Inherited 100 Million - Chapter 21

Xue Yizhuo slowly followed Di Xiang across a long, elevated walkway over the water.

The walkway met the lake on both sides, stretching as far as the eye could see. At the edge of the lotus thicket was a cold, white moon descending. Under the moon, the sandstorm was still raging, but it seemed unable to cross the city walls.

“Lotus City is never disturbed by the wind and sand,” Di Xiang’s voice took on a sense of detachment in the cold night air.

Xue Yizhuo asked, “Then how was it destroyed?”

Di Xiang was silent for a moment. She didn’t answer directly, but said, “The answer is up ahead.”

Di Xiang wanted Xue Yizhuo to go to a certain place with her.

Xue Yizhuo always felt like Di Xiang was plotting something bad. After realizing that Xue Yizhuo truly didn’t recognize her, Di Xiang had given her a smile that made her feel uneasy.

Before Xue Yizhuo could refuse, Di Xiang, with a sweet smile, rolled her long sleeve and unceremoniously whisked Xue Yizhuo onto the walkway.

At the end of the walkway was another altar, identical to the one in the main hall, but the center was not a jade lotus statue; it was a black lotus quietly in full bloom.

Xue Yizhuo looked at the lotus, an inexplicable feeling welling up in her heart. She took out the Lie Annihilator and saw that in the mirror, the altar was a broken ruin, but only the black lotus was growing in the sand, swaying gently in the wind.

It’s not an illusion!

Di Xiang glanced at the Lie Annihilator, much calmer this time. “Everything you take out is a good thing, yet you know nothing about the cultivation world.”

Xue Yizhuo hugged the mirror, staring blankly at the black lotus.

“She is my artifact. The artifact spirit scattered after I died, but the body was left here in Guque.” Di Xiang stood in front of the black lotus with her hands behind her back and looked back at Xue Yizhuo. “I assume you don’t recognize this lotus either.”

“It looks like an ordinary lotus… huh?” After getting a bit closer, Xue Yizhuo saw the black lotus more clearly. She couldn’t help but let out an exclamation of surprise when she saw the roots of the lotus.

The black lotus was growing out of a shattered mirror.

That mirror was also real in the Lie Annihilator. The outstretched roots of the lotus connected three pieces of the mirror. Xue Yizhuo walked a few steps forward, past Di Xiang, who looked at her but didn’t stop her.

The broken mirror was submerged in a small pond. There was also a lotus in the mirror, but the broken lotus was growing in the opposite direction from the black one.

Xue Yizhuo hesitated. “It looks like… they’re not the same lotus.”

Di Xiang nodded slightly. “The lotus in the mirror and the lotus outside the mirror are naturally not the same one.”

Xue Yizhuo carefully reached out her hand. After seeing that Di Xiang’s expression was calm, she poked the black lotus.

The black lotus wobbled from her poke, but the lotus in the mirror didn’t move.

“The mirror in your hand is called the Lie Annihilator, and the mirror in this pool is called the Originating Lotus Mirror,” Di Xiang said. “They were both forged from the fragments of the Huangquan Mirror.”

“What is the Huangquan Mirror?” Xue Yizhuo asked, confused.

The name of the game was Huangquan Mirror, but the current plot had not given an answer as to what the Huangquan Mirror actually was.

“The Huangquan Mirror is the key to a cultivator’s ascension, and it is also the lock that prevents their ascension,” Di Xiang asked her. “Do you know how long it’s been since anyone has ascended in the cultivation world?”

Xue Yizhuo shook her head.

“Three thousand years,” Di Xiang said, looking down at the black lotus, her tone flat. “Three thousand years ago, Jing Jun reached Mahayana Great Perfection, just a step away from becoming an immortal. However, he held a deep hatred for the entire cultivation world. He cut off his own path to ascension, forged the Huangquan Mirror, and severed the path of ascension for all cultivators. Before Jing Jun’s soul scattered, he left one last message: If you wish to ascend, you can only do so through the Huangquan Mirror. The entire cultivation world immediately descended into centuries of chaos, with everyone fighting over the Huangquan Mirror.”

Di Xiang sighed. “The path to ascension is a journey of nine deaths and one life. There were thirteen Mahayana Great Perfection cultivators at the time. The heavenly lightning during their tribulations couldn’t kill all of them, but they perished together while fighting for the Huangquan Mirror.”

Xue Yizhuo actually heard a hint of respect for the Jing Jun in Di Xiang’s tone.

She couldn’t help but ask, “Are you really not a demon cultivator?”

“Don’t change the subject.” Di Xiang tapped her on the head with a finger and continued, “During a great battle, the Huangquan Mirror was destroyed and split into six fragments scattered everywhere. It was at this time that a strange person appeared in the cultivation world. No one knew her name. People at the time only referred to her as ‘that lunatic.’ That strange person collected all six fragments of the Huangquan Mirror, but instead of restoring it, she used the six fragments to forge six mirrors and gave them to the six major powers at the time. Everyone wanted the fragments in the hands of the others, so that strange person happily watched the cultivation world fight for another hundred years before disappearing without a trace.”

Di Xiang clapped her hands. “Harming others for no benefit to herself. Truly a model for our generation.”

Xue Yizhuo: “…”

She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved that Di Xiang didn’t become a demon cultivator or to feel sorry that the demon path lost such a talent.

“After a hundred years with no clear winner, the fragments of the Huangquan Mirror changed hands many times but remained in the hands of different people. The entire cultivation world was severely wounded. If the fighting continued, the top-tier powers would all be consumed by infighting. So, the leader of the Ethereal Tower stepped forward to quell the chaos. The fragments were kept by the six major powers at the time, and the great powerhouses all made a heart-demon vow not to fight over the Huangquan Mirror for the rest of their lives.”

Di Xiang pondered for a moment. “Speaking of which, the Lie Annihilator seemed to be in the hands of the Xuanyu Immortal Sect. Could it be, could it be…”

She stared at Xue Yizhuo, looking judgmental. “Are you the illegitimate daughter of that old woman from the Xuanyu Immortal Sect?”

Xue Yizhuo was expressionless. “Can’t you think of a normal background for me?”

I have a hundred million of these mirrors, too!

It wasn’t strange for the game to have weapons related to the plot. However, after transmigrating into the game, it felt a little unsettling. If Di Xiang’s memory wasn’t wrong, the Lie Annihilator might still be at the Xuanyu Immortal Sect, and the one in Xue Yizhuo’s hand was also the Lie Annihilator.

The only divine-ranked mirror in her inventory seemed to be the Lie Annihilator. Otherwise, Xue Yizhuo could be assembling the Huangquan Mirror right now.

Hearing Xue Yizhuo’s words, Di Xiang actually nodded. “I am indeed very curious about your background.”

Saying this, Di Xiang grabbed Xue Yizhuo’s wrist.

Xue Yizhuo: “…Huh?”

“I just realized this is the first time I’ve used this ability of the Originating Lotus Mirror,” Di Xiang said with a bright smile.

Xue Yizhuo felt like the hand holding her wrist was made of iron. She couldn’t even move her wrist.

Di Xiang forcibly placed her hand on the black lotus.

Xue Yizhuo’s eyes were drawn uncontrollably to the broken mirror at the base of the black lotus. It felt as if a force was controlling her body, compelling her to stare at the mirror’s surface.

She saw one lotus flower after another grow in the mirror. They grew wildly and suddenly bloomed at a certain moment.

Xue Yizhuo’s vision went white, and her body fell forward weakly. Di Xiang caught her and gently laid her down next to the black lotus.

Di Xiang placed her index finger on Xue Yizhuo’s forehead.

“Let me see…” Di Xiang murmured softly, but soon, she frowned.

••••

Before her was the endless yellow sand.

Xue Yizhuo walked through the desert, her steps sinking into the sand, as if she could never reach the end. All she could see was sand, without even a single cactus.

“Is anyone there?” Xue Yizhuo called out weakly several times.

As expected, no one answered her.

Xue Yizhuo didn’t know where she was, but it certainly wasn’t the real world. No matter how far she walked, she didn’t get tired or thirsty, and even the night wind blowing… well, it was still a little cold.

Xue Yizhuo wrapped herself tightly in her cloak.

Her body wasn’t tired, but Xue Yizhuo was mentally exhausted from walking. She finally plopped down on the ground, leaning back and lying down completely.

The white moon was clear and desolate.

Xue Yizhuo opened her eyes and looked at the bright moon in the sky, reaching out her hand toward it. The moon seemed bigger and closer than she had ever seen it before, as if she could touch it with her hand.

Such a bright moon… the starry river in the night sky seemed to pale in comparison.

Xue Yizhuo blinked, feeling the stars seem to dim a little more.

She faintly heard the familiar sound of the wind.

No way, no way… Xue Yizhuo scrambled up from the ground. She widened her eyes and looked into the distance. A sandstorm was rapidly moving toward her. It was the sandstorm that was dimming the starlight!

Why is there a sandstorm here, too!

Xue Yizhuo felt a little frantic. She turned around and ran frantically away from the sandstorm.

Taking advantage of the fact that she didn’t feel tired here, Xue Yizhuo maintained her fastest speed the entire time, but the sandstorm was still gradually closing in on her. Xue Yizhuo tried to recall her memories of soaring through the air using spiritual energy, but the more anxious she was, the less she could tap into it.

Xue Yizhuo dashed into a forest.

…A forest?

Xue Yizhuo ran a few more steps. When she ran out of the forest, a glittering lake was before her, with a few houses by the shore. Xue Yizhuo was stunned for a moment. Had she stumbled upon an oasis?

Zhong Meng had said that most oases in the desert were where the Desert People tribes lived.

A wooden door of a wooden house was pushed open from the inside, and a girl of sixteen or seventeen walked out. The girl’s skin was slightly dark, but her face was delicate, and her bright eyes looked uneasily toward the distance.

Xue Yizhuo was a little happy to see someone. She called out and waved to the girl.

But the girl didn’t seem to hear her voice at all. She stared unblinkingly into the distance.

Xue Yizhuo suddenly realized that the girl couldn’t see her.

Just like in the twin demons’ memory, she was seeing the past that had already happened. Of course, the people in the past couldn’t see her.

Xue Yizhuo walked up to the girl and patted her shoulder. As expected, the girl didn’t react at all.

More and more people came out of the houses. They were looking in the same direction as the girl, their expressions desolate and bewildered. Some even knelt down.

Xue Yizhuo realized that was the direction of the sandstorm.

The sandstorm would not stop for the prayers of the Desert People. Xue Yizhuo stood quietly to the side, sadly watching the sandstorm sweep over the tribe.

The sandstorm lasted for an entire night. When it finally subsided in the morning, trees were snapped, and yellow sand covered the grass. The small lake had shrunk by more than half, and the water was murky.

The tribe was plunged into a deathly silence. The girl and her tribesmen numbly began to restore their home.

However, at night, the sandstorm came again.