Chapter 1165: The Lost Thing
"I truly don't remember."
Xuanwu said softly, "I wish I could have always remembered."
Just how long a stretch of days had it been...?
No, perhaps it wasn't long at all. Because every time Xuanwu looked back on this path, she found nothing behind her.
Even the Bodhisattva in her heart had already vanished somewhere along the road she had traveled.
At least she had managed to preserve that final fragment of memory.
It was from before she had come to this place—the days spent hiding on the hillside.
"People can die, but memories cannot." Xuanwu slowly extended her hand. "If even the last memory left in my heart is destroyed, I will be completely shattered."
The next second, an eyeball appeared at Xuanwu's fingertip.
"This eyeball was clearly on my back all along... yet now no one can retrieve it. Take it and kill me, but do not shatter me."
She gently flicked the eyeball outward, and Song Qi reached out to catch it in his palm.
Turning his hand over to look, the eyeball was clean and clear, lying there quietly like an exquisite glass ornament.
Su Shan also stepped down from the rooftop at that moment, moving to stand behind Song Qi.
She looked at Song Qi's palm, where pure ripples of "Indestructibility" undulated.
Xuanwu said no more. She simply lowered her head, picked up her severed arm from the ground, and then walked step by step to the wall of a low building, slowly sitting down.
Bai Hu also walked to her side, quietly watching this pitch-black, inhuman monster.
"Brother Hu," Xuanwu called out.
"What is it?" Bai Hu replied.
"I lost the Bodhisattva."
Bai Hu trembled slightly upon hearing this. Then he too came to Xuanwu's side and slowly sat down.
Just like the year they first met.
"Silly child... what are you saying?" Bai Hu shook his head. "Even if the Bodhisattva is no longer in your heart, she has always remained in the hearts of others."
"Is that so..." Xuanwu buried her head. "I hope the Bodhisattva can forgive me... forgive me, so deeply sinful and stubbornly lost."
"She will." Bai Hu nodded. "She surely will."
Song Qi initially intended to "Explosive Combust" the eyeball in his hand. But after staring at Xuanwu for a long while, a flicker of pity crossed his face. Instead, he turned and handed it to Bai Jiu.
Bai Jiu understood immediately. He accepted the eyeball with a nod, then gently rotated it in his hand. The eyeball gradually turned into a murky liquid.
A few drops of the liquid slipped from Bai Jiu’s fingertips, brushed across his skin, fell to the ground, and seeped into the soil.
This way... Xuanwu wouldn't have to suffer too much pain, would she?
When they looked back, the blackness on Xuanwu's body began to change. Instead of restoring her skin, it started turning into charcoal from her feet upward.
The charcoal spread across Xuanwu's body like a plague. Instinctively, she hugged her severed arm tightly.
"Brother Hu, I heard that after death, a person must have a complete body," Xuanwu sobbed. "That way, they can be reborn and find a new mother. Otherwise, their soul will be incomplete, and they can only wander endlessly in hell."
"Is that so..." Bai Hu said, his voice distant. "Xuanzi, hold your arm tightly. You won't have to suffer anymore from now on... You'll find a new father and mother, and they will..."
"But Brother Hu..." Xuanwu's crying grew more anguished. "I can only go to the next hell now..."
"How could that be..." Bai Hu was startled. "Xuanzi, you've already found your arm. You'll be reborn whole and complete."
The black carbonization began to cover Xuanwu's legs, then her abdomen, and finally her chest.
Her entire body was frozen, unable to move a single inch. Only a faint, ethereal sobbing sound drifted through, as if from another dimension.
The sound was too distant, as though thousands of people in this world were crying, as though thousands of worlds were crying.
"Brother Hu..." Xuanwu said in despair. "But I didn't find my heart... My heart is lost."
"What—"
Bai Hu stared blankly, looking around. He saw many pieces of carbonizing fragments scattered across the ground nearby.
Xuanwu's heart seemed to have fallen in pieces everywhere, impossible to piece back together into its original form.
"Xuanzi... go now..." Bai Hu said. "I'll help you find your heart. Every single piece, I'll find them all."
Xuanwu hugged her arm and slowly lowered her head.
"But that heart of mine..."
The charcoal reached Xuanwu's chest, then her neck.
"It was lost long ago."
Xuanwu's cheeks also turned completely black. Her features were barely distinguishable. She curled up silently in the corner, her long hair draping over her body like a stone, all movement ceasing.
She had merged into the dark red background.
No one could find Xuanwu anymore. No one could make out her form.
Like a stone Bodhisattva, she sat quietly by the wall, becoming a part of the "Land of Finality."
"Ha..." Jiang Shi slowly descended, then knelt on one knee, coughing lightly twice as he said, "Difficult, difficult, difficult, profound is the Way; without a true confidant... do not speak..."
"Little Jiang Shi!" Bai Jiu rushed to Jiang Shi's side, reaching out to help him up, but while his left hand grabbed Jiang Shi's arm, his right hand fell into the space within the arm.
"With a true confidant, speak a few words; without a true confidant... all the tongue's labour is in vain..."
Before they could help Jiang Shi up, Luo Shiyi, standing further away, stumbled a few times and then collapsed to the ground.
It seemed that making Jiang Shi "Forget Sorrow" over such a vast area of collective pain was no easy task either.
Luo Shiyi fell unconscious, and Jiang Shi immediately burst into agonized screams. The immense pain sent his pitch-black body rolling wildly across the ground.
"Little Jiang Shi..." Bai Jiu stood nearby, at a complete loss, tears of anguish nearly falling.
All members of the "Cat" team rushed forward, surrounding Jiang Shi. Meanwhile, Song Qi, his expression turning cold, stepped out of the crowd and walked directly to Bai Hu.
Before dealing with Little Jiang Shi, there was a more important issue to resolve.
Bai Hu looked up at Song Qi with red, sorrowful eyes.
"Bai Hu, are you going to fight us?" Song Qi asked.
Bai Hu did not answer. He simply shook his head.
After watching Xuanwu die so quietly, some of his lost reason had returned.
He knew his enemy had never been the participants.
"Are you going to move against me?" Bai Hu asked instead.
"There is no Bai Hu in this elimination plan," Song Qi said.
"Then suit yourselves."
Song Qi nodded, slightly relieved. He said nothing more and turned his head back to look at Jiang Shi.
Jiang Shi's screams echoed through the small square. In between his screams, he kept shouting the same phrase—
"Don't let me die alone."
"Don't worry... Little Jiang Shi..." Bai Jiu said beside him. "Everyone is here with you. You won't die alone."
But Jiang Shi could hear nothing. He only screamed, only cried in agony.
Everyone around watched in silence, until large patches of scorched wounds appeared on his body, until he was completely still.
When Jiang Shi lay still on the ground, smoke billowing from his body, the members of the "Cat" team all bowed in salute.
Xuanwu's elimination was successful.
Three members of the "Cat" team were dead; several were severely injured.
Without a moment's hesitation, Song Qi turned and issued orders to the group. The remaining members quickly divided into seven teams, preparing to head off immediately for the second round of the mission.
Seeing their formation, Bai Hu let out a soft sigh and asked, "So... are you going to move against Zhu Que?"
Song Qi turned around, untying the braid atop his head, letting his hair fall loose over his forehead and around his cheeks. The hair tie in his hand was already sparking.
"May I?" he asked.
Bai Hu caught sight of Song Qi's right hand and found it intriguing. "How will you kill him? Using your 'Explosive Combustion'?"