Chapter 124 Heather and Man Luo

Manluo roared at Shican like a neurotic, "You played me for a fool! How dare you play me for a fool?"

Macarius frowned as he looked at the deranged Manluo, well aware of how lethal a madman could be. He sighed inwardly and cast a slightly pitying glance at Luo Hanhai.

Shican patted the dust off his clothes, stood up decisively, and stared fixedly at Manluo with his right eye wide open. There was no longer any panic in his gaze, nor any trembling in his body. He simply stood there quietly, face-to-face and eye-to-eye with Manluo.

Luo Hanhai rubbed his eyes in disbelief, feeling as though Shican's figure had suddenly grown much taller. No longer hunched over or cowering, he looked like a brave warrior ready to face certain death without fear.

"I didn't play you for a fool. It's just that I am naturally a fool myself, which is why you never noticed me. It wasn't because my acting skills were exceptional—when you play your true self, anyone can act convincingly." Shican smiled, a naive and foolish smile. Even though this expression looked exceptionally terrifying on his face, in Luo Hanhai's eyes, it was filled with gentleness.

Manluo rested his head on the back of the armchair for a moment, staring at Manluo with a complex expression. Watching him stand straight with what seemed like misplaced pride, he found it both infuriating and amusing. He patted his own cheek and muttered to himself, "Heh, even a total idiot can figure things out that I couldn't? I never expected that I would turn out to be even worse than an idiot! Worse than an idiot!"

Macarius carefully looked the two of them over from head to toe and said to Manluo with deep emotion, "You aren't worse than him; it's just that he is too pure and you are too complex. In your complexity, you might get what you want, but you are destined to lose a great deal."

"Gain? Lose?" Manluo stretched lazily in the grand armchair, squinting his eyes as he looked up and down at the three figures standing straight before him, playfully repeating the words.

Macarius smiled faintly, took a step forward, and said in a clear voice, "Stop while you can. At your core, you are still a mere spirit; you are destined never to become a true soul. If you stop now, you can avoid complete annihilation, and perhaps..."

"Perhaps what? Is there still a 'perhaps'? Don't forget what we truly are! Do you really think of yourself as him? We were originally independent individuals! What right do you have to make us serve as his stepping stones?" Seeming to be triggered, Manluo shoved the armchair aside, pointed at Luo Hanhai, and flew into a rage.

"Why must it be like this? You are you, and I am I. I don't care about spirits or souls. Can't we just mind our own business? You take your wide road, and I'll walk my single-plank bridge. From now on, we shall be separated by mountains and rivers, never to cross paths again..."

"Hahaha, what kind of place do you think this is? You still expect to be separated by mountains and rivers? This is not the kind of place you used to be in. This place..." Manluo obscurely pointed toward the ceiling, a fierce and murderous look flashing in his eyes that made Luo Hanhai shudder and involuntarily take a step back. "It's either you die or I live! There is nothing more to discuss between us!"

Luo Hanhai shook his head, rolled his eyes toward the ceiling, and gave it the middle finger, heaven only knows what he was thinking in his heart.

"Then we have no other choice. Come on, it's time to use your heart's blood crystal." Luo Hanhai blinked and fearlessly reached his hand into his bosom, seeming to search for something.

Suddenly, Luo Hanhai's expression changed, and he anxiously felt around his body, as if he had lost something.

"Oh? Did you lose something? Look at this, doesn't it look very familiar? Are you looking for this?" Manluo pulled a small, exquisite piece of jade from his tunic, its blood-red luster piercingly bright to the eyes.

"You... how did this thing end up in your hands?" Luo Hanhai's face turned deathly pale as countless thoughts flashed through his mind, deducing the cause and effect of it all.

Luo Hanhai felt a tremor in his heart, a terrifying realization suddenly dawning upon him that made him gasp for breath.

"Hmm? Are you finally starting to put the pieces together?"

"Sigh! I never would have imagined. I truly never could have imagined that Oushinans was you." Macarius lowered his eyelids, speaking the terrifying conjecture aloud.

"Hahaha, did you finally guess it? That's right! It was me!" Manluo laughed triumphantly, gently stroking his face. His appearance suddenly shifted, instantly transforming into the weathered and vicissitudinous look of a middle-aged man, complete with a decadent and magnanimous demeanor. It was unmistakably the same person.

"So, it was from that collision?" Luo Hanhai gritted his teeth, vividly recalling how Oushinans had bumped into him upon leaving.

"That's right, it was from that very collision." Manluo grinned, triumphantly spreading his arms as if proclaiming his dominion over the world. He paused for a moment and continued, "All the confidential information about you was obtained through this identity. No one could ever have suspected it."

"Indeed, no one could have suspected it." Luo Hanhai slumped like a deflated eggplant, utterly dejected, a mixture of bitterness, sweetness, sourness, saltiness, and pungency churning in his heart.

"Do you know what Oushinan is?" Manluo—or rather, Oushinans—had a gaze full of reminiscence, as if recalling something from the past.

"Oushinan is a flower. It is tiny, nothing more than a low shrub; it is tragic, having never seen greenness or vitality since its birth. Yet it refused to be snuffed out by the cold. On that frozen wasteland, it squeezed all its leaves and petals until they became small and thin..."

"It blooms with great difficulty, every single blossom condensed from its heart's blood. Yet its flowers are minuscule, almost deserving to be called miniature, each one bell-shaped and less than half a centimeter in diameter, exquisite beyond compare..."

"Do you know how tragic Oushinan is? In a desolate wasteland of ice and snow, it was the only thing with life. It was lonely, it was desolate, standing with its delicate, frail body, growing in solitude upon the frozen wilderness, covering the mountains and plains, never withering..."

"It was lonely, it was desolate, and it is me!"

"Yet why did everything on the wasteland consider me a traitor? I decorated the wasteland of death, bringing a hard-earned glimmer of vitality, yet they believed I had betrayed death! What did I do wrong? By what right am I treated this way? Why..."

"Ah!!!"

With bloodshot eyes, Manluo roared frantically, as if venting the fury and injustice burning in his heart. Seeing him like this, Luo Hanhai suddenly thought of a phrase: All frenzy is born of utter helplessness...

"Fortunately, I am no longer that creature of the past. The old me died long ago in the desolate polar wasteland. Now, I am Manluo! I am Datura! The black datura! I no longer bring vitality, nor do I ever wish to! I am death itself!" (To be continued.)