Chapter 106: Changing Heaven And Earth
After Ming Zhaoshuang finished viewing the last painting scroll, she stood for a long time, a chill running down her spine.
Their ending should not have been like this.
They were all exceptionally vibrant people, all people worth living, and even all people capable of ascending to immortality.
But in the end, under the manipulation of that black shadow, they gradually withered.
What is the black shadow, what is his ultimate goal, and why did he want to break all the future hopes of the cultivation world in his hands?
Why, even the Dragon-like Arrogant Protagonist, Qin Feilong, ultimately met the fate of body seizure.
Ming Zhaoshuang turned around and looked towards the end, at the painting scroll that belonged solely to her.
The woman in the painting had cold eyes and fair skin; she was clearly not herself.
Yet Ming Zhaoshuang felt that she was herself, and she was Ming Zhaoshuang, the imprisoned Ming Zhaoshuang.
She slowly walked into the painting scroll, she rushed into the painting scroll, she caressed her own cold expression on the painting scroll until she crumpled it unevenly.
She sighed, “It shouldn’t be like this. I can change it. I can change it.”
Saying this, Ming Zhaoshuang’s left hand grasped Fushuang, while her right hand produced a spirit brush she had never seen before.
She had never used this spirit brush, yet she was strangely familiar with it.
The brush had a snow-white body, like smooth jade, surrounded by golden patterns, exceptionally enchanting. Its pattern had the sun and moon at the top, and dragons and phoenixes coiled around its shape.
The brush tip, like white snow with golden ink, was neither too soft nor too hard, a perfect tool for redrawing and painting.
She raised Fushuang and slashed mercilessly at her own painting scroll!
The painting scroll tore open, like a shattering mirror.
In an instant—
Ming Zhaoshuang’s mind went blank, and she could no longer hear any sound.
She could only see the woman identical to her drift out of the painting scroll and appear before her again, their fingers intertwined, holding a single brush together.
Ming Zhaoshuang started laughing, “Yes, if the painting is wrong, we can redraw it.”
Ming Zhaoshuang slowly raised her hand and painted in the air, golden light flashing repeatedly. Ming Zhaoshuang couldn’t see clearly what she was painting, only knowing that this sentence kept swirling in her mind.
If the painting is wrong, we can redraw it.
If fate is wrong, we can change fate.
If the heavens are wrong, we can also change the heavens and the earth.
By the time she understood, a brand new painting scroll had already reappeared before her eyes. Ming Zhaoshuang chuckled softly and merged with it, leaning against its back.
You are me, and I am you.
Together, we will change the heavens and the earth.
Ming Zhaoshuang’s eyelashes trembled, and the scene from another painting scroll reappeared before her eyes.
It was her, with a tiny red mole at the corner of her eye, a flowing bead hanging from her earlobe, holding Fushuang, her appearance as white as snow, facing the black shadow without worry or fear.
Under the bright night, the moonlight was brilliant, and the stars shone like daylight.
She and the black shadow fought ferociously, shaking the mountains and rivers, fighting to a draw.
Finally, she raised her long sword and slashed down.
The black shadow gradually dissipated into the heavens and earth.
And she stood under the bright night, turned to look at the black shadow, as if finding it amusing, her eyes filled with mockery.
Fushuang vanished, and in her palm reappeared that brush. She raised the brush and slowly wrote name after name in the clear night sky.
She chuckled, the red mole at the corner of her eye becoming more vibrant amidst her faint eyebrows, carrying a hint of casualness and spirit.
Golden light flickered, changing fate.
Ming Zhaoshuang emerged from the first painting scroll and saw that the golden text before her had changed to:
“Soul’s return, Fushuang Sword is cold for a hundred thousand years; Sun and moon shine together, Mountain River Brush changes beyond the heavens.”
Ming Zhaoshuang raised her hand but found that the brush in her hand had already disappeared.
She eagerly looked up, searching for its trace, but her gaze softened involuntarily as she looked at the second painting.
She saw Feng He, with her legs crossed casually, not sitting or standing properly, perched on the eaves, her eyes lazy, occasionally looking at the children in front of her.
The children, both boys and girls, were all together, jostling each other, laughing and talking.
Suddenly, Feng He picked up a piece of broken tile and flicked it at one of the little boys.
“Why are you pulling that little girl’s hair? Sit down, you hear me!”
The boy, hit by the tile, cried out in pain.
Feng He didn’t even look at him, leaning against the wall tiles, closing her eyes, and falling asleep.
Under the warm and gentle sunlight, the moon pearl by Feng He’s ear seemed to shine even brighter, as if telling of past events.
Ming Zhaoshuang started laughing, just as she saw the painting scroll become thin, the text bold and casual:
“Devotion to all living beings is never regretted; Nirvana is bathed in fire, becoming a phoenix. If the heavens do not yield, I will change them. What does it matter to defy heaven and change fate.”
After finishing the second painting scroll, Ming Zhaoshuang came before the third painting scroll.
For some reason, although she had never seen this man before, she dared not look up, feeling a sense of apprehension akin to returning home after a long absence.
But she still looked at the third painting scroll.
Within the painting scroll, the ruins remained unchanged, the darkness persisted, and the youth’s elegance was as before, his golden eyes dazzling, looking at her with a hint of gentleness and affection.
Truly, he was so handsome!
Ming Zhaoshuang was dazzled by his smile, her heart racing uncontrollably.
As a result, Ming Zhaoshuang didn’t notice that the man was walking slowly towards her until he stood beside her.
He smiled and looked at Ming Zhaoshuang, asking, “Shall we go?”
Ming Zhaoshuang was stunned and pointed at herself, asking, “You want to go with me? No, no… you can see me.”
The man frowned slightly and asked, “What, my wife, aren’t you leaving? Didn’t you say you wanted to watch the fireworks?”
Ming Zhaoshuang’s smile stopped, and she looked at the man, feeling utterly bewildered, “No, do I have anything to do with you? Why are you calling me… so casually…”
Ming Zhaoshuang looked at the man’s face and suddenly swallowed the words she was about to say.
No, his appearance was too authoritative.
It was just too authoritative.
With such an authoritative face calling her “wife,” she couldn’t refuse if she wanted to.
The man, however, seemed impatient. Despite his still indifferent expression, he directly put his arm around her and walked forward, occasionally comforting her, saying:
“Alright, my wife, my fault, my fault. I shouldn’t have argued with you over the storybook. I’ll kneel on the washboard when we get back. You hurry and come with me now, or Xie Yanning will have already set off the fireworks behind your back, and you’ll be sad again.”
The scene froze, stopping at the faces of the man and woman embracing each other.
Golden text floated, a short line:
“Abandoned his ruthless path, yet built a bridge for all living beings; Having understood the vastness of the universe, I cannot bear to see plants wither.”
As Ming Zhaoshuang detached from this painting scroll, her face turned slightly red, feeling a little hot.
She reached out, intending to tear off the ending of this broken painting, but as her fingers touched the man’s face, she abruptly pulled them back.
No, his appearance was too authoritative.
She couldn’t be cruel to beauty, she couldn’t waste a good thing, she couldn’t be a domineering romantic, she couldn’t burn the phoenix while playing the lute; she couldn’t let such a perfect face disappear from the world for her own selfish reasons.
She couldn’t! She couldn’t!!
In the end, Ming Zhaoshuang endured the pain, bid farewell to this extremely authoritative face, and came before Shen Liqian’s painting scroll.
