novelapdf Chapter 247 Seeing Ruoxi Again
Chapter 247 Seeing Ruoxi Again
Chapter 248 Reunion with Ruoxi (Two Chapters Combined)
No matter how fast or ruthless the sword of the Six Realms is, it is ultimately still within the realm of "technique".
No matter how sharp the blade's energy or how powerful the star energy, in the end, it is just the ultimate expression of one's own strength.
It can cut through mountains and rocks, and sever rivers.
It is as easy as taking the enemy's head from a thousand troops.
But the seven realms are different.
The seventh realm is the threshold to truly touching the "Tao".
It is a qualitative change from "overcoming skill with force" to "governing the way with law".
As a dark red blade of light slashed out, the spiritual energy within a hundred meters radius seemed to sense the king's summons, rushing towards the blade like a tidal wave.
It all poured back into the dark red blade.
The blade's light flickered and condensed into a dazzling, blood-red setting sun that was too bright to look at directly!
With the oppressive force of the law that annihilates life, it crashed down on Zhou Yuanzhi.
It wasn't until this moment that Zhou Yuanzhi finally snapped out of her shock.
Facing the incoming blade of light, she made a hand seal with her right hand.
"Protect!"
With a delicate shout, a dazzling light suddenly bloomed between her brows.
A lifelike peony emerges from nothingness.
The petals bloomed in layers, forming a huge, radiant shield of flowers in front of them, which stood against the blood-red setting sun that seemed to split the sky and cleave the earth.
"boom"
A blinding beam of white light erupted from the point of impact.
The surging air currents pulverized the surrounding withered trees and mud.
The next instant, the peony shield shattered into countless crimson light rain amidst the violent tremor. However, these light rains did not dissipate; instead, they condensed in the air into hundreds of sharp, blood-red threads, which then curled back towards Jiang Mu!
Using the force of the recoil, Zhou Yuanzhi's figure blurred for a moment, and she moved horizontally a hundred paces away like a phantom.
The woman's toes shattered a rock, barely managing to steady herself.
At this moment, a gigantic peony phantom, ten feet tall, appeared behind her.
Starlight shimmers within the flower's heart.
It resembled a strange little sun, radiating the pressure of an eighth-realm expert.
Upon closer inspection, Zhou Yuanzhi's appearance had changed.
A few wrinkles appeared at the corners of her eyes, and a few strands of gray appeared in her once jet-black hair.
However, her skin visibly aged.
It seemed that in order to block this blow, the peony behind her had drained away several years of her life force.
But Zhou Yuanzhi didn't care about any of that at the moment.
She stared intently at Jiang Mu, her eyes filled with excitement and ecstasy, her breathing rapid.
"Jiang Mu, you are truly a genius—no, you are the only genius I have ever seen in my life!"
"Those other so-called peerless geniuses are nothing compared to you! No one can compare to you!"
Zhou Yuanzhi's voice trembled with excitement: "Jiang Mu, come back with me."
Believe me, now that you've proven your worth, the commander will definitely give you another chance.
Whatever you want, the imperial court can give you!
As the most loyal subject of the current emperor, Zhou Yuanzhi's entire value system is based on the word "interest".
When Jiang Mu is valuable, she can treat him like an ancestor and protect him.
Once Jiang Mu becomes a cripple, she will throw him out like trash without any guilt.
Now, Jiang Mu is not only not crippled, but has also leaped into the seventh realm!
Such a prodigy, if properly nurtured, could definitely become the sharpest and most useful weapon in His Majesty's hands.
In the future, it may even serve as the ultimate "resource" for His Majesty's cultivation of the Great Dao.
Of course, if Jiang Mu becomes useless again in the future and loses his value, we can simply discard him again.
Benefit!
In Zhou Yuanzhi's eyes, there is only absolute self-interest!
Otherwise, why would she have willingly agreed to that person's secret order to marry Prince Sheng back then?
Hiding his identity, he spent his days acting as an informant to monitor the imperial uncle.
At this moment, Zhou Yuanzhi felt extremely regretful.
If I had known this kid couldn't be considered a typical prodigy, I shouldn't have been so arbitrary and rude in abandoning him.
Why can't we give them more chances?
But it's okay.
Jiang Mu wants to grow and obtain better resources, so he can only rely on the imperial court.
As long as he's not completely out of his mind, he'll eventually make the wisest choice.
After all, even the most talented genius cannot reach the peak on their own.
Spiritual practice is inherently becoming increasingly difficult.
Faced with the woman's invitation, Jiang Mu's eyes remained unmoved as he calmly said, "I was indeed planning to go back. But now, I feel you're blocking my way. And—you're in my way."
Zhou Yuanzhi was taken aback, then laughed, gently brushing a stray strand of hair from her temple, and said softly, "What's wrong? Still angry about what happened before?"
"It's understandable for a young person to throw a tantrum. I apologize to you; I shouldn't have given up on you prematurely. But you must understand that the imperial court is your true power. Come back with me; this time, the court will nurture you properly."
"I know you saw me torturing that little fox and you're upset, but it's just a demon—"
"There's no need for an apology. From your perspective, you haven't done anything wrong. You're simply working for the court, so you don't need to apologize to me."
Jiang Mu said calmly, "It's just that we unfortunately find ourselves on opposite sides. Besides, I've never been one to follow the rules. Didn't you see? I'm already mingling with demons!"
Zhou Yuanzhi chuckled dismissively: "There's nothing wrong with mixing with demons. I knew that He Qingyang secretly used the people in the city to feed the demons and refine formations in order to cultivate. I tacitly approved of that."
The reason is simple: because it has value.
Even if you were to kill some civilians now, I would tacitly approve. Because that would be your privilege.
These are the rights you earned through your value!
Jiang Mu, you are an adult and a smart person. You should understand now that the purpose of the Demon Slayer Division has never been simply to slay demons.
It's not about giving those ordinary people a bright and clear sky.
Our existence is to help His Majesty maintain the rule of Daqing and to help Daqing continue its national destiny!
Of course, there are indeed many pure-hearted cultivators in the Demon Slayer Division who want to help the people slay demons and monsters, and I admire them very much.
But I don't think you're that kind of person.
Most people are selfish, aren't they?
Jiang Mu nodded: "What you said makes a lot of sense. People are indeed selfish, and I'm no exception."
But your words have also made me even more certain that we are not on the same path at all, and that we will fight to the death sooner or later.
Since it's bound to happen sooner or later, we might as well resolve it now.
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Mu flipped his right hand, and a burst of black light shone from his palm.
[Ghost King Seal]!
"town!"
A massive, jet-black seal, as large as a small mountain, suddenly crashed down from the void!
After advancing to the seventh realm, this divine ability also changed.
The surface of the seal is no longer covered with ordinary ghostly energy, but with a myriad of ghostly patterns, and the character "镇" (zhen, meaning "to suppress") at the bottom of the seal is even more strikingly scarlet.
Before the seal even touched the ground, the soil and rocks within a radius of ten feet shattered and turned into dust.
"Stubborn to the end!"
When Zhou Yuanzhi saw that Jiang Mu was about to make a move, her pretty face turned frosty.
She snorted coldly and made a fist in the air with her right hand.
Behind it, a huge peony phantom hung down with countless thick roots, like bloodthirsty tentacles.
He lashed out at the Ghost King Seal that was crashing down on him!
"Boom!"
A bright flash of light, accompanied by a deafening explosion, echoed through the swamp.
The Ghost King Seal remained frozen for several breaths before finally shattering into a cloud of black mist with a muffled thud.
The light dissipated.
Zhou Yuanzhi's figure flashed to the side dozens of steps away again.
Her patience finally ran out, and she stared coldly at Jiang Mu: "Jiang Mu, do you even have a brain? What good would killing me do you?"
At that time, you will gain nothing but a complete break with the imperial court and endless pursuit!
Do you really think you're some kind of genius who can act with impunity?!
Jiang Mu remained motionless and said calmly, "Killing you would certainly mean breaking with the imperial court. However, I don't care. Moreover, I have a bargaining chip that might allow the court to weigh the interests afterward and even not hold me responsible for killing you."
"What kind of bargaining chips?"
Zhou Yuanzhi frowned, a sudden unease rising in her heart.
Jiang Mu did not answer, but said sarcastically, "Actually, you are right about one thing: you and I are both tools of the court. Whichever tool is sharper and easier to use, the court will use that one."
You underestimated my value, and likewise, you overestimated yourself.
"Do you really think that just because you have the title of 'Princess Consort' and have been spying on the Emperor for a few years, you're some irreplaceable member of the royal family?"
"How dare you disrespect His Majesty?"
Zhou Yuanzhi's eyes suddenly turned cold, as if covered in frost.
Jiang Mu sneered: "So what if I'm disrespectful? I'm thinking of rebelling!"
"Dharma form, open!"
A statue of the God of Fire, ten feet taller than before, rose up from the ground behind Jiang Mu.
His entire body was enveloped in dark red karmic flames.
Jiang Mu swung his right arm.
Simultaneously, the Vulcan Dharma Form extended a massive fiery hand, directly grasping the giant longsword formed from crimson true essence.
With an aura of burning everything, it slashed down at Zhou Yuanzhi!
"You bastard!"
Zhou Yuanzhi dared not be careless. She bit her tongue, spitting out a mouthful of blood essence, and her hands drew a blur in front of her chest: "Heavenly Stems Trapping God Formation, go!"
"Swish, swish, swish"
Twelve banners engraved with peony patterns flew out.
The array flags were arranged around the image of the Fire God, trapping its massive body within them.
"Freeze!"
Zhou Yuanzhi's ten fingers flew, forming a hand seal.
The twelve battle flags trembled in unison.
Twelve thick, pillar-like blue vine chains burst forth from the flag, weaving into a net in the air and binding the arms, legs, and neck of the Fire God's Dharma Image like lightning!
"roar!"
The Vulcan's Dharma form roared, its body engulfed in karmic flames, and it brandished a massive, blood-red longsword.
The blade severed four chains of vines.
It even shattered the four battle flags in the southwest corner to pieces!
Zhou Yuanzhi coughed up a mouthful of blood.
As her essence gushed out, her face, which had only developed fine lines, aged at a visible rate.
The crow's feet at the corners of my eyes have become deeper, and my skin has lost its luster.
The enormous peony phantom behind her was frantically devouring her life force!
"Kneel down!"
Zhou Yuanzhi clasped her hands together forcefully.
The remaining eight flags grew to a hundred feet tall and became totem poles.
Eight stronger chains wrapped around the Vulcan's avatar, forcibly pressing the raging giant to his knees!
"Bang!"
The Dharma Image's knees touched the ground, causing the earth to tremble.
Zhou Yuanzhi, panting heavily, coldly looked at the suppressed Dharma Image and snarled, "Jiang Mu, have you made enough trouble yet?"
Even if you are at the seventh realm, how can you kill me at the eighth realm? Moreover, I have already collected all the Star Pills, and I am only half a step away from becoming a true ninth-realm Venerable.
In terms of foundation and principles, what do you have to fight me with?
She took a deep breath, her eyes turning cold: "My patience is limited. I'm giving you one last chance. Put away your Dharma form and come back with me!"
Otherwise, I guarantee that your fox spirit sister Qiu Yuexin, and the Qingqiu clan behind her—I will have my imperial guards wipe them out completely!
"Don't think that just because I value you again now, I'll continue to indulge you without limits. If a genius can't be used by the court, then he's a scourge that should be eliminated!"
Women really don't understand.
For the sake of a little fox, and for the sake of his own sister's strangers, they were willing to fight so desperately and make such a big fuss, completely breaking with the imperial court.
Is this kid's brain filled with mush?
For cultivators of their level, it is only natural that they would kill each other and share resources in order to attain the Great Dao. What nonsense about family ties?
This kid always acts impulsively; that's a major taboo in cultivation!
Zhou Yuanzhi made up her mind.
After forcibly taking Jiang Mu back today, she will definitely submit a memorial to the imperial court as soon as possible.
They secretly dispatched their inner guards to wipe out Qiu Yuexin and the group of fox demons.
She would never allow the most perfect gem of the Daqing Dynasty to have such a low-level and fatal emotional weakness!
Jiang Mu frowned.
He originally thought that with his four star positions and many trump cards, he could easily defeat even an eighth-level opponent, just like before.
But now it seems that the ironclad rules of spiritual practice in this world are not all paper tigers.
The gap between the eighth and seventh realms is far greater than that between the sixth and fifth realms, like an insurmountable chasm.
In particular, Zhou Yuanzhi is at the Great Perfection of the Eighth Realm, just one step away from becoming a Ninth Realm Venerable.
If the opponent is at the early stage of the eighth realm, Jiang Mu might still be able to put up a fight with the berserk power of the Fire God Dharma Form.
"Looks like we have no choice but to take the risk."
Jiang Mu's eyes narrowed, and he sheathed the Blood Frenzy Blade.
He immediately waved his sleeve, and the golden mark of the God of Trapping lit up in his palm.
"The Cage of Confinement!"
A dazzling golden light descended from the sky, like an inverted bell, enveloping Zhou Yuanzhi.
"You brat, still not giving up!"
Zhou Yuanzhi was trapped in a small space, her face contorted. "Since you are so stubborn, I might as well take you back by force!"
"If you dare to disobey then, I will have Yang Qintian personally extract your soul. He is most skilled in this kind of secret technique; refining your top-tier physical constitution for someone else wouldn't be a waste!"
Jiang Mu ignored the woman's threats.
With his eyes slightly closed, he superimposed the third demonic shadow onto his own body in the blink of an eye.
Immediately afterwards, the stellar energy within his body began to circulate along a meridian route he had never traveled before.
Each time acupoint was passed, a burning, intense pain would come.
It felt as if my veins were being burned through inch by inch by a branding iron.
Immediately afterwards, several acupoints on his body lit up with a dark red light one by one.
Several red lights intertwined, outlining a hideous skull phantom on his chest.
The skull's eye sockets are empty, and its upper and lower jaws slowly open.
He uttered a bloody character for "sacrifice".
[Sacrificial Ritual]!
This is the incomplete martial arts manual that Dong Wanhai gave him before he died.
The so-called "sacrifice to the Dao" means to throw one's entire life's cultivation, vital energy, and even the foundation of the Great Dao that one has comprehended into the furnace as firewood.
In exchange for a fatal blow that exceeds one's own limits!
Simply put, it means exchanging one's cultivation level and the risk of losing one's star position.
It is equivalent to a move that results in mutual destruction.
After using it, even if one survives by sheer luck, one will become a complete cripple due to the destruction of their Dao foundation. Therefore, Dong Wanhai instructed that one should never use it unless in a desperate situation with no chance of survival.
But Jiang Mu wasn't afraid.
Because he can exploit bugs.
He placed the third demonic shadow in front, using it as "fuel" for this forbidden technique to deceive the opponent.
Now, in the eyes of the laws of heaven and earth, the third demonic figure is "Jiang Mu".
If you must offer a sacrifice, then offer it.
Although Zhou Yuanzhi couldn't understand what move Jiang Mu was preparing, she had a keen sense of foreboding.
Not right.
We must act quickly.
She gripped the golden bars of the cage with both hands and pulled them outward with all her might.
Star power exploded into fine arcs of electricity between the knuckles.
The grating cracked with spiderweb-like fissures.
Unlike the enemies Jiang Mu encountered before who were brute force used to break through, this time, Zhou Yuanzhi used the power of laws of a high-level cultivator to fundamentally dismantle this divine ability.
Jiang Mu let out a muffled groan.
The mark on his wrist, representing the "Cage of Trapped Gods," tore open as the grating shattered, oozing crimson blood.
Jiang Mu couldn't care less about protecting them at this moment and accelerated the operation of the [Sacrifice Path].
The character "祭" (sacrifice) spun faster and faster in his chest.
boom-
Finally, with a loud bang, the cage of trapped gods exploded into a shower of golden light.
At the same moment, Zhou Yuanzhi vanished from her spot. In an instant, she appeared in front of Jiang Mu and struck him with a palm.
Just as the palm was less than half a foot away from Jiang Mu, Jiang Mu opened her eyes.
His blood-red eyes looked as if they were filled with magma, and two lines of bloody tears even seeped from the edges of his eye sockets.
He clasped his hands together, interlacing his fingers to form a sword gesture, which he then held to his chest.
The character "祭" on his chest expanded rapidly, transforming into a swirling crimson vortex that frantically devoured the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within a radius of several feet.
The vortex immediately collapsed.
It gathered at the tips of his index and middle fingers, which were pressed together.
Something's not right!
Zhou Yuanzhi's heart clenched, and the hairs on her body stood on end.
Instinct made her abruptly stop her charge, and she tried to retreat by touching the ground with her toes.
boom-
A dazzling red light suddenly erupted from Jiang Mu's fingertips.
Unlike the self-destruction of the demonic shadow, this was just a condensed mass of blood light containing Jiang Mu's cultivation path, which condensed into a small sword.
It shot out from Jiang Mu's fingertips and rushed towards Zhou Yuanzhi.
There was no whistling, no sonic boom.
The sword rang silently, yet it caused the surrounding space to collapse inch by inch.
For the first time, Zhou Yuanzhi showed a look of fear in front of Jiang Mu.
She quickly clasped her hands together, and the phantom of a peony that suddenly bloomed behind her emitted a dazzling light that almost covered the entire sky.
But at the same time, her face began to age rapidly.
His once jet-black hair turned gray in an instant, and his cheeks were etched with deep lines. In just a moment, he aged decades.
Countless peony petals gathered in front of her, forming a shield.
"Sneer"
The Blood Sword, used in the Sacrifice Ritual, easily pierced through the shield.
Then it plunged directly into Zhou Yuanzhi's chest, detonating completely inside her.
"ah!!"
Zhou Yuanzhi let out a scream and flew backward like a thrown rag doll, crashing heavily into a tree.
The dead tree snapped in response.
She rolled several more times before finally stopping.
Jiang Mu was also feeling unwell at that moment.
He lay flat on his back on the ground, blood beads seeping from every pore of his body, looking like a blood-soaked man.
They clearly underestimated the backlash power of the [Sacrifice Path].
The third demonic figure was instantly vaporized.
The [Pembrolizuma] star position was almost forcibly stripped away.
Fortunately, Jiang Mu switched the position of [Earthly Star] in time, exploiting a bug to allow [Earthly Star] to serve as the final sacrifice, detach from the body, and return to the sea of stars.
Jiang Mu took out the [Star-Locking Egg], first relocking the [Earthly Star], then forced himself to sit up and looked at the woman in the distance.
To his shock, the woman was still alive.
Her clothes were torn in many places, her face had turned into that of an old woman, and her hair was as white as withered grass.
But what's most horrifying is her abdomen.
The belly is like a stretched membrane, with bulging, twisted faces on its surface.
There were men and women, young and old —
With their eyes closed and faces contorted in rage, they struggled and thrashed against their bellies as if trying to burst out.
"Are you practicing demonic arts? Are you devouring people?!"
Jiang Mu's pupils contracted, and her voice turned icy cold.
He finally understood why this woman was able to withstand the attack of the [Sacrifice].
She used the creatures she devoured to shield her from death.
"Cough—cough cough—"
Zhou Yuanzhi coughed, and dirty blood dripped down her chin onto her clothes.
She glared at Jiang Mu with resentment, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips: "I've said it before, everyone is selfish."
Jiang Mu, you didn't give yourself a chance! I valued you so much, and this is how you repay me?!
In the distance, the Demon-Slaying Guards who had followed Zhou Yuanzhi and were hiding at the edge of the encirclement in the shadows were trembling.
They never expected things to turn out this way.
Just as they were hesitating whether to seek help, Zhou Yuanzhi suddenly stretched out her hands, her fingernails growing dozens of meters long, and entangled the demon-slaying guards, dragging them back.
Immediately afterwards, the illusory image of a peony behind her, which had already withered most of its leaves, opened its enormous petals.
Inside the flower's stamen is a gigantic mouth filled with fangs.
With desperate screams, the demon-slaying guards were swept into the flower's heart, not even a bone was spit out.
Zhou Yuanzhi's abdominal flesh twitched.
Several new faces appeared on the screen, groaning in pain.
Her previously depleted energy recovered somewhat, and the wrinkles on her face faded slightly.
"What kind of forbidden technique was that? You even abandoned your own cultivation and path to enlightenment?"
Zhou Yuanzhi slowly stood up, licked the bloodstains from the corner of her mouth, and stared at Jiang Mu as if she were already dead. "However, since you're so eager to die, I'll send you on your way!"
Before she could finish speaking, the woman lunged at Jiang Mu again.
She could tell that Jiang Mu was seriously injured, and that forbidden technique that had destroyed everything had completely exhausted the boy's resources.
He is now nothing more than a lamb to the slaughter.
She vowed to crush the boy's limbs inch by inch, extract his soul, and stuff it into her own stomach.
What do you mean, the number one genius in the world?
What use is a disobedient dog that cannot be used by His Majesty!
Just as Zhou Yuanzhi's sharp claws, covered in bone spurs, were about to pierce Jiang Mu's body, the latter suddenly disappeared.
"What?"
Zhou Yuanzhi was startled and quickly turned around.
But then they saw Jiang Mu standing quietly not far away. Her previously listless aura suddenly seemed to have been turned on, as if a switch had been pressed to fully revive her.
His Dharma form appeared behind him.
His cultivation and aura returned to their peak.
"How is this possible?!"
Zhou Yuanzhi was completely stunned; her eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
Her consciousness wouldn't lie to her.
Just now, Jiang Mu's breath had indeed dried up, like a well that had been drained of water.
How did he restore all his cultivation level in one go?
"Sky-Shattering Slash!"
Jiang Mu gripped the Blood Frenzy Blade tightly with both hands and slashed upwards.
The dark red blade energy surged to over ten zhang in that instant.
Where the blade's energy passed, the air was compressed into visible white waves of air, which rolled to both sides with a deafening roar.
It also filled everything in Zhou Yuanzhi's field of vision.
"No"
Zhou Yuanzhi screamed, trying to twist her waist to dodge, while simultaneously mobilizing her star power to try and condense a shield.
But it was too late, and too close.
"Sizzle!"
The sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh rang out.
The crimson blade sliced through her protective starlight with overwhelming force, striking her strangely swollen belly.
The woman was sent flying backwards again.
Zhou Yuanzhi's abdomen was cut open.
No blood gushed out.
Instead, countless faces flew out of the crack in a frenzy.
Then, they launched a frenzied counterattack against Zhou Yuanzhi herself.
"Get away! Help me!"
Zhou Yuanzhi roared in terror and anger, waving her arms in an attempt to drive away the monsters, but to no avail.
Those human faces were tearing at her flesh with ferocity.
The woman's screams echoed throughout the area.
The cries went from high-pitched to mournful, then to faint, and finally fell silent completely.
The rustling, gnawing sounds replaced all other sounds.
When the last face disappeared into the air, only a stark white skeleton remained on the ground.
The hollow eye sockets of the skull gazed up at the sky, as if still bearing traces of terror.
"call----"
Jiang Mu put away his Dharma image, picked up his knife, and walked to the pile of white bones.
He poked around in the bones with the tip of his knife and quickly picked out an object that shone with starlight.
【Star Pill】.
Jiang Mu held it in her hand and examined it for a while.
This is a star core imbued with the aura of the [Kang] star position.
This indicates that the woman's current star position is the second of the seven constellations of the Azure Dragon in the East, specifically the constellation of the Golden Dragon.
At the same time, Jiang Mu saw that among the skeletal remains, there were several dim-colored star cores that were turning to ashes at a visible speed.
Jiang Mu was not surprised.
Shui Miaozheng had explained the rules of star positions to him in detail before.
If a cultivator at the seventh or eighth realm dies while hunting star officials of the same system...
Then all the Star Cores he had painstakingly collected from other people would vanish into thin air and be buried with him.
All that will remain is his own natal star pill.
The laws of nature are impartial and fair, treating everyone equally, young and old.
There is no shortcut where "you kill a fat sheep and can directly inherit all of its savings".
In any case, once you reach the seventh realm, this battlefield of carnage, if you want to advance further, you have to honestly and personally kill your competitors in the same system one by one.
There are no shortcuts or loopholes to instant success.
Unless one has broken through to a higher star level like Ling Ye and survived, one cannot hold back.
"This Heavenly Dao is truly a pervert who enjoys watching Gu battles."
Jiang Mu chuckled and tucked the Star Pill into his pocket. This woman's star position has returned to the Star Sea; he'd have to try and see if he could obtain it.
Just then, Jiang Mu's gaze suddenly sharpened.
He bent down and pried a dusty jade pendant out of the broken bones.
After casually wiping away the surface stains with her thumb, Jiang Mu was stunned.
He was very familiar with the texture of this jade pendant.
It was exactly the same as the one Tang Guixin entrusted to him before her death, and the one he and Chu Lingzhu found by chance in the wild.
The two jade pendants were engraved with "East" and "West" respectively.
The jade pendant in front of us has the character "南" (Nan) carved in the center.
After pondering for a moment, Jiang Mu took out the bronze mirror he had obtained from the underground palace from his storage ring.
He gently placed the jade pendant on the mirror surface.
The mirror surface resembled a pool of water, rippling with fine, delicate waves.
Like the previous two jade pendants, this one also sank down and floated in the illusory space inside the mirror.
It echoes the previous two jade pendants.
The three points of light intertwined and flowed, forming an incomplete array.
The next moment, the ripples on the mirror surface surged violently.
A pair of ethereal, pure, and exquisitely beautiful eyes, seemingly untouched by the world's troubles, slowly emerged in the mirror.
Before Jiang Mu could react, a suction force suddenly burst forth from the mirror.
Jiang Mu felt a "buzz" in her brain, and her vision was suddenly plunged into darkness, as if her consciousness was forcibly dragged out of her body by a vortex.
In a daze, he felt himself falling into a bottomless abyss.
I don't know how much time passed.
The feeling of falling finally stopped.
Jiang Mu's consciousness gradually returned.
He blinked, shaking off the dizziness in his mind, and found himself in a strange space.
It was pitch black all around, like thick ink, with no sunlight.
Only in the distance, a soft, cold light, seemingly from nowhere, cascaded down like a spotlight on a stage.
The center was bathed in light.
Quietly placed was a white jade bed that exuded a misty, cold aura.
On the cold bed sat a woman.
She was facing away from him.
The woman was wearing a light white dress.
The material of the dress shimmered with a faint, lustrous sheen under the light, making her appear like a fairy, exuding an inviolable purity.
At this moment, the woman was silently gazing into the void of darkness before her.
Not moving at all.
It is like a beautiful jade sculpture.
Just as Jiang Mu was about to speak, she found that her legs seemed to be moving uncontrollably toward the cold bed.
The pulling force only disappeared when they were only two meters away from the bed.
At the same time, Jiang Mu found herself unable to move again.
He looked closely at the woman in front of him.
The woman was not sitting upright, exuding a somewhat languid air.
Both legs stretched out diagonally in the same direction along the edge of the cold bed.
The pure white skirt slid down the edge of the bed, bunching up at her ankles, revealing a section of her tender, snow-white calves.
And a pair of bare feet that were not covered at all.
In the dim light, those little feet looked quite delicate, with slender arches and rounded toes, tinged with a faint pink hue.
It complements the cold white jade bed surface.
Just as Jiang Mu's gaze swept back and forth along those feet, a voice suddenly rang out in the quiet space.
"What are you thinking about?"
A woman's voice drifted over softly.
Ethereal, gentle, with an unreal, ethereal quality.
Jiang Mu, who was still in a state of static appreciation, hadn't fully switched back to her normal mindset and blurted out, "Want to eat—oh no, who are you?"
"Don't you remember who I am?"
The woman's voice carried a hint of sadness and loneliness.
Jiang Mu frowned deeply.
He carefully examined the woman's graceful silhouette from behind, and then mentally reviewed all the women he knew whose backs he saw, like watching a movie.
The final conclusion is that the match failed.
I've never seen it before.
Jiang Mu stared at the back of the woman's head and said, "Miss, you've mistaken me for someone else."
The woman remained silent.
The white dress swayed gently in the breeze that seemed to come from nowhere.
After a long silence, a clear and gentle voice rang out again, tinged with a faint sadness: "I've been waiting for you here—for a very, very long time. But I never imagined you would forget everything."
"Your appearance really breaks my heart."
Hearing the woman's resentful tone, Jiang Mu felt increasingly strange.
Could it be that I actually know him?
Jiang Mu simply said directly, "Miss, I really can't remember who you are. Perhaps—could you turn around so I can take a closer look?"
The air fell silent once again.
Only the cold air emanating from the cold bed slowly wafted through the pillar of light.
After a brief pause.
The woman in the white dress on the bed slowly turned around, accompanied by a soft rustling sound of fabric rubbing against each other.
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