Chapter 49 Fear "You are not her, who are you?"
“I was not the one who killed the disciple of Wanqi Guixin,” Pei Wenjing said.
"You weren't the one who sided with the Five Evils, and you weren't the one who released Wuliangsheng into Kunlun. You want to say you're innocent and did nothing, right?" Shen Cangyu looked at him and asked, "Then where is your demonic bloodline?"
Pei Wenjing stopped speaking.
"As the son of ten thousand, weren't you sent by her to avenge Kunlun?" Shen Cangyu said. "Every time I learn mental techniques, I have to rack my brains and try again and again to understand them. But what about you? You were born knowing those mental techniques. Is it your bloodline that's causing this?"
Wan Qianzhong was originally a disciple of Kunlun, who created countless mental techniques, but later abandoned his original Taoist methods, joined the Five Evils, and defected from Kunlun.
"When you said you wanted to leave, did you already know that you were going to embark on a long and arduous journey?"
Shen Cangyu pressed on relentlessly: "Since you decided to leave, why did you return to Kunlun? Why did you bewitch Xu Qiubai? Why did you destroy everything?"
She raised her sword and thrust it at him: "Answer me!"
Pei Wenjing remained silent, simply retreating to dodge her attacks.
"Where is your sword?" Shen Cangyu stared at his dodging figure and said sarcastically, "I forgot, you are no longer a disciple of Wanqi Guixin. You abandoned your sword long ago and don't have a sword in your hand."
In the past, when they sparred, they would always fight with all their might, the battles fierce and evenly matched. They both wanted to be number one, but neither would give way to the other.
But she didn't know when it started, but Pei Wenjing only dodged and never attacked when fighting her. Shen Cangyu complained about this a lot, but now she realized that perhaps it was from that time that Pei Wenjing gave up on the idea of "All Weapons Returning to the Heart".
But she didn't realize it at the time.
She had so much genuine affection for him, but it all crumbled the moment he destroyed Kunlun.
Pei Wenjing noticed a hint of sadness in her eyes and suddenly said, "It really wasn't me."
“Liar,” Shen Cangyu said, “I saw you kill my senior sister. It was you. Even if you turn to ashes, I will still remember your back.”
Pei Wenjing's dodge was a second too slow, and Shen Cangyu's green sword pierced straight through his shoulder. He groaned, but Shen Cangyu did not hesitate to pull out her sword and thrust it at him again, this time the tip of her sword pressed against his heart.
“Kunlun sent me to kill you, to grind you to dust, so that I may avenge their lives,” Shen Cangyu said.
"Is what you see with your own eyes necessarily true?" Pei Wenjing said, blood dripping down his face, disappearing into the snow without a trace.
He ignored the sword pressed against his heart, raised his hand to touch her, but she dodged him.
“Even if I were possessed by a demon, I would never harm you. It was the Hundred-Eyed Mirror that took my form; you were deceived by him.” Pei Wenjing said, coughing a few times as blood gushed out.
Shen Cangyu frowned.
She had only injured his arm, not his internal organs. But Pei Wenjing covered his mouth, coughing incessantly, blood mixed with fragments of broken internal organs gushing out.
"Do we still have a chance to start over?" he suddenly asked out of the blue.
Shen Cangyu looked at him and said, "There's no going back."
As soon as he uttered those words, Shen Cangyu realized that his body felt lighter.
She raised her hand and discovered that she had actually gained control of her body.
Shen Cangyu knew that she was currently undergoing an assessment, and the scene before her was likely part of that assessment. As long as she killed Pei Wenjing, she could immediately pass the assessment.
But can she really kill him?
She is different from her other self; she has no memories of her, no knowledge of her experiences, and no intense hatred for Pei Wenjing.
Shen Cangyu couldn't help but raise his head and look at the surrounding scenery.
The surrounding scenery seemed familiar. She realized that this was Blind Mountain, the place where Pei Wenjing had died in his previous life. Could it be that dying in Blind Mountain was Pei Wenjing's destined fate for all eternity?
The snow on Blind Mountain is so heavy that it has blinded too many people.
She looked at Pei Wenjing, who was lying on the ground coughing up blood, and asked, "Why did you come to Blind Mountain?"
In every lifetime, it was the same. For some reason, Pei Wenjing went to Blind Mountain and never left, as if he was searching for something.
Blind Mountain is barren, devoid of human habitation and spiritual energy. She couldn't understand why Pei Wenjing wanted to come here.
Pei Wenjing opened his eyes, looked at her, and suddenly said, "You're not her. Who are you?"
A strong pulling sensation came over me.
Shen Cangyu was slapped several times, seeing stars and still not fully conscious, when a voice came from beside him: "Wake up, wake up!"
She opened her eyes and looked at the crowd surrounding her. Her gaze was unfocused for a moment before she remembered that she was in the Star-Picking Tower.
But the sun was shining brightly overhead; it was no longer night. Could it be that she had slept since the assessment began last night?
Seeing that she had woken up, Huang Menglu breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's good that you woke up. If you hadn't woken up, I really don't know what I would have done with you."
Shen Cangyu rubbed her still-throbbing head, glanced at the disciple beside her, and when the disciple saw her looking at her, he guiltily hid his hands behind his back and whispered, "The elder told me to hit him..."
Shen Cangyu ignored him and asked Huang Menglu, "What's the situation now?"
The scene from just now still lingers in her mind. She doesn't know if it's her memory, a scene generated by a dream, or if she used some magical power to travel to the past and become her former self.
However, the information she received from her conversation with Pei Wenjing kept her on her mind, and she couldn't afford to relax for even a moment.
If all of that really happened, then Kunlun is likely to face a great calamity. She also hoped that it was all just a figment of an illusion.
Huang Menglu said, "There was a problem with the assessment. After you finished the second illusion, you should have returned to reality to rest and recuperate before returning to the illusion to face the third assessment. However, my mistake directly connected the second and third assessments, causing you to enter the third assessment while you were exhausted both physically and mentally."
The third test assesses one's character. Within the illusion, they see their deepest fears or regrets, and the illusion constantly intensifies their inner anxieties. Only those with unwavering resolve, who can see through the illusion and find the key to breaking free, can pass the test and return to reality.
“The other disciples were either eliminated or passed the test long ago and have all come out of the illusion. Only you have been in a coma and we can’t wake you up no matter how we call you. Seeing that your breath is getting weaker and weaker, if you continue to sleep like this, you may die in the illusion. So we have no choice but to forcibly wake you up,” Huang Menglu said.
Shen Cangyu touched her head. Indeed, her head was dizzy. She had initially thought it was from being beaten, but now it seemed to be a side effect of the illusion.
The disciples on the Star-Picking Tower had not yet dispersed, and the disciples of the Incense Offering Hall were also nearby, administering acupuncture and medicine to them to repair their damaged divine consciousness.
Shen Cangyu asked Ming Zhao, who was sitting next to him, "Has the list of successful candidates for the assessment been released yet?"
Mingzhao nodded: "It's been chosen."
Her finger pointed to Shen Qingyan in the distance, who was sitting in a corner with his knees drawn up, staring blankly at the floor in front of him.
Shen Cangyu never expected that he would be the one to take the top spot in the end.
"It is said that he was the first person to pass the third level of assessment, and he woke up even faster than the eliminated disciples."
How was he able to quickly pass the third test after going through so many hardships in the second test?
Does he have no obsessions, no fears, and no regrets? Or perhaps, the system helped him?
"If separation is inevitable, then why bother getting to know each other in the first place?"
*
"Qingyan, why are you sitting here? Aren't you going to join them in the discussion?"
Shen Qingyan raised his head and looked at the person in front of him; this was his roommate.
The man grabbed his arm and pulled him outside: "This is a group discussion, you need to be more involved."
"It's okay, just send me the arrangements after you've come to a conclusion..." Shen Qingyan said softly.
After all, this had always been the case in previous group collaborations; no matter what opinions he offered, they would reject them. Sometimes, he would barely utter a "I think," before they could hear what he was going to say next, before they cut him off. He knew they didn't want to hear what he had to say.
No matter what he says, the outcome will not change.
They would only post the work schedule in the group after the discussion ended. At this point, Shen Qingyan could only sigh as she looked at her own work schedule, which accounted for 70% of her total workload, and buried herself in collecting information and making a PowerPoint presentation according to their ideas.
They only come to him when they need money; otherwise, they just gather in their own little world.
It seems that his school life has always been like this since he was a child. He has never been able to fit in with his classmates.
When he was a child, he envied his classmates who could go into the convenience store arm in arm after school, then run out laughing and playing on the street while eating ice cream and snacks.
After leaving the school, he could only silently get into the black car and silently return to his empty home.
He would sit at the dining table alone and finish the food prepared by the nanny before returning to his room.
He needs all the lights in the room to be on to feel safe. He also needs to hold his mother's photo album when he sleeps, otherwise he will dream about the night his mother left home as soon as he closes his eyes.
"If we were destined to part, why did we have to get to know each other in the first place?" He thought countless times what if she hadn't left, or if she had left even earlier, before he could remember her face.
That would be wonderful.
Shen Qingyan comes from a good family and has many advantages; he is the little prince that everyone adores.
They all say that someone like him, who grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, could have any worries.
His friend was upset, so he went to comfort him, but his friend yelled at him, "How could someone like you possibly understand my feelings? What makes you think you can empathize with me?!"
He didn't realize that his words of comfort were perceived as hostility by others.
He didn't know that in their eyes, he was always an outsider, no one truly regarded him as a friend, and his existence was actually dispensable.
"Our worries are academics, internships, and competitions—it's about making our resumes look better. The rich kid's worry is having no friends," someone laughed behind his back.
"The rich are different from us ordinary people."
Shen Qingyan stood behind the wall, listening to their conversation, then silently walked to the corner of the stairs and squatted down. The person speaking was his roommate, who had stood up for him a few times and helped him a lot; he genuinely considered him a friend. He had thought he was different, but it turned out he was just like everyone else.
Shen Qingyan looked at the floor in front of him and suddenly said, "System, take me away."
Just then, a voice came from beside him: "Hmph, you finally remembered me. Yanzi, you actually managed to guess that this was an illusion. It seems you've improved quite a bit!"
Upon hearing the system's voice, Shen Qingyan's trembling hands finally calmed down.
He smiled.
The system was unaware that in every moment of distress, it would say to the air, "System, take me away."
But in the past, there was never a voice to answer him.
Until this time, the system's voice appeared, which was like salvation for him.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
