Chapter 36
Jiang Wan's gaze met Xunli without any dodging or avoiding.
"You didn't hide it on purpose. Didn't you tell us everything on the first day Xiaobai and I arrived in Yongshu Township?"
"What's fake is fake. False feelings will eventually be exposed. The story is fake, and the people are fake. Therefore, all the stories in Yongshu Township are fake, including Rao Zhiyi, and naturally, Rao Jingyi."
However, all stories are flowers that grow in reality, absorbing real nutrients.
Others: !!!
Everyone's eyes turned to the two people mentioned in Jiang Wan's words.
"...What?" Rao Zhiyi couldn't believe it. He looked at his hands. He had never doubted his own existence and memory, so he couldn't accept such a "truth" at all.
It would be even more impossible for Rao Jingyi to accept it.
"Impossible! Twenty-five years ago, all 384 members of my Rao family were massacred overnight. How could this be fake?" Rao Jingyi's eyes were bloodshot. "If this is a story I made up, are you saying that my family doesn't exist, that these people in Yongshu Township don't exist, and that your fellow senior brother Rao Zhiyi doesn't exist either?!"
He has carried a blood feud for twenty-five years, how could it be fake!!!
Facing Rao Jingyi's tearful questioning, Jiang Wan remained unmoved.
Unexpectedly, someone helped answer.
“It’s fake.”
The demon cultivator brothers who had been acting as invisible and dared not even breathe suddenly spoke at this moment.
Honestly, these three brothers were the lowest of the bunch in terms of both strength and status. Just look at who was still sane? A disciple of the Guiyuan Sect, the leader of the seven leading sects on the continent; a disciple of the Qiyao Sect, one of the seven sects; and the next-in-command of the Demonic Spirit Sect, one of the demonic sects. And then there were these guys, even though they came from the Jiyi Alliance, they were at the bottom of the Demonic Alliance.
Not to mention that they had previously entered Humo Pavilion and became information dealers in order to obtain cultivation resources, and after being trapped in Yongshu Township, they worked for the Demon Sect Tianyu Palace for the purpose of obtaining the Qigong Pill.
Their status couldn't be lower. In this scene where the chosen ones of the immortals and demons gathered together to fight, it was good enough for them to hide in a corner and be invisible. At least they didn't lose their lives in the fight.
They couldn't afford to offend any one of them, not to mention that the truth behind his "demon inheritance" scam involved so many people, even two of the Five Demon Lords.
Ishikawa Nishi huddled together with his brothers, trembling with fear, even breathing carefully, for fear that he would anger someone inside and kill them.
Unexpectedly, he was being overly cautious, but his two brothers were not, and they boldly interrupted to speak.
This scared Ishikawa Nishi, brother! Even if he wanted to recommend someone to the boss, the boss obviously didn't want to reveal his identity. If he wasn't careful, the boss might kill them! We haven't lived enough, so we can't seek death like this!
"...So...that's how it is...We are all fake."
"Ahem, you're not the only one who's fake." Ishikawa Higashi wiped away the blood foam he coughed up, his eyes filled with mixed emotions as if he had a lot to say. In the end, he just raised his hand and touched the head of Ishikawa Nishi, who had always maintained the original appearance of a big goose. "Xiao Xi... ahem——"
Ishikawa Nan stroked the soft, trembling feathers, looked into Ishikawa Nishi's quiet, small, black eyes, and smiled. His smile was desolate, "It's time for you to remember your true memories. These days, I'm really happy to be your brother."
Ishikawa Nishi was stunned and had no idea what was going on.
"They are the brothers you made up in your story. The real you has no brothers."
Jiang Wan was talking about the Ishikawa brothers, but he was looking at Rao Jingyi who was unwilling to accept the facts.
The bodies of Ishikawa Higashi and Ishikawa Minami began to dissolve like grains of sand.
"It seems we can only accompany you here. Xiaoxi, you must leave Nagashige Township alive." The moment the words fell, the sand dissolved into ashes, taking away the remaining warmth on Ishikawa Nishi's feathers.
Ishikawa Nishi's pupils suddenly contracted——
A dusty memory exploded in my mind.
The demon cultivator Ishikawa Nishi, as the rare and only tri-colored Snow Flame Goose in the world, was born and raised by nature, so how could he have any compatriots or fellow tribesmen? Ishikawa Higashi and Ishikawa Minami were just stories he made up for himself, born out of his selfish desires.
Jiang Wan was able to know this because only Ishikawa Nishi was beaten back to his original form that day. The Tricolor Snow Flame Goose is unique in that it can create a person but not a shape.
Jiang Wan was also surprised that Ishikawa Higashi and Ishikawa Minami, as fabricated beings, were the first to realize that their existence was fake. After all, if they revealed this, it would mean their own disappearance. But in order to make Ishikawa Nishi wake up from his false memories, they actually took the initiative to point it out!
So, he voluntarily disappeared in order to let Ishikawa Nishi survive.
"Pa pa pa—" Xunli clapped her hands in satisfaction, then threw a wink, "I was wrong~"
Jiang Wan: “…”
"Be careful!" In a flash, Lin Xubai opened his folding fan, and a translucent blue shield blocked the attack shrouded in black mist. "Brother Baili!"
"Succubus?" Master Baili reacted quickly, dodging Lin Xubai's defense. He raised his hand to block Xunli's sneak attack, his face cold and stern, pointing his sword at Xunli. "Master Baili of the Guiyuan Sect, please teach me!"
"But I don't want to play with a cold swordsman like you~" Seeing that her attack failed, the charming smile on her face inevitably faded, but her tone was still flirtatious, "Little beauty, why are you so stubborn~ What's so good about this pretty boy? He looks like he has ulterior motives. I'm afraid he's plotting against you behind your back~"
"Girl?" Lin Xubai calmly held Jiang Wan down, smiling gently, "My face is indeed enviable. Unlike you, who have to think about the arrangement of your facial features every day, after all, you are not even sure of your gender~"
"You care so much about my heart..." Lin Xubai suddenly realized something and tapped his palm with his folding fan. "Is it because you don't even have a complete heart and don't even understand what you are? Indeed, after all, the less you have, the more you care about it~"
After saying this, Lin Xubai even straightened his sleeves elegantly.
Elegant, really elegant.
It was so elegant that You Sheng and the others were stunned. They had never expected Junior Brother/Senior Brother/Daoyou Lin to be like this when he got angry! What a sarcastic tone! You really didn't see that the succubus was so angry at your words that she was emitting black energy and murderous aura!
The other party is the Five Demon Lords! Their cultivation level and age are more than one realm higher than yours!
When you get angry, you really don't care about life or death - you don't care about your own life or the life of your enemy or us.
It turns out that Lin Xubai is not completely without temper, and their impression of Lin Xubai has been refreshed once again.
"The rules of Yongshu Township are full of contradictions and awkwardness. Ultimately, it's because it's not completely controlled by one person, but by multiple parties." Jiang Wan didn't take Xunli's words to heart, nor did she think there was anything wrong with what Lin Xubai said. She picked up the puppet in her hand again, "The eyes of this puppet are the spiritual treasure you want to nurture by doing all this.
——Soul Devouring Orb."
Announce the correct answer directly.
"Hahaha—" Xunli laughed heartily, a rich and indescribable dark red aura gathering and spreading from her body. A mixture of a generous male voice and a charming female voice rang out along with it, "I don't know how you got it, but, for something like this that already has an owner, shouldn't you return it to its rightful owner?"
"Hand over the Soul Devouring Pearl—"
The powerful pressure from a great master in the fusion stage was like a huge wave a hundred meters high on the sea, rushing down violently at everyone present. Even Master Baili, who had the cultivation level of a spirit transformation, turned pale under this pressure, not to mention those who were far inferior to him in cultivation level.
"puff--"
Everyone was crushed to the ground, vomiting blood and having their meridians severed.
Not only that, there were sounds of seductive laughter echoing in my ears, sometimes sharp and sometimes hoarse, as if they were going to pierce the eardrums and rush into my mind.
But even so, Jiang Wan's puppet, no, the Soul-Devouring Orb, was not taken away.
Instead, he peeled the Soul-Devouring Orb out of the puppet, held it in his hand and resisted all the mental attacks.
"I can already take it out, how do you know I can't use it!" Jiang Wan said coldly, and cast a dazzling spell to drive the black glass bead in his hand to not only break the huge mental pressure, but also block the opponent's sound attack.
There was a moment of admiration for Jiang Wan in Xunli's eyes, but this could not resist his desire for the Soul-Devouring Orb. Without any extra words, he raised his hand and cast a series of charm spells to lead Master Baili away, and rushed towards the Soul-Devouring Orb in Jiang Wan's hand.
"Seduction, hunting, teasing, I weave a web of desire, mingling honey with arsenic, playing hard to get, manipulating your body and mind."
This is the "charm technique" that is unique to the Succubus to control people's hearts.
"One glance and a lifetime of charm" makes all living beings fall into it. This is the reason why the Charm Demon Lord proved his truth with "charm", ranked as one of the five demon lords, and transcended the demon realm and the demon gate.
The domineering aspect of this method is that it completely ignores your realm of cultivation in a very unreasonable way. No matter whether you are a cold-hearted and ruthless person, or a person with high cultivation level who has transcended the calamity, it can force anyone who is hit by this method to fall in love with it. It only takes a thought for the succubus to turn from a spirit into a demon, or from a demon into a spirit.
"Not good!" Master Baili subconsciously held his breath and looked away, but his body still blocked in front of Jiang Wan at the fastest speed and took it for her.
It can be seen that Xunli's expression did not change when she saw Master Baili's action. Instead, she raised the corners of her lips in contempt, as if everything had been settled.
In fact, Master Baili's idea of using himself to take this move was completely futile, because this spell completely avoided him.
Jiang Wan:?
She had no idea what the words in the prelude to "Xunli" meant, and had no idea why others were so nervous as if they were facing a great enemy.
Jiang Wan didn't move, as if he was waiting for something, and was even distracted, with his eyes wandering below.
Lin Xubai tightened his grip on the folding fan for a moment, just as the ominous light of Dharma rushed to Jiang Wan's forehead.
He finally moved.
The space in front of Jiang Wan seemed to be frozen like a mirror at this moment. An invisible slash came from nowhere, cutting the enchanting magic light into two pieces like a sharp blade.
In an instant, there seemed to be a sound of shattering, and the space like a mirror shattered along with two sections of Dharma light. Wherever the sharp edge passed, everything was shattered, and even the light was cut and dissipated into nothingness.
Jiang Wan opened her eyes wide and looked at Lin Xubai, who made her collar tighten and easily carried her back: !!!
"I've already said this, but my uncle-master left this folding fan for me to protect myself!"
Lin Xubai looked at Jiang Wan with round eyes, as if she was still dazed, and touched her eyebrows with his fan.
"You're still distracted at a time like this? Is this how you protect me?"
Jiang Wan pressed his forehead and said, "Don't worry, the person I'm waiting for is here, and everything will be over soon."
"Succubus, huh? Don't even think about it, whether it's the Soul Devouring Pearl or Eternal Shu Township." Jiang Wan nodded at the woman who suddenly appeared. They both raised their hands simultaneously, and a "spiritual weapon" staff that Lin Xubai looked very familiar with appeared in front of the woman. "Then, bye?"
In an instant, an overwhelming cold air swept across the entire space, as if the Nine Netherworld Hell had descended.
The succubus looked at Jiang Wan in disbelief, but she didn't know what he was thinking. Finally, his gaze turned to Lin Xubai. After staring at him for three seconds, he made a quick decision and turned into a wisp of black smoke and disappeared.
The power of this staff was strange, and it actually had a natural suppression on him. He even felt a sense of surrender in his heart. There was no way he had to cut off this clone, otherwise his original body would definitely be affected.
After the succubus left, the cold air dissipated like a tide, and the tense space relaxed at once.
Yousheng, who was lying on the ground, was the first to let out a long sigh, followed by a burst of gasps.
"It's over."
"Great, we can finally leave."
"Ahem, I actually survived, wuwuwu——"
"This time, recuperation will take several months. Isn't that right? Why, why is there still no change?"
"Why is this still Yongshu Township?"
"Because there is someone hiding behind the scenes and manipulating everything."
Hearing this, everyone's hair stood on end again and they became worried.
"Boss, now that the troublemaker has left, are you going to let go? Look at him now. Do you think what you're giving him is what he wants?"
Jiang Wan felt a little sympathetic towards Rao Jingyi's shattered and crazy look, but her sympathy only lasted for three seconds before she pointed out the boss hiding in the crowd without hesitation.
"When did you realize it was mine?"
The boss had an indifferent expression. She didn't understand why Jiang Wan would suspect her when there was a succubus in front of her. She had even helped him and given him a spiritual weapon.
"Because we haven't told our 'story' in detail to the locals." Lin Xubai's face showed no surprise. Instead, he calmly pointed out the boss's flaw, "Besides this Joy Envoy from the Tianyu Palace, only you, Boss, have heard our 'story'."
I guess even the boss didn't expect that there would be someone who had been here for such a long time after the incident in Yongshu Township without any sense of tension at all. He was so relaxed that he didn't even tell a story and was just having fun.
It was precisely this point that exposed the boss's abnormality.
"Is that so..." The boss's eyes slowly shifted from Lin Xubai to Jiang Wan, "Maybe I was wrong that day..."
"No? Boss, why?" The demon cultivator who had been rescued could not accept it at all after seeing the boss' indirect admission. She couldn't understand why the boss did this.
"Could it be...you are also after the Soul-Devouring Pearl?" Wu Hualin's eyes were focused on the black glass pearl in Jiang Wan's hand.
"No," Jiang Wan shook his head. "If we talk about first come first served, the succubus and corpse demon who wanted to contaminate and cultivate the Soul Devouring Orb were behind the boss. It was they who broke into the boss's place and caused everything to go wrong."
This is the reason why Yongshu Township is full of contradictions and discords, because there is more than one layout.
"Why?"
Rao Jingyi's voice was hoarse. During this period of silence, he remembered a lot and also forgot a lot.
"I'm sorry, I..." The boss's voice suddenly choked. His hands, hanging by his sides, were clenched tightly, his knuckles turning white from exertion. The smile on his face was bitter. "...I just...want you to live."
The last sentence was so light that it sounded like a sigh, but it hit Rao Jingyi's heart hard, and hit Rao Zhiyi and the others hard.
“This world is made up of stories.”
Jiang Wan thought, that's why there is a bug in the timeline not matching.
The story of Yongshu Township is false, and Rao Jingyi's past and experiences are also false.
Perhaps it was a corpse demon, or perhaps it was an ordinary mortal from the mortal world who was lost in the long river of time. No one knew who had abandoned a puppet in Yongshu Township.
Suddenly one day, in Yongshu Township, where love stories are told everywhere, a puppet creature came to life.
“Rather than saying the puppet has gained intelligence, it’s better to say the story has come true.”
The reason why a story is a story is because it is derived from the truth. The experiences in the story are all false, but one day, a story comes true.
A person walked out from inside, whose spiritual consciousness was born because of the story coming true.
At the beginning, it was fine. His story made him extremely sure of his existence. But as time went on, he gradually got to know more people and his understanding of himself was no longer vague, which made his story no longer stable.
When the story is no longer stable, can the people derived from it still be stable?
The answer is no.
So there is a person who uses stories to piece together stories, and uses stories to connect stories to create a world that revolves around him.
It is to make him well, so that his story will be remembered and he can live on.
Rao Jingyi thus lives in the story he believes in.
But this method is not perfect after all.
His "revenge" stories were not enough, so he could only keep creating new people and bringing in new people to fill the gaps.
In order to keep him alive, the boss keeps adding new stories to keep the world running.
Who knows how she felt when, in order to save his life, she could only watch her former lover say the same sweet words he once said to her to another woman.
Every familiar word and intimate gesture was like a sharp edge, hammering her heart hard.
She stood quietly in the shadows, letting herself feel confused and heartbroken.
"It turns out that it's just a dream, all in vain... Little Butterfly, I'm so tired..." Rao Jingyi smiled at the boss, the smile in his eyes like broken moonlight, full of exhaustion, "Let everyone go."
As he spoke, he looked around at everyone present. "Hate" was fake, but the revenge and the murders were real. This deep sin made him breathless and unable to stand up. Under his sleeves, he placed two fingers side by side quietly on his heart.
“To stubbornly live in a story you have woven is nothing but self-deception.”
Like a joke.
Rao Jingyi staggered to his boss's side and gently stroked her face with his blood-stained fingertips.
"For once, I just want to live in the truth..."
Rao Jingyi didn't want Xiao Hudie to continue like this, so he chose to commit suicide to atone for his sins and to let Xiao Hudie let go.
Suddenly, the originally gray sky suddenly brightened.
It was like a gust of wind, bringing up sand from the ground and swirling upwards.
The originally barren wilderness suddenly turned into the original appearance of Yongshu Township.
The flowers are in full bloom and the waves are surging.
“We don’t live in facts, we live in stories we believe.”
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