Chapter 46 Doll
Can’t wait until next week to see more? Want to show your support? Go to my Ko-fi where you can get up to 12 more chapters right away, help support early releases, or show your appreciation!!! <3
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
Lord?
Is the one calling him that person sitting in the dark corner?
He walked over.
The man stared at him silently, as if he was witnessing a fleeting dream.
The firelight came closer.
The person’s appearance became clearer in his eyes.
The man was wearing a black robe, but it was old and tattered. He was almost unclothed. Pale and thin limbs hung loosely under the broken clothing.
That pale color, even in the orange flame, couldn’t receive the slightest warmth.
Dark scars snaked across the man’s face, terrifying and hideous.
Upon closer inspection, there did not seem to be any injuries on the person’s body. However, there were many dark red blood scars and dust sticking to his bare skin.
Limbs, clavicle, neck. They were everywhere.
With his sharp eyes, he accidentally caught a glimpse of something shattered on the ground next to him, scattered around. His pupils shrank.
One couldn’t help letting their mind run wild..
He walked over to him, knelt on one knee, and held the person in his arms.
……So skinny.
How can you be so thin, he thought.
The bulging bones poking into him made him lose his mind.
It made his heart, liver, spleen, stomach, and lungs hurt.
Moreover, this person didn’t even show a trace of resistance.
His long black hair collapsed downward, and the man fell into his arms like a broken doll.
Then, he let out a mutter.
“My Lord…”
He was only calling out.
But his voice seemed to be sharpened by sharp knives until it was rough and husky.
“I’m here,” he said.
The person in his arms continued the repetition: “Lord…”
The other party raised his head and stared at him, his eyes focused.
But the bottom of his eyes was very dark and empty.
He vaguely sensed something wrong.
But he dared not think too deeply.
He replied: “…I am here.”
However, the person in his arms had no response to what he said.
His pale, thin hands gripped the front of his clothes like the flowers that grew alongside a corpse. There was a bit of a lifeless coldness.
“Lord…”
“Senior Immortal, I’m here.” He clasped the other party’s hand.
The hand in the center of his was thin and pointy, and it was not as soft as when he touched it under the almond blossom tree. His voice repeated hoarsely, “I’m right by your side.”
He leaned in and hugged the body in his arms tighter, trying to transfer some of his body temperature over.
The person in his arms trembled violently as if he was being scalded.
Then, there was complete silence.
Like a puppet inside its shell with exhausted spirit stones.
“Senior Immortal, I will take you out of here.” He said.
The person in his arms did not respond.
There was a deep silence within his dark eyes.
He had never seen such a look in the eyes of the living.
There was such a strong… sense of death in his eyes.
The other party’s consciousness seemed to have fallen into the realm of the dead, and what remained in the world was just a mutilated body. Like everything he saw was nothing but an illusion left before his death.
“It’s not an illusion,” he said, “Senior Immortal, look at me.”
He held the other party’s thin jaw and stared at his face.
In the flames, that face was dark and ugly. It was like a ghost born of darkness and filth, And his body was so thin that it was just a pile of white bones in his arms.
He stared quietly for a while, then he lifted the mask on his face halfway, leaned in, and kissed him.
“Mm…”
A damp and ambiguous sound rang out.
The dark and hollow eyes of the person in his arms slowly widened.
He kissed the other party’s lips, and said in a low voice: “Look at me, feel me, rely on me.”
“I am here, not an illusion.”
——
The foot of Tianchi Mountain.
Ye Yunlan walked out of the flying boat.
Elder Xun’s voice came from behind.
“Right now, Tianchi Mountain is facing troubling times. If I were you, I would leave as soon as possible after you recuperate a bit. You don’t want to go through this pool of muddy water again.”
Ye Yunlan looked back at the rickety old man behind him. The sacred mask covering the other party’s face made it difficult to discern their true intention.
Ye Yunlan: “Thank you for the reminder.”
Elder Xun didn’t say anything more. He closed the hatch, and the flying boat became hidden in the void.
Ye Yunlan stood at the foot of Tianchi Mountain, looking up at a distant place.
Dark clouds were gathering. Lightning and thunder lashed down, while the sky was red with fire. The booming sounds could still be heard even if there was a long-distance in-between.
Many cryptic fluctuations spread from all parts of Tianchi Mountain. With Queying in his hand, the Death Nirvana sword intent in his body cheered for the killing of the mountain’s creatures.
However, his Queying sword made a low rumbling sound.
It resisted his evil sword intent.
Ye Yunlan stretched out his hand and gently soothed the blade of his Queying Sword. His appearance was still indifferent.
Instead of heeding Elder Xun’s warning, he stepped up onto Tianchi Mountain’s path again.
The road up the mountain was winding and far. He chanted Nian Er’s name a few times in a low voice. Without a response, he walked alone in silence.
The winding mountain road was like spiraling stairs. The wind passed over his empty robe, making his fingers feel a little cold.
He suddenly missed him a little, missed when that man covered him with his palms and rubbed his fingertips.
The wind was dull, and the lightning lingered.
The roar of thunder echoed in the mountains in the distance.
Suddenly, there was a clear cry of swords.
Queying was already out of the sheath.
In front of Ye Yunlan’s eyes, there was a thin golden thread.
The thread stretched out was very straight and sharp.
He didn’t doubt that as long as he walked half a step more, the thin thread would cut his throat and separate it from his body.
Ye Yunlan stared at this thin thread, and the tip of his pupil seemed to reflect a little bit of a golden color.
He turned his head to the void in one direction and said coldly: “Come out.”
——The bottom of the tower.
He finally let go of the jaw belonging to the man in his arms.
The person in his arms was panting. The originally dark and hollow eyes were as wet as hazy rain.
It was a small amount of rain, not enough to water the land that had dried up for years.
In front of him, this person now had a more moist, soft, and vibrant appearance.
——He wanted to bring this man back to the sun.
He tried to carry this person on his back but found that this person’s hands and feet were too weak. The hands around his shoulders looked fragile, like dry flower branches. It was as if they would break upon touch.
He had to tear out the cloth from his own body and tie the man to his back to hold him firmly in place.
Then, he stood up and walked up the endless winding staircase beside the tower wall.
The stairs were very narrow and steep. There was no railing, and it was made of gray stones.
It seemed that this stone ladder was not designed for people to pass through from the beginning.
Each level of the stone ladder could only stand half a foot at most, and between the first level of the stone ladder and the other levels, it was almost the height of an adult’s calf.
This meant that after stepping on the stone ladder, there would almost be no place to rest. One could only keep going up.
…Or use one’s hands and feet on the stone ladder.
But if you are not careful, one would roll down the stone ladder.
There is no railing beside the stone ladder.
He seemed to understand where the bloodstains on this person’s body and the scattered things on the ground came from.
The spiritual power remaining in his body had been exhausted when the flame lit. His imprisoned cultivation base couldn’t be used.
One floor, two floors, three floors…
The evil spirits at the bottom of the tower burned by the fire of karma slowly moved away. Then, they were replaced by the gaze of the gods and the Buddhas. Staring from the tower, they were extremely small.
He didn’t look at the weird Buddha sculptures but walked up silently, looking at the person.
Sweat dripped from his face drop by drop. He was breathing heavily.
It seemed to have been a very, very long, long time since he had this face.
Suddenly the person behind him trembled slightly.
At first, he didn’t notice it.
But as the light from the high spot slowly approached, the person on his back trembled more. His thin fingers grabbed his shoulders convulsively.
A small cry came from behind.
“It hurts so much…”
“Don’t… go up again…”
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
I feel really sad while reading their past. :(
:((((((
Thank you for the chapter!