Chapter 594: Like a Dream of Yellow Millet

Xiao Mo tried to stop her, but it was already too late.

Yuan entered Tushan Jingci's body, flying out from the deicide array.

At that very same moment, the Moon Spirit Tree's vines spread ceaselessly downward, wrapping entirely around Moon Spirit Peak.

Tens of thousands of the Moon Spirit Tree's vines lashed out at the remaining fox clan cultivators of the Tushan clan, piercing through their bodies.

Yuan, too, controlling Tushan Jingci's body, charged at the Tushan fox clan.

With every sweep of "Tushan Jingci's" snow-white tails, one Tushan clansman after another burst apart into a mist of blood.

With every swing of the long sword in "Tushan Jingci's" hand, blossom after blossom of blood bloomed out of thin air.

These slain Tushan fox clan cultivators were all transformed into nourishment for the Moon Spirit Tree.

The two of them battled fiercely in the air but because Yuan had been affected by the deicide array, her soul was extraordinarily weakened, and so she dared not prolong the fight.

Moreover, what she now wished for, above all else, was to slaughter the entire Tushan clan, offering up the whole clan as a blood sacrifice!

Yuan had originally planned to awaken a total of thirteen divine spirits but given the current circumstances, she could awaken, at most, two or three now.

Still, Yuan felt this was enough!

Worst case, she could simply take her time awakening the rest of her kin later, it would only cost a few thousand more years!

And even as Yuan controlled Tushan Jingci's body, she was still able to compel other Tushan fox clan cultivators to kill themselves, or to charge at Xiao Mo.

"Sir..."

As Xiao Mo, having been pulled apart from Yuan, tried to catch up to her once more.

A woman, holding a long sword, stood before Xiao Mo.

Her eyes trembling, she called out Xiao Mo's name softly.

"Xiangniang..." Looking at the woman before him, Xiao Mo, covered head to toe in blood, called out softly.

"Sir, what exactly has happened tonight, why is all this happening..."

Tears fell, one after another, from Xiangniang's eyes.

"Why can't I... control myself, why can't I..." Before Xiangniang could finish speaking, her eyes turned cold and merciless.

Before Xiao Mo could stop her, as though under someone else's control, she took up a dagger and slit her own throat.

Xiangniang's pupils gradually dilated, and she collapsed to the ground, blood flowing ceaselessly from her neck.

Looking at Xiangniang lying in a pool of her own blood, Xiao Mo's expression froze, his grip on his sword tightening further.

Xiao Mo raised his head, gazing coldly at Yuan, floating in the air.

Xiao Mo understood, if this continued, matters would only grow worse.

"Jingci must be awakened!" Xiao Mo thought to himself.

So-called "body-seizing" was, indeed, a matter of "the cuckoo occupying the magpie's nest," but it was not something one could simply come and go from at will.

When one seized another's body, the very first thing that had to be done was to erase the original soul because if the original soul awakened, the intruding soul would find itself locked in place.

Unless it could reclaim control of the body, it could not escape from within another's body.

It might even be devoured in turn, by the very soul it had sought to displace.

With time now pressing, and Jingci's soul strength not weak at all, Yuan had been unable to erase Jingci's soul entirely, only managing to force her temporarily into a deep sleep.

So long as Jingci awakened, Yuan would find herself locked within Jingci's body, and Xiao Mo would then have a way to erase Yuan and having entered the Ascension realm, gaining a new understanding of the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet, Xiao Mo also now held, in his heart, a way to save Junmeng.

Jingci and Junmeng had originally been one and the same person.

They had been created when Gui Ning, drawing on that ancient-era secret technique, with the Moon Spirit Tree's help, split their bloodline into two.

Now, though Junmeng's soul had scattered, the Tushan clan's great array had sealed off this world entirely, and so Junmeng's soul should not yet have dissolved completely.

If he could make use of the Moon Spirit Tree, and the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet, to help Junmeng's and Jingci's great paths reunite, perhaps Junmeng's soul truly could be brought back to life.

Having made this decision, Xiao Mo flew toward "Tushan Jingci," transmitting his voice ceaselessly into Tushan Jingci's mind, trying to awaken her consciousness but it had not the slightest effect.

However, half an incense stick's time later.

Xiao Mo noticed that each time Jingci charged at him, her movements would pause for a brief instant, as though she were struggling with all her might to resist.

Xiao Mo felt as though he understood something and in the very instant their two swords crossed, Xiao Mo lowered his own blade.

Tushan Jingci's sword drove into Xiao Mo's chest, piercing through his heart.

The moment the sensation of flesh and blood parting traveled up through the sword blade into Tushan Jingci's palm, her pupils contracted violently, her hands trembling ceaselessly, tears falling without end from the corners of her eyes.

In that very instant, Yuan found that she could no longer control Tushan Jingci's body, nor could her soul escape from within it.

"Xiao Mo..." Tushan Jingci stared at him blankly, her eyes trembling.

"You've finally woken up." Xiao Mo said with a smile, gently stroking her cheek.

"How could I have... how could I have..." Tushan Jingci, now awake, looked utterly bewildered.

"It's all right, it's all over now."

Xiao Mo reached out a hand, his fingers stained with his own essence blood, tapping it against the space between Tushan Jingci's brows.

At that moment, Yuan, now extraordinarily weakened, felt spear after spear pierce into her very soul.

"Sister... I can't accept this... Xiao Mo... I will return, I will never let you go... never!"

With Yuan's head thrown back in an anguished scream, her soul dissolved entirely, returning to the void.

Tushan Jingci, too, fell unconscious.

Xiao Mo gathered Tushan Jingci into his arms, laying her down beneath the Moon Spirit Tree.

Xiao Mo stood atop the mountain peak, gazing out into the distance. The entire Tushan clan's territory had been reduced to scorched earth, not a single soul left alive.

Drawing back his gaze, Xiao Mo looked at the sleeping woman lying on the ground before him, reaching out to gently tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Jingci, this is the last time I will ever deceive you. Never again, after this..."

With these words, Xiao Mo closed his eyes, placing his left hand upon her hair, softly murmuring the final mental verse of the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet.

The unconscious woman had a dream.

In this dream, the little girl once again met a little boy named Xiao Mo.

Only in this dream, no divine spirits appeared, she was never controlled by any god, and she never killed any of her own kin.

In their place, that little boy named Xiao Mo committed one wrong against her after another.

It was Xiao Mo who slaughtered the entire Tushan clan and in the end, it was Jingci who, to stop Xiao Mo, killed him herself.

And the woman's true, actual memories would dissolve slowly away, like a dream, the young woman gradually forgetting them entirely.

The "dream" Xiao Mo had woven would replace the "reality" within the woman's heart.

Xiao Mo did not know whether what he was doing was right or wrong but Xiao Mo knew that, once she awakened, her hatred for him would drive her to ascend into the Ascension realm, that she would climb the great Dao, and never again face that tribulation of Heaven's Dao.

Having done all this, Xiao Mo withdrew his hand, raising his head to look at this Moon Spirit Tree.

Xiao Mo, his own life essence on the verge of extinguishing, walked toward the Moon Spirit Tree, at last sitting down cross-legged beneath it.

"Was it Zhuangzi dreaming he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming it was Zhuangzi?"

Xiao Mo slowly closed his eyes.

He could weave a dream for Tushan Jingci, and he could weave a dream for "the Tushan clan" as well.

True and false, both were but karma.

Only, the higher a cultivator's level, the greater the karma they could alter and so, in the end, Xiao Mo, too, had a dream of his own.

In this dream, though Xiao Mo could not change the life and death of the Tushan clan's people.

In this dream, Xiao Mo dreamed that those divine spirits, on the verge of revival, vanished once more.

In this dream, Xiao Mo dreamed that Gui Ning, Yun Xi, Cun Caiguang, and the innocent souls of the Tushan clan who had died, all returned to the great river, entering once more into the cycle of reincarnation.

In this dream, Gui Junmeng's soul transformed into a point of light, and under the swaying branches of the Moon Spirit Tree, returned into Jingci's body, the two young women becoming one.

In the final dream.

Xiao Mo's body gradually dissolved, transforming into sparks, falling upon the branches of the Moon Spirit Tree.

In an instant, those sparks ignited the branches and leaves, ignited the blossoms, ignited those divine spirits not yet revived.

Towering flames burned upon the Moon Spirit Tree's crown.

The firelight illuminated the night sky, casting its glow upon the face of the woman lying beneath the tree like a dream of yellow millet.