I'm so tired, I can't keep my eyes open...
dark……
Darkness enveloped Ayao, leaving her dazed and confused. She didn't know how much time had passed before she finally managed to open her eyes.
Huh?
Ayao looked around in bewilderment.
Where...where is this? Clearly, she wasn't in the Netherworld where she fought the Demon Lord Xuan Tian, nor in the interdimensional battlefield, nor in the Eternal Stars; this was...
A water dungeon!!
Ayao looked down and saw that most of her body was submerged in the water, her hands were chained. The water was cold, colder than ice water, her clothes were tattered, and her body ached. She was covered in wounds as she soaked in the water.
She looked down at her waist and saw the jade pendant tied around it. It was a fine piece of Xuanling Ancient Jade, with the character "Lu" engraved on the lotus-shaped pendant. Ayao trembled, her face full of disbelief.
This...this is the Lu family's water dungeon!!
How is that possible?
Did she travel back in time?
Someone was approaching from outside. Ayao heard the footsteps, looked up, and saw a flash of restrictive light before the water prison door opened and a figure stepped inside.
The young man was tall and slender, dressed in a blue robe. He was handsome, gentle, and graceful.
He stood by the pool, looked at the disheveled A-Yao, and sighed:
"Xiao Qi, just admit your mistake. If you do, I'll let you out immediately."
Ayao stared at the person in front of her, slightly stunned.
This is her third brother, Lu Yunshen.
She was the only daughter of the Lu family, a prominent cultivation family in the Canglan Realm, and had six older brothers. When she was three years old, her brothers took her out to play, but they encountered enemies, and she was lost in the battle.
With her meager, sometimes-effective, magic, she wandered the streets for ten years, living as a beggar, before being found by the Lu family.
She had always thought she was an orphan. When she learned that she had parents and so many brothers, she was overjoyed. But when she returned home, she discovered that after she was lost, her parents had adopted a daughter named Lu Xuening.
They poured all their love and guilt into Lu Xuening, while their daughter, whom they had found again, seemed like an uninvited guest who had barged into their lives.
They were afraid that Lu Xuening would be wronged, worried that she would do something to harm Lu Xuening, and felt that she was vulgar, unworthy of respect, and shameful after being a beggar for ten years. They wished they could hide her away.
But she never intended to harm Lu Xuening, so why does it always seem like it's her fault whenever Lu Xuening cries?
Everyone says Lu Xuening is intelligent, kind, gentle, and generous, and that she is not even worthy to carry Lu Xuening's shoes.
She felt wronged, pained, and sad, so she worked very hard to cultivate, wanting to prove herself. However, no matter how hard she tried or how much she sacrificed, in the eyes of her parents and brothers, she was not as good as Lu Xuening.
While Changkun Mountain was fighting the demons, she and Lu Xuening were dragged into the abyss by the demonic vines. They all rushed towards Lu Xuening, leaving her to be dragged into the abyss.
She survived a great calamity, encountered her master, and was reborn as a phoenix by her master using a secret technique.
Later, she became the Holy Maiden of the Phoenix Clan. During the war that destroyed the world, she entered the Immortal Emperor realm and fought a great battle with the Demon Lord Xuan Tian in the Underworld.
She was no match for Xuan Tian and is already dead, how could this be...?
Was this her dream before she died, or was she under the Demon Lord's illusion?
She looked at Lu Yunshen again.
In her previous life, she did harbor resentment towards her parents and brothers, but after meeting her master, she had long forgotten them. In the span of hundreds of thousands of years, they occupied only a tiny fraction of her life, and she hadn't thought of them for over a hundred thousand years.
Ayao stared intently at Lu Yunshen, wondering if he was an imposter of the Demon Lord Xuantian. She only heard him say:
“I know that Huaiyuan’s annulment of the engagement made you feel wronged, but you shouldn’t have been so cruel as to beat Xiao Ba so badly. Xiao Ba is your sister. How could you be so heartless?”
Annulment of the engagement? Injury?
Based on these key words, Ayao remembered some things.
Oh, I remember now. She was originally betrothed to Gu Huaiyuan, the third young master of the Gu family, when they were children. After she disappeared, her parents adopted Lu Xuening, and the marriage was not called off but instead fell to Lu Xuening.
Although it wasn't explicitly stated, everyone assumed that Gu Huaiyuan would marry Lu Xuening. Gu Huaiyuan also liked Lu Xuening very much. After she returned, Gu Huaiyuan was afraid that she would marry him, so he made a big show of breaking off the engagement and then re-engaged with Lu Xuening.
The next day, during a sparring match, she injured Lu Xuening, and everyone thought she did it on purpose. Her mother forced her to apologize to Lu Xuening, but she refused and was whipped several times and imprisoned in a water dungeon.
“Okay, I was wrong, let me out,” Ayao said.
Lu Yun Shen looked at her in surprise. She... she actually admitted her mistake?
"Can I go out now?" Ayao shook the chains on her hands.
Lu Yun Shen stared at her blankly for a few moments, then with a wave of his hand, the chains on A Yao's hands disappeared. A Yao leaped out of the water. A Yao's entire body was soaking wet, her clothes clinging to her skin. Already thin, she was now even thinner, like skin and bones. Her face was bloodless, and blistered, white wounds were visible through her tattered clothes, which had been whipped by her mother, Xu Lian Xin.
Seeing the gruesome wounds, Lu Yunshen felt a pang of heartache; he suddenly felt that his mother was too cruel.
Her body ached a lot, but Ayao didn't take it seriously.
The phoenix is an immortal bird, only ceasing its rebirth when the Nirvana Pearl shatters. She died nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine times at the hands of the Demon Lord Xuan Tian, each death extremely gruesome, being torn apart by five horses was nothing to her. She was reborn again and again until she exhausted all her Nirvana power.
Right, her Nirvana Beads were shattered, so she couldn't possibly be reborn. So what's going on now? Why was she reborn, and why did time reverse?
Calling it an illusion is too realistic. Besides, the Demon Lord isn't that bored, is he? Even though she became an Immortal Emperor, the Demon Lord Xuan Tian didn't take her seriously. Why would he create an illusion for her before she died?
Ayao pondered for a moment, then walked past Lu Yunshen toward the cave entrance.
"Xiao Qi, your injury..."
Before Lu Yun Shen could finish speaking, A Yao had already left.
Lu Yun Shen's guards, standing outside the water dungeon, were surprised to see A Yao emerge. "Seventh Miss admitted her mistake so quickly this time!"
The sunlight outside was dazzling, and Ayao instinctively squinted her eyes slightly.
The verdant and beautiful mountain peaks stretch endlessly, shrouded in mist, each peak resembling an isolated island floating on a sea of clouds.
Looking into the distance, one could see towering peaks shrouded in auspicious clouds, piercing the sky, and waterfalls resembling an inverted Milky Way. Specks of spiritual light weaved through the mountains, belonging to the disciples of the Lu family, who rode on flying swords or other magical artifacts.
A flash of light appeared on A Yao's body, her magic evaporated her clothes, and she flew towards a distant mountain peak.
"Xiao Qi—"
Lu Yunshen immediately followed.
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