Chapter 48: Rebirth (Part 2) But she herself knew that everything in the past...
After walking for a while, the bottomless Yellow Spring water appeared before our eyes.
Driven by an invisible force, countless ghosts walked into the river on their own accord. Soon, their souls became twisted. They had no physical bodies and could not even scream. From a distance, they looked quite creepy, as if they had been tortured.
Chi Xingji naturally let go of Lian Qiang's wrist, squatted down and scooped up a handful of water. After confirming that it was correct, he sank into the water first.
Lian Qiang was about to follow him immediately, but he stopped her with a gesture, which she didn't understand. Chi Xingji balanced himself in the water, waited a moment, and then extended his hand to her: "It's okay, come down."
She was stunned for a moment, then she understood Chi Xingji's intention. However, Lian Qiang stared at the bony hand stretched out to her for a moment, and finally lifted her skirt and jumped into the underworld, silently refusing his support.
The hem of her skirt brushed past his empty palm. Seeing this, Chi Xingji's eyes dimmed slightly, but he didn't say anything.
When she first entered the water, Lian Qiang could barely keep her balance. From the shore, the water seemed bottomless, and she was afraid she'd sink to the bottom. But once she finally got in, she was able to stay steady on the surface.
Lian Qiang tried many times and finally mastered the trick of walking in it. Chi Xingji, who was in the front, then took the lead and led the way.
The sound of souls diving into the water was incessant, and there were many dead souls around them. Walking with them, the place was so quiet that Lian Qiang even had the illusion that she was one of them.
"Concentrate." It was Chi Xingji's voice. He didn't turn around, but Lian Qiang could confirm that it was his voice. He calmed down and put all distracting thoughts behind him.
But as soon as she focused on the road ahead, the Yellow Spring water around her became colder. It was only slightly chilly before, but now it was so cold that it stinged - this shouldn't be right, Lian Qiang frowned. Logically, she had been in the water for a long time and should have adapted to the water temperature.
It was the Yellow Spring Water's own peculiarity. Lian Qiang quickly figured it out. It seemed the Yellow Spring Water not only had an effect on the dead, but it also had some effect on her, to some extent.
Fortunately, although the water was cold, it was bearable. Lian Qiang shifted her gaze from the reassuring figure in front of her to the water, but the sight of it stopped her in her tracks.
"Lian Qiang."
Lian Bai's figure was clearly visible in the water...
Even though Lian Qiang knew that "Lian Bai" was just an illusion of Huang Quan the moment he appeared, she still couldn't help wanting to touch him when her loved one whom she hadn't seen for a long time appeared before her.
But when his fingertips touched the water, ripples appeared on the originally calm surface in an instant, and "Lian Bai"'s face shattered and disappeared.
"...Brother?" Lian Qiang called out, but saw another figure appear on the water on the other side.
"Sister," it was "Lian Wei" who smiled at her gently, "Can you see us?"
"I can see..." As soon as the words came out of her mouth, Lian Qiang felt her own stupidity. How could she talk to the water surface? But something unexpected happened. Hearing the words, "Lian Wei"'s already gentle face softened even more.
"I miss you very much. No, we all miss you very much." "Lian Wei" tilted her head. "For so many years, we have been waiting for you to come."
Lian Qiang repeated blankly: "Waiting... for me to come?"
"Yes, we haven't crossed the Yellow Springs, so we can't reach the other side." "Lian Wei" said, and several familiar figures of Lian Qiang appeared behind her, including her brother, sister-in-law, nephew, parents... Lian Qiang kept telling himself in his heart that this is not them, this is not them.
Lian Wei's smile suddenly turned bitter. "The elixir you gave us was stolen. We came here early, but we couldn't cross the river and couldn't reincarnate. We can only rely on you. We've been waiting for you to save us for so long."
"Lian Qiang, you've been cultivating for so many years, there must be a way!" "Lian Bai" was quite anxious, "Life underwater is really not a human life!"
Just as he said, Lian Qiang looked at his elderly parents. The white hair on their temples was much more luxuriant than when he last saw them. Then he looked at his sister-in-law and nephew, and Lian Qiang's heart became more and more shaken.
Even knowing they were most likely phantoms created underwater to confuse passing souls, it was hard for her to just sit back and watch them. Tears welled up in Lian Qiang's eyes, but if they were real, she wondered how anxiously and hopelessly they would wait. But she had no other choice.
"All I can do is protect myself... I can't save you..." Lian Qiang opened her lips several times but couldn't say anything, but she still managed to squeeze out these words.
There was a long silence, and Lian Bai's face turned extremely grim: "You, what did you say?"
"I said, I have no choice." Lian Qiang closed her eyes. She was able to come here because of Chi Xingji. Was she going to let Chi Xingji make this fantastic request to Wangsheng just because of her selfish thoughts?
She can't do it.
"Lian Qiang, I really am..." "Lian Bai" couldn't help cursing, "You can ignore me and your sister, but how can you treat your parents like this? They raised you for over ten years! You really are... an ungrateful person! A complete and ungrateful person! If it were me now, I would save my parents even if I died!"
He kept cursing while Lian Wei remained silent, but her expression clearly showed that she shared Lian Bai's thoughts. Not to mention the disappointed expressions on their parents' faces behind them.
"Since you can't save us, it's the same if you come down to accompany us!" "Lian Bai" gave the order angrily.
“…I’m sorry, but I can’t obey your order.”
Lian Qiang, who never said a word to defend herself, just watched them quietly. Tears fell, falling into the underworld, splashing small water: "You are not my brother."
Lian Bai was speechless.
She said slowly, "Lian Bo wouldn't say something like that to me. We usually love to bicker, but he would never say something so harsh to me."
Lian Qiang forced another smile. "He considers his parents more important than himself, but in his eyes, we are equally important and inseparable. He would definitely not make such a decision."
She finally sighed softly: "You are not them, but merely phantoms created by the waters of the underworld."
The last sentence was almost a whisper.
As soon as the first tear fell, the illusion of the family disappeared. Lian Qiang murmured: "This is good, this is good..."
As long as you don't see them here, it means that they have a greater chance of successfully reincarnating.
While she was still in a daze, Chi Xingji had already returned. Seeing the tear marks on her face, he spoke softly, "What's wrong?"
Lian Qiang was still a little dazed: "I saw... them. They told me that they had been waiting for me to rescue them, but I... couldn't do it."
Chi Xingji didn't ask, and Lian Qiang didn't say, but they both knew who this "they" were.
Chi Xingji found it difficult to understand such emotions, but he could sense some of Lian Qiang's feelings from her drooping eyelashes. "This is mostly an illusion, there's no need to be sad. Let's go."
Lian Qiang responded, but when she took a step, she almost stumbled and fell into the water.
Chi Xingji quickly helped her up. Seeing that she was in a daze, he made a quick decision: "I'll carry you." "Huh? No need..." Lian Qiang tried to struggle, "This Yellow Spring is strange. If something unexpected happens, I won't be able to escape, and I'll be a burden to you..."
"No. If I carry you, we can go faster," Chi Xingji said firmly, as if he felt he couldn't convince her. He added, "Just now I turned around and saw you weren't moving. You were just standing there in a daze, staring at the water. I guessed you were in a state of terror."
He turned and looked into the distance. "The journey we've taken is still short, and you've already encountered this. If the remaining journey is more difficult, I'm afraid it won't be as simple as deceiving you."
Lian Qiang looked around and found that as expected, although the number of ghosts here did not decrease sharply, it was much less.
"Then, I'll trouble you, Immortal Lord."
Chi Xingji asked for permission and lowered himself slightly. Surprisingly, he could still move freely in the water, unaffected by Huang Quan's presence. Lian Qiang climbed onto his back and was carried steadily.
Now that I didn't have to walk, the bone-chilling coldness dissipated a lot.
Chi Xingji was always quiet, and he remained silent all the way. Lian Qiang wanted to speak up to ease the atmosphere, but the memory brought back a memory: "You carried me like this before."
The words had already been spoken, and it was too late to regret. Chi Xingji froze for a moment, but quickly recovered: "When?"
In fact, he was very happy to listen to Lian Qiang talk about their past, those precious and incomparable pasts, perhaps full of holes but real pasts. It seemed that if he listened to it more, he could make up for some of what he was missing.
But at the same time, he was also afraid that he would touch something he shouldn't touch and remind Lian Qiang of bad memories.
Lian Qiang lowered her eyes and recalled, "...One time, you went out to participate in the Immortal Sect Competition and took me with you. Something unexpected happened, and I escaped. You found me and brought me back. I couldn't use the underground escape technique at that time, so you carried me all the way back like this."
Thinking about this, Lian Qiang added: "That journey was neither long nor short. In the end, I fell asleep."
The man under her breathed evenly, but did not speak for a long time. Just when Lian Qiang thought he would not speak again, Chi Xingji said, "It sounds like I wasn't too bad to you back then."
"...Indeed." Even though she knew he couldn't see, Lian Qiang still smiled. "That was when we had a hard time later on."
So much so that, when she thinks about it now, she can laugh from the bottom of her heart. It is better not to mention what happened afterwards.
"...But if I were the person I am now, I wouldn't let that happen." Chi Xingji blurted out another unexpected question. Lian Qiang laughed and said lazily, "My Lord, don't brag. If you weren't who you were then, how could you be who you are now?"
"You're right. But this is not bragging, it's true." Chi Xingji gently lifted her to prevent Lian Qiang from slipping.
Seeing his seriousness, Lian Qiang also became serious: "Then I am different now. I won't be dizzy because of a magic that allows me to escape underground. You don't have to carry me for such a long distance anymore."
"But I will."
Chi Xingji pronounced these three words clearly, but they had a certain tenderness and lingering meaning. The speaker had a purpose, and the listener also had a heart.
Lian Qiang didn't respond.
Strangely enough, during the rest of the journey, there were fewer and fewer wandering souls around the two of them, but they never encountered similar illusions as before.
When putting Lian Qiang down, Chi Xingji said jokingly, "Maybe I don't have any past ties, so I won't meet her."
Lian Qiang still didn't respond. But she knew that everything in the past had been blown away by the wind, forever buried in the underworld, while her present was walking side by side with her.
As for the future...that's too far away, she doesn't want to think about it for now.
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