Chapter 55 This Isn't Your Fault "Oh, by the way," he said...
"Oh, by the way," he changed the subject, a wicked smile spreading across his face, "Judging by the time, our dear Holy Prince should be coming out of the Holy Land by now, right?"
Gu Xiaozhu's eyes widened: "You know..."
Xie Jitong straightened up and distanced himself from Gu Xiaozhu: "Of course, I'm not stupid."
“I know everything you’ve done is to buy time so that Teng Shao can enter the Holy Land to receive the inheritance, so that you will have the ability to deal with me, right?”
He chuckled softly, the smile never fading from his face: "But I've confirmed one thing now, one thing... that will allow me to completely let go of my worries."
He narrowed his eyes, and seeing Gu Xiaozhu's increasingly uneasy expression, he spoke slowly and deliberately: "Heaven's will can't help you, can it?"
"What happened earlier was just to intimidate me, right?"
A wave of panic surged through Gu Xiaozhu's heart, almost bringing her thoughts to a standstill. She tried to remain calm, but her fingertips inevitably curled up.
“You’re making assumptions too much,” she denied.
"But if Heaven can still help you, then what I did to you and what I said to you just now would have been interrupted long ago."
Xie Jitong smiled and said, "Besides, whether it's wishful thinking or not, reality has to decide, right?"
He suddenly stepped forward, grabbed the girl's wrist, and said under her surprised and uncertain gaze, "Come on, let me show you something interesting~"
A chilling demonic aura instantly enveloped his entire body. After a moment of dizziness, his sense of smell reacted first, even before his vision.
A strong, pungent stench of blood rushed into my nostrils, almost suffocating me and making me want to vomit. The overlapping scenery gradually became clearer, and the first thing that caught my eye was the crimson that filled my entire field of vision.
Blood, blood, and more blood. Everywhere was a scene of utter desolation; slain demons lay in pools of blood, the flowing blood pooling and staining the ground crimson.
The scene before her eyes kept assaulting her senses; she felt a chill run through her body, and her fingertips trembled uncontrollably.
"What's wrong, my lord? Why are you frozen?" Behind me, Xie Jitong's words were filled with a mixture of pleasure and sarcasm.
He took a few steps forward, past Gu Xiaozhu, and stretched out his arm as if to show the girl in front of him the scene: "They are all dead, dead in the world you created, dead at the hands of the protagonist you favor."
"Of course I know they deserved to die. But it's all your fault, isn't it?"
Xie Jitong's words, like those of a demon, flowed uncontrollably into her ears, taking deep root in her heart, causing her soul to ache uncontrollably.
"If you hadn't given them tragic backgrounds, if you hadn't given them the role of 'cannon fodder,' they wouldn't be like this."
"And all of this is your fault."
Xie Jitong looked at the girl opposite him with satisfaction. Her face was pale, clearly a sign of impending collapse. He was pleased with this reaction; after all, she had done so much, how could she not pay the price?
She wanted to experience everything I had gone through—the pain, the despair. Finally—
I will kill her, kill that supreme god, bury the whole world, and finally... bury myself.
"There's more to it than just this," he said softly, a smile playing on his lips. "Tell me... what if the people you love, your friends, all died in front of you, and you couldn't do anything about it—"
Gu Xiaozhu slowly raised her head, a hint of panic still on her face.
Xie Jitong laughed even harder: "How would you feel?"
"Wait, what exactly do you want to do—" Before Gu Xiaozhu could finish speaking, she felt the silk thread around her neck being violently torn off, and the spirit pearl appeared in Xie Jitong's hand.
At the same time, A Cui's figure suddenly appeared, her face filled with unprecedented panic. Her spiritual power surged out, and the illusion instantly covered Xie Jitong.
"Xiaozhu! Run!!!" she shouted.
As soon as she finished speaking, her expression changed, and pain instantly spread throughout her soul, which then shattered into pieces like a piece of glass!
The illusion shattered instantly, and Xie Jitong raised one hand, his pale palm open, showing it to the girl not far away.
In the center of the palm were fragments of the spirit pearl that had long since shattered.
A gentle breeze swept by, lifting the girl's long hair. Strands of hair brushed against her cheeks and caught a single tear that slid down her cheek.
Xie Jitong smiled in the sunlight, but the smile was so glaring. He smiled, and it was sarcastic:
"The first one."
At the same time, a shocked and familiar voice rang out from ahead:
"...Xiaozhu?"
Jiang Zhihe and Teng Shao stood side by side atop the altar. The red-clad boy's face showed undisguised shock, which instantly turned to anger when his gaze fell upon the tear tracks on the girl's face.
Before he could react, a hand landed on his shoulder: "I'll hold Xie Jitong off for now. You take Gu Xiaozhu and get out of here." With that, Teng Shao drew his twin swords and attacked Xie Jitong!
After receiving the inheritance of another "Teng Shao", his cultivation level has reached the Great Perfection of the Nascent Soul stage, just one step away from the Deity Transformation stage. Most importantly, he is now at the same cultivation level as Xie Ji.
Xie Jitong merely narrowed his eyes before engaging Teng Shao, who was attacking. The two exchanged several blows in the blink of an eye, their strengths evenly matched. Clearly, at least in terms of holding off Xie Jitong, Teng Shao was more than capable.
Seeing this, Jiang Zhihe no longer hesitated. Although he didn't know why Xiaozhu had been captured by Xie Jitong, the most urgent task now was to get her out of this dangerous place.
"Xiaozhu! Are you alright? What are you doing here? Did Xie Jitong do anything to you?" Jiang Zhihe immediately began to ask as soon as he arrived at Gu Xiaozhu's side.
However, he knew that now was not the time to ask questions, so as he spoke, he summoned the "Hongying" sword from his waist, which was drawn and stopped steadily in front of the two of them.
Jiang Zhihe stepped onto the longsword first and reached out his hand to the girl.
But Gu Xiaozhu was unusually silent at this moment. She looked at Teng Shao, who was still fighting Xie Jitong in front of her, and suddenly asked, "Is he okay on his own?"
His voice was eerily calm, which was strange and made Jiang Zhihe even more worried, while his anger towards Xie Jitong intensified.
He suppressed his emotions and tried to make his voice softer and calmer in order to convince the girl: "No problem. His cultivation level is now the same as Xie Jitong's. Even if his realm is unstable after just being raised, it is more than enough to hold him off and get away smoothly."
"And now, Xiaozhu, let's leave here quickly." His tone even carried a hint of pleading at the end.
Gu Xiaozhu turned to look at him, her eyes slightly red, clearly from crying, but her expression was unusually calm, even frighteningly calm.
He had seen that expression before.
That damn expression, as if he'd seen through everything and let go of everything.
A sudden surge of intense unease rose within Jiang Zhihe. Before he could even think of what to say, his body acted first.
He grabbed Gu Xiaozhu, pulled her onto the longsword, and held her tightly in his arms. His hands were trembling, but he didn't forget the most important thing at hand.
With spiritual energy mobilized, the longsword hummed and then sped away into the distance at an extremely fast speed.
The wind was whistling in her ears, but Gu Xiaozhu did not resist at all. She just stayed there quietly, letting the boy hold her tightly. His forearms around her waist were so tight that they made her feel uncomfortable, but she didn't say anything.
"Please... don't think about that kind of thing, okay?"
The boy's voice, filled with broken unease, rang in her ears and clearly reached Gu Xiaozhu's ears.
"Tell me... was I wrong?" The girl's voice was low, and then, as if a floodgate had been opened, a series of words poured out from her mouth:
"Am I the one who caused all of this?"
“I am the one who created this world, the one who wrote their tragic lives, and the one who arrogantly labeled them as ‘supporting characters’.”
"I caused their misfortune, I led to their eventual death..."
Her words choked with sobs, and tears streamed down her face.
“It was me… who put you in danger. It was me… who caused Ah Cui’s death…”
Jiang Zhihe then noticed that the spirit pearl around Gu Xiaozhu's neck had disappeared at some point.
"If it weren't for me, this world..."
"This world will also be reduced to nothing!" The boy's voice suddenly rang out, and a surge of anger rose within him.
He was angry at Xiaozhu for always thinking that way.
He was also angry with Xiaozhu, wondering why she couldn't take a good look at herself, and see... how wonderful she was.
But this rising anger vanished instantly upon seeing the girl's tear-streaked face.
His anger vanished in the blink of an eye, replaced by heartache and self-blame that instantly overwhelmed all his emotions.
He sighed and raised his hand to wipe away the girl's tears: "Without you, this world would not exist."
"You are the God who gave them life and made them possible. Without you, they are nothing."
"But I..."
"Xiaozhu".
Jiang Zhihe interrupted her, gently cupping the girl's face in his hands. His eyes were fixed on her with such earnestness and focus that it was impossible not to be captivated.
"Suffering will still occur even without gods. This is the basic principle and logic of the world."
"I don't know what that bastard Xie Jitong said to you, but—"
He took a deep breath and said, word by word:
"This is not your fault, so don't put all the blame on yourself."
He sighed, his tone softening: "Do you know? Heaven once told me something."
"He said, although you are the god who created this world, when the world was in its infancy and the story was far from unfolding, this world was very free. Everyone had their own will, and your existence created a warm cradle for their birth."
"Once the plot begins, the characters outside the plot are free and uncontrollable. They are not under your control as you might think. Any choices they make have nothing to do with you, because they are their own choices."
Gu Xiaozhu was silent for a moment before speaking, "What about the characters in the story? Everything about them..."
“Everything about them will unfold according to the plot,” Jiang Zhihe interrupted. “But—they may resent you for their suffering, but they have no right to—kill you.”
"Without you, they would not exist in this world."
"Besides, if you had known that the novel you wrote would actually become a real world, perhaps you would never have started writing it in the first place."
"Because you know that where there is happiness in the world, there is bound to be suffering. So you would rather not write, not... create that suffering."
"So, Xiaozhu, this isn't your fault."
So, look at yourself, and live on, okay?
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