Chapter 270: Chapter 164: The End of Jade Ring Pool (Part 1)_2

The Patriarch’s measures were already as perfect as possible, but You Su showed no intention of giving up. He stared dazedly at the face of the person in the coffin, as if entranced.

The two Elders also felt a slight sense of anger. You Su indeed had done them a favor, but this behavior of exploiting goodwill still made them lose much of their fondness for You Su.

Without courtesy, they began to move the coffin lid, intending to close the coffin and block You Su’s infatuated gaze, secretly whispering to themselves: What could a blind man like You Su possibly see by staring so intently?

But You Su’s clear, unseeing eyes suddenly gleamed, startling the two Elders!

Illusion!

The Jade Ring Pool harbors more than just a Dream Master of the Hidden Earth Illusion Realm! Even the little white fish is a Dream Master!

Even if its displayed illusion is crude, it doesn’t mean it can’t be useful!

The simplest and most effective illusion in this world is—lies!

You Su mumbled in agitation, as if in a trance:

"Yudie... is indeed the Hidden Water!"

Before the two Venerables and two Elders could recover their senses, You Su had already turned around and sprinted away, his cold voice carried by the wind:

"Don’t follow me!"

...

The cliff wind howled, billowing Ji Xueruo’s skirt, making the white garment flutter like clouds.

Below the cliff, the Jade Ring Pool in the dark night was no longer just speckled with candlelight.

This famous spiritual land was now brightly lit, and every surviving Jade Clan person was grateful to be alive. Unbeknownst to them, they had been asleep in an illusion for years, and now they just wanted to see more of this world.

Ji Xueruo stood at the edge of the cliff, looking up at the vaguely visible clouds, not knowing what she was searching for.

Suddenly, she felt a sense of intuition, turned around, her hair disheveled in the wind, beautifully tragic like a painting.

"I knew my letter wouldn’t fool you... was it a clue she left you?"

Ji Xueruo’s voice was gentle, unlike herself.

You Su walked slowly, remembering this place, where the Yudie had last agreed to meet him—a broken cliff on Jade Ring Mountain.

They had once released a failed sky lantern here and then fallen together at the edge of the cliff, like butterflies with broken wings enjoying their last flight.

’We will all die, but...not today!’

You Su had saved the girl who was determined to die with this phrase, but today, one of them truly was going to die.

Seeing You Su silent, Ji Xueruo just smiled quietly, tucking the strands of hair behind her ear:

"She is smarter than I thought, and she trusts you even more than I imagined. Have you ever seen someone wear black armor under a white dress while sleeping? Only she could do such a thing... She clearly cherished the days of fighting alongside you in the Hidden Earth Illusion Realm, yet she could still see through the little white fish’s illusions. I must admit, she is truly remarkable."

"Miss Ji is indeed an extremely intelligent woman."

You Su agreed with Ji Xueruo’s self-praise, then added:

"Yudie Saintess is also extremely intelligent."

Ji Xueruo laughed, bending over slightly, and after a while said: "Does Miss Ji know how good you are at treating everyone equally?"

You Su felt there was a hidden meaning in her words, unsure how to respond.

Yudie Saintess would never let You Su feel awkward; she looked into You Su’s face and said: "No need to say good things to appease me, just so worried about what I might do to her?"

Seeing through his thoughts, You Su had to say: "Yudie Saintess, if you can say such things, it seems there is still a chance for redemption."

Yudie said nothing, smiled, and turned to take a deep breath of the cool air unique to the mountain summit:

"That’s hard to say... Tell me all that you’ve guessed, so you won’t live in doubt after I leave."

You Su furrowed his brows and said earnestly: "You let the little white fish go, only you have the authority to release the white dragon carp."

"Continue."

"You are Yudie, and also the Hidden Water. Or rather, the Yudie Saintesses throughout history have all been Hidden Water. People of the Jade Ring Pool say the saintess is a reflection of the Jade Ring Pool in the mortal realm, reflecting its state. But now, they only need a little thinking to realize that the saintess isn’t reflecting the Jade Ring Pool but the Hidden Earth at its bottom."

Yudie turned her head slightly, glancing at You Su in a complimenting manner.

"The Hidden Earth, formed by the dragon bones of the Hidden Water, these two Divine Beasts are of one entity. That the state of the saintess and Hidden Earth are connected can only be explained if the saintess is the Hidden Water. When Hidden Earth still held Divine Power, the saintess was extraordinarily gifted, but when the Hidden Earth turned entirely evil and lost its Divine Power, the saintess became a mortal."

"Although it’s a guess, you’re right. Every generation’s saintess is me! I didn’t die!" Yudie, with her back turned, her enormous sorrow unseen, "Neither the Turbid Dragon nor the Void Nightmare could kill me! What I endured with humiliation was to kill them! But they were too powerful... I could only drive them away. In the end, I only left a faint divine soul in this world, which later externalized into each generation’s saintess. Until I met little Bai, who returned my memory to me, that I truly awakened! But ironically, the me that once couldn’t be killed by two great Evil Gods, became a mortal..."

Yudie’s tone was mournful, and You Su could only remain silent, having once understood this sense of impotence in the face of such calamity.

After a long silence, Yudie continued her story:

"Hidden Earth loves me... loves me even to madness. These mountains are its prison, the underground palace my tomb; it wants to lock me here forever, to accompany it for eternity. I only bestowed rain to those outside the mountain, yet it slaughtered them all! Its evil deeds caused humans to choose to worship Evil Gods, which is why the Turbid Dragon and Void Nightmare appeared here!"

This pain, brewed over millennia, was as thick as substance, and just hearing it left You Su feeling bitter.

"But I loved it too... Didn’t I do all this to save it? The Void Nightmare wanted to help the Turbid Dragon become the Lord of Five Elements; they brazenly seized elemental dominance across the Five Continents. How could I let them succeed? But why won’t Hidden Earth leave? It holds the power of earth and can go anywhere it wants. I clearly told it; I didn’t like its twisted love. Even when I appeased them like that, it refused to give up... My plan to replicate the power also failed because of it. Ultimately, I sacrificed myself to save it, yet I couldn’t stop the Void Nightmare from placing a corrosive Restriction Technique on it... Is such an ending really what it wanted?"

Yudie turned around, showing her tearful face:

"Tell me... Should I love it, or hate it?"

You Su remained silent, unable to judge a love spanning millennia.

Yudie wasn’t really trying to enlighten You Su; she had only found, for the first time in a thousand years, someone she could talk to, using this as a pretext to vent her heavy love and hate.

"After awakening, I’m also unsure... But I have two wishes, the first, to save it; the second, to leave this prison. Clearly, I can’t achieve the first one, but I can’t watch Hidden Earth become a complete evil being. This is Void Nightmare’s plot! I need to kill Hidden Earth! To release it! And the only one capable of doing this is the True Lord! I know, you are the True Lord!"

You Su was a bit startled; he had thought that besides the Dream-eating Ghost and his Junior Sister, none knew this secret, yet didn’t expect someone as far away as a mortal at the Jade Ring Pool would know.

"And just as I planned all possible ways to invite you to the Jade Ring Pool, you came uninvited! From the little white fish, I had already planned it all... ultimately, your performance did not disappoint me."

As a mortal body carefully designed such a grand scheme, manipulating many Immortals like chess pieces, without using Illusion Techniques, yet weaving an even more real illusion with lies.

Mortal isn’t necessarily inferior to Immortal, this saying once again proved true.