Free Web NovelChapter 219: Chapter 23: Bai Wu’s Obsession
Every sentence after Bai Wu’s father spoke seemed to pause slightly, as if it were not the same needle that entered Jiuyan’s tail.
"How pitiful," he sighed, "you and your foolish child are just alike, only believing in emotions."
"We Jiuyan have to be good at using the power of the Soul-Hunting Kill because, at the very least within my child’s memories, I am undefeated and cannot be driven out; I am present to the point where even if I fall ill and die in bed one day, he will still always remember me. It is precisely because there are so many mysterious traces that it should have originated from you, who, among others, created a part of me."
"Oh, I’ve forgotten to introduce him, he is my child. Could it be that he hasn’t had any particular emotional issues, since he’s already gotten over one of his ailments? Where does that make it easy to unravel, then?"
Bai Wu’s father still had the same kind and compassionate eyes, looking just like a kindergarten teacher, warming and guiding a small friend.
Even the fat man in the topmost chamber of the tower, who was scary enough to intimidate any visitor, didn’t come even close to this.
Jiuyan immediately felt a chill so cold it was frightening, as though falling into an icy cave, once that needle pierced into its tail from behind.
It no longer twitched.
"You can only rely on emotions to discern nightmares, but you do not realize that there are times when emotions can deceive people."
"So what do you call a shadow, because it has only ever been an extension of your body, no matter how beautiful and tantalizing the searing brightness is? You still cannot cast it out; it is eternal. Isn’t that why you are nauseated by it and finally leave it to itself?"
At this moment, it was nothing but a man, motionless, as if trying to think of what this coiled tail was guarding against in the twitch of a moment.
Jiuyan’s eyes suddenly wide open, touching and feeling his face with hands which now hold an extra needle without knowing for how long.
"Am I just a figment within this created illusion of yours, looking very much like you are now? Will I bring you the pain of a dream?"
Could this be the case, in some world of twisted physical laws where much is left to the imagination, a hypothetical future?
But in reality, they are one and the same. One hard drive seems to contain various kinds of data, while another doesn’t seem to contain anything and may even seem stupid to you, like a hard drive with no weight. "Do our memories have weight?"
Jiuyan suddenly felt this man’s hands to be very clean, as he reached out to touch and feel his face, where there was no room for evasion, and he was only face to face with Bai Wu’s father.
It was exactly thoughts like these, which exuded a fragrance that sweetened the air, that paradoxically led to a sort of illness, a sign of surrender. Despite its repugnant, filthy, and evil nature, it made countless people better, whereas she has been forced to live like a fly or a scavenging dog in this world for over a hundred years.
In Jiuyan’s heart, there have been some touches of men.
In the end, he is but a vision, a phantom so elusive one could hardly see him as a siren’s song within.
In this realm of spiritual powers, it is very difficult to hurt oneself, and he was aware of that, too. Any unplanned spontaneous action would immediately become useless as soon as he came in contact with even a fragment of his old strength.
He tried to use the fragments, now that he had discovered Jiuyan possessed certain spiritual powers. But even if that were just a fragment, it would do nothing in the reality of this world ... at least.
Even the fragments had no reaction to Bai Wu’s grasp of the true manifestation, which was impossible to conceive of. Previously, they had been of no use whatsoever.
Previously, Bai Wu had tried to use the full moon fragment to summon forth the inner convictions, to make them take physical form.
He actually wanted to celebrate in his heart, to feel a thread of relief, even when he was clearly on the brink of his own death.
But it was Bai Wu who manifested, when he used the full moon to summon his deepest convictions, right then and there.
Clearly, Bai Wu was an utter failure, echoing loud and clear in the distant space.
This whole thing was a sarcastic joke, ranking Bai Wu at the top, ahead of Jiuyan and the might of the Qing Valley, on that list which sorted emotional encounters according to affection—a distant echo of laughter over some ridiculous incident.
It was all because of his father, Bai Wu.
Since there were no negative emotions left afterwards, people’s lives were just lacking that much stimulation from all sorts of things, and there was no terror, anger, sorrow, or shared memories to rely on; Bai Wu had to make use of them too.
Bai Wu really wanted to laugh as he looked at the man not far away, dressed in a large white coat, but he couldn’t bring himself to smile.
"You really are strange; my obsession with an electric rice cooker is nothing bizarre after all..."
Even beyond conscious recognition, there was a sense that this man carried some sort of holy light. freewebnøvel.com
His smile was warm and gentle, like the sun on a winter’s day, giving her a very comfortable feeling. This man was simply too perfect, though she had never seen him before, no matter what.
At this moment, even the icy aura of Jiuyan seemed to melt away, although it was as cold as ice just moments before.
But behind her, there was the sound of a man’s voice, how could that be when she clearly hadn’t created any living thing?
It was as if Jiuyan had suddenly discovered another mysterious existence within herself... the Soul-Hunting Kill.
A needle-like pain, as if years of sunlight had stuck a root deep within her own memories.
Upon hearing this piece of speech, Bai Wu started to think back to the many years of being a filial son and a caring father. A voice of mellow magnetism echoed.
"The ultimate mystery of the universe seems to be hinted at by these life cells, these human brains, as if the spiritual realm has always been a battleground for mankind’s attempted conquest. But ultimately, it’s just one of the many difficulties left unresolved within the realms of creation."
All of a sudden, Bai Wu felt a sort of release as he looked at Jiuyan enduring the relentless piercing of Bai Wu’s father.
"Oh, I understand now that you’re just playing the role of me, that’s all. It’s not necessarily a diagnosis that’s easy to comprehend, especially considering the unbearable pain and tangled mess you’ve been through as a child," Bai Wu said.
"You seem to be role-playing as a father," Bai Wu said suddenly, as the sense of reality and pretense became more and more overlaid.
Bai Wu’s father wasn’t actually looking at Bai Wu when he spoke.
"But in the real world, there’s no one to protect you, that little dwarf will never be by your side, for I’m guarding your spiritual world. The time is almost upon us," Bai Wu’s father said, as if the needle was a sort of ’real harm’ weapon that couldn’t possibly be healed.
It seemed like this place inherently didn’t need any defense against some sort of level nine metamorphic organism’s rapid blood return ability because Bai Wu’s father kept playing this needle-throwing game without stopping, even though Jiuyan had fainted.
"Looking at the journey of your life, it has just begun; death is merely the start of another leg of your journey," he said, not quite wrong.
There were times when he felt a certain sense of wrongness about this man who spoke and acted so much like a father... He simply had to accept it.
Unable to recognize this man as the perfect replica of his own father, Bai Wu guessed that this must be based on some fragmented memories, made into a true-to-life version.
"I believe you have substance, I don’t mind trying out some scientific experiments out of sympathy, a tit for tat. If you are indeed doing this because of me, wouldn’t it be natural for me to endure a bit of hardship for you, especially if you meant to harm me?" Bai Wu replied.
"Why arm yourself with such a spear and shield at a time like this, to cause one pain on one hand, while on the other hand you’re desperately asking for life, unable to beg for death through the pain?"
Bai Wu felt good about his own sarcastically toned response.
"Remember, it’s just one more suffering soul. When you wake up later, remember it’s complete rubbish," Bai Wu’s father said, just as Jiuyan completely lost consciousness.
This was reality to the people around them, not some falsified narrative that no longer existed in the world as it is today.
Fictitious settings often come with a set of wild rules.
But ultimately, every narrative will come back to a falsification, although they always seem like some wild, curious speculations akin to folk science fiction.
Bai Wu’s father’s mouth was still full of the same odd mix of topics, like some science fiction or Buddhist metaphysics discussion from many years prior.
The battle had already ended.
But if he really wanted to reflect on all these things, the situation would gradually become very real ... Bai Wu’s emotions were slowly getting in order.
Bai Wu no longer feared his father, having already got used to the past cruelty and could even smile about it.
"Emotional situations are opportunities for deceit," Bai Wu’s father might say in earnest.
Since Jiuyan no longer bore any negative emotions, he accepted this realm as his own, a domain he could not summon anything from.
It was as if before, when only by entering a cheat code in some game would bizarre creatures appear. Bai Wu’s primary belief was that Bai Wu’s father was no trivial opponent.
Bai Wu’s shadow, the only thing that made him feel utterly hopeless, outshone any bizarre god of chaos or any evil one could transcend. In Bai Wu’s mind, his father was a dark childhood shadow.
In a certain sense, Bai Wu’s father appearing out of these obsessions was a kind of a descent attack.
If it had the power to eradicate established rules, let alone create them, it could be a final piece of a jigsaw puzzle.
Jiuyan never would have guessed ... Bai Wu had a cheat device on him.
In this place, Bai Wu had control over where Jiuyan could be.
In this realm of consciousness, he could not manifest anything physically; since Jiuyan was the true master here, Bai Wu couldn’t possibly manipulate or command any power in this realm. Logically speaking, Jiuyan wouldn’t lose to Bai Wu, who couldn’t even create anything.
If one had no fear, then Jiuyan could not create any of these things.
The Soul-Hunting Assassin’s clause is about creating an object of consciousness space that has the power to invoke someone’s innermost fears.
Jiuyan didn’t necessarily struggle in vain.
"But you have already turned evil, your body has long been tainted, and you died, maybe as a form of release? You always had your guards up against the people surrounding you, which also led to your long turbulent journey. In truth, you were just a pitiable child," he said.
"You were always seen as a hindrance by others, disliked by your mother and father from your childhood, excluded by people because you were treated as a social obstacle, even though, at times, you were a pure soul," he explained slowly, his body beginning to convulse with every sentence. Bai Wu’s eyes started to create voids as he gazed at Jiuyan.
And with every sentence, Bai Wu would pause briefly—a stark contrast to how Jiuyan’s head was relentlessly penetrated.
As Wang’s power manifested, Bai Wu’s shadow grew increasingly long.
Jiuyan barely managed to reveal a smile of recognition, having heard all this.
"You can keep your venomous milk, I won’t need to go through such trials to measure the danger ahead," Bai Wu snapped, just as he was about to say something, thinking that he had to say something supportive as usual.
Although he was about to speak, Bai Wu cut him off abruptly, having somehow understood what he intended to say beforehand.
The place didn’t feel especially dangerous, and Pang Linwu didn’t feel any sudden misgivings, even though he had already dealt with seven strong evils, leaving only three today; he felt as if he should be moving on to the fourth level."
"We should be going to the fourth level by now."
But Bai Wu had his own rules to follow.
Bai Wu’s father, a true madman, differed from Bai Wu in his approach and thought patterns — essentially good and evil by whim.
Although Jiuyan suffered a tremendous loss to his spirit and psyche, he was not like those evils or people in nature, having endured but ultimately never engaging in such acts.
He saw Jiuyan, not yet dead, considering whether to kill it or not, without giving Bai Wu too many explanations.
"It’s just that simple. Then suddenly, she came to me with an absolute cerebral force, after you had been wiped out," he said.
"But how did you end up like this? Why are you doing this?" Pang Linwu sighed heavily in confusion.
"Bai Wu was given a masterful assist."
"With one offensive gap seized, Wufei caught a Nine-Tailed Fox about to flee to its death, following a double slaying of two level-nine evil beings."
"’It’s so clean and pretty,’"
Wufei turned to Bai Wu and said, "That was the real fight, and his breath quickened slightly."
"Even if he wasn’t killed by the assassin, he was still on the brink of a deadly suffocation, let alone if he was hit again."
"Bai Wu began to breathe heavily, as the majestic power of the forest’s Wang was completely lost. The effectiveness of this one strike would also determine if the person fish would die."
"A person’s head fell to the ground as a sword howled and flew by."
"It could only see the legs of the Soul-Hunting Kill, as it had already become unable to discern the taste of delicious food. The sight before it had turned upside down. It waited for the time to look back and recall its past divine state."
"This one scene, which brought the shocking vision, stunned the person fish, which remained dumbfounded in its original place, even forgetting to summon its sea elemental."
"It was so afraid that it couldn’t even scream out, being chopped into countless tiny pieces of fine bloody flesh."
"His knife would not halt for even a moment; in Wufei’s eyes, whether it was an enemy or not, he had not an ounce of mercy."
"Every single cut was more precise than a sparrow’s eye, landing right in its pupil."
"He was unleashing a countless number of sword lights, forming a dense web. This was the moment Wufei chose to deal a life-threatening blow."
"The sparrowhole and the person fish only had an extremely brief moment of distraction; as the sparrow’s tail went down, the sword force became increasingly fierce and cruel."
"Neither Wang’s might nor Lin’s gentleness had any time to figure out what happened; the sparrowhole and the person fish were simply astounded." ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
"’How is that even possible?’"
"...Jiuyan was their own doing, blatant on the ground."
"The person fish and the sparrowhole were shocked to discover that the Nine-Tailed Fox’s tail, just like that Lotus Pedestal, dissipated suddenly, as if nothing had happened."
"Following Bai Wu’s waking eyes, another strange incident occurred."
"Suddenly, Bai Wu woke, right when the two were doing that."
"Deciding to leave Bai Wu’s territory first and deal with the person fish, Lin’s gentleness and Wang’s might simultaneously displayed signs of a certain kind of swelling, as Bai Wu’s conscious gaze faded away."
"Although Wufei had successfully suppressed two level-nine evil beings, he had no way to save Bai Wu."
"The surrounding scene began to change again."
"’A complete failure, see you next time,’" said Bai Wu with a soundless smile, as if he had started to expect not too much from him."
"It’s only me who is tapping into these kind of words, it’s only me who is forging you: ’Father would never say such things,’" he said confidently, with a smile full of self-mockery."
"’If you want to know some particular matters for our next chat, or perhaps we can chat again another time because we’ve already crossed paths and won’t meet again, the journey of me, your so-called nothing, has come to an end, I don’t care what you want from me,’"
"’Ha ha ha, you don’t seem to be annoyed by your temper, quite regrettable, but of course, you can’t be angry, fundamentally, you’ve already become insensitive to some emotions,’"
"’Even though we are neighbors after all, I too have the right to play the role of a kind father, but I have the right to break you into pieces and make you into a failed product,’"
