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Chapter 157. The Sword and the Heart (Two-in-One)

What... what is meant by the black line of fate?

Jiang Jianxin had already prepared to fake her death and return to the cemetery station, but this thing suddenly appeared and blocked all the attacks for her.

Looking at the tattered pieces of cloth falling in front of her, she knew that there was no such thing as a free lunch, so she was very wary of these suspicious lines.

Why did these things suddenly appear?

The brain's intuition responds quickly:

You started this.

【? 】

A question mark slowly appeared in Jiang Jianxin's mind.

Intuitively, seeing that she didn't understand, he explained again:
[Didn't you perform a divination for that girl in the blue dress? — This is the result of your divination; it's come to help you.]

Jiang Jianxin was still confused:
[Didn't I give her the results of a divination? Why is she helping me?]

My intuition is one of disappointment and frustration:

You expect the time, place, and people to all match up? Then you're going to be missing an arm or a leg.

Jiang Jianxin understood a little:

【you mean……】

[Yin Qingyue's ability to interfere with the future isn't that miraculous; after activating her ability, there's a high probability that several of the time, places, and people involved will not match up.]

Fearing she still didn't understand, Intuition explained in more detail:

The current situation is that during your previous divination, the interference lines got the time and people wrong, so now they're helping you.

Jiang Jianxin suddenly realized what was going on.

No wonder she always felt that Yin Qingyue's abilities were strange, directly interfering with the future through tarot cards... Even the number 1 of the Predictive Sequence wasn't this powerful.

Now it seems there are indeed shortcomings, and quite significant ones at that.

Interfering in the future can lead to interfering with the wrong people, and it can also be too late.

The clients who had their fortunes told had all turned into teru teru bozu (Japanese teru bozu dolls) floating in the sky, and the dark lines of fate had finally appeared.

Jiang Jianxin twitched his lips, thinking to himself, "Never mind."

It's not bad that the black threads have inadvertently helped her; the white cloth is difficult to tangle, but these black threads can clearly control it.

only……

Jiang Jianxin looked at the dense black lines surrounding him, somewhat bewildered:

Are these things just constantly surrounding me? How can I control them?

Although the white cloth surrounding her prevented her from getting in, it also made it difficult for her to unleash her full power.

You don't need to control the black lines; they act according to the interpretation of the third card in your divination and won't hinder your actions.

Jiang Jianxin recalled the last card he had made up back then.

[Upright...Sword?]

Yes, it will act according to the specifications of an upright sword. You don't need to worry about it; just continue your battle.

"Intuition tells me."

Since her intuition told her so, Jiang Jianxin didn't waste any more words. She lightly touched the floor tiles with her toes and darted out like a bullet.

"Puff puff--"

Black threads danced wildly around her, transforming into countless slicing lines that shredded the approaching white cloth into countless tiny fragments before it even got close.

The young man's pupils contracted sharply. He saw the old woman, who should have been made into a doll, now rushing towards him, her body hunched over, stepping on scraps of fabric.

Her fist was wrapped in twisted black lines, distorting even the light in its path.

"Thorn-"

The shrill whistling of the fist tearing through the air echoed in the corridor, only to shred a swirling clump of white cloth. The rough black threads writhed like living things, twisting the cotton wadding into a shower of snowflakes.

Jiang Jianxin stood amidst the swirling rain of torn fabric, cautiously surveying his surroundings, hoping to spot the young man.

"Om..."

Instead of finding the young man, a dozen or so Teru Teru Bozu dolls suddenly flew out of Chi Lichuan's room, the hemp ropes wrapped around their necks still trembling.

The most horrifying thing was that on the surface of those white cloths, the outlines of facial features were clearly visible writhing under the fabric, as if living people were being sewn inside and struggling.

Pure white teru teru bozu (Japanese teru bozu dolls) floated over, not approaching the black line, but instead circling around Jiang Jianxin's eerie smile.

"Cuckoo..."

The overlapping laughter created a sound wave, and Jiang Jianxin's temples throbbed. Looking at the eerie smiling face of the Teru Teru Bozu doll, the air in front of him suddenly felt as if it were being squeezed by an invisible hand, and countless fragmented images seeped out from the void.

The operating table in the mental hospital...

The rainbow ten years later...

The tombstones on Sword Cliff...

The black temple...

These illusions, like toothpaste, were squeezed out inch by inch from the cracks in reality, sticking to her retina.

"Jiang Jianxin..."

"Sword Heart..."

"Jiang Jianzun..."

“Jiang…” In a daze, Jiang Jianxin heard countless voices calling her name. The layers of sound waves eventually converged into a piercing shriek, which exploded in her mind.

"Whoosh—"

The tiny black lines suddenly coalesced into a huge, thick black circle, centered on Jiang Jianxin, and slashed out at the surrounding circle of Teru Teru Bozu dolls, directly hitting their heads wrapped in white cloth.

"Pfft-"

Dozens of teru teru bozu dolls fell to the ground, their heads, cut in half, gushing blood.

As all the teru teru bozu dolls were destroyed, Jiang Jianxin also struggled to open his eyes from the illusion and saw the fleeting figure of the young man.

Kill him.

The moment the thought arose in his mind, the swirling black lines emitted a piercing shriek.

Countless fine threads twisted and fused together, eventually forming a three-foot-long, narrow, black sword. The sword was wreathed in tangible killing intent and hurtled toward the youth with incredible speed.

"puff--"

The dull thud of a sword piercing flesh echoed through the corridor.

All the teru teru bozu dolls were chopped up, the white cloth was cut, and the young man was clearly running out of steam.

He staggered backward, a blood flower blooming on his left chest from the narrow black sword, the black lines wrapped around the blade greedily sucking at the gushing blood as if they were alive.

His pupils suddenly contracted, his bloodied fingers made two grasping motions in the air, and finally slammed heavily to the ground.

"Boom!"

The falling body shook up a circle of black mist, and thick blood gushed from the wound, flowing over the soles of Jiang Jianxin's shoes.

She gave the young man a cold look, then hunched over and slowly left Chi Lichuan's house.

The black line gradually disappeared into the air, and the room returned to silence.

After an unknown amount of time, the young man lying on the ground opened his eyes again and slowly crawled up from the pool of blood.

"Shh-"

The young man pulled a large black book from his blood-stained clothes. On the cover, a lifelike heart was embroidered with dark gold thread. The heart pattern undulated slightly with his movements, as if it were actually beating.

He lowered his eyes and stared at the pages of the book, his fingertips tracing the golden threads that gleamed with a faint light.

Dark red blood dripped down his wrist onto the cover, where it was immediately and greedily absorbed by the spine.

"It seems this external heart container..."

The young man chuckled softly and tapped the book cover with his knuckles:
"It's not entirely what those idiots call an 'intelligence tax'."

He placed the book of beating hearts on his blood-stained chest.

"Boom...boom...boom..."

My heart continued to beat vividly inside my body.

……

As dawn broke, Jiang Jianxin, exhausted from a night's work, took off his grandmother's clothes and pounced on Yin Qingyue's bed in her bedroom.

Her bed was a wooden plank bed with a thin mattress, which was hard to lie on.

Jiang Jianxin, covered by the blanket, looked up at the ceiling and sighed in his mind:

[My gut feeling tells me I'm so tired... Is it okay to sleep in this dungeon?]

After patrolling non-stop all night and even getting into a fight with the young man who played the "Sunny Doll" (a type of doll), Jiang Jianxin's physical strength was greatly depleted.

Now she felt a deep sense of fatigue rising from her throat, making her eyelids droop.

My instincts were a little slow to kick in, but I replied anyway:

[You can sleep in the residential area instance; just leave the door open.]

Jiang Jian thought for a moment and realized that he hadn't closed the door when he came back, so it was naturally open.

Although his intuition told him he could sleep, Jiang Jianxin was still a little worried.

After all, Yin Qingyue is currently in a business-like state, and can come to her door at any time if there are customers.

Jiang Jianxin gritted his teeth and forced himself to get up again.

"No, I need to do a divination for myself."

After figuring out Yin Qingyue's ability, Jiang Jianxin's divergent thinking led her to think of many ingenious uses for this ability.

—Do a divination for yourself before bed; it's like hiring a black-line bodyguard for yourself.

"...It still has to be you."

Intuition told me what she was thinking, and I sighed silently.

Jiang Jianxin forced herself to stay awake. She got out of bed and went to the divination table. Following the same procedure as last time, she activated the diviner's magic to draw out the three cards automatically.

Of course, she'd make up some amazing cards to give herself away:

"The first is the upright sword, the second is the upright priestess, and the third is the upright emperor."

To everyone's surprise, the black lines on the tarot card started to roll, and eventually the entire card turned black.

What... what's going on?

Jiang Jianxin asked in his mind.

Thank you to 20230612085045789, Garfield_I'll Buy As Long As You Write, Quiet and Cold Wuyue, and Book Friend 130405182959942 for your support!

Starting tomorrow, I'll be posting only one update a day. This is mainly because I'm overwhelmed with real-life things, and my free time is dwindling (╥_╥).
Depending on my schedule, if I have enough free time, I'll probably update twice a day.