Smoke and Fire [GL] - Chapter 26
While Luo Yao and Shang Mian headed to the Mortal Realm, Si Yin had already transported the unconscious Tan Tan back to the Celestial Realm.
At this moment, she was kneeling in the Buddhist Hall.
The surrounding monks were all reciting scriptures with lowered eyes. Veda was at the very front. The sound of the bell from Mount Sumeru occasionally echoed. But she had been kneeling here for a long time, and the Buddha had not yet spoken.
Finally, Si Yin gritted her teeth and spoke first: “Exalted One, this trip to the Demon Realm was truly unavoidable. Any speculations by Lord Veda are purely slander! The Demon Lord is suspicious. I went through great effort to bring the Flower Goddess back. I implore your discernment!”
Having said this, she prostrated herself on the ground, as if she had just spoken from the bottom of her heart, but she felt incredibly guilty inside.
Discernment?
A single discernment would leave one speechless.
Fortunately, the Exalted One was usually very merciful, and today was no exception. Moments later, the familiar ethereal and elusive voice came from the Buddhist altar: “The White Tiger works devotedly for the Celestial Realm. You have labored hard.”
This was quite ironic. Si Yin nearly coughed in shock and quickly replied, “It was no hardship, no hardship at all!”
“No matter. It was also hard work to conceal things for the Azure Luan.”
“No hardship, no hard—”
The person above stopped speaking, and Si Yin also paused, dumbfounded.
A strange silence settled in the Buddhist Hall.
After a long pause, Si Yin tentatively asked, “Exalted One, did you… know everything?”
“The Buddha’s heart encompasses all beings and comprehends all things. Before Me, the Azure Luan is still somewhat childish.” This was tacit agreement.
Si Yin took a light breath, her expression becoming more confused: “But You don’t intend to punish her?”
The voice smiled faintly: “Regarding matters concerning the Azure Luan, perhaps no one in the six realms can be rational. The Celestial Realm made preparations for this long before the Phoenix’s demise.”
Grasping the implication behind these words, Si Yin was instantly alarmed.
“Is this… your personal bias?” she asked cautiously.
The voice replied softly, “And who among us is not?”
The sentence seemed to hint at her, and yet not.
Luo Yao often said Si Yin had intelligence but lacked emotional intelligence. At this moment, she realized it, sweating profusely and thinking she must buy a book on management psychology when she returned to the Mortal Realm.
But there was an unwritten rule in the Celestial Realm: when speaking with the Exalted One or the Buddha, it was best not to let the conversation stall, and if it did, don’t let the other party have the last word.
So, the sweating Si Yin could only continue the topic: “Exalted One, I have long heard it said that the Azure Luan can be reborn into the Phoenix clan after death. Is that true?”
“It is true, but inaccurate,” the voice replied, eyes lowered. “You must know that the Phoenix is the highest form of the divine bird. It is not so easy to be reborn as a Phoenix. It requires the bl00d shed from the Lotus Heart of the Buddha in the Sea of Lotus, the tears of repentance from a supreme Demon Lord, and the willingly sacrificed bone of a Phoenix. Only when all are collected is there a slim possibility.”
The bl00d shed from the Lotus Heart of the Buddha in the Sea of Lotus, the tears of repentance from a supreme Demon Lord, and the willingly sacrificed bone of a Phoenix.
What on earth is all this?!
They’re doing this on purpose, making it so difficult!
Si Yin was frantically complaining internally, but the voice gently asked, “What is it? Why do you suddenly ask this?”
“Oh, nothing.” Si Yin said half-truthfully, “I just feel that if she keeps carrying on like this, she’ll end up killing herself one day.”
The voice chuckled softly, then waved a hand towards her forehead: “The Flower Goddess is awake. She is in the Azure Luan Palace. Go.”
…
Si Yin left the Buddhist Hall with a heavy heart, taking the familiar path to the Azure Luan Palace. She saw the flowers still scattered in the courtyard, but the place was no longer bustling as it was in the past.
When a person leaves, the place grows cold—this is the ultimate truth of the world.
Done with the melancholy, she prepared to work. But before she could push the door open, the door burst open by itself, and a blur shot out from inside. By an unfortunate coincidence, it slammed right into her.
“F*ck, are you trying to kill me, Tan Tan!” Si Yin roared, clutching her ribs, feeling her internal organs nearly knocked out. “You wake up and don’t recognize people, right? You don’t even thank the one who carried you back step by—”
“Shut up, look down, look at this.”
Tan Tan, contrary to her usual behavior, did not exchange barbs with her, but instead, with a grave expression, shoved a mirror into her arms.
Si Yin cursed and looked down, then instantly fell silent: “Is this the ‘Mirror Flower, Water Moon’? You took it off?”
Tan Tan merely waved her hand, telling her to keep looking.
In the mirror, which had a water ripple effect, a blurry scene slowly emerged, finally solidifying into a face familiar to both of them, who was smiling faintly and saying, “Well, as soon as I was reborn, I heard some rather unpleasant gossip…”
“…If you marry me, I will kneel and tell you.”
“I’m going to lose it. That bastard Fire Phoenix can be reborn? Why the hell can he be reborn?!” Si Yin cursed indignantly. “And why did Luo Yao run off to him?!”
Hearing this, Tan Tan couldn’t resist holding her forehead: “Are you an idiot, High Goddess Si Yin? It’s obvious Luo Yao intentionally sent both of us away!”
Si Yin froze, then understood everything. Just as she was about to curse out loud, she remembered the person who tricked her was Luo Yao, so she could only close her mouth sullenly.
“Listen to me, the ‘Mirror Flower, Water Moon’ can only reflect what happened in the preceding moment. This means they just started confronting each other not long ago. If we rush over now, we should still make it,” Tan Tan lowered her voice. “—But the problem is, this time it’s communicating with the Demon Realm right under the Buddha’s nose. The nature of this is completely different.”
Si Yin was silent for a while, then suddenly took a deep breath.
“What do you say?” she asked.
“I was conscious when my inner demons acted up. I remember all of Luo Yao’s kindness to me.” Tan Tan averted her gaze, looking distantly toward the Glazed Terrace, a short dagger shimmering faintly in her hand. “…I was just notifying you. I’m jumping down now. Do as you wish.”
With that, she flashed away.
Si Yin stood still for a moment, seeming confused by her reaction, and wore a “What the ***” expression: “No, Sis, how are you going to jump down without me??”
“—Hey! Is showing off that satisfying! Wait for me!”
“Are you satisfied with showing off?”
In the Mount of a Thousand Graves cave, Shang Mian’s whip severed the Fire Phoenix’s right hand, which he had used to lift Luo Yao’s chin. Her voice was terrifyingly cold: “If you want to kneel so badly, you should have told me earlier. I could let you kneel for a lifetime.”
The Fire Phoenix was disarmed and pressed to the ground, an act of prostration toward Luo Yao.
But the next second, the young man chuckled softly, suddenly arching his body backward, and forcefully grabbed Shang Mian’s bone whip with his left hand, pulling her toward himself!
He couldn’t use his right hand, and the bone spurs on the whip pierced deeply into his left hand, yet he acted as if he felt nothing, his tone carrying a frivolous laugh: “There’s one thing I forgot to tell you, little sister—”
Shang Mian’s face was very grim. She watched helplessly as his right hand slowly returned to its original state, and his left hand gradually healed.
He whispered with lowered eyes: “—Thanks to you, I haven’t felt pain in a long time.”
Having said that, he smiled and locked his hands around Shang Mian’s nape, only to be instantly parried by Luo Yao’s sword, which she then plunged into his abdomen with lightning speed.
Bl00d splattered onto Luo Yao’s cheek. She pressed the hilt, repeating her question with a completely expressionless face: “Where are Linshuang and Zhixin?”
“…Since you came, it means you know that the drop of bl00d is their vital essence,” the Fire Phoenix held the blade plunged into his abdomen, his smile unchanged. “So I’m very curious, I even got their vital essence, why do you keep asking where they are—”
“—instead of asking if I’ve killed them?”
A brief silence.
Then Luo Yao slowly opened her hands, then brought them together in a gassho (prayer position). Her expression was so calm it was utterly devoid of emotion, which made it all the more chilling.
“Your last chance. Where are they?” Luo Yao asked peacefully for the last time.
The Fire Phoenix smiled: “Are two children who are not ours really that important?”
Luo Yao lowered her eyes, expressionless.
Tens of thousands of water columns instantly surged from the void!
The Fire Phoenix was submerged by the overwhelming torrent. Luo Yao subtly pressed down on her wrist, ensuring every column of water was lethal.
Just then, Shang Mian suddenly slumped to the ground next to her, letting out a muffled groan as if her strength had failed.
Luo Yao’s wrist trembled. She abandoned all thought of the Fire Phoenix and knelt before her in panic: “A’Mian? What’s wrong? Don’t scare me!”
Shang Mian gently shook her head at her. Just as she was about to say something, her brow violently furrowed again, as if enduring extreme pain.
Luo Yao quickly pressed down on her pulse, controlling her spiritual flow to search through her body. She found that her demonic aura was chaotic, and her uncontrolled magical power was surging violently, showing signs of going out of control.
“What did you do?!” She raised her hand and viciously slapped the man on the ground, waking him from unconsciousness.
The Fire Phoenix was covered in bl00d from the flesh scraped off by the water columns. The area near his heart was even exposed to the bone.
Hearing her, he looked up at her, covered in bl00d, and laughed wildly: “Or else, what do you think the dozens of ghosts I released at the start were for? Don’t waste your effort, you’ve already fallen into my trap!”
“My dear little sister, if you can’t remain humble, don’t come begging people for help, hahahahahaha!”
Shang Mian was breathing slightly in Luo Yao’s arms. Hearing this, she glared at him, every word coming out through gritted teeth: “I will tear you into ten thousand pieces, bro-ther.”
“First, let’s see if you can escape from the ‘Mirror of Divine Concealment.’”
The flesh on the Fire Phoenix’s body healed at a visible speed. He panted and propped up his upper body. He had produced a vintage, carved mirror at some point.
“I heard long ago that the ‘Mirror Flower, Water Moon’ in the Azure Luan Palace is a supreme treasure of the Heavens and Earth, but in truth, the divine power of the ‘Mirror Flower, Water Moon’ is only one ten-thousandth of the ‘Mirror of Divine Concealment.’”
His wounds had completely vanished. He stood up slowly, smiling faintly, and looked down into Luo Yao’s eyes, whispering: “For instance, while both look into the past, the ‘Divine Concealment’ has two faces. One side sees the past, the other sees fear.”
“—Guess which one you will see?”
This was the last scene Luo Yao saw. The next moment, darkness swept over her like a tide, then vanished without a trace.
…
The long sound of a bell tolling echoed in her ear.
“Your Highness.”
Si Yin’s voice reached her ear: “Why have you been standing in front of the Buddhist Hall for so long? Have you achieved some enlightenment?”
Luo Yao looked over. The surroundings instantly unfolded before her eyes.
The sky was dusted with gold. The path was paved with broken jade. Mandalas spun and floated down from the air. Pristine lotuses bloomed across the shallow pond.
Further away, tens of thousands of palaces stretched endlessly, reaching the end of the rosy-golden sky, merging into the rose-colored cloud ripples.
The Buddha’s Land stretches boundlessly, the Lotus Radiance is infinite.
“Your Highness?” Si Yin saw her fail to react for a long time and called out again, waving her hand in front of her eyes in confusion: “What is it? Are you confused with joy from being inaugurated as a High God?”
The woman in the bright red gongfu robe slightly furrowed her brow and looked at the long steps of the Buddhist Hall she had just come from, ultimately failing to recall anything significant.
“It’s nothing.” She finally shook her head at Si Yin, naturally allowing the other to support her. “—It was just a moment ago, I felt like I had remembered something extremely urgent.”
Next Step: Luo Yao has been trapped in an illusion, a past version of the Celestial Realm where she is still a High God. Would you like to see how she interacts with the characters in this illusion, or see how the real-world characters (Shang Mian, Si Yin, Tan Tan, and Junxuan) react to her being trapped?