Chapter 75 Back to the Future, Where Did You Go? (Second Update)...
From that day on, Shen Zhou became very busy.
Hua Deng rarely saw him, but when she returned to Guiyi Hall at night, he would always be there, as if waiting for her.
This was obviously an illusion, because when he saw her, he only glanced at her briefly, neither too close nor too far.
One night, when Hua Deng woke up inexplicably in the middle of the night, he couldn't fall back asleep, so he put on his clothes and went outside.
Shen Zhou was standing in the courtyard, his hands behind his back, his gaze fixed on the far distance.
There was no starlight in the underground palace, and Hua Deng didn't know what he was gazing at. He walked up to him and stood silently.
Suddenly, Shen Zhou said, "The Upper Realm no longer exists."
His profile remained as stern as ever, yet a glint of light seemed to flicker in his eyes.
"But there must be more than one world beyond the heavens."
Hua Deng's heart skipped a beat. He held his breath and listened intently as he continued, "Perhaps there are three thousand universes, perhaps more. I want to go and see if the world there is any different."
His tone was calm, but Hua Deng's heart started beating again, even faster, as if the blood in his body was burning hot.
She grabbed his hand, smiled, and said earnestly, "I believe in you! You can definitely do it!"
Shen Zhou lowered his eyes and said softly, "Don't you find it ridiculous? Don't you think it's a fantasy?"
The Ziyang Sect had no starlight, but the girl before him had bright eyes that were even more dazzling than the stars in the sky.
Those bright eyes looked at him and said, "Chen Zhou, the world beyond the heavens... exists!"
In an instant, the question that had been troubling Shen Zhou was resolved, and he had an answer.
He finally understood why there was an inexplicable sense of unease about Hua Deng, and he said with certainty, "You don't belong to this world."
Hua Deng pursed her lips. There was no system blocking her here. After struggling for a few seconds, she nodded gently to him.
Shen Zhou smiled slightly, not asking any further questions, and only said, "Does he know?"
Hua Deng looked slightly disappointed: "I haven't had a chance to tell him yet."
Shen Zhou said slowly, "So only I know."
The streetlights blinked, but remained silent.
Shen Zhou walked slowly into the palace. Although his back view was still the same, he inexplicably felt a good mood.
*
The time when the city lights illuminate the darkness of day is becoming increasingly shorter.
He seemed to be busy with something, yet he still remembered to clear her meridians every day, and to suddenly pop up and cause trouble when she was playing cards or chess, which increased the number of times Hua Deng rolled her eyes.
She spent three months here, and seven days have already passed in reality.
Hua Deng inevitably felt anxious.
Before going to bed that day, she decided to have a serious talk with Shen Zhou the next day and make sure he found a way to send her back.
However, she didn't have time to see Shen Zhou; she woke up to a huge tremor.
The usually quiet Ziyang Sect was now filled with screams and shouts, the ground trembled and dust billowed.
But that's not the most crucial point. The most crucial point is that Hua Deng could clearly feel that the force binding her was rapidly weakening.
That was Shen Zhou's power; something happened to him.
When she flew out of the palace and landed on the ground, her body was almost transparent. In order to retain the magic she had imposed, Shen Zhou gradually dissipated into nothingness.
She couldn't describe the scene before her.
It was daytime, but the sky was no longer blue. One half was like a hole, black and bottomless; the other half was like torn flesh, blood gushing out.
Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed, all rushing in one direction, as the streetlights sped toward that spot.
Her mind was in complete disarray; she didn't understand what was happening.
This looks like someone is undergoing a tribulation... but wasn't the heavenly tribulation already gone?
No, that's not right.
Hua Deng suddenly realized what was happening, and his hands trembled slightly.
It wasn't Yin Zejing... it was him!
Now is the time for him to destroy the heavenly tribulation!
Along the way, people were kneeling and begging everywhere, while others were shouting wildly. To them, this was the end of the Dharma era, the end of the world.
But only the bright lights knew that this was not a disaster, but a new beginning.
When she arrived, the heavenly tribulation was too weak to unleash its purple lightning; the tribulation itself turned into a wailing sound and dissipated into the world with the wind.
The torrential rain washed everything away, and she found Chen Zhou under an ancient tree.
He sat with his back against the tree trunk, head tilted back, his eyes unfocused and devoid of light.
Rain poured down the leaves, the cold raindrops falling, wetting his eyelashes and making his face pale.
His cultivation was completely destroyed, and his magical power was gone.
He became a complete and utter failure.
But on that face, there was no hatred, nor any joy at having accomplished a mission.
He simply sat calmly, with a long, jet-black sword lying to his right—the very sword that had ripped the sky apart.
"So this sword... is called Lietian," he said softly.
At that moment, he felt he should be happy, but then he suddenly wondered, is this what he has been pursuing all his life?
Was everything we've experienced since birth just for this day?
Was he such a great person, seeking liberation for all people and applause from the masses?
He hated reminiscing, but at this moment, he recalled a small incident that he hadn't done in a long time.
That was when he was about six years old. On his birthday, he wrote a wish note in a crooked hand and buried it under the locust tree in front of his house.
"I want to sleep until dawn every day so my mother won't wake me up to practice swordsmanship. I want my little sister to grow up quickly so I can have another friend. I want my dog to never get old so my father can come home sooner. Oh, and it would be even better if I could bring home a box of snacks from town."
His original wish.
So it turns out none of it is possible anymore.
But that future him... ha.
He had lost his third eye and his ability to hear the wind, but in the darkness, he seemed to sense something and whispered in one direction, "Is that you?"
After asking the question, he felt he shouldn't have said it.
He could no longer keep her.
However, he originally had no reason to keep her.
Hua Deng raised her hand, anxiously trying to touch him: "It's me, Chen Zhou, it's me!"
She's so stupid, why did she only realize it now?
It's you.
You are the one who tore apart the lightning tribulation.
You are the one who saved the people from suffering.
You are the one who will be reborn for ten thousand years and never have a good end.
But her hand pierced through Shen Zhou's shoulder, unable even to shield him from the rain. Raindrops, penetrating her, continued to patter against Shen Zhou.
She seemed to understand why Shen Zhou, who lived here, always wore a black robe.
Because now, he was wearing the clothes she had given him, and it was almost impossible to tell what the original color was; only a glaring scarlet red, stained with blood, remained.
The lantern's hand fell limply, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Is he leaving? Is he going to be reincarnated?
"I was wrong, Shen Zhou."
She choked back tears and murmured, even though she knew he couldn't hear her.
"I don't want you to stay."
There was no response, and she could no longer speak. All that could be heard was the sound of the wind, the rain, and the rustling of the leaves.
However, after a long silence, Shen Zhou gripped his sword again, slowly supported himself on the hilt, and gradually stood up.
He was unsteady on his feet, swaying precariously, but he managed to stand firm and not fall.
Those eyes, though dull, remained arrogant, and their tone was as haughty as ever.
"At most a hundred years, my cultivation will be able to return to its peak."
"Then I will fight against the Heavenly Dao again. I will not reincarnate; I will only perish together with the Heavenly Dao."
Hua Deng then stood up and listened intently.
If she doesn't reincarnate... then who is the Shen Zhou she encountered?
As if he foresaw his own end, he said clearly, word by word: "That person abandoned everything to repeat the same thing for ten thousand years in order to live, and has long since betrayed his own path."
“I will never be like him.”
His scarred hands gripped Lie Tian tightly, supporting his body which was on the verge of collapse, and he moved forward step by step into the distance.
As he brushed past the city lights, he whispered his last words:
"The person you're waiting for isn't here. Go back and find him."
The right hand that Hua Deng unconsciously raised passed through his body once again.
It was only then that she noticed a familiar colorful rope on her wrist, the very one she had given to Shen Zhou.
He returned it to her as if she had never been there.
His figure remained upright, gradually receding into the distance and disappearing into the dust.
As for whether that's the way home, even he probably doesn't know.
...
The moment Shen Zhou's figure completely disappeared, and the moment the force binding her vanished, Hua Deng heard the system's scream.
"Host, host! I've finally made contact with you!"
The screams pierced the eardrums, the mechanical sounds filled with fear and panic, like the cries of a young child.
Hua Deng calmed himself down and asked softly, "Why are you only arriving now?"
The system, oblivious to her dejected mood, frantically cried out, "Host, you must go back now! If you don't go back, Chen Zhou will kill everyone!"
Previously, the darkness of this world blocked the system signal, and it lacked location, so it was slow to find the city lights.
The slumbering of the future timeline is almost enough to drive it to the point of being formatted.
The mechanical voice turned into a sob: "He captured my system, Pei Jianming's system, and Su Yiqing's system, threatening to take you back. Headquarters sent many people to deal with him, but—"
Hua Deng suddenly panicked: "What? How is he now?!"
The system sobbed helplessly, "He's alright! What could possibly be wrong with him! But he killed all of our people!!"
He kills one by one, ten by ten, a hundred by a hundred. Headquarters can't send any more people; he's practically a god of death!
Upon hearing this, Hua Deng felt relieved and said, "That's good."
The system cried out, "Host, please go back! He said if I can't find you, he'll kill me and then come and take you back himself!"
The streetlights, annoyed by its cacophony, said, "Alright, I know, stop bothering me. I'm going back right away."
The system choked up and immediately activated the recall function.
Hua Deng closed her eyes to prepare, but in her heart she was somewhat dismissive. Shen Zhou had only killed a few people from the Book Bureau, was the system really that exaggerated?
Her Daoist partner could remain calm even if the sky were to fall, but in the system's words, it was like the end of the world. She was really too timid.
The return was unusually swift this time. The system was probably really scared, and the Transmigration Bureau was also scared. In the blink of an eye, Hua Deng was back in his body.
"This body is still the most comfortable," Hua Deng sighed, then tried to move his legs and feet, only to find that he couldn't stretch them out.
She felt like she was trapped in a box, with a bad feeling. She raised her hand and knocked, and sure enough, there was a board on top, which is commonly known as a coffin board.
Hua Deng was practically cursing. Who put her in a coffin? Was it that bastard Hui Chenzhou?
She held her breath and pushed the coffin lid with all her might. After a great deal of effort, she finally heard a click and heard it open a crack.
She immediately grabbed onto the gap and crawled out. To her surprise, it was just as dark outside as inside the coffin. She almost thought she had gone blind.
But she knew she wasn't blind, because when she turned her head, she saw a dark figure sitting in the corner of the room, which terrified her so much that her heart stopped.
Such a vicious way of making an entrance could only be attributed to Shen Zhou.
No, she was banging on and pushing the coffin just now, and he just watched? He didn't help or say anything, and now he's not even greeting her?
Hua Deng was furious and strode towards him. But when she was almost in front of him, she suddenly stopped and swallowed the words she was about to say.
The entire room was pitch black, with only a few pale moonlight filtering through the cracks in the window. The moonlight was fragmented, and one of the beams shone directly on Shen Zhou's face.
Hua Deng finally saw his expression clearly.
He sat there, everything seemed normal, but when she saw those eyes, she couldn't help but get goosebumps.
His pupils were an unprecedentedly intense, deep, and dark color, swallowing all light. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, as if he hadn't rested in a long time, and he exuded a menacing aura.
Looking at him again, he used to clean himself up with a cleansing spell after each murder, but now he was covered in blood and had forgotten to clean himself. The bloodstains on his cheeks had already congealed, and it was unknown which unlucky guy had left them before he died.
Hua Deng silently stepped back two steps.
He seemed oblivious, smiled at her, and asked with a smile, "Hua Deng, where did you go?"
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