Chapter 68: This Seat Cannot Bear

The young Chu Lan died. But the imaginary realm did not end.

Dawn was still far away, and the long nightmare was not yet over. Those who had survived the night returned to their homes and prepared to leave for Putuo Mountain at dawn.

It is hard to believe that anyone could hold on to carry on from where they left off after such suffering. In fact Chu Xun really does seem to be walking around in a shell, and his soul is long gone.

As Mo Ran walked around the city, he heard many people worrying that after all, Chu Xun had been tortured in such a way that he might not be resentful, and that even if he was still willing to lead the group out of the city, he might not be in a good position to do so, given his state of mind.

But not everyone sees only themselves, and those who are genuinely sorry for Chu Xun are not many, but at least they are.

The crowd was in such a state of anxiety, waiting for the dawn.

Yet earlier than the rising sun came the familiar cold voice, bursting through the sinking night and rumbling back to the upper end of the knot.

This time the Demon King was not talking to Chu Xun, but to the people of the city.

"It will soon be daylight, and I know that you want to take advantage of the daylight to leave the city. However, do you really think about the fact that Putuo is so far away that you will not be able to reach it in a day. When it is dark, you will have to rely on the power of Chu Xun for shelter. But will Chu Xun really be able to protect you?"

"Mother."

Some children cried out in fear at the terrible sound and curled up in their mothers' arms. Everyone looked up at the canopy.

Chu Xun stands in front of the house, but he does not hear it, his back against the begonia tree, his eyes downcast.

"His wife and son died because of you, and you think that he will still protect you in good faith lest he has another plan to make your lives worse than death so that he can avenge his wife and son. This is human nature. I have lived and been a human being. There are good people in this world, but they only want to make a good name for themselves. If they are driven to the brink, what does it matter if others live or die?"

The ghost king's eerie voice echoed over and over.

"As I have said before, I did not intend to take the lives of the whole city. Even if you are alive, you can still serve the ghosts. If you don't believe me, take a look at him."

As his words fell, a black cloud rolled outside the boundary, but it was Xiaoman standing at the upper end. Beside him stood a man in his forties or fifties, a kind and loyal man.

Someone exclaimed, "It's Xiaoman's dad."

"It's Xiaoman's dad. Isn't his dad dead?"

"The bodies were dismembered, everyone saw them at the time, how could this happen?"

The Ghost King said, "As one of the nine kings of the ghost race, I cannot control life and death like the Yanluo emperor, but I can restore the dead to their former appearance. If you serve me, you will have the company of your deceased relatives for a long time. But if you disobey me, you will be like your Master Chu, who saw his wife kill his child and was so distraught that he could not do anything about it."

There was dead silence within the boundary.

"Do you really want to believe him, that he will not harm you and avenge your wives and children?"

"Do you really want to believe that he can lead you to escape and go far away to Putuo"

Someone looked towards Chu Xun, and an eerie glint had begun to leap from his eyes.

Chu Xun finally lifted his head and stood alone under the flowering tree, looking at them quietly. He really did not know what to say, and only after a long time did he say, "What is the use of my harming you when things have come to this."

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha" the Ghost King's long, chilling whistle echoed over the boundary, "Excellent, excellent, he will not harm you. If you believe in him, go with him. But if you believe in me"

His voice grew higher and higher, almost shredding one's eardrums and sticking straight into the heart.

"If you believe me, you will be rewarded immediately. I can bring all your dead relatives back to you, if you give me Chu Xun, if you give him to me I have a deep grudge against him and have nothing to do with you, give Chu Xun and you will not have to leave your homes, give Chu Xun and you can reunite your families, call him out and it will all be over."

The Ghost King said quietly.

"I'll be waiting at City Hall before dawn."

The sound disappears.

From the dead silence of the crowd, a strange noise slowly emerged and everyone looked towards Chu Xun. Chu Xun, too, looked at them, calmly, if not serenely.

Some began to murmur helplessly, "What to do"

"What to do, Husband, I'm so scared."

" Mother I'm scared, I don't want to be eaten"

Some even lowered their voices and said, "The Ghost King is not wrong to say that all good people have an agenda.

When someone heard his words, they didn't refute them, but whispered in agreement: "You're right, don't let him get vengeful and turn against us all in the battlefield.

Suddenly one of the men rushed out, shouting, "Get him and catch him and we'll live."

It was only after a long time that a young woman stepped forward and stopped him, her voice soft but firm: "How can a man do this to his enemies?"

"The man kicked the girl to the ground and spat on her face, "You're a whore who sleeps with men and has no ties, you can talk. "

He said he was going to tackle Chu Xun.

I didn't expect to take a step, but my leg was again held by someone. The man looked down and was furious: "How dare you stop me, you bitch?

The girl said angrily, "I may be a girl in a hooker, but I can tell right from wrong. Even cats and dogs know how to repay kindness, let alone people."

"Fuck you."

The man kicked her in the face a few more times, turning her face blue. By this time the others had gathered around Chu Xun, and although a few of them tried to stop her, as the girl had done, they were too weak to do so. Like a floating leaf in a torrent, they were quickly washed away.

"My lord, my lord, you must go."

An old woman also faltered and shouted to Chu Xun: "Master Chu, go away, go away, don't stay any longer for this herd.

There were also the voices of young children: "Don't fight, Mother, Father, don't go and hurt the Duke, don't go and hurt the Duke"

A crowded and boisterous scene.

Chu Xun stood alone in the rain, as if he saw a lot of evil spirits crawling out of the depths of hell, and for a moment, he wanted to leave.

But his eyes fell on the living people crying, on the children howling to dissuade their parents, on the girl who was the first to come forward, already bruised and battered, on the old woman's white hair trembling in the storm, and on the scattered dozen or so townspeople whose backs were turned towards him, desperately trying to stop them.

The footsteps that wanted to leave, but stopped.

They are not at fault; if the boundaries are removed, these people will also die.

It turns out that the most disgusting thing in the world is not the devil, but those cowardly beasts who are incapable of living, who put on human skin and blend in with the crowd, and who will do and say anything as long as they can live.

At the end, he would say, "I just want to live too, I am also very poor and helpless, what is my crime?"

He used to think that he was sheltering good people with no hands, but he was wrong.

Only to this day have those beasts shed their human skins to reveal one bright red, ugly, grinning face after another

Hidden so deep hidden so deep.

He did not want to shed any more blood and tears for those clothed beasts, but they were so cunning, hidden among the good people, with faces that laughed with abandon and pain, laughing at Chu Xun's impotence.

You must save us, and if you remove the boundaries, we will drag those you wish to save, and those who are grateful to you, to hell with us.

There's nothing you can do about it even if you're sick to death.

It is you who want to be a gentleman, it is you who want to be good.

Since you have made such a choice, giving your life to save everyone is what you should do; if you don't do it, you are a hypocrite, a liar, you are false and noble, you are worse than a dog or a pig.

It was as if he heard the men whistling and laughing at the top of their lungs.

You don't have a choice. You have no choice.

Chu Xun slowly tilted his head, amidst the tidal wave of chaotic bickering, and looked up at the firmament in the midst of the stormy Cuiwei.

The day, at last, is coming to light.

A night of torrential rain had washed away the blood on the stone steps of the City Palace. Chu Xun and those who were protecting him were bound towards the temple.

It was a sad and ridiculous scene, those who had bound Chu Xun so firmly, gloating that they had captured such a formidable character. Little did they know that Chu Xun could have destroyed all these ropes with a single spell.

But he didn't do that, and he didn't end up removing the Shangqing boundary.

Lin'an had shed enough blood, and he didn't want to take the lives of innocent people just to avenge himself.

And so that film shielded both those who were envious and those who treated him with sincerity. When he arrived at the temple, the ghost king did not appear, only a candle emitting a roll of black smoke, coiled and twisted into a vapourless human form.

"Why don't you remove the boundaries," the voice was angry and out of place the moment he saw Chu Xun, "remove the boundaries."

Chu Xun says calmly, "Unless I die."

The mass of black gas let out a harsh whine and hissed, " Chu Xun you are crazy you kill him kill him for me or I will kill all of you after nightfall"

Dawn is coming.

Layer upon layer of daylight feebly ignites the endless night.

Unable to support himself in the light, the ghost king scurried away into the darkness, and the candle flame, burning with black smoke, faltered violently and went out.

Chu Xun looked back, the city god pavilion was built quite high, looking from afar, the river and mountains were caged in the smoke and rain, it was impossible to see the scars, but the wind and moon were as old as ever, Jiangnan spring was good.

" Master Chu, sorry about that."

"It's not that we're ruthless, it's just that you destroyed the Demon King's eye and he has a deep grudge against you and we had no choice."

"What's the point of talking so much about delay? My whole family is waiting to live. Is he alone important or is the lives of everyone else important? Those who have the Way, all beings are first and themselves are last, he said so himself"

Chu Wanning stood at a distance, watching from afar the man to whom he had no idea what his relationship was, with mixed feelings.

Suddenly a pair of hands blindfolded him.

Chu Wanning asked in a whisper, "Do what?"

"Don't let you see it."

"Why?"

"It's going to be hard."

Chu Wanning was quiet for a moment, her eyelashes fluttering in Mo Ran's palm: "No, it was two hundred years ago."

Mo Ran's voice came from behind her, sighing softly, "O little fool, my palms, then, are wet"

I don't know how long it took, an incense stick, an hour, or a twinkling of an eye.

Time is all a blur in this madness and chaos.

By the time Chu Wanning opened his eyes, the Shangqing boundary had dissipated and Chu Xun had collapsed in a pool of blood, surrounded by men and ghosts, spirits and demons in human skin, sniffing at the fresh blood.

Joyful guilt after the robbery, painful sinful hearts like beasts.

The smell of death was in the air.

On earth, or in hell.

It's not even that clear anymore.

The crowd slowly dispersed, there would be no ghosts in the daytime, they were eager to go to their bellies, to rest, to wait for the ghost king to come again at night to examine the men who had died in the temple and then grant them the reward of the return of their loved ones.

Gradually, only the ten or so sobbing living people were left in the temple.

There is the woman in the green house, the old woman with a full head of hair, a couple dissuaded from coming down by their child, a beggar, a scholar, a storyteller, a rich man of yesteryear, a widow with a young son in her arms, the teacher, the farmer.

Nothing more.

But while they were crying over the corpse, the dead man in the pool of blood slowly opened his eyes, his eyelashes fluttering.

"My Lord."

" Master Chu "

Mo Ran's heart shuddered and she said, "It's useless this is"

This mantra has been lost in the present world, but I was not expecting to see it again in this imaginary world.

"It's a posthumous sound spell. He is dead, and before he died he cast this spell on himself." Chu Wanning paused and said, "He had unfinished business and still had ties in the world."

Chu Xun's gaze was hollow and unfocused, and he said indifferently, "The ghosts are vicious and their words cannot be trusted. I hope you will all flee from here and go to Putuo."

"My Lord."

"I am dead and have no chance to accompany you, but I have gathered my life's spiritual energy and formed a spell in my spirit core. If you carry my nucleus with you, ghosts and demons will not be able to get close to you."

The sobbing intensified, bordering on sobs of blood.

Mo Ran and Chu Wanning were even more horrified.

Spiritual core

It was born with the heart

The dead Chu Xun slowly lifted his hand, which had not yet stiffened, and, in accordance with the incantation he had laid down during his life, took hold of the blade buried in his chest and drew it out.

And then

"My lord," the men around me wailed, their voices distorted and vomiting, soaked in blood and tears, "what are you doing, my lord?"

The dead man's fingers tore open the gaping hole in his chest and dug into his own flesh, grabbing the heart that was no longer beating and slowly, inch by inch, ripping it out.

That heart was dripping blood and pulsating with golden-red flames.

That is the power of Chu Xun's spiritual nucleus, the light of a candle burning to the end.

"Take it."

He lifted the burning heart and handed it flat out in front of him, repeating over and over, "Take it take it"

Beads of blood rolled down, but they all became one red begonia flower after another, and those flowers were burning in glorious splendour.

"The road is long and dangerous, and I cannot do my bit, so I hope that you will take care of yourselves."

Mo Ran looked at all this in horror and suddenly felt a cold sweat on his back.

Scars this scars

He remembered with a jolt that Chu Wanning's chest, close to his heart

There is also a scar

That was Chu Wanning's most sensitive spot, and how could he forget that every time he licked the faintest of wounds, Chu Wanning's normally cold, uninterested face would show a look of hidden lust, a look that Mo Ran found so exciting that he was always willing to humiliate his submissive.

At the time, he never cared about Chu Wanning's past, and he never asked where the scar came from until his death.

And in this life, to ask, there is no more qualification.