Chapter 91: Chapter 90: The Corpse Without a Shadow

The sixty-fourth time.

She opened her eyes, still faced with the dirty and chaotic prison cell, the sleeping Chu Wen Ruo, Huo Hengxuan, who had not yet returned from punishment, and the silent... Chen Kuang’s corpse.

This was already the sixty-fourth time she had come back here.

The first time, she was an innocent four-year-old child, who fought her way out and accepted the aid of Zhang Zhizhou, who claimed to be a disciple of Freedom Mountain.

Freedom Mountain was a beautiful peach mountain, with endless vistas of peach blossoms. The scholars wore white, irrespective of identity, reciting sentences she couldn’t understand, their eyes seemed to contain the light of the world.

Here she met the "teacher" whom everyone spoke of as particularly amazing.

A little old man who always smiled, not tall in stature, nor dignified in presence, he always held a ruler and, upon seeing someone slacking off, would leap up and fiercely knock their occiput.

He didn’t appear very impressive, just an ordinary old man.

Zhang Zhizhou led her to visit the teacher, who upon seeing her, laughed and praised her for being a good child.

She, like a little adult, placed her hands on her hips, seriously refuting, "I will kill many people in the future, surely I can’t be a good child."

Chu Wen Ruo originally following her nervously, almost fainted upon hearing this.

In front of the teacher, declaring that she would kill many people in the future, what was this child thinking?

"Haha, still hungry yourself, yet sharing the bun with your mother, isn’t this considered good?"

The teacher patted her head and said, "This is the most difficult thing in the world, and you’ve already done it, surpassing ninety-nine percent of the people in the world. Naturally, you’re a good child."

"As for killing..."

The teacher asked, "Why do you want to kill?"

She shouted, "Because many want to kill me and my mother, only by killing them can I protect my mother."

The teacher replied, "So many people, can you kill them all with just two hands?"

"Won’t you die of exhaustion?"

"What would you do if you’re too tired to protect your mother, or if you can’t beat them?"

She fell into contemplation, feeling troubled.

The teacher, still smiling, said, "No rush, you can stay in Freedom Mountain for a long time, tell me the answer when you figure it out."

Thus, she spent six years in Freedom Mountain, transitioning from complete ignorance to semi-comprehension.

She saw many people come and go in Freedom Mountain, from various countries and places, cultivators and ordinary people alike. By planting a peach tree on Freedom Mountain, they became its disciples.

On leaving, some with empty hands, some taking a peach blossom, some eating a tree of peaches, some taking, a new seed.

Some would return, appearing different.

The empty-handed became the world’s top assassin, dying under the peach blossom tree.

Those who took a peach blossom became a country’s powerful minister, eyes heavy with thought, belly growling from hunger. Returned to persuade the teacher to leave the mountain, but stood by the peach tree all night, placing the already dried up peach blossom under it.

Some were never seen again.

Those who ate a tree of peaches vowed to slaughter all Northern Ye Man, battled Night Barbarian King Ah Chilai for three thousand miles, dying exhausted outside the borders.

Those who took a seed fed it to the messenger seriously injured in the Northern battle, facing south and kneeling, died a martyr.

After nine years, the teacher closed his retreat, she left Freedom Mountain.

That year she was thirteen, delicately budding, dressed in white.

A girl with no sword at waist, yet carrying innate sharpness.

After nine years on Freedom Mountain, she already understood the world’s principles.

Yet in her heart remained a perplexing question—why as a child in the prison, did she grab the musician’s corpse and cry immensely.

Who was that person?

But now this question only occupied a small corner of her mind, she had more important matters to attend to.

In one year, the world knew the name Su Huaiying.

At fourteen, she returned to Liang Kingdom, rallied the old troops of Liang Kingdom, only to find that the organization originally established by Huo Hengxuan—"Earth Official" had collapsed under the siege of Zhou people, with only about twenty or thirty left.

At fifteen, she formed her first team, rapidly expanded, preparing to rebel from Liang Kingdom.

At sixteen, she died.

Sometimes, life is this absurd and abrupt...

She learned after nine years, Liang Kingdom’s old troops and its people long accustomed to their present lives.

They considered themselves Zhou people, either being dulled or willingly submitting!

Some even had wives and husbands from Zhou...

Su Huaiying’s return wasn’t good news for them, it was a problem!

She died at the hands of "her own people."

Just like before, the ones to open the gates for the Zhou was indeed someone from the city.

She thought, she hadn’t yet given the teacher an answer, nor found the answer to the question in her heart.

But this wasn’t the end, but the beginning...

When she opened her eyes again, she returned to the dirty and chaotic cell, staring blankly at her now smaller hands.

Next to her, Chen Kuang’s corpse remained silent.

Memories washed over her like a tidal wave.

She remembered!

This was not reality, it was a dream... no, not a dream.

At this moment, possessing the intelligence of a sixteen-year-old, Su Huaiying suddenly realized the sword she pulled from the corpse had a problem!

Certainly, this was no dream, no dream would be so long, so real.

Even capable of altering a person’s consciousness!

She was astonished, immediately climbed up, but clumsy hands and feet caused her to fall back down, landing hard.

The tear glands of a child instantly collapsed but she stood again holding back tears, looking at the quiet corpse.

Too strange, why had only Chen Kuang changed?

Su Huaiying attempted to find clues from the corpse, tried to share what she knew with others, but found nothing... events continued to unfold as predestined.

But she died again, this time at seventeen, after reclaiming Liang Kingdom, killed by the Donghuang Saint.

Time after time...

She never lived past twenty.

The longest time, she almost reached her twentieth birthday, Donghuang perished in Zhang Zhizhou’s plot, dead from internal strife with the Three Tribulations Sect, while she planned united revenge with other states against Great Zhou.

The day before, she met a carefree nameless musician.

The musician asked if she had seen a musician named Chen Kuang.

Su Huaiying was startled, said yes, but he was dead.

The musician said, "If the Tao loses its unity, it cannot be expressed."

"Your Highness, remember to look, is there a shadow beneath him."

Su Huaiying froze, but the musician had already turned to leave and couldn’t be pursued.

This was the thirtieth time.

She died at the hands of the Martial Saint breaking out from Pinggu Battlefield.

The thirty-first time, she stared for a long while, until the moonlight spilled into the cell, seeing Chen Kuang’s corpse... had no shadow!

"Why is this?"

Su Huaiying was puzzled, this wasn’t a dream, everything should be logical.

Why would a corpse lack a shadow?

And Chen Kuang... Chen Kuang surely had one.

He was the only variable so far.

The fortieth time, she tried rejecting Zhang Zhizhou’s allegiance.

Instantly died amidst the chaos of armies.

This was already the sixty-fourth time.

She wanted to solve the question in her heart.

After breaking through enemy troops, she rejected going to Freedom Mountain, brought Zhang Zhizhou to quickly gather personnel, stealthily returned to the Imperial Palace.

She found Su Yu’s not yet completely decayed corpse, that corpse... also had no shadow.

Soon, Li Hongling discovered her.

...

The sixty-fifth time.

Su Huaiying murmured in her heart.

She sighed, lying in Chu Wen Ruo’s embrace, somewhat weary.

Endless fatigue surged in her heart.

Was this the few hundredth year?

She seemed truly unable to escape...

Su Huaiying habitually mechanically turned her head, wanting to see that silent and wordless corpse.

Through countless cycles, that corpse had become her only anchor.

Only by seeing it, could she remember she was not in reality, but in an illusion.

But this time, she was stunned.

In the opposite cell stood a young man, with the familiar corpse at his feet.

He wore peculiar clothes she had never seen, covered in blood, seemed stunned as well, then looked at her, smiling, and waved his hand.

"Um...Your Highness, I’ve come to take you all out again."

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com