Excessive ferocity due to caution

Nan Jia did not respond to Li Xiuer.

His condition was very bad.

He spends most of his time chanting sutras at the temple, so his exercise is very limited. Apart from helping to fetch water, cook, and clean the house every day, he has no other exercise.

He was carrying a girl upstairs, and his strength was almost at its limit, while the disappearing staircase behind him was relentlessly pursuing him!

Nan Jia felt her legs trembling as she climbed the stairs.

After exhausting himself, his legs almost no longer belonged to him.

It felt like something was being tightly squeezed by someone's hand, and the lungs were about to burst!

But he dared not stop!

To stop is to die!

I have a worthless life, so it's fine if I die, but the girl on my back shouldn't die here!

I swore to Li Xiuer that I would carry her up the Divine Tower, so how can I stop here?

Absolutely... absolutely cannot stop!

Nan Jia stared intently at the path beneath her feet, climbing upwards step by step!

Don't stop!

Don't stop!!

Don't stop!!!

He endured the pain of exhaustion and lack of oxygen, constantly shouting to himself in his mind!

However, Nanga was ultimately just an ordinary little monk, with no special lineage or extraordinary encounters.

He took that final step, his vision went black, and he collapsed.

Nanga's consciousness is becoming increasingly blurred.

In a daze, he sensed himself falling...

Keep falling...

"I'm sorry, Miss Xiu..."

Nanjia murmurs.

Consciousness dissipated in the fall and darkness...

...

When Nanjia woke up again, she found herself lying on an extremely high stone platform.

My muscles all over my body are incredibly sore.

He propped himself up and sat up, remaining dazed for a long time before suddenly realizing:

"A pretty girl?"

"Where are you, Miss Xiu?!"

No one responded to him.

He sprang to his feet and sat up, frantically searching for Li Xiuer.

The stone platform is spacious and built amidst a sea of ​​misty clouds, with a huge bronze cauldron at its very center.

It is engraved with ancient patterns.

It is a picture.

In the picture, various strange creatures are sitting around a palace, indulging in wine and meat.

Not far away, a guillotine was slaughtering a living creature.

Some of them were indeed human.

Just one glance sent chills down Nan Jia's spine, and she couldn't help but shiver.

However, at this moment his attention was still mostly focused on Li Xiuer, and he didn't pay attention to these things.

For some reason, Nan Jia had a bad feeling.

He searched for a while before a voice came from behind him:

"Nanjia".

Nan Jia suddenly turned around.

An elderly monk in white robes with a long beard stood behind him, looking at him calmly.

Nanga:

"Who are you?"

The old monk smiled slightly and said:

"The old monk Fahua is the guardian of the pagoda."

Nan Jia exclaimed in surprise upon hearing this:

"So... this is the top floor of the Divine Tower?"

Fahua nodded.

"That's right."

Nan Jia was dumbfounded, scratching her head and saying:

"Master Fahua, this humble monk remembers falling into..."

Fahua clasped his hands together and calmly said:

"It was Miss Xiu who carried you up here."

Nan Jia was taken aback upon hearing this:

"How is that possible... Miss Xiu's legs are clearly..."

Fahua shook his head:

"You..."

"So naive, I really don't know how they even got to the Tower of Gods..."

"Perhaps... this is fate?"

Nanjia didn't understand what the old monk was saying, and anxiously asked:

"Master, where is Miss Xiu now?"

After carefully examining Nanga for a long time, the old monk finally said:

"You really don't know?"

The little monk looked completely bewildered:

"Know what?"

The old monk sighed.

"That's enough."

"Let me explain it to you in detail..."

"Nan Jia, actually, Miss Xiu... is not human."

Nan Jia was completely stunned upon hearing this:

"What do you mean by that, Master?"

Fahua led Nanjia toward the stone platform.

"Do you know where Miss Xiu was born?"

Nanjia nodded:

"Puppet Town!"

"Miss Xiu also said that the place is under a terrible curse, and the people are affected by the curse, gradually becoming strange and constantly repeating yesterday's events..."

The Lotus Sutra calmly interrupted Nanga:

"Nanjia, do you know...?"

"Puppet Town...is devoid of living people."

Nanjia stopped and looked up.

"Master... what did you say?"

The Lotus Sutra:

"The reason that place is called Puppet Town is because there are only puppets there."

"What Miss Xiu saw was not because the people of Puppet Town were cursed, repeating mechanical, puppet-like behaviors..."

"Instead... Xiu gradually transformed from a puppet into a human being."

Upon hearing this, Nan Jia's eyes gradually lost their luster.

"impossible……"

"impossible……"

"Miss Xiu can smile, and her smile is so beautiful... How could she... How could she be a puppet?"

Nanjia's eyes were bloodshot as she loudly retorted to the old monk:

"You're lying to me!"

"If Xiu-guniang is a puppet, how could she have carried me here?!"

Fahua was not angry, and calmly said:

"Because what transformed her from a puppet into a human... was that wisp of 'power of truth' leaking from the Tower of Gods."

"With this wisp of truth, she was able to come and go freely within the Divine Tower."

"However, this wisp of truth does not belong to her, but to another 'destined person' in the chaotic world."

Nanjia asked:

"Who?"

The old monk stared intently into Nanjia's eyes and said seriously:

"you."

Nanjia was surprised:

"I?"

Lotus Sutra:

"Yes."

"This wisp of truth belongs to you."

"That's why Li Xiuer wanted to find you..."

"Because only if you die can she live forever."

Upon hearing this, Nan Jia swayed precariously.

"Miss Xiu...is she here to kill me?"

"Can……"

"But she..."

Recalling this long journey, every detail flickers before my eyes like a lamplight.

Turning it over and over again, many times.

The little monk saw that an ordinary and unremarkable green umbrella had become a long rope threaded through his memory.

At that moment, Nan Jia finally understood...

It's Zhao Yi.

It was Zhao Yi's green umbrella...

They protected him.

Since Li Xiuer appeared, the green umbrella has never left his vicinity.

"Benefactor Zhao... knew all along..."

Nanga muttered to herself.

"But if that's the case, why... why did he still make Miss Xiu follow him the whole way?"

Thinking of this, Nanga suddenly raised her head again and stared at the old monk:

"Can……"

"If Miss Xiu really wanted to kill me, why am I still alive and here?"

"After I entered the Divine Tower... Miss Su was no longer by my side!"

Fahua sighed:

"Well, that's a question for you to answer."

Nan Jia was silent for a moment, then asked:

"Where is Miss Xiu?"

Fahua replied:

"She doesn't want to see you."

Nan Jia's breathing became heavier, and her tone was unusually serious:

Where...is she?

Seeing the unwavering look in the young monk's eyes, Fahua sighed.

He led the young monk to a wooden house surrounded by clouds and then left on his own.

Nan Jia's hand trembled slightly as she pushed open the door.

squeak-

The room was dimly lit.

Nan Jia saw that Li Xiuer was sitting cross-legged facing the wall with her back to him, her figure hunched over considerably.

On her slender neck.

You can even see the slowly expanding cracks in the seams.

"Miss Xiu..."

Nan Jia called out.

Inside the room, Li Xiuer's body trembled slightly.

"What...are you doing here?"

Nanjia asked:

"This humble monk wishes to ask Miss Xiu, did you come to kill me for the power of truth?"

Li Xiuer remained silent for a long time.

"Yes."

"I just haven't found the opportunity, so I can't bring myself to do it."

Nanjia took a step forward.

"Is there no chance?"

"In the Divine Tower... Miss Xiu should have many opportunities, right?"

Li Xiuer remained silent.

After a long while, she slowly turned around.

The girl who appeared before Nan Jia was no longer as pure and lovely as before.

Her face was beginning to look like a puppet.

Above, there was also bright and eerie makeup.

"I'm really jealous of you guys."

She said.

His gaze, filled with boundless resentment, chilled the room considerably.

"You did absolutely nothing, yet you so easily gained vibrant lives..."

"You can love, hate, and even degrade yourselves freely!"

"But we..."

"These puppets, crudely made and carelessly discarded by people like you... can only gather dust in a corner forever, unable to speak, unable to move, until they weather into dust..."

As she spoke, Li Xiuer suddenly gave a bitter smile, and tears of blood streamed down her face.

"Nanga...do you know her?"

"Having become a human..."

"I don't want to go back to being a puppet..."

"I'm really scared..."

"Afraid of being left in a dirty corner..."

"I fear being forever accompanied by coldness and darkness..."

Nan Jia stepped forward and suddenly pulled Li Xiuer into her arms, her voice trembling as she said:

"Miss Xiu..."

"Kill this humble monk!"

"That way... you can survive."

Li Xiuer had gradually become like a wooden statue, her fingers, unable to bend, gently rubbing Nan Jia's face.

The hatred in his eyes gradually turned into tenderness.

The sound was barely audible.

"No way..."

"You also have to save all living beings..."

After a pause, the gleam in Li Xiuer's eyes slowly faded, and her tone became extremely gentle:

"Nanga..."

"That day, when you were chanting scriptures for me, I truly loved you..."

"Could you...?"

"Read it to me again from now on..."

As soon as she finished speaking, Li Xiuer, who had lost the power of truth, did not receive a reply from Nan Jia and became a cold puppet.

Nan Jia held Li Xiuer tightly in her arms, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Miss Xiu..."

P.S.: The rest is just a little bit of what happened later.

Hey?

I seem to be talking nonsense!

Anyway, there's still a little bit left to write, but I'm sure I can finish it today.