A world without glitz
Who would come to worship Yue Lao at night? Taixu watched the square window open from the outside in, and saw the two figures in the moonlight. He thought they were a couple in love. But when they landed safely, he realized that they were clearly up to no good. Their long flowing hair and fair faces were obviously young ladies. This was the first time Taixu had seen two young ladies seeking marriage. However, the guilty look in their eyes showed neither a desire for marriage nor a reverence for the statue. If someone asked him if there were really gods in this world, Taixu would think that there were none. At least he had never seen one.
By the time Taixu truly realized the danger, Chen Ye had already doused him in kerosene. The match in her hand sparked a tiny spark, enough to completely consume the old wooden house surrounding him. But the true terror lay not in the sea of fire but in the way he, a spirit beast, stood fearlessly before the two demon cultivators. The moment the Xiangyu jades at their waists collided, their identities were quietly revealed. He had personally engraved the Xiangyu jade as a gift for an old friend, but upon their reunion, it had appeared in someone else's hands.
Meimei had never seen the stone statue of Yue Lao before. It looked like a simple, honest old man, but it was clearly a stone statue, yet it seemed so vivid and alive. Although she was a little worried, time was of the essence. The huge fire quickly attracted the attention of the nearby Yu people. The Yu people, a people stretching back thousands of years, held the Yue Lao Temple with great respect, and their incense offerings were constant. Furthermore, with strong winds tonight, if the fire spread, would Luoan Town, nestled in the dense southwestern forest, be safe? Everything was uncertain.
"Someone, that's the guy who set the fire." Chen Ye was probably a few steps away from Meimei, perched on the wall. She was wearing a mask and black clothes, and upon hearing that someone was up to no good, she immediately armed herself. After hearing Meimei's signal, she immediately took out the props Meimei had prepared and fled to the northwest.
The people around them quickly grabbed containers, filled their water jars, and put out the fire again and again, going in and out again and again just to put out the fire. As the fire grew, figures flashed by from above, one after the other. They seemed unhurried, shouting about arresting people. But the only thing people cared about was whether the fire could be put out.
Chen Ye fled in front, Mei Mei chasing him relentlessly. A wonderful play was being performed above Luoan Town, but unfortunately, there was no one in the audience. The protagonist of this play was the fire at the Yue Lao Temple.
Taixu huddled in a corner of the Yue Lao Temple like a frightened rabbit. The air was thick with the scent of incense, concealing his presence from the outside world. However, there was another important reason he chose to hide there—how could an old bachelor like Qi Yiwen come to the Yue Lao Temple to seek marriage for no apparent reason? It was truly unbelievable!
Taixu couldn't help but sigh inwardly, "This world is truly full of wonders!" But as the Taixu Sect's guardian beast, he was well aware of the sinister auras of those villains. At this moment, he keenly sensed that the Yue Lao Temple was no longer safe. It was all because of this sudden fire, which left him with nowhere to hide.
Taixu was extremely anxious and was about to leave this dangerous place when he suddenly noticed something unusual about the will-o'-the-wisp. This will-o'-the-wisp was not like an ordinary flame that spread endlessly, but more like a ferocious man-eating monster, with its fangs and claws bared, sweeping towards the people who came to put out the fire.
A wave of fear surged in Taixu's heart. He immediately realized that this was no ordinary flame, but the blazing fire of the demonic sect! This flame was extremely fierce, and ordinary water could not extinguish it at all.
The beggar imp who first discovered the blaze was also living in the Yue Lao Temple, like Taixu. Unfortunately, he became the first victim of the raging fire. Like a demon, the flames quickly engulfed his tattered clothes, searing his skin in the blink of an eye. Taixu himself had no fixed form. At this moment, he was like a wildflower by the roadside, its petals surrounding the child and shielding him from the raging fire. He could not linger here for much longer. The hurried crowd held vessels filled with water, but they were trapped by the demonic fire and dared not move forward. The water in their hands was the first to be scorched and turned into invisible vapor.
Taixu searched the vast sea of people for a trustworthy soul, hoping to entrust the little beggar to him. This night was the most peaceful and comfortable sleep Xiaodouzi had ever experienced. Unlike the usual, the weather wasn't as bitterly cold as usual. Despite his tattered clothing, he could still sense the warmth that permeated his surroundings. However, as he immersed himself in this rare warmth, a nightmare suddenly struck.
When Xiaodouzi awoke from his nightmare, he was stunned to find himself in a raging sea of fire. The flames raged, devouring everything. He tried to escape this terrifying place, but found himself completely lost. The Yue Lao Temple was so vast that he had no idea where the main entrance was. The dog hole that once allowed him to escape had long since been buried by ruins.
For the first time in his life, Xiaodouzi felt the approach of death so vividly. On his third birthday, he finally saw his mother. However, his mother seemed unwilling to see him, so she used the flower petals to protect her body, isolating him from herself.
At this critical moment, Xiaodouzi felt the power of the gods for the first time. Gathering his last bit of strength, he asked the petal, "Are you the Yue Lao from this Yue Lao Temple? Or are you my mother protecting me from heaven?"
Even though his left hand had been burned to a bloody pulp by the raging flames, Taixu surprisingly didn't hear a single cry from Xiaodouzi. This quiet child, always so quiet in his mother's arms, seemed to have long been accustomed to this pain and loneliness.
"I am the boss of Taixu Sect and Shanhai Order, do you understand, kid?" Taixu turned into petals to isolate the raging fire and repaired the left hand that was burned.
When Qi Yiwen arrived, a large number of trialists and Yu Clan members had already gathered. Yu Xing quickly realized that this was the cult's raging fire of lust, and he organized the civilians who had come to put out the fire to retreat. He and the other trialists who had arrived to form a formation to contain the demonic fire within the Yue Lao Temple, preventing it from spreading. Xia Xiwen saw that the formation would not last much longer, so he had no choice but to lead the civilians to the West Mansion in the east, which was supposed to be the safest place in Luoan Town.
"Junior brother, go for it!" Qi Yiwen took a long time to come back to his senses after hearing this shout. He looked closely and saw a small figure falling from the sky and heading straight towards him.
In a split second, Qi Yiwen reacted quickly and reached out to catch the child. Fortunately, he was agile and not only caught the child steadily, but also managed to maintain balance after landing, so as not to fall.
Qi Yiwen breathed a sigh of relief and was about to check on the child when he heard a sudden commotion. He looked up and saw the surrounding people running towards the West Mansion in panic, shouting, "Fire! Run!"
Seeing this, Qi Yiwen quickly called the child to flee with him to the West Mansion. Along the way, everyone was only concerned with escaping and had no time to care about anything else. Naturally, no one noticed how the peach blossom next to Xiaodouzi's ear remained safe and sound in the raging fire.
Most people in Luoan Town knew each other, so when they were fleeing, everyone fled together with their families, and the scene was very chaotic.
At this time, although Chen Ye and Meimei were still in mid-air, their attention was quickly drawn to the scene on the ground. Meimei looked back and saw that the flames emanating from the sea of fire were extremely dazzling, as if they were about to illuminate the entire world.
She looked closely and her heart tightened - that was not ordinary fire at all, but the fire of desire that she was most familiar with!
"Chen Ye, you set this fire!" Meimei's voice suddenly rang in Chen Ye's ears. Before he could even blink, he felt someone grabbing his collar tightly.
"I told you this was just a performance. How could you take someone's life so casually?" Meimei was furious. She rode on Chen Ye, and no matter how Chen Ye slapped her shoulders, she couldn't break free. The force in her hands grew stronger and stronger, and Chen Ye felt like his continuous breathing was about to be cut off.
"Didn't you see the scores on the list? If no one died in the fire, how many points would you get even if you killed me? Since you've already done it, why not be more unrestrained? Meimei, how many people have you killed? Do you care about these lives?" Chen Ye was of course hoping that a buff would appear out of nowhere to turn the tide for the heroine, but in the end she found out that she was the heroine's buff. This was a system world, and the dead were just a group of lifeless digital models. Chen Ye firmly believed that she had traveled through time, so she was the most suitable person to be the bad guy.
"The people I killed chose to do so. It was a desperate struggle for survival for us, the lower classes. How could you, a person with connections, understand that? And do you have any grudges against these people? This is an unprovoked disaster for them. The fire of lust, once ignited, will never cease. Chen Ye, are you going to ruin this Immortal Cultivation Conference?" The two men grappled fiercely, their bodies tightly entwined, each exerting every bit of force. Meimei's once clear eyes were now blazing with a crimson glow, a strange color that sent a chill down their spines. Faced with this overwhelming force, Chen Ye was forced to stare directly into her gaze, unable to avoid it. Chen Ye felt she had done nothing wrong; she was simply completing her mission and earning her due. This was the law of survival in any world. If she hadn't fallen in love with someone, causing her love ratio to skyrocket, she wouldn't have found herself in such a precarious position.
If a man does not work for himself, he will be punished by heaven and earth.
"Let's go!" Meimei shouted softly, let go of Chen Ye, turned over and jumped back into her carriage, changed direction, and didn't even look at Chen Ye on the ground. She turned into a stream of light and rushed back to the place she had just escaped from but had to return to now - the sea of fire in Yue Lao Temple!
Chen Ye clutched her neck and coughed violently. Watching Meimei's back as she resolutely rushed toward the sea of fire, a complex, indistinguishable emotion flashed across her eyes, quickly replaced by a thick layer of resentment. She struggled to her feet, regained control of the carriage, and continued her flight northwest without looking back.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
