Chapter 593: You Won't Lie to Me, Will You?

"No matter how much time passes, you're always like this, never once considering yourself..."

She gazed deeply at Xiao Mo, speaking softly.

Her words were soft enough that they seemed spoken for Xiao Mo to hear, and yet also as though murmured only to herself.

Gui Junmeng had not heard Nian's final words but she had heard Nian say that Xiao Mo intended to offer himself as a blood sacrifice.

Gui Junmeng bit her lip tightly, her eyes, fixed on Xiao Mo, trembling ceaselessly, veiled in a faint mist of tears. "Xiao Mo, is what she said... true?"

"Junmeng, don't believe her words. Trust me." Xiao Mo held Gui Junmeng's slender hand, speaking earnestly.

"Heh heh heh, how truly laughable!"

Yuan gazed coldly at Xiao Mo and Gui Junmeng.

"You humans always do so love playing at this so-called deep affection?"

"Your name is Gui Junmeng, isn't it? Allow this one to tell you, for this deicide array, the primary caster's cultivation level must be at the Ascension realm, otherwise, one must offer themselves as a blood sacrifice, a life for a life."

"You have cultivated the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet alongside him, your great paths bound together. In truth, you too could die in Xiao Mo's place."

"Look toward the center, do you see that formation gate, glowing blood-red? All you need do is throw yourself into it, and you can die in Xiao Mo's stead. Well then, do you dare, would you rather watch your beloved die, or die yourself?"

The more Yuan spoke, the more a certain madness crept into her eyes.

Rather than watching Xiao Mo die, it seemed she wished, even more, to watch a woman die for Xiao Mo's sake, leaving Xiao Mo to live on burdened by endless guilt and self-reproach!

"Junmeng, don't believe her." Seeing Gui Junmeng's hesitation, Xiao Mo said hurriedly, "They're only trying to deceive you. I must complete the final step of this array as quickly as possible, otherwise all our efforts will have been for nothing."

Hearing both Xiao Mo's and Yuan's words, Gui Junmeng gripped her sleeves tightly with her small hands, falling into deep, conflicted thought.

"Xiao Mo... you won't lie to me, will you?"

At last, Gui Junmeng raised her head, looking earnestly at Xiao Mo, as though seeking one final answer.

Looking into Gui Junmeng's nearly pleading eyes, the corners of Xiao Mo's mouth curved upward slightly, and he said gently, "Junmeng, trust me."

"Mm... I trust you..." Gui Junmeng nodded but just as Xiao Mo was about to draw out his own Dao pill, to transfer it to Gui Junmeng.

Gui Junmeng extended her small hand, her slender, jade-like finger tapping the point at the back of Xiao Mo's heart, momentarily sealing his soul-bridge acupoint. Xiao Mo instantly found himself unable to move.

Xiao Mo looked at Gui Junmeng in shock, his heart filling with unease.

"Xiao Mo, do you know something? Whenever you lie, to put others at ease, you always wear a smile meant to reassure them."

Gui Junmeng gently stroked Xiao Mo's cheek, her eyes full of tenderness.

Before Xiao Mo could react, Gui Junmeng leaned down, her soft, delicate lips pressing against his.

Gui Junmeng opened her mouth, and an illusory Dao pill flew out from her throat, transferring into Xiao Mo's body.

Though this illusory Dao pill did not possess a physical form like the one Xiao Mo had condensed.

This Dao pill, too, carried within it all of Gui Junmeng's cultivation fortune and everything she had accumulated throughout her cultivation.

Gui Junmeng's Dao pill enveloped the Dao pill within Xiao Mo's body.

Because their great paths had long since fused together, Gui Junmeng's Dao pill could nourish and sustain Xiao Mo in return, transferring her own lifespan to him.

Xiao Mo's once-white hair gradually returned to its former black.

As their lips parted, the woman whose hair had once cascaded like a black waterfall now stood with hair entirely white.

"Xiao Mo, I told you, whether it's you or Jingci, I won't let anything happen to either of you..."

Gui Junmeng smiled as she looked at Xiao Mo.

"In truth, how could I not have known, that the one you love most, in your heart, has always been my sister after all."

"But it's all right. Thank you, for all these years of loving me, and thank you, too, for letting me love you all this while."

Her words finished.

Gui Junmeng rose to her feet, walking toward the "gate" of the deicide array.

"Junmeng!" Xiao Mo wanted to stop her, but could not move at all.

Standing before the gate, Gui Junmeng turned around, gazing calmly at Xiao Mo, as though wanting to etch his image into her eyes forever, never to forget it.

"If, in another life, it were me you met, not Jingci, would the one you loved be me?"

As Gui Junmeng's words fell, her body tilted backward, falling slowly toward that blood-red gate.

The blood-light of the deicide array swallowed Gui Junmeng whole.

In an instant, the deicide array blazed with radiant light, as though it had come alive.

Yuan gave a cold snort, activating the Tushan clan's great array as well, attempting to draw upon all the Tushan clan's fortune through the Moon Spirit Tree, to shield herself and the other two.

The deicide array and the Tushan clan's great array clashed against one another, the earth throughout the Tushan clan's territory shaking ever more violently, the ground splitting into cracks and fissures, mountain peak after mountain peak collapsing, burying fox clan cultivator after fox clan cultivator.

Because Gui Junmeng had given her entire cultivation fortune over to Xiao Mo, and Xiao Mo and Gui Junmeng, through their dual cultivation, had always walked the very same great path.

So once their two great paths had, in the truest sense, "become one," Xiao Mo, relying on the "Dao fruit" Gui Junmeng had given him, broke through into the Ascension realm.

Having entered the Ascension realm, Xiao Mo felt the laws of the great Dao around him become entirely different.

Especially the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet that Xiao Mo cultivated.

Only after Xiao Mo entered the Ascension realm did this technique finally reveal its true nature.

It turned out that the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet was a divine technique and, moreover, a technique of karma itself!

Steadying his mind, Xiao Mo took control of the deicide array.

Spear after spear flew out from within the array, piercing ceaselessly through Shou's body.

Shou spat blood, gazing coldly at Xiao Mo, “Xiao Mo, don't think this is over. We divine spirits will return, in the end!"

As "Tushan Meng" dissolved into a mist of blood, Shou's remnant soul scattered in the air, returning to the great Dao but Yuan had no intention of waiting to die.

She broke free from her chains, once more manifesting her golden divine form.

The Tushan clan's great array, under Yuan's control, clashed ever more violently with Xiao Mo's deicide array.

The Tushan clan's great array pressed down upon Cun Caiguang, and he, too, exploded into a mist of blood.

"Xiao Mo, we cannot continue like this. Senior Gui and I will help you stabilize the array, but from here on, everything depends on you alone. Remember, you must not allow the divine spirits to be revived!"

With these words, Daoist Master Yun Xi and Gui Ning offered up their own essence, dissolving their own bodies of their own accord. After Yun Xi and Gui Ning had sacrificed themselves in this way.

The deicide array's radiance grew even more brilliant than before.

"Second Sister, hurry, go!"

Sensing that things were dire, Yuan split off half of the Tushan clan's fortune, transforming it into a lily blossom.

"Yuan, forget it, don't do anything foolish." Nian furrowed her brow, speaking to her third sister.

"Second Sister, I can't accept this! I have to try again!"

With these words, Yuan's mind stirred, forcibly extracting her eldest sister's soul from within Tushan Jingci's body, allowing it to escape the deicide array under the protection of the lily blossom, slowly dissolving away.

At the same time, Yuan's own soul left her current vessel, flying toward Tushan Jingci's body.