The dark cliff, the lonely mountain path, the pitch-black abyss. Only the wind blew against her face, ruffling her black hair and the hem of her clothes.
The darker the night, the more striking the white ceremonial robes became. At the peak of Sunset Valley, the zither-playing old man slowly stroked the newly shaved fur on the zither strings. He silently thought, the first song breaks the heart, the second song breaks the soul, the third song ends, and this illusion still can't trap you? Could it be that there really are humans with pure Dao hearts?
He was an elder of a tribe of shamans in the south that had been left behind. He was most skilled in spiritual attacks, and his zither music could create illusions that were difficult to distinguish between real and fake. Especially tonight, he borrowed the power of Sunset Valley in the Garden of Zhou. The illusions he created could allow intelligent beings that entered to see the most distant, most blurry, and most unforgettable fragments of the river of memories. As a result, they would not want to go back, until they gradually became intoxicated, or in other words, immersed in it. In the end, they would fall into a long slumber, unable to leave …
The zither-playing old man did not know that in the sky above Sunset Valley, the spiritual soul of a Black Dragon was watching all of this, and had been dragged into this illusion by his zither music.
The Black Dragon saw many scenes from several hundred years ago — it was the remnant Qi of the Dragon race that only her bloodline could sense, and it was the spiritual attack that only she could recognize from Sunset Valley's original form. Back then, when she and Chen Changsheng stood in the mountains and gazed at Sunset Valley, she had a feeling in her heart, that someone was calling out to her. Only now did she finally understand why this world could make her so sorrowful — the Garden of Zhou was not only the home of that human, it was also the graveyard of her father, the strongest Black Frost Dragon in the past thousand years.
The zither-playing old man did not know these things. The person his zither music illusion wanted to trap was the white-clothed girl, so the object of his attention was naturally her. He did not know what the white-clothed girl saw in the zither music illusion, but he knew that she did not waver in the slightest, nor did she sink into intoxication. She only stood quietly under the lone tree on the cliff for a while, then she saw through the illusion and easily broke through.
She bit the tip of her finger, and sprinkled a drop of blood towards the world that the zither music came from. That golden, dignified, holy, and incomparably violent blood that seemed to contain an infinite amount of energy … it easily melted the clouds and destroyed the illusion created by the zither music. Was that blood the legendary true blood of the Heavenly Phoenix?
The zither-playing old man gazed at the mountain path in the night, slightly moved. He thought, but said nothing. The entire Xuelao City knew a taboo: never mention the word 'Phoenix' in front of Princess Nanke.
"The essence of life is desire and chaos. There is no absolutely transparent soul, and it is impossible to cultivate one's Taoist heart to be pure. On the contrary, her spiritual world is more complicated than you think. She has set up many disguises outside of her Taoist heart. Your music has only touched the most superficial layer of her, so how can it move her? There is no soul, and there is no soul. There is no soul soul soul soul soul soul.
The little girl said indifferently, "Actually, I'm very curious. If she continues to disguise herself like this, will she forget who she really is one day?"
"If that's the case, she'll encounter great problems in the future."
The zither-playing old man was deep in thought. He lightly plucked the strings, and a condensed Qi followed the zither music. It continued to separate the mountain range from the real world of the Garden of Zhou.
The little girl had never thought that the zither music alone could trap her opponent. The white-clothed girl had used her blood to easily break through, but the illusion still existed. If she wanted to leave, she had to come see her.
Come see her.
The meeting of fate would happen tonight.
She gazed at the mountain path in the night and expressionlessly said, "The Phoenix is an insane creature. In the end, it will burn itself to death. But I will definitely let her die by my hand before she burns herself. "
… …
… …
The night wind blew across the lonely mountain path, and the ceremonial robes fluttered like a cloak. The white-clothed girl seemed to be moving very slowly, but she was actually moving very quickly. Like a crane, she arrived at the peak of Sunset Valley.
There were no stars in the night sky of the Garden of Zhou, but there was a gloomy ball of light in the depths of the plain below the mountain. What was that? As she thought of these things, she gazed at the girl sitting at the edge of the cliff.
The girl stood up, turned around, and said, "You came."
The white-clothed girl was stunned. The moment she saw the girl, she had guessed, or perhaps finally confirmed, who her opponent was. So young yet so powerful, it was naturally the legendary Demon Princess, Nanke — the reason why she was so shocked was because she had never imagined that Nanke would look like this.
Nanke was around ten years old. Her appearance was actually very delicate and pretty, and the childishness had yet to fade. She could be considered a very beautiful girl, but the distance between her eyes was rather wide. Her pitch-black and cold pupils were somewhat slanted towards the center of her eyebrows, and the emotions in her pupils were also very wooden. As a result … she seemed somewhat dull.
She was just like a girl that had grown up in a village. Every day, all she had to do was go to the back of the mountain to gather a large basket of pigweed. Then she would eat and sleep, and wait until the next day to gather another large basket of pigweed.
Yes, she was just a village girl. Her life was to gather pigweed every day.
For some reason, the white-clothed girl believed this. Although she had never lived in a village, had never gathered pigweed, and did not even know what it looked like, she still believed this way.
If this was a meeting of fate, Nanke had definitely thought about it many times, and she had also thought about it many times.
She believed that the Nanke she would see would be a proud and aloof peacock. In all the legends, the Phoenix could command all other birds. Only the peacock would forever be cold and aloof, flying alone in a place where the sun could not shine. She had never thought that Nanke was like a little girl who gathered pigweed every day. She seemed somewhat dull, somewhat dull, somewhat pitiful, and for some reason, made people feel sorry for her. Every day, she would constantly gather pigweed.
This made her unexpectedly somewhat dumbfounded.
The night wind gently blew over Sunset Valley, and time slowly flowed by.
She did not know what to say, and was somewhat nervous for some reason. She felt that she did not know how to face this little girl called Nanke, so she turned to look at the zither-playing old man.
She was the Phoenix of Destiny. She only needed a glance to see the truth.
She could see that the zither-playing old man was an elder of the Candle Shadow Shamans. Perhaps his battle prowess was only at the peak of Ethereal Opening, but his mental strength far surpassed this level. He was most suitable to be used to kill human cultivators in the Garden of Zhou. As expected, the demon Military Advisor Black Robe would not let go of any detail.
Only, it was somewhat unfortunate.
She looked at the zither on the old man's knees, looked at the slightly raised strings, and regretfully shook her head.
This was the sacred artifact that had been passed down for many years in the Candle Shadow Shaman Tribe — the Jade Zither.
If this Jade Zither had not been used to set up the second layer of the illusory realm, but had been used together with Nanke to attack, then perhaps she really would have been in great danger, or even died.
Nanke said, "If I want to kill you, no one is allowed to interfere."
As she spoke, the little girl's black hair danced in the night wind, as if bits of grass were falling down.
… …
… …
(Suddenly stopping in the middle of the climax really is extremely unpleasant. These past two days of illness have really been somewhat unbearable. I'm sorry, I ask everyone to understand. But when I wrote this paragraph, it really was that sort of thing. I don't want to say something like 'heart', it should be 'emotion'? The following chapters will probably be the greatest climax since the beginning of the book, so please allow me to slowly write.)
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
