strictlysupreme Chapter 407 The Truth About Jin Yue Lake
Chapter 407 The Truth About Jin Yue Lake
Within the Wan Gong Box, the four seasons are in disarray, and each place has its own unique scenery.
The town of Wuci, where Xue Lan had previously been, was covered in snow, but now, at the foot of the cliff where she stood, spring grass was everywhere.
Unidentified pale blue flowers bloomed beside Xue Lan's hand, peeking out from between her fingers. The scattered blue blossoms resembled a small blanket, connecting with the wide plain not far away.
The woman's fingertips curled slightly, and unusually, she didn't try to fob Xue Tong off with any irrelevant words.
"It's not that I consider myself, it's that I am."
"Who said you are?" Xue Tong thought to herself that the Xuanhuang Sect's stubbornness was contagious.
The girl held the Sun-Tracing Mirror in her hand, staring intently into Xue Lan's lifeless eyes.
Her tone carried a hidden, barely suppressed anger:
"Did you commit murder and arson, or did you collude with the demons?"
What do you mean by saying you are inherently a demon?
Xue Lan slowly raised her hand, and some blood-red demonic energy appeared at her fingertips.
"Isn't this a demon?"
The woman's tone carried her usual helpless smile.
Xue Tong hates this kind of smile the most now.
The girl slapped Xue Lan's hand away and yelled, "Shut up!"
Xue Lan noticed that the person who had been half-squatting in front of her suddenly stood up, and the girl's long hair stirred up a breeze in front of her.
Xue Tong looked down at Xue Lan, noticing her extremely thin back and weary smile.
"Are you thinking..."
The girl's voice was choked with emotion as she raised her hand and hastily wiped her eyes.
"Thinking that sacrificing yourself is enough to save Yuanming Realm?"
"I've seen plenty of people like you. What do you mean by living for the world and dying for the world? Sacrificing one person to save the world!"
"Who do you think you are? Even if you are Lord Wolf King, it won't do!"
"Xue Lan..."
The girl slowly squatted back down in front of Xue Lan and used her sleeve to wipe the dirt off his face.
Whether you are a demon or not is not determined by demonic energy, nor by your own opinion.
"You must live well and live as long as the Yuanming Realm!"
Xue Lan raised her hand and precisely wiped away a tear from the corner of Xue Tong's eye. Her voice was even more tired and hoarse:
"I'll lend you some good words!"
"Xiaotong... I'm a little tired, I want to sleep for a while."
Before Xue Tong could respond, Xue Lan's raised hand fell limply to her side, and she was carefully caught by Xue Tong as she swayed.
"Xue Lan..."
The girl gently called Xue Lan's name, but received no response.
Beneath the cliff where pale blue flowers bloom, it seems only Xue Lan's soft breathing can be heard.
Just as Xue Tong was about to call Xue Lan's name again, a familiar voice suddenly rang in her ears:
"He's really asleep, he's not dead!"
Xue Tong suddenly turned her head and saw a woman dressed in snow-white clothes standing not far away.
The inner demon was dressed in flowing white robes, with snow-white hair and clear blue eyes.
If it weren't for the dark demonic aura surrounding her, she would truly be mistaken for a reclusive fairy from a secret realm.
Xue Tong frowned slightly, and after placing Xue Lan at the foot of the cliff, he stood up and confronted the woman.
"When will you be able to get out on your own?"
The girl's tone carried her usual sarcasm, and even though the inner demon was now a complete fallen demon soul, her heart still trembled.
There's no other reason than that I've been criticized too much.
The woman in white stood opposite Xue Tong, her smile genuine.
The woman pointed at Xue Lan:
"The seal in her sea of consciousness was broken, and I regained my power, so I was able to come out naturally."
Xue Tong's expression changed slightly, and she gradually understood everything Xue Lan had done before.
The inner demon reclaimed its power from the seal, and its strength was comparable to that of the demon soul.
Unable to suppress her inner demons, Xue Lan's demonic thoughts were once again drawn out by them.
Left with no other choice, he gave himself the Sun-Tracing Mirror.
The girl looked at the inner demon and spoke:
"What is the demonic thought within her soul?"
The inner demon blinked: "You want to know?"
Xue Tong nodded firmly.
"Then I'll reluctantly tell you; we can't expect Xue Lan to tell you."
The woman slowly waved her hand, and an octagonal pavilion appeared on the previously empty ground, with a round stone table inside.
Tea sets were laid out on the stone table, and steam rose from the teacups.
The inner demon entered the pavilion, picked up a cup of tea, and slightly raised an eyebrow:
"About two thousand years ago, when Xue Lan first touched the threshold of the art of time and space, there was a problem with the barrier between the Upper Realm and the Nine Heavens Demon Realm, and something was urgently needed to fix it."
"At that time, the elders of the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion in the Upper Realm calculated day and night, and finally came up with the character 'Ling'."
"Ling?" Xue Tong asked, somewhat puzzled.
The inner demon sat down on the stone bench, slowly twirling the pale blue teacup between his fingertips, his eyes holding something that Xue Tong couldn't decipher.
"The one guarding the border between the Upper Realm and the Desolate Regions at that time was none other than Xue Lan!"
"Lord Wolf King has obtained the divination results from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion and believes that the barrier needs to be repaired by forging a spirit-enhanced grotto-heaven artifact."
"And so, Jin Yue Lake appeared," Xue Tong continued, picking up where the inner demon left off.
"The entire Brocade Moon Lake Grotto-heaven is a magical artifact crafted by Xue Lan!"
Xue Tong's voice trembled as she finished speaking.
"How is that possible? How could there be a living creature inside a magical artifact?"
The girl looked into the eyes of the inner demon and asked:
"Who exactly are Lü Su and the others?"
"A glimpse into the essence of heaven and earth!" The inner demon nodded slightly and spoke:
"Everyone in the entire Jinyue Lake is a being of profound spiritual nature."
The woman's voice was calm and steady: "In the Yuanming Realm, if a grotto-heaven has existed for a long time and is not under the care of its master, it will develop its own ley lines and thus generate its own life forms."
"Xue Lan wouldn't make such a basic mistake!" Xue Tong interrupted the inner demon.
The inner demon nodded, his tone tinged with amusement: "Yes, yes, the Wolf King would never make such a mistake. She has always carefully nurtured Jin Yue Lake and has been searching for a suitable cave master for it."
"But as I said before, Xue Lan at that time had just touched the threshold of the art of time and space."
The inner demon's eyes held a hint of regret:
"Xue Lan is incredibly talented."
The art of time and space is incredibly profound. It is something that those old guys who had cultivated for thousands or even tens of thousands of years had never touched before, even until their death. Xue Lan only spent a thousand years to touch the threshold of it.
"Not only that, she can use it the moment she touches the threshold of power." The inner demon pointed to the Sun-Tracing Mirror in Xue Tong's hand:
"But Xue Lan didn't know at the time that she could use the power of time and space."
"The flow of time within the cave is different from that outside. When Xue Lan was setting the flow of time, he accidentally triggered the power of spacetime, causing a thousand years to slip away in an instant within Jin Yue Lake."
"By the time she discovered it, the grotto-heaven and earth spirit had already been formed."
Xue Tong's voice was a little hoarse: "Is Xue Lan unwilling to use Jin Yue Lake to patch up the loopholes?"
The inner demon shook his head: "The Wolf King of the past was not the same as Xue Lan now. He only had a responsibility to the world and the wolf clan in his heart, without a trace of personal feelings."
Xue Tong: "Oh!"
"Actually, I think she's a kind person, you just don't know it."
The inner demon rolled his eyes at her. He continued, his voice lowering:
"It's just a grotto-heaven spirit realm; how can it compare to the safety of the Yuanming Realm?"
The inner demon wore a strange smile.
"That's what everyone in the Upper Realm thought at the time, and Xue Lan thought so too."
"She continued to nurture Jinyue Lake and continued to fight against the demons on the border of the Upper Realm. Until she developed a demon in her heart."
The inner demon points to itself:
"I didn't actually come into being out of thin air. I was created after Xue Lan's celestial soul was infected by a wisp of demonic energy from the Demon God."
Xue Tong glanced at the inner demon, her eyes filled with apprehension:
"Do you possess the power of a demon god within you?"
The inner demon didn't answer the question, so the woman continued:
"It was a fierce battle. Xue Lan developed a demonic possession and was seriously injured. At the critical moment, she entered Jin Yue Lake and became entangled with the earth spirits there."
Lu Su and her people rescued Xue Lan, and the women would pick fresh water chestnuts from Jin Yue Lake and cook them for Xue Lan.
Having developed a demonic inner demon and weakened his consciousness, the Wolf Lord, who had lived like a rigid seal since childhood, was caught off guard and had his heart pierced by the presence of people from Jin Yue Lake.
The inner demon finished his cup of tea and refilled it for himself, a hint of amusement in his voice:
"Haven't you noticed? Xue Lan is someone who can be easily supported by ordinary people!"
Xue Tong simply couldn't refute this; Xue Lan was indeed very easy to take care of.
Even someone with no experience like her can do it.
"Later, Xue Lan couldn't bear to leave Jin Yue Lake... right?"
The girl asked the question in a soft tone, but the inner demon sensed certainty in it.
This confidence stems from a deep understanding of Xue Lan.
The inner demon sighed:
"What good is it if she can't bear to part with it!"
The woman's voice suddenly took on a chilling tone:
"Even the all-powerful Wolf King can be outmaneuvered."
Xue Lan recuperated in Jin Yue Lake for many years, but at that time she was deeply troubled by inner demons, which could not be dispelled by a simple treatment.
So Xue Lan left the border and returned to the Northern Region with the entire Jinyue Lake.
"Xue Lan is attached to the Northern Region River. It is the place that she and her father chose for the wolf family after many years of fighting. It is their true home."
The inner demon's voice was mocking, but Xue Tong had a bad feeling.
Sure enough, the next instant, the chilling voice of the inner demon entered Xue Tong's mind:
"She brought Jinyue Lake to Beiyuchuan, focusing on suppressing her inner demons."
"Unexpectedly, someone took advantage of the situation and caused the entire cave spirit of Jinyue Lake to voluntarily..."
"Self-immolation to mend the sky!"
"Self-immolation... to mend the sky?"
Just by uttering those four words, Xue Tong felt the endless despair contained within them.
The girl glanced back at Xue Lan, while the woman lowered her head and breathed steadily.
The girl gently asked her inner demon:
"Is this the reason why demonic thoughts arose in Xue Lan's heart?"
The inner demon nodded slightly, his gaze turning to Xue Tong's back. When he spoke, his tone was decisive, like a biting west wind.
"That's right!"
Xue Tong suddenly sensed something at her fingertips. The girl hurriedly turned around and saw that the person who had just been fast asleep had already propped himself up and stood up. In his lifeless gray eyes, an emotion as light as gray was overflowing.
It was a gentle sadness, like a speck of dust.
"The rest..." Xue Lan slowly turned to look at Xue Tong:
"I'll tell you."
Xue Lan rubbed her temples to ease the unbearable pain.
“When I left Jinyue Lake for the last time, I was in a very bad state. I was struggling with my inner demons and had gone mad.”
"Someone took advantage of the situation, claiming to be my friend, and told them all about the purpose of the birth of Jinyue Lake."
"They also said... the Demon Lord is critically ill, and if the celestial rift isn't repaired in time, I'll die outside."
"Xiaotong..."
Xue Lan's voice was soft, revealing little emotion, yet it brought tears to Xue Tong's eyes again.
Why do you think people can be so foolish?
Why is everyone so stupid?
"At the time, I didn't know the truth, and even if I did know the truth, I wouldn't believe it."
"I believe I sacrificed them. If I hadn't allowed time and space to spiral out of control in the first place, none of this would have happened."
"From then on, the demonic soul harbored evil thoughts and made a desperate gamble by heading to the Nine Heavens Demon Realm, a place of life and death."
Xue Tong didn't know what to say to comfort Xue Lan.
The story was so tragic that any words of comfort seemed utterly meaningless at that moment.
Xue Lan let out a long sigh of relief and said:
"The death of the spirit in the cave in Jinyue Lake may not be the only reason I fell into demonic possession."
"But even the thinnest withered grass can sink a boat."
The incident at Jinyue Lake was the straw that broke Xue Lan's back!
Xue Lan reached out her hand to Xue Tong, and the girl immediately stepped forward to support Xue Lan.
The inner demon looked at Xue Lan's current appearance and mocked her:
"You can barely stand up now, and you still want to get involved in the affairs of Wan Gong Fang?"
Xue Lan straightened her clothes, as if suppressing all the pain she had just recalled, and her voice lost its previous weakness and hoarseness:
"Now that we've already decided to get involved, we can't just back down at the last minute, can we?"
The inner demon remained silent. The woman in white chuckled softly, then transformed into a wisp of black smoke, crashing into Xue Lan's heart.
"You previously mentioned that the souls within the Ten Thousand Crafts Workshop wanted to forge a world to mend the heavens, but what exactly is this method of mending?"
Hearing the conversation between the inner demon and Xue Lan, Xue Tong spoke up anxiously.
“Using the soul as the thread, weave together the Yuanming Realm.”
Xue Lan sensed that the girl supporting her was visibly startled.
"Using the soul as the thread, whose soul?"
"The souls of those masters in the Wan Gong Fang!"
"But this method is very difficult to succeed."
Xue Tong understood from Xue Lan's words that it wasn't just a matter of difficulty in succeeding.
The girl spoke softly, "Nine times out of ten, it will fail, right?"
Xue Lan was very pleased: "I always thought you were smart, but I didn't expect you to be even smarter after going back!"
"By the way, what did you do when you went back this time?"
Xue Tong sneered:
"We sent a scumbag to prison."
"Xue Lan, you're changing the subject again!"
Xue Lan smiled and dodged the girl's hand that was about to slap her, then suddenly spoke:
"The souls weave together heaven and earth, but the Myriad Crafts Workshop is still missing a needle!"
Xue Tong asked, somewhat puzzled, "What kind of needle?"
The woman in front of me slowly raised her finger and pointed at herself:
"I... am that needle!"