Jian Chou’s soul was broken, and so was her world.
She had never thought to open her world to anyone, still hoping she could walk through the world like an ordinary person…
Why open her heart’s door and let others stab through that hard shell to see her weak past?
Why peel away her own scars and present those dark, bloody past events before others?
Who doesn’t have a past?
Who doesn’t have suffering?
In this vast world, all beings suffer.
The flounder was just another member of these countless suffering beings.
What did that little bit matter?
Fellow travelers on the same path.
Her empty gaze extended far across the entire river.
Standing in this river, her spiritual world staged a different scene.
The flounder became her, standing on the seashore not long ago, while the one peeling away scars became herself.
The massive flounder’s phantom could easily crush her broken world.
But perhaps the village in her world was too simple and tranquil, reminding the flounder of the small fishing village it once stayed in.
For some reason, it didn’t act immediately.
Standing before those crude wooden doors, it heard Jian Chou’s words…
Enter her world?
What was there to see in her world?
The flounder didn’t care at all, only transforming into a shadow like a gentle breeze, pushing open the wooden door with a “creak.”
At the same time, it heard a laugh: “I’m back.”
A woman dressed as a housewife also pushed open the door simultaneously, wearing simple cloth clothes, a small basket woven from bamboo strips on her arm. The basket contained eight fluffy goslings poking their heads out, seemingly curious about everything around them.
Though her clothing was simple, she exuded a quiet, elegant air, her features filled with gentle beauty.
Her skin was fair, distinctly different from the other village women.
She walked through the door, following the small path through the courtyard to the house.
Under the eaves sat a low stool where a handsome, scholarly man had rolled up his sleeves, his well-maintained hands holding a small axe, hammering away at several “wooden frames” before him.
Beside him lay an open book, which he seemed to flip through when tired.
Hearing the sound, he looked up, and upon seeing Jian Chou, stopped and smiled, quickly throwing down the axe to take her somewhat heavy basket: “Carrying it yourself is tiring, why didn’t you call me to go?”
“I thought you needed to stay home and study,” Jian Chou couldn’t resist him and still gave him the basket, only saying, “I just went to sit with Fifth Aunt at the village entrance. She happened to be selling some goslings from home, so I bought a few along the way, thinking they’d be fat after raising them for a month or two. Just in time for when you take the imperial examination…”
Speaking to this point, she looked up to see the scholarly man gazing at her intently and tenderly.
In that instant, she blushed, and the rest of her words somehow couldn’t come out.
Xie Buchen looked at her, sighed, and set down the basket.
The goslings all rushed out, scattering throughout the courtyard.
Several even ran in front of and behind the flounder, making it look twice.
He took her hand, placing it in his broad palm, looking at the slight calluses on her palm, gently touching them: “You shouldn’t have to do this rough, tiring work.”
“Aren’t you also repairing these tables, chairs, and benches now? If others can do it, why can’t we?”
Jian Chou smiled with some embarrassment and a little shyness, showing the manner of a newly married woman, yet also revealing a stability gained from worldly experience.
“Besides, I wasn’t born to high station anyway.”
“It’s because I’m useless at manual labor and can’t tell grains apart, making you suffer.”
He reached out to tuck a strand of hair blown aside by the wind behind her ear, glancing back at the book beside the axe, smiling: “I’m confident about this county examination. I’ll strive to earn a phoenix crown and rosy cape for my Jian Chou soon. How about that?”
She naturally hoped for his success.
Though life in the small mountain village seemed fine too – but that was from her perspective.
Looking up, her eyes focused on him, and she simply nodded: “Good.”
He was a dragon among men, naturally wouldn’t be trapped forever in this small mountain village. Sooner or later, he would ascend to the clouds and become one above ten thousand.
And she only needed to stand beside him.
Undoubtedly a happy couple.
The flounder watched with some irony.
Only…
The appearing woman was broken, the appearing man was also broken. From time to time, cracks would pass through these people and objects, making the entire scene fragmented.
The couple loved each other deeply, seemingly without any ripples.
The husband changed his name and surname, studied at the county school, and passed the imperial examinations; the wife hid her identity, managing household affairs like an ordinary village woman, occasionally flipping through books piled on the desk to pass time.
Sometimes they cuddled by the broken window watching rain, sometimes they held hands and climbed the nearby mountain to watch the stars and moon.
From their conversations, one could know they had met long ago. The wife had been orphaned since childhood, adopted by others, meeting him before his downfall, and she was the only one who stayed by his side during his decline.
One willing to accompany, one still harboring ambitions.
Everything seemed to be improving.
The wife had no worries, preparing breakfast for her husband each morning, staying alone at home at noon, only enjoying rare leisure time together when the county school wasn’t in session.
In the evenings, she would light the lamp early in the house, waiting for his return.
Scene after scene passed…
More and more cracks appeared in the images.
Then, one day, the traveling doctor who visited the village monthly came down and examined Jian Chou’s pulse, finding it was a pregnancy pulse.
She was so happy she couldn’t sit still, frequently touching her belly, seeming both surprised and at a loss.
After all, it was her first time, and she knew nothing.
Her husband went to the county school as usual today and hadn’t returned yet.
The wife bought a rattle from a peddler, shaking it herself and giggling.
The sky was overcast, threatening rain.
She finally calmed down, sitting in the house, taking needle and thread from her sewing basket, carefully mending small tears or loose areas on the clothes laid on the table.
Clearly, the woman was skilled at needlework.
Her stitches were as fine and close as A’Rou’s…
Rain poured down torrentially.
The anxious woman finally couldn’t continue her needlework, getting up to close the windows and pacing at the door, seemingly worried about her husband’s current situation.
Unexpectedly, her husband returned…
Cracks in the scene suddenly occupied half the image.
Everything became unclear.
But the flounder saw that the wife’s husband had returned, carrying a gray-green oil-paper umbrella, his expression seeming somewhat cold from being soaked by rain.
This kind of coldness…
The wife was completely unaware, but to the flounder it was crystal clear…
A kind of struggling, hesitating, tug-of-war… killing intent…
In that instant, it suddenly seemed to understand something.
It was an unknowable observer, clearly witnessing everything that happened.
In the dark curtain of rain, no lamp was lit inside the house.
Yet there was a shocking sword light, reflecting the massive lightning that suddenly flashed outside the door and window, illuminating the entire house!
Also illuminating the man’s suddenly calm eyes—
That was an obvious change.
In just an instant—
The struggle disappeared, the hesitation vanished, the tug-of-war was gone.
What remained in this man’s eyes was only that kind of indifferent killing intent!
Cold!
A bone-piercing sword thrust!
The flounder felt a sword light explode in its eyes, a spray of blood scatter before it, the whole world filled with sword light, the whole world filled with blood flowers.
This spiritual world shattered under the shock of this sword!
This spiritual world was bathed in reddish light under the washing of this spray of blood!
That sword seemed not to fall on that woman, but rather on itself…
So, in just that instant of thought.
The flounder discovered a sword…
Had pierced through its chest.
It became the woman standing before the man, became the innocent one targeted by the long sword, became the most desperate, most helpless person in the entire story!
“What is… this…”
It heard its own hoarse, halting voice from within its spirit.
Jian Chou answered: “This is my world.”
“Your world?”
The flounder’s voice carried a touch of bewilderment.
The sword-wielding person, that calm and scholarly face, suddenly trembled.
Then, like dispersing smoke.
The sword-bearer became the woman from before, looking at him with a kind of pitying gaze – perhaps this gaze wasn’t pitying him, but herself.
Her sword-holding hand was steady, slowly withdrawing the sword from the flounder’s chest.
“This is my world, my slaughter, my heart and my demon.”
My heart, and my demon.
The flounder knew it was much stronger than her…
Even if only a remnant soul remained here.
The sword slowly withdrew, bringing out line after line of fresh blood.
“Why did he kill you…”
Why?
Jian Chou smiled slightly, and her calm face suddenly became infinitely animated, only her sword-withdrawing motion showed no hesitation or pause.
“What you want to ask is also what I want to ask.”
“Clang!”
The moment the long sword withdrew, there seemed to be a dragon’s roar!
“Rumble!”
Lightning suddenly flashed outside the window, as if to shatter the entire world!
The flounder slowly looked down at the wound on its body, the massive sword hole.
Pierced through the chest.
Is this how it feels to die?
When pain reaches its extreme, it becomes numbness, with no extra feelings in one’s heart.
It tried to bewitch her with its remaining eye: “Don’t seek cause and effect, why not slaughter! The world has wronged you, why not wrong this world?”
Jian Chou grew impatient listening, frowning as murderous intent rose in her eyes!
The sword she had already withdrawn thrust forward again, falling directly on it!
“I distinguish good and evil clearly, I discern right and wrong myself – what business is it of yours?! Unable to distinguish good from evil, unable to discern right from wrong, slaughtering innocents – this is demonic evil!”
“Boom!”
Suddenly, countless golden lights exploded from the sword!
Ray after ray, like the Golden Crow reborn!
The extremely brilliant golden light was dazzling, but in this splendor, there were patches like sunspots…
Those were black patches distributed on the sun’s surface, suddenly spawning countless evil spirits!
Baring fangs and claws!
The flounder’s remaining eye in its socket suddenly dilated…
The golden light continued expanding.
Those sunspot-like existences also kept expanding…
On the mountainside of Kunwu.
Fudao Shanren’s fingers gripping the chicken leg tightened somewhat. The Fish Eye Tomb remained tightly sealed, but around this barrier, several people had reappeared, led by Xia Houshe, followed by Zhou Chengjiang, Young Master Ruhua, and others.
These few had all passed the first trial.
However, Jian Chou of Yashan and Qingmei of Kunwu were nowhere to be seen.
The abnormal situation at the Fish Eye Tomb obviously attracted everyone’s attention.
Qu Zhengfeng slowly walked to Fudao Shanren’s side, seemingly able to see something through this barrier.
True Person Hengxu glanced back at him, and Qu Zhengfeng nodded in return.
Fudao Shanren paid no attention to these two, only suddenly looking at the Fish Eye Tomb in the misty sky, revealing surprised eyes: “What…”
True Person Hengxu also looked over, saying: “At least we made it in time.”
“…”
That wasn’t the issue.
Fudao Shanren’s eyes suddenly showed traces of heartache. Why use such a cruel method to torment herself? He’d rather his Jian Chou girl never remember any past events.
This damn fish that needs beating – just wait until afterwards, this old man will torment you to death!
Fudao Shanren, grinding his teeth with hatred and red eyes, swallowed the entire chicken leg in his hand in one bite!
Inside the Fish Eye Tomb.
“Bang!”
The thirty-six golden rings in Qian Que’s hands finally shattered under Gu Qingmei’s fierce attack!
Clatter clatter clatter.
The fragments of the thirty-six golden rings crashed to the ground and onto Qian Que’s body, piercing into countless bloody holes on him.
This battle had nearly exhausted all the rare materials and treasures on Qian Que!
Short time, massive losses!
Gu Qingmei looked at him coldly, laughing lightly: “Competing in wealth and resources, how can you, an ordinary cultivator, compare with my Kunwu?”
As an early-gifted genius of Kunwu, she had countless Kunwu elders’ favor, her father’s support, and even the sect master and head seat had given her many gifts.
How could a wild cultivator compete with her in resources?
Being able to withstand these ten moves was already Qian Que’s ancestors’ accumulated virtue.
Qian Que had long harbored ruthless thoughts. He struggled to get up from the ground, his slightly plump body swaying, his golden abacus beaten until only a few beads remained – truly pitiful.
Looking around at these people with a sinister gaze, Qian Que felt ten thousand unwillingnesses!
Companions?
This is what they called companions?
Gu Qingmei noticed Qian Que’s gaze and looked at the others, leisurely taking steps: “You seem very concerned that everyone isn’t helping you. But isn’t this how the world works? Everyone, please step forward two steps. We can’t waste more time.”
Asking people to step forward two steps had a simple meaning: the others were currently positioned at various directions in this Fish Eye Tomb. Once each stepped forward two steps, it would be equivalent to surrounding Qian Que.
Catching a turtle in a jar!
The others had been coldly watching Qian Que being attacked by Gu Qingmei for a long time – it was one-sided abuse.
This time, after Gu Qingmei spoke, they looked at each other and stepped forward.
One step, two steps.
Qian Que suddenly burst into laughter, his voice carrying endless mockery: “Are you all so spineless? Do your sect elders know!”
“Heh heh, we’re all opponents – what morality is there to speak of?”
Zhao Bianzhou laughed sinisterly.
Qin Lang and Zhou Qingyun exchanged glances, then looked at Gu Qingmei: “Time has indeed been long enough. Fellow Daoist Qian Que, this is just a competition. Losing this round won’t cost your life. Please forgive us for not helping.”
“Bah!”
Qian Que spat without hesitation.
“This old man is already a petty person – how could I not know about you lot? When Fairy Jian Chou had the highest cultivation and led the charge, walking at the front, whenever there was trouble, didn’t you all wait until things were safe before coming forward to ask if she was alright? Just a competition? You’re trying to push this old man to death!”
Fuck your mothers, lying with your eyes wide open!
“Petty people recognizing petty people – this old man sees right through you! What are you pretending to be in front of turtles!”
Gu Qingmei’s expression immediately turned ugly: “Self-righteous – what do you know!”
“Bullying others from the moment you entered the Crimson Slaughter Realm! How amazing Kunwu is!”
He still hadn’t caught his breath from that incident!
Since he was going to curse today, he’d curse to his heart’s content!
Qian Que was like tough leather – it wouldn’t bounce without being hit, but once hit, it bounced harder than anyone. He really got into it.
“People say Kunwu and Yashan fought shoulder to shoulder six hundred years ago, yet you stabbed people in the back…”
“Ha…” Gu Qingmei laughed contemptuously, “If she hadn’t interfered in the Crimson Slaughter Realm, opening the killing disk and bringing a group of unrelated people, I would have long since obtained the Dijiang Guyu! Do you think you’d still be standing here? She took my bone jade – who was stabbing who in the back?”
“Hahaha…”
Qian Que burst into laughter, looking at Gu Qingmei with eyes full of sarcasm and disdain!
“Since when did the Crimson Slaughter Realm become yours? Kunwu’s, or your family’s? Or your Senior Brother Xie’s?! You got a mere red disk and dare to show off. I’d dare say that bone jade originally belonged to Senior Sister Jian Chou! Yours? Unable to compete with others, you blame them for interfering with you! Bah!”
Even a businessman like him wouldn’t dare be so shameless!
Gu Qingmei’s face alternated between green and white, ugly to the extreme.
The other few people were also hit in their sore spots by Qian Que’s earlier words.
Zhao Bianzhou, seeing Qian Que talking too much, hardened his expression: “Fairy Gu, don’t fall for his trick. Qian is stalling for time. We should act quickly to resolve this, send him out, so we can work together with Fairy Gu to break through this cursed place! What are we waiting for?”
Saying this, he fiercely raised the iron hook in his hand!
Gu Qingmei glanced at Zhao Bianzhou, a flash of ruthlessness in her eyes, and raised her ice sword, heading toward Qian Que simultaneously!
Everyone surrounded Qian Que – now he had no escape route.
What awaited him wouldn’t be as simple as elimination.
Perhaps he wouldn’t die, but if his cultivation was completely destroyed, what difference would there be from death!
Qian Que was unwilling!
He’d be unwilling even in death!
His eyes suddenly turned red, staring fixedly at the approaching sword tip, yet… he had no power to resist!
Gu Qingmei’s face showed some satisfied joy.
Zhao Bianzhou also finally showed some excitement, as if he would celebrate Qian Que’s departure.
The sword light was ice-cold, the iron hook curved into a sinister arc!
About to succeed!
“Woom…”
In the air, there seemed to be massive waves rippling outward.
A ringing sound, as if something had been thunderously awakened!
Tremendous power suddenly exploded from behind them!
The shadow of a giant axe crushed forward from behind, instantly striking Gu Qingmei and Zhao Bianzhou who had attacked!
“Poof!”
Almost simultaneously, both spat blood.
Gu Qingmei was horrified: What is this?!
A protective spiritual light rose from her body, and she forcibly bounced away after being heavily struck, avoiding to the side and looking back!
But Zhao Bianzhou nearby wasn’t so lucky. His cultivation wasn’t that high to begin with, and being struck by this thunderous axe, his entire back seemed to cave in. Even with spiritual energy nourishing a cultivator’s body, such terrible injuries wouldn’t heal completely without three to five years.
He was scared out of his wits, and before he could use the iron hook in his hand, he coughed up blood all over the ground.
In the moment before falling, he struggled to turn his head—
There was a brilliance so extreme it was like the sun itself.
Standing in this brilliance, Jian Chou’s figure was blurred.
The massive ghost axe in her grip, carved with evil spirit patterns, was the source of the light.
The usually ghostly, sinister axe was now erupting with supreme divine light!
Within this divine light was a pure, extreme clean blackness!
She stood here holding the axe, like an ancient deity.
Her eyes seemed to retain the weariness from fighting the flounder, seemed still stained with the sorrow of endless painful memories, seemed still mixed with a kind of sudden enlightenment and resolution…
Clear, transparent eyes – not ignorant, but having experienced much.
Perhaps not yet fully enlightened, but already tempered by countless sufferings.
On her ghost axe, near the spine position, small patches of blood-red rust suddenly began slowly falling off.
The rust marks fell into mid-air and disappeared.
Blood-red dots appeared one by one where the rust had covered.
That was…
A brand new innate Dao seal belonging to the ghost axe!
Jian Chou held the ghost axe in one hand, while extending her other hand to the side. The fish eye floating at head height suddenly dimmed its light and quietly fell into her palm.
She closed her five fingers and collected this fish eye.
Still standing at the entrance, the few people who had originally surrounded Qian Que all felt a bone-chilling sensation when they turned to see this scene.
Jian Chou was still that same Jian Chou.
They had been unable to handle her before, and now she stood before everyone, still formidable!
She had obtained the fish eye!
And that…
Ghost axe that had suddenly dispersed its golden light…
Zhao Bianzhou couldn’t help trembling.
Jian Chou glanced at Gu Qingmei, whose face was white as paper, then looked at Qian Que sitting with his legs spread before the fierce-toothed giant door, finally sweeping her gaze over the remaining five people…
The moment she opened her eyes and pulled her consciousness back to the misty sky, all sounds entered her ears.
Companions?
Comrades?
She slowly stepped forward, one step, two steps, three steps, coming near them.
At this moment, not a single person dared attack her.
Jian Chou lowered her head and looked down at the heavily injured Zhao Bianzhou on the ground. Her expression was indifferent as she kicked out without hesitation!
Bang!
A spray of phantom scattered, and the Heaven-Flipping Seal used three parts of its power to throw Zhao Bianzhou hard, smashing him against the giant door!
Simultaneously, Jian Chou beckoned with her hand.
“Snap!”
A Sky-Reaching Platform Seal flew from Zhao Bianzhou’s body, landing steadily in Jian Chou’s hand, automatically hanging on her waist among the string of four Sky-Reaching Platform Seals. Adding one more! Five!
Then she turned around.
One kick!
Another kick!
Bang bang!
Two more cultivators were immediately kicked away!
One, two more!
Seven Sky-Reaching Platform Seals!
A string of Sky-Reaching Platform Seals hung on her body in the blink of an eye!
Her speed was too fast. When delivering each three-part Heaven-Flipping Seal strike, she hardly needed to gather power – she could solve one with each leg lift!
Until her figure slowly came before Zhou Qingyun and Qin Lang.
“It seems that the ‘unintentional’ exclamation at Black Wind Cave that day, causing everyone to suspect me, wasn’t an innocent mistake by you two fellow daoists.”
Zhou Qingyun’s eyes immediately filled with countless apprehensions.
Qin Lang imperceptibly stepped back, pressing his sword at his waist: “Fellow Daoist Jian Chou, we… I had no choice either. This is a competition, survival of the fittest. We weren’t wrong…”
“Yes, you two weren’t wrong.”
Jian Chou slightly curved her lips, showing a simple smile.
Zhou Qingyun and Qin Lang were immediately somewhat surprised. Could it be that because they had explored Black Wind Cave together, there was still some sentiment, so she wouldn’t kill them?
But just as they relaxed, just as Jian Chou showed that simple smile—
She also did something.
A simple axe swing!
The pitch-black, lightless ghost axe – its golden light had dispersed, leaving only blood-red rust spots and countless remains.
She simply used this heavy, head-high ghost axe to slam it over!
One axe directly swatted away Zhou Qingyun and Qin Lang!
The solid axe body feared no attacks!
Annihilation!
Flying ash!
Qin Lang and Zhou Qingyun only felt their vision go black before disappearing without a trace!
Jian Chou stood in place, lightly hooking her finger. Two Sky-Reaching Platform Seals landed between her slender fingers. She casually hung the two seals at her waist. Nine!
Shouldering the axe, she slightly raised an eyebrow: “Not wrong, but I don’t like it.”
Good, now she just needed one more seal.
At this moment, Jian Chou was quite grateful for the door that had previously blocked their path.
At least the people in their group could let her gather ten Sky-Reaching Platform Seals.
Jian Chou turned around, looking at the last two remaining “fruits.”
Qian Que was completely dumbfounded, looking at Jian Chou like she was a madwoman.
Saying she’d swat them away and then swatting them away, not reasoning at all!
One, two, three…
Nine!
His gaze fell on the string of Sky-Reaching Platform Seals hanging at Jian Chou’s waist. He couldn’t help swallowing, and seeing Jian Chou standing before him, his heart skipped a beat: It’s over, the butcher’s knife is finally falling on me!
However…
At least it wasn’t that wench Gu Qingmei killing him personally – that was good.
Qian Que began considering whether he should proactively stick his neck out. Looking at Jian Chou, he was about to say something.
Unexpectedly, Jian Chou, shouldering her axe, glanced at him and actually turned her gaze away lightly, seemingly not very interested.
“…Eh?”
Qian Que was momentarily confused.
He couldn’t help but look over curiously.
He saw Jian Chou turn around, shouldering the axe as if it were weightless.
She walked two steps, standing before the completely defeated Gu Qingmei, revealing an extremely friendly smile – both gentle and soft: “Sister Gu, I’m still missing one Sky-Reaching Platform Seal. It’s not excessive – I see you still have two. One extra is useless anyway. Why don’t you lend me one?”
One extra is useless?
And lend?!
Qian Que’s eyeballs nearly popped out!
A loan with no return!
This fucking ability to lie with a straight face – worthy of worship!
Gu Qingmei’s expression instantly turned completely black, trembling with rage!
She stared at Jian Chou, unable to say a word!
Full of hostility, even hatred.
Jian Chou’s eyes narrowed slightly. Beneath her beautiful pupils was no warmth, and the smile on her face slowly disappeared. When she spoke again, there was only frosty coldness.
“Will you lend or not?”