The Husky and His White Cat Shizun - Chap 265
The candle burned out, leaving behind only darkness.
The fire was extinguished, leaving behind only embers.
However, the darkness was once bright, and the embers were once warm. He also had his days of light and warmth. At this moment, no one knew about it, and it would never be mentioned again.
Mo Ran had used up his last bit of spiritual power.
He watched as the sparrows dispersed and the Yin soldiers sank into the ground. He watched as the living were no longer controlled and the chess pieces cracked. He watched as the black tide that was about to engulf the peak of life and death retreated in a daze. He watched as the calamity of hell ended.
Everyone said that he was unpardonably evil, and he also felt that way. However, this demon finally did the exact same thing as the Heavenly God. Chu Wanning was his candle, and he followed behind the light, blindly following it.
“Brother!”
“Ran Er!”
He vaguely heard someone calling him. He saw Xue Meng stumbling towards him from the corner of his eye. He saw Xue Zhengyong and Madam Wang breaking out of the encirclement and running towards him.
He was comforted by their call. He grinned as if he wanted to laugh, but tears rolled down his bloodstained face.
He wanted to say, “I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”
However, his throat was choked. In the end, he begged, “Don’t hate me.”
I’m really …
I really like you guys.
I like uncle and auntie. I like the peak of life and death. I like this stolen warmth and family.
Uncle, auntie, Xue Meng.
Don’t hate me.
Millions of soldiers retreated. Mo Ran fell to the ground heavily, his body covered in mud and dust.
In his previous life, when Chu Wanning was seriously injured and unconscious, his white clothes were stained with blood, but he still looked very clean. He was different from Mo Ran. Mo Ran had always been dirty.
When he lost consciousness, he felt Madam Wang reach out and hug him. Her soft and warm arms were calling him with heartache, “Ran Er.”
He heard Xue Zhengyong and Mu Yanli arguing. He shouted angrily, “Evil plan? What evil plan could it be? If it was a chess piece he summoned, why would he do this to retreat? ”
He heard Xue Meng shouting, “Don’t touch him! Don’t touch him! Don’t take him away! ”
Chaos ensued.
Mo Ran wanted to explain and remind him more, but he was really too tired, too exhausted.
He closed his eyes.
Jiao Mountain.
Inside the Hall of Sages, the Everlasting Lamp emitted a faint light. The wax torches made from whale oil were as thick as the mouth of a bowl. There was no sign of the sun or the moon here. Only the flickering light of the lanterns flowed down, forming lingering candlelight tears, indicating the passage of time.
Shi Mei was draped in a white fox fur brocade robe and sat on the high seat. He supported his forehead with his hand and closed his eyes to rest.
This seat was originally occupied by Xu Shuanglin. Back then, he watched as Xu Shuanglin crafted the Zhenlong Chess pieces, creating Paradise and Purgatory, hoping that his Shizun could return to the human world.
He felt that this person was very interesting, but it was a pity that he couldn’t keep him.
In front of him, there was a piece of silk cloth with illusions. On it, dragons and snakes were dancing, densely packed with small dots of various colors.
This was the “sand table” created by the Fairy Treading Monarch in his previous life with the help of the exquisite chess game. The black dots were exquisite black chess pieces, the silver dots were white chess pieces, and the red dots were abandoned chess pieces that had died in battle. The small squares on the silk cloth represented the opposing forces. As long as he had this sand table in hand, he could clearly see the situation of the battle even if he was thousands of miles away.
Shi Mei put the silk cloth in front of the table, but he didn’t look at it carefully. He knew very well what choice Mo Ran would make in the end. He put the cloth there just for fun. The Emperor Ta had countless ways to get out of this predicament, but Grandmaster Mo only had one way to go, so there was nothing to see.
After a long time, the door of the hall suddenly opened, and light footsteps sounded in the hall. Shi Mei didn’t look up, but asked lightly, “You’re here?”
A man stood on top of a shiny brick.
The man who walked in was wearing a white cloak, and the brim of his hat was very low, so his face couldn’t be seen clearly. He stopped in the middle of the hall, his posture like a lotus.
The man opened his mouth, his voice was elegant, but his tone was low, “Just now, there was a movement outside, Mo Ran destroyed all of the Emperor Ta’s chess pieces.”
Shi Mei didn’t even bat an eyelash, and said indifferently, “Yes, he didn’t have a choice.”
The man continued, “… … The Emperor Ta’s body is already on the verge of collapse. So the chess pieces under his control have already started to bite you. Now that Mo Ran used the power of the nucleus to break them, you are free, which is a good thing. ”
Shi Mei smiled, “Oh? Are you worried about me? ”
The man didn’t answer, and after a while, he said, “What do you plan to do next?”
“Just follow the old plan.” Shi Mo finally moved. He stretched his waist and opened his peach blossom eyes. With a smile, the entire room was filled with spring. “Didn’t I tell you long ago?”
“… … I know you’ve thought it through carefully. But you have to think clearly, Mo Ran paid such a big price to stop those precious chess pieces from wreaking havoc. The cultivators of these sects aren’t fools, they wouldn’t have no doubts about the whole thing. ”
Shi Mei smiled, “I know what you mean. In order to protect the Xiuzhenists from a great disaster, he didn’t hesitate to shatter his own nucleus. He’s a hero. ”
“Do you think the Xiuzhenists will interrogate their heroes?”
Shi Mei didn’t answer directly, but he was still smiling, his fingers crossed under his chin, and gently asked the man, “What Mo Ran did, is it similar to what Chu Wanning did in your previous life?”
The man was silent for a while, then said, “… … Yes. It’s almost a reenactment. ”
“Okay, then let me ask you again. In your previous life, when Chu Wanning was under house arrest by the Emperor Ta, how many people in the Xiuzhenist world really cared about him and remembered him?”
“… …”
Seeing that he didn’t answer, the smile on Shi Mei’s face became more enigmatic, “Almost none, right? I’ve already told you. In those years, when Xue Meng was running around everywhere, at first, there were people who shed tears of sympathy, and promised him that they would help him and go to the peak of life and death to save people. But what happened later? Under the influence of the Celestial Treading Monarch, those promises were just empty words. And as time passed, the initial feelings disappeared, and people started to feel that Xue Meng was more and more annoying. When he went to ask for help, people told him that Chu Wanning had been in the palace for so long, he might have already died. How could they sacrifice other people’s lives for someone whose life or death is still unknown? ”
The mysterious man shook his head, “At that time, Chu Wanning’s whereabouts were really unknown, but now Mo Ran is still by their side, safe and sound. Even if they were heartless, they probably wouldn’t hurt someone who had just shed blood for the Xiuzhenist world. ”
Hearing his rebuttal, Shi Mei couldn’t help but sigh, “Ah, compared to me, you’re just a few years younger, so you’re still too naive.”
As he said that, he put away the silk on the table. The chess pieces on the table had all turned red, which meant that they had lost their effect. He didn’t care at all and put the silk back into the Qiankun Bag.
“When people don’t have their own interests involved, they can be very noble. But once they hurt themselves, they’ll gradually reveal their animal nature. ”
Tying a knot on the Qiankun Bag with his slender fingers, Shi Mei raised his head and said, “Now, in their eyes, there’s a 50% chance that Mo Ran is a good person who was wrongly accused, but there’s also a 50% chance that he’s a scheming villain. It’s a pity to hurt a good person by mistake, but letting a bad person go could lead to a bloody storm in the Xiuzhenist world. ”
“…”
Seeing that the other party was listening in silence, Shi Mei continued, “Therefore, even if he shatters his spiritual core and helps the Xiuzhenist world avoid a great disaster, there are still too many doubts. However, there were still too many suspicious points about him. Human nature was too suspicious. If there was something that could harm them, they would choose to eliminate it completely. This small variable won’t change the final result. ”
The mysterious man asked, “So, you think the Heavenly Music Pavilion can still capture Mo Ran without any problems?”
Shi Mei smiled, “The Heavenly Music Pavilion is on our side, so everything is going according to plan. This is inevitable. Now, as long as we can find a way to get Mo Ran’s spiritual core fragments, I’ll be able to put the Emperor Ta in order again. With his power, there’s nothing that can’t be done. ”
The man didn’t reply immediately. After a while, he said, “But in the other world, you’ve been controlling him for nearly ten years. What have you done?”
Shi Mei was slightly startled, as if he was stung by the man’s questioning tone. His face slowly darkened, and after a while, he narrowed his eyes and asked, “What do you mean? Are you doubting me?”
“… No, I’m not doubting you.” The man sighed, “You and I have the same original intentions. In this world, I’m afraid there’s no one who understands you more than I do. ”
Shi Mei’s cold expression softened a little, but his beautiful eyes were still fixed on the man’s face, as if he was examining how much of the man’s words were true and how much of them were false. Finally, he pursed his thin lips and said, “It’s good that you understand. Every step I take is to get back what we deserve, so some sacrifices are unavoidable. ”
“Yes.”
“You’re right, there’s no one who understands me more than you.” Shi Mei said softly, “In these two lives, I’ve lived every step carefully, trembling with fear. Apart from you, there’s almost no one I can trust. ”
“… …”
“Don’t let me down.”
Shi Mei’s voice fell, like a butterfly circling in the air. After a complicated silence, the mysterious man opened his mouth. His tone was calm, and he said, “During this time, I’ve always wanted to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
Outside Jiao Mountain, dark clouds covered the sky. The wind rose, and the grass and trees fell. It was as if countless homeless people were crying — — the sound of the wind.
The man said, “I really want to know, in the last life, for our sake, how much sacrifice did you make? Tell me the truth. ”
Shi Mei didn’t expect him to suddenly ask such a question. His brows furrowed, and his eyes lit up, “Didn’t I already tell you? It’s normal that some innocent people will die. If you think about the trampling we’ve suffered in the past, then — — ”
“How much is’ some ‘?”
The man’s gentle and firm voice interrupted Shi Mei’s words. Shi Mei seemed to have lost his voice for a moment.
His face began to clearly become gloomy. This was very unusual, because Shi Mei had always been a person who didn’t express his emotions easily. But in front of this mysterious man, he didn’t seem to care about his baring fangs and brandishing claws. It was as if this man couldn’t see the murderous look on his face at this moment.
“Some is some, don’t tell me that I have to register the innocent people who died and give them to you for you to see?”
The man smiled faintly, and he said softly, “Well, you also know that I can’t see it anymore.”
“… …”
“I’ve been very cooperative with you. Ever since you came to find me and told me the truth of the previous life, I’ve been helping you for so many years. You hid in the lonely night, and I did everything that you asked me to do at the peak of life and death. ” The man said, “Although there are some things that I don’t understand, and occasionally have some doubts, but your way of thinking is my way of thinking, and your pursuit is my pursuit — — For the thing that we have in common, I have already disregarded life and death. I always thought that you were the same, so I don’t mind sacrificing myself, as long as we can succeed.”
Shi Mei suddenly stood up, and paced back and forth.
“What do you mean by saying this? You disregarded life and death, so you mean that I’m just living an ignoble life? ”
He flicked his sleeves and looked back, staring at the man in white with a frosty expression.
“If you know what kind of person I am, you shouldn’t say such things.”
“I know.” The mysterious man said, “But I’m thinking that after you faked your death in the previous life, you hid behind the scenes as Hua Bi’nan, and controlled the Gu in Mo Ran’s heart — — for ten years.”
“Eight years.” Shi Mei interrupted him, “Later, Chu Wanning split his soul into two and sent it into his body, which more or less brought back some of his nature. Eight years later, he committed suicide, not ten years. ”
“Okay, eight years.” The man said, “In these eight years, you expanded the hatred in his heart, causing him to commit all kinds of heinous crimes, but he was getting further and further away from our original intention. When you saw him like this, why didn’t you stop him in time?”
Shi Mei was so angry that he laughed, “Do you know how difficult it is to cultivate an Eight Bitter Everlasting Regret Flower?”
“… … I know.”
“Do you know that once a person is poisoned by the Flower Gu, once the Gu is removed, it won’t take effect a second time?”
“I know.”
Shi Mei stopped laughing, and his eyes flashed with anger, “Then why are you still asking? If it were you, what would you do? ”
The man was silent, and after a long time, he sighed, “Haven’t you already made the choice for me?”
Shi Mei was suddenly at a loss for words.
The man said, “I haven’t done such a thing myself, and I walked the path you walked, so even if I know that if I were in the same situation, I would make the same decision, but I … …”
Shi Mei narrowed his eyes, walked down the long stairs step by step, and stopped in front of the man, “But you?”
“… … But I still have a guilty conscience.”
Dead silence.
Suddenly, Shi Mei grabbed the man’s robe. Such a beautiful hand, wearing a snake-patterned ring, an extremely elegant hand, tightly grasped the person in front of him, the meridians on the back of his hand bulging.
He gritted his teeth and said, “What a good ‘guilty conscience’, what’s the difference between you and me? What happened in the past, which one of them wasn’t planned by the two of us? Didn’t you understand very well in the past? Weren’t you very vicious and merciless? Now you have a guilty conscience? — — Why? ”
“… …”
“Because you think that Xu Shuanglin saw you as a friend, but you have been deceiving him, telling him the fake rebirth technique, and letting him open the Gate of Life and Death for us. Are you ashamed?”
The man said softly, “He didn’t betray me until he died.”
Shi Mei was stunned for a moment, and his eyes flashed with tiredness and grief, “Good, good — — I was wondering why you were so unwilling at that time — — what else? You saw thousands of chess pieces, and you felt heartache for those people, and you blamed yourself? ”
The man was very calm, “Don’t you feel any guilt in your heart?”
“You … …” Shi Mei gritted his teeth, and his eyes were almost crazy and mocking. He stared at the person in front of him for a long time, as if he was looking at a big joke, or as if he was looking at a traitor who made him feel cold.
Suddenly, he seemed to think of a very vicious word, and he sneered, showing his poisonous claws, and stabbed into the man’s blood.
“Good, very good, you said so many beautiful words. You blame yourself, you are ashamed. But in the end, you are still lamenting, right? ”
Looking at the confusion between the man’s eyebrows, the light in Shi Mei’s eyes became brighter. He was like a vulture hunting for prey, soaring and circling, waiting for the moment the prey breathed its last before swooping down to kill.
“You’re suddenly questioning me. You probably think that you’re regretting it because you saw the Million Exquisite Chessboard. You probably felt that you saw Xu Shuanglin’s death, so you were moved. But I know you. I know what kind of person you are — — self-reproach and shame don’t exist for you. You are as cold-blooded and fickle as I am. ”
The vulture’s wings cast a shadow of death, and it became colder and colder as it went down.
“You are not repenting at all. Don’t lie to yourself. ”
He laughed haughtily and gracefully.
Shi Mingjing, who grasped people’s weak points, was always elegant and calm.
He paused after every word.
“In my opinion, you are just lamenting your eyes.”
When he finished speaking, Shi Mei pulled out a dagger from his waist. Slowly, he used the handle of the dagger to lift the hood of the man’s low-hanging white cloak. Little by little, he suddenly took it off.
The cloak fell, and behind the white velvet hood was a devastatingly beautiful face.
Peerless appearance, elegant features.
The two of them actually had the same face!
Only this cloaked Shi Mei’s eyes were covered by a snow-white bandage, and a few strands of hair fell in front of the bandage.
Shi Mei looked at the man whose cloak was lifted and sneered, “Shi Mingjing, look at yourself clearly. What you are lamenting is that you sacrificed more than me. That day on Jiao Mountain, the situation was extremely bad. In order to disturb Chu Wanning’s mood, we had to use the last move we discussed — — there were so many people watching, we naturally couldn’t act. So in the end, you lost your eyes, but I was fine. You were jealous. ”
“… … If I was jealous, I wouldn’t have agreed to your plan from the beginning. I wouldn’t have made the worst decision to sacrifice myself. In fact, for me, either one of us is alive to finish that unfinished business. Why should I — — ”
Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted.
“Who?!”
The dagger was thrown out and accurately hit the beam.
Shi Mei looked back and coldly said, “Come out.”
Huang Xiaoyue weakly came out from behind the pillar with disheveled hair.
That day, he betrayed everyone and searched for the treasure on Jiao Mountain, but because he triggered the mechanism, he was trapped in the secret room and couldn’t get out. In the secret room of the Confucian Wind Sect, there were gold, silver, precious weapons, sword manuals, and secret books. The only thing missing was food.
Jiang Dongtang’s group was trapped inside. Brothers and sisters killed each other, the strong bullied the weak, and people ate people. In the end, only Huang Xiaoyue was left.
After eating the last disciple, he struggled to get out of the secret room, but he didn’t expect to encounter such a strange situation.
— — What did he see? Two Shi Mingjings?
Huang Xiaoyue couldn’t figure it out. He couldn’t understand.
With his brain, at most he could guess that they were twins. He never thought that they were two Shi Mei’s in the same world under the effect of the Gate of Life and Death.
But the more he listened, the more strange he felt. Huang Xiaoyue was a wily old fox. He vaguely felt that something was wrong and wanted to leave first. Who would have thought that Shi Mei’s eyes and ears were sharp enough to discover his existence?
Shi Mei narrowed his eyes. “I was wondering who it was. Turns out it was an old rat.”
His line of sight moved down and fell on Huang Xiaoyue’s robe. “Blood? … … There are no animals on Jiao Mountain. What blood? ”
He was silent for a moment, as if he had figured it out.
His lips opened and closed, unexpectedly showing disdain.
“Human blood?”
Huang Xiaoyue felt the killing intent and ran away.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Shi Mei’s green robe fluttered and his body was as light as a kite. He stood firmly in front of Huang Xiaoyue and raised his misty eyes.
Unfortunately, his eyes were so cold that the rain in his eyes froze into ice.
“Old man. You probably don’t know, but the most disgusting thing in my life is eating other people. ”
— — These were the last words Huang Xiaoyue heard.
The hall was filled with a strong smell of blood. Shi Mei looked at Huang Xiaoyue lying on the ground with blood flowing out of the hole in his chest. He frowned in disgust.
He wiped the blood on his hands and said, “Disgusting thing.”
He turned his head and stared at the other Shi Mei for a moment.
Then his tone softened.
“It’s been two lifetimes. There are many beasts like Huang Xiaoyue in the world. Do you see? So the cards of the cultivation world should have been reshuffled. Also, don’t think too much. I told you that I wouldn’t let your sacrifice be in vain. When this is over, I’ll find a way to cure your eyes. ”
“… …”
Seeing that the cloaked Shi Mei still didn’t say anything, he rolled his eyes and said indifferently, “Don’t be stubborn. … … Forget it. I promise you, unless I have no other choice, I won’t implicate the innocent. So you can rest assured? Are you satisfied? ”
Hearing this, the white-clothed Shi Mei’s tense back slowly relaxed. His lips opened and closed, as if he wanted to say something to his other self. However, after this disturbance, the other Shi Mei from his previous life was in a bad mood and didn’t intend to listen to him. He had already walked out of the main hall.
