Fang Hao's eyes widened slightly, and his gaze turned gray for a moment. He turned his head and muttered like a puppet.
"I must reach the peak," his voice distant and robotic. He attempted to move, but Wenxiu quickly hugged him, her laughter filled with mischief, unaware of the sudden change in his expression.
"You're trying to dodge the question, Hao," Mei Wenxiu said, her tone gentle. "Why do you want to cultivate? Come on, tell me. If it's personal, I won't ask again."
She rested her head on his chest, her fingers tracing soothing patterns on his skin. His eyes were hidden from her view, and the grayness in them seemed to deepen.
"I must reach the peak," Fang Hao repeated in the same dark and robotic tone, causing Wenxiu to furrow her brow.
"Maybe it's because I'm just a mortal," she began, her voice filled with curiosity, "but I don't understand what's so special up there. Sure, you get to experience a long life, but is that really necessary? Can't you just reach a few realms and live longer in peace?"
"Wenxiu..." A tear ran down his cheek as he felt something happening. His one eye was in the midst of a strange and unsettling transformation.
In one fleeting moment, a flicker of light returned, briefly rendering it brown, but it was swiftly engulfed by the grayness.
A silent struggle waged within him, a battle for control, and he could feel himself losing ground to the relentless tide of darkness.
He found himself utterly powerless to control his own body. Inside his mind, Fang Hao's desperate pleas echoed loudly: "STOPPPPP! STOPPPPPPP! DON'T SAY IT, PLEASE!!!!!"
A single tear landed on Wenxiu's cheek, catching her attention. She turned to look at him and was met with a twisted yet strangely strained facial expression as if he were a puppet being manipulated.
"Hao? Don't be sad." Her face displayed sadness as she gently wiped away the tear with her finger. In the midst of his internal struggle, Fang Hao's voice continued to scream within his mind.
"If you don't want to, we can just live together. I promise you, I will love you with all my heart." She couldn't help but feel that he must have a painful past, hidden beneath his current turmoil.
Fang Hao's eye flashed with even greater intensity, and then the grayness consumed his eye, leaving only a hint of brown in the corner.
His tear transformed into blood, and a vein in his eye burst from the internal struggle.
Wenxiu felt a hand gripping her shoulder tightly, causing her to cry out in pain, "Hao, you're hurting me!"
Raising her head, she grimaced with her eyebrows furrowed in pain. Her eyes widened in alarm as she saw him, a trickle of blood escaping from one eye, its color shifting ominously.
She attempted to retreat, but the vast difference in power left her helpless.
Fang Hao's second hand trembled as it reached toward the necklace around her neck, sending panic coursing through her.
"HAO, STOP!" Wenxiu screamed in panic. What was he doing?
Fang Hao shook slightly, pausing and moving slowly as Wenxiu tried her best to break free, shouting at him, "ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!!?" Her voice filled with anger and hatred.
"YOU USED ME JUST LIKE THOSE! YOU ABANDONED ME NOW I'M USELESS, RIGHT?!!!" Wenxiu's tears of despair started pouring out as Fang Hao's hand trembled in response to her intense emotions, grabbing the necklace and slowly lifting it in very slow motions.
"I NEVER EXPECTED THIS FROM YOU. I AM FOOLISH TO..." Wenxiu's tears and face of hatred slowly changed to confusion.
"You, you, why?!" Wenxiu looked into his eyes but was met with a face devoid of emotion, leaving her shocked. This was not the Hao she knew.
"WHO ARE YOU?!" Understanding that something was terribly wrong, she spotted his old eye color in a corner, letting out a panicked voice.
"HAO! Don't let it win!" She started scratching his hand in a desperate attempt to stop him from pulling the necklace up.
Sadly, it was hopeless; the brown light in his eye was being consumed as more drops of blood poured down from it. "Drip, drip, drip," the sound of the tears hitting the ground made it seem like time had paused.
"Hao..." Wenxiu looked at him with a sad expression, recognizing his anger and sadness as he felt helpless. She turned to the hand that was desperately shaking.
"You can hear me, right?" She offered a small sad smile, taking a step forward as the hand paused. Then, she kissed him on the lips deeply, one last time.
"I can feel your pain, your anger, your helplessness. I know you can hear me," she muttered with a lowered face before raising her head.
Her blond hair floated around her in the air, and she managed a nostalgic smile despite her sad face.
As the necklace continued to rise, she sighed, letting out all her burdens, crying tears that were mixed with sadness and regret.
With a lost expression, Wenxiu muttered, "Mother, sisters, brothers, and father, I, Wenxiu, will soon meet you," making those her final words as Fang Hao remained trapped in a state of helplessness, unable to control his own body.
"Hao..." She touched his cheeks and wiped away some of the blood, whispering for him to hear, "My enemy, my savior, my friend, but above all... my love." She sniffled, overwhelmed by sadness.
"Remember the promise, remember this useless mortal girl called Wenxiu, and please don't...regret. You didn't kill me; it was 'I' that did it, not you," Wenxiu said lightly, taking her fate into her own hands, feeling a massive weight lift from her as she sensed that death was near.
She placed her hand around the necklace above Fang Hao, feeling his warmth, and gave him one more deep look, a memory she would carry into the afterlife. Then, she closed her eyes as she removed it.
"Take care, Fang Hao, and don't be sad...." Wenxiu opened her eyes one last time and spoke with a smile that brightened the world. In the moment of death, the world seemed so bright, unlike the despair of the prison she felt.
"For 'I,' at this moment, am truly free." Her words carried like winds, reaching his ear.
The light from the necklace reached its peak as Fang Hao continued to shake uncontrollably.
"WENXIUUUUUUUUUUUUU! NOOOOOOOOOO!AAAAAAA!" Inside his mind, he roared like a beast, and then an explosion was heard, "BANG."
Wenxiu's head exploded, sending blood splattering all over him. His hand was wounded, twisted at a weird angle, but that was the least of his pain.
In his heart, a deep feeling like something had shattered happened just before he fainted next to the lifeless body, landing in a pool of blood.
The grayness in his eyes remained as they blinked rapidly, with images of what had just happened being played like a movie, erased, and slowly returning to brown. But something was amiss...
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[Author note: "For 'I,' at this moment, am truly free."Mei Wenxiu, a Mortal Girl. ]
This chapter holds a special place in my heart, and I hope it stirred your emotions as well. I won't reveal any details to avoid spoilers, but I would greatly appreciate your feedback.
We've reached chapter 50 in the story, and I'm eager to hear your thoughts. Your honest review means a lot to me, and it only takes a few seconds of your time, I don't care about the rating just the feedback. Thank you for considering it.
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