Let Me Explain, Fairy
Chapter 1091 - 686: Breaking Out of the Cocoon

Chapter 1091: Chapter 686: Breaking Out of the Cocoon

The blood cocoon hung in the sky, while the Ghost City shrouded by the heavenly canopy had long lost its sunlight. Agonized wails echoed intermittently from the densely packed streets—some from the living, and others from the dead.

The living wailed for the departed dead who left them again.

The dead shrieked from the abrupt surge of pain.

They began to pay the price for their resurrection.

Black smoke was extracted from their bodies, forming fine strands drifting into the blood cocoon in the sky.

From afar, layer upon layer of countless black threads connecting to the blood cocoon rendered the heavenly canopy bleak and shadowed.

"What are you worried about?"

Gazing at this eerie scene beneath the sky dome, Tian Ye’s golden eyes shimmered, as though speaking to herself, or perhaps conversing with someone:

"Staying to fight this war was Xu Yuan’s own choice. To be accountable for one’s decisions—such a principle even a three-year-old understands. I doubt you, the Saintess, don’t grasp this, hmm?"

"You ask why I didn’t help him?"

Tian Ye seemed to find the question amusing, her lips curving subtly:

"Haven’t I done enough for him along this journey? I even feel I’ve meddled excessively in the course of this tribulation. No matter what you say, I won’t intervene in this fusion anymore."

"Besides, do you even have the qualifications to criticize me? Though my motives were not pure, wasn’t it me who handed him the bargaining chip to devour Mu Nuo? Right now, Xu Yuan is nothing but a dead man."

"But you, Tianyan, apart from hiding dormant in this body, what have you done worth praising in this war?"

"A little girl is just a little girl—ignorant of everything."

"Ha~ Getting worked up after just a few words?"

"Stop calling me an old crone. In terms of psychological age, you’re actually older than me by quite a bit."

Tian Ye’s golden eyes stayed locked on the evolving blood cocoon, her tone hovering between laughter and melancholy:

"Twenty thousand years is too long, long enough for countless memories to erode into oblivion. So, compared to the realities I lived through twenty thousand years ago, the world within the Illusionary Realm feels more like my entire lifetime."

"... Finding you can’t argue facts, so you start talking emotions?"

"I indeed don’t like to plainly declare love, but I’ll tell you this—I, Tian Ye, have far deeper feelings for that man compared to you, little girl.

"You should understand, in that false Illusionary Realm, he was my everything. And you? What were you to him?"

"....."

After a brief silence, Tianyan seemingly murmured something.

Upon hearing her words, Tian Ye raised an eyebrow, speaking matter-of-factly:

"Is there any conflict between loving him and killing him? If he truly is a calamity, I won’t hesitate to kill him, and after his death, end my own life."

As she uttered this,

Tian Ye stared at the blood cocoon, her golden pupils laced with threads of coldness:

"I am different from you. I lived in the flourishing era of Jiatiange and know all too well the unbearable weight carried by the name of Jiatiange. Not like you, a Saintess from this fragmented epoch who only knows of love and emotions."

"Moreover, Tianyan, you are the Saintess of Jiatiange, not some wife or concubine of Xu Changtian. I truly hope you can understand this."

By the end, a sliver of disdain seeped into Tian Ye’s voice, though she sighed and teased moments later:

"Forget it. Pretend I didn’t say those last words. Facing this tribulation is ’Tianyan’s’ duty, after all. Sacrificing to fulfill the calamity doesn’t seem like a bad option, does it?"

"....." Tianyan.

Across the sky, the blood cocoon, nourished by the black mist, swelled continuously, but no one emerged from it.

Time trickled away, while outside the city, Jiantian Pavilion Master and Dayan Sword Saint’s battlefield remained in fiery chaos.

Tian Ye was rather pleased with the Jiantian Pavilion Master, who bore the title of Tian Yuan.

Aside from ’Tianyan,’ every Jiantian Pavilion Master through the ages, though not necessarily the strongest of their era, undoubtedly ranked among the supreme few.

Tian Yuan’s strength upheld her name as Pavilion Master.

Waiting stretched painfully long, the Great Desert’s dying sun arriving on schedule.

Amid the city’s silence, Tian Ye, who had been standing motionless for an entire day, showed her first shift in expression—noticed immediately by Tianyan within her body.

Tianyan promptly asked, her tone tinged with urgency:

[...What happened?]

Tian Ye furrowed her brow, gazing at the blood cocoon with doubt flickering in her golden eyes:

"The Lifebound Lock I placed on him has been broken."

[What?]

Tianyan froze momentarily: [You planted a Lifebound Lock in Xu Yuan’s body?]

Tian Ye chuckled quietly, her smile effortless as ever:

"The earlier talk about dying with him—you didn’t assume I was joking, did you? Killing him would also mean my death. Alas, it seems that guy broke it himself. We’ll just have to find another opportunity later."

[So Xu Yuan won?]

"....."

Tian Ye didn’t reply, but instead extended her senses through her connection with the Ghost Willow Yin Source, probing changes within the blood cocoon. Yet, within a few breaths, this link abruptly severed.

Not consumed or refined, but simply dissipated from existence.

Sudden and jarring, the development planted hesitance in Tian Ye’s heart.

She couldn’t discern whether Xu Yuan intentionally sought to escape her control, or if he had been driven to a desperate gamble by Mu Nuo’s onslaught.

But soon enough,

Tian Ye shifted her focus to Emperor Bai, who sat cross-legged beside the blood cocoon.

Since the cocoon’s formation, Emperor Bai had remained directly at its side in the void, meditating, his eyes closed.

He hadn’t participated in the battle outside the city.

Nor had he exploited the situation to overthrow Zhenxi Government Office.

And now,

This Lord of the Ancient Abyss slowly opened his dragon-like eyes.

Tian Ye’s vision was not inferior to Emperor Bai’s, but bound by the restrictions of Tianyan’s body, she had lost her edge in sensing the blood cocoon after her link to the Ghost Willow Yin Source dissipated.

Still, Emperor Bai’s movement likely signaled the culmination of the cocoon’s fusion.

Thump, thump...

Tian Ye felt her heartbeat quicken momentarily, instinctively summoning a Secret Technique, the Cosmic Skill Dao Charm expanding faintly around her—but she immediately halted, realizing this involuntary act stemmed from Tianyan’s interference.

This woman had been endlessly pestering her, prompting an unconscious urge to confront Emperor Bai for control.

In the city’s imposing silence,

A figure, clad in military attire, rose silently from the government office beneath the blood cocoon, ascending into the air.

Li Junwu had stepped forth.

Holding her long halberd, she positioned herself between Emperor Bai and the blood cocoon.

Under the Great Desert’s setting sun, her figure appeared somewhat fragile.

Tian Ye stared at the silhouette, her beautiful eyes narrowing slightly.

She noticed that this woman carried the resolve to die.

And she discerned,

Scattered within the military formation of the government office below,

Were countless Vigor Energy Pills resonating with the intensified cultivation techniques of the soldiers.

"Screech—"

A sharp, grating noise emanated from within the blood cocoon,

And then,

Fragments burst apart like flying feathers.

Amid the mass of dark tendrils,

A young man dressed in elegant robes stepped into the sight of those present.

Their gazes locked briefly,

Upon seeing his familiar face, Li Junwu let out a faint breath of relief, her red lips curving into a smile as she remarked:

"I knew it—scourges last for a thousand years. But you, this guy..."

"Jun Wu, step aside."

Gazing at the figure guarding him, Xu Yuan’s ink-black eyes betrayed no discernible emotion, though his voice bore intricate undertones:

"The wager between me and it is still unfinished."