Chapter 51 Entering the Consciousness Palace to Embrace His Primordial Spirit.
Outside the array formation at the foot of Tianhan Mountain, Jinze sat on a rock, sighing repeatedly.
The place originally prepared for Shen Zhou's tribulation has long since turned into ruins, with traces of lightning strikes everywhere.
He stood up, clutching his back, wincing from the injury and feeling agitated by the thought of Chen Zhou.
After seeing Hua Deng off yesterday, he was still worried, so he took Lie Tian and rushed over.
He rarely dared to disobey Shen Zhou's orders, and he was on tenterhooks when he came. Fortunately, Shen Zhou didn't care about him at all, and let him secretly use Lie Tian to absorb part of the lightning tribulation.
The lightning tribulation lasted for three days, and Shen Zhou began to grow steadily, about to break through the barrier and leap into the Tribulation Transcending stage.
For ordinary people, this would be a life-or-death ordeal, but for Shen Zhou, it was as easy as eating and drinking.
Jinze didn't take it seriously until Shen Zhou was about to complete his tribulation, at which point he suddenly stopped. Lightning struck around him, but he remained unmoved, as if sensing something.
This unusual situation made Jinze sense something was wrong.
"Why did it stop?" he asked nervously.
“She’s in danger,” Shen Zhou said.
It goes without saying who "she" is.
After saying that, he dispersed the lightning tribulation and seemed to be leaving. Ignoring the pain, Jinze rushed forward and said, "What the hell?! Are you crazy?! Half of your power has returned, and this body can't hold up at all!"
Shen Zhou glanced at him indifferently and said nothing.
That one glance froze Jinze in place, as if he had fallen into an ice cave.
He used to often annoy Shen Zhou, but he had never seen such a look in his eyes before.
He couldn't describe it; he only felt a cold indifference and silence, like a still well, devoid of any sign of life.
He almost forgot.
Shen Zhou has regained some of his memories.
He didn't know about Shen Zhou's past, but he thought that if a person could be obsessed with something for tens of thousands of years, it must not be a pleasant experience.
Will Shen Zhou, who remembers those events, still be the Shen Zhou he knows?
But no matter what, he had to stop Shen Zhou from leaving, pleading in a low voice, "Don't go, there's something I can do for you, don't go."
Shen Zhou ignored him, raised his hand and summoned Lie Tian away.
"You really want to leave?" Jinze roared furiously. "I don't understand, do you really love her that much?!"
Shen Zhou paused slightly: "Love?"
He seemed puzzled, but Jinze became increasingly distraught: "If it's not love, then what is it? Is it because you're kind, you're compassionate, that you have to save her?"
Kindness and compassion are words that could never be used to describe him.
But love...
Shen Zhou gripped Lie Tian tightly and disappeared from the spot.
“If you consider this love,” he said indifferently, “then so be it.”
"..."
Jinze could not persuade him to stay and could only sit down blankly. The lightning tribulation on the magic array still lingered, crackling and popping.
He recalled that day, also outside Tianhan Mountain, when Chen Zhou, with a piece of candy in his mouth, asked him, "Why did I choose this path?"
Has he found the answer yet?
Jinze felt a strange sense of curiosity. He wondered if that woman could help Shen Zhou, who had regained his memories, maintain his current rationality.
*
Qiu Ce's manor was absolutely quiet, undisturbed year-round, and this moment was no exception.
A few ginkgo leaves drifted gently to the ground, only to be swept away by the breeze. Hua Deng, still looking back at Chen Zhou, remained unmoved by his question.
“There is something within you that transcends the laws of heaven and earth and can force you to do certain things,” Shen Zhou said.
He initially thought it was a tool to kill him, but later he realized that perhaps the thing was just targeting the streetlights.
"You stayed in Yaoqing Sect, and you didn't kill Duan Yi or Qiu Ce, all because of this."
Shen Zhou recounted the events in a calm tone. There were some things he hadn't paid attention to before, but he could easily guess them if he wanted to.
"Go to the Xiashan Secret Realm, go to the Sword Immortal's Tomb, break through to the Golden Core stage in three months... these are all things you need to do. What else?"
Hua Deng opened her mouth, but the system's shrill alarm sounded in her mind. She couldn't tell the truth, but she also didn't want to lie.
“…It’s nothing.” She turned her head away, her voice somewhat downcast. “I didn’t mean to hide it from you.”
She bit her lip in frustration, not out of complaint against Shen Zhou, but out of self-reproach for not being honest with herself.
Soon, a shadow fell beside her. Shen Zhou knelt on one knee next to her, reached out, and smoothed the teeth marks on her lower lip.
His eyes showed a gentle light in the sunlight: "I know you did a good job, it was just that I wasn't paying attention."
Hua Deng said dryly, "I'm sorry, I really can't explain it to you."
Shen Zhou smiled and calmly helped her up from the ground: "No need to explain, I can help you solve this."
Hua Deng's eyes lit up: "How do we solve this?"
Shen Zhou did not answer, but only said, "Didn't you ask me why I haven't gone to undergo tribulation?"
He said, "Because my power is not obtained through the Heavenly Dao, half of my magic power is in this sword, and the other half is sealed in my soul. The tribulation is just to let it return to my body."
Hua Deng lowered her head again: "It's all because of me that you failed your tribulation this time..."
A finger lifted her chin, and she met a pair of smiling eyes that held an arrogance and... madness she couldn't understand.
“I told you, that’s not important,” he said.
Something appeared in Hua Deng's hand. She looked down and found it was a long sword as black as night.
She had seen this sword many times, but this was the first time she had held it in her hands.
She felt as if she had grasped nothingness.
At that moment, she heard Shen Zhou say, "Kill me with this sword, and you will be able to break the seal on your soul and gain all my power."
Hua Deng suddenly looked up, unable to believe what she was hearing.
Shen Zhou gripped her wrist and, with her, raised the sword: "With power, you can destroy everything. Whether it's the Heavenly Dao or something even more powerful than the Heavenly Dao."
Every word he uttered was astonishingly powerful, yet he stated it in a calm, expressionless tone: "No one can stop you, and if anyone does, destroy them."
The sword was aimed at his chest. Hua Deng suddenly remembered the scene when the sword pierced his heart. At that time, she noticed that Jin Ze's hand was trembling slightly. Now she understood, because her hand was trembling as well.
She looked at Shen Zhou, trying to find a trace of pain or something unusual in him.
But no, surprisingly, there was nothing.
But if a person is not in pain, why would they ask another person to kill them?
She suddenly remembered something that hadn't happened long ago.
When they were in the East China Sea, she rested her head on Shen Zhou's shoulder, played with his hair, and casually chatted with him about the past.
"Are any of the people you knew in the past still alive?" she asked.
He replied, "No, they're all dead."
"Is it okay if you don't retrieve the rest of your memories?" she continued.
He said, "It doesn't matter, they're all just a bunch of dead people."
Looking back now, Hua Deng suddenly finds it hard to tell whether, when he uttered those words, he was talking about old friends or had already categorized himself as a "dead man".
She looked at Shen Zhou, and Shen Zhou looked at her, his dark eyes remaining indifferent.
He said that he would regain his memories after overcoming the tribulation.
She didn't know what he was thinking about, but she felt it shouldn't be like this.
Hua Deng raised his hand and gently shifted the tip of his sword by an inch.
“Shen Zhou, I can’t do that.”
"you can."
He said he was still watching her, and was now pointing the sword at her heart again.
In Hua Deng's eyes, his face gradually overlapped with the man covered in blood, who stood on corpses during the last system transmigration.
They had the same look in their eyes and said the same things to her—
"Let's do it."
"..."
Ah, that's strange.
When he held her and said he would kill her, the emotion she felt was love.
He held a sword, demanding that she kill him; in this touching scene, she felt only desolation.
The wind blew silently, and a ginkgo leaf flew past the two people who were looking at each other. After a long while, Hua Deng shook his head.
"How do you know what I want to do? Maybe what I want to do is beyond your power." She tried to lighten her tone.
Shen Zhou asked, "What do you want to do?"
Hua Deng said, "Maybe I want to become an immortal, to go to the upper realm and become a real god."
But right after she finished speaking, she noticed that Shen Zhou seemed to be smiling, a smile that was strangely indescribable.
He said, "Hua Deng, there are no more immortals in this world."
"...?"
"The upper realm you speak of no longer exists."
"How could this be..."
Before Hua Deng could recover from her shock and find the words she was about to say, he took a step closer, the sharp tip of his sword pressed against her eyes, and said, "What you want is to leave this world."
"—Kill me, and you can do it."
Hua Deng abruptly pulled her hand back, but he grabbed it tightly. The tip of the sword pierced her skin, and she could clearly see blood seeping out.
Finally, she stopped struggling, letting the sword pierce deeper and deeper, and looked up to meet his gaze.
“But I don’t need to, Shen Zhou.” She smiled helplessly and said gently, “If I wanted to leave, I have my own ways to do it. The reason I chose to stay is because there are still people and things I care about in this world.”
She wasn't lying, and Shen Zhou could tell too. He murmured, "It was you who wanted to stay..."
“Yes, I want to stay,” Hua Deng said decisively. “So what about you?”
The speed at which the sword pierced flesh slowed, and Hua Deng tried to retract it a few inches, speaking earnestly, word by word:
"Even if everyone in the world dies, I'd still stay for you. And what about you? If you care about me even a little, you should live on with me."
He didn't answer, his expression remained unchanged, but the hand gripping her wrist seemed to have lost its strength.
Taking advantage of the moment, Hua Deng withdrew her hand and tossed the sword aside. She tiptoed and stroked Chen Zhou's cold cheek, speaking softly under his almost indifferent gaze.
"Chen Zhou, I don't want your life. I want you to live with me. We'll face any difficulties together, and solve any problems together. With you by my side, I'm not afraid of anything. Isn't that how I am to you?"
"Isn't it like this?" Seeing that he didn't answer, she cupped his face and stubbornly repeated it.
Shen Zhou's eyelashes trembled slightly, and his indifferent expression was replaced by a sigh. He pinched Hua Deng's chin, as if talking to himself: "They all want me dead, why are you different?"
Why were you different from them from the very beginning?
Hua Deng smiled instead, her eyes regaining their light, and said softly, "They all want me as their furnace, why are you different?"
She continued, "My answer is the same as yours. I have my reason for living, and you have yours. We can live together."
After a long silence, Shen Zhou scoffed and shook his head dismissively, seemingly unconvinced: "Only you would think my death was worthless."
I feel that his life still has meaning.
Hua Deng laughed and said, "But that's just how I feel."
"..."
"never mind."
Chen Zhou suddenly spoke.
As soon as he finished speaking those two words, Hua Deng keenly sensed a change in his aura. In fact, it was also evident from his actions: he took a step forward, wrapped his arms around her waist, and rested his chin on her shoulder—a posture she knew best, peaceful and languid.
He buried his head in the crook of her neck and rubbed against her gently, just like how she used to pet cats at a cat cafe in her past life.
Hua Deng patted his head and said, "Are you tired?"
"Mmm." His voice lowered. "Let me sleep for a while."
Hua Deng agreed, and he really fell asleep.
Just as Hua Deng was getting numb from standing there and was about to take him back to his room, she suddenly smelled a pungent stench of blood.
She belatedly looked down and saw Shen Zhou covered in wounds. The illusion had disappeared as he lost consciousness, revealing all his wounds, stained with blood, a shocking sight.
Hua Deng's mind went blank for several seconds after a buzzing sound.
She saw it clearly just now: the fight between Shen Zhou and Qiu Ce was a one-sided crushing victory, and there was no possibility of injury.
So... is it because of the lightning tribulation?
The lightning tribulation that lasted for three days and three nights was real; it was meant to strike him to death.
She quickly led Shen Zhou to the nearest room, laid him on the bed, and then used magic to heal him while applying medicine.
As the clothes were removed, her eyes instantly reddened. The scars that tore his skin were like rips open her heart.
She suppressed her rage and forced herself to remain calm. After bandaging his entire body, she thought for a moment, then took out a communication talisman to contact the sect leader: "Master, what should we do if someone gets injured while trying to break through to a higher realm?"
Upon hearing this, the sect leader immediately guessed who was injured and pondered, "External injuries can be treated, but you should quickly check if his primordial spirit is injured."
Even without looking, one could tell that the lanterns were badly damaged: "What if they were?"
The sect leader considered it carefully and said, "Then enter his sea of consciousness and use your own primordial spirit to repair it. This is the fastest way."
Hua Deng: "I understand, thank you, Master."
Sect Leader: "Go quickly."
He spoke quite subtly, but since the two were Daoist partners, they must have done this many times before, so there was no need for him to say more.
Looking at the disconnected message, the sect leader smiled slightly, concealing his merits and fame.
...
Following the sect leader's instructions, Hua Deng immediately summoned his primordial spirit and entered Chen Zhou's consciousness.
She was very cautious at first, after all, a powerful cultivator like Shen Zhou had a consciousness palace that was like a mountain of knives and a sea of fire, and anyone who dared to get close would either die or be injured.
Although she didn't know why, the process of opening her consciousness was unusually smooth, as natural as a neighbor visiting. But she still dared not let her guard down and carefully manipulated her primordial spirit little by little.
The sight she saw made her heart clench again.
Shen Zhou's abode was worse than she had imagined. As soon as she entered, she was engulfed in black mist, unable to see the way ahead at all. Everywhere was a chaotic scene of flashing swords and clashing blades, with countless sword energies crisscrossing and nearly cutting her to pieces.
Fortunately, the wisp of divine consciousness that Shen Zhou left her protected her from the ravages of the sword energy.
Despite the harsh environment, she finally followed the guidance of that divine consciousness and successfully located Shen Zhou's primordial spirit.
His primordial spirit transformed into a sharp sword, hanging high under the only light. It was so enormous that even looking up at it, one could hardly see its entirety. The pressure it exuded was immense and heavy, making the lanterns unable to breathe.
The primordial spirit immediately noticed her and suddenly fell down, causing Hua Deng to retreat in fright.
Strangely, despite clearly discovering the intruder, the spirit did not take any defensive measures or show any inclination to attack. Instead, it stood quietly in place, as if obediently waiting for her to approach.
Hua Deng hesitated repeatedly, extending tentative tentacles time and again, but still dared not approach.
Shen Zhou's primordial spirit observed her for a while, and seemingly understanding her concerns, it actually transformed into an incredibly cute lark.
Hua Deng: "..." Is this even allowed?
Her primordial spirit was just a simple ball of red light. At this moment, she imitated Shen Zhou's appearance, transforming into a lark of the same size, and then hopping and fluttering over.
The night-blooming lark spread its wings, revealing the wounds on its body. Although it was a bird, its expression was inexplicably aggrieved.
The lantern lark flapped its wings reassuringly, boldly declaring that it would handle the situation, and then moved closer to him.
Repairing... probably involves using magic to make contact with him.
The streetlights touched the tips of his wings.
Before she could transfer her magic power, a strange sensation made her shudder and she was momentarily dazed for a few seconds.
How strange, this feels like an electric shock?
She guessed that this was a remnant of the lightning tribulation, so she dared not delay any longer and tried her best to spread her wings and embrace the Sunlit Skylark.
A sudden, intense tingling sensation struck her, and she was thrown back by the shock.
"...!"
This lightning tribulation is so severe; if we wait any longer, Shen Zhou will definitely suffer terribly.
Trying to ignore the strange tremors in his primordial spirit, Hua Deng took a deep breath, closed his eyes, steeled his heart, and suddenly pounced on Yun Que, pulling him into his arms.
That instant.
A sharp electric shock coursed through her body. It hurt, of course, a little, but the stinging pain lasted only a few seconds. What followed was a strange change that was hard to describe and made her want to scream.
She sensed something was wrong and struggled to escape, but the lark, unlike its docile self, flew over without hesitation as she retreated, opened its arms and embraced her.
The two beams of light intertwined tightly, the gold and red colors eroding each other until they completely merged into one, indistinguishable from one another.
The lights in the city's brain burst into fireworks.
After the fireworks, a towering wave crashed down from the sky, fiercely and powerfully smashing and crushing her.
“…”
"???"
"!!!"
The changes in the body revealed the truth; even the most clueless person would understand what had happened.
This feeling, isn't this the legendary...!
"etc--"
Upon realizing this, the golden lark seemed unsatisfied. Not only did it pull her back as she tried to sneak away, it also devoured her with even more outrageous means.
Unlike the previous times, this brutal invasion was completely unreasonable, seizing her firmly in just one second.
He was fierce and domineering, and didn't look injured at all.
"Shen Zhou...you bastard..."
Hua Deng couldn't hold back any longer and cried out.
But Shen Zhou was indeed still unconscious. His intimacy and possessiveness towards her were entirely instinctive and could not be stopped by her crying.
The streetlights have made it impossible to count how much time has passed.
The difference in cultivation levels between the two was too great. If it were an ordinary person, they would have already suffered a mental breakdown and gone insane. But she not only had a special physique, but also possessed Chen Zhou's true energy within her, so she only fainted for a short while each time.
When she woke up, she was still inside Shen Zhou's primordial spirit. That primordial spirit was greedily infatuated with her, like a child who had finally found his favorite playmate and was unwilling to let go no matter what.
Poor thing, she was only at the Golden Core stage, yet he relentlessly pursued her, forcing her to endure destruction time and time again, until her voice was almost hoarse from crying.
Finally, as darkness fell and Shen Zhou's primordial spirit was nearly restored, she seized the opportunity and slipped out, weakly returning to her sea of consciousness.
She leaned against Shen Zhou's chest and tremblingly opened her eyes.
She sobbed and tried to catch her breath for a while, but she was still stuck in that feeling. It was terrifying, absolutely terrifying.
Although it was merely a fusion of their spiritual consciousnesses, she felt it was far more than that; it was as if every part of her body had been trampled over, becoming scalding hot.
The primordial spirit wept and trembled, even its soul trembled.
The man's hot breath brushed against her ear, reigniting the subsiding wave of desire. Hua Deng's toes curled, and she gasped for breath, reaching out to try and push him away.
But she discovered in despair that she didn't even have the strength to lift a single finger.
She trembled and cried even harder.
At this very moment, the ungrateful mechanical voice coldly rang out: "Congratulations, host, the mission [Being taken back to the cave by Qiu Ce for dual cultivation] has been completed."
There was no joy in completing the task; the lantern slammed hard against Chen Zhou's chest.
Ugh, damn it!!
She's going to kill the sect leader!!!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
