“No!!”
Xiao Hongyi screams.
Her tragic voice would make gods and buddhas sigh, her look of despair could move the world.
Yet no one hears and sees her.
After so many years, she finally sees Jiang Chen again, the real Jiang Chen.
Although she has a thousand words in her heart, she hasn’t had the chance to properly apologize or truly repent.
But what she encounters is such a heartbreaking scene.
She kneels on the ground, trying to lift Jiang Chen, but she can’t.
She reaches out to pull the black blade from his body, but she can’t.
She tries to wipe the blood from Jiang Chen’s body, but she can’t.Even wanting to die with Jiang Chen, she can’t.
After cursing others with the most venomous words until her voice is hoarse, she collapses on Jiang Chen’s body, while sobbing uncontrollably:
“Jiang Chen, wake up.”
“I don’t want you to be good anymore. I don’t want you to follow the righteous path anymore.”
“Can we go home? Back to the home that’s just ours, back to the home that’s cut off from the rest of the world.”
“Why, why has it come to this.”
“It’s not your fault!!”
“The one who should die isn’t you!!”
Suddenly, Jiang Chen is lifted by someone.
“Disciple, it’s my fault for not teaching you well…”
The person cries with a hoarse voice.
Then, she was quickly pulled away.
Jiang Chen’s lips move as if to say something, and Xiao Hongyi leans in to listen.
“Spare them…”
Them? Who are they?
At this moment, Xiao Hongyi thinks she understands the entire truth, but she still hears something incomprehensible.
But she doesn’t delve deeper because she can feel that her eldest disciple, the one who supported her weakness, who accompanied her for over a decade, is gone…
She screams in anger, her beautiful eyes filled with fury.
She rushes at Lin Feng, at herself, and at the other disciples.
She wants to avenge Jiang Chen, but she can only repeatedly lunge at nothing and fall to the ground.
Then flames rise to the sky and envelop Jiang Chen’s body.
Her delicate body trembles as she staggers forward, crawling into the raging flames.
Even though she’s in the midst of the fire, she feels no heat, only watching helplessly as Jiang Chen’s body is gradually consumed by the flames and slowly fading away.
“Why? Why are you so cruel?!” she cries out to the heavens.
The only answer is the roar of the flames.
“Why can’t you discern good from bad, right from wrong? Why must my disciple suffer such injustice?!” she asks again.
Still, only the roar of the flames.
She gives in to despair and no longer speaks.
The pain in her chest is almost numb, a sign that the phoenix blood is devouring her heart.
She doesn’t care, she doesn’t even resist.
Because at the moment Jiang Chen’s life force completely vanishes, she ‘vanishes’ too.
And at this moment, the excruciating pain in her heart is nothing compared to what Jiang Chen has endured so far.
In an instant, the pain disappears.
She no longer cries, no longer screams. Her indifferent eyes were more numb than ever before.
At this moment, except for the vividly colorful figure of Jiang Chen amidst the flames, everything in the world has turned to black and white in her eyes.
Except for the flames consuming Jiang Chen’s body that crackles softly, the whole world seems dead silent in her ears.
She stands there, dazed, with Jiang Chen’s past words echoing in her mind.
‘Master, there’s no need to straighten your back.’
‘Master, why are you here?’
‘Master, do you believe in fate?’
‘Master…’
‘Master…’
Only after the flames have died down and leaving nothing but ashes on the ground does she crouch down, extending her hands to try to collect her disciple’s remains.
Still, she can’t.
At this moment, the only color in her world also vanishes.
She stands up while looking up at the sky like a puppet.
Her beauty remains unmatched, but now she’s just a shell without a soul, empty inside.
……
Time passes, unknown how long.
The image shifts, and she is back at the perilous peak.
Now, there appears to be a grave next to the spiritual pond.
Beside the tombstone was a woman who kept vigil for a hundred years.
……
The scene changes again, she sees herself, Jiang Lianyue and others, all dead under Lin Feng’s blade.
This scene reminds her of Jiang Chen’s figure drifting away in front of the Red Jade Pavilion.
‘Master, I’m not afraid of death, but I’m afraid of your death…’
She remembers being tightly embraced by Jiang Chen in front of the wall of reflection.
‘Master, whether it’s a hundred years or a thousand years. No matter what happens in the future, no matter how disappointed you are with me.’
‘I just want to say…’
‘If one day, I am no longer in this world.’
‘If one day, you find yourself all alone.’
‘If one day, you wake up from your grief and anger.’
‘Please remember this saying from your disciple…’
‘I won’t let you die! Never! Even if you end up hating me for it!’
Then she remembers Jiang Chen’s last words before dying.
‘Spare them…’
At this moment, she understands everything.
Jiang Chen had always wanted to save her.
Jiang Chen didn’t want to stay in the Red Jade Pavilion and grow old with her because he knew Lin Feng would kill the women to prove his Dao, and there was no escape.
Her disciple had always considered everyone else but never himself.
“Crack—”
The world suddenly closes, enveloped in darkness and nothingness.
She remains standing, her beautiful eyes empty without the slightest ripple.
Soon, sunlight dispels the darkness, and she is back in the familiar place and seeing the familiar scene.
At the perilous peak of the mountain, her disciple fishes with a rod and the master stands behind him.
She looks up at the sky.
【Second Life】
These words should be golden, but like the world before her eyes, they remain gray and white.
Her expression is still numb and indifferent. Unable to smile, cry, or even speak.
Suddenly, her pupils contract, noticing streaks of color gathering around the boy fishing by the pond.
“Master, do you believe in fate?” the boy in white asks.
Like before, the woman still doesn’t know how to respond.
But this time, the boy just sighs, not uttering any bold statements.
He doesn’t even ask any other questions, just staring blankly at the empty space beside the spiritual pond.
Xiao Hongyi remembers that at the end of the last life, there was a grave there.
Although still unable to feel emotions, she forces herself to move forward and sits down beside the boy.
“Thump, thump.”
She watches the boy in a daze and feels her own heartbeat again.
She raises her hand to touch the boy’s face, and a glint of light flashes through her empty eyes.
Then, she suddenly smiles.
With that smile, the boy’s colors spread around, instantly covering the world.
She comes back to life.
“Disciple, live for yourself in this life. Your master is not afraid of dying, but I’m afraid of you dying,” she says softly.
The boy, of course, does not respond.
“Please…” she says again.
Still, the boy remains silent.
After a long while, the boy suddenly turns his head and asks the woman in red behind him, “Master, what would you do if I died one day?”
“If you are innocent, I won’t let you die, but if you are guilty…” the woman beside him frowns in thought.
“What if I am guilty?”
“I haven’t really thought about it.”
“Master, although you haven’t really thought about it, I know what you would do!”
“Oh? Tell me.”
“You would guard my grave for a hundred years!”
“…wishful thinking!”
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