Chapter 265: [Tianyin Pavilion] Shi Mei 成双

When the wax is burnt out, there is darkness.

The fire is extinguished and only the embers remain.

But there was a time when the darkness was bright, and the ashes were hot, and he had his years of light and heat, which are not known at this moment and will not be mentioned again.

Mo Ran has poured out his last ounce of spiritual energy.

He watched as the birds scattered, as the nether soldiers sank into the earth, as the living ceased to be controlled, as the pieces cracked, as he watched the black tide that was about to engulf the summit of death and life recede in bewilderment, as he watched the plagues of hell come to an end.

He was said to be an evil man, and he himself felt that way. But at last the demon did exactly what the gods had done, and Chu Wanning was his waxing torch, and he followed in the wake of that light, walking in step with it.

"Brother."

" Mo Ran "

He faintly heard someone calling to him, and in his afterglow he saw Xue Meng stumbling towards him, and Xue Zhengyong and Lady Wang breaking away from the crowd and running towards him.

Relieved by their call, he grinned as if to laugh, but tears rolled down his blood-stained face.

He wanted to say, "I'm sorry, I did a bad job."

But there was a lump in his throat, and in the end, he begged, "Don't hate me."

I really am

Really like you guys.

I love my aunts and uncles, I love the top of death and life, I love the stolen warmth, the stolen family.

Uncle, Aunt, Xue Meng .

Don't hate me.

A million soldiers retreated and Mo Ran fell heavily to the ground, covered in mud and dust.

When Chu Wanning was seriously injured and unconscious in his previous life, his white coat was stained with blood, but his whole body still looked clean. He was different from Mo Ran, who was never dirty.

As his consciousness lapsed, he felt Madame Wang reach out and wrap her arms around him, soft and warm, and call out to him in a heartfelt voice: " Mo Ran ."

He heard Xue Zhengyong and Mu Yanli arguing and shouted angrily, "What other treacherous plan could there be? If it was a pawn he summoned, why could he go to such lengths to retreat?"

He heard Xue Meng shouting, "Don't move him, don't move him, don't take him away."

A mess.

Mo Ran wanted to explain, to bark more, but he was really too tired, too exhausted.

He closed his eyes.

Dragon Mountain.

Inside the Great Hall of the Sages, the long-lit lamp exhales its light. The wax torch made of whale oil is as thick as a bowl, and the sun and moon are not visible here, except for the flowers of the lamp, which flow down into lingering candle tears, signalling the passage of time.

Shi Mei, dressed in a white fox fur robe, sits on a high seat. He is resting on the corner of his forehead, his eyes closed.

This seat was originally occupied by Xu Shuanglin, who had watched him make a Zhenlong chess piece, creating bliss and purgatory, in the hope that his master would return to earth.

He found the man interesting, but unfortunately could not stay in the end.

In front of him was an illusionary silk cloth on which dragon snakes flitted, densely packed with dots of various colours.

The black dots are the Zhenlong black pieces, the silver dots are the white pieces, the red pieces are the discarded pieces, and the small squares on the silk cloth represent the opposing forces who can see the game clearly even from a thousand miles away if they have this board in their hands. can also see the battle clearly.

Shi Mei spreads the cloth on the table without looking at it. He knew exactly what Mo Ran would eventually do, and laying out the cloth was just for the fun of it. Fairy Tramper had a million ways to get out of this mess, but there was only one way for Mo Zongzi to go, so there was nothing to see.

After an unknown period of time, the door of the hall suddenly opened and light footsteps sounded in the hall. Shi Mei did not look up, but only asked lightly, "You are here."

A man stands still on the lightable masonry.

The man who walked in was clad in a snow-white cloak, the hood so low that his face could not be seen. He stopped in the middle of the hall, his figure like a lotus.

The man spoke, his voice clear, but his tone low: "There was a commotion outside, and Mo Ran shattered all the pieces the Fairy Tramper had made."

Shi Mei didn't even flutter her eyelashes as she gave a bland "hmm" and said, "Yeah, he didn't have a choice."

The man added, "Fairy Tramper's body is no longer viable. So the pawns he controlled began to turn against you long ago, and now Mo Ran has used the power of his spiritual core to unlock them all, and it is a good thing that you have been freed."

Shi Mei then laughed: "Oh, are you concerned about me?"

The man did not answer, and after a moment he said, "What are you going to do next"

"Just stick to the old plan." Shi Mei finally moved, stretching his back and opening his peach blossom eyes, a smile that filled the room, "I told you everything."

"I know you've thought this through. But think carefully, Mo Ran paid so much to stop Zhenlong's pawns from wreaking havoc. The monks of these sects are not stupid enough to be half-heartedly suspicious of the whole thing."

Shi Mei smiled, "I know what you mean. In order to save the Xianxia Realm from the next catastrophe, he went out of his way to shatter his own spirit core, a hero."

"Do you think the Xianxia community will interrogate their heroes?"

Shi Mei did not answer directly, he was still smiling, his fingers folded under his jaw, and gently asked the visitor: "Is this thing Mo Ran is doing like Chu Wanning in his previous life?"

The man was silent for a moment before he said, "Like. Pretty much just a reenactment."

"Well, let me ask you again, how many people in Xianxia really cared enough to remember Chu Wanning in his previous life when he was taken under house arrest by Fairy Tramper?"

""

When he didn't answer, the smile on Shi Mei's face became more and more inscrutable: "Hardly, right or wrong I've told you. In those years, Xue Meng ran from place to place, and at first someone shed a few tears of sympathy, promising him a helping hand to save people from death and life. But later on, under the weight of the Fairy Tramper, those promises were only lip service. As time passed and the initial emotion wore off, the more bored Xue Meng became. When he went back to ask for help, they told him that Chu Wanning had been in the palace for so long that he was probably already dead. How can you sacrifice the lives of other living people for a man whose life is unknown?"

The mysterious man shook his head: "Chu Wanning was really unaccounted for at that time, and now Mo Ran is still with them. Even if they were ruthless, they would not harm a man who had just shed his blood for Xianxia."

Hearing his retort, Shi Mei sighed: "You are still too naive because you have only lived a few years less than me."

As he spoke, he put away the silk on the table, the pieces on it had all turned red, which meant they were no longer valid. Not caring, he put the silk back into his Qiankun pouch.

"All men can be noble when they are not involved in their own interests. But once they have damaged themselves, they gradually reveal their brute nature."

Tying a knot in her long, slender fingers around her pouch, Shi Mei looked up and said, "In their eyes today, Mo Ran is half as likely to be a good man who has been wronged as he is to be a scheming villain. It's a pity to hurt a good man by mistake, but to release an evil man by mistake could lead to a bloodbath for the whole Xianxia world."

""

Seeing that the other party was silent and listening, Shi Mei continued: "So, even though he had shattered his spirit core and saved the Xianxia Realm from a great disaster, there were still too many doubts about him. But there are still too many doubts about him, and human nature is suspicious, so when something hurts them, they will choose to cut it off. This little variation won't change the final outcome."

The mystery man asked, "So, you think Tianyin Pavilion will still be able to take down Mo Ran without any problems?"

Shi Mei smiled, " Tianyin Pavilion is on our side, and everything is on schedule, that's a given. Next, just find a way to get Mo Ran's spirit core shard and I'll have Fairy Tramper back in line. With his power, there's nothing that can't be done."

The man did not answer immediately, and only after a moment did he say, "But in the other world, you have manipulated him for almost ten years, and what has been made of it"

Shi Mei was slightly stunned, seemingly struck by the man's cross-examining tone, his face slowly sank, and only after a long moment did he narrow his eyes and ask, "What do you mean by that, you question me?"

"No, I'm not questioning you." The man sighed, "You and I both started with the same intentions. I fear there is no one in this world who understands you better than I do."

Only then did Shi Mei's cold expression ease a little, but his beautiful eyes were still staring at the man's face at the bottom of the stairs, as if examining how much of the man's words were true and how much were false. Every step I have taken has been to claim what is rightfully ours, so some sacrifice is inevitable."

"Hmm."

"You are quite right, there is no one who understands me better than you." Shi Mei said softly, "I have lived a life of fear and trepidation between these two lives. I have almost no one to trust but you."

""

"Don't you let me down."

Shi Mei's words fell, leisurely like a butterfly hovering, after a complicated silence, the mysterious man spoke, his tone calm, saying, "All this time, I've been wanting to ask you a question."

"What."

Outside Dragon Mountain the clouds are overcast, the wind is picking up and the grass is sagging and falling. It was as if countless displaced people were mourning the sound of the whimpering wind.

The man said, "I'd love to know, in my last life, just how big the sacrifice was for what we did. You tell me the truth."

I didn't expect him to ask that question, Shi Mei's brow knitted in a fire and her gaze shone brightly: "I told you some innocent people would die, it's normal, think of the trampling we've suffered before and you'll"

"How much are some"

The man's gentle but firm voice interrupted Shi Mei, who seemed mute for a moment.

His face began to look distinctly sullen. This was quite unusual, for Shi Mei had always been a man who did not express his anger lightly, but in front of this mysterious man he seemed indifferent to his own flailing, as if the murderous look on his face at the moment was invisible to this man.

"Some are some, do I have to register the innocent dead and send them to you for inspection?"

But the man smiled faintly as he whispered, "Well, as you know, I am never to be seen again."

""

"I've been very cooperative with you, helping you all these years since you came and found me and told me the truth about my past life. You lurked at Lonely Moonlit, and I did every thing you told me to do at the top of the dead and living." The man said, "Despite some disbelief and occasional confusion, your thoughts are my thoughts, your quest is my quest for the one thing we share, I have long since put death and life on the line, and I always thought you did too, so I don't care if I sacrifice myself, as long as we can succeed."

Shi Mei leapt to her feet and paced back and forth.

"What do you mean by that? You've put death and life on the line, and that means I'm living in peace."

He brushed his sleeve back and stared at the man in white, his face frosty and cold.

"If you knew what kind of person I am, you shouldn't have said such things at all."

"I know." The mysterious man said, "But I'm thinking that in your last life you hid behind the scenes as Hua Binan and manipulated the compulsion within Mo Ran for ten years after your fraudulent death."

"Eight years." Shi Mei interrupted him, "Then Chu Wanning split his earth soul in two and punched it into him, more or less bringing back some of his true nature. Eight years, and he killed himself, not ten."

"Well, eight years." The man said, "In those eight years you have expanded his heart with hatred, causing him to commit such and such heinous sins, but to stray further and further from our original intention, and when you saw him like this, why did you not stop him in time"

Shi Mei laughed in anger: "Do you know how difficult it is to refine an Eight Bitter Long Hate Flower?"

"I know."

"Do you know that once a person who has been poisoned by a flower compulsion has been relieved, it can never take effect a second time"

"I know."

Shi Mei stopped laughing and anger flashed in his eyes, "Then why are you asking. What would you have done in your place"

The man was silent for a long time and then sighed: "You have not made all the choices for me"

Shi Mei suddenly lost her breath.

The man said, "I haven't personally done anything like this, walked the path you have walked, so even though I know that I would have made the same decision if I had been in the same situation, I"

Shi Mei narrowed her eyes and, step by step, walked down the long steps and stopped in front of the man: "But you"

"But I still have a guilty conscience."

Dead silence.

Suddenly, Shi Mei grabbed the man by the lapels of his robe. Such a beautiful hand, wearing a snake print ring, an extremely elegant hand, clutched the man in front of her, the meridians on the back of her hand protruding.

He gritted his teeth and said, "A good question with a guilty conscience, what's the difference between you and me? In the past, one thing after another, which was not planned by the two of us together, didn't you understand it very well and understand it very well in the past? Didn't you have a ruthless heart and a strong hand? You have a guilty conscience now why"

""

"For you feel ashamed that Xu Shuanglin regards you as a friend, but all this time you have deceived him by telling him of the false art of rebirth and allowing him to open the gates of life and death in time and space for us"

The man whispered, "He never betrayed me until he died."

Shi Mei froze for a moment, sleepiness and sadness flashing in her eyes: "Good, good I told you how you were so reluctant then and what else? You saw thousands of pawns, your heart ached for those people, you blamed yourself"

But the man was calm: "Don't you have any half-hearted remorse in your heart?"

"You" Shi Mei gritted his teeth, his gaze almost a little frantic and sneering as he stared at the man before him for a long time, like he was looking at a great joke and a traitor that had chilled his teeth.

Suddenly, as if an extremely vicious phrase had occurred to him, he sneered, revealing his poisonous cheeks and dug them hard into the man's blood.

"Well, good for you for saying all those beautiful things. Blame yourself, shame on you. But in the end, you're still deploring it, aren't you"

The light in Shi Mei's eyes intensified as he watched the wisp of confusion rise from his opponent's brow, soaring and circling like a vulture waiting for its prey to swoop down the moment it breathes.

"When you suddenly came to me to ask me for help, you probably felt that you were remorseful because you had seen a million Zhenlong chess games. Probably you think you are touched because you saw Xu Shuanglin's death. But I understand you. I know what kind of person you are. Self-recrimination and shame don't exist for you; you're as cold-blooded and thin-skinned as I am."

The vulture's feathery wings cast a shadow of death, growing colder and colder as it descends.

"You're not confessing at all. Don't lie to yourself."

He smiled haughtily and decently.

Shi Mingjing is always elegant and relaxed when she has a good grip on others.

He said one word at a time.

"As I see it, you are merely deploring your eyes."

With these words, Shi Mei drew a dagger from her belt and slowly, with the hilt of the blade, picked the hood of the man's white cloak, which was hanging low, and, little by little, suddenly removed it.

The cloak falls, and behind the white velvet hood reveals a face that is a sight to behold.

A stunning figure with an elegant brow.

They both, in fact, have the same face

The cloaked Shi Mei's eyes are slim, covered by a bandage of snow-white, and a few strands of hair fall in front of the band.

Shi Mei looked at the man whose cloak had been lifted and sneered: " Shi Mingjing, look at yourself. What you deplore is nothing more than your sacrifice than mine. The situation on Dragon Mountain had come to a head that day. To upset Chu Wanning's mind, we had to use the last move we had discussed, and with so many people around, we couldn't just put on a show. So you ended up losing your eye, but I was fine and you were jealous."

"If I had been jealous, from the beginning, I would not have agreed to this plan of yours and would not have been prepared to sacrifice myself for the worst. In fact, to me, it would have been fine for either of us to live to finish that unfinished business. And why should I"

Before the words could be concluded, they were interrupted.

"Who."

The dagger was thrown and struck the beam with unerring precision.

Shi Mei looked back and said grimly, "Come out."

Huang Xiaoyue, with a puffy head and a weak face, turns up from behind a stone pillar.

The day he betrayed the others in search of Dragon Mountain's treasure, he was trapped in a secret room when a trap was triggered. The Confucianism School has everything in the chamber, including gold, silver, sword manuals and secret books, but only food.

Jiangdong Court is a group of people trapped in the middle of the city, fighting each other, bullying the strong and eating the weak, and in the end only Huang Xiaoyue is left.

He finished the last of his disciples and struggled and groped his way out of the chamber at last, but did not expect to bump into such a treacherous situation.

He saw what two Shi Mingjing

Huang Xiaoyue couldn't figure out how to make sense of it.

With his brain, the most he could guess was that these were twins, never thinking that these were two Shi Mei in the same world under the effect of the Gate of Life and Death in space and time.

But the more he listens to their conversation, the more fishy it becomes. Huang Xiaoyue, a cunning man, senses that something is wrong and wants to leave first.

Shi Mei narrowed her eyes, "I thought it was someone, but it's an old rat."

His eyes shifted down to Huang Xiaoyue's robe: "Blood Dragon Mountain has no animals, what blood"

He was quiet for a moment and seemed to think things through.

The lips open and close with contempt.

"Human Blood"

Huang Xiaoyue felt the kill and ran away.

"Where can you escape to?"

Shi Mei's green shirt is flowing, her body as light as a kite, and she is already standing steadily in front of Huang Xiaoyue, raising her smoky eyes.

Unfortunately, his eyes were so cold that the rain froze to ice in them.

"Old piker. You're afraid you don't know that the most disgusting thing in my life is man-eating man."

These were the last words Huang Xiaoyue heard.

The smell of blood was thick in the hall, and Shi Mei frowned in disgust as she watched Huang Xiaoyue fall to the floor, blood gurgling out of the hole in his chest.

As he wiped the blood from his hands, he said, "Nasty stuff."

Turning back, he stared at the other Shi Mei for a moment.

Then his tone slowed down.

"The world is full of beasts like Huang Xiaoyue, as you can see, so the cards in this Xianxia sector should have been reshuffled a long time ago. Also, don't think too much about it, I told you I wouldn't let you die for nothing. When this is over, I'll find a way to heal your eyes."

""

When Shi Mei, wrapped in a cloak, remained silent, he rolled his eyes and said again indifferently, "Don't be stubborn. I promise you that if I don't have to, I won't get any more innocent people involved. Is that all right with you?"

At these words, Shi Mei's back, which had been tense, slowly relaxed. His lips opened and closed, as if he wanted to say something more to his other self, but after this mess, the Shi Mei from his previous life was in such a bad mood that he did not intend to listen to him anymore, and had already walked out of the main hall of the Pantheon.