Sword Mountain Tournament 6: Illusion of Illusion
"Yes. The spirit stone is unique. The ice spirit stone is with you, and no one else has it. She should have something that can help her leave here at night." Cong Mo looked at the boundless darkness, and there were fewer and fewer people moving on the spirit stone tracker.
"Xiaocan, we can't avoid it." She held Lengcan's hand, "Instead of spending this night, why not go through it in your dreams? Just in case you can find another way to save him."
"just in case……"
"Don't worry." Cong Mo comforted him, "The night is full of dangers, and there's thick fog. No one will act rashly. I'll set up a barrier to block the basic monster attacks, and we can sleep peacefully and take it as a rest."
Leng Can nodded, then leaned over and lay on her lap. "Xiao Mo, will we win?"
Cong Mo rubbed his head and said, "Yes, we will do it together."
When he regained consciousness, Cong Mo realized that they had fallen asleep.
The scene in front of her was extremely familiar. She bent down and saw her gray clothes and thin body.
"Cong Mo." A very beautiful woman came up, lifted her ear, and grabbed her arm, leading her towards the village, shouting as they walked, "Mother has told you so many times, stay away from that kid from the Leng family. You're going to cultivate the ruthless way in the future, and it's not good for a girl to hang out with a boy every day!"
Cong Mo tried to break free, but when his little hand touched A Niang's hand, he was only met with a crisp slap.
A stinging burning sensation hit her face, and she was pushed into the dilapidated thatched hut. "Think it through before coming out for dinner."
Cong Mo shook her head, trying to ease the pain in her head, and looked up at her surroundings. She was... back to her childhood.
This dilapidated place was where she slept. Cong Mo stood up and looked around. This illusion did not give her any clues or hints. She had no idea what the test was and how to leave.
Cong Mo was in a dilemma. She was back to the time when she was most helpless. Her weak and short body could not resist the power of the adults. The cold wind rushed in from outside, ruffling her loose and dirty clothes. She shivered with cold.
How can she solve the mystery that needs to be explored?
She picked up the dust on the ground with her fingers, pushed away the messy pile of firewood, leaving a piece of clean land and drew a few talismans.
The talisman glowed, floated in the air, and turned into pieces of light paper that fell into her hands. She was too young now and had no spiritual power to mobilize, so she could only use some talismans that did not require spiritual power to protect herself.
In the illusion within the illusion, no one stipulates that you cannot use any other magic except swordsmanship.
"Cong Mo, do you want to think clearly about where you made a mistake?" A Niang's voice was heard outside the door.
Cong Mo had no memory of this, and she didn't know what mistake she had made to make her mother so angry.
Her hesitation obviously displeased the person outside the door. The already loose and shaky wooden door was kicked open with great force. Cong Mo was dragged into the yard by the woman who pounced on him and threw him onto the dusty ground.
"Puff..." Cong Mo was caught off guard and swallowed a mouthful of dirt. A Niang kicked her, "Cong Mo, are you so bold? Are you tired of living? Why don't you answer me? What's the matter? In this family, do you still have the right to disobey my words?"
My father had just returned from the woodyard. When he pushed open the door, he saw this scene and hurried over to stop my mother. "Cong Mo, quickly apologize to your mother."
Cong Mo's face was covered in dust, but the heroic spirit between her eyebrows could not be concealed. She spat, "I don't know where I made a mistake."
"Oh... a mute can say so much? And even disobey your father's orders?" Father was not satisfied with her backtalk and got angry. He grabbed her collar and threw her out the door, slapping her on the head. "Kneel here. Come in when you have thought it through."
Cong Mo spat out the broken teeth in her mouth and stared at the closed wooden door. How come her mother and father were completely different from what she remembered? Although they were indifferent to her, they would never beat her. Could it be that an illusion had tampered with her memory?
It was already dark. Their house was located at the very edge of the village, so normally no one would come here. Cong Mo looked around to see that there was no one around. He took out the talisman he had drawn from his sleeve and stuck it on the door. "Break!"
The talisman seemed to come alive in an instant. A thin piece of paper slipped through the crack in the door, grabbed the bolt and pulled it open.
Cong Mo pushed the door open carefully. There was no one in the yard. The pet yellow dog was not surprised to see her and just focused on eating the food in his bowl.
Only their thatched hut was lit by candlelight. Cong Mo tried to lower his voice, slowly squatted outside the house, and stuck a talisman on the wall to amplify the sound inside the house.
"My husband, am I being too cruel?" Mother Cong leaned into Father Cong's arms, covering her face and crying. "When I hit Xiaomo today, I felt so sad. She is my child. How could I treat her like this?"
"We do this for her own good. When she grows up, she'll understand our painstaking efforts." Father Cong stroked Mother Cong's head. "We can't give up on each other. We failed in our cultivation on the path of ruthlessness and couldn't fulfill our dreams. We moved to this village to train Cong Mo and to make her indifferent to emotions from a young age. That's why we live such a miserable life now, having to cater to everyone's wishes. We do all this for her. Xiaomo can't be like us."
"Do we really have to let her practice the ruthless way?"
"Have you forgotten how long it took us to find a way to exchange souls for strength?" Father Cong kissed Mother Cong's forehead affectionately. "The lost soul of love may grow due to years of emotional nourishment. If we treat her well, the soul of love will grow, and all the suffering she has endured over the years will be in vain. We can't just treat her well. We must first cherish her and let the people in the village know that her parents don't love her. Then others will naturally look down on her, ignore her, and neglect her. The soul of love will never grow. When Xiaomo grows up and realizes how powerful she is and how she can be stronger than others without training, she will understand our good intentions."
"That's right." Mother Cong wiped away her tears. "We don't expect Xiaomo to remember us. As long as she's doing well, we'll be content."
"We can't let her live the same hard life we did. Our dreams when we were young didn't come true, and Xiaomo can't fail again. When she grows up, we'll use the spirit stone to erase some of her memories, so that she won't forget the times we beat and scolded her. That way, she won't resent us."
Cong Mo covered his mouth tightly, and his knees softened as he knelt on the ground.
They love her...
It turns out that they were not annoyed by the fact that she was a dull, mute woman, and it turned out that they did not want her dead as they said!
It turns out that everything they did was for her own good!
Can…
Why?
And...why?
Why should she fulfill their wishes?
Big tears rolled down from the corners of her eyes, and she couldn't tell whether it was anger or unwillingness that was bursting out at this moment.
But she couldn't hate her parents.
Hate is a derivative of love. If she doesn't know how to love, how can she learn to hate?
Cong Mo couldn't understand her emotions at the moment. The tears in her eyes soon turned into dry wasteland, and not a single drop could flow out. She slowly moved back to the door and continued to kneel.
They let her in after nearly an hour, threw her onto the firewood pile, and casually tossed her a dry, hard cake. "Eat it! Don't starve to death. Starting tomorrow, you're not allowed to go to school anymore."
The door was pulled shut with great force, and the world was engulfed in darkness. Cong Mo took a bite of the biscuit and suddenly thought of the reason for the illusion.
"Knock, knock..."
"Cong Mo! Cong Mo!" The tender voice of a child echoed in the house. Cong Mo raised his head and saw a small figure and a bright smile on the roof.
It was Leng Can when he was a child, just like his name, like the shining sun.
He climbed down the pillar and fell onto the thatched mat, "Ouch..."
Cong Mo didn't move.
Leng Can covered his buttocks, not blaming her for her indifference. He went over to sit next to her and pulled out a small tin box from his arms. "Alright, alright! Manly women, don't cry, don't argue with bad people. I'll treat you to some candy. If you eat the candy, you'll be a good child."
"I didn't cry." Cong Mo couldn't remember what happened between them. He took a piece of orange candy and put it in his mouth. It tasted exactly the same.
Leng Can sat down next to her and said, "Why haven't you gone to the school to learn poetry recitation these days? I've also learned to write a lot of characters, and I can also write particularly complex ones. If you come over later, I will definitely be able to write better than you and recite more fluently than you."
"My parents won't let me go." Cong Mo's face remained expressionless, his heart like a pool of stagnant water. His emotions had subsided, and now they couldn't stir up much more. "Don't come to see me anymore. My parents won't let me play with you."
"Why?" Leng Can was filled with righteous indignation. "Your parents are too overbearing. They don't let me control my friends. I have to play with you. Tomorrow I will tell my dad that I won't go to school anymore. If you don't go, I won't go either. Even if you learn to farm, I will farm faster and better than you."
"Hmph..." Cong Mo was amused by him. It was the first time she knew that Leng Can was so competitive.
The two little men lay down on the straw mat and looked at the bright stars and the moon through the hole in the roof.
"I want to eat some bread, too. Please share some with me."
“It’s hard and not tasty.”
"I don't care. Can you eat it but I can't? I want to eat it. Break it open for me."
Cong Mo broke off a small piece for him and said, "Don't be in a hurry to go home."
"No rush." Leng Can bit his teeth, almost breaking them. "My parents thought I was asleep and didn't know I was coming."
"Do you have any silver with you?" Cong Mo asked, his head spinning.
Leng Can searched through his two pockets and only pulled out five coins. His face flushed, "I just had to rush out today and was a little short of money."
Cong Mo smiled at him, his dirty face set off by a mouthful of white teeth, looking both cute and pitiful. "Thank you, that's enough."
Leng Can's ears turned red. "You're welcome. I'll bring more next time."
"Hey...why is the little mute here today?"
Cong Mo ignored his call. He was not even as tall as the table and could only reach it by standing on tiptoe. He unfolded the only five cents in his hand and asked, "Do you have rat poison? My parents asked me to buy some."
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