Knowing that it was an illusion array, Su Su wasn’t afraid. Now that she was cultivating the Heartless Dao, no illusion arrays in the world worked on her.
Seeing Su Su disappear into the stone forest, Ding Yan was worried, but she didn’t dare to follow her. She sighed and left the stone forest by sword.
Sure enough, the further Su Su walked inside, the more stone statues she saw.
Some were once human and some were once demons. Most of them looked panicked and as if they were in unbearable pain.
A white fog shrouded the stone statues. Su Su raised her hand, and a ball of blue fire ignited on two of her fingers. Any fog that came into contact with the true fire dispersed.
Su Su slowly walked in.
The stone forest gradually grew more and more desolate. The stones quickly shifted, and with Su Su as the core, the illusion array was activated.
When she looked back, she realized that she could no longer find the way she came in from.
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The gray color on his body was getting darker and darker.
Su Su lowered her eyes and looked at him.
Tantai Jin was huddled among the stone statues. His eyes revealed a pitch-black, deathly stillness. He was trembling, and his lip almost bled from his bite.
Su Su paused her steps. The once ruthless Devil God, who knew not love or hate, was actually trapped in the stone forest’s illusion array, and was close to becoming a stone in front of her.
There was only the quiet stone forest in her eyes, so what did he see in his? Su Su hesitated for a moment, then walked over.
In Tantai Jin’s dazed eyes was a pitch-black and icy-cold river. The river was vast, with no end in sight.
Su Su saw the Tantai Jin from five hundred years ago. The black-clad emperor was being bitten by a mass of evil ghosts, yet he didn’t shake them off his body. Instead, he picked them up and identified them one by one.
Bleeding heavily, he couldn’t distinguish between night or day as he was accompanied by evil ghosts, pus, and blood. And finally, he was gnawed until only a skeleton remained.
Seeing that final sight, Su Su jerked back to her senses.
In the end, Tantai Jin’s body died in that dark and dull river.
“You have divine marrow. Why would you let the evil ghosts gnaw at your body? Were you trying to find Ye Bing Shang’s soul?” She whispered.
Mortal souls enter the underworld after death. How reluctant is he to part with this person1那个人 (nàgèrén) – (lit.) that person; (fig.) the person you have been looking for? Su Su pursed her lips. He won’t go this far to…… find my soul, which was scattered, right?
As she quietly watched the memories of the past in his eyes for a while, the moon came out, illuminating the stone forest. When the moonlight disappeared, Tantai Jin would turn into a stone.
Right now, the once heartless Devil God was being killed this easily in his own memories of the past.
Su Su raised her hand, and was about to touch his cheek, but she withdrew it.
Let’s just leave it at that.
She hugged her knees and sat beside him, listening to his breathing slowly weaken. Tantai Jin’s body gradually turned to stone. Su Su closed her eyes, stood up, and slowly walked deeper into the stone forest.
The red thread on the hem of her skirt shimmered in the moonlight, and in the end, she didn’t turn back.
She should have many things to be fond of, such as the quiet times in Changze Mountain, the beautiful Heavenly Lake, and even just thinking about casting a new sword for Fuya, or the snow that seemed so beautiful to her tonight.
Which one…… isn’t better than meeting Tantai Jin?
Before sunrise, the young man who was almost completely petrified, slowly peeled off his flesh and blood. His blood stained the stone, and finally, the stone cracked open and shattered into pieces.
Tantai Jin opened his eyes and turned to look at the spot beside him, but no one was there.
In his trance…… he’d seemed to smell the fragrance of the night-blooming epiphyllum2also known as Queen of the Night
.
But really, there was nothing.
Regenerating his flesh started another round of unbearable pain. His dark eyes stared at the rising sun. Should I be grateful for having this ‘neither human nor ghost’ body that I didn’t die in this illusion array?
It doesn’t matter if I die, but what about Ye Xi Wu? Who can bring her back to look at this mundane world again?
*****
Deeper in the stone forest, there were fewer and fewer strange stones, but the temperature began to rise. A scorching temperature seeped through the cracks of the stones, and there were scalding red flames, like surging magma.
Two Flame Beasts were lying dormant on the rocks. They had the heads of wolves, but the horns of rhinos, lion bodies, and no tail but bright red fur.
Behind them, a faintly glowing stone was slowly spinning in the air.
“It’s ‘Extreme Cold’.” Su Su had read about it in the library. The extremely cold Xuan stone was named “Extreme Cold”, but it had been tempered in fire, and the demon Flame Beasts were born by its side. It could be used to cast an immortal sword.
Before Su Su could approach, the two demon beasts opened their eyes, and the flames on their bodies that had looked extinguished instantly rekindled. The Flame Beasts consisted of a male and a female pair that were spiritually connected to one other. They had been lying dormant for a long time, and the scent of a living person instantly awakened them.
Amidst their deafening roar, they pounced at Su Su.
Su Su was instantly enveloped by their scorching temperature.
Su Su hadn’t tried her new cultivation method yet, but she quickly activated the spiritual Qi she’d cultivated from the Heartless Dao, and condensed a white feather fan in her hand. The feather fan instantly summoned a faintly red karmic fire upon it to attack the male beast.
When Su Su’s karmic fire touched the Flame Beast’s flame, it howled, and that patch of flame on its body disappeared.
The Flame Beasts no longer dared to fight head on and hurriedly dodged.
Although they were fire element demon beasts, they also feared the karmic fire Su Su wielded. The feather fan shone with a firefly-like luminance. As it was condensed from spiritual Qi, Su Su didn’t want to waste time with them.
She stepped over the stones and reached for the extremely cold Xuan stone.
The eyes of the two beasts revealed a fierce glint, in spite of the karmic fire, even if they died together3同归于尽 (tóngguīyújìn) – to die in such a way that sb (or something) else also perishes; to take somebody down with oneself; to end in mutual destruction, they must kill Su Su.
Su Su hurriedly turned around to face them.
The two beasts activated their demon cores, and fearless of death, their power greatly surged. Su Su was forced back a few steps and hit the fire stone behind her.
The Flame Beasts blasted true fire from their mouths at her.
Su Su quickly reacted. She raised her feather fan to fan the true fire back, but suddenly, countless golden threads wrapped around her wrist, immobilizing her.
She raised her head and saw a young man in black sitting cross-legged on the stone, smiling faintly at her.
Tantai Jin casually held the countless golden threads. Su Su didn’t know what they were made of, but they were extremely tough and durable, and locked her vital meridians.
He withdrew his hands, and a blue light flowed through the golden threads with a hint of electricity. Tantai Jin manipulated the golden threads with his eyes down, as if controlling a puppet.
Su Su’s wrist was forced back to the fire stone behind her again.
The young man’s face was as handsome as jade, and the corners of his eyes were curved up mockingly, as if watching a good show.
Last night in the stone forest, he was about to turn into a stone statue, but somehow, after the sun came out, he was as good as new.
Su Su didn’t know when Tantai Jin had started to follow her again. He sat above the boiling magma with an unchanging expression.
“Senior Sister.” He propped up his chin and gently smiled, then his face turned cold, and he spoke icily, “Courtesy demands reciprocity4礼尚往来 (lǐshàng-wǎnglái) – lit. proper behavior is based on reciprocity (idiom); fig. to return politeness for politeness; deal with a man as he deals with you; pay a man back in his own coin; give as good as one gets. Since we are immortal friends, Junior Brother will also help you out this time.”
Edited by: Gaze
Translator’s Note:
Hello readers, I would like to emphasize on a few things after going through several comments about certain stuff.
- The novel is the original work and the drama is merely an adaptation of it. As you know drama adaptations usually omit a lot/watered down from the original source to make it more family friendly/comply with Chinese law so making any comparisons wouldn’t be fair.
- I understand that some of you have questions about the characters and storyline. However, I assure you that the author will unravel many plot holes/question you have in extras or later parts of the story. Additionally, for everyone’s further enjoyment, let’s try not to apply modern logic while reading this.
- Lastly, for anyone wondering about discrepancies between my translation and from wherever it is they’re reading, please quote the Chinese raw from where you read it as mine is taken from the latest original publishing platform purchased with my own money.
love your works as always. 🥰 hope you had a good “Duan wu jie”. enjoyed ur work so much and I have started reading from chapter 1 again.
Thank you very much ❤️ Hope you enjoyed your Dragon Boat Festival too!
Perfect atmosphere and so much suspense~
Thank you for your translation, it’s wonderful ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for reading Eva san~ ❤❤❤
I don’t have any problem with your translation. I love it actually. Though Tantai Jin is much devil in the novel, I still love it. Thank you very much for your great work. I am an avid fan of this story. Have a safe day.
Thank you for reading!
How is Li Susu so oblivious?
HE. IS NOT LOOKING FOR YE BINCHANG
okok, I’ll calm myself
Her last memory as YXW of TTJ, tho… it’s when he chose to let the Eight Prince let YBS go and got her killed as consequences.
She doesn’t know that TTJ had prepared enough to save both of them regardless who the Eight Prince decided to kill.
Thank you for your hard work!
Thank you for reading!!!
Yeah. The drama version is the adaptation and the novel is the original. At first, I also read this book to look for more insight about the story, especially about Ming Ye. But, I gradually found that the drama version has too many different points since the first chapter/episode. It’s so different that you can’t even call it as alternate universe. Then, I give up of giving more connection between the characters (and plot lines) in the drama and novel beyond its similarities. 😅😅😅😅 Even if we still want to make comparison, we better see them as two independent (stand-alone) different works with similar premises, idea, and protagonist name.