thefictionvixens Page 96
Page 96
The illusory camellias inside the cave suddenly bloomed. Countless points of light rained down, illuminating every dark corner. Her blue-purple hair drew graceful arcs in the air. She felt as if she were floating on clouds, or sinking into a warm, deep sea.
[Ding! Special reward received]
[Awakening of Yin-Yang Harmony Constitution]
[Acquired Skill: Spiritual Resonance (Can share spiritual energy with a specific target)]
When everything returned to calm, the confusion in her eyes disappeared, replaced by strength.
"Lord Chen Xiao... I want to see my sister," she said softly. "I want to tell her that I'm willing to be with her..."
"Let's go out first!"
As Chen Xiao led Shui Cai out of the stalactite cave, the afterglow of the setting sun outlined a beautiful silhouette for the two of them.
A heated argument could be heard coming from the courtyard of a distant shrine.
"Enough!" Suzuna's usually cold voice carried a rare hint of anger. "How long is this tedious test going to continue?"
She held a naginata in her hand, the tip of which was pointed directly at Koichi Hayama, who was kneeling on the ground.
Yuriko stood under the veranda, her face bearing a feigned concern.
"Suzuna, you've disappointed me so much," Yuriko sighed. "Koichi-kun is your destiny—"
"Destined?" Suzuna sneered, her naginata flashing coldly in the setting sun. "My fate has always been in my own hands."
Just then, Yuriko caught a glimpse of the two people at the cave entrance out of the corner of her eye. Her pupils contracted sharply.
"Who are you? Why do you look exactly like me!?"
Suzuna whirled around, her silver hair tracing a graceful arc in the air. As she recognized the person, her naginata clattered to the ground.
Mizuna released Chen Xiao's hand and slowly walked forward. With each step, her demeanor changed. When she reached Suzuna, the innocent and naive girl was gone, replaced by a woman with a completely different yet equally dazzling aura from Suzuna.
“Little sister, I’m Mizuna, your older sister!” Mizuna’s voice was as gentle as water.
Yuriko suddenly sneered, "Suzuna, look closely! This man brought a woman who looks exactly like you out of the forbidden area. Don't you understand? You're just a substitute!"
Suzuna's body trembled slightly, but she quickly straightened her back. Just as she was about to speak, Mizuna hugged her first.
"That's not how it is," Mizuna whispered in her younger sister's ear, her voice so low that only they could hear, "It was Lord Chen Xiao who saved me..."
As Mizuna recounted her story, Suzuna gradually relaxed. But when she heard about Yuriko's true conspiracy, a cold rage ignited in her eyes.
"So you're not my mother! Who are you?!" Suzuna turned around abruptly, only to find the veranda empty. Only a camellia petal drifted down slowly.
Mizuna gently grasped her younger sister's trembling hand: "They ran away."
"It's okay." Suzuna took a deep breath and suddenly threw herself into her sister's arms. "Sister...you're family after all..."
The emotions that had been suppressed for years finally broke through.
Suzuna cried like a child in Mizuna's arms, her tears soaking Mizuna's clothes. Mizuna gently stroked her sister's silver hair, her eyes also glistening with tears.
As the crying subsided, Suzuna raised her tear-filled face and looked at Chen Xiao, who had been standing quietly to the side. Tears still clung to her cheeks, but a relieved smile appeared on her face.
"Chen Xiao... thank you for bringing my sister back." She paused, her voice almost inaudible, "If... if you don't mind... I'd like to stay with my sister..."
Mizuna's eyes widened in surprise, then she smiled knowingly. She took her sister's hand, and the two walked towards Chen Xiao together.
Chapter 103 Controlling Yuriko, Preparing to Control Kato Megumi
The afterglow of the setting sun bathed the three of them, and Chen Xiao gently embraced Suzuna and Mizuna. Their two soft, warm bodies pressed against him, exuding a faint fragrance.
"We still have one more thing to do," Chen Xiao said in a low but firm voice.
The two sisters looked up simultaneously, a knowing glint in their eyes. Mizuna gently stroked Chen Xiao's cheek: "Are you going to find Yuriko?"
Chen Xiao nodded, a ghostly blue light gleaming in his eyes. The Dimensional Eye appeared before his forehead, and countless images flashed by like a revolving lantern. Finally, it settled on a woman dressed in a Meiji-era kimono—she was pouring poison into tea, a sinister smile on her face.
【The Eye of Dimensions: The Truth Revealed】
[Yuriko Kuraki: A demon from the Meiji Restoration era. In her previous life, she was a servant of the Kuraki family, where she personally murdered the head of the family and his wife. Cursed, she is forever trapped within the Kuraki family. To escape her fate, she must possess the bodies of the reincarnated head of the family and his wife, and seize their bodies during their union.]
"I see." Chen Xiao sneered, "Yuriko is not your mother at all. She has been waiting for the moment you two were to be together."
A cold glint flashed in Suzume's eyes: "That's why she went to such lengths to break us up..."
Just then, Koichi Hayama suddenly let out a beast-like roar. His body twisted and deformed, and his face gradually transformed into that of another person.
"I remember... I remember everything!" His voice became hoarse and terrifying. "I am the head of the Kuraki family! Suzuna, Mizuna, you are my wives!"
Chen Xiao shielded the two sisters behind her: "Are you crazy? They are just reincarnations, they are no longer the same person!"
"Shut up!" roared the vengeful spirit of Yuuyama Koichi—or rather, the patriarch of the family. "They will always be mine!"
He lunged forward suddenly, his fingernails transforming into sharp claws. At the critical moment, Suzuna and Mizuna attacked simultaneously.
Forbidden Technique: Twin Moon Slash!
"Demon-Slaying Blade - Sunfire!"
Two beams of light, one black and one white, intertwined and instantly pierced through the vengeful spirit's body. Yu Shanhao stared wide-eyed at the empty hole in his chest in disbelief.
"Why...you..."
Suzuna said coldly, "I am who I am, not anyone's reincarnation."
Mizuna added gently but firmly, "Our hearts belong only to Lord Chen Xiao."
The vengeful spirit let out a final, unwilling roar before turning into black smoke and dissipating.
Chen Xiao hugged the two sisters tightly, her voice choked with emotion, "Thank you..."
Suzuna blushed, a rare occurrence for her: "Idiot, what nonsense are you talking about?"
Mizuna leaned gently on his shoulder: "We'll be together forever."
“Although we’re together now, we still have very important things to do.” Chen Xiao held Suzuna and Mizuna in his arms, his gaze fixed firmly on the distance. The two sisters nodded gently in his embrace, their silver and blue-purple hair intertwining in the evening breeze.
Following the lingering ghostly aura of Yuriko, the three eventually arrived at an ancient manor covered by a sea of spider lilies.
The full moon hung high, dyeing the entire sea of flowers crimson. In the center of the flower field, Yuriko knelt on the ground, her hands reverently holding a blooming spider lily.
"My lord, I've brought all the little devils I've kept in captivity over the years!" Butler Chunchuan Wuping hunched over, followed by dozens of distorted, wandering ghosts. "It's time to absorb their spiritual power... I didn't expect it would come to this."
Yuriko nodded slowly, her pale fingers gently stroking the petals: "This was originally prepared as demonic energy for the Full Moon Festival... I never thought it would be used to kill people."
She raised her head, her bloodshot eyes fixed on the three approaching figures: "I only wanted to seize their bodies!"
With a roar, countless ghostly energies were forcibly extracted from the lesser demons, transforming into a black torrent that surged into her body. Before Chunchuan Wuping could react, he and the lesser demons were sucked dry and turned to dust in the wind.
"Why do you keep getting in my way!" Yuriko's body began to mutate, and the patterns of spider lilies appeared under her skin. "Especially you, Chen Xiao! Who exactly are you!"
Chen Xiao shielded the two sisters behind her, a calm smile still on her face: "I don't know what you've been through, but you should be reincarnated."
"Hahaha..." Yuriko's laughter was shrill and piercing. "You don't understand! I loved the head of the family so deeply back then, but he never even glanced at me!" Her voice suddenly became twisted and crazed. "I saved my most precious first time until now, hoping that one day I could replace that woman! What reincarnation, what freedom... I only want him!"
Before she could finish speaking, her body suddenly exploded, countless thorny spider lily vines bursting forth. In the blink of an eye, she had transformed into a monster made of vines, only her distorted face retaining a human form.
"Watch out!" Suzuna quickly formed hand seals, while Mizuna had already summoned a purification barrier.
Chen Xiao stepped forward, the Dark Bible turning its pages automatically in his hand: "Yuriko, it's time to let go of your obsession."
"Shut up!" The monster swung its flower vines at them, corroding even the air in its wake.
The three attacked simultaneously. Suzuna's Demon-Slaying Arrow and Mizuna's Purifying Light intertwined, creating a path for Chen Xiao. Chen Xiao's figure flashed before Yuriko like a ghost, the Dark Bible in his hand radiating a dazzling golden light.
Forbidden Technique: Soul Returns to the Pure Land!
The golden light receded like a tide, and the spider lily vines surrounding Yuriko snapped inch by inch.
She staggered and fell to her knees. The hideous ghostly appearance peeled away like a mask, revealing her originally beautiful face.
When those tearful eyes looked at Chen Xiao, time seemed to freeze at that moment.
“Those eyebrows and eyes…” Yuriko’s fingertips trembled as she raised them, “…that Onmyoji apprentice from the Dragon Kingdom a hundred years ago…”
The floodgates of memory burst open.
She saw a young man from China, always smiling gently, folding a talisman into a paper crane and giving it to her in a garden filled with falling cherry blossoms on a certain afternoon during the Meiji era.
The sunlight then was exactly the same as the light in Chen Xiao's eyes now.
"So... the one I've been waiting for has never been the head of the family..."
Yuriko's tears fell onto the blood-red petals, splashing up tiny droplets of blood.
Her century-old obsession crumbled at this moment—the love curse that the patriarch had planted on her back then had twisted her feelings for that young man from the Dragon Kingdom.
Suzuna suddenly pressed her temples as a flood of shared memories rushed in: "I saw Yuriko's past!"
Mizuna let out a soft "Ah": "So Lady Yuriko loses control every time she sees camellias... because she was cursed by the head of the family, who cursed her so that she could not be with Brother Chen Xiao in his previous life."
Chen Xiao's Dimensional Eye trembled violently, and fragments of his past life memories flashed by like a revolving lantern.
He saw himself—the young man from China who studied in Japan—and the scene of parting with Yuriko at the dock.
"I never expected there to be such a past. It seems my trip to this place wasn't in vain; at least I met you again." Chen Xiao glanced at the sea of red spider lilies behind him. This cursed land ultimately began with Chen Xiao and would also end with him.
These words shattered Yuriko's last line of defense.
She suddenly threw herself into Chen Xiao's arms, and a century of pent-up longing transformed into a passionate kiss. Unlike the previous frenzy, this kiss carried a girlish awkwardness and devotion.
Suzuna turned her face away and gave a soft hum, but Mizuna grabbed her wrist. Through spiritual resonance, they clearly felt the pure love deep in Yuriko's soul—before being twisted by the curse, she was just a little girl who would secretly practice writing Chinese characters under the moonlight.
"Well... there's nothing I can do about it." Suzuna sighed, but gently placed her other hand on Yuriko's trembling shoulder.
Suddenly, the full moon shone brightly, and the withered sea of spider lilies miraculously revived.
The crimson faded, transforming into a shower of snow-white petals.
Chen Xiao's Dark Bible automatically flipped to the last page, revealing a brand new incantation:
[By the bond of love, we break the curse and are reborn]
As the four people's spiritual energy intertwined in the sea of flowers, the purity that Yuriko had protected for a hundred years transformed into specks of fluorescent light. Suzume's blue-purple hair cascaded down like water, intertwining with Mizuna's long blue-purple hair between Chen Xiao's fingers.
Most surprisingly, the camellias, which were considered symbols of a curse, disappeared.
Chen Xiao had relations with three men amidst a sea of red spider lilies.
Yuriko rested her head on his chest, and the last trace of gloom between his brows finally dissipated.
The sound of a morning bell echoed from the direction of the shrine. The last crimson camellia withered with the sound of the bell, while on the thousand-year-old cherry tree in the center of the courtyard, twin blossoms covered the branches.