Chapter 273: [Tianyin Pavilion] Walking in a Different Way

Inside Dragon Mountain Hall, a solitary lamp is lit.

Nan Gongliu is curled up beside his throne, sleeping, with two uneaten oranges in his hand.

Suddenly, around the corner, a slender figure appeared, its shadow falling on Nan Gongliu, slowly approaching. The figure was walking very slowly, nodding his mansard and wearing a snow-white silk cloth on the bridge of his soft nose, which completely obscured his eyes.

"He woke up from his light sleep and rubbed his eyes, somewhat confused: "Ah, it's my dear friend, what happened to your eyes?"

In the hall was Shi Mei, the blind man who had been so invisible that he tried not to appear in front of the crowd.

Nan Gongliu, bewildered: "Didn't you go to the Tianyin Pavilion?"

Shi Mei shook her head, "It's a long story, so I won't go into it." After a short pause, she added, "Ah Liu, I should have left a copy of Zhenlong's military manual on my desk, can you help me look for it?"

"What's wrong with that?" Nan Gongliu immediately rummaged around on the table and soon found the sheet of silk, "Here."

"Many thanks."

Shi Mei's long, thin fingers moved slowly over the silk. He was blind and could not see the writing on the silk, but the manuals were not just written in characters, so he could read them with his spiritual power just in case. He stood there in the silence of the hall, reading the contents of the book bit by bit, which showed all the Zhenlong chess game pawns that Hua Binan had called upon to force Mo Ran to destroy his spiritual core.

Called, formerly Linling Island dependents, 46,000 people.

Temple of No Mercy, 13,000 inhabitants.

All such.

Disciples of the top of death and life in previous lives, all.

Shi Mei cupped the soft and delicate silk, and felt numb in the beginning of the fashion, and his mind only thought in a dull and wooden way: was this the kind of sacrifice that he had said was necessary in his previous life?

Disciples of the Top of Death and Life, all.

They were all made into pawns of Zhenlong, to be driven by the Fairy Tramper emperor, except for Xue Meng, none of whom were spared

But he remembered that Hua Binan had said to him gently, "You know, I am also a man who has seen a lot of life and death. I hope that very few people will die on this road, otherwise I will not be able to live with my conscience."

It was Hua Binan who had just come to him through a rift in space and time and said something to him.

There is much suffering in this world; do not do any evil; do not be afraid to die.

It did not deviate much from his own thoughts; he was ruthless, but not in the way he would have liked, and he had no choice.

"Hua Binan, who had pleaded with him to say these words in all sincerity, had already killed all the people of the world in another world.

And he didn't even know it until this moment.

"Brother Best Friend, what's wrong with you, what's wrong with you," Nan Gongliu's anxious voice came in a blur in her ears as her skull buzzed with blood, "Your face is so ugly, why are you shaking are you you sick are you cold"

A sudden warmth wrapped around him as Nan Gongliu took off his outer robe and draped it over him in a frenzied manner.

"Come on, I'm not cold, I'll give you my clothes."

The sinner, who was once a sheepish, organised man, became so innocent after losing his divine sense.

Perhaps everyone, at one time or another, has been so anxious, so worried, so young and sincere, but under the sculpting of the years, the heart has wrinkled as well as the face.

Becoming less like yourself again.

Shi Mei was wrapped in Nan Gongliu's clothes and he was cold, bone chillingly cold.

With a dizzy spell in front of his eyes and tears of blood seeping from beneath the white cloth he crumpled onto the seat and curled himself up its small size.

"He's not me," Shi Mei murmured incessantly, "he's not me."

Nan Gongliu was at a loss for words: "What?"

Shi Mei curled his face into the crook of his arm, the tiny shiver spreading from his fingers to his body, and he didn't even want to touch the silk again.

"I was trying to save people, and I knew that sacrifice was inevitable, and I knew there would be a lot of calculations, and I would fail many hearts, and I was ready for all hell to break loose, and I didn't hesitate when he discussed with me that maybe he wanted me to donate my eyes. But I"

"Best Friend Brother"

Nan Gongliu put her hand in his hair and soothed him clumsily, as if he were a child.

Shi Mei suddenly choked up, "But I really didn't think about it, he killed so many people"

The silk fluttered to the ground, and what was written there was a record of almost all the monks, commoners, in the other red earth.

All become white bones.

Only after a long time, so long that Nan Gongliu was crouching beside her, dumbfounded and not knowing what to do, did Shi Mei slowly stand up, holding onto the cold table.

Nan Gongliu asked, "Where are you going?"

Shi Mei was still in place for a moment, he seemed genuinely confused as to where he was supposed to go, and it was only when Nan Gongliu asked a third time that he drifted off, he bit his lip and said, "The secret room."

He couldn't go on being wrong, he had to go and save his master.

When he came to the door of the chamber, he realized at first touch that Hua Binan had placed an extremely profound spell on the stone door.

"" Shi Mei was slightly stunned, and then her mouth appeared to have a bitter smile on it.

From the silken military manual, to the forbidden spell of the stone gate. Suddenly he felt so ridiculous.

He was wary of him, so he imposed a forbidden spell, a spell that Shi Mei had never reasonably practised. In the end, Hua Binan did not trust him at all.

"I disappoint you." Shi Mei said softly, a ghostly blue glow lighting up in her hands and touching towards the heart of the formation.

"Maybe once upon a time you, at my age, didn't learn this spell. But I do, you just don't know it."

The stone door of the chamber burst open.

Who could live their life over again and have it all be the same?

Even the same person may change his or her life because of a springtime escape from the rain or a good sleep in the shade of a summer tree.

Shi Mei hesitates at the door of the chamber, but finally paces gently inside.

Inside the chamber, a long light of nine dragon candles was burning, emitting pure light, but this light was of no use to the two people in the room.

One of them was unconscious and one had gone blind.

A bandaged Shi Mei sits on the edge of Chu Wanning's bed, reaching out and rubbing his face with her thin, white fingers.

He murmured softly, "Master."

Chu Wanning didn't wake up and didn't answer, his cheeks still burning.

The soul is split and merged into one.

He suffers from the fragmentary memories of belonging to Mo Ran, tormented by dreams.

Shi Mei's fingertips glowed with light as she nudged the side of his neck, and gentle, watery spiritual energy flowed through his body.

"Are you better?"

Still no one answered him.

Shi Mei dropped his eyelashes, knowing that Chu Wanning was still asleep, otherwise he would not have been able to muster the courage to enter the stone room and sit beside Chu Wanning.

He fumed for a moment, as if he was thinking a lot, and as if he was thinking nothing at all.

In fact, when he was still very young before he joined the Master's School, he had a long-cherished dream in his heart, and for this long-cherished dream, it was worth sacrificing anything.

He knew exactly what his destiny was and so never felt he was doing it wrong.

But one day, time and space are reversed, and another red-dusted version of myself, winded and dusty, suddenly appears.

He met himself more than a decade later.

Surprise and fear aside, the greatest feeling he had as a teenager, when he first met Hua Binan, was actually one of dissonance He wondered what had worn him down to this. Cold, cunning, depressed and desperate.

However, for the sake of their mutual desire, he finally agreed to Hua Binan's request and took it step by step to get to where he is today.

Over the years, the two Shi Mei's of the red earth have each had their own role to play, with him remaining at Mo Ran's side and the other Shi Mingjing behind the scenes.

Just as Fairy Tramper is a different person from Master Mo, he is not so similar to Shi Mingjing. Because of their different experiences, Shi Mingjing is more of a scheming, cold-scaled sage, while he has become a hidden pawn on the sage's chessboard in the stream of time.

In retrospect, he was a ruthless young man before Hua Binan came along and broke through the door of time and death. But since he worked with Hua Binan, he has been told by Hua Binan to keep his edge down and to learn to disguise himself.

As a teenager, he had a big fight with Hua Binan over this: "I'm fed up with it. How long do you want me to pretend to be gentle and kind and to take it all in stride? Who can remember all the lies you tell me?"

When he and Mo Ran returned from Jin Chengchi, Hua Binan was not happy with his performance in front of Pinching Willow, so he chided him. "

"That's easy for you to say." He bit his lip, "You asked me several times to check Mo Ran's mind and which time did I not do it do you know how disgusting it is to pander to someone you don't really like."

Hua Binan seemed to be at a loss for an answer for a while before he said, "I have experienced all the things you have experienced, who are you to say I don't know."

"But you have experienced things that I have not."

""

"Since you came into this world, you have told me how and what to do is wrong and how and what to do is right. Yes, you've come through, and for that purpose, I'm willing to listen to you and give my all for it. But Hua Binan." Shi Mei was getting more and more agitated, gasping for breath, her eyes were red, "You'd better be clear, you're in no position to count me out."

Hua Binan's face was blue and grey, and he pursed his lips without saying a word.

Shi Mei said, "You failed in your world, so you came here through the rift in the gate of life and death left by Chu Wanning, wanting to start over. But make one thing clear, I am not your pawn."

""

"I am conspiring with you for that purpose we share."

Hua Binan closed his eyes, "You think too much, no one sees you as a pawn."

Shi Mei's mood was still agitated: "Forget it, from the time you sensed Mo Ran's rebirth, there was nothing I didn't do as you told me to do I was the one keeping an eye on the dormant Eight Bitter Long Hate Flower inside him for you I was the one"

""

"From the first time he appeared in Wuchang Town, you rushed me to meet him by chance, to the time you asked me to pry into his mouth with small dishes, not to mention all the things you asked me to do to deliberately divide him from Chu Wanning." Shi Mei's peachy eyes were fixed on Hua Binan's increasingly embarrassed face, "I'm almost sick from acting."

"You would have done these things without me." Hua Binan said through clenched teeth, "Don't think I'm forcing you, I did all of these things in my previous life. Mo Ran is the host of the Eight Bitter Long Hate Flowers, and only by repeatedly confirming his emotions can we find out the condition of the flower compulsion inside him.

Seeing that Shi Mei did not immediately retort, Hua Binan added, "In my previous life, I did almost the same thing as you, and I was in disguise until the Ghost World sky split and I spawned the hatred in his heart with my own death. Only after that did I start living again as Hua Binan."

""

"I've put up with it for so long, why can't you bear it already after just a year and a half?"

Shi Mei looked up suddenly, "Is that even a question? You're fighting for yourself. What about me?"

Hua Binan: "What is the difference between you and me."

"There's a difference. I don't really want to be swayed if I can help it." Shi Mei stared at him, half-heartedly spitting out the second half of the sentence, "Even if it's the other side of myself."

But it's hard to get what you want, and even with all the resentment inside, Shi Mei had to bow to fate after the argument that day.

He was, after all, too young to have experienced many changes, and he did know exactly what he was asking for in the end, so he would eventually compromise with his former self.

All these years, he has been at the mercy of his other red-earth self, living more like a puppet than a Zhenlong pawn. It would be a lie to say that he was not tired of it. But whenever the anger and depression in his heart reached a fever pitch, he kept telling himself that all this pain was nothing for the sake of the great things he was planning.

"When will the play be over." This became the phrase he most often asked Hua Binan, "When will the sky split."

And the answer Hua Binan gives him is often like fishing for a radish in front of a flowering donkey: "Soon, it will be sooner than in a previous life."

He just waited, day by day, and waited tirelessly.

When the door to the ghost world finally opened, he thought he could fake his own death and be freed, just as he had in his previous life. But Chu Wanning died in the battle.

That night, his conflict with Hua Binan exploded to an unprecedented level. In the closed disciples' room, Shi Mei smashed all the celadon bowls in front of him, his chest heaving violently

"How else do you expect me to pretend to go on pretending that my master is dead, you counted on this one?"

Hua Binan's face was also extremely hard: "How can you blame me for this? His fingers on the table were clenched into fists, almost sinking into his palms, and his voice was suddenly stern, "He was the one who killed Chu Wanning."

"Yes, it's him." Shi Mei's eyes were red, but he tried desperately not to shed a tear. He had been warned by his mother since he was a child that no matter what came his way, he must not cry.

The same applies to Hua Binan.

"He's the one who killed the Master, so don't stop me, I'll go and kill him now"

Hua Binan looked up abruptly: "You're crazy."

"Oh" Shi Mei gasped, nodding her head with a provocative look in her eyes, "and you know the word crazy"

Hua Binan gritted his teeth and said, "Protect Mo Ran, harden him and control him, that is the key to what we do. As for the rest, it's not for you to think about."

"See, that's it." Shi Mei snorted and held her forehead in a sneer, an irritated glint in her eyes, "You are the Sage of Cold Scales, you can pay your respects to Master Chu at Lonely Moonlit along with the crowd of monks and even spit on Mo Ran a few times at your leisure but what about me? What kind of bastard talk is that you're telling me?"

""

Shi Mei settled in her chair with a look that could almost be described as contemptuous: "The first thing you explained to me when you came here today was that I should confirm as soon as possible whether the Eight Bitter Long Hate Flowers in Mo Ran's body had completely lost their effectiveness and whether they could still be saved."

He murmured, slowly lifting his gaze a few inches to fall on Hua Binan's ashen face.

Sneering: "You're asking me to go and confess to Mo Ran right now and tell me that Chu Wanning must not be allowed to take my place in his heart."

The words are sharp as thorns, stabbing at Hua Binan as well as at himself.

He snickered, "Between the two of us, who's the crazy one, anyway?"

Hua Binan suddenly closed his eyes, pupils rolling beneath his thin eyelids, and then he said, "There is nothing I can do. Because of the sacrifice Chu Wanning made in his previous life, the Eight Bitter Long Hatred Flower in Mo Ran's body was already in danger, and if it was completely destroyed, it would be even harder to control Mo Ran then."

"Shi Mei couldn't stand it any longer and leapt to her feet, "Master, he's just left.

""

"You like him, don't I?"

Shi Mei's voice trembled as she finished the sentence.

There was dead silence in the room.

At last he sat down and added his hand to his forehead, his long, slender eyelashes warring uncontrollably beneath his palm. No one said another word for a while, and outside the window the rain poured down, as if heaven and earth were cracking in the lightning and thunder of the flood.

It was only after a long time that Hua Binan was heard to sigh softly, "Nan, I am sorry for you."

Shi Mei's response to this was a stiff and cold, "Stop calling me Nan."

""

"I'm not like you. Call me Shi Mei, or Shi Mingjing."