??Chapter 362: 361. Until death do us part_1
Chapter 362: 361. Until death do us part_1
Lu Ban had heard before that many people who are burned to death actually lose consciousness first from suffocation and ultimately die.
However, the traces at the scene told Lu Ban that Amber maintained the clearest consciousness while being burned by the flas; she did not suffocate due to lack of oxygen, but felt the fla’s consumption throughout the process.
The flas spread over her white, tender skin, tearing it apart and gouging out the flesh beneath, like a greedy monster devouring everything until not even the bones were spared.
The endearing hair turned to ash in the fire, the dazzling clothes were burned to nothing by the fierce flas, the slender limbs and delicate face, those eyes that held the most wonderful light in the world, were destroyed rcilessly by the ruthless, pale fire, leaving behind only an ugly, charred carcass reeking of foulness, imprisoned in this deserted tower for decades, or even centuries.
Throughout the entire process, Amber struggled, begged, and wailed until the very last mont, eting the most painful death.
And while all this happened, the people below were cheering, leaping for joy, and celebrating the grandest of festivals.
In the end, her life faded away, transforming into sothing even purer.
This entity would now guard the world for decades, for centuries, until it finally burnt out.
Amber’s small, frail body would be pounded into pieces by the old shrine maidens, burned once more, and turned into a small bone ash box, displayed on the shelves of the main hall, never to see the light of day again.
That is the true nature of the Chief Shrine Maiden.
There is no authority exalted above all others, no joyful, pleasant life, not even life itself.
The Chief Shrine Maiden is but a sacrifice offered to the divine beings.
And all this was done by Lu Ban’s own hands for Amber.
If Lu Ban had agreed to Amber’s request to let her live as an ordinary girl in a corner of the sea, she would certainly not have had to endure such inhuman tornt.
If Amber’s sense of responsibility had been just a little weaker, a bit more timid, a little more selfish, she could have completely escaped her fate and embarked on a completely different path, but at least one that still had a future.
It was precisely because she was so perfect that she stood here.
It was precisely because she was so excellent that she t such an end.
Fate, like precisely shing gears, pushed her into this position.
“You’ve gotten thinner again, Amber,”
Lu Ban sighed.
The withered corpse, unmoving, with only the longbow in her hand flickering with flas.
“I think you need to know this,”
A ghostly voice ca from behind Lu Ban.
He turned and saw the shrine maiden with black hair and cherry blossom eyes, standing barefoot in the grimy, charred world, immaculate against the flickering firelight.
The stark contrast created a strong sense of distortion, as surreal as this foreign domain, with its beautifully falling cherry blossoms yet cruel, brutal sacrifices.
“Who exactly are you?”
Lu Ban asked.
His mood was unexpectedly calm.
Unruffled, like moonlight.
“You can call
Divine Sakura, or you can call
Kazushima Omikami, or sothing else, anyway, they’re all nas others have given ,”
The shrine maiden answered, her voice very plain, reminding Lu Ban of Feng Yu at tis.
Indifferent, composed, as if everything in the world had nothing to do with her.
“The shrine maidens deceived her into taking a drug, a drug that could temporarily take away consciousness and power, then they bound her to a pillar, and kindled the Pure Fire. She would struggle, she would try to escape. Most shrine maidens couldn’t do it, a few managed to make it down to the second layer, but that’s as far as it goes,”
The shrine maiden spoke as if discussing sothing exceedingly common.
“She was too young, the drug’s effect too strong, she tried for a long ti but couldn’t break free, then she could already see .”
“She shed tears, although those tears would also be devoured by the Pure Fire instantly. She begged , pleading with
to save her, saying she didn’t want to die, that there were still so many things she wanted to do, that there was soone she wanted to be with forever.”
“I’ve seen many at their last mont, so were angry, feeling cheated, accusing the world, so harbored resentnt, cursing all those who once helped them get here, so were in despair, with even their reason collapsing.”
“She was no exception.”
“She regretted, she was angry, she was not willing to give in, she lost all hope in everything, she began to hate everything, to accuse everything, her deepest grudge against the world, such obstinacy, in the sublimation of Pure Fire, that is the will needed for the Shrine Maiden to guard this land.”
“When the strongest hope turns into the deepest despair, the power that is born is the best food to nurture the divine beings, and the pollution produced is enough to erase everything.”
“You know, in the Foreign Domain, only pollution can fight against pollution, only a stronger pollution can combat the invading pollution.”
“In this world, this pollution is called Pure Fire.”
“To exchange the sacrifice of just one person for the survival of the majority, this is my duty, my fate, unchanged for thousands of years,”
The shrine maiden’s voice was colder than the night but softer than the moonlight.
“Until the very end, she kept repeating your na, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of tis, seared into my mory, indelible, until death silenced her voice.”
“I have fulfilled her desire and told you all this,”
She expressed no joy, no sorrow, as if nothing in the world could stir her emotions.
“Does she hate ?”
Lu Ban asked.
“Is it because I sent her here that she called out my na, until… death?”
“No.”
The shrine maiden shook her head.
“The sentence she said before calling your na was, ‘I’m sorry.’
Lu Ban was silent.
He knew very well.
After learning about Red Leaf in the evening, Lu Ban knew.
Just like Red Leaf, Amber’s future was also his past.
When he first ca to He Dao, Amber had already been burned to death and had beco a shrine maiden, the vessel for the divine being known as the Divine Sakura before him.
The initial chief priestess had not completely died.
Her spirit, together with the Divine Sakura, lingered in the Great Shrine of Harmony Island, and through the sacrifice of powerful shrine maidens, the Divine Sakura could descend and use these maidens to nourish itself, control the Pure Fire, and protect He Dao.
This was the truth of He Dao.
Lu Ban didn’t know who had devised such a cruel thod, where not only every chief priestess suffered inhuman tornt, but even the original maiden was never allowed peace, forced to witness these deaths over and over again for centuries.
This was the price paid by the people of He Dao to fend off the pollution.
This was the thod Lu Ban wanted to understand, to combat the pollution.
“Is that why you communicated with , just to tell
this?”
Lu Ban was well aware that every word he now spoke with this shrine maiden contained pollution.
Having been in contact with too much filth over this long ti, she was already an amalgamation of pollution, and perhaps she was no longer herself, but It, having beco so grand existence, stepping out of the chessboard of the Foreign Domain to ascend to a higher dinsion.
Perhaps she had always been It, rely appearing in human guise, playing out a tragic dirge to please herself in this world.
“Because that was her wish.”
The shrine maiden glanced at the withered corpse.
“I’ve witnessed the passing of countless shrine maidens, most of whom, as I just said, were full of resentnt, leaving curses upon the world.”
“These curses and their tornted souls stew inside , every mont, I can hear their howls, their wails, their sobs, filling my consciousness with the most poisonous language.”
“But this child, despite the tornt, despite being betrayed by the world, despite once falling into despair, in her very last monts, still wished to leave behind hope, even if it were just for one single person.”
“She told you, ‘Survive.’
Upon hearing the shrine maiden’s words, Lu Ban stalled.
Then, he laughed.
It was an irrepressible laugh, like uncontrollable sobbing; he arched his back, bent over, air expelled from his lungs, the sensation of asphyxiation along with his facial muscles twitching gave an illusory impression.
The laughter grew louder, echoing in the silent night, as if mocking the world, and as if mocking himself.
“It’s ti for you to leave.”
The shrine maiden seed to have decided to end the conversation, she said, looking at Lu Ban once more.
“The original thoughts are forgotten, only leaving you behind, are you not the relic of the gentleman?”
As the shrine maiden chanted, Lu Ban felt the space around him twist and turn, and the shrine maiden, Amber, the Shrine Maiden Pavilion, the Divine Sakura, the Great Shrine of Harmony Island, everything receded from him.
In the dizzying illusion, Lu Ban spoke to the void of nothingness, to those great existences high above, trembling with a laugh in his voice.
“She did leave behind hope.”
After a hundred years, He Dao still existed, and however it was achieved, that was the result of the hope Amber left behind.
Not with hatred and malice, but with hope as support, her soul sat alone in the lofty Shrine Maiden Pavilion for a hundred years, guarding this world that betrayed her.
So mories, even if only for a brief mont, can sustain a person for a very long ti.
Perhaps, Lu Ban did not know how, on that cursed island shrouded in an anonymous mist, where even the Shrine Executive Officer could not find it on Song Island, the shrine maiden’s arrows managed to find their way there.
Why did the mysterious island, which hadn’t caught the shrine maiden’s attention for a hundred years previous, suddenly attract her notice after Lu Ban arrived?
Is it possible?
In this distant, ethereal, fog-covered world, was Amber always watching over him?
In that long, cold, lonely ti, she persisted, until, in Lu Ban’s past, Amber’s future, they finally “t” for the first ti.
After that, the Clean Fire Arrow arrived as expected.
It was like a promise, unchanged for a thousand years.
Like an oath, eternally fervent.
Amid the bizarre scenes of light and shadow shifting through the Foreign Domain, the twisted and chaotic images, Lu Ban seed to see a small figure, showing him an innocent smile, waving her hands in the flickering firelight, calling out with laughter.
“I see you.”
To which, Lu Ban could only respond with a smile that was a hundred years too late.
“You saw .”
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