Chapter 20 Chapter 20 "I know they are all fake and will not...
Things like gods.
Although he looks pure and innocent, with an immortal air.
But it's easy to have distracting thoughts in many situations - especially after serving in a war.
Random thoughts usually appear in the form of dreams. When they appear too often, they will condense into inner demons.
The inner demon is always with us. In mild cases, it will prevent us from improving our cultivation. In severe cases, our soul will be taken over by another body and we will commit irreparable acts.
In order to reduce this risk, Sanqingtian specially cultivated a spiritual beast named Dream Weaver Spider.
They are neither immortal nor demonic, and they feed on the strong emotions emitted by people in their dreams.
After eating and drinking, the dream-weaving spider will weave a web. When the web is completed, the experiences in the dreams of the person whose thoughts are eaten will be repeated many times on the web.
This helps the gods in the conscious state to maintain observation and comprehend the causes and consequences of their own difficulties.
In short, perhaps Jiu Zhao's mood was too volatile, and the group of little spiders ate too much - after weaving a web, they did not lie on the web to rest, but crawled around the edge of the web, as if looking for a foothold to spin silk to weave the second web.
Thinking back to when he and Fuxu watched the scene of him being killed after failing to confess his love, Jiuzhao immediately dug his toes into the ground.
The overwhelming sense of embarrassment gradually overwhelmed the pain of death in the illusion and cheered her up.
Jiu Zhao started to turn the tables.
"Since you've been watching, why don't you move the flowers away before the illusion takes action?"
Facing Jiu Zhao's aggressiveness, Fu Xu remained unmoved. "The difficulty of the test is to find weaknesses within a realistic illusion. Illusions are beautiful and often tempt people to indulge. Only by remembering the pain and suffering can we maintain our will and stay awake amidst the ever-increasing temptation."
"But it hurts! Don't you know that if I get injured or die in the Demonic Realm, my soul will also be affected?"
Jiu Zhao wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeves, and questioned Fu Xu in a somewhat weak tone.
Fuxu lowered his eyes and looked back at the burned Mind-Searching Flower. The once lush and fragrant plant had now merged with the dark brown soil. "It's just a mere pot. Even if Your Highness dies in this illusion, he will be able to recover after a night's rest in his chambers."
When Fuxu was in charge of the Immortal Lord, he enforced the law strictly and was notoriously ruthless.
To become his student, Jiu Zhao was mentally prepared to endure hardships.
Hearing him say this, she could only curl her lips and think she was unlucky. But just when she should have ended the conversation, he suddenly added, "What's more, if everyone were in a fantasy world without having to face various dangers, then everyone could use fantasy to escape reality."
The pain in his heart had not subsided and Jiu Zhao's reaction was slow.
His mind went blank for a few moments before he realized that what the other person meant by "escaping from reality" was that he had used his inner demons and illusions to indulge in the false feelings of reliving the old times with Lan Qi, thus forgetting the truth that he had been humiliated by the broken engagement four thousand five hundred years ago.
Neuropathy!
Thousands of swear words rushed through Jiu Zhao's mind.
That was an illusion created by the inner demons. What did it have to do with her real thoughts?
Then again, even if she really couldn't forget her old feelings for Lan Qi, how could Fu Xu have the right to mock her?
Anyway, once the injury is healed, they will be able to separate!
Jiu Zhao didn't want to be bothered by such unreasonable annoyance. He deliberately used a contrived voice to disgust Fuxu: "Don't you, Lord Fuxu, never talk about things that haven't happened? What did you mean by that just now? My understanding is very limited, how could I have heard a hint of jealousy?"
It's impossible to be jealous.
But going against one's heart is definitely going against one's heart.
She longed to see the embarrassment of being stabbed on Fuxu's face, but after glancing left and right, his gaze nearly boring a hole in him, Fuxu simply said, "Your Highness, whatever you think is fine. The number of Mind-Capturing Flowers is too small to sustain the illusion for long. When their fragrance is about to run out, they will suddenly trigger the inner demon illusion to kill Your Highness. As the number increases, Your Highness will have to resist the illusion's sweet words even more."
Sweet talk.
This word brought Jiu Zhao, who had finally escaped from the embarrassment, back to the scene where she and Lan Qi were pouring out their hearts and Fu Xu was watching calmly.
Furious and embarrassed, she blew up her phoenix feathers. "Since you insist on killing me with an illusion, what's so good about you? Aren't you ashamed of peeping into other people's privacy? Next time, don't let the Dream Weaver Spider spin a web after it's full. I'll take it back and find its weakness myself!"
Jiu Zhao protested with his teeth and claws bared, and his originally deathly pale face finally showed some color.
Fu Xu looked at her for a moment, making sure she had recovered, then he stood up from behind the long desk and said, "Everything has exceptions. As the number of Mind-Capturing Flowers increases and the fragrance becomes stronger, if you are injured or killed in the illusion again, your life will be in danger. It is my responsibility to observe and assess the severity of the crisis Your Highness is facing, and then decide whether to take action to protect Your Highness's safety.
"Also, please rest assured, Your Highness. No matter how realistic the scenes in the illusion are, I know they are all fake and will not take them to heart."
“…”
Stimulated by the double words "you must watch" and "I won't take it to heart", Jiu Zhao staggered back a few steps before he could stand firm.
She pointed at Fuxu's nose and was speechless. Finally, she simply kicked the flowerpot over, picked up her skirt and walked away angrily.
…
The setting sun quietly slipped into the room through the open palace door, giving Fuxu's mud-stained clothes a layer of illusory golden edge.
He was the only one left.
The dream-weaving spiders, busy in the air, finally found a suitable spot to weave their webs. They waved their little feet and spit out sticky long silk again.
Fu Xu's eyes fell on the scene where Jiu Zhao was pierced through the back by Lan Qi with a dagger. The calmness covering his brows gradually dimmed like the sun. When the Dream Weaver Spider spun silk to create the outermost pattern, he walked over with an expressionless face.
He exerted force with his fingers and tore off the remaining net.
He gathered his five fingers together and rubbed them into his palms, applying such force that the spider web instantly turned into a pool of shiny slime.
The little spiders who were frightened and fled back to the first web trembled, fearing that he, who was full of coldness, would destroy his last habitat.
Fuxu looked at it for a long time.
Complex emotions flickered in his eyes, eventually turning into a low sigh.
He reached out, wiped away the frozen image in the center of the spider web, and carefully stored it in the storage ring.
…
The course ended in the evening when the sun was setting in the west, but Jiu Zhao was in no mood for dinner.
She walked forward with her head down, ignoring the greetings from the maids and immortal officials along the way, and rushed straight back into the palace.
After closing the palace door and finding herself in a familiar and safe environment, she felt a little better.
She kicked off her shoes and rolled around on the bed a few times, still unable to resist the overwhelming surge of her heart. She reached out from under the quilt and groped under the mattress for a while. Suddenly, the smooth, unmarked wall made a click, and a small, carved drawer popped out from within.
Jiu Zhao sat up straight, grabbed the edge of the drawer with his fingers, trying to take out the things hidden inside, and a look of confusion appeared on his face again.
The body temperature from Lan Qi's embrace seemed to still linger on the clothes, tempting people to forget the cold reality and almost return to the gentle dream.
Can't recall anymore.
Jiu Zhao shook his head, clenched his teeth, and pinched his palms with his nails.
The sharp pain that followed finally prompted the wavering will to become firm again.
She decisively took out the things in the drawer, which were a bracelet broken into two pieces and a piece of drawing paper folded into several layers.
The so-called inner demon illusion is a mixture of past events deep in memory, creating one part falsehood and nine parts truth, which can break down a person's psychological defenses.
The bracelet she gave to Lan Qi in the illusion, the past events, and the irresistible hug were all real.
However, when their relationship ended, Jiu Zhao, who was extremely sad and angry, tore the bracelet off with force.
The farce was over, and she flew back to Changxi Palace in a state of chaos, staggering all the way, and angrily threw it into the lotus pond in the garden.
A few days later, late at night, he jumped in and tried to retrieve it.
Not for the past carried in the bracelet, but for her innocent and misplaced true love.
After soaking in the cold lake water for more than an hour, Jiu Zhao finally found and fished out the two halves of the bracelet.
As a result of this incident, Jiu Zhao, who had never been sick since childhood, had a high fever for several days, which scared the God Emperor and the maids who served him.
The past is floating before my eyes.
Jiu Zhao clenched the bracelet that could never be restored, and unfolded the folded drawing paper with his other hand.
Above is her small portrait, which Lan Qi had a special purpose in mind when he painted it, and naturally he used the most ordinary and crude white paper.
Over the past ten thousand years, the edges of the paper have turned yellow and brittle, and there are a few spots of water stains caused by ink.
Jiu Zhao turned it over, and the word "忍" written with such force that it could penetrate the paper stung her eyes.
"You said you would always be with me, but it turned out to be all lies.
"The final outcome of the inner demon's illusion is exactly what you were thinking at that time, right..."
Jiu Zhao muttered to himself.
The irreconcilable hatred that she used to defend her dignity left her body as the years went by. Tens of thousands of years of care, her tolerance of her own bad behavior, and the unchangeable habits that were ingrained in her bones made her feelings towards Lan Qi become mixed.
Even in her dreams at midnight, she could hardly distinguish those emotions that were intense enough to ignite her soul.
Is it called hatred, or is it love that gradually collapses and becomes distorted because it cannot get an equal response?
Jiu Zhao was feeling down when someone knocked on the closed palace door.
"who?"
She stuffed the two things back into the drawer.
The mechanism turned, and everything returned to normal, even the emotions on his face seemed to have never happened.
Knock knock.
The visitor did not answer, but knocked twice again at a certain frequency.
Could it be that Zhu Ying, who was responsible for ordering food, was afraid that if he explained his purpose, he would be rejected directly, so he simply kept silent and waited for others to guess?
Jiu Zhao was in no mood to participate in such a clumsy game, so he raised his voice: "No need to knock, I don't want to have dinner!"
As she said this, she even exerted a touch of magical power to ensure that the people outside the door could sense her uneasy mood.
But the knocking on the door never stopped.
Knock knock.
Knock knock.
Knock knock.
As long as the Great Nine Zhaos do not come out, the trend will not stop.
Unable to bear it any longer, Jiu Zhao jumped out of bed, ran barefoot to the palace door, and pulled it open: "Didn't I say--"
"Your Highness."
It was completely dark outside.
The glazed palace lanterns hanging under the eaves illuminated Fuxu's eyes, and his dark pupils were darker than the night.
"What are you doing here?"
Jiu Zhao's arrogance subsided. He looked at him suspiciously for a few times, then asked uncertainly, "Do you have classes tonight...?"
Her Highness the Goddess tried to maintain her composure, but she didn't realize that the slightly red corners of her eyes betrayed her true emotions.
Fu Xu looked at the two red spots and guessed that she had been sad for Lan Qi while hiding in the palace. He couldn't help but purse his thin lips even tighter.
After a moment of silence, he took out the food box he had hidden behind his back, opened the ebony lid, and showed Jiu Zhao the teacup inside. "I see that although Your Highness has escaped the demonic illusion, the obsession in your heart remains. This is the Spirit Refreshing Tea, which will help Your Highness regain peace of mind and body."
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