Chapter 108 You are Free
"ah?"
On the deck, Wuhen turned to look at Mu Jianjian, who had suddenly fallen silent and lifeless, his eyes filled with suspicion.
What's going on?
Did you die because you were defeated by your inner demons and couldn't guard your Dao heart?
So weak!
Upon closer inspection, a red spider lily quietly bloomed on the girl's left arm, the mark appearing to be smeared with blood. At the same time, a drop of rotten, decadent water condensed from the soles of her feet, enveloping the girl's last breath.
He smirked; he had underestimated her.
Did they accidentally fall into the underworld by sheer coincidence?
A place that many fear and envy, a place where one is put in a life-or-death situation and then survives.
That takes real courage.
"Your target is me, young master." Wuhen grinned as he used a hook to knock down a siren that was trying to board the ship.
Three sirens glared menacingly at the smug man on the ship before them. The wounds on their bodies, inflicted by the man's hooks, stung with pain, and their usually resilient skin failed to heal.
Just how many high-grade magical artifacts does he still possess?
One after another, they keep coming out!
However, if he just keeps at it, his magical artifacts will eventually run out.
Then it will be their slaughter!
——
The realm of the Yellow Springs.
In the original book, the female protagonist, Sang Wanyue, entered the place by chance during a battle in the middle and later stages. It was the place where the spirits of the immortals who had passed away were reincarnated.
A stone bridge spanning the river, the River of Oblivion where hungry ghosts and lonely souls float, and the Yellow Springs Road leading to the underworld.
Mu Jianjian looked down at her arms, which had become transparent. She saw the mark of the other shore flower appear on her left arm and felt reassured. She looked at the Yellow Springs water cascading down from the waterfall and listened to the wails of the evil ghosts and remnants of their souls.
"You...you...you want to come with me? Why?" the woman stammered.
She died in Yingzhou, and her remnant soul fell into the Yellow Springs after death. However, unlike the ghosts around her, she could step onto the Bridge of Helplessness, but could not cross the Yellow Springs Waterfall.
I heard from the people in the underworld that all you need to do is pull one person down from the mortal world.
The umbrella frame is made from the blood and bones of the living, so that they can cross the Yellow Springs Waterfall to be reincarnated.
This was clearly her original intention in entering the illusion and becoming her inner demon. However, when the other party saw through everything and broke through the Dao heart to enter the realm, her emotions became complicated.
Joy, confusion, bewilderment...
"You were too eager to shut me up, which made me realize something was wrong. It would have been better to let things take their natural course," Mu Jianjian looked back at her, her voice calm. "After all, I can't escape Duyunfang no matter what, can I? Otherwise, my Dao heart might have been destroyed long ago."
She continued, "You're very capable. You've waited so long for this opportunity. Compared to before when you placed your hopes on others, you've learned to take matters into your own hands. It's just a pity that you're still a little lacking."
"You're mocking me! I don't need your pity, get out! Get out!"
"No mockery or pity!" Mu Jianjian's voice was even louder than the other person's. "Didn't you want to go to the Yellow Springs? Didn't you want me to save you? Here I am!"
The woman was stunned by the coaxing. She asked blankly, "Are you going to commit suicide?"
Mu Jianjian: ...
“Others said to use the blood and bones of living people to make umbrella handles to cross the bridge, but they didn’t say that this was the only way,” she explained gently.
"You'll come down and help me make an umbrella?" the woman asked incredulously.
"Otherwise what?" Mu Jianjian's tone was like that of a villain. "Want me to come down and chat with you, or just talk to you?"
"But how do you know another way?"
Mu Jianjian squatted down and uprooted the calamus that had turned yellow from the seepage of the Yellow Springs. She smiled and said, "Of course, it's because I'm standing on the shoulders of giants."
Original owner: ?
A huge question mark rose in the woman's mind, and then she saw the woman pulling her toward the shore of the red spider lilies.
Mu Jianjian naturally knew this through the original plot of the book.
After all, in the original book, Sang Wanyue had already passed through the Yellow Springs Realm. At that time, in order to save innocent children who accidentally fell into the Yellow Springs, she spent nearly a hundred years researching and pondering, and made such a flower umbrella to resist the burning of the Yellow Springs Waterfall on the soul.
From this point onward, the blood-red sky reflects on the murky waters of the Yellow Springs, and the souls passing by the River of Oblivion can see this scene on the riverbank—
Two transparent spirits resembling women were intently weaving something using various flowers and plants.
The frame of the umbrella was made from polished pebbles from the riverbank, and a few spider lilies were inserted on the calamus on the umbrella surface. Its strange shape was actually mixed with a touch of beauty.
Time flies by in the realm of the dead, and years vanish into nothingness. Mu Jianjian has lost count of how many times she has tried this.
Without a system to explain the original book's setting, she could only rely on her own memory to piece things back together.
The book describes Sang Wanyue making flower umbrellas in a light and casual way, but when Mu Jianjian tried it herself, she found it to be extremely difficult. This requires a very high level of skill in merging the spirit with the flowers and plants, and one wrong move could ruin everything.
These plants were made into umbrellas because over time they had absorbed corrosive energy, and then their spiritual essence was refined and incorporated into them, thus achieving the purpose of supporting the Yellow Springs Waterfall.
Five years? Ten years? One hundred years?
Originally concerned about time, Mu Jianjian was now completely absorbed in making umbrellas. The past years seemed to have become fleeting clouds. The daily weaving and polishing made her soul resistant to corrosion and her temperament more resolute.
"Is this really okay?" the woman asked, holding up her umbrella.
“The Yellow Springs Waterfall is a hundred meters long. Just in case, I’ll go with you.” Mu Jianjian didn’t answer directly.
The two walked side by side on the broken bridge, gradually approaching the Yellow Springs Waterfall that plunged a thousand feet. Mu Jianjian opened her flower umbrella, turned to the person who still had a trace of fear, and said softly, "Let's go."
The moment she entered, the waterfall slammed into Mu Jianjian's right hand like a huge weight. Her hand trembled, and just as she was about to raise her left hand, the woman next to her raised both hands and placed them on the umbrella handle.
“Together,” she said.
The hundred-meter-long waterfall cascaded down the stone bridge, splashing onto their very souls, stinging and burning them, but they did not stop, walking step by step toward the other end.
They walked for a long time, but neither of them spoke.
“The Yellow Springs Waterfall can cleanse the soul and memories,” Mu Jianjian said, holding an umbrella alone under the waterfall. She watched as the woman finally stepped into the edge of the underworld. She glanced at the curious ghosts looking in her direction and met the woman’s eyes again. “But you are different, because your memories will be preserved by the flower umbrella.”
"You are free, Mu Jianjian."
"The underworld also has prescriptions for erasing memories, but it all depends on you. Whether you want to remember these things, whether you reincarnate, how you live, whether you start a new life or come back for revenge, it all depends on you."
"Didn't you say I stole your body? I'll give you back a lifetime."
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