Chapter 161 - Asking the Heart
TL-Checked by Sassystrawberry; Edited by Animeart
He rhetorically asked, so what crimes are the people of the world guilty of?
Lin Shu thought to himself, this probably was the difference between Ling Fengxiao and the Great Wizard?
As he was thinking, this man embraced him, laid his jaw upon his shoulder, and questioned: “What if I agree with the Great Wizard? Would you still want me?”
Lin Shu thought for a while.
If your mother and I fell into the river at the same time, who would you save first?
So it turned out that even though he didn’t have a girlfriend, but a boyfriend, he couldn’t escape this ultimate line of questioning.
Ling Fengxiao: “Well?”
Lin Shu said, “Want.”
“Hmm...” Ling Fengxiao said, “Regardless of my actions, you will still want me?”
Lin Shu: “...En.”
Ling Fengxiao then kissed him.
Lin Shu expressionlessly accepted these kisses.
Ling Fengxiao asked: “Is it because I’m good looking?”
Then he proceeded to contradict himself: “You have cultivated the Heartless Dao, I fear that you can’t distinguish beauty from ugliness.”
Lin Shu considered the matter seriously: “You are still beautiful.”
Ling Fengxiao: “Your commitment to the Heartless Dao is not firm.”
Lin Shu retorted: “It is very firm.”
Ling Fengxiao: “Then are your five senses not dulled?”
Lin Shu: “Somewhat diminished.”
Within his consciousness, he felt that the world before his eyes was much duller than before, the colors were less vibrant, the noises more ephemeral and lost in misty chaos, his sense of touch and sense of pain had also diminished somewhat.
Ling Fengxiao opened his eyes wide.
Lin Shu: “?”
Ling Fengxiao said: “Then...then...”
When this person spoke, he seldom hesitated or stuttered, but currently why was he showing such abnormalities?
Lin Shu: “Huh?”
Ling Fengxiao said: “Then two days ago, at night......I made you cry.”
Lin Shu: “......”
Ling Fengxiao continued: “If there was no Heartless Dao, wouldn’t you have been crying from the beginning to the end?”
Lin Shu’s vision faded to black.
I will be firm in maintaining the Heartless Dao.
Ling Fengxiao coughed once.
They returned to the more normal topic at hand.
“The defensive array is tightly guarded. You have to enter from the first floor, accessing the top floor from the inside.” Ling Fengxiao’s fingertips traced the drawings provided by Xiao Xuan, determining the route, and said: “If we are able to see the Great Wizard without alerting him, it would be good. If he is alerted, we will immediately enter the Qingming Cave, and will be able to avoid any casualties.”
Lin Shu gave an “En” in agreement.
When working with Ling Fengxiao, the others could just let go of their thinking abilities, and let him manage all the details.
Ling Fengxiao picked up a brush to make markings on the map.
Lin Shu watched him work out eight different ways of ascending the tower, seven ways of getting down from the tower, as well as three separate emergency escape plans.
Everything was accounted for, so they proceeded to infiltrate the tower.
The defensive measures under the tower were not considered very tight — for a person at the level of “Crossing the Tribulation”.
The two of them relied upon their high cultivation, smoothly avoiding all surveillance, and floated effortlessly into the window on the first floor.
The first floor was hauntingly empty and tall.
An enormous statue of the Pilu God stood in the centre of this space, slightly hunched forward.
This divine statue seemingly had hundreds of eyes and thousands of arms, growing from all over the body, with indescribable weird patterns covering the entire statue.
The largest eye was located on the front of the Pilu God, stretching from the base of the neck to its navel.
Although he has seen the portraits of the Pilu God previously, now that he’s in front of it, he could actually feel that level of insanity, treachery, indescribable and suffocating feeling of pressure.
They had a discussion about the Pilu God yesterday.
The result of the discussion was that, what Pilu God was to the Jie Tribe, it was something similar to what the Heavenly Dao was to the Immortal cultivators.
The Pilu God’s hundred eyes and a thousand arms were used to discover the evils of human beings and carry out the sentence on those who were guilty. The Heavenly Dao, in the Immortal Dao doctrines, was omniscient, and would impose heavenly lightning as punishment for evildoers.
Then Ling Fengxiao whilst deep in thought raised an example, that the Dian Kingdom worshipped the “Miao God”, and Western Xinjiang also believed in the “Sakhe God”, and as for other different tribes, various schools of cultivation, and even the Buddhist Path which was the most detached from the secular world, would have a supreme being akin to the Pilu, Heavenly Path, Miao God, Sakhe God etc.
It was as if that between Heaven and Earth existed an untouchable set of iron-clad rules, that would be enforced by an omnipotent God.
Xiao Xuan rubbed his palms in admiration, listening to Ling Fengxiao’s words, was more enlightening than reading ten years of books and self-study.
Lin Shu didn’t dare make a sound.
Honestly speaking, he might be an immortal cultivator, but intrinsically he was an atheist, and even often tested the boundaries of materialism and modern physics.
However, going back to the main topic, regardless whether there truly was such an existence, looking at the spotless and dust-free surface of the Pilu God’s divine statue, it was evident that it received appropriate surface attention and care. One could infer that the Great Wizard might really claim himself as the Pilu God, Heavenly Dao level and the like, and was unable to accept the filthiness of the secular world, thus planned for an ultimate purification.
They went around the divine statue, and from the back, climbing up the left hand side’s wooden stairs up the tower.
There was not a single soul on the second floor, there were only some strangely carved statues, seemingly in the same vein as the Pilu God, inhuman looking.
There was no one on the third floor, only some peculiar murals, the objects in the paintings were again seemingly in the same vein as the Pilu God. There were some dark figures, depicted insanely, on the dark brown walls dancing in a frenzy. After staring at it for some time, it almost looked as if they were moving.
The fourth floor was also empty of life, however there were no sculptures, nor murals, just an echoing emptiness. Only on the southernmost wall, was hung a portrait of a beauty. This beauty had no face, form, it did not even have a distinguishable gender, it was just a painting on an old paper, an indistinct blurry red silhouette, however Lin Shu felt that the figure should be quite beautiful.
All the floors were entirely lonely and quiet, not a single person moving about within. When Lin Shu started suspecting that there might be a trap, on the fifth level they found a giant ice coffin.
There was water within the ice coffin.
The only water that would never freeze, was the endless water from the bottomless valley of the South China Sea.
Within the water was an enormous, snowy-white shelled giant clam. Its shell was so large that it would probably need ten people to encircle it. The clam’s shell was closed, asleep. With only a faint white mist escaping from the seam of the shell, giving off a somewhat sweet and chaotic life breath.
Obviously, this white fog was not cold air, but a hallucinatory mirage. Therefore, this wasn’t a giant clam, but a “Shèn“, a type of mythological sea monster that forms mirages.
Within the South China Sea, ships capsized and sank every year. Most of the people on board would be enthralled by the mirage, and would die while sailing in the direction of the mirage.
At the moment, it was asleep, but when this thing would awaken, and the mirage filled air would fill the entire floor, anyone who entered this floor would be utterly and completely caught within the illusion.
But this type of ‘small fry’ mirage filling the air, would also cause definite disturbance to the psyche.
However, Phoenix Mountain Villa’s mental techniques contained in them, the blazing sun’s Qi, which happened to be the natural nemesis of the mirage’s Qi.
Lin Shu wanted to tug on Ling Fengxiao’s sleeve, but unexpectedly pulled on empty air.
He looked back to his side, only to see a desolate and empty room.
Lin Shu took a few deep breaths, trying to remember when he had lost contact with Ling Fengxiao.
——But he discovered that since entering the tower, his memories were extremely vague and blurry, it seemed as if he had not spoken with Ling Fengxiao at all. And as for their originally tightly held hands, it was unknown when the grip had loosened and let go.
Illusion?
Lin Shu looked at the mirage before him.
Perhaps, this mirage was also not real.
Perhaps at the time that they had first stepped into the tower, they had been misled by an imperceptible mirage, and fallen into an illusionary realm consisting of partial truth and partial deception.
Within the tower was only a lonely silence, Lin Shu didn’t dare play the zither to stabilize his emotions, he only silently recited mental formulas, trying to escape the illusion.
It was to no avail.
The scene in front of him remained of an echoing empty large room, with a snowy white ‘Shèn’.
Looking again, the stairway which he had come up by, had also disappeared without a trace, and the staircase heading upwards, was also gone.
It was only in a corner of the room, where there was a very dark doorway, seemingly connected to a corridor.
Lin Shu had no other choice, but to head in that direction.
That moment when he stepped in, he fell in a daze, finding himself once again on the second floor, amongst the countless strange and terrifying statues.
He passed by the continuous sea of limbs, and ended back in the same position, it was still that incredibly dark doorway, upon entering it, he arrived at the third floor, murals.
The walls, ceilings, and pillars were all twisted structures, whilst passing through, it was as if he was walking through seaweed. At the same location, and the same doorway, he entered the fourth level, the level with the portrait of a beauty.
Moving onwards, it was only the fifth floor with its ‘Shèn’.
An endless loop.
Lin Shu finally stopped on the fourth floor, in front of the portrait of the beauty.
Portrait of a Beauty.
Beauty.
Red.
Ling Fengxiao.
He looked at the old piece of paper with that small halo of red.
Whatever the case, this color makes him feel safe.
But as he observed that painting, the cinnabar red color, slowly faded away.
It was a blank piece of paper.
He felt somewhat breathless, leaning against the wall, thinking about possible solutions.
Supposing that this is indeed his mirage, then the things and events within the illusion, should have some relation to him.
So if... this portrait of a beauty represents Ling Fengxiao, then what do the treacherous, twisted and densely overlapping sculptures and murals on the second and third floors represent?
Although his chest felt stuffy, his mind and psyche were exceptionally lucid.
He recollected walking on the streets during his past life, when he went against the surging crowd of people, under the hot sun there were chaotic shadows on the concrete ground.
He suddenly thought of it.
Those treacherous, twisted, densely packed and indescribable statues are perhaps how he views the people of the world.
As this thought flashed by, it seemed like he could hear footsteps coming from the doorway.
Lin Shu looked in that direction.
As if they were just an illusion, in that instant, the footsteps also disappeared.
He continued to see the portrait of a beauty.
The Portrait of a beauty really resembled Ling Fengxiao.
But as of now, the red silhouette on the painting had already faded away.
And what’s this now?
With regards to knowledge with regards to illusions, he had learnt much in the past. Illusion was generally related to one’s state of mind, he would need to understand the intrinsic meaning behind every single detail, in order to discover the flaw within the illusion.
Fading away..... was it the Heartless Dao?
He felt the mottled drawing paper, his heart feeling somewhat overwhelmed.
Those footsteps sounded again.
Lin Shu turned his head again.
This time, he saw Xiao Shao garbed in all-black leaning against the doorway, slowly wiping the Guiltless blade.
His face was covered with that silver mask, which Lin Shu hadn’t seen in a very long time.
There was a line of red blood under the mask, it seemed as if the blood was flowing from under his eyes.
Lin Shu didn’t go forward, he knew that anything within the illusion could not be trusted.
In this lonely silence, there came a sound of falling debris.
It was that piece of artwork that had fallen and shattered on the ground.
The walls were now empty.
He moved his gaze away to look at Xiao Shao.
Xiao Shao however looked towards the original location of the painting.
After a long time, he heard Xiao Shao say: “Lin Shu.”
Lin Shu: “En.”
Xiao Shao asked, “Do you like me?”
Lin Shu: “..... Like.”
Xiao Shao said, “Don’t like me.”
Lin Shu: “There’s no way that I don’t like you.”
“Don’t like me.” Xiao Shao’s voice was a little hoarse, and at the same time, the bloodstains slid downwards slowly, dripping noisily onto the floor.
“In order to cultivate morality and mind, immortal cultivators who follow the Heartless Dao, should be like the saints in keeping to the precepts, be indifferent to the seven emotions and six desires, be unshaken by temptations and unmoved by emotion. Once they have become moved by emotions or desires, the Heartless Dao will collapse instantly, only you still.....”
The room was empty, save for echoes.
Xiao Shao seemed to smile: “What a high level of cultivation.”
Lin Shu was stunned for a moment and didn’t know how to respond.
He didn’t notice when Xiao Shao had moved near him.
Within a dense blood fog, he lifted up Lin Shu’s chin, with icy cold fingers.
“Regardless of whether you were cultivating the Heartless Dao, you have never been moved by feelings....” The icy cold blade scabbard reached Lin Shu’s chest, and was gradually moved to his neck, cheek and the side of his ear.
Whilst immersed in that icy feeling which caused one to want to shiver, he heard Xiao Shao ask softly: “Am I not right?”
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