Chapter 43 - If This Is What You Want
Here there was a well, a child squatting beside the well.
Luo Hongyu didn't know where this place was. She remembered she had fainted on the Immortal Ascension Platform; after waking up, she had appeared here.
But she recognized this well. This was the well beside the other courtyard on Still Water Peak; when she was little, she often drew water from here to water the grapevines.
This space seemed to have only this one scene; the child in the black robe and fox mask squatted beside the well like that, shaking his head, as if there was something interesting inside.
It was very quiet here; only his even breathing could be heard.
Luo Hongyu's expression was dazed; she walked blankly towards his direction.
"...!!"
The little boy noticed her approach and was suddenly startled. He pulled at his black robe and hid to one side, looking at her with resentful and wary eyes.
As if she were some irreconcilable enemy of his.
"......"
Luo Hongyu stopped, not daring to approach further.
The big one and the little one faced each other in the silent space for a while. Afterwards, the little boy lowered his guard.
He had realized. When Luo Hongyu appeared here... it meant he was already dead, or rather, liberated.
This divided soul fragment thus lost its meaning of existence; before long, this trace of resentment of his, born from early years of pain, would also completely dissipate.
It was a good thing.
The boy stood up and ran before Luo Hongyu.
"...Is it you? You're still alive, right?"
The boy shook his head.
But he had a gift to give to Luo Hongyu.
The boy took off the mask on his face; beneath the mask was a faceless visage.
He placed the mask on Luo Hongyu's face.
...
Luo Hongyu saw a White Cloud Mountain.
On the mountain, there was a female half-immortal.
"White Immortal... White Immortal! I implore the White Immortal to point out a clear path for this Luo... Save my little daughter!"
Her father, who in her impression was sharp and incisive, was at this moment like a frost-bitten, dying lamp, his spirit and form haggard, half-kneeling before a woman with white eyebrows and white clothes.
And beside him followed a girl with two horned braids, wearing a strange white fox mask.
The White Immortal took the girl's wrist, a trace of immortal power flowed into it; then she shook her head and wrung her wrists, saying:
"If there were no accidents, when this girl was born, black qi entwined her infant body, and the amniotic fluid was incomparably foul-smelling."
"Her meridians are deficient and broken, her destiny contains baleful influence, and within her body, innate yin qi rampages; it's just that she is still young now, and it hasn't manifested yet."
"Sect Master Luo... to tell you the truth, your esteemed daughter is detested by Heaven. For all sorts of misfortune and suffering to befall her is no accident."
This world-renowned Sword Master, who had dominated the first half of his life, his eyes were numb and hollow; he stared blankly at his daughter, who was squatting to one side looking at butterflies, without saying a word.
The masked girl tilted her head, listening to this elder sister in white speak, completely unaware that her own miserable destiny was being discussed.
"Even if immortal arts forcibly extend her life, and even if she doesn't embark on the immortal path, a Heavenly Tribulation will still descend upon her in the future, unavoidable."
"It is fate."
Luo Wenshui's eyes turned completely red; he could no longer care about any etiquette. He immediately staggered to his feet, his trembling voice carrying bursts of pleading...
"White Immortal... I, Luo Wenshui, have only this one daughter... I must save her, I must save her! Since immortal arts offer no way, what about techniques not of the orthodox immortal path?!"
"......"
Qi Bai's profound eyes looked past Luo Wenshui at the girl behind him, as if gazing at something even more distant, more secret.
After a moment, she slowly spoke:
"In the Southern Continent, at the Demon-Severing Cave, there is a witchcraft that relies on another's soul to connect a po-soul and continue life... It is what you seek."
Luo Wenshui, upon hearing these words, was stunned for a moment. Afterwards, he took a deep breath, and an ecstatic expression appeared on his gaunt face.
He pulled his daughter along to bow to Qi Bai and shouted loudly:
"Junior Luo Wenshui thanks the White Immortal immensely for your guidance! From now on, everyone in the Tianchen Sword Sect, up and down, will be at your command..."
"Enough... don't stay any longer. In the future, also do not come to Tianyuan Mountain to find me."
After sending Luo Wenshui and his daughter down the mountain, Qi Bai looked faintly towards the south, her expression seeming to become heavy with an air of decline.
"......"
This was just a fragment, shorter than which nothing could be shorter.
Luo Hongyu had been standing beside that masked girl and witnessed this brief conversation.
A father desperate to save his daughter, an ignorant and naive child, a half-immortal powerless to reverse fate.
The mask worn on that girl's face was the same model as hers.
Even the slight old marks and scratches were exactly the same, without the slightest difference.
Yet it was just these three people, ten sentences, one mask.
Now, Luo Hongyu's entire inner world was torn into flying fragments.
...
"Hahaha, Luo He, you're so stupid."
On Still Water Peak of the Tianchen Sword Sect, reserved only for the Sect Master and his daughter to live, a pretty little girl wearing a pure white short skirt and holding a wooden sword was chasing a butterfly.
A black figure, whose build was similar to hers, but who was strangely hidden entirely beneath a black robe and wearing the white fox mask the girl had worn back then, followed closely behind.
Suddenly, the little girl whipped her head around and pointed her wooden sword at the black shadow behind her. The black shadow didn't stop in time and actually fell straight to the ground.
The girl's laughter was like silver bells. She put away her wooden sword and squatted down; her waterfall-like hair blocked the sunlight, causing Luo He's eyes, the only part visible beyond his mask, to be filled with the reflection of her smiling face.
She was the daughter of Luo Wenshui, the Sect Master of the Tianchen Sword Sect.
Because she was the Sect Master's daughter and Luo Wenshui previously didn't let outsiders have much contact with her, very few people would come up the mountain to play with her.
Fortunately, there was always a Luo He following by her side. Although Luo He was dull and wooden, as if he couldn't speak, and he also always wore a strange white fox mask...
He was now the girl's only good friend.
However, the girl had always had a mischievous idea regarding this friend...
"Hey... Ah, you dodged it again."
The girl suddenly reached out, wanting to remove Luo He's mask, but Luo He, as if forewarned, immediately moved far away from her side.
"So stingy! It wouldn't hurt you to let me see what you look like for a moment."
The girl stood with her hands on her hips, dissatisfied. At the same time, she noticed that Luo He's gaze seemed to be constantly fixed on the blood-red jade pendant at her waist.
She took it off and smiled smugly before him:
"Hmph hmph, this was given to me by my daddy. Are you envious..."
The girl's words stopped abruptly.
Although she was still young, she still noticed in Luo He's usually calm and beautiful eyes a trace of fierce and hostile color flash towards this jade pendant and herself.
This frightened her into taking a step back, and she hid the jade pendant in her hand.
"You... why are you being so fierce... If you take off your mask and let me see, I'll let you see this jade pendant too, how about it?"
"......"
Luo He paid her no heed and walked straight off to one side.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"......"
In a corner no one cared about, Luo Hongyu sat limply on the ground, watching everything happening before her.
Her previous thoughts were not wrong; this was a punishment for her.
But what she felt was wrong was, on the Immortal Ascension Platform, the punishment was far from over.
Now, the punishment was just beginning.
People always, after looking back, begin to complain about their foolish past selves.
Perhaps...
Self-loathing and self-destruction are fundamentally an indelible coded shackle within human nature.