Destiny is ashes

Chapter 1156 The Human World (4200)

The girl leaned against the tower, the cold wind blowing and making her skirt flutter.

Her spiritual energy flowed, and strands of vitality emanated from it, even causing the soil around the tower to sprout new buds.

"You've done something really big, huh?"

Gu Yeqi looked at Bai Qinghan, nodded towards Shenjing, and smiled slightly: "Why are you looking so gloomy? This is not the Qinghan I know. The Qinghan of the past would have smiled about this."

Opposite the girl, another girl silently lowered her eyes. She did want to laugh, but at this moment she only tugged at the corners of her mouth and shook her head weakly: "Killing these pests will only make me feel bored."

With a sigh, the white-haired girl looked up, took a few steps forward, and stood beside her friend. She gazed at the wisps of smoke rising from the refugee camp and said calmly, "Revenge, something I had always longed for, I actually accomplished, but I feel very empty. Because I know very well that these people are nothing more than insects in the sky."

"Ye Qi, you know, what I want to kill is something more fundamental...like the harsh winter cold..."

As she spoke, she raised her finger and touched the soil beneath Gu Yeqi in mid-air.

In an instant, an invisible, chilling aura seeped down, and streaks of frost-white light, like swords, pierced through the soil, forcing out countless tiny insects hidden beneath the earth, preparing to survive the winter. The moment they came into contact with the air, they were frozen into crystalline ice sculptures. The deeply hidden egg cases were cracked, and the undeveloped spores were completely pulverized.

"To annihilate all of tomorrow's pests in the ice dust."

Gu Yeqi looked down at the frozen insect eggs in the soil and smiled: "Yes, you know that those people are not your real target. Just like the existence of winter is not for killing insects, not that kind of boring thing, but to make everything white before spring arrives."

She straightened up, no longer leaning against the tower. The girl placed her hands behind her back, gazing at the clouds and stars in the distance, their outlines clearly defined by the radiance of the capital, and slowly stepped forward: "While searching for Tianwu… I witnessed many things."

“There are many people who are worse than animals, many insects that live among the people. They abuse their power, suck human blood, buy low and sell high, hoard rare goods, and run rampant in the countryside, committing all kinds of evil.”

“I have also seen that there is still simple kindness in the people – I once passed by a winery’s fields, where the owner warmly invited me to taste the rice wine they brewed on their estate, which was sweet and fragrant. They were driving around with the wine, preparing to sell it in the city, and they would give a cup to anyone who was interested.”

"A kind and generous person like this shouldn't encounter any bad things, right? But that's not the case. When entering the city, the winery owner encountered a group of disciples from a sect... or perhaps from a noble family, but they were all the same in reality."

"He invited them to taste it, and they gave it a good review. The winery owner was very happy, as his hard work had been recognized. But this recognition doesn't always mean goodwill—because these sect members actually kicked him off the carriage and stole his wine."

Bai Qinghan remained silent, while Gu Yeqi raised his sword, staring at the blade reflecting the moonlight with some confusion, and said, "It's hard to understand, isn't it? I still don't understand why... why do they do this? There's absolutely no benefit to it. They're not short of money. If they insist on drinking for free, they could just use their name to coerce them. Why resort to violence, beatings, and oppression?"

"I asked them during the killing later, but they couldn't answer, or rather, even in death, they didn't dare to reveal the real reason, right? But actually, I could guess, because the reason they used violence was because..."

"They are violent."

Absurd, a simplistic conclusion.

Gu Yeqi raised his head, his eyes flashing: "If we have it, we have to use it. Otherwise, if we have violence but don't use it, it's the same as not having it at all—it won't wait until it expires. We finally found someone we can use violence against at will, so we have to use it. Otherwise, wouldn't it be a waste?"

The girl sighed, "Actually, this is relatively easy to understand, isn't it? After I wiped out that sect that still wanted to hunt me down, I actually figured it out."

"It is precisely because all people are equal that if one does not use some power, there is no way to prove that one is superior to others, so one has no choice but to use it."

"Is such that."

Bai Qinghan spoke up at this moment, revealing a smile with sarcasm: "Those people from great families and sects keep saying that they don't treat others as human beings. In reality, the moment they have such thoughts in their hearts, it means that they themselves know that they are human beings just like everyone else, which is why they are so eager to distinguish themselves."

"Yes, everything is very clear, so neither of us will be confused. Just kill when you encounter them, it's that simple."

Gu Yeqi said softly, lowering her eyes and changing the subject, "But then, I encountered something else that made me feel confused again."

"what?"

"An old lady."

Gu Yeqi said, "When I went to the capital of the Dao Domain, I stayed temporarily in a small village on the outskirts of the city."

"My neighbor is an old lady with a bad temper, according to the neighbors. She is very irritable and is said to chase and beat children who play around nearby. She is also eccentric and difficult to get along with."

"When I first met her, I saw her chasing and hitting a child. The child was running very fast, and the old woman was panting heavily as she chased after him. Her face was contorted and terrifying, just like a demon."

"When this old lady saw me, she looked at me with a vicious and sarcastic expression, as if she wanted to hit me too. I could even tell that she was very jealous, very jealous of my youth and appearance. It was as if she wanted to tear me to pieces... But you know, with my strength, how could I be afraid of an old lady? I saw that the old lady was too tired, so I helped her home to sit down and even made her a pot of tea."

"Next, although the old lady was still sharp-tongued and mean to others, she was much gentler towards me. The way she looked at me was no longer so hostile, nor was she jealous... She was a long-time resident of the area, and it was said that she used to live in the city. I asked her a lot of questions about the past during the reign of King Jing, and I learned quite a bit."

"And I gradually discovered that the old lady was not always sharp-tongued and mean-spirited—she was even well-educated and cultured, and must have been a lady from a scholarly family in the past, but for some reason, she left the city and came to live in the countryside."

"The so-called reasons are actually the death of King Jing. Her husband used to work for King Jing, and after King Jing died, he naturally had to leave the city."

"The reason she didn't get along with those children was because they always came to play around her house, and even urinated in front of her house. The door was corroded by urine, and the base of the wall was dug up."

“She never complained to me about these things, and I gradually realized that what she was jealous of was not my youth or my appearance, but my… strength.”

"strength."

"After realizing this, I cast some blessings on the old lady. With my 'Purple Qi' star destiny, it was easy for her. She was able to walk briskly again. She was very happy. And the children around her, after being disciplined by her with a broom a few times, became much more obedient."

“The village has become much more peaceful, and thanks to the clues the old lady gave me, I found the clues I was looking for in the Dao Domain Mansion.”

"It took a little time, until I returned from the ley lines..."

At this point, Gu Yeqi paused, her voice becoming somewhat distant as she looked towards the dazzling sea of ​​light in the distant capital: "The old man has passed away."

"Before she passed away, she seemed to have a premonition. She came to find me and placed her privately treasured gold bracelet under my bed. She also left me a letter..."

"She said it was left to her by her husband. She said the villagers all knew this, so they isolated her and wished for her death day and night."

She said that those children were probably prompted by their parents to come to her neighborhood to "hunt for treasure." She used to be able to chase them away, but she is too old to do so now.

“She said… she was very peaceful and happy during her last days. She didn’t want her treasure to be found by the villagers, so she gave the gold bracelet to me. Because I am a martial artist, those villagers would never dare to search my house even if they had the guts of a bear or a leopard.”

"And that is indeed the case."

Gu Yeqi closed his eyes: "After I returned to the village, I learned that the old lady's body had already been cremated. Logically, she should have been buried, but how could the villagers be stingy with their methods in order to find the gold bracelet? It's only natural that an old lady living alone would be eaten alive; it would be strange if she weren't." "And the old lady's house had long been emptied out. The furniture, the bed, the cabinets, everything had been taken away, and even the floor had been dug up several times. Even the broom was taken."

“When I reminisced about the past, I went to the old lady’s bedroom and there was really nothing there… But soon I discovered that there were words written on the wall.”

“Densely packed, string after string of small characters written in charcoal... these must be the old lady’s heartfelt words written down time and time again over the years.”

"Those words say..."

"My lord, they are bullying me..."

"That's what she wrote."

Turning her head, Gu Yeqi looked at Bai Qinghan and smiled, "It has nothing to do with sects, aristocratic families, or the government—it's just ordinary villagers who, because of ordinary covetousness, have been able to exert long-term, invisible pressure on a lonely old woman..."

"This kind of oppression, and the oppression from those sect disciples, is everywhere, even making me feel confused and powerless."

"The old lady's ending was actually quite good, because she lived to a ripe old age and died peacefully, waiting for my arrival."

"Although her husband has long since passed away, the name he left behind may still protect her. However, leaving an old woman alone in this world is still too much of an invisible malice."

"..." Bai Qinghan lowered her gaze, took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling slightly, and then said softly, "I hate this...this..." just as much as I hate those insects.

"This is the way things are," Gu Yeqi said for her.

"So I understand you very well, Qinghan. What you want to kill is not such simple insects, nor those specific people—we can kill those people, it's just a matter of letting the human world go through a bloodbath, killing them all is easy, no need for senior brother, you and I can do it easily in the future."

With a casual remark brimming with bloodshed, Gu Yeqi looked up at the moon and said, "I think the Heavenly Will Sect probably thinks the same way."

"Reshape the world, replace the will of heaven, and create a completely new world with a different human order. Start from scratch and completely eliminate all hatred and prejudice left over from the past. From the very beginning, plant the right principles in people's hearts."

"But what good will that do?"

Gu Yeqi looked at Bai Qinghan and said calmly, "As long as you are a human, you can't escape the area enclosed by the fence. The fence is human nature. If you don't change the fence, the area that the fence can enclose is only so big, only so many, and only those shapes. It won't be more or less. That's the limit."

"Qinghan, what you want to eliminate is actually something that 'does not exist'."

"You want..."

"It is a new order."

"A new world."

Bai Qinghan closed his eyes, his voice as soft as a sigh: "I hate people. I hate people nowadays. Although there are good people and kind people among them, in the end, even without the Heavenly Demon, without martial arts, without aristocratic families and sects, even without an imperial dynasty... as long as they are human, they will create evil."

"I... want to kill all the sources of evil."

Destroy everything.

This is the voice from the bottom of her heart, echoing the heavens and the will of all things.

Therefore, it is Xuan Yin.

That is the chill of eternal silence.

“That’s right.” Gu Yeqi smiled and said, “Pain, death, being despised, being betrayed are certainly hateful, but the anger in your heart is not just a momentary thing. Just like me, what angers me the most is not being ignored by Da Chen in the Northern Frontier, but that my grandfather forced my father to his death.”

“I could have had a father.”

"But was it really Grandpa who drove my father to his death?"

She looked up at the brightly lit capital city in the distance, where airships patrolled: "Now, I've received news that Grandpa is dying, so I have to come and see for myself."

“You… have changed.” Bai Qinghan gazed at this former friend, gently following An Jing beside her, like a younger sister.

"Of course I've changed, Qinghan. You are the goddess, and I am the acting peak master. We both have our own careers and power, so we are no longer the simple people we used to be."

"Look at your hair, all loose and disheveled, it doesn't look good."

As she spoke, Gu Yeqi stepped forward and naturally tidied Bai Qinghan's long hair, which had been ruffled by the cold wind. She combed it with her fingers and then skillfully braided it. She said softly, "How can killing their children be enough? They will have more children. And even if we wipe them all out, what then? Da Chen will be reborn."

"And what if something like the Great Chen is destroyed? This world will give birth to a new Great Chen again."

“I know.” Bai Qinghan lowered his head, feeling the warmth of his friend’s fingertips. “What I want to destroy is something much bigger.”

"That's not something one person can easily do."

Gu Yeqi smiled and gently patted Bai Qinghan's shoulder after finishing her braid: "We're here for you."

“There is a senior brother.”

"Ah."

Bai Qinghan nodded gently: "I know he is coming."

“But I will do it anyway if he doesn’t come.”

Gu Yeqi was slightly taken aback, then laughed: "Although you're not a companion star, surprisingly, I always feel that you and Senior Brother are very similar."

"Let's go."

"We still have a lot to do and cannot rest."

(End of this chapter)