Chapter 66: Kindred Spirits, Shared Experiences...
The official road at the border of the Star Luo Empire was long and deep.
As night fell, Zhang Lexuan walked beside Lin Sheng. Although her steps were light, a lingering sorrow remained locked between her brows.
"..."
Lin Sheng could keenly sense the presence of this emotion.
He didn't understand...
Why were women's emotions so fickle?
At this moment, Zhang Lexuan...
Her eyes, clear as autumn water, occasionally swept over Lin Sheng's white-haired back before quickly looking down.
As if afraid of disturbing some fragile balance.
"What are you thinking about?"
Lin Sheng suddenly spoke, his voice sounding exceptionally clear in the silent night.
Zhang Lexuan was slightly startled.
She then wore a bitter smile. "I was just thinking, what if we weren't serving different masters? What if we had belonged to the same power from the start?"
"Perhaps... things would be much simpler."
Lin Sheng stopped in his tracks and turned his head. His ashen-gray left eye possessed a withered beauty under the moonlight.
A faint curve appeared at the corner of his mouth as he whispered, "Is it not good as it is now?"
"Archnemeses, or travelers walking side by side, are far more interesting than being bound together in the same cage."
Zhang Lexuan shook her head and sighed.
"It's not that it's bad. It's just that a friendship like ours—walking along this ancient road despite being caught in a vortex of enmity..."
"...is truly so strange it feels like a dream."
Lin Sheng smiled and didn't respond further.
Some fates are like lonely boats sailing against the current; if spoken of too clearly, they are easily capsized.
...
After entering a hidden forest within the Star Luo Empire, the two decided to take a temporary rest.
In the heart of this dark jungle.
Lin Sheng skillfully built a campfire.
Lin Sheng leaned casually against a thick tree trunk, his right hand pillowed behind his head, quietly gazing at the deep sky with his remaining right eye.
"..."
That Mangekyo Sharingan had been retracted, turning into an ordinary Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
But the sorrow swirling deep within his eyes had nowhere to hide at this moment.
He seemed to see that night swallowed by blood and fire again, seeing his uncle and aunt's bodies gradually cooling in the ruins.
"As soon as I stop, the events of that night keep echoing in my mind..."
"I really want to forget that night, even if just for a moment."
Lin Sheng thought to himself.
Zhang Lexuan sat by the campfire, her plain-colored dress dyed with a warm hue by the firelight.
She didn't speak.
She just quietly watched the youth before her.
Looking at his ashen eye and his somewhat thin back, a pang of shared suffering surged through her chest.
"Actually..."
Zhang Lexuan parted her lips, her voice carrying a trace of imperceptible trembling.
"Lin Sheng, I can understand your pain."
Lin Sheng withdrew his gaze and gave her a faint glance, signaling for her to continue.
"When I was a child, my Family was also exterminated."
Zhang Lexuan lowered her head.
She stared at the dancing flames, her tone filled with desolation.
"The blood that night was redder than tonight's campfire. My parents, my relatives, they all fell one by one before my eyes... In the end, I was the only one left."
"Back then, my heart was full of nothing but a crazed desire for revenge. I even thought about dying together with my enemies."
She paused, a hint of reminiscence appearing in her eyes.
"Ultimately, it was Old Mu who saved me. He brought me back to Shrek and gave me a second home."
"There, I slowly learned how to live, rather than just living for the sake of death."
...
The moonlight filtered through the sparse leaves onto Zhang Lexuan's face, a beauty that was sorrowful yet holy.
"I forgot that she's also..."
Lin Sheng's expression shifted slightly.
He had indeed forgotten about Zhang Lexuan's past.
Beneath that bright and beautiful shell of the Senior Sister, there actually lay a heart that was equally riddled with holes.
They were like two lonely stars abandoned by fate from different directions.
At this moment, a faint resonance was born.
"Since you've experienced it, you should know that such hatred cannot be washed away."
Lin Sheng's voice was somewhat hoarse.
He pointed to his ashen-gray pupil.
"It's already carved into my bones and fused into my Ocular Power. You can choose to let go, but I cannot."
Zhang Lexuan shook her head solemnly.
"I'm not asking you to let go of your hatred, Lin Sheng."
"As someone who has also lost everything, I have no right to tell you to be magnanimous... that would be the greatest disrespect to the dead."
She looked up, meeting Lin Sheng's cold gaze, and spoke softly yet firmly.
"I only hope that you won't be completely consumed by hatred. After revenge, your World shouldn't be left as nothing but empty ruins."
Lin Sheng stared at Zhang Lexuan for a long time, and his tightly pursed lips finally relaxed a bit.
He had to admit...
Zhang Lexuan's words had indeed changed his perspective slightly.
If it were the hypocritical dogmas of someone like Elder Xuan, he would only snort in disdain. But coming from Zhang Lexuan, who also bore a deep blood feud...
This understanding carried immense weight.
"Thank you."
Lin Sheng said softly.
The night deepened, and the wood in the campfire crackled from time to time.
Amidst their intermittent conversation, a crack seemed to quietly open in their emotional defenses.
Over these past few days...
Due to the forced Fusion of the Power of Destiny, stabilizing the Snow Empress's Origin, plus the high-intensity travel and combat, his mind had long been strained to the limit.
Enveloped by the warm firelight.
Enshrouded in Zhang Lexuan's reassuring presence, Lin Sheng's lone eye unconsciously and slowly closed.
He was truly too tired.
Since leaving the Body Sect, he had hardly had a single peaceful night's sleep.
Zhang Lexuan noticed the steadiness of Lin Sheng's breathing.
She looked over in surprise and found that the arrogant youth had actually fallen fast asleep against the tree trunk.
His long eyelashes drooped.
Hiding the sharpness in his eyes, he no longer looked like a decisive Devil Head, but more like a child exhausted from a long journey.
"He... is really too tired."
A strong surge of pity and heartache rose in Zhang Lexuan's heart.
She stood up quietly.
She walked over to Lin Sheng and reached out to touch his pale face, but stopped herself mid-air.
She was afraid of waking him from his dream.
Finally, Zhang Lexuan took off her plain-colored coat, which carried a faint lingering fragrance.
Carefully, as if holding a treasure, she draped it over Lin Sheng.
"Sleep, Lin Sheng."
Zhang Lexuan crouched beside him, gazing infatuatedly at his profile by the faint firelight, whispering softly.
"Before we reach Star Luo City, at least for this moment, let me keep watch for you."
The forest wind swept by gently. The campfire gradually died out, leaving only embers glowing faintly in the dark night.
"I never expected that one day, I too would seem so helpless because of my emotions..."
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