NOVEL WEB Chapter 104
In the end, Xiao Hongyi returned to the front of the Red Jade Pavilion.
She had nearly searched the entire Central Domain but had not found Jiang Chen.
Instinctively, she returned to the home she had shared with Jiang Chen. Only here could she regain some clarity of mind.
Still sitting dazedly by the spirit pond, she once again saw a boy fishing by the pond in her trance.
The boy put down his fishing rod and turned to look at her.
His black eyes were full of resentment, and that cold gaze made her shrink into a ball.
“I’m sorry,” Xiao Hongyi apologized.
As she spoke, she wanted to blink, to hold back the tears that were about to fall, but she was afraid that by doing so, the young Jiang Chen before her eyes would disappear again.
She knew that her current state was not right.
Constant emotional distress had made it impossible to suppress the phoenix blood devouring her heart, causing frequent hallucinations.But even if it was just a hallucination, she still wanted to stay by Jiang Chen’s side.
Tears rolled down, unstoppable.
The boy before her still looked at her, still with that hatred and coldness.
Suddenly, the boy narrowed his eyes and smiled, saying,
“Master, you can’t go back on your word. If one day your disciple has nowhere to go, I might just have to come and cling to this place!”
Xiao Hongyi was silent.
“Master, why don’t you speak? Didn’t you say you would wash my clothes and cook for me?” the boy wondered.
This sentence made Xiao Hongyi no longer able to contain the sorrow in her heart.
She sobbed uncontrollably while trembling.
At this moment, she let down all her defenses and abandoned all reason.
She no longer pretended to be strong and no longer feigned seriousness.
She seemed to return to her childhood. And like a child, she cried unreasonably and willfully.
“Liar! You liar! I’m willing to wash your clothes and cook for you for a lifetime, but you have to come!”
The sound fell, and then a sudden breeze arose.
The boy before her vanished in an instant, leaving only his fishing rod by the empty spirit pond.
The crying stopped abruptly.
“Don’t… don’t go. You’re not the liar, I am… I’m the biggest liar,” Xiao Hongyi panicked.
She stood up and began searching frantically, stumbling along the way.
She didn’t even know what she was looking for.
She was well aware that the boy, Jiang Chen, was nothing but a hallucination caused by the phoenix blood consuming her heart.
But she still refused to give up.
In an instant, the pain in her chest intensified, her sanity began to crumble again, and her facial features numbed and became indifferent.
She continued her search while enduring the pain that seeped into her soul.
And just as she was about to enter the Red Pavilion,
“Creak—”
The pavilion door suddenly opened.
A man in a disheveled white robe, with slightly pale skin but still wearing a smile, appeared.
Xiao Hongyi was stunned.
The familiar features captivated her gaze.
Though her face was expressionless, tears once again welled up and spilled over.
“Master, you’ve come?” Jiang Chen said with a smile.
A simple sentence snapped Xiao Hongyi back to reality.
Though startled, she still asked, “Can you see me?”
“Ah, Master. You don’t look good when you cry,” Jiang Chen said again.
Hearing this, Xiao Hongyi quickly wiped away her tears.
With her head bowed, her heart was filled with a thousand words, yet she didn’t know how to begin.
“Master, do you remember? I said that if one day I had nowhere to go, I would come here and cling to this place,” Jiang Chen’s voice rang out again.
“Mhm,” Xiao Hongyi nodded.
The next second, she and Jiang Chen said in unison, “Because this is our home.”
“Master, you also said you would wash my clothes and cook for me,” Jiang Chen said with a smile.
The pain in her chest was gone. Xiao Hongyi smiled.
Though her eyes were still teary, she smiled radiantly.
She raised her hand to touch Jiang Chen’s cheek. Although she was unable to feel any warmth, and though she feared the Jiang Chen before her was still an illusion, she still smiled happily and said,
“Then wouldn’t I become your wife?”
“Master, did you come to wash my clothes and cook for me, or to… kill me?” Jiang Chen suddenly dropped his smile.
“Kill? How could I possibly kill…” Xiao Hongyi in the void quickly denied.
But before she could finish, she felt as if struck by lightning.
She guessed something.
She stiffly turned her head. Then, her pupils shrank.
What she saw was a woman in striking red clothes holding a red whip.
Her face was streaked with tears, and she had a look of profound disappointment in her eyes.
“Master…” Jiang Chen spoke again.
“Don’t call me Master!” the woman in red interrupted.
“I have expelled you from the sect. You are no longer my disciple!”
At these words, a look of pain flashed across Jiang Chen’s face.
But it was only for a moment, and he soon sighed, “If that’s the case, then why didn’t you destroy my blood slip? Don’t deny it because you clearly came prepared. If you hadn’t used the blood slip to check, how could you have known my exact whereabouts?”
“…”
The woman was silent.
“Moreover, if you came to ‘clean the sect’… why are you crying?”
“…”
“Master, you shouldn’t have come.”
“…why, are you afraid of dying?”
The woman frowned and finally responded.
“The situation has developed to this point. It’s hard for me to escape a deadly fate. I was mentally prepared, but seeing you cry so pitifully, I suddenly don’t want to die anymore,” Jiang Chen said with a pale smile.
The woman clearly didn’t understand these words.
Though she didn’t understand, she still put away the red whip.
She took a deep breath and stepped forward.
Looking directly at Jiang Chen, it took her a long time before she finally said softly, “Jiang Chen, don’t go anywhere, and I won’t return to the Jiuyan Sect either. Let’s stay in front of this Red Jade Pavilion and accompany each other until we grow old, alright?”
“Master, are you worried that I will continue to do evil if I leave here?” Jiang Chen said somewhat helplessly.
“…”
The woman fell silent again.
Suddenly, Jiang Chen pulled the woman into his embrace and held her tightly.
The woman initially wanted to struggle, but as if realizing something, she bit her lip and quieted down.
Leaning close to her ear, Jiang Chen whispered, “Master, are you thinking that if you can stop me from doing evil with your beauty, it might be worth a try?”
“As long as you’re willing to turn back, I am willing to do anything,” the woman did not deny.
“But I am not willing.”
Letting go of the woman in his arms, Jiang Chen walked to the edge of the cliff.
“Master, take care.”
With that, he lightly tapped the ground with his toes, his body soaring into the air, drifting towards the direction of the Upper Domain.
The woman was shocked.
After the shock, she rushed to the edge of the cliff and shouted loudly, “Jiang Chen, come back to me! As long as you come back, I will wash your clothes and cook for you! As long as you come back, this will always be your home! You can stay here for a lifetime, and I will accompany you!”
Her hysterical voice startled the white cranes in the cliff, and with the enhancement of her spiritual power, it echoed for several li.
But the answer she received was, “Master, I’m not afraid of death, but I’m afraid of your death…”
The woman didn’t understand these words.
Though she didn’t understand, she still crouched down and covered her face while weeping bitterly.
After crying, “Why?! Why are you so hopeless!!”
As if driven mad, the woman screamed furiously at the sky.
With grief and anger in her heart, she wielded a red whip and lashed out with all her might.
With one lash, the red pavilion collapsed.
With the second, the spiritual fields cracked open.
With the third, the spiritual pond shattered, its waters splashing in all directions.
When everything finally quieted down, the once beautiful “home” was left with cracked ground and crevices everywhere; only broken eaves and walls remained.
The woman in red did not leave but instead gazed in the direction Jiang Chen had gone, standing there motionless.
She stood like that for more than ten days without moving an inch.
It was only when torrential rain poured down, with thunderbolts striking down like divine might and dark clouds pressing overhead, that she spoke again, murmuring softly,
“Why, why can’t I be ruthless either…”
“Boom!”
Lightning struck like a dragon descending from the heavens, suddenly hitting close to the woman.
With a flash of lightning, the ground broke apart.
Stones flew and scattered, piercing through the woman’s defenses and leaving bloody marks on her fair cheeks.
It was as if she had spoken something blasphemous against heaven and earth and was being punished for it.
This made Xiao Hongyi, who had been watching coldly from the sidelines, shudder.
For the first time, she felt pity for herself.
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