Chapter 64: Damn Fate

“Only I can save myself?” Qiao Yu mulled over these words again and again.

Although the master before him exuded unreliability from every pore, her presence brought him inexplicable comfort. Tentatively, he reached out and placed his hand atop Wen Jinge’s. “Master, do you truly believe I’ll become a Sword Deity?”

“Yes.” Wen Jinge ruffled his hair affectionately. “So, no matter what the future holds, you must live well, and make those who doubt you pay the price.”

“The price…” He looked at Wen Jinge, puzzled, and asked uncertainly, “What if that person is you, Master?”

The scene shifted. Wen Jinge saw herself.

This time, the person reflected in the water barrel was her—a different Wen Jinge, to be exact.

“Master…”

The roles had reversed. Now it was Qiao Yu squatting by the edge of the water barrel.

The youth had filled out since their first meeting—enough to look healthy, even ordinary.

“Master, do you realize what you did wrong?”

Wen Jinge in the water barrel remained silent. The dark threads wound through her body, and now it was her collarbones that were pierced. Qiao Yu leaned closer, fishing around in the water.

This barrel was clean, the water clear.

Wen Jinge moved in for a closer look. The figure sitting inside had lost all four limbs. Qiao Yu approached with a venomous scorpion in hand. “Master, the things you put in the barrel with me back then made me suffer terribly.”

The Wen Jinge in the water barrel was still icy-eyed, her emotions unruffled. If not for the cold sweat beading on her forehead, Wen Jinge almost would have believed this version of herself was a lifeless dummy.

“Master, I’m more merciful than you. If it hurts, you’re allowed to scream. Don’t worry, I won’t call you noisy.”

Wen Jinge was briefly stunned. Had she done too many wicked things? Why did this Qiao Yu suddenly seem so captivating? She almost wanted to spirit him away!

“Master, you shouldn’t have left me alone on the mountain when you and Senior Brother went down.”

Blood trickled from the lips of the Wen Jinge in the water barrel. She still resisted, sweat pouring from her brow to mingle with the water.

“Master, back then I saw another you.”

The gaze of the Wen Jinge in the water barrel changed. The Wen Jinge crouching at the edge of the barrel also looked different.

“That you said only I could save myself.” Qiao Yu laughed—loud, tears streaming down his face. He sniffled, letting out a long sigh as the Wen Jinge in the water barrel looked at him with wild, fevered eyes. “So! Everything you did to me, I returned to you.”

The Wen Jinge in the barrel seemed agitated. “Where is she? Where did you see her? I’m asking you, where is she?”

“No way!” Wen Jinge frowned. Was that really another version of herself from a different time?

Even if she’d written countless intricate stories before, explanations that made sense in the real world didn’t apply here. This was a place where logic often failed, and she hadn’t even had time to verify many of its rules.

“Where is she?” The Wen Jinge in the water barrel had gone mad, completely forgetting the dark threads twisting through her body, forcing herself upright on her mutilated form.

Qiao Yu’s expression shifted. His earlier triumph in front of his master vanished, as did the pain of revenge fulfilled.

Wen Jinge had gone mad, and so had he.

“What’s happening?” As if struck by a sudden realization, he hauled Wen Jinge out of the barrel, weeping and laughing by turns. “Master! Hahaha, my dear master, what are you really after?”

“Why? Why did none of you ever tell me the truth?”

The limbless Wen Jinge didn’t meet his gaze. Her eyes, once burning with desire, dulled as she murmured deliriously, “It wasn’t supposed to be this way. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. You should have come for me.”

“Master.” Qiao Yu cradled her, sobbing in agony, his face a mask of joy and anguish. He hated himself, and an answer long buried in his heart was about to burst forth.

“Master, does it hurt?”

The master knew about that person.

That person truly existed.

Master…

Yes, everything his master had done to him was meant to draw out that person.

“Qiao Yu…” A flicker of emotion flashed through those deep black eyes. She looked at Qiao Yu as if seeing someone else. “You are the key—the key…”

“The key?”

“Take me to the Gate of Burning Heavens.” Wen Jinge closed her eyes, despairing tears trickling down her cheeks, her lips twisted in a bitter smile. “Wrong, wrong, all wrong… There’s still time, still time, there’s still time…”

“Master…” Qiao Yu shouted, shaking the person in his arms.

Fortunately, she didn’t die. She opened her eyes.

The scene changed again. Wen Jinge recognized this place well—it was where she had once stolen a coffin, picked up a golden bowl, and pried up floor tiles.

It was also the forbidden gate set by the Diviner while alive.

It was because the original host had gone to the Gate of Burning Heavens and met with misfortune that Wen Jinge had been forced into this world.

“Master… you’re awake?”

“Qiao Yu…” Wen Jinge looked at his face, as if trying to see him clearly, only to realize she no longer had hands or feet. “Three years. It’s been three years.”

“Three years later, Wen Jinge, turned into a human swine, disappeared without a trace.” The spectating Wen Jinge suddenly recalled a plotline from “Sword Deity of the Heavenly Pulse.”

“Kill me here.”

Wen Jinge’s gaze swept over the neatly arranged spirit tablets on the offering table. In her eyes was relief, resignation, and a hint of fear. “Please, kill me.”

“Master, I was wrong, I was wrong, please forgive me. Senior Brother—what happened to Senior Brother was my doing too.”

The Wen Jinge in his arms shook her head, a bitter smile blooming on her lips. “No, child, I am not your master. How could the master of the Sword Deity be a degenerate of the Mystic Sect?”

She no longer looked at Qiao Yu, but pointed at a spirit tablet draped in black cloth. Hearing him still weep, she sounded helpless. “If you truly take me for your master, heed my words and do what you must.”

“Master!”

“Ah!” She sighed, and, under Qiao Yu’s shocked gaze, hurled herself against the spirit tablet shrouded in black. Supported by the dark threads in her body, she easily crushed the tablet.

Wen Jinge of Lingxiao Peak.

Six characters were inscribed on the tablet.

“Master!” Qiao Yu caught her as she fell, cradling her in his arms. She was dead. It was as if he suddenly awoke, clinging to her like a child. “Master, why?”

“Master, do you know? Senior Sister Lu killed herself with her own blade. I asked why, and she said, she said if I didn’t die, she and the child would. She said she couldn’t bear to let anything happen to me, so she killed herself.”

“At that moment, I thought again of the other you, the one so unlike you. Why? Why were the two masters so different?”

“Master, everything I did to you was just so I could see her again. Master… I never meant to truly kill you.”

“Forgive me, please? Master…”

“Sword Deity, Demon Clan—is this fate?”