Chapter 9
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Chapter 9: Bai Lian, Red Dust Heavenly Lord, and the System
This approach is not feasible.
Holding onto the last shred of her sobriety and realizing she had limited chances left, Bai Lian made a risky decision to gamble!
Her mental breakdown was attributed to multiple failures she experienced in deducing the future at the Monument of the Next World. After each defeat, her power weakened bit by bit.
A few failures here and there could not affect her stone-hearted nature.
However, after countless failures, she was ultimately overwhelmed.
From point to surface, it finally became as terrifying as a large avalanche.
Even though she tried her best to repair the cracks, she could only watch as they grew wider and wider.
The murky darkness poured out from the cracks, and under the shroud of darkness, she finally transformed into a demon controlled by desire!
Bai Lian knew that if she didn’t contain this change soon, she would soon completely lose herself.
Even if she found a way to save herself and her master, she would be powerless to implement it, and even if she succeeded in carrying out the plan, she might not be able to go back.
A change must be made!
Considering that all these troubles originate from those painful memories, the best option to relieve herself is to erase the related memories.
However, this leads to new problems arising.
Losing memory is equal to starting everything from scratch, as previously, despite availing billions of opportunities and accumulating countless experiences, she couldn’t succeed.
Can she, now reincarnated as a blank slate, really utilize the remaining few hundred chances to find a way out?
It seems unlikely.
Bai Lian’s consciousness has become fuzzy, but she still has a clear understanding of her abilities.
She is very weak!
Don’t be fooled by her being of the same origin as Red Dust Heavenly Lord, she is much larger than Red Dust Heavenly Lord, but in a real fight, ten of her couldn’t budge Red Dust Heavenly Lord even a bit.
A soon as they meet, Red Dust Heavenly Lord will press her to the ground and rub her face in it.
There is no way out.
All of this is the result of the enormous gap between the experiences of the two.
During her time in the East Divine Land, she spent most of her time under the protection of the Lord of Reincarnation.
Although the Lord of Reincarnation and others are not noble saints, they are at least flesh and blood beings. They are capable of making mistakes, but also courageous enough to admit them. They have ideals and goals for which they strive.
Under the protection of such a group, Bai Lian seldom suffered, and gradually developed a strong curiosity for humanity.
Emerging from the seal, the first person she saw was the East Divine Land’s savior, the renowned Green Emperor.
Over the years, she encountered a variety of people, including good, bad, and indifferent individuals. However, these people’s influences on her were ultimately not as significant as those of the Lord of Reincarnation and Xia Qingqing.
It was not until she met Path Master Ganlu, whose mind was broken on the snowy ground, that Bai Lian suddenly felt a new emotion.
She accompanied Path Master Ganlu aimlessly on the snowy plains for five years.
Prior to that, although she had no direction, she didn’t see it as a problem because she had no concept of life or time.
It was during this time that the confusion emanating from Path Master Ganlu deeply affected her.
Initially, she simply felt puzzled.
"Where does she want to go?"
"What does she want to do?"
"Who is she?"
"Where did she come from?"
As time passed, Bai Lian also began to ask herself these questions.
She asked these questions over and over again until they were deeply engraved in her like a curse.
One day, she suddenly wanted to find the answers, so she quietly left Path Master Ganlu without even saying goodbye.
She still couldn’t find the answers in the Land of Immortals, so she flew towards other places where there were living creatures after crossing the world barrier.
After crossing two barriers, she broke into a cultivation world with sparse spirit Qi.
Under the moonlight.
Bai Lian was crouching by the well, quietly watching An Lan who accidentally fell into it.
Since then,
She found the "something" she wanted to pursue!
But Red Dust Heavenly Lord was different.
She had long rid herself of powerful Immortal Emperors and Heavenly Lords, but wandering alone outside, she never felt peace and was like a frightened bird, hiding everywhere.
In the mortal world, she came across more people.
However, in that dark age, what she saw more was deception, looting, coercion, cruelty, and killing…
She had had enough of this mundane world and eventually fled the Land of Immortals.
Yet to her disappointment, no matter where she went, she saw no essential changes in the things around her.
After passing through an unknown number of world barriers, Red Dust Heavenly Lord became like other people in the mortal world, and began her journey in a daze.
Red Dust Heavenly Lord never talked in detail about what she had experienced, but it was surely not something good.
In fact, Bai Lian saw Red Dust Heavenly Lord earlier than An Lan did.
While An Lan was chasing the bloodthirsty demon, she floated in the air and saw Red Dust standing alone in the alley.
The little Red Dust had a knife hidden in the sleeve and a ragged figure lying upside down a few steps away from her, with blood flowing from his body.
"Tut!"
Little Red Dust spat at the people on the ground and then picked up a bag of torn copper coins before leaving the alley expressionlessly.
The name that An Lan randomly gave Red Dust Heavenly Lord is very fitting.
In the Immortal World, both the Immortal Emperor and the Heavenly Lord have their own honorary titles, which are usually related to their ability or reputation, such as An Lan, who is called "Immortal".
Unlike the others, Red Dust’s honorary title is her own name. However, she gave it to herself because she loved those two words so much.
In the end, the world only knew that Red Dust Heavenly Lord was an honorary title, but they didn’t know that it was her actual name.
After quarreling with An Lan, Red Dust Heavenly Lord wandered alone outside and went through many experiences. She has shared some things with Bai Lian, but kept some things hidden.
Since the day they separated, their paths have completely diverged from each other, as in a storybook.
Despite their paths intertwining at times, they inevitably ran towards two different directions.
It is precisely these differing experiences that reversed their fortunes, causing the larger Bai Lian to fall behind while the smaller Red Dust Heavenly Lord took control of the situation.
Bai Lian has known this all along, but it never bothered her.
Whether in the past or the present, she is not a competitive person.
Seeing the person she cares about become stronger, her heart is filled only with happiness.
However…
However, in the end, Bai Lian still didn’t fully understand Red Dust Heavenly Lord, and didn’t understand what Red Dust Heavenly Lord truly wanted.
After deep reflection, Bai Lian finally came up with a method that she thought was useful –
Transform the Monument of the Next World into a "system"!
She stored all her memories in the system and reminded herself, like a narrator, of what to do when she lost most of her memories.
However, the effect was not good.
In the deduction, she was stimulated with intense rebellious emotions.
Just kidding, why should I listen to the words of this unknown thing?
It may be said to be for my good, but it could very well be something harmful made by the villain!
The attempt naturally failed this time, but Bai Lian was not discouraged. She immediately optimized it.
In the restarted deduction, she realized that she herself had created the system.
Then…
The road still deviated.
In the first deduction, she was suspicious and felt that there must be fraud.
In the second deduction, she didn’t suspect, but collapsed again because she knew too much.
Such setbacks couldn’t defeat Bai Lian. After many attempts, she finally created the current version of the Task System.
The system’s inspiration comes from a world that she and An Lan had once wandered, where had little spirit Qi but many interesting new stuffs.
Game.
She saw such novel things in that world.
Eventually, she created a new Task System based on the game and, after making several adjustments, even fabricated a fake identity for herself.
The game content was carefully selected after multiple failed attempts. In fact, the "badend" scenarios she experienced during the game were far more numerous than 108, so much so that adding a few more zeros wouldn’t be too much.
It is worth mentioning that when Bai Lian first opened the system panel, she noticed that there were some spaces before the words "Task System." In fact, those spaces were meant to write "version seven." Before starting the game, she erased those words on a whim.
If she had seen the words "version seven" during the game, she surely would spiral into suspicion and paranoia.
Her decision had a very good effect.
As she could never figure out what was written there, when she deduced it, she would have a feeling that there must be something profound, and then she would feel awe-struck.
In the system, there is a column of morality that Bai Lian has always complained about.
In fact, this is the "trap" she intentionally left to remind herself of her true identity in crucial moments.
Morality is neither positive nor negative, but none. It is because she is not human, so morality doesn’t matter.
The options of the task system are basically things she has experienced in other deductions, and only a few are reminders automatically given by the Monument of the Next World, mostly related to emotional entanglements.
The rewards of the mission system are basically all kinds of things that she and An Lan have collected along the way, except for one type of thing –
Special effects!
Although they are called Special Effects, they are actually "blessings".
Tao Halo Special Effect is a unique fluctuation that she has, although she tried to hide it, she could not. So she simply made it into a mission reward.
Water Spirit Special Effect and Fu Zhu Special Effect are from Fu Zhu Immortal Emperor, and Yaoguang Special Effect is from Yaoguang Star Lord. Bai Lian and An Lan have a very close relationship with Fu Zhu Immortal Emperor and Yaoguang Star Lord, so she never actively collected these things.
To be honest, she still doesn’t know how these three Special Effects fell onto her head.
Nonetheless, it is still a good thing.
She would have never been able to smoothly reach this point if it weren’t for these Special Effects.
She used this seventh edition Task System multiple times during her deductions, and only on this occasion did she willingly unravel its "mystery."
Of course, credit for this accomplishment must be given partly to "Innocent Heart."
During her previous deductions, Bai Lian discovered that due to having ordinary human memories implanted within her, she was particularly prone to becoming flustered in front of older demons who have cultivated for many years, causing her to fall into a predicament and affecting her strategy for the "game."
Therefore, she straightforwardly conjured up an "Innocent Heart."
This name sounds quite enigmatic, but in fact it means "expressionless face".
Come on, do as you please, I will remain unmoved!
This Innocent Heart was supposed to run through the entire "strategy" process, but this deduction had a slight unexpected twist…
Bai Lian suddenly developed emotions that were not present in the "character setting"!
When this feeling had accumulated to a certain degree, it unexpectedly crushed the Innocent Heart.
From that moment on, everything slipped from Bai Lian’s control.
Piece by piece, her experiences stacked up until she inadvertently abandoned her identity as the Blank Tao, and gained a true human heart.
Seeing this, Bai Lian finally understood why the Void Domain rejected her.
[You’ve already become human, so why have you returned?]
Bai Lian gritted her teeth.
It’s infuriating.
The near-death experience she just went through was unbearable, and if given the chance, she would definitely teach the Void Domain a harsh lesson.
It didn’t allow me to enter, but I insist on forcing my way in!
After dropping some harsh words, Bai Lian continued to reminisce about the past.
It was only then that she finally understood why the system had been constantly reminding her not to experience the Guafeng Disaster.
It didn’t necessarily mean that she would die immediately. However, once she survived it, she would be forcibly guided into the Immortal World within a very short period of time.
Although the Land of Immortals was in ruins, it was still the Land of Immortals.
After leaving the protection of this place, her actions would be presented in full to the Red Dust Heavenly Lord.
As a result…
Even if she wasn’t killed, the Monument of the Next World would still be stolen.
She could only stay in this world and find a way to break the deadlock in this place of origin.
Only by treading carefully could one follow the way of the Great Tao to the end.
Fortunately, in most of her recent calculations, she has followed this principle.
This is not only because, having "played the game" before, she knew that the more lucrative the task rewards, the higher the mortality rate, but also because she had experienced countless failures before this, and even if her memory was erased, that sense of crisis was deeply ingrained in her heart.
She must be cautious, as she has less than ten chances left.
As long as she steps wrong, she is likely to be completely ruined.
"…"
Bai Lian gazed at the long river formed by memories.
Every time she gets angry, she likes to curse the system maker as a despicable thing. As it turns out, she was cursing herself all along.
"Even cursing is fine. If I didn’t have to bother myself, how could I have made myself crazy?"
Bai Lian let out a bitter laugh.
Must she surrender directly to Red Dust Heavenly Lord? How did it ever come to this?
However, how could she possibly surrender?
In the end, it was just self-inflicted misery.
Bai Lian took a deep breath.
Now, as long as she overcomes the Guafeng Disaster, she will be able to meet Red Dust Heavenly Lord!
She doesn’t want to involve anyone else; this is an affair between her and Red Dust Heavenly Lord.
But that will have to wait; she wants to first retrieve all her memories and take a walk in certain places she has long cared about.
"I should go now."
Bai Lian emerged from the river of memories, stepping with her pristine, white-jade legs.
The first stop she wanted to go was Castle Peak City in Wutan State.
