While Tuoba Feng protected the mummified corpse, Su Xue raised her hand with a wave, and the orchid domain expanded instantly.
The phantom of the Myriad Herbs Life-Death Realm descended.
Emerald-green brilliance fell like spring rain.
The black-spot monsters shattered by the blade qi were instantly enveloped, decomposed, and transformed by the power of vitality the moment their fragments hit the ground.
The black spots were receding.
The death qi was being reversed.
Tiny, tender green sprouts even began to grow on the edges of some fragments.
Although they were quickly submerged by more black spots, the sight was shocking enough.
Piao struck out as well.
Half of her body transformed into a locust swarm, which rapidly formed a massive insectoid maw lined with razor-sharp mouthparts.
The maw opened, generating a terrifying suction force.
All the black-spot monsters suppressed by Su Xue were dragged toward the maw, flying into it one after another.
Then, they were ground into fragments by the sharp teeth.
Piao's brow furrowed slightly; clearly, the taste of this food was still quite poor.
However, she did not stop.
Su Xue's orchid rain fell on Piao, helping her digest the stubborn death qi.
With Su Xue's assistance, Piao's devouring efficiency increased several times over.
The number of black-spot monsters began to decrease at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Held in Tuoba Feng's embrace, the mummified corpse stared blankly at the scene.
'Why? Why come back?'
She had clearly pushed them out.
She had clearly prepared herself to shoulder everything alone.
The mummified corpse opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but she could not make a sound.
The blood from her eye sockets flowed even more fiercely.
At that moment, Piao finished devouring a batch of monsters and took a moment to turn her head, glancing at the mummified corpse.
Inside her heterochromatic pupils, golden flames flickered.
"You are not a good child."
Piao's voice was calm and serious.
"Good children do not make their parents worry."
Piao continued while she kept devouring the monsters.
"I know you are a monster."
"I am a monster too."
"When I was born, my ears were filled with the wails of people starving to death."
"They cried, they screamed, they cursed the unfairness of heaven and earth, and they resented why they had to die of hunger."
"Those voices rang in my head for a long, long time."
"I wanted to swallow everything I saw into my stomach—everything edible and inedible."
"But I could not."
Piao paused to swallow a struggling monster.
"Because someone picked me up."
"Someone gave me a name."
"Someone taught me what I can eat and what I cannot."
"Someone told me that even if I am a monster, I can still choose to be a person."
"So, I learned restraint."
"I learned to discern."
"I learned to cherish."
Piao turned her head, her heterochromatic pupils staring directly at the mummified corpse.
"Love is not self-righteous sacrifice."
"Love is protection and companionship; it is holding hands even if you must go to hell together."
"Acting so willfully and locking yourself away to wait for death will not make things better."
"You will only make those who care about you sad."
The mummified corpse listened in a daze.
People who cared about her...
Could there really be people who cared about her?
Tuoba Feng cared about her because she wore the name and appearance of Xiaoyun.
Su Xue and Piao cared about her because they were good people, because they were kind.
If they knew her true face, knew that she was Lord Divine Remains and the source of this disaster, would they still care?
The mummified corpse did not dare to think about it.
Then, Piao turned her head again and looked at Tuoba Feng.
"And you."
Her tone suddenly became stern.
"Do not think just because I am not talking to you that you are innocent here."
Tuoba Feng was stunned.
Piao continued, "Most of the time, there is more than one way to solve a problem."
"You feel like the sky has fallen, that the Grave-keeper clan is wiped out, that your daughter is gone, and that everything is over."
"So you chose to give up, to escape, and to bury yourself in a tomb."
"But have you considered that perhaps in the eyes of others, the sky has not fallen yet?"
"Perhaps in the eyes of others, there is still a chance to turn things around."
"A parent as troublesome as you is truly a headache."
Tuoba Feng was left speechless by her words, lowering his head in shame.
He had indeed thought about giving up.
On the day Xiaoyun died, he had thought about giving up.
When the seal on the god's tomb loosened and the black spots spiraled out of control, he had thought about giving up.
Just now, when the mummified corpse pushed him out of the tomb door to face everything alone, he had actually wanted to give up for a single moment.
Because he was too tired.
So tired he did not want to struggle anymore.
Seeing this, Su Xue spoke softly, "Piao is right."
"Our Lord sent us to the Western Region, so he naturally prepared a back-up plan."
"We have not reached that point yet; there is no need to give up so early."
As she spoke, she looked at Piao and asked in a low voice, "You..."
"Were those words just now your own thoughts?"
Piao tilted her head and replied righteously, "They are the things Mother said when she was lecturing me, of course."
"I think what Mother said makes a lot of sense."
"So I memorized it all."
Su Xue smiled faintly.
If they were the words of that elderly woman, it was not surprising.
With that thought, she formed hand seals.
The phantom of the Myriad Herbs Life-Death Realm behind her expanded once more, becoming almost solid.
Emerald-green brilliance surged out like a tide, mingled with a sliver of dazzling gold, drowning the entire burial chamber.
The mummified corpse felt a warm power envelop her.
There was the power of vitality, the power of death qi, and that mysterious golden power that somehow made her remains resonate.
Under the washing of this unfamiliar power, the black spots inside her body began to agitate violently.
The black-spot monsters that originally belonged to her but had run rampant began to merge back into her body under the influence of the golden flower rain.
They were returning.
The mummified corpse felt her strength returning, her consciousness clearing, and her control over her body being reclaimed bit by bit.
At the same time, her sinful karma began to skyrocket.
Because every returning black-spot monster carried a massive amount of sinful karma.
That was the accumulated sin of the Western Region over a millennium, the suffering borne by the Grave-keeper clan for generations, and the resentment of countless beings who had died under the black spots.
Now, all that sinful karma had returned to her body.
The mummified corpse felt as if she were about to burst.
But Su Xue's power was helping her organize and control it.
That power was very warm and holy, making her subconsciously want to be close to it.
She could even faintly hear voices coming from within that power.
"Thank you for the Lord's mercy; Lantao City is no longer troubled by the strange disease..."
"May the Goddess protect us; the snow and frost of the Northern Region have all melted, and there will be a good harvest this year."
"Southern Region, kill, kill, kill..."
"Dragon Ancestor above, the Eastern Region is willing to offer everything..."
"This believer is willing to pray for a lifetime, only for the Lord's safety..."
What were these voices?
They were so noisy, yet so... warm.
The mummified corpse listened, lost in the sound.
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