Chapter 69: To usher in an era of peace for all generations.
"Weren't we looking for a spirit pet?"
"It's all here."
Meng Chiwan recalled the girl's casual remark, "A few spirit pets have run away."
Although the boy's words cannot be entirely trusted at present, considering the various anomalies she had observed in the Yun family before, their credibility is not low.
Moreover, this is only what we've seen – piles of bones – and we can't yet deduce what happened.
The boy uttered those words with a sneer, but showed no intention of explaining himself to her, and stepped onto the land painted with the crimson sunset.
The earthy smell mixed with the stench of blood assaulted my brain, turning it into a muddy mess.
Meng Chiwan then set foot on that land.
The moment she stepped on it, she seemed to feel a chilling aura creeping up her feet, as if she were being entangled by vines. The intense aura and viscous sap seemed about to break through her skin and become inextricably intertwined with her.
It's a strange feeling.
Meng Chiwan gripped Jinglan tightly, trying to carve a fearless path for herself with its sharp blade.
The boy slowed his pace.
But the land seemed to be rushing toward them impatiently, getting closer and closer to the steel blade, and something else appeared on the blade, like a mirage, making it impossible to believe.
Meng Chiwan guessed it must have been painful.
A short while later, the blood mist thinned and the steel blade drew closer, like approaching a piece of ice that became clearer the closer you got.
Finally, I was able to see the girl's expression.
But once they reached this distance, Meng Chiwan didn't want to see her expression anymore.
A halo of spiritual light enveloped the girl, just like the one that enveloped Meng Chiwan, Wen Liansong, and the others when they were chosen. It was like a circle of smooth silk.
What's even more striking is that the girl's entire body is fused with the steel knife, which is pierced through her abdomen, and her flesh is growing on the knife, enveloping it in her body.
Meng Chiwan frowned unconsciously. That chilling feeling crept back into her body.
She finally glanced at the girl's face, only to find not the pain she had imagined, but a gentle and beautiful smile.
Yet that gentle beauty offered no warmth whatsoever, only amplifying the chill, as if someone had splashed a bucket of refreshing summer well water onto her in the dead of winter.
It was an eerie feeling. If someone were to play music to accompany this moment, there probably wouldn't be any music that could suppress this gloom.
Bones cover the fields. Wraiths fill the roads.
These two words were the only ones that came to Meng Chiwan's mind. It was just too much like a scene from a supernatural tale.
She lowered her head, no longer looking at the girl's expression.
But the next instant, a spray of blood mist hit her face, coating her dry cheeks with a thin, light red film. Then, the steel knife suddenly stood in front of her, and as she looked up, she met the girl's smiling face.
The steel blade trembled. The girl, whose eyes were tightly closed, suddenly opened them, and her sky-blue eyes slowly filled with blood, like a blood moon amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
Meng Chiwan's heart jumped into her throat almost instantly. Even though she had seen the biggest storms in her life, she couldn't withstand such a fright.
Her whole body almost froze, but thankfully her mind wasn't blank, and she still knew to take two steps back.
Two steps seemed to be the maximum distance she could push. There was clearly no wall behind her, but her body felt as if it had hit a wall, as if the air had suddenly created resistance and turned into a pair of hands, trapping her there.
The girl's eyes were bloodshot, with strings of red lines tangled and intertwined within them, coiling wildly. She looked at Meng Chiwan not as a person, but as prey.
A few beads of sweat appeared on Meng Chiwan's forehead. In the blink of an eye, Jinglan was drawn, the blade flashing with a cold light.
The girl reached out and caught the blade, extinguishing the sword intent. Her lips still held that gentle smile, as if silently blaming Meng Chiwan for her immaturity, but no matter how warm it was, her eyes always held a deep, almost superhuman quality.
Bright red blood flowed down the blade, but neither the girl nor Meng Chiwan gave it a second glance.
"You...are you also...coming...to...contribute...to...the cultivation world...?" Just as Meng Chiwan was about to take out a talisman to launch the next round of attacks, the girl spoke. Her voice was rough and incoherent, as if she had just learned to speak.
Meng Chiwan stood cautiously in place without speaking, her hand still forming a magic seal.
For some reason, the boy disappeared the moment she saw the girl's face clearly, as if it were the opening act of a play, where everyone except the actors had to leave the stage.
Clearly, Meng Chiwan is now the key player in this drama.
The girl waited a while, and seeing that she didn't intend to speak, she said again, "You have a very familiar aura... I can't... hurt you."
When she spoke again this time, her voice was much smoother, as if she had adjusted it. Although there were still some stumbles, it was not a big deal.
Upon hearing this, Meng Chiwan remained vigilant, unable to confirm whether the girl's words were credible.
The girl seemed not to understand why she remained silent, and put down her sword, letting the blood flow freely from the crisscrossing wound on her hand.
She glanced out slightly, a hint of doubt flickering in her inhumanly expressive eyes: "Are you...mute?"
Meng Chiwan stared at her intently. It seemed she wasn't about to scold her, but rather genuinely wondering if Meng Chiwan was mute.
Meng Chiwan finally spoke: "Where is the person who was in front of me just now?"
The girl was still somewhat surprised when she heard her speak, and said, "So... you can talk."
Then she answered Meng Chiwan's question: "You've always... come alone."
Meng Chiwan's pupils dilated slightly, the light in her dark pupils shifting elsewhere: "It's a boy..."
“There’s no boy here, you came alone.” The girl’s speech was now fluent, no longer hesitant, as smooth as flowing water.
Meng Chiwan closed her eyes slightly, trying her best to untangle the tangled threads in her mind one by one. After a long while, she said, "Indeed, someone led me here... What is that familiar aura you mentioned on me?"
The steel knife in the girl's abdomen seemed to have been corroded away, slowly melting away inside her belly.
The girl squinted her eyes contentedly, then said, "It's that person... what's their name... I need to think about it."
Meng Chiwan wasn't in a hurry; she patiently waited for her to think it over.
The girl thought for a moment and said, "Chen Zhuo... that's right, that's roughly the name. It sounds awful, so I remembered it."
Meng Chiwan was taken aback. She had expected to hear some familiar names, but she hadn't heard of this name at all.
“Dust, turbidity?” Meng Chiwan repeated, the two words rolling on her tongue, but they brought no sense of familiarity, only unfamiliarity.
"What do you mean by making contributions to the cultivation world?" Meng Chiwan asked, puzzled.
"To create a peaceful world for all generations, a cultivation world without the weak and without the law of the jungle, is our inescapable responsibility." The girl suddenly became serious, as if she had touched the sun in her heart in an instant.
"So, what are you going to do?" Meng Chiwan probed for information, word by word.
"...I can't explain it. It's a restriction." The girl opened her lips, but after a long while, she couldn't utter a single word. In the end, she could only offer this explanation.
Meng Chiwan almost couldn't catch her breath, as if she had been told on the eve of victory that everything had to start all over again, and as she breathed, someone suddenly grabbed her throat.
Fortunately, the girl continued, "I guess that person didn't want me to tell you, but just wanted you to see for yourself. Only by seeing for yourself can you fully understand what I mean."
Meng Chiwan didn't quite understand, but she silently put away the shockwave and waited for her to continue.
"You and that person have a deep connection, I can sense it," the girl said abruptly.
Meng Chiwan's heart skipped a beat, and she asked, "You mean... Chen Zhuo?"
Meng Chiwan said, "I came here to look for someone. Have you seen one..."
She described all the features of Willow Garden to the girl, but the girl just shook her head.
Having no other choice, Meng Chiwan could only say, "Then how can I leave? Since you won't hurt me, can you let me go?"
“You still have unfinished business. That person brought you here so you could see it for yourself.” The girl pondered for a moment, her crimson pupils narrowing like an inverted crescent moon.
"Do you want to go and see it?" the girl asked her finally.
Meng Chiwan hesitated for a moment, then stomped her feet firmly on the blood-red ground.
Feeling that she was standing on solid ground, a few scattered hints of determination appeared in her eyes, which eventually coalesced into a resolute look. She said, "I want to go and see."
Who exactly is this turbid being? And what is there left to dedicate to the cultivation world?
But who exactly led her here? Was that boy just an illusion?
The girl didn't say anything more.
Blood mist rose again, like a curtain being drawn, foreshadowing the start of the next battle.
The girl's figure gradually faded away, and in the intermittent appearance, the steel knife pierced through her entire body, pinning her to the ground.
In the midst of chaos, squares began to appear beneath her feet, with white lines formed by mist crisscrossing. Meng Chiwan stood among them, and after a long while, she finally realized that the world had transformed into a chessboard, and the colors of her robes had faded, making her a piece on the chessboard as well.
She took two steps forward, but a black stone blocked her way.
She stepped back, and another black stone appeared.
She looked up, her hair blowing behind her ears, and saw that she was surrounded by countless black dots all around her.
When there is no way forward, the only option is to forge a new path.
Meng Chiwan took out the Heavenly Bell from her storage bag and shook it tentatively twice. The Heavenly Bell immediately rang out two clear tinkling sounds.
But apart from that, nothing else happened.
Meng Chiwan sighed, leaned forward slightly, and reached out to touch the black piece in front of her.
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