I, the transmigrated villain, please wait, gentle master.

Chapter 149 If Life Could Only Be Like Our First Meeting (8)

The two had watched the spectacular fireworks display and listened to the story told by the nameless vendor. It was getting late, and Mei Shiyu noticed that the streets were becoming increasingly deserted, estimating that it was probably close to midnight.

If they continued walking like this, they wouldn't find a place to stay, and they would be breaking the rules.

Li Tingyun saw through his thoughts and said, "It's alright, the local authorities can't control me. We can just wander around and if we get bored, we can just leave the city."

Mei Shiyu thought to herself: Although you say this area is not your territory, you really seem to be strolling around in your own backyard. Is the Ghost Emperor of Fengdu really that easy to talk to?

Li Tingyun gently grasped his wrist, lifted it up, and then lowered it. A bracelet made of willow vines was now on Mei Shiyu's wrist.

"It's been a long time since I've done something so childish. I've forgotten how to weave a willow vine bracelet. I'm not very good at it."

"No, you're perfectly fine! But are you trying to imitate that old man again... Why do you always treat me like a child?"

Mei Shiyu recalled that when they left the vendor's stall, they happened to see the old man who had left with his granddaughter earlier return to the big willow tree.

Taking advantage of the dim lighting and few pedestrians, the old man picked up the scattered willow vines on the ground, wove them into a wreath, and put it on the little girl's head. The little girl giggled and laughed so hard that her head almost fell off.

The old man quickly picked up her head, put it back on, and wrapped it around her neck several times with willow vines. After a lot of effort, the grandfather and granddaughter finally walked away hand in hand.

If this scene were to occur in the real world, passersby would probably be terrified.

But within the territory, no one's footsteps stopped there.

Li Tingyun said, "I didn't think of you as a child. I just saw you staring at those two, and I thought you wanted to be lifted up or to be made into willow branches, hahaha..."

When Mei Shiyu heard the string of laughter behind him, he knew that this person was at least three-tenths teasing and making fun of him, but he didn't seem to find it annoying. Instead, a strange feeling arose in his heart, and his expression was momentarily dazed.

Li Tingyun asked, "What are you thinking about? Why do you have that expression?"

He then grabbed Mei Shiyu's wrist, intending to remove the willow vine bracelet from him.

"You don't like it, or... are you afraid it's unlucky?"

Mei Shiyu suddenly pulled her wrist away and slapped his hand back, which was hanging in mid-air, saying, "No, you're talking nonsense. There's no such thing as good or bad luck. Do you still believe in this? Haven't you heard the Book of Songs say, 'When I went away, the willows were swaying; now I return, the rain and snow are falling...'"

He was more inclined to believe that the willow tree symbolized "parting with reluctance and a desire to stay." Indeed, many things in this world can be interpreted in two ways. Some people break off willow branches at a long pavilion to bid farewell, while others regard willows as unlucky and ominous, and despise them.

Mei Shiyu felt that Li Tingyun was acting a bit strange. Why would he care about these things?

Li Tingyun also felt as if there was something wrong with her.

He was actually a little afraid that Mei Shiyu would despise him, hate him, hate his servants, and despise everything about him... It wasn't so much fear as a feeling of emptiness in his heart, a tight, painful emptiness. If Mei Shiyu also pushed him away, he would never be able to fill himself up.

Mei Shiyu asked, "Li Tingyun, you come to this area often, so you must know a lot about it. Have you ever heard about that little devil before?"

He asked a question, then felt it was inappropriate and shook his head, saying, "Speaking of which, you were quite young back then. You must have been very young then, so you probably didn't know much."

Li Tingyun said, "Yes, I've only heard a little about it, but I don't know the specifics."

Mei Shiyu said, "The vendor said that the little devil's soul was thrown into hell and tormented for many years..."

Li Tingyun said, "I heard it will only be thirteen years, not long."

Mei Shiyu said, "Thirteen years...isn't thirteen years a long time?"

That's hell.

Even in the human world, thirteen years is enough for a young person to grow up and a middle-aged person to grow old.

Hell is a harsh environment with all sorts of tortures. Even for a complete soul, every day spent there is like an eternity, and many cannot endure it and dissipate on their own.

But the little devil's soul was torn into ten pieces, each piece suffering in a different hell, and it actually endured it for more than ten years.

It's clear he's truly unwilling to accept his fate.

They would rather live a life worse than death, without redemption or liberation, than end their own lives.

"Thirteen years is already a very short time."

Li Tingyun was speaking from the heart.

In reality, he was trapped in hell for far more than a decade or two.

It is exactly one hundred and thirty years.

That's right, it's been over a hundred years.

He spent most of his life in hell.

It can be said that he was undergoing tribulation while cultivating.

Of the Ten Kings of Hell, only nine are the Great Hells. The rest are countless Small Hells. Only the souls of those who have committed heinous crimes and are condemned by Heaven and Earth are thrown into the Great Hells.

Of the ten wisps of soul that Li Tingyun tore apart, nine had the privilege of experiencing firsthand the agonizing agony of the Great Hell.

His last wisp of soul was trapped in the Ten Kings Palace.

The Well of Reincarnation does not allow incomplete souls to pass through. If a fragmented soul is thrown into the well, it cannot be reborn as a human. If it does not want to fall into the animal realm, it can only attach itself to other complete human souls and be forced to experience the unfortunate life of others from birth to death.

His remnant soul could only attach itself to those with wretched lives and extremely poor destinies.

Logically speaking, a remnant soul cannot "take over" the body of the person it possesses. It can only watch helplessly, feel the pain, or even personally experience all the misfortunes and disasters that happen to the body.

Over the course of 130 years, Li Tingyun experienced everything from being a beggar to starving to being missing limbs. After "reincarnating" four or five times, he felt that it would be better not to be human in his "next life" and to be a cat or dog, which would actually be much easier.

Therefore, he even voluntarily jumped into the animal realm, and even the Ten Kings of Hell thought he was crazy.

When fate is unpredictable, it doesn't strike you down instantly, crushing you into the mud and never allowing you to rise again... Instead, it gives you a glimmer of hope, then subjectes you to a long period of torment.

It's like drowning someone in the deep sea, suffocating them again and again, only to be reborn time and time again, experiencing pain, confusion, and despair, yet unable to save themselves.

In the end, they had no choice but to accept their fate.

There are quite a few people in the world who accept their fate.

But Li Tingyun is definitely not one of them.

He still refused to accept his fate.

Compared to the other nine souls trapped in hell with no hope of escape, his tenth remnant soul being able to return to the human world was already a great freedom.

He kept trying to seize control of the body, almost every time he would try to counter the original owner's soul and change his fate against the heavens—although he couldn't change much, he insisted on doing so, fighting against the heavens and struggling against people.

Speaking of which, Li Tingyun met many of the people in the Taiji Hall during that time.

For example, Xue Rendong, this "piranha," was snatched from the nets of fishermen at sea.

I almost scaled the fish and roasted it and ate it back then!

Now, all of that is in the past.

Li Tingyun couldn't explain or remember how he got through it back then. It didn't matter; it was all irrelevant. Even if "Heaven's Way" pushed him into a cesspool, he could turn around and smear "Heaven's Way" with shit.

He always adhered to these eight words: "To die and then be reborn, to perish and then live."

If a person is driven to the brink of death, to the point where living is worse than dying, they will often lose the will to live.

However, if everyone thinks that living is suffering and it's better to die, but he alone doesn't think that way and insists on staying, then that person has extraordinary willpower.

Clearly, such an unbreakable, resounding copper pea is a rare find.

Extremely rare.

You couldn't find one out of ten thousand people.

But if we actually manage to pick one out, that would be incredible!

A person with such terrifyingly strong willpower is probably capable of anything. Even if he wanted to overturn the world or destroy it, it would be possible.

"Li Tingyun... what are you thinking about now?"

A warm and cheerful voice suddenly reached my ears.

Li Tingyun turned to look at Mei Shiyu and said with a smile, "I didn't think about anything, and I can't remember anything."

Mei Shiyu said softly, "I want to ask you one more time, do you really believe in fate?"

Li Tingyun replied as always, "Yes, I believe you."

……

Li Tingyun is indeed quite a believer in fate.

He went through countless "reincarnations" in hell over 130 years, experiencing the suffering and misfortune of all sorts of people. If he still says he doesn't believe in fate, it's tantamount to denying all the struggles he has ever made.

How could he possibly whine and question his past self, who had suffered so much, about why he believed in fate and how hard he could change his destiny if he worked hard enough? — Bullshit, all bullshit!

Even setting aside this matter, and setting aside the fates of others that he did not willingly experience, let's just talk about himself and his own destiny: from birth, he was designated by Taoist priests as a "lone star of calamity," a fact he did not believe before, but now he does.

Li Tingyun grew up with many stumbles and hardships. His most vivid memories were of his family always holding funerals. As he grew up, his family members died one by one. In the end, he killed his father, his mother was scared to death after witnessing the scene, and he himself died young.

However, he was incredibly lucky; despite the deaths of everyone around him, he miraculously came back to life.

Having come this far, he has come to realize that almost everyone who is close to him has met a bad end; most of them have been killed by him.

Doesn't this perfectly match the fate of a "lone star"?

Therefore, Li Tingyun believed in fate.

Life is unpredictable, and fate plays tricks on us, now affecting Mei Shiyu, who is closest to him.

Li Tingyun couldn't pinpoint exactly when he fell for Mei Shiyu. Maybe it was when he was twelve, maybe when he was eight, maybe even earlier... Perhaps they were destined to be together for three lifetimes.

Anyway, when he likes someone, it's from the first glance to the last, from the first meeting to the last. Only this one person is etched in his heart, nothing more, it's that simple. No matter how the world turns upside down, how many cycles of reincarnation occur, or how many times everything starts over, the result is always the same. Between them, there have been countless first meetings, countless moments of falling in love, countless reunions, and countless moments of being deeply devoted.

After being freed from hell, Li Tingyun really wanted to follow his heart, to find the person he couldn't have and couldn't let go of, to participate in the karma of this life, and to seize his destined love. However, he kept restraining himself and did nothing.

He might think: I'd better not bother him anymore. If I stay away from him, I'll eventually stop thinking about him... It's funny, he actually had such a thought!

He actually had a day when he thought of others.

He had considered others' feelings and struggled internally, but in the end, he still couldn't control himself.

Upon learning that Mei Shiyu had gone alone to the Demon Abyss in the Underworld to retrieve the Fenjing Sword, he hurriedly rushed to the Gates of Hell.

On that trip, the two bumped into each other.

This collision sealed their ill-fated bond.