Chapter 1666: Chapter 1667: Red Spider Lily
Liang Xinyue looked up at you, gave a slight smile, and made a sign language gesture.
You deliberately pretended not to understand sign language and looked at Wei Yingyue, noticing that Wei Yingyue didn’t even glance at you. You shrugged helplessly but stood by the side of the five people, advancing in a formation like a "T".
After reaching the shore, everyone realized that it was still dark all around, and there was a faint feeling that as long as they advanced further, the space would become smaller.
As they walked, Du Yanan finally felt that she was stepping onto a hard stone pathway, as it had been a muddy path on the grass before.
A few more meters ahead, by the light, you all noticed a pavilion appearing directly ahead. The pavilion looked very ancient and was even damaged. When Du Yanan shone the light to the center of the pavilion, they found three words engraved on it. Moreover, the moment they saw these words, they flashed in their minds, sometimes big, sometimes small, very eerie.
"How do you read these three words?" Du Yanan, knowing her limited literacy, couldn’t recognize the words, so she turned to Wei Yingyue.
Seeing these three words, Wei Yingyue also frowned slightly because the formation of these words was very complex. There is a folk saying in An Nan characters, "Difficult words recognize half," but these three words seemed like they were a whole without any recognizable radicals, so Wei Yingyue also shook her head.
"It should be Ghost Gate, anyway, that’s what it means. Let’s go, don’t waste time here. The longer you stay in the dark, the more fearful you will feel."
Saying this, you were the first to walk through the pavilion.
When you passed through the pavilion, your eyes suddenly brightened, and a red and green illusionary light rendered the scenery before you mesmerizing and dreamlike.
The moment the five people behind you also passed through the pavilion, they were equally captivated by the dreamlike colors before them. Amidst these mystical lights appeared a straight road, about two meters wide and around fifty meters long, all paved with green stone slabs, looking very ancient and with potholes.
On either side of this road grew patches and patches of red flowers, all exuding an illusionary glow, and at the same time, a unique fragrance filled the air, the same scent smelled during the river crossing before.
Seeing these flowers, Deng Fang couldn’t help but say, "Red Spider Lilies! I didn’t expect to actually see Red Spider Lilies!"
All girls love beauty, and they cannot resist the temptation of beautiful things. Seeing the seemingly endless sea of flowers on both sides of the road, Deng Fang instinctively stepped forward, only to have her collar grabbed by you, tossing her into Xu Mingjie’s arms.
"If these rows are Red Spider Lilies, then everyone can roughly guess the name of this road." Saying this, you turned to Du Yanan and asked, "Lao Du, I personally think now turning back is still possible, otherwise you might encounter things that are unbearable, some of which might not just be images."
In fact, from the moment you stepped onto that ancient little boat, you vaguely knew that everything happening before you, if you weren’t knocked unconscious and dosed with some hallucinogenic soup, then you and the five people with you now indeed entered a world that science couldn’t explain.
The word ’science’ was initially translated from a foreign language by a renowned enlightenment master from Beihai, and widely used later. The explanation of the term science referred to knowledge and learning.
Knowledge and learning represent human understanding of the world, which continuously improves with their progress. Facts recognized in the past might turn into fallacies in an instant, so there’s no absolute in this world itself.
Just like superpowers, humans have had superpowers for a while. However, most of these people are very low-profile and never display them easily because no one wants to be an anomaly. Whether concerning society or religion, they absolutely do not tolerate anomalous existence, much like the ancient saying—’Not my race, their hearts are surely different.’
Superpowers cannot yet be clearly articulated with language or text despite today’s advanced science and technology, so you absolutely believe that at this moment, you have indeed entered a strange space, possibly the Underworld elders used to scare children with.
Initially, the river the middle-aged man ferried the six across was called Three Origins River, the boundary line between the living world and the Death Realm.
After arriving at the Death Realm, the pavilion the six just passed is called the Ghost Gate, and now, the road before them is what the elders spoke of most frequently, the Netherworld Road.
Du Yanan was now in no mood to chat with you because she also felt that everything, both the visuals before her and the sensations after passing through the Ghost Gate, was telling her that what was happening might not just be artificially created because, no matter how, current technology couldn’t possibly create such lifelike scenes.
"Is this really the Red Spider Lily?" Wei Yingyue, who rarely spoke, was also stunned by what she saw.
"There are many legends about the Red Spider Lily, but I personally prefer this one."
You still appeared very relaxed, still in the mood for joking: "Legend has it that a long time ago, an incredibly ugly ghost fell in love with a beautiful girl. But because of his terrifying appearance, the girl kept her distance. However, this ugly ghost truly loved the girl and decided to imprison her, intending to win her heart through his actions."
"The story sounds nice at the beginning, what happens next?" Du Yanan knew you were trying to lift everyone’s spirits, so she asked.
"The ugly ghost spent many years trying to win over the girl, but she still couldn’t accept him. Later, a very powerful chivalrous man appeared and, with an Immortal Sword in hand, stormed the ghost domain, rescuing the girl, and the two fell in love. The ugly ghost naturally refused to let them be together, leading to a battle with the chivalrous man."
At this point, under everyone’s gaze, you stepped to the roadside, squatted down, and picked a bright Red Spider Lily.
You brought the Red Spider Lily to your nose, gently smelled it, and then said in a slightly calm tone: "The duel between the ugly ghost and the chivalrous man was intense. The chivalrous man retreated, finally making a last stand by the Netherworld Road, using his essence blood and the Immortal Sword and Divine Power to cut the ugly ghost into pieces, with the ghost’s blood splashing onto the wild grass. His body was also buried by the earth. Although the chivalrous man slew the ghost, he himself perished due to the backlash of the Immortal Sword in the arms of the beautiful girl. The girl eventually buried the chivalrous man at the end of the Netherworld Road. Many years later, a kind of red and black flower began to bloom brilliantly on both sides of this road, these flowers are called Red Spider Lilies."
Everyone obviously hadn’t heard this story before, listening intently, and you continued seeing this, "Since then, Red Spider Lilies have grown on both sides of the Netherworld Road. At the end of the Netherworld Road stands the Bridge of Helplessness, where Grandma Meng resides. It is said she was the girl back then. The girl deeply understood that love could inflict tremendous pain, so she prepared a bowl of Grandma Meng Soup by the Bridge of Helplessness. Those wishing to cross the Bridge, heading to the Pond of Reincarnation, must drink the Grandma Meng Soup."
Finally, you stood up and tossed the Red Spider Lily into the air: "Love is probably like this too. Just because two love differently, many must be buried, and much forgotten. Thus, the Red Spider Lily became an envoy of love from darkness, for it witnessed two black deaths and three entangled hearts."
"I didn’t expect you, such a kid, to know so much. Surely you memorized this from a novel to chase a girl?" Du Yanan laughed, looking at you, clearly not believing when you became so sentimental.