Chapter 351 The Hunter Who Killed Immortals (102)
Chapter 351 The Hunter Who Killed Immortals (102)
This is paradise.
Xu Lu sat quickly on her golden throne as a sweet melody filled the air. She was surrounded by a formation that crackled and hummed with spiritual energy.
This formation caused the qi in her meridians to flow rapidly throughout her body causing her cultivation level to increase without any effort.
Several full-sized mirrors rotated slowly around her body and each mirror reflected her perfect face. A visage that could not be compared to anyone else's in the entire continent.
She was simply the most beautiful.
Perfectly sculptured brows, sharp angular cheekbones, plump kissable lips and not a single blemish or scar on her face. It was though her appearance had been crafted by the gods themselves.
Xu Lu looked at her reflection in one of them mirrors and smiled. Her lips curved upwards and revealed two rows of perfectly white teeth.
Yet there was something wrong.
Her smile… it did not reach her eyes. Her smile looked natural from a distance but as she observed her reflection, she could not help but notice the faint lines around her eyes.
A feeling of tiredness and exhaustion concealed by the bright grin on her face.
It was as though she was putting on another mask.
No…stop thinking like that.
In this place… there was no need for her to… to…
"Darling are you okay? Why do you look so worried?" a concerned voice asked softly.
Jiang Xin approached her girlfriend and stretched out her right hand. She used her fingertips to gently stroke the sides of Xu Lu's cheeks and a lovestruck expression surfaced on her face.
"Your face…" Jiang Xin breathlessly whispered as the affection and obsession in her eyes grew stronger.
"I love it… darling you should never be unhappy… I promise you… I will fulfil your every need… emotionally… physically…"
"Sexually…"
That final word came out like a purr.
Xu Lu politely nodded and tried her best to push the unsettling thoughts in her head to the back of her mind. This place was a paradise that had been built for her.
She… she deserved this peace.
(But you know it's all built on a lie)
"Shut up," Xu Lu hissed as she grabbed her head in pain.
"Babe… are you…" Jiang Xin's voice trailed off as Xu Lu grabbed her palm and flung her fingers away from her face.
"Get. The. Fuck. Away. From. Me!" Xu Lu shouted angrily as she pushed away her girlfriend.
"You aren't even the real thing! You think I don't know you are just my imagination?!"
"This place is driving me insane! I… I can't take it anymore!"
Jiang Xin placed her hands by her sides and bowed her head respectfully.
"I'm very sorry for displeasing you mistress… please forgive me… I… I can't live without being by your side…" Jiang Xin tearfully spoke as she knelt down and placed her forehead on the ground.
"I… I can't live without your face… it is…"
"Stop it! Stop it!" Xu Lu finally snapped as the emotions that she had been badly trying to suppress suddenly erupted all at once without warning.
"DO YOU ONLY LIKE MY FACE?"
The world suddenly froze.
This was not an awkward moment of silence… not it was something far darker. Xu Lu looked around in confusion as the disciples training in the distance were locked in place.
Stuck in mid air with their arms extended or their feet just inches away from their opponents' faces.
All of the colour of the world slowly drained away.
First the clear blue sky, then the grass beneath her feet, then the gold of her throne vanished into nothingness.
Everywhere she looked all Xu Lu could see was shades of grey.
"What is going on?" Xu Lu spoke aloud in confusion as she got up from the throne and tried to get a better view of her now warped and changed surroundings.
"What else is there to like?" a cold voice suddenly spoke.
Xu Lu immediately turned in the direction of the sound and saw Jiang Xin staring at her with a cold and calculating expression on her face that she had never seen before.
"You know its true," Jiang Xin coldly muttered as she took a step forward.
"All you have in this world is your face. Why ruin the illusion?"
"Go ahead… defeat me… get out of this world and go back to real life. I'm not going to resist… I'm not going to stop you."
Jiang Xin snapped her fingers and the sword attached to Xu Lu's hip slowly floated out of its sheath and the saintess felt her fingers curl around the hilt of the weapon.
Her body was now being controlled by an external force that was far too powerful for her to struggle against.
Inch by inch Xu Lu staggered forward until the tip of her sword approached Jiang Xin's neck who merely held out her arms as if she was about to embrace her lover in a tight hug.
"Do it…" Jiang Xin hissed darkly as the floating mirrors broke out of the formation and hovered behind her body. Xu Lu could see her reflection inside each mirror.
And all she saw was a scared little girl.
"But remember… what you truly are…" Jiang Xin giggled softly and the reflections in the mirrors suddenly changed.
Xu Lu's eyes widened, and a gasp of horror escaped her mouth. Her perfect appearance was now gone, replaced by a visage that she had tried her best never to remember in this place.
Horrific scars crisscrossed her entire face and completely destroyed her original beauty, heavy burn marks could be seen along the edges of the scars and her flesh had been mutilated.
"Can you do it?" Jiang Xin softly spoke with her voice no louder than a whisper.
"Can you go back to the life where you have to cover your appearance with a mask? Hide your true appearance so that no one knows what a little monster you really are? Have to suffer the stares, rumors and gossip if your face was ever to be revealed?"
"And… be honest with yourself…"
"Do you really think that the real Jiang Xin would ever accept you? Much less be able to love you?"
Each word that her false girlfriend spoke sent daggers into Xu Lu's heart and tore apart what little self esteem that she had left.
She could not refute 'Jiang Xin' 's words that was for one simple reason.
They were all true.
Even if she did one day become brave enough to take off the mask, the reaction of the people around her would be full of sympathy and pity at best and mocking and spiteful at worst.
And Jiang Xin… not this illusion.
The real one.
She would never love her.
Xu Lu swayed in place with her sword just one centimeter away from the false Jiang Xin's neck. Just one tiny push would be enough to pierce her throat.
And yet that one centimeter felt like a gaping chasm.
"I… I…" Xu Lu stuttered as she felt overwhelmed by the emotions coming out from the original Xu Lu's memories. It was getting harder and harder to remember her identity as Sui Li.
To remember that she was an agent.
To remember that… she…
(Was loved)
Xu Lu's trembling movements stopped as for a split second she felt as though a warm pair of ghostly arms was gently wrapping themselves around her body.
She felt at peace.
The former saintess turned her head around and saw a strange woman smiling at her. This woman's skin was dark brown, and she had pointed ears like the elves in a fantasy novel.
Her eyes were a deep shade of crimson and dark tattoos covered every inch of her skin.
Xu Lu had never seen this woman before and yet she felt a deep almost intimate connection that reminded her of her time spent with Camilla and Jiang Xin.
Even though their appearances could not be any more different.
Who was she?