"Niannian? Niannian!"
Yu Nian opened her eyes in a daze and found herself lying in Feng Chengyuan's arms.
Seeing Yu Nian wake up, Feng Chengyuan let out a sigh of relief.
"What happened to me just now?"
Qi Rongsheng scratched his head and replied, "You fainted as soon as you entered the room. It seemed like you were having a nightmare. You kept calling for your mom..."
Yu Nian took a deep breath and turned around. To her surprise, Granny Qiu and A Heng were standing outside the door.
In the boundless black mist, a silhouette with an indistinguishable face appeared in front of everyone. Yu Nian stood with her hands behind her back and softly called out to the shadow.
"Xiaoyan."
Granny Qiu trembled all over. Regardless of being tied up, she sobbed and ran towards the shadow.
But just as she was about to touch the silhouette, it suddenly disappeared without a trace.
Granny Qiu completely broke down. She said word by word, "Xiaoyan, are you still blaming mom? It's mom who didn't protect you well."
Yu Nian looked at Granny Qiu and asked in a low voice, "What exactly happened later?"
In Granny Qiu's dream - like narration, everyone finally learned the whole story.
When Granny Qiu was young, she was very beautiful. Moved by Gao Xi's sincerity, she married far away.
Not long after they got married, a group of bandits came to Heihe Village. They were all ferocious and committed all kinds of atrocities in the village, such as raping, looting and doing evil.
The bandits lusted after Granny Qiu's beauty and tied her up to the mountain stronghold.
Gao Xi witnessed all this but always hid in the crowd and didn't dare to step forward to rescue his wife.
Everyone thought Granny Qiu had died in the stronghold, but who would have known that half a month later, she ran back to the village covered in blood and fainted at the village entrance.
She used her Gu skills to knock out the guards in the stronghold and returned to the village after a narrow escape.
Granny Qiu was sent home by the villagers in the same village. When she opened her eyes, she saw her husband sitting beside the bed.
Everyone thought it would be a warm scene of the reunion of a couple. Unexpectedly, Gao Xi forced a smile, and the first thing he asked was, "Did those bandits touch you?"
Granny Qiu was completely disheartened and decided to return to the Miao territory. However, she was still persuaded to stay by Gao Xi, who knelt on the ground and apologized.
She thought this matter would just pass like this, but she didn't know that once suspicion started, the accusation was already established.
They lived an "peaceful" life for a few months. Then Granny Qiu got pregnant and gave birth to a daughter smoothly.
People in the village were all gossiping, saying that Granny Qiu's child was the bandit's from the stronghold.
The gossips were like sharp swords, and the rift between Granny Qiu and Gao Xi grew wider and wider.
Gao Xi also looked down on Granny Qiu more and more. Maybe he could hide his feelings when he was sober, but whenever he got drunk, he would beat Granny Qiu and Xiaoyan, venting all his resentment on them.
Granny Qiu always endured for Xiaoyan's sake, until Gao Xi accidentally strangled Xiaoyan to death.
When Granny Qiu woke up, Gao Xi knelt down in front of her with a thud.
He shed tears and slapped his own face until it was red and swollen. While kowtowing, he confessed his sins.
"I didn't mean to do it. Please forgive me. I swear I'll never drink again, and I'll never beat you again. Please, this is definitely the last time. Forgive me!"
Granny Qiu was heart - broken. She tremblingly picked up the doll that Xiaoyan always carried and sewed it up stitch by stitch.
In the beliefs of some regions, the souls of children who died a violent death at a young age were full of resentment and would linger at home and refuse to leave.
So Gao Xi claimed to the outside world that Xiaoyan was a girl who died in the flower - falling cave. He said that Xiaoyan died with a smile on her face.
However, in the middle of the night, Gao Xi always saw Xiaoyan's miserable death in front of his eyes.
He then asked a Taoist priest to seal Xiaoyan's soul for peace of mind.
Granny Qiu endured the pain and buried her daughter. But unexpectedly, on an ordinary night, Gao Xi got drunk and beat Granny Qiu again for no reason.
The moment the heavy slap landed on Granny Qiu's cheek, the light in the room went out instantly, and a cold wind howled.
Then a young man with different - colored pupils walked out of Xiaoyan's room.
Although he was tall, his steps were so light that they were almost inaudible.
The young man's figure was like a ghost. In the blink of an eye, he came to the man's side.
He grabbed the man's hair and smashed his head against the ground again and again. The blood stained the whole carpet...
Gao Xi died like this. Finally, Granny Qiu skinned and dismembered him and made him part of the doll.
At this point, there was full of regret in Granny Qiu's cloudy eyes. "I didn't give Xiaoyan a complete family, so she hated me all her life. She refused to come out and see me."
However, Yu Nian shook her head. By now, she was sure that this was Granny Qiu's obsession.
"Xiaoyan never blamed you. A Heng is the best proof. Xiaoyan asked me to tell you that more than twenty years have passed. Everyone has let go, but only you are still torturing yourself. She doesn't want you to be like this."
Granny Qiu was stunned. Then she saw Yu Nian take out three incense sticks, light them, and silently chant a few incantations.
The next moment, Granny Qiu felt a heavy weight on her body. It seemed that something had thrown itself into her arms.
It was a long - awaited reunion and also a lost and found moment.
She could no longer hold back her inner pain and cried loudly.
At the same time, the resentment lingering on Granny Qiu dissipated bit by bit like a silk being pulled. The moment the illusion disappeared, Granny Qiu turned to look at Yu Nian and seriously said "Thank you" in the Miao language.
When they opened their eyes again, all the contestants were back in the previous secret realm. They all felt as if they had passed through a lifetime.
After the scores were summarized, Yu Nian was undoubtedly the first in the whole field. But she was not excited. She turned to look at Yan Qing, who had a bad complexion, and said in a calm tone, "Should I call you Yan Qing or Gui?"
Yu Nian should have realized earlier that everything they encountered since they entered the illusion was related to the doll.
Combined with the previous inexplicable dream, Yan Qing's appearance gradually overlapped with the small puppet in her memory. Her sluggish train of thought was finally cleared at this moment.
Yan Qing was a Gui created by the Ancestor Xuande himself. His experience was very similar to A Heng's. Yan Qing witnessed the death of the Ancestor Xuande. His Gui core was stained with blood, and he developed wisdom and a mind, then transformed into a human form.
A hundred years after the death of the Ancestor Xuande, he was reborn through soul - possession and still walked on the right path. But Yan Qing became a heretic cultivator during these hundred years.
Yan Qing smiled sinisterly. The blood - red evil spirit surging in his eyes slowly emerged.
"Long time no see, my master."
Yu Nian frowned and looked at him. "You've done a lot of bad things. What exactly do you want to do?"
Yan Qing tilted his head, looking like an innocent child.
"Xuande, you've destroyed my plans again and again. Now you're still entangled with an ordinary person. Why are you so stubborn? Join the heretic cultivators and become my Taoist partner. Let's trample all the righteous sects under our feet together."
Yu Nian smiled faintly. "What if I say no?"
The smile in Yan Qing's eyes suddenly turned cold. Since he was created by Xuande, he naturally knew Xuande's abilities.
He practiced evil arts, constantly depriving humans of their bodies and sucking their resentment, in order to have an immortal soul.
"Let's play a game. Within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, let's see if anyone can defeat me. If not, I'll kill everyone here."
The moment his voice fell, the sky suddenly darkened. Dark clouds rolled violently, and a strong demonic aura swept in. It got thicker and thicker and occupied half of the sky.
The competition site immediately became a complete mess.
"Demonic aura! It's demonic aura!"
"Why is there a demon participating in the metaphysics competition?!"
The accident happened so suddenly that the audience didn't even have time to react.
[What's going on now? Is it real or just an act?]
[It can't be the program team's hype, right? The effect is so realistic!]
Everyone was terrified. They saw the demonic aura gradually distort and take shape. The parrot that had been perching on Yan Qing's shoulder all along suddenly let out a long screech, flapped its wings and flew into the sky. A huge flame shot up into the sky, and a loud phoenix cry also erupted.
Following closely behind the fire phoenix were four celestial horses, pulling an extremely luxurious canopied carriage.
A group of demon lords stood on both sides of the carriage, making a grand show.
Suddenly, the scene in front of them changed, and a ring appeared in front of everyone.