Please, Don’t Die - Chapter 10

The little monk’s neck snapped with a sickening crack, his head lolling limply to one side.

The severed head, with its childlike lips, opened and closed, emitting a voice all too familiar to He Qingsheng, a young man’s voice, mechanically repeating “Shijie, Shijie,” like a vengeful ghost wailing in the dead of night, each cry dripping with blood.

“Shijie, you are so cruel.”

He Qingsheng scoffed. “What kind of trash dares to impersonate my Shijie? When I was breaking illusionary realms for fun, you were probably still playing in the mud.”

Back during the grand immortal sect competition, the usually arrogant geniuses of various sects had clung to her legs for dear life inside the illusions.

This current illusion was riddled with flaws in her eyes.

Based on the fragments of the illusion’s timeline, the wood demon’s memories could only stretch back fifty years at most. Fifty years ago, her Shijie had been in the Twelve Walls, separated from the mortal world by countless mountains, rivers, and the chasm of the spiritual realm. Even if he had appeared in Jimo, the ages of her Shijie and the little monk wouldn’t have matched at all. Moreover, her Shijie wasn’t a Buddhist cultivator, there was no reason for him to risk crossing the spiritual realm and losing his cultivation just to meditate in the mortal world.

Besides, when Fuliu was destroyed, she had seen her Shijie being abducted by a cloud of black mist with her own eyes. His cultivation was far inferior to hers, how could he have crossed realms in such a short time without suffering any losses?

Her Shijie had been taken right when she was on the verge of saving him. He Qingsheng was certain that the one taken had been her real Shijie.

This was also why, for the next fifty years, she had doggedly pursued the Zhenyuan Sect.

Her Shijie’s whereabouts, and even her master’s traces, were undoubtedly connected to Liang Qiuji of the Zhenyuan Sect.

He Qingsheng steadied her mind and waved her hand, dispelling the illusion.

The clear chime of golden bells shattered, and the memories of old faces and past events scattered like mist.

“Ming Shu, then I’ll call you Xiao Shu from now on.”

…

“Xiao Shu, you blockhead! The little master told you to copy the Agama Sutra, but he didn’t say you had to finish it in one day! Don’t your hands even know how to ache?”

…

“Xiao Shu, are you really a piece of wood that came to life? No wonder you’re always so blank-faced, never showing whether you’re happy or not. You don’t make a sound when you’re bullied, and you don’t speak up when you’re wronged. No, no, as your best friend, I won’t allow this! Xiao Shu, remember this! If you’re unhappy, you have to tell me. With me around, I’ll make sure you’re happy every single day!”

…

The lively laughter of the young girl dissipated into the clear breeze.

The emotions she hadn’t understood for years: resentment, obsession, joy, and anger, had fermented over time, growing bitter and unbearable, gnawing at her heart and bones.

Old dreams are fragile. Old dreams are already shattered.

Unhappy.

Ming Shu thought, she had been unhappy all these years.

A sudden gale swept through.

On the ground, Qi Wan silently pulled out another defensive artifact, shielding herself and the others.

Shangguan Ding’an: “Wanwan, are those golden bells of yours really meant to pacify evil? Why does the wood demon look even more unhinged now?”

“I knew it! My master has never said a single reliable thing in his life!” Qi Wan was on the verge of tears, clutching Shangguan Ding’an’s sleeve as she shrank back. “Great, Shangguan, we haven’t even settled our debts, and now we’re about to die together.”

Ying Qujie’s lips twitched. “Shut up.”

He searched his person but found nothing useful except empty ceramic medicine bottles.

Meanwhile, in the air, the tension was palpable, ready to explode at any moment.

The wood demon Ming Shu wore a smile, but his eyes were dark and venomous, fixed on He Qingsheng as if he wanted to tear her apart and devour her alive.

“Do you think mere illusions can trap me or sway me? No, seeing these only makes me hate more, hate why my precious A-Qing had to be sacrificed to save those ignorant fools!”

He Qingsheng dodged the drought fiend’s sneak attack.

The braid on the side of the drought fiend’s head had come undone during the fight. Her waxen skin was ashen and dull, a far cry from the smiling young girl in the illusion.

The drought fiend was just one living soul away from becoming a full-fledged calamity. Controlled by Ming Shu, she relentlessly attacked Ying Qujie and the others below.

The three of them made for a large target, and the drought fiend had locked onto them. He Qingsheng had to both protect the trio from the fiend’s assaults and fend off Ming Shu’s attacks, resulting in a deadlock.

Thanks to He Qingsheng’s interference, the drought fiend’s killing blows were repeatedly evaded by Ying Qujie and the others.

During the struggle, the fiend’s malevolent energy was gradually siphoned and converted by He Qingsheng, turning into a counteroffensive force.

He Qingsheng hurled the wooden carvings she had gathered earlier, infused with baleful energy, toward Ming Shu while keeping the nearby drought fiend at bay.

“Don’t bother trying to provoke me with these. This isn’t my A-Qing,” Ming Shu coldly shattered the carvings, sending wooden splinters scattering across the sky.

“Oh? These carvings aren’t your A-Qing,” He Qingsheng retorted, forcefully flinging the drought fiend toward Ming Shu. “Then is she your A-Qing? Take a good look at her, this monstrous, inhuman thing!”

“Ahhh!! shut up! Die! Once I kill you all, my A-Qing will return! You all deserve to die!”

Ming Shu was enraged. The dense cracks on her body rapidly expanded, her once-beautiful face now twisted like a vengeful ghost. Beside her, the drought fiend paid no heed to her fury, docilely nuzzling her neck before baring its sharp fangs.

The evil creature was turning on its master!

Yet Ming Shu didn’t flinch. Instead, she tenderly embraced the fiend, as if in a loving hug.

This was bad!

A tree spirit’s living soul was unlike that of a mortal. Though the refined drought fiend lacked consciousness, it still possessed the power to wreak havoc upon the world.

He Qingsheng warned sharply, “The heavenly thunder hasn’t struck yet, Ming Shu. You still have a chance to stop. As a temple spirit who understands karma and fate, you know mortals may reunite with loved ones in future lives. You’ve already slaughtered Yun Taihe and his family, and countless innocents have died because of you, this is the limit of fate. If the drought fiend becomes a full calamity, devastation will spread for miles, and both you and Yun Shuiqing will be annihilated, forever barred from reincarnation.”

He Qingsheng strained to reason with Ming Shu, trying to delay the fiend’s absorption of her soul.

To her surprise, Ming Shu burst into laughter, sneering, “If all your loved ones were dead, would you just wait for their reincarnations centuries later instead of seeking vengeance?”

He Qingsheng’s expression darkened. First, her own words had failed to convince even herself. Second, Ming Shu’s body rapidly fractured into countless pieces as her soul detached. After a few maddened laughs, it gradually faded away.

The tree spirit’s soul had perished.

With the drought fiend at its center, the surrounding air dried up instantly.

The ground cracked into countless fissures without even touching the fiend, and even the bricks of the magistrate’s residence nearby began to melt and burn.

If not for He Qingsheng’s baleful energy desperately containing it, Jimo would have become a living hell in moments.

He Qingsheng looked up to assess the heavenly tribulation. A thick bolt of violet lightning descended vertically, aiming straight for the drought demon, likely powerful enough to kill her as collateral damage.

Her only chance of survival now was to immediately devour the drought demon.

Without a second’s hesitation, she condensed her baleful aura into a swirling mass and lunged at the drought demon, which burned like the blazing sun.

From Ying Qujie’s perspective on the ground, He Qingsheng’s actions were akin to a moth flying into a flame or a hero marching to their death. She fearlessly sealed all the anomalies within her baleful aura, even risking her own safety to consume the evil entity.

Biting, struggling, strangling…

The violet thunderbolt crashed down with a deafening roar!

The force of the heavens was overwhelming.

Ying Qujie didn’t know where his courage came from. The moment the tribulation struck, time seemed to pause for him. Instinctively, he threw the white jade pendant He Qingsheng had entrusted to him toward the swirling mass of red and black baleful energy.

Ying Qujie, Shangguan Ding’an, and Qi Wan were all sent flying in unison.

After the deafening explosion, the world fell into an endless silence.

A long time later, the sound of hurried footsteps finally reached them.

“Lord Shangguan, wake up! Someone, help!”

“Old Zhao, there’s a girl over here.”

“Physician! Pretty sister, why isn’t he waking up?”

Ying Qujie opened his eyes to see Yuan Baoyin’s tear-streaked, dust-covered face and He Qingsheng, who was just about to pinch his nose with her fingers.

If the female ghost had seemed as faint as an ink wash painting when they first met, she now appeared transformed, radiant and vivid, standing out starkly from the once-muted world. Her lifeless features remained breathtakingly beautiful, offering a glimpse of the stunning beauty she must have been in life.

Ying Qujie sat up. In the distance, the magistrate’s residence lay in ruins, devoid of any trace of evil energy.

Of course, he figured the most sinister thing left now was probably the female ghost standing before him.

“Like what you see?” He Qingsheng teased, leaning in close to observe his reaction.

Yuan Baoyin giggled beside them. “Physician can’t stop staring at the pretty sister. So embarrassing!”

Ying Qujie snapped out of his daze, awkwardly averting his gaze.

Even though he knew no one else could see He Qingsheng except Yuan Baoyin, he still felt a faint flush of embarrassment.

“Thank you, Baoyin. I’m fine now. Go find your mother.”

Nearby, Qi Wan coughed violently, then slapped Shangguan Ding’an on the back with a dust-covered hand, laughing heartily. “Good thing the defensive artifact Master gave me never fails. Otherwise, the Grand Imperial Preceptor’s top disciple would’ve been done for today.”

Shangguan Ding’an shook his head helplessly.

He Qingyang clicked her tongue. “Is it really that easy to become the Grand Imperial Preceptor of your Su Dynasty?”

Ying Qujie corrected, “Their Su.”

He Qingsheng: “Huh?”

Ying Qujie didn’t elaborate. “Are you hurt? Let me see.”

He reached out to her naturally, but He Qingsheng recoiled the moment they touched, remembering her overwhelming baleful energy made physical contact impossible.

“Where are you hurt?”

He Qingsheng quickly dodged him. “What are you doing? Hands off, you flirt.”

Ying Qujie, who had never been called a flirt before: “…”

What had he even done?

But the female ghost had already retreated into the jade pendant.

Shangguan Ding’an and Qi Wan began cleaning up the aftermath.

Ying Qujie prepared to tell them he was heading back to the inn first. His clothes were covered in dust, and the blood on his chest had dried black, he had never been in such a sorry state before.

On the ruins, he accidentally stepped on a smooth bead and nearly tripped, risking a bloody head injury, when a chilling aura of baleful energy steadied his body. Fortunately, everyone was busy clearing the debris, and no one noticed the strange scene.

“Thanks,” Ying Qujie shook the jade pendant at his waist and crouched down to examine the peculiar wooden bead.

The bead was perfectly round, its interior resembling a yin-yang taiji symbol, half black wood, the other half transparent like water, intertwined together.

“What is this?”

From his robes emerged a round-headed little wooden puppet, the very one that had stabbed him with a knife in the middle of the night. He nearly flung it away before realizing it was now He Qingsheng controlling the puppet.

“Water nurtures wood, the intertwined fate threads of the wood demon Ming Shu and Yun Shuiqing,” came her cool, clear voice from the puppet. “Keep it. It might not be useful now, but who knows when it’ll come in handy.”

Thinking of the wood demon’s frenzied expression and her inescapable destiny, Ying Qujie felt the bead burn in his hand.

“Ming Shu himself is medicinal material, and drought demon’s condensed water is a rarity even in millennia. Water nurturing wood makes for a truly extraordinary treasure,” He Qingsheng added, unusually explanatory.

Ying Qujie sensed a trap and was about to press for details when the puppet scrambled onto his head and grabbed his hair.

“Good boy, no more talking. We. Must. Go. Now.”

He had no doubt that if he didn’t start walking as He Qingsheng wished, he’d immediately hear a “Giddy up.”

Unfortunately, the puppet perched on his head showed no intention of restraint. It pinched a lock of his hair, tugging left to steer him left and right to steer him right, clearly having far too much fun.

Finally, as they passed through the marketplace and brushed past a donkey cart, it couldn’t resist.

“Giddy up.”

Ying Qujie: “…”