reaching the sky, and crashed down on the Albizia Flower Fairy's flower plate!
"Young Master Qi," Xiao Zhi's voice came, forcefully stopping the massive sword blade, "Didn't you promise to let me go?"
"..." Lu Yingqi's expression was dark and unreadable. "You cunning and treacherous monster, prepare to die!"
"Young Master Qi, are you going to kill me? Please, spare Xiaozhi." The pleading voice drifted in the wind. Lu Yingqi knew it was the flower fairy's voice, but he hesitated to make the move.
"Don't speak in his voice!" Lu Yingqi said coldly, his sword falling and slashing down from the very center of the flowerpot.
The flowerpot shattered in two, then instantly reassembled in mid-air. A sinister laugh echoed across the cliff top: "Young Master Qi, you've already killed Xiaozhi once. Do you intend to kill him again, until his soul is scattered and he's no longer satisfied?"
"Shut up!" Lu Yingqi suddenly leaped into the air, raised his flying sword, and slashed at the flower demon again.
The sword wind passed through the flower fairy's phantom and crashed into the valley of Zhilan Ridge, exploding with a loud bang. When the smoke and dust dissipated, a gap was cleaved in the green valley that was originally covered with grass and trees!
"Lu Yingqi, you don't thank me, and you even want to kill me? How can you do this to Xiaozhi after all her hard work?" The flower demon's voice returned to its mocking tone.
"Thank you?" Lu Yingqi slashed three times in succession, cutting a mountain peak of Zhilan Ridge into three sections. The Ruthless Dao Palace on the mountaintop was on the verge of collapse, and countless cultivators scattered and ran. "You swore to protect Xiaozhi, and this is how you protect her? And you want me to thank you?"
"Can't you see? He doesn't want to go back anymore. Spirits can't survive in this world, so I had to assimilate him. That way, he can have an eternal life like mine." The flower fairy laughed breathlessly as she dodged. "Besides, this is his own choice. I promised him I wouldn't tell you, but you insisted, so I had no choice but to tell you."
A red cloud drifted towards Lu Yingqi, and the fragrance of mimosa flowers instantly enveloped him.
Lu Yingqi knew the flower fairy was cunning, but he did not resist because he had a premonition that he would see Xiaozhi in the illusion of the fragrant mist.
...
Scene after scene, event after event, every moment Lu Yingqi and Xiaozhi spent together at the Ruthless Dao Palace was presented to him with unparalleled realism.
Those scenes always arrive and depart in a flash, so fast that they are impossible to grasp.
Lu Yingqi saw his familiar past, yet it was also strange, because it included Xiaozhi's perspective.
He saw Xiaozhi diligently cultivating, but failing time and time again due to the pseudo-spiritual root of the furnace.
He saw Xiaozhi shamefully making various excuses to cultivate with him, just to pass the inner sect assessment and stay by his side.
He saw that every inner disciple had to pass the Foundation Establishment test in order to stay and become a formal member of the Xuantian Sect, but Xiaozhi had been unable to pass it for a long time.
It wasn't until the Lu family, far away, sent a reply that Xiaozhi was able to establish his foundation, clearly stating that his physique was special and he was unable to do so, and that he should remain as an outer disciple for the time being.
However, by then, Xiaozhi had completely destroyed her pseudo-spiritual root due to her repeated attempts to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, making her even weaker than an ordinary Qi Refining stage disciple.
Xiao Zhi secretly searched through all the information he could find and learned that the result of overdrawing spiritual power would not only be a drop in cultivation level, but also the possibility of being devoured by the Heavenly Dao. However, he still held onto a sliver of hope, believing that the backlash would not happen to him so soon.
Misfortune began with a sudden change in age. Xiaozhi opened the door to find Lu Yingqi, but Lu Yingqi mistook her for an old handyman who delivered goods to various mountains. He merely glanced at her indifferently and walked past her.
Xiaozhi went back and looked in the mirror, and was horrified to see the changes in herself.
At this moment, the fairy of the mimosa flower spoke in his ear for the first time, inviting him to make a deal in a seductive voice.
The mimosa flower spirit will give Xiaozhi the magic power left in the Heartless Dao Palace, and even help him build his foundation. In return, Xiaozhi must promise to exchange his own spirit after his death.
Xiao Zhi initially refused the Albizia Flower Fairy's request, but under pressure from the situation, he eventually agreed.
As long as I can stay by Young Master Qi's side for a long time in this life, it doesn't matter if there is no next life. Besides, after death, who knows what one will be reborn as? If I can't be with Young Master Qi, what's the point of the next life?
Xiao Zhi made a bet that Young Master Qi would never abandon him and would protect him. Even if Young Master Qi lost his emotions later in his cultivation, the friendship they built in their early years would be enough to make Xiao Zhi a unique presence by Young Master Qi's side, and that was enough.
However, Xiaozhi lost the bet.
The whole game is lost.
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The next chapter will conclude their story. It's somewhat of a contrasting narrative, so don't mind the length!
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