Chapter 2483: The Moon's Reflection

Chapter 2446: Jiang Yue, When Did You First Shine?

Drip!

A drop of blood fell from a fingertip, hitting the ground with a clear sound.

It was like a finger tapping on the door of a heart.

But this question was truly ironic.

"You still want to ask why?" Lou Jiang Yue sat there, rigid, like a knife being held in ice storage – frozen meat, radiating frost from inside out. She was already dead. "When did I ever want to live?"

If she could commit suicide, she wouldn't be here long ago.

But Lou Jiang Yue could never kill herself. The moment she truly contemplated putting that thought into practice, Yuan Tu would dominate her will, making her awaken amidst the killing, in the bloody chaos.

And the price of "awakening" was too heavy. It was the cat she'd raised for many years, the wet nurse who had raised her for many years... so much so that she dared not touch upon it again.

"At least... for a while." Lou Yue said with some difficulty.

Lou Jiang Yue didn't speak.

"Last night I watched the moon all night." Lou Yue's voice was very complex. "There was that one moment, I really hoped you would tell Shang Shu Yi everything. But you actually endured."

Lou Jiang Yue's voice was still monotonous, so monotonous it was just cold. "Tell him what."

"Say I don't deserve to be your father, say I should die." Lou Yue smiled an ugly smile. "Say that the current Ying Tian Lou Clan family master, Huang Chi Army vice commander, Military Affairs Lou Privy Council... was once possessed by a demon?"

If this sentence were to spread, it would instantly cause a great earthquake throughout the central empire!

Above the court, numerous officials, major figures in the capital, no one could sit still!

But such terrifying news, after all, only echoed within the sealed prison room, not spreading out.

Lonely and unheard.

"Are you saying this for me to hear, or for yourself?" Lou Jiang Yue used her finger, stained red with fresh blood, to smear meaninglessly on the ground. "Or let's change the question—you were so eager to get me out of the Censorate, are you really worried about your daughter, or worried that I might actually say something?"

Lou Yue lowered his gaze. He still stood there, still tall, but he seemed to have suddenly aged a lot.

"I don't know if I should set you free, or in the name of love, let you continue to suffer torment."

He pulled a wry smile. "The most tragic thing is your question, I indeed can't distinguish it clearly. Jiang Yue, your father, what kind of person is he?"

"You should keep asking others this question. The central empire will give you a fair answer." Lou Jiang Yue was always indifferent. "Ying Tian Lou Clan family master, Huang Chi Army vice commander, Military Affairs Lou Privy Council... perhaps also add a 'Dao Jun'?"

How could someone like Lou Yue be troubled by "what kind of person I am"?

What troubled him was how his daughter saw him.

But he also couldn't distinguish clearly, was this kind of trouble, exactly from guilt, or from love? Perhaps they were originally one thing?

And he only asked, "You've been in prison all these days, how do you know... Dao Jun?"

Lou Jiang Yue looked at him. "Hearing that Zong De Zhen died, you just happened to choose this time to reach the peak, and Ouyang Jie gave you so much face."

"You're still so smart," Lou Yue said.

"Now, even less people will believe you were possessed by a demon," Lou Jiang Yue seemed to laugh, seemed to mock. "Moreover, you've returned from the wrong path and have gained such trust from the Emperor."

"But Shang Shu Yi will verify all this, and will also end all this," Lou Yue said.

Someone like Shang Shu Yi, who vowed to correct all errors and took this as his way, wouldn't pretend nothing happened just because the Emperor helped cover everything up. Nor would he let time wash away the truth, he would certainly lift the lid.

"Are you really willing to give up what you currently possess, and what you are about to possess, Lord Lou?" Lou Jiang Yue asked.

"If giving up something can make you recover your normal state, I wouldn't hesitate at all," Lou Yue looked at her. "If everything could restart, I wouldn't let you become this appearance. Jiang Yue."

"Then what should we do?" Lou Jiang Yue's eyes were quiet and without ripples. "Let my sister become like this?"

Lou Yue was silent.

Silence was the frost of speech.

Originally, the fate of Yuan Tu entering fate was forced out by him, yet it fell upon the bloodline again. He had to choose one between his two daughters. He chose to let his younger sister bear it.

This was the root of all today's pain.

He thought restarting meant not having to make a choice again. But Lou Jiang Yue's pain was—"Why me?"

If it were to restart once, how would this father choose again?

"Your best choice now is to kill me," Lou Jiang Yue looked at him and said. "Kill me, and the past will forever stop in the past—letting me live until now is the biggest mistake of your life."

"...Letting you become like this is," Lou Yue said.

Lou Jiang Yue didn't speak for a while.

Who would have thought? The person who once worshipped the contract of the Exorcism Alliance, tempered in the outer heaven, became friends with the Seven Hate Demon Lord, once drank and talked happily, considered him a confidant, and sang through the night!

That friendship perhaps was real. Last, the Seven Hate Demon Lord paid a huge price to plant the fate of Yuan Tu on Lou Yue, wanting to lead him to the Ten Thousand Realms Wasteland Grave, to become a heaven demon, even the ninth demon lord outside the eight great demon lords.

He expelled Yuan Tu with outstanding will and power, but this tragedy, however, was transmitted upon the bloodline, falling on Lou Jiang Yue's body.

The most tragic thing is not what you choose and suffer.

But you have no choice, yet you have to endure all this.

Lou Jiang Yue was born this way, it wasn't that she wanted to kill people, it wasn't that she was vicious and bloodthirsty, she was just a patient, this was a disease she was born with!

"Sister?" Lou Jiang Yue asked.

"She's waiting for news at home." Lou Yue paused, mentioning another daughter with some carefulness, fearing it was touching a wound again. "... Boiling medicine for you."

Lou Jiang Yue lowered her eyes. "I've drunk enough of those useless medicines."

"I've seen enough of those doctors who can't cure me."

"I can't stay in a dark, damp room anymore, like a mouse that never sees daylight."

"You run for this day after day, repeating tired and useless efforts, it seems like I'm dragging down the Lou Clan."

She raised her head, the expression on her face, always frozen by cold frost. "But all this, is it my fault?"

"Of course not, you've never had a choice since you came," Lou Yue said seriously. "From the moment you were born, you've shouldered these. You are stronger than everyone else, I know you've already made a lot of effort to resist, you—"

Lou Jiang Yue interrupted him. "You just asked me, why don't I want to live—right?"

She didn't like listening to those fabricated words. The harder she struggled, didn't it just prove her incompetence?

People who couldn't change anything could only boast about their efforts.

Her Lou, was the Lou of ants.

In the face of the Seven Hate Demon Lord and the heaven-sent fate of Yuan Tu, her resistance was futile, her struggle useless.

Lou Yue said, "Because you want to save him."

He didn't say the specific name, but it was the first time he truly mentioned it.

Like some never-mentioned tacit understanding, it was broken at this moment.

Lou Jiang Yue also spread open her eyebrows and eyes. "You know what I've been doing all these years."

"You know whose side I've been following."

Her face had a strange expression. "The direct bloodline of the Ying Tian Lou Clan, your daughter Lou Yue, is the killer of Hell No Door, the notorious Yan Luo. To wipe away those carelessly left traces, presumably you also did many things."

"You are very smart, leaving almost no trace," Lou Yue said. "I didn't do much."

"You won't need to do it anymore," Lou Jiang Yue said.

"Yes, you've already announced this identity to the world," Lou Yue said. "It's just that I don't understand, if it's only to save him, with your wisdom, you should be able to think of a better way."

He sighed. "You clearly know how dangerous this matter is, I also hinted at you. You could have completely stopped him from getting involved."

"I can't stop him," Lou Jiang Yue shook her head. "Because he knows how dangerous this is."

"He's not foolishly seeking death, he's soberly going mad," Lou Jiang Yue's expression was very strange, like a sigh, and again a laugh. "Someone like him, one day will die. Will die grandly, like a star exploding."

Madmen and madmen always attract each other.

A person whose fate is not long, and a person who is certain to die, how is this not a heaven-set fate?

"Then you at least have to wait until the day he explodes like a star," Lou Yue said. "...And then seek death."

"I also thought that at first," Lou Jiang Yue probably for the first time in her life opened her heart and conversed with her own father, temporarily peeling away the resentment, appearing abnormally peaceful. But this was perhaps also the last time. "But I can't wait."

"When my illness hadn't attacked yet, I wanted to kill him. Merely because he refused my suggestion and insisted on adventuring in the sea battlefield."

"At that moment, I suddenly thought, rather than letting others kill him, why not let me do it? If I could personally crush this star in my hand, what a magnificent scene that would be! I started imagining, his head exploding in front of me, red like flowers, white like snow, all beautiful beyond words—"

Her expression was dazed, seeming to fall into that kind of beautiful imagination again, followed by a sad smile. "I even wanted to kill him."

Lou Yue now completely understood why Lou Jiang Yue's heart was set on death.

Yuan Tu's disease was no longer merely a momentary madness from an accidental attack, and it wasn't content with slowly spreading towards Lou Jiang Yue's life, but had already taken root deep in her personality, making her give birth to a true killing nature!

Even the coldest person, facing those few people who were meaningful to them, wouldn't casually feel a desire to kill.

Tiger venom still doesn't eat its young, evil wolves also have wolf companions.

Lou Jiang Yue's desire to kill, from the beginning, was a pure heart for killing. From being unable to control herself after an attack of killing intent, it evolved to her even finding it difficult to be influenced by this killing intent. In the next stage, perhaps she would be completely unable to realize the problem and would directly take action.

In other words, her illness had worsened again and had become incurable!

The more people she killed, the stronger she became, the stronger she was, the closer she was to Yuan Tu, the closer she was to Yuan Tu, the less she could control herself.

This was an infinitely extending abyss road, she fell from birth to death.

"There will be a way," Lou Yue said.

However, even he himself felt powerless.

What way?

If there was even a little bit of a way, how would he have waited until today?

Unless he went to the Ten Thousand Realms Wasteland Grave now, grabbed the Seven Hate Demon Lord, put a knife to his neck, asked him for a solution to Yuan Tu, asked him what to do!

But even the Great Jing Emperor couldn't do such a thing.

"I've come this far, done such things, and must undoubtedly die. The country cannot tolerate me, and my family should not tolerate me," Lou Jiang Yue said. "If you're not at ease, then put in a little more effort. With your current status and position, even killing me within the Jic Xing Si yamen, the matter can be covered up."

"If I die, I won't need to be so painful anymore. I won't need to make choices again, facing this field where I will forever lose. From the moment I had consciousness until now, I haven't won once, I... I'm tired."

"Letting my resentment towards you conclude this case, the matter also won't need to harm him."

"You can also wipe away the last bit of stain, after that you can be peacefully Dao Jun."

"With you, with him, with me, with the family, with the country. This is the best choice for everyone."

"Go, Lord Lou," Lou Jiang Yue slowly closed her eyes. "This is my choice."

This was the best choice.

Lou Yue's tall body was like a wall, pushing heavily outward.

Then the prison door closed again.

Darkness covered this place again.

Lou Jiang Yue was as quiet as part of the prison room.

No one came to hang her on the torture rack again, no one put shackles on her.

This was the special treatment brought by Lou Dao Jun.

But she had always been on the torture rack, never leaving.

"Looks like Privy Council Lou really wants to become Dao Jun..." Inside the Jic Xing Si office, several executives gathered together chatting. "How did the big executive head ever give so much face? Personally welcoming him into the yamen, and then personally politely sending him out the door."

Another executive laughed. "Then you didn't see how nervous the big executive head was when he went to the Censorate overnight to get someone! That's what you call nervous!"

"What nonsense are you talking about? You really don't know death!" Jic Xing Si Dao Tai executive head Huang Shou Jie just happened to pass by and sternly criticized them. "Is the big executive head someone you can just casually discuss?"

The so-called Dao Tai executive head was responsible for contacting the world Dao countries within Jic Xing Si, and was actually just a reserve for the Jic Xing Si big executive head. Their status was similar to that of the Right Capital Censor to the Left Capital Censor.

However, there was only one Right Capital Censor, while there were three Dao Tai executive heads.

These several executives were all his direct subordinates, which was why they dared to point fingers at the big executive head—in a certain sense, this was also a way of displaying their status.

Seeing their top boss so stern at this time, how could they dare to retort? Each lowered their eyes and eyebrows.

"Is there any important matter that needs you all to gather and discuss?" Huang Shou Jie asked again, giving them a step down.

One of the executives reported, "South city executive Chen Kai Xu, and the team of people he led, have lost contact. We don't know the situation for now, it might be related to the revenge of Equality Country, or it might be Yi Zhen Dao—"

"This is the South city executive head's matter, it has nothing to do with us," Huang Shou Jie interrupted him. "The nation is facing many troubles, everyone should guard their posts, do their own job well, and worry less about useless things. Disperse, everyone go do your work."

A crowd of executives scattered like birds and beasts.

Huang Shou Jie walked inside expressionlessly.

Executives within Jic Xing Si were already considered middle-level, and those directly serving in the capital city were one rank higher.

So he had an impression of Chen Kai Xu.

But his focus was not on this person.

He vaguely remembered that the person who was assigned to act together with the South city executive Chen Kai Xu seemed to have a "Dao Tu", which he personally developed into the Dao. What was his name? That memory was sealed and hidden by him.

The Dao master's legacy was captured, the Dao head was surrounded and killed, the executioners also died in accidents, he had no way to establish contact with other Dao Tu anymore. The entire Yi Zhen Dao was full of fearful rumors, everyone was hiding, panic-stricken.

In this kind of time, fleeing was also meaningless, one move exposed, one exposure meant death.

It seemed like the only thing to do was stare blankly and wait for the big cleanup to come...

Huang Shou Jie casually closed the door and silently sat down at his desk.

He opened a volume of files, picked up a pen, and slowly checked off items.

At the same time, within his sea of consciousness, a Dao candle lit up.

A green candle, a red core, a white flame.

After a long wait, that name just jumped out from the gap in his intention—

Jiang Nan Peng.

Thank you to book friend "Standing 20 years later look life" for becoming the alliance master of this book! This is for the 832nd alliance of Red Heart Patrol Heaven!

Thank you to book friend "Small Wood not Small Twilight" for becoming the alliance master of this book! This is for the 833rd alliance of Red Heart Patrol Heaven!