Why do you always want to be my Taoist partner?

total darkness.

Someone seemed to be calling his name in the darkness.

who is it?

Jiang Li slowly opened his eyes, and the bright light fell into his pupils. In front of him was a bright classroom. The fan above his head was squeaking, and in front of him was a pretty face.

who am I?

I am Jiang Li... I am the Jiang Li who died once. I just ate the Heart Demon Fruit. Everything I see now is an illusion. I see you again...

Jiang Li reached out his hand and touched his face. The touch felt so real, so real that it made him doubt the authenticity of this illusion. It was as if he could just reach out and grab the ray of sunshine in front of him, and he could kiss the girl's cheek as long as he got closer.

"Weiwei..." he whispered.

"How did you fall asleep? Did you play games until the early hours again last night?"

"What's the date today?"

"Number 16."

"Where am I now?"

"At school." The girl in school uniform stretched out her hand and waved it in front of him. "Are you sleepy? School is over, time to go home."

Jiang Li slowly came back to his senses. He sat up from his chair and realized that someone was looking at him outside the classroom door. He remembered this woman, a beautiful senior in the third year of high school. The timing of this illusion was really subtle. The current time point was the second year of high school. If his memory was correct, this senior in the third year of high school was the first woman he had ever slept with. It was at her home, and it was the senior who took the initiative. Later, the two of them slept together countless times in high school alone. Later, the senior went to another city for college, and the two of them dated several times in the future.

The senior student was wearing a beautiful long skirt and was chewing gum, waiting for him.

"Hey, that senior seems to be waiting for you." Ling Wei's eyes were slightly evasive. She packed up her books and gently patted Jiang Li on the shoulder. "Then I'll go home first."

Jiang Li stared blankly at her as she stood up and left. He looked down at himself, stood up, walked to the classroom door, and came in front of the senior student.

The senior tilted her head, her hair on the side of her cheeks messed up by the breeze. Her voice was clear and pleasant, and her cheeks were particularly beautiful. She said, "Come to my house to review with me?"

Jiang Li hurriedly took a step back.

"No...I have something to do."

"Something? What's the matter?" The senior sister frowned slightly, but Jiang Li seemed to have seen it before and took a few steps back, "I have something to do, you can find someone else..."

"What do you mean?"

"No, it's boring..." Jiang Li suddenly ran. He hurriedly ran towards the school gate, and then came to the girl who was walking alone on the side of the road.

"Let's go back together." Jiang Li smiled brightly.

"Isn't there a beautiful senior looking for you?"

"She wants my body, but I am a chaste person, how can I fall for her?"

"shameless."

"How is this shameless? Hey, let me tell you...how about we go to the movies on Saturday?"

"Movie?"

"Yes."

"I'm fine with anything." Ling Wei's eyes were evasive, but Jiang Li naturally held her hand and said, "Okay, then I'll come to your house to find you. Let's cross the road. I'll hold your hand."

"Hey you……"

"What's wrong with holding hands? Huh?"

....................................

Watching movies, dating, shopping, working part-time together, selling flowers, studying together, holding hands, confessing love, and kissing.

Go to the same university together.

Always by her side, accompanying her through the time when she was depressed.

He stopped flirting with other women and was indifferent to their advances. He got married in his junior year, went to graduate school together, had a pretty good job, saved money to buy a car, and rented a house to live a simple and happy life.

Until old age, until the end of life.

At the end of his life, he looked at the old face opposite him, held her hand tightly, closed his eyes, and the world fell into darkness.

"Is this what you think of as atonement?"

Such a sound was heard in the darkness.

The voice came from a woman and sounded very familiar. Jiang Li looked at the darkness in front of him and saw a woman walking out of the darkness. The woman was the senior school girl in the third year of high school. She held a knife in her hand. She came in front of him and he could not avoid it. The knife stabbed into his chest.

A delicate and cute girl walked out of the darkness, also holding a knife in her hand. She came to Jiang Li and stabbed him in the chest.

He couldn't move or struggle, but he could feel definite pain. It was not physical pain. It was as if after the knife pierced his body, a piece of his heart was missing and became even more empty.

Women walked out of the darkness. All of those women had had relationships with him. They stabbed their knives into his chest. Then, Jiang Li met a senior sister from Xuantian Dao Ji Zong.

The senior sister walked towards him and stabbed the sword in her hand into his chest.

But then there was the next one, and the next one, as if it would never end. He could only watch as the swords and knives pierced into his body. He felt as if his heart was becoming more and more empty, and unspeakable pain filled his limbs. He couldn't help but want to curl up, but he was like a sculpture cast in cement and could only watch like this.

He tried hard to say something, almost trying his best, and he said, "Please let me go, please?"

But the next second, countless voices came into his ears, and those voices were saying the same sentence in unison.

"You didn't want us to stab you?"

Jiang Li stood there in a daze for a long time.

The darkness in front of him completely dissolved, and the girl in his sight was standing under a tree, wearing a white dress. She had a pretty face and a slender figure. She didn't look particularly beautiful, but she was very sweet when she smiled.

But Ling Wei who was in front of him didn't smile at this moment. She looked at Jiang Li's eyes seriously and spoke softly.

"forget me, please."

"Choose to forget me, then you can cut off your inner demons and leave here." Ling Wei said gently and calmly.

"You are not her, so what's the point of talking to me about this nonsense?" Jiang Li lowered his head. He suddenly felt very tired and wanted to lie down and have a good sleep right now.

This illusion was so realistic that Jiang Li felt as if he had really spent those decades. He had been trying to make up for his mistakes during those decades, but in the end he was just deceiving himself.

You can never pay for the wrong things you did in the past, and you don't even dare to face them. You still live in a daze, using Mu Bingning as an excuse to once again constantly ask for love from others, just to numb the guilt in your heart. You can't empty your mind in the middle of the night, and once you close your eyes you can't help but think back to the past. She is your inner demon.

Unable to obtain, unable to let go, standing still in the same place, trapped in one's own cocoon.

The phantom in front of him suddenly made a sound.

"There are people waiting for you, there are people you love, you have to leave here eventually."

"As expected, I still hate you. You are deceiving yourself and have never changed." The phantom in front of him suddenly said these words for no reason. The next moment, everything in front of Jiang Li collapsed.

The black fog around him completely dissipated, and he stared at the ball of light in front of him, stunned for a long time.

"how come?"

The ball of light in front of him seemed even more surprised than Jiang Li.

"It's clear that the inner demon fog around you just now has almost become solid. How did you... get out of it?"

"I don't know." Jiang Li shook his head.

Chapter 140: Chapter Growing Up

“Has anyone else encountered this situation before?”

Jiang Li calmly asked the ball of light in front of him.

"No."

"What exactly is the Heart Demon Fruit?"

"It is a spiritual fruit that contains the power of Heaven. That is why it can create an illusion that is like the inner demon calamity sent down by Heaven."

Jiang Li thought in silence for a long time without getting an answer. He turned and looked at Zhu Taozhi. The gray mist around her was gradually dissipating, but Jiang Li seemed to see her expression become a little panicked. He didn't know what she saw in her inner demon tribulation, but his inner demon tribulation might not be painful.

In the illusion, he felt that each stab from those women made him feel extremely empty and painful, but when he said that he brought this upon himself, he suddenly understood.

It was his own choice that brought about the current result. It was obvious that he shamelessly approached girls in search of love, and then got tired of them and pushed them away after he got it. He thought he could find comfort through the novelty brought by each girl, but he gradually realized that he would never be able to escape the vicious cycle of novelty and boredom.

So he will only become more and more miserable. He survived this inner demon tribulation by luck without knowing the reason. What if he truly cultivates enough to survive the minor tribulation?

The experience scroll could allow his cultivation to directly skip the minor tribulation, but the tribulation would always come, simply because he destroyed his cultivation too early each time, leaving the tribulation nowhere to start.

Just as he was in a daze, the gray mist around Zhu Taozhi finally dissipated.

Jiang Li watched her open her eyes. Before he could congratulate her, the girl in front of him suddenly ran over and hugged him tightly.

Her body was graceful and curvy. Jiang Li could feel the softness of her chest and the faint fragrance lingering around his nose. He didn't understand why Zhu Taozhi suddenly hugged him, but he didn't struggle. He just asked gently, "What's wrong?"

Zhu Taozhi didn't answer, maybe because of what she saw in the inner demon tribulation? That's why she came over and hugged him tightly the first moment after the illusion ended. After hugging for a while, Zhu Taozhi let go of his hand, walked to his side, and then looked straight ahead, with a guilty voice, "Don't think about it, don't ask, just think of it as a hug from me."

"Okay." Jiang Li replied calmly.

There was a bit more resentment in Zhu Taozhi's eyes. Women are really difficult to please. If you ask her, she will feel ashamed, and if you don't ask her, she will feel lost.

"Congratulations to both of you for passing the third level of the test. As for the fourth level of the test, Empress Qianyuan loved music, chess, calligraphy and painting. Before her death, Empress Zhongzhou left behind a remnant soul. If you two can impress the remnant soul with one of these skills, you will get 500 points for each skill."

Jiang Li's expression became a little strange.

But at this moment, Zhu Taozhi was a little frustrated. She knew nothing about music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, not to mention Jun Moxiao. This wooden-headed man only knew how to practice swordplay all day long. How could he...

"I apply for all challenges!" Jiang Li raised his hands like a good student.

The ball of light in front of him was stunned again. After a moment, he asked, "Are you sure?"

"Of course!"

"Then let's start with Qin. The remaining soul of the empress is in this secret realm. If you can impress her, she will naturally show up."

A zither appeared in front of Jiang Li. It was a particularly exquisite ancient zither. Jiang Li was knowledgeable and knew that this zither could be used as a top-grade spiritual instrument. The light ball said lightly, "This is the seven-stringed zither that Empress Qianyuan loved most during her lifetime. It was named Huangqi. I hope... you won't let her down."

"That's natural."

Jiang Li sat upright on the ground, his fingertips gently stroking the strings of the zither. He was playing ancient music. There was one piece of music called Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. The four different tunes were gentle and melodious, telling different emotions. His piano skills had long reached perfection, so he was particularly confident.

When the first note flowed from the strings, the bamboo and peach branches gradually became absorbed in the music. When the melody of spring ended, countless plants and trees grew in this barren world, and all kinds of petals bloomed. When the melody of summer came, many newly born trees bore fruits. The wind blew the flowers away, and the whole wasteland seemed to be covered with petals.

In autumn, the grass and trees wither, and in winter, snow falls all over the sky.

But among the flying snow, there is a wintersweet whose fragrance still lingers.

White snow fell, covering the entire secret realm. Jiang Li stopped playing the piano. Before he could speak, a voice called out from his ear, "Play another song."

"Okay."

Jiang Li played a requiem again.

This is the tune that musicians on the battlefield use to comfort the dead souls. The tune is a little sad, but it has the power to calm people's hearts. This is the beauty of music. After Jiang Li finished playing this song, light and shadows gradually condensed around the light ball, and a woman's phantom appeared in front of Jiang Li and Zhu Taozhi.

The woman was wearing a phoenix robe, her eyebrows and eyes were delicate, and her appearance was also absolutely beautiful, but it was a little blurry and hard to see clearly.

"Greetings, senior." Jiang Li bowed to him respectfully.

"It's just a remnant soul." The shadow of the Qianyuan Empress in front of him sighed and asked him, "Your piano skills are better than mine. Even in my time, there may not be anyone who can surpass you. So, what about chess?"

"I'm willing to play a game with you, Senior."

A chessboard soon appeared in front of the two of them. Jiang Li held the white pieces and Empress Qianyuan held the black pieces. The two played Go. Jiang Li was very serious, but in the end he lost because of one move.

Empress Qianyuan looked him in the eye and said, "Play another game."

The two played another game, and Jiang Li won this one. The Empress Qianyuan in front of him suddenly laughed, and her laugh was particularly happy.

"If I were still alive in this world, I would definitely take you as my male lover."

"You have passed this level. Where is the book?"

Jiang Li raised his hand and used his fingertips as a pen. After hesitating for a moment, he wrote down a poem.

I am so high-spirited that I don’t know any sorrow. I wish to go up to the twelfth floor of Yujing, swing my sword to break the clouds and welcome the falling stars, raise my wine and sing to attract the phoenix to fly.

Thousands of years are nothing but a dream, a true love refuses to end, when I wake up from the dream, I see the drizzle on earth, and the mountains and rivers are still as gentle as before.

This was of course a poem he stole, from a game he loved in his previous life. His calligraphy was not actually that good, but between each stroke, there was a sword force flowing that was unique to him, so this calligraphy was not about form, but about meaning.

Empress Qianyuan looked at the little poem constructed with spiritual energy in front of her for a long time and smiled.