Chapter 74 The Choice

The array patterns on the summit of the Divine Shrine Mountain gradually dissipated.

Clouds swirled around.

The sisters had finished their conversation... Li Qingci stood serenely before the waterfall, gazing at the landscape of the Divine Shrine Mountain that resembled an ink painting, while Li Qingsui sat in the flower garden, her back turned, still sulking.

Gu Shen ascended the summit, saw this scene, and said, "Miss Qingci, I apologize."

"You don't need to apologize to me..."

Li Qingci lowered her eyes and smiled, saying, "This matter, Qingci was going to say eventually. Saying it today or tomorrow makes no difference..."

"Sister, there's no such thing as today or tomorrow. If Gu Shen hadn't said it, when were you planning to tell me?"

Qingsui, her back still turned, raised her voice, aggrieved, "You never even thought about telling me!"

Li Qingci could only remain silent.

"You, Gu..."

Qingsui's shoulders trembled slightly, and she forcibly prevented herself from turning around, her voice hoarse as she said, "You told me telepathically that you had a solution. Well, say it... what solution?!"

"The Longevity Art."

Before Gu Shen could speak,

Li Qingci turned around, looking at her younger sister, "Mr. Gu gave me a choice a long time ago... He has some of the diagrams for the Longevity Art. If I want to live, I can practice this forbidden art."

The Longevity Art?!

Li Qingsui was stunned. She suddenly turned around, her eyes brimming with tears, and forcefully wiped her face.

"Yes."

Gu Shen slowly walked to the table on the summit of the Divine Shrine Mountain. He took out that portion of the diagrams from his bosom, then placed them on the table, gently pressing them down with a thick book.

He said calmly, "The 'wedge' of the Longevity Art has already been completely disassembled."

He repeated the words he had said down the mountain to Li Qingsui... the effects and the price of the Longevity Art.

Li Qingsui sat blankly in the flower garden, the cold wind ruffling her disordered hair. She was the head of the Li Clan, but she was too young, and her hands had not yet been stained with much blood...

To become a figure like "Li Quhu,"

She still needed many years.

Now the Longevity Art was right before her eyes—

That "bloody," "cruel" price became an unavoidable problem.

In fact, for many people, these costs were nothing at all.

If it were a hero like "Gu Lushen" making the decision, then he wouldn't hesitate for even a second. Sacrificing others to benefit himself, as long as he was ruthless enough, he could achieve a win-win situation. What was there to hesitate about?

But Li Qingsui was just a sixteen-year-old girl.

She had grown up in an environment of care and pampering from her elders. Although she was a bit mischievous, she was kind at heart.

"Does such an evil art... exist in this world..."

Li Qingsui was greatly shocked.

"It does."

Gu Shen said, "Everything in this world requires a price. I need to make it clear to you... Even a twentieth of life transference requires a price. The caster needs to accept the 'soul' of the sacrifice. The longer one lives, the greater the memories within the soul."

"So... if the 'Longevity Art' is used, Sister's soul will become turbid..."

Li Qingsui reacted quickly.

She murmured, "What if... what if we sacrifice infants?"

"..."

Gu Shen was silent.

"Qingsui!"

An icy voice rang out in the flower garden. The smile had completely disappeared from Li Qingci's face, who had been quietly admiring the waterfall.

She quickly came to her younger sister and knelt down.

The two looked at each other.

Li Qingsui knew that she had said the wrong thing, and she looked flustered, quickly lowering her head and wiping the tears from her face with her sleeves.

"Sister... I don't want you to die..."

Li Qingci looked at that haggard face.

She used her fingertips to wipe away her sister's tears.

"Mr. Gu."

Li Qingci said softly as she wiped, "Actually, I am very grateful to you for telling her this... Otherwise, I don't know when I would have been able to say it..."

Gu Shen just stood at the table, not saying anything.

"It's just that this is my life."

Li Qingci smiled gently, "You worry about me, you consider things for me... I can understand all of it. The person who ultimately decides whether I want to live, and how I want to live, should be me, right?"

Li Qingsui raised her head, looking at her sister blankly.

"I want to live, but I don't want to live in this way."

Li Qingci said leisurely, "I am not a saint with a heart to save the world. The things I do on Divine Shrine Mountain can't be considered great either. What supports me to get to where I am today is probably the word 'willing.' There are more important things in this world than life, and that's what I've thought every time I've paid the price."

"It's just that I'm unwilling to draw on other lives to become nourishment for my own prolonged existence... even if you tell me that he deserves to die. If he deserves to die, then let the law deal with him."

"When I put this life on the scales of fate, I never thought about going back on it."

Li Qingci smiled, "I'm probably just a 'stubborn' person, so... Mr. Gu, you see, I didn't disassemble the portion of the diagrams you left me. I can't solve it, and I can't learn it. All I know is that a life prolonged by the Longevity Art is not the life Qingci wants."

Gu Shen quietly looked at the white-clothed woman before him.

Amidst the white flowers, petals swirled.

Li Qingsui couldn't stop crying.

……

……

Meiying left the summit of Divine Shrine Mountain.

Silence returned here, leaving only Gu Shen and Li Qingci.

The Frozen Lake mission was over, and with no other trivial matters, Gu Shen would continue to seclude himself here. His Flame of Life needed to absorb Source Quality, and after the Tundra battle, his "Domain Embryo" could advance further.

Li Qingci pressed that stack of Longevity Art diagrams to the very bottom of the desk.

And Gu Shen stood amidst thousands of white flowers.

He asked softly, "Miss Qingci, what you really wanted to say to me wasn't what you just said, was it?"

Li Qingci paused slightly in her action of organizing books.

"..."

Silence.

Only silence remained.

After that "farce" ended, Li Qingci suddenly became much more haggard. Qingsui had left Divine Shrine Mountain, not knowing what she was thinking, not knowing if she would return.

Her originally calm heart now had many ripples.

Li Qingci's voice was hoarse, "Mr. Gu, what I wanted to say... was just that."

"If you are really determined to die..."

Gu Shen said, "Then you should find a new Guardian for the Divine Shrine."

"The Divine Shrine already has a Divine Child."

Li Qingci shook her head and said, "She is stronger than any Guardian."

"But she is not a Guardian after all."

Gu Shen continued, "You know this better than anyone else."

"The Divine Shrine no longer needs a Guardian either."

Li Qingci said, "The Divine Embryo has already hatched, and you have promised me to clear the black spots on this mountain... One day, the black flowers will be exhausted, the white flowers will bloom, and the entire mountain realm will return to clarity."

"So... does a 'Guardian' still have meaning?"

She looked at Gu Shen and said seriously, "Stepping into this mountain realm is equivalent to losing the light. I will sever the inheritance of the 'Guardian'... This is a good thing."

"Yes, this is a good thing."

Gu Shen said faintly, "It's just that you said yourself just now that becoming a 'Guardian' is not a fortunate thing... So how can you be willing to just die like this? How can you be willing to just fall like this? You are only one step away from seeing the light shining from outside the mountain."

"I..."

"I've already said it."

Li Qingci lowered her head again, her voice so soft that it was barely audible, "I've decided... to end it like this."

"Such words are only good for deceiving Qingsui."

Gu Shen said leisurely, "You don't think of me as the same as her, do you?"

Li Qingci looked up blankly.

"I know you have good intentions, and you are likely unwilling to accept the Longevity Art, so I didn't expect this art... to make you compromise."

Gu Shen said slowly, "It's just that when people are 'on the verge of death,' they always have to grab a straw to save their lives. With your obsession with your younger sister, with your obsession with the Li Clan, if only this straw is left, you will probably still try to grab it, right?"

When he was in seclusion last year,

He placed the Longevity Art diagrams in front of Li Qingci.

At that time,

Miss Qingci had probably guessed that her life would not be long, so she had struggled several times, been entangled several times, and finally disassembled a part, and abandoned a part...

The reason for abandoning it was certainly not just the simple "progress was too slow."

"Scales of Fate... collect lifespan."

"Golden threads of divination... collect the flesh."

"All ancient forbidden arts must have a price to pay..." Li Qingci said self-deprecatingly, "But in my opinion, the most 'cost-effective' longevity forbidden art has the greatest price to collect. It wants to collect my 'spirit.'"

"Mr. Gu, of course I want to live."

She sat back on the wicker chair on the summit, behind which was the dry well where the Chuling Divine Embryo was residing. The wicker chair swayed in the wind, and she was like a piece of dead wood, her whole person quiet and peaceful, "Who in this world doesn't want to live a few more years? But 'living' is not just opening your eyes and breathing. I hope I can realize my value, and clearly understand the meaning of my sacrifices. To put it selfishly, I live for 'myself.' I have no choice in many things, but at least in this matter, I have the right to make my own choice."

Li Qingci looked at Gu Shen.

She rarely, very rarely, said so much.

After becoming the Guardian, she was willing to become the shadow behind the Li Clan, and since then she had worked so hard, walking on the Divine Shrine Mountain Road, trimming the black flowers, and practicing prayers.

A long time ago, she wanted to say it, but no one listened.

Later,

Someone was willing to listen, but she no longer wanted to say it.

"From the first day I was brought here by my father, I knew... I couldn't leave."

"The only thing to be thankful for is that if I stay here, Qingsui can enjoy the sunshine outside. At least my 'sacrifice'... is valuable and meaningful."

Her voice was as calm as the stagnant water in that dry well behind her that hadn't rippled for decades, "I know the ending of every generation of Guardians of Divine Shrine Mountain. None of them lived past the age of thirty, and I probably won't either, but I want to live... I not only want to live, but I also want to tear through the thick fog of this black mountain and let the sunshine from outside shine in."

"So when my father taught me how to exchange with the 'Scales of Fate',"

"What I was thinking in my heart was not just how to make the Li Clan better, how to make the Divine Shrine better..."

"More importantly... if I am willing to pay enough price, can this scale also point me in the direction?"

Li Qingci smiled gently.

She sat under the eaves of the ancient Divine Shrine, and a part of the dark clouds on the summit had dissipated, so half of her white clothes were illuminated by the faint soft light, while the other half was immersed in the ink-like shadows.

All along,

Many people in the Li Clan felt that this gentle and weak Guardian was a fragile little white flower that would break at the slightest touch.

But in reality,

Li Qingci survived on Divine Shrine Mountain, and she lived with countless flowers of broken order every day.

How could such a person be fragile?

"If you want to hear a 'true' story, then this story is probably like this—"

Li Qingci said frankly, "A little girl who looks naive, but is not naive, came to Divine Shrine Mountain and tried her best to live. Fortunately, the Scales of Fate gave her a clear direction... Many years later, she followed the guidance of the scales and accomplished everything. Now she is about to die. She doesn't want to eke out a living with the 'Longevity Art.' She wants to try to live with the guidance of the scales..."

Gu Shen looked at this pale and helpless face.

"Does this story disappoint you?"

Li Qingci asked with a smile, "The reason I did this is because I think... I should be able to 'live' without the Longevity Art. This is what I want to say to you. No one knows what the real me is like. Actually, I'm not a good person."

"There is no standard in this world that can define good and bad."

Gu Shen got a satisfactory answer.

He asked, "So you wanted to find me because the Scales of the Prayer Art pointed to me back then, and you spent ten years to meet me... not only for the Divine Shrine, the Li Clan, but also for yourself."

"Yes... That's what I wanted to say that day."

Li Qingci said the last secret in her heart, and she felt much more at ease. She asked with a smile, "Now... I've finished speaking. You must look down on me, right?"

Gu Shen shook his head.

"No, you haven't finished speaking."

Li Qingci was stunned.

"The Prayer Art must have given you a dream. I still remember you mentioning that dream. Now you can talk about what you saw in that dream."

The woman on the wicker chair fell into thought.

She whispered softly, as if returning to that old dream.

"I saw..."

"A vast, boundless wilderness, filled with golden ears of wheat, with a river running through the distance, reflecting the shadows of sails..."

"In the center of the world, there stands a towering, sky-supporting ancient tree..."

Li Qingci showed a dazed smile, "That is a pure land."

"The scene you dreamed of..."

In the next moment, Gu Shen asked calmly, "Is it like this?"

He ignited the Blazing Flame.

In the next moment, flames swirled, enveloping Divine Shrine Mountain.

The scene around the two of them changed rapidly, with countless flames and ice chips flying.

Li Qingci sat on the wicker chair, stunned.

She reached out in a daze, stroking the flowing light leaves hanging in front of her, and looked up. She was now leaning against that towering, sky-supporting ancient tree.

The wind blew.

Ten thousand miles of snow fluttered, and the golden ears of wheat sown in the distant wheat fields also flew with it.

"Look."

Someone said softly beside her, "Here, is the pure land."

……

……

(ps: This chapter is a long-buried foreshadowing. When I wrote about Li Qingci's first meeting with Gu Shen, I was conceiving the appearance of this scene... Miss Qingci is a very good person, and she certainly shouldn't just die like this. In the most barren years of Divine Shrine Mountain, there were only black flowers and Qingci all over the mountains. It stands to reason that she is the most stubborn little white flower, but the little white flower does not mean "goodness without a bottom line." In my heart, Qingci is a powerful and soulful character, and her resistance to her fate is silent, but powerful.)