Zi Moyan, like every day at this hour, was giving a dance class to her students. Her feet, turning and leaping graciously despite the hardness of the ground, landed graciously after yet another leap. She smiled as she looked at the women, girls and boys trying to imitate her, with various levels of success.
How long would this peace last? Probably… until her life ended?
That wouldn't be so bad to have her last breath in such an idyllic place. Yet for some reason, there was a little voice in the back of her mind, screaming to run, run away from there as fast as possible. She simply ignored it: this place was her home, why would she ever want to run away from here?
As she shook her head, trying to sway away her thoughts, she suddenly heard screams echo through the village. People were running around, and a minute later, the village chief ran toward the place they had their class in, covered in blood:
"Miss Zi, please, you have to help us!" he said. "Sir Ba, he completely lost his mind! He began to slaughter the village!"
"Ba Ke did that?" she repeated, dumbfounded. "No… why would junior brother even…"
"I don't know, miss Zi, but please, you must stop him, or at least talk him back to reason! If you don't, he will kill us all! I know he is precious to you but, please, you-"
The village chief's sentence was interrupted and, the next moment, his head fell to the ground. His corpse fell to the ground, revealing Baotian behind him, with a sword in his hand, covered in as much blood as his entire body.
"Senior sister, we need to talk" he said.
Zi Moyan didn't reply, her eyes fixated on the sword, and the blood dripping from it.
"Ba Ke, what did you do?" she asked.
"Senior sister, please, you need to listen to me. These people, the village-"
"What did you do to them! To our people!"
Gritting her teeth, she grabbed a nearby dancing stick, pointing it toward him like a spear.
"Wake up, senior sister! These people, they are the chains binding us here!" Baotian shouted. "We are cultivators, not mortals! We live striving for immortality, struggling for our lives, not exhausting our lifespans in a creepy village cut from the outside world, indulging in joy that stems from brainwashing! Zi Moyan, do you not realize? You're not yourself right now, you need to-"
The next moment, he hastily blocked the end of a stick with the flat of his sword, barely preventing his eye from being pierced.
"Junior brother… no, Ba Ke, you madman, I won't let you destroy the village just because of these insane ravings!"
She kept attacking him, using her extended combat experience to turn her dances into a ruthless sword technique, proving that her talent wasn't only limited to cultivation.
"Dammit, senior sister, what ravings are you talking about! This is our lives, we're not some physical arts teachers!"
Baotian, even though he was a bit weaker physically right now, and Zi Moyan had more real battle experience than him, had still walked the path of a swordsman for dozens and dozens of years. In a close combat situation, with both of their cultivations almost sealed, he would definitely not lose. The true problem was…
"Senior sister, don't be the frog at the bottom of the well!" he said, narrowly avoiding a leaping kick to the head. "We need to return! Don't you remember? The Void Hurricane, reaching the Core Formation realm, finding- ouch"
Baotian was interrupted as a palm strike reached his solar plexus, breaking his balance. As he tried to regain it, he saw Zi Moyan raise her stick above her head with both hands, ready to land a fatal strike. At this moment, her body was exposed and, if he swung his sword, he would cut her down for good, with nothing left to stop him afterward. But if he missed, he might very well lose his only chance to escape.
The choice was easy: Baotian prepared to cut through her neck.
"I thought we truly meant something to each other, Ba Ke!"
At the last moment, he felt his sword drop for his hand as he crossed his arms above his head. He heard a distinct cracking sound from one of his arms as the stick hit him with incredible violence. His left arm broke and his right arm pulsated with terrible pain as he was mercilessly sent to the ground. Zi Moyan raised the stick again, ready to hit again.
"And I thought that as my senior sister in the demonic path, your principles and your goal would matter more than this"
Zi Moyan's stick stopped mid-way. As he looked at her face, Baotian saw a conflicted expression on her face.
"My… principles… I must… reach immortality?" she mumbled, beginning to shake. "But no, I must… protect the village… but… reach… Core Formation… ugh!"
While she was distracted, Baotian hit her temple with the sword's handle.
"I'm sorry, senior sister, take a good sleep" he said. "There's no reason for you to have their blood on your hands, I can do that on my own"
Groaning in pain, he got up, holding his sword with his right hand. He was tired, so tired, so, so tired…
'But it's okay… I killed almost everybody before coming here… only a few left' he encouraged himself.
Walking one step at a time, he found another one. With one vertical cut, the man fell to the ground. Another one, he pierced her stomach. He repeated the process one, two, five, ten times, again and again, until finally there was only one person left.
"Ahh… but… where is she…"
He had to do it fast, before Zi Moyan woke up. Baotian, following his instinct, went to the place where he had his classes, and there she was: Xue Lan.
"Ahh… finally… I can end this nightmare…"
For a mortal, she was strong, yes. In his current state, he might… no, he would very likely lose in a sword duel against her. Happily, it seemed that she wasn't armed.
But, there was just something strange. As long as he could remember, Xue Lan's eyes had always been black. So why did they seem to be… purple, right now?
And not just any purple, but the exact same purple of the sky.
"Ahh… no…" Baotian stuttered. "You're the one… who trapped us here… Xue Lan?"
She smiled:
"Trapping you? It seems like a dishonest way to put it, uncle Ba" she said. "While it is true that someone influenced those poor Spirit Beasts, along with the Child of Heaven, to lead you here, it was not me, and you are still the one who made the choice to enter. You were also free to leave at any moment past the first month, were you not? Oh, but it's true that the village's mind waves might have influenced your mind a little. I really tried to adjust them to the best of my abilities, but to be honest, it is just really hard to differentiate the mental resistance of a Qi Building cultivator from that of a Void Ascension one. To me, you all look the same, honestly"
Even before she had finished talking, Baotian had already dropped his sword on the ground. From just the sound of her voice, he felt a terror incomparable to that of even a billion Zhenyun. In comparison to this being, both Core Formation and Nascent Soul realms were trash. The Void Ascension cultivators that governed the three nations? Trash too. In front of this being, even the legendary Vortex Walker realm was less than dirt.
"But for some reason, it seemed that the being who brought you here was also the one that helped you free yourself. What a particular fellow, truly. I think it is the first time in eons and eons that a lower being tried to use me like this, assuming it already even happened. Hoho, how interesting…"
Baotian didn't reply. Right now, he was trying to think of ways to plead, but words were stuck in his throat. Seeing that, Xue Lan tilted her head to the side in a cute way, raising an eyebrow:
"Oh, don't make this expression, uncle Ba. If I truly wanted to cripple your cultivation, I would have removed your Qi Cube, made you unable to feel it, or used similar methods" she said. "And your guess, too, was perfectly accurate: killing the villagers will automatically return both you and your companion to the lower world. Right now, I am merely inhabiting this body, I did not grant it any specific ability, and will not try any form of defense if you try to kill it, nor will I try to exercise any form of punishment or revenge afterwards"
"Ahh… Ahh… R-really?"
Baotian, though hesitantly, picked up his sword, still trembling.
"Yes, really" Xue Lan replied, not bothering to react as Baotian slowly approached her. "However, is this really what you want?"
"Ahh… Why, why would I not want this?" Baotian asked.
"Isn't that obvious? I know who you are, uncle Ba, or should I say, Zhang Baotian. You, on the opposite of your junior brother, are a Prisoner of Heaven. The world, due to your very nature, rejects the idea of you becoming an immortal. If you get out of here, you will simply live a life of struggle, loss and emptiness, and die midway to your goal, a death filled with regret in your heart and shrouded in indifference from the world. Even if you do reach it and become an immortal by miracle, it would only be at the price of losing everything that makes you who you are"
Xue Lan shook her head, looking at him with what seemed like genuine pity:
"I remember a quote from one of these 'TV shows' you have in your world, that perfectly describes our situation. Be blind, Baotian, don't be brave. There is no hope of a better future outside. Just say you want to stay here, and I will bring every villager back to life, and wipe off everyone's memory, allowing you to live your remaining decades here in absolute happiness, with your friend. And at your death, I will engrave your existence inside the world, to make sure the individual known as Baotian doesn't simply disappear in the reincarnation cycle. A perfect, happy ending"
Baotian stopped in his tracks. TV shows? She… knew about TV shows? Not only about transmigration, but she could even access enough of it to… watch TV shows?
Chances were, this [thing] might even know about transmigration!
"And… why are you offering this to me?" he asked.
"I guess I am… bored?" Xue Lan replied. "And since I am so bored, why not occupy me by helping my precious uncle?"
"Ah… I… see"
"You have a choice, uncle Ba. Make the choice you will not regret"
"The… choice I will… not regret?"
That was impossible. Either way, he would definitely come to regret his decision at one point. But then, the choice was obvious:
"Thank you for… giving me a choice"
Still trembling, Baotian plunged the blade of his sword into Xue Lan's abdomen.
"But I just cannot accept to throw everything away. Not after everything I've done to arrive here"
Rapidly, Baotian felt his spiritual sense returning to him, and his Qi Cube falling back into his grasp. His cultivation was back.
"I see, that is an interesting choice. When we get to meet again, uncle Ba, I am curious to see what will be your opinion on this decision"
The world in front of him became blurred: it seemed he was really about to be sent back to their world. But even then, Baotian only felt more chilled: this [thing] hadn't said 'if' they met again. It had said 'when'.
"Well then, goodbye! Come back whenever you want, uncle Ba, the Purple Sky Village will always stay here, waiting for you"
These were the last words Baotian heard from her and, when he snapped back to reality, he was back in the outside world. Even though he hadn't stopped trembling, he pushed through and focused as much as possible on his connection with Hanchen. Through this, and through the position of the sun, he was able to estimate how much time had passed: two and a half days.
"It means… we spent over twenty-five years of our lifespans there… If Hanchen hadn't coincidentally broken through to the late stage during these days, allowing me to wake up… Then we…"
His trembling intensified, and continued for a long time, even after Zi Moyan woke up.