Chapter 482 - 481: The Mysterious Voice That Makes One Question Life

Chapter 482: Chapter 481: The Mysterious Voice That Makes One Question Life

Chapter 481: The Mysterious Voice That Makes One Question Life

The Empress’s sudden interjection caught even Bai Xiaoyao off guard, and she instinctively glanced over.

’Who just jumps out and makes themselves a target like that?’

’If I hadn’t been unable to find where on you that so-called "the one and only" Star-Moon Jade is hidden, I’d have torn you apart already... oh right, I did tear you apart once before. But that was only an avatar...’

As Bai Xiaoyao’s gaze shifted, the Empress also realized that her move of drawing everyone’s fire onto herself might not have been very wise.

’Shameful mortal alter ego—you didn’t suppress your backlash properly and it affected me!’

’Pah! You know perfectly well what my backlash is like. This symptom of being easily influenced by one’s emotions is clearly the backlash of the Daoist Alter Ego of Great Forgetfulness of Emotion path!’

’Don’t pin this on me. Are you two really going to say you weren’t thinking along the same lines just now? We’re all "me"—and sensitivity about age isn’t unique to this poor Daoist...’

The three consciousnesses that should have been perfectly in sync were brawling into a knot, yet on the surface the Empress still looked composed, smiling faintly.

"Just now, I happened to finish adjusting the inner heaven and earth within my body, and then heard what Peak Master Ling was saying... Those words were already close to the Dao. I gained quite a bit of insight from them."

’Mmm... can’t exactly admit I’d finished ages ago and was eavesdropping from the sidelines.’

Come to think of it, this Peak Master Ling only had a connection to that Holy Saint because of her disciple? And the matter in Sword Province before was also because of that?

While the Empress was mulling over this, Ling Shuangxue on the other side finally relaxed a little, sensing that the situation seemed to have calmed down—only to feel a small hand suddenly placed on her forehead.

"Huh? You’re not sick?"

Lu Yuliu’s voice was full of confusion.

Ling Shuangxue: "..."

With a flick of her sleeve, she precisely smacked the hand that had reached out, and then smacked her own disciple’s backside with a crisp smack.

"Stop fooling around," she said rather irritably.

"Master, at least leave Yuli some dignity. I’m not a little kid anymore..."

The Sword Fairy retreated two steps in embarrassment and indignation.

But she really had been shocked earlier... Was the master who could say so many words in one go in front of outsiders really her master?

Lu Yuliu had originally just been secretly listening to what was going on here while she was charging up her strength.

In the end, she’d managed—barely—to hold it together when Bai Xiaoyao said she and her were like sisters, but she broke down at her own master instead.

Bai Xiaoyao’s feelings were even more complicated.

Things hadn’t developed the way she’d imagined. Being interrupted twice in a row like this had completely thrown the original topic and atmosphere into chaos long ago.

Although she couldn’t see what kind of expression her senior brother had inside the sea of consciousness, Bai Xiaoyao could faintly sense a strange gaze, to the point that it made her want to just smash the pot and let him know what real cruelty was supposed to look like...

Still, her eyes flickered, and she said instead, "Eh? Looks like the preparations are already finished?"

...

"Hehe~ does Senior Brother know what they’re thinking?" Inside the sea of consciousness, Bai Xiaoyao’s projected consciousness propped her cheek up and smiled. "They were clearly hurrying to finish what they were preparing, thinking that while others hadn’t wrapped up yet, they could—like me right now—chat with you, Senior Brother, in this little spark of spirit. But then they realized everyone else was already done, and the final step was about to start..."

"Sure, they could insist they weren’t ready yet, but that would just be helping others while making themselves feel like they’d lost out."

In his single-spark state, Luo Wusheng looked at his junior sister, who, after her failed mischief, was now engaging in a sort of spiritual self-consolation. Not daring to poke the hornet’s nest, he merely muttered as though defending himself:

"Uh... calling it a private chat isn’t quite right. It was really just some arrangements I needed to make before reviving..."

"Oh? Then did you leave any instructions for this junior sister of yours?"

Luo Wusheng froze for a moment...

What he’d originally wanted to say to Bai Xiaoyao had already been said back in the Demon Moon space when she pretended to be asleep. He’d even taken the opportunity then to leave behind the promise that after this revival, he would give her an answer.

But now...

The two of them fell silent at the same time. Bai Xiaoyao seemed to recall that matter as well, and the projection of her consciousness rippled.

"R-right—since the timing is about right, there’s something else I need to tell you, Senior Brother."

In the end, Bai Xiaoyao herself brushed the topic aside and suddenly spoke up.

"Hm?"

Luo Wusheng was puzzled.

Bai Xiaoyao rolled her eyes playfully. "Senior Brother, did you really think I pulled you into my sea of consciousness this time just so you could watch those boring things from earlier?"

Boring? Then why did you look so interested just now?

Naturally, Luo Wusheng didn’t voice what he was thinking and obediently waited for his junior sister to continue.

"Looks like you really can’t sense it in your current state..."

Bai Xiaoyao said softly, "The karmic link from last time has already been cleared. We can activate the power of the Red String of Causality again... One end of that thing is tied on my side. Even in your present condition, Senior Brother, you should still be able to use it."

Her words fell just as, outside, the others reached a consensus—and at the very moment the Empress raised the Human Emperor Sword to cleave open the void.

...

The memories preserved within that spark of spirit came to an end.

Luo Wusheng finally understood why, after being pulled out this time, the gazes of the several young women made him feel so pressured—and why his junior sister’s behavior had seemed so good at drawing aggro.

His eyes swept over the four peerless beauties gathered around his now almost spirit-like body, then paused on Bai Xiaoyao.

Compared to the Red String of Causality that he wasn’t even sure he would get to use this time, what Luo Wusheng actually cared about more was what exactly Bai Xiaoyao meant by that "previous karmic link," and when it had been cleared.

But this was not the time to pursue that.

The spark of spirit could only receive the main body’s fragmented memory images; its understanding of how urgent the situation was naturally couldn’t compare to the main body that had just been conversing with the boss lurking behind the scenes.

After being lifted out of that distant corner of space by the Human Emperor Sword, his current body had already begun to faintly ignite with transparent flames.

This was the fundamental fire of the phoenix—nirvana flames.

They did not harm enemies, only remade the self.

If nothing went wrong, in just a few moments these flames would trace the current Luo Wusheng—who was in a state neither alive nor dead—back to his origin, send him fully into nirvana, and allow him to revive through the Ancient Phoenix Essence he had hidden away earlier.

But if it were really that simple, it would be far too much of an underestimation of the opponent.

A calm voice sounded, as though coming from all directions at once.

"The sea of suffering is boundless; turn back and you will find the shore."

Luo Wusheng watched as the faintly kindled nirvana flames on his body gradually shrank back into mere sparks and dissipated. His form, which had already begun to blur, solidified a little once more.

The four women around him had immediately gone on guard and activated their various protective techniques when the voice rang out, yet now they could only watch as those spells flowed backward and returned to nothing.

The scene around him misted over and transformed, becoming a vista among the clouds.

The void rippled faintly, as though a dark-gold sword were about to break through—only for an unseen beam of light to descend, after which the dark-gold blade merely swept through the air and returned to the dazed woman below.

The mysterious voice drifted forth again:

"Amitabha. Benefactor, you would do well not to waste your strength. So long as you cannot comprehend the transformations of time, all techniques before this poor monk are but illusions, bubbles in a dream—"

"—Eeek! Luo—no, you surnamed Luo, don’t move around! Th-this—what is going on?! Wh-why can you still touch me in a state like that?!"

The mysterious voice, interrupted mid-speech, stalled.

Perhaps after seeing the girl on the clouds wildly brandishing her wooden sword in panic, it had begun to doubt its own signature technique.

And, incidentally, to question life itself.

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Note: Link to the character Illustration:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lkIcPnCxeyuyZA4Kkb621dPC05UvWjhD