Devilish Disciple [Transmigration] 88

Chapter 88: 【Congratulations, Host. Mission Complete.】

The black flames were chillingly cold.

Burning deep within her, like being trapped in a frozen wasteland, freezing her blood, her bones, leaving only a fragile soul, as light as dust, easily scattered by the wind.

She didn’t feel much pain, either because the system was blocking it, or because her body, already riddled with injuries, was numb.

She just felt…tired. So she closed her eyes, letting herself sink into the sea of resentment.

A hand gently grasped hers.

A soft, blue light enveloped her.

She opened her eyes. The towering tree stood in the deep sea.

The blood-red sea of resentment churned above, lightning flashing, thunder rumbling, its waves threatening to engulf the tree’s crown.

Dark red resentment clung to the fading leaves; the once vibrant tree was now withering.

The moonlight, trapped within the sea of resentment, offered no solace.

Beneath the tree, she saw another “self.”

The mirror-like surface of the sea reflected the crimson sky. “She” stood beneath the tree, watching the world crumble around her, her figure frail, almost translucent.

The sea breeze ruffled her clothes, like a wisp of smoke, easily dispersed.

She wanted to approach, yet she was afraid of shattering the illusion.

“Are you…still here?” she whispered.

The rumbling thunder, the howling wind, swallowed her words.

She hesitated, then, just as she was about to speak again, the entire sea of consciousness fell silent.

As if time itself had stopped, an eerie, profound stillness.

The smoky figure slowly turned to look at her.

Her blue eyes, like the deepest ocean, held a faint sadness, a boundless loneliness.

“I’m sorry…” she said, looking at Li Yu, her heart aching. “I…seem to have…ruined everything.”

Li Yu wondered if, within that sadness, there was also resentment.

She had arrived in this world, taken over this body, possessed such immense power, yet, not knowing how to use it, had only made things worse.

She felt that the system had chosen the wrong person.

She was just an ordinary person, incapable of saving a world…

“No,” a soft voice whispered, like a gentle breeze.

“I’m the one who burdened you with this…”

She stared at the figure, thinking she had misheard.

As their eyes met, she saw a deep regret in “her” eyes.

Li Yu’s mind went blank.

The shadow of the Jinxu Gui, massive, world-encompassing, appeared above the churning sea of resentment.

The smoky figure beneath the tree, dwarfed by its immensity, a tiny speck in a vast ocean.

“The moment I turned the dial, I was prepared to pay any price,” the soft voice whispered, like a distant echo. “But dragging you into this…was unexpected.”

“I don’t know where you came from, but I know…you shouldn’t have to endure this…”

“But there’s…an invisible hand, manipulating everything. The more I tried to change things, the worse they became.”

“Until…my power faded, trapped within the Jinxu Gui, only a fragile soul fragment remaining, even returning to my own time a mere fantasy, I finally had to admit…I couldn’t stop it.”

Nearing her end, “she” thought, perhaps the child she had taken in was destined to bring a demonic calamity upon the human realm, and she herself destined to face that fatal blow.

But the soul, accidentally pulled in by the currents of time, had changed everything.

“She” walked towards Li Yu, no resentment in her blue eyes, only regret. “You did…better than I would have.”

Her seemingly calm words held a deep helplessness.

“It was because of you…that I saw a past I never knew, a past that always existed, a past I couldn’t find, trapped in a hopeless situation.”

Was she talking about…the North Sea four thousand years ago?

Li Yu looked at the lonely figure, confusion in her eyes.

“But perhaps…I was never meant to find it.”

Every time she turned back time with the Jinxu Gui, “she” would only become her past self again.

But the human girl who arrived was different.

During that long journey through time, she hadn’t replaced the “her” from four thousand years ago.

No one could explain why, but it had changed everything.

Two different souls, briefly sharing the same body, existing in the same time period.

“She” was among those who slew the Heavenly Demon, Qing Nü, alongside the goddess Yetan.

And that human girl, arriving from an unknown place, was the only one who witnessed the truth, connected the threads of fate, and could return to the correct time, to prevent the calamity.

“You didn’t make things worse, on the contrary, you changed the fate, the cause and effect, I couldn’t face.”

The shadow of the gnomon moved forward, then stopped, held in place by a faint blue light.

“Actually…even if I could find it, I probably wouldn’t have done any better than you.” “She” looked at the still gnomon and chuckled humorlessly. “Because I was always trying to escape, to prevent it, never considering…accepting fate, facing the seemingly impossible.”

“She” hadn’t even dared give the cultivation manual to the child with the Demon Bone. If she had returned to that past, she might have, as the ancient god intended, destroyed the child along with the Demon Bone.

Even knowing the child was innocent, even with the reluctance in her heart, she would have ultimately made the sacrifice.

Whether against her true wishes or not didn’t matter; she rarely followed her heart anyway. As long as she fulfilled the ancient god’s final request, she wasn’t afraid of death, of her soul dissipating.

But if she had, her original timeline would have ceased to exist.

Where would “she,” not belonging to this time, end up?

And what would become of the future she had tried so hard to change?

She couldn’t imagine the consequences.

Perhaps this was the difference between her and that girl.

Perhaps it was “her” obsession with preventing the inevitable that had repeatedly plunged Mu Tao into darkness.

“I should thank you…for doing what I couldn’t.”

“She” stood before Li Yu.

“I was the one who disrupted time, the one who dragged you into this, I should be the one to bear the consequences.”

The stars blazed, their light reflected in Li Yu’s blue eyes.

The icy sea beneath their feet, illuminated by starlight, transformed into a river of stars, carrying countless fragmented memories, flowing towards a deep darkness.

The gnomon of the Jinxu Gui finally moved again.

Moonlight and starlight, beneath the sea of resentment, swirled around it.

Li Yu stared at the scene before her.

The withering tree, its countless leaves swaying, radiating a brilliant light.

An endless blue enveloped her, and the smoky figure, drawing in the world’s resentment, walked resolutely towards the darkness.

Li Yu instinctively tried to stop her, but she couldn’t move—“she” had reclaimed her body, trapping Li Yu within the Jinxu Gui.

Black flames consumed her last remaining soul fragment.

Why? Li Yu couldn’t understand.

She could have let Li Yu leave, her soul wouldn’t have dissipated, she would have just returned to her own world after completing the mission.

Even with the reluctance in her heart, as long as this world could continue, she wouldn’t have minded leaving.

Si Qinglan could make Mu Tao forget once, she could do it again.

Mu Tao wouldn’t be alone anymore; if she forgot about Li Yu, she would be happy.

And she, Li Yu, didn’t belong here; her departure wouldn’t affect this world.

“Why…you’re clearly…more suited to stay…”

She whispered, her vision blurring, and a soft voice, like a gentle breeze, replied,

“You were the one who connected the threads of fate; I couldn’t have done this.”

“You’re the one who should stay.”

“Mu Tao…needs you…”

A soft sigh,

Not heavy with regret, but a peaceful acceptance, like the ancient god letting go of everything.

The starlight above the North Sea, perhaps as bright as day, just like four thousand years ago, unseen by her.

The true guardian of the Upper Spirit Lamp, carrying the world’s resentment, accepted her fate, the inescapable responsibility and consequences of defying the heavens.

If sacrificing herself could buy the human realm a few thousand years of peace, she wouldn’t hesitate.

This was her Dao, her unwavering conviction, even if it meant defying destiny.

Stars seemed to shatter in her eyes.

She saw the familiar faces from the original story, struggling against their predetermined roles, pushed towards a nonsensical ending.

Two hundred years before the story began, Qingxuan Revered One, having never met “Li Yu” or seen the Heavenly Mirror, driven by a misplaced kindness, brought a small wolf demon with a Demon Bone to Mount Chao Yao.

Cangming Revered One, having activated the Jinxu Gui, knowing the future, yet, no matter how many times she relived it, couldn’t bring herself to be kind to her little disciple, or to simply eliminate her at the beginning.

Lingyao Revered One, having resided on Mount Chao Yao for over three thousand years, stared at the crescent moon before his hibernation, his empty heart seemingly clinging to a forgotten memory.

The Mount Chao Yao disciple who severed the Harmony Bells, on the day his sect was destroyed, his masters fallen, his eyes, filled with hatred, also held a profound confusion, his love and hate seemingly beyond his control.

And the little girl, destined for a path of destruction, her heart filled with countless desires, yet grasping at nothing, yearning for a sliver of affection from someone who had never truly cared for her—this unrequited longing, a twisted obsession, irreplaceable, even by a willing substitute.

They were all trapped within the story, like puppets on strings, controlled by an invisible force.

Not cause and effect, not destiny, just an inescapable powerlessness, unable to control their own emotions, their own choices.

No matter how many times they relived it, that crucial decision, that single choice, seemed unchangeable.

Yet, the only one who realized this, who understood that it wasn’t right, still fought desperately to change this predetermined fate.

Until her fragmented soul, trapped within the Jinxu Gui, finally found a successor, an uncontrolled variable.

A sliver of moonlight, illuminating the human realm,

Revealing the true story.

…

A sudden coldness in her chest,

A piercing sensation, like fate itself, claiming a broken body, a fading soul.

【Congratulations, Host. Mission complete. You have successfully restored the main storyline of Demon Bone and prevented the protagonist’s descent into darkness and the destruction of the world!】

【The host’s current mission completion rate is 100%. All system restrictions lifted!】

【From now on, no data will be monitored, nor will it affect the host’s safety!】

She didn’t feel any pain, just her consciousness dissipating, along with the boundless resentment, within that vast sea.

【Performance evaluation: Excellent!】

【All promised rewards will be issued upon the host’s return to the real world!】

The swirling stars, suddenly following a familiar pattern, circled the withering tree.

【The host can activate the portal to the real world at any time within the next hundred days.】

The soft moonlight illuminated the falling snow.

As the leaves on the tree began to regrow—

The world fell silent.