Chapter 76 The Villainess Was Like a Dream
Shen Cangyu returned to Dragon Ridge Mountain. The cold moon hung high in the sky, and she glanced at the scene outside the courtyard.
The rain had swept all the fallen flowers in the yard to the ground, where they sank into the soil. A lingering, decaying scent of flowers drifted in through the window. Shen Cangyu hadn't swept away the fallen flowers from the previous days; now they were rotting in the soil and starting to smell bad, but he didn't care. After all, flowers fall every day; even if he swept them away, more would fall tomorrow.
She doesn't like to do things that are pointless.
Shen Cangyu placed the copper coin Jiang Qian handed her on the table. The copper coin, engraved with floral patterns, was bathed in moonlight, reflecting a shimmering light.
Shen Cangyu sat back on the bed, lay down on his back, and closed his eyes.
The stench of decay that had enveloped us gradually dissipated, transforming into a faint fragrance of osmanthus.
The gentle sound of bells drifted over, and she opened her eyes to see the familiar scene of reflections in water and flowers.
This time, Wan Qianzhong didn't sit in the tree, but stood on the shore, getting much closer to Shen Cangyu.
Shen Cangyu looked at her and asked, "You promised me, thirty books in exchange for three answers."
“Yes, I did say that.” Wan Qianzhong turned to look at her.
Through the fine beaded curtain, Shen Cangyu could vaguely see Wan Qianzhong's eyes. Now that they met again, Shen Cangyu realized why she had always felt that Wan Qianzhong looked somewhat familiar when she first saw her.
Perhaps it was because Wan Qianzhong had the same eyes as Pei Wenjing.
"The first question is, where did the Five Evils get the news of the treasure?" Shen Cangyu didn't think about anything else and quickly asked the question she most wanted to know.
“Tianyin,” Wan Qianzhong said, “a Tianyin told them that Kunlun has a supreme treasure hidden inside the statue of the Heavenly Fragrance Goddess. Once they obtain it, they can see the origin of the world through the statue and know what will happen in the future.”
Tianyin...it's that damned Tianyin again. Shen Cangyu thought viciously.
Knowing the origin of the world and knowing what will happen in the future—isn't this exactly her current state?
Isn't that simple? The origin of this world is the novel, and they are just characters in the novel. The things that are going to happen in the future have happened countless times. This world goes through cycles again and again, and the plot repeats itself time and time again. The things that are going to happen in the future are already in her memory. She has only unlocked a part of the memories now. Sooner or later, she will be able to find all those memories.
Is knowing the origin of the world really that important? Even if the Five Evils knew this information, what could they do with it?
They don't really think that having the ability to foresee the future makes them an omniscient and omnipotent god, do they?
Compared to the uncertainty of the unknown, knowing everything that will happen in the future but doing everything in vain is the most terrifying thing.
The Heavenly Voice that transmits messages to the Five Evils is the Heavenly Dao, the mastermind behind Shen Qingyan, and the very thing that made the Kunlun Immortal Master an immortal.
Rather than calling it the Way of Heaven, it's more accurate to say that it is the creator of this world, the author behind the novel.
Now, in order to advance the plot, the author is actually encouraging the Five Evils to enter Kunlun. Does the author even realize how many people this will kill, and how many will have to bear the consequences of this decision?
The people of this world have unconditional trust in the Way of Heaven, and have become pawns in the Way of Heaven's manipulation of the plot.
Shen Cangyu didn't feel sorry for the Five Evils; she only felt they were pathetic. Because they hadn't awakened their own personal will, they could only become pawns of the author, following the plot and becoming cannon fodder one after another destined to die.
Apart from the Five Evils, everyone else in this world is pathetic; they haven't awakened, and this is the end they deserve.
Shen Cangyu was the only one who remained clear-headed. She had learned so many mental techniques and mastered two different Daoist arts. She inherited the Kunlun Sword and knew many people. She believed that everything she had gained in this life was because she had awakened and broken free from the constraints of being a "minor character." She refused to accept fate's arrangements and dared to oppose the protagonist and the author. Everything she had achieved was what she deserved.
Kunlun will face many challenges in the future, but Shen Cangyu no longer worries as much as she did at the beginning. After all, the solution isn't as difficult as she imagined.
She used to hate the Hall of Good and Evil, but now that she has spent more time with its disciples, she understands that it is too simplistic to view people in the world as simply black and white.
If anyone tries to burn down the Sutra Repository, she will kill that person; if anyone tries to harm a disciple of the Myriad Instruments Return to the Heart, she will kill that person.
Anyone who tries to destroy Kunlun will be killed, and then the world will be at peace. It's such a simple matter, not at all as complicated as she had imagined.
Simplify everything complex, reduce two, three, four, five, and six to one, without needing to consider their difficulties, backgrounds, or reasons.
Understand the judge's pen, and become the judge's pen.
Shen Cangyu cannot deny that sometimes what the comments in the live chat are quite accurate.
Entities should not be created unless absolutely necessary.
"My second question is, why did you send Pei Wenjing to Kunlun in the first place?"
The smile on Wan Qianzhong's face faded: "You know quite a lot of information. Who told you about this? How many other people in Kunlun know about this?"
“Now it’s my turn to ask you, not the other way around,” Shen Cangyu said.
Wan Qianzhong stared at her for a long while before finally giving in and saying, "Alright, then I'll tell you. Kunlun may have many drawbacks, but it offers the best conditions for growth, allowing him to gain more experience early on. Parents who love their children plan far ahead for them. So, are you satisfied with this answer?"
Shen Cangyu suddenly spoke up: "Then you left him here. Have you thought about his feelings? Do you know how much he longs for a family when he sees other families living in harmony? Do you know that once your bloodline is exposed, he will be driven out of Kunlun and wander outside the mountains forever? What kind of profound wisdom is this?"
Shen Cangyu had no mother. Countless times she envied children with mothers; at least they could run home when they were wronged. She only had her adoptive grandmother, who raised her with harsh discipline, teaching her to rely on herself for everything. She knew her grandmother had gone through the same thing, and everything her grandmother said was true.
Without her grandmother's early education, she might not have grown up on her own, and she might not have been able to make it to Kunlun alone, struggling to survive amidst the deceit and treachery of others.
But she still sometimes wonders if she had a mother, she wouldn't have to work so hard.
These words, seemingly spoken by Shen Cangyu on behalf of Pei Wenjing to Wan Qianzhong, were actually a way for her to express her grief for her deceased mother. Why couldn't she have held on a little longer? Why did she leave Shen Cangyu alone in this world?
Hearing Shen Cangyu's words and seeing her fluctuating emotions, Wan Qianzhong was moved for a moment. A thousand words floated through her mind, finally turning into this one sentence: "Which of these questions is your third question?"
Shen Cangyu took a deep breath and closed her eyes to calm herself. When she opened her eyes again, she stared intently at Wan Qianzhong and said, "My third question is, where are the two evils, 'foolishness' and 'slowness'?"
Wan Qianzhong was surprised that she would ask this question. She smiled and said, "Foolishness and Slowness haven't been revealed yet. I'm not familiar with Slowness, but don't you know Foolishness, one of the Five Evils?"
Seeing the amused look on Wan Qianchong's face, Shen Cangyu's heart suddenly skipped a beat, and a bad premonition appeared in her mind.
“Chi is Pei Wenjing,” Wan Qianzhong said.
It was like ice water being poured over her head. Shen Cangyu shivered and suddenly realized why the people of Kunlun were so determined to drive Pei Wenjing out of the mountains back then.
Perhaps it wasn't because of the existence of the time traveler, nor because he was Wan Qianzhong's child, but because he himself was the madman among the Five Evils.
No wonder… Pei Wenjing was raised by the Kunlun elders since childhood, yet they expelled him from Kunlun and even tried to shatter his inner core and destroy all his cultivation. Pei Wenjing's situation is different from Xu Qiubai's; if Pei Wenjing were one of the Five Evils, the power he wields would cause even greater harm.
This is the real reason he was expelled from Kunlun.
If Wan Qianzhong wasn't lying to her, if this was the truth, then Pei Wenjing leaving Kunlun and being hunted down by the Kunlun people seemed like an inevitable outcome.
"Since you know all this, why did you still send Pei Wenjing to Kunlun? Did you want to watch him go to his death?" Shen Cangyu grasped the crux of the matter. If Wan Qianzhong had known from the beginning that Pei Wenjing was the madman among the Five Evils, why did he still throw him into Kunlun?
Does Pei Wenjing know about this?
“This is a new question. If you want the answer from me, that will cost you a different price,” Wan Qianzhong said.
She snapped her fingers, and a gust of wind swept up the surrounding osmanthus petals, filling the air with a rich fragrance. Shen Cangyu watched as Wan Qianzhong's figure retreated and disappeared into the vortex of golden rice grains.
Shen Cangyu opened his eyes and stared at the roof beam above his head.
I'm so annoyed, I want to kill someone.
Shen Cangyu hated riddle-makers the most. Wan Qianzhong always spoke half of what he said and hid the other half. She couldn't even tell how much of what Wan Qianzhong said to her was true and how much was false.
Shen Cangyu habitually turned on the bullet comments, but was startled by the messages flooding the screen.
A deluge of comments flooded in, more than she had ever seen before, and the IDs on the comments were all unfamiliar; all the familiar IDs she had seen in the past had disappeared.
But what's even more terrifying is that the original story includes her entire conversation with Wan Qianzhong. In this chapter, her storyline occupies 100% of the screen time. Keep in mind that previously, as a villain, her storyline would at most reach 40%, and there wouldn't even be any description of her inner thoughts or her behind-the-scenes actions.
Her relationship with Wan Qianzhong was never mentioned in the text, and readers always thought she was just a talented academic genius from Kunlun.
Now that readers know about her relationship with Wan Qianzhong, given their personalities, they're bound to say things like, "Just as I expected," or "I knew she was a bad person."
Shen Cangyu thought this, but when she scrolled up the barrage of comments, the expected insults did not appear.
[My poor Cangyu has had a hard life since she was little (crying). What did she do wrong? She just wanted a mother.]
[Cangyu has been very strong since she was a child (hugs her)]
[A fine sword is forged through tempering, and the fragrance of plum blossoms comes from bitter cold. Our Cang Yu has grown up; her mind is exceptionally strong. Nothing can stop her. Gods and Buddhas alike will slay her; she will destroy everything, including the laws of heaven and the laws of nature!]
[Kill the villain!]
Sharpening knives
Sharpening knives
As Shen Cangyu watched the messages flying out on the screen, he felt as if he were in a dream and hadn't woken up yet.
What exactly happened?
She scrolled up through the comments, but the long barrage seemed endless, and all the comments she used to know had disappeared.
She quickly flipped to the front of the book, only to find that the entire plot had changed.
The protagonist is the person who occupies 90% of the plot in the book. This was the conclusion Shen Cangyu had drawn in the past. But now, the person who occupies 90% of the plot in the book is no longer Shen Qingyan, but herself.
Just then, the latest comment caught her eye.
[Finally, the synopsis has been retrieved! This is the kind of evil female protagonist I've been wanting to see, one who slaughters her way across the world!]
The next chapter will begin the "God of Heroes" arc.
No one has a God's-eye view. What everyone sees, what they think, including their guesses and conclusions, is unique and one-sided. Whether it's Shen Cangyu, Shen Qingyan, or Pei Wenjing, everyone sees different things, and what they see may not be correct. If I say more, I'll miss everything.
Hearing is unreliable, seeing is believing, but often what you see is not necessarily the truth. This is a very important point in this article.
The main themes of this story are philosophy and growth; it's a very abstract piece. I can't guarantee you'll like it, nor can I guarantee the plot you expect will unfold. This isn't a wish-fulfillment story, nor is it a revenge/face-slapping story. The real blow will come in the final chapter.
Please forgive me for rarely having the courage to open the comments section, so I seldom read your comments, but occasionally I guess what you're thinking, and sometimes I'll glance at them by accident. It won't be the plot you imagined, nor the story you're expecting, but its ending was already predetermined the moment I wrote the first word.
I considered changing the plot, but doing so would be like the bullet fired from the gun now hitting me in the forehead. I talked to my friends for a long time, and ultimately decided to write it according to the original plot. I'm very sorry, I've never been one to satisfy everyone, but I was born to write this kind of stuff.
These are just some heartfelt words.
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