Chapter 78 Peeking: "Are you here to kill me?"
Shu Qing had no problem with being called a "little monster"—she had been unconventional since childhood, always the most eye-catching person in the crowd, and many people called her a "freak," so she had long since become desensitized to it.
But she had a problem with the owner of the voice. Speaking in her head without permission was truly outrageous. Even though she was under arrest, she was still so arrogant.
She blinked slowly, and her heart rate miraculously calmed down with that blink.
"Who are you?"
The voice gave a soft hum, "I am a monster who can see your past."
The description sounded familiar, and Shu Qing's pupils contracted slightly. She felt as if there were a pair of eerie eyes peering through a thick protective suit, their gaze piercing straight into her heart.
"Ah," the monster chuckled eerily, "there's still a restriction on your soul... a very familiar restriction. No wonder you're here. What, are you also a defeated opponent of that Demon King?"
Shu Qing quickly grasped the key point from these words: there was a restriction on her soul by the Nine Su.
I don't know if the monster said this to her to confuse her or to recruit her as a teammate.
Shu Qing suppressed her doubts and cautiously probed, "Are you a runaway monster imprisoned here?"
“Out of control,” the voice scoffed, “I suppose so.”
It seemed that, at least for this moment, it was still somewhat conscious. Shu Qing tried to communicate with it, "Why did you lose control?"
The monster was silent for a moment, then suddenly burst into a strange laugh. The laugh was unusually hoarse and eerie, but Shu Qing could tell it was laughing; it was already at the level of a Level 8 demon language hearing test.
Knowing it was useless, but it was just too awful to listen to, Shu Qing couldn't help but close her eyes and plug her ears. The laughter continued for a while, gradually becoming more and more hoarse, the breathy sounds becoming more and more obvious, and finally turning into the sound of wind.
Shu Qing subconsciously felt something was wrong. When she opened her eyes, she was no longer in front of the heavily guarded small building in the suburban park of the Super Management Bureau. The world was a deep red, almost black.
"..."
The scene looked so familiar; it was the dream she used to have—she didn't know it before, but now she did—that it must be the scene of her death in a past life.
"What does this mean?" she wondered. "A monster that can see my past... Could it be that this unlucky thing has gone out of control again? Is its 'rules' voice-activated, activating the moment it hears the word 'out of control'?"
The thought only crossed her mind for a moment before she immediately sensed something was amiss—in many of her past dreams, Shuqing's consciousness was always separated from her former self by a thin membrane. Although she knew it was her past self, time stood between them, and she remained an observer from afar.
However, within this strange art of "peeping into the past," she was horrified to discover that she was being swallowed up by her past.
Love, hate, anger, and infatuation are like the fragrance of plum blossoms after snow; the more one experiences life and death, the more intense and profound they become, and the more they temper one's spirit and character.
However, in this life, she was just an ordinary person with a happy family, successful studies, and a good job. How could her temperament compare to that of Ashu, who had experienced life and death in the past? In the past, her love and hate were too overwhelming, and her thoughts were so turbulent that they almost drowned her. In this moment, she truly experienced the terror of being on the verge of death.
A soft consciousness from over a thousand years in the future, like a feather, swirls and falls into a vortex of joy and sorrow.
As her past and present lives were about to merge completely, Shu Qing felt like a drowning tourist, overwhelmed by memories and unable to breathe. Only the ring on her left middle finger emanated a cool chill, like an icy kiss, bringing her a precious breath of air.
She struggled to breathe through the thin air, her consciousness completely trapped within the dying body of over a thousand years ago, overwhelmed by cold and despair. Her unfocused eyes reflected the dark red sky, like two clumps of congealed blood, dull and lifeless.
Bloodstained fingers pressed against the fatal wound between the chest and abdomen. The blood, which should have been warm, seemed to be mixed with ice shards, a wound caused by the extraordinary swordsmanship of Kunlun Immortal Capital.
It was the last thing her teachers and hometown, which she had treated with all her heart, left her.
A tear mingled with blood dripped onto the sweet-smelling weeds.
Shu Qing was extremely tired. Countless strange and familiar memories flooded her mind, but she didn't even have the strength to sort them out. She slowly closed her eyes.
She knew she was about to sink into eternal darkness. In these final moments, her five senses had completely disappeared, but her intuition remained. She vaguely sensed a familiar presence approaching her.
She forced her eyes open a crack again, and a familiar face came into view. The silver-haired boy looked down at her, his crimson eyes almost dripping blood. His face, already snow-white, was now nearly transparent, making him seem like an image floating between reality and illusion.
Shu Qing moved her lips slightly, wanting to call out "Xiao Hong" again, but she no longer had the strength to speak.
Jiu Su stared at her for a moment, then slowly knelt down beside her. She was surrounded by blood, and as he knelt down, his pure white robes were completely soaked in blood, yet remained unstained, making him seem even more like an illusion.
She tried to open her eyes wide to see his face again, but through her blurry vision, she could see that his face was almost expressionless.
If she could see a little more clearly, she would have noticed that he had a mocking smile on his lips, as if he harbored deep-seated hatred; but his eyes were churning with emotion, full of sorrow, and almost moist.
Shu Qing smiled and wanted to ask: Are you here to pick me up?
Her life had been filled with misery, panic, and confusion. She had obtained nothing she sought and lost everything she wished for. In the end, she was able to see her beloved one last time. Perhaps this was a final act of mercy from heaven.
"Even if you're going to die, why do you want to die here?" Jiu Su said bitterly. "Didn't you say long ago that you would never see me again?"
A vague memory flashed through her mind—it was a crucial moment in the battle between the two sides when Jiu Su disguised herself and infiltrated the Xiandu Allied Forces.
He was a monster, acting in a strange and unpredictable way, and was used to taking unconventional approaches. He even transformed into a patrolman and silently walked past the military tent.
Just as a meeting was ending in the Xiandu Allied Forces, Shu Qing walked out of the military tent and immediately saw a pair of light sandalwood eyes.
She was startled and speechless, not knowing what to say: He, a demon leader, just brazenly ran into the enemy's main camp. Even if he was confident in his cultivation, who among those present wasn't highly skilled?
Fortunately, she was known as the "Goddess" and held a certain position in the Immortal Capital Allied Forces. It was perfectly normal for her to casually summon a patrolman to inquire about defenses, so she beckoned, "Come here."
Jiu Su obediently walked over and was led to a secluded grove of trees. Shu Qing turned around and glared at him angrily.
"How did you recognize me?" Jiu Su laughed, looking herself up and down. "I don't think my disguise was any bad."
His disguise this time was indeed flawless, much better than the disguise he wore at the foot of Kunlun Mountain in previous years, but she knew him too well.
Shu Qing rolled her eyes at him. "What do you think? I'm not blind."
"So what do you want to do with me?" Jiu Su tilted her head, looking at her with a smile, "Execute me on the spot?"
Shu Qing rolled her eyes at him again—of course she understood what he meant, but what was going on? How could he still be talking about such nonsense? It was so absurd!
“I’ve already seen him.” She gently touched the unfamiliar face and whispered, “There’s a path behind the cliff on the east side. Leave from there, and… don’t come back again.”
Jiu Su paused for a moment, her lips moving slightly, "I'm not..."
However, at that moment, someone was already calling her name outside the grove, and footsteps could be faintly heard, as if someone was looking for her.
Their gazes were simultaneously turned beyond the grove.
"Don't say anything more," she turned around and gently stroked his lips. "You shouldn't be here, and I can't stay any longer. Let's go."
She glanced at him one last time, meeting his gaze. His eyes were incredibly complex, hesitant to speak, containing longing, guilt, and something else... She didn't have time to see it clearly.
That night, the Demon King's cold dagger pierced the heart of the Kunlun Immortal Lord. Jiu Su took advantage of the darkness to leave the allied forces' camp, and only she chased after him.
They faced each other coldly under the biting moonlight.
Jiu Su looked at Shu Qing with a slight smile on his face and said with a laugh, "You chased after me, not to help them intercept me, right?"
She was speechless; a thousand words, hatred, and resentment were stuck in her throat. All she could do was raise her sword against him. She had studied alchemy, and her swordsmanship was mediocre. She never imagined that one day she would have to use this ordinary swordsmanship against him.
Jiu Su looked down at the glint of cold light on the sword tip, her smile gradually fading. Her eyes flickered, and she looked up at her in disbelief.
"On the battlefield, life and death are one's own responsibility." He asked mockingly, "Are you here to avenge that Kunlun Immortal Lord and kill me?"
Her hand holding the sword trembled slightly. The Kunlun Immortal Lord was her senior uncle. No matter how he treated the demon race, he was very gentle and caring towards them, his juniors.
In her cave on Liuxia Peak, there were paintings and calligraphy given to her by this old man. She loved painting, which had nothing to do with alchemy, and even her master didn't approve of her spending too much time on painting skills. However, this Kunlun Immortal Lord would personally teach her to paint flowers and birds, telling her to use spiritual sand to mix colors, and that the peonies she painted would be as bright as blood and the most beautiful.
His words were still ringing in my ears... and yet he died so easily at Jiu Su's hands.
The old man's body lay sprawled in the central command tent, a gaping hole ripped open in his chest, his empty chest exposed to the air, his heart nowhere to be found.
The methods by which monsters kill are ultimately different from those of ordinary people. She only glanced at the bloody and gruesome scene, and almost vomited blood and tears at the same time.
Ultimately, countless blood feuds will lie between them, and they will never be able to separate their stances from their love.
If she hadn't been blinded by love, if she hadn't been so concerned that she lost her senses, how could she have seen Jiu Su disguised and sneaking into the camp of the Xiandu Allied Forces, and instinctively wanted to protect him and send him away instead of exposing him...?
Shame and resentment weighed heavily on her heart, causing blood to trickle from the corner of her lips. Jiu Su's pupils contracted, and she subconsciously took a step forward.
At the same moment, she thrust her sword out with hatred in her heart. Jiu Su had nowhere to hide. In the nick of time, she caught the blade with her bare hands. Blood flowed down her wrist and dripped onto the ground, a dazzling sight.
Without blinking, he repeated, "Are you here to kill me?"
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