LWGP - Chapter 249
Chapter 249: Loquat
The old men and women couldn't help but want to grab their descendants by the ear and lecture them all over again…
Suddenly, the fat old man from the ancient cultivation department seemed to have figured something out. His expression changed drastically, and he abruptly made a move, shouting, "Wang Jiu, quickly, while you haven't completed the tribulation, sever your divine power! Dammit, even if you can't sever it, escape into spacetime immediately! Hurry!"
He had finally understood what that damn "eternal inherited evil karma" meant!
The fat old man's voice was usually quite cultured and soft—he was a top intellectual, after all—but this time it was exceptionally sharp, like a gander's squawk, filled with terror.
As everyone stared in astonishment, he grew flustered and exasperated, his face flushing red. "What are you looking at?! Why isn't she listening to me?! Who here is close to her? Quick, voice-bomb her!"
A few people, like Qing He, reacted. Especially Qing He and Xie Lu, and in the distance, Cai Wujun. They all flew back, continuously pinging Wang Jiu's voice chat.
"Stop."
"Wang Jiu!"
"Wang Jiu!"
It was too late. Wang Jiu didn't choose to flee into spacetime. The Old Lady's soul, having been gathered for a second time, was extremely fragile. She held on for the last second and completed the final step.
Forming a contract seal, she made a grasping motion with her palm. A thread of golden soul-silk flew from her fingers, shuttling into the space between the Old Lady's eyebrows, then connecting to the dazed Jiong Jiong's forehead as well.
The final step was complete.
The Ghost Race's negative status had latched onto her, and the spacetime tunnel couldn't be opened. Wang Jiu frowned slightly.
As expected, it still wouldn't work.
She could already feel the agitation below. Something was about to open.
They were coming.
In a single second, Wang Jiu decisively froze time, directly severed the golden soul-silk, and then, with a raise of her hand, the entire platform was sheared off and transported out of the Devil's Eye, flying before Qing He and the other two.
The action was fluid and utterly ruthless.
Before the three could react, their path was blocked. They hastily received the coffin and Jiong Jiong, and then they witnessed the most unforgettable and terrifying scene of their lives.
In the Devil's Eye, in a deep space some thirty thousand meters below, a rift suddenly tore open. A majestic torrent of blood roared out, dyeing a large swath of the sea red. It spread upwards, rapidly filling the entire void of the Devil's Eye. The liquid quickly solidified, until it became a gigantic, circular blood-red eye.
Then, a massive door appeared within the blood-eye.
A red copper door, looking as if it would drip blood.
With a deafening roar, it opened.
Whether in the sea or in any corner of the Earth, every living creature heard the muffled sound of this great door opening.
It was as if the depths of their souls resonated with it.
If anyone from ancient times had seen it, they would have recognized what it was.
The Red Copper Ghost Gate, opening every three hundred years.
But it didn't necessarily have to be three hundred years—when they sensed the tribulation aura of their mortal enemy, the Black Witch Spirit Emperor Yin Lao, they would use the entire strength of their race to forcibly push open the Red Copper Ghost Gate and return to the mortal world. And then… myriads of ghosts screamed as they poured out.
The Ghost Race, born for Yin Lao, had come for her.
Qing He and the others watched as the dense, terrifying swarm of ghosts flew out from the red copper door, carrying countless grievances and hatred as they flew towards Wang Jiu, who had already devoured Yin Lao and inherited everything from her.
The sky grew dim, the world plunged into darkness. The Ghost Race had entered the world.
More than half the sky was occupied by the innumerable ghosts. The moment they neared Wang Jiu.
Any shouts, any persuasion was useless. In truth, she hadn't checked her private messages, nor did she answer any voice calls. It would have been pointless. The tribulation lightning was above her; she couldn't shake off the negative status, and she basically couldn't enter a spacetime tunnel.
She could have endured the tribulation, successfully ascended to the Emperor rank, and obtained complete power. But she had expended the soul power from her recent advancement to forcibly perform a second soul-gathering, a massive drain… she simply didn't have the ability to create another miracle.
All things considered, this was the third time she had manipulated the Old Lady's soul. The first time was extracting it from the Bloodthirsty Beast's body, which was the easiest. The second was gathering the soul for resurrection, only for it to be shattered again.
This was the third time.
The difficulty increased exponentially, and the price to be paid was naturally worlds apart.
This had been anticipated long ago.
It was like a game of chess. If you wanted to sacrifice the chariot to save the king, how could the chariot not be lost?
This wasn't some TV drama.
And so, Wang Jiu did nothing. She just lowered her head and looked at the coffin being protected by Qing He and the others. Across the distance, her gaze held an unreadable emotion. But soon, she turned her face away, tilting her pale, exquisite chin towards the distance, her thoughts unknown.
Perhaps she had remembered something, as a subtle change came over her expression.
Her expression was bitter, her gaze desolate.
Finally, she let out a long sigh that few could understand.
Xie Lu saw this scene and heard this sigh, and was inexplicably reminded of a certain night in the territory.
Back then, he had only just pledged his allegiance and was both curious and wary of her. Taking advantage of the slight favor she showed him, he chatted with her. He couldn't remember what topic they were on, but she, half-joking and half-serious, had said a few words in a very light, casual tone.
"What, are you afraid I'm a Black Witch?"
"Even Black Witches have weaknesses."
"If one day I cry, that will be the day I die."
At the time, Xie Lu had reflexively feared such an outcome and replied, "Then don't cry."
She had laughed, as if mocking a naive child.
Her smile under the moonlight was as fresh as yesterday.
Xie Lu was terrified. Amidst the attacks shooting in all directions, he strained to shout towards the sky with all his might, "Wang Ah Jiu, don't!"
It was useless.
In an instant, she was devoured by the Ghost Race.
Expressionless, but with tears in her eyes.
At first, it was a few dozen, then quickly a few hundred. They circled her like hungry vultures that had spotted a weak little seagull, dismembering it alive in the sky.
Hundreds of thousands, millions, even tens of millions of them, a dense, dark mass. The entire sea was covered by the Ghost Race.
The sky itself went dark.
Through the gaps in the ghastly, flying swarm, one could vaguely see flashes of divine light being torn apart.
This scene was later recorded, summarized in a few strokes as—the Sacrifice of Red Copper.
It was also known as the Day of God-Devouring.
It lasted for fifteen seconds. After fifteen seconds, the newly ascended god was finally devoured completely, leaving not a single trace behind.
After fifteen seconds, the myriads of ghosts, like a plague of locusts, were pulled by a terrifying force, unwillingly wailing as they flew back into the closing Red Copper Ghost Gate.
Qing He vividly remembered the looks on the faces of those terrifying ghosts as they were dragged back into the Red Copper Ghost Gate after devouring Wang Jiu, turning to stare at them.
Ferocious, bloody, hungry.
Wang Jiu had been eaten by them.
No accident, no plot twist.
Her contact avatar went dark for everyone. Private messages would never be opened again. The system even prompted: user not found.
Some of her game assets would be returned to a few people.
Not that many people even had her as a friend.
She didn't socialize, didn't like making friends, and maintained a solitary posture.
When she left, it was without a sound.
Wang Shu received an email. It was a safety talisman. As he held it in his hand, his eyes red, he tried hard not to cry. But Gun Gun walked over and opened its bear paw, revealing a small safety talisman in its palm.
Gun Gun, who had always avoided Wang Jiu like the plague, whimpered in a babyish voice, "Why is she so bad?"
Bai Bai was furious. It angrily threw the safety talisman to the ground, stomped on it, and suddenly yanked out a few tufts of its own fur. "She said she'd wait for my fur to turn white, that liar!"
Yes, why was she so bad?
In this life, he had never met someone so vicious.
Unable to hold it in any longer, Wang Shu collapsed onto the ground, head bowed, and let out a sob.
From now on, who would throw countless corpses at him and force him to find good loot?
No one.
After the dust settled, Qing He sat on a reef, watching the sea ahead begin to calm. The tide gently lapped against the rock beneath her, making a soft splashing sound. She suddenly asked the fat old man a question that was both related and unrelated to Wang Jiu.
"If her mother had violated the sacrificial pact and sacrificed herself to Wang Jiu back then, what would have happened to her?"
The fat old man was silent for a moment before saying, "Her soul would have scattered."
Oh, so mother and daughter chose very similar paths.
Qing He was lost in thought for a while, then finally pressed her fingers to her brow.
"I think I chose the wrong partner."
Powerful, yes, but too heartbreaking.
She was just a partner. Why should it make her so unhappy?
Qing He's face was cold, and she said no more.
The others also remained silent.
It was Qian Cheng, who had just teleported over and had been standing by the coffin looking at Lin Zi for a long time, who finally raised his head. His eyes were bloodshot and he looked utterly exhausted, but he spoke in a low voice, "Back then, the Old Lady told me that Wang Jiu could never remember what her mother looked like. At first, I thought Wang Jiu was lying. It was obvious even then that she had an eidetic memory and an extremely high IQ. She remembered things from her childhood with perfect clarity. How could she possibly forget her own birth mother? Later, even the Old Lady became certain… and I knew that when the Old Lady made a judgment, she was rarely wrong."
"I mentioned this to Lao Song. We both thought it might be due to excessive psychological trauma, and that this trauma was most likely related to her mother's death."
As for how she died, it was probably horrific. Perhaps it was just as Wang Jiu had hinted, half-truthfully, half-falsely—that she had eaten the other person.
This way of saying "eaten" was, in fact, a reference to sacrifice.
To Wang Jiu, she had eaten her own mother. She probably believed it herself, to the point that even her self-constructed memories contained such a scene.
For a paranoid person, an extreme imagination is equivalent to reality.
"The Old Lady probably thought so too, which is why she didn't insist on Wang Jiu remembering her mother. For this kind of trauma, forgetting is better than not forgetting."
"That's probably also why Wang Jiu was so paranoid."
Because she was so smart, she knew what she had lost, and she knew that woman had existed.
But she could never remember her face.
As Qian Cheng offered his analysis, no one refuted it, only feeling an inexplicable sadness—the world accused her of being cold, but no one knew why she was cold.
While everyone was silent, Qing He suddenly summoned her mecha and dove into the water, sword in hand.
Everyone was surprised, but they were all sharp. They immediately sensed something was wrong.
Was there something down there?
Thirty thousand meters underground, Wei Yuan finally dared to show his face. He looked at the spirit vein core right in front of him. Though his heart pounded, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
He hadn't expected such a turn of events. He had both underestimated Wang Jiu's methods and failed to anticipate her ruthlessness.
But… in the end, she was dead, along with Yin Lao.
It could be considered a case of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
This massive spirit vein was his.
Just as Wei Yuan was about to make his move, his expression changed slightly as a cold, bewitching figure appeared.
"It's you!"
Wei Yuan's first reaction was that he should be able to beat this woman, but his second reaction was that if she dared to attack, she must have a backup plan!
He immediately tried to flee, but she was a mage, and various spells were already flying at him. Then, someone teleported in behind him.
Qing He had arrived.
Wei Yuan's face changed. As he was being surrounded and killed, only one thought ran through his mind—Wang Jiu, that woman truly repays every slight.
The commotion from Wei Yuan being jointly and brutally killed was not small, but it was thirty thousand meters underground, so it didn't cause much of a stir. After all, compared to the scene Wang Jiu had created, it was simply not worth mentioning.
However, after Roy and Qing He finished the job and were jointly collecting the spirit vein, Qing He glanced at Roy. "Didn't you say you weren't coming?"
How could a grand Central European noblewoman eat her own words? So, she said with calm composure, "She said that since we were allies, it wouldn't look good if we never did any business together. How was I to know this was about dividing up an inheritance?"
Qing He glanced at her. "Those who can inherit from her must have some standing."
Roy was the epitome of cold, noble elegance. "I wouldn't know. Perhaps it's a long-overdue payment for illegal labor. What about you? Did you get an inheritance too?"
Qing He paused. Uh, illegal labor, did she mean what she thought she meant?
How was she supposed to respond to that?
Wang Jiu's reputation really lived up to the online legends.
Her private life… was quite messy.
"No. Not only did I not get anything, she didn't even pay me the final installment for our previous cooperation." Qing He pressed her lips together, clearly displeased.
Roy shot her a look, noncommittal.
Qing He: "…"
The women of the third spacetime… if only they were all like Lin Guiwan.
None of them were simple lamps; they didn't shine, but they were all high-maintenance.
After collecting the spirit vein, Qing He thought Roy would leave. After all, the woman was cold and arrogant and had no desire to socialize with others. Unexpectedly, Roy went up with her.
The two emerged from the water and climbed onto the reef. The others wondered what shady business they had been up to, but it was definitely related to killing someone.
Roy stood by the coffin. She had always known of the Old Lady, not just because of Wang Jiu, but because she was a world-renowned medical professor. However, they had never had any real contact, and her impression of her was limited to her achievements in medical research.
Later, because of Wang Jiu, she got a glimpse of the bigger picture, which sparked curiosity and a certain inexplicable admiration.
But, she had not yet woken up.
Was she immersed in memories of days gone by? Unwilling to wake up?
"If she wakes up, none of us will know how to tell her." Several of the old men and women were extremely conflicted. They had watched the Old Lady raise Wang Jiu. If she found out how Wang Jiu died, it would be no less devastating than when Jiong Jiong was abducted back then.
And Song Yuanqiao's death…
It seemed their fears were coming true. Just as they were talking, the Old Lady in the coffin opened her eyes.
Qing He and the others immediately fell silent.
She was a little disoriented from her long "slumber," but not weak. Soon, she was looking at the young men and women standing by her coffin, looking at her.
Her eyes quickly became clear and sharp. She blinked, sat up, and looked at her old friends who had hastily stood up.
Quickly, she assessed her surroundings, the people around her, and the coffin she was in, and finally said, "I knew I was dead, but I didn't know I could come back as a revenant. Did you guys do this? But why so nervous and worried?"
She was rational and calm, quickly deducing the general situation, but with one deviation.
You guys?
In truth, with the Old Lady's intelligence and emotional quotient, she should have been able to sense that the person who had "done" all this could only be one person.
No one around her was more capable of such antics than Wang Jiu.
But she didn't mention her.
Her tone was gentle and lucid, yet she didn't ask about or mention Wang Jiu even once.
Everyone sensed something was wrong, but no one dared to probe, except for Roy.
"Professor Lin, do you remember a person named Wang Jiu?"
The Old Lady paused, then asked, "Who?"
Everyone: "…"
In an instant, they all understood—that single thread of golden silk from before Wang Jiu died must have done something to the Old Lady's soul.
Qian Cheng turned his face away.
He knew he had made another mistake. It wasn't trauma that caused the memory loss, but an artificial method.
Zhou Miao, in the cave on Miao Mountain, had chosen to sacrifice herself to Wang Jiu and ultimately erased the latter's memories of her.
How great, how moving.
But given Wang Jiu's personality, she must have been pained and resistant. Yet when it was her turn to choose, she understood the other person and made the same choice.
When a person dies, there's nothing left. Why make people remember you?
Moreover, she wanted her to remember her good side, but would rather have her forget her bad side.
Qian Cheng's gaze fell on Jiong Jiong, who was lying asleep nearby. Her body had already become a normal, complete body of flesh and blood. Her face was chubby, and she looked simple and sweet in her sleep.
A new living body.
It was as if certain times had never passed, certain misfortunes had never befallen.
Everything was beautiful.
Huaxia City, Baipu Zen Temple on Jincheng Mountain.
The sound of chanting and the wooden fish from the temple's pagoda had ceased for a moment. Faintly, one could hear the soft sound of footsteps descending the spiral staircase inside. Then, the corner of a white kasaya appeared, stained with a bit of dust.
The monk coming downstairs paid it no mind. He patted his sleeve and picked up a broom leaning against the corner.
He swept his way along, eventually reaching the courtyard where the wrathful vajra statue stood.
In the distance, green pines hung over the mountain stream. Before him, the courtyard was serene. The wind was like the soft, gentle tresses on a beautiful woman's neck. The wind chimes on the peace tree tinkled softly. The monk rested the broom on the ground and looked at the peace tree, as if in an instant he had returned to a time long ago.
It was the peace tree of that year. The wrathful vajra hadn't scared away the visitors; it was very lively.
Back then, he was still a monk. He saw the old lady and the young woman who came every year. The old lady was being sarcastic, saying that some young people these days were old before their time, always acting cool and not cute at all. Look at other people's little darlings, so good at acting cute and spoiled.
The young woman: "Mm, and some old ladies these days also like to act cute, making finger hearts and blowing kisses at the drop of a hat."
The Old Lady: "Well now, are you mocking me?"
The young woman: "No, I was talking about that aunty in red and green who insisted on climbing into the wrathful vajra's arms to make a finger heart for a short video."
The Old Lady laughed in exasperation. Just then, the young woman's phone rang. As she walked aside to take the call, the Old Lady snorted and turned back to needle him.
"I say, little Master Huai En, we've known each other for so many years. I thought you'd be used to it by now."
He said, "Even the Buddha can't get used to you, Old Lady, coming every year to pluck his loquat tree bare."
The Old Lady: "One must be sincere. Believe it or not, if I don't come for a year, the Buddha will be unhappy."
He: "I don't believe you."
The Old Lady: "Hey, you little Huai En, is it because I haven't donated enough incense money?"
He: "You have, but you've also given to the Daoist temple, and to the Yonghe Temple. One must be sincere, but also focused. Playing for three teams is not a good habit."
The Old Lady was dead serious and righteous. "That's slander, you know. Did I play for them? I did not. I just supported different cultural and spiritual industries from a distance with money. By the way, this Guanyin temple of yours needs repairs, right? Is three hundred enough?"
He: "Old Lady, it really doesn't look good when the loquats are all picked."
The Old Lady: "I know it doesn't look good, but it tastes good. My girl loves to eat them."
He: "But you still can't…"
The Old Lady: "Five hundred. Huan, where are you going?"
He: "To get you a basket to pick loquats."
In reality, it wasn't a matter of a few hundred. You had to add "ten thousand" to the end of that unit.
This scene played out every year. She used buying loquats as a form of charity, and the temple would later use the funds to sponsor poor families, the elderly, and children.
The Old Lady didn't like to make a show of her good deeds, finding it troublesome. She just loved to throw money around.
Before the Old Lady could laugh at his words, the young woman did. She said she had something to do at the hospital and had to go.
"Go on, go on. I'm going to pick loquats. Remember to pick me up after work. There are two baskets, Huai En can't carry them."
He: "…"
She wanted to make him carry the loquats down the mountain too?
Alms-seeking was so hard.
But he saw the young woman leave. As he was discussing with the Old Lady how to pluck the loquat tree, he saw the young woman who had walked through the crowd turn back. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but in the end, she raised both hands towards the Old Lady, who had her back to her, and made a heart shape above her head, even revealing a smile.
The knowledgeable and charming doctor, so rarely this playfully cute.
But for some reason, thinking back on it now, he felt that she had been retreating.
She took a few steps back, lowered her hands, turned, and left, never looking back again.
Huai En stood in the quiet courtyard, looking at the peace tree, and let out a long sigh.
"In this world, how can there be so many foolproof plans? It's just a matter of who is willing to go all out."
That person, Wang Jiu, had probably been forced into a corner with no way out.
The choice was also very easy. She had never hesitated.
Huai En's gaze swept to the loquat tree in the courtyard before the Tathagata Hall. Seeing the orange-yellow fruits that were ripe for picking, he lifted his kasaya, sat cross-legged, and formed a mudra with his hands, a luminous Buddhist seal.
A hazy halo of light expanded.
A few seconds later, he suddenly opened his eyes. "Huh?"
He was somewhat astonished and fell into deep thought. Before he could come to a conclusion, he heard the hexagonal bell hanging on the top floor of the pagoda begin to spin continuously.
His brow furrowed in alarm. Huai En abruptly raised his head and looked at the sky.
This aura is?
Spacetime was in chaos.
The sky rumbled and split apart. One could almost see the atmosphere spinning infinitely.
No, this wasn't spinning. It was thinning.
Compared to the celestial phenomena seen from the capital, the people in the Devil's Sea had a much more direct view.
"This spacetime is?"
"This doesn't feel like a good thing." Wang Shu, who had still been crying, looked up and said this with infinite pessimism.
And just as he finished speaking, boom!!
The result of the spatial fission was a series of cracks.
"Quick, go back!!"
"The Eternal Night Race will definitely descend!"
Qing He and the others made a decisive move, quickly returning to the protected cities, not even caring about the expensive long-distance town portal scrolls.
The think tanks of every country and department were on high alert, so players who were out in the field quickly returned.
They were terrified. It was only two in the afternoon, for crying out loud.
And less than a few minutes after they returned, the Eternal Night Race did indeed descend.
Watching the terrifying warships of the Eternal Night Race open fire…
The Old Lady, who had already returned to Huaxia City, watched the Eternal Night bombardment while listening to the descriptions from the old men and women.
After listening for a couple of sentences, she made a gesture for silence. "You're all old, you talk too slowly. Get a young person to do it."
The old men and women, who had been ecstatic to see their old friend/bestie return: "???"
Such a venomous tongue. It was indeed the top flower of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Old Lady Lin.
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