Acai's Sky

Chapter 883 The Little Nun Going Down the Mountain 25

She clenched the skeleton's wrist bones, and suddenly heard a childish voice in her mind: "Sister Tong, don't be afraid."

The red light of the twin lotus overflowed from her shoulders, and the white light under the locust tree lit up at the same time. The two lights intertwined into a web in the morning mist, tearing the lotus formation into pieces.

The minister's sedan chair suddenly shook violently, and the bearers fell to the ground with blood coming out of all their orifices. Smoke rose from the red lotus tattoos of the old men, and they retreated into the fog with screams.

Xiahou Shanhe took the opportunity to pick up the coffin and tried to run, but was stopped by Xiao Yi, who stuffed a truth pill into his mouth. "Tell me! What's in the jade box in the secret compartment in the basement?"

Xiahou Shanhe's eyes were dull, and he spoke mechanically, "It's... my granddaughter's fetal hair, and the blood letter from the old man of the Tong family, saying, 'On the day the twin lotus flowers bloom, the Tong family's blood feud will be avenged'..."

The morning mist gradually dissipated, and the ancestral tombstones were clearly visible in the sunlight. Ah Cai looked at the tombstone of "Xiahou Miaozhen" and suddenly squatted down, gently placing the bones in front of the tombstone: "Miaozhen, you are home."

She put the two halves of the jade pendant together, and the lotus instantly blossomed. Its petals fell on the tombstone, revealing words in blood: "Ten years of transformation, twins return together."

00541 suddenly jumped onto the tombstone and pointed his tail at the Bo Mansion at the foot of the mountain: "Look! The fire in Ziteng Courtyard is out, and the old marquis is kneeling at the door of the ancestral hall."

Ah Cai looked over and saw Xiahou Chun's hunched figure kneeling in the morning light, with seven-star lamps placed in front of him. The oil in the lamps had dried up, and the talisman paper on each lamp had burned to ashes.

"His life-extending technique ultimately failed," Tong Jiayuan said softly, "The moment the Twin Lotuses broke through the formation, the Seven Star Lamp should have gone out."

He suddenly flipped open the remaining pages of the secret record. "Actually, the last page says, 'Anyone who successfully uses the Soul Stealing Technique will be punished by heaven. The day the twin lotus blossoms will be the day the caster's heart and veins are severed.'"

Ah Cai thought of the white hair on her temples last night, and the black blood vomited by the minister, and suddenly realized that all those who try to control fate will eventually be bitten back by fate.

She touched the red lotus on her shoulder. It was no longer hot, but instead felt cool, as if a small life was sleeping quietly in her blood.

"Miss," Xiaojia suddenly pointed down the mountain, "In the direction of the Charity Hall in the west of the city, someone is carrying a red lacquer coffin toward the mass grave. There's a red lotus painted on the coffin..."

He paused, "I'm afraid Du Yanran...can't hold on any longer."

The morning breeze blew through the forest of tombstones, and the fragrance of the twin lotus flowers filled every tombstone. Ah Cai stood up, looking at the distant uncle's mansion, at the old locust tree in the morning light, at the bones in her arms - no, now she should be called Miaozhen.

She knew that their story had just begun. The grievances of the Tong family and the twists and turns in the world of martial arts were all waiting for her to uncover.

"Let's go," she said to her companions, "first send Miaozhen home, then -" she looked in the direction where the minister retreated, "go meet the emperor who wants to use the Tong family's bloodline to make medicine, and..."

She touched the birthmark on Miaozhen's wrist bone and said, "Go to the Red Lotus Sect and ask them who gave the order to exterminate my entire Tong family."

As the morning light rose fully, the red and white glow of the twin lotus flowers gradually faded, transforming into two wisps of green smoke that drifted toward the sky. Ah Cai knew that this was not the end, but the beginning—when the twin lotus seeds were buried in the soil of the ancestral grave, when Miaozhen's bones finally lay beneath the tombstone engraved with her own name, their destiny would truly begin to blossom.

Xiao Yi kicked the stone away from his feet, the peanuts rustling in his pocket. "Honestly, once this is over, let's go to the Charity Hall in the west of the city. They pay two hundred taels of silver a month, and I'm sure they have a lot of secrets."

Ah Da glanced at him sideways and said, "Mind your own business first. You broke the hollow of the old locust tree when you were escaping last night. Miao Zhen will come to you in a dream to settle the score later."

The laughter dissipated with the morning mist. Ah Cai held Miao Zhen's bones and walked towards the depths of the ancestral tomb. The sunlight passed through the treetops, casting a lotus-shaped shadow on her shoulders.

She suddenly remembered the rainy night that Old Zhou had mentioned, the moon that was broken into two petals in the lotus pond, and the picture of twin lotuses in the secret record - it turned out that all the encounters and partings were reunions that had already been written in fate.

When the first ray of sunlight illuminated the tombstone of "Tong Shi Miaozhen", A Cai gently put down the bones and watched Xiao Jia and A Er use morning dew and new soil to build a small grave for Miaozhen.

00541 squatted in front of the grave, his tail gently sweeping across the lotus pattern on the tombstone, while Tong Jiayuan lit three incense sticks on the side. In the smoke, there seemed to be a small figure waving to A Cai and walking towards the depths of the morning light.

On this day, in the ruins of the Pingkang Marquis's Mansion, wisteria flowers bloomed for the first time in the early morning; on this day, in the secret letter box of the Minister of Personnel, the word "Red Lotus" was crossed out forever; on this day, in the ancestral hall of the Red Lotus Sect, the leader looked at the festering lotus tattoo on his palm and finally understood that some destinies are ultimately beyond human control.

And Acai knew that when she embarked on a new journey, the red lotus on her shoulders would no longer be a shackle, but a lamp that illuminated the way forward.

...

A breeze blew...

Just when Ah Cai was confused, a figure appeared in front of her like a ghost.

A Cai looked closely and found that the person who came was Fu Sheng, the master of Xu Ming Temple.

Fusheng looked at Ah Cai with a half-smile on his face, and said slowly: "True and false, false and true, can Qingxuan tell the difference?"

Ah Cai was stunned at first, then shook her head and said with a wry smile, "Ever since I entered the Tong Family Ancestral Hall, I felt like all this was just an illusory dream. Master, am I right?"

Fusheng nodded slightly in agreement. He stroked his beard and said, "Yes, this is indeed an illusion. I set this up just to see when you could break through it."

"However, I never expected that you would be so decisive. You killed all the key figures in the illusion before you were able to escape."

Ah Cai frowned slightly and asked, "Then what is real?"

The master of Fusheng Monastery smiled slightly, waved the whisk in his hand lightly, and said in a clear voice: "The secret record of your Tong family is naturally real. As for this illusion, it actually no longer has the support of spirit stones in its later stages, so it should be easily broken."

Ah Cai nodded thoughtfully and continued, "So, the reason I waited until the end for this chaotic situation was to see who was behind it. But, what's the point of creating such an illusion?"

Fusheng slowly turned around, his back looking somewhat lonely and helpless. He whispered, "To inherit Xuming Temple, one must pass through the mysterious and powerful illusion array. This is the temple's rule, and also a test."

She said calmly, "Hmph, if I hadn't been unable to predict my own future, how could I have been manipulated by the Master? If I could know the future, I would have rebelled against the Heavenly Gang long ago!"