Chapter 019 Li Xiao's Independent Side Story - Obsession (Part 4)
Is this... your answer?
Li Xiao looked down at the sword hilt stuck in his chest; the sword blade, deeply embedded in his flesh, was almost completely buried in his clothes.
Warm, viscous liquid slowly oozed out, dripping and seeping into the soil beneath their feet.
The air was thick with the stench of blood, and pools of blood formed large and small red lakes amidst the corpses scattered everywhere.
Li Xiao knelt down and looked up at the man who stood silently.
The face was shrouded in shadow, its expression unsettling.
[Heh, heh heh, actually I was just about to ask, why didn't you change to a brighter color for the Sect Leader's joyous occasion?]
Li Xiao licked the blood from the corner of his mouth and smiled: "That's true. I think the bride is already dead, and the sect leader is all alone. It seems the marriage is unlikely to take place anyway."
[...]
The blood below accumulated more and more, and Li Xiao's vision became increasingly blurred, but he tried to open his eyes wide and stared at the man in front of him with an almost greedy gaze.
The latter remained silent throughout, a silence that made him uneasy.
Why aren't you saying anything?
But as soon as he opened his mouth, he almost choked on his own blood.
Li Xiao swallowed a mouthful of bloody saliva, then murmured self-deprecatingly, his voice tinged with a hint of grievance and pity: "[The one who's seriously injured and about to die is me...]"
But for whom, and for what reason, did he end up in this predicament?
It really is...
[Utterly foolish.]
A cold, emotionless voice rang out from above.
Li Xiao was stunned for a moment, then saw the white hem of the other person's clothes fluttering in the wind, pure white like the snow that had flown past him that winter...
They looked so close, but if you actually reached out, you could only watch helplessly as the white things melted away in mid-air; there was no way you could catch them.
I feel a tightness in my chest, I can't breathe, and it feels like my chest is blocked.
It's probably because of the sword stuck in it...
Li Xiao thought with some discomfort, and slowly gripped the hilt of the sword with his withdrawn hand—it was smooth to the touch and warm with the blood, and then he pulled it out forcefully.
In that instant, Li Xiao seemed to hear the sound of sand chirping, a hissing sound, a very subtle sound... one he had never heard before.
So he suddenly wanted to share this fresh and amazing discovery with someone, something he had risked his life for, just like... just like before.
But that person has already gone far away, so far away that there will never be another chance.
The boy fell backward to the ground, his emerald eyes gradually losing focus.
As he watched the sky darken irreversibly, he thought, this is perhaps what loneliness feels like.
...
I'm in a bad mood.
It felt like I had an unhappy dream.
Although the specific details are blurry, when I woke up, I still felt as if a heavy stone was pressing on my chest.
Li Xiao blinked in confusion, then slowly came to her senses.
Then he suddenly realized that what was pressing down on him was not a stone, but the long sword he always carried.
My mind was foggy, and I couldn't tell where I was for a moment.
As his memories gradually returned, Li Xiao slowly recalled that he seemed to be in a farmhouse courtyard. Oh right! And that Taoist priest... He came here with a Taoist priest.
The Taoist priest introduced himself with a slight smile, saying that his name was Yu Qingzhou.
The Taoist priest, soaking wet, was tied up in a corner of the woodshed and tilted his head to look at him.
The Taoist priest, as if presenting a treasure, carried a sack of flour and asked him if he wanted to eat noodles.
The Taoist priest sat quietly in the moonlight, a smile on his face that was half lonely and half peaceful. Suddenly, he turned and handed a receipt to the man's chest, announcing, "From today onwards, I am your creditor..."
As I recalled this, my head started to ache again.
Li Xiao pressed his temples, lifted the curtain at the door and stepped out of the room, only to see the Taoist already sitting in the small courtyard, casting a refreshing smile at the rising sun.
Good morning, there's still some leftover porridge in the pot.
Li Xiao glanced in the direction of the kitchen, but still walked straight into the yard.
The sun was so bright that he could barely open his eyes.
The boy raised his hand to shield his eyes, casually placing the longsword on the table, which then creaked weakly.
"No appetite?" Yu Qingzhou asked.
"I didn't sleep well."
Li Xiao replied listlessly, "Thanks to you, Daoist Master, I had a rare nightmare, and my head is still aching."
Upon hearing this, Yu Qingzhou smiled slightly as usual: "Try to look on the bright side. Your headache might be because your brain is starting to grow again. Ah, it's the same reason why bones hurt when people are growing. It's a symbol of wisdom growth and maturity."
hehe……
If the Taoist hadn't spoken so earnestly, Li Xiao would almost have believed him.
"You know, whenever I think I'm already feeling really unhappy, you always manage to give me a completely new experience of anger. Should I say you're really amazing, Master Yu?"
The boy asked with a forced smile, clearly being sarcastic, but the Taoist priest responded with a nonchalant, "Thank you for the compliment."
I'm so angry, but... I really can't beat them.
Li Xiao really couldn't understand why, in such a vast world with so many demons, monsters, and evil spirits, this Taoist priest had specifically targeted him as a scourge.
—It makes you wonder if you owed this bastard something in your past life.
Thinking of this, Li Xiao began to feel a tightness in his chest again, as if he could hardly breathe.
He abruptly stood up and immediately met the Taoist's questioning gaze.
"I'm going outside for some fresh air. Don't worry, I won't run away."
Since there's no way to avoid it, let's just give up the struggle.
Li Xiao thought with a sense of self-abandonment.
He had only taken two steps when he heard the Taoist calling him from behind. Li Xiao turned around impatiently.
"I already said I can't—"
"You've forgotten your sword."
The longsword handed to me suddenly overlapped with a scene from my memory.
Li Xiao blinked, the sword presented to him remained unsheathed, its tip pointing elsewhere.
After a moment of stunned silence, he suddenly grabbed the longsword from the Taoist's hand, his movements almost violent.
However, after taking two steps away, Li Xiao inexplicably turned back to look at Yu Qingzhou.
The latter smiled slightly, and the way he looked at the boy was no different from yesterday, the day before yesterday, the day before that, or even longer ago...
Li Xiao could easily imagine that decades later, when the stinky Taoist priest had become an old Taoist priest, he would probably still have the same annoying, unyielding appearance.
It's just that eyebrows turn whiter, skin wrinkles more, and people get older... Everyone gets old and then dies.
Some people die before they have a chance to grow old.
—But none of this has anything to do with Li Xiao.
Because after those people die, he will always live a long time...
So long that they didn't even know why they had to keep living.
So Li Xiao thought that if possible, it would be better to pay off the debt as soon as possible.
Otherwise, if all the grievances pile up in one go, from this life and the previous life... and if they can't be repaid in time, they'll be left to entangle us in the next life and the life after that. Wouldn't that truly be a case of endless cycles of revenge?
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