Chapter 115 Cheers, take care in the future
Shen Cangyu hadn't expected that Xu Qiubai actually knew why she had come.
In Xu Qiubai's courtyard, fallen petals piled up, sinking into the soil, leaving behind a rich, fragrant aroma. Back in Kunlun, Xu Qiubai's courtyard only contained bamboo groves, a pond, and turtles. Unexpectedly, outside of Kunlun, he changed his style entirely. Or perhaps, this was his original preference, only that in Kunlun, he was always constrained by his destiny, and everything around him was built to conform to it.
Elder Xu Mei thought that water and bamboo could change his fate and allow him to live a few more days. Unexpectedly, his life was ultimately filled with hardship, and he eventually left Kunlun. However, he now appeared more energetic than before.
“After all, it’s always easier to live in a less crowded place. With no one watching, my Hundred Eyes won’t malfunction,” Xu Qiubai took a pottery jar from the shelf and asked, “Want some wine? My peach blossom wine.”
Shen Cangyu thought for a moment and said, "I'd better not drink it." Xu Qiubai seemed much more relaxed than before. Perhaps leaving Kunlun was a good thing for him. Just as he said, with no one watching, he was no longer afraid of other people's gazes, nor did he need to think about how to meet other people's expectations.
"If you're not going to drink either, then forget it, I'll drink it myself."
Xu Qiubai took the porcelain bowl and poured the wine into it. The wine was mixed with the fragrance of peach blossoms. Xu Qiubai said, "I know what you came here to ask. You want to test whether I have any plans to take revenge on Kunlun, right?" Xu Qiubai was more direct than Shen Cangyu had imagined. Without any preamble, he went straight to the point.
Shen Cangyu continued, "Now all five evil forces are hostile to Kunlun. Although you come from Kunlun, Kunlun has wronged you. In my opinion, whatever you do is justifiable." She was telling the truth. Kunlun owed Xu Qiubai a lot, whether it was mental trauma or reputation. Kunlun had wronged him.
For example, when Kunlun attacked Pei Wenjing and her in the past, the physical pain was painful, but the pain to their spirit and reputation was equally painful; neither was superior to the other. Kunlun, or rather, this era, owed them too much.
Shen Cangyu felt that under these circumstances, she could understand even if Xu Qiubai wanted to destroy the entire Kunlun. The Hundred-Eyed Mirror represented "doubt," and they were constantly tormented by worry. Only when Xu Qiubai distanced himself from the group of people who caused him pain did the influence of the Hundred-Eyed Mirror weaken.
However, weakening it is only a temporary measure. The best way to completely break free from the mental interference of the Hundred Eyes Mirror is to eliminate the person who caused his illness.
This is the simplest and most direct method. Those who slaughtered Wanqi and returned to their families back then probably had the same idea in mind.
"If I said I wouldn't do that, would you believe me?" After a bowl of wine, Xu Qiubai's words seemed to echo the words Pei Wenjing had said years ago.
Back on Blind Mountain, when Shen Cangyu questioned Pei Wenjing about whether he had killed the disciples of Wanqi Guixin, Pei Wenjing had said the same thing. But at the time, Shen Cangyu didn't care about the truth. According to the plot, there always had to be a villain to bear the blame for the murder, and even if it wasn't Pei Wenjing, it would be someone else.
If everything that happened in Kunlun was orchestrated by Pei Wenjing, then Pei Wenjing naturally becomes the leader of the Five Evils, the ultimate boss of the story, and her nemesis. And if Pei Wenjing is killed, everything will end. From a plot perspective, it's simple, convenient, and easy, requiring no further consideration.
The plot only requires him to be a villain; his life story is irrelevant, and his hardships need not be shown. Even if the plot is illogical, even if he takes the blame for someone else, people will have no way of knowing. In order to reasonably shift the blame onto Pei Wenjing, the author racked his brains and wrote the setting of "born evil." Since he is inherently bad, nothing he does is surprising.
Therefore, when Shen Cangyu later tried to get to the bottom of things and uncover the truth, the plot became incredibly fragile because there were too many loopholes. The author was only thinking about the ending, and the process couldn't withstand scrutiny or be made up.
"Why did you hurt people in the secret realm back then?" Shen Cangyu asked. She had heard many people mention the story of Xu Qiubai hurting people in the secret realm and eliminating other disciples. It was because of this incident that Xu Qiubai gained a bad reputation and was eventually expelled from Kunlun for misconduct and a tarnished reputation.
But no one has ever mentioned the process, and no one knows the truth behind the story.
Xu Qiubai was taken aback. He hadn't expected Shen Cangyu to suddenly bring up that matter. He raised his hand, and the wine dripped into the bowl. He looked down at the wine swirling in the bowl and said casually, "That matter? If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have almost forgotten about it. It seems that several people surrounded me. They knew that the elders couldn't see the scene in the secret realm, and they wanted to take the opportunity to beat me up and then throw me into the water... That's what they said. They wanted to attack me, and of course I couldn't let them beat me up."
Xu Qiubai finished the wine in his bowl in one gulp and said, "If I go along with them, they will think I'm easy to manipulate, and they will dare to attack me even outside the secret realm. I'm just fighting back, and I don't think I've done anything wrong."
He suddenly laughed, revealing a set of white teeth: "However, I've known since then that as long as I act tough enough, no one will dare to mess with me."
Xu Qiubai can kill in the secret realm, but that doesn't mean he would kill in reality. Rather than saying he lacks the courage, it's more accurate to say that his constant verbal abuse and confrontational attitude towards others, his use of the most intense methods to attack others, is simply a form of self-defense.
“It’s a pity that what I did disappointed my master. She probably didn’t want me to become like this, but she doesn’t know what happened to me and can’t protect me,” Xu Qiubai said, muttering, “You came to see me, did you just come to have a heart-to-heart talk?”
As Shen Cangyu watched Xu Qiubai's character profile in the original story gradually unlock more details, he said, "I believe it now. The Hundred-Eyed Mirror who went to Kunlun to kill people wasn't you." It's said that the weak draw their swords against the weaker, but who is the weaker and who is the weaker? When blinded by a single leaf, can people really tell the difference?
"Have you made contact with other Hundred Eyes Mirror believers over the years?" Shen Cangyu asked.
Xu Qiubai knew what she wanted to ask: "If they were willing to contact me, they wouldn't be Hundred-Eye Mirrors. People with the characteristics of Hundred-Eye Mirrors would never expose their whereabouts. The Hundred-Eye Mirror Dao technique on me wasn't passed down to me by someone else; it grew on its own. This is different from other Dao techniques. As long as the situation is right, everyone's Hundred-Eye Mirror can awaken, and the Dao technique will be learned without a teacher."
When did you notice the Hundred Eyes Mirror mark on your body?
"How come I never realized you were such a digging person?" Xu Qiubai clicked his tongue. "We rarely see each other, and instead of catching up, you're interrogating me like this."
"Sorry?" Shen Cangyu apologized crisply and decisively.
Xu Qiubai couldn't help but roll his eyes. Shen Cangyu's "sorry" sounded exactly like Pei Wenjing's, which made him angry: "Really... not a single word of it is pleasing to the ear."
Despite his complaints, he still said, "Before the Secret Realm assessment, I already had the mark of the Hundred-Eyed Mirror on me, or even earlier, as far back as I can remember. It's just that I didn't know what it was when I was a child. Moreover, at that time, everyone said that each person could only possess one kind of Dao technique. I inherited the ability to see the secrets of heaven very early on, so I never thought that I would also have the ability of the Hundred-Eyed Mirror."
Before this, cultivators were always people who were single-minded and would follow a single path to the end. Indeed, very few people would try to take different paths, and no one knew that people could inherit different Daoist methods at the same time.
Even Xu Qiubai, who was highly talented in Taoist magic, had never thought of it.
"You've come to me, presumably to find the Hundred-Eyed Mirror that will destroy Kunlun in the future. That person isn't me, and I have no clue about him. But I can tell you that there's no connection between the Hundred-Eyed Mirrors. The abilities of our Daoist arts are all based on our perception. When the Daoist arts of the Hundred-Eyed Mirror fall upon each person, they manifest differently. The Hundred-Eyed Mirror you're looking for has the ability to transform into other people, but I don't have that ability. My Hundred-Eyed Mirror ability is only to see people's hearts."
Xu Qiubai looked into Shen Cangyu's eyes and said, "I can see everything you know and think through your eyes."
*
"They've been gone for so long, aren't you coming out?" Xu Qiubai said.
Pei Wenjing came out of the house with a very sour face.
"What's with that expression? You're the one begging me for a favor, Pei Wenjing." Xu Qiubai glanced at him, his face darkening as he cursed the jealous man a thousand times in his heart.
"You still haven't dug out that Hundred-Eye Mirror from Kunlun. I think you've lived in vain for all these lifetimes." Looking at Pei Wenjing, Xu Qiubai still felt nauseous.
This person not only suddenly found him, but also forcibly inserted all his memories from thousands of lifetimes into his mind, making Xu Qiubai share his pain, and then coldly said: "You've finished reading, right? Find that Hundred-Eye Mirror for me."
What a load of rubbish!
"Were all those meals you ate for nothing? Why didn't you find it yourself?" Clearly, that person in the Hundred-Eye Mirror was impersonating Pei Wenjing. If he had wanted to, he definitely could have found it, but he never did, and he didn't care how badly that person had ruined his reputation.
Pei Wenjing sneered, "Those things aren't important." He had more important things to do, so he didn't care about Kunlun or the Hundred-Eye Mirror.
"What, it wasn't important before, but it's important now?"
Pei Wenjing didn't speak, he just stared at him.
Xu Qiubai saw his own death a thousand times through his eyes again, and he laughed angrily: "Does Shen Cangyu know that you are this kind of person?"
Pei Wenjing raised an eyebrow, and Xu Qiubai saw a smug look in his eyes. He said viciously, "I should have exposed your ugly face in front of her just now."
As Xu Qiubai cursed, he said, "I can't find it. All I can see are your memories. You don't care about this matter. Even if I search a thousand times, I still won't find it."
"Then come with me to Kunlun, and we'll examine each person one by one to see who it is."
Xu Qiubai was shocked by his shamelessness and exclaimed, "You really are a robber..."
Looking at Pei Wenjing's stubborn expression, he sighed and said, "Senior Brother Pei, I can't go back anymore. The rest of the journey is up to you."
Pei Wenjing looked at him for a long time before asking, "What about the Heavenly Fragrance Goddess's Spirit Pearl? Don't you want it either?"
"No, it's no longer needed. Let bygones be bygones," Xu Qiubai replied.
“I understand,” Pei Wenjing said, turning his gaze away and nodding. “I’m sorry to have bothered you today. Take care of yourself from now on.” With that, he turned and walked out.
The moonlight shone down on the wine in the bowl.
Xu Qiubai stood up, picked up an empty wine bowl from the shelf, and said, "Since they won't drink with me, then this pot of wine will be enjoyed by the two of us alone."
He filled the wine bowls to the brim, and the two bowls clinked together with a crisp sound. He said, "Your Majesty, let's drink to the end of our filming."
He tilted his head back and drank the wine in the bowl to the last drop. Another wine bowl on the table wobbled, and the wine in that bowl was also emptied.
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