Chapter 134: Beloved
Looking at the Miaofa Lotus Seal in her hand, Qiao Wan felt a mix of emotions that she couldn't quite express. She tightly clenched her hand and silently pressed her lips together, lost in thought for a moment.
This time, she narrowly avoided a dangerous situation. She realized she had been careless and misjudged by half a second. That half-second could have led to a mistake.
Qiao Wan looked away and gazed at the wall in front of her. It was as white as snow, smooth and without any cracks or peeling. She reached out her hand and touched it, feeling the coolness of the wall.
How could there be a paper person hidden here? Qiao Wan wondered. After a moment of thought, she decisively picked up the sword from the ground and lightly tapped the wall with the hilt.
Tap tap -
The sound... it was hollow! Qiao Wan furrowed her brows, her heart pounding in her throat. Without hesitation, she twisted her wrist and exerted a bit of force to hit the wall.
Immediately, a crack appeared on the wall, and some dark things slid out through the crack.
As Qiao Wan focused her gaze, the hand holding the sword froze.
It was hair, clumps and clumps of it, all hanging down along the wall crack.
Qiao Wan gave the wall in front of her a strong push, and it collapsed with a loud crash. Bricks fell onto the bed, creating a cloud of dust. Something red and stiff fell out from the wall and made a loud thud on the bed.
It was the body of a woman who had been dead for a very long time. She was wearing a red wedding dress, but her body had shriveled, leaving only wrinkled skin covering her bones. Her eye sockets were deep and her red dress scattered on the bed.
This thing had just been lying next to Qiao Wan for an hour.
Although Qiao Wan had mentally prepared herself before entering the haunted market, seeing a dead body fall from the wall and onto her bed, especially after sleeping face to face with it for two hours, was beyond what she had imagined.
Qiao Wan remained expressionless as she thought to herself, this experience was a little too thrilling and exciting.
Without time for fear, Qiao Wan's thoughts immediately turned to the face of Yan Shiyuan.
The most important thing right now is to find out if Yan Shiyuan knows that there is a dead woman inside this wall.
Thinking about this, Qiao Wan immediately lifted her foot and started walking.
Just as she took a few steps, she stumbled.
Something cold and smooth wrapped around her ankle.
Qiao Wan 's breath slowed down a beat.
It was hair.
The hair from between the wall cracks began to wriggle as if it were alive, sliding down the floor and wrapping around Qiao Wan 's ankle.
The noise outside hadn't stopped, and there was this ghost bride in front of her, along with that lead paper figure... There were too many weird things in this ghost market. Although she was a cultivator, Qiao Wan was a sword cultivator with a specialized focus on physical cultivation. She didn't dare to move recklessly, so she tightly held onto her sword. As she held it, she could feel the sweaty slipperiness in her palms.
At the same time, all those jumbled emotions surged up in her heart once again.
Fluttering, despair, madness, and fear.
Qiao Wan suddenly felt lost in a chaotic and desperate state of emotions.
This wasn't her emotions!
Qiao Wan blinked her eyes and quickly regained her composure.
She focused her gaze on the shriveled corpse in front of her, dressed as a bride.
The woman stumbled to her feet, smiling slightly. Her head tilted to the side, tangled in her hair, but the hair on the floor kept growing uncontrollably. It seemed like it could rip her head off her neck at any moment, separating her body from her head.
And the golden light of Miaofa Lotus Seal on her body dimmed slowly.
The power of Lotus Seal was limited, it could save her once but not a second time. However, this time was enough.
Qiao Wan took a deep breath, moved swiftly with her sword. The first strike, decisively cutting the strands of hair around the ankle. The second strike, slashing down towards the front of the corpse.
But the hair on the ground seemed unhappy. With a whoosh, it suddenly stood up and formed a fine net made of human hair. It covered Qiao Wan completely, like a giant cocoon.
Suddenly, everything went black.
Qiao Wan said, "Am I inside the hair?"
Just then, a bit of light appeared in the pitch-black space, illuminating the ground beneath Qiao Wan's feet.
Rather than being inside the hair, it felt more like being trapped in a completely dark space.
As Qiao Wan took a few steps forward, the faint light revealed a familiar figure ahead.
It was a figure deeply buried in her memories, a long-lost sight.
It was a young boy with bare chest, dark complexion, thick eyebrows, big eyes, and a smile that showed his white teeth. The boy was slowly walking on a muddy country road, pulling a cart with oxen.
As Qiao Wan stared at this figure for half a second, her heart suddenly jumped intensely.
It was... Lu Tieniu!
Before she went to Kunshan, Qiao Wan had a crush on her first love. And even before she regained her memory, she always dreamed of marrying someone.
Memories that had been buried deep in her mind suddenly came rushing back, causing a twitch at the corner of Qiao Wan's mouth.
At that time, her dream was to marry Lu Tieniu, a strong villager who worked on the farm. Unfortunately, he didn't fancy her and instead fell for a widow from the village.
Moving further back, there was a tall and slender figure with a high ponytail. The young man turned around with a cold expression in his eyes.
"Qiao Wan," he said.
Qiao Wan thought to herself that she might understand what was going on here.
According to the usual plot, the lady who had just shared a bed with her might be a jilted bride who was abandoned by her beloved. Out of resentment, she wanted to play some tricks, like trapping someone in a fantasy world to test their feelings.
The emotions swirling inside Qiao Wan's heart felt familiar yet unfamiliar. It was like taking those subtle flutters from the depths of her heart and magnifying them a hundredfold.
Qiao Wan's gaze fell upon Pei Chunzheng, causing her to unintentionally pause her steps and continue forward with a furrowed brow.
Why is he here?
Having lived for more than forty years, Qiao Wan had only experienced some emotional entanglement with Lu Tieniu and Pei Chunzheng. Logically, there should be no way for her to encounter Pei Chunzheng at this point.
But as her gaze reached the figure ahead, Qiao Wan came to a complete stop.
Not far away, another familiar figure was slowly approaching.
The majestic and dignified Miaofa walked up to Qiao Wan. With his tall and upright figure, he asked in a deep voice, "What are you doing here?"
Qiao Wan was astonished. It was Miaofa.
There was Lu Tieniu and there was Pei Chunzheng, that was for sure. These were her painful and fruitless love experiences. But how could Miaofa be here?!
However, what was even more difficult for Qiao Wan to speak of was that...
The moment she saw Miaofa--
Qiao Wan closed her eyes, and her heart began to beat uncontrollably, almost as if it had gone wild.
Something was not right.
Her mood was off. Qiao Wan immediately sensed that something was strange. The shriveled female corpse outside was probably affecting her mood.
Her mind became chaotic, and the scene in front of her instantly reversed.
This was the scene she had been avoiding for some time.
With a dark face and a three-eyed Buddha on his forehead, he lowered his head and bit down on her tongue, swallowing forcefully.
Being immersed in this illusion again, Qiao Wan could vividly feel the broad chest muscles pressed against her, causing her whole body to tremble uncontrollably.
In the dream realm of her consciousness, the details that had deliberately been overlooked surged out relentlessly this time.
In her mind, Qiao Wan saw the stern and majestic face of the Venerable One. It felt like tiny knives poking at her heart, a familiar yet uncomfortable sensation. Her heart seemed to be suspended by a delicate thread, while a tingling sensation ran through her skin like bubbly warmth. Qiao Wan's knees weakened, and her head buzzed with noise.
Although she knew that something was not right with the situation, Qiao Wan's eyes showed a fleeting confusion. This was her first encounter with such desire, and it was brought upon her by the Venerable One, who possessed great power and was held in high regard in the Great Hall of Light.
If her guess was correct, she seemed to have made a mistake. Qiao Wan lowered her gaze, feeling a burning sensation rise on her face. Her heart churned with a mix of excitement and shame, almost overwhelming her completely.
Although she said she didn't care, deep down in her heart, she seemed to secretly have some unclear emotions towards her senior and a respected monk in the Buddhist community.
And at that moment, the darkness in front of her suddenly split in half.
The ghost bride who had just shared a bed with her suddenly approached Qiao Wan and stared at her with sunken eyes, whispering, "Is this your loved one?"
