ATLAS TRANSLATES

The sky was gloomy, with violent sounds – not thunder, nor beasts tearing through the heavens, but the clash of spells!

The Lingshan people were clearly used to doing things their own way, unwilling to tolerate any opposition. They didn’t take the City Lord’s people seriously. They would understand the gravity of the situation once they saw the blood parasites.

Xing Shuishui stepped out of the bathhouse, using fire to dry herself. To avoid trouble, she tried to stay low-key, but the guards still spotted them. She raised her hand to burn the fierce ghosts rushing at them. Her knife hilt pressed against the Taoyuan sword as the attackers fell one after another.

At the City Lord’s main hall, the doors were wide open. Not even the slightest movement escaped her ears.

Xing Shuishui looked up.

This was less of a hall and more of a tower, about five or six stories high with four sides. The corner pavilions stood quietly in the night, red lanterns under the eaves swaying with dim light.

Since the blood parasite worm pool was inside, what about Guan Wushan? Was he inside too?

He surely didn’t expect them to come so quickly.

Having been caught off guard several times, she didn’t dare be careless. The longer they delayed, the worse it would be for them.

Xing Shuishui gripped her knife tightly, her other hand pulling He Liansheng’s arm as they walked. Following the young man’s gaze, she saw a mirror at the threshold.

Her eyes sharpened. Just as she was about to raise her knife to strike the mirror, a figure appeared in it.

The youth in the mirror had delicate features, with deep shadows between his brows, looking seven or eight parts similar to Guan Yinzi. He wore deep yellow ceremonial robes, with blood parasites crawling across his knuckles, dripping blood. His skin was ghost-pale, his hair loose with thin braids by his ears.

This was the real Guan Wushan.

He was completely different from who she’d seen in the Floating Spirit Mirror before.

He stood in a dark place, staring at Xing Shuishui before the mirror. He lifted his hand to adjust his mirror slightly, deliberately showing the blood-covered Xue Sansi.

Guan Wushan smiled and said, “I had already written the letters, but didn’t expect you to find Buwen City first. Coming from so far away without notice, I couldn’t properly play host. Please forgive me.”

He raised the letter in his hand, which was instantly devoured by flames.

Xue Sansi lifted his head, spat out a mouthful of blood, his lips completely colorless: “Little Nine… don’t agree to any of his conditions… don’t worry about me… quickly… kill him, avenge your sister…”

Guan Wushan coldly elbowed his chin, nearly shattering his teeth, his voice low and cold: “What business do you have interfering between us?”

Xing Shuishui’s gaze was calm: “Guan Wushan, you want my life?”

Guan Wushan glanced at her through the mirror: “It’s not that I want it. You owe He Tangzhou a life.”

Blood parasites crawled across the mirror surface, limiting visibility.

Xing Shuishui told him: “He chose to die himself.”

Guan Wushan sneered: “Then your sister also chose to die herself.”

Xing Shuishui remained unangered, mimicking his tone to provoke him: “What about Jing Wushuang? Did she choose to die too?”

Guan Wushan’s face was expressionless: “You saw through the Floating Spirit Mirror?”

Xing Shuishui smiled faintly: “If you don’t want others to know, don’t do it. Du Dizhu already knows. Guan Wushan, you played both of us for fools. How should I settle this score with you?”

Guan Wushan said disdainfully: “You don’t seem to understand. This is a world where the strong prey on the weak. Settling scores depends on whether you have the ability. Little peach spirit, I regret it now. I shouldn’t have begged my uncle for mercy back then. You should have died hundreds of years ago.”

Xing Shuishui’s knife tip burst into flames. She was tired of arguing: “I only care about the present.”

Guan Wushan chuckled softly: “What about Xue Sansi? Don’t you care about him anymore?”

The parasites circled the youth’s knuckles again and again. He placed his pale fingers on Xue Sansi’s pulse. The blood on Xue Sansi attracted the parasites, which slowly moved their bodies.

He Liansheng directly stomped on the mirror on the ground. The broken mirror shards were covered by dust, and Guan Wushan’s voice became distorted before disappearing from her ears.

Xing Shuishui suddenly looked at him. He seemed to have a gift for breaking free from others’ constraints, just like when he broke down the boundary between humans and spirits years ago, capable of anything.

The young man took up his sword, not forgetting to make a contemptuous comment: “Fool. About to die and still talking nonsense.”

The Taoyuan sword flew out, shattering the tower windows. Xing Shuishui smiled at him knowingly, stepping onto the sword sheath to flip through the window into the tower. They needed to find him quickly.

The sound of breaking windows was too loud. Many Lingshan people looked over to see a girl in peach-colored clothes supporting herself on the broken window, slightly bent like a small cat, her red hair ribbon continuously tangling with wood splinters.

She stood at the top window of the tower, her arms fair, fingers gripping that short knife blazing with fierce fire like a sun-shooting bow, so dazzling.

He Liansheng also leaped to the window, unexpectedly glancing their way. Even if the Lingshan cultivators had objections, they dared not oppose him, coldly continuing their battle with the guards.

Xing Shuishui sent a message to Du Dizhu: “I found that person, are you coming now?”

Du Dizhu’s cursing voice came to her ears.

She heard him muttering: “I haven’t even conquered the world yet, and he wants to destroy it? How dare he?”

Xing Shuishui frowned.

Du Dizhu teased: “You guessed right again. That bastard really has another move. There’s an ancient cauldron in the Lin family’s cenotaph, full of refined blood parasites. If they spread out, Lingshan might as well disband.”

Lin Lan also sent a message to Xing Shuishui: “That beast!!! How many people has he harmed!!!”

Xing Shuishui: “You guard the cauldron, don’t let it open—”

Blood parasites were evil. Only separation fire could burn them away.

But she couldn’t get there now.

“I’ll have friends help you.”

Fortunately, she had hidden separation fire in the sachet she gave to the Li siblings earlier.

She raised her head, meeting a pair of stone-carved eyes. In the center of the tower was a very tall and magnificent statue of a deity, reaching from the first floor to the dome. The people here seemed to worship the Buwen God.

Just as Lin Lan was about to cut off their mental connection.

She couldn’t help saying: “Why does your Buwen God’s face look exactly like Guan Wushan?”

Lin Lan: “?”

Lin Lan couldn’t stand it: “Who looks like him? Our Buwen God doesn’t have his ugly face. He’s deliberately making people sick! Wanting others to worship him? This heartless thing!! No humanity and blasphemous, it’s infuriating! I’ll fight him to the death!!”

He should worry more about himself.

Xing Shuishui came back to her senses.

The Taoyuan sword had already struck out with sword intent toward the statue, with breaking force, crackling all around.

He Liansheng looked at the statue with displeasure, showing no mercy.

Both were focused on the statue, completely unaware of the bronze mirror behind them. Until Xing Shuishui saw a cold arc of light through the statue’s eyes, she suddenly turned back to see the mirror, called He Liansheng’s name, but it was too late.

She was sucked into the mirror, desperately reaching for He Liansheng.

But the next second, the surroundings changed, the young man’s figure disappeared, replaced by a very thick smell of blood. Where was this place?

Xing Shuishui rubbed her dizzy head, almost instinctively grabbing her knife, facing herself.

Tap, tap, tap, after brief footsteps, a pair of black boots appeared before her eyes.

She looked up, Guan Wushan reached out a hand to her, revealing two rows of ghastly white teeth.

“Welcome, Xue Jiuling, welcome to my hell. The irrelevant ones, the troublemakers, are all gone. Just you and me.”

Almost instantly, separation fire spread out, and Guan Wushan unhurriedly stepped back.

“Won’t you look behind you? Enduring for so long without making a sound, you really can bear it.”

Xing Shuishui suddenly turned around. Xue Sansi lay on the ground, bound by heavy iron chains. Fear swept through her limbs, she told herself to stay calm, but still felt her heart floating in midair, held hostage by the cold wind.

The blood parasites had already entered his body. Using separation fire would harm Xue Sansi’s heart meridians. She ran over to hold his head. Because of the separation fire on her body, the parasites never dared approach her. From beginning to end, Xue Sansi never raised his head, just covering his face with long hair, not making a sound, but her fingers were a bit wet, and she knew he was in too much pain to speak.

Xing Shuishui lowered her voice: “Don’t worry, brother… I’ll take you home. Just like after the Heaven Sacrificial Platform when you found me, told me to let bygones be bygones, took me home, protected me safely through five years. Although we have no blood relation, we are already blood family.”

She felt Xue Sansi’s body trembling. Blood stains were everywhere on his body and the ground. As if his heart was also covered in blood.

Guan Wushan observed the two, saying playfully: “It’s useless, the parasites have crawled to his heart. Just with a move of my finger, if I want, he’ll die. You’re smart, you know what I want to do.”

Xing Shuishui expressionlessly said: “If I stay, will you let my brother go?”

Guan Wushan played with the braid by his ear, thought for a moment, and smiled: “Let him go? You must first swear on your soul not to use separation fire or the Qitong Spirit Knife. Do you dare?”

This meant she would return to being a useless little peach spirit, with only a hundred years of cultivation, ordinary and at others’ mercy.

Xing Shuishui clenched her fist: “You must also swear on your soul to withdraw the parasites, and personally send my brother out. Also—”

She said word by word: “You must not harm He Liansheng.”

Guan Wushan smiled ambiguously: “I can agree to the first part, but the latter depends on whether you cooperate obediently.”

He agreed quite readily. Xing Shuishui also swore accordingly, watching the mirror take Xue Sansi away. Finally, a hint of smile appeared on her pale face.

Only when truly swearing on one’s soul did she understand how reckless He Liansheng was in the Ruomengchan. The oath mark carved into consciousness like a red-hot iron, yet for the sake of herself in that illusion, he endured so much.

Now, she understood too.

Xing Shuishui clutched her chest, a sweet iron taste rising in her throat. The safety token He Liansheng gave her was still there, quietly burning hot, as if hiding a fire in her chest, anxious. Heaven knows how much He Liansheng would blame himself after watching her being taken by the mirror.

Everything here was cut off by Guan Wushan. No sound could transmit out.

She didn’t know what everything would become after today, whether she could drag Guan Wushan to death with her. Xing Shuishui raised her eyes, forcibly suppressing the rusty taste in her throat, preparing for the worst. She transmitted everything she most wanted to say to He Liansheng into the safety token — hoping he would be well.

Sorry, it seemed this was all she could say.

She couldn’t remember when she began to fall.

Wanted to accompany you for a long time, from dawn till sunset.

Day and night, only love without heartbreak.

I was never perfect, those who cursed me stupid were as many as those who hated me. I thought for a long time but couldn’t understand what you liked about me, only after liking you did I realize: love is something without reason.

In this world I’ve met many people, but only you were willing to live and die for me, rewrite the Concealment Talisman for me, using your bleeding body to tell me: love can be as great as death.

Why did I insist on you keeping the sachet with you?

Because separation fire was the most precious thing I had.

He Liansheng, the source flame of separation fire is hidden inside.

This way, even if Guan Wushan takes my life, he can’t get separation fire, and you can forever be number one in the world, forever and ever have unlimited prospects.

If we never meet again in future mountains and waters.

Remember to be good to yourself.

Thank you for understanding my brightness, that’s the most touching thing I’ve heard in my life.

Actually… I actually think, you’re quite brilliant too.

Having left so many messages, Xing Shuishui felt too embarrassed and erased them all, leaving only one sentence.

— “He Liansheng, if you’ve got the guts, like me in the next life too.”

A pale smile touched her lips, then was carried away by the gentle wind, leaving only emptiness. Guan Wushan had already grabbed her hair, forcing her to raise her face, his eyes full of killing intent.

The youth’s yellow robe was dyed red with blood, his smile now showing shadows of Guan Yinzi: “You killed my uncle, killed my mother’s maid, caused He Tangzhou’s death, how should I torture you?”