Chapter 81: Seventy-Nine: The Story of Reincarnation (Two-in-One)

Seventy-Nine: The Story of Reincarnation (Two-in-One)

Watching the growing strings, Haimofen, who had previously been immersed in his own world of music, was also somewhat surprised; he swept a glance over the audience, "So, you are still here?"

His strings were the hair of people who were constantly being severed, the Troublesome Silk that could not be cut in Lin Laoban's story; if the owner of the Troublesome Silk still existed in this world and was worrying about something, then these few strings would naturally grow.

Although the strings were growing, for Haimofen, it was not much of an obstacle if they only grew longer.

Haimofen looked toward a direction in the audience and nodded slightly in that direction, as if greeting someone.

Xin Junmao in the audience was stunned for a moment; looking at Haimofen, who was facing his way, he only felt that the other party seemed to be greeting him, yet he had never known Haimofen at all.

"How annoying." Miss Zhao did not know when she had let go of Xin Junmao's arm, and she cast a faint, sidelong glance at him.

Hearing Miss Zhao's words, Xin Junmao only then discovered that he had somehow been enveloped in a layer of thin light film; this was the power belonging to that bhiksuni in the Comb.

That bhiksuni with the mysterious origin and compassionate face had protected him once again without him knowing. Xin Junmao could not help but feel a bit moved, then he looked at Miss Zhao with a serious gaze and finally summoned the courage to say: "Miss Zhao, I think you have recognized the wrong person. I may look very similar to someone you know, but I am not him. Please do not place your feelings for him onto me."

Miss Zhao, however, insisted: "You are him, you have always been him, it is just that you have forgotten. You only need to return to being my executioner, and you will remember everything."

While the two were speaking, Haimofen had already begun to play the second piece he had brought for everyone, "Reincarnation."

This piece was a violin solo. When Haimofen's superb musical skill once again struck the first note of the movement, Xin Junmao, who was staring into Miss Zhao's autumn-water-like eyes, suddenly felt a string in his mind being gently plucked. His consciousness slowly became hazy, and the world before him gradually became like drunken neon lights, chaotic and soul-stirring.

His consciousness was sinking, his soul was surging; when the "brain" of consciousness and soul intersected, the world was like experiencing a Big Bang—some things vanished, and some things were quietly reviving.

As his vision gradually cleared, Xin Junmao forgot who he was. He was only wearing battle robes, holding a broadsword, and standing upon a land covered in corpses. Blood flowed like rivers everywhere, and he stood in the center of the bloody torrent and the foul-smelling corpses, living like an alien.

He swayed as he picked up the military flag that had fallen to the ground, walking like a walking corpse toward the small hill piled up with countless remains in the battlefield. He raised the flag and climbed the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, finally stopping his steps on the enemy general's corpse at the summit. Using his last bit of strength, he thrust the heavy flag into the enemy general's chest, piercing the other party's body so that the flag, fluttering in the wind, stood tall and unyielding.

After finishing all this, Xin Junmao fell contentedly from the pile of corpses, collapsing onto the battlefield along with the other bodies, as if merging into a part of the sea of blood.

But when Xin Junmao awoke again, he found himself trapped deep in a cold and damp dungeon, accompanied by darkness and fear, living together with the lowly, foul-smelling underground creatures.

The sneaky, treacherous, greedy, and wretched rats were crouching in the shadows, eyeing him covetously, regarding him as their prey. Every second, they were waiting for him to lose consciousness again, and then the cowardly and cunning creatures would seize the opportunity to run out and gnaw on his thin flesh.

He had been captured by the enemy general, suffering day and night under cruel torture, spending years accompanied by fear, befriending the cold, and kissing death intimately.

He did not know how many years had passed when he was released.

The war had ended, and friendly forces had saved him when he was hanging by a thread.

Having walked through the gates of hell hundreds of times, he had lost his once high-spirited and positive mindset. Time and torture had stripped away his appearance, and he had become a hideous cripple, a freak who received cold looks and fear wherever he walked.

Yet he... was clearly the "shield" that had protected them.

Because the shield was broken and ugly, was it just discarded at will?

Why... why!?

Stumbling and staggering, Xin Junmao walked along the official road, lost and soul-broken. No one paid him any mind; he only wanted to return to the place where he had once lived as soon as possible and find the person he had missed day and night.

He wanted to apologize to her, he wanted to fulfill the promise of staying together for a lifetime, he hoped... he hoped... he hoped she could give up the agreement from back then...

With someone as ugly, ferocious, and physically incomplete as him, she would not be happy.

No... rather than letting the beautiful her in his heart say those cruel words, it would be better for him to be the villain.

While struggling in pain and thinking sorrowfully, Xin Junmao finally returned to the small town where he was born.

But when he saw the peaceful and beautiful Ping'an Town of his memories turned into the desolate and dilapidated ruined town before his eyes, Xin Junmao nearly went mad. He ran with all his might through the streets where he could no longer return to the old days, passed the small river where he had once released sky lanterns, crossed the stone bridge where no one embraced anymore... he finally returned to the home he no longer recognized.

Everything was destroyed...

The little flowers he loved, the river he loved, the snacks he loved... the people he loved were all gone. During the time he was away at war, a sudden plague had taken everything in the town. His most important family members had died in the disaster of the plague, and the girl he loved most on the other side of the river was also missing.

He had intended to be a villain who would make her happy, but he never expected that he would become a true sinner.

Having lost everything, Xin Junmao felt a heart-wrenching pain; he almost lost his sanity, casting away his own love and goodness.

He walked in the wilderness and encountered a lone wolf that wanted to kill him; fearless, he bit the hungry beast to death with his own teeth. He met robbers who wanted to steal his wealth, and looking like a madman, he personally slaughtered those hopeless bandits.

Without realizing it, he had become a true villain.

When he was tired of walking, he occupied a mountain to become king, turning into a bandit. Unknowingly, he gathered a group of fierce and wicked good-for-nothings, becoming a cruel bandit who only knew how to vent his desires and abandon all emotions.

He thought he would just go on like this forever, becoming a hopeless guy, constantly looting peace from others, burning and killing their happiness. He would become the most evil guy in everyone's eyes, and then one day, a former version of himself would appear; one day, his old and decaying self would be killed by him.

However, on a certain day, he met an injured woman in the forest on the mountain where his stronghold was located.

She was the woman with the most perfect appearance he had ever seen, and even more, the face he found hardest to forget.

He had thought his beloved girl was gone, but she had actually returned, returned to his side!

Yet twenty years had passed in a flash, and her appearance had not changed at all.

Xin Junmao had thought that she was not the person he imagined, and he had thought that she might not be as good as the her in his memory, but he wanted to grasp this hard-won beauty.

Only those who have lost something know the beauty of possessing it; his closed and frozen heart was slowly thawing and softening for this injured girl.

She was indeed not that her, but she was equally unique and beautiful, even if the way she was beautiful was different.

She was cruel and bloody, fond of eating and wanton killing... but she was also innocent and pure, true to her feelings and nature.

One night, Xin Junmao saw her gnawing on a bandit in the stronghold who had been seduced by her beauty. He approached her, carved up the delicious meal for her, and pampered her as if feeding a child.

The girl always accepted it gladly and asked him why he was not afraid of her.

Xin Junmao told her his feelings simply and clearly. The girl still did not understand why he loved her like this, but she knew how to respond to Xin Junmao's feelings; she said: from now on, she would not eat him.

Xin Junmao then domineeringly held up that face covered in blood and flesh, filled with confusion, and kissed those lips that had swallowed countless sins and wronged souls. He expressed to the girl sincerely: from now on, he would be her executioner. All her sins would be borne by him alone from now on; she did not need to end the lives of others with her own hands, she only needed to be the girl who was well taken care of.

The girl looked at Xin Junmao, still full of doubts about the so-called love he spoke of, but she felt a strong joy... she had begun to like the feeling of being loved.

From then on, Xin Junmao became an even more tyrannical bandit. Any traveler passing through his territory had no chance of survival; there was only a dead end. At the same time, with the girl's help, he gained some power that transcended humanity, which greatly increased his efficiency in hunting "prey."

After retaining a sliver of humanity for her, Xin Junmao became a demon who had completely lost his humanity.

And on a certain day, the demon returned to the human world...

One day, Xin Junmao robbed and killed a caravan passing by the foot of the mountain. A one-armed bhiksuni suddenly appeared, blocking the survivors of the caravan. Feeling quite angry that his ritual had been disturbed, Xin Junmao, with rage rising to his head, carried his broadsword and walked toward the bhiksuni.

That bhiksuni was just preparing to recite Buddhist scriptures and explain principles to him, wanting to persuade Xin Junmao to lay down his butcher's knife, but when her gaze noticed his features, she suddenly seemed to lose the ability to act, looking at the other party in disbelief.

And it was in that moment of distraction that the sinful butcher's knife fell, killing the bhiksuni with a single strike.

Before the bhiksuni died, a smile hung on her pale face: "So you are still alive... that is truly wonderful..."

Saying this, she used her last bit of strength to take a comb made of chicken-blood stone from her bosom, murmuring: "I really wanted you to comb my hair one more time..."

Listening to that familiar voice, looking at that aged and withered yet still somewhat recognizable face, and watching her die with a satisfied smile, Xin Junmao felt a tremendous terror and remorse surging into his mind.

However, before his emotions could erupt, the girl he had once threatened to "be the executioner for for the rest of her life" suddenly appeared; she transformed into a giant monster and swallowed the girl he had killed with his own hands, leaving behind only the Comb that had fallen onto the grass.

Seeing this scene, Xin Junmao completely collapsed.

He shrieked hoarsely, his spirit and soul falling into an endless abyss of darkness.

He was in the human world, yet he was in hell; he had built this hell with his own hands and pushed himself into its tortures.

In the days that followed, Xin Junmao became a decadent walking corpse; he no longer moved, nor did he speak; he was alive, but his heart had already left with the Bhikkhuni.

Facing such a Xin Junmao, the girl became very emotional and felt flustered for him; in order to make Xin Junmao pull himself together, she told him that she would no longer be gluttonous, that she would only eat one hearty meal a year on her birthday, and that as long as he could get better and cherish her like he used to, she would agree to anything he wanted.

But what the girl did not know was that Xin Junmao's heart was already dead; one night, unable to endure all the pain, he ended his own life with his own hands...

Pluck, pluck!

As the final two plucks of the strings sounded, Xin Junmao snapped out of his shock, finding himself unknowingly covered in tears, his clothes soaked through.

He seemed to finally understand the reason for Miss Zhao's obsession with him, and he finally understood why the Comb had come to his side.

"It would be better not to remember, wouldn't it? Amitabha." The Bhikkhuni finally spoke, wearing a compassionate smile, her narrowed eyes looking at Xin Junmao as she said, "Unfortunately, you, I, she... all things in this world cannot escape the fate of reincarnation."

"I... I am sorry to you..." Xin Junmao said painfully.

The Bhikkhuni smiled slightly: "All things are Dharma, all things have a fixed destiny; in this life, you have not wronged me, nor have you wronged her."

"Reincarnation? Fate? Heh, I am not you humans, how could I experience such things? I have never died, and I never will." Hearing what the Bhikkhuni said, Miss Zhao sneered a few times and said.

The Bhikkhuni looked at her with a hint of pity, her voice calm as she said: "If you were not within reincarnation, how could you have met him again?"

Miss Zhao's face darkened, and her form began to change slowly.

Just as Miss Zhao was about to turn back into her true form, she suddenly found herself falling into a black void; after a fall lasting several dozen seconds, she finally steadied herself and landed.

During the long fall, Miss Zhao had completed her transformation, thoroughly becoming a giant white mountain of flesh made of countless intertwined male and female limbs; beneath the mountain of flesh appeared what looked like ruptured wounds, with vast oceans of blood flowing madly, squeezing out tumor-like pustules and bubbles.

The posture Miss Zhao displayed at this moment was the true Daughter of Gluttony, an ugly and abominable thing that could not be accurately described in words.

"This Miss Zhao, I am very sorry, but I must ask you to leave the scene." Haimofen walked out from the darkness, holding a violin in one hand and moving the fingers of his other hand, controlling those five nimble and agile sharp blades.

At this moment, having returned to her physical form, Miss Zhao seemed to have lost the human ability to vocalize; she looked at Haimofen with a gloomy face, growling something.

Haimofen, however, seemed to understand what she said; he suddenly struck a pose of loyal faith, pressed his palms together, and said: "I am not looking for trouble on purpose, I just do not wish for your existence to ruin this performance; it would damage the impression I have in Lin Laoban's heart."

Immediately, a fierce glint appeared in his eyes; holding the violin in one hand and placing a sharp blade against the violin strings with the other, Haimofen said: "If you do not cooperate, I do not mind letting you listen to the music I played for that Alien God that day."