Chapter 1158: The Bodhisattva
"You..." Qiu Shiliu felt as if she had discovered something. She let go and slowly stood up.
She took out that [door] from her pocket, swallowed several times, and then shouted loudly, "Ninth Sister!"
**[I'm here.]** Bai Jiu's reassuring voice came through from the other side. **[I've finished explaining what happened to Seventh Brother and the others. So what's the situation now...?]**
Qiu Shiliu wasted no time. She directly pulled Little Xuanwu in front of her and shone the [door] on her.
"Ninth Sister, what the hell am I supposed to do with this one?" Qiu Shiliu said irritably. "Do you see how pitiful she looks? She didn't resist, she didn't scream or yell. She just wanted to eat some corn kernels here. Making me kill a child like this is really too much to ask."
Bai Jiu stared at Jiang Shi's left eye for a long time before saying, **[But she really does look like Xuanwu.]**
"No kidding?" Qiu Shiliu said. "I've already prepared myself. If your final decision is that she has to die, then I'll overcome my own psychological barrier and beat her to death right here."
**[Is there something strange about this Xuanwu?]** It sounded like Song Qi's voice.
"Strange...?"
Qiu Shiliu looked at the little girl in front of her. This situation was just too hard to describe.
"Ninth Sister, the only 'strange' thing about this little girl is that she doesn't seem strange at all." Qiu Shiliu explained. "She's almost too normal... The only thing worth noting is that her right eye seems to have a problem."
**[Her right eye...?]**
Qiu Shiliu nodded and reached out to brush aside Little Xuanwu's hair. But Little Xuanwu, who had been completely obedient up to now—who wouldn't even fight back when hit—unusually dodged.
"Don't run!" Qiu Shiliu said impatiently. "Come here! Be good!"
Little Xuanwu flinched in fright, then could only stop resisting and stay put, letting herself be handled.
Qiu Shiliu reached out and slowly parted the hair covering Little Xuanwu's eye, revealing her unusual pupil.
Two eyeballs were awkwardly squeezed into one socket. It looked both frightening and sickly.
At this distance, Qiu Shiliu was close enough to see that both of the girl's eyes seemed bloodshot, as if they had both been injured.
**[One eye... two eyeballs...?]** Bai Jiu's voice came through the [door]. Suddenly, something clicked in her mind. **[Could this be Xuanwu's weakness...?]**
Qiu Shiliu frowned, thinking for a moment. "Ninth Sister, I understand what you're getting at... but are you sure Xuanwu's 'eye' was placed on her 'childhood self'? Isn't that a bit too abstract?"
**[Well...]** Bai Jiu knew her explanation was a bit far-fetched. **[But we've never found an eye on Xuanwu's body before... Thinking about it now... maybe we can test it out on this little Xuanwu. After all, with Xuanwu, nothing is truly beyond understanding.]**
Qiu Shiliu was momentarily stunned. "Wait... Ninth Sister, you mean... you want me to gouge out this child's eyes right here?"
Little Xuanwu, who had been silent for a long time, took a frightened step back upon hearing this, breaking free from Qiu Shiliu's grip.
"Don't gouge my eyes out... Just kill me..." Little Xuanwu said tremblingly. "Why only gouge out my eyes... and not kill me?"
Qiu Shiliu found this question difficult to answer. A child who had already suffered so much, and now she had to gouge out her eyes too... Leaving her not only poor but also blind to live in this space—how was that any different from being an animal? How was it any different from the Tianlong or the Qinglong?
"You, listen to me..." Qiu Shiliu said, her heart full of conflict. "Kid, even if I kill you, that eye might still function on your body... So I have to gouge it out to stop that terrifying 'Undying.' I—"
"Then kill me first!" Little Xuanwu raised her voice and shouted. "Kill me first, and then you can poke my dead eyes all you want, okay?"
"I..." Qiu Shiliu was stunned. This question was just as hard to answer.
Little Xuanwu stepped forward and grabbed Qiu Shiliu's hand. "Big brother..."
"I'm a fucking sister." Qiu Shiliu said irritably.
Little Xuanwu, as if she had never seen such a handsome, boyish-looking girl before, quickly corrected herself:
"Sister, you look like someone who's not afraid of anything... Kill me! The people in the village are afraid of breaking the law. If they killed me, they'd be executed by firing squad. None of them actually dare to kill me. Only you can save me... Please..."
This disjointed plea lingered in Qiu Shiliu's mind for a long time, leaving her speechless.
How desperate must a person be to see death as salvation?
"Xuanwu, what exactly..." Qiu Shiliu let out a slow sigh.
Little Xuanwu tilted her head slightly, her scarred face looking up at Qiu Shiliu. "Sister... who exactly is 'Xuanwu'?"
"You..." Qiu Shiliu nodded. "I almost forgot. You're not called Xuanwu now. So what should I call you?"
"I'm Xuanzi from the Wu Family Village." Little Xuanwu said.
"Wu Family Village... Xuanzi?" Qiu Shiliu frowned.
"So can you kill me?" Little Xuanwu said again. "Even if after you kill me, you want to cut out my tongue and throw me to the wolves, that's fine too."
Bai Jiu, hearing Little Xuanwu's words from the other side of the [door], hesitated for a moment. It seemed as if something subtle had just clicked into place.
Xuanwu was like this. Little Xuanwu was like this too. There was a very eerie commonality between the two of them.
**[Shiliu, I have something to ask her.]** Bai Jiu's voice came through the [door], heavy and serious. **[You relay it for me. I'll say one sentence, and you say one sentence.]**
"Alright." Qiu Shiliu nodded, picked up the [door], and held it to her ear. Then, looking down, she said, "Xuanwu, I have something to ask you."
"What...?" Little Xuanwu asked blankly.
"Why don't you kill yourself?" Qiu Shiliu repeated Bai Jiu's words, hitting the crucial question precisely.
"Kill myself...?"
"Whether it's now or in the future, it's the same." Qiu Shiliu frowned. "You give off the feeling that you're looking for death every single day, but you've never once tried to take your own life. Why not? If you really want to die, you have plenty of ways to try."
Little Xuanwu stared at Qiu Shiliu for a long time before slowly speaking. "I can't kill myself. I can only be killed."
"Be killed...?" Qiu Shiliu clearly didn't understand. "Doesn't that just make things harder for other people? You said it yourself—killing you is saving you. But the person who saves you would be executed."
"But I really can't kill myself... My life belongs to the Bodhisattva."
"The Bodhisattva...?"