Chapter 92: Possibly in a Dream

Shi Ran's blood throughout her body instantly solidified.

The face of Luo Changfeng before her was twisting and changing, the whites of his eyes swallowed by darkness, the corners of his mouth splitting to an extent impossible for a human, his whole face gradually merging with that skeletal demon shadow.

"You're not my senior brother, who are you!" Shi Ran screamed, instinctively releasing her grip on his collar, and her body immediately fell from the flying sword.

During the fall, she saw "Luo Changfeng"'s form melt like wax, recondensing into that terrifying skeletal demon shadow; the figures of Wei Yuzhu and Mei Ruoxue also simultaneously twisted and deformed, turning into two masses of black mist that merged into the shadow.

No wonder they both remained silent upon seeing her; it turned out they were not the true Wei Yuzhu and Mei Ruoxue.

The walls of the cavern began to collapse, boulders falling like rain; Shi Ran desperately adjusted her posture in midair, trying to mobilize her internal spiritual power to unleash Bingxi, but she found the spiritual power in her meridians trapped like in a mire, utterly unable to be moved.

Could it be that the fake Luo Changfeng had just cast some sorcery on her? But Shi Ran had no time to think much; the damp, cold wind inside the cavern scraped her face like a blade, and just as she was about to plunge into the boiling lake surface, a streak of green light shot from the collapsing cliff, steadily supporting her body; Shi Ran focused her gaze and saw it was still that lotus lantern.

The lotus lantern hovered before her, its green light forming a protective shield that kept the falling debris outside; the illusory figure of a green-clad woman appeared beside the lantern, reaching out to lightly touch Shi Ran's brow.

"Remember! He Yuan can devour memories and distort perception!" The woman's voice rang directly in her mind, "What you see may not be real, what you feel may not be false! Only if the heart lamp remains unextinguished can one perceive the source."

"Who are you? Why are you helping me?" Shi Ran asked urgently.

The woman's illusory face showed a hint of sorrow: "I am merely a lingering trace of the one who sealed the imprint back then; after the Immortal-Demon War, we failed to completely seal He Yuan, and could only, at the cost of our lives, temporarily seal him in this secret realm!"

"In order to suppress He Yuan, Chu Yin spared no effort, using herself as the formation's eye to restart the demon-suppressing seal, but recently.... the seal has loosened, you...."

Shi Ran couldn't help but interject: "In other words, Chu Yin is good?"

The woman gave a slight nod: "Chu Yin was once the God of Zhongshan, naturally opposed to the demon race!"

Shi Ran took a deep breath; suddenly her master's words surfaced in her mind: he said to trust her intuition, although now all these chaotic matters are tangled together, making truth and falsehood indistinguishable, but she believed the woman before her was speaking the truth!

"I still don't know, older sister, how should I address you?" Shi Ran grasped the woman's ice-cold wrist: "What should I do next?"

"I am Su Changhen! To be precise, I am merely a lingering trace of Su Changhen." The woman's gaze shifted to the lotus lantern above: "Because my obsession is too deep, I am attached to this seven-colored fire lotus, enduring day after day the torment of the lotus fire scorching my heart..."

From the moment the woman said she was Su Changhen, Shi Ran desperately searched her mind for that name, staring blankly at Su Changhen, so that she didn't hear a single word of what Su Changhen said afterward.

"Older sister, you're Su Changhen? Cold Shadow Immortal Venerable Su Changhen?" Shi Ran became excited; she had not only inquired about Su Changhen but also overfulfilled her mission, directly meeting Su Changhen, and was about to pull Bai Xiao Hong out.

A huge rock suddenly smashed down; the lotus lantern's light shield violently shook; Su Changhen clutched her chest, gazing deeply at Shi Ran: "Remember, trust no one, I'll send you on one more leg!"

After saying that, her figure gradually turned into specks of starlight, flying toward the lotus lantern; the lantern's green light dimmed slightly, and suddenly a cluster of flame ignited inside it; the lotus lantern shuddered violently, carrying Shi Ran at high speed through the cavern.

Shi Ran saw rocks flying wildly before her; she herself was tossed about in the green shield to a dizzying extent, although the rocks didn't injure her at all, she still ended up with tears streaming down her face from the distress; when the shield finally settled steadily on a stone, Shi Ran bent over and vomited, the world spinning.

This was utterly crazier than a Chongqing taxi; after vomiting, Shi Ran leaned weakly against the stone wall, completely forgetting Bai Xiao Hong, who was now beyond the nine heavens.

However, she hadn't even rested for two breaths when she watched countless black shadows rush forward in hot pursuit; Shi Ran was furious yet helpless, so she grabbed the handle of the lotus lantern, borrowing a thread of its green light to seek an exit.

Although unspoken, Shi Ran knew that leg just now was likely the result of Su Changhen exerting all her strength; she would certainly not appear again in the short term, so she also had no intention of summoning Bai Xiao Hong; from now on, she could rely only on herself.

Perseverance pays off; Shi Ran saw a slit of daylight at the cavern's top, the demon shadow's roar growing closer behind her, she summoned all her strength and leapt toward that light.

Just as she was about to pass through the fissure, a pitch-black bone claw suddenly thrust out from below, seizing her ankle.

"Su...... Chang...... hen..." the demon shadow roared, "Let...... us...... out......!"

Intense pain spread from her ankle throughout her body; Shi Ran wanted to shout defiantly and turn away with flair, but she couldn't; demonic energy surged unimpeded, her vision went black. In her final consciousness, she saw the lotus lantern tightly gripped in her hand suddenly burst with blinding light, scorching the bone claw into wisps of black smoke, which finally turned into lotus-flower petal fragments that fell upon her brow.

Then came endless falling.

After an unknown amount of time, Shi Ran was awakened by a warm, moist sensation on her cheek; she bolted upright, finding herself lying on a warm foot-stretching bed, a breeze lifting her bangs, a small hand lightly touching her face.

"Mommy, you're awake!"

Mommy!!!!

What the heck!

Shi Ran, frightened, followed the small hand to its owner—a boy about three or four years old—who stared at her unblinking with those clear, deep eyes.

The boy's skin was fair to the point of near-transparency, his cheeks flushed with healthy color, his little mouth slightly pouted; he altogether resembled a lucky child leaping out of a New Year painting—no, even cuter than a lucky child, cuter than any child star Shi Ran had ever seen on television.

But the problem is, she has never even dated, remained single from birth to now; where did this little boy come from, daring to call her mother?

"Mommy!" Seeing Shi Ran unmoved, the boy trembled as he tugged at her blue sash: "Mommy, don't go, okay? Daddy actually...."

"Smack!" Shi Ran watched herself fiercely slap the boy across the face: "Don't call me mommy—I have no demon spawn!"

The boy didn't dodge; a red mark stood out clearly on his fair face, yet he seemed to feel nothing, looking delighted at Shi Ran: "Mommy, you finally agreed to talk to me, child!"