Chapter 213: By What Right

"..." The little seed was silent for a second, then said: "Is your brain still functioning normally? Have you already fallen into a demonic path?"

"I am very clear-headed right now," Ruan Xing denied.

The Spiritual Power within her body had initially stabilized, and she looked up at the pitch-black sky.

Beneath the thick cloud layer, an unknown storm was brewing.

Suddenly, a fissure seemed to be torn open within the clouds.

A massive head, appearing like a dragon yet not quite a dragon, poked out from within.

Ruan Xing's pupils constricted violently.

Its enormous body also squeezed out from the fissure; the brilliant scales on its body were like the stars in the sky, twinkling with starlight, iridescent and flowing with color, appearing both real and illusory. It circled and danced above the nine heavens, lowering its head with prominent horns and flowing long whiskers. Its aura was majestic, and a pair of triple-white eyes stared fixedly at Ruan Xing.

Ruan Xing's feet seemed to have taken root; she could not move at all, frozen in place, with only her constantly trembling hair betraying her terror.

She widened her eyes.

It was not just because the might brought by that dragon made one feel the fear of one's own insignificance.

It was also because she felt this dragon looked one or two parts familiar.

Moreover, for some reason, what she could sense was... its anger? Was it not just a Heavenly Dao phenomenon from her promotion to the Return to Ruins Stage? Could it have its own consciousness and emotions?

She did not have much understanding of the Return to Ruins Stage in this regard and could only guess based on some scattered records.

Some cultivators believe that Heavenly Dao phenomena are related to the Dao one pursues, and that the more one cultivates, the closer one might get to that image, becoming one's own Dharma Image incarnation.

But there are also cultivators who believe this is an evaluation and test given by the Heavenly Dao.

Since ancient times, no cultivator has ever died under a Heavenly Dao phenomenon; at most, they simply failed the test, resulting in a regression of cultivation and no future opportunity for advancement.

This world does not have creatures like dragons, yet the word "dragon" exists, and there are no records regarding it. If one were to speak of an impression of this word, some cultivators might not even be able to imagine its appearance in their minds, knowing only that it was a type of powerful Monster Beast from ancient times that no longer exists in this world today.

If it were the first possibility, Ruan Xing had seen the image of a dragon in the modern world, so the image appearing in her mind as a Heavenly Dao phenomenon would be understandable.

But would the image she imagined express anger toward her and want to kill her? Ruan Xing did not doubt for a second that it possessed palpable killing intent.

Yet the suppressive deterrence it carried... was simply too powerful, leaving Ruan Xing unable to use any strength to resist.

It was more like the will of the Heavenly Dao.

It made her unable to help but suspect she would die here.

But that shouldn't be... She had clearly succeeded in promoting to the Return to Ruins Stage in the Simulator; could such a realistic phenomenon also be an illusion?

A long roar resounded through the heavens and earth, and the ferocious dragon head dove downward toward her. She couldn't help but want to close her eyes, yet she forced herself to stare straight at it.

"You want to kill me... Why..." Ruan Xing murmured: "You are not my phenomenon..."

By now, she finally realized: this was the Heavenly Dao, taking advantage of the heaven and earth phenomenon triggered during her promotion to take the initiative and kill her! In a trance, she saw the dragon sneering; it said, "By what right are you still alive?"

Her fingers moved slightly; Ruan Xing endured the soreness in the corners of her eyes, using her tenacious will to overcome her instinctive fear.

But it was no use... She was completely unable to mobilize the Spiritual Power within her body; it seemed the surrounding Spirit Qi had also been suppressed by the heavens and earth.

She could not even hear the voice of the little seed.

Between heaven and earth, all was silent; she could only hear the thumping of her own heartbeat. "By what right am I alive?" Ruan Xing repeated, then suddenly laughed, "So it was you."

She remembered why she felt it looked familiar.

It was not because it looked like a dragon.

It was because she had once seen it in the Glazed Palace within the Lotus Platform Secret Realm.

In an instant, she suddenly understood many things.

When she first entered the Lotus Platform Secret Realm in the Simulator, she felt a very dangerous aura in the Glazed Palace. She thought it was some kind of powerful Monster Beast, so she did not go in.

At that time, because the Lotus Platform Secret Realm had just formed and the space was unstable, the Glazed Salamander it had transformed into could use its power to the maximum extent.

When she entered for the second time, it was already several years later. The Lotus Platform Secret Realm space was stable, and its power could not be exerted. After discovering it could not kill Ruan Xing, it hid and refused to come out, but was discovered by Ruan Xing. It had no choice but to weave a half-true, half-false story for her, and later gave her the incorrect Tongxuan Scripture technique, wanting her to fail her cultivation and die.

No wonder she had tried so many times with the Simulator and could never successfully cultivate it.

Later, when she thought to combine it with her own divine ability, she succeeded after only thirty or forty simulations.

It seems that when she modified the technique by combining it with her divine ability, she had accidentally deleted the error that the salamander had inserted to cause death.

The Heavenly Dao sits above the world; it is the will of the world, yet it cannot arbitrarily intervene and violate the laws of heaven and earth to personally kill a variable that displeases it.

This Heavenly Dao phenomenon was very likely its last chance.

That was why it could not hold back and came out.

But even after figuring all this out, how was she to resist the Heavenly Dao? Ruan Xing thought anxiously for a solution; what could she do to survive the Heavenly Dao and successfully promote to the Return to Ruins Stage?

In this critical moment, perhaps because of the Heart Demon Tribulation just now, her mind actually recalled her past life.

In order to live, in order to live well, she had made many efforts.

She no longer hoped to receive affection from others, turning instead to finding the value of being needed within herself.

Ghostwriting homework could no longer satisfy her daily life needs, so she began to make a bit of a name for herself in the local circle of hoodlums.

Her moral bottom line was very low; she became cold, otherwise, no one would have taken a little girl seriously.

She paid with a body full of injuries in exchange for enough money to go to school half a year later.

Later, she also worked odd jobs, washed dishes, moved packages, stumbling along, working and studying, putting in several times more hardship than others, barely managing to attend an ordinary university. After graduation, she found a job with a monthly salary of three thousand, learning to be like other ordinary girls: binge-watching shows, reading novels, drinking milk tea, eating snacks, and taking pretty photos to post on social media.

Many people say that the first child you need to raise after growing up is yourself.

She raised herself very well.

This world is quite lousy, but she still wanted to live.

For no other reason than to be able to decide her own life.

The increasingly close head was reflected in her pupils; in her eyes, besides the twinkling starlight, there were also surging waves.

She said softly: "Salamander, you ask me by what right I am alive? I tell you, because I want to live. If one day I die, it can only be because I want to die. I stand here, having walked to this day, just to do whatever I want to do, without needing anyone to make decisions for me."

Shocking, this chapter was actually censored. I racked my brain but couldn't figure out where the problem was. I looked at the revised version... well, the censorship deleted a section of the female lead's less-than-glorious past life experiences. It seems one cannot depict the protagonist doing things that violate morals and laws in order to survive? Everyone can imagine it for themselves.