Chapter 1143 - 1047: Deceiving Oneself
The night grew deep.
Li Fan settled his disciples one by one and then carried Yun Xi into her room.
He sat by Yun Xi’s bed and suddenly, gently lifted the blanket, gazing at Yun Xi’s snow-white neck.
This silly girl, still lying to herself that the Red Dust Jade was lost…
Clearly, she treated it as a pendant, hanging it over her chest.
Li Fan gently reached out and pulled out the Red Dust Jade.
The Red Dust Jade had been carefully fixed by Yun Xi; its quality was excellent. Despite some cracks, it did not affect its beauty at all.
On the Red Dust Jade, there was a single character.
Fan.
Li Fan reached out, wanting to pick up the Red Dust Jade.
But before he could touch the jade, Yun Xi, even in her sleep, had already grasped onto it.
“…No one can touch it… no one at all… especially the Great Demon King…”
Yun Xi’s soft murmurings of dream talk filtered through.
Li Fan involuntarily stopped.
He hesitated for a moment.
Originally, he wanted to take this jade and destroy it, to end it all for good.
But now, seeing how Yun Xi treasured it, he felt an inexplicable reluctance.
Let it be, let it be.
He covered Yun Xi with the blanket again, then turned and left the room.
Stepping outside, he picked up the book that Xinning had been reading earlier that day under the moonlight.
The book seemed like a draft, filled with deductions.
What was being deduced was the darkest chess game of all eternity.
On the pages, the annotation “Eternal darkness, a pathless plight” caught his eye.
“Eternal darkness requires light; the heavy night needs flames…”
Li Fan murmured to himself:
“A single spark can start a prairie fire, indeed a solution, but it requires too much, too many sacrifices… After the flame passes, all is desolation…”
He sat in silence for a long time, contemplating repeatedly, then suddenly stood up, and threw the book into the flames.
Li Fan watched the entire book burn to ashes, his eyes reflecting a calm composure.
He dusted off his hands and turned back to his room to sleep.
…
The night grew deep.
The evening breeze swept by, the stars in the sky vault shimmering, intermittently hidden by clouds covering the moon.
“Eternal darkness… a pathless plight…”
The voice of the old hen suddenly resounded:
“So the master had thought of the solution all those years ago… yet why did he ultimately choose to embark on the Ascendant Path alone in the end…”
Her words clearly filled with regret and confusion.
The peach tree’s branches drooped slightly, saying:
“The master is the only one through the ages, who once reached the source, and returned safely… After his return, he left the Forbidden World and came to the Ancestral Mist Realm…”
“He created Samsara in the Ancestral Mist Realm, but after the completion of Samsara, he did not continue, eventually choosing to embark on the Ascendant Path alone… Perhaps the solution was too heavy, so the master preferred not to use it…”
The peach tree’s words paused for a long, long time.
The old hen muttered:
“Clearly having found the strategy to break the game, yet unwilling to use it, carrying Samsara alone to the source…”
“This life… the master has again burned the manuscript. Does the master… intend to make the same choice as before?”
“If it’s not completely resolved, even if the master reappears, those dark forces will only hide again for trillions of years… In the end, it will be all for naught…”
The peach tree fell silent for a long time before slowly speaking:
“The strategy to break the game, not used then, and now… the master will still not use it, or else he wouldn’t be who he is.”
The voice of the old hen trembled slightly as she said:
“…The master’s life of sorrow, the blood and pain of the heavens, the tears and anguish of countless lifetimes… Is he to bear this alone again in this life?”
The peach tree murmured:
“The master has laid out the plan until now… Perhaps, there are other strategies…”
“You and I had fallen asleep back then, and no one knows what ultimately happened.”
Hearing this, the old hen suddenly cast her gaze towards the doghouse.
Inside the doghouse, the Big Black Dog had been pretending to sleep and now suddenly felt a chill rise on its fur, and reluctantly opened its dog eyes, blurting:
“Sister… Sister Feng, is something the matter?”
The old hen intoned word by word:
“After we fell into slumber, the master must have awakened you once… What exactly happened back then?”
The words carried a chill.
Big Black Dog’s eyes shifted as it said:
“I… I don’t remember anymore…”
The old hen gently fluttered her wings.
The Peach Tree branches hung lightly.
The koi leaped above the water surface.
Feeling the change in the atmosphere, Big Black Dog panicked immediately, saying:
“Woof… I really don’t know, I only remember the master vaguely saying that to win one must rely on deception, deceive everything, deceive oneself… I’ve forgotten everything else!”
“Besides, even if the master really did something back then, how could I possibly retain the memories about those affairs.”
“My big brothers and sisters… go easy when you hit me!”
It laid down flat, shivering!
Faced with these beings… it didn’t even think of running away.
The old hen and the others: “…”
This dog is so cowardly that it immediately confessed, which made them unsure of what to do next.
“It has a point, we were too anxious.”
The Peach Tree spoke up, saying:
“Perhaps the master did have a contingency plan… but in the whole world, I’m afraid no one knows what the master’s contingency truly was.”
“Rely on deception…? Deceiving everything, including oneself…”
The Peach Tree pondered and then suddenly said:
“Starting today, we… perhaps should not continue to dwell on our origins, on planning our next moves…”
Hearing this, the old hen felt a shiver and said:
“You mean…”
The Peach Tree said:
“Deceive everything… including ourselves!”
The old hen nodded in agreement, saying:
“Indeed, thinking too much might actually be detrimental…”
And suddenly, within the pond, a dragon’s shadow shook the heavens, and a horde of dragons roared:
“Fight, shatter everything, slay through the heavens!”
“Shatter everything, slay through the heavens!”
The True Dragon Clan was resolute in battle intent, their courage soaring to the skies.
The old hen said coldly:
“Looking to die again? The master is not in a good mood today, if you wake him up, you can choose to be stewed or steamed.”
Upon hearing this, a group of True Dragons… all paused for a moment, then hastily returned under the water, and dared not to surface again.
But the Peach Tree suddenly said:
“Actually, the True Dragons are rather good, only thinking about a single battle, not overthinking… that in itself is correct.”
Hearing this, the dragons in the pond excitedly said:
“Sister Tao, at last, you speak a fair word!”
“Phoenix Matron, did you hear that? Even Sister Tao says we, the Dragon Clan, are right!”
Their pride was palpable, as if they were utterly vindicated!
However, the old hen fell silent for a moment, then said:
“Do you mean that their brains are simpler… and they can’t conceive complex matters?”
Upon hearing this, the dragons in the pond all came to a halt.
“Big Brother, it seems Phoenix Matron is correct… that doesn’t sound like praise…”
A dragon spoke up, rather meekly.
The True Dragon King: “…”
…
“By the way, Yun Xi… has borrowed the Red Dust Jade, to learn about the past events, and now she even understands the darkest secrets of the ancient times, she…”
At this time, the old hen suddenly continued speaking.
The Peach Tree said:
“She is always The End of Myriad Paths… having glimpsed the future, she left the Red Dust Jade until now, it must have its purpose.”
“The End of Myriad Paths… might also be plotting for the master’s grand scheme…”
The old hen nodded, saying:
“Understood… the grand curtain is about to lift, the eyes of the origins will finally sweep across, and The End of Myriad Paths, the Ten Honored and Two Vicious Ones, all must enter the game.”
The Peach Tree said with a touch of sadness:
“The master’s life is full of sorrow, these last few years, he finally had worry-free laughter, a peaceful enjoyment of life…”
“…It’s a shame that the peaceful days are far too short, and have passed all too quickly…”
…
Good night.