Lu Yao's body suddenly trembled. He stiffly raised his head and looked in the girl's direction in disbelief. Just one glance made him choke with sobs.
Qi Wan stared fixedly at Lu Yao, then walked towards him. The heavy iron chains and shackles dragged on the ground, constantly making a "clattering" sound. She stopped beside Lu Yao, squatted down, and looked him in the eye.
Her gaze was calm. It seemed she had a lot to say, but in the end, she just reached out and stroked Lu Yao's cheek, giving a soft sigh. "Why did you let yourself become like this?"
Lu Yao tightly grasped Qi Wan's hand and shook his head. His voice was trembling violently as he kept murmuring, "I'm sorry, Wanwan. I was still too late..."
On the day Qi Wan was thrown into the lake, he received a call from his childhood friend in the village. He rushed back from school in great anxiety, but unexpectedly had a car accident on the way. As he lay in a pool of blood, his heart was still set on going home. He had to come back to save Qi Wan.
But it seemed God didn't hear his prayer. Lu Yao died in a foreign land and vanished on the road.
His strong obsession trapped him in the middle of that road, wandering day and night. As time passed, he forgot why he died and even who he was.
All he remembered was that he had to go home because there was someone waiting for him...
"The one who should apologize is not you, and I've never blamed you."
Qi Wan shed silent tears. She cast a look at the trembling boatman beside her and curled her lips into a cold smile.
The boatman was horrified and crawled away in a hurry. Feng Chengyuan silently took a step forward and blocked his way.
The boatman suddenly felt a sense of despair. He kowtowed to the goddess continuously, begging for mercy.
Qi Wan silently stared at the boatman for a moment. Her eyes were filled with unmasked hatred. "I lost my parents when I was young. At the age of eight, you selected me, claiming that my birth date was in line with that of the goddess and that I was the chosen one. Since then, under the guise of being believers, you've imprisoned me in this narrow village forever. I couldn't go to school like others, nor could I be with my lover openly. At first, I accepted my fate. Since heaven had given me the ability to control the wind and rain, I should protect Ningyuan Village. But gradually, I realized that your so - called faith was mixed with self - interest. What you worshipped was not me at all, but your own desires! The mistress the village head kept outside was seriously ill, and he demanded that I heal her. But I'm just an ordinary person with no magic power except the ability to pray for rain. Unexpectedly, the village head flew into a rage and said that I was not a goddess but a demoness who brought chaos to the world. He called dozens of people to tie me up... The lake water was so cold that day. On each of your faces, there was no sign of guilt, but only indifference, selfishness, and gloating!"
As soon as she finished speaking, a strong aura of resentment burst out from Qi Wan. Her face was instantly distorted, and she was about to pounce on the boatman. The boatman let out a sudden sob and fainted on the spot.
When everyone thought Qi Wan would kill the boatman, she suddenly stopped. In the astonished eyes of everyone, she slowly withdrew her hand.
Qi Wan looked at Yu Nian. Her pale lips moved. "If I don't kill him, will he still be punished?"
Yu Nian nodded seriously. "Heaven's justice is inescapable. They'll soon reap what they've sown."
Qi Wan turned to look at Lu Yao and lowered her eyelashes. "I have the soul - suppressing talisman on me. Will I never be able to reincarnate?"
Watching the black mist constantly flowing on Qi Wan slowly drifting towards her, Yu Nian's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Not necessarily. Maybe I can give it a try."
Everyone was a bit curious. They saw Yu Nian slowly take out a... pitch - black stone from her bag?
Yu Nian seemed to see through everyone's thoughts and corrected them. "This is an egg."
When those dark shadows approached everyone just now, this egg actually shook violently in the backpack. Its sensitivity to the aura of resentment surprised Yu Nian.
She gently placed the egg on the bamboo raft, pinched a spell with one hand, and softly recited the exorcism spell twice. The egg, which had been like a dead object, slowly rose as if it had come to life. A faint golden light was constantly overflowing around the eggshell. The dense black incantations on Qi Wan's body wriggled towards the egg. In a short while, they were completely swallowed by the egg.
Qi Wan was stunned. She felt a sense of relief all over her body, and her heart had never been so peaceful.
Lu Yao stood shoulder to shoulder with Qi Wan. They both still looked like eighteen - or nineteen - year - olds, but they had experienced decades of separation and reunion before they could finally be together again.
Everyone stepped aside, wanting to give Lu Yao and Qi Wan more time.
Yu Nian always leaned quietly against a tree, waiting. It was not until the sky began to turn white that she stepped forward to send the two of them to reincarnation.
The sandalwood was lit, and the faint fragrance wafted. Yu Nian stood in front of Lu and Qi. The obsession and resentment floating on their bodies gradually calmed down from being violent and finally dissipated between heaven and earth.
Yu Nian slowly opened her closed eyes. "Your fates are still intertwined. You'll have a happy marriage in your next life."
Qi Wan and Lu Yao bowed to Yu Nian and then turned around and walked towards the gentle golden light in the distance.
Yu Nian let out a soft breath and picked up the paper figurine where Lu Yao had been residing.
After sucking up all the black aura, the egg floated back into Yu Nian's hand. No matter how everyone teased it, it remained silent, as if it had turned into a cold and hard stone again.
Liu Mo slithered to Yu Nian's side, stared at the egg for a long time, and a look of suspicion welled up in his vertical pupils. "Where did this come from?"
Yu Nian answered truthfully. "It condensed in the mass grave."
"That's not right." Liu Mo shook his head. "This seems to be... an egg of the demon king!"
"An egg of the demon king? What is that?"
Liu Mo suddenly got a bit excited. His huge body circled around Yu Nian. "Do you know what a jiao is?"
There has always been a saying among the people that a large eel turns into a snake, a large snake turns into a python, a large python turns into an anaconda, an anaconda turns into a jiao. If a jiao can successfully survive the thunderstorm disaster, it can leap into the nine heavens and turn into a real dragon.
Yu Nian nodded. "So what if I know?"
Liu Mo said, "The current old demon king in the demon world is a jiao with extremely high cultivation. He was originally about to survive the disaster and turn into a dragon, but his only unborn offspring was secretly attacked by a villain and then disappeared into the human world. This was a great blow to him, and his cultivation was damaged. In the demon world, the strong are respected. Many small demons under him took the opportunity to cause chaos, and now they're fighting fiercely!"
Yu Nian was stunned and looked at the ordinary - looking egg in her hand. "You mean this thing is the unborn offspring of the old demon king?"
Liu Mo pondered for a while and looked at the gray thing in front of him, hesitating. "I'm just suspicious. The old demon king is extremely brave. His offspring shouldn't be so dull."
Yu Nian didn't dwell on these issues. She put the egg back into her bag. "It doesn't matter what it is. It did a good deed this time and accumulated good karma. It's always on the side of good. Let it decide its own future after it hatches."
When everyone returned to the shore, a group of people suddenly sprang out from the woods. The young man leading them sized up Yu Nian and said in surprise, "You actually got rid of the aura of resentment so easily?"