Do you really think you can get me with just a banana?

Chapter 169 The Last Night of Life

The moonlight, following its eternal path, grew larger and redder. In the silent glow that filled the earth, a hint of green could be seen quietly sprouting from the roots of a withered grass.

It was just an ordinary weed, but it seemed to be specially prepared for this distraught man, suddenly and glaringly piercing his eyes.

Guan Shanyu looked at it quietly for a while and recognized that this was the grass that Yan Ruchen had helped him remove when he brought Yan Ruchen back to Lingcaoxuan last time.

A bee, lightly dampened with dew, flew by hurriedly, caught in the cold winter wind. It swayed and bumped into the person in front of it, paused for a moment in confusion, and then hurried past him and flew away. An ant, carrying freshly found food, approached with its antennae, but suddenly seemed to remember something and turned and hurried away. A few ladybugs clung to the grass roots that Guan Shanyu had plucked and tossed aside. They were sleeping soundly at night, but felt someone had disturbed their dreams. They stood aside, hands on their hips, chirping in dissatisfaction...

The night is free from the figures of people walking around, but at night, it is the world of plants and trees. The whole world is filled with the noises of them competing to grow. But in this rustling, there is only one person standing still, motionless.

It felt like warm liquid was sliding across his cheek, but it was immediately cooled by the cold wind. Guan Shanyu's fingers were already frozen and red, and the fingers holding the grass roots were trembling slightly. He couldn't hold the tiny and fragile grass roots, and could only watch them slip away.

He stared blankly for a while, then wiped his eyes, lowered his head, and continued to clean the space in front of him.

The night is always long, like a long old movie, with a soothing and slightly bitter taste.

Guan Shanyu didn't like the dark. As a young boy, living in someone else's house, he was always lonely and cautious at night, afraid that if he wasn't careful, he'd pack up and leave one night. He still didn't like it as an adult, whether it was the seemingly endless reports he'd be working late into the night, the sore eyes from typing in dim light, or the damp, chill night air he felt when he was imprisoned in this world.

He doesn't like it either.

But tonight should be the last night of his life.

Come to think of it, Yan Ruchen must have experienced many nights like this.

His nights must have been even more difficult. Living under someone else's roof, enduring hunger and cold, enduring scorn and beatings, facing contempt and hardship, losing his dignity and self-respect, enduring the bitter pain alone in a corner, licking his wounds, through long, bitter nights.

It's true that his childhood wasn't perfect, but at least he had enough to eat and a place to sleep. But how would Yan Ruchen, who was the same age as him, survive when he lost his parents, lost his protection, and ended up on the streets?

In the days after those empty nights, in the nights after those sleepless days, filled with pain and fear, with a person's minimum prayer for life, I pray to God, begging him to live.

This kind of life has been repeated eight times, and this time when Guan Shanyu comes, it is time for him to end it.

Some problems that you have been thinking about for a long time but still cannot understand may suddenly become clear at a certain moment.

When a person is at his most frustrated and sad, he is more likely to see his own shadow. It was also on the way up the mountain to Wuzijian that he understood more and more why he came to this world with every step he took.

The meeting of two equally miserable and frustrated people in this world seemed like a divine arrangement. The answer to all this was simple, and it was explained at the very beginning.

The weeds in front of him had been pulled out completely by Guan Shanyu, and the whole lawn was so clean as if it had been renovated. Although the situation was tragic, Guan Shanyu still took a break, secretly feeling happy that only a disciple from Lingcaoxuan like him could tidy up the lawn so cleanly.

After laughing inexplicably for a while, he took out the thing wrapped tightly in oil paper from his arms, opened it and placed it in front of him. Then he looked at the unclear dividing line between the moon and the rising sun in the east, took out a thin dagger from his waist, and gently cut his palm.

All around was silent, save for the morning dew, which rolled and gathered on the blades of grass. The leaves, unable to bear the weight, gradually bent, and the dewdrops fell to the ground, scattering a thousand golden rays in the morning light.

Yan Ruchen didn't know how he got back to Wangshuiling, but when he looked up, he was already standing in front of the gate of Wangshuiling.

He seemed to have taken many wrong turns on the road and bumped into someone, but he couldn't remember because only one sentence kept repeating over and over in his mind.

I want you to get out.

Winter is a path that is sometimes pale and sometimes dark. He stands at the end of the path, blending into the night, or rather, he has never left the night.

The moldy memories suddenly became clearer at this moment, as if the dust had been swept away.

When he was young and begging on the street, he met a pair of kind brothers.

The two men lived in a remote mountain valley and cultivated a field. During the day, one man worked the fields while the other went hunting in the countryside. Because of years of outdoor labor, the two brothers looked dark, and the man in charge of hunting had a deep scar on his face, which made him look unkind.

But it was these two people who, when Yan Ruchen was so hungry he couldn't bear it any longer, took the initiative to bring him two buns from the house and shouted at him, "Eat! If you really have nowhere to go, we'll support you."

But Yan Ruchen was determined to return to Fengping Village, where his foster mothers were, so he rejected their kindness.

The man in charge of hunting was extremely cheerful and could talk and laugh openly even with Yan Ruchen, a ten-year-old boy. However, the other man in charge of farming was very shy. There was always timidity in his eyes when he looked at Yan Ruchen, the little wandering boy. He spoke to the other man in a low voice. Sometimes when they walked in the mountains at night, he would always stick close to the other man and look around timidly.

Yan Ruchen once asked him if he was afraid of walking at night and strangers, why didn't he just move to a familiar and bustling place in town. But the hunter just laughed and said, "He's timid. We enjoy a free and unrestrained life in the mountains, which is just as good as living in a town."

Yan Ruchen's resistance to intimacy is like someone shyly giving him a large bouquet of flowers, but he would only respond by saying, "Vague."

Resistance can easily breed dullness, but even so, when he was reborn for the fourth time, he still noticed the unusual relationship between the two brothers.

He had met Long Yang in a brothel. He was a being more disgusting to him than men and women. So after his fourth rebirth, he never passed by that valley again and never wanted to see the two brothers again.

In every life at that time, he thought that if he could one day meet the person who created him, no matter whether it was a man or a woman, he would do the same thing as the county magistrate treated his defected servant, locking him in a dog cage to let him taste what it felt like to lose his dignity.

He went through life after life with this bad and hateful mood. When he really met this person standing in front of him, he did not kill him or put him in a dog cage.

His dullness made it impossible for him to understand the motivation behind his behavior, but in this foggy morning, when day and night alternated in the sky and a little bit of light slowly fell on Yan Ruchen, he suddenly figured it out.

He has always missed this person he has never met, and his love is painful.

"Ruchen!"

My fingertips gradually became stiff and I was almost losing consciousness from the winter wind when suddenly a loud explosion sounded in my ears.

Yan Ruchen suddenly came back to his senses and raised his head, but he didn't know how time had suddenly passed. In this moment of confusion, the night had turned into day.

"Ruchen! Something's happened!" Hu Qi hurried out of the gate, followed by Guyu and Jinyu. His face was filled with anxiety for some reason, but Yan Ruchen was in no mood to ask. Fortunately, Hu Qi was also a slow-witted person. He didn't notice the frost in Yan Ruchen's eyes or the chill emanating from his body. He just shouted, "Something's happened at the bottom of the valley."

Yan Ruchen finally came back to his senses. With a hoarse voice, he said coldly, "What's the matter?"

Jin Yu and the others noticed that something seemed off about Yan Ruchen's expression, but before they could open their mouths to express their concern, Hu Qi quickly reported the problem: "I don't know what happened, but the barrier we sealed the evil spirits from the valley bottom was broken this morning, and the seal on the mass grave was also destroyed. Are all the evil spirits escaping?"

"What?" Yan Ruchen frowned and asked sharply, "Where did you run to? Do you have a route?"

Guyu quickly replied, "Yes! They all went northwest."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yan Ruchen disappeared from everyone's sight in an instant.

By now, the sky was bright, and the townspeople were gradually waking up. Slowly, there was a noise, but this noise didn't just come from the awakening people. On the road, Yan Ruchen saw countless snakes, insects, rats and ants pouring out.

He had witnessed a similar scene before, in his fifth life, when a small town was struck by a minor earthquake, sending these creatures fleeing in panic. But what he saw today was very different. They all seemed to be rushing in one direction, their steps in perfect unison, as if they were rushing to a grand festival, startling the early risers and causing them to scream.

But compared to this abnormality, Yan Ruchen was more worried about another thing.

The evil spirits were moving northwest, and he followed them closely, but he found no trace of them. Conversely, snakes, insects, rats, and ants were swarming southeast. If both phenomena pointed to the same cause, then there was only one possibility.

Those evil spirits deliberately took a detour to confuse people.

What exactly is the reason that allows them to break through the seal in an instant and head to the same place in such an organized and rhythmic manner?

Yan Ruchen immediately stopped, turned around and headed southeast.

This time his deduction was correct. The further southeast he went, the denser the snakes, insects, rats and ants on the road became. In the distance, a dark mass of fog could be seen. With a little spiritual power to probe, he could sense that those in front of him were the evil spirits that had escaped from Wangshui Ridge.

So he sped up and flew towards the black fog with his sword.

However, after only a short while, he collided with something, as if a huge spiritual net was blocking him out. He was caught off guard and nearly fell off the sword.

After landing and stabilizing himself, he looked ahead and discovered that there was indeed an invisible net blocking his path. However, passersby were walking along it normally, while he couldn't penetrate it even with his spiritual power. Yan Ruchen nervously stared at the road leading towards the black fog, feeling a vague sense of unease.

That place seemed to lead to Wuzijian, and Guan Shanyu was also nearby yesterday.

Thinking of this, he immediately sealed his spiritual vein and sped up his progress on foot.

At this time, there were endless pedestrians on the road. In addition to the common people who came to watch the excitement, there were also many disciples from the immortal sects among them.

People are naturally curious. Even knowing something was happening ahead, they still wanted to squeeze to the front to see what was going on. As a result, the crowd mingled with snakes, insects, rats, and ants, and the road became incredibly congested. Some disciples of the immortal sect tried to maintain order and clear a path to the scene, but no one paid any attention. They could only push and shove along the throng, moving at a snail's pace.

Although unable to use his spiritual power, Yan Ruchen still climbed onto the rooftop and, with a few leaps, reached the front. However, as he approached the tip of the dock, the crowd in front of him became even denser, with shouts, questions, and discussions rising and falling, accompanied by dark clouds in the sky that obscured the sunlight.

Yan Ruchen became increasingly anxious and was thinking about how to get through the crowd when he suddenly heard someone calling his name.

"Ruchen!"

Yan Ruchen looked over and saw two heads rising and falling in the crowd. He recognized them as Qingfan and Suyi, and quickly called out to them, "Have you seen Shanyu?"

Upon hearing this, Su Yi squeezed her head out from the shoving crowd and shouted to Yan Ruchen with great effort: "Shan Yu is in trouble!"