Chapter 255: Lingshan is Truly Going to Play Itself into Ruin This Time

Tang An fell face-first to the ground; she could feel the stiffness and numbness of her body. She felt the pain of her body striking the floor, felt her face impact the ground—a pain so intense it made her tear ducts uncontrollable.

She could see dust flying before her eyes and could feel her face trembling as it struck the ground.

She felt the pain, yet she was incomparably grateful that she could still feel pain.

To still know pain meant she was still a human. Not some thing created; she was still a living, breathing person.

As a single tear fell, Tang An closed her eyes.

"Master!"

Sun Wukong, Yang Jian, and Nezha came running toward Tang An, their eyes filled with heartache that was nearly overflowing.

Throughout the journey west, Tang An had come to understand them, and they had come to understand Tang An just as well.

They knew that Tang An could overcome her Heart Demon; even if it meant mutual destruction, she would never let a mere, tiny Heart Demon trap her.

But at the same time, the more clear-headed she was, the more she understood, and the more she understood the truth of the world, the more painful, numb, and helpless she became.

She had always had her own pride, even if the purpose of that pride was to hide an underlying inferiority. But so what? She had always been confident that she could lose to no one.

But today, she learned of her origins, learned of her past, and realized it was merely a play that others had performed alongside her.

She learned that all her suffering was predestined, and even man-made. She learned that the willpower she had been forced to temper was merely to make her a high-value pawn in someone else's hands, a sharp blade.

The Golden Hoop that Sun Wukong and the others had nearly been forced to wear had been fastened around her neck like a dog chain before she was even born.

How could she, someone who yearned so for freedom and refused to accept a fate predestined by heaven, ever let it go?

Everyone wants to be the protagonist, but the price of being the protagonist... is too high.

Sun Wukong helped Tang An up, and Nezha picked her up in his arms.

Her hands hung down limply, and her head tilted back, as if her body no longer had a shred of strength to support itself.

She, whom the Heart Demon had failed to crush before, was now crushed to pieces by this truth of the world that she was forced to face.

Yang Jian found a room and had Nezha carry Tang An over to rest first.

Tang An was neither fully awake nor asleep, tears brimming in the corners of her eyes, about to fall but not yet falling.

Seeing her like that, Nezha felt an indescribable discomfort in his heart, as if a knife were carving into it.

"If you want to cry, just cry, okay?"

Tang An ignored him, gave no response, and showed no reaction at all.

Sun Wukong was so anxious he kept scratching his cheeks, yet he could think of no solution.

Yang Jian sighed deeply, "If it were before, we would still have a way to help Master with her Heart Demon."

"But now, Master's Dao Heart has been shattered into powder in an instant. To walk out of this, she can only rely on herself; none of us can help her."

Yang Jian knew that at this moment, any so-called consolation was useless. Even if they killed everyone in Lingshan, Tang An would not get any better.

She was like someone sealed into a dead end; she had to break that wall down herself and find a new path for her life.

For the next few days, Tang An did not eat or drink, did not wake, and did not sleep.

Her whole person seemed to have only a lingering breath left, but because her name had been struck from the Life and Death Book by Wukong, she could not die.

She felt like a wandering soul in this world—no, in the modern world she was also a wandering soul, a puppet created to perform a puppet show belonging solely to the great gods.

Nezha did not speak either; he just sat by Tang An's bed, accompanying her the whole time.

Sun Wukong racked his brains for solutions, even making a special trip to Lingtai Fangcun Mountain for this.

Yang Jian also went to seek out Lishan Laomu, begging her to help.

But the answers they both received were almost identical. This hurdle had to be overcome by her own strength.

Much of the help from others was no different from drawing a snake and adding feet, and it was highly likely to be counterproductive.

Pilanpo remained in Huanghua Temple, and at such a critical stage, the Jade Emperor did not dare to leave either.

"Pilanpo, can she... pull through?" Even the Jade Emperor was losing confidence.

It was not that he did not believe in Tang An, but that this was a matter very difficult for anyone to accept.

Pilanpo looked toward Tang An's room, "She is a child I raised; her character is like sturdy, resilient grass—a little frost and wind cannot crush her." Her eyes were also filled with self-reproach and heartache.

The Jade Emperor paced in anxiety, "You shouldn't have forced her so hard in this matter. You could have let her accept slowly that you are her grandmother."

Pilanpo did not think so, "Only a strong medicine can cure a deep-seated illness. If this matter were swallowed whole and glossed over, the snowball would only roll larger, and I fear it would truly become the final straw that crushes her."

"But..." The Jade Emperor wanted to say she was acting recklessly, but upon reflection, this matter was indeed not something Pilanpo could have decided alone.

"Lingshan is truly going to play itself into ruin this time," he remarked with a sigh, gazing toward Lingshan, feeling unavoidable heartache for Tang An.

Although the child was a bit infuriating, a bit spiteful, and a bit unreliable, her heart was, rarely, a good one.

If she were truly driven mad by Lingshan, driven to the point of never recovering, they would have committed a grave sin indeed.

In Tang An's room.

She was still lying on the bed; she was awake, but her eyes kept staring at the bed curtains, hardly blinking, and she did not speak.

Her lips were cracked in many places, she showed no emotion, her complexion was sallow, and she seemed to have lost about ten pounds in an instant.

"I bought the food you used to like; will you eat a little?"

Nezha returned, travel-worn, having bought the braised pork knuckle Tang An liked best.

Tang An glanced at Nezha, then looked at the large pork knuckle.

"Ugh—"

"Ugh..."

She leaned over the edge of the bed, vomiting uncontrollably. Yet she could bring nothing up, vomiting only bile.

Nezha hurriedly threw the pork knuckle away, not daring to let Tang An look at it anymore.

"I'm sorry... I..."

He did not know that doing this would make Tang An feel unwell.

Tang An did not speak after she finished vomiting; she did not even wipe the corners of her mouth, just continued lying there.

The corners of Nezha's eyes turned red, and the way he looked at Tang An, his heart was about to shatter from heartache.

But he, they, could only fret in vain.

It was not until the evening of the tenth day that Pilanpo walked in carrying a basin of water.

She said nothing at all, but instead wiped Tang An's face and body.

Tang An did not speak, did not resist, and did not look at her.

"An'an."

"I could have appeared to you as your grandmother to provoke some reaction from you."

"But I thought about it and decided to continue appearing in this identity."

"The grandmother in your heart has already passed away, so let her stay well within your heart."

"I never intended to offend the most cherished beauty in your heart; I was merely forced to use a method I thought was for your own good to compel you to face reality."

A flicker of emotion finally appeared in Tang An's eyes; she looked at Pilanpo, neither angry nor startled.

Pilanpo stroked Tang An's cheek with heartache, the kindness in a deity's eyes filled with humanity.